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27 Sep 2017 admin

Fond Memories Found In-Of All Places –A Range Basket

By Mike Stevens USGTF Contributing Writer

I love it when I stumble across something that instantly floods my brain with fond memories of youth. In my basket of range balls, I came across an old golf ball. People are always hitting their old balls on the range trying to get in a few extra shots for free. Just looking at the dimple pattern, I knew it was old, a Wonderball #4 from the Worthington Golf Ball Company of Elyria, Ohio. Now, I doubt that many players today would recognize this brand. However, to a young lad who had to scour the woods and ponds of local muni courses be-cause he was forbidden to raid his father’s golf bag for those precious white orbs, they were a blessing. But that is a whole other story. Although western Massachusetts was Spalding territory, there were plenty of inexpensive Worthingtons to be found.

It all began in 1904 when inventor George Worthington obtained the rights to produce a rubber core ball from Coburn Haskell, who had patented the concept of winding rubber strips into a ball which was covered with gutta per-cha. The ball known as the “Bounding Billie” would revolutionize the game, just as the solid gutta percha version did in 1848. Worthington wasn’t the only company to obtain the rights to produce balls, but they produced the best version at the time. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, Worthington had to be a bit creative with his product. That was because the A.G. Spalding company’s rights included a circular dimple pattern which only they could use.

That did not stop George. He made balls with diamond patterns, pimples in the dimples and a mesh matrix. He also developed his own winding ma-chine that wrapped the rubber strands around a solid core in a more even pattern than any of the other companies who were hand-winding their balls.

Over the next 50 years, the Worthington Golf Ball Company became one of the largest supplier of balls in the world. They were the first to produce a liquid-center ball, first to develop hardness and compression tests, and first to produce a white-covered ball with a one-piece dip process. In 1910, Worthington came out with the “Radio” ball, with a center containing radium particles. No one knew what it did, but because of Madam Curie’s work with radium at the time, radium was all the rage. The company was truly innovative, thanks to George. After World War I, he developed the first balata-covered version. For the interior, he would freeze the core before winding, which made the ball harder and tougher. He even x-rayed the balls for trueness.

When World War II broke out, the government sent word out to companies that no more golf balls were to be manufactured for the duration of the war. That did not stop Worthington. He began reprocessing old balls. Had it not been for his efforts, golf may have gone by the wayside. Fortunately, the Surgeon General’s Office saw the health benefits of golf and the government offered manufacturers synthetic material, and true to form, Worthington develop a synthetic golf ball that was shipped all over the world wherever servicemen were stationed. After the war, the company continued to thrive and try many new processes and materials, expending considerable research in the ball production.

Unfortunately, the Worthington brand is no longer around today except for those found in golf range baskets or on a golf collector’s trade show table. The company was absorbed in 1966 by the Victor Comptometer Company and moved to Illinois. Vic-tor brand morphed into the PGA Company, which eventually became Tommy Armour Golf that now is sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods, which acquired it from Sports Authority. Gone but not forgotten by a young lad who came to love a game that required a precious pearl called “Wonderball.”

Mike Stevens is the Southeast Region director of the USGTF and golf teaching pro at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. He is the 2005, 2010 and2012 National Hickory champion and the 2004U.S. Golf Teachers Senior champion. He also owns and operates the Mike Stevens on Target Golf School in Tampa.

22 Sep 2017 admin

A Closer Look At The Three Main Grips

Before we go any further, let’s acknowledge the obvious: You’re probably wondering why an article on the grip is appearing in Golf Teaching Pro. After all, it’s the first thing taught at USGTF certification schools, and besides, all golf teaching pros should know how to teach the grip.

Actually, you may be surprised to learn that a number of golf teaching professionals (mainly non-USGTF members) do not know how to properly teach the grip, nor do they have a firm understanding of the cause and effect associated with the three grips. Our USGTF examining staff has found more than one teaching professional who has been teaching without certification or who belongs to another organization who doesn’t know as much as they should about teaching the grip. So if you’re comfortable in your knowledge and abilities in teaching the grip and knowing its nuances, please consider this article as a refresher or confirmation. But even then, hopefully there is a nugget or two which you may take away.

Overlapping grip

This is the most commonly used and taught grip by playing and teaching professionals. This likely came about due to the influence of Harry Vardon, who popularized the grip as a way of taking some of the right-hand action out of the swing and therefore lessen the possibility of a hook. Because traditions and long-held schools of thought die hard in golf, it’s likely most teaching pros simply passed along the overlap grip as the preferred grip due to tradition. But is it really the “best” grip?

The best grip is the one which allows the golfer to return the club square the most consistently. It’s been said that every good golfer has fought a hook some-time in his or her career, so the anti-hooking features of the overlapping (or Vardon) grip are very useful to the majority of such golfers. In fact, Jim Furyk uses a double-overlap grip because of his propensity to use a lot of hand action through impact, which further promotes a hook. But that brings us to an obvious question: If the overlapping grip is an anti-hooking grip, why should we teach slicers this grip?

Hopefully our instruction will result in slicers no longer being slicers, and due to the relatively small grip a golf club possesses (in relation to others sports like baseball and tennis), it’s easy for excessive hand action to become an issue for more competent players. Thus, the overlapping grip is a good choice for these players. It also seems to allow the player to more easily put the club in the correct position in the trail hand as compared to the other grips, al-though obviously this doesn’t necessarily hold true for everyone.

Interlocking grip

The most famous practitioners of the interlocking grip include Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Nicklaus touted the grip as being more appropriate for golfers with shorter fingers, but a number of players who don’t have shorter fingers also use the grip…and a number of players with shorter fingers also use the overlapping, so this rule of thumb doesn’t seem to be very hard and fast. (Remember, traditional thought in golf instruction tends to stick around, regardless of whether it’s accurate or not.)

Dr. Ralph Mann, a biomechanics expert who has researched golf technique to a greater degree than most, believes the interlocking grip is problematic because it allows the golfer to grip the club too much in the right palm(for right-handed players) if the golfer is not careful to avoid this.

The practical differences between the overlapping and the interlocking grip are negligible, to the point that one or the other is fine for players who choose not to use a 10-finger grip.

10-finger grip

This also known as the “baseball” grip due to its similarity to holding a bat, with no overlapping of the fingers. Major champions such as Art Wall and Bob Rosburg used the grip on their way to victory, so it has stood the test at the highest level of the game. Moe Norman, renowned for being the greatest ball striker ever, switched to the grip later in his career.

Earlier, we asked the question of why we would want our students who slice to use an anti-hook grip such as the overlap. It’s a good question, and if we have students whose tendency is to hit slices, the10-finger grip may be the best option to eliminate or mitigate the problem. Even a slight separation of the hands may be necessary to reduce slicing in some students.

Some teachers like to advocate that junior players use the 10-finger grip, with the goal of switching to the overlap or interlock later. This is feasible, as kids usually adapt swing and setup changes fairly easily as compared to adults. People with weaker hands and forearms may also benefit from the 10-finger grip. Finally, golfers who use larger arthritic grips may experience that the overlap or interlock is difficult to incorporate with such grips, finding that the 10-fingergrip offers a greater ease of use.

The USGTF Technical Committee’s official position on which grip to use is that it is up to the player and their judgment of comfort and playability. The committee has found, through its own teaching experience, that the interlocking grip seems to be a more natural grip for most people to use as compared to the overlapping, but this may be due to the factor that Dr. Mann described, which is it allows the player to hold the dominant hand grip more in the palm. This feeling is undoubtedly more secure for many players, but it represents a false security as it restricts the proper movement of the club throughout the swing.

Golf teaching professionals usually have little reason to change the type of grip their students are using, but in some cases a change may be for the better. Knowing the pros and cons of each grip can help the teacher make the correct call.

18 Sep 2017 admin

New Times, New Terms

The past two editions of Golf Teaching Pro have featured articles on whether golf instruction is getting too complicated. The consensus by the authors was a “yes,” but that doesn’t mean that we should shut out all new learning and technology in favor of sticking only with what we first learned. As golf teaching professionals, we have an obligation to keep up with the latest trends and methodologies so that we’re not left behind. The trick, of course, is to impart this information in a way that our students understand. Many of them just want to hit the ball better and aren’t interested in the latest theories or arguments on the minutiae of every little bit of the golf swing.

With the advent of high-tech gadgets and increased knowledge, different terms have come onto the teaching scene. While they may not be new, there may be a new understanding of how they work or what they are.

TrackMan® and FlightScope®. These are Doppler-radar based launch monitors that mea-sure every relevant aspect of ball flight. They have “launched” (pun intended) a whole new slew of terms in recent years. Among them:

Launch angle. This is the angle the ball takes off compared to the horizontal ground, measured in degrees. For drivers, anywhere from 10°for higher swing speeds to upwards of 16° for lower swing speeds are what club fitters and teachers are looking for.

Spin axis. A ball that has backspin around a perfectly horizontal axis will have no curvature. The amount that the actual axis varies from horizontal is called “spin axis” and is measured in degrees. If the axis tilts to the left of horizontal (as seen behind the target line), the ball will have draw spin for a right-hander, and if it tilts to the right of horizontal, the ball will have fade spin.

Example of spin axis of a draw (right-hander)

Zero out. This is launch monitor parlance for having a club head path at impact that is towards the intended target with a square clubface.

Positive/negative angle of approach. In the old days we would say ascending (positive) or descending (negative), but since launch monitors use positive or negative numbers, the terminology is going in the numerical direction.

Smash factor. This is the ratio of ball speed to club head speed. With the driver, most clubfitters believe that a smash factor of at least 1.45 is necessary to call a driver a good fit for that particular person.

RPMs. This is the number of revolutions per minute of the ball’s backspin. For drivers, RPMs that vary from 2,200 to 2,800, depending on ball speed and launch angle, are desirable. With the increased technology in drivers available to manufacturers, they are able to do more to make this happen. It has been said that the holy grail for driver launch is 17° of launch angle with 1,700RPMs of spin. Time will tell if a driver can be made to make this feasible.

Teaching and coaching. New terms, and older terms that are now more commonly in use, have made their way onto the stage.

Covering the ball. This term is not new but has been used extensively in recent years. It means not tilting the chest backwards coming into impact and letting it rotate so that the player does not swing too far inside-to-outside. This is mainly a good player’s feel as it is one to help a player from hooking the ball.

Save the shot. Again, mainly a good player’s fault. This results from a swing path that is in-side-to-outside during impact, resulting in a push unless the player “saves” the shot by precise timing of the release of the hands.

Fall line. This term has been made popular by Johnny Miller on television. It refers to the putting green. A ball rolling on the fall line towards the hole will go dead straight. Determining if the ball lies to the left or right of the fall line is helpful in figuring which way the putt will break, and seems to be the preferred greens-reading method for many tour players today, rather than just looking at the slope of the green between the ball and the hole.

Center of mass vs. swing pressure. Some teachers employ foot pressure plates, which measure how much each foot is pressing into the ground at any given time. This is different than the center of mass, a completely different subject. It is possible to have most of the pressure on the rear foot, for example, at the top of the backswing while having the center of mass more forward. One of the trends in teaching today is to have the center of mass stay relatively stationary throughout the swing (at least through impact).

Use the bounce. This has been known for years with bunkers shots, but now it is becoming more common for pitch shots. More wrist action through impact and/or a shallower angle of attack make this happen. Many teachers feel this lessens the chance of a mishit, especially hitting fat shots.

Golf terms continually evolve, and it is certain that terms that will be used in the years to come have not even be invented today. Although the game continues to change, it holds deep to its traditional roots, and this combination means the game will appeal to people of all types for the indefinite future.