Miles of Blog

The Kendall is all abuzz about a student of instructor Tom Tantapanish.  The student is a 13-year-old boy named Henry Finch.  He started taking lessons with Tom in the late summer.  What is amazing and baffling to the Academy, is his ability to hit these gargantuan drives with a very unorthodox swing, a swing no one in the Academy has seen the likes of.  The best way to describe it is a strange combination of Jim Furick and Moe Norman, not very asthetic, but very powerful considering that Henry is a small, 115 lbs., 13 year old.  He is left-handed and at the top of his swing both arms appear to be fully extended and from there things just explode.

Dave Kendall, director of the Academy, thinks that there are certain aspects of Henry’s swing that will revolutionize the way we think about the golf swing sort of the same way the Fosberg Flop changed high jumping.  To give you an idea of what the kid can do, Michael Tooroian, a Miles club-fitter, put Henry on a launch monitor to check his numbers.  At this point Henry is not real consistent, but when he hits one, he gets ball speeds of close to 200 MPH.  That translates into club-head speeds in the 130s and drives well over 300 yards.

Henry’s parents are astonished at Henry’s golf abilities.  He is a rather bookish Greenhills student and it took a little coercion into getting him to take golf lessons. He does come from an athletic family.   His father is Dr. Sidney Finch with the UM Hospital and a former minor league pitcher for the Mets.  His mother is the former Roslyn Ruiz, a distance runner.

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These are some of the major organizations that run golf.  There are many others that are not listed.

United States Golf Association (USGA) – This organization is responsible for running some of our most important golf tournaments in the U.S. like the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Open and the national amateur events like the Men’s and Women’s Amateur.  The USGA determines what the Rules of Golf are for this country so they produce the rulebook.  They also determine what golf balls and clubs are legal and how the handicap system works.  They do various other things to promote golf.  There are other affiliate organizations that are the local arm of the USGA and will do things like conduct state amateur events.  In Michigan, this organization is the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM).

Professional Golf Association (PGA) – This organization represents the interests of its PGA members, runs some national and local professional tournament, and promotes the growth of the game.  Membership into the PGA is a rigorous endeavor requiring several years of classes and internships.  Nationally they conduct the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup.  Like the USGA, the PGA has local chapters.  The president of the Michigan Section of the PGA in 2008 will be Dave Kendall, director of the Kendall Academy.

PGA Tour– This organization runs the Men’s Professional Tour and the Nationwide Tour in the U.S.  At one time, these tours were run by the PGA, but years ago, they spun off from the PGA and are an independent organization from the PGA.  Tim Finchem is the Executive Director of the PGA Tour.  Oddly enough, the TPA does not run any of the four majors in golf.  The USGA has the U.S. Open, the PGA has the PGA Championship, the Royal & Ancient (the USGA equivalent for the British Isles) has the British Open, and the Augusta National Golf Club has the Masters.  The Tour owns some golf courses throughout the country like the TPC at Dearborn and the TPC at Sawgrass.

Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) – This is a combination of the PGA and the PGA Tour for women’s golf.  They represent lady golf professionals and they operate the LPGA Tour and the Futures Tour.

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Seems like the world is turning into one hybrid after another. First it was mules and now its cars and golf clubs. The idea behind golf hybrids is just like other hybrids, take the best qualities of two similar things and create a new thing.

For golf hybrids, also called utility clubs, what is combined are the best qualities of fairway woods and long irons. The fairway woods are easily to hit and go high. Long irons go pretty straight. For most golfers, hybrids are easy to hit, go high, and go straight. That’s a pretty nice combination. For some players, like me, these clubs have made the game unbelievable more fun.

So what are hybrids used for? They are a potential replace for high lofted fairway woods and low lofted long irons. By far the most common replacement is for the dreaded #3 iron. It is becoming less and less common that Miles of Golf orders a custom iron set of 3-PW. Usually players are opting out of the #3 and replacing it with a hybrid or a high lofted fairway wood. This is another compelling reason to custom order irons. Not only are the clubs built to your spec, but also you can select what clubs are in your set. If you are not a 3 iron lover, save the money and don’t order it.

When replacing an iron or wood with a hybrid, it can get a little tricky knowing which hybrid to replace it with. Here’s a bit of advice. Look at the loft of the hybrid and try to replace irons with a hybrid of the same or slightly higher loft. For example, most 3 irons are 21 degrees loft. To give you proper spacing of your shots, the hybrid replacement would be 21, 22, or 23 degrees. With fairway wood replacement, do just the opposite. Replace the fairway wood with the same or slightly stronger loft.

For the golfer who wants it all, our new Trackman Monitor knows within 1 foot for every 100 yards how far a shot flies. We use the Trackman to dial in yardages of every club in a player’s bag. With this information, we can make sure that there are not gaps or overlaps in a player’s set including his or her hybrids. We call this our Maxx Gap Fitting. - http://www.milesofgolf.com/maxx.html

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When getting a child started playing golf, there needs to be a “sketchy” plan that addresses certain issues.  This article will help you come up with a plan.  It gives advice on these issues:
•    When to Start.  Ideas on what you can do to determine when a youngster is ready.
•    Equipment.  What is necessary and what is not necessary.
•    Developing Skills.  Learning by watching and formalized instruction.
•    Playing Partners.  Getting friends involved is vital.
•    Courses to Play.  What to look for in courses that are best for juniors.
•    Parental Involvement.  Thing parents need to do and thing parents need to avoid.
•    Helpful Resources.  Organizations that can help a junior golfer get started.

1.    When to Start.  Dave Kendall, director of the Kendall Academy, feels the time to start is when the child appears interested in playing.  I know of some youngsters, besides Tiger, that are totally taken by the game at a very early age, like 3 or 4 years of age.  For most kids this is too young with most starting in the 8-12 range.  For some kids the right time is never because they just have no interest in the game.  I am convinced that at a very early age most of us know sports we like and sports we do not like.  Things you might do to help determine when and if a youngster should start are:
a.    Take them to a golf tournament or watch golf on TV to see good players playing the game.
b.    Give them an opportunity to hit a golf ball without giving them your ideas on how it should be done.  Just let them try it.
c.    Take them to a course and have them watch you play.  Let them hit some shots.

If there seems to be an interest, I would make a sketchy plan to address equipment, playing partners, courses to play, and lessons.

2.    Equipment. The equipment to get started need not be a big expense.  You can get a junior set that includes a bag and enough clubs for $100-$200.  These sets will start with a lofted wood, a mid iron, short iron, and putter.  Most companies have three sizes of junior clubs depending on the youngster’s height.  If a junior is on the fence about playing, even one or two clubs are plenty to get started.  I personally would rather see a youngster with a few clubs that are the right size and moderately priced versus a full set of expensive clubs that are too big. Golf is a hard game to learn and clubs that are not the right size can make it impossibly hard.  When just starting things like golf shoes and gloves are not essential.

3.    Developing Skills.  Most youngsters learn athletics at a young age by mimicking what they see.  Give a kid detailed instruction about the golf swing and watch their eyes glaze over and their excitement about the game float away.  If a child watches good players, most times they will pick up the game in the same natural way kids learn by watching and trying.  I like this plan.  Take a child to a golf tournament, amateur, professional, whatever and than just let them play saying little or nothing to them about how to hit the ball.  My stomach gets upset when I think of all the bad golf advice I have heard given to a child from a parent.  Probably the best formalized instruction for a child getting started is to have the person they will be playing with have a lesson so the child will have something good to emulate.  At some point if a child is interested in the game, you should consider formalized instruction.   There are plenty of good programs in the Ann Arbor area that offer juniors instruction.  See 7. Helpful Resources for information on instruction in the area.

4.    Playing Partners.  If a child is going to become a good player and enjoy the game, the most important thing that must happen is that he or she has buddies to play with.  Parents or grandparents are OK but they must also have golfing buddies their age.  If you have one priority in getting a kid started, this is it.  Get a group of kids interested in the game playing with each other and developing friendships and rivalries.

5.    Courses to Play.  The “best” courses in the area may not be the best place for junior golfers to get started.  In the Ann Arbor area, many of the best junior players started playing at Georgetown, Huron Hills, and Brookside.  These courses have two things in common.  One, they are not real difficult so a kid can be successful relatively early in their playing career and they are not afraid to score low.  Two, kids “rule” at these courses.  They can play in relative equality to adults and they can play a ton for not much money.

6.    Parental Involvement.  As mentioned, I am not big on parents giving their child golf instruction.  Parents need to give thought to developing the “sketchy plan” for getting a child started in golf that addresses things like clubs, playing partners, course to play.  As far a playing with your child, here are some suggestions: (1) Let them play without a lot of helpful hints or instructions.  (2) Sometimes go out with your child and act as a caddie, letting your child be the boss and having the joy of being the center of attention of a parent.  (3) Have the parent use limited flight golf balls so everyone hits it about the same distance. Almost Golf makes my favorite limited flight balls. (4) Set up your own course.  It may be only 2 holes and you may tee off 100 yards from the green.

7.    Helpful Resources.

a.    Kendall Academy – offers after school, spring break camp, summer camp, beginner clinics, and private lessons.  http://www.milesofgolf.com/kendall.html
b.    City of Ann Arbor – offers junior golf programs through the City Recreation Department. www.ci.ann-arbor.mi.us/CommunityServices/Parks/
c.    Pittsfield Township – offers junior golf programs through the Recreation Department. http://pittsfieldtwp.org/departments/sup/parks/rec_classes/2006springsummer/04youthprograms.pdf
d.    Golfademics – through a grant from the USGA, they offer scholarships for juniors to get golf instruction.  This is a local organization. www.golfademics.org/
e.     First Tee – a national organization teaching kids golf plus life values. www.thefirsttee.org/
f.    Total Golf Adventures – after school golf instruction.  www.totalgolfadventures.com
g.    Michigan PGA – tournaments and instructional programs. http://michigan.pga.com/index.cfm?menu=1450&openitem=1450

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I am baring my soul about what happens to my golf game as I mature.  I want to warn you, it is not all good and if you want to read a little upbeat inspirational guide to senior golf, don’t read on.  That said, golf is still great fun if not quite as pretty as it once was.

In successive issues we will delve into three aspects of senior golf.  This issue is Playing Skills.  Future ones will be on Equipment and finally Course Management.

Playing Skills.  Like life in general, our golf games reach a peak and then decline.  For the most part I think the decline is rather gradual and consistent, but there is a lot of evidence from the PGA Champions (Senior) Tour that something rather abruptly happens to us in our late 50s.  It is a rare occurrence when someone in there late 50s wins on that tour.  I also noticed a rather big change in my golf skill about this age.  There maybe some other milestone years that someone else will have to comment on and I would like to hear from readers about these other milestone years so I will know what to expect.

Why would this happen in our late 50s?  I personally think that our ball striking skills diminish mostly from reduced flexibility, but I am sure that eye hand coordination, strength, balance, eyesight, and loss of muscle speed take their toll on our golf games.  I am sure that working on strength, flexibility, and balance help but don’t expect that you will turn back the clock.  I have been on a running and fitness kick the last few years, but my handicap does not know this as it keeps inching up.

In talking with Brent Norton, our club-fitting guru, here are his observations on golfers 55-65 that he has worked with.  The vast majority of golfers that age swing 85-95 mph with their drivers.  Carrying the ball over 210 yards is not common and a drive of 230 yards is about it.  There are exceptions of course.  Two of the better senior amateurs (55 yrs. and up) in the country are from Michigan and have been tested on the Miles of Golf TrackMan monitor. Greg Reynolds who has won the USGA Senior Amateur and finished second another year and is in his early 60s can carry a drive 250 yards. The other, John Lindholm, carries his drives 225-230 yards with monotonous consistency.

Because I am distance challenged, I have to resist doing counterproductive things in attempting to hit it further.  Things like gripping it too tightly, extending my back swing beyond what my body rotation will support, and just plain trying to swing harder.  It is a classic example of the phenomenon of “the harder I try the worser I gets.”

A lot of my confessions relate to the fact that I started playing as a youngster.  If you on the other hand started golf late, you have the joy of getting better and this can go on for a long time as your skills improve.  I am envious of you.

Everyone who plays golf must come to grips with the fact that inevitable their skills will diminish.  How you deal with it will be different from how I deal with it, but somehow things like this work out.  For me, I would not miss out on an opportunity to be with some good buddies on a golf course even if I just busted one 225 (including roll).

If you have some confessions you would like to share with others of us, email me at times@milesofgolf.com and I will spread your words.

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