Every time I watched a golf tournament in person or on television I was puzzled by how much quicker a professional golfers backswing is than the amateur players I’ve seen on golf courses. And yet people would say someone like Ernie tells has a very slow backswing, much slower than any other player on the tour. Turns out that’s not true either.

Whenever I asked a question about what was seeing I was told I was wrong. But something just didn’t seem right… my eyes were telling me something different than what my ears were hearing. Fortunately I’m one of those guys who has to keep digging until I get an answer that satisfies me.

A couple of years ago I came across something called Tour Tempo. I got the ebook and videos but never really looked into it..like many an amateur golfer I got sidetracked by the next big thing that would help my game. Then, last spring I sat down at my computer and took a look at the Tour Tempo package and I was amazed at what I had missed. Apparently, every successful golfer has a 3:1 ratio in their golf swing! If you were to examine a video of a professional golfers swing you would find they had 27 video frames going back and 9 video frames going through to hit the ball. Actually, there are a trio of 3:1 ratios among tour professionals, 21/7, 24/8 and 27/9. It appears just about every single golfer…even all time great golfers like Tiger Woods, Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer,  Gene Littler,  Ben Hogan and Sam Snead…all fit into one of these golf swing ratios.

Ernie Els? 24/8.

Bobby Jones? 27/9.

Amazing isn’t it! Both old-timers and present-day golfers basically all had the same basic golf swing as far as swing tempo is concerned. Even those who were supposed to have a “slower” golf swing had one of these ratios in their swing. In actual fact, the grace of their golf swing hid the real truth.

Now, it takes a little bit of time to get used to it, but once you get into this 3:1 swing tempo it is amazing how much better your golf shots are. This swing tempo secret actually seems to remove a lot of the flaws that you get when you try to swing slower. They state that fact when you’re listening to the videos but you actually have to experience it to realize its true. Swinging with the right tempo like the golf pros will smooth your swing out. And even though my swing is actually faster than it used to be… I get people telling me how I have a nice easy swing! Go figure.

Try out this Tour Tempo by John Novosel for yourself and see how much better a ball striker you become.

Sound familiar? Have you been on the receiving side of a less than perfect golf vacation? In all fairness, most golf packages are good. Some are great. But they truly are packages designed for the mass market with little flexibility and no individual flair.

A standard golf vacation package provides lodging and one round of golf per day, including a cart. The lodging usually means motel or hotel accommodations with two people per bedroom. In most cases, you can choose from several different courses, and select your advance tee times. They will even throw in a continental breakfast. The prices are fair, but varying from the standard package starts adding cost in a hurry.

Again, “the package” will yield a good to great vacation, but we need to discuss the perfect vacation. Envision this:

-A beautiful vacation house with a separate bed or bedroom for each person.
-Gourmet dining each evening.
-As much or as little golf as you want, where you want and when you want.
-Evening entertainment.
-Maximum camaraderie.

I have been setting up this type of annual golf vacation for my old high school and college friends since 1988. Over those 18 years, we have refined Our Event to what we think is the perfect annual outing. Our first few years were terrific even though we had to keep the costs down. Each new year improves on the last.

We have settled on a full seven days, Saturday to Saturday. In general, we schedule 36 holes per day, and modify that day by day to wind up with an average of about 27 holes per day. Our smallest group was five gents one year, and the largest group was sixteen. The perfect group size is eight, but anywhere from six to twelve works great.

We buy most of the food and beverages the day of arrival to support breakfasts, snacks, sandwiches between rounds, and gourmet evening meals for the entire week.

Your perfect group golf vacation is not going to be identical to ours, but the general organization will be. There is going to have to be a “go to guy” that organizes the event. My guess is that will be you. You will need to:

- Get the ball rolling early.
- Have everyone stay in the same house that has a full kitchen.
- Get the shopping list together ahead of time.
- Have a general schedule and loose assignments.

1. Get the ball rolling. Pick out a window of time and get the word out to everyone you think might be interested AND not interested (next year, they may be). I send a fun, whimsical email about five months ahead of a proposed block of time. It is written such that the wives enjoy the comedy as much as the guys. If you are not a writer, there are examples in my upcoming free Ebook. Additionally, this book will take you through setting up and conducting the whole event from scratch.

Follow up emails get commitments and solicit recommendations and special requests. Armed with all this, you will select the ideal house, set up tee times, and arrange rental vehicles. Further emails from you will ask what food, snacks and beverages they will want for the outing. Here is a good time line:

-5 months: Announce.
-3 months: Receive all commitments and solicited recommendations.
-3 months: Let everyone know when to fly in to coordinate travel.
-2 months: Arrange house, tee times and rental cars.
-1 month: Receive all food, snack, and beverage requests.
-1 month: Confirm house, tee times and rental cars.
-1 week: Finalize food and beverage list.
Zero hour: Have the time of your life.

2. House with a full kitchen. This allows several things:

- Preparing your own evening meal. Every group has at least one “chef”.
- Rehashing the day as a group (yes, this includes an appropriate amount of trash talk and begging for strokes on upcoming rounds.)
- Having evening entertainment as a group. We watch a sports event on TV, watch videos, play cards, tell tales and get caught up, or all of the above.
- Getting sandwiches, snacks and beverages ready for the next day.

3. Shopping List. In my free Ebook I provide a sample shopping list and sample emails to send requesting input. Your various emails to the group should provide a “fill in the blank” type of requested reply. You will ask what they want for breakfast, what they want for sandwich lunch, what they want to drink for the week, and any snacks they like.

4. General Schedule and Assignments. Your first year will be a terrific learning experience. Your “chef” will emerge and others will gravitate to where they are needed. Putting together a list of what needs to be done and having volunteers will work just fine. Over the years, you will find what works best.

Think about bringing a laptop and uploading each day’s results on your website so that the unfortunate people that did not make the trip can live vicariously by following the daily action. If you don’t have a website, a free blog will work about as well and will be much easier to update. An idea that our group has not yet acted on is having a masseuse come in one evening later in the week to help our aging muscles.

You will have almost as much fun setting up this event as you will have during your vacation. I set up a little eight page website with history, photos, schedule, past scores, etc. to hold everyone’s interest and attention throughout the year. An example is in my free Ebook.

Building your own special vacation not only allows you to really tailor your outing to your group’s tastes, but also allows you all to get together as a true group for a great week of camaraderie. As a bonus, it should wind up being less expensive! Once you set your own up, I doubt you will ever buy “the package” again.

No, that set of golf clubs is not fixed in stone. Everyone is a little different. Golf shots vary over the length of a golf course. Some golf shots require accuracy,  some golf shots require distance, some shots may even need both.  Other factors include hitting from a tee, hitting from a bunker, hitting from the fairway, hitting from the dreaded rough, needing to go over water or a tree or needing roll or no roll. You might even need back roll on your shot instead of front roll.

But of course the other factor that comes into play is you and your golf swing. Some people are beginners. Some have played for a number years and are intermediate golfers, while others are expert or professional golfers. A true beginner needs a lot of help and forgiveness from a golf club. Expert golfers can use a less forgiving club  and shape their shot to exactly what they need. You need to be honest with yourself as to where your skills lie and what your capabilities are when on a golf course.

Some people wonder which clubs are the most important ones. For most golfers that club is probably the putter.  Statistically speaking, out of 100 shots the average golfer uses the putter 35 to 40% of the time. having a good putter [and the right one for you] can make a lot of difference.

The next most important club for most golfers is the driver, also known as the #1 Wood. That club gives you your first shot on every hole. Statistics again tell us that the average golfer uses his driver 12 to 20% of the time, depending on his skill level. Again, you need a good driver that matches your skill levels. Do you naturally get a lot of distance but have trouble keeping it on course? Or do you have a lot of accuracy but very little distance on your tee shots? The right answer will lead you to a golf driver that can help your golf game.

if you have a difficult time getting to the greens in a regulation number of golf strokes, then you may need also to look at the various types of golf wedges with your specific needs in mind. Wedges can have various loft angles but they can also vary in head size. A larger head obviously gives you a larger sweet spot along with extra weight and more forgiveness in your shot. But a larger head can also make it harder to shake your shot and he can get entangled in the grass a lot easier. These are the kind of trade-offs you have to keep in mind.

Analyze your own game of golf, how you hit your shots and then go looking for clubs that will improve your weaknesses and play up your strengths.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

I remember starting out as a youngster, eager to emulate the professional golfers of the day and hoping to join the pro tour someday. Every stroke I was able to shave off made me feel like a conquering hero. My first hole in one was very was very much like my other very first time…exciting!

Buying our first new set of golf clubs became a heavily mapped out campaign, filled with the strategies of how each club we would considering buying would improve our game just a little bit more. Even now, years later, every new club bought brings more hope for an improved game. Golf is a never-ending cycle of new golf clubs, new strategies, new techniques and new found thrills every time we plant our golf cleats on a new golf course.

And, of course, everyone who takes up the game of golf imagines the possibility of becoming a professional golfer, winning golf tournaments and making money at a game we all love so much. Not everyone can do it of course, but the hope was always there. And that is the great thing about golf… there is always tomorrow.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…