{"id":3977,"date":"2023-08-15T23:50:45","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T23:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/?p=3977"},"modified":"2023-08-16T16:48:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T16:48:36","slug":"michigans-bill-zylstra-can-relate-to-lucas-glover-and-his-long-putter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/golf\/equipment\/3977\/michigans-bill-zylstra-can-relate-to-lucas-glover-and-his-long-putter","title":{"rendered":"Michigan’s Bill Zylstra can relate to Lucas Glover and his long putter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lucas<\/a>

Lucas Glover<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI had no control of my faculties. Admitting and being upfront about it (the yips) has been as freeing as anything.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2014Lucas Glover, talking about his ten-year struggle with putting<\/p>\n

Lucas Glover\u2019s remarkable career turnaround is one of the best golf stories of the year. The 2009 U.S. Open champion, Glover spent ten long years trying to figure out his problems on the greens. It got so bad he even considered putting left-handed. But he never considered giving up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A few months ago, he decided to go to the long putter and ordered one with the same specs as Adam Scott\u2019s since they were similar in height. It\u2019s called the L.A.B. Mezz.1 Max and its key asset is how it stays square to your putting arc. (Check out the company\u2019s YouTube channel at\u00a0https:\/\/labgolf.com\/mezz-1-max-putter\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n

After spending ten days practicing with it, Glover used it in competition at the Memorial Tournament in late May. Although he missed the cut, he said he was pleased with his putting. \u201cMy misses weren’t that crazy, awful, yippy stroke \u2013 they were just misses,\u201d said Glover, long regarded as one of the Tour\u2019s pure ball-strikers.<\/p>\n

From there, he steadily improved and became more comfortable with the long putter, finally breaking into the winner\u2019s circle two weeks ago at the Wyndham Championship. And again last Sunday in Memphis.<\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/a>

Bill Zylstra<\/p><\/div>\n

Glover\u2019s rags to riches tale reminds me of a Michigan player who faced similar issues on the greens. Long an accomplished amateur, Bill Zylstra (someone with whom I grew up playing golf in Grand Rapids) had hit rock bottom in 2005. He had the yips and it was ruining his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in 2005 after I had just hit 17 greens in regulation and shot 79,\u201d said Zylstra, a member of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame. \u201cI must\u2019ve double hit three times; it was that bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

As fate would have it someone who witnessed Zylstra\u2019s putting struggles was Connie Chillemi, a former LPGA player who lived in Ocala, FL, and who used to play in the regular members\u2019 games with Zylstra and others.<\/p>\n

\"Unknown-2\"<\/a>

Connie Chillemi<\/p><\/div>\n

After a round, Chillemi suggested Zylstra change his grip. \u201cShe told me to split my hands at least a foot apart on the putting grip to take my hands out of the stroke. She was absolutely right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after, he sought out a friend who worked with clubs in his basement. \u201cHe had one long putter and he sold it to me for twenty bucks.\u201d Later he received instruction on how to best swing the putter, rocking his shoulders and taking the stroke out of his hands as Chillemi urged.<\/p>\n

Like Glover, it turned his game around. \u201cIn my very next round using it in Ocala I had ten birdies with it,\u201d said Zylstra.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cAnd the next spring I had a putt to shoot 64 at the north course at the old Horton Smith tournament in Detroit. I didn\u2019t make the putt but the stroke was fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2013, Zylstra was ranked the top senior male amateur in the U.S. by Golfweek. Since that time, he’s garnered numerous senior titles in Michigan.<\/p>\n

Along with Glover, Zylstra admires the putting strokes of Adam Scott and Si Woo Kim both exceptional ball strikers but ones who couldn\u2019t continue using conventional putters.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of them maintain the triangle formed by their shoulders and arms in their stroke and hold their finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before we finished chatting by phone, Zylstra mentioned he just learned one of his friends, an accomplished senior amateur in Detroit, just ordered a L.A.B. Mezz.1 Max putter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At a suggested price of $469, it may be a bargain for him as it was for Glover who didn\u2019t even pay for his.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Images courtesy of the PGA Tour, Golf Association of Michigan, and Facebook<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI had no control of my faculties. Admitting and being upfront about it (the yips) has been as freeing as… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":3978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,7],"tags":[1016501,3623,1036661,31937,1036836,363990,6474,1013182,1160,124368,1036658,105982],"class_list":["post-3977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-equipment","category-personalities","tag-si-woo-kim","tag-bill-zylstra","tag-connie-chillemi","tag-golfassociationofmichigan","tag-pga-tour","tag-michigan-golf-hall-of-fame","tag-adam-scott","tag-terry-moore-michigan","tag-lucas-glover","tag-long-putter","tag-lab-mezz-max-1-putter","tag-wyndham-championship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2023\/08\/lucas-glover-putter-golfwrx-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3977"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3997,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions\/3997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}