Everyone has an idea of what a good golf swing looks like and feels like they are imitating that. The video shows you what you are doing, how far back the club goes, how fast you are swinging and what your body is doing.

Using just video will help but what is even better is video with the help of a computer program that can slow you swing down, draw lines or circle as a reference and show you what you are doing at impact of the ball. Golf is a very precise game and the more precise you can make it the better golfer you are going to be. The computer program can bring up the likes of Tiger Woods beside your swing to compare the different positions that the two swings are in.

In my opinion, video is the single most important tool in learning golf. If anyone tells you they can teach you golf with out the help of video, I would find someone else to teach you.

One department that is also using this open source concept is the pharmaceutical business and the research of new drugs to combat the many illnesses that we face. One thing that stuck out in my mind was a statement that made reference to companies not interested in drugs that might cure say, malaria, which affects many people in Africa but these people are mostly poor and can’t afford to buy the drugs. Wow!

We do not do things that will help millions of people because it is not economically sound. Is that what we are here on this planet to do? Are we put here to have a great business plan or to start wars. Some where I think we have lost the goal. We are suppose to have higher intelligence meanwhile we are no different than all the animals. I guess it is the survival of the fittest. I wonder at the end when we are facing the final music if it matters how much money we have made or if we have invented a drug to fix a minor skin blemish. Not all of this is bad as it puts many people to work but at the end of the day make sure we can reflect on how many people we have help as opposed to how much money we have made.

However once we start to compete, it can be very humbling and painful. I run a junior girls league and my three daughters are in it. I suggested to my oldest daughter that she might compete in our club championship as there are no other girl members. She seemed to like that idea and was doing quite well on the range. However, when we went out to play, her first shot was not that good and I could see her shoulder slump and she was upset. Later on she hit a short shot and although it got up in the air the direction wasn’t that good. A couple of weeks ago she would have thought it was a good shot but this time she turned to me and said that it was an awful shot and started to cry. Immediately I thought, why am I teaching my kids this game? It is such a wonderful game but it can be very difficult to handle. It reminds me so much of life but when you see someone you care about going through something like that it hurts.

I was at the Ontario Junior Championships where some of my students are competing and I picked up one of the juniors I think has a great chance of winning. He made a birdie on hole # 16 and as it turned out was playing quite well. I was walking with his father and he hit a good drive on #17 and it was a par 5. He attempted to go for the green in two shots and hit it a little poorly and it ended up in the water short of the green. He was visibly upset and after a penalty of one shot he dropped his ball and proceeded to hit the next one in the water. He dropped again and hit it clear across the green and the ball was lost. He hit another just over the green, chipped on and two putted. 11!. Watching that was so painful, as I know what he was going through. He is out there alone dealing with that. I talked to him afterwards and he seemed to handle it quite well and ended up shooting 80 and with a couple of good rounds he can get back into contention.

It can be a cruel game but if we get back in there and fight we are better off.

He never missed a shot other that 4 short putts (inside 10 feet) and shot 4 under par 32. He played good on the front although only managing an even par 36, his total of 68 was the best score of the day. He would be in the top three of the best players I have ever played with.

Watching him play so effortlessly on the front nine, I did detect a little nervousness on the back nine as he knew he was in contention to qualify. It is amazing how we let circumstance dictate how we perform. If we could ever master the ability to totally focus on the task at hand regardless on what it means then we could perform our best most of the time. That would be a goal to move closer to staying in the present and hitting the shot with your full attention on what you want to happen with out distracting thoughts about what it means or where it might go that is trouble. Obviously some of the best players in the world have difficulty doing this but everyone should work on this. If you hit bad shots under pressure then you are focusing on the wrong things.

Woody Austin is a marvellous golfer and has won on the PGA tour before but twice he has falter in the last couple of holes when he had the lead. He bogied the last two holes on Sunday to lose by one and under his own admission he got in his own way. The better you get at focusing on the present and treating each shot or task independent of the outcome the better success you will have.

I had three students competing in a major junior golf tournament in East Aurora, N. Y. the past week. The format of the tournament was 36 holes stroke play and then into match play in different flights. Two of the three made it into the top flight and the other player just lost in a playoff. The one boy went on to lose his first match and then went into the consolation of the Championship flight and won the flight. I am proud of all three as they did well against top juniors from all over the world.

Watching these players from all over the world, it confirms that how you play is mostly about your mental game. How you feel about yourself, the way you walk and act is extremely important on your performance. Some of these players think they are the best and the way they strut around definitely helps them perform. I will be working on that with my players. They are as good as all the other players.

Everything was going great until I got to the explanation of the clubs. I was showing my clubs to them and telling them that the higher the number the shorter the club would go and that you had woods and irons. I said you have “woods” which are usually made out of metal or metal woods. They kind of looked at me funny. Then you have the 1 wood which is actually metal but on the bottom it says 10.5 so again they looked at me funny and wondered why it would go further than the 3 metal wood even though it is a higher number and I was trying to explain that the 10.5 was the loft. So, on some clubs they put a number and on some clubs they put the loft. That is how I explained the 52, 56 and 60 degree wedge that I have.

Then I said you could have a 5 metal wood and a 5 iron but you also could have a 5 hybrid which is a cross between and iron and a metal wood. They seemed to be getting it by the expressions on their face, similar to a deer staring at headlights, when I handed one lady a club to chip with and it had a P on it. I then started to explain that it meant pitching wedge and that various clubs had letters on them like P and L and there was no way of knowing what that meant unless you asked someone.

So be careful the next time you are trying to explain something to a rank beginner. I remember when I worked at a local club and the pro’s wife was not a golfer but a wonderful person in the pro shop and guys would come in all the time and tell her, “I had a rough time today. On the second hole I skulled the ball across the green, almost hitting the pin and then it buried in the trap. I proceeded to shank it with my 60 which I should have use my 56 and it plugged underneath the lip. It was a tough day. As he was leaving she said to me why do you bury balls and then keep playing and wouldn’t that hurt getting the ball underneath the lip.

Golf is a fun game but it is a very difficult game for someone to try once in a while and can also be a dangerous game if people are not careful. People rent the carts and after a couple of drinks think that they are at the fair and are in the bumper cars. They do not realize that these golf cars cost over $6000.00 and can cause severe damage. We had a couple of gentlemen put one in our pond this weekend. They are liable for the damage and it could be quite costly.

Some of these people are respectful business people and when they get a few drinks in them they turn into these irresponsible acting adults. I always wondered if I were to go out and scrape their car or take my car and do donuts on their front lawn if they would think it would be funny. They get loud, rude and uncontrollable. If you are one of these people that think it is fun to go and get drunk at a golf course and plays golf then please do not come to my course.

The only thing I don’t like about the baseball swing is when they let there back elbow fly or stick out. The elbow should be in close to the body but the swing and sequence of the swing is the same. The hands work the same and as a matter of fact I get a lot of my students to make practice swings like they are swinging a baseball bat. This is a great drill to get the hands to work properly. One of the main ingredients of a good golf swing is allowing the hands to rotate or release during the swing. Sometimes we have to educate the hands and swinging like a baseball is one drill that is great for this.

Also the sequence of motion used in swinging a baseball or throwing a baseball is exactly the sequence of motion we need in the golf swing. If there was one secret in swinging the golf club correctly then it would be in the way the body moves. If you analyse the throwing motion you would see that the weight shifts back initially but as the arm is moving up the weight goes back to the front foot and it is followed by the hips, shoulders arm and then the hands. This produces a whipping like effect and everyone does this even if they just toss the ball underhand. One of the problems I face is that people do this naturally but when it comes to golf they don’t do it. Now I am trying to teach something that they do naturally which means they are thinking about it which usually means they become too mechanical. Golf is like walking and hopefully we do not think about walking. We need to relearn this motion in golf but we must constantly put the whole motion together and let it go naturally. This is the quest. I will be offering more on this as we go on in this blog.

To me he looked like he was struggling though, not only physically but mentally he looked a little exhausted. It must be difficult to deal with all the attention and constant focus of millions of people. I know he was brought up to deal with this but with his brilliance on the course comes resentment from some people. I meet people all the time that say they hate Tiger Woods, maybe because of his fist pumps or because he wins most of the time and they don’t even know him. He must feel this attitude sometimes and it would not surprise me to see him take an extended leave, maybe even retire.

People should not judge people. I think that is the problem. Judging. There is too much of that going on. Certain Middle Eastern countries hate each other based on history between them. People are judged based on their skin color or their headwear and not what they are as a person. I am not saying that people do not act wrong but stereo typing one persons actions against a whole race doesn’t due anyone any good. Take each individual for what they are worth and what they do because deep down inside we are all the same.

Tiger Woods is a special person not because he wins. He wins because he is a special person, dedicated his life to his sport and worked extremely hard at honing his skills. He is also giving back to this world in very special ways. We should be extremely fortunate that he has allowed us to watch him perform and hope that he continues to let us. I think the world is a better place with people like Tiger Woods in it.

Young children are especially influenced by his show of talent and it is great to see someone of his stature perform and provide a role model for our youth especially when there is so many bad influences or negative stories.

Rocco Mediate is also a wonderful story and we should not count him out. His performance was truly great as well and it will be interesting to see what happens out there today. His acknowledgement of Tiger as the best ever shows his class as a person but in the game of golf on any given day these players are all so great that anyone could beat anyone.

I am looking forward to seeing some of the playoff today although I am on my way to a school trip with one of my daughters but I would like to take my hat off to all the players this week in the U. S. Open, especially the Canadians that competed.