Dear Friends,
The majors are over for this year, but we have the Ryder Cup
coming up soon and some nice golf weather with the cool of fall in the months
to come – a lot to look forward to!
This newsletter will focus on three topics that all bear
upon the mental side of the game.
1) Getting Help and Watching Tiger
2) Tribute to Althea Gibson
3) Scottish Golf – More than Just a Place
1) Getting Help and Watching Tiger
This past spring Dr. Putt enjoyed a couple of visits to the
Master’s at Augusta National to watch the professionals in their first major of
the year. He was lucky enough to spend a hour behind Tiger on the practice
range observing his swing. It was a beautiful thing to watch – seemingly
effortless power with perfectly consistent tempo and balance. Tiger hit three woods as long as
most other professionals were hitting their drivers, alternating between a
draw, and face and a straight shot.
This was not the same swing as Dr. Putt observed for most of
the rest of the year on television, as Tiger would try to muscle the ball and
speed up the tempo for a little added distance. As we all of you know, he found
himself in the long stuff too often to win as often as he would have liked.
Why try to hit it hard when one can hit it as far as almost
anyone with more consistency and control by staying on tempo? Dr. Putt would
bet that if Tiger were to take that tempo and balance to the tee every time, he
would have hit a lot more fairways and not be in danger of losing his number
one ranking.
Lessons? First, Tiger needs help, as many have observed. He
needs someone to help him develop a more consistent swing off the tee. We all
need help, no matter how good we are. Dr. Putt is reminded of the old adage
that a man who represents himself in court has a fool for a lawyer.
Second, tempo is a major key to consistency. No matter how
skilled you are, if you do not maintain a consistent tempo, then you will have
inconsistent results.
2) Tribute to Althea Gibson
Mrs. Dr. Putt has been working on authoring an encyclopedia
entry for the remarkable Althea Gibson. As Dr. Putt is sure most of you know, Ms.
Gibson was the remarkable African-American who broke the color barrier in
women’s tennis. You may also know that she also broke that same barrier in
professional golf in the latter part of her remarkable career.
As Dr. Putt was helping edit the piece, one of Gibson’s
comments about golf caught his attention. She said that hitting the golf ball
was almost a religious experience. While she is no longer around to explain
this comment, Dr. Putt suspects that she developed a ritual for each swing, as
one does for a serve in tennis, which was a real strength in her tennis game.
Repeating this ritual over and over becomes a kind of mantra. If totally successful,
the conscious self takes a back seat and one feels that she or he has stepped
outside of oneself. So it should be for all of us.
Gibson never won a professional golf tournament, largely
because she never developed a strong short game. But her strength and power and
grace from tennis certainly carried over to her game off the tee. Dr. Putt was
privileged to see her play in the early 1970s in an LPGA tournament in
3) Scottish Golf – More than Just a Place
In order to escape the heat of the deep South, Dr. and Mrs.
Putt try to get away for a few weeks each summer to some cooler clime. This year
it was the highlands of
While the principle object of the trip was not golf, Dr.
Putt did play a few rounds at some lovely (a favorite Scottish word for nearly
everything) local highlands courses. One was a mountain course and the other
was what was called a parkland course.
The Scottish golfing experience is characterized by wind and
rain and sun, in decreasing order. Somehow the off and on again rain bothered
Dr. Putt much less than it does back home. Perhaps that was because of the very
relaxed atmosphere of the game in
Dr. Putt hopes to go back in the years to come for a trip
that is devoted to golf. He would encourage others to consider such a sojourn.
Remember to check the “Dear Dr. Putt web site” for all your
putting questions – a search feature allows you to look up almost any subject
you like.
Go to http://www.drputt.com/deardrputt/deardrputt.php
Past newsletters are also on the index, so check back there
if you missed one. They will also come up using the search feature. They are
linked at the bottom of the “
http://www.drputt.com/Newsletters/
If you have not yet discovered the many advantages of the
EOB putting system, including keeping the “quiet eye,” check it out. As most of
you know, the EOB system really works!
Go to http://www.drputt.com/overview.php
Dr. Putt wishes a politics-free zone on the golf course this
fall!
Best regards,
Dr. Putt
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