John Graham Golf» Putting

7 Nights of the Twitter Academy

John Graham — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:10:55 +0000

7 Nights of the Twitter Academy. This idea born from Jason Helman is designed to match the Golf Channels 7 Nights of their Academy. It will feature 7 Top Coaches that have extensive Twitter followings. Each night, one of the coaches will showcase a subject specific video with each coach taking on a different subject.

It should be a great opportunity for golfers to get some additional information from some top coaches. It starts tomorrow night, Dec. 12th at 8:00pm and runs for 7 nights. Topics covered will be Putting, Driving, Chipping, Approach Irons, Mid and Long Irons, Bunkers and Club Fitting with the order of information from the green outwards.

I know all of these coaches well and I’m really looking forward to see what they have come up with. I also hope that this starts some kind of regular thing because I think it is a great idea to showcase great information in a medium that is different than where most go to find good golf information. I can tell you from experience that Twitter is one of the best places to go for good golf information and I hope the 7 Nights of the Twitter Academy brings home that point.

Here are a couple trailers to view.

In order to watch the Twitter videos, you’ll want to follow the presenters. Here’s is the order they will appear and their Twitter Usernames so you can follow them. Click on their name to go to their website and their twitter handle to follow them.

December 12th – Rob McGill @golfprorob – Putting

December 13th – Jason Helman @jasonhelmangolf – Greenside Chipping 3 shots

December 14th – Sara Dickson @sara_pga – Bunkers Green side and Fairway

December 15th – Jason Sutton @golfgurutv - Approach Irons

December 16th – Andrew Marr @andrewmarrgolf – Mid and Long Irons

December 17th – Kirk Oguri @kirkoguri – Shaft Fitting, Launch Monitor Info & Benefits

December 18th – Dennis Sales @dennissalesgolf – Closing the week with Driving and TrackMan Data

I hope you watch and enjoy. If you think others might be interested in this, please consider sharing by using the social media buttons below or by forwarding this email to friends.

Edel Putter Review

John Graham — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:04:42 +0000

Earlier this year, I wrote a post about Edel Golf and their putter line. I decided that it was time to give one a try. This post will talk about my experience and offer a review. So, let’s start from the beginning. A few years ago, I heard about Edel Golf during one of my many winter online research days. I had always heard good things about them but wasn’t in the market for one. Shortly after that, I got involved with AimPoint Technologies teaching players a more accurate way of reading greens. It was no surprise, that shortly after, Edel and AimPoint got together as they both had products around a similar niche. AimPoint would teach players where to aim and Edel would build a custom putter the player could actually aim.

A year or so goes by and I recommend Edel to a few of my players but I never took the plunge. I knew they were expensive like any high end putter and I wanted to be sure about a few things. With my extensive online network of connections, I start asking around about other coaches experiences with the fitting process and effectiveness of the product. Like anything, I heard both good and bad. Over the years, it has become clear to me that there really isn’t any consensus across the golf industry on anything. Even though I knew that, I waited and tried to gather more information before going to get fit. A couple of times, I seriously considered becoming a fitter and I think that is still a possibility I haven’t discounted completely. The main reason I decided not to become a fitter was simply my market.

During that time, I took a trip to Europe and was presented with an MLA Putter. I wrote a post about them here. I was very excited about this putter. I could aim it like nobody’s business. It had some features that I wasn’t happy with but I used it for a year with great success on putts 20 feet and in. I had a little harder time than normal on longer putts controlling the distance. It had a little softer feel than I was used to and the ball seemed to come off softer than my previous model. For me, that was a benefit on 15 and in putts as I tended to be a little firm with those. However, it hurt me on the longer putts.

June of 2011 comes around and I’m in Cape Cod running some AimPoint Green Reading Clinics with future certified instructor Jane Frost. She had recently also become an Edel fitter. I thought here was a great chance to get fit and see for myself how good the Edel Putter was. First, we did an extensive fitting. For those that aren’t familiar with the process it is an aim and distance focused fitting. It starts out with an aim check with your normal putter but I didn’t have my MLA to see so we started from scratch. I chose the most mallet like head they had. I was initially disappointed that they didn’t have any center shafted or face balanced putters as that’s what I’ve used for a very long time. From there we try a ‘standard’ hosel and other things to see where I’m starting from. How it works is they have a hole sized hockey puck with a laser in it with a black screen behind. They place a ball between the laser and the fitting putter so the laser is blocked by the ball. All the fitting heads have a reflective face so when the ball is removed the reflection of the laser bounces off the putter face and shows up on the black screen behind the hole with the laser in it.

My first attempt was inside the left edge of the hole and a little high. Not to surprising. I thought I always had a bit of left aim issue and I tend to forward press a little just before the stroke. We fiddle and fiddle and my aim was pretty good with virtually everything we tried. It was inside the hole with every combination we tried. The thing that surprised me was the time it took me to aim certain designs over others. For me, Anser style was the hardest and most to the left. At the end of the day, I could aim them all but some I really had to grind over and I certainly wasn’t as confident with those designs. The one I ended up with, I could put it down and know it was good.

The whole first part, I was not allowed to line up the ball when doing my aim. I’ve read in many places that most people can’t actually aim the line on the ball so it wasn’t really worth it. I knew for sure that it helped me so I wanted to double check. I did a few tests were I was able to line up the ball first than my putter to the line. Not surprising, I was perfect with the line on the ball. I mean perfect. This made me feel much better because I had always searched for putters that I could square up with the line on the ball. That’s what made me say I could aim the MLA Putter so well because it was so easy to square to the line on the ball.

The second part was the distance fit. In all my research, I didn’t hear about this part. Basically, they set down a line about 15 feet away and ask you to roll 3 balls and try to stop them on the line. This was much harder than I thought it would be. We tried a bunch of combinations and our last one I got all 3 very, very close. It was interesting to see how the location and amount of weight changed my ability to control the distance of the ball. It turns out that this piece is the reason my Edel Putter has stayed in my bag. My touch has improved across all distances. It is amazing to see the difference. I still tend to be a little more firm than I would like on some of my 10 footers but my putts outside of 20 feet are consistently close. Certainly, some of this has to do with proper targeting thanks to AimPoint but not all. When you have the right target and you know it, your focus shifts to speed. With better control of my speed, I am making more 30+ foot putts. To me, that is a big deal.

The fit alone took an hour and a half and typically has a cost associated with it as well. It’s basically just like going to get a high end driver fitting. A little extra cost but a much better product at the end. As you can see on mine, you can also add personalized stamping to the head. Mine includes an AimPoint logo and my twitter hashtag.

I certainly recommend Edel based on my experience. They are pricey like a Cameron. About the cost of a new driver for the least expensive model (which is the one I have) but way more useful in my opinion. You also get a significantly better fit than with most Cameron’s. If you are serious about wanting to aim better, control pace better and shoot lower scores, give Edel a look.

If you know someone in the market for a new putter, please considering sharing this post with them. You can email them the link or share by using one of the social media buttons located at the bottom of the post.

John Graham Listed as Top 20 Putting Instructor

John Graham — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:00:16 +0000

I’m happy to announce that I just received my first ever internet award. I was listed on Richie3Jacks Top 20 Putting/Short Game Teacher List. You can view his post here (Richie3Jacks Top 20 Putting/Short Game Teacher List) to see who else made the list.

For those of you that don’t know, Richie3Jack is a very well known blogger and forum participant in the online golf instruction community. He has a fantastic blog that you can read and follow here (Richie3jack Blog). I am a follower and check it out regularly. Richie is also a very accomplished player living in central Florida.

There are a bunch of Certified AimPoint Green Reading Instructors on the list (12 to be specific) which continues to confirm that we are doing something special that very few can offer. As AimPoint continues to grow and collect Tour Wins, I predict my teaching focus slowly switching over to a putting and green reading specialty. Still not sure what it is we do? Check out the AimPoint Golf website for clinic dates in your area.

Thanks Richie for this great honor and I’m sure we’ll debate online again soon.

AimPoint Golf Clinic Reviews

John Graham — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:01:08 +0000

Here’s a couple AimPoint Clinic Reviews I’ve received in the last couple days. Many of you know me as a fairly critical receiver of information. There aren’t many things that I find that really jump on board with everything in my being. AimPoint Green Reading is one of those things.

I’m sure sometimes it comes off a little too promotional but this information is really good. So many golfers need to understand how to actually read the green. In its simplest form, AimPoint is just the logical explanation of why the ball does what it does.

Here they are:

“John:

Just wanted to give you some feedback after having taken the Aimpoint information you gave me last Sunday and putting it in practice during the 3 rounds I played this past week. Frankly, the improvement to my putting has been nothing short of fantastic!

What’s been interesting to me is that I haven’t “mapped out” any green that I have played to date, but rather just put the principles you gave us, i.e. walking around the green, estimating the % slope of the green, locating the straight line, etc.

Before your clinic, I just tried to “figure out” what the break would be by crouching down behind the ball and/or hole and guessing the line. I had so much doubt over the ball that it’s a wonder anything went in! The Aimpoint system has changed my mental approach to putting which has gone from self-doubt, wondering if I was aimed correctly; blaming a missed putt on poor mechanics, to standing over the putt, convinced I have the right line and just feeling how hard I have to hit the ball to have it go 4 to 8 inches past the hole.

The only other thing I have been doing is using the 3-coin drill you gave us. THAT drill is fantastic and pointed out to me how poor my speed control really was. It’s improved tremendously, which no doubt has contributed to my making more putts. Even my son has noticed how confident I am in my putting these days!”

And another from Richie3Jacks Forum:

“Hello folks, as some of you may have already heard from me that I have 2 kids who are competitive junior golfers, with no aspiration to go pro, but compete at elite level with those who do want to turn pro if possible later.

Relatively, their game is the weakest with putting. (comparing with their ball striking, their putting is primitive). With hesitation, i signed both of them up for the John Graham clinic at New York Country Club this past Saturday and I would like to provide some feedback on the clinic and response from my kids. I hesitated because my younger one is only 10 and i think she may be too young to absorb the materials.

First of, the people at the New York CC are very nice; the pros participated in the clinic with the students and they are gracious.

John Graham is highly intelligent, articulate, easy to relate to. Without going into details what he taught and shared (you really have to be there to go through the exercises), I admit what he has presented are things that my kids sorely lacked all these years. It is sad that they never looked at the green and putting in the way John has suggested. It is mind boggling and laughable. Looking back, without John’s teaching materials, my kids literally were walking onto the green like schmucks, trying to second guess nature at the last second.

my older one has not had time to play around with the info since the lesson. my younger did.

she had a competition the next day. on the practice green, she practiced the way John had taught. In 10 mins, she seemed into it already. I have never seen her so focused on the putting. she was busy checking out the green, referencing the charts, like a light bulb finally lit up in her head.

what i did was that i would position a ball on the green and she would assess it and get it ready to go. we repeated it multiple times. it took her about 10 seconds to get ready and go after going through the step suggested by John. As a father who probably had multiple silent heart attacks watching this kid of mine putting in the past, i choked up seeing her “all of a sudden” enlightened. Putting after all is doable.

She later followed the same regimen in the competition. i can attest this: for lag putts, she got much closer. for shorter putts, she made many more than she usually would.

what can i say? awesome experience and well worth the fee because i think my kids’ perspective on putting is positively changed from now on. John also shared a lot of “green” knowledge, such as how to read the green from a distance, optimal putting speed, etc,etc. i don’t think my kid will look at putting greens like the past anymore.

Prior to the clinic, I told John that I am worried about my younger one dealing with so many numbers on the chart. He related that in fact some kids find this system easier to adopt because they do not have much or other preconceived notions about putting. which is exactly what happened to my younger one. incredible!”

If you know of anyone that might be interested in reading these reviews, please considering sharing on Facebook, Twitter or other golf information forums. Thanks for reading.

John Graham on Gotham Golf Blog

John Graham — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:00:46 +0000

Here’s another quick little video that was shown on Ralph Perez’s Gotham Golf Blog. Ralph was kind enough to put together a couple of my AimPoint Green Reading videos. One was shot live at the 2011 PGA Merchandise Show and the other is my video on how to determine the stimp of the green using the AimPoint Charts.

I hope you enjoy them.