Radical Golf How to Lower Your Score and Raise Your Enjoyment of the Game

by LAUGHLIN, MICHAEL

• ISBN13: 9780517886267
• ISBN10: 051788626X
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780307794437
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-05-14
• Publisher: Crown
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

The next time you play golf leave your woods at home, putt with your 2-iron, and you will be on your way to shooting in the 70s. Sounds radical? Well, you're right on par! Golf enthusiast Michael Laughlin, whose day job is in the film business, reveals his proven, but completely radical strategies that average golfers can use to dramatically lower their score. In Radical Golf, Laughlin rethinks how the game of golf is traditionally played and shares his surprising and innovative ideas on how to play better golf. Unlike the usual technique-riddled golf books, Radical Golf offers practical and easy-to-use tips, and is written for the legion of average players who will never have the long, crunching power game of the professional. "Golf is not a linear game," insists Laughlin, and "Scoring is definitely not related to advancing the ball as far as possible on each shot." In this fun and accessible book, the radical golfer contends, for example, that players should approach the pin much like basketball players maneuver to shoot a basket by striving to shoot from their best, or "sweet" spot on the court. Laughlin also suggests that golf should be played as two separate games (of tee-to-green and putts) and that golfers should keep a separate scorecard for their putting game. Equally radical, Radical Golf calls for using a 2-iron for putts rather than the "dreaded" putter (the loft of the 2-iron matches the putter, "Calamity Jane," of legendary golfer Bobby Jones). Hole by hole, sensible shot after sensible shot, Radical Golf simulates a round of golf with a pro to show how a radical golfer can stay within strokes of par play. Written in a witty and easy-to-understand style, with entertaining sidebars and line drawings, Radical Golf will revolutionize how golf is played both on and off the course. Most of all, Radical Golf will increase the enjoyment of playing this great and challenging game. Radical Golf is just the book that could become the bible of the weekend golfer.

Author Biography

Michael Laughlin, a successful producer, director, and screenwriter, whose latest screenplay, "Town and Country" starring Warren Beatty for New Line Pictures, will begin production this summer . . . is also a pretty good golfer.  After years of making films, he re-introduced himself to the game while on hiatus in Hawaii, and he virtually reinvented it, dismissing the traditional techniques, and surprisingly, lowered his scores and raised his level of enjoyment.  He decide to reveal the "radical" techniques in Radical Golf.  It could become the bible of the weekend golfer.<br><br>Rethinking traditional ways is not new to Laughlin.  For instance, he produced several non-mainstream films including "Two Lane Blacktop" (1971) which starred James Taylor and W

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xiii
The Radical Philosophy	p. 1
The Basic Principles of Radical Golf	p. 3
How Not to Get Around a Golf Course	p. 8
The Nub of the Big Secret Is Simple Mathematics	p. 11
How to Keep Score	p. 13
Follow Me Around Nine Holes	p. 16
Putting and Lag Putting	p. 19
Following the Four Champions Around	p. 24
Finding Your Own "Free Throw"	p. 27
What to Do When You're Not Playing Golf	p. 30
Recapitulation; Where Are We So Far?	p. 34
How to Do It	p. 35
The Great Leap Forward	p. 37
Loving the Wedge	p. 39
The Moment of Enlightenment	p. 46
Portrait of a Thirty-five-Year-Old Radical Golfer	p. 47
Let's Talk About Your Weapons	p. 51
The Most Overlooked Aspect of the Game of Golf	p. 54
The Medium Irons	p. 57
The Long Irons	p. 58
When to Play Short? When to Hit It!	p. 60
Success, Failure, and Golf	p. 61
Your Fiance, Your Spouse, Your Marriage, and Golf	p. 62
Golf Is Really Par-Three Golf!	p. 63
The Big Challenge	p. 64
Portrait of a Sixty-four-Year-Old Radical Golfer	p. 65
A Bad Round of Golf	p. 66
Riding the Escalator Down: Two Scorecards	p. 68
How to Dress for Golf	p. 72
Thinking Your Way Around the Course	p. 77
The Radical Golfer vs. Tom Watson	p. 79
A Review of the Match	p. 85
Ranking the Shots	p. 86
The Teenage Radical Golfer	p. 88
Mapping the Course	p. 90
How to Break Down a Course for Playing a Round	p. 92
Your Home Course	p. 115
The Hazards, the Out-of-Bounds, the Lakes, the Ponds	p. 116
Satisfactions	p. 119
Should a Man Ever Play Golf with a Woman?	p. 121
What Shots to Practice	p. 124
Let's Review	p. 126
The Radical Golfer's Hot Round	p. 127
The Industrialization of Golf	p. 129
The Golf Course Has to Be Sacrosanct	p. 130
The Animal Kingdom	p. 133
Where to Live or Spend Some Time If You Want to Play Some Golf	p. 135
The Radical Golfer Goes to the Hawaiian Islands	p. 137
The Radical Golfer Goes to Scotland and Ireland	p. 140
The Relationship Between Golf and the Free Enterprise System	p. 141
Always Play with a New Ball	p. 142
Portrait of an Eighty-Year-Old Radical Golfer (My Dad)	p. 144
Radical Golf Goes on Tour	p. 147
A Graduate Degree in Radical Golf	p. 149
You Bought Your Woods, You Like Your Woods... When Can You Hit Them?	p. 151
Once Again, the Trouble with Woods	p. 152
The Absolute Most Important Shot	p. 153
Do You Need to Take Lessons?	p. 155
Across the Sand to a Tight Pin	p. 156
Out of Sand to a Tight Pin	p. 157
In a Fairway Bunker	p. 158
The Knockdown	p. 159
A Bad Start	p. 161
Practice	p. 162
Breaking 80	p. 163
A Little Parable	p. 164
Smoking on the Golf Course	p. 167
Drinking on the Golf Course	p. 168
The Crucial Chip	p. 169
Fade or Draw	p. 170
The Radical Open	p. 171
Golf as Mystery	p. 173
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