Rick Smith Range Tips, Vol. 3
Signature Series Presented by Orlimar
Prime Time II Entertainment
& Sports Programming
Running time: Approx. 44 minutes
Available from Ricksmith.com $39.95
800/881-0765 or Golfsmart, 800/637-3557

PRESENTING! You loved him in Range Tips II and Swing Foundations. Now join golf's telegenic "renaissance man" ("refreshing and unique, intones the voice-over, "articulate and dynamic") in his latest instructional swing-along Rx.

UPSHOT: Refreshing and unique rhythm, pace drills, slice & hook remedies, warm-ups and image drills articulately and dynamically bring "everything together." Made me grab a club to combat my violent chest move, tight grip, overcontrol, drop kicks and flip hooks and replace them with images to rehearse my body motion, path, consistent arm swing and post impact for a proper blend of understanding. Yea!

COSTUME CHANGES: 5

MENTIONS OF THE WORD "CHOKE:" 3

CAMERA WORK/PRODUCTION VALUES: Bravissimo!

CUT! Infomercial-esque opening, complete with testimonials ("I like what I hear from Rick," says Jack Nicklaus) and pulsing soundtrack, made me want to hide my credit cards. Does this have anything to do with rolling over real estate? Given his credentials, he doesn't need to come across with the hard sell. He doesn't name-drop, although he easily could; the quality of the man's work, and the quality of the instruction, speaks for itself. Your correspondent is convinced; he saw immediate results.

GET ME REWRITE: "Let's get a little bit more involved in the body motion aspect."

CONUNDRUM BUSTER: "Is the swing a left-sided or right-sided game? My answer is always the same. It's a two-sided game. Yes, both hands are on the golf club and each arm plays a very important role in supporting the motion of the swing."

COOL! Putting practice with sand wedge, de-lofted three- and five-iron to improve feel and mechanics.

MUCH HARDER THAN IT LOOKS: Coordinating rhythmic move with a gripped-down club in each hand, swinging in unison, all the better to promote timing, proper sensation. Man!

QUICK TIP: Make little circles with club in grip, backwards and forwards in front of body. Releases tension, makes the wrists nice and "oily."

QUOTE: "You gotta have flow in your swing."

PEP TALK: "When you work on good fundamentals, things start to happen naturally over time. You need to practice that repetition so you can create that natural action when you go to the golf course. Because when you take that long walk from the practice tee to the first tee you may be hitting it really well on the practice tee but you need to go out on the golf course with very, very few swing thoughts. You have to be able to play the game. Instead of playing golf swing. You have to play the game."



The Power Guarantee
The Art of Long Driving
Art Sellinger
Holden Production Group, 2000
Running time: Approx. 40 minutes
Available for $24.95 (plus shipping)
800/208.9699 - 817/329-8262
artoflongdriving.com.



PRESENTING! Celebrated long knocker Art Sellinger, "a man who never met a par five he couldn't tame," goes deep. The star of instructional videos like "Drive My Way" pumps up the swing speed on a very blustery day at the fabulous Four Seasons resort at Las Colinas, near Dallas.

UPSHOT: "The Art" briskly walks, swings, crunches, encourages, stretches and generally Jack LaLanes us through a series of drills and tips, including a golf-specific daily exercise regimen, designed to "add rocket fuel to your tee shots." Two weeks: twenty yards Guaranteed! He's also a heck of a trick shot artist and entertains with a few favorites to close out the show.

CAMERA WORK/PRODUCTION VALUES: From the fine folks who brought you Harvey Penick's Little Red and Green videos. Somehow they manage to stay with the ball in flight, no mean feat. Love that toe-tapping neo country soundtrack and the slow mo close-up of a ball ripping through half-inch thick plywood during trick shot.

QUOTE: "The wrists and hands are where the clubhead speed is. That's what provides you with the whip through the hitting area."

GET ME REWRITE: "Watch here," The Art says repeatedly before blasting another ball into oblivion. Art, incidentally, goes about 6' 2", 220. His swing? A comfortable Autoban cruising speed of 137 mph. Worse, he looks like he's holding some in reserve.

HOKEY SMOKES! Opening sequence features a voracious swing befitting a two-time National Long Drive Champion. The ball meekly runs out of gas at the 360-yard marker. He also drives a ball 250 with a putter.

MUCH HARDER THAN IT LOOKS: Practicing with three balls, swinging first at 50 percent of power, then 75 percent, then at normal swing speed. Marries arms with body, builds balance, keeps swing in sequence.

MYTH BUSTER: Baseball ruins the golf swing. The Art disagrees and recommends incorporating "some baseball action" into your game with drill, practicing swing at ankle height, knee height & waist height, never hitting ground, never taking the club up, swinging a flat arc around the body.

SWING GENERAL'S WARNING?: "While you're on the program you can expect to hit some bad shots and post some high numbers while you're retraining your muscles and grooving a new and improved swing."

COMIC RELIEF: On the splendidly tight par-four 11th at the TPC at Las Colinas, home of the Nelson, The Art bounces one over the green, a blast of three hundred yards into a wicked cross wind. He turns to camera and deadpans: "Guess I needed the three-wood, huh?" Is the guy available for scrambles?

QUICK TIP: Old reliable "Whoosh" drill. Turn a driver over, grip and swing it. Ideally the whoosh sounds at the bottom of the swing, getting "you in touch with club head speed."



Bob Toski Hall of Fame Golf Fundamentals
EZ Way Golf Systems, Inc., 1999
Running time: @ 45 minutes
Available for $19.95
877/465-3989
ezwaygolf.com




PRESENTING! The legendary teacher (now 72 years of age, and driving the ball 260-270, thank you very much), and a few anonymous non-speaking amateurs.

UPSHOT: Fundamentals mixed with quips, Hogan stories, almost Beat-like freewheeling technical instruction theory and a measure of old fashioned pop feel good. "You've got to fall in love with the learning process," he intones. "If you don't like the learning process, you won't fall in love with it and you'll have divorce before you start." He seems tired but takes it up several notches accentuating the folksy positive gospel.

CAMERA WORK/PRODUCTION VALUES: Low Budget.

WHO'S ON FIRST: "You're trying to match vertical, lateral and rotary forces all at the same time. So when I swing this golf club, I feel an increase of swinging motion from my left arm swinging my right arm in position, then as I swing down my right arm releases to my left arm forced now to give way to my right arm - it folds - my right arm then accelerates over my left just like my left arm accelerated over my right going back. They simply reverse their roles. The key is can you blend them to work as a team." (Phew.)

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU: "Golf is a game of physical exercise, physical awareness, mental awareness, hand and eye coordination. The eyes can see, the hands receive, the body reacts. Imagination is a great thing. Feel is another great force. Don't force the feel. Feel the force."

OR NOT: "Most people force the swing. They force the turn and the force the shift."

TOSKI WIT. . .: "Golf is an intellectual game played by intellectual people stupidly. It's a non-violent game played violently from within by the masses because the word power connotes force, brute effort."

AND TOSKI WISDOM: "This is how you learn to play golf. Learn to crawl, walk and run - first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade - one after the other. Today golfers are trying to learn in high school and they end up in grammar school. That's not the right way to learn golf unless you are unbelievably well coordinated and have an extreme sense of awareness of hand and eye coordination, and there aren't that many people born with that kind of talent. It's the job of the teachers of the game to develop your innate, intuitive talent so you don't get confused, despondent, bewildered and want to quit the game before you started because you learned the game improperly.

ON GRIP PRESSURE: "If I have too much pressure from the finger end, the club usually tips to the left and [consequently the ball] hooks. If I push the club from the heel end, then the club tips to the right [and the ball goes right].

GET ME REWRITE! "So now we have a golf swing that is creating a circle from the front of the body around the body and over the body front to back and back to front."



Baltusrol
An Enduring Tradition
Sporty Bear Productions for Baltusrol Golf Club, 2000
Running time: Approx. 40 minutes
Available for $24.95 directly from Baltusrol GC,  P.O. Box 9, Springfield, NJ 07081 (973) 376-1900.

PRESENTING! (Vintage) Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer (in his last head to head hurrah with the Golden Bear), Johnny Farrell, Ed Furgol, Doug Steffen, Rees Jones, Bob Trebus, Rich Wolffe, Harry Wilmer, along with a century of champions. And presenting, waiter Bill Eldridge and former caddy Emil Bontempo. With narration by Jack Whitaker.

UPSHOT: Memory lane stroll commemorates club history and most distinguished venue, host to fifteen national championships (and counting), seven U.S. Opens, not to mention some of Jack Nicklaus's most memorable work (and one of the game's great logos).

CAMERA WORK/PRODUCTION VALUES: Seamless. Take that, Ken Burns! (Would've loved more reminisces from old timers.)

COOL! Then-U.S. President and noted White House bathtub stuffer William H. Taft displays his own slashing brand of what he once described as "bumble puppy" golf.

MULLY PLEASE: Greenside announcer Harry Wismer interviewing dark horse Ed Furgol after surprising finish to 1954 U.S. Open, can't seem to remember where he is. "Folks, we're speaking to you from the 18th green at the Baltusrol Country Club in New Jersey. And where is this wonderful city here? - Springfield! There's a lot of Springfields around the country but this is the first time we've had a chance to broadcast from Baltusrol since the national amateur championships were held out here." Meanwhile, Furgol looks likes someone's just poured a drink on his head.

GREAT STUFF: Architect Robert Trent Jones answers critics by firing an ace onto the newly redesigned par-three fourth hole from 165 yards. "Gentlemen," he said, turning to address tournament chairman C.P. Burgess, head pro Farrell and a fierce critic of the newly elongated hole. "I think the hole is eminently fair."

Nicklaus getting up and down from 239 yards with a one-iron, slightly uphill, into the wind, to 22 feet in '67 Open. He sinks the putt for 65, securing a then-record 275, breaking Hogan's mark.

John Daly becomes first to reach the 630-yard 17th on the lower course in two. His drive travels 325 yards, his one-iron skirts a bunker and rolls to the back of the green, 290! He two putts for birdie. [Thought: How many will do this next time round?]

Golf Magazine digs into its pockets to shell out $50K to Nicklaus and Isao Aoki after the 1980 Open. Both met the challenge of breaking a scoring record in a major.

LEST WE FORGET: 1) Boltus Roll, original landowner, murdered at home. 2) The club had its own train! 3) Major domo Louis Keller never played the game. 4) Two Baltusrol head pros won opens. Willie Anderson, only there for a year, won three in a row. Johnny Farrell, there for 38 years, won in 1934. 5) Marty Fleckman's final round 80 in 1967. After leading for three days, he limped in tied for 18th.

ISN'T IT INTERESTING: The list of Baltusrol's champions includes Tony Manero, Ed Furgol, Lee Janzen, Kathy Baker, George von Elm. Stalwarts, obviously. Of course, there's also Mickey Wright, Chandler Egan, Jerry Travers, Willie Anderson and Jack. Curious, that's all. Maybe lightning can be trapped in a bottle.



The Spirit of the Game
The Etiquette Program from the United States Golf Association
Cowen Media, Inc., 1999
Running time: 53 minutes
Available from USGA for $20 (Members: $5)
800/336-4446


PRESENTING! An all-star cast featuring: Nancy Lopez, Hale Irwin, George Bush, Mike Cowan, Helen Alfredsson, Alison Nicholas, Laura Davies, Jack Nicklaus, Michelle McGann, Annika Sorenstam, Nick Price, Dan Patrick, Davis Love, Bill Russell, Ernie Els, Julie Inkster and Peter Jacobson. Introduced by Arnold Palmer. With cameo appearances by, among others: Jim Brown, Tom Watson, John Elway, Jerry Rice, John O' Hunley, Samuel Puryear Jr., Meg Mallon, Bill Laimbeer, Ben Crenshaw, Payne Stewart, Johnny Bench, Tom Kite, Stewart Cink, Brett Hull, Curtis Strange, Mark Frace, Mike Schmidt, Chris Johnson, Ivan Lendl.

SEE Julie Inkster demonstrate that "gentle twisting motion!" (on a ball mark!)

MARVEL at comely Helen Alfredsson who asks, "Provisional? What is that?"

SENSE the gripping drama when, in an homage to Laurel and Hardy, Alison Nicholas tells Laura Davies: "Your [cart] driving is a little bit extreme for me." Replies Laura (surprised): "Really?"

WILL Peter Jacobsen succumb to the dark recesses of his conscience and employ the "foot wedge"? (He seems to be leaning!)

WHAT if professional golf were officiated like the NFL or Major League Baseball?

WHY does the USGA's Save the Greens seem vaguely reminiscent of Gerald Ford's Whip Inflation Now! (WIN) program?

HOW does Ernie Els know who Celtic great Bill Russell is? (And why would he care?)

The answers to these and other improbable moments are revealed in this surprisingly spry take on golf's high ground. Sadly, pace of play is not given star billing. In the sequel perhaps former president Bush, noted for his speed of play, could step up. (Picture a rescuing cavalry, a WWF or COPS angle; some reality stuff - work with me on this.) Other surprises: tasteful production values and generally cleverly executed skits, Fluff's action on a mid-iron, the number of foreign participants.

HOW ABOUT THAT: Michael Walsh, ruddy operations supervisor at Bethpage on Long Island, recalls the golfer who showed up at 3 p.m. the day BEFORE to secure a 7 a.m. tee time on the famed black course. Things are that crowded. (Thanks, USGA!)

MEMORABLE LINES: "When you walk off the golf course and you've won a golf tournament - played by the rules, and did it right - only you know if you've behaved properly. Nobody else knows. So if you haven't done it right, it's a very shallow victory." Jack Nicklaus.

MEMORABLE FOOTAGE: Jack backing up surging cops and spectators so Isao Aoki can put out in the 1980 U.S. Open. He later said (included on the Baltusrol tape): "I'm proud of myself that I had the composure to think about the other guy."

RUNNER UP: Knight/Lopez daughters in overalls opining that golf tortoise and the hare tale is: "kind of cheesy" and "lame." Out of the mouths of babes. . .