Golf Advice From Ben Crenshaw

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had the chance to chat for a few moments with Ben Crenshaw at the driving range. I asked him if there was a bit of golf advice he could give me that I could pass on to my readers, and he said “I’ll give you two.”

“The one thing most amateurs have is a poor grip,” he said. “They just don’t know how to hold a club. Either they were never taught, or they didn’t listen. If you have a decent grip, you have a chance to play a good game.”

“The other thing I see is that they (amateurs) underclub. You don’t want to hit a club that you have to hit perfectly to get a good result. You’ve got to give yourself some room. Most (amateurs) don’t know how far they hit a club anyway.”

He then joked for a few minutes about the imperfect grips of his two driving range companions (one, his caddy).

A very nice guy, and surprisingly small in person. I noted Crenshaw’s size to a colleague in the press room and he said something that made a lot of sense: In years past, golf and tennis attracted guys who were good athletes, but perhaps not big enough for football, basketball and baseball.