Hank Haney

[davemc1]

Really liked the guy, follow him on twitter, helps tonnes of people out. but really disappointed

this is is one of his recent posts

'I laugh when a 20 handicapper says if he swings too fast he will lose control, 20 handicappers don't have any control to start with'

thought/hoped he was better than that.



Ps really hope he was hacked

 

[CMAC]

it's true though!

...and probably true right down to scratch.

 

[davemc1]

With all due respect, I think that's utter nonsense.

 

[braidy82]

Why don't you use Twitter to take this up with the man himself. It's pretty likely he'll explain what he meant. For what it's worth I saw the original Tweet and I'd have to agree with him. I dont think he meant this statement as any sort of slight but if a 20 handicap has control of his golf ball where the hell are the 20 shots going?

 

[Foxholer]

Perhaps the statement was a little harsh, though hard to tell out of context (I'm no twit!).

But CMac's comment is pretty much my thoughts - maybe a little, not much, higher than Scratch. It's the ability to control the ball, rather than hit and hope that the contact was good, the timing was good, the face-angle/path was good, the 'vision' of the shot was good etc. that makes the player a 'proper' golfer! The rest of us just hit and hope, with varying levels of success!

 

[davemc1]

Maybe it's just me then.
It's impossible to have full control 100% of the time else pro's would shoot under par every round. But a handicapper must have varying degrees of control otherwise they'd be spraying it around everywhere? And I refuse to believe that anyone who hits a decent shot was just lucky.
not sure of the point he was after, as a coach one of your jobs must be to inspire.

Left a sour taste

 

[guest100718]

Maybe it's just me then.
It's impossible to have full control 100% of the time else pro's would shoot under par every round. But a handicapper must have varying degrees of control otherwise they'd be spraying it around everywhere? And I refuse to believe that anyone who hits a decent shot was just lucky.
not sure of the point he was after, as a coach one of your jobs must be to inspire.

Left a sour taste

Wrong side of the bed?

 

[Doon frae Troon]

With all due respect, I think that's utter nonsense.

That sounds a bit precious.
Are you talking about golfers who generally fail to break 100 around a golf course having control of a golf ball.

PS.... A coach has to be realistic, that is why 20 handicappers don't win the Masters.

 

[Slab]

That sounds a bit precious.
Are you talking about golfers who generally fail to break 100 around a golf course having control of a golf ball.

PS.... A coach has to be realistic, that is why 20 handicappers don't win the Masters.

More likely because the pro's would winge about giving away too many shots on a course where its all about putting :smirk:

 

[Duckster]

With all due respect, I think that's utter nonsense.

Really? Do you have the ability to hit a high draw, or a controlled fade as and when required? Can you guarantee what your distances will be pretty much every time you hit a ball?

That's what he's getting at. Until you get down to very low handicappers, we simply don't have control of the golf ball. We're all a little bit "hit and hope".

 

[pendodave]

He's right. We're all a bit rubbish.

Why would anyone find that offensive? Especially if he is generally helpful and gives freely of his time to improve a bunch of people to whom he owes nothing.

Think a little over-sensitivity may have crept in here....

 

[CMAC]

Maybe it's just me then.
It's impossible to have full control 100% of the time else pro's would shoot under par every round. But a handicapper must have varying degrees of control otherwise they'd be spraying it around everywhere? And I refuse to believe that anyone who hits a decent shot was just lucky.
not sure of the point he was after, as a coach one of your jobs must be to inspire.

Left a sour taste

they pretty much do, and on very difficult set up courses. On our home clubs I would wager they would shoot under par every time

 

[guest100718]

they pretty much do, and on very difficult set up courses. On our home clubs I would wager they would shoot under par every time

On my course they'd spend half the day trudging about the rough looking for a ball thats probably only 2 feet away!

 

[BoadieBroadus]

haney has a bee in his bonnet about people trying to swing slower to get more control. its something he jumps on everytime a tweet mentions it.

i thought the tweet was a little harsh and not consistent with his usual output, but keeping swing speed up as much as possible seems to be one of his fundamentals.

 

[Airlie_Andy]

My take is that a high handicap player is generally happy to get club on ball and heading roughly in the right direction and feels that trying to swing fast will likely increase the chances of completely miss hitting the ball. Whereas Haney is saying if you want to improve yoyr going to need the swing speed so why not work on hitting the ball with good speed now when miss hits are a big part of your game anyway.

Could be completely wrong mind.

 

[thepodgster]

I have 20 shots to play with and follow Hank.

To be honest I would agree with him, but more importantly it made me laugh when I read it and I find it amazing that that single comment would cause offence to anyone - IMO

 

[muttleee]

I also saw a tweet from Haney where he said something about distance off the tee being more important than being on the fairway for Tiger. Several replies queried this and asked if Tiger would really rather face 140 yards from the rough than 160 from the fairway. Not sure Haney answered any of them.

 

[Alex1975]

Really liked the guy, follow him on twitter, helps tonnes of people out. but really disappointed

this is is one of his recent posts

'I laugh when a 20 handicapper says if he swings too fast he will lose control, 20 handicappers don't have any control to start with'

thought/hoped he was better than that.



Ps really hope he was hacked

Its possible that all he is saying is that its not the swing speed that is losing the handicapper control, they have a lack of it at any speed.... If thats what he means that not a big deal.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I happen to think the tweet is a tad harsh but I can see where he's coming from. Lots of us (myself included) often swing too hard and too fast and that less can be more.

 

[Slab]

He's right though, I don't really 'control the ball' as most good players understand the term, its all about propelling it in the right direction to the right distance which could only loosely be defined as control

I am off 24 and swing faster on the range than I do on the course... because I believe (wrongly) that slowing down will give me more control

p.s I don't want to play like this on the course and am making efforts to stop slowing down

p.p.s whenever I overhear someone who's getting a lesson I can almost guarantee that one of the phrases used by the pro will be "slow down your swing..." so its no real surprise that high handicappers interpret that as slower means more control