Kenny Perry Wins One for the Old Guys
Kenny Perry, at 48, wins another one for the old guys.
Perry won the PGA Tour FBR Open on the 3rd extra hole
of a playoff with Charley Hoffman. Both had tied at
270 – 14 under par in regulation.
The win was Perry’s 13th on Tour and pushed him to #2
in the FedEx Cup race.The big Kentuckian was 9th in
driving and tied for 3 in GIR. His putting wasn’t great
but he sank a long one on 18 to force the playoff.
Way to go Kenny!
For additional news of the tournament – 3 The Golf Channel links:
Daily Wrap-up
(25 Cent Tip: carpet putt to a quarter – the actual hole is close to 4 quarters wide)
- Val Spangler, Mister Senior Blogger.
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Geoff Ogilvy wins in Hawaii – Aussies’ Secret?
The records indicate that Australian golfers like Ogilvy and Stuart Appleby win a
disproportionate number of the January PGA Tour events held in Hawaii. Is it their summer in winter warm practice conditions? Or, is it something else?
What do you think?
Let’s keep an eye out for these Southern Hemispherers this week in the Sony event.
(Ernie Els included).
Now about that reverse direction down the “drain” thingy – do you think there’s
anything to that that would affect putts?
- VS
Back from the Wilderness – Authenticating MyBlogLog
Back from the Wilderness – Authenticating MyBlogLog.
Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification
Play Better Newsletter – weekly golf news, tips, reviews.
Our Play Better Newsletter will usually arrive on Mondays with a review of pro tour tournament results, a preview of the week’s upcoming events and our weekly Play Better Golf tips and instruction links. Mental golf, swing tips and short game improvement will be featured. TOFG reserves the right to a periodic “rant” as well as attempting high quality golf journalism. No promises – remember – this is an “old fart” writing this stuff.
- – Val Spangler, The Old Fart Golfer
Comment Form Updated – Test
Hi Golfers!
Pardon me while I update and test my comment form to make it a bit more convenient for you to comment and participate in our discussions.
Thanks for your consideration,
- – Val Spangler, TOFG
Golf Alignment Instruction Tip
Do your eyes ever play tricks on you? Mine do. That’s the prime reason aligning yourself for your shot is so difficult to get consistently right.
First, make sure of your target. Have as clear a picture of your target as possible. From the tee it consists of an area and a line from the center of that area to your ball. If you are playing a shot to the green, it is the area of the green you want your ball to land on. Note I did not say the pin nor did I say it is where you want the ball to end up where it stops after the roll. It is where you want the ball to land. This is not as easy a concept to adopt and adapt your thinking to. However, scoring is about putting the ball where you can get it in the hole in the fewest strokes. So, the idea is to be clear about both where you want the ball to land and where you want it to end up.
Second, avoid target confusion - especially in shots to the green. It is easy, after going through the process described above (landing spot and end spot), to then allow your mind to focus on the pin itself. That target confusion can both foul up your alignment and alter your swing even if you have your alignment correct for your landing spot.
Third, avoid last second “static” mind chatter or visual distractions. Assuming you have both a good landing spot target and the your alignment is well set for that landing spot make sure you visualize swinging to that landing spot target and to no other place. Then, its breathe your way to swinging to that clearly defined target.
By “static” I mean “trap”, water, or any other place you don’t want to go. If possible, get your target so clearly visually dominant in your mind you see the spot you are going to land and how the ball will roll to where you are going to mark your ball. The only time that is the pin or the hole is when it is the 18th hole and you know you must hole your shot (on the fly} to win the match, tournament or bet! Be clear on that! It is a rare thing indeed to hole your shot on the fly or land your ball extremely close to the hole with no roll.
So, if you want lower scores through better alignment, you must learn the thought processes for effective target golf. Without that you are bound to either have poor alignment or swing faults because of target confusion or “static” mind chatter because of target confusion.
Target – mind’s eye – target line to landing spot – feet – knees – hips – shoulders – vision – no static.
Practice these elements at home and at the range and build your pre-shot routine around them – results: more GIR and lower scores! http://theoldfartgolfer.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif
- – Val Spangler, TOFG
Let us know what you think about this tip – Agree? – Disagree? – What are your thoughts about targeting and alignment?
A Quote for Golfers – Resilience!
TOFG couldn’t help but follow up my last two posts when I saw this quote on my Gmail inbox this morning>
Mental Golf – The psychology of “bounce-backs”.
In a previous post about Paula Creamer’s SemGroup Championship win, TOFG admired her tenacity and determination as represented by her bouncing back from bogeys to birdies. Ultimately she had to bounce back from a bogey on the 72nd hole to win in a playoff with Julie Inkster. What made her accomplishment even more dramatic was the fact she had lost in a playoff the previous week – a different kind of “bounce-back”.
Let’s examine the psychology of “bounce-backs” whether it be on the golf course or in any other part of one’s life. We all experience bogeys or worse on the golf course. How do we recover and not let those poor performance moments have lasting effects?
Confidence, belief in one’s self helps, but, for many of us, confidence is a sometimes thing. So what can we do to better deal with these “speed-bumps”? OK, OK, I’m mixing metaphors again. Bear with me, please. Settle down, gather your thoughts and refocus but in order to do that you have to LET IT GO. You made a mistake! Do you get angry? If so, LET IT GO! Anger does all kinds of things to your mind and body – almost none of them good. So, LET GO of it! Don’t beat yourself up – mistakes happen – get on with your game.
The key in golf as in the rest of one’s life is how fast can you recover and get your focus back as quickly as possible so as to not let the mistake affect future performance. Regaining focus means focus on the next shot. Analysis of mistakes should be only momentary on the course and extended only after the hole is completed or even after the round. You have to let go in order to refocus on the next shot. The faster you let go the more time you have to focus.
The psychology of “bounce-backs”? LETTING GO and REFOCUSING! That’s a good lesson for life as well as for golf. Recommendation: practice letting go and refocusing off the course as well as on. The secret: it’s forgiveness! Forgiveness 
beats anger 
. Far better to forgive yourself (and others) than to harm a relationship or worsen your golf score. Don’t even call yourself “stupid” – that doesn’t work either. Right Phil?
- – Val Spangler, TOFG
Paula Creamer winning with “bounce-backs”!
After playing solid golf for three days Paula Creamer showed her grit on Sunday winning the LPGA SemGroup Championship in a sudden death playoff with Julie Inkster on the second extra hole. This was Paula’s 6th LPGA tournament win all by the age of 21.
Note the orange highlighted hole scores in the image below …
Her “grit” showed up in several ways but with an interesting stat that I haven’t seen mentioned in the tournament write-ups. They mention that when she bogied the 72nd hole that she had to think about losing in a play-off last week. That didn’t happen! But overcoming that memory was not what struck TOFG when he went browsing through her final round statistics.
Creamer not only bounced back from her final hole bogey – she bounced back 3 times during her round. From bogey to birdie – 3 times in one round – that, my friends, shows remarkable mental toughness and determination.
Paula Creamer truly deserved this victory (and she’s only 21). Amazing!
- – Val Spangler, TOFG
Stats are from the LPGA web site. Go there for more of Paula’s background, the LPGA and tournament information.
Virtual Golf – international competition for gamers.
When you can’t get to the golf course for a real game – try virtual golf. You may be surprised at the fun. You will definitely be challenged by the competition as well as the game courses.
NOTE: This game can be addicting – consider yourself warned.
– Val Spangler, TOFG