BY CLINT HITCHCOCK

Golf is an easy game: Everyone should and can learn to play. If you can stay away from the technical aspects of the game, and learn to trust yourself and your ability, golf is somewhat simplified.

Trying to think of keeping your left elbow in, right elbow tucked, take the clubhead past the right knee… right knee flexed, wrist cocks when the shaft is parallel, keep turning till your chin is under your left shoulder… shaft pointing at target, start down slow, shift weight to your left foot, tuck right elbow into hip… delay the uncocking of your wrists, keep your head down, release the club, flat left wrist… etc., are all thoughts that should not be part of the golf swing. Can you perform the simple act of walking while thinking of firing each individual muscle or each process that it takes to raise and lower your foot to the ground? This is absurd. Your conscious mind is not capable of performing these complex actions. Your subconscious mind is the motivator for your responsive body movements. Overload the conscious, and you induce doubt! And doubt, my friends, is the enemy of your golf game.

Sometimes, when all our doubts, fears and insecurities wrap ourselves up, we always come up with the idea of “I wish I was somebody else.” More often than not, we think and believe that someone or rather, most people are better than us when, in reality, the fact is most people are more scared than us.

You spot a totally eye-catching girl sitting by herself at a party, casually sipping on a glass of Asti Spumanti. You think to yourself, “she looks so perfectly calm and confident.” But if you could read thru her transparent mind, you would see a bunch of clouds of thoughts and you might just be amazed that she’s thinking “are people talking about why I am seated here alone? … Why don’t guys find me attractive? … I don’t like my ankles, they look too skinny… I wish I was as intelligent as my best friend.” We look at a young business entrepreneur and say, “Wooh… what else could he ask for?” He stares at himself at the mirror and murmurs to himself, “I hate my big eyes… I wonder why my friends won’t talk to me… I hope mom and dad would still work things out.”

Isn’t it funny? We look at other people, envy them for looking so outrageously perfect and wish we could trade places with them, while they look at us and think the same thing. We are insecure of other people who themselves are insecure of us. We suffer from low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence and lose hope in self improvement because we are enveloped in quiet desperation. Sometimes, you notice that you have an irritating habit like biting off your finger nails, having a foul mouth, and you, of all people, are the last to know.

I have a friend who never gets tired of talking. And in most conversations, she is the only one who seems to be interested in the things she has to say. So all of our other friends tend to avoid the circles whenever she’s around, and she doesn’t notice how badly she has become socially handicapped — gradually affecting the people in her environment.

One key to self improvement is to LISTEN and TALK to a trusted friend. A golfing buddy who you find comfort in opening up with even the most gentle topics you want to discuss. Ask questions like, “do you think I am ill-mannered?”, “Do I always sound so argumentative?”, “Do I talk too loud?”, “Does my breath smell?”, “Do I ever bore you when we’re together?” In this way, the other person will obviously know that you are interested in the process of self improvement. Lend her your ears for comments and criticisms, and don’t give her answers like, “Don’t exaggerate! That’s just the way I am!” Open up your mind and heart as well. And in return, you may want to help your friend with constructive criticism that will also help him or her improve themselves.

One of Whitney Houston’s songs says “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.” True enough. In order to love others, you must love yourself too. Remember, you cannot give what you do not have.

Before telling other people some ways on how to improve themselves, let them see that you yourself are a representation and a product of self improvement. Self improvement makes us better people, we then inspire other people, and then the rest of the world will follow.

Stop thinking of yourself as a second-rate being. Forget the repetitive thought of “If only I was richer… if only I was thinner” and so on. Accepting your true self is the first step to self improvement. We need to stop comparing ourselves to others only to find out at the end that we’ve got 10 more reasons to envy them.

We all have our insecurities. Nobody is perfect. We always wish we had better things, better features, better body parts, etc. But life need not to be perfect for people to be happy about themselves. Self improvement and loving yourself is not a matter of shouting to the whole world that you are perfect and you are the best. It’s the virtue of acceptance and contentment. When we begin to improve ourselves, we then begin to feel contented and happy.

Clint Hitchcock is from Deer Park, TX. Check out his site, Simplegolfogy.com, for more information on how to play better golf without golf lessons.

BY MARTIN VOUSDEN

12. Paul Runyan

Still remembered on the US Tour as the sort of opponent that everyone hates. He was a short, slight man who was consistently out-driven by everyone — often by a huge margin — but could get up and down better than almost anyone who ever lived. Won the USPGA in 1934 and ’38 when it was still match play and when the quality of opposition was awesome.

11. Greg Norman

People remember the numerously inventive ways he found to finish second in Majors but none of them came on the greens, where he was as good as anyone. He sank a 40-footer on the last green in the ’84 US Open to force a playoff with Fuzzy Zoeller, knowing that he had to make it, and that takes bottle and technique. And when he got hot, no-one could scorch round a golf course better.

10. Ben Crenshaw

Widely regarded by his peers as the best they have ever seen, Crenshaw’s smooth, unhurried rhythm was the key to his success. Tom Kite, who grew up with Crenshaw in Texas, once said of him: “I don’t remember Ben ever missing a putt from the time he was 12 until he was 20.” He didn’t miss too many after that either. Inevitably his only two Major successes came at Augusta, where putting is the first game you need to bring.

9. Bobby Jones

The Master stayed faithful to his putter “Calamity Jane” throughout his career, and she remained faithful to him, helping deliver a remarkable string of success. Between 1923 and 1930, when he retired, Jones played in 23 of the Majors for which he was eligible, and won 13 of them — a strike rate of 62%, which no other player has come near matching. And a lot of it was down to putting. In almost every regard he was, simply, the Greatest.

8. Seve Ballesteros

Missing a putt, to Seve, was a personal insult, and he hated to be insulted. From the marvelous fist-pumping excesses of St Andrews’ 18th green when he beat Tom Watson in the ’84 Open, to the miles and miles of putts he holed in the Ryder cup to beat the hated Americans, Seve played on the green exactly as he did everywhere else on the course, with no fear. He was aggressive, bold and even towards the end of his career, never frightened of the one coming back.

7. Tiger Woods

When Phil Mickelson was asked in March this year by Golf magazine who he’d pick to make a five-footer for his life, he said, “Tiger, because he’s made more clutch putts under the gun than anybody I have ever seen other than maybe Nicklaus.” He went on to cite the sliding 5-footer against Bob May at the 2000 PGA Championship, and the putt he made in the Presidents Cup in the dark from 15-18 feet. As Phil said: “He’s made a lot of ’em.” Great putters make them when they have to and there has probably never been anybody more consistent from 10-feet and under when it counts.

6. Jack Nicklaus

His awkward, crab-like stance, hunched over the ball, right knee bent and all his weight on the left side, never looked to be the most aesthetically beautiful thing in golf but few actions were as effective. His finest day came in the ’86 Masters, his last Major, when he wielded an oversized MacGregor Response putter to devastating effect over the back nine to pinch the green jacket from under the noses of Seve Ballesteros and Greg Norman, but that was only the most recent of many memorable days of the short grass for the Daddy of them all.

5. Peter Thomson

The Australian who took five Open championships, three of them in a row, is probably the most neglected multiple Major champion in golfing history. His quietly spoken, relaxed demeanor disguised the depth of his bloody-minded determination to win and he probably had the smoothest and best-looking putting stroke of anyone on this list. It wasn’t quite as effective as some but was a thing of beauty, and it got the job done.

4. Young Tom Morris

Bob Ferguson, who himself won the Open three times in succession, said of the man who was first to achieve the feat: “Tom Morris would putt and before the ball was halfway to the hole, turn away and say to the boy carrying his clubs, ‘Pick it out of the hole, laddie.’” And this was in the days when greens resembled sheep-grazing tracks (which, incidentally, they often were) and clubs were made from the jawbone of an ass. It is important, though, to make the distinction between Tom Morris Jr and his father, who couldn’t putt a tennis ball into the Grand Canyon.

3. Sir Bob Charles

The first left-hander and New Zealander to win the Open (in 1963), Charles is now 65 and has just announced that next season will be his last as a golf professional, after almost 50 years of showing his fellow pros how it should be done on the greens. So good and consistent has his putting stroke remained that he won 23 times on the US Senior (Champions) Tour, at an age when many others are fighting the yips, and he has 70 professional wins in total. First came to prominence as an 18-year-old amateur prodigy when he won the NZ Open and he hasn’t stopped winning since.

2. Bobby Locke

The South African was unconventional in everything he did. He wasn’t even named Robert but was christened Arthur D’Arcy — the Bobby came from his habit of bobbing up and down in his pram. He familiarly wore a white cap, shoes and shirt (including necktie) and dark plus fours, in which he carried his portly frame down the fairways with such ponderous elegance that his passing could have been likened to that of a royal barge on the Thames. His golf game was also out-of-the-ordinary, and involved sending every shot at least 40-yards right of target and hooking it back into play. But it was on the greens where he broke people’s hearts and he always maintained that any round of golf involving more than 28 putts was a bad one. He won four Opens and when he went to America they laughed, until he won six times in a short space of time with such dominance that the ever-insular US Tour changed its rules so that he couldn’t go back. One of the Americans he beat, Lloyd Mangrum, said in 1982: “That son of a bitch Locke was able to hole a putt over 60-feet of peanut brittle.”

1. Sir Michael Bonallack

Quite simply, in the eyes of many, the former secretary of the R&A is the best putter there has ever been. As a lifelong amateur he was never tested against the very best pros but many of those who witnessed him in action agreed that he was peerless. Like so many masters of the green, he stayed faithful to one putter and had an idiosyncratic style that was all his own. Peter Alliss said of him: “Michael Bonallack was a remarkable player. He had a magnificent short game that was all of his own making. When putting he took up a big, wide stance with his nose almost sniffing the ball and had a short, jabby swing but all the putts went in the hole.” Sir Michael’s honors in the amateur game are far too numerous to mention but include five amateur championships and four English amateur titles. In the 1963 English Amateur at Burnham & Berrow, he got up and down in two 22 times in 36 holes against Alan Thirwell. Far too modest to agree with this assessment, he nevertheless was the best.

Definitely not on the list

Ivan Gantz — early US Tour pro who was famous for hitting himself in the head when he missed a short putt, and once even knocked himself out.

Larry Nelson — who once said with commendable honesty: “I play along every year, waiting for one week, maybe two, when I can putt.”

Clayton Heafner — of whom fellow American pro Cary Middlecoff said: “The only time he could putt was when he was mad enough to hate the ball into the hole.”

Had it but lost it

Tom Watson — Fearlessly aggressive in his early days and never minded knocking it five feet past because he would always get the one coming back. Now he doesn’t.

Ben Hogan — Still a fabulous swinger of a golf club well into his 50s but couldn’t putt for his life.

Tony Jacklin — Never the same after Lee Trevino broke his heart and picked his pocket for the ’71 Open by chipping in from everywhere.

Peter Alliss — Lost it at the Italian Open when he retired mid-round after missing a two-footer.

Sam Snead — Rescued himself for a while by putting sidesaddle but when that was outlawed he was back to the yips.

Honorable mention

Bernhard Langer — for having, and overcoming, the yips three times, which is just about unique at the highest level.

Almost made it into the top-25

Arnold Palmer — Always wonderfully aggressive but his collection of more than 80 putters reveal how he struggled at times.

Retief Goosen — One of the most consistent holer-outers in the world and his two US Opens are a measure of his ability.

David Toms — Rarely three-putts and WGC Matchplay win might just propel him to the next level.

Potential to join the greats

Paul Casey — The combination of Luke Donald’s iron play and Casey’s putting wrapped up last year’s World Cup of golf.

Adam Scott — At his best a wonderful putter but not at his best often enough yet.

Stewart Cink — Rolls them in from everywhere

Mike Weir — Won the Masters on the greens but not yet truly consistent enough.

Sergio Garcia — Currently worried about his inconsistency but has the stroke and imagination to be a world beater.

Martin Vousden is a freelance golf writer, a former editor of Today’s Golfer and launch editor of Golf Buyer and Swing magazines. His book, With Friends Like These; A Selective History of the Ryder Cup, was published in 2006 by Time Warner. He edits the Rare Birdie website.

BY MARTIN VOUSDEN

We all know that putting is a game within a game and those who manage to excel at the black arts are usually the ones to go home with someone else’s money in their pocket

Willie Park Jr. famously said that the man who can putt is a match for anyone, and in the rarified atmosphere of today’s pro Tours, that has never been truer. Players can hit the ball so far, with such accuracy, that the man who can putt the best settles tournaments and championships on the greens. It has always been so but never more than today, when everyone, it seems, is a peerless ball striker. Moderate players can have a hot streak in which the hole is as big as a bucket and the ball drops with relentless certainty, but those streaks don’t last and the golfer who wants to build a long career needs to be able to putt consistently well.

So here we present the definitive list of the greatest putters that ever lived, with two deliberate exceptions. Women are excluded because women cannot putt. And anyone who wields a long putter is excluded because they have already conceded, by having the monstrosity in their bag, that they are fallible on the greens (and because it’s not golf to use one).

25. Billy Casper

The 1959 US Open champion of whom Gary Player once said, with just a tiny hint of irony: “I feel sorry for Casper, he can’t putt a lick. He missed three 30-footers out there today.” Casper hated analyzing his play and once, when asked about technique, replied: “How does a seagull fly? How does a centipede get all those legs working at once?” Thanks Billy.

24. Ken Brown

One of the qualities that many people in this list have is that they moved with an unhurried, tranquil slowness — and there was never a slower player than Brown. Best friend Mark James wrote: “When he stood over a putt you were never sure which would come first, his backstroke or darkness.” But the painstakingly deliberate method helped Brown sink more than his fair share.

23. Phil Mickelson

One of only two left-handers in the list, he’s always good but often inspired. At last year’s US Open, he and Retief Goosen putted the lights out on some of the hardest, fastest and lumpiest greens ever produced for a Major, and of course at the Masters he simply looked as if he knew he would hole everything he looked at. And he did.

22. Nick Faldo

Especially in his younger days, Faldo was remarkably gifted, with the same sort of free-flowing, rhythmical action that characterized his long game, and he himself said in his autobiography that in those days he didn’t think he would ever miss. When he rebuilt his swing over two long years, he neglected his putting but then rededicated himself to that as well, with six Majors being the result.

21. Lee Trevino

Unorthodox in everything he did, Trevino grew up poor and his real education in golf came in money matches that he could ill-afford to lose, against opponents to whom it was unwise not to pay up — few things will find the faults in a putting stroke quicker. In consequence the Mexican genius developed a sound, consistent, repeatable action that wouldn’t work for everybody but certainly did for him.

20. Jose Maria Olazabal

Ollie’s driving problems have been an almost perennial part of his career but so, thankfully, has one of the most effective putting actions in the world. You only need to get two things right to hole a putt — pace and direction — and this man gets them right a helluva lot of the time.

19. Walter J. Travis

Golf writer Charles Price summed up the Australian who played through the turn of the last century with the words: “Travis holed out from such immeasurable distances that his opponents claimed he could putt the eyes out of a chipmunk.” He didn’t take up the game until he was 37, and three years later won the US Amateur.

18. Isao Aoki

The popular Japanese player probably had one of the most idiosyncratic actions of all but, awkward though it looked, it was effective. He would address the ball with the toe of the putter pointed skywards, in a way that made you scared he would dig the heel into the ground during the stroke — but he never did. The first Japanese superstar led the way on the greens.

17. Brad Faxon

Some say that if Brad couldn’t putt he probably wouldn’t be on Tour, but he is blessed with one of the smoothest, most effective putting strokes ever seen, and you don’t make two Ryder Cup teams on putting alone. He is consistently rated number one by his fellow pros — most of whom would sacrifice their first-born for Faxon’s stroke — and they should know.

16. Walter Hagen

The Hague virtually owned the USPGA Championship when it was match play, and it’s match play where the best putters dominate. Which also explains his Ryder Cup record of played 9, won 7, halved 1 and lost 1. He had all the gamesmanship and psychological tricks, but they don’t work if you can’t back it up, and he could.

15. Ernie Els

Despite those two woeful misses on the 18th green in last year’s Open, over the course of his career Ernie has been a textbook putter. His reading of greens is superb but, as with so many other truly greats, it is the smooth and unhurried but accelerating rhythm of his stroke that elevates him to the ranks of the very best.

14. Loren Roberts

It was Loren’s caddy who first christened him with the dreadful moniker, “Boss of the Moss,” but the nickname has more than enough grounding in truth to have stuck. Along with Faxon and Crenshaw, he has consistently been the man most envied by his peers and least likely to break a putter over his knee.

13. Hale Irwin

Yes, he famously missed a one-inch putt to get into a playoff for the 1976 Open, but that was through carelessness. And yes, with the exception of that famous 1990 effort on the 72nd hole of the US Open at Medinah, he’s not renowned for making bombs. But he is the master at getting the job done — three-putting rarely, leaving himself anxiety-free second putts, and holing out when he has to.

Martin Vousden is a freelance golf writer, a former editor of Today’s Golfer and launch editor of Golf Buyer and Swing magazines. His book, With Friends Like These; A Selective History of the Ryder Cup, was published in 2006 by Time Warner. He edits the Rare Birdie website.

BY MARTIN VOUSDEN

Seventeenth holes on golf courses seem to be designed with just one aim — to ruin your day.

In golf there are rules, by which most of us abide (if we know what they are), and then there are laws, which may be unwritten but are much more powerful. For example, it is a rule of golf that you may spend five minutes searching for a ball that may be lost — but it is a law of golf that if you don’t find it within one minute, you never will.

So it is with golf course design. It is a rule among designers that your closing holes do not move from east to west, to avoid late afternoon finishers always playing towards the setting sun. But it is an unwritten law that a course should have a relatively benign start, and an absolute stinker of a 17th hole — or at least, that’s how it often seems. Final holes can be tough, and there are a few in the world to support that assertion — but the penultimate hole on a course, the dreaded 17th, must be even tougher. We don’t know why this should be so, it’s just the law.

Johnny Miller once said that every golf course should have a hole that puckers your rear end, and perhaps that is true, but it seems to be more than coincidence that this dreaded experience is always immediately after the 16th — if you think about some of the most famous courses in the world, the penultimate hole is the one that players start worrying about long before they arrive on the tee. Sawgrass and its notorious island green, the Road Hole at St Andrews — probably the most famous single hole anywhere — Carnoustie, Valderrama, Kiawah Island, Wentworth West, the list of infamous next-to-last holes goes on.

And if you think about it, it’s good psychology on the part of the course designer or architect. You’ve got a good score going and just need to hold on for a couple more holes, with no worse than a bogey, bogey finish, and the tournament or money or best-ever score are in the bag. And then you stand on the 17th tee and would give anything, including your first-born, to avoid having to hit that tee shot. If somebody were to offer you bogey you’d march straight to the final hole.

But they won’t, and you’ve got to play, and now you discover quite how good you really are. Hitting a straight tee shot to a relatively open fairway earlier in the round is easy. It’s even comparatively straightforward on a tough and dangerous hole on the front nine, because if you make a mistake, you’ve still got time to recover. But now you’re on the Old Course at St Andrews and you have to drive over the old railway sheds that stick out of the side of the hotel. To have any chance of getting on the green you need to favor the right side of the fairway — which you cannot, incidentally, see — but overdo the fade just a tad and you’re OB. Bail out left and you’ve not only missed the fairway but there’s no way you can go for the green without taking on the most feared bunker in world golf. Oh, and hit it over the wide but not deep green and you’re probably up against a wall, with no shot.

Apart from that, it’s a doddle. Ben Crenshaw once said the reason the Road Hole is one of the greatest par fours in the world is because it’s a par six, and for most mortals it should be.

And how about the 17th at Sawgrass, home every year of The Players Championship on the US Tour? Many golfers take one look and think to themselves: “This must have been conceived by a madman,” and they’re almost right — it was built by Pete Dye. And yet the hole actually came about by accident. Dye originally meant it to have water up the right side but during construction he found a rare pocket of sand — which was needed elsewhere for developing fairways — and by the time they had finished excavating the sand, all that was left on 17 was a big hole.

Years later Pete Dye confessed: “We had this big hole in the ground without any green. Alice [Dye’s wife] said, ‘Why not just make an island green?’ and I said. ‘I dunno.’”

So there you have it. The most damaging and possibly most loathed hole on the US Tour came about because the architect was too dumb to think of anything else, or too scared to argue with his wife. That would be bad enough, but the 17th at Sawgrass has subsequently seen so much drama, and swallowed so many golf balls, along with the dreams of the players who hit them only moments before, that it has been copied throughout the world.

A good 17th gets under your skin. It worries you, as it should, both in anticipation and execution. It’s like an examination paper that offers a few manageable, relatively straightforward questions before suddenly asking you to explain, in words of three syllables or less, Einstein’s theory of relativity. Or the girlfriend who, just as you’re unclipping her bra, enquires: “Do you love me?” It’s the unanswerable question, the ultimate challenge, and if you screw it up there’s no time to make amends or undo the damage you have done.

If you think I exaggerate, ask Darren Clarke. At the recent season-ending Volvo Masters Andalucia, the big-money jamboree event at Valderrama for the top-60 in Europe where there is no cut and even last place earns 15,500 Euro, Darren was at the top of his game, which in Darren’s case means there are few players in the world that can match him. After a modest opening 73 he went into the second round with something to prove and played fabulous, exquisite golf on Europe’s toughest layout until, by the time he reached the 17th he was ahead of the field at three-under par. He then put three balls into the water guarding the green, and notched up an 11 on the par five. It meant that he slipped from first to 27th in one hole. He still scored a respectable 72 but his tournament was over — he knew it, and so did we. And all because of one hole.

Or what about the penultimate hole at Carnoustie? This course has a famed tough finish — just ask Jean Van De Velde — but of the devilish trio of closing holes it is 17 that is most satanic. The Barry Burn meanders on its apparently haphazard route in such a way that it creates, in effect, an island on which the tee shot must land. Okay, if the wind is in your favor and you’re a big hitter you might try and carry both parts of the stream and have a relatively straightforward approach, but at Carnoustie, on this hole — as if the gods of golf decreed it — the wind is never in your favor. So you lay up onto the haven of short grass, and whatever you do don’t pull it because that also means your ball will be wet, and then you have a long iron to a well-guarded green, that you can’t see because it sits in a little dell, that is angled away from you. When Paul Lawrie won the Open here in 1999 he was so adamant that this was the key hole that he commissioned artist David Maxwell to paint the hole as the focal point of the artist’s tribute to his win.

You need more? How about Royal Troon, where in July this year Todd Hamilton finally overcame Ernie Els in a four-hole playoff. Well, that’s what the records say but in truth it was all settled at one hole, the 17th. A long par three with an elevated green that is deep but not wide and bunkered on either side. There’s only option, hit a long, straight iron. Piece of cake really — except Hamilton did, Ernie didn’t and the claret jug went west. Again.

You may wish it weren’t so but the laws of golf and the fraternity of golf course architects have decreed that the 17th should be the meanest, toughest, most fearsome hole of the lot, so you’d better just get used to the idea.

Martin Vousden is a freelance golf writer, a former editor of Today’s Golfer and launch editor of Golf Buyer and Swing magazines. His book, With Friends Like These; A Selective History of the Ryder Cup, was published in 2006 by Time Warner. He edits the Rare Birdie website.

BY MARTIN VOUSDEN

10. Ben Hogan

Hogan, like many Texans who grow up trying to hit the ball low under the wind, developed a chronic hook that almost ended his career, but through bloody-minded determination and unceasing practice he made himself into one of the best drivers ever instead. So much so that the sixth hole at Carnoustie has been re-named “Hogan’s Alley” in honor of the narrow strip of grass between bunkers and OB that he found all four days in 1953 en route to victory and his only claret jug in the only Open in which he competed.

9. Annika Sorenstam

Her iron play, particularly from 100 yards in, is exquisite, she has a fine putting touch and probably the best brain in women’s golf, but long, straight driving is the platform on which the best golfer in the world’s game is based. So relentlessly does she thrash her opponents that an alternative career as a dominatrix beckons when she gives up golf.

8. Harry Vardon

Six Opens, which remains a record, and one US Open are the Majors tally for one of the purest ball-strikers ever to pick up a brassie or spoon. Challenged throughout his career by JH Taylor and James Braid, he nevertheless was first among equals, mainly because of his great ability from the tee.

7. Tony Jacklin

Like Hogan, Vardon, Watson and others in this list, he continued to be a superlative striker of the ball long after his scoring ability was sabotaged by a dodgy putting stroke. But we shall remember him always for the athleticism and power of his tee shots, summed up by Henry Longhurst with the words “What a corker!” as Jacklin unleashed a superlative drive on the 18th at Royal Lytham and St Annes in 1969 for his only Open win on this side of the Atlantic.

6. Jack Nicklaus

The greatest ever had a swing characterized as “rock and block” that consisted of an upright action that, coupled with his strength, gave him the most telling power fade ever seen. He had the capacity to bludgeon a course but preferred to use brains as well as brawn and quietly pick its pockets. Eighteen Majors and 19 runner-up spots suggest that his driving was, err, really quite good.

5. Calvin Peete

Born black and dirt poor, with 18 siblings, Peete didn’t even play golf until he was 23, and it was an unlikely sport to choose because he broke his left elbow as a boy and it wasn’t set properly, leaving him unable to straighten his arm. Unexpectedly, the injury meant he was phenomenally straight and he topped the US Tour driving accuracy stats for 10 straight years. As Lee Trevino said: “He straightens his arm to take the check.”

4. Colin Montgomerie

For seven unbelievable years Monty never had to have his golf shoes cleaned because he didn’t know where the rough was and simply walked down the middle of the newly-mown grass. He famously never practiced — because he never needed to. Stroll onto the tee, hit driver to right center, find the green and hole the putt. Piece of piss to a trained athlete.

3. Sir Henry Cotton

It was said of the three-time Open winner (by US coach Bob Toski) that he was so unyieldingly straight from the tee that it was impossible to determine if his ball was in the left or right side of the fairway. Cotton knew how good he was and didn’t shy away from telling others, but most of them could see it for themselves whenever he drove the ball.

2. Sam Snead

Quite possibly the most naturally gifted player ever, Snead’s swing was so fluid that it was likened to pouring molasses over treacle, and the epithet “Slammin’ Sam” always did him a great disservice because he was a pure swinger, not a hitter. He won 84 US Tour events — a record still to be beaten, over six different decades, five Majors and recorded 34 holes-in-one. He remained good enough to finish third in the US PGA at age 62, and throughout it all his driving was the lynchpin.

1. Greg Norman

His career spanned the change from persimmon to titanium but he was equally good with both. Previously, golfers tended to be either long or straight, but none before or since has combined the two to such telling effect. Like a Federer serve or Lillee bouncer, Norman’s tee shot was the ace in his hand that he knew he could rely on when it really counted. Two Opens are scant reward for one so talented, but his final 18 holes at Royal St George’s in 1993 when he lifted the claret jug for the second time is possibly the greatest driving round ever seen. When the pressure was really on he showed frailty with his iron approach shots, but with a wood in his hands he was peerless.

Huge but haywire Tiger Woods: Only a man with his genius could contend as often as he does without ever finding a fairway. John Daly: The enormous backswing means that if his timing is just a fraction out — which it often is — then the ball could go anywhere. Laura Davies: Wallops it like an angry man, and just as unpredictable. Hank Kuehne: Tall, pencil-thin American who, like Gerald Ford, doesn’t know which course he’s playing until after the first tee shot comes to rest.

Back to the practice ground, Thomas Bjorn: In this year’s European Open put three balls into the River Liffey on the 71st hole before eventually signing off with an 11, on his way to shooting 86. Seve Ballesteros: Once suggested that all courses should have no fairways, so that everyone else would have to play from the rough, too. Jose Maria Olazabal: Often couldn’t find a fairway with GPS but such are his powers of recovery, and iron play, that it didn’t matter. Ben Crenshaw: Tom Weiskopf said of him: “He hits in the woods so often he should get an orange hunting jacket.” Arnold Palmer: Only knew one way to play and that was to thrash it as hard as possible, with rather inevitable consequences.

Honorable mention, Moe Norman: Golf’s greatest eccentric was famous for hitting drivers so straight that a caddie with a baseball glove could stand at the end of the range and catch them — supposedly without moving his feet.

Almost made it to the top-20, Angel Cabrera: Monstrously long Argentinian is still not consistent enough, but he is fun to watch. Vijay Singh: Regularly among the longest drivers on Tour and has the strength to recover when he finds the rough — an ability that is tested just a tad too often. Tom Kite: The nearest thing golf has to a cyborg, he defined the importance of fairway, green, hole the putt, but wavered when the pressure was most intense. Fred Funk: Shorter than a Nick Faldo thank-you speech to journalists but always walks in a straight line after his ball. Retief Goosen: Long enough and straight enough but not quite enough of either to be included.

Martin Vousden is a freelance golf writer, a former editor of Today’s Golfer and launch editor of Golf Buyer and Swing magazines. His book, With Friends Like These; A Selective History of the Ryder Cup, was published in 2006 by Time Warner. He edits the Rare Birdie website.

BY MARTIN VOUSDEN

One of golf’s best-known aphorisms is “Drive for show, putt for dough,” but your chance to make a putt is somewhat reduced if you can’t find the fairway, and then the green. At the very highest level the quality of ball-striking is such that tournaments are often won by the guy who has a hot putter that week, but week in and out driving is the bedrock on which a golfer’s game is built. Sam Snead went as far as to say that you should only practice driving and putting.

And as with putting, many players can drive the ball well for a limited period but few can maintain consistent excellence over the course of a career that lasts decades. No-one can do it well all the time — even the absolute best have their off days and weeks — but these golfers did it better for longer than anyone else who lived.

20. Harold Hilton

The Englishman with the marvelous middle name of “Horsfall” never turned pro but won two Opens at the end of the 19th century, four Amateur championships and a US Amateur, in the days when the very best were from the unpaid ranks. His most conspicuous quality was the straightness of his driving.

19. Tom Watson

Has a fast tempo but a great, simple, repetitive technique that gets the job done time and again. The greatest Major ever — 1977′s duel in the sun with Nicklaus — was decided on the 72nd hole when he split the fairway to set up his winning birdie. Like many in this list the quality of his ball-striking never left him but the golfing gods decide that very few can have it all for too long, so his putting stroke headed south.

18. James Braid

One of the Great Triumvirate, along with Vardon and Taylor, Braid was the longest driver of the three and found more than his fair share of fairways. Won his five Open Championships in a 10-year stretch and even at age 78 shot a gross 74. Went on to become a notable architect whose courses, not surprisingly, put a premium on good tee shots.

17. Lee Trevino

Like so many other great drivers, his stock-in-trade was a controlled fade that worked with remarkable consistency. But his real genius was that when he needed to draw the ball he could. Very few have ever controlled ball-flight with the unfailing accuracy of SuperMex so it was no surprise that when he joined the US Seniors Tour (as it was then) it became his personal retirement fund.

16. Robert Tyre Jones

Possibly the best there has ever been but the shortness of his career makes a true comparison with modern greats impossible. Thirteen Majors in seven years tells its own story and they were built on a loose, rhythmical, flowing swing that usually sent the ball exactly where it was meant to go.

15. Nick Faldo

Golf’s Greatest Living Englishman calculatedly sacrificed some of the length of his youth in order to develop the metronomic swing that gave him six Majors. The benefits were never more clearly demonstrated than at Muirfield in 1992 when, under pressure from John Cook, he nailed it on the 72nd hole to set up his championship winning par.

14. Joyce Wethered

Arguably the greatest woman golfer ever to pull on spikes, she was so impressive that even Bob Jones said he had never been so intimidated by anyone’s play. Henry Cotton added: “I do not think a golf ball has ever been hit, except perhaps by Harry Vardon, with such a straight flight by any other person.” She won five English Amateur and four Amateur Championships and retired far too early.

13. Byron Nelson

Also retired when still in his prime — at age 34 (because of haemophilia and a dislike of the Tour pro’s life) — and, unlike most in this list, eschewed a controlled fade or draw in favor of simply hitting it straight. It was something he did so well that in 1945 he won 18 tournaments, 11 of them on the bounce, for the greatest streak of all time.

12. Ernie Els

The affable South African does everything well, but it all starts on the teeing ground and in the modern era he has the winning combination of both length and accuracy. He’s such a powerful hitter that he can nudge his Titleist out there over 300 yards without apparent effort, so he invariably retains control.

11. Jim Furyk

US Open winners cannot afford to be wild off the tee and, while not up there with the longest in the game, Furyk’s unorthodox style gives him the repeatability for which most golf pros would sell their grandmothers. Now recovered from wrist surgery he perpetually demonstrates that anyone who can hit fairways and greens will be tough to beat.

Martin Vousden is a freelance golf writer, a former editor of Today’s Golfer and launch editor of Golf Buyer and Swing magazines. His book, With Friends Like These; A Selective History of the Ryder Cup, was published in 2006 by Time Warner. He edits the Rare Birdie website.

BY JASON KRANTZ

In my experience there is one common goal for most golfers looking to improve their game: They want a more powerful golf swing. The reasons I have found for this are:

1. The golfer wants to be able to swing easier (which will help them maintain good, solid technique and make good contact with the ball) but still wants to hit the ball the same distance they currently do with their scoring clubs.
2. They want to be able to hit their long clubs, especially their driver, further. Much further.

If this sounds like something you desire then there are two ways to achieve your goal of having a move powerful golf swing and longer drives:

• Increase the amount of force your body is able to produce through both technical and physical improvements.
• Decrease the amount of time it takes for you to develop and deliver maximum force to the golf ball.

Obviously, if you could increase the amount of force and decrease the time required to produce maximum force then your power levels would go through the roof. In order to have this happen, you must focus on doing high quality power training.

Golf Power Training Program Focal Points

Establish a Baseline Level of Conditioning. No matter the sport or event, once you get tired, power levels will decline and technical proficiency will start to drop off. This is especially true for the golf swing since it is a very technical movement. You can play better golf deeper into your round by making sure that you have a baseline level of conditioning. This will allow you to prevent fatigue late in your round and finish off strong.

Focus on Speed of Movement. Another very important part of enhancing golf performance and increasing golf specific power levels is training with loads that will let you move at or near the speeds that you normally move in a golf swing. It has been proven time and time again that individuals looking to enhance power levels should train with loads and speeds as close as possible to those of the actual sport.

Bouncing off my first point, you should not try to exercise at or near golf swing speeds when you are first starting off because doing so when you are not properly conditioned will almost certainly result in injury.

Once you get your body accustomed to basic training movements then you can begin focusing on golf-specific movements at speeds close to your actual golf swing.

Exercise Over a Complete Range of Motion

Many “golf specific” flexibility training programs are not very effective at enhancing the dynamic flexibility needed for the golf swing because they stretch the muscles individually and in static positions. In reality, your muscles work as a unit in the golf swing and stretch/contract together from dynamic positions.

A few dynamic stretches in which you gradually increase the range and duration of the multi-joint motions found in the golf swing will serve you much better than a single extended session of many single-jointed static stretches. We want to stretch various muscles together since they operate together in the golf swing.

It should also be noted that heavy resistance training used over a full range of motion constitutes a very efficient and effective means of active stretching/flexibility training.

Perform Shorter, More Intense Workouts

If enhanced golf power is your goal then short, intense workouts should be your primary focus. If you are training with a higher level of intensity then after about 45-60 minutes you will see your power levels drop off.

By performing shorter workouts it is much easier to maintain the level of focus that is needed to execute a workout with a high level of intensity. You will also get better overall results (weight loss and overall body structure) by performing these types of workouts.

Warm Up Before Your Workout/Round

Warming up should be a staple for anyone serious about playing better golf. In addition to helping you avoid injury it will also help you play better golf and swing at full capacity.

I know that when I do not warm up I can’t comfortably top a 110 MPH swing speed. Once I get warmed up I can easily top 130 MPH and can usually get to around a 140 MPH swing speed. By taking the time to warm up you ensure that you are capable of having a great workout or round on the course.

By focusing on these basic power training principles during your off-season training you will see significant improvements in your swing speed, club head speed, ball speed, distance, power, flexibility, balance, stability and overall scores.

As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) by the NSCA, Jason Krantz’s focus is on significantly improving the power levels and injury resistance of all golfers. He specializes in power enhancement and all related components of improved golf performance. For more off-season golf power training tips, read his off-season golf fitness training guide.

BY DANE J. STANTON

Every golfer dreams of the perfect golf vacation. Imagine waking up every morning and strolling out onto freshly cut grass, with the birds chirping and the sky clear and bright. Then imagine if you would, seeing yourself picking up your set and heading out for a round of 18 on one of the most glorious courses in the whole country.

This is a dream that most golfers share and fortunately this dream can become a reality. The question is how? How could you possibly afford such an expensive golf vacation? Well, you’d be surprised at how inexpensive many golf vacations are these days especially if you decide to book in the off season. This is the one secret that is often overlooked and should be considered when planning your next trip.

What’s the First Step?

The first step to finding a great golf vacation is search and compare. First you must spend a good week searching around and jotting down quotes of all the possible locations for your holiday. Next, after you have a good list of vacation deals, start comparing. If you notice that one place is cheaper than another and there is no reason for it, give them a call and ask them if they could possibly beat the deal the cheaper package is offering. Most times, they will say no but you might find one place that is willing to reduce the cost or even add in an extra night for free. Whatever the case, it’s certainly worth a try.

The Second Step is to Plan

What does this incorporate? Firstly, how many people are going to go on this golf vacation? If there is a large group of you then you may have the opportunity to get a reduction on your package.

Next, when is the best time for you to go? We’ve already discussed the fact that you are going to save a great deal of money if you decide to go in the off season, however is this going to be the best time, firstly for yourself personally with work or family commitments, and secondly for playing golf?

Once you have decided these two things, you next have to find out the details of the place you are going to for your golf vacation. What’s the golf course like? Will you get a free buggy? Take every factor into consideration before you make a booking.

Time to Go

Get yourself prepared with everything you need to take with you. Make sure you have enough clothes for the time you are away; you don’t want to miss out on a round of golf just because you don’t have any fresh underpants!

Now all there is to do is grab everyone who’s going and jump on the bus, assuming you are taking one, which is a great idea by the way if there are a lot of you going.

Dane J. Stanton writes for the Golf Shops Reviewed site where you can get more free golf information, reviews, and lots more.