Seve!

[Homerson]

Lynn and Annikan,

I am interested in your opinions on Seve's short game in a Golfing Machine (or Morad) context. How would you classify a lot of what he did around the greens? Particularly I am interested to hear your thoughts on how he learnt his variations, one of the means being learning with only a 3 iron.

Much Appreciated in advance,

[Yoda]

I am interested in your opinions on Seve's short game in a Golfing Machine (or Morad) context. How would you classify a lot of what he did around the greens?

1. Open-Open Plane Line/Stance Line Combination;

2. Vertical Hinge Action (Cut and Lob Shots); and

3. Deliberate Clubhead Throwaway.

[Homerson]

Thank you,

Do you think this proceedure is valid 'only' for tour players, or for those people who are willing to put a huge amount of time into it?
Would you ever teach it?

Regards,

[Homerson]

1. Open-Open Plane Line/Stance Line Combination;

2. Vertical Hinge Action (Cut and Lob Shots); and

3. Deliberate Clubhead Throwaway.

Is this all there is to it?
Can you teach his creativity?

[vj]

The creativity is created by the practice of the necessary components........not the other way around.

[birdie_man]

I agree with you VJ.

When my technique is way off I don't care how much imagination I have I won't be able to hit any dramatic recovery shots- flop shots, etc. Put a club in Picasso's hands (creative guy I guess) and he won't be able to do it either w/o technique....

You have to be able to control that clubface/clubhead/clubshaft....

I don't like all the talk about "creativity"....no offence....but that word gets tossed around so much.....I personally don't even know what it means....or how it relates to golf.

Same with "imagination".....everyone says it's so important....I dunno....what's there to imagine.....? Maybe if they mean visualizing the shot??? I dunno.....I just think there's more to it than having an "imagination"....that just sounds too vague to me.

Maybe if your technique is perfect....then maybe creativity (whatever the hell it really means) makes the difference? Somehow....? I dunno.

Still sounds sketchy to me....don't know what it means.....

I think if you're skilled enough you can do whatever you want....skill=technique=confidence. Although, under pressure is prolly a different story....in which case I guess you'd need to know how to manage yourself and your anxiety.

[Yoda]

Thank you,

Do you think this proceedure is valid 'only' for tour players, or for those people who are willing to put a huge amount of time into it?
Would you ever teach it?

Regards,

Virtually all my students leave The Swamp with these shots in the bag.

[Homerson]

How did Seve get to be so good? Do you really think he had a silent stash of Yoda's notes and read them all by the time he played the British Open at age 17?

For that matter, how do most kids under the age of 14 learn? How could anyone under the age of 21 achieve anything without an encyclopedic command of technical instruction????
Break down the words creativity and imagination, and you might have an answer!

I haven't taken any offence...I do think it is a little one dimensional to diminish how 'prolly' 9 out of 10 PGA tour guys would have acquired their skill sets.

I find it interesting how one of the top instructional web sites devote as much time to a brilliant dissertation on Steve Elkington's flop shot can then write (off) Seve's brilliance in three lines(one post), and one line(another post)!

I am still interested in Annikan's opinion since, I believe, Seve's short game was modeled by Mac O'Grady...

[Homerson]

Virtually all my students leave The Swamp with these shots in the bag.

But what about those situations that can't be neatly fitted into a proceedure? Is there an advanced level? Would you 'ever' say to a student, "Here, take your three iron and learn to play soft, spinning shots out of that bunker?"

Yoda, I hope my tone is not coming across as aggressive. I am just very interested in alternative means of achieving greatness, which I believe Seve, for one, achieved.

[birdie_man]

How did Seve get to be so good? Do you really think he had a silent stash of Yoda's notes and read them all by the time he played the British Open at age 17?

For that matter, how do most kids under the age of 14 learn? How could anyone under the age of 21 achieve anything without an encyclopedic command of technical instruction????
Break down the words creativity and imagination, and you might have an answer!

I haven't taken any offence...I do think it is a little one dimensional to diminish how 'prolly' 9 out of 10 PGA tour guys would have acquired their skill sets.

I find it interesting how one of the top instructional web sites devote as much time to a brilliant dissertation on Steve Elkington's flop shot can then write (off) Seve's brilliance in three lines(one post), and one line(another post)!

I am still interested in Annikan's opinion since, I believe, Seve's short game was modeled by Mac O'Grady...

I dunno......I guess some would call it imagination....I just don't know what that is really. "Imagination." I just don't like it. Everyone talks about it so much.....no one explains what they think it is. I guess "it's" a hard thing to explain....prolly means different things to different people.

It just sounds like a vague thing to me....and I guess that's what it would be....it's such a feel thing.

I just jumped on that fast because imagination is always seemingly pegged as the universal answer to everything in golf.
Maybe I came out too strong.

...

I guess it's how Seve learned....how most PROS learned....and that's great I guess...

But you can't just take someone who can't hit the ball and tell him to use his imagination....it worked for the pros sure, but it doesn't work for 90% or everyone else....and I'm not sure one could say that people can't hit the ball because of a lack of imagination either.

...I suppose it's how you should execute....with feel, imagination, w/e you wanna call it. "Feel from mechanics."

I'm not so sure it's how EVERYONE should PURELY LEARN though....(not EVERYONE I said...some ppl do it well) I don't think that's what you were getting at....but I wanna say it.