Right Field Bleachers

I drove up to Massachusetts to meet DJ to work with him before and follow him the entire tournament, the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston. The Deutsche Bank Championship is the 2nd round of the four tournament playoff series for the FedEx cup.

I came in two days early instead of four days because I was on hold, having to wait to see if DJ would stay qualified for week 2 as he missed the cut and faced elimination if his FedEx ranking number rose above 100. He fell from 81 to 95 and made the field, so I jumped in the car and got to Southeastern Mass by mid-Sunday morning, ready to meet DJ on Tuesday when he got there from New York City.

I came up two days before DJ because the plan was to play a few rounds of golf with Bob, a fraternity brother of mine and member of my college golf team at UMass, Dartmouth. Bob and I played all our matches together for all four years as I played 1st man and he was 2nd man on the team. So, we go way back together more than 40 years. Since Bob stills lives in Dartmouth, the Deutsche Bank is our reunion every year.

Bob still plays a good game of golf at Allendale CC in Dartmouth. Being a retired school teacher he plays fairly regularly, keeping his handicap at 4. Allendale brings back memories for me. I caddied there when I was kid. The biggest moment for me came 3 years ago when I came up for our 1st annual golf and Deutsche Bank Tournament outing. After playing, Bob took me into the clubhouse for lunch. We sat down in the grill room and, looking around, I realized that was the first time I was ever inside the clubhouse. I had played the course many times on caddy days and in junior tournaments, but never went inside.

Riding to Allendale to play a quick late evening few holes the first day I got in, Bob told me that he was struggling to play to his 4 handicap, having too many rounds where he was rolling along pretty good and then the wheels fell off with a couple of just off the world bad drives or shots dead right.

We get to the course and I am watching Bob'€™s setup routine and swing to diagnose what is causing the bad bock rights. His first swing had a big left side pull up and out of the shot, with his left foot lifting off the ground and spinning left. That caused his arms and hands to under release, opening the face at impact. So up and away it went to the right. With the swing problem found, I turned to analyzing his setup to see if the ultimate cause was rooted there.

Sure enough, the root of the problem was his setup. He was aimed 40 plus yards to the right and many times his block rights were not blocks but in fact good shots hit right where he was aimed — dead right. I had Bob re-load and walk in again so I could see if there was anything in his walk into the ball that could be the problem. Sure enough, the problem was sitting on top of his shoulders. No, it wasn'€™t bad thoughts, or getting angry, it was his head was out of position, tilted or cocked way to the right.

I stopped Bob from swinging and told him to hold his setup. I pointed out to him that his head was cocked toward his right shoulder. He agreed it was and I asked him why he did that. '€œIt helps me keep my head behind the ball.'€ I said that was one of the two answers I usually get when I ask that question to head cockers. I told Bob that behind the ball was really answering #2 and that the number 1 answer was '€œJack Nicklaus does it.'€

I asked Bob to walk in and address the ball again with his head cocked to the right. Once setup, I laid a club across his toes and then I took my driver and held it directly under his eyes and asked him if the shaft was in line with them. He answered yes and with me holding the club in place, I then asked him to walk out and go behind the club and tell me where it pointed. '€œDead right'€ was his answer. I then asked him to look where his toe line was aimed. '€œDead right and parallel to my eyes.'€ I laughed and said, '€œYeah, out there in the right field bleachers, exactly where you'€™re hitting your off the world shots. '€œ

I explained to Bob that when he cocked his head to the right it pulled his shoulders and body to the right and caused him to walk into the ball aimed dead right, into the right field bleachers, at least 50 yards right of his target. Next, I had him address it again with the cocked head and asked him to close his eyes and then open them and tell me where his focus was. He said he was looking at least 2 feet behind the ball. I then turned his head left until he was '€œNOB'€ (nose on the ball) so he could feel it and see the ball.

After a number of trial walk-ins and coaxing his head to NOB, and keeping it there until he could swing, I let him finally walk in, hit one when his head stayed NOB, and he hit it solid and right down the middle without jumping up and out of the shot. He didn'€™t miss a fairway or block an iron right of the green the rest of the holes.

So, if aiming right is a problem, check your head position and make sure, first of all, it is still on top of your shoulders. If it is still there, then to aim properly, parallel left starts with your head being straight and vertical or upright on your shoulders. That way, your eyes are parallel left of your aiming line when you walk into the ball and you are in the NOB position.

The Surge!