Rickie and Rory

I deliberately put Rickie's name before Rory's in the title of this post.

Rory McIlroy is on a tear, and he won his second successive major and third successive tournament on the PGA tour. How often has a player won two consecutive golf majors? How often has a player won two golf majors in a year? The answer is that both of these feats are rare, but have been accomplished several times over the years by a number of golfers.

Here is a list of all major winners. 

Rickie Fowler did something this year that is much, much rarer. He finished in the top-5 in all four major tournaments. This has happened only 5 times since 1934 - a span of 81 years. The only other golfers to have accomplished this feat are Jack Niklaus and Tiger Woods and they have done it twice each.

Golf is not a sport that can be dominated by one or two players the way other individual sports like tennis can be. Therefore Rickie's feat is quite astonishing. The fact that he did not convert one of these top-5 finishes is disappointing, but takes nothing away from the consistency he has demonstrated. Well done Rickie - I hope you get a big one soon.

RIP Robin Williams

Robin Williams died this week, but not before giving us loads of laughs. He made the manic frenetic style his own and gave us many moments of joy.

His stand up routine on the invention of golf is a classic. RIP Mr. Williams.

Two life lessons from golf

Over the years I have enjoyed the game of golf immensely, and have learnt some interesting lessons during this journey. Two of the most valuable lessons were taught to me by two very interesting individuals.

Radhika Tulpule Kanitkar is a fantastic athlete, a two time women's national tennis champion and the most qualified tennis coach in India. She runs her own tennis academy in Pune. Radhika plays at the same golf club where I play, and therefore I have had opportunities to watch her play golf, and have played a few rounds with her as well. For someone who plays so little golf, Radhika is a hell of a good player, and taught me the first valuable lesson in golf, which is to maintain an even keel, whether the going is good or bad.

One autumn afternoon a few years ago I watched her make par on hole number 10 at Poona Club golf course, and that par summed up her attitude. She hit a good drive, and had a wedge to the green. The lie was good, she took a couple of practice swings and then duffed the shot - the ball travelled less than 10 yards. Most golfers would have hurled a few expletives at themselves, or cursed under their breath at the very least. However Radhika promptly turned around, smiled at the caddy with an expression that said "What was that?". She walked to the ball again, addressed it, and hit a perfect pitch to about 1 foot from the pin. Once again, she turned around, and smiled at the caddy with an expression which said "What was that?". She did not expect to put the pitch shot that close, just as she did not expect to duff the previous one. The duffed shot did not get her down, and the great shot did not put her head in the clouds. Radhika recognizes that ups and downs are part of playing sports, but one does best by trying hard, and maintaining an even keel.

The second valuable lesson came from Dr. Date, known to all golfers in Pune simply as Doc. I wrote a blog post about Doc a few years ago. Doc taught me to be relentless. One can never count Doc out of a round. He doesn't give up, and he doesn't let up. Every shot has his full attention, and it is the most important shot in the world.

The Doc way is to never give up, to believe that your next shot will be a good one. And the Radhika way is to do your best and not worry too much about the result - good or bad. These are valuable lessons not just in golf, but in every walk of life.

Thanks Radhika and Doc.

Putting is not about technique

By and large I have been a good putter throughout my distinguished (ha ha) golf career of 8 years or so. However when I have a bad putting day, my friends tell me that I have a decelerating stroke, that my practice stroke has no resemblance with my actual shot etc.

So I went ahead and changed my putting stroke about a year ago - using the Brandt Snedekar punch as the inspiration. My putting seemed to improve a little bit, and then settled into a comfortable pattern again.

Every once in a while I experiment with a few things on the practice green. A line on the ball for alignment, move the ball forward or back in the stance, lighten my grip etc. However nothing seems to impact the results for any length of time. I have now come to the conclusion that putting is totally about feel. Hit the ball to get it into the hole. Forget about technique. Period.