Ed Hanczaryk Awareness Golf School, Lessons, Teaching, Swing Analysis, Swing Aids, Halifax NS

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Exit 10, Shubenacadie

10 Akerley Studio MAP

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Indoor Golf Training

450-0111 for information

How NOT to practice indoors!

We are located at 10 Akerley in Burnside, now open on Mondays. THE RANGE WILL CLOSE APRIL 26, HOWEVER THE STUDIO WILL STILL BE OPEN ALL SUMMER FOR LESSONS

How much do you know about golf???
This is multiple choice. If you select a wrong answer, the ball moves only so far down the fairway and stops and you are charged with one stroke.
Keep selecting the answers that you think are correct and the ball moves down the fairway until you get the right answer and the ball goes in the hole. If you have the correct answer right away, the ball goes directly in the hole - a hole in one.

Past Golf Stories

Story #4

A Moe Norman Story
I imagine many are familiar with the story of Moe Norman and Sam Snead. Playing together in a PGA event they came to a hole where the fairway was crossed by by a stream with a footbridge. Snead's advice to Moe "Don't try to carry the green kid, its a layup"
At this Moe takes his fairway wood, the shot bounces on the footbridge onto the green. "I wasn't aiming for the green" says Moe "I was aiming for the bridge!"
I was playing in the Kings College Alumni tournament at Ken-Wo a couple of years ago and there is a hole there played from an elevated tee. A stream with a footbridge crossing it below in the valley reminded me of the Moe Norman story.
In fact the last thought that went through my head as I swung my driver was of Moe's ball bouncing off the bridge and, you guessed it, my drive hit the bridge first bounce and carried on much farther up the fairway than I could have driven it otherwise.
So much for the power of swing thoughts!
Hope your subscribers enjoy my little tale.
David Imrie
story #3

Nine Holes with the Generals

This story is from the incredible 4 months I spent in Bhutan last winter-Ed
The Bhutanese army is a definite presence in the country; and they are men and women of peace. Well trained and disciplined, at the same time devoted Buddhists, this military represents enlightened rulership.
And they love golf! On the Dechen Choling army rifle range, is a nine hole course that could be the model for one of those calendars of fantasy golf holes. Cows mow the fairways, much as the sheep did at early Saint Andrews, the home of golf. On some holes I felt as if I were looking at a fairway the width of a bowling alley, with a miniature green in the distance perched on a small mountain. In short, intimidating.
During my time here, I kept hearing of `the Generals’, three highest ranking officers, who not only played golf, but also philosophized about this game that is such an enigma to many. I finally met them at the Royal Thimpu course, and was invited out for a game at their unique course.
This turned out to be one of the most memorable of the thousands of golf games I have played in my life. Not playing much, and teaching a lot eventually has taken its toll on my performance. That, combined with a bag of clubs stitched together from the juniors sets, and a course that was a combination of star wars and Disneyland, led to a less than stellar performance from me. I played like a clown.
But it didn’t seem to matter. They were supportive, funny, and super story tellers. It was a round of golf that felt like a great massage, or a wonderful meal. It flowed like honey. I knew it was going to be a special day, when, on the first hole, after topping a shot or two, I found my ball just short of the green. As I looked down at the lie, I couldn’t miss the very large 4 leaf clover, just behind my ball. All my life I have been looking for one of these, but until this moment have never found one. I picked it and put it in a safe place, as a reminder of this special day.
Fittingly, on the last hole, Toli, not a General but a close attendant of the King who was our 5th member of the group, chipped in from a pretty impossible place to win a bunch of skins.
After the round, the attendants served tea and rice in a lovely meadow that is normally used as a classroom to teach military tactics. Perhaps someday, that spot will become the officer’s grill in the clubhouse. Thanks, gentlemen. The guarding of your countries is in good hands.

Story #2: A famous Nova Scotia Golfer
This entry is from Vonda Hare.
My father was an avid golfer. He has golfed just about every course in the Maritimes and several in Florida and Myrtle Beach.
On this one particular trip to Springhill Centennial Golf Club (I think it was this course), a few years ago…he was having a really good driving day. Everything was going straight and long. There was a group of 4 ladies ahead of my father’s group. I can’t recall which hole it was but my father’s group was waiting for the ladies to go over the knoll and waited an additional 5 minutes or so to ensure that the ladies had moved on.
My father was the first to tee off…again, hit it straight and long. The remainder of the group proceeded to tee off and they headed off in pursuit of their balls. When they came over the knoll the ladies were still there and not one bit happy. The ball my father had hit just missed one of the ladies’ heads…just whished by her left ear. The lady he nearly hit…Anne Murray.
Thanks, Vonda!
The strangest shot I ever saw #1
I was playing with some old friends at the New Ashburn course; we got to #17, a par 5 and my friend Edward had the tee.
Ed had a consistent game, but for some reason on this particular hole, his 3 wood came down a little too steep, and the ball was teed a little too high.
The only part of the club that contacted the ball was the `roof', causing the ball to pop straight up in the air. It hovered like an alien spacecraft in front of my friend, begging for the only possible action, a baseball swing like you would see at a t-ball game.
Ed took a mighty swipe, and to everyone's surprise, he caught the white sputnik right on the screws! IT TOOK OFF RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE, A GOOD 200 YARDS DOWN THE FAIRWAY!
We didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so we said nothing, picked up our sticks and walked down the fairway. I didn't have the heart to assess any penalty strokes. Thanks, Dutch, for the strangest shot I ever saw.

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The Burnside Studio will be closed for the season on Saturday April 28. It will still be open by appointment for lessons. Thanks for a great winter season! Ed.

The Evolution of a Golf Swing, Level 3: No Slice

The dreaded slice!

This series is about the evolving swing. There are 7 distinct, predictable levels a golfer’s game goes through, en route to high performance; people go through these levels at different speeds, and some unfortunately get stuck in one for life. The reason we get stuck, is because each level has corresponding illusions that become obstacles to moving further.

Last installment (see tip archive) was about getting the ball airborne. Once people can `get it up’ with regularity, a new pattern arises in over 80 percent of players. They develop a wicked slice!

Using the karate belt approach, this would be the tan color.

THE GREAT ILLUSION

The slicer is pretty much doomed to mediocre golf, because the harder she hits it, the more it slices. There are two illusions that keep the golfer in the trance of the banana ball; one is a grip illusion, and the other has to do with the clubface.

GRIP ILLUSION

Give a kid a club for the first time, and he will hold it doing what feels good and natural, not thinking too much. Give a club to an adult, and she might look at the markings on the handle, and assume both thumbs should be on the top. It sure looks that way, you can’t blame them. (Then well meaning husband will say you must lock the fingers together, and the poor golfer’s hands end up looking like a can of worms!)

The thumbs-on-top is dead wrong. In actual fact, the left thumb should be on the right, and the right thumb on the left. Just letting your arms hang down naturally will show how they should be placed, turned inward in 30 or 40 degrees. Seeing two or three knuckles on the back of the left hand, will go a long way to straightening the slice.

CLUBFACE ILLUSION

Again, the rational, reasoning adult might think it obvious that if the face of the club should be square to the target at impact, then keeping it square to the target well beyond impact should really make it go straight. This is not correct, and has caused many a Titleist to go sailing into the bushes. To make matters worse, a chronic open face from the two illusions usually causes a new problem to evolve, an out-to-in swing and poor alignment. More on that next time.

In reality, the club face should be close-ing through impact. (Note the ing. Not close-d, close-ing). It is this face rotation, like a door close-ing, that allows the face to square, resulting in escape from the weak fade. Letting the forearms rotate, with a proper grip, will stop the slice forever, and will allow the golfer to graduate to the next level.

Ed Hanczaryk comes to us from Jacksonville Florida. He is a certified PGA and CPGA teaching professional with years of experience (including the past years here in Halifax).

Named by the National Post as one of the top 50 Golf Instructors in Canada.

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Golf Stories

So many funny things happen on the golf course, that it's high time we start sharing them.

This space will be the home to those stories. Send in your true golf tale, and we will print it here.

Hopefully there will be a new one to share every couple of weeks or so.

Send yours to ed@awarenessgolf.com, either as a microsoft word attachment, or directly in an e-mail. The best 50 or so might make it into an eventual book.

Golf Story #6, from Tucson Arizona

This one is from my dear friend, Irv Mermelstein- Ed

`As for story telling, you take a risk asking me for a story. Chaucer was my mentor and I follow his rule that if the humor outweighs the filth it's okay. All of my classic golf stories ask a bit riske'.

But, I will give you an incident that suggests the All-mighty might be involved in our games. It happened on the 5th hole of the Tucson National Championship course. One of my regular weekly games included a friend named Dick. His tee shot left him about 150 yards from the elevated green (a wide, but shallow green that required a high shot to land softly). An up hill lie helped his 6 iron trajectory and he holed it out for a duece.

Our next game was two days later and my tee shot landed within a few feet of his lie. I played a 7 iron and it, too, holed out. Two friends - on two successive games have the same shot and the same result. So much for theism.' or non-theism.

Thanks, Irvy!

Golf Story #5, First Game

Here is a true experience that I had on a golf course that I will never forget:

I had gotten totally enthralled with golf when I was just a teenager many years ago and had tried for quite some time to get my father out to try this sport with me. He was always working very hard, and it was a struggle to secure some quality time. Well, I finally succeeded in getting him out to a course for his very first round. It was the Currie Park municipal course in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on a beautiful summer day.

He tried and struggled and hacked his way around 8 holes had a stroke count of well above a 100 when we came to the 9th tee. I remember it was a uphill par 4. I don't remember how many strokes it took - but he wound up about 120 yards from the green, when he topped yet another shot. It kicked and bounced and threaded its way to the green and then dropped right into the cup.

I turned to him and exclaimed in wonderment, "Dad - that was fantastic - you sunk your shot".

He turned to me without hesitation, and I will never forget his response, "That was what I was just supposed to do, wasn't it?"

That was the only game of golf he ever played.

Harvey Silverstein

In the winter of 2007, Ed taught golf in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, from December 28 to May 1. To read his blog of this fascinating adventure, click here.