While having a nice dinner with NALG chair Sid Miner and others following a special meeting called by Sid to get new NALG committees off the ground, we were having a nice conversation.  He asked me why I drove to Florida for the meeting instead of flying.

I started with a response about difficulties travelling with a longer putter (before I realized that I had taken it on a flight to the NALG tournament in Idaho) and he indicated that a pro who uses a long putter travels to Palm Aire in Sarasota each winter (where Sid lives and where we had our meeting).

He mentions the pro's name - John Kulhamer and said he was from Green Pond.  I don't know how Sid would have expected me or anyone to know where Green Pond was.  I said - "Green Pond as in Easton, Pennsylvania"?  Sid replied "Yes" and I was flabbergasted.  You see, that is where I played as a kid from when I was in 6th through 9th grade.  My sister Elaine used to take my identical twin brother Gerard and I there from time to time after "graduating" from miniature golf and par-three golf.

Several days later Sid sends me a text with a link to a video interview where Kulhamer is talking about the Lehigh Valley Amateur held each year at Green Pond.  While watching the video I notice a lefty putting behind Kulhamer who is seated in front of the practice green.  I also saw a still shot of another lefty as the video progressed.

I informed Sid of the lefties in the video and half-jokingly said he should talk to Kulhamer about holding a state lefties at Green Pond.  As Miner and the NALG tries to grow back to its old size we need to resurrect many of the state events that used to exist like Pennsylvania.  He said he would work on it.

And work on it he did!

​I am pleased to announce that the Pennsylvania State Left-handed tournament will be held at Green Pond Country Club on July 25 and 26.  It will be a good excuse to go back to where I grew up before moving to Florida in the fall of 1972, then going to college and now residing in Indiana for over 45 years.  Playing Green Pond will certainly bring back many pleasant memories.  I still remember the lone tree standing in the middle of hole #2 which is a 600 yards straight away par 5.  I remember using those old Top Flites that did fly like a rock!  I also remember the short downhill par-4 third hole where Gerard holed a wood from 190 yards away for his first-ever eagle.  I remember the straight-away 12th hole where I skulled a sand wedge from 100 yards into the hole for an eagle of my own after being waved up by the group on the green to play through (luck of the irish?)!  I remember the downhill par-3 17th hole where I nearly made my first hole-in-one coming within a few inches.  I can still see my sister struggling to master the game even though she was a good athlete who taught us to play tennis.

I can't wait to go back and create more good memories!  Maybe I will see you there!

This is a tale from this year’s NALG championship.  A true tale!

Life if full of interesting happenings.  In golf many unusual or hard-to-believe stories are occurring every day.  This is one from this year’s NALG championship in Fort Worth, Texas.

The 18th hole at the Golf Club at Champions Circle is an interesting par-5.  If you want to hit it into the fairway you need to carry over 200 yards and even then it is unlikely that you will reach the green unless you are a long hitter.  Many of our players this year chose a different route including the author.

We aimed down the 14th fairway as it was much safer.  The real challenge then occurred on the second shot as you needed to hit a high shot of about 150 yards over some trees in order to get a clear shot at the green.

One of my playing partners who shall remain nameless, hit his tee shot down the right side of hole #14.  My cart partner and I proceeded out to our 18th fairway.  When we got out there we looked back and saw this player trying to hit a wood in an attempt to reach the green.

You have to understand that there are some pretty tall trees on that line that he would have to carry.  He must have had something like 220 yards in so it was a risky shot.  We see him swing but don’t see any ball.  There is a creek and some medium length grass amongst the trees short of the green.  All four of us began a search but his ball could not be found.  All I found were a couple of Taylor Made Tour Responses.  His ball was a Pro V1X Left Dash with a recognizable marking.  He drops for a creek penalty and completed the hole.

Now the interesting part starts.

Since I was one of the early players that day I planned to take some videos of players that the NALG could use.  So I decided to go out to hole #17 to capture some shots into that shorter par-3.  As soon as I get there David Burczyk from Florida sees me and said the guy I was playing with hit his ball.  David had hit his ball down the left side of hole #14 when my group was playing hole #18.  He knew his ball was in the fairway.

When he got to the location where he expected his ball to be it was nowhere to be found.  He remembered the player in my group hitting from the same general area but didn’t think anything about it.  When he couldn’t find his ball he was even starting to question himself about whether he really saw his ball stop in the fairway.  He did happen to find a Pro V1X Left Dash with a recognizable marking on it that he found in some tall grass near a small creek on that hole.  He wasn’t sure it would have been playable.  He handed the ball to me.  I immediately knew it was the same type of ball and marking that my playing partner was playing.

The next morning on the practice green I walked up to this player and showed him the ball and asked it if was his.  He said it looked like it and then I told him what happened.  He was baffled and couldn’t explain it.

Later that afternoon in the clubhouse I was talking with Burczyk and he said he was hitting a Taylor Made Tour Response with a blue mark.  I was thinking he was referring to one of those balls with the wide color ring around it so it didn’t “ring a bell”.  He said it wasn’t one of those balls.  It was just an all-white version but had a blue highlight over the text on the equator of the ball.

I told him to wait a minute as I wanted to retrieve something from my car.  I proceeded to show him the two Tour Response balls I had found in the creek area the day before.  Sure enough, when we looked at one it had a blue highlight over the Tour Response text.  He identified it as HIS ball.

Now to be clear, the player who played the wrong ball had no idea that he did so.  And since the only balls we found were not the one he thought he was playing it never occurred to us at the time that he could have played a wrong ball.  But after over 24 hours, the evidence had become clear.

After discussing with the tournament organizers, no action was taken.  If the Rules of Golf would have been applied, the player would have been disqualified after the fact since the evidence was clear after being discovered – and the tournament had not yet concluded.  Luckily this did not have any effect on the results.

This just goes to show that you never know what will happen on a golf course!  Even in golf the facts sometimes come to light - even the next day!

Erica Shepherd is one of only a few golfers from Indiana to win a USGA event.  In her case it was the 2017 United States Girls Junior title.  She was second-ever female left-handed USGA champion!  (The first was also from Indiana that being Julia Potter - now Potter-Bobb - who won the 2013 and 2016 Women's Mid-Amateur.  Then came a college career at Duke University where she was a two-time All-American.  Her professional career has not been very successful until now.
 
Last week Shepherd became the first left-handed winner on the Epson Tour from which the top 15 point getters get status on the LPGA Tour.  Her win at the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout got her an important 500 points moving her up to 21st position.  There is only one more event on the Epson Tour schedule and that is the Epson Tour Championship at Indian Wells in California.  That event is being conducted Thursday October 2 through Sunday October 5.

I had an opportunity to meet Shepherd a couple of years ago at the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame induction for Leigh Ann Hardin.  We sat at the same table.  She had just graduated from Duke and was starting her professional career.  Shepherd gained some new fans that night including myself.  Hopefully she can finish in the top five this week to move up in the points ranking to get her LPGA Tour card.  She would be a great addition to the tour.

We are approaching the deadline for entry into the 2025 NALG National Tournament in Fort Worth.  If you have not yet signed up, please do so now.  You will have a great time!  There are a large number of left-handed golfers across the country yet the tournament is nowhere near full.  How do we attract more players?

I just watched the round of 64 for the United States Amateur and saw Miles Russell win his first match 4&2.  He is one of the future of great left-handed golfers.  On the women's side, Lyla Lauderbaugh made it to the semi-finals and past Augusta National Women's Amateur champion Anna Davis made it to match play.  It would be great if our national tournament would attract players such as these.

Our event seems to have lost its prestige.  There are efforts to try to bring that back.  There is also a need for increased publicity as a majority of lefties do not even know that the NALG or the various state tournaments exist.  We need all lefties to help spread the word.

When I was in high school my parents bought me a set of golf clubs.  I only had two choices - either Ryder Cup II or Ping.  I chose the Ryder Cup II which I now regret as the Pings would have been collectors items!  Lefties do not have the small number of left-handed club choices I had as a kid although there are still more options for righties.

Today it seems that there are a lot more lefties playing.  We need to attract some of them.  Back in May I volunteered as a rules official at the National Junior College Division II National Championship at Swan Lake Resort in Plymouth, Indiana.  While there I estimated that there must have been about 15 lefties playing.  A couple of months later I volunteered for the Indiana Junior PGA and saw another half-dozen or so lefties.  I spoke with one and said he should play in our Indiana State Leftys tournament.  His eyes lit up as he was totally unaware that there was such a tournament.  He stated that there are three lefties on his high school team - and they are one of the top teams in the state!  I told him to go to nalg.org for more information.

While the NALG is not 125 years old like the U.S. Amateur, we are almost 90 now.  We should be a prestigious event like we used to be.  But it takes good players.  Those I witnessed playing above would all be capable of winning.  I know that they can drive the ball well past this 67 year-old!  We need to determine how to attract them.  Why would they want to come to an event where they might spend up to two thousand dollars travelling and staying at the tournament site?  And what would they win.  In my early days of playing the national they gave away a set of Ping irons to the winner.  Unfortunately some past board member took advantage of the Ping generosity and the NALG lost that sponsorship.  Today we do award a cash prize but it must still be below the limit allowed by the Rules of Amateur Status which is $1000.  Maybe pushing the top prize to that level would attract better younger players.  Maybe moving the event back to the summer would help younger players play as they would not be in school or that the time would be better for a family vacation for those out of school.

Please share your thoughts in how to help the organization grow.  We do need and appreciate your help.

In the meantime, if you are a lefty, please tell all the lefties you see and play with about the NALG and our state tournaments should you be near one of those states.  Better yet, bring one with you to one or more of our tournaments!  Even better, if there is not a state tournament in your site, help to organize one.  The NALG is willing to help you.

Okay.  Maybe you think this is a trick question!  It isn't.  Does anyone know ALL the rules of golf!  Probably very few people do.  I certainly don't.  The casual player certainly does not.  While the basic rules should be understood by all golfers the unusual circumstances that can occur are much more difficult to judge.

In the recently contested United States Open won heroically by J. J. Spaun, Sam Burns was leading when he asked for a ruling.  His ball was in the right side of the fairway in an obviously wet area.  He asked for a rules official to see if he could get a free drop due to temporary water (or casual water as most of us used to call it).  The rules official denied him relief.  That didn't sit well so Burns asked for a second opinion.  That rules official came to the same conclusion that no relief was due.  At this point Burns hit a poor shot that showed an obvious splash of water that helped to enable Spaun to win.

Television announcer Brad Faxon said that Burns got a bad ruling and that Burns should have been given relief.  To me this demonstrated Faxon's lack of understanding of the Rules of Golf.  Unfortunately the USGA rules expert available to the announcers didn't immediately chime in.  In the definition of Temporary Water the rules state -  “It is not enough for the ground to be merely wet, muddy or soft or for the water to be momentarily visible as the player steps on the ground; an accumulation of water must remain present either before or after the stance is taken.”  That obviously was not the case for Burns which is why he was denied relief - twice!

So Faxon was wrong in saying that Burns got a bad ruling!  Burns did get a bad break in that his ball ended up in a wet area but he did not get a bad ruling as the definition is pretty clear.

We all had to learn various "rules of the road" in order to get our drivers license.  Why don't competitive golfers have to pass a basic rules test to play in a competition?  The pros of all people should know the rules!  Even if they do, I understand them calling for a rules official anytime something comes up as so much is on the line for them.  However, why aren't college and high school players required to pass a basic rules test?  The coaches could help in this area.

I was recently officiating at a high lever college event where I saw a player walking back from a red stake towards the tee.  I was mainly watching an adjacent hole so I did not witness exactly what happened.  After that group moved on I went down to talk with the spotter who was there.  I asked him where the players tee shot went. He said it went into the pond.  The player should have dropped on a line from the pin to the entry point NOT on a line from the entry point back to the tee.  Apparently many still think of "dropping a ball on the line" as meaning the line their shot already travelled.  But the rule has NEVER been this way.  It has always been to drop on a line as far back as preferred keeping the entry point (or location of an unplayable lie) between you and the hole.  So remember to drop on a line back from the flag through the entry point!

In the college event above, dropping on the correct line would not have helped him much as it would have been 30 yards back into some trees.  His best option was to take a drop two club-lengths from his entry point (another option for lateral penalty area relief).  However this option would have resulted in him having to avoid a tree with his shot which is probably why he chose to take the other - erroneous - drop.  Good thing his playing partners did not bring this up later.  He could have been disqualified for that round.

In officiating other competitions, I do witness that almost all of the players know how to handle penalty areas which is good to know.  They don't even ask for rules help.  They get with their playing partner/opponent and take their drop.

If you want to get more knowledgeable about the rules, you should buy the Official Guide to the Rules of Golf which includes many clarifications of the rules.  If you want to increase your rules skills you can go to the USGA web site where they have rules quizzes that you can take.  Many of the questions in the quiz are difficult to answer.  It makes a difference whether one is playing stroke play or match play, where the ball is on the course, etc.  The details matter.  While the USGA and R&A have simplified the rules, common sense is not going to be enough to make the correct ruling.  After you get proficient in the rules consider volunteering with your local golf association to give back to this great game we all love.

The NALG is expanding its effort to grow its membership.  Many years ago there was a large membership with over 200 players playing in the national tournament.  Now it is much smaller.  But NALG chair Sid Miner and the NALG board are trying to change that.

When NALG members ask someone why they don’t play in our tournaments there are a couple of common responses.

The first is that they didn’t even know that there were tournaments for lefthanders.  Many states hold them.  Some are beginning to.  The NALG has been around for over 90 years!  Over the years it has been difficult to maintain the awareness that there are left-handed tournaments especially for younger players.  The NALG has been working several avenues to increase awareness.

The second common reason given for not playing in lefty tournaments we hear is “I can’t win!”  Golfers think they have to shoot a low score to win something.  We all know that not everyone can win the titles.  But you can win something!

The NALG targets for about 50% of the field getting a prize of some sort.  At the national tournament there are age division prizes for the top few players in Championship, Open, Seniors (60+), Masters (70+), Grand Masters (80+) and Women.  But this year they are also taking the field and dividing it into flights based on the first round score.  So if you shot one of the higher scores you will be in a flight with similar scores.  So if you don’t win one of the age divisions, you can still win one of the flights and there are prizes for several players in each flight.  So you have two chances to win!

The Indiana tournament has been doing this for several years.  This approach was started by Jack Hammond who ran the tournament for many years.  You can see last year’s winners HERE.  Notice that the highest score to win a prize was 181 for two rounds.  That player shot rounds of 91 and 90.  I know many of you reading this can shoot scores lower than this.  If you are one of them then you are no longer able to say “I can’t win” as it is clear that “You can win!”.

But as we have all told our children – winning isn’t everything.  Other benefits of playing in our lefty tournaments are you get to test your skill while playing with others that will likely become your friends for life.  Everyone enjoys seeing each other every year at the various lefty tournaments.  They enjoy the friendly competition.
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Won’t you join us?

Great news!!

The NALG Board of Directors has approved new tiered membership levels along with additional benefits for NALG members.  These benefits can more than compensate for the small cost of membership.

For those of you that have been members of the NALG for many years, you will recall that the only benefit of being a member was our Southpaw Newsletter and being able to play in the National Tournament.  In more recent years, the hardcopy of the newsletter was discontinued and an email version created.  This new version of the newsletter was emailed to all members and those on our contact list.  This enabled us to communicate with more lefties but it eliminated the differentiator of being a member.  That made some members of the Board wondering, “Why be a member?” – other than wanting to support lefty golf which we all love.

Several board members began brainstorming ways to increase membership value.  That led to the recommendation and approval of two new membership benefits.  The first is that an NALG member will receive a $10 discount to each NALG-sanctioned tournament.  So if you play in several different tournaments you more than get your money back.  Secondly, any state champion will receive a $100 discount on their entry to the National Tournament.

Last year the NALG received it 501c3 non-profit status enabling donations to be deductible.  Led by Chairman Sid Miner, the NALG is embarking on an enhanced marketing plan.  We hope to raise the awareness and support for lefty golf.  I don’t know how many times I have heard “I didn’t know there was a state lefties or a national lefty golf organization or tournaments!”

As mentioned earlier, the NALG has new tiered membership levels.  Each level comes with more benefits with some portion of the upper membership levels being deductible.  Members also receive logoed merchandise based on the level of membership.  Check out the membership page on the website for more details.
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Please consider becoming a member today.  We are looking forward to you competing in our fun events!

If you are a tournament player you will frequently find yourself playing a course that you have not played in a while.  The subject of this post is to share a technique for you to rapidly get the feel for greens that you are not accustomed to.

The technique that I use allows me to get a good feel for the greens in only 5 minutes or so.  It is more effective than circling around all the holes that may exist on the practice green.

The first thing I do is look for the grain.  Most courses have grain, even bent grass courses.  I have talked to experienced players used to playing bent grass greens and they never thought of grain.  No wonder they have a tough time with speed control leaving some putts well short or running them well past.

So how do you see the grain?  Walk around the green and you will see where the green color looks darker versus lighter and shinier.  When it looks lighter green and shiny you are looking down the grain.  This means the blades of grass are leaning away from you and will result in much less friction to the golf ball and the putt will be much faster.  Where the grass appears the darkest green, that means the blades of grass are pointing toward you and the friction will be the highest slowing down your putt.  The difference between the two can be more than 20+ percent so a 15 foot putt could be three feet slower or faster.

So what do you do with this information?  You better account for it in planning to hit a putt or you will find yourself three-putting a lot.

My warm up routine on a new course starts with looking for the grain.  Next you want to pick out two practice holes on the green that are about 20-25 feet apart where putting from one to the other is directly with and against the grain.  Take two balls and putt from one to the other, and then back to the hole where you started.  Keep going back and forth until you can get both putts to consistently stop near the hole.  It should only take you five minutes or so.

After than you can try other length putts in various directions to see if you have achieved a good feel in your mind.

Grain does not only affect putts directly with or against.  If the grain is at an angle with or against you will still see the putt be a little faster or slower, respectively.  A putt that crosses the grain will also be affected.  You could have a level putt where the grain is 30-60 degrees across your line and the putt might move up to six inches on a 20 foot putt.  Be sure to include the side grain in your green reading too.  You will find that for some courses the grain is not a "strong" as it is on other courses.  On some courses it can be very strong making for some VERY slow or VERY fast putts.

Bermuda grass greens are similar but you can also look at the grass around the edge of the cup for another clue.  You may see one side where the grass is dying or looks brown.  If you are putting towards a hole where the brown is around the front edge you are putting against the grain.  If the brown edge is behind the hole you are putting with the grain.  The brown part is a result of the grass being cut.  If the roots are where the hole is that area will be brown.  If it is the side where the blades are, they will continue to grow over the edge of the hole with time and won't turn brown.

I still find some of the new faster bermuda grass greens more difficult to read the grain.  If you have a good technique for these, go ahead and comment.

I hope you found this article helpful for you to make more putts and reduce the number of three-putts.

It seems like a new lefty star may be emerging.  Not on anyone's radar back in July, Matt McCarty has certainly made an impact quickly.

McCarty was playing on the Korn Ferry Tour earlier this year and had a three stroke lead after 54 holes.  He did not win.  However, it was a temporary setback.  He won the next week, three weeks later and then again two weeks later.  The three wins in a six week span earned him an immediate promotion to the PGA Tour.  It had only happened twelve times in the history of the tour.  Instead of immediately playing the PGA Tour McCarty remained on the Korn Ferry Tour hoping to sow up the number one position and the rewards that come with it.  Those rewards are a fully exempt status and ability to play in The Players Championship and U.S. Open.  Two more events later that goal was reached so he began to play in the Fall Season PGA tour events.

Now in only his third PGA Tour start, the 26 year old lefty from Scottsdale has captured his first PGA Tour win.  In case you are not counting, that is four wins in three months.

McCarty was in the final pairing yesterday with another lefty Joe Highsmith who is starting to show some good form.  McCarty used an eagle on the short par-4 14th hole to put some space between him and his chasers.  The 3-wood from a little over 300 yards to only three feet and seven inches and succeeding putt gave him some margin to work with.  His chasers could not get any closer and after a final hole birdie McCarty found himself a new PGA Tour winner by a margin of three strokes. 

Not only that, he looked comfortable along the way.  It appears he has learned how to win which should make for a great future.  Keep your eyes on him next year now that he is able to play in all the best events.  Left-handers are looking for their next big star now that Phil Mickelson is no longer prominent.  Maybe McCarty might be that star!

Have we seen the future of lefty professional golf?

Recently we saw Akshay Bhatia finish runner-up in two consecutive events.  Only a three-putt on his last hole kept him from a playoff at the Rocket Mortgage Classic admitting that some nerves affected him.  Bhatia has steadily improved his game to where he is a force to contend for a title on a frequent basis.  He first showed up on the national golfing scene when he was the runner-up in the 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur losing to Michael Thorbjornsen.  Thorbjornsen by the way just finished in a tie for second this weekend at the John Deere Classic in his first event as a professional.  Thorbjornsen got his PGA Tour card by leading the PGA Tour University points list this past year.

But there was another lefty on the scene at the Rocket Mortgage Classis.  That would be 15 year-old Miles Russell.  Russell is the youngest player to make a cut on the Korn Ferry tour doing so back in April.  The high school freshman finished in 20th place! Russell did not make the cut at the Rocket Mortgage but still managed to finish even par.  It was his first PGA Tour start.  What were you doing as a freshman? 

We can expect to see lots more of these two players.  But they are not the only lefties to keep an eye on.  There seems to be more and more lefties appearing on the college golfing scene when I watch on TV.  One that comes to mind is David Ford from North Carolina.

On the ladies side, it would be great to see Erica Shepherd advance her career.  She is now playing on the Epson Tour trying to earn her way onto the LPGA Tour.  The 2024 rookie appears to be getting her feet under her.  After starting her career with seven missed cuts, Shepherd has now made three cuts of the last four.  She even finished 21st in the Otter Creek Championship held in her home state.  She showed she has the potential to win as she is the 2017 USGA Girls Junior champion.  She is a nice young lady as I met her at an Indiana Golf Hall of Fame dinner a year ago.  Also, being from Indiana I have to root for her to join the other Indiana golfers who have gone on to success on the professional tours.

Good luck to all the lefties!  We have come a long way in the last 50 years!