Three putting vs Silky smooth roll

CHENNAI: Every time there is a break in the game –which is fairly often—for whatever reason, recreational golfers turn to social media to experience phantom golfing. The internet also is very obliging and helpful: like a teleprompter for a newsreader, the number of golf videos that pop up are never ending.

One video corrects your grip by comparing with that of a pro—for example, amateurs apparently tighten their grip while decelerating, whereas pros are nonchalantly easy with their downswing. With obvious results. Then there are videos where they demo the best way to come out of the bunker—here, the ball not only comes out of the bunker, the beauty lies in the fact that it lands at a ‘gimme’ .

Every golfer knows about practicing with an alignment stick. Quite a few videos on them are hilariously eye ball rolling ones: I recently saw a video where one stick is threaded through the trouser belt (yes, really), while the other is fixed vertically, a foot or two behind the player. The idea is to take the back swing to the exact degree and rotate back and complete the waist turn and down the shoulder correctly.

MAJOR MISSES

The statistical ones are the hardest to refrain from comparing your game with—there was one post recently, on the average distance of a 62-year-old famous player. His drives still touch down at 250+ yards, woods likewise, the wedges a little shy of 100. Maybe 80 occasionally. Then I chanced upon one post that said : Golf is hard.. even for a guy with two majors this year.. It showed Xander Schauffele’s ball landing near a tree root and Xander missing his shot twice before heeding his caddy’s advice to opt for the unplayable ball rule. Both, the misses and the caddy’s comments, are so up an amateur’s fairway that you miss the sport more while sitting out the rain and get back to watching more such videos.

Have you watched the ones where pros serial putt on the green with tees lined up (zig zag, at that) ? Serious skill set, those. Great booster shots to one’s morale or game. Golf is such a mental and physical fitness sport and the beauty of it is it is accessible to both pros and amateurs. When the weather prevents one from playing, one can get withdrawal symptoms, and hence there is a huge constituency for golf content, online.

One that went viral recently was a cartoon where the player confesses, “I am Bob and I am a three putter”. The support group, gathered like an alcohol anonymous group, welcomes him warmly to their fold. Even the most talented golfers have known to two putt or miss putts that are less than a foot.

NALLI NUDGE

Very few golfers have both control and ability to read and stay the line. Nalli Viswanath is one of them. Hailing from the Nalli family, famous all over the world for their silk and clothing chain, Nalli Viswanath’s travels on work keep him away from the golf course but even a month’s break cannot dent his putting skill. Like a soft, silk thread, his putts have a poetic rhythm, strength of a yarn and the eye of a missile. Playing with him recently at the Cosmo TNGF golf course, when I watched (with envy) the precision with which the ball rolled in a measured manner, maintaining the same speed and strength, I asked him the secret behind his putting. He modestly gave credit to his coach of his early years, but agreed that he has been blessed with a combination of skill and knowledge (of the green). By the way, he has never three-putted, in recent memory.

 * The writer is an avid golfer