2021 October

Wouldn’t it be nice to score a round of golf where you could play a MULLIGAN every time you miss-hit a ball? I’m NOT talking about a shot that is a little off-line or short of your target. I’m talking about drives into the woods or fat fairway shots or thinned chips over the green. If you could cut out those miss-hits, you could shoot in the 80’s or even the 70’s. We have some suggestions to get you on track to avoid those miss-hits. [I wish we could totally eliminate miss-hits but I believe practicing as often as the pros could do the trick.]

Every successful shot has 4 DISTINCT STAGES. Don’t skip one: Preparation, Practice Swing, Mental Focus and Rhythm. Take your time and get these right to eliminate those miss-hits.

1/ Preparation
Take your time to chose the right club to reach your target and to setup on the right target line. Knowing your normal draw or fade or the slope break on a green are all critical to making a good shot on the right target line. Don’t try for the high risk shots. Hit a layup if you know your shot will not hold the green. Get rid of your dumb thoughts while you have plenty of time to sort this out.

2/ Practice Swing
After you choose your target line, take your practice swing stance. Make a perfect full practice swing with the exact backswing, lag and cadence that you need in order to hit your target line. Build confidence that you will swing with power for your drives; brush the grass with your fairway woods & hybrids and impact your ball before turf with your irons.

3/ Mental Focus
Establish your confidence by remember past excellent shots with your club, which were caused by a full backswing, smooth release and a balanced finish. Be confident that you are about to duplicate that amazing feeling. [NO negative thoughts.]

4/ Duplicate Your Perfect Rhythm [These are your only thoughts during your swing.]
Take your full, backswing (with time to flatten your leading wrist and add lag at the top). Let your hips start your downswing for a whooshing release that you can hear as you finish in a balance pose.

You may want to try using the count of “1 and 2” where “1 and” to help you slow down your takeaway for time to (a) flatten your wrist (to shallow your downswing) and (b) create wrist lag at the top. When you say “2”, starts your hip rotation for your downswing. Build confidence when you practice for consistent rhythm using your GOLFSTR+ to limit your wrist and arm angles. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf Truism #81: Everyone replaces their divot after a perfect approach shot.
 

Getting out of any bunker with a short or long shot is every golfers dream. A recent blog by GOLF Magazine gave us the 10 steps for success. These steps may not guaranty that you make more SANDIES (a bunker chip plus 1 putt) but they should at least help you reach and stay on the green.

1/ Balanced Stance: Setup with equal weight on both feet.

2/ Forward Ball Position: Your club must contact the sand before it slips under the ball so place the ball a few inches forward of the center of your stance and aim for your club to enter the sand directly in the center of your stance.

3/ Shuffle Into the Sand: You want to lower the height of your body to ensure that you club will power through the sand. Dig your feet down so that the soles of your shoes are below the level of the sand.

4/ Swing to Take Sand the Length of a Dollar Bill: Your swing needs to enter the sand just before the ball but more important it needs to take sand under the ball and well after the ball. Imagine that you are placing a quarter after the ball and that you have to clear the ball and the quarter out of the trap.

5/ Practice Pounding the Sand (without a ball): For short bunker shots open your club face and swing by pound the flat back of the club through the sand to practice taking sand out of the trap.

And For Longer Bunker Shots
6/ Practice Swinging with a Square Club Face (without hitting a ball): Swing with more power but make sure that you are throwing sand out of the trap.

7/ For Longer Shots Use Less Loft: Test your Gap Wedge and your Pitching Wedge to learn how far you can blast them out of a bunker for longer shots.

8/ Longer Bunker Shots Need a Full Swing: If you are not getting enough distance when you use less loft, add more shoulder turn with a shallow backswing to power through the sand.

9/ Finish your Swing: Never decelerate when you are hitting short or longer bunker shots. For shorter shots use an open face and finish with the same distance as your backswing. For a longer bunker shot use a square face and finish with an aggressive long divot to a high finish.

10/ Long Bunker Shots Need Speed: Don’t forget that you are still taking sand under your ball so it steals energy from your shot. Take a full swing with energy to make sure that you power both the sand and your ball to reach the green.

GOLFSTR+ can be used on your trailing wrist to limit your wrist bend for short bunker shots. It should also be used to practice 5 other swing fixes. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf Truism #80: The inevitable result of any golf lesson is the instant elimination for the one critical unconscious motion that allowed you to compensate for all of your many other errors.

I love to see great tips from the old pros like Lee Trevino. I notice that his swing, like Jack Nicklaus’ swing evolved as he got older. They added features to increase rotation to minimize distance loss as their bodies tightened up with age. Lee suggested these changes:

1/ MOVE YOUR FOOT AWAY: Move your trailing foot back a few inches off the line parallel to your target line. It allows you to rotate for more backswing and avoid swinging over the top and slicing the ball.

2/ MOVE YOUR BALL BACK IN YOUR STANCE: Lee noticed that most of the aging golfers and want-to-be-golfers impact the turf about 2 to 3 inches behind the ball. Of course, that kills the distance. He suggests moving the ball back in your stance slightly for every shot that you make. He points out that you are swinging your arms around you body in a circular motion which pulls your club away from your ball and your target line. If you hit a lot of THIN shots, just move your ball back in your stance. (Pros shift their weight forward to avoid thin shots.)

3/ SWING STRAIGHT BACK: By swinging the head of your club straight back to start your backswing, you will force your shoulders to rotate more. You need to rotate your hips and shoulders and your arms but if you rush your swing you often miss the chance to rotate all 3 and add lag with your wrists. Remember: there is no need to rush your backswing. It is just the windup for your body and it only gets your club in position for the perfect shallow downswing and release.

4/ AIM FOR THE INSIDE QUADRANT: Swing down to hit your ball at 7 o’clock (where 6 o’clock is directly back and 12 o’clock is straight up your target line). When you aim to hit up the inside quadrant of your ball you are adding draw to your flight path for more distance.

KNEE BEND FOR MORE ROTATION
GOLFTEC discovered that you should be setting up with your leading knee slightly more bent than your trailing knee. That bent leading knee is the trigger to help you continue to increase the bend in your leading knee during your backswing for more hip rotation. You my even want to lift your leading heel off the ground during your backswing to add to your hip rotation the way Jack Nicklaus always helped his hip rotation.

Hip rotation is the most important component to allow for more club rotation. Don’t depend on a bent leading arm in your backswing. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to keep your leading arm straight while your knees, hips and shoulders create rotation for more powerful hits. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf Truism #79: No matter how bad you are playing, it is always possible to play worse.

We often hear the debate about distance and control to lower the scores for pros but is that relevant for your game? We all know that longer drives will get you closer to the green and shorter approach shots are easier to make than longer approach shots. But the real solution to take your scores below 100 or 90 or 80 for Weekend Warriors and Aging Hackers really lies in your ability to make consistent shots.

Bryson DeChambeau is the perfect example of a player who may be a little misguided. His efforts to build strength and distance are not helping his consistency in hitting greens and sinking putts. Mind you his driving distance as a pro is far more important than yours where YOU can choose a tee to suit YOUR game. You should be playing from a tee that allows you to hit the green in regulation on par 4’s and 5’s.

Where Distance is Critical
If you play with friends who chide you into playing longer tees because they are younger or stronger and love to hit longer drives, you have 3 choices: (1) Learn to hit longer drives, (2) improve the accuracy of your drives and approach shots OR (3) IGNORE THEM and play from the tee that suits your game.

The longer you try to drive your balls the more miss-hits you can expect to make and the more your drives will fly deep into the rough. Long ball driving contests are the perfect example. The harder they swing the greater the chance they have to miss their target grid (AND THEY OFTEN MISS ON MOST OF THEIR 8 TRIES).

Kyle Berkshire won the recent longest driver contest. It’s not a great idea to try to duplicate what he is doing. First he is athletic but not overly muscular like Bryson DeChambeau. His plan for speed and power takes years to develop. He trains his body for speed by hitting at least 50 balls as fast as he can about 3 days every week and he works on adding arm and body strength without adding a lot of body mass.

I’m recommending that don’t try to set a world record every time you swing your driver. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to focus on improving every swing in your game for consistency. Move up to the tees that fit your game and enjoy honing the perfect swing to hit more fairways and greens in regulation. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf Truism #78: The less skilled the player, the more likely he is to share his ideas about the golf swing.