By Sam Johnson, Executive Editor
Now and then, the pieces to the puzzle that make up your golf swing come together and all is good with the universe. On occasion we at Tees2Greens deliver some good "Qi", and such is the case with our old friend Dale Williams.
A successful and now retired businessman, who grew up in La Marque, Texas, Dale has long been known as the cool, lead guitar in the high school rock and roll band our publisher played drums for, WAY BACK WHEN. In fact, he still fills in all the time when several bands on the Gulf Coast come calling. "Have Fender, will travel." Only now, it's with a little more, no make that, a lot more gray hair.
A couple of years ago Dale was playing to about a ten handicap when, like many of us, he simply lost his game. The more he tinkered with his swing, the worse things got.
Does that sound familiar?
Never a really long hitter, his respectable 250-yard drives had shrunk to 200 yards or less. Things were so bad that he considered giving up the game all together. Then came Tees2Greens to the rescue; more precisely, Randy Smith and our Golf International guest instructor, Luther Blacklock.
Randy Smith's article entitled
"Fast Swing vs. Hard Swing" struck a nerve, or more accurately, rekindled a memory of what a local high-school golf instructor, Earl Moeller, (who by-the-way, was Oklahoma State's first NCAA Golf Champion in 1953) had told him a few years earlier.
"Dale, nobody ever hit the ball with their backswing," he recalls Earl saying.
That's when the words in Randy's article jumped off the page as if they were written specifically for him. "A Fast Swing produces a variety of shots, most of which are totally undesirable. Conversely, a player with a Hard Swing, will take the club to the top of his arc in a smooth, deliberate manner and then swing the club head back through the ball with all the power his frame and talent level will allow."
That's me, Dale realized. Fast not Hard. Off-balance, not smooth and deliberate. Could it be that simple he asked himself as he continued to read. And that's when the Yin to his Yang was suddenly revealed.
Under the heading "The Lost Fundamentals of Golf," Golf International's contributing editor, Luther Blacklock, resurrected a tip from the master, Ben Hogan that was published in the following week's issue. To quote Luther, "In his early days, Ben Hogan's swing was overly long, almost John Daly-style. This was because his left thumb extended way too far down the handle, permitting his wrists to hinge excessively. At the top of his backswing, the angle between the clubshaft and his left forearm could be as much as 135 to 140 degrees.
"A 'neat', 'neutral' left thumb restricts the wrist-hinge to just 90° or so, ideal in terms of creating a more compact backswing. As Hogan's swing evolved, his left thumb became much shorter, or 'neater' on the grip, and so did the length of his backswing...
"The correct placing of the left hand on the grip and specifically that 'neat' left thumb limits the wrist action and enables the golfer to have total control of the club at the top of the backswing."
It was as if the secrets of the golf universe had been revealed, first from Randy Smith, then from Ben Hogan via Luther Blacklock, plus a trip down memory lane with Coach Moeller. However, Dale knew that the true test of this newfound wisdom would require more than swinging a club in his backyard; he had to face the fairway and all the demons lurking beyond.
Great looking back-yard swing, Dale!As fate would have it, test day turned out to be cold, wet and windy, the kind of day that most of us choose to sit in the bar and tell stories rather than play. Still, the dragon needed to be slain.
On the gold tees of No. 1 at Magnolia Creek Golf Club's England course in League City, TX (a tough links tract with three, nine hole layouts) stood three "Young Turks" trying to decide if it was too cold to play. When the young guys asked Dale to join them he realized that it had been over two years since he had ventured back to the "Old Tom" tees. But the road back has to start somewhere he thought, as he watch the youngsters tee up their balls and challenge the twenty mile per hour wind in their faces.
At this point a wiser man might have retired to the nineteenth hole for a hot toddy. But, Dale persevered, and as his first tee shot flew by Turk No. One, then Turk No. Two and nipped No. Three by a few yards, he considered sending Randy Smith a check.
By the fourth hole, Randy's check was getting bigger, as he continued to smack the ball like a piñata full of Viagra.
Then, like a scene out of Caddie Shack, the sky opened-up and the wind, rain and cold got progressively worse until the Young Turks, all three of them, looking tired, wet and beaten, opted to retire to the clubhouse. Dale just smiled.
With his scorecard reading two up on all three of the youngsters, he decided that his test had been a success. "I'm back...he thought to himself!" And he coudn't wait to get inside and tell Matt Stano, head golf professional, at Magnolia Creek the same thing.
The weather has improved in League City since those momentous four holes and so has Dale's golf swing and scores. Every day he thinks about Randy Smith's article, the wisdom of Ben Hogan and Coach Earl's admonishment!
Don't get me wrong, Dale's not ready to join the Champions Tour, but he's now having a lot more fun on the golf course. And, for all of us at Tees2Greens, that's our Mission Statement:
Play golf! Have fun! Enjoy life!You can bet your "Scotty Cameron" that Dale reads every issue as soon as it hits his in-box. We hope you do too.
