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This was pretty unusual. Judy has never been much for hitting balls on the range. But on Sunday after our family outing at Blue Springs we stuck around for a while on the range there. She started having really good results with her driver - a recent addition to her compliment of clubs - so we just kept on hitting until they kicked us off the range.

Last night it was more of the same. We kept hitting until all the balls were gone and even went out into the range and hit some back a couple of times.

Judy doesn't get to play much - only 6 or 7 times a year for the past few years - so it always takes her a while to get back into the groove. But I'm always impressed by her swing. Teaching her the subtleties of the golf swing has been a pet project of mine for quite a few years and it is interesting to see how she has progressed. These past few days working with the driver she has taken a couple of giant steps forward, and given her a new awareness of some of the potential.

I guess that explains her eagerness to get out there and hit some more.

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Nicklaus urges golf ball to be "rolled back" - There's a very interesting article by Jack Nicklaus in the March issue of Golf Digest called "I've Been Thinking." One of the points he usually makes in articles like this is that, in his opinion, the modern ball goes too far and has changed the game for the worse. As he says in this article, "My greatest concern, because I believe it has the most effect on the most parts of the game, is the golf ball."

According to Nicklaus, after about 60 years in which the game (and equipment) stayed pretty much the same, in the 1980s and 90s the game of golf started to change dramatically. In the 80s it was the introduction of metal headed drivers and "woods", and in the 90s it was changes in golf ball technology. Both changes let players hit the ball farther.

Golfers at all levels like to have their egos stroked, but the truth is, a guy like Fred Funk does not add 30 or 40 yards to his drives by working out or by improving his swing. These increased distances are mostly a result of "technology" changes. It is a familiar refrain, but for guys like Nicklaus who design courses this has meant the classic old courses aren't long enough anymore.

We lesser mortals have come to take these ongoing "improvements" for granted because we think it levels the playing field between good players and not-so-good ones -- it makes us think we can become better golfers by simply buying new clubs or using a different ball.

The irony is that just the opposite has happened. It is a well-known fact that high handicap players do not get the same benefit out of technology improvements as do better players. While a pro might be able to hit different balls different distances, your average hacker doesn't see these increases because he or she doesn't have a consistent enough swing and can't generate the club head speed required to take advantage of the new balls.

It is a bit different with clubs, since larger metal heads and game improvement irons mean fewer duffed shots. But I suspect this advantage is again over-estimated for higher-handicap players. For a bogey golfer playing a 380 hard hole driving the ball 200 yards rather than 180 still won't produce very many pars. Why? Because he still can't make the 180 yard approach shot. So he's just as far ahead using a 5 iron off the tee.

So technology improvements have actually widened the gap between the pros and the schmos. And to add insult to injury courses are now being made tougher and longer to accommodate the 5 or 10% of golfers who are "big hitters."

At the root of the issue is the way golf is driven by marketing at all levels from recreational to professional. The inability of the golfing poobahs at the USGA and R&A to control the "improvements" has meant that golf has become a consumption driven sport like no other. And the chance of this changing in the foreseeable future are slim to none.

After one particularly bad round when I flubbed a number of chips that ended up costing me several strokes, I decided a bit of dedicated practice was in order. So last Friday I headed out to a local range with just one club - my sand wedge - to see if I could figure out my problems (and yes, I know the sand wedge is not always the best club to chip with.)

That little bit of practice helped a lot. The next day I even made two fairly unlikely chip-ins.

So yes, the short game is very important when it comes to scoring. And yes, it is relatively easy to make major improvements to your short game - much easier than straightening out your driver or your irons.

Then there was the hybrid issue. I've been watching a couple of my buddies hit their hybrids for a few months, and decided it was about time to take the plunge. I'm one of those guys who actually likes hitting the long irons, but it's something you have to do regularly or you really lose confidence in them. I suspect it is a lot easier to just pick up a 19 degree hybrid once or twice a round and hit it nice and solid.

I finally got around to assembling these two clubs before our weekend rounds last week. And then had a chance to hit them quite a bit on the weekend. I really like the look and feel of both of them, and so far they've been working really well for me.

I've mentioned in a couple of posts that a few weeks ago I started using a backyard net for working on my swing. Since the net is only about 8x8 you can't really use anything other than a low lofted club, otherwise you end up hitting balls onto the road and into neighbours' yards. Also, unless you're OK with chewing up your grass you can't really use a lot of irons.

So I'd been using it for 15 or 20 minutes a day to work on some "improvements" to my driver swing.

Well, the results showed up almost immediately. I pretty much lost my driver swing for two or three days. One round was particularly annoying. Fritz and I were visiting with a friend of his at a course I'd never played before. I didn't hit a fairway until the 9th hole. And it was very tentative for the rest of the round.

The same thing happened the next day. And it wasn't a coincidence. I already knew that hitting into a net can be misleading because you can't see the results of sidespin. Even if it feels and sounds good, that's no guarantee it isn't going to be hooking or fading or slicing when you're on the course.

Well sure enough after about 6 or 7 sessions of working on "improvements" I was hitting terrible weak fades.

After a short session on a real range I threw out the changes, stopped using the practice net, and things were more or less back to normal.

So what good is the practice net? I'm not sure.

I've been doing the late afternoon thing for years and have played lots of 18s in the semi-darkness, so have become pretty good at controlling my swing so it is more or less straight, listening for where it lands, and then marching down the darkened fairway until the little white thing emerges from the black.

I can usually feel whether I've pulled it, pushed it or, heaven forbid, sliced it. When you play in the semi-darkness you learn that a slice or hook is usually the result of swinging too hard. So backing off on your swing is the first prerequisite for actually being able to find the ball after you hit it.

Yesterday it didn't work out for some reason. I had a pretty good round going and when we hit #17 I thought "No problem." At this course 17 is a fairly short par 5 that I've birdied a few times. It requires a drive over the main entrance roadway into the course, and when I hit my drive Joe said "It's down the middle." OK, I thought, we're in business.

But when we got out there it was nowhere to be found, and I had no idea which side it should be on. The fescue at Glencairn makes it almost impossible to find if you don't know where to look. The same thing happened with my next shot. It felt like I pulled it out of the primary rough and it went zinging across to the other side. Never to be found again. Too dark to see where it went out.

#18 worked out a bit better. My drive just cleared a sod-walled bunker and since I was still about 180 out and had to clear two "burns" to hit a green I couldn't even see, I just hit an easy 9 to plunk it between the burns. It didn't sound too good when it landed, but sure enough when we got down there it was right where I thought it should be.

A sandy to the green and I was finished. By then the sprinklers were on so we just left it there on the green for the next lucky guy...

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In the current issue of Golf Digest David Leadbetter talks about something he calls "swing chi." My first reaction was to sneer and say to myself -- "another useless gimmick from Leadbetter." But possibly I was being too hasty. Maybe this idea isn't as dumb as it first sounds. I think the idea he is trying to get at is that there is a natural sequence to a golf swing that results in the maximum explosive transfer of energy when striking the ball. Sounds simple enough.

He calls this "swing chi" because "chi" (or "qi", or "ch'i") is a concept used in many traditional Chinese traditions to mean something akin to "life force" or "energy flow", usually involving the idea of proper balance and integration.

The idea is that things are in their optimal state when they are in balance and the parts are properly connected -- when the energy flow, the "chi" is not obstructed. According to most of these traditions, this applies at both the spiritual level as well as the physical level, and has obvious applications in the areas of medicine, mental health, spirituality, physical therapy and martial arts.

So if one believes in this sort of thing, what follows is that there might be different kinds of therapeutic techniques that could be used to put things in their proper balance when they are out of whack -- adjustments for your spirit, therapies for your body, and, yes, fixes for your golf swing.

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Now of course it would be easy to take this idea too seriously and go off on mystical tangents and down philosophical blind alleys. But the idea that a properly sequenced swing is a pretty important goal for a golfer seems fairly obvious.

And if it is helpful to visualize one's swing as a smooth, balanced, properly synchronized and unobstructed flow of energy through the body and into the ball, then I say go for it.

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Merry Christmas! In spite of it being one of the least pleasant and wettest falls I can remember, it has also been one of the warmest Decembers for a long, long time in southern Ontario. Our previous record for a legitimate round on a real course had been Dec 13, played a few years back. But this year I was out on Dec 16, and could have played on Dec 23 but felt a little bit under the weather.

In some recent years Judy and I found ourselves in Florida over the Christmas holiday and that was always the occasion for an early morning round at Port Charlotte GCC. Since the course was officially closed on Christmas there were no carts -- a pretty rare occurrence in Florida -- and nobody to take your green fees.

Maybe next year.

Can improper spin have a detrimental effect on driving distance? The other day Andy asked me this question in light of a demonstration he had seen on TV. Some long ball guy demonstrated two drives: one with "spin" and the other with reduced "spin". The one with reduced spin went further. Since this demonstration came with virtually no explanation it was difficult to know what he was referring to, and, in any event this was not something I had thought or read about much, so had very little insight into the matter....

Apart from the obvious of course... If you put side spin on the ball it will curve left or right. If you top the ball and put top spin on it, the ball will sail low and dive into the ground with more than usual run. And if you put bottom spin or "back spin" on it, the ball will tend to rise up, drop softly to the ground and not run a good deal. Too much back spin and it will balloon up into the wind and drop down like a stone.

Ok, that much most golfers know. But is it possible to modify your swing, change your club, or use a different ball to achieve less spin and therefore more distance? I think it is a fairly safe bet that these things can be adjusted and make a difference. But just what the optimal situation would be I am not sure. An hour or so checking on the web yielded some interesting theory, but not a lot of practical advice.

Most of what I found had to do with ball technology. Here is a pretty good article explaining some of the aerodynamics of ball flight. And here is another similar article about ball spin. I will continue to look for more information that might be helpful.

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Golf Workouts Can Transform Your Game

by Mike Pedersen, Golf Fitness Expert

I’m sure by now you’ve heard most of the professional players; both men and women actively participate in golf workouts. It’s no secret. But why then do most amateur golfers ignore this? Is it because it seems like work? Or, does the thought of actually breaking a sweat get you tired already?

Either way…the proof is in the bag. The number one player in the world, Vijay Singh, does his golf workouts all the way through Sunday of each tournament. Does it look like it’s hurting his game? I don’t think so. Back in 1997, a young, very athletic golfer came on the professional scene and blew everyone away. I think you know who I’m talking about.

OK, I'll admit it. There have been a couple of occasions in my golfing life when I've been frustrated enough to actually throw a club.

I know. You're not supposed to do it. While club throwing was a common occurrence 50, 30, 20 or maybe even 10 years ago, it is definitely not acceptable now - although I did hear some geezers talking about it on a recent visit to an old established private club. (Note: a "golf geezer" is anybody who either is, acts, or looks more than a couple years older than me.)

Anyway, to get back to the point. I was having a particularly bad few holes during a round a couple of weeks ago. And there I was, about 20 yards from the hole with my lob wedge in hand. Predictably I pitched it short ...or maybe it was long (I can't really remember)... and I ended up in the gnarly rough above the hole.

Since I was already looking at double bogey there was no way I was going to walk all the way over to the cart to get a different club. So I tried chipping with the LB.

One double-hit later I was steamed enough to let it fly.

Yes, that's right. I'm sorry to say I actually threw the thing. It was quite a calculated throw of course, well away from any of my fellow golfers. But en route it wrapped around a tree and snapped in half.

I can't say I was sorry it broke. I've never had much luck with the LB anyway, and am quite content to just open up my sand wedge when I need more loft. But I'm not proud about getting angry like that, and I've promised myself never to let it happen again.

As luck would have it, on the next hole - a medium length par 3 over water - I hit my tee shot into the pond. And then proceeded to chip it in from the drop area with my sand wedge.

That's right - a par. I don't think my broken lob wedge liked that one little bit.

Well last Saturday I hit what may be the shot of the year. It was a dream scenario. We were on #7 which is a "simple" par 3 if you hit it right, but a sure double if you don't. We were hitting into a fairly brisk wind, and it's all carry over the water to a fairly steep bank. If you come up a bit short and hit that bank the ball will almost always roll into the water.

Well, that's what happened to me. I hit a pretty good six iron, but it got hung up in the wind, hit the bank and trickled down the bank into the water. I jokingly said, "Hey, I'm not dead yet that might be playable." I was only half joking because I could see the water was very low, and I knew it is quite shallow right there in front of the green.

After the other guys hit we went over to the green and I took a look at my ball. There it was about two feet out from dry land, fully submerged with the top of the ball about 1 1/2 inches below the surface.

Now Fritz will confirm that I just wait for this kind of situation to try out these "shots that can't be made". But this one didn't look too hopeful.

I know from past experience that a partially submerged ball is pretty easy to get up and out. One that is just below the surface can work too. But when it is that far below the surface you need a big swing and a lot of luck to pull it off.

The other problem was there was no place to stand. I didn't really want to do a Jean Van de Veld (take off the shoes, roll up the pants, flail away at the water). Fortunately there was a rock of just the right size sitting by the shore. I just rolled it out to where my back foot should be and tried standing on it. Perfect! "This should work" I said to myself.

About ten seconds later the SW came slicing down at the ball followed by a mighty splash (fortunately it was fairly warm) and the other guys started hooting and hollering. Of course in the great gush of water I couldn't see it, but the ball came out beautifully, rolled slowly past the hole and came to rest about five feet away.

I missed the putt of course, but that was beside the point. The shot of the day was in the books and will live in golfing lore for ever more.