Secret In The Dirt - Golf's Greatest Social Network

Because iron play is all about precision, there's a tendency to focus on details that are irrelevant or uncontrollable. For instance, a slightly wet clubface won't affect distance. And you can't predict how a small glob of mud on your ball will influence ball flight, so don't stress about it. A light breeze won't affect distance much if you hit the ball solidly. Concentrate on things that matter: alignment, rhythm and solid contact. Perform those well, and the small things won't really come into play

Johnny Miller

Sam Snead - two of my favourite quotes:

"These greens are so fast I have to hold my putter over the ball and hit it with the shadow."

"There is an old saying: If a man comes home with sand in his cuffs and cockleburs in his pants, don't ask him what he shot."

Cheers

Here's a collection of good ones about Winged Foot:

To match par on this course, you have to be luckier than a dog with two tails. -- Sam Snead

Putting at Winged Foot is like playing miniature golf without the sideboards. -- Hale Irwin

The last 18 are pretty tough. -- Jack Nicklaus, upon being asked about the difficulty of the finishing holes

Yes, I had some uphill putts...after all my downhill putts. -- Homero Blancas

" Why shouldn't I have ? I had a two shot lead. I was only 15 feet from the hole. And I knew the photographers were going to take my picture"


Ralph Guldahl on combing his hair before holing out on the final green in the 1937 US Open

"Yes, You are perfectly correct about the left hand, but the fact is that I take my checks with my right hand"

Bobby Locke

Harris Greenwood played on my golf team in college, played the US amateur, and than quit the game for about twenty-five years. When he got the urge to take up golf again, Harris came to see me at our new course by the river. "It's been so long since I've had a club in my hands that I can't remember how I used to swing," he said. "Who would you like to swing like?" I thought he would say Sam Snead. When he was in college, Harris' swing came over the top just a tad, as Snead's does.
" I want to swing like Ben Hogan," Harris said. I looked at him and shook my head. "Harris," I said, "I can't help you. Ben had to figure out his swing on his own, and if you want to swing like Ben, you'll need to resolve it for yourself." Certainly I do not denigrate the swing of one of the top golfers in history. Ben's swing in his prime was awesome to watch. I played with Ben when he was a young man with a big hook. I watched him change from a hooker to a fade, from a tough little competitor to a legend of the game. Ben did figure out his championship swing on his own, to fit his particular physique and personality and enhance his own virtues while blocking out his flaws. I couldn't teach Ben's swing to anyone. Millions have to copy it. A few like Gardner Dickinson and George Knudson, came very close. I would never try to teach a pupil to copy the swing of genius. I always tried to give my pupils knowledge of the swing through mental pictures and muscular sensations, and we would hope for the pupil's own individual genius to emerge.

Harvey Penick.

Brad wrote:


PERFECT SUMMATION

Regarding the Quote of Harvey Penick and Hogan's swing....Now THERE is something to contemplate for all of the " Would Be Hogan's " of the world. One of the all-time great teachers admitting that he could never teach anyone to swing like that. No wonder that so many try and fail and that there is so much talk of " The Secret ". Great quote Bradley and a real dose of reality too.

Getting a little tired of all this secret talk. Those in the know will appreciate this quote. I know I did when I read it.

"The key difference between the amateur and the professional is the violence with which the amateur commences the downswing" - Tom Watson

They say I get into too many bunkers. But is no problem. I am the best bunker player.

Severiano Ballesteros

If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.

Jack Lemmon

"He goes after a golf course like a lion at a zebra. He doesn't reason with it."

--Jim Murray, on Ballesteros

"He must have left a hole out."

--Hale Irwin, on Seve Ballesteros shooting a 16 in the last five holes of the 1979 British Open

MOE

PUT THIS DUMB THING ON THAT DUMB THING

TED WILLIAMS

" I FOUND THAT SPEED NOT WEIGHT WAS THE KEY TO HITTING" WHEN HE SWUNG AT IT HE STRUCK OUT.

" NOT EVEN THE BIG MAN UPSTAIRS HIMSELF CAN THROW ONE BY ME"

MY LATE FATHER

" SON WITHOUT GRAVITY AND FRICTION LEVERAGE IS IMPOSSIBLE AND PHYSICS DOES NOT EXSITS, SO USE THEM CAUSE A SWING REQUIRES AND OUTSIDE FORCE TO START AND STOP IT AND LAST TIME I LOOKED WE ARE THE ONLY ONES HOLDING THE CLUB SO HIT IT BECAUSE THAT IS HOW A HUMAN IS DESIGNED TO HIT SOMETHING."

HE ALSO SAID

AIM FOR IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE WHEN YOU FAIL YOU AT LEAST GOT TO INCREDIBLE AND EVEN IN FAILURE YOU WILL FIND SUCCESS THEN"

People don't play golf badly. They play bad golf perfectly

Chuck Hogan


When I heard this from Chuck few years ago, I, like other 60 in that room thought it was great joke. I think 58 is still thinking like that, if not thinking it at all... why to remember any jokes.

He watched us, and all who has met Chuck knows he's quite a person, and without any smile on his face he repeated it. People were laughing and he said it 3rd time. Then he gave up

Took me half a year to understand how deep was the message there and he never explained it.

The real problem in golf is that 95% of people are able to do perfectly what they try to do. Thats why they are playing like they are.

Was playing a four ball match one day, when my partner said to me on the second hole, "Bill, if you swing the club any faster, you're going to hurt yourself"

I quickly responded with the Bobby Jones quote I love. "There should be no suspicion of hurry in the goff swing".

" I shall never care to argue for anything that would lessen the difficulty of the game, because difficulty is it's greatest charm"

Bobby Jones

Aye Bradley,

Ain't it so. I think it was the poet Gibran that said "Those that know the most sorrow will know the most joy. What I know is that there is a lot of sorrow on the golf course.

" The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing"

Phyllis Diller

"Dividing the swing into its parts is like dissecting a cat. You'll have blood and guts and bones all over the place. But you won't have a cat."

Ernest Jones

This might be the best one.


Bradley Hughes wrote:

Golf is a game invented by the same people who think music comes out of bagpipes.

Author Unknown

"The first time I played The Masters I was so nervous I drank a bottle of rum before I teed off...It was the happiest 83 of my life"

Chi Chi Rodriguez

another Johnny Miller Quote:

I can see wanting 10 more yards with the driver, but squeezing extra distance out of your irons is the kiss of death. In my prime, my standard distance for the 9-iron was 125 yards. I hit my 6-iron 160, and my 4-iron 185. I didn't want to be long with my irons, only smooth. Reining in my swing speed was key to distance control and accuracy. If you can resist the tendency to swing more than 75 percent, you'll have better balance and rhythm. Your mechanics will be better, and you'll find the sweet spot more often. You don't need a crazy swing speed to spin the ball, either: Pure backspin comes from good contact more than anything else.