Sports
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.
- Sports
-
-
For SU, tourney will show whether key departures were a blessing
“Certainly it hurts to lose your top three scorers,” said Andy Rautins, a fifth-year senior for the Orange. “But at the same time, it made us into a better team. We have a lot of chemistry this year. Everybody is always on the same page regardless of what five guys are on the floor. I think we’re a very unselfish team. That’s what has made us so successful.”
-
Falls' Carter ready to get back in the ring
Niagara Falls' Terry Carter will make his first appearance in the boxing ring in five years when he fights in the Golden Gloves Tournament Saturday at ECC's Flickinger Center in Buffalo.
-
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Falls' Harrison helps Robert Morris into WNIT
It’s not quite a homecoming, but it’s close enough to get Destiny Harrison excited. The Niagara Falls native will be in Olean tonight when her Robert Morris team meets St. Bonaventure in the first round of the women’s National Invitation Tournament.
-
MMA: GI’s Weiser heads from field to octagon
Former Grand Island standout and current Buffalo State linebacker Eddie Weiser’s roots run deep when it comes to fighting.
-
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Gonzaga trumpets small conference cause as a mid-major player
With a big budget, a 6,000-seat arena that’s nearly impossible to get into, and a string of top national and international recruits, Gonzaga has become the poster child for the emergence of mid-major basketball.
-
SABRES: Miller pulled in 4-3 loss to Thrashers
Ryan Miller was pulled after giving up three goals in the first 6 minutes and Jim Slater’s third-period goal gave the Thrashers a 4-3 win over the Northeast-leading Sabres on Tuesday night.
-
FOOTBALL: Falls to get semi-pro team
According to numerous reports, Niagara Falls will be the site of an expansion team in the United States Football League, a semi-pro league that currently has teams in Lockport, Buffalo and Lackawanna.
-
MEN'S HOCKEY: UAH stuns Niagara in OT to take CHA title
In what might be a fitting finale to a league that never really found continuity or conformity, the last College Hockey America hockey game finished with a surprise and little sense of closure for the home team.
-
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Syracuse opens in Buffalo as seedings unfold
Kansas, Kentucky and Duke won their conference tournaments and the top seeding that went with them when the selection committee rolled out its 65-team NCAA tournament bracket Sunday.
-
MEN'S BASKETBALL: Next year, Niagara will be in Nelson's hands
Always a gifted passer, Nelson has improved his all-around game since his freshman year, and although he wasn’t one of the five point guards on the 15-member all-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s team last year, Lewis predicted he’ll be recognized as one of the league’s best players next year.
- More Sports Headlines
-
