Golf Science – Pickin’ Bob’s Brain
Can an average golfer really learn anything from a Tour Pro? Well, maybe not by trying to swing like one, but there is certainly a lot to learn from how a pro acquired his or her swing, and whether the information acquired was any good, which will be reflected through either the player’s performance capabilities, […]
Golf Science – Chamblee Decoded
Brandel Chamblee is a former PGA Tour player and a current commentator, writer, and lead studio analyst for Golf Channel. That means he is capable of analyzing golfers’ play from an insider’s view-point, having been-there-done-that. He is, moreover, not someone who merely makes desultory commentary like, “That player’s putting was not up to par today” […]
Golf Science – The Biomechanical Man
What might the two most important requirements for a good golf instructor be? Knowledge and an affable personality with a lot of empathy. So where in the DFW Metroplex area can one find such a paragon? Actually, one does not have to look too far. The brand new golf instructor at the Dallas National Golf […]
Golf Science — Calculating a Winner
Who Said 40 isn’t the New 30?
Tiger Woods roars back, and Phil Mickelson wins a Tour event at the age of 47. How very apropos that these amazing events were preceded by an interview of many 40+ players at the Genesis Open earlier this year. They were all asked how they feel their bodies have changed since they turned 40, whether there […]
The Gadgetification of Golf
The January 2018 PGA Show had an offering of dozens of exciting products to visually and mentally stimulate any fed-up-with-winter golfer visiting the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando as much for the bright sunshine outdoors as for the colorful displays indoors. Apparel, accessories, golf clubs and even golf balls were presented in every color […]
Matter Within the Mind
Last month’s column was about “mind over matter,” or about how various focus-of-attention styles can change putting results. Research shows us that whether one focuses on a body part (internal focus) or the club or the target (both external foci) changes how effectively a putt is made. The focus of attention, however, is only a […]
“Fake” Golf Science
The most popular adjective in the English language these days is the word “fake.” Fake reporting, fake news, fake stories, etc. No wonder then that every golfer uses the term “fake science” to avoid taking golf lessons as well as blaming the “messenger” – whoever offered him/her the golf “tip” in the first place. So […]
Eating Like a Healthy Golfer
Ever considered changing your dietary inputs for the sake of your golf game, but didn’t know how to go about it, or even where to start? This was the case with a recent soon-to-turn pro golf student who visited us for a golf-science consultation (that being one that covers not just the golf swing but […]
It’s a Numbers Game
A week before this year’s PGA Championship was to begin, someone posted a highly mathematically accurate prediction based on the previous three major winners on one of Facebook’s more popular golf forums. Although based on the calculations, the prediction was for Rickie Fowler to win. The eventual winner, who also fit the mathematical requirements, was […]
Goal-Setting on the PGA Tour
The summer months afford many exciting opportunities for a golf scientist to meet with PGA TOUR players while they visit North Texas for two consecutive legs of the Tour. After discovering, during the AT&T Byron Nelson, that the best golfers in the world sometimes have seemingly insouciant attitudes towards their games (see July column), the […]
Keeping It Consistent
If you had just one wish, what would you hope your golf swing might allow you to do better? Most PGA Tour pros, of course, would wish for better consistency because they have plenty of everything else – good full-swing distance and trajectory, good short game and good putting. What is consistency? Consistency can be […]
Sharpening the Skillset
The Volunteers of America Texas Shootout is the annual Dallas-Fort Worth area event of the LPGA Tour. One amazing observation was the difference between the field playing in the Monday Local Open Qualifier and in the main event – while there were only seven non-USA players of 60 (about 12 percent) in the Monday Qualifier, […]
Ultimate Knowledge is Ultimate Power
Kelly Kraft, a native of Denton, Texas, has been a golf professional since 2012, and, just earlier this year, finished second at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. By now he must know a lot about his own game and how to keep it in shape and what he needs to do to continually perform at […]
A New Frontier
For those readers who are keen followers of the PGA Tour, do you get the impression that while the technology used by leading instructors to coach top professional players has become increasingly more sophisticated in the past decade, more fit, young players are becoming inconsistent and/or injured? What do you suppose is happening? The fact […]
Best of the 2017 PGA Show
The PGA Show 2017 has come and gone, and what a whirlwind of exciting new products – everything imaginable from apparel to equipment. For the enthusiastic golfer too, there was plenty of choices – sadly he or she can only get this information through a member of the golf industry with access to this biggest of […]
X Marks the Spot?
In December 1992, Golf Magazine came out with a brand new concept for the golf swing, which took the golf world by storm. It was termed “The X Factor,” and was first discovered and explained by famous instructor Jim McLean. The X Factor is the difference in horizontal rotation between the upper torso and the […]