The Golf Slice

New golfers have a hard time knowing what clubs to have in their bags each time they go out on the course. I think a lot of the time it’s less about what clubs are actually in the bag and more about what clubs a new golfer is most comfortable with using.

High irons are probably the beginning golfers best bet to start with. These clubs are shorter and have a tendency to be easier to consistently hit well which is important for your confidence.

I’d recommend staying away from the low irons (1 through 3) and instead them with fairway woods. The head of a fairway wood is so much larger than the head on an iron that hitting a distance shot becomes a much easier affair.

Last Thursday, Lorena Ochoa was asked if she would ever consider playing in a PGA Tour event.

“No,” she said. “My idea was first to play on the LPGA and dominate here and just try to do my best and achieve my goals.”

She’s been approached to play in Mexico on the PGA tour but has said that she has no intentions whatsoever of attending. Lorena hasn’t discounted the possibility of her playing against men though. She did say that there was the change of an exhibition. So let’s hope that does happen since co-ed golfing is always interesting to see.

On another note, it’s good to see that she isn’t giving in to media pressure, and isn’t bending over backwards to make everyone happy by playing some PGA events. By doing this, she is remaining a solid role model for all the young female golfers out there, and believe me, there are a ton of them.

She’s also probably doing a lot more to help her career than someone like Michelle Wie. Her stints playing against male competition have so far totally backfired.

I read a news story the other day about Tiger’s caddie, Steve Williams, getting into another confrontation over his “uniform” while at the Masters. Sometimes I think the tradition of the game of golf can get in the way of people’s common sense. Here’s the full details of the story so you can be the judge.

According to various other caddies at the event, Williams was asked by an Augusta representative while on the back nine about his hat. He was told to put his official Master’s hat back on, after he had taken it off for several holes. Williams cooperated with the request by the official and wore the hat for the entire final round on Sunday.

Even though he cooperated, some of his peers have been criticizing his actions, and felt that they were arrogant, and full of disrespect. One caddie said, “If I’ve got to wear the cap, everybody’s got to wear the cap.”

This isn’t the first time that Williams has failed to follow dress code. At the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan, he peeled his required Master’s styled white overalls down to his waist.

Here’s a simple tip or suggestion for those of you (and myself included) who sometimes have a little trouble sinking putts. A good way to blow a putt is to take your eyes off the ball. This is a classic symptom of trouble in a lot of sports actually.

When you’re putting don’t quickly raise your head up after contact to see what happens to the golf ball. This is an easy way to pull your body too quickly and make your putt go off your target line. I find myself guilty of this all of the time so this year I’m going to make a serious effort to keep my head down well after I’ve made contact.

Another pitfall people fall into is watching the head of the club while they swing and not the golf ball. If you start to watch the head of your putter during your swing you’re once again opening yourself up to some potential body movements that will take your putt off line.

The best way to avoid these two eye control problems when putting is to work on focusing your eyes on the spot the ball is sitting at all times. Stare a hole through that spot before, during and after the putt and keep your head down. If you continue to work on your eye control and focus you should see better results on the green.

I’m a pretty unabashed Tiger Woods fan. Normally the teams and athletes I cheer for are perennial underdogs but my loyalty to TW is an exception.

So I’m naturally a bit bummed out today that Tiger couldn’t pull out a win at this year’s Masters.

I think it says a lot about not only Tiger’s game but that of his competition that now a days we almost inherently expect him to win every tournament he plays in.

That’s not particular fair to Tiger or the other players on the Tour but that’s the way it’s going to stay until someone puts up a consistent effort at stopping Tiger from winning.

For a long time people were hoping someone like Phil Mickelson or Sergio Garcia would step up to the plate but it hasn’t happened. I’m probably not going out on much of a limb when I predict no one will ever come along to give Tiger a run for his money for many years to come.

A friend of mine has the terrible habit of making huge divots when he’s taking practice swings. It irritates everyone so I thought I’d write today about proper divot etiquette on a golf course.

The common rule is to fix all of your divots after each shot. This is really as simple as taking the chunk of dirt you dug up with your club and putting it back where it came from. If you step down firmly enough the grass will eventually take root again in a few days. It’s also important to fix any divots or holes your approach shots make on the putting surface before you finish out the hole.

The reason for this courtesy is to prevent golfers playing on the hole later from having to deal with unplayable lies or difficult putting situations. If you maim the course with your club you should have the decency to fix the damage to make future golfers’ have an enjoyable game after you leave the course.

As for my friend, he eventually learned to take practice swings without trying to murder the grass and all was forgiven.

An old school golfer, who wants to rant and rave about hitting irons, will tell you that as the loft of the club increases you should have a different stance. So, in other words, as the position of the ball shifted to the right as the loft changed you would take a more open stance.

Today’s golfers, especially the professionals, use a much simpler system. In this simplified approached, the right foot moves closer to the left as the loft increases and the golf ball is positioned closer to the golfer (because the shaft on the club is going to be shorter).

So the moral here is that regardless of what club you’re playing make sure your stance is square to the line and your golf ball is always played off the heel.

I talk a lot about bunker shots here on this blog and today will be no exception. There are times when you’ll want to make a chip shot out of the sand. Take these things into consideration before attempting your shot.

The first thing you should worry about is the lie of your golf ball. If you can’t get the head of your club to make clean contact with the ball then you might want to reconsider trying a chip shot.

After you’ve decided the lie is right check the lip of the bunker. If the lip is too high the ball probably won’t be able to clear it. A lower lip equals a higher probability of success with a chip shot out of the bunker.

Last, but not least, is to figure out the distance between the bunker and the flag. You’ll need plenty of space between your ball and the pin because any ball chipped out of the sand is going to come out flat and without spin. That’s the perfect recipe for a golf ball that rolls right passed the hole and keeps on going.