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 Zen Golf Newsletter - March 2004
Tour Notes: Everybody Loves Raymond, New Approach to Zen Golf Schools Notes on the Next Book Zen Golf Lessons: Putting Tour Notes: Everybody Loves Raymond, and Raymond Loves Zen Golf TV stars Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Kevin James (King of Queens) are new students of Zen Golf. Driving together from Los Angeles to Pebble Beach to play in the ATT National Pro-Am, they listened to the entire Zen Golf audiobook, four hour-long CD’s. The next day they played in the charity event, “Celebrity Shoot-Out,” winning it on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach as more than a thousand people watched from the grandstands. Ray was handed a microphone as they accepted first prize, and he announced, “We owe it all to Zen Golf!” And another note of congratulations to Vijay Singhon his sixteenth Tour victory at the same ATT National Pro-Am, and an amazing run of 12 consecutive top-10 finishes. In the era of the all-exempt Tour (since 1970), only Jack Nicklaus’ 14 top-10’s in a row exceeded Vijay’s string. Jay Williamson started working with Dr. Parent at the Buick Invitational in San Diego, and the next week had a breakthrough at the Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club near Los Angeles. Playing with Tiger Woods on Sunday, Jay shot a bogey-free 64, matching Tiger for the low round of the tournament and a seventh-place finish. It was Jay’s lowest round on tour since the 2000 season. **************************************** New Approach to Zen Golf Schools The next Zen Golf School will be a two-day school at Rancho San Marcos Golf Club, Santa Barbara, California Wednesday March 31 to Thursday April 1, 2004 Because Dr. Parent’s schedule includes PGA Tour events and corporate outings, we can only offer a limited number of golf schools. From this point on, all golf schools will be scheduled by arrangement only. Give us the range of dates you are available to attend a golf school, and we will sort the requests and schedule schools that best fit the dates that most golfers can attend. You’ll be notified and given the opportunity to enroll. If you have a group of golfers, please contact us and we will find a date and create a Custom Golf School for you at Rancho San Marcos Golf Course in Santa Barbara or at your home course. We will resume offering schools in Palm Desert in the fall. Special Package: Fess Parker's Wine Country Inn is offering a special package for all Zen Golf School participants, including luxury accommodations, massages, wine tasting, etc. Go to http://www.fessparker.com/html/zen_golf_getaway.html for details. ********************************************* Notes on the Next Book Interactive publishing for a Zen Golf series: There may be a simultaneous publication of more than one ‘next’ Zen Golf book. There is a wealth of material from Dr. Parent’s lessons, schools, and corporate presentations. Here’s an opportunity for you to participate in interactive publishing. Please send emails to let us know what instruction topics you’d like emphasized. So far, the most common requests have been: more instruction on putting; dealing with distractions (especially with regard to other golfers on the course with you), how to integrate swing instruction and the mental game, and how the Zen Golf approach applies to life experiences beyond golf. We look forward to hearing from you! ****************************************** ZEN GOLF LESSONS: Putting Soften Your Grip “Once I’ve started the putter in motion, it's as if it's swinging itself.” Ben Crenshaw Kevin had just three-putted four times in the first round of a professional tournament. He told me that he’d just been to the putting laboratory of one of the top technical analysts in the game, and that he’d checked out a-ok: stance, hands and shoulder action, ball position, and all the specifications of his putter. We started by ‘putting to nowhere,’ a technique introduced in Zen Golf: just putting the ball various distances on the green without aiming at a hole. Everything about his set-up looked good, but the roll wasn’t all that pure, especially when he putted shorter ones. In a very subtle way, he was ‘hitting’ at the ball a little more than ‘stroking’ the putt. Just as in my clinics on the putting green, I asked him to set up to a putt and tell me when he was all set to stroke it. When he said, “I’m ready,” I said, “Don’t change your grip pressure. Keep it exactly as it is now. I’m going to move the putter shaft; don’t change the grip pressure, no matter what I do.” Grasping the putter shaft lightly, I tilted it away from him. “Keep the same grip pressure,” I said and started to pull the putter out of his hands. He was gripping it so firmly that he was pulled out of his stance rather than the putter coming out of his hands. Then I set up with the putter and had him pull on it and feel it slip easily out of my hands, with just a bit of friction. I said, “Grip it that way.” We did the exercise again and it came out just the same as it did when I gripped it. He rolled a couple of putts with the softer grip pressure, and they rolled much more purely. I had him waggle the putter with both a soft and a tight grip so he could experience how you can feel the weight of the putter head much better with the soft grip. He said that he’d been feeling that the putter head was sort of waving around when he took it back. Paradoxically, the tighter the grip the more it will move around because a slight movement with your hands will translate into a big movement at the other end of the club. He said the new grip pressure felt a little loose, and I explained that the feeling came from the contrast with having gotten used to holding it so firmly. I encouraged him to find the ideal grip pressure for him, trying out different grip pressures on a one-to five scale, with 0 as the putter falling out, and 5 as a white knuckle grip, until he found one that felt ‘not too tight and not too loose,’ as in that chapter of Zen Golf. He’d had 35 putts during his round that day. The next day he had 25. ********************************************** Welcome to Cody Free, the new Zen Golf office manager. You’ll find that she’s extremely helpful and will be happy to answer any of your questions, by email or phone. Fairways and Greens The Zen Golf Staff (805)884-1978
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