Greetings Golfers,
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Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
Greetings Golfers,
The theme of Matthew McConaughey’s speech to the U of Houston’s graduates was “Life’s not fair – don’t be a victim”. I agree – couldn’t agree more … but some people think that’s a license to not be fair.
We need referees in sports to keep things fair. If the leagues and refs aren’t keeping things fair, the players take matters into their own hands – sort of like vigilantes. And I get that too. But, sports should be a contest of skill, not a battle between thugs.
A few weeks ago, the Wild’s star Zach Parise was hit from behind and was injured. That’s not what hockey’s about. The league and the refs have to stop that stuff to keep the game fair. Hockey teams shouldn’t have to have “enforcers” to keep things fair – that should be the role of the league and referees.
And last Sunday, the Viking’s quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was knocked out while he was sliding … sliding is basically waving the white flag – he shouldn’t have been hit like that. I can see why Coach Zimmer was so mad – that hit wasn’t fair.
People can and should be held accountable. They should play fair in games and in life. Those players weren’t giving clean hits – those were dirty hits trying to injure players.
In golf, lot’s of things aren’t fair – bad bounces, bad lies, etc. But, that’s the game – deal with it.
The golf analogy is different than the football/hockey analogies because the golf situation isn’t about dealing with people … it’s about dealing with outside factors.
Life isn’t fair – deal with it. But, it’s not a license to treat people unfairly.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
So Phil Mickelson has left his instructor Butch Harmon. Tour players need any possible edge – the competition is relentless. So, if a new instructor might bring some new knowledge or just a fresh attitude … I get it.
And maybe the same is true for amateur golfers. But … I think amateur golfers are looking for something that Tour players already have – a good golf swing.
Let me say that again – a good golf SWING. Most people don’t swing the golf club. They hit or hack or flip … but they don’t swing.
The “King of Swing” was Ernest Jones. Mr. Jones was a Brit who lost a leg in World War I … but still kept breaking par after the loss of his leg. Ernest’s mantra was “Swing the Clubhead”. In fact his classic book of the same name was published in 1952. Here are some of the titles of chapters in “Swing the Clubhead” :
* Good Golf is Easy
* The Swing
* Swinging vs. Hacking
* How to Acquire a Swing
* Timing and Rhythm
* Obstacles to Swinging
How about the title of the first chapter – “Good Golf is Easy” …? It has a sequence of photos of a 5 year old girl with a perfect golf swing … she’s just SWINGING the golf club.
What happened to the golf swing? Well, the obsession with power wasn’t good for most golfers. Then that led to the emphasis on body positions, instead of the swinging and timing of the swing.
Many years ago a senior golfer came to me for help – he’d been taking lessons from a young, mini-tour golf pro in Florida. This young professional emphasized “coil” to such an extent that this senior fellow told me that his body was actually all bruised-up (I took him at his word – I didn’t want to look).
The idea to use the body as a spring that should be coiled and then unwind with great power has become the goal of too much golf instruction. Maybe that technique is good for young, strong, flexible, talented Tour players (maybe) … but, I think it’s disaster for most of us.
In fact, maybe Phil would be better off reading “Swing the Clubhead” than finding a new instructor.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
Greetings Golfers,
Tomorrow is Halloween. The ancients Celts celebrated this as the festival of Samhain – meaning the end of Summer and the “first of Winter”.
I never liked Fall until I was about 40. I just wanted non-stop Summer. Fall made me sad and I just couldn’t appreciate the beauty of the season.
But life has the same cycles as the seasons, and they all need to be appreciated. The Celts honored their dead with the passing of the seasons … and for them, Samhain was the season of death and renewal.
And for us at Deer Run, this is also a time of death and renewal – we close the golf course, yet renew the golf course with projects.
This month had an extra special project. A group of Deer Run neighborhood guys have built a bridge to the tee-box on hole #4. The reason it is so special is that it is a memorial to one of their best friends – Joe Smith. Joe passed away this Summer from ALS.
These neighborhood guys refer to themselves as “The Band of Idiots”. In this case, that moniker is off-base. Led by Ron Smith, the BOI have built something that is very meaningful – and what better symbol than a bridge? In terms of the Celts and this time of year … a bridge of death and renewal. Perfect.
Slan leat,
Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
Greetings Golfers,
Are you watching the baseball playoffs? I really wanted the Cubs to go all the way … I hope it happens in my lifetime.
It blows my mind how good major league baseball players are – it’s ridiculous. They make hard plays look easy … and they can hit pitching that is unhittable. Imagine if they used metal bats like high school players and softball players use. The ball parks would become obsolete.
Well, that’s what’s happened to golf. Metal headed drivers and souped up balls have made classic courses obsolete (for Tour players).
Here’s what Gary Player said last week at the Western Golf Association’s fifth annual Green Coat Gala:
“If we look at the Tour in 30 to 40 to 50 years’ time, 50% of the Tour will hit the ball 400 yards. What’s going to happen to golf? It’s going to be obsolete. Leaders are not handling this in the way that they should. They should cut the ball of professional golf down by 50 yards, and let the amateurs use what they like. They don’t recognize that there are two different games between professional and amateur, and that they are as different as night and day”.
I agree. It’s a shame that the equipment is making great, old, classic golf courses obsolete. Imagine if Wrigley Field became obsolete. I want to see the Cubs win a World Series at Wrigley … not at some crazy ball park that looks like an erector set and center field is 600 feet from home plate.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
Greetings Golfers,
Two years ago I wrote a blog entitled “Self-serving” … it was about winning the TEE TIMES MAGAZINE Readers Poll award for “Best Hospitality” for the second year in a row.
Last year – we won it again … and I kept myself from writing about it.
Well, we just won it for the fourth year in a row. Hurrah!
And, we got second place in the “Best Greens” category.
Our Superintendent deserves public recognition – he does a phenomenal job.
And we finished third in “Best Golf Experience” and also third in “Favorite Golf Course For A Tournament”.
Self-serving? Yes. But I mostly want to acknowledge our staff. This is a team game. Thank you!
That’s it – it had to be done.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
Greetings Golfers,
It always takes me awhile to get my bearings back after a trip – lot’s of thoughts, but not many conclusions. I need time to let these thoughts connect.
Here’s some of the stuff that’s been going through my mind:
While talking to guys in pubs in Scotland, I was constantly asked why football (soccer) isn’t popular in the States. My own sons played soccer as kids – liked it, but never loved it – and don’t follow it now as adults. Why? I told the pub guys that Americans like sports that are more about the hands such as baseball, basketball, and American football. Your thoughts?
Speaking of American team sports … how about the Twins? What a turn-around! Paul Molitor deserves more credit than he’s been getting – that team was dead before he came along. I like the Viking’s coach Mike Zimmer – I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a very good year. The T-Wolves are doing the right things (finally!) and Sam Mitchell wants to take the time to build a winner. The Wolves were never patient enough to do things right – they’ve been in constant panic mode with a short-term philosophy. What about the Wild? Who knows? They won a crazy game last night … but they’re missing some key ingredient – they’re like a stew that’s too bland.
Back to that hands idea. Hands are what really make American football – it’s become a passing game. You need a star quarterback more than anything. So what’s with the Gophers? I want to like Coach Kill … and I respect loyalty … but that quarterback is not a Division 1 player (maybe he’d be a good soccer player).
Golf is hands. Putting and chipping are hands. The golf swing only works if the hands do their job. Played the other day with a man in his 80’s who made a putt on #17 to win the matches we had going on … his hands worked in the clutch. Golf is much more about feel than we want to admit. I’d come back from playing slow greens in Scotland to playing lightening fast greens at a local golf club with the aforementioned fellow. It took me 9 holes to get the feel of the greens … but I’d already shot a million even though I’d hit the ball pretty well.
I don’t know … Scotland, soccer, hands, good coaches, guys in their 80’s still playing good golf … there must be some connections.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
Greetings Golfers,
Just finished hitting some balls off a Power Tee driving range. Not our newly installed Power Tees … but at St. Andrews. Seriously. The Holy Grail of golf also has Power Tee range mats – exactly like the ones at Deer Run GC.
Speaking of the Holy Grail of Golf … played yesterday at the Crail Golfing Society – just south of the town of St. Andrews. Crail GS is supposedly the course that Michael Murphy wrote about in Golf in the Kingdom. I didn’t meet Shivas Irons, but the Head Pro Graeme Lennie is a great guy. And the golf course is as good as you’d hope … and is surrounded by the North Sea – it’s on a peninsula. We played the last few holes as the sun was setting and the fog was rolling in. I’m not trying to sound like a jerk … but how do I not talk about it? It was amazing!
We’ve been lucky and had no rain and a lot of sun. We were expecting cold and rainy … this nice weather is a bonus. But we didn’t come for warm weather … we came for Scotland. If you like dogs, scotch whisky, cashmere sweaters and plaid clothing, unpretentious people, and of course GOLF … you would love Scotland.
We stayed a few days just outside of Glasgow … then went to St. Andrews for a few days, and now we’re in Edinburgh. All during our travels we see golf courses everywhere! And everyone over here is talking about Jordan Speith … and next year’s Ryder Cup.
Golf is very healthy over here in Scotland. And the PGA Tour is very healthy with the rise of these young superstars. The doom and gloom about golf the last 10 years has been overblown. Golf is an ancient game with a fascinating history. But it also adapts with the times … for example St. Andrews using Power Tees. The secret is to combine the best of the old with the best of the new.
Maybe that’s why St. Andrews and the Crail Golfing Society are the Holy Grails of Golf.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
Greetings Golfers,
Today is September 25 … and the weather is still great. We had a really nice Summer, and it’s continued into Fall – hope it lasts through October.
As most of you know – we charge Senior Rates for everyone/everyday throughout the whole month of October. It’s sort of like Christmas – our generosity knows no bounds.
And, our final day for the year will be Sunday, November 1. Why would we close if it’s still warm and sunny in November? Here’s why – because of the combination of morning frost and early sunsets. If it’s dark at 5pm … and if a round of golf takes 4 hours … then our last tee-time has to be 1pm.
And, if there’s frost … our first tee-time might be 11am. So, we’d end-up having two hours of tee-times at Senior Rate prices … and beating-up the golf course. (Turf doesn’t heal very well in November).
We’d rather have a beauteous course in the Spring than make (or try to make) a few extra nickels in November.
Now y’all know.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com
Greetings Golfers,
Even after all these years, I’m continually experimenting with my golf swing. Because I’m older, I feel that I’ve had to make changes … but I was never really satisfied with my golf swing when I was younger … is/was anyone?
Tiger Woods is an obvious example of never being satisfied with his golf swing – even when he was the best player in the world. I think Byron Nelson may have reached a level of satisfaction with his game – but then he retired at age 34. Ironically, one of his students – Tom Watson – says that he (Watson) was never happy with his own swing until quite late in his career.
Nelson in many ways is considered the “Father of the Modern Swing”. What does that mean? Well, Nelson’s swing is pretty similar to today’s Tour swings – but not much like the swings of Bobby Jones and the players before Nelson.
I think we can all learn from this evolution … and that most of us need to go on a similar evolutionary path. The good early swings had a lot of freedom of movement and good hand-action. Bobby Jones and other early stars had big shoulder turns AND big hip turns. They rotated the club open on the backswing and rotated it through the ball on the forward swing. They hit the ball a long way with a lot of clubhead speed. They relied on great hand-eye coordination, flexibility, and timing.
Byron Nelson struggled with that type of swing and tried to simplify it by minimizing the turning of the hips, minimizing the rotation of the club, and shortening the backswing. Nelson wanted to rely more on the big muscles than on the timing of the feet and hands.
In 1973, Mindy Blake wrote “The Golf Swing of the Future”. Blake said that the golf swing would evolve into the body acting as a spring that winds-up and then unwinds as it hits the golf ball. He emphasized a set-up position that almost faces the target and then the upper body turns away from the target while the lower body stays open – creating a lot of tension. Then, when the upper body unwinds with the lateral driving of the legs, the ball is hit with a lot of FORCE which delivers a powerful golf shot … not power from swing speed like in Bobby Jones era.
Wow. What to take from all of this? Most people need a freer golf motion with better hand action. But, tightening that up can lead to a more consistent golf game. We all need to keep evolving our swing … but we can’t skip the different stages.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com