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    Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat
    Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat
    Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat
    Ebook205 pages2 hours

    Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat

    By Reed Popovich

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    About this ebook

    "Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat" is a humorous, but informative, look at the great game of golf (except when it sucks...)! Written by a retired Navy nuclear submarine officer and first time author - Reed Popovich - it includes instruction, anecdotes, funny stories, jokes and clever illustrations. The book includes golf philosophy, a physics primer, the full swing, short game, the mental side and strategy for playing the game. There is also a chapter written for Lady Friends, Female Golfers and Golf Widows. If you are a "regular golfer" - as most of us are - you will really like reading "Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat" and you'll have a few giggles in the process. Enjoy!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherReed Popovich
    Release dateMar 6, 2014
    ISBN9780991555321
    Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat
    Author

    Reed Popovich

    I am a retired Navy nuclear submarine officer. I own and run a defense contracting company (M.R. Popovich and Co.) in San Diego, CA where we do computer training for sailors. I am a new author - my first book being Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat (yes...I am a golf addict...) I am married to a wonderful woman - Mary Ellen - who is the inspiration for my writing. I plan to write and publish multiple works from "Under The Hat." Please stay tuned!

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      Book preview

      Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat - Reed Popovich

      Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat

      Written by: Reed Popovich

      Illustrated by: Bill Russell
      UNDER THE HAT, LLC
      www.underthehat.org

      UNDER THE HAT, LLC

      Golf Wisdom From Under The Hat

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2014 Michael Reed Popovich

      First edition 2014

      Requests for information should be addressed to:

      Under The Hat, LLC, 4666 Mission Ave #14,

      San Diego, CA 92116

      This edition: ISBN 978-0-9915553-1-4 (eBook)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2014933661

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other – except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      Photography: Reed Popovich

      Illustrations: Bill Russell

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      As a first-time author, I needed my share of attaboys to keep me motivated, as well as a dose of proof reading, sanity-checking, permissions and scrutiny to keep me honest…and these fine folks were all nice enough to contribute: Mary Ellen O'Connor, Mary Mozina, Chris and Kathleen Kennedy, Mike and Kathleen Martin, Polly Bellanca, Mike and Kathy Ruppert, Dan Wemple, Dan Anderson, the Ever Inquisitive Sylvia Phillips, Karen Vold, Marsha Dufour, Sandi Sinclair, Larry Scott, Donna Fanelli, Jeff Koller, Carol Johnson, Donna Taylor, Diane Hartmuss, Tom Flack, Sam Nichols, Bill Russell, Brian Myers, Steve Ziegenbusch, Terry Piletic, Howie Catley, Linda Eves, Tom Kresky, Richard Dourley, Jim Hutchinson, Stella Kanterakis, Sue Fiorentini, Jeff Snyder, Mizzi Diamond, Jim and Jill O’Connor and Greg Milligan from the San Luis Rey Downs Golf Resort. And a special acknowledgement goes to Bill Russell for providing the fantastic drawings that uniquely capture the euphoric misery of golf.

      Lastly, this book would not have been possible without them and is dedicated to: my father Mike, for his love of competition, my mother Dina, for her love of books and to my wife Mary Ellen, for her unconditional love and support!

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Preface

      Chapter 1 – Philosophically Speaking

      Chapter 2 – Physics and Physical Things

      Chapter 3 – The Full Schwing!

      Chapter 4 – Small Ball

      Chapter 5 – This Game Will Make You Mental

      Chapter 6 – Practice, Fitness and Preparation H

      Chapter 7 – Playing The Game

      Chapter 8 – For Ladies Only Guys

      Chapter 9 – Conclusions and Stuff

      Epilogue

      PREFACE

      If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

      Albert Einstein

      Crikey! Why do we need another golf book? There are already a billion golf books. But if you don't want any more golf books, you might as well ask country musicians to quit writing songs about trucks, authors to quit writing romance novels and pigeons to quit pooping on cars. It just isn't going to happen. The fact is we're fascinated with golf, trucks, romance and pigeons (OK...not pigeons...but you get my point). Golf is a compelling game. Every golfer I know - from rank beginner to accomplished player - wants to get better and is searching for that tip, piece of advice or book of golf wisdom (hint - like this one!) to help them improve and even get a few laughs in the process.

      In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a golf professional, nor am I a golf personality. This is the first book I've ever written, although I do write the family newsletter at Christmas...which is nice. I am a retired Naval Officer, spent most of my career in nuclear submarines, and ran my own business doing computer training for the Navy for the past 20 years. I had a minor speaking role in the major motion picture The Hunt for Red October, but that's a story for another day.

      As for golf, I'm just another golfer, bitten by the golf bug 35 years ago and - I'm guessing, like you - I've been trying to find it. It is the ability to make the golf ball do what you want it to do. Tiger has it. Rory has it. But hell, I've been playing longer than Tiger has been alive and I swear I have golf shoes older than Rory...so why don't I?...we?...have it? I'm serious about my golf. I play every Sunday with the boys. I do golf exercises at the gym. I practice 4-days a week, alternating between long and short game. I've been keeping notes for decades and started a daily journal of what I learned during practice or play that day. I'm a proud, self-taught - never had a lesson (OK, one, but it was a long time ago) - single-digit handicap who has learned quite a bit by digging it out of the dirt. I've read hundreds of golf books, thousands of magazine articles and viewed dozens of videos - most of them golf, but some others as well. Along with my wife, I attend 3-4 PGA Tour events per year (including the snowy 2013 WGC Accenture Match Play Championships; see Figure I-1 below) where I spend considerable time at the range, studying the swings and asking myself how do they do that? My car radio is locked on PGA Tour Network and my television defaults to Golf Channel and, I admit, I fall asleep dreaming about golf ...where I do some of my best work.

      I decided to write this book to inform and entertain you about this great game (except when it sucks...) that we all enjoy (except when we don't...). I tried to touch all the bases: introductory matter, a physics primer, the full swing, the short game, the mental side, practicing and playing the game. I wrote it from a male, right handed perspective. If you're a female, please substitute husband for wife where appropriate and if you're left handed...well...you get the idea. In deference to the fairer - and much smarter sex - I wrote a chapter titled, For Ladies Only Guys that addresses Lady Friends, Female Golfers and Golf Widows. As the title suggests, this section is only to be read by the women-folk, but I think the guys will sneak a look here and there. Hopefully I can address the peculiarities of playing the game, as a female, without any complicated and potentially embarrassing surgical procedures. We'll see.

      As for being Under the Hat, that's where all good ideas come from...I think. Also, when you play a lot of golf - and you know who you are - you will eventually visit a friendly doctor who will use dermatological expressions to describe the little spots and bumps on your neck and face. Some may even require removal. If you're an old golfer, you've probably already had the scrapes and consequently you wear the big hat like I do. If you're a young golfer, you're probably too cool to wear the big hat, so just be prepared for the dermatological expressions someday.

      My sailor students told me that I had a knack for explaining complex subject matter in a clear, simple way. Maybe I do. I can't think of too many things more complex than golf...so please enjoy Golf Wisdom From Under the Hat. And stay covered my friends!

      Figure I-1: Does Anybody Have a Snow Wedge?

      CHAPTER 1

      Philosophically Speaking

      I've spent most of my life playing golf...the rest I've just wasted. Anonymous

      The Basic Stuff (that you probably already know...but will enjoy reading anyway)

      Golf is a game. The objective is to get the ball in the hole in the fewest number of strokes. If you suck at it, as most of us do, this endless pursuit costs you time, money and effort. In return, you get anguish, frustration, mild exercise and occasional euphoria. If you're really good at it, it still costs you time and effort, but people actually pay money to see how you're doing it. If you're super good at it, you get your picture on a cereal box, date well-endowed women (speaking financially of course...) and drive fast cars. Cool!

      Golf should be fun. If you're not having fun - quit! Stop reading, sell your clubs and quit. Pack it in. Hit the trail. Don't let the door hit you....oh...you're still here? Going to press on are you? Great! I'm proud of you. Quitting is easy. I've done it many times.

      Golf is hard and humbling. You have to hit a ball a little larger than a marble with a club about the size of your fist. Can you say eye-hand coordination? Good. Now do you have any? If not, see the paragraph above about quitting. As for humbling, you can also add occasionally humiliating. Even fairly accomplished players hit awful shots at times. And, if during a bad round, you don't think you can play any worse, I assure you that you can. The number line that you learned in kindergarten goes on to infinity.

      Golf is not fair. As a matter of fact, golf is inconsistently unfair (I know a lot of you Mr. Spock logic guys will get wrapped in a do loop over that statement...please try to move on). Some days you hit a shot that feels good, flies good, but bounces into trouble. Some days you hit it well, but you can't putt it for squat. Some days you make everything you look at...to save double or triple bogey. Some days you hit a shot that flies toward a tree and disappears into the netherworld. Other days, you hit the same exact shot, but it flies and bounces just a little differently and ends up in the fairway (see Figure 1-1). If you want a fair game, try chess.

      Figure 1-1: Same Golfer, Same Club, Different Days…Very Different Results!

      Photo Courtesy of San Luis Rey Downs Golf Resort

      Golf is not intuitive. You hit down to make the ball go up. You swing left to make the ball curve right and you swing right to make the ball curve left. In most other sports, fire in your belly makes you play harder and better, but fire in your golf belly usually means more strokes on your score card. Adrenaline is good when you have to lift a car off your foot or tackle the big kid from the high school across the river, but not so good for smoothing a drive into the fairway.

      Golf is a time commitment. A full round of golf takes a considerable amount of time - usually on the weekend. If you don't believe me, ask your wife. She'll count the time from the minute you left the house until the minute you got back home, not just the 5 or more hours it took to play. And if you want to improve (gulp)...you really need to dedicate time to practice and visit your sports psychologist. And while I'm on the subject, if there is one thing that I implore of all my fellow golfers...guys, let's pick up the pace...nobody cares if you stink, just stink in a hurry.

      Golf is a game for a lifetime. I don't know about you, but my football, basketball and Irish Curling days are over. My wheels just won't cooperate. But we can all play golf well into our retirement years. What a comforting thought.

      The Language of Golf

      Golf has its own language; a collection of expressions above and beyond the normal parlance of daily life. A fundamental understanding of these expressions is critical to playing good golf, communicating with the golf gods and providing proper encouragement to the ball. For example, here are some expressions that describe a good or well played shot:

      - solid (hitting the ball in the center of the clubface; a great - but rare - feeling)

      - striping it (range balls, at least old ones, typically have stripes on them)

      - pure (or smooth)

      - a peach (but not any other fruits; nobody says watermelon to describe a good shot)

      - dead nuts perfect (feels good to say....go ahead try it....dead nuts perfect....see?)

      - up the gut (as in the shot went up the middle of the fairway)

      - longer than train smoke (a prodigiously long shot)

      - a Linda Ronstadt (a shot hit so far that it blew by you)

      - right down Broadway (see up the gut)

      - in the mayor's office (I dunno for sure, but Aussies seem to like this one)

      Here are some expressions that describe a bad or poorly played shot:

      - fat (hitting too far behind the ball; aka a Chubby Checker)

      - thin (hitting too much of the ball and not enough grass)

      - bladed (hitting the top of the ball with the bottom of the club)

      - chunked (used to describe the sound the ground makes when you hit a real fat one)

      - slice (a shot that curves radically right)

      - hook (a shot that curves radically left)

      - heal (if you picture the club head as a shoe you can figure this one out)

      - toe (again...think shoe.)

      - pull (a shot that goes straight...but straight left; sometimes called a yank)

      - push (a shot that goes straight...but straight right…aka a block)

      - gork (a catchall term for any poorly struck shot)

      - duck hook (a bad hook that

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