Merry Christmas Everyone.

I was just thinking about why we play and a poem came to mind.  Many have thought that it was composed by Moe Norman because he would recite it often.  In truth the compostition belongs to Paul Bertholy and it appeared in his instruction manual. Bertholy was an extreme innovator and I learned a great deal from his book and articles.  I actually mention him in the YouTube video "The Move" which sort of put this whole thing on the launch pad.  So here it is followed by a video about Moe in which he recites from this poem.

What’s it like to have Ben Hogan look you over with a critical eye?  I’m not talking about Ben Hogan doing a little goodwill gesture and taking a look at your action and offering a little constructive advice to help you improve.  I know that this happened many times to many folks throughout the years.  What I’m talking about is something completely different.

I’m talking about a skeptical Ben Hogan bringing a guy down to give a personal demonstration on the range at Shady Oaks so that Hogan himself can decide if it was a good idea for The Ben Hogan Company to put a trick shot artist on staff.  The trick shot artist was Mike Calbot.

“If you don’t know golf as a game of feeling, you are like a deaf man trying to play the piano by ear.  Then you, and the professional working with you, are up against the extremely difficult challenge of trying to get words to describe sensations that are felt when a correct swing is made.”  Ben Hogan said that.  I wasn’t aware of that quote previously but I found it in a book by Michael Hebron called “Golf Swing Secrets…and Lies” which he kindly sent to me recently.  I’m just digging into it but it is an interesting book to say the least.  Ben Hogan also said something to this effect “In reality I do not know why I hit it good.  I only know when I am hitting it good.”  In other words, the idea is to recognize the sensations of what it feels like to do it correctly and hit the golf ball flush and repeat that.  This is in essence what the point of practice and repetition is.  Find out what works and replicate it. 

Today is a very big day in The Dirt!! December 1^st 2010 ….  I’m going to mark that down for future reference.  Today we make good on our promise to help great people with great golf ideas get a bit of a leg up with the release of the new putting video The Reality of Putting.  The byline goes like this…

Just got back from Houston where we were filming Martin Ayers on the range at Champions.  The usual cast of characters was gathered round to see first hand what Martin and Elk have been working on together throughout this past golf season.  In the same way that Geoff Mangum was instrumental in Elk’s improvement on the greens (eg. 2^nd in Putting 3-5’ and 7^th in 3putt avoidance), Martin was instrumental in bringing a new level of power to Elk’s long game and that resulted in him finishing 11^th in Total Driving and 19^th in Ballstriking on the PGA Tour last year.

I got an email this weekend from Greg Lavern.  If you don’t know who Greg is, he’s a guy that travelled a fair bit and spent a bunch of time beating balls with Moe in the 1970’s. He says that he is Moe's Best Pupil and perhaps he is. This is what his action looks like today.

Click! Clack! Click! Clack! Remember that sound?  Wasn’t it great?  And, wasn’t it great back then to be able to tear into a golf ball knowing that you had something solid underneath you that wouldn’t budge?!  I guess a lot of folks reading this won’t even remember metal spikes or the debate that raged in the mid nineties over the introduction of Soft Spikes.

To the left is an amazing gif that was posted here in The Dirt.