2015 October

The number one burning problem in golf is: How do I get rid of my bad shots?  A mental lapse in your swing will mess-up any shot. The professional golfers miss shots too. You just don’t see too many of their bad shots on TV because the Producers focus on the spectacular shots. The tournament leaders are in the ZONE and rarely missing a shot. Their real success is the way they recover from a bad shot. How do they just move on to the next perfect shot?

Your primary focus has to be on positive thoughts about your past successes to keep negative thoughts of past failures out of your mind.

If you have made par or birdie on a hole then you can do it again. As a matter of fact, you can do it on every hole on the course where you are playing. So what is stopping you? You need to sort out the weakness in your game and get rid of the big misses. You need a game plan:

Try this exercise to loosen your shoulders and chest for better backswing rotation.

1/ Sort out Your Swing Before You Play: If you want to conquer this game you need to spend time at the range practicing to improve every swing in your game. Use your GOLFSTR+ to lock in the right swing: Straight leading arm backswing; smooth transition and a controlled lag and wrist release to a balanced finish.

2/ Stretch out Before You Play: Power comes from the rotation of your body and the release of your wrists. You can’t perform well with a stiff body. Spend some time before you get on the first tee making sure that your swing is comfortable and relaxed. Warm-up & stretch-out your muscles.

3/ Warm-up with a Meaningful Practice: Hit balls at the range or into a net to get your mind focused on a relaxed rhythmic swing. Hit putts on the practice green to get the feel for the speed of the greens before you play.

4/ Set your Game Plan:
a. You have 18 tee shots so land them in the fairway: If you are slicing and hooking on every other tee shot then you are not ready to play. Create a consistent draw or fad to know where your ball will end up. I like to take my trailing foot back from the target line by an inch or 2 to ensure that I will swing from the inside for a consistent draw. As my body warms up over a few holes, I minimize this adjustment.
b. Greens in Regulation are Wonderful: If overhanging limbs from trees or bunkers surrounding the green are a problem, consider the perfect layup to give you a chance for the perfect pitch shot or chip from the best side of the green for an uphill putt.
c. Almost 50% of your total score is from putting: Why not focus on eliminating 3 putt greens? Read the green before you chip on to the green to take advantage of getting as close to the hole as possible by using the break and runout on the green. After reading the green and setting up for the perfect putt visualize the line and roll of you putt which you feel will get you passed the hole by 10 inches. Make the PERFECT PRACTICE SWING and duplicate the exact same swing when you hit the ball.

None of this preparation is will help if you don’t approach your game with a Calm and Relaxed mind. We will focus on this in our next Swing Tip. Make sure that you order your GOLFSTR+ on our website. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

Last week we listed solutions to improve your GIR (hitting more Greens in Regulation). We ended with the problem of hitting off uneven terrain. Most golf courses are setup with undulating greens and the same problem with the fairways. If you can “read” a green, you can learn how to attack the fairways when you setup next to your ball.

Last winter I ended many days (at the cocktail hour) sitting on our Lani overlooking the dogleg on a fairway which allowed me to view many golfer from behind their target line.  I could see the direction of their stance and the height of the ball above or below their feet (when they stood on a side hill lie). For most of the golfers, I was able to predict where the ball was going to fly. They would line themselves up with the green but the uneven ground forced their shots to fly left or right depending on the level of the land. It was almost hysterical to see the antics of each frustrated golfer after their perfect shots flew anywhere but on the green.

Fairways are rarely level. Using your foot wedge is not legal so you really need to adjust for the height difference from the level of your feet to your ball.

You may think that you can just drop your shoulders or stand taller or lean over to compensate for the ground height difference. Unfortunately it does not work that way. All of your practice is completed with swings on level ground so your swing is perfected for level ground hitting.  When your ball is below the level of your feet the ball will naturally slice to the right. When your ball is above your feet, you will naturally pull it to the left. (and in the opposite directions for left handed players) If you compensate by leaning forward or backward, you will most likely change your spine angle as you swing with a poor result.

Our brains are setup to balance our bodies in the upright position with equal pressure on the ball and heel of our feet. Some professionals recommend chipping and pitching with more pressure on the balls of your feet but most shots require a balance of pressure across the foot when you setup.

If your ball is above your feet, grip lower on your club to compensate for the loss in distance to the ground. Use a lower lofted club to compensate for distance you will lose as you shorten the grip on your club. A side hill lie above your feet will also force your ball to pull left (for right handed golfers), so you need to compensate by aiming to the right depending on the steepness of the hill.

If your ball is below your feet, you can bend your knees more or spread out your stance and again you should use a lower lofted club to compensate for the loss in distance as you will be losing power in your swing. [NEVER swing harder on a side hill lie as your brain will not cope well with your strange stance.]

Your Practice Swing Will Confirm Your Adjustment
To ensure that you have changed your grip or leg position sufficiently, you must take a practice swing at the tempo that you plan to use when hitting the ball. Your body is still upright but if your club is not short or long enough to connect properly with the ball, you will top the ball or hit it fat. FOR EXAMPLE: If you dig into the ground with your practice swing, just shorten your grip further down the shaft and try the practice swing again to test your clearance from the ground. [NEVER RUSH your swing on a side hill lie.]

Who said that golf was easy?  The hilly terrain was added to make this a challenging sport.  Practice with GOLFSTR+  for every swing in your game. Buy one today on our website: www.golfstr.com

If you can’t hit the Green In Regulation (GIR), you could be wasting 18 strokes per round of golf. [GIR: Landing your ball on the Green In “Regulation” is the number of strokes to land on the green and take 2 putts for par.] Every golfer would like to get 18 for GIR on every round so you should challenge yourself to improve your GIR. Your only other option is a perfect chip and a putt (and that’s easier said than done).

What’s Causing Your Misses?
Why are you missing the green on your par 3 tee shots and on your second shot on par 4 holes?  GIR for a par 5 is the easiest as you should be chipping or pitching after your drive and approach shot. Here are a number of areas where you should focus to increase your GIR.

1/ Practice on Grass: Instead of practicing on Driving Range Mats, for iron shots you should create a proper swing with a divot instead of bouncing your club off the mat. When you hit your ball off a grass surface you can see where your divot starts and the direction of your divot. Ideally your divot should start after the resting position of your ball and with an in to outside swing path.

2/ Uneven Tee Box: The tee box is the only place on the golf course where you are allowed to choose the perfect FLAT SURFACE to hit from. When you setup on a tee box, make sure that your feet are not below or above the ball. Choose your hitting surface wisely.  Move back from the tee markers (up to 2 club lengths) if you have no other choice.  If you have control of your golf swing, you have no excuse to miss the right direction on a par 3 hole.  [GIR on a par 3 should be 100% or you should be practicing with you GOLFSTR+ to get you direction and club selection right.]

3/ Hitting from the Rough: The rough typically has taller and thicker grass which will grab your club head. Every condition in the rough is different.  The pros have 2 recommendations: 1/ Accept the fact that you are not going to make the green on your next shot so hit wisely to get out of the rough. 2/ Don’t hit into the rough in the first place.

4/ Hitting from an Uneven Fairway or a Sidehill Lie: Golf courses are rated with a SLOPE based on many factors. The uneven surface of the fairways or hilly terrain is a major factor affecting the SLOPE RATING on every golf course. This is also the NUMBER ONE REASON WHY you are NOT hitting the Green in Regulation. You need to learn to compensate for the difference in height from your ball to the surface or angle of your feet.

Compensating for your stance is not as easy as you think. Your practice on perfectly flat mats at the practice range is not training you for the conditions on the golf course. Stay tuned for great solutions to solve this problem NEXT WEEK.   HINT: Compensating for height differences is never easy when your swing is perfected on level ground.

Perfect your swing using GOLFSTR+ which gives you 6 swing solutions for the perfect straight arm or flat wrist swing as well as lag training for more power. Buy one today on our website or in golf shops around the world. www.golfstr.com

I recently received 2 interesting articles about the impact of practicing with the best results. Your commitment to practice AND practicing the most effective way, will drop your scores. Of course you need to learn the correct swing and we recommend building muscle memory with GOLFSTR+ but you should learn the best METHOD to practice?

Solution for Jordan Spieth
Jordan Spieth was struggling during the first 2 of the 4 FedEx play-off tournaments. When he missed the cut on the first 2 rounds, we were all wondering if the pressure was finally getting to Jordan.  Over the past summer he had won 2 majors and 2 other tournaments so it looked like Jordan was Tiger Woods’ heir apparent. His play seemed to be unshakable. How could he miss the cut in those 2 important tournaments?

During the Tour Championship Tournament, PRACTICE gave Jordan the advantage. He was the first player to arrive at the course on Monday of the tournament week. His caddy commented that they warmed up for this tournament LIKE IT WAS ONE OF THE 4 MAJORS. On the final day, he arrived 3 hours before his tee time for what his caddy, Michael Greller, called the “early grind”. His extra commitment to practice paid off, especially with his putter. He led the field with a total of over 400 feet of putts sunk and won the tournament and the FedEx Cup worth a total of $11,400,000.

If the number 1 player in golf puts a lot of effort into his practice to win $22 Million in tournament prize money, just think what a little more of the right practice will do for your game.

The Right Way to Practice

The Golf Science Lab is a blog which offers research findings for the game of golf. Check out www.GolfScienceLab.com

B. J. Hathaway, the head pro at Atlanta Golf Instruction (Click for his blog), made a recommendation based on a study on “Motor Learning” by professors from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, who offer their research findings (Click for their sound track).  In short they found that continuously changing your club or changing your planned shot, similar to the way you play on a golf course, is the best way to improve your game and retain swing solutions.

Pounding ball after ball with the same club is not challenging your mind. They found that you need to have a plan for your swing so that it will have a greater impact on your memory when you repeat the same shot on the golf course. Your mind will retain more and focus more if it is challenged to work-out a swing problem (like: how do I draw this ball and land about 200 yards).

Why not practice with GOLFSTR+, which gives you 6 swing solutions to build muscle memory for your game.  Buy one today on our website: www.golfstr.com