In my career as a mental health counselor, I've worked with people with autism, on various positions on the spectrum, and I've found they are generally acutely aware of everything in their surroundings, both externally and internally. The problem is they don't know what to do with that information. There's just too much of it coming in and not enough time or emotional skill to understand what it all means. The great ballstriker Moe Norman was autistic by all accounts, and I think fits into the above description. He happened to take to golf at an early age, as I myself did, and seemed to use it like a bubble protecting him from the excesses of the world that so overwhelmed him. I too had a very challenging adolescence and used golf in a similar way. I was introverted and depressed most of my teen years, relieved of this only when playing golf which was very often during warmer months and putting divots in my mom's carpet during winter (I actually did that once, but never told her!).
Moe was farther out on the spectrum than I so he became obsessed with understanding the golf swing to the degree of pounding balls ad infinitum until he could hit every shot on the button with every club. He did this between 14 and 19 years of age. And he succeeded. Being autistic, once he attained this feat, it was etched in his brain and his infrastructure, never to be erased right up to his death in his early 70s. Moe won often in his native Canada, but never could fit socially into the PGA Tour.
Lately, at 77, I've struggled with my game, even to the point of giving it up altogether. Yes, I've come to that point before, and, like Lucas Glover said after winning two in a row after a ten year bout with the putting yips, never gave up. Stubborn I, as he also said of himself. But instead of trekking off to the range as before, I went to my trusty YouTube, that digital Jack of All Trades that has taught me such things as replacing the internal air filter in my car to perfectly cooking a salmon filet in an air fryer. And where I navigated to was a direct video of Moe Norman explaining his machine-like swing. And what I discovered were a couple of details that have given me hope for however many more years of decent golf I've got left.
The main thing I learned had to do with the only body part that directly contacts the club. Every club. And that was the hands. The grip. Now I know I've probably lost about 92% of you with that revelation, because there's nothing more of a yawner than talk about the grip, especially the need to change it. A pro set my grip when I was 14 and I haven't changed it since. Not even by a millimeter. I'm now here to tell you that's no longer the case. Following Mo's advice closely, here's what I changed.
My left hand didn't change much. Two knuckles visible, tending to neutral, a little less in the fingers. It was the right hand where an absolute revolution took place. Mo felt that the right hand was mostly just along for the ride during the entire journey of the swing. And he wanted the grip mainly in the palm of the hand "because that's where the meat is." He had a hardened callous on the meaty part of his right hand to prove it. At impact, a strong right hand, Moe claimed, can tend to overpower the motion of the hands and "flip" the clubface left resulting in a severe pull. If you look closely at the hands of Freddy, Vijay, and Ernie at impact, the right hand actually partially disengages from the grip, preventing such flipping.
So does it work? At the range, yes, most of the time, as long as other fundamentals are intact. But my one foray onto the course, the varied lies, one-shot only, obstacles, and keeping score cut into the consistency of the grip change. I simply needed more time on the range to embed this new grip into my other swing routines.
Should you try it? If you pull the ball consistently where it often gets you into trouble, yes, go ahead. But practice it first and practice it often until you can incorporate it while actually playing. Playing a round of golf is an entirely different game than practicing at the range. Changing your grip cannot be taken lightly or cavalierly. I've always had Arnold's voice drummed into my head about what his father told him about his grip, essentially nail it down and don't change it. But it may be necessary if your ball flight is clinically astray and consistently getting you into trouble.
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Lucas Glover, in winning twice in a row recently, has shown how golf is as much mental as physical. He has overcome the putting yips that has driven many golfers from the game. Ten years of putting yips! I congratulate Lucas, and praise him for providing a model for golfers to just hang in there, stay with it, and find a way to get better.
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I also congratulate American Lilia Vu for her amazing victory at the women's equivalent to the Open Championship. She came close to leaving the game not long ago, but with a great mental attitude (and wonderful smile, I might add), persisted and succeeded--a role model for golfers everywhere--girls, boys, men, and women--who struggle with this daunting, yet rewarding game.
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My pick for the FedEx Tour Championship? Open Championship Champion Golfer of the Year Brian Harman. This bulldog of a competitor keeps the ball in the short grass, hits it as far as many, and putts a bit like Billy Casper back in the day.
We talked about this last time we wandered around collecting a bunch of bogeys. I look forward to the next time. It was a good lunch, too.