If it ain’t broke…

Thought for the day
The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment

Not so Great Scott?
The fact that Adam Scott has just won the Barclays Singapore Open for the third time emphasises, to me at least, that he is quite possibly the biggest under-achiever in golf (apart from Sergio Garcia over the last three years).

Ever since the likeable Australian turned pro in 2000, barely into his 20s, great things have been predicted and expected of him, not least because his greatly respected coach, Butch Harmon, talked him up a storm with quotes like: ‘Adam Scott is the best player under 30 in the world by far… He is the only one who can challenge Tiger Woods in the next four or five years.’

Powerful words of endorsement but then Scott appeared to have it all. Tall, athletic and blessed with natural ability, his swing had a rhythm and grace that reminded me of Tom Wesikopf at his free-flowing best – and it doesn’t get much better than that. Add to that a smooth, unflustered putting stroke and what appeared to be a laidback, free-and-easy personality and here, it seemed, was the next great superstar of the game.

He has six European Tour wins to his credit and four from the US PGA Tour, which he has played pretty much full-time since 2006 – he plays so little in his home country that his official biography on the Australian PGA Tour website shows his career earnings as $0.0 and he doesn’t even figure in the current order of merit rankings. Ten wins in 10 years would be very acceptable to most wannabe golf pros but for someone of Scott’s ability it has to be seen as a disappointing return.

That other antipodean, Michael Campbell, blows hotter and colder than anyone else in world golf – going from the sublime to the ridiculous in a matter of days, and Scott’s record shows an almost equal ability to be a champ and chump in remarkably close proximity. Most worrying of all is his appalling record in majors, where has recorded only four top-10s in 38 attempts (9th in the Masters in 2002; 8th in the Open in 2006; and in the US PGA Championship, 9th in 2004 and 3rd in 2006).

That early confidence shown in him seemed justified when Harmon’s pupil and protégé lifted the 2006 Players Championship and as recently as mid-2008 the likeable Australian was ranked third in the world (and his win in Singapore puts him back into the top-20, just). But then the man who Butch considered had better golfing fundamentals, and was a better swinger of the club technically than Tiger himself, decided to change his swing.

For previous examples of this bewildering phenomenon, aka ‘It ain’t broke but I’m going to fix it anyway’, see Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam, Padraig Harrington and Tiger Woods et al.

That Nick Faldo has a lot to answer for.

Sound advice
Having recently had to scuttle off to my trusted PGA teaching pro for a game-saving session, and having had numerous teachers over the years (who all tell me the same things but I’m just too dumb to listen), I always enjoy reading about other golf pupils, and the advice they receive. Here are a few examples that I particularly like.

American pro Joe Ogilvie was in a pro-am with an amateur partner who was just terrible, truly awful. Eventually the guy said to Joe: ‘Is there anything you can do to help me?’ and Joe said: ‘Yeh, it’s all about grip pressure.’
‘What should I do?’ said the guy. Joe replied: ‘I want you to really relax your grip pressure, to the point where your club drops to the ground,’ and the guy did it. ‘Now what do I do?’
Joe said: ‘Just leave it there.’

Sam Snead was well-known for his uncompromising honesty as a teacher, and famously said to one pupil: ‘You have just one problem with your golf and that is, you stand too close to the ball – after you’ve hit it.’

Sam also told another pupil: ‘I suggest you lay off the game for three weeks – and then give it up completely.’

Finally, there’s the story of the pro who said to his protégé: ‘The best advice I can give you is to cut four inches off your clubs.’
‘Will that help me play better?’
‘No, but the clubs will fit more easily into the rubbish bin.’

Lies, damned lies and…
Professional golf is awash with statistics – particularly in America where you can find out about almost every aspect of any given player’s game. So if you were of a mind to, you could learn your favourite golfer’s average driving distance, sand saves, birdie and eagle percentage and much, much more. But for the game’s elite the most telling stat concerns their putting because you can’t win if you don’t putt well. Annika Sorenstam, for example, reckons she won on the occasions when she had 1.7 or fewer putts per hole (30.6 per round).

But for we amateurs I believe the most telling statistic is greens in regulation. Notch up one of those and the worst you’re likely to do, assuming you three-putt, is make bogey and depending on your handicap, that might well result in a net par anyway. I know for myself that if I hit between 6-10 greens in regulation (off a 12 handicap), I’m almost certainly going to have a good day, whereas if the figure dips below six the dogs had better steer clear when I get home.

What about you – what do you think is the most important indicator of whether you’re playing well?

Quote of the week
Scotland is a peculiar land that is the birthplace of golf and sport salmon fishing, a fact that may explain why it is also the birthplace of whisky.
Henry Beard