Richie3Jack
New
There's a guy from my hometown in NY who played at U. of South Carolina and then turned pro (before the Nationwide Tour existed). Played the Canadian Tour for awhile. Eventually he got his amateur status back.
I have the utmost respect for his ability as a golfer because when he got his amateur status back, he made the quarterfinals of the US Amateur...beating then hot shot Manny Zerman before losing out to...Justin Leonard. But here's the kicker, he was work *3* jobs at the time. He would play once a week, on Sundays and practice on the range for about 1 hour afterwards. And we had a crappy range. It had 2 levels to it and the bottom level you could only hit irons from and the top level you could only hit driver and woods from. If a hacker was hitting driver from the top level and you were on the bottom level, you could easily get hit with a golf ball. So in his case, if he was practicing irons and a hacker came along, often times he'd pack up for the day. Yet, he still made the quarterfinals of the US Am before losing out to Leonard. Most great amateurs are either college kids or guys who have jobs that allow them to play golf with clients all day.
Anyway, I played with him about 10 times and watched him play about 25 times or so. Not an imposing guy by any stretch. Probably about 5'7" tall. Didn't hit the ball long, just 'long enough.' Really good around the green. Pretty good putter...when he got hot...look out. Decent swing. Didn't hit bad shots.
But what I noticed and impressed me was that he almost never left a shot short of the flag unless a shot flag high or longer would leave him with a steep downhill putt. His distance controll always stood out to me.
Unfortunately, I misinterpreted it as golfer's 'needing to hit enough club.' I believe now it's much more important to keep the ball below the cup, even if the slope isn't all that great.
Recently I've applied that to my game and it really works if you have the proper focus on it. I've gotten rid of having to hit 14+ greens to shoot under par. I can now hit 10 or 11 greens and shoot under par because I leave myself with a lot more easy up-n-downs and have a lot more uphill birdie putts.
3JACK
I have the utmost respect for his ability as a golfer because when he got his amateur status back, he made the quarterfinals of the US Amateur...beating then hot shot Manny Zerman before losing out to...Justin Leonard. But here's the kicker, he was work *3* jobs at the time. He would play once a week, on Sundays and practice on the range for about 1 hour afterwards. And we had a crappy range. It had 2 levels to it and the bottom level you could only hit irons from and the top level you could only hit driver and woods from. If a hacker was hitting driver from the top level and you were on the bottom level, you could easily get hit with a golf ball. So in his case, if he was practicing irons and a hacker came along, often times he'd pack up for the day. Yet, he still made the quarterfinals of the US Am before losing out to Leonard. Most great amateurs are either college kids or guys who have jobs that allow them to play golf with clients all day.
Anyway, I played with him about 10 times and watched him play about 25 times or so. Not an imposing guy by any stretch. Probably about 5'7" tall. Didn't hit the ball long, just 'long enough.' Really good around the green. Pretty good putter...when he got hot...look out. Decent swing. Didn't hit bad shots.
But what I noticed and impressed me was that he almost never left a shot short of the flag unless a shot flag high or longer would leave him with a steep downhill putt. His distance controll always stood out to me.
Unfortunately, I misinterpreted it as golfer's 'needing to hit enough club.' I believe now it's much more important to keep the ball below the cup, even if the slope isn't all that great.
Recently I've applied that to my game and it really works if you have the proper focus on it. I've gotten rid of having to hit 14+ greens to shoot under par. I can now hit 10 or 11 greens and shoot under par because I leave myself with a lot more easy up-n-downs and have a lot more uphill birdie putts.
3JACK