Grouchy Golf Blog

When a 19 year-old Sergio Garcia first burst onto the worldwide golf stage at the 1999 PGA Championship, many thought that this young upstart could be one of the "young guns" to finally challenge Tiger Woods for many years to come. Alas, he never panned out to be the rival to Tiger that many had hoped. In fact, most view his career to date as a disappointment. While he has won 20 tournaments worldwide, none have been majors. A balky putter and a shaky mental game are the major reasons why Sergio hasn't occupied a place in the game's elite echelon. But what's most disappointing to me about Sergio is not his career but the manner that he has carried himself over his career. Sergio has been one of those guys who always finds someone else to blame for their woes. It was easy to dismiss this as immaturity early in his career, but now at age 33, it no longer holds water.

At the 2013 Players Championship Sergio complained that Tiger interrupted his back-swing. It was a curious complaint, to say the least, because Tiger was out of view clear across the other side of the course surrounded by a sea of people and could not have intentionally timed an interruption. Sergio's complaint would carry some merit if Tiger had swung out of sequence or during Sergio's swing. But that didn't happen. It seems the unforgivable offense that Tiger seems to have committed in the eyes of Sergio is that he pulled a club from his bag. The crowd reacted with approval at the club Tiger pulled and this interrupted Sergio. If it seems ridiculous to be upset at a playing partner for pulling a club during your swing, you are not alone. I already called a wahmbulance.

But this incident didn't die as it normally should. Instead, Sergio used it as a springboard to vent his frustration at the World's #1. He clearly doesn't like Tiger and made it known that his main beef is over honesty. In response to Tiger's explanation of the incident, Sergio replied, "That's fine. At least I'm true to myself. I know what I'm doing, and he can do whatever he wants." A week later Sergio said, "He called me a whiner. That's probably right. It's also probably the first thing he's told you guys that's true in 15 years. I know what he is like. You guys are finding out."

Like him or not, Sergio isn't afraid to speak his mind. Many applauded Sergio for calling out the false persona known as Tiger Woods. But wasn't that already revealed after the 2009 Thanksgiving Day Massacre? Regardless, Sergio's praise and goodwill among the Tiger-haters quickly evaporated after he was asked if he planned to have dinner with Woods at the U.S. Open. Sergio joked, "We will have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken." Yup, he went there and at that moment Garcia went too far. Sergio apologized for his comment explaining that "in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner." But such a comment is clearly racist. How do you use a racist comment not meant in a racist manner? I find it highly suspect that Sergio conjured up "fried chicken" just randomly. It's clear that Sergio was trying to make a humorous comment by using a racial stereotype. If Sergio were really true to himself, as he has claimed, he would own up to his action and apologize for making a racist comment instead of claiming the comment wasn't racist. Ironically, it is now Sergio's honesty that is put into question.

I love virtually all sports. However, no sport is perfect and over the years I’ve thought of some ideas to improve specific sports:

In baseball, reduce the number of fielders by one. I find that baseball can be excruciatingly boring. I attribute it to an imbalance between offense and defense. In my opinion, there are just too many fielders. Simply reducing the number of fielders by one would open up the game and introduce much more strategy. For instance, do you take out an infielder or an outfielder? If you only have 2 outfielders, do you position them favoring the left field or the right field? These are decisions that will really make baseball managers earn their keep.

In basketball, make shooting fouls optional. If a team is fouled and they are awarded free throws, they should have the option to instead take the ball out of bounds. This would avoid the common situation at the end of games where teams use fouling as a weapon and the game turns into a free throw shooting contest. Can you think of another sport where teams intentionally commit penalties? Allowing teams to inbound the ball instead of shooting free throws would eliminate the ridiculous and embarrassing “Hack a Shaq” strategy.

In football, make the extra point kick attempt a little more difficult. In its current state, it amounts to little more than a gimmie. How about extending the length of an extra point attempt by 10 yards? It would make the game much more interesting and dramatic.

When it comes to golf, there's almost too many things that I'd like to change. But most of all, I find it tremendously unfair that you must play the ball as it lies even if it happens to land in a sand-filled divot. How many times have you celebrated a great drive in the middle of the fairway only to have it replaced with disappointment from a random divot? The fairway is supposed to reward you for a quality shot by providing the best lie for your next shot. I most certainly would rather play out of the first cut of rough than a mini-sand bunker of a divot. I say that this is ground under repair and that you should get a free drop. If I really had it my way, I'd take it one step further and rule that all players are allowed to lift, clean, and place balls that land in the fairway. If all players are allowed to do this, isn't it fair for all? After all, isn't that why they call it the "fairway"?

There are uncountable differences between amateurs and pros. One of the main ones is that pros have repeatable swings developed over years of mashing the rock.

Here's a cool Sport Science video analysis of the repeat-ability of Lexi Thompson's swing:

I played golf the other day with a guy who claimed to have just figured out golf. After struggling with this god-forsaken game for so long, I cautioned him to watch the words that sprang from his mouth. I explained to him that the purpose of golf was to drive us crazy. For some unknown reason, the Gods wanted to punish us mortals with an impossible to master game that would appear to be just the opposite. They called it golf and appointed the Golf Gods to maintain the game’s devilish deception. Anytime a mortal threatens to quit the game out of frustration, the Golf Gods will offer a tiny glimmer of hope to draw them back into the game. On the other hand, the Golf Gods are quick to strike down any golfer who becomes the least bit overconfident.

Dismissing my warning, my playing partner explained how he came to figure out golf. He said that he discovered the teachings of a golf instructor by the name of Geoff Jones who goes by the alias “Slicefixer” on the Internet. I was told to simply Google “Slicefixer” and all would be revealed.

Well I did, and I found a lot. Basically, Geoff was a teammate of Fred Couples on the University of Houston golf team. Geoff was an accomplished junior golfer who was the top dog in his hometown. But he soon realized that things were different in Houston after witnessing Freddie easily outdriving him to the tune of 50 yards. Geoff believed that he had to hit the ball farther to compete at the next level. Unfortunately, this quest for distance led him down a path of destruction that left his swing in complete disarray. He spent years to relearn the golf swing and return to his former glory. He has shared his findings for free in the SliceFixer’s Encyclopedia Texarkana.

Also, here's a video of Geoff's story and his concepts:



I have reviewed Geoff’s teachings and they sound valid to me. I plan on working on his concepts and hopefully they’ll get me closer to figuring out golf.

Labels: Swing Tips