Ever try playing left handed?

[Jason Topp]

My daughter rarely plays and was mortified that she was going to be required to play with other people midday on Labor Day weekend.  To make her feel more comfortable, I decided to use her clubs and play left handed.  I found I had much less flexibility and could hit the ball about 130 yards.  From the front tees reaching a par 4 in regulation required two good wood shots.

Besides being a lot of fun, the experience showed me a few things:

1.  Any sort of forced carry is extremely difficult but a thrill when you succeed.
2.  Un-mowed areas in front of the tee box made me quiver.
3.  Playing by the rules is a useless idea - there are times you have no chance to finish out a hole.
4.  A good shot might be more thrilling from the opposite side.
5.  Use a putter around the green - getting a short game shot on the green is a pretty good shot. 
6.  Putting seemed much easier than the rest of the game.
7.  We laughed a lot.

I think playing left handed (or right if it applies) is a great way to appreciate the game most women play. 

[Jeff_Brauer]

As a kid, I threw right, but batted lefty (my favorite Cub was Billy Williams, a lefty) and even briefly started playing golf both right and lefty. (hockey shot is also lefty) I could do both, but right felt just a little more comfortable in golf, if not in baseball. 

Don't know why. I re-tried left hand golf (a few shots on the range) a few years ago, and like Jason, didn't hit it very well at all.  Maybe years of swing training got me conditioned to playing from the right.

[Jason Connor]

Never a full round.  I used to play in a regular Saturday morning foursome with 2 lefties, so sometimes when waiting around we'd swap clubs and hit a practice shot opposite hand, or chip to tee markers.  I was awful left and more often than not missed the ball if I was taking a full swing.  And I even shot left when playing hockey (which I still do).

[Tim Bert]

Jason - I play every round left handed and 1 and 2 always apply every round. It's tough playing left handed.

[Mike_Young]

yes

[Ken Moum]

I havent, but a friend of mine does it fairly regularly.

He's a 67-year-old, 15-handicap and I think he's gotten to where he can shoot in the 40s for nine holes pretty consistently.

[Brad Klein]

2-3 times a year, it seems, when I have to chip out.

Brad

[Bill_McBride]

yes

But never right handed? 

[Bruce Leland]

In the late 70's as a teaching pro I would play at least 9 holes a month lefty so I could experience what my new students were going through. Very humbling but a great frame of reference. 

[Ian Mackenzie]

I learned the game at age 11 as a lefty.
Played hockey and lacrosse lefty so it was natural. My best friend, whose father taught me the game, also was a lefty.

Then one day, while on the range on a Monday at the course where I was a caddy, the caddy master saw me hitting balls. He had been a journeyman tour pro with incredible ball-striking skills, but a glass brain. He gave me a right-handed club and a few pointers and  - BOOM - I switched to the right side. I believe I was 15 when I made that change. My first set of irons were MacGregor Ben Hogans!!!

[Richard Hetzel]

I played hockey left handed (I golf right handed). Swing a club left handed is really weird, but I can putt from both sides of the ball without issue. Maybe because I am left eye dominant.

[Greg Tallman]

Used to do it quite a bit, helpful in teaching as it gives you the same sense a beginner must have. Played a full round lefty one time back in the day on a swamp/lake laden Florida course, shot 118 and was completely exhausted. It was fun but really, really hard. Practice swing looks great, nice and smooth, put the ball in front of me and a different story.

[Pete_Pittock]

As a righty, would taking a full swing left handed balance out the torque and stress built up from the normal right handed swing?
As for me I am so uncoordinated I couldn't break 100, maybe on just the first hole. 

[Greg Tallman]

As a righty, would taking a full swing left handed balance out the torque and stress built up from the normal right handed swing?
As for me I am so uncoordinated I couldn't break 100, maybe on just the first hole. 

Have had many a doctor suggest exactly that for back health.

[John Chilver-Stainer]

I played a scramble competition yesterday where the local pro joined in, but switched to left handed clubs for the first time.
As a pro he plays off +2, when I asked how he got on left handed he said "about handicap 30"

I know another pro who regularly switches from his usual right to left. As a right hander he's scratch and as a left hander he rates himself as a 10 handicap.

I play right handed although my "strong" arm is the left. The only time I tried left handed it felt like I was trying to chop wood !!!

[Thomas Dai]

I've known quite a few guys over the years who write or play one handed games like table tennis left handed but play golf right handed.

Interestingly they all have an extremely good low hcp long game but none have a short game or putting that's anywhere near the standard of their long game. Just an observation.

atb

[cary lichtenstein]

My best buddy is a lefty. He hit a drive about 220, I bet him $10 I could out drive him using his club.

Stupid bet on my part, I teed it up, turned the head upside down, swung from the right side and hit it past him.  So frigging lucky, I giggled as I walked off the tee in astonishment. I never tried it again

[Bob_Huntley]

I think that Lyn Shackelford or David Moriarty might remember this.

Some years ago my son Marc and I had a game with them at Rustic Canyon. Roundabout  the fourteenth hole Marc asked if he could hit one of their drivers, my memory fades on this a bit I think they were both left handers. He had one practice swing and then hit a beauty down the fairway and pretty long. At one time he carried a left handed sand iron in his bag for trouble shots that were at times, somewhat numerous.

As many a father with growing children, he plays about once a year. He played at LA a couple of weeks ago, shot an 82 with too many putts.

Bob

[Jaeger Kovich]

When Vijah was in his prime, they used to talk about him breaking 80 lefthanded... I'm pretty sure Rob Rigg can beat me both righty and lefty too.

[Paul Gray]

I've known quite a few guys over the years who write or play one handed games like table tennis left handed but play golf right handed.

Interestingly they all have an extremely good low hcp long game but none have a short game or putting that's anywhere near the standard of their long game. Just an observation.

atb

Er, I have to mention Mickelson at this point! 

Actually, not that I'm suggesting I'm even vaguely in he same league as Phil but I'm actually a lefty that plays right handed. I can putt, I can pitch and run. My chipping is an embarrassment.

[Thomas Dai]

I've known quite a few guys over the years who write or play one handed games like table tennis left handed but play golf right handed.

Interestingly they all have an extremely good low hcp long game but none have a short game or putting that's anywhere near the standard of their long game. Just an observation.

atb

Er, I have to mention Mickelson at this point! 

Actually, not that I'm suggesting I'm even vaguely in he same league as Phil but I'm actually a lefty that plays right handed. I can putt, I can pitch and run. My chipping is an embarrassment.

Good mention of Phil Mickelson. Didn't Mac O'Grady play right handed but was nearly as good left handed? Nick Price and Johnny Miller are I believe lefty writers who play golf right handed. Wasn't Ben Hogan also a lefty writer? I think I've seen Sergio sign autographs left handed.

atb

[Duncan Cheslett]

I love this story;

http://freakonomics.com/2008/12/03/the-best-golf-story-ever-told-by-an-economist/

An economist friend, who is also an accomplished golfer, recently told me the following story.

He and two friends had made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of golf: the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland. They had managed to secure a tee time and were just about to tee off when the starter stopped them and told them to wait — he had a fourth player who would be joining them. The three friends were disappointed; what sort of schmuck were they going to get stuck with?

After brief introductions, the fourth player asked them what their handicaps were. A handicap in golf more or less corresponds to how many strokes you shoot over par on average. They told him their handicaps, which were three, four, and seven (which by the way, means they are exceptionally good recreational golfers).

The fourth player, who was standing on the tee with a set of right-handed clubs, said “O.K., great, I get my left-handed clubs” — the implication being that if he instead played left-handed, it would be a more even match. He headed back to his car, grabbed a set of left-handed clubs, and true to his word, proceeded to shoot a three over par 75.

Who was this mysterious fourth player? None other than the dashing Spaniard Seve Ballesteros. Golf fans everywhere have been saddened by Ballesteros’s shocking recent battle with a brain tumor.

Ballesteros, who retired last year, was a brilliant golfer who won three Open Championships, two Masters, and 82 other titles. He is best remembered for his flair and creativity: like hitting a shot from a car park in the 1979 Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes.

My golfing friend conjectures that maybe playing left-handed on occasion helped Ballesteros learn to hit those creative shots which won him so many championships.

For instance, when your ball stops right next to a tree trunk, sometimes the only option is to flip a club around and try to swing left-handed. It is extremely difficult, because not only are you swinging left-handed, but you are using a club meant to be hit right-handed. My accomplished golfing friend has practiced this shot quite a bit, and says he once hit it 60 yards this way, but he averages about 20 yards.

He asked Seve that day how far he could hit it when in that situation. “About 150 yards,” Seve said. “It depends if I want a fade or a draw.”


I fear it may be apocryphal, but who cares?  It's a great story!

[Rich Goodale]

I once played 9 with a very good player, both of us with lefty clubs and was completely rubbish until my friend said to me, in effect:

"You were a tennis player, weren't you?  If so, just think of hitting a right-handed backhand with the left arm following and stabilising."

This worked, and more serendipitously, got me to think of using more left arm and less right hand in my right hand swing.  That worked too, and helped me get from an 8 to a five.

PS--I remember one of those silly season events 20+ years ago where one of the "challenges" was a closest to the pin on a 150 yard 3 on a very forgettable course.  VJ Singh won that hole with an 8 iron to 8-10 feet (those were the goodie olde days where an 8-iron was the go-to club from 150 for the pros.....).  After confirming that he had won, VJ asked the lefty in the group (it was either Weir or Mickelson) to borrow his 8 iron, and then smoothed a shot to 3 feet.

Those guys are good!

[Sean_A]

I started golf as a lefty because I played hockey as a lefty.  Just goofing around I hit some pitches in practice from the right side of the plate and thought I could hit better from there.  I tried it for hockey and it didn't work and I still feel very uncomfortable as a righty.  I tried it for golf and never looked back.  I tried several times to hit lefty in golf and I am terrible, but I can still swing a bat lefty. 

Ciao

[Chris DeToro]

don't the tour pros regularly try to hit left handed shots onto the 17th at Sawgrass every year?  I remember hearing that Vijay was pretty darn good left handed as well as right