Golf Tips & Quips

I played basketball growing up and like most kids my age I wanted to be like Michael Jordan. On the court, he was the greatest in my opinion, to ever play the game. He tried to beat his opponents by the biggest margin possible. He never took a night off. When he was on the hardwood floor, he was trying to humiliate you.

Jordan and the Chicago Bulls battled the Utah Jazz on many occasions during their second three-peat run. The Jazz were lead by arguably the greatest duo to ever play the game. John Stockton and Karl Malone. I never liked the Jazz but you have to respect these two athletes and what they accomplished as teammates.

Stockton is the all-time assist record holder for the National Basketball Association(NBA). Most of these assist were dealt to Malone. It seemed like every other play the announcers would say, "Stockton to Malone for the finish." Malone was recently nominated to the NBA Hall Of Fame. A big reason for this is that he had Stockton on the team.

So what does John Stockton and Karl Malone have to do with golf? Michael Breed of The Golf Fix made an analogy of the relationship of Stockton to Malone being the same as the relationship between your wedges to your putter. Just like they used to say "Stockton to Malone for a made basket," you should be thinking "wedge to putter for a made putt."

Malone was able to become one of the all time scoring leaders because Stockton always put him in the best position to score. With pinpoint accuracy, Stockton's passes set Malone up with easy layups and dunks. So should it be with your wedge game.

Your wedges are like Stockton and your putter is like Malone. Your wedge shots into the greens set up your putts. If you have pinpoint accuracy with your wedges you will leave yourself with short putts leading to lower scores. You have to set your putter up with the best chance at success. If you keep leaving yourself with 60 footers to save par, you will continue to struggle. But if you hone your skills around the greens, tap ins will be the norm.

These two aspects of the game work in tandem. The better you get with your wedges the better you will be with the putter, mainly because you will be putting from shorter distances. Take a lesson from John Stockton and Karl Malone. Put yourself in the best position for success so that success become inevitable. Have a good one and always hit your target.





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