[FASTLARRY]

Some days you eat da bear
Some days, da bear, eat you.

The PGA, 2009, Tiger is playing great and leading in the final round, all he has to do is shoot 70 and he wins 99% of the time. He shoots 75 and he opens the door for a nobody to come in and beat him. Shoot 75 in the final round and you lose, 99% of the time.

The lesson is, even Tiger, has a bad day when nothing goes right. And so will you.
So when you are leading and don’t close and bring it home, remember Tiger, it happens also to the very best. Nobody wins every time, you win, you lose, get used to it.

He said, he hit the ball great, but none of his putts would go in. He lost the feel. I saw that happen to Sneed, then Hogan, and then to Ap. For a decade Arnie hit it perfect tee to green as good as he ever did, but his putter went south on him. All those long putts he was dropping, stopped dropping. All those great golfers when they began to push 40, lost it on the easiest club in the bag, the putter.

The Driver, you just stand up there, and in 2 or 3 seconds, you just bash it and it can land anywhere out there in a 40 yard area. The putter, you stand over it longer, and you begin to think and calculate. Your more sensitive fingers come into play and you have more time to tighten up and choke. The golfer has to go through this 25 to 36 times a round. A pool player hundreds of times.

What made Tiger so dominate for the last 5 years is he was the best putter out there. Nobody was dropping them like he was. It was like watching Arnie back in 59. Or Fat Jack over a 10’ must putt in 66. They asked the tour, if you had a 10’ putt for everything, your house, your wife, who would you have putt it. They all said, Jack. Today they would all say, Tiger. And when those ten footers stop falling, you are just another one of the guys. Once they stop falling, they you begin to doubt and then it becomes slowly a train wreck of emotions and fears that flood in. Where once you could only see it rolling it, now you can see no way it can fall. Success breeds success and failure breeds more failure.

Once Tiger loses that putting touch he had, he becomes just another top 10 great player and somebody new takes his place at the top. Nobody stays on top much longer than a decade.

I used to hold my putter in my finger tips and try to bring it straight back and straight through down the line. That was UN natural and allowed too much feel in the finger tips. I now use a hold that is more like what I do on an iron shot, taking my sensitive finger tips out of it. I bring the putter back using my shoulders and upper body and just make a turn, then turn back into the shot and let it swing naturally. That produces a repeating swing like a door on a hinge. Its choke and yip proof. Now this does produce a little bit of a hook, but that can be handled with an open stance and just learning to allow it in your aim. Bobby Locke was the greatest putter of all time and he hooked all of his putts. It might mean instead of aiming center of the cup, you aim right center.

My other key is I want to be hitting into and up through over the top of the ball at impact which imparts a natural running over spin. I do the same with my pool cue on the cue ball.

I use a bronze ping putter I bought in 1970. Seve and Watson used this putter with success winning all 8 of his majors with it. I used to stand very upright. I guess now, because of my bad back, I stand further back and allow the tip of the putter to come up in the air a little, like Ioki used to do with great success. If I align the white aim sight in the middle of the ball, at impact, I will hit it a little forward of that out on the toe. So I put the aim sight on the middle of the ball, then move the site up a little so I am now aiming a little back on the heel and I stroke. Now I am getting a pure center hit every time.

Ok, so none of that is exactly in the book, but it works for me, try it, and it might work for you as well. I am into natural golf, like I am into natural pool.

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[MitchAlsup]

A decade and a half ago, I was at Onion Creek GC when the senior open was in town. The 14th hole is a 606 yard par 5 straight as an arrow with a slightly narrow fair way. Arnie hit 312 off the tee and then hit a 3-wood for his second shot that rolled up 2 yards from the front of the green. He made birdy. Arnie was at least 65 at that point in time.

[FASTLARRY]

MitchAlsup, on Aug 18 2009, 02:40 PM, said:

A decade and a half ago, I was at Onion Creek GC when the senior open was in town. The 14th hole is a 606 yard par 5 straight as an arrow with a slightly narrow fair way. Arnie hit 312 off the tee and then hit a 3-wood for his second shot that rolled up 2 yards from the front of the green. He made birdy. Arnie was at least 65 at that point in time.

AP was one of the great drivers of the game, very long, very straight. He was hitting it out there even with Fat Jack until about 62 and then Jack went way beyond him. He was the best striker of the 1 Iron I had seen since Hogan, a solid 230 which won his British opens in the wind. And that Fat kid, could hit it 250 and when he did, we all about died. AP would normally be out there about 270 with his 693 driver and few then, hit it past 280, but like Hogan, he could come out of his shoes and go long, when he had to. That fat fooker was hitting his 945, 300 in the air when I caddied in his group carrying Byrons bag back in the late 60's. Nobody had that hang time and carry, it was un human. There were rumors, he werent human, and an alien from the planet zor. Jack did to all those boys back then, what Tiger did to the tour 5 or 6 years ago.

Geze Louise, if you went back in a time machine to 1962 and handed fat jack Tigers driver and a pro V1, she-yit, he would hit it 350. I saw Mickey Mantle back in 69 drive one 401 and we walked it off with a wood driver. He was driving his two iron past Ap's driver. I have seen some amazin stuff in my life. And Mantle, was one of them.

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[FASTLARRY]

And in some cases, it's smart just to feed da bear. Or work out some kind of deal with him.

And they are watching your doggie door.

click the pics to enlarge them

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[FASTLARRY]

Two of the greatest



Qualities in life are:





Patience

And

Wisdom.

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