November 2001

NOTHING IN GOLF IS ABSOLUTE
By Joe Buttitta, PGA Professional, Westlake GC


The longer I teach golf the more I realize one simple thing: that there are absolutely NO ABSOLUTES in the golf swing. For example, you don't have to keep your head still; you don't have to keep your left arm straight; and, for goodness sakes, you don't have to keep your head down. The late Payne Stewart said it best when he said, "When it comes to the golf swing, you've basically got to figure it out for yourself". What did he mean? He meant that every single golfer has a swing as individual as themselves. That within certain broad parameters, every golfer swings the club his own unique way (witness the singular moves of tournament winners Jim Furyk, Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer, Moe Norman, et al). 


Regarding the "straight left arm" myth: within the last decade the U.S. Open was won four times by golfers who had a bent left arm at the top of their swings. Curtis Strange and Lee Jantzen each won that major twice without a straight left arm. Most good players allow their heads to move quite a bit during a full swing. Even Jack Nicklaus (not a bad player!) moved his head when wielding a driver. Rock steady heads can cause the insidious reverse pivot and that's a death move in most swings. 


So when trying to build "your" version of a golf swing, seek the help of a PGA Professional you trust, one who will allow you to be yourself, yet still perform the basic fundamentals of a very complex animal: the golf swing. Once you have figured out a way to move the ball toward your target, patent that move in your subconscious and go play for fun!! 

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(Joe Buttitta is a Class-A PGA Professional teaching golf at Westlake Golf 
Course. He can be reached at 818-889-0770, or by e-mail at:
igolfsopaw@AOL.com)
 

Sept 1, 2000

FRICTION FOR THE SOLE

By Joe Buttitta

With so many new golfers coming into the game teaching professionals need to make them feel successful as soon as possible. One measure of success for new golfers is simply getting the ball in the air. Sounds simple, and it can be. But to a newcomer who might not understand the basic physics of the game, getting a ball airborne is tantamount to losing inches around the tummy. It just seems impossible.

Here’s a simple solution that works every single time-guaranteed. It’s called SHOW TIME. Pick up the clubhead of a 7-8-or-9 iron and put it right in front of their eyes and SHOW them how the head is constructed. SHOW them the leading edge. SHOW them the angle on the clubhead that is called loft (or lift for some people’s taste). SHOW them the sole of the club which is just like the sole of a shoe. SHOW them how the leading edge must strike the ball below the ball’s belly-button. Actually, down by the knees is even better. SHOW them how the loft angle deflects the ball upward as long as the sole of the club brushes the grass directly under the ball.

You can use the more technical approach and tell them that the clubhead’s center of gravity must be below the ball’s center of gravity to provide lift. But who, besides an engineer, wants to hear that. Use the SHOW TIME approach. It’s more fun, more entertaining....and it works!!

 

Golf Tip #3       

SEE YOUR SHINS FOR PROPER POSTURE

By Joe Buttitta

One of the important ingredients to a good swing is good posture over the ball. Your posture often dictates the path of the arms during the swing and the correct angle of the spine, around which you swing. Since the golf swing is such an individual thing dictated by the physical makeup of the golfer, it is often difficult to know when you are in the proper posture. One question I often get is, "How much should I bend my knees?". Great question. Simple answer.

Do this little experiment. Lock your knees rigid. Now try to swing your arms. Kind of makes you feel wooden, doesn’t it? Now simply unlock your knees and swing your arms and suddenly......freedom. But how much should you unlock the knees? Just enough so that you can "see your shins" when you look for them. If you bend your knees too much all you will see is the tops of your knees and your thighs. In that position there is too much weight in the wrong place and the proper move is nearly impossible to make.

Simple solution to all of this is: STAND AS TALL AS YOU CAN OVER THE BALL. BEND FROM THE HIPS AND RELAX YOUR KNEES TO THE POINT WHERE YOU FEEL FREE TO MOVE. LOOK DOWN AND ‘SEE’ YOUR SHINS. NOW SWING!

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(Joe Buttitta is a Class-A PGA Teaching Professional at Westlake Golf Course. He teaches both conventional and Natural Golf. He can be reached at 818-889-0770, or e-mail him at igolfsoPaw@AOL.com)

 

Tip # 2     April 15, 2000

Three-Iron Chip Tip

By Joe Buttitta, Class-A PGA Professional

Westlake Golf Course

Part of a golfer’s confusion about the skill of chipping is what club to use. Far too many players automatically choose the pitching wedge when the ball is sitting just off the green. At times that choice is correct, but far too often it is dead wrong. Here’s why. Chipping is the art of ‘running’ a ball toward the hole. That differs from pitching which is the art of "lofting" the ball toward the hole. Different skills require different clubs.

Pitching wedges by design produce a lot of backspin. To run the ball effectively you need to use a club that produces less backspin. That’s why a lot of good players opt to use a 6-7-or-8 iron to get the ball onto the putting surface and let it roll home. I’ve had tremendous success in my teaching with the use of, oddly enough, the 3-iron from around the green. This little-used long iron produces no backspin at all when used for chipping and encourages top-spin which makes the ball roll on a much truer path. Furthermore, the use of a 3-iron from the edges of the green doesn’t demand a great lie. Part of the value of using a 3-iron to chip is that the lie can be downright rotten, and the straight face will get the ball rolling very well. If the ball is sitting down in the grass (but not buried), pop down on it and watch the 3-iron run like a wild horse. Just make sure you have enough green to ‘let’ the ball roll toward the hole.

From a normal lie, the golfer needs to choke down a bit, open the stance somewhat, play the ball toward the middle of the stance with hands slightly ahead, and use the 3-iron like it was a putter. The little bit of loft on the face will lift the ball over the green’s edge and when it hits the surface, it’ll run like the dickens. A bit of work on the ‘feel’ of this shot will produce impressive results. By having the 3-iron as an option when chipping from the edges of the green will decrease the golfer’s confusion about which club to use. It’s usually not the pitching wedge!

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Golf Tips and Advice

Tip # 1   April 1, 2000 Position in Putting Stroke

By Joe Buttitta

Teaching Professional, Westlake Golf Course

The proper putting set-up is an important ingredient to a golfer’s success. Setting the eyes in the correct position is one of those critical ingredients that is often overlooked. On that subject there are two schools of thought.

One method is to set the eyes directly over the ball, along the target line. The other technique is to situate the eye line inside the target line so that you look out toward the ball.

If you choose to keep your eyes right over the ball, a center-shafted putter is probably the right tool to use. With your eyes directly over the ball you are setting up to take the putter straight back and straight through the ball, never deviating from the target line. A center-shafted putter is precisely made for this type of stroke because the club head is balanced to swing like a pendulum. PGA Champion Davis Love III and Brad Faxon putt this way.

If you decide to keep your eye line inside the target line then a heel-shafted putter is probably best. Ben Crenshaw and Justin Leonard use this method and have had tremendous success over the years. When Crenshaw putts, for example, his putter-head swings slightly inside the line, squares up at impact, then swings back inside on the follow-through much like the arc on a full swing. The fact that the shaft is in the heel of the club head accomplishes this stroke with immeasurable ease. The putter head effectively swings like a door opening and closing on a fixed hinge, but timing is at a premium.

To know which stroke is best for you be sure to experiment with your eye line setup, but have the right tool in your hand to complete the job.

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News Related Golf Stories               April 2000

2000 Masters Postscript

by Joe Buttitta, PGA Professional

As someone who is ‘in’ the golf industry I’m sick and tired of those who criticize the game as ‘boring’. If they had any idea what was going on out on the fairways they wouldn’t (nee couldn’t) feel that way.

This year’s Masters is a perfect example. The proliferation of sports talk shows has introduced us to some bona fide idiots who bash the game because they don’t understand the game. All I heard on radio the day after the Masters was the lack of drama that seemed to permeate Sunday’s CBS telecast. Normally I let babble like that slip off my back. But I’m weary of the non-golfers in our midst who talk without knowledge.

True, Vijay Singh is not among the most demonstrative human to grace the earth. But his play certainly graced Augusta National for four days, especially round three when the wind was whipping the trees and defoliating the flowers. Weather conditions were abysmal, but Singh was near-perfect. He deserved to win and that’s all that counts. How he won really doesn’t matter.

No doubt CBS would have rather had Tiger Woods on the prowl or Sergio Garcia skipping down the fairways, but they were left with three of the quietest guys on the Tour. Singh, David Duval and Ernie Els act more like choir boys than bad boys. Throw in "The Boss of the Moss" Loren Roberts, who also contended, and you have four for bridge.

The radio hosts berated all four of these players for their lack of ‘attitude’. Yet they jumped on Duval who slammed the ground with his club when he hit one fat on his approach to the final hole.

Those who criticize golf as being boring are not golfers. They may be people who play golf (one host admitted he plays ‘maybe once a year....and he hates it’), so they have little or no appreciation for the skill involved to make the shots. Like the high hook Singh had to pull off on the par-five 15th when he found his drive on the wrong side of the fairway blocked by a huge tree. Lay up?? Not a chance. Singh, although quiet and contemplative in nature, hitched up his mental trousers like Arnie used to do, grabbed a 4-iron and simply slung the ball around the tree....and onto the green setting up an ‘eagle’ putt. That’s skill at the highest level. Vijay ended up birdieing the hole.

Soccer has also been accused of being boring. But I’ve always contended that if people just appreciated the tremendous skill it takes to dribble downfield at breakneck speed, stop, turn, flick a pass off to a teammate, etc., they’d have much more appreciation for those 1-0 or 2-1 games.

Why does everything have to be like pro wrestling or pro football. Does every good shot have to be followed by wild celebration?

Golf, like it or not, is a genteel game. It’s a game of skill and cunning. It’s a game of guts and glory. It’s a game of risk-reward. Anybody with a microphone these days feels free to take issue with the game. It is their right. It’s what makes talk-radio work. But can they hit the high draw or the low fade...under pressure...and create enough spin to stop the ball on the green?

Golf boring? Absurd. Why every time the golfer hits his or her ball they create another, entirely different situation for themselves. Situations that must be solved. Options that must be understood and made. How ‘can’ that be boring!

There is no cheating. No end zone celebrations. No rim-hanging acts. No chest-thumping. No trumped up theatrics!

Golf is just what it purports to be. A club, a ball and a hole in the ground. It ain’t easy, and it certainly isn’t a bore. In fact, it’s the hardest game in the world—when you understand it!!

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