2020 November

I write these blogs based on interesting golf insights that may affect your game as well as mine. This week I watched a training clip by Quintin on Top Speed Golf that reminded me of a match that I played where all of my iron shots were in perfect control for direction and distance. Why did this happen? I took a divot after impact with the ball on most of my shots.

Like most recreational golfers, I typically make a perfect practice swing for my iron, pitch or chip shots. Then I proceed to put a little more oomph and power into my actual shot before my hips start to rotate. Yes, I rush my shot from the top of my swing without giving enough time for my weight transfer to my leading foot. I often that I rush my swing with my arms while my weight is still on my tailing foot.

The lesson that I watched focused on “Why we Chunk Chips“. It’s also the same reason why we mishit our iron shots.
1/ It’s easy to make a practice swing for a Chip Shot. You don’t need a lot of power so we easily swing to bottom out our swing exactly where the ball is resting or beyond that location.
2/ Then we move up our ball, take a look at our target and start to think about the last chucked chip shot that we made. The body tightens and we turn into a robot.
3/ In our backswing, we limit our hip and spine rotation as we tend to shift the trunk of our body about 2 or 3 inches sideways to create a little more power with a slightly faster backswing and downswing.
4/ Unfortunately we never recover from the side-sway in our backswing. We then bottom out the swing 3 inches before the ball or we blade it like a bullet across the green.

Solution: DON’T SHIFT YOUR BODY SIDEWAYS IN YOUR BACKSWING.
–Keep your head directly over your ball as your shoulders and hips ROTATE [Not Shift].

• –Your leading knee doesn’t straighten, it turns with your body rotation and points more to your trailing knee.
  
• -Stand up right now in a golfer’s stance and cross your arms over your chest and rotate (or coil) WITHOUT SHIFTING SIDEWAYS.
  
• -Do this about 20 times and then complete the same rotation while swinging your wedge. Your club face will ground-out at or just after the ball. No more chunking.

Now practice the same swing with all of your irons using your GOLFSTR+ AND A STRAIGHT LEADING ARM. Make sure that you take a slight divot after your ball. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf Truism #35: The rough will be mowed tomorrow.

You will never be a low handicap golfer if you don’t figure out a consistent takeaway that works for your driver and possibly a different one for your irons. Some pros have a wide or narrow takeaway and some flatten their leading wrist and others bow their leading wrist. So what should you focus on for your takeaway?

Rory McIlroy has a wide takeaway. It lets him slightly loop down at the top and shallow his club with his elbow into his side as his leading hip rotates his body through his downswing. I personally had a problem with coming over the top and slicing the ball so Rory give me the perfect swing to shallow my downswing for a square impact.

On the other hand Dustin Johnson does an early wrist cock in his takeaway. He has no problem visualizing the open face of his club as he bows his wrist at the top of his swing. He also has no problem starting his downswing on the same plane as he drops the butt end of his golf club and fires his hooded club up his target line. Most of the teaching pros recommend that you don’t try to copy this amazing swing as you need brute force to get away with his bowed wrist swing.

Bryson DeChambeau keeps his leading wrist perfectly straight in his setup, during his backswing and down on the same plane in his downswing. He looks like a robot but his strength delivers amazing club-head speed.

Does your take-way matter? NO, as long as you can still change your downswing path to release your wrists at the bottom of your inside swing arc and up your target line.

Avoid casting at the top and spoiling your swing with an outside to inside swing. All of the pros pull their bent trailing elbow in as the rotation of their leading hip starts their downswing as they pull down on the butt end of their club. That PULLING action close to their side, stops any premature casting action.

So however you like to coil your body and arms in your takeaway, it really doesn’t matter as long as you can release your lagging wrists to whip your club face up your target line. A flat leading wrist and a straight leading arm is helpful for consistency to avoid any strange releasing action as your club powers through the ball.

Dustin Johnson won the Masters last weekend with power and consistency. His bowed wrist at the top of his swing is NOT what every golfer can duplicate or try to duplicate but it works for him as it is the only way that he can feel his HOODED club face firing down to a square impact. It is definitely not for everyone but he picked up up a cool $2 Million by keeping a consistent performance.

Don’t make your swing complex. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to swing with a straight leading arm and flat wrist. Your cocked trailing wrist is all you need to think about as you pull down with the butt end of your club. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf Truism #34 Nothing straightens out a nasty slice quicker than a sharp dogleg to the right.

Swinging a putter is a pretty simple process. Or is it? Why is it so difficult to choose a line and then to putt a golf ball up that line? Unfortunately sloped greens affect our choice of direction and our bodies are designed to swing a putter in an arc. Putters are not designed to be hit in a straight line like a croquette mallet. You have to learn the tricks to swing in a straight line at the point of contact.

Your goal in putting is to plan for a straight putt on a planned target line. Unfortunately your chosen direction and speed of you swing will determine how much your straight putt will break. I love the tip that Rory McIlroy uses in putting.
1/ He checks the slope from below his putting line to the hole as he stands perpendicular to the line of his putt.
2/ He then stands behind the hole to see the break at the hole where the ball will break the most as it slows down.
3/ Then he stands behind his ball for a final check on the slope of the green and to choose his target line. He actually imagines hitting directly at the hole to get a feel for how far his ball will fall down (D) from the hole if he hits the perfect weight to reach the hole. Then he chooses a line to hit his straight putt so that it will fall about the same distance (D) down to the hole.
Now that you have your target line you need to swing your putter with enough force to pass the hole by about a foot (or it will never go in the hole).

You need the skill to hit a straight putt on your target line.
• 85% of your initial putt direction is caused by your putter face direction and 15% is caused by your swing direction. Both must be on the right line-up and your ball needs to be slightly in front of the centerline between your legs to allow the upward impact of your putter to start the roll of your ball.
• Your putter grip should have a flat surface which is perpendicular to the putter face. Let your thumbs line up on the flat surface of the grip and ensure that the back of your leading hand is pointing up your target line.
• Use the rocking motion of your large shoulder muscles for straight putt. Take any wrist or hand action out of your putt to avoid shaking hands.
• Your body naturally want to swing in an arc (around the axis of your spine). KEY FOR SUCCESS: Lock your eyes on that point of impact and swing through the point of impact and then UP (like a pendulum) along your target line instead of arching around your body.

Learn to putt straight using GOLFSTR+ to lock your leading wrist. You may want to try releasing your trailing hand at the point of impact so that your leading hand will carry your putter straight up your target line. (It’s the only way I can swing my putter straight up my target line.) Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf Truism #33 The wind is in your face on 16 of the 18 holes.

Have you ever noticed how your friends can hit amazing clean shots and then they fall apart on the next shot? Could it be a change in their psyche or a physical change in their body? I’m convinced that I have a combination of both problems and you may have the same.

I really started thinking about this when I saw an article about the ups and downs in Brooks Koepka’s game. He ended 2018 as the number 1 player in golf but a knee injury and a stem cell operation to repair his knee have really made it difficult for him to return to his winning form and as a result to drive again he acquired help from leppardlaw.com/how-to-get-a-hardship-license-in-florida but as it turned out the repair of his knee caused him to lose his rhythm, the law experts stated that he will be back to normal in no time. For injuries due to accident claims, Texas oilfield accidents attorneys need to be contacted.

Fortunately he spent some training time with Claude Harmon III and discovered that his weight shift at impact was not moving to his left side. During his peak performance his weight shift was 70% on his left side at the point of impact. He learned that he was not swinging well because he had lost his rhythm and his point of impact was with 70% of his weight still on his trailing side.

Brooks had to retrain his swing because his knee recovery made a huge impact on his swing. ARE YOU RUSHING YOUR SWING?

If you are favoring an injury that resembles that if you got help injured in car accident or you are frustrated with your results, your psyche may be out of whack. Your brain may be rushing your transition so that you never start your weight transfer at the top of your swing. DISAPPOINTMENT and ANGER may be limiting your golf results.

If I don’t warm up my “swing muscles” (and I mean all of them: hips, shoulders, arms and BRAIN), I tend to rush my transition at the top and miss my weight shift. So I know that I have a mental and physical problem when I start playing a round of golf. It takes me until the second nine before I finally loosen up my body and to start using my weight shift properly.

Brooks missed his chance to win a three-peat for the Wanamaker Trophy and the PGA Championship but he’ll be back. Practice with GOLFSTR+ and find your rhythm. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf Truism #32: The rake is always in the other trap. (But not during the Pandemic.)