The game of golf, unlike most other sports, demands a multitude of skills. 14 different clubs in the bag means a lot changes in swinging these clubs, some subtle nuances and others big bloody shifts. I mean, if you multiply how many different kinds of shots you can play with each club by 14 you get a pretty large number. Luckily for me, maths was never my strongest suit. The 2 clubs at either end of the spectrum are probably the clubs I can struggle with the most during rounds and bad patches in my golf. The driver and the putter. These 2 clubs are also what we often use the most over 18 holes.
Creature Feature Double: Driver & Putter
The driver and the putter sounds like the name of a movie. Two characters searching for brilliance but often on the skids. The driver often starts the hole and the putter invariably finishes it, apart from the odd chip in or hole out. These special occurrences are both fairly rare depending upon your skill level. Hands up who has periods of struggling with both these clubs? I bet the numbers are pretty high on this score. The driver is the longest club in the bag and has a light shaft and head. The putter can be all sorts of dimensions but is the flat stick. Not a lot of loft on either of these two golfing beasts.
Driving & Putting Dilemmas
The head scratching issues that both of these clubs can inspire do so for completely different reasons. The driver can, in the wrong hands, struggle to keep the golf ball on the fairway and out of trouble. The putter is a much more genteel weapon which bamboozles golfers via our inability to get the little white ball in the hole. Both can be frustrating but for these entirely different reasons. Both can make you feel like a fool. On a good day both clubs have the ability to put a smile on your dial. Smashing a long drive down the middle is a brilliant feeling. Sinking a putt, however, the more you play the game becomes the more satisfying sensation, especially to your score.
2 Clubs That Matter In Golf
The driver’s length and lightness does my head in most of the time because it strikes me as so different to the rest of the clubs in the bag. I have never felt at home with this big headed club on a long pole and my swing shows it way too often. Yet, to observe a very good driver of the golf ball is a thing of beauty to behold. It’s just doing it badly that frustrates the hell out of me at times. The putter can depress me when it is not working for me and I can’t sense the pace of the greens via the rolling of my putts. It can frustrate the shit out of you when you are hitting greens in regulation and not making putts. ‘That’s golf’, my erstwhile golfing partner can say to me. Like hell it is, I think to myself.
Speed Kills
There are no magic silver bullets when it comes to the mastery of the driver and the putter. You can think that you have found the answer, sometimes, during a round with the driver, as you spank some seriously good drives. Only to find a little bit later on that this is not so, as you lose your way once more via sequencing, rhythm and tempo problems emerging. One of the most common mistakes, I experience, is driving the ball well and going for that bit extra by cranking up the speed of the swing during a round. I do not know I am even doing it, most of the time, but it invariably brings me undone.
“If you’re not a golfer who naturally hits up on the ball, the first step should be to work with a pro to help build fundamentals off the tee. Your driver choice and specs also matter, so fitting also plays a crucial role in helping you achieve more ideal launch conditions.
Ball speed drops off quickly on shots missed around the face, so if you can find that sweet spot just a little more often and under the right conditions, you might find yourself making one of the sweetest walks in golf: 300 yards to play your second shot.
The general rule of thumb for driving optimization is for every mile per hour of clubhead speed that golfers produce (as a combination of carry and roll), they add 2.75 yards of distance. So to hit a ball 300 yards under normal conditions requires approximately 109 mph of clubhead speed. Clubhead speed directly relates to ball speed, which is influenced by the quality of strike, i.e., how center to the face it is.”
Driving Is Not A Perfect Art On The Golf Course
If, like me, you watch the tournament pros on TV, you see that they don’t drive the ball perfectly every time. Indeed, you see that, even these, incredibly talented ball strikers mess it up a fair few times. It is the nature of the beast, the beast being the big dog. I advise golfers to get a series of lessons with a good golf teaching pro focused on driving the golf ball off the tee. One lesson will not cut it if you are serious about making changes to your swing.
I have come to the realisation that driving the golf ball is something that fluctuates in my game and not to get too down about it. Yes, I would like to become consistently better at swinging the driver and I have had plenty of lessons in furthering this intention and will not stop in this regard to improve my driving. Life goes on, however, and I am still out there playing as often as I can. We all have our crosses to bear, I suppose, and double crosses are the worst.
Putting
Putting, don’t get me started! Actually my putting is pretty good at the moment. I shifted to a claw grip and this has firmed up my strike to produce a squared putter face and more consistent roll. Roger Stephens, one of my old golf pros put me on to the claw grip when I was struggling with my putting many years ago. I stuck with it for awhile and then went back to a more orthodox putting grip. More recently, I returned to the claw after a horror run with the putter, where I felt I had no idea what I was doing. I reiterate that the main advantage with the claw, in my view, is the stability it gives you over the putt and the strike.
Gripping The Putter
One of the great things I find re-putting is the variety of grips and approaches to putting in the game of golf. I mean, we don’t want everyone swinging the clubs like robots do we? Yes, solid technique is important to playing good golf but with putting it is like the last bastion of real individuality in a game which does appear to be robotic to the outside viewer. There are long putters and really short putters. Claw grips, arm lock grips, lead hand low grips, traditional putting grips and lots of variety in-between these broader categories. Putting is a game within a game, as is often surmised by those who claim to know.
The rolling of a small dimpled ball across a manicured green appears to be the easiest part of the game of golf. Somehow, it is devilishly not so. Why is that? I suggest that it is because it comes at the conclusion of our efforts to get to the green. That the preceding, more strenuous, elements of golfing can get in the way of our putting efforts. The game of golf requires constant gear changes from high to low and levels in-between. Some of us are more at home with the whacking of golf balls than the gentle rolling of them on treacherous greens. Brute force is rarely required in the putting realm. Rather it is about the reading of surfaces in engineering terms and the application of just enough force to propel that ball into the hole. Combine this with how we deal with disappointment in the face of our own expectations and the simple act of putting becomes layered with psychological complexity. All of a sudden putting delves into the realms of consciousness and observing the passing of time.
Head Spaces In Putting
Think about those moments you have waiting to putt your ball. You have hit it pretty close and you are awaiting your turn to putt in your four ball. The stuff that can go through your mind prior to getting over the ball. Hopes and fears vie for a hold on your emotional self. Will you sink it? It looks innocuous enough. What if I miss it? You think to yourself and how bad will that make me feel? Finally, it is your turn to putt and you go through your pre-putt routine after reading the green. It is that time over the ball that can be excruciating if you let it get to you. Some golfers develop the yips and various manifestations of involuntary movements under the stress of putting. Hey, this was supposed to be the easy bit!
The Driver & The Putter Demand Confidence
Ultimately, with both the driver and the putter you have to have confidence in your efforts with them. Fake it till you make it, is more important than you might realise. Finding something solid within your driver swing and how you strike the putter is absolutely vital to having success with these clubs. You cannot play a round of golf and be searching for some silver bullet with these two poles of the game of golf. The driver is your Alpha club and the putter your Omega. One starts things and the other finishes it. Confidence with both of these clubs is an essential if you are going to put a great round of golf together. How you get that confidence is up to you and we all have our own journey in this regard. Whatever it takes, you must find it to thrive out there.
RSH
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