2018 September

Increasing your club head speed is the most important way to increase your driving distance. Cocking your wrists to create “lag”, so that you can release your wrists at the bottom of your swing, is the best way to increase your club head speed.  Unfortunately too many recreational golfers don’t know the tricks to create and hold lag in their backswing. The normal way to create lag is at the top of your backswing.  But there is another way to create lag and to learn to hold lag in your downswing for a powerful release.

Most pros like Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy make a wide straight arm takeaway followed by a wrist cock at the top of their backswing as their trailing elbow bends near their side.  The good news is that there are tricks that you can use to create lag and to release lag at the right time.

Dustin Johnson starts his wrist cock (for lag) before he starts to rotate his shoulders and leading arm.  His leading arm is still pointing dead straight at the ground and his club head is well back from his ball in his backswing.

I noticed that Dustin Johnson, Michelle Wei and many others on the European Tour start their wrist cock as they start their takeaway. The face of their club has already opened almost 90 degree from their setup point by the time that their club is horizontal to the ground. From that point they lift their straight leading arm to the top of their backswing.  Creating lag, if you start your wrist cock from the bottom of your swing, may be easier for you too. I find that this method helps me feel and hold lag as I start my downswing by dropping my arms (without releasing my wrists) for more power and distance. NOTE: (Avoid bowing your wrist like Dustin Johnson at the top of the swing as it just adds complexity that you don’t need in your

Dustin still has the same amount of wrist cock before his leading arm is horizontal.  He finishes his wrist cock for lag at the top of his swing.

swing according to Hank Haney.)

Tips for the Early Wrist Cock Technique:

Light Grip: To avoid tension in your arms and hands, I recently watched a long ball champion say that his leading hand grip is a 4 out of 10 and his trailing hand grip pressure is much lighter.

One Continuous Motion: Make sure that your wrist cock takeaway is in one continuous motion as you continue lifting to the top of your backswing. [Don’t cock and then lift.]

Your Backswing Rotation Should be Inside:  Your backswing could be completed in a single plane which is identical with your downswing plane. If your takeaway is wide and high, you can avoid pulling your shot by looping your club at the top to shallow out your downswing from the inside (to the outside) as you impact your ball.

Keep your Trailing Knee Bent in your Backswing: Don’t try to get more rotation by straightening out your trailing leg. You will lose total control of your direction and most likely push your shot.

Limit Your Backswing: Accept your limited spine rotation. As you age, your flexibility may be limited. Don’t try to create more rotation by bending your leading arm but you can lift your leading heel slightly.. A three quarter backswing will still give you a powerful long hit as long as you release your lag at the bottom half of your swing.

Starting the wrist cock lag at the start of the takeaway has improved driving consistency and power for Dustin Johnson and many other professional golfers. Use your GOLFSTR+ to ensure that you 1/keep your leading arm straight, 2/keep your wrist flat at the top and 3/to make sure that your lag is completed at the top of your swing. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

On May 2, 2018 I released a blog titled: Is Tiger Over the Hill at 42?   In that blog I made the following statement:

Prediction:  Tiger Will Win (if not this week, soon)
Tigers returns to Quail Hollow and the PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo Championship this week in Charlotte, N.C. His last win was on this course in 2007. It was his 57th career victory. The then-31-year-old Woods finished with a 13-under 275, the lowest score in the history of the tournament at that time. I’m expecting at least a top 3 finish this week for Tiger.

Tiger’s victory walk on the 18th at the Tour Championship was one for the history books. It’s Golf the way it used to be appreciated.

My prediction has finally come true.  With that Tour Championship win yesterday he almost won the FedEx Cup at the same time if Justin Rose had not made that birdie on the 18th hole.  How exciting for both of them.

This is a major milestone for golf and will only add to the attention for the Ryder Cup.  Did you see the size of the audience.  Looked like the good old days of Jack Nicklaus & Arnold Palmer or even Ben Hogan.

I hope you are all back on the bandwagon?

There is nothing more frustrating than missing putts up to 4 foot. You are standing directly over your ball and you can see the hole directly in front of you. This is especially frustrating when you know that your firm putt should not break to the left or right. Why are you pushing, pulling or slicing your putts?

At the BMW Championship Tournament, Justin Rose sank 45 out of 45 putts under 5 feet before his final putt during the playoff hole. He pulled his putt left and lost the tournament. I noticed that he setup for every putt with his bulky rain shirt tucked under his left elbow. The extra tension on that final putt must have caused him to tighten up and he pulled his putt. Possibly his tight left arm caused the pulled putt.

This may have been Phil Mickelson missing another short one. The pros know how to avoid missing a short putt and you should too.

Tension in your grip and tension in your arms will prevent a straight putt every time you get into a must make situation. Just focus on hitting a straight putt at your target point.

Putting Tips
1/ Don’t stand over your ball for more than 3 seconds thinking or preying. Take your practice swing to loosen the rocking motion in your shoulders and then make your putt.

2/ Don’t Slice or Pull Your Putt. Our bodies are designed to swing a club or a putter around our bodies. That motion causes a slice if you slide your putter face off the ball as you rotate by the ball. To swing your putter straight up your target line, focus on rocking your shoulders to force your putter to swing directly up your target line.

3/ On short or long putts try swinging with both hands to impact and then release your right hand from the putter to allow the putter to swing up the target line while holding the putter with your leading hand. Only the point of impact counts when you are making your putt on the center of your putter face. NOTE: Justin Rose putts with a loose claw grip on his trailing hand. It’s a great way to let your leading hand take control of the direction of the swing of your putter as you rock your shoulders up your putting line.

4/ Always plan to putt 10 to 15 inches past the hole to allow your ball to bounce over ruts and damage on the green near the hole. Because you are making a firm putt, plan for less break

5/ Always take a practice swing or two to get your motor running (to get your body moving) and to get the feel for the right amount of swing to pass the hole.

6/ Stare at your Target Point near the hole and then stare at Your Ball: Staring at your target point gives your brain an optical feeling for the distance and direction that you need to swing.

7/ Always putt by keeping your eye focused on the back edge of your ball to prevent your head and shoulders from lifting and turning if you look up at the hole as you swing. DON’T FOLLOW THE SWING OF YOUR CLUB WITH YOUR EYES and DON’T LOOK AT THE HOLE DURING YOUR PUTT.

8/ Focus on hitting the ball on the dead center of your putter. Off center hits will change the direction of your ball. NOTE: Your putter may not be perfectly balanced for your swing. By making 10, 3 foot putts in a row you may find (like I did) that you need to hit slightly inside or outside of your putter center line to complete straight putts.

After you choose the direction of your putt and determine the amount of swing to pass the hole you only have to hit your ball on the center line (or balance point) of your putter. Practice with a flat leading wrist using your GOLFSTR+. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

I developed GOLFSTR to break my habit of bending my leading arm in the backswing and then swinging over the top causing a slice. It really does take a lot of effort to change. GOLFSTR+ gave me the reminder that I needed, especially as I played while wearing it for 18 holes. The key for my success [AND FOR ANY BENT ARM SLICER] is to limit your backswing, lag your wrists and swing from the inside to outside across your ball. Unfortunately old habits are hard to break so you SHOULD list your tips AND READ THEM OFTEN to avoid falling back into old habits.

This blog was written for golfers who want to avoid Bad Banana Slices.

If you swing from the outside to inside, you will create the Big Banana Shot.

The more confidence that I build with great shots the more I build up the threat of an occasional BIG BANANA SLICE. It sounds easy to just swing with a straight leading arm but when your game is going well, the Bogey-Man jumps on my back and asks for a little more power. That’s when the bent arm and extra backswing returns to create a tremendous slice, right out of the blue. What were you thinking?

Fortunately I have learned a few things to keep my mind under control:
1/ Write down Your Tips for Success: In very brief points, list the special things that you do in your setup and swing for each type of club. It may only be 1 tip for each club but when you know how to correct a swing flaw or habit, write it down and make that correction for every swing.

2/ Limit Your Backswing: I don’t have a lot of flexibility in my spine but I need to use the rotation (avoiding shifting to the back foot) that I have in order to generate power. Leaving your weight on your trailing foot is a shot killer.  [If you can’t shift your weight to your leading foot during your follow-through, try setting up with a narrower stance.]

3/ Lag with my Wrist for a 90 Degree Bend: Power comes from lagging your club by cocking your wrist and letting it release at the bottom of your swing. Don’t rush your backswing. Make sure that you create lag at the top of your swing even if you only create a ¾ or ½ backswing. Learn to lag using your GOLFSTR+ to feel your trailing arm pulling your leading wrist to a 90 degree bend.

4/ Down Swing from the Inside to Outside: Especially on my driver and fairway woods I have to start my backswing with a wide takeaway. This forces me to loop my club at the top of the swing so that my club drops slightly to the inside. Brooke Henderson won the Ladies Canadian Open this year using that motion. The commentators highlighted her move as “a little unconventional” but it really works for her and it works for me too. [It can lead to a push or a pull so make sure that you don’t raise your trailing heal as you swing through impact.  Of course you have to lift your trailing heal as you finish your swing.]

You can’t change your swing thoughts without writing the points down and then practice them at the range. Slightly looping your driver at the top of your swing requires attention. Don’t swing in autopilot. This is a game for focused golfers. Buy a GOLFSTR+ today to get your game back on track at www.golfstr.com

Knowing that you CAN choke when you are under pressure is half the battle. When you know that you are in a critical situation, expect the “choke” and beat it. Use your past experience to seize the moment and take charge of your mind to win this game against yourself. It will also impact the rest of your game.

I realized the importance of avoiding the choke, when I was in a life and death situation on the golf course recently. I had a 150 yard shot to the green but my ball was about 6 feet behind the base of a very large tree. I could see that a perfectly straight shot to the green would miss the left side of the trunk by about 6 inches. I knew that my worst miss would be to tighten up, shorten my swing arc and toe the shot into the tree (which could bounce anywhere including into my head). I COULD NOT CHOKE.

My preferred shot is a draw but that would definitely hit the tree. Recognizing that I could not afford to choke, I setup for a fade and hit the perfect 6 iron. I cleared the trunk and landed on the green. The critical issue here was that I knew that I had to stay loose and make the shot exactly as I knew how to make the shot without that tree getting in the way.

On the final hole of The OPEN in 1999, Jean Van de Velde choked on many shots and lost his lead and the tournament. Choose the shots that you know how to make.

Improve Your Odds of Winning
The best way to avoid choking is to put yourself under pressure conditions to prove to yourself that you can make the right shot. You need to be under the gun a lot so that you get use to the pressure putt or chip or approach shot (over a sand trap or over water).

1/ Challenge yourself to play putting games or chipping games against yourself. Focus on sinking more putts or chipping within 5 feet of a spot or the pin.

2/ At the range, don’t just hit balls with different clubs. Always pick a target flag and a shot shape. Hit a draw and land near the target. Hit high shots, low shots and use different clubs to make the same shot.

3/ When you play golf with your friends you need a little pressure. Play for few bucks on the front 9, back 9 and overall. Or play a game that we call “Greenies” on all of the par 3’s (you can play it without a handicap). Your drive has to stay on the green and the player with the closest to the hole has to par to win a buck from each of the other players (double for a birdie or if you miss your par you have to pay a buck to anyone else who landed on the green).

Realize that a choke shot happens when we think too much and lose our rhythm or cadence. I notice this most when golfers rush their chip because they are not using the weight of their club head with a normal swing arc. By shortening our backswing we end up rushing our downswing and hitting a fat shot. The same problem happens when we stub a putt. Don’t change your swing cadence.   Make a full swing to a balanced finish for every shot.

Always compete against your friends with small competitions so that you will be ready for your important pressure shots. Learn to focus on every shot when you practice with your GOLFSTR+. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com.