Published: May 26, 2007 10:14 pm      

KEN RUGGIERO: Improve your golf swing by using your nose

COMMENTARY

Today we’ll discuss a tip to improve your golf ball’s direction and distance. After that, we’ll discuss a ruling and the difference between women and men on the links. Let’s tee it up.

The nose knows

Noses come in all shapes and sizes. It would seem that our culture is somewhat obsessed with the nose. Where would Streisand and Durante be without their notorious noses? Michael Jackson’s ever-shrinking proboscis was once in the news almost daily, until he finally had enough and moved to another country.

Psycho Sigmund Freud believed that our reproductive organs were directly linked to the nose. I’m serious! The nose has importance beyond our sense of smell. And, it is also a tool to be used to improve our golf swings. Here’s how.

Since it is imperative that you keep your head from moving forward during the swing, try this. Point your nose at a location just behind your golf ball and begin your takeaway. During your swing and through impact, keep your nose pointing at that spot. I guarantee that you’ll be more likely to hit your ball straighter and longer than ever.

The reason? By performing this technique, you guarantee that your head stays behind the ball and your body has an opportunity to turn around your spine and direct your hit to where you were aligned. This tip works no matter the size of your nose.

Rules are a girl’s best friend

In my 20 years supervising a local golf course, I learned much about the game of golf and the people who play it. Among my experiences, I discovered that women are much better at following the rules of the game than men. While men tend to view the rules as “flexible,” lady players are sticklers for the statutes.

Recently, I received an e-mail from a local lady linkster who wasn’t certain about a situation in which she found herself. Seems she hit her ball into a sand trap adjacent to a competitor’s ball in the same bunker. Since she was farther from the hole, she had to play first, but could not hit her shot without also hitting her competitor’s ball.

I directed her to Rule 22, which concerns itself with a ball that is interfering with the play of another’s ball. It states in part that “any player may have any other ball lifted if he/she considers that the ball might interfere with his/her play.” She was allowed to tell her opponent to mark her ball while she played her shot. Her opponent’s ball could then be replaced, without penalty, of course. She was obliged only to attempt to recreate her original lie.

As it turned out, the two ladies played the shot as the rules indicated, which gave both women a great deal of relief. On the other hand, men generally tend not to lose any sleep over “fudging” the rules.

I recall a recent story that proves this point. Two men, very close friends for years, were scheduled to play nine holes together one afternoon. John turned to Harry on the first tee and suggested that they make the nine interesting by playing for five bucks. Harry agreed.

On the ninth tee, Harry found himself ahead by one stroke. He promptly pulled his tee shot left of the fairway and into the woods. John hit his tee shot down the middle. The companions marched toward the wooded area and searched for nearly five minutes when, suddenly, Harry claimed to have found his ball.

John became very angry and suggested that Harry had illegally dropped another ball instead of actually finding his original shot. Harry was indignant and asked John how he would know that such an abhorrent breach of the rules had occurred, to which John replied, “Because I’ve been standing on your original ball for the past five minutes!”

Until next week, keep it in the fairway.

Ken Ruggiero is a local golf instructor and can be reached at radiomaniac1949@yahoo.com.