If you play golf for any length of time, you will soon find that no golf course is quite like the other. Playing the same course at home will be different each time you play as well. This is what makes golf so fun and exciting.
It may be the same golf ground that you are playing, but the cup’s position may change. This helps to keep the game changing and interesting for golfers, so that they will continue wanting to play at a particular course.
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Any golfer will tell you that a great golf course certainly affects a golfer’s mood for the day. Premiere golf courses can be found in different areas around the world and this is because of the heightened interest in the sport. Property owners have also opted to convert their idle properties into golf courses, even taking care that the landscaping is up to par with the latest in golf course design. There are many quality golf courses around the world but there are some worth mentioning here.
The Cypress Golf Club in Monterey, California is just one of many golf courses that are at par with the best in the region. If you’re anywhere nearby, you must check this course out. It is frequented by many local and foreign golfers because of its beautiful landscape. Having been around for the past eight years, it is a favorite among top golfers.
Its main attraction is its 70 par 6300 course offer. While this course is considered as a challenge to many golfers, the surrounding areas are a sight to behold. It is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Del Monte Forest.
Add the Pine Valley Golf Club in Jersey to your list of quality gold courses. With its 70 par course feature and a completely bespoke design, it can surely make a day of golf enjoyable.
One feature of this course is the variety of features that it offers. Hitting a ball twice in the same direction is not possible.
Players actually get a chance to test their longer shots in the fifth hole, or Par 3, which is 220 yards long. Golfers always look forward to reaching this area.
In the United Kingdom the South Ayrshire in Scotland is one of the most impressive. Its steep slopes fit well with the landscape. The Turn Berry Club here offers a legendary par 70 course.
As you reach the 13th hole you will be regaled by a most interesting view of a large lighthouse. Just knowing that you will be seeing this beautiful scenery is enough incentive for a golfer to make his best shot. Once he reaches this hole, he is rewarded with this picturesque scene.
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Golf legend Ben Hogan was born in Stephenville, Texas. He was the youngest child of Chester and Clara Hogan. His father was a blacksmith and the family lived ten miles southwest in Dublin until 1921 when they moved 70 miles to Fort Worth.
Ben Hogan’s father died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the chest at the family home In 1922. The family incurred financial difficulty. The children took jobs to help their seamstress mother make ends meet. Ben’s older brother Royal quit school at age fourteen to deliver office supplies by bicycle. Nine year-old Ben sold newspapers after school at the nearby train station.
He began caddying at the age of eleven at Glen Garden Country Club. One of his fellow caddies at Glen Garden was Byron Nelson, later a tour rival. The two would tie for the lead at the annual Christmas caddy tournament in December 1927, when both were fifteen. Nelson sunk a thirty foot putt to tie on the ninth and final hole. Instead of sudden death, they played another nine holes; Nelson sunk another substantial putt on the final green to win by a stroke.
The following spring, Nelson was granted the only junior membership offered by the members of Glen Garden. Club rules did not allow caddies age 16 and older. After August 1928, Hogan took his game to three daily-fee courses: Katy Lake, Worth Hills, and Z-Boaz.
During his senior year, Hogan dropped out of High School. He became a professional golfer at the Texas Open in San Antonio in late January 1930, just shy of his eighteenth birthday.
Hogan met Valerie Fox in Fort Worth in the mid-1920s. The first time in church. They met again in 1932 when he landed a low-paying club pro job in Cleburne where her family had moved. They married in April 1935 at her parent’s home.
His early years as a pro were very difficult and he went broke more than once. He did not win his first pro tournament until March 1940 when he won three consecutive tournaments in North Carolina. Although it took a decade to secure his first victory, Hogan’s wife Valerie believed in him, and this helped see him through the tough years.
By most accounts, Ben Hogan was the best golfer of his era, and still stands as one of the greatest of all time. “The Hawk” possessed fierce determination and an iron will, combined with his unquestionable golf skills. This formed an aura which could intimidate opponents into competitive submission. In Scotland, Hogan was known as “The Wee Ice Man”, or, in some versions, “Wee Ice Mon,” a moniker earned during his famous British Open victory at Carnoustie in 1953. It is a reference to his steely and seemingly nerveless demeanor, itself a product of a golf swing he had built that was designed to perform better the more pressure he put it under.
Hogan was also highly respected by fellow competitors for his superb course management skills. During his peak years, he rarely if ever attempted a shot in competition which he had not thoroughly honed in practice.
Despite his career’s being interrupted in its prime by World War II and a near-fatal car accident, between the years of 1938 through 1959, Hogan won 63 professional golf tournaments. Hogan and his wife, Valerie, survived a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus on a fog-shrouded bridge east of Van Horn, Texas on February 2, 1949. Hogan threw himself across Valerie in order to protect her, and would have been killed had he not done so, as the steering column punctured the driver’s seat. His doctors said he might never walk again, let alone play golf competitively. He left the hospital 59 days after the accident.
The “Hogan Slam” was the 1953 season in which he won five of the six tournaments he entered and the first three major championships of the year. It still stands among the greatest single seasons in the history of professional golf. It was the only time a golfer won three major championships in a year until Tiger Woods matched the feat in 2000.
His nine career professional major championships tie him with Gary Player for fourth all-time, trailing only Jack Nicklaus (18), Tiger Woods (14) and Walter Hagen (11).
I believe Ben Hogan is the greatest golfer of his era. Who do you think is the greatest golfer of his era?? Please Visit My Squidoo Lens! and vote.. This article, Who Is Golf Legend Ben Hogan? has free reprint rights.
1. Get The Ball to the Hole: In a team format be sure you get the ball to the hole, even if you don’t make the shot you are still giving your playing partners a good read on the putt. Most putts don’t get to the hole because you decelerated on the through-stroke. To fix this, be sure the through-stroke is as long or longer than the backstroke.
2. Simplify Your Swing Thoughts: Start with a easy game plan. Copy it down and refer to it prior to each full shot. Pre-shot: Visualize what you want the ball to do. Address: Line up the club face in line with your target. Swing thought: Swing the club head freely.
3. How to survive the First Tee Jitters: When you’re anxious you tend to speed up your tempo and that will effect your accuracy and consistency. Try taking a few deep breaths as you’re getting ready to hit, inhaling through the nose and out of the mouth. Now swing your driver smoothly saying to yourself “I am only going to swing at 50%”. You’ll see a great result and you may want to utilize this technique on every tee.
4. Make more of those Difficult Short Putts: When you play a format where you must putt everything out, do this. Line up the putter face in line with your target line, then line up your shoulders and feet with that line. Now, make a smooth stroke while looking at the target, not the ball.
5. Take more club on those Par 3′s: Most amateurs come up a little short on Par 3′s and very often hit through or over the green. Look at the yardage to the back of the green and choose a club that will give you that yardage. If you hit the ball well you’re on and if you don’t hit it well you might still make the putting surface.
6. Lower your score on Par 5′s: Try a “do the math” approach. Most Par 5′s are 500 yards. You want to try to make your 3rd shot your most favorite yardage to the green. On your second shot, going for the green will take one of those “miracle shots” which will probably end up with your ball in trouble. Check the yardage to the green from where you are and subtract that favorite yardage that your are most comfortable with. Now hit your 2nd shot to get you to that spot on the fairway. With this strategy, you’re hitting lofted clubs to the green, that are easier to hit and more accurate.
7. Get Out of the Sand in One Try: You need to accelerate the club head through the shot, letting the sand “splash” the ball out, in order to be effective at getting out of green-side bunkers. Set up with the face of the club slightly open and the ball just forward in your stance. Now, hit the sand behind the ball and complete your swing as if you are hitting a full 5 iron.
8. Use a Putting Stroke When You’re Chipping: To eliminate chunking or skulling your chip shots, take a lofted club like a 7-, 8- or 9-iron and grip it like your putter. Lean the shaft and your body toward the target for a slightly descending blow. Make your putting stroke, allowing the loft of the club to carry the ball over the unpredictable fringe onto the putting surface.
9. Get Your Irons Airborne: Most topped shots occur when you try to help the ball into the air with a scooping motion. To hit down on the ball, set up with more weight on your left foot than your right. Take the club back more vertically and return it on a downward angle of attack.
For more assistance with your golf game check out Jim Gartrell’s informative website at GolfClubsGolf.net. There you will find instructional videos and a whole lot more. Check it out today. Click Here. This article, 9 Helpful Tips for Playing Well Under Pressure. is available for free reprint.