How many times have you gotten unsolicited advice from friends you play with?  Has this “help” helped?  My experience is it doesn’t.  I’m more than happy to listen to the group I play with regularly because they’re all better than I am.  However, most of their suggestions end up making my game worse.  I went to a lesson by a pro several years ago and I was showing him what my friends had “taught” me and he choked!  Well intentioned ideas gone horribly wrong.

Recently I was told something about my take away.  2 rounds later I was able to get the advice out of my head and playing better again.  I had to conciously get the idea out of my head as part of my pre shot routine.  The problem was hitting the ball on toe and not getting good contact.  I was able to find out on my own that I was not close enough to the ball at address.  Not a big deal and I was off by maybe an inch but that made all the difference.

There’s a member-guest at our club this weekend and luckily I’m hitting the ball well and I hope no one offers any more “advice” before the weekend!

Accelerate through the ball.  I always understood what that meant.  I was watching a program the other night hosted by a respected golf professional whose definition of acceleration was wrong.  Well, that’s fine, we’re not all engineers but it brought to my attention that “accelerate through the ball” might be misinterpreted by some. 

Acceleration is the positive change in velocity with respect to time.  Who cares?  What that means is your club should be picking up speed when hitting the ball.  It doesn’t mean you have to swing rapidly on the down stroke it just means the club head should be picking up speed; even if it’s just a little bit.  The last thing you want is for the club head to be slowing down (decelerating) when trying to hit the ball.

The pro I mentioned defined acceleration as a rapid movement.  Wrong.  But the explanation that made sense to him was to say the momentum of the club should increase when hitting the ball.  The term “momentum” to him related to a smooth swing.  He’s correct about that, the momentum should increase when hitting the ball.  How do you increase momentum with a golf club?  Accelerate!

This article will explain the terms and process necessary to understand your golf handicap.  Hopefully this will be the most accurate and succinct information you’ll find on handicap.  Let’s start with terms to get familiar even though their definitions will also be explained later.

Handicap – A numerical representation of a golfers playing potential.  This is not an average but relates to the golfers ability.

Handicap Index – An official handicap established through a USGA sanctioned golf club.  It represents how many shots over par the player has the potential to shoot. 

Course Handicap – This is the number of strokes a player can “take” on a given course.

Course Rating – This is the average score that 50 percent of the scratch golfers will make on the particular course.

Slope Rating – This number represents the relative difficulty of a course for the bogey golfer.  This number ranges from 55 to 155.

Equitable Stroke Control – Method used to determine how many strokes played on a hole based on your course handicap will count towards your adjusted gross score.

Adjusted Gross Score – This score is the total number of strokes played after allowing for equitable stroke control.

Net Score – This is your adjusted gross score minus your course handicap.

Sandbagger – A player who doesn’t post all of his best scores thus is creating a greater handicap for himself than he should have.

The purpose of this whole handicap mess is so you can go play with your buddy and compete fairly at the same level even though you and your buddy have different abilities.  Essentially a better player will “give” strokes to a worse player.  This means at the end of the round you can compare your net score to see who’s walking away with the cash.  It gets tricky because courses are, of course, not the same and this must be taken into account. 

After playing at least 5 rounds at a sanctioned USGA course, you will have established your handicap.  It’s best to get at least 20 scores for your handicap but 5 is the minimum required.  While establishing this handicap you have to follow the equitable stroke control rules and not post a score greater than a 10 on any hole.  Once your handicap is established then use the following equitable stroke control chart to determine the maximum number of strokes you can use toward your handicap on each hole.

Equitable Stroke Control Chart

Okay, so you go out on your 6^th round with your newly established handicap index from your home course.  Based on the course slope and course rating, the pro shop can now figure out your course handicap.  Some pro shops have charts for this or worst case this is how you do it:
Course Handicap = Handicap Index multiplied by (Slope Rating/113).  Therefore, if your Handicap Index is 15.7, then your Course Handicap would be 15.7 x (120/113), or 17 (16.7 rounded up).

So, you go out on your 6^th round with a course handicap of 17 which means you can’t post a score higher than a 7 and if your buddy is a scratch golfer then he has to “give” you 17 strokes.  Or put another way, after the round you subtract 17 from your adjusted gross score to get your net score which you compare with the net score of the people you played with. 

So that’s it, that’s the bottom line on golf handicaps.  Keep reading if you want more than just the bottom line.  Please leave comments if you have any questions.  See the rest of the article under “Instruction” on www.golf.sc.

I failed to mention in the previous post how I was able to fix my swing path to go inside to outside.  I found out that I wasn’t turning at the hips enough to get the clubhead inside.  So now I concentrate getting my left shoulder to turn and this has really done the trick.  So good luck and have a great day golfing.

I need to let you know what really helped my golf game, according to me, not my knuckleheaded buddies.  I certainly over analyze everything I do and “spine angle” is a regular thought in my back swing, however, there’s a case of over analyzing that really helped me out.  I had consistently sliced EVERYTHING!  I could slice a sand wedge from the fairway.  After lengthy reading and countless changes to most everything involved in a golf swing I sat down and had a little conversation with myself.  And the bottomline was I needed to swing on an inside to out path.  So, I went to the range.  I wasn’t happy with a shot that went straight but left a divot pointing left of my target line.  “Inside to Out” was all I would say to myself.  Finally after quite a while on the range I was able to fix my swing path to go inside to outside and not “over the top” like I had been for years.  The physics of the swing finally caught my attention and it works.  Now I hook the heck out of everything!  Good Luck and have a great weekend golfing.

One of the funnier moments golfing this weekend occured when I tried to hit my driver over water.  I had mentioned in an earlier post that I needed to go to the range because I was “duck” hooking my driver.  Well, in this particular case I pulled out the driver and hooked it pretty good right towards the water on a low, line drive, ugly looking thing.  Well, wading on the water minding their own business was a flock of duck like creatures soaking in the sun.  You can imagine their surprise when a Callaway comes screaming at them.  The funny thing was how they reacted.  Instead of flying away, these things do have wings after all, they all headed south under water, and fast!  They all came back up eventually and spent the better part of 5 minutes flapping their seemingly useless wings to dry themselves off.  I could tell they didn’t like me because when I went to drop my ball they all dove again when I got within 10 feet of them!

I was getting frustrated with my game and I knew I had to spend some time on the range to straighten some things out.  I was out in Altus, OK, where fortunately there’s not much to do other than play golf.  The two courses there are links type courses and the wind is always howling.  I was with a buddy of mine for the time out there and he’s a pretty good athlete.  You know the type.  Played college football, a star high school basketball player; just a natural athlete.  Golf was a passing fancy of his and he didn’t spend too much time worrying about it and could casually grab his sticks after a few months and hit in the low 80’s.  So, he calls me up to go play.  “I’ve got to get to the range”, I say.  “The range?  Dude, you’re a Golfer, not a Ranger, let’s go!”  So naturally I went and continued to go knowing full well I should be at the range.  After all, you don’t pass up an opportunity to play 18 with buddies.  My game continued to suffer and I was getting very frustrated.

I bring this story up because I was thinking of that friend of mine this weekend and my golf game is at the same point.  He’s now in Colorado so I don’t get to see him often, or ever for that matter.  Anyway, back to my game.  Recently I’ve gotten really good at duck hooking my driver and 3-wood.  At first it was great; I wasn’t slicing!  But now it’s getting annoying and as I discover the left side of golf courses now; I’m reallizing I need to get to the range.  I’m hoping my problem is something relatively simple.  I think I’m getting quick up top or I’m pulling the club up too steeply on the take away.  The problem is like most other golfers; time.  When I have time to dedicate to golf, it’s much more tempting to play 18 holes as opposed to swinging away at the range.  My other issue is my wedge; actually all my wedges.  The sand, lob, and gap.  I am very inconsistent inside of 100 yards and it’s driving me nuts.

So, as much as I hate to miss the opportunity to play 18, the next time I have time for golf I have to go to the range and figure some things out or I’ll go crazy.  But I know most of what will go through my head as I swing away is “Dude, you’re a Golfer, not a Ranger!”

Congratulations are in order for our award winning professionals from South Carolina.  The Carolinas PGA announced the winners and the awards will be presented at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in February 2008 at the 15th Annual Merchandise Show.  Topping the list is Mark Harmon, PGA, The Golf Professional of the Year.  Mr. Harmon is the head golf professional at the Secession Golf Club, Beaufort, SC.  Brad Redding, PGA golf professional at the Resort Club at Grande Dunes, Myrtle Beach was awarded the Teacher of the Year.  The Bill Strausbaugh Award went to Bill Sampson, PGA,  of Old Tabby Links, Spring Island, SC.  The Bill Strausbaugh Award “recognizes significant contributions to mentorship of fellow PGA Professionals.”  Mike Byce, PGA,  of The Creek Golf Club, Spartanburg, SC was named the Junior Golf Leader of the Year.  Merchandiser of the Year recognition went to Mike Buccerone, PGA,  of the Resort Club at Grande Dunes, Myrtle Beach, Claude Brusse, PGA,  of Yeamans Hall Club, Hanahan.  Also out of the Secession Golf Club in Beaufort is the award of the Assistant Golf Professional of the Year awarded to Adrian Joliffe, PGA.  And finally, the Carolinas PGA President’s Plaque is awarded to Mike Casto, PGA, of Fort Jackson Golf Club in Columbia.  The President’s Plaque recognizes “individual PGA Member Professionals for their extraordinary contributions and achievements in the area of player development.”

Again, congratulations to all of our superb South Carolina Professionals.

Our focus is golf in South Carolina and only golf in South Carolina!  Our goal is to offer you content that you need.  This will include instruction articles and videos, disount coupons and specials, travel information, golf course information, and much, much more.

South Carolina is the place for golf.  Well, maybe Scotland is, but in South Carolina you can get sun and warmth while playing the best game known to man on some of the finest courses ever built.  If you live in South Carolina a great course is right around the corner from where you live.  If you travel to South Carolina to play golf, your choices are enormous. 

That’s where Golf.sc fits in.  We want to show you all the great courses in the state and get you the discounts that we are all always searching for.  For travelers, we want to also give you travel information and help you decide where to tee it up.  Along the way, you can read my fantastic blogs, check out some great links, read some news, check out the calendar for South Carolina golf tournaments and events, get tips from some of South Carolina’s finest professionals and more.

Speaking of professionals, let me introduce Jeff Ruth, the PGA Head Professional at Sunset Country Club in Sumter, SC.  You can check out his first article for us, “Cure a Golf Slice”.  Jeff is just one of the outstanding, award winning, professionals in the state.

So enjoy Golf.sc and keep checking back as we expand our service for you.  Have a great golf day!