As we all know baby-boomer is French for old, fat and in many cases slow to accept, or learn new ideas. And let me be the first to confess, I am all of the above and then some.
However, as fellow baby-boomers and mocking flat-bellies will soon discover, the old, fat demographic is a resourceful lot. We have a goal, or in my case several goals, and some of them actually relate to golf. What are those goals?
The first goal is the same one most golfers have, which is simply to play a respectable round of golf. But what is respectable? For me it’s breaking 90. For you it may be breaking 100. That’s okay. However, if your goal is to break 70, then remind me to slap you the next time we meet.
The second part of the first goal (and here’s where baby-boomer golfers and flat-belly golfers differ) I want to shoot a respectable sub-90 round without practicing and only playing once a month.
Let’s face it, unless you are doing better than I am (which isn’t all that difficult), or are independently wealthy, finding the time to play several times a week and practice another once or twice is difficult. Now, add to the situation that too much playing and practicing would interfere with my lying around time and you start to understand the basic problem.
Hold on. Before you single-digit, handicapping flat-bellies start calling me lazy you need to walk a mile in my support socks. In addition to the time constraints that we all have, I am in the twenty/twenty club, meaning that I am more than twenty years older and twenty pounds heavier than the golf gods intended a fifteen handicapper to be. And with the ghost of Dr. Atkins whispering words like carbohydrates in my ear, I’m here to tell you that if working out and a strict diet are the only way to achieve my goal then I am doomed to fail. But I’m determined to find another way.
Members of the Twenty/Twenty Club unite!
I believe that the secret to baby-boomer golf is the same as flat-belly golf, namely pitching and putting. Most baby-boomers have become pretty good at pitching and chipping because we are constantly short of the green; consequently we get a lot of practice, so the first rule of baby-boomer golf will not surprise you.
Rule one: Spend ten minutes pitching and chipping before each round. Getting it close enough to one putt is always important, but it is critical for successful baby-boomer golf. One putt two times each round and you are well on your way to achieving your goal.
Rule two: Spend ten minutes putting before each round. Work on distance. Rarely do we misread the direction of a putt bad enough to cause a three putt. Much more often we run it by, or leave it short leading to the dreaded three putt. Eliminating the three putt is fundamental to baby-boomer golf.
Rule three: If possible, hit a dozen sand shots before each round. If you can get it close coming out of the sand great, but the most important thing is to make sure you get it out of the sand. Taking two or three shots to get out of a bunker makes it very difficult to reach your goal, and besides it ticks you off to the point that you compound your mistake with a bad putt, or even a bad tee shot on the next hole.
Rule four: Make every short iron count. Get the ball on the dance floor, hopefully in the general range of the flag. I try to think of a short iron shot as just one more pitch. I shorten my swing and focus on keeping the leading edge of my club square to the target. The objective is to get it close enough to always be able to two putt and now and then have a reasonable birdie putt.
Rule five: Don’t turn a warm up into practice. It doesn’t work and you’ll end up worn out before you start the round. One of the real dangers of baby-boomer golf is running out of gas on the back nine. Save your energy; you’re going to need it especially if it is cart path only.
Rule six: Don’t spend too much time on the range pounding your driver before you play. You are not twenty years old. For every 300-yard drive a baby-boomer golfer hits, they’ll put five others in the rough, or even worse, out of bounds. The concept of baby-boomer golf is to keep the ball in play. If that means shorting up your back swing and flaring out your front foot in order to make a turn, then that’s what you ought to do.
Unless you are just a naturally gifted long ball hitter, distance is the devil to baby-boomer golf. It makes you over swing. It makes you attempt things that a true baby-boomer golfer should never attempt. The single most important rule of baby-boomer golf is to keep the ball in play. If that means teeing off with a three-wood, or even an iron, then do it. Like Lee Trevino said, “Golf is an easy game; hit the ball, find the ball, then hit the ball again.” If you can’t find your tee shot you won’t be able to “hit the ball again” and Lee’s words of wisdom will be wasted.
Rule seven: Think about every shot. Playing smart is the one thing that baby-boomers ought to be able to do. When in doubt lay up. Turn a hard 9 into an easy 8. If you can putt the ball instead of chipping it then that’s what you ought to do. The objective is to get the ball in the hole in the fewest number of strokes; nothing more, nothing less. That’s why the box on the scorecard where you write the score is small so you don’t have to explain how you did it.
These are a few of the rules that work for me and over the next few weeks I’ll be asking D.A. Weibring, Randy Smith and others what advice they would give to baby-boomers. In the meantime, let me hear from you. I’ll listen to anybody, and since you’ve reached the last sentence of this article, obviously you will too.
