2015 January

In the game of golf  YOU are in the driver’s seat. You and only you control every shot. YOU are playing the game against yourself. I realized how important this was last night as I heard Eugenie Bouchard (a Canadian woman who is #6 in the world) talk about losing her focus as she became over confident. She won 9 of the first 10 games [in a key match in the Australian Tennis Open] and then lost 7 of the next 9 games. This collapse is the same mental failure that we can experience in golf.

Unfortunately in tennis when the momentum shifts, your opponent gets a renewed positive mental boost which works against you. In golf your buddies or opponents may be making cute remarks about your play but this game is only about your mind over your personal demons.

Jeanne Bouchard is a hot 21 year old tennis star on a mission. She just told herself to win and did it.

BACK TO THE TENNIS MATCH: After serving double-fault on set point to lose the second set, Bouchard took a short break (as reported by  John Pye The Associated Press): “I gave myself a good, long hard look in the mirror,” Bouchard explained of her brief absence from Rod Laver Arena. “I said, ‘Genie, this is unacceptable.’ I really kind of kicked myself in the butt a little bit.”  [That how she said it on national TV but she meant to say: “Let’s go kick some ass!”]

She returned to the court and won the final set 6 – 2.

How much do you think Tiger wants to win?

BACK TO YOUR GOLF GAME: For every swing in this game, you need to isolate your mind from the noise around you, from the comments of others and especially any negative thoughts. Unfortunately our minds are filled with the thoughts of previous amazing shots and dismal failures.

Golf is a game where you need to build confidence. Even Tiger Woods hits errant shots off the first tee in tournaments. We play this game to learn control over our minds and bodies. It is so mentally rewarding when it all comes together. Your mind has to be the starting point for consistency in golf.

If you find that your game is going off track, give your head a shake and get back in the game.  You CAN get back on track! I am not talking about doing 1000 practice pitch shots the way Tiger does to groove a new swing. A swing with a straight leading arm and a consistent distance to the ball is the perfect starting point. I’m talking about using that grey cement between your ears.

Practice with your GOLFSTR+ for consistent hits. Remember what the correct swing feels like and keep your head in the game. Buy GOLFSTR+ and pass this along to help others enjoy this game. CLICK TO Check out www.golfstr.com.

It just dawned on me as to why most of my swings are wonderful and a few of my swings are messed up. ANSWER: My mind is like the mind of an elephant. I have a long memory that resists change. In other words: Brilliant but STUPID. I know that I want a calm and relaxed straight arm swing, an easy transition with a body shift and a balanced finish but I keep sliding back into my old habits.

I worked hard to improve my game for years with the wrong swing. Sure it was frustrating watching the pros on TV with those wonderful swings and hoping that my mind would somehow lock into that same wonderful motion. What was I thinking?

>Some people learn to groove a proper swing at a young age with help from a concerned parent or instructor.

>Others quickly learn that a baseball swing is used in Baseball and a golf swing is totally different.

>Unfortunately I  ( like 50% of all golfers) fall into a category of a ROBOT WITH A POOR MEMORY. Change is not natural for our minds, muscles and bodies.

If you really want to change your swing, you need to form new habits and a new FOCUS. Knowing what you want to do is only half the battle. Completing 20 perfect swings on the driving range is a wonderful feeling. Unfortunately that messed up 21st swing tells you that your mind is reverting back to your STUPID OLD ROBOT MIND.

Perfection in golf is what we all strive for. Even the professionals mess up the occasional swing by topping or shanking their balls (but the TV Producers rarely show us these shots).

SOLUTION: You need a plan to change your swing pattern.  Try using queues to make the right swing for every type of club and condition. This is not an easy task.
1/ Take lessons or read up on the proper swing mechanics for the best opportunity to match the results of great golfers.

GOLFSTR+ is a great aid to help you groove that perfect swing. Use it to help you correct your swing. It’s a great Brain Trainer.

2/ Buy training aids such as GOLFSTR+ with 6 swing solutions to help build a consistent swing by repeating the correct motion.
3/ Use GOLFSTR+ to practice often on the driving range and under playing conditions. You may find that you are using new muscles and that they ache when you are changing to your new swing. [By the way, if your muscles are aching when using GOLFSTR+, you know that you are changing your swing. Put your GOLFSTR+ aside for that day. Recover and then start using it again. Your muscles are changing and you need to accept that it will take time to change.]
4/ Seeing success at the driving range and while you play will build confidence. Use queue words like “Straight, Lag, Press” to focus on key motions during your setup and during your swing.  STAY IN THE ZONE.

Buy a GOLFSTR+ on www.golfstr.com and use it often to keep your mind focused. LOVE THIS GAME.

Request to add a REVIEW about GOLFSTR on AMAZON.com. 

To help us grow expand our business we would really appreciate a REVIEW by our GOLFSTR users in AMAZON.  Some of the reviews on Amazon are out of date and misleading as we now include a Black Rubber Extender to give you optional ways to change the pressure on the back of your arm (when using GOLFSTR+ as a straight arm trainers).    If you have a user account on Amazon.com, you can add a REVIEW about GOLFSTR.

1/ Enter the site by clicking on www.amazon.com.

2/ Enter the search word:  GOLFSTR and then click on GOLFSTR Swing Like a Pro Golf Trainer

3/ Scroll to the bottom of the page to find : Write a Customer REVIEW.  Click on the box, sign in with your account and enter a review.  Just a few comments will help others find this amazing product.

Thank you.  Your input is greatly appreciated!

Listening to an interview with PGA Tour Rookie Justin Thomas on the Morning Drive / Golf Channel, I heard a comment that affects us all. He said that he does not score low when he’s playing with friends and family. He needs to be focused. If his attention is not totally on the detail of the setup, the swing and the finish then he does not score well.

Could this be the problem for most want-to-be-golfers? KEY POINTS:
1. To score well for 18 holes you need to be “Golfing in the Zone”. I know that I can par 3 or 4 holes in a row and then my mind goes into overdrive. I’m invincible. I tighten up and swing harder and faster. RESULT: D I S A S T E R. My brother-in-law sees me do this and eggs me on. This should be my wake-up call.
2. It is the same thing that happens when you add up your score after 9 holes and start planning to break 80 or 90. If one of your golfing partners starts ribbing you about your low score, it just messes with your mind. You drop out of “The Zone” and BANG: here come the bogies and doubles and 3 putts.

You need to visualize your shot exactly the way this ProTracer Photo shows this result.

3. We have all seen Tiger in “The Zone”. He has such a focus that he can stop his swing if a camera clicks as he starts his down-swing. Jack Nicklaus said that he had to visualize the flight and landing spot for each shot. This is how his mind drops into “The Zone”. He sees the flight path and visualizes his swing to make it happen.
4. Have you ever been told that your practice swing is perfect but your swing at the ball is totally different? Many of us freeze-up and swing with our arms and forget to keep the body moving through the shot. It’s really easy to see this when you are hitting with your pitching wedge and hit fat 4 inches before the ball. You just forgot to keep your body rotating with your arms.

When you are not in the zone, you get uptight. You focus too much on your arms and forget that your body shift and rotation are just as important.  If you want to score well, keep you focus on each swing and stay in the ZONE.

Last week I asked for your Golf BREAK-THOUGH or Aha Moments. I received a few and one even came in from St. Andrews, Scotland. I need a few more so please send along your comments so that we can share them with all of the GOLFSTR+ Followers.

If GOLFSTR+ was your “Breakthrough”, then tell us about that too.  Send your emails to sales@golfstr.com

For more ideas, check out YOUR SWING SUPPORT CENTER on the www.golfstr.com website.

I have now shared weekly Swing Tips with over 500 GOLFSTR followers for the past 2 years. I create my articles by checking out professional golfer blogs and share my findings with you. Believe me, I do this as much for you as I do for my own benefit. I’m looking for that nugget of knowledge that will instantly perfect my game. (And I know that you are hoping to find it too.)

There are a lot of golf bloggers who keep digging up new ways to create the “perfect”. Any swing that gives you a long and relatively straight hit, is a great swing. It’s just a matter of finding the right swing for your body and flexibility.

Now I want to hear from you. I want you to share your most important thought or motion or plan that you use to create consistent swings to get YOUR ball where YOU want it to go.

I want to share your successes with other GOLFSTR FOLLOWERS so don’t be shy. I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. Email your comments to sales@golfstr.com

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Now I want to share an email that I received from a 55 year old golfer who shot 117 at the Pete Dye course at Mission Hills in Palm Springs, bought a GOLFSTR+ at a PGA Tour SuperStore, the next day he tried it out on the practice range and then played the same course and shot a 94. It was the first time that he had ever broken 100 on any course let alone a demanding course like that one. His best line was: “I felt like Clark Kent taking off my glasses and the kryptonite kicking in, could this be… “

His big breakthrough was learning to keep his leading arm straight during his swing by using GOLFSTR+. In less than 6 months of playing serious golf he is shooting back to back rounds of 86. You can tell that he is excited about this breakthrough by the details provided. Here is his story if you’d to read it in his own words.

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Email received January 2, 2015: The name of this golfer has been removed by request but I hope to share his future success later this year. Stay tuned:

I reside in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I was a professional athlete, Sponsored by Nike, in the game of 4 Wall Handball and competed at the world level. One sport that I never spent time to improve was golf.

Now at 55, I just officially started playing golf with lessons as of March 2014. I am trying to give you some background context to the success of these next sound bites. In the past I would go golfing with my family and/or business golf events, not being a golfer, I always hit poorly and stroke count was well above 120 per round, the more infrequent I played the worst result I had. That happens with golf.

This year I decided to take this game up seriously. I took some lessons from a teaching golf pro at Tsawwassen Springs Golf Course, “ Murray Poje”, he worked with me to develop an accurate swing before stepping back onto the course again. As progress goes, moving the time dial up a few months from March, totally immersed and determined to break into this game, my scores never broke 100, always around 110, mostly because of the inconsistency and not hitting the ball straight and then suffering the frustration of scrambling to recover on the next shots.

This is the same course where Will Curry, the inventor of GOLFSTR, tested the first prototype of GOLFSTR and shot 2 over par after the first 11 holes.

My first break through on my own was breaking 50 on the front nine of a Vancouver Golf Course on a Sunday afternoon in August. Still, loving the game, trying to piece so many parts of the game together (keep in mind, this is all in 2014). I was off to Palm Springs, Mission Hill which has three courses named: Pete Dye, Dinah Shore & Arnold Palmer.

Now this is where the breakthrough happens, showing signs of great strokes and tempo when I am golfing, and where my main goal is just not to lose a ball while playing, I figured baby steps: I will worry about the score after a whole host of other things are mastered. Oh, did I mention, I had a great looking stroke, I mastered the perfect slice every time, even when getting a new club, the club fitter said there was a dial on the club that would correct the slice from the club face, that didn’t make sense to me to always be swinging incorrectly and getting a good result. This solution didn’t correct the mechanics of a proper swing.

We landed in Palm Springs on a Sunday, early morning arrival, headed over to the golf club. My wife and I played a round on the Pete Dye Course as that was the only course open as the others were being reseeded . I shot 117. Next day Monday rolls around and I made my way over to the PGA Tour SuperStore on Hwy 111, this is where I was looking at the training aid section. There I found and bought a GOLFSTR.

I went back to the range, put GOLFSTR on, starting hitting balls, boooom…. I felt like Clark Kent taking off my glasses and the kryptonite kicking in, could this be…

Are you ready, are you sitting down…..

My wife and I played the exact same course again, Pete Dye (same course where I shot 117).  Score on Monday with GOLFSTR was 94, not only did I improve my strokes by 23 strokes, but it was the first time I broke 100, and first time I never lost a ball. Huge Milestone….

Since wearing GOLFSTR, my scores continues to get better, I am now shooting back to back 86’s, my average drives, as recorded last week in Hawaii were 264 with over four long drives over 300 yards. If you chart the improvement I have gone from 117 to 86 since wearing GOLFSTR, that is an amazing 31 shot improvement,

There are many people/players that are commenting when playing about the how straight I hit the ball and are amazed the length of time I have been playing, but the biggest benefits to my game is the GOLFSTR in keeping my elbow straight ever time so I can continue to hit the ball with great accuracy and length.

Two things in concluding my story: Thank you, thank you, and if you wish to use/edit and validate my progress please do so.

Secondly, everyone wants one of these because they ask me how I can consistently hit the ball so straight, so getting a place out in BC that sells them might be good for sales. My wife wants to buy a bulk order to sell to all her friends after she saw what it did for me.

Thirdly, I will be your biggest supporter here in my little world, anything I can do to help I am in debt to GOLFSTR for my progress. Respectfully [Name withheld by request but I have confirmed the story.]