Editorial

19 Nov 2015 Corina Pelloni

GREAT NEW TOOL TO HELP GOLFERS UNDERSTAND THE INNER GAME

As a golf coach, I am always looking for new ways to improve my coaching and my instruction program for my players and students. Over the years, I have been fortunate to help coach and develop some very good players.  At my indoor studio in Stuart, Florida, I have built a lot of great golf swings that have progressed into multiple all-area high school players and college players. As a coach, you learn that once the swing has been developed and the skill levels are achieved, it all comes down to the mental game and how the players think as they play and the way that they handle adversity on the course. Every now and then, a breakthrough technology comes along that improves the teaching process. Recently, I have come across a new kind of breakthrough technology that could really help the way I interact with my players, imapMyGolf. The imapMyGolf program is a mental golf game mapping technology product that gives the coach a powerful tool to help the player develop a mental approach that then can be brought to the golf course. Players take an online questionnaire that takes about 15 minutes to complete. Questions are detailed but simple to answer.  At the completion of the questionnaire, the system then generates a player report that the student gets to see right away and sends me, the coach, a coach’s report. The coach’s report has a lot more details about my player or student than the player’s report.  It gives me insight into the player’s inner game and how they look at themselves and the people they play with. The report is very easy to understand and gives me a lot of things to work on with my players in practice, on the course, and in the lesson studio. Are they methodical and analytical, or are they imaginative and creative? How do they respond to stressful situations on the golf course? Armed with this type of in depth information, I can structure lessons that are more effective. The system is based online and is free for the coach to use; the players pay for the online questionnaire online. Please email me at arlenbentojr@gmail.com or visit my website at www.arlenbentojr.com. Master Teaching Professional Arlen Bento Jr. is a golf coach, golf sales business owner, golf product developer and golf writer living in Jensen Beach, Florida.   He is a former professional tournament player and is a national award-winning head golf professional at the PGA Country Club at PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, FL.  He can be reached by email atarlenbentojr@gmail.com or visit his website www.arlenbentojr.com. You can follow him onTwitterwww.twitter.com/ArlenBentoJr, on Facebook www.facebook.com/arlenbentojr or on his bloghttp://arlenbentojr.blogspot.com

4 Nov 2015 Corina Pelloni

GOOD ANGER

We have all heard someone on TV or in person say a four-letter word after a bad shot.  Sometimes we might shake our heads, and other times we might understand the frustration.  How much anger should a player release after a bad shot? Some teachers say to stay level through the whole round, never getting too high or too low.  Others say to play with all emotions out for the world to see.  My preference falls in the middle.  As a player, you will have highs and lows in every round.  You need to be able to handle those mood changes to get the best out of your round. My motto has always been to give yourself five seconds to either celebrate a great shot or be upset about a poor one.  I explain that this time should be used for an internal conversation.  You don’t need to do a cartwheel or throw a club during the five-second pause, but it’s okay have a little pep talk with yourself. I’m sure we are all guilty of losing our temper at some point.  Maybe throwing a club, saying some bad words a little too loud, or making a scene.  There are a few things that are wrong with this: it disrupts your playing partners and it gets your emotional state too high, which can affect the next shot. Next time you’re teaching or playing, try to give yourself a five-second period to celebrate or criticize your golf shot.  Talk to yourself and no one else.  Once this time passes, begin to focus on the next shot.  Hopefully this will help turn bad anger into a focused, good anger.

28 Oct 2015 Corina Pelloni

VISUALIZATION–PART OF YOUR PRE-SHOT ROUTINE

Pre-shot routine is generally seen as the series of events leading up to the playing of a golf shot. These repetitive movements. as the term “routine” implies, are a great benefit to consistent shotmaking. If you know what you did before you swung the club (grip, stance, ball position), then all you are trying to retrieve is what the swing felt like. You must re-trace your steps to build the ability to set up to the ball with a high level of consistency. Also, this routine builds a safe haven that keeps pressure away from us. We end up creating a “window of opportunity” that allows us to feel the optimum time for us to swing the club. I teach my students that visualization, seeing the successful result, is as important as anything else in our pre-shot routine. I ask them to look at the target while aiming. Then, once they are satisfied that they are set up properly, they must have one last look that involves picturing the ball flying toward the target the way they had hoped. When they look down at the ball to swing, they must be within seconds of a very pleasant, successful picture in their mind. In the sales world, it is called the “suggestive sell.” During that sales call, you must ask questions that only get a “yes” answer. People don’t just call me and ask for a lesson. They say, “What time today can I have a lesson?” We ask our students to be optimistic. I ask them to try to think of only what they want. If they find themselves worrying about potential doom, quickly jump on that thought with a “not today, not this time” rebound thought. It takes real practice, and we do not have the same emotions on a daily basis. An affirmative series of actions greatly improves your chances of a good result. Before you play the pitch shot, you walk half way beside the shot and judge the depth. From that, you decide on a landing spot, which is based upon the lie and the club best suited for that lie. Then, you make practice swings thinking about and looking at the landing spot. All of this is a visualization exercise based upon having played this shot successfully before. This is called “playing golf,” rather than just chasing your ball around the course. Before you roll the putt, roll it with your eyes and see it going in, at exactly the right speed and the perfect part of the hole. Give your mind something it can work with. Your nerves will appreciate the mental support, as well. Much has been made lately of Jason Day closing his eyes to see his shot before he approaches the ball. He has been doing this for awhile, but his spectacular success this year has brought it to the forefront. This type of advice, when given to younger people, many times is discounted, so I never miss an opportunity to build vision while practicing and when analyzing a round. Any time a player tells me they are having trouble taking their range game to the course, they get the speech about practicing like they play, simulating playing conditions and visualizing. At the level of professional golf, where everyone hits the ball at a high level, mental skills are a separating point. Optimism, composure, and a mind that paints a vivid picture of success are the intangibles that save strokes and win tournaments. You must VISUALIZE TO REALIZE!  

28 Oct 2015 Corina Pelloni

GOLF ON YOU TUBE: THE GOOD AND THE EVIL

For those of us over 40, YouTube means funny cat videos and crazy athletic stunts. For some instructors, You Tube is a way to market your business and reach out to students you never thought you would have the chance to help. Just as it pertains to other aspects of life, the Internet is a double-edged sword. For the well-connected instructor, YouTube can be a great learning tool, especially when it comes to technical subjects like ball flight, launch monitors, or how to use a training aid. If you have clients under 30, chances are they watch YouTube for help with their golf game. This begs the question: Is this media avenue helping or hurting the golf teaching professional? Most of the millennial generation grew up connecting with technology. Smartphones, the Golf Channel and interactive video platforms substituted for human interaction. For them, reaching out to the Internet for help with their slice is completely natural. Personally, if I don’t know how to fix something, I search for help on our YouTube friend. As we that teach the game know, feel is difficult to teach. Any sports coach or instructor will agree. This is even truer in golf. The key to learning a good swing or changing a swing is to feel what you are trying to do. For the best instructors, that means being interactive with your student, teaching the feel of the swing through engaging them physically. That could also mean devising a drill or exercise that teaches the feel you are trying to create for that particular individual, understanding that every golf swing is different and unique therefore the feel will be different for each and every golfer. So, how can they learn from their computer screen? There are definitely aspects of the game one can learn from watching demonstrations or listening to a well-informed instructor. Unfortunately, I see too many younger players trying to learn technique, or fix technique from YouTube videos. Learning the feel of a correct grip, understanding that the correct grip for each golfer could vary, is a great example of there not being a replacement for a an actual instructor placing the club in the hand. Working with the golfer to teach the feel of takeaway or transition is another example. We could think of hundreds of different reasons why replacing a person with a video is not a good way to learn the game. Of course, anything that brings attention or players to the game is good for golf. The Internet is a great platform to promote the game and for instructors to showcase their talent. The danger comes when the instructor promotes the Internet as a way to learn the game. When using the Internet, I would caution instructors to be careful not to promote their videos as the answer to the golfer’s problems. Use it in well-thought-out ways, but don’t promote it as the replacement for the one-on-one interaction that golfers need.

6 Oct 2015 Corina Pelloni

DO WE REALLY NEED A PRESIDENTS CUP?

I love the Ryder Cup. Lots of tradition dating all the way back to 1927 at Worcester Country Club. Unfortunately, it’s a course that would never be considered for any event in the modern era. But that’s another discussion. I always look forward to the Ryder Cup matches. The Presidents Cup, not so much. Not that there aren’t good players involved; it just seems to be a contrived event to me. I believe it was started out of envy. The PGA Tour, not involved in the Ryder Cup, decided to create an event to call its own. It does get plenty of attention, so in that aspect I guess most of the golf world is happy. I just don’t find it that interesting. But hey, that is just me. Something I think would be really exciting would be a way to incorporate another team into the Ryder Cup. A triangular match between the USA, Europe, and the rest of the world. That would be cool. Impossible you say. What about all that tradition I mentioned? Well, there is precedent. Remember, the Ryder Cup was originally contested by the U.S. and Great Britain. It got so one-sided that Jack Nicklaus suggested that players from Europe be added to even the score. Maybe it is time to consider a new wrinkle. Golf is an international game more so now than ever before. A worldwide Ryder Cup competition would really be electric. Could it happen? Maybe. Will it happen? Unlikely. Too many cooks to spoil the broth.

6 Oct 2015 Corina Pelloni

BAD COURSE CONDITIONS

If you watch golf on TV every weekend, you will see beautiful golf courses in perfect condition.  The players rave about how good the greens are and how nice the course is.  For most of us, this might not be the case.  Many people may not even be aware that the “tour” courses are closed down for weeks, if not a month, prior to the event.  And most “tour” events are held in locations where monthly dues are extremely high. I recently met with a student who played a tournament on a course that was not in very good condition.  He complained that the greens were bumpy and the fairways were too thin.  If you have played golf at any level, you have experienced this.  I heard a story about the great Gary Player saying that he loved fast greens when he was playing on them; then he said he loved slow greens a few weeks later playing a tournament on slow greens.  When asked which greens he liked, fast or slow, he responded he loved any greens he played on. I told my student this story.  Of course, I also had to add in a few other comments about not complaining and understanding that sometimes golf is not fair.  At the very least, he needed to work on becoming mentally tough, allowing his competition to be the one to complain.  We are all going to show up to an event, either a fun round with friends or a national tournament, and there is a chance the course will not be in the greatest condition.  We have a choice.  We can complain and let it affect our play in a negative way, or we can get excited, knowing a lot of the players won’t be in contention because they can’t mentally handle playing poor conditions.

6 Oct 2015 Corina Pelloni

PLAYING LIKE A PRO/GOING OLD SCHOOL

The average golfer may not have the physical skills of a pro, but they sure could use the tools of a pro, and I’m not talking the latest and greatest golf clubs. It’s called “six inches”…the gray matter between our ears. True story as recited by a kid I coach while playing a tournament:  He’s standing on a tee box of a par-3, looking at his pin sheet (where exactly the hole is situated on the green…how far on and how far to the right or left). In this case, it was in the middle of the green and 1 yard short of center. The tee blocks are adjacent to the plaque indicating the yardage to the center of the green, and in this case it was 174 yards. One yard short of center, as indicated by the pin sheet, makes the overall distance 173. He slyly asks his playing partner (who is now checking the distance to the hole with his electronic range finder), “What do you have, 173?” After tagging it at 173, he looks at my player and says, “Yeah, how’d you know?”  He just started to laugh, as he has never used a range finder because I never let him. He has learned old school. Walk the course, see the course, feel the course, analyze the course, and you’ll play your best. Let’s face it. Humans tend to take the path of least resistance. GPS for going from point A to Point B and range finders for playing golf. When the electronics fail them, they feel lost. One has to learn to navigate to play their best. Range finders are simply one dimensional – they provide a distance from point A to point B (with the exception of some, which offer elevation options). They do not assist in putting one’s mind at ease in order to have a chance at hitting their best shots, or at least shooting better scores. Let me explain. One’s mind cannot be cluttered with thoughts (be it swing thoughts or “what if?” type thoughts) in order to perform at golf. A range finder offers a distance to an object, hence that object is “Plan A.”  What about “Plan B” and “Plan C”? What are those? Plan B is the contingency plan in case Plan A doesn’t work out. Plan C is simple…it is where you don’t want to go, or in other words…CRAP! Consider this:  “Alright, I have my yardage to the left-center-side-of-the-green pin based on my trusty range finder…148…perfect, a stock 8-iron. Geez, my lie is not the best, but I can still get it there, just hit it a little harder. Oh, pulled it a little, but it should be good. Damn, caught the bunker!! I was sure I had enough club, I can’t believe it, I hit it well too. Geez, maybe there’s something wrong with my ball or maybe I’m losing distance. Maybe I’ll get a lesson or check my numbers on a launch monitor. Might have to get lighter shafts to get my clubhead speed back up.” There you go, so how’s that fancy range finder working out for you? How about a real yardage book so you know the carry distance over that bunker in case you do pull the ball, which is often the case when one tries to hit the ball harder? Then, you’d know the 8-iron is not the club, but the 7-iron was. But wait! If you hit the 7-iron left and it clears the bunker, there is very little green to work with and the greens are firm. The ball may bounce over, down the hill and into the hazard behind the green (uh oh…Plan C). Knowledge is key! Ignorance on the golf course is anything but bliss. Plan A is center right of the green and plan B is short or short right of the green. The 8-iron is the club; don’t try to hit it harder because you may pull it in the bunker or worse. Now the golfer can hit the shot with an ease of mind, resulting in a clear thought process and relaxed body. Why? Because they’ve taken the “what if?” out of the equation. What if they don’t execute perfectly? It doesn’t matter, because the ball won’t end up where the sun never shines. Plan B is available and now part of the commitment to the shot. We all know we’d like to hit it to Plan A, but sometimes even that is not possible because that would be considered plan A+. Plan A must be modified, because the goal in golf is to not put pressure on oneself to hit the perfect shot. Plan A means good execution to a well thought out risk/reward scenario. Plan B is where the ball could end up in case one does not hit the shot as well as planned. Plan C is about ALWAYS assessing one’s options and committing to a decision that never places one’s ball in a position from where it is impossible to recover or a penalty stroke will occur. We can choose to navigate toward our beacon of light (the flagstick) with a compass (a rangefinder), or use a map (a yardage book and our brains). I’ll take the latter every time. Why not the an electronic yardage book? It doesn’t offer all the variables golf presents in its ever-changing environment day to day. These variables can be written down in a yardage book. A yardage book gets us out of our lazy ways. I’ve never met a lazy golfer who is a consistently good golfer in my 40+ years of playing the game. Ever!

18 Sep 2015 Corina Pelloni

JOURNEY THROUGH A ROUND OF GOLF

As my players start to enter tournaments, I try to get them ready for the mental ups and downs I know will surely happen. No amount of talking and teaching will sufficiently prepare them for the internal struggle. Everyone is different in that way, and an integral part of success is finding the frame of mind that allows us to compete and still maintain our composure. I many times tell them of the “four-hour journey.” During that four hours (a round of golf), there will likely be one hour of good golf, one hour of bad golf, and two hours of average golf. You must deal with each period of time in the most productive way. When you are in the good stretch of golf, it is important to take note of how you feel, not only with your swing, but with your relaxation levels, breathing patterns, and clarity with regards to decision making. This helps us build a zone, that force field that keeps negativity away from us. During the turmoil part of your round, you will be tested in every way:  “I’ve practiced hard and now I can’t remember any of my swing keys. My mind is spinning and everything bothers me. The ball doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I can’t breathe. I can only think about when this round will be over. I am overrun with negativity and thoughts that have nothing to do with my round of golf.” You will then settle into a period of golf that doesn’t particularly present anything more than just smooth sailing, e.g., relatively straight shots and two-putt pars that advance the round along. Patience is important, because pressing for great results many times produce the opposite. Once you have played in enough tournaments, where everything that could happen to a golfer has happened and nothing surprises you, then you are ready to draw from that experience. Seve Ballesteros was famous for his lack of accuracy and ability to post good scores despite bad ball striking. When asked for his secret, he calmly replied, “I just suffer better than other people.” Tour pros are more likely to respect a player for their mental ability than their ball striking abilities. They know, statistically, that a round of golf means 4.5 birdies and 2.1 bogeys (for instance). They know this math will work out. It doesn’t matter to them when the bogeys or birdies come. If the bogeys come on the first two holes, they are likely done for the day with bogeys, and only good things are to come. They play in a weekly 72-hole round of golf. A mental ebb and flow is costly, literally, with big money on the line. Going back to the scenario of two bogeys to start the round, think of how many times you see a player turn the entire round into a meltdown because of the opening turmoil. It is a great moment for a young golfer (our tournament age, not chronological age) when we start a round poorly and finish strong.  I am always impressed when a tour pro (or anyone) can begin a tournament with a bad stretch of holes and then rebound to challenge for the victory. Pressure presents itself in many ways. It could be a tournament or something on a local level. Maybe it is just a round with your boss or clients. You would really like to gain their respect through great ball striking. The round begins and you are nervous. You play poorly until the back nine, when you finally say, “Who cares,” and then you play pretty well the remainder of the round. I tell my students that they will not be defined as a person by what their score adds up to, but it is still hard. When it comes to playing shots, the tour pro talk of divorcing yourself from the result. This is most commonly applied to putting. Expectation of the result clouds our vision and brings tension that affects the physical act. Saying it is better to “not care” is a concept that is hard for some, but thinking past the swinging of the club to the result of the swing is the wrong sequence. Honest self-assessment is a valuable tool in the building process. It begins with noticing that you are a little irritable that morning before the round. Then, your mind is racing during your warm-up session. You are impatient while putting, wanting to get the round started, so that you can get it over with. Immediately you are faced with a testing up-and-down or slick putt. How will you handle this? Maybe you don’t miss a shot but fly it over the green. You are technically striking the ball well, but that doesn’t always produce great results. There are many ways to fail. Tour pros are sure to tell themselves that they are playing well, and it is just a matter of time until the results will show up. You cannot guarantee you will play well today, because there are too many outside factors involved. In sports, you are a different athlete every day. For that reason, you will feel and see things differently each day. One day nothing bothers you and the next day everything is annoying. You can guarantee that you conduct yourself in a respectful manner. You will absorb whatever presents itself in your path and respond to it in a manner that allows you to play better later in the round. You can make sure that you are never a hindrance to a playing partner. You don’t want to be that person who goes silent and selfish, and then shows back up when things get better. Experience shows us that a round of golf is a four-hour journey with three periods of different levels of golf. As a student of the game, we must learn to make the best use of each portion of our round, if we want to produce the best, consistent result.

11 Sep 2015 Corina Pelloni

THE “SECRET” TO THE GAME?

For the 40 years that I have played golf, I have been hearing about the so-called “Secret to the Game.” I suppose golfers consider this secret to be the shortcut to scratch golf, a pearl of knowledge that trumps all else. Ben Hogan told us to “dig it out of the dirt.” To me, this means don’t be so foolish; just practice hard and create your own method or “Secret.”   If you examine the method of any great player, some things are obvious. If you look at the way the best players hold the club (grip), there are many subtle variations that allow for great ballstriking. No two players have the same golf swing. When watching golf on TV, you’ll see everyone’s swing is different. There are quick, slow, short and long backswings. Finishes high or finishes low and left – both have been employed to good use.   There have been at least two ball position theories for as long as I can remember: 1) Move the ball back for the short irons and move the ball forward as the clubs get longer; 2) Leave the ball in a constant position (depending on whether it is on the ground or on the tee) and widen or narrow the stance with the right foot only.   Realizing that Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Byron Nelson all agreed with the second ball position theory, I think we have a chance there to start to find a real pearl. Nicklaus played the ball near his left heel and Hogan a little farther back in his stance, but they kept it constant after settling on a basic position. So, with so many things about the swing differing or negotiable, what is the something that all good players do, or that might be the “Secret”?  All good players touch the ground in the same correct place when they swing the club. They can make the club hit the ground in the correct place, from the correct direction and at the correct depth with every club. That place is near the left heel. A correctly swung club bottoms out just behind a teed driver and just in front of a ball on the ground. I watch people make practice swings and they hit the ground well behind where they intend to put the ball, or they hit the ground someplace different every swing, or they hit the ground in the same place, but it is the wrong place (back by their right foot, for instance).  I’ve had new students tell me they have never made a correct divot in their entire golfing career. When I am working with a student, I explain to them that until they can hit the ground up by their left heel, there is only a limited number of clubs they can hit (short irons) and they will probably never be consistent with their irons and driver on the same day. Their irons will be good and the driver bad and the one day the driver is good, the irons go south. This happens a lot to the person who thinks they must move the ball all over their stance.  Think about it. They hit a drive to start the hole (left-heel ball position), and then they hit a 9-iron out of the back of their stance. Then they hit a driver again and then some other iron and this goes on the whole round. These people end up with a favorite club, which is the one club they get the ball position and stance width correct.  The point is, they are never putting the club into the ground in the same place two swings in a row. They think golf is a major “hand-eye move” and search for the ball with their hands on every swing. I teach my students to hit the ground in the front of their stance with all clubs. They learn that their weight must be on the left foot where the divot will begin. Most times the swing will bottom out where their weight is. So, at impact, your weight must be where you want the divot to begin. Either you shift your weight there or you begin with your weight there (wedge play, pitching and chipping). If, every time your students make a practice swing, they touch the ground lightly by their left heel, they have gone a long way in striking solid golf shots. When they are getting ready to play an iron shot out of the fairway, they should see the practice swing hit the ground lightly, just in front of the ball they intend to hit. They shouldn’t go to the ball until they loved that last practice swing. Then, when playing the shot, they are only trying to reproduce what they felt seconds earlier in the practice swing. By focusing on touching the ground in the same correct spot, the player learns to find the correct width of stance with each club. If their stance is too wide, with a given club, then it will be hard to get their weight past the ball over to their left foot. So, it really doesn’t matter how much attention you pay to other aspects of the game if your students can’t control where their swing hits the ground. When giving a lesson, I know a student is ready to hit balls when they can show me swings that consistently touch the ground correctly. When all swings, with any club, can deliver a square clubface past the left heel, then good shots with any club in your bag is a reality. Sometimes the real “Secret” might be so simple that we look past something that is obvious. Ask your students to understand and focus on touching the ground in the best spot and this “Secret” can become something that should be common knowledge.

11 Sep 2015 Corina Pelloni

MY TOP-THREE LIST OF THINGS THAT HAVE DAMAGED GOLF

Golf is a great game that would even be greater, in my opinion, except for three things that cause me angst: Number 3 – the Stimpmeter.  I actually have friends who call ahead to golf courses to find out what speed the greens are rolling, and refuse to play if not to their satisfaction. When I was growing up, no one gave a hoot about green speed.  Most greens were rather slow, but all we cared about is that they were smooth.  It was rare that balls would roll to the hole and then trickle five to six feet past. All speed has caused is interminable delays as people mark their third and fourth putts. Number 2 – distance.  That’s all we hear about now.  No one thinks about strategy.  All we see in advertising is that this is the longest driver, this is the longest ball, or these irons provide maximum distance.  Isn’t the object of the game to shoot the lowest score? Distance hasn’t made the game better, because to counter it, courses have become longer with more hazards.  The time to play has increased and maintenance costs have been driven up.  Maybe it is time to take note that most of the courses that have been closing in recent years are the so-called championship courses built in the last 20 years. Number 1 – golf carts.  Where to start? From concrete paths that ruin esthetics, ruts and skid marks, to inebriated dopes drag-racing down fairways.  Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the back end of a cart shows up barely visible in one of the course lakes. Those issues aside, what carts have done is obliterate the thousands of caddie programs which benefitted young people in so many ways. Caddying was one of the best learning experiences I ever had.  I witnessed firsthand how adults interact with each other, both good and bad. I learned about rules and discipline.  I saw the nuances of the golf course and how the same could be so different from day to day.  Looking back, carrying those bags all summer was some of the best mentoring I could have ever gotten, not to mention an opportunity to play and grow the game along with thousands of others like me. All of the above were done with good intentions, but let’s not forget where that road can lead.