Who Needs Pars?

WHO NEEDS PAR?

 
            While Liz Taylor was cavorting with Richard Burton between takes of the Cleopatra, hubby Eddie Fisher was crooning his medley of hit Oh, My Pa Pa.  But these ears, congenitally tuned to golf, heard, Oh, My Par, Par.

           So rack that up as another obtuse and ancient way to lead into a golf subject. 

           This one is par.

            Par is a golf concept that harms.  It intimidates, inhibits, and indelibly inflicts images of failure and below average performance.

           There it is, staring you in the face.  On the scorecard.  On the tee signage.  On the placemats in the grill room.   There’s par, measuring you ubiquitously.

            “Hey jerk, you were supposed to make four there.  How could you make seven?”

            Ever judgmental, par needs to be relegated to the confinement closet for ideas that flop. 

            Golf is a game of fewer.  The golfer who takes fewer strokes to play the course is the winner.  In the case of match play, the golfer who has the fewer strokes on each hole wins that hole or mini-game.  Eighteen mini-games comprise a match.

           Fresh off the website of The United States Golf Association is this definition of par: 

 “Par is the score that an expert golfer would be expected to make for a given hole. Par means errorless play without flukes under ordinary weather conditions, allowing two strokes on the putting green.”

          The operative word is expert.  Who’s that?   It’s not me.  I can’t relate.  In fact, my favorite part about playing is trying to better my personal bests, not somebody else’s.

          So here my favorite par truism from a former student: 

         When, after a time,  I asked the lady how she was progressing, she replied rather proudly that she was now shooting for par eights.    “Eight?” 

      “Yes, eight,” she said  “if I spend more than eight minutes playing a hole, I just pick up my ball and go to the next one.”

A Lifetime of Better Golf Speech

 A Lifetime of Better Golf


 
The following is the text of an address made by Peter Fox before members of the Massachusetts Section of the PGA of America at historic Myopia Hunt Club, site of five U.S. Open Golf Championships.
 

 

 
            Good morning.  You are about to hear from one grateful golfer, a born again media maven and pumped up author of Natural Golf’s books and videos.

            Please allow me to explain:

            A grateful Natural Golfer because for more than forty years I struggled for consistency and today 12 or 13 greens in regulation is my norm.  It used to be 8 or 9 greens.  A grateful Natural Golfer because large doses of skilled instruction, diligent practice combined with a ferocious will to succeed seemed unrewarded and I was preparing to hang up my spikes and look for another hobby until Natural Golf came into my life. I am a grateful Natural Golfer because with Natural Golf I now have something to give back to the game.  Golf gave me friends, family, freedoms and fun.  More fun than this old reprobate deserves.

            I’m a born again media man because Natural Golf’s opportunity mirrors the thrill, struggle and challenge I experienced during the founding years of ESPN.  As the network's executive producer, I am most proud of introducing weekday televised golf to American audiences.

            Yes, born again, maybe even rescued from the sunset of hit and giggle golf that loomed in my life.  It is my mission to use all of my God given media gifts to expose the golfing public to the incredible golf experience of a deftly and simply struck Natural Golf shot.

            And pumped up?

            Wouldn’t you be pumped up if fate tapped you on the shoulder and asked you to be a mouthpiece for a golf method that inspires us to assert on paper and on video and to you today that you will surely enjoy A Lifetime of Better Golf with Natural Golf.  

Yes, it is a brash statement.  It’s brash because we need you to pay attention to this:  When a player uses The Natural Palm Grip, the physics of the golf stroke change so dramatically that comparisons with any finger grip method are just not valid.  We will show you that.  The comparisons are not valid because the very foundations differ.

The teachings of your talented contemporaries such as Ballard, Wiren, Harmon, MacLean and Leadbetter are passionate.  They are teachings of honest, brilliant and dedicated golf professionals who all begin instruction by placing the handle of the golf club in the fingers of the student.  Somewhere, somehow, they accepted as whole cloth truth, the finger grip and its variations as dogma and a non-negotiable fundamental.

We differ.  There are not any rights or wrongs here.  That’s just the way golf was and is.  And who could have argued with the success of the finger grip’s greatest exponent:  Harry Vardon.   Mountains of golf swing study accept the premise that golfers should hold the club in the fingers.

The mystery to us is:  Why did those analytical minds for nearly a hundred years accept and not challenge the premise of the finger grip before now?

Harry Vardon was a gifted golfer with a grip innovation that he either invented or learned elsewhere—history varies on that.  The Vardon grip proliferated in the manner of The Golden Bear’s flyaway elbow and John Daly’s wrap-around windup.

One this is certain.  The finger grip became sacrosanct and Natural Golf’s challenge to it evokes energetic discussion and we love to have it.

One revered traditional golfer had the wisdom and guts to write:

“The standard grip is the overlapping grip.  Up to now we haven’t found a grip that promotes as effective a union between the body and club.  One of these days one may come along.”

That was 40 years ago and it was Ben Hogan.  The Hawk had vision.

Vision.  Vision and courage is what it took for Natural Golf to get past the antics and seemingly awkward stance and stroke that is the hallmark of Moe Norman whose straight line mechanics inspire the Natural Golf System.

Inspired to greatness, Moe Norman very privately and intuitively golfed until his hands bled, ultimately earning his deserved and lofty place in the annals of golf as “the greatest ball striker in the game.”

Moe shared his greatness.  Few listened.  Fewer understood.

Inspired to innovate, Natural Golf developed its now patented system that redefines golf fundamentals.

Inevitably, Natural Golf and Moe Norman became one, joining in what history will likely say is the union that greatly influenced how the game is played.

Moe’s intuitive genius mirrors Natural Golf’s Square Tracking motion that ignites golf passions in all who experience its logic, simplicity and performance.

As I stand here a niblick away form the green where Willie Anderson completed his incredible U.S. Open hat trick or threepeat, I am respectful of the game’s tradition.

 We are just as respectful of the legacy of service that hard working PGA professionals like Myopia’s Thundering Swede, Johnny Thoren and Bill Sarafin and our own Bart Brown and you bring to your members and patrons.

We are full of respect for those relationships as was PGA Member John Elliott of Golf Digest’s faculty was when he said on the record and for the record:

“Showing people why Natural Golf is a valid way to consider golfing was my duty as a responsible golf professional.”

I similarly submit to you today that in the same way that Bob Cousy went behind his back with the dribble and then Jimmy Walker took it between his legs and the way Babe Zaharias went over the high jump bar head first and then Dick Fosbury flopped back-asswards over it, sport evolves.  It changes, sometimes quite dramatically.

To even consider change takes vision, courage and character and the spirit of an icon like Ben Hogan to prepare you for the moment when you are confronted with the prospect that a concept which you have held as infallible, may, in fact, be less than ideal.

The moment you begin to build a golfer with a finger grip—overlapping, interlocking or 10 finger—you build a golfer with a less than ideal two-axis system.  It is a more complicated machine than the Natural Palm Grip induced straight-line method.

Our Ken Ellsworth who played with the finger grip for years on the PGA Tour has come to believe so strongly in it that he has become our director of instruction and will, later, share the simple fundamentals of the patented Natural Golf System with you.

But, in a verbal thimble let me review how the two-axis finger grip requires five complicated rotary motions to occur during the striking of a golf ball.

1.      The shoulders rotate on one plane.
2.      The arm rotates on another plane.
3.      The hands rotate on a third plane inside the arm plane.
4.      The clubhead rotates on a fourth plane.
5.      The clubface rotates on a fifth plane inside the fourth plane.

All that rotations occurs in the finger grip two axis conventional swing while the body is moving upward and backward, straining to get to a straight line impact position that is Natural Golf’s starting position.

And all those rotations are occurring in an instant when the clubhead is traveling at speeds between 75 and 100 miles an hour.   And it occurs not in laboratories, it occurs where elements further complicate the physics of the situation.

            After ESPN was sold to Getty and Getty sold it to ABC, I left and enrolled in your PGA Apprentice because I could afford to and was mentally exhausted.  Proud, but pooped.

          I don’t have to tell you that as low guy on the totem pole I was required to give a load of lessons and clinics to ladies, kids and beginners.

              In retrospect those eye-rolling travails stood me in good stead.  I know how hard it is to get someone “into” the game.  Get the ball airborne with some velocity.  I know how hard it is to get even a coordinated person to contort themselves in a rotating, spinning, turning, curling motion.  I know how hard it was to explain to them why I wanted them to do it.

            I promise you that those same kinds of players will experience golf rewards quicker and more frequently with less physical and mental stress.  Natural Golf gets new players “into” the game faster and more efficiently.  I know, I have now taught both ways.

            What does that mean?   It means Natural Golf is good for golf.  It will ease recruiting and abate attrition.  Players will play faster, longer and better.  If that’s not A Lifetime of Better Golf, I am going fishing.

            Before I conclude, I want to make you aware that Natural Golf can work with you in a couple of ways.

1.      We would be pleased to welcome, train and work with you or one of your staff who believes in the validity of our method and will play and teach it.
2.      We would be pleased to enroll you in our PGA Colleagues program that allows you to continue to service your traditional golfing memberships and constituencies while acting much like the family physician does in referring patients to doctors who otherwise practice in highly specialized fields.

To be practical about it—with all the publicity and hubbub we are getting, a good percentage of your members are starting to call us anyway.  We’re in Senior Golfer, Golf Digest, The Golf Channel and all over the Internet.

So, since those members and patrons of yours are likely to get in touch with us anyway, why don’t you become a colleague to us and enhance your relationship with those potential Natural Golfers?  You can make money by acting as our intermediary with your members.  Ask us about our PGA Colleagues Program.

To conclude my portion of this seminar, I will leave you with a pearl of wisdom that I found years ago out of frustration with gray flannel suits on Madison Avenue who insisted that our all sports television network would never work.

It is a quote attributed to British scientist and philosopher, Herbert Spencer who likely penned it along about the time that a young Harry Vardon was giving us the fingers and beginning this whole complicated mess.  It says:

            “ There is a principle which is a bar against all information which is proof against all arguments and cannot fail to keep a person in everlasting ignorance.  That principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

                        Thank you.

 
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Golf With Your Heart!

New Research at the Institute of HeartMath Indicates

The Yips Are a Result of Your Heart, Not Your Head.

The black hole of indecision and spasm that Tommy Armour called "The Yips" has been the scourge of the golf language since he coined it. I am twice removed from that source, being the protege of his protege, J. R. Burrill, with whom I conferred before attributing the dreaded phrase to The Silver Scot. 

 

In the annals of golf no single malady has affected the superior performance of the game's geniuses like The Yips has. A collision with a bus nearly ended Ben Hogan's career, but it didn't. The Yips did.

To this day Johnny Miller's face screws up in pain as he describes how The Yips killed the promise of his golfing genius. 

It is a non-discriminatory affliction affecting any and many. The Yips transcend golf. It's just that Armour gave it a name that stuck in the lexicon. Writers yip and call it a cramp. Singers forget lyrics and call it a block.

 

First-time kissers yip and smooch a nose. In the spectrum that is known as golf instruction, The Yips has earned voodoo-like aspersions. Golfers don't talk about it, as though having The Yips is a character failing.

Golf researchers have peered into the brain to find the source of the problem. While they can see some of the effects, they don't know the cause and haven't found much that can help -- that is until recently. New research at the Institute of HeartMath has found that we've been looking in the wrong place. We need to look instead to the heart. Turns out the songsters and poets have been right all along when they said that our heart has a mind of its own.

I learned that and how the heart relates to The Yips when I was introduced to the marvels of HeartMath(r) and the science behind it. As a fellow who has been around sports at high levels, I was invited to consult with Doc Childre, founder and Chairman of HeartMath. Doc and his colleagues expanded on the discovery that the heart does in fact have its own nervous system called the "heart-brain" and participates in an ongoing two-way communication with the brain in our head.

This research stunningly shows that a lot of emotional sequencing actually begins in the heart, not the brain. To me, who has been around the block a few times when it comes to golf instruction, it meant that much of the recent attention being given to the mental part of golf was starting in the wrong place. From my years of golf coaching, I knew that The Yips are all about emotions. Now here was Dr. Rollin McCraty, Institute of HeartMath Director of Research, describing a condition in which one's heart rhythms get out of sync due to fear or anger in the seat of emotions-the heart. Then the heart sends an out-of-sync signal to the brain, which triggers a state called cortical inhibition.

 

When he said the first symptom of cortical inhibition was impaired decision making and the second was impaired coordination, this cross inflicted Yipper yelled: Eureka!

Fortunately, he went on to say, people can learn how to change emotional state and get their heart rhythms back in sync, creating an opposite state called cortical facilitation where brain function improves along with concentration and confidence. We had a lively discussion about how this leads to "athletes in the zone" which was discussed in this space last month by Laird Small. How this works and how The Yips can be helped or even cured is described here, adapted from HeartMath's new work "Managing Emotions: Golf's Next Frontier" with which I am proud to be associated.

Heart-Brain Synchronization

There is a nervous system pathway that carries signals from the heart to the brain, as well as another pathway that carries messages from the brain to the heart. What this means is the heart and brain "talk" to one another-and together they "talk" to the body. Surprisingly, the heart sends more information to the brain than the other way around! The pattern of the heart's rhythm tells the brain what the heart and body are experiencing.

 

When you're feeling tense, nervous, worried, doubtful, or frustrated, the heart sends a stress signal to the brain.

The thalamus, a key brain center, helps synchronize activity within the brain. When your heart sends a stress signal to the thalamus, it interferes with the ability of the thalamus to synchronize brain functions. The result is your reactions are often out of sync and you cannot think as clearly. This is how you can blow a shot or make a poor decision that you wouldn't normally. When that happens time again, your brain reinforces the pattern in your neural circuits and in the emotional memory center of your brain, called the amygdala. As you get older, the pattern gets more engrained.

 

This means, when you take hold of your putter, your heart automatically signals stress and your brain automatically thinks "The Yips," triggering nervous system chaos. However, at any age, you can intervene at the source, your heart, to change the neural response.

The good news is that at any age, you can change your heart's input to your brain to create heart-brain synchronization, emotional stability and harmony. By using Freeze-Framer(r) software with heart rhythm monitor and HeartMath's Quick Coherence(tm) technique provided in the easy-to-get tutorial, you create heart-brain synchronization and retrain your nervous system response. This documented state is characterized by reduced nervous system chaos, reduced muscle tremor (including The "Yips"), improved motor skills and faster reaction times. Concentration and confidence also increase because your reflexes work faster, you think more clearly, and see more options.

 

Using the Quick Coherence technique regularly as you play allows you to maintain fluidity and "touch" throughout your swing, resulting in improved putting, ball striking, accuracy and lower scores.
Well, who wouldn't want that? So I tried HeartMath's Freeze-Framer technology to monitor my emotional state and trained with their Quick Coherence technique to change my heart rhythm pattern. It took me to a smooth emotional state.

Now, I golf with my heart. The Yips are gone when I do.

My advice is to learn and practice the Quick Coherence technique with the Freeze-Framer. You have nothing to lose. When your golf game improves, your game of life will, too.

 

For more information about on the HeartMath? System, visit http://www.quantumintech.com/ or http://www.golf.freezeframer.com/.