2018 January

How often do you start a round of golf and wonder WHO will be showing up that day? Did you ever consider that your tight muscles may be throwing your game off? If your body is tight and you make swing mistakes on your first hole, it will start to tighten up your mental outlook frustration too. Ideally you should plan to start every round relaxed, confident and physically flexible.

I first recognized that flexibility was important when I played rounds of golf with much younger, weaker players. I noticed that even skinny teenagers were easily able to drive 250 yards with limited effort. Flexibility should be at the top of your list if you every want to improve your game.

Get Flexible
A few months ago, I received an email from Jillian Anderson, an Australian Sports Fitness Advisor, who offered her FREE GOLF FITNESS GUIDE. She was impressed by our weekly GOLFSTR Swing Tips and encouraged me to share her guide with you. About 60,000 readers have enjoyed this guide and I think its a great one for golfers everywhere.

By committing to a golf stretching program you will not only increase your power and reduce the risk of injury, but it will also help you maintain a more consistent swing for a lower handicap!

Natalie Gulbis and smart professional golfers depend on flexibility for their best performance.

Critical Area of Focus
There are many sections in this guide but I am focusing my effort on 2 sections titled: Golf Stretching Exercises and Pre-Game Warmup. I was surprised to see that Static Stretching Exercises can actually hurt your game unless you use them to stretch out your muscles on days when you are not golfing. And you should use Dynamic Stretching Exercises just before you play your round of golf.

Jillian provides a sequence of the right exercises to help golfers improve physical flexibility. She points out that you need to warm up your muscles before you start your daily or pre-game stretch exercises. In general, your daily Static Exercises are slow, deliberate stretches where you hold the stretch for about 20 seconds. Pre-game dynamic stretch exercise are all about rapid, warmup motions to wake-up your body and get your muscles firing.

Jillian put it this way: “More research is showing that static stretching before a sport that involves powerful movements (such as the golf swing) can negatively affect performance. Simply put, this type of stretching reduces how powerfully you can contract your muscles and so potentially, how far you can hit the ball. For this reason athletes in most sports are now advised to increase their flexibility either on separate days, or after a game, with Static Stretches and to warm-up (for a round of golf) with Dynamic Stretches.” Click here for a free copy of her guide: GOLF FITNESS GUIDE

The more you relax your muscles during each swing the more your flexibility will improve your game. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ at the driving range after you warm up with your pre-game Dynamic Exercises. Your increased flexibility will create more power and confidence in every shot that you make. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

Putting is more of an Art Form than Science. Every putt changes with the slope of the green, the height and moisture in the grass and the distance to the hole. The Art Form can only be learned by feel and practice for each putt. Fortunately, determining the break can actually be determined by Science. Just use your putter as a Plumb Bob.

Putts break more as they slowdown. That’s why you should be more concerned with the break or slope of the green at the hole instead of the slope near your ball. On November 6, 2017, we released a Swing Tip about reading putts using your putter as a Plumb Bob. That tip is correct but my recent experience proves that you can speed up the process by focusing more on the break at the hole.

Rules for Plumb Bobbing (PB):
1/ Don’t waste your time with PB if the break is easy to see. Only use it when you are not sure about the break at the hole where the slow rolling speed of your ball magnifies the break.
2/ If you can see 2 or more breaks in your putt, DON’T Plumb Bob. Use your experience to make your best guess at the breaks in your putt.
3/ Your ball will break more as it slows down (near the hole) so you should focus on the break at the hole (NOT the break near your ball).
4/ Don’t try to PB if you have not calibrated your putter

How to Calibrate Your Putter
Hang your putter by the grip with 2 fingers and line up the shaft with a vertical line (corner of a building or door frame). Close either one of your eyes and rotate the putter until it lines up with the vertical line. Ideally you should try to find the matching vertical lineup when your putter face is facing the vertical line. That will make it easier for you to recall the CORRECT PUTTER FACE direction, the CORRECT EYE to keep open and the CORRECT SIDE of the putter shaft for your PB. [Without those 3 pieces of information, you will never be able to use your putter correctly for PB.]

When you line up your putter with the hole and your putter grip is to the left of the ball, that is the high side of the hole.

How to Plumb Bob (PB)
1/ Because the putt breaks the most when it slows down, don’t waste your time checking the break from behind your ball. Go behind the hole and keeping only your CORRECT EYE open, line-up the hole with your ball.
2/ Then hold your putter up with the CORRECT PUTTER FACE direction so that the CORRECT SIDE of your shaft is lined up with the hole.
3/ If the upper end of you shaft falls to the left (as shown in this image) or right of your ball, that side is the high side of the slope of the green. Your ball will break from the high side back to the hole. The wider the gap the greater the break in your putt.

Plan Your Putt
1/ Stand perpendicular from your putting line to determine if your putt is uphill or downhill.
2/ Know that uphill putts will break less and downhill putts will break more as they approach the hole.
3/ Based on your PB, you know the high side of the green where your ball will break (or curl) down to the hole.
4/ Build your confidence using PB on the practice green. Plan to minimize the break by always stroking to hit your ball about 12 to 18 inches past the hole.

Using your putter to Plumb Bob for the break at the hole will give you more confidence to sink more putts with a committed putt at your ball. Practice the perfect flat wrist swing with your GOLFSTR+ by locking your leading wrist and bracing your hips as you rock your shoulders to putt straight at your target point. Buy one today at WWW.GOLFSTR.COM

Supercharge your swing with lag. Some golf blogs suggest the thought of “shallowing out the club in the downswing” to create lag. Others refer to the generation of lag as loose or lazy wrists during the transition to create a 90 degree club shaft angle from your straight leading arm at the top of your swing. Whatever you do, you need to learn the wonderful feeling of lag to generate more distance for every shot.

I love it when friends ask me if I have been working out. That’s the surprising reaction when my shots take off with unexpected power with seemingly little effort. Lag did it!

Dustin Johnson creates a lot of power and distance by holding his lag in the downswing and you should too.

The only way to generate more club head speed is to snap your wrists as you fling your club through the impact zone at the bottom of your swing. Your leading arm is straight throughout your back and down swing to maintain consistency. The weight of you club head has to do all of the work as your weight shifts to your leading leg and you whip your lagging club head through the ball.

Tips to Create Lag
–Make a least 10 practice swings with a very light grip and lazy, loose wrists.
-So lazy that your arms start their downswing while the club is still changing direction during the transition at the top.
-The weight of your club head is creating a 90 degree angle between your straight leading arm and your club shaft. (Your trailing wrist is actually pulling to create this angle.)
-[CAUTION: Keep your leading arm straight in the backswing and downswing.]
-During these practice swings, don’t worry about hitting a ball, just use your lazy wrists to feel the delayed transition from up to down cause by the weight of your club head.
-FEEEEL the club weight creating a lag (or delay) in the change of direction to your downswing as you shift your weight to your leading leg.
-Don’t rush your arms at the top of the downswing. Let them accelerate as you start the shift of your weight to your leading leg.
-Maximum club head speed occurs as it catches up with your hands as they whip through the bottom of the swing arc with a whooshing sound.
–Now hit some balls by waiting and FEEELING THE LAG at the top of your swing. This is a long list of tips but the lag feeling only happens in a split second. It’s so wonderful when it happens.

Of course your swing starts with spine rotation and pressure on the instep of your trailing foot (without swaying back over your trailing foot). During your downswing, let your right elbow drop down near your side as you swing from the “slot” (inside to out). That’s how you “shallow your swing” and hold your lag angle.

Learn the FEELING of lag by training with your GOLFSTR+. Use it on your leading arm as a reminder to keep your leading arm straight and also on your trailing arm bicep to ensure that you are creating a 90 degree bend in your trailing elbow at the top of your swing. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

Distance and control are so important for your drives. If you can’t keep your drives in the fairway then you should just slow down your swing and choke down on your club for more control. Unfortunately this game is about distance and we all need to improve our drives to hit them long and land them in the fairway.

Moe Norman was an amazingly consistent professional who had a short, flat, single plane swing. He used the power of his arms to “muscle” the speed of his swings. Most golfers, especially the professional golfers are not fans of the single plane swing as it can result in more shots that are pushed or sliced. The harder you swing the more you swing over the top creating more slices.

Looks like Johnny Miller making a wide, straight arm backswing (RED LINE) & an inside, up the slot downswing (GOLD LINE).

Brooke Henderson is a 5’ 4”, 20 years old Canadian who plays on the LPGA Tour . Her average drives are 280 yards. She chokes down on a 48 inch shafted driver. [a normal men’s driver is 43 inches] Asked about her swing thought: “I swing as hard as I can”. You can only do this if you have confidence with your swing.

Brooke uses a long, wide takeaway with a downswing from inside to outside (up the slot).  This is the preferred swing for most golfers to avoid slicing the ball. Image your target line running from behind your ball. As you take your club back, make sure that you are pointing at that line. That will give you a wide takeaway with a high transition at the top. Then allow your club to slightly loop at the top so that it returns to impact from the inside.

Tips for Consistent Long Drives:
1/ A 2 plane swing will give you more wrist lag and club head speed for more distance. Your slice will disappear and you can swing with a more powerful wrist release to snap through your ball with less effort.
2/ Drives are meant to be hit as your driver head is swinging up through the ball so you should be teeing your ball up so that half of the ball is above the head of your club during your setup.
3/ To avoid swaying back during your backswing, keep pressure on the instep of your trailing leg.
4/ Keep your leading ear behind the ball at setup and at impact.

Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to keep your leading arm straight with a wide takeaway. Hit’em long and land’em in the fairway. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

Every golfer is looking for a special trigger that will guarantee success every time we swing a golf club. We are always searching for that magic formula that leads to the perfect draw or fad. I have asked many golfers and PGA Professionals what triggers they use to generate effortless shots. Each golfer seems to have their own personal success move. You should have at least one position or move that you know will create successful results every time you swing a club.

I’m hoping that this list will give you the best trigger for your swings:

What’s your trigger: Slow takeaway, ear behind the ball, pressure shift or driving to a balanced finish.

Lag for Power: Slow down your backswing to create lag with your straight leading arm.

Swing up the Slot: Make a wide takeaway on a high plane with a slight loop at the top as you flatten your downswing up the slot from the inside to outside.

Stable Spine: Coil your spine without swaying back during your backswing.

Light Grip: Hold your club lightly so that it fells heavy during the transition. That creates the lag that you need to unload on your ball as you whip your club through your ball.

Lazy Wrists: Another way to feel the same emotion: Don’t get tight at the top during the transition. Let your hands get lazy. Let you club feel heavy so that it can create more lag as your hands start to drop during your down swing.

Foot Pressure: During your transition, feel the pressure shift from the inside of your trailing foot to full pressure on your leading foot through impact.

Leading Ear: Start your drive with your leading ear behind your ball and keep it behind your ball through impact

Finish Your Swing: Release up your target line with a balanced finish.

Load up your Swing:  from the ground on your trailing instep to your hips shoulders, arms and wrist lag.

Leading Eye on the Ball: Jack Nicklaus turned his head during his backswing to keep his leading eye fixed on his ball and through impact.

Try these triggers or figure out what works for you and then use it religiously to generate a consistent swing. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to learn to control your moves. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com