Today we continue our look at the sport of golf.
Stroke mechanics
The golf swing is outwardly similar to many other motions
involving swinging a tool or playing implement, such as an axe or a baseball
bat; however, unlike many of these motions, the result of the swing is highly
dependent on several sub-motions being properly aligned and timed, to ensure
that the club travels up to the ball in line with the desired path, the
clubface is in line with the swing path, and the ball impacts the centre or
"sweet spot" of the clubface. The ability to do this consistently,
across a complete set of clubs with a wide range of shaft lengths and clubface
areas, is a key skill for any golfer, and takes a significant effort to
achieve.
Golfers start with the non-dominant side of the body facing
the target. At address, the player's body and the centerline of the club face
are positioned parallel to the desired line of travel, with the feet either
perpendicular to that line or slightly splayed outward. The feet are commonly
shoulder-width apart for middle irons and putters, narrower for short irons and
wider for long irons and woods. The ball is typically positioned more to the
"front" of the player's stance
for lower-lofted clubs, with the usual ball position for a drive being
just behind the arch of the leading foot. The ball is placed further
"back" in the player's stance
as the loft of the club to be used increases. Most iron shots and putts
are made with the ball roughly centered in the stance, while a few mid- and
short-iron shots are made with the ball slightly behind the centre of the
stance to ensure consistent contact between the ball and clubface, so the ball
is on its way before the club continues down into the turf.
The golfer chooses a golf club, grip, and stroke appropriate
to the distance:
The "drive" or "full swing" is used on
the teeing ground and fairway, typically with a wood or long iron, to produce
the maximum distance capable with the club. In the extreme, the windup can end
with the shaft of the club parallel to the ground above the player's shoulders.
The "approach" or "3/4 swing" is used in
medium- and long-distance situations where an exact distance and good accuracy
is preferable to maximum possible distance, such as to place the ball on the
green or "lay up" in front of a hazard. The windup or
"backswing" of such a shot typically ends up with the shaft of the
club pointing straight upwards or slightly towards the player.
The "chip" or "half-swing" is used for
relatively short-distance shots near the green, with high-lofted irons and
wedges. The goal of the chip is to land the ball safely on the green, allowing
it to roll out towards the hole. It can also be used from other places to
accurately position the ball into a more advantageous lie. The backswing
typically ends with the head of the club between hip and head height.
The "putt" is used in short-distance shots on or
near the green, typically made with the eponymous "putter", although
similar strokes can be made with medium to high-numbered irons to carry a short
distance in the air and then roll . the backswing and follow-through of the
putt are both abbreviated compared to other strokes, with the head of the club
rarely rising above the knee. The goal of the putt is usually to put the ball
in the hole, although a long-distance putt may be called a "lag" and
is made with the primary intention of simply closing distance to the hole or
otherwise placing the ball advantageously.
Having chosen a club and stroke to produce the desired
distance, the player addresses the ball by taking their stance to the side of
it and grounding the club behind the
ball. The golfer then takes their backswing, rotating the club, their arms and
their upper body away from the ball, and then begins their swing, bringing the
clubhead back down and around to hit the ball. A proper golf swing is a complex
combination of motions, and slight variations in posture or positioning can
make a great deal of difference in how well the ball is hit and how straight it
travels. The general goal of a player making a full swing is to propel the
clubhead as fast as possible while maintaining a single "plane" of
motion of the club and clubhead, to send the clubhead into the ball along the
desired path of travel and with the clubhead also pointing that direction.
Accuracy and consistency is typically stressed over pure
distance. A player with a straight drive that travels only will nevertheless be
able to accurately place the ball into a favourable lie on the fairway, and can
make up for the lesser distance of any given club by simply using "more
club" on their tee shot or on
subsequent fairway and approach shots. However, a golfer with a drive that may
go but often doesn't fly straight will be less able to position their ball
advantageously; the ball may "hook", "pull",
"draw", "fade", "push" or "slice" off
the intended line and land out of bounds or in the rough or hazards, and thus
the player will require many more strokes to hole out.
Musculature
A golf stroke uses muscles on core, hamstring, shoulder, and
wrist. Stronger muscles on wrist can prevent wrists from being twisted at
swings, while stronger shoulders increase the turning force. Weak wrists can
also deliver the impacts to elbows and even neck and lead to injury of them. Golf is a unilateral exercise that can break
body balances, requiring exercises to keep the balance in muscles.
Types of Putting
Putting is considered to be the most important component of
the game of golf. As the game of golf has evolved, there have been many
different putting techniques and grips that have been devised to give golfers
the best chance to make putts. When the game originated, golfers would putt
with their dominate hand on the bottom of the grip and their weak hand on top
of the grip. This grip and putting style is known as "conventional".
There are many variations of conventional including overlap, where the golfer
overlaps the off hand index finger onto off the dominant pinky; interlock,
where the offhand index finger interlocks with the dominant pinky and ring finger;
double or triple overlap and so on. Recently, "cross handed" putting
has become a popular trend amongst professional golfers and amateurs. Cross
handed putting is the idea that the dominant hand is on top of the grip where
the weak hand is on the bottom. This grip restricts the motion in your dominant
hand and eliminates the possibility of wrist breakdowns through the putting
stroke.
Other notable putting styles include "the claw", a
style that has the grip directly in between the thumb and index finger of the
dominant hand while the palm faces the target. The weak hand placed normally on
the putter. Anchored putting, a style that requires a longer putter shaft that
can be anchored into the players stomach or below the chin; the idea is to
stabilize one end of the putter thus creating a more consistent pendulum
stroke. This style will be banned in 2016 on the profession circuits.
Scoring and handicapping
Par
A hole is classified by its par, meaning the number of
strokes a skilled golfer should require to complete play of the hole. Missing a
GIR does not necessarily mean a golfer won't make par, but it does make doing
so more difficult as it reduces the number of putts available; conversely,
making a GIR does not guarantee a par, as the player might require three or
more putts to "hole out". Professional golfers typically make between
60% and 70% of greens in regulation.
The primary factor for classifying the par of a relatively
straight, hazard-free hole is the distance from the tee to the green. A typical
par-3 hole is less than 250 yards in
length, with a par-4 hole ranging between 251 and 475 yards, and a par-5 hole
being longer than 475 yards . The rare par-6s can stretch well over 650 yards .
These distances are based on the typical scratch golfer's drive distance of
between ; a green further than the average player's drive will require
additional shots from the fairway. However, other considerations must be taken
into account; the key question is "how many strokes would a scratch golfer
take to make the green by playing along the fairway?". The grade of the
land from the tee to the hole might increase or decrease the carry and rolling
distance of shots as measured linearly along the ground. Sharp turns or hazards
may require golfers to "lay up" on the fairway in order to change
direction or hit over the hazard with their next shot. These design
considerations will affect how even a scratch golfer would play the hole,
irrespective of total distance from tee to green, and must be included in a determination
of par. However, a par score never includes "expected" penalty
strokes, as a scratch player is never "expected" to hit a ball into a
water hazard or other unplayable situation. So, the placement of hazards only
affect par when considering how a scratch golfer would avoid them.
Eighteen-hole courses typically total to an overall par
score of 72 for a complete round; this is based on an average par of 4 for
every hole, and so is often arrived at by designing a course with an equal
number of par-5 and par-3 holes, the rest being par-4. Many combinations exist
that total to par-72, and other course pars exist from 68 up to 76, and are not
less worthy than courses of par-72. Additionally, in some countries including
the United States, courses are classified according to their play difficulty,
which may be used to calculate a golfer's playing handicap for a given course.
The two primary difficulty ratings in the U.S. are the
Course Rating, which is effectively the expected score for a zero-handicap
"scratch golfer" playing the course, and the Slope Rating, which is a
measure of how much worse a "bogey golfer" would be expected to play than a
"scratch golfer". These two numbers are available for any
USGA-sanctioned course, and are used in a weighted system to calculate
handicaps.
Scoring
The goal is to play as few strokes per round as possible. A
golfer's score is usually expressed as the difference between the player's
number of strokes and the par score. A hole in one occurs when a golfer sinks his ball into the
cup with his first stroke from the tee. Common scores for a hole also have
specific terms.
Stableford
The Stableford system is a simplification of stroke play
that awards players points based on their score relative to the hole's par; the
score for a hole is calculated by taking the par score, adding 2, then
subtracting the player's hole score, making the result zero if negative.
Alternately stated, a double bogey or worse is zero points, a bogey is worth
one point, par is two, a birdie three, an eagle four, and so on. The advantages
of this system over stroke play are a more natural "higher is better"
scoring, the ability to compare Stableford scores between plays on courses with
different total par scores, discouraging the tendency to abandon the entire
game after playing a particularly bad hole, and the ability to simply pick up
one's ball once it is impossible to score any points for the hole, which speeds
play.
The USGA and R&A sanction a "Modified
Stableford" system for scratch players, which makes par worth zero, a
birdie worth 2, eagle 5 and double-eagle 8, while a bogey is a penalty of -1
and a double-bogey or worse -3. As with the original system, the highest score
wins the game, and terrible scores on one or two holes won't wreck an entire
game, but this system rewards "bogey-birdie" play more than the
original, encouraging golfers to try to make the riskier birdie putt or eagle
chipshot instead of simply parring each hole.
Fourball: defined in Rules 30 and 31, this is also played
between two teams of two players each, but every player plays their own ball
and for each team, the lower score on each hole counts. Fourballs can be played
as match play or stroke play.
Part Three Coming Tomorrow.
Tipster Street.
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