Arm speed and getting forward.

The McIlroy Hip Stall

First off, if any of you get the sense I am saying Rory McIlroy has a bad golf swing during this article, start over and realize it’s an indictment of golf instruction on the micro and macro levels.

In the last month I have seen nearly a dozen people practicing a mid swing hip stall. I knew exactly what they were doing, but to make sure, I asked one of them. I got the answer I expected.

“I read (heard) that Rory McIlroy generates club head speed and power by stalling his hips.”

It’s times like that the public is lucky I find penitentiary a deterrent, or else I would go on an 11 state spree of violence. The intent of which is to incapacitate the purveyors of this stupidity on unsuspecting seekers of distance.

Rory McIlroy stalls his hips for one reason and one reason only. His hips are very fast, out race his arms in transition and the hips stall to allow his arms to catch up. When his backswing hip turn is light, this is exacerbated. See the 10th hole Sunday at the 2011 Masters for an example of the perils of this Pauline.

This is a case where a great player has learned over thousands of hours to overcome something the average golfer cannot.

However, in this era of copying the anomalies of great players, we have people who do not understand the swing very well, promoting these anomalies as the reason for greatness, instead of realizing the greatness is in spite of these “magic moves.”

There is one important thing in the golf swing. Linking the arms with the rotation of the body. All of this hip restriction for X-factor, leading with the lower body and leaving the arms behind, ring the bell, hold the lag…do two things.

They make it nearly impossible to link the arms up…and create the need for a hip stall. That is why McIlroy stalls his hips. He has minimal backswing hip turn and fires them really fast and leaves his arms behind. The big difference is Rory is athletic enough to speed up his arms and stall his hips to somehow link up at impact. This makes him great, not the move…which is why you don’t copy the moves of great players.

Rory has a little of what I call the 68 ballerina move. He makes it work, most can’t.

No one has a perfect swing and the odds of learning to compensate the same way the guy you’re trying to copy did?…..might as well risk your financial future on a lottery ticket.

PS-Next article will be on what a 68 ballerina move is. Hint….you have seen it recently here.

The Rory McIlroy hip stall

First off, if any of you get the sense I am saying Rory McIlroy has a bad golf swing during this article, start over and realize it’s an indictment of golf instruction on the micro and macro levels.

In the last month I have seen nearly a dozen people practicing a mid swing hip stall. I knew exactly what they were doing, but to make sure, I asked one of them. I got the answer I expected.

“I read (heard) that Rory McIlroy generates club head speed and power by stalling his hips.”

It’s times like that the public is lucky I find penitentiary a deterrent, or else I would go on an 11 state spree of violence. The intent of which is to incapacitate the purveyors of this stupidity on unsuspecting seekers of distance.

Rory McIlroy stalls his hips for one reason and one reason only. His hips are very fast, out race his arms in transition and the hips stall to allow his arms to catch up. When his backswing hip turn is light, this is exacerbated. See the 10th hole Sunday at the 2011 Masters for an example of the perils of this Pauline.

This is a case where a great player has learned over thousands of hours to overcome something the average golfer cannot.

However, in this era of copying the anomalies of great players, we have people who do not understand the swing very well, promoting these anomalies as the reason for greatness, instead of realizing the greatness is in spite of these “magic moves.”

There is one important thing in the golf swing. Linking the arms with the rotation of the body. All of this hip restriction for X-factor, leading with the lower body and leaving the arms behind, ring the bell, hold the lag…do two things.

They make it nearly impossible to link the arms up…and create the need for a hip stall. That is why McIlroy stalls his hips. He has minimal backswing hip turn and fires them really fast and leaves his arms behind. The big difference is Rory is athletic enough to speed up his arms and stall his hips to somehow link up at impact. This makes him great, not the move…which is why you don’t copy the moves of great players.

Rory has a little of what I call the 68 ballerina move. He makes it work, most can’t.

No one has a perfect swing and the odds of learning to compensate the same way the guy you’re trying to copy did?…..might as well risk your financial future on a lottery ticket.

PS-Next article will be on what a 68 ballerina move is. Hint….you have seen it recently here.

Frank Lickliter has exempt status for the first time since 2010

I was Monday qualifier for over 10 years and had some success, but I never made it through second stage and had the opportunity to know what it was like to just play.

I always tee’d it up knowing I had to make the cut and finish at least top 25. When I was near that number, it changed the way I played. The couple of times I had a chance to win, I’d don’t just play, I was trying to get status.

Plus, I was a hit and miss player. You give me 5 tournaments in a 15 week stretch, odds were against me having a big week.

You give me 30 weeks, 2-3 of those weeks I was making over 20 birdies for 72 holes.

My tangential sob story aside, Frank has had the displeasure of being a Monday Qualifier with little to no status since 2010. It has changed the way he played.

The good news is he now has status in 2015.

The 108 hole Q-school just finished.

The winner got a full exemption on the web.com tour next year. Finishers 2-10 and ties are exempt thru the 12th event. Finishers 11-45 and ties are exempt thru event 8. There is a reshuffle after each 4 events by money earned.

Frank birdied the 108th hole to finish 43rd. He has 8 weeks to learn to play golf the right way again…and there is no question in my mind when the reshuffle happens after 8 events, he will be in the next 21.

Frank Lickliter has his first exempt status since 2010

I was Monday qualifier for over 10 years and had some success, but I never made it through second stage and had the opportunity to know what it was like to just play.

I always tee’d it up knowing I had to make the cut and finish at least top 25. When I was near that number, it changed the way I played. The couple of times I had a chance to win, I’d don’t just play, I was trying to get status.

Plus, I was a hit and miss player. You give me 5 tournaments in a 15 week stretch, odds were against me having a big week.

You give me 30 weeks, 2-3 of those weeks I was making over 20 birdies for 72 holes.

My tangential sob story aside, Frank has had the displeasure of being a Monday Qualifier with little to no status since 2010. It has changed the way he played.

The good news is he now has status in 2015.

The 108 hole Q-school just finished.

The winner got a full exemption on the web.com tour next year. Finishers 2-10 and ties are exempt thru the 12th event. Finishers 11-45 and ties are exempt thru event 8. There is a reshuffle after each 4 events by money earned.

Frank birdied the 108th hole to finish 43rd. He has 8 weeks to learn to play golf the right way again…and there is no question in my mind when the reshuffle happens after 8 events, he will be in the next 21.

Frank Lickliter has status for the first time since 2010.

I was Monday qualifier for over 10 years and had some success, but I never made it through second stage and had the opportunity to know what it was like to just play.

I always tee’d it up knowing I had to make the cut and finish at least top 25. When I was near that number, it changed the way I played. The couple of times I had a chance to win, I’d don’t just play, I was trying to get status.

Plus, I was a hit and miss player. You give me 5 tournaments in a 15 week stretch, odds were against me having a big week.

You give me 30 weeks, 2-3 of those weeks I was making over 20 birdies for 72 holes.

My tangential sob story aside, Frank has had the displeasure of being a Monday Qualifier with little to no status since 2010. It has changed the way he played.

The good news is he now has status in 2015.

The 108 hole Q-school just finished.

The winner got a full exemption on the web.com tour next year. Finishers 2-10 and ties are exempt thru the 12th event. Finishers 11-45 and ties are exempt thru event 8. There is a reshuffle after each 4 events by money earned.

Frank birdied the 108th hole to finish 43rd. He has 8 weeks to learn to play golf the right way again…and there is no question in my mind when the reshuffle happens after 8 events, he will be in the next 21.

Frank made it through second stage of Q school

After opening with 74, he went 69-68-69 to finish 13th.

His hard work has paid off. On his way back.

This made me really happy. Vicariously through Frank I had a success at the stage that road blocked my career.

Well done.

This is brilliant

Below you will see a picture of the greatest devices ever invented. I bought it for Frank for Christmas.

It is a golf ball launcher that you attach to an AR-15 rifle.

When we have some time, I am going to pull out my long drive club and Frank and I are going to have a long drive contest.

I will film it and post the video.

Obviously it won’t be for a while, but you have something to look forward to. It will be epic.

I wish him the best as a friend. He has worked really hard and is all the way back physically. The only question is if he has the confidence to be back mentally.

My new website….MonteScheinblum.com

It’s still going to get some tweaks, but my new website is fully functional and the blog will be there too.

Here is the link to the new site and you will see a link on the front page to the blog.

LINK TO NEW SITE

LINK TO BLOG PAGE

The day I met Frank

It was 1993, I was the reigning long drive champion and my first full year as a tournament player. I had made a few cuts on the Nike (Web.com) tour, so I had proven myself not to be a one trick pony. I had gotten a sponsors exemption into an event in Dayton, OH, so I picked locals in Cincinnati.

Frank Lickliter is from Franklin, a small town west of Dayton and Cinci, so it was his home town event and qualifier. He and I were scheduled to do a clinic on the next day.

I get paired with a buddy of his and we had a great time for 36 holes. Really good guy. We were first off and played really fast. It was played at two courses and we finished on the host course where the scoreboards and possibly playoff would be. I opened with 40 my first 9, then went 32 the back and 69 in round two for a respectable three under par 141.

Frank’s name had come up during the marathon and we had discussed the clinic the next day and Frank was none to happy to be sharing the tee with me.

The 16th tee comes right by the clubhouse and Frank’s buddy says, “Hey, here comes Frank, let’s go see how he’s doing.”

Now Frank has a reputation as looking and being quite surly. This was 3 years before he made the tour. Frank of 1993 Made the Tour Frank look like Hello Kitty. If someone told me Frank was a serial killer it would have been totally believable,

I walk up to Frank and said, “Hi Frank, I’m Monte, we are doing a little clinic tomorrow.”

He responds something like, “Exactly how I pictured a California fruitcake.”

I told him he didn’t look too happy. He said, “Watch this ****…”

There was a big 100 foot ditch directly in front of the tee box, but it was like a 50 yard carry. Home slice in Frank’s group tops two in a row in the ditch. Franks tells us that he shot 104 and was headed for more in round 2.

Frank was at minus 3 and needed 3 pars to tie me.

After home slice pull sliced his third attempt into the fairway…I was not real good at keeping my opinions to myself at 26 (or at 46 for that mater but I was worse).

“What the **** are you doing? There are people out here who have a legitimate chance of getting in the US Open, you are playing with one of them and you are getting in the way. Just go to your car. It looks like Frank is about to take your life and he might get off.”

The guy then goes into a song and dance about how three weeks earlier he had holed out 3 times, shot 69 and had 4 spotted into the Greensboro Open.

Frank says…”I have been listening to that story for 8 ******* hours, you are a lying sack of ****…”

So Frank pars the last three and ties me at 141. As the scores come in it looks like the number will be 141 or 142. I was having a great time, telling stories, laughing, telling jokes. Frank’s buddy was talking about all of the huge drives I had hit and then I was making jokes about all the great par saves I had from the middle of the fairway, 50 yards from the green. He then told a story about how I drove the first green (where a playoff would be), almost made a 1 and missed a 15 footer for a 2.

This went on for about an hour. Finally I look at Frank, who hadn’t said a word or changed facial expression and said, “Frank, relax, have some fun, we’re in.”

He responds, “You’re just happy because if we have to playoff, you can drive the first ******* green.”

There must have been 50-60 people sitting around and they just burst into tears laughing so hard as most were locals familiar with Frank and they couldn’t believe I was talking to him that way.

We ended up making it and the next day all of Dayton/Cincinnati showed up to watch the long drive champion and the local hero put on a show.

The tournament director foolishly put me on first. I was hitting 350 yard drives with steel and balata, trick shots off my knees, divots, spitting balls out of my mouth and hitting them out of the air, playing to the crowd, yucking it up…etc.

The the director turns to Frank and says, “Now Frank is going to show us how to hit a wedge.”

Frank says, “I am not following that ****…”

I said (while still having the mic), “Come on Frank, show the nice folks how to do something I can’t.”

He walks to his bag, grabs a wedge, barely lines up and rocks it off a flag about 100 yards out.

The crowd went berserk.

We’ve been friends ever since.