John Smoltz’s first foray into serious senior golf came at last year’s U.S. Senior Open, where he shot 85-77 at the Broadmoor to miss the cut. Not that the ultra-competitive retired pitcher was surprised.

“Look, I had a flight home Saturday,” Smoltz admitted to GolfDigest.com. “I wasn’t really thinking I was going to make the cut.”

But it was on that flight home where he also took copious notes about his performance to prepare for the next time a similar opportunity arose. And that time is now.

Smoltz, 51, will tee it up on the PGA Tour Champions this week at the Cologuard Classic. It’s the first of three sponsor exemptions the MLB Hall-of-Famer has accepted to play on the senior circuit this year.

“When the phone call came for this opportunity to play in three events,” said Smoltz, who is an analyst for Fox and MLB Network. “I was like a little kid who just got one of the best Christmas gifts.”

Smoltz joined me to discuss his latest opportunity to showcase his golf game on a big stage, his recent win at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, his impressive backyard golf setup, and how a big baseball trade changed both his career on the field and on the course. He also talked about his senior tour aspirations going forward and a special buddies trip he’s planning with some former teammates.

Plus, Sam Weinman and Keely Levins joined me to discuss Dustin Johnson’s latest win, the LPGA backstopping controversy, and punching out from the trees. Please have a listen:

SOURCE:  Golfdigest

How to Avoid the Most Common Golf Injury

Golf is a unique sport because you can often participate even if you’re not as physically fit as you once were. That said, golf isn’t always an injury-free sport. Low back pain is the golf injury you’re most likely to sustain. Luckily, it can be avoided.

The following tips will help.

Warm Up

Golf may not seem as intense as a sport like football or hockey, but you still need to warm up before playing. Loosening your muscles helps to prevent discomfort. Practice these basic exercises to prep your muscles for a few hours on the course:

• Hold the club behind your neck, one hand on each end, and rotate your torso to stretch your neck.
• Pull your knees towards your chest a few times to stretch out your hips.
• Keep your hamstrings loose by bending down and reaching towards your shoes.

If you’re having trouble with these stretches, or they don’t seem to be effective, getting direct access to physical therapy could help. A few sessions with an expert could help you learn how to properly stretch before golfing to avoid lower back and other injuries.

Practice Your Swing

Golfers apply torque and torsion to their lower backs in order to generate sufficient club speed when swinging. This puts strain on the lower back. That’s why practicing a swing regularly is important. You want to emphasize smooth motions. Additionally, researchers have found that attempting to mimic the “X-factor” swing of professionals (in which you attempt to maximize rotation of your shoulders relative to your hips) may result in injury.

Maintaining proper balance while swinging also helps protect your back. Keep your knees bent and shoulder width-apart, while maintaining a straight spine.

It will take practice to develop a smooth swing, but it’s necessary. Doing so will keep you comfortable while also improving your overall performance while playing.

Get the Right Golf Bag

Lifting heavy items incorrectly or repeatedly can result in low back pain. In other words, your swing isn’t the only part of your game you need to optimize if you want to avoid discomfort. You also need the right golf bag.

Don’t use one you have to set down on the ground every time you’re ready to take a swing. Get a bag that has a stand, so you don’t have to lift it up repeatedly throughout a round.

Don’t Make Assumptions About Age

It’s easy to assume low back pain is something only older golfers need to worry about. However, the X-factor swing described above is often more likely to cause certain injuries in younger players. They tend to have more muscle mass than older generations, which puts significant pressure on their spines during the swinging motion. They may also be more likely to apply excessive force. Even if you’re a younger golfer, you should keep these tips in mind. Doing so will also help avoid injury as you get older.

Again, golf is the type of sport you can play well into old age. You’re more likely to be able to if you avoid low back pain. Remembering these points will help you stay out on the course for years.

SOURCE:  Golftipsmag

Solutions for when you’re between yardages

You probably feel pretty good when you’re at the perfect yardage for the club in your hands. But what about those annoying yardages, like when a full 7-iron is going to be too much, and a full 8-iron might not get there? Or when you’re 45 yards from the green and your full lob wedge flies 60? I’ve seen many golfers struggle in these situations because they swing too hard or decelerate the club to try to control distance, and neither really works. If you want to hit more shots pin-high, give the methods I’ve used on the PGA Tour a try. Let’s start with in-between yardages. Here I’m swinging a 7-iron. I normally hit it 185 yards, so if I have 175 to the pin, I stand slightly closer to the ball and narrow my stance a few inches.

I also grip down an inch or so. When I swing, the only adjustment is to stop my backswing just short of my usual top position. Then I make my normal through-swing. I don’t change my speed coming through the ball. That’s key.

Swing speed also is important when you have less than a full wedge into a green. This is the area of the course where I’ve noticed amateurs struggle the most. Part of the reason is because they don’t have a consistent plan for how to handle these short shots. If you don’t have a strategy, it’s hard to know what to practice. And without practice, you’re going to struggle on the course.

The way I handle these shots is to regulate the length of the backswing depending on the length of the shot—shorter distances mean shorter backswings. But the thing to remember is, just like with in-between yardages on longer shots, you have to swing through the ball at the same pace no matter the distance.

I practice three swing lengths with my sand wedge that are less than full, so I have three distances locked in when I’m on the course. If I stop my backswing when the shaft is around the height of my hips (above), I know the ball will go 35 yards. When my forearms are parallel to the ground, it’s going 60 yards. And when my hands stop at my shoulders, it’s going to go 80 yards. Again, I can’t stress enough that you never want to slow down as you come through. It leads to inconsistent strikes.

“KEEP YOUR SWING SPEED UP ON SHORTER SHOTS.”

For even better results, add this to your range sessions: Hit 10 balls each with your backswing stopping at three different lengths. Make note of how far the ball goes with each, and rely on those swings to produce the right yardages when you get on the course. You’ll be a lot more confident in hitting half-wedge shots pin-high.—with Keely Levins

SOURCE:  Golfdigest

Hosung Choi and his unconventional swing leave Pebble Beach after earning respect

Hosung Choi’s weeklong parade around Monterey Peninsula finished in bitter rain Saturday at Pebble Beach, the conclusion accompanied by a missed cut in the Crosby Clambake known officially as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Yet the 45-year-old from a small fishing village in South Korea, who took up golf when he was 25, couldn’t stop smiling as the waves crashed the craggy coastline. He had won the lottery, after all, and his first trip to American soil and his first start on the PGA Tour left a lasting impression not only for Choi but for those entertained by his affable personality, showmanship and outrageous follow-throughs full of twists and turns that have made him an internet sensation.

On the scenic stages of Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course, Choi was the biggest star in a tournament filled with celebrities and some of the game’s best players, his festive galleries larger than those following Bill Murray, Wayne Gretzky, Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth.

“I definitely felt the love from my fans,” Choi said through an interpreter.

Choi returned the love. He acknowledged most every shout out from his followers, many coming in his native tongue. He signed tons of autographs and posed for hundreds of selfies. He was Mickelson without flashing the thumbs up.

Playing on a sponsor’s exemption, he showed his appreciation by plunking down his own cash to buy clothing featuring the tournament logo and wore his new duds through 54 holes. He literally ran to the media center for his pre-tournament presser to make sure he wasn’t late.

And Saturday he gave each of his playing partners – actor Chris O’Donnell, his teammate, and pro Jerry Kelly and his teammate, Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers – one of his clubhead covers that feature a silhouette of his one-legged follow-through.

“They were such great people,” Choi said. “And even when I had a bad shot or was struggling, they encouraged me, and they gave me words of advice out there. And I tried to give them a gift to remind them of me.”

Choi, Rodgers said, was the gift that kept on giving.

“We had him over to the house, him and his family. We had a blast,” Rodgers said. “There’s obviously some loss in translation with the language barrier, but we had his translator there, and we just had a blast. He’s a great guy. I think it’s great for the tournament and for golf. Obviously, his swing gets a lot of attention, but he’s a good player. It was a lot of fun to play with him.”

While the record will show he missed the cut by 11 shots after rounds of 72-75-77, Choi wasn’t out of his element in a week full of elements featuring hail, showers and bone-chilling temps. The four-time winner on the Japanese and Korean tours was baffled by the Poa annua greens but was far from a sideshow, as he impressed Kelly, who has six victories on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions.

“I really love the action,” Kelly said. “It made me want to get my leg into it just a little bit and see if I can get a little extra. His fundamentals at impact are pretty darn good, and he can shift it and roll it. So, there’s no reason that he can’t compete.”

On Sunday night, Choi left for Guam for a photo shoot and doesn’t know when he’ll play next. While he was disappointed in his play on the Monterey Peninsula, Choi was far from downcast about his future and said he hopes to receive more invitations to play on the PGA Tour.

“If I’m lucky enough to get another invite, I’ll be happy to play in any other tournament,” Choi said. “I learned a lot from this experience.

“I will continue to dream.”

SOURCE:  USAtoday

Who knew??

The longest recorded drive on an ordinary course is one of 515 yards by Michael Hoke Austin of Los Angeles, California, in the US National Seniors Open Championship at Las Vegas, Nevada on September 25, 1974

What is your longest drive?

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