Stretch Your Way to Better Golf

People, usually older people, might ask, “when is a senior citizen a senior?” and the best answer, should be “when they think they are senior.” Don’t let it happen, fight it off, head to the golf course or your favorite walking or biking path forget about the easy chair and TV, save that for later in the day.

Keep the senior tag away by staying active. And if you are active you need to stay fit. Playing golf is a great way to stay fit, but once a week will not be enough. Fitness is ongoing and something that needs to become a daily habit for seniors, just like it was when we were little kids.  If you only play once a week, swing a club for a few minutes on the off days, walk, bike, stretch, twist and turn, stay ready to play again.

One of the keys to fitness is to stretch daily. Yes, daily! It will take you only a few minutes to get them done, but the improvement in your fitness and to your golf game can be fast and you might be surprised at how much better you feel. The time invested (usually not more than 15-20 min a day will be well worth it.

Stretching exercises alone will energize even the stiffest joints and muscles. And will help you body and soul.  Stretching does not have to hurt burn or be difficult, in fact it should be kind of easy. If the stretching exercises are difficult, they are not correct!

Google some stretches today- try, golf stretching, or stretching for senior citizens, for a start and you will find some very good and easy, workouts, What are you waiting for golf is just around the corner, get started.

 

Bill Murray Warm up

Bill Murray Warm up

Golf announcers know some things but they don’t know it all, and they proved it with their comments last weekend on Bill Murray’s baseball swing warm-up before hitting driver. This is not a bad thought process warm up; the baseball swing is a great reminder of weight shift.  Getting weight forward becomes increasingly difficult for senior golfers. Although it may look unusual the move is good. Back foot weight to front foot is important to distance with the clubs. If you would like to use this warm-up it might be a good example to make it look half baseball and half golf. That way the playing partners will not ask what you are doing.

In that same vein, teachers now are saying to do away with the weighted club swing as a way to increase swing speed. Maybe, but it is still a good stretch exercise for senior golfers. I would not suggest that you use it on the course, better to use in the off season. I even swing mine like a baseball bat, you got it, working on weight shift.

Ball Flight

Help the ball doesn’t go where I am aiming! We have all heard someone (never ourselves) say something like this. Here is what the ball will tell you after you hit it.

·        Club head speed determines how far the ball will go – this can be a problem for older golfers, stay fit, work on swing balance and swing the clubs, or at least one every day.

·        Where the clubface points the ball will go – more armatures are prone to closing the face, especially on Irons and opening the face (slice) with the driver  (pulling irons and bending the driver into the right side woods)

·        The path the club travels tells the golf ball where to start out. The club face angle will tell it where to continue.

·        The angle the club takes to approach the ball determines the trajectory (high or low) of the shot.

“What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive.”  Arnold Palmer

 

Tee It Forward

The tee it forward movement is a great idea and one I hope more courses find the time and place to let people tee it forward. Of course I am an old guy that doesn’t like hitting a three wood second shot into a par four. 

According to the tee it forward people if your average drive is only about 220 you should be playing courses around 6,000 yards or less. I think it would help if the forward tees would keep par threes at 165 yards or less also. It is really no fun to hit three or five wood on a par 3.

Also seems to be a men only idea, I see many women, maybe past their golf prime, who would love to tee it forward.

It’s still a great idea but there are problems, like the following example. This example would be someone like me playing a par five with a (20 or 30 something) single digit handicapper. He will be hitting from the members tees and some old guy, like me, will play it forward.

The hole we play will be - Par 5 - 520 yards

His tee - 520 yards – drive 300 – distance to green 220 yards, a hard 4 hybrid

My tee - 450 yards – drive 220 – distance to green 230 yards, can’t reach with anything

See the problem? We are in approximately the same place after shot #1, but shot number two is still too long, but even this old golfer does not want to play par 5s that are 390 yards long  (my 220 drive and  a 170 yard 4 hybrid). So tee it forward, just not too far.

*Special note - I can still hit it 250 on occasion, and hit my three wood 215.  On the above example I would have about 50-90 yards left with my third shot to hit the green in regulation. (Not Bad)

Down wind, downhill, hard fairways, I can reach about 500 in two. Not bad for a 65 year old 12 handicap.

Big Money Golf Stuff

I’m looking for a new set of irons after just ordering a Callaway driver and three wood. Prices are getting a little much for this old retired golfer. Thought it might be interesting to see how much someone might pay if they had all the money they ever needed. How about these prices?

I probably will not go for the $32,000 set of irons. Each of the 14 clubs is made of platinum and gold. Reported owners include well know golfers Donald Trump and Jack Nicholson. By the way, I think I can beat both of those guys.

Need some golf balls? Dixon Golf Balls can be as high as $74.95 a dozen although they do have some cheaper. I also noticed that Titleist suggested retail for 2013 is $62.00 a dozen – OUCH!

I tried a few of the Wilson Staff balls last summer, liked them a lot and loved the price.

How about a nice round?  - Try, Shadow Creek Golf Course, Las Vegas, NV $500 to play 18. A top 100 course, but come on, $500, they really don’t want guys like me; it is indeed a high roller course.

If you need a new putter you cannot go wrong with a Scotty Cameron, but they are pricey. I must be turning into my James Joyce like, stream of consciousness thinking, started wondering about Scotty Cameron the man.
Well he is still around, just turned 50 – come on now how many of you thought he had been dead for 50 years?

Cameron turned a basement business into one of the most known names in all of golf. In early career he worked for, Ray Cook, Maxfli, Cleveland, Founders and Mizuno before selling his name and designs to Titleist.

My designs never did quite so well!

-Great Pro Golf this week from Pebble Beach and the seniors in Florida-

 

Tger and Phil -- Back to Back

Tiger, #75 and Phil, #41, back to back, if you are a PGA fan, it doesn’t get any better kicking off the new season.

-My two favorite golf quotes of the week-

Lee Westwood referring to Vijay and the Antler spray big deal. “You have to be careful about what you take. I try not to take anything now, really, other than Corona and Vodka.”

Rory Mcllroy said about his new deal with Nike, “Golf needs a younger, more athletic image, and Nike has always had that. I’m young enough. I’m not sure I’m athletic enough. But I’ll try!”

This week the PGA goes to Pebble and the champion’s Tour has their first full field tourney with the Allianz in Boca Raton. Great golf TV if you live in a cold state and can’t play yet!

 

Phi, Vijay, Sergio and # 16

Phil is tearing it up this week. I wonder if the happiest PGA pro in the world might be Vijay Singh. Phil is playing lights out and the talk is all about him and not about Vijay and the deer antler fairy dust conspiracy.

If you didn’t see the melt down, by now, staring Sergio García you really missed something. It was hilarious, although he probably is embarrassed by it now, he shouldn’t be. Golf doesn’t need to be so stuffy all the time.

Reminded me of the old time baseball managers, if you are old enough to remember Earl Weaver, or as old as me and remember Billy Martin, you know what I am talking about. They went crazy and it was fun, people loved it, they cheered and they booed.

Speaking of booing and cheering, most people watching the Phoenix Waste Management Open don’t know what to think about #16. Cheered if you hit a good one, booed roundly if you miss the green, it’s like going to a golf tournament in Arizona and a hockey game in the Bronx breaks out.

Enjoy the Super Bowl and go Phil

 

A "gimme" can best be defined as an agreement between two golfers, neither of whom can putt very well. ~Anonymous