2018 July

Why is it that you can hit 10 controlled shots in a row at the driving range but it is difficult to hit 3 controlled shots on every hole? Your body has the ability to consistently hit balls with a variety of clubs on the range but on the course your emotion asks for a little more distance and better control. The result is often bad. Wouldn’t it be great if you could control your emotions for 18 holes?

Pros Have the Same Problem as You Do
Justin Leonard sank a 45 foot putt on the 17th hole in one of the 1999 Ryder Cup matches. He danced around the green and was pumped with adrenaline. On the next hole his drive was a duck hook. Emotion got the best of him. It was a great example of the way that emotions can mess up your game. It takes a lot of experience before you can control your emotions to win a major event or to break 90 or 80 or 70.

Recreational Golfers Experience Emotion All the Time
If you can’t keep your emotions in check, your game will go down the drain. I was reminded that emotion must be the key factor in golf when playing a round of best ball with a 4some. One of our experienced golfers was so emotionally high strung or embarrassed that she could not hit a straight shot. She had a 20 handicap so I know that she had a reasonable game but almost every shot was topped or hit fat. Emotion got the best of her.

How Can You take Emotion out of Every Shot
1/ Be aware that EMOTION can ruin your next shot. Accept the fact that you CAN create the perfect shot and that you have made that perfect shot many times before. Always hit to a distance that is reasonable for your ability.
2/ Understand the Post-Birdie-Screw-Up: Know that your emotions are running high after a great hole or a great shot. Calm down and convince yourself that your next drive is just another shot, so relax and let it happen naturally.
3/ Simplify your swing so that you have a very limited thought process during your swing. I developed GOLFSTR+ to help me stop bending my leading arm in my backswing. Adding more backswing by bending your arm at the elbow is NOT helping consistency of your swing.
4/ Tiger and most other professional golfers learn to take their mind into a trance-like-state. They call it THE ZONE. Their total focus is on their acceleration through the ball. Use your GOLFSTR+ to train yourself to Limit Your Backswing to keep your arm straight and to cock your wrist. Swing back on one plane by coiling your body, create lag by cocking your flat leading wrist and then swing through to a balance finish. It really is that easy.
5/ Never talk about your last great hole or how low your score is for the round. That’s the kiss of death! Stay focused on your next shot or your next hole. Enjoy talking about your round after you finish it. Ben Hogan reminded us that the most important shot in golf is YOUR NEXT ONE!
6/ High Sugar Content Foods can take your emotions to a new high. Eat wisely and avoid spikes in your energy and stay hydrated. Beer and scotch is not the ideal solution.

Practice with GOLFSTR+ for success at the range and then carry that success with your CALM EMOTIONS to the course. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com<https://golfstr.com>

Most golfers will never experience the thrill of playing golf in Scotland where the game was invented. Fortunately the TV coverage of The OPEN at Carnoustie (or CarNasty as it’s nicknamed) was extensive. It not only covered the treachery of the course but it also gave us many insights to improve our games.

Oh yes, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

On The OPEN Leaderboard website they displayed a continuous update of the most important stats for each player: Fairways Hit, Greens in Regulation, Average Drive and Number of Putts. We should all be paying attention to these scores on every one of our rounds too. Tommy Fleetwood improved has scores dramatically on Day #2 when his percentage of fairways hit jumped from 40% to 67%. You can’t win if you don’t give yourself a chance to hit a clean shot to the green from a great fairway position. Of course you have to have the Golf Gods on your side to sink more putts.

Keep your emotions under control. There were so many times that balls rolled into the rough or a bunkers and the players should have become frustrated. The leaders just kept their cool, accepted the fact that they would end up in hazards and just put their effort into their next shot.  Francesco Molinari won by averaging drives over 300 yards every day, and hitting 78% & 67% of GIR and avoiding any bogies on the final 2 days.

Blasting out of deep sand traps and hopefully you never have to do it sideways. It was wonderful to see the skill that some used to blast out of the very deep bunkers. They took very open stances with the ball forward of their leading foot to blast well under the ball for extreme height. They also accepted the fact that some shots were impossible so a side or back exit was the only solution.

Ripping through the rough takes brute force but the dry grasses had a limited effect on many of their shots. It was still impossible to control the direction and distance from any shot out of the rough. Had the rough been green and thick, that course would be impossible.

Choosing the right club. Knowing that you hit a a 6 iron 150 yards is not necessarily the correct club when you consider the extra where you may get an extra 20 yards of roll on the green or a dry fairway. A driver just exaggerates the problem. Use your 3 or 5 wood on a short par 4 to land on the correct side of the fairway for an easier shot into the green.

Keeping your focus. You may never hear your buddies yelling “in the hole” but we all need to ignore distractions.

Control the flight of your golf ball. There are 110 bunkers on Carnoustie. Controlling the flight of your golf shots is the only way to miss the out of bounds, bunkers and rough. Draw and fade control are the only way to manage every shot.

Enjoy the good days. Think of those wonderful days as an opportunity to improve your shots for the windy and rainy days. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to control your game. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

Professional Golfers all know that hitting Greens in Regulation (GIR) is the hardest and most important shot on every hole. If pros rarely exceed 70% in hitting the greens in the regulation number of strokes (1 on a par 3, 2 on a par 4 and 3 on a par 5), GIR must be the toughest shot in golf. You need a strategy to improve your GIR to anything better than 50%.

We all know that there is a very slim chance of sinking a putt which is 25 to 90 feet from a hole but if you hit the green in regulation, your first putt is an attempt to get it within 4 feet of the hole. At least you have a better chance than 50% of sinking a 4 foot putt. Hitting a green in regulation is difficult but landing and stopping your ball closer to the hole is the key to lowering your scores.

Strategies to Increase Your GIR
1/ Record Your GIRs: Record them on your score card and count them up at the end of each round. You will only improve your percentage of GIR if you start to focus on hitting and staying on more greens. [You may want to include any ball that lands just off the green if you can make a reasonable putt from your landing area on the short trimmed grass on the entrance to the green.]

2/ Longer Drives: Learning to hit longer drives, especially drives that land in the fairway, will give you a much better chance to improve your GIR. Chips, pitches and shorter iron shots are easier to control because you are swinging with less effort to adjust for the distance of your approach shot. NOTE: If swinging at 80% gives you more directional control, you may want to try this with your hybrids, fairway woods and driver.

3/ If you feel that you are too far from the green to make a soft landing which will stay on the green or if you are bound to land in a front bunker, you may want to land on the trimmed entrance to the green where you can make an easy uphill putt with your putter, hybrid or low iron.

4/ If you made a weak drive and you don’t have a club that will reach the green on your approach shot, choose the best spot to land for an easy pitch shot followed by a single putt. Avoid wasting a shot by hitting into the water or a difficult bunker location.

5/ Know the slope of the green so that you can land your ball where you get the best roll toward the hole or the easiest uphill putt. If you have a long approach shot don’t go for a sucker pin placement (in a narrow part of the green or next to a major slope off the green). Play it safely into the center of the green and try to sink it in 2 putts.

A high percentage of GIR is wonderful but it’s even better to get those GIRs near the hole so that you can make some birdies. Learn to control your shots by practicing with GOLFSTR+ for every swing in your game. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

If every green was as smooth and flat as glass, putting would be a bit easier. Unfortunately there are so many variations in the texture of the grass and the ever changing slopes that putting really is a MYSTERY. Reading the changing slopes and feeling the speed of each green is an art form. You have to prepare mentally (calm and relaxed), physically (avoid tightening up) and spiritually (pray for divine intervention) before every putt has a chance to sink.

It’s amazing to see the roll of a ball on TV when a camera is directly lined up from the hole back to the ball. You can see every bounce of the ball as it meanders its way to the hole. Even a slight rise around the edge of some holes (caused by the hole-cutting tool) can deflect your putt. SPEED is the only defense that you have in order to pass over these obstructions so the Number ONE Rule in putting is that you should always putt firm enough to pass the hole by 10 inches.

As a ball slows down its affected more by the slope of the green and any imperfection on the surface of the green. By adding 10 inches of roll on every putt you need to subtract some of the break that you anticipate as the ball slows down. The Mystery of Putting is all about getting a feel for the green. The best putter that I have ever witnessed was an acquaintance who sank every putt at a fair speed. He never let the ball die into the hole. It was a rare day that he had a 3 putt green.

New Rules Allowing the Repair of Greens
In the current rules of golf, you are only allowed to remove loose impediments such as a leaf and you can also repair a ball mark. After December 31, 2018 you will also be allowed to smooth out spike marks (although intelligent recreational players adopted this stupid rule long ago)..

Hidden Depressions on the Green
There are definitely ruts and ball marks which are not visible so I have previously mentioned that speed and momentum of the roll of your ball is the only way to possibly pass these problems. Often we even see that pros on TV use their putter for balance when they retrieve a ball from the hole. Those invisible indents that the putter makes will surely divert many putts all day long.

Sort out the Mysteries of Putting
1/ Direction: Read the green to estimate where you need to target your putt before it makes its major break into the hole as it slows down.
2/ Distance: Practice the swing of your putter to get the feel for the speed of the swing needed to pass the hole by 10 inches. The practice swings will also loosening your swinging muscles.
3/ Muscle Mobility: Putt using a rocking motion of your shoulders. This allows you to use the large muscles in your spine and back instead of the small weaker muscles in your wrist.
4/ Break at the Hole: Your ball will break more as it slows down near the hole. Determine the break along the path of your putt but the final break nearing the hole is most important break to manage.
5/ Greens are Rarely Flat: Decide which way the green is breaking at the hole. If your putt is firm enough to pass the hole by 10 inches, count on less break at the hole.
6/ Arms Swing in an Arc: If you don’t swing by rocking your shoulders, your arms will swing around your body in an arc. For longer putts, you may want to try releasing your trailing hand from your putter at the point of impact and letting your leading hand swing the putter up your target line. This is a great solution if you often pull your putts to the left (for right handed putters).

Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to help you learn to keep your leading wrist flat during the putting stroke. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

We all play golf for the challenge and the joy of personal success. Basically, you want to improve your game and lower your scores. But you will only improve to the 90’s or 80’s or 70’s by recognizing what’s holding you back. Knowing the following 4 critical areas will help you focus and improve your game.

1/ Consistency: Practice with the proper swing with a controlled tempo for a perfect clean hit on every swing that you make. GOLFSTR+ is a great swing trainer for 6 swing fixes.
2/ Putting: Almost half of your strokes in every round of golf are with your putter so practicing your putting skills should be a priority. GOLFSTR+ is ideal to hold your leading wrist flat.
3/ Balls Flight Control: No matter what club you are using you need to learn why your ball is moving to the right or left of your target. Consistent control of your ball flight is critical.
4/ Precise Approach Shots: Choosing the right club, the right swing for shape & direction and the right speed to land and roll your ball close to the hole. Memorize each club distance.

You can read tips to improve your swing. You should also take lessons and practice to achieve #1 and #2. Today, let’s focus on Ball Flight Control (#3) because every ball you hit can move left or right. Understanding why it’s moving left or right will help you take the right steps to control your ball flight and swing.

YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SURPRISED EVERY TIME YOUR BALL DECIDES TO DRAW OR FADE.  It’s difficult to consistently create a straight golf shot without a draw or fade (or the worse extremes of hook or slice).  Because your golf club swings in an arc, it’s difficult to create a straight shot. If the swing path or the club face direction is not lined up exactly with your target line at the point of impact, you will create a different direction and or curve for every shot.

Basic Setup: Make sure that your shoulders, waist and toes line up parallel to your target line. [You may want to flair your leading foot after you setup on your target line to help finish your swing to a balanced pose.]

Assuming you are using Right Handed clubs:
Draw Shot: Choose a target line slightly to the right of your chosen landing area. Place your ball an inch behind your normal setup position and close your club face to point at your chosen landing area. [Make sure that you adjust your grip so that your club face is resting on the ground and your wrists are relaxed and not manipulating the club rotating].

Fade Shot: Choose a target line slightly to the left of your chosen landing area. Place your ball an inch in front of your normal setup position and open your club face to point at the landing area. Your ball will launch on your swing path line and then fade to the right.

Plan for a FADE or a DRAW to avoid surprises for every shot that you make (especially when you are hitting in a cross wind). It’s not easy to learn the fade or draw so you should practice with GOLFSTR+ to learn these shots. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com