The Greatest Putter Ever Made

After fiddling with so many Anser-like putters, trying out the two-ball, three-ball, four-ball mallets, testing every giant-headed, egg-beater looking, space-ship resembling ball pusher out there, I sauntered onto the plywood practice green at Sports Authority one fine day two seasons ago to continue my quest for slap-stick magic. I test drove the newest, strangest looking offerings from all the big names with fair to middlin results. Then I found The Greatest Putter Ever Made... I picked up the old-fashioned, old standby, previously overlooked Odyssey Rossie II, and proceeded to run every ball into the hole. Thinking that this had to be a burst of putting genius on my part, I set the Rossie II aside, and tested a few more of the more exotic offerings - they were still fair to middlin... The Rossie II, though, continued to show me her stuff. I had to have one... Knowing that this was a hoary old model that's been tramping around greens for more than a few seasons, I decided to check eBay and Golf Club Exchange, and sure enough, there were many available at rock-bottom prices. Numerous shaft lengths, and even some models with heavier bronze heads were up for sale. I ended up with the steel version pictured here, recently re-dressed in a new, sticky-like mid-sized Winn pistol grip.

It's a mallet, so it's face-balanced, which is probably best for most of us (like it or not.) Even "The One" only opens and closes his Scotty Cameron 1 degree through the stroke, so a face-balanced putter is more likely to help keep all of us duffers putting a little more squarely down the line. Mine has the black plastic insert - newer versions come with a variety of inserts, and choosing your favorite is really a matter of feel. I suggest, though, making sure that you choose one with alignment markings the same as mine - I find them to be the most intuitive, and they help keep my eye right over the target line - just keep the single alignment mark between the two lines on the back of the head, and you know you're all square. The new slightly larger mid-sized grip seems to take my wrists out of the stroke even more.

My regular playing partner uses a newer Ping blade, and seems to be able to drain it from every where, hence is golfin moniker, "The Blade!" (Yes, it is spoken with the exclamation point when used. Such as, when he rolls one in from just of the green, 25 feet, through a double break and a half-dozen untended pitch marks into the can, his partners are obliged to call out "The Blade!" in salute and recognition.)

Such feats appear even more amazing when one considers the, shall we say, unorthodox putting stroke that he employs. It's a distinct out-to-in jab at the ball (it's the kind of stroke I'd use if I wanted to slice putts) which leaves his opponents even more incredulous when the damn ball roles straight to the hole. I have never and will never tell him what's wrong with his putting stroke - I might ruin his putting game and send him back to bowling with his spouse, "The Decider." I have to guess that the toe-balanced Ping must enable him to square up the face about a millisecond before impact, and just enough to counter the angular, glancing blow such that a straight roll of the ball somehow results. It's a wonder to witness in person.

My other putter is, alas, a blade, and I believe it to be the second best putter ever made. It's a sleek, sharp looking Odyssey EFX 9900, the head somewhat resembles the old Ping B66, touted by Golf Club Review.com to be the straightest putter in it's day. The 9900 served me well, but in repeated scientific basement carpet putting tests, the Rossie II meets or beats the 9900 every time. Still, I find it a good exercise to take the 9900 out for some air at times - I seem to have a good round with it, and my putting improves further still when I return to old Rossie. There's much truth in the notion that change for the sake of change can spark your game. I understand that more than a few tour pros change putters regularly for similar reasons.

Ol' Rossie is weighted just right - heavy enough to stay stable on short putts, but not so heavy to remove feel from the longer ones. While the face is a plain-jane flat plastic insert, face it guys, all those grooves and inserts and doo-dads that are supposed to impart top-spin or other effects don't really give most of us what we need... Guys that I play with really need to keep the club on plane, face square to the target line at impact. A millisecond of putter back-spin isn't what keeps my handicap in the high-teens...

Still, if you gotta have the newest so-called technology, there are more than a few mallet heads that look just like ol' Rossie, and they come in a variety of face configurations - perhaps you could find the best of both worlds. Me? I got my fat and sticky grip on my old stick, and I'll be out there showing The Blade what ol' Rossie and I can do this season...

GF

Snow Practice Makes Perfect

Snow's good for nothing. Unless you're a skier or a kid who hates school, it just creates a mess, and makes every aspect of daily life a little harder. At least that's what I thought until Saturday, when I took a break from cleaning frozen slush off the SUV to whack a few ice-balls with my 5 iron.

First thing I noticed, the club was really, really clean after a half-dozen whacks.

The next thing I noticed was that my club-head left a perfect representation of the club-head path in the snow. While I was swinging, the club head carved a perfect groove in the snow right at the bottom of my swing. I moved to a part of the snow drift that was about 6" deep, and after two whacks, could see an even better representation of the club head path. I learned some interesting things: First, my club head bottomed out right of center - not bad if I was using a driver, but these shots would have been fat for an iron; I learned that my clubhead path is slightly inside out, which explains why my usual miss is a push.

Even better, I found that the groove left in the snow gave me an excellent way to practice "grooving" my swing. Once I established a good snow-groove, and I did this by keeping the clubhead outside my hands a little more until I achieved a groove that was more circular with an in-out-in path, I practiced this snow-grooved swing by repeatedly swinging the club through this snow-groove. If the club-head strayed and hit the walls of the groove, I changed spots and made another perfect groove.

No, it's not nearly as good as a day on the links, but a half-hour or so of snow-grooving got me up off the couch, helped me exercise my golf-muscles, and gave me a good feel for swinging the club on a better plane. (...and it left the clubs looking sparkling-clean to boot!)

GF

Perfect

I don't recall which hole it was, or if The One was up 5 or 6 over Cink, but The One was between clubs, about 215 or 220 out, there was much discussion, and Stevie had his hand on the 6 iron, ready to pull it. The One hit a high cut against the wind with choke-down 5 iron, the ball landed just past hole high, spun back just a little into gimme range. That's all you needed to see of Sunday's match to know how it was going to end. Cink should've conceded then, and caught the early flight home.

Like the 2006 British Open, The One conducted a clinic on how to dismantle a golf course and his opponents. His performance was almost boring in its precision and relentlessly effective execution. Badds played one of the rounds of his life on Friday, and still couldn't quite close the deal.

The One is on a run, and this recent streak, if it ended yesterday, would still partly define the 2008 season. But it takes no great leap to imagine that we are witnessing the start of a season for the ages - a Grand Slam appears within reach.... Byron's 11-in-a-row looks beatable....

What an incredible time to be a golf fan....

GF

Phil Gone, Tiger Goes On, Nick Pulls Punches

There was no doubt, was there, about Tiger's match. The only surprise was that he didn't win 9 and 8, or 6 and 5. Still, a comparably easy match for The One to move up a notch. Phil played great, but Stu played better - it's that simple. And Stu turned it on to come from behind - give the guy credit, he reached up and took it.

Still - Phil could have taken it with a well-timed 25 footer in the hole, but we just don't see Phil respond to the pressure in that way... We see The One do that sort of thing.

Open note to Nick Faldo - instead of saying "crumbs" as an exclamation, say what you feel man! We can take it! When you mean, "Crap!" just say "Crap!" When you mean "For Chrissake," just say it! You're on Cable - we expect it! Save the "crumbs" and "criminy" and "cheese and crackers" for the weekend when you're on Network Television, and a certain decorum is called for...

GF

Is "The One" Starting to Believe?

Five holes to go and three down - he'd never come back from a deficit like that as a pro in match play...

The rap on The One (and there aren't many raps that can stick) is that he's a great front-runner, but the big come-from-behind eludes him...

And then J.B. watched first hand as The One went on a run... Could he finally be starting to believe that a come-from-behind is well within his amazing grasp? Could the come-from-behind in Dubai be what he needed to prove it to himself? Tiger described this as a "run..."

Could this be the kind of run that continues through April.... Through June, July, and August? The kind of "run" that earns Tiger another thing he's not yet had - a Jones-like ticker-tape parade in the canyon of heroes?

GF

Really Great Golf Books

I'm not much of a reader - I'm good for 15 minutes of reading at a clip, and them I'm fast asleep, but I can attest to three books that have held my rapt attention, each about golf, and each by Mark Frost.

The Greatest Game Ever Played was my introduction, and if you were to read these recommended selections, I recommend that you start here. This is the story of Harry Vardon... Well, it's the story of Francis Ouimet.... no.. really it's the story of the birth of the sport of golf as we know it... actually, it's all of the above. Frost is a real life golf enthusiast - he gets what we get about the game like few other writers do. The big disappointment is that the movie that was inspired by the book was so poor, even though the screenplay was written by Frost himself. The book succeeds where the movie fails in that it captures key moments, crucial turning points that carry profound ramifications for the future of the story line, and in this case, the future of our sport. If you saw the movie, take it from me - forget about it, purge your mind of all impure thoughts, and read the book.

Grand Slam is the story of Bobby Jones and his historic Grand Slam.... well, actually it's the story of the birth of the sport of golf as we know it... actually, it's both! Don't confuse this book with that "Stroke of Genius" movie - this is the real deal, and that was anything but a golf movie. I'm not sure what it was... The book, however, delivers the goods, and again, Frost shows that amazing ability to capture crucial moments - a putt, a look, a conversation, even a lightning strike - that seem incidental, inconsequential at the time, but prove to have far-reaching implications.

The Match is the one I'm currently reading, and it's about a round of golf... well, it's about a round of golf played by Harvie Ward, Ken Venturi, Byron Nelson, and Ben Hogan.... well, really, it's the story of the birth of the sport of golf as .... well, you get the idea. I'm about halfway through this one, and it's a fitting continuation of the story of our sport as begun and continued by the first two.

I eagerly await Frost's books (and I hope he's got these on his schedule) about golf in the 50's, 60's, 70's and beyond. Even better, a book about Tiger Woods up to his first Master's victory in '97 - only he could do it justice! How great would it be to see another Frost book about Jack Nicklaus... or maybe about Arnold Palmer... or about Jack, Arnie and Gary... or about the birth of our favorite sport as we know it!

Take this golf tip from the Flogger - read and enjoy!

GF

Phil? Is That You?

Up until Phil held the trophy Sunday, I admit that I had no faith that he'd pull it out. As brilliantly as he played at times, there's never anything certain about a Phil Mickelson victory in the making. There's no inevitability to the outcome. Things could easily go south, or a surging Jeff Quinney, or JB Holmes, or Sean O'Hair could leave Phil holding the runner-up silver bowl. But Phil showed us something on Sunday - he won at Riviera. He took the match. He reached up and grabbed the victory.

Us Phil fans still have our doubts - and yes, I am a Phil fan. This is one in a row. But his loss to JB in his last tourney was won by JB - Phil didn't give it up. This week was Phil's turn to seize the day, and seize it he did. And Phil '08 is a different man than Phil '07 or Phil '06. He's quite noticeably fitter, leaner. He looks hungrier - maybe it's the lean look, or maybe he really is hungrier. Maybe this is all wishful thinking, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's Phil going for his career grand slam - or maybe the Grand Slam itself.

Go Phil! Golf needs you. Even "The One" needs you. The better the competition for The One, the better for the history of golf. So far, I like Phil '08. I like the promise of Phil '08. I can't wait to see how the coming weeks play out.

GF

Bethpage Black Kicked My Butt

Golf in the Northeast is lying dormant for now, so there's little else to do but ponder the year ahead, and consider the seasons passed. The snow reminds me that my first outing at Bethpage Black was in my youth, and was spent sleigh-riding, not playing golf. About 37 years later, my first golf outing there was among my most memorable golf outings of all.
It's a brute of a course, even when dumbed-down for us normal dubs. A scratch-golfing, golf-club member friend of mine declared that everyone - even he - ought to expect to shoot 6 or 7 strokes over what they normally shoot. He understated that case by a few, in my opinion.
While not spectacular in the way that Pebble Beach might be, The Black is remarkable in its own ways. After my maiden voyage there, I was able to recall every stroke on every hole - a first for me, and an indicator of just how special the course is. While many muni's give you a sense of deja vu from hole to hole, each hole on The Black is new tableau, a new challenge, distinct from the holes before and after, but somehow connected and related.
The first hole is non-descript, though deceiving in length. The elevated tee, from which much of the course can be surveyed, makes the first green appear closer than it is, but it's a fairway wood into the green for all but the longer hitters. The second hole demands a straight tee shot (or join me in the right rough) and a blind approach to an elevated green. The third green is bigger than in looks from the tee, and it's better to come up short than to overcook it into the woods beyond the green.
The most memorable moments for me included the first look from the 3rd green toward the 4th fairway, and the famous "glacier bunkers." Even better, I parred that baby with a competent tee and second shot, and a wedge to the green. I have yet to repeat that feat in 5 subsequent visits.
The fifth is like a right-handed big brother to the 2nd, both having blind shots to elevated greens, but the vista from the 5th tee box is as stunning as it is intimidating. The 6th demands local knowledge of the hidden dangers beyond the valley fronting the tee box - you can see the fairway, but you can't see far enough to make out where you want a long drive to land. It's target golf. The 7th fairway is easily reached for most of us, but it's just as easy to drive right through it into the left side rough. I've yet to play the par 3 8th without ending up on the hill to the right, but at least I've never had to make the back-to-front downhill putt that's sure to end up rolling off the green. The ninth demands a long tee shot to the right side of the fairway if you want to see the green. For me, I'm usually in the swale on the left side of the fairway taking a blind second shot to a green surrounded by bunkers.
Catch your breath after the 9th because you're just getting started.... Play the 10th like a par 5 - you might end up with a "birdie/par" if you leave yourself a short wedge to the green and pitch it in close. The 11th demands some local knowledge from the tee - the fairway isn't where you think it is... I've managed to clear the gigantic cross-bunker on 12 each time I've played there, but have yet to make the green, even with a flush-hit 3 wood. Thirteen is one of the most interesting and picturesque par 5's you'll ever see - after a generous landing area for your tee shot, trouble abounds for your second and third. The par 3 14th is a tester, playing longer than it looks, and with another large green as challenging as any on the course. The 15th is larger than life, the elevated green hidden and well protected - yet I've managed par that one each time I've played there. Hole 16 looks relatively harmless, but it's further to the fairway from the tee than it looks, and you'll spend time in the greenside bunker "complex" if you get too cocky. Hole 17 is intimidating, but do-able if you can hit your long iron or utility wood on the number. I've been in a fairway bunker each time I played the 18th except once - and that's when I duck-hooked my tee shot into the first fairway. From there, I pitched to the end of the fairway fronting the green, made a blind pitch to the flag, and just missed my par. Bogeys can be satisfying on The Black.
You will get your butt kicked on this course - it's larger than life in every respect - the grass is thicker, the turf is tougher, the bunkers are deeper and hungrier, the hills are higher and the valleys lower. It's a golf course with shoulders. This is not a "good walk spoiled," it's a trek through the wilds of a long island hardwood forest with golf thrown in. You may walk off 18 just feeling glad to survive, maybe glad that it's over, but you'll be back...
Here's be biggest challenge - getting a tee time! Reservations are by phone, and the hotline is constantly busy starting 10 minutes before the reservation window opens for the following week. As a result, I'm lucky to play there twice a year, but other players tell me that they have much better luck getting through. So, what's the deal with tee-times at Bethpage? If someone can clue me in, I'll regrip your clubs for you...
GF

Getting a Grip

The cord grips on the 762's were getting a little hard, the Launcher grip was looking tired. Off they came, and on went these beauties - Lamkin Permawrap Classics.

They look like standard tour-wrap grips, but have the cool stripe running along the wrap. They look great, feel sticky, and didn't cost near as much as some of the higher tech dual-density multicolor grips that the golfing-industrial marketing machine is trying to convince us that we need... I did, however, go for the sticky Winn pistol grips for the putters. I went for the mid-size on the Oddysey Rossie II - the fatter grip really does seem to take the hands out of it - extensive basement carpet test-putting proves it.

I did the regripping all by my lonesome, and it's really no big deal. You do need a workbench, some mineral spirits or thinner (soapy water works too,) something to catch the solvent when you soak the tape, some rubber gloves, and a little practice. Golfsmith has some great and easy to follow instructions here:
http://www.golfsmith.com/display_page.php?page_num=demonstration5&ln=N

OK, the grips are ready, the shoes are re-spiked, and I've got a new glove. All we need is Spring.

GF

This is Not Helping...

It snowed here in the Northeast last night, then rained over night creating slurpee-like conditions. The prospect of standing in a lush green fairway, waiting for the green to clear, hearing the birds chirp, and feeling the sun shine on my back seems as remote as my prospects of winning Mega Millions this week.

My morning train passes through a country club - it's hard to imagine all that frozen soup ever draining. It will, of course, and we'll be teeing off here in a month or two, depending on how desperate we are.

Of course, the prospect of standing in a fairway in any weather will remain remote until I start straightening out my tee shots...

- GF

"And So It Begins"

Welcome to the GolfFlog - the blog for real life golfers about real life golf. I've long been dismayed that mass-market golf, on TV, in magazines, in newspapers, is a poor reflection of golf in the real world:

- Most of us don't play golf at a private country club;

- Most of us don't buy a new set of clubs every season (or more than once a season);

- We don't spend a whole lot on lessons, and sometimes it shows. (Well, OK, most of the time it shows);

- Most of us don't have a USGA handicap, but if we did, we'd be around a 19;

- We have a good notion of the history of this great game, and we know we're lucky to watch history in the making each time The One chooses to play.

We play on public courses, and at the occasional outing, on vacation, or with a CC buddy at a private club.

We buy a new club or bag or shoes once a year or so - but we change irons only a little more often than we change cars.

We're working guys! We play on weekends at the most crowded times on our favorite munis!

This blog will be about THAT golfin life - not the golfin life we read about in those two magazines that most of us get...

I hope you identify with and enjoy the GolfFlog - I'll be logging my thoughts and experiences here, and I'll be flogging some of the conventions of mass-market-media, un-real golf right here, and I hope you'll do the same.

The Harder you hit'em, the straighter they go!


- The GolfFlogger