2022 July

Why not soup-up your game with fixes for your existing putter? You chose your putter for your own personal reasons about the feel and the ease of sinking more putts. Unfortunately, your game change over time and some of those 3 putt holes start to creep in. That puts doubt in your mind and that never helps your game. Why not try a few easy fixes with your existing putter?

I recently discovered a few ideas about changing my putting game and hope that these concepts will help you too.

Adding Weight and Momentum
My first improvement came when I tried hitting with a friend’s tennis racquet (yes, in a tennis match). We both had the same racquet model but the head weight on his racquet was a bit heavier than mine. From my fist hit, I realized that the perimeter weighting was adding momentum to my swing. Hitting balls seemed effortless.

That made me recall a practice swing with a friend’s heavier weighted putter. I love my White Hot Odyssey putter but realized that I should try it out with some extra weight. I bought some lead tape at my local golf retailer and used it to tape on an extra weight to the top center of my putter head. [BTW Tiger Woods always adds lead tape to his putter for The OPEN to manage longer putts on the oversized British greens.] I now realize that the extra weight adds momentum which makes it easier to limit shaking hands and swing directly up my putting line. The feel is different and takes a little practice, but I love the ease of making this simple change to my existing putter to improve my game. It’s WORKING!

Change Your Putting Grip Style
Why not try different ways to grip your putter. It doesn’t cost anything. There is a trend for professional golfers to grip their putter handle with the lead hand low (instead of the traditional trailing hand low as we do for all other clubs.)

Brooke Henderson was in a slump and realized that missed putts were hurting her game. By gripping her putter with her leading hand below her trailing hand she removed the dominant force from her trailing hand and FOUND IT EASIER TO pull her putter with her leading arm STRAIGHT up her putting line. This change certainly helped her win the ShopRite LPGA Classic and her second Major, the Amundi Evian Championship. It may help you too.

Any change to your putting stroke will require practice before you determine if the change is a benefit. Make sure that you also practice with GOLFSTR+ to keep your leading wrist straight. You should always putt by rocking your shoulders, not by bending your wrists. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: If profanity had any influence on the flight of a ball, most everyone would play better.

You should actually start your downswing by pressing your leading hip forward but I was hoping to get your attention by referring to YOUR BUM. The shift of your hip is caused by a slight bend of your leading knee which will shift your leading hip and shoulder during the transition at the top of your swing. This motion should happen before your forearms start their downswing.

The downswing for low handicap golfers starts during their transition as their weight starts to transfer to their leading foot. This is especially important for iron shots to ensure that you are shifting to allow your club to impact the ball before taking any divot. If you are rushing your transition, you should notice that you are often hitting the ground before the ball and losing distance. If this is your problem, we have a solution for you.

The downswing chain reaction starts from your foot to your hip and then your shoulder rotation starts your straight leading arm downswing. The release of your cocked wrists to whip your club through the ball is last and most important part of your downswing to generate power.

Solution for the Rushed Transition
If you are one of the many golfers who starts their downswing before their weight shift to their leading leg, you need to learn the feeling for this change and see the impact of an improved swing.

CHEAT your forward “pressed position” during your setup with 60% of your weight on your leading leg by ADDING bend to your leading knee. That’s the move that you really want to make at the top of your swing but by starting with this forward press during your setup, you can learn the feeling that you want to add during your transition.

Trainers and pros will NOT recommend that you learn to play with this “forward pressed position” DURING YOUR SETUP as it can cause problems with your direction control. Test this forward press setup at 60% to 80% of your swing speed to avoid pulls or fades by focusing on swinging up your target line. Your clean shots (without fat hits) will dramatically improve.

Use this CHEAT to learn the feeling of the forward press that you want during your transition. After a number of successful hits, learn to include this forward press in your normal swing with irons. Then let your BUM and hips trigger this forward press. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to keep your leading arm straight and enjoy your powerful wrist release at the bottom of your swing without fat hits. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: It’s easy to keep your ball in the fairway, if you don’t care which fairway.

You will never lower your handicap if you don’t set a plan to make it happen. Hank Haney recently released an interesting program called “Tour Consistency Clinics”, which reminded me of the ideal way to lower your scores. Just eliminate your BIG MISS — one at a time. It’s that easy!

You, like every other Weekend Worrier, have had some great rounds of golf followed by a number of high scoring rounds of golf. To lower your scores, your plan has to centered around DETERMINING your BIG MISS. You CAN correct it (with training and practice) and then determining your next big miss and repeating this process to drop your scores by 10 strokes. Consistently good shots will produce consistently lower scores. It’s that simple.

Set Your Plan
1/ Record Every One of Your Scores on a Handicap System: Members of private golf clubs enter the score from every round to establish a true handicap in order to balance-out scores for weaker players against better players in tournaments. Golf associations around the world have now adopted a consistent handicap system using the average score from 8 of your last 20 rounds of golf. The only scores entered are limited to a maximum of 2 strokes over your handicap for every hole.
2/ Obey the Rules of Golf and Be Honest: You can’t tip up a ball to improve the lie and you can’t ignore a mishit. Mulligans don’t exist. Every swing counts. You will never improve your game if you are not entering an honest score for every hole as well as only entering your maximum handicap allowance on your handicap system for a permanent, accurate record. (You may want to use: www.ghin.com or your local Golf Association handicap systems)
3/ Record Your Misses on Every Hole: On holes where you score a bogie, double bogie or worse, they were caused by a missed shot. To keep a simple record of your poor shots, enter a letter in the scoring box for each hole on your score card in the lower left corner. (ie “W” for water, “T” for tree, “R” for rough, “M” for mishit, “S” for sand etc). You also need to mark a “1” in the upper left of each box for the Fairway Hit on your drive (or greens hit on par 3’s), a “1” in the upper right of the box for Greens Hit in Regulation and the number of putts in the lower right.
4/ Analyze Your Card: After your round, sort out your worst big miss which caused your blow-up holes. Knowing this fact is the perfect starting point to improving your next round of golf.

Take Action!
Do something about your worst big miss. Find solutions on the internet or take lessons with a professional golf instructor. Get out to the practice range and make sure that you hit some great shots to overcome your BIG MISS before your next round of golf. Don’t expect miracles. Focus on your solution for your worst BIG MISS and you will eliminate those blow-up holes.

You may also want to purchase a GOLFSTR+ to practice 6 swing fixes with your straight leading arm or flat wrist. Put some effort into your game to eliminate your BIG MISSES. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: Golf appeals to the child in all of us. This is proven by our frequent inability to count past the number 5.

Last week we presented the 2 critical issues to help you Perfect Your Game: Mental Focus and Knowing Your Ideal Swing for Each of your Clubs. Mental Focus was covered last week and now we want to share your INDIVIDUAL SECRETS that creates distance and direction control for each club.

These SECRETS are unique for every golfer and every type of club. The weight and flexibility of each club from your driver down to your putter require a special setup and swing for each type of club. You should take lessons to sort out the proper techniques and then you should sort out the exact setup that works for your strength and flexibility.

If you can recognize a pro, just by watching their swing, you can understand why each pro and each golfer actually swings every type of club differently. That’s why you need to tailor your perfect swing for every type of club to your PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CAPABILITES.

I have finally sorted this out for my clubs and I’m starting to shoot just over par for 9 holes on the back nine of every round. I have studied what works for my swing on every type of club but my changing flexibility over 18 holes must be another variable for my swing.

Study Your Ideal Setup and Swing for Every Type of Club
Start by taking lessons to add distance & consistency and to avoid slices & hooks. Each club and type of club has a unique weight, flexibility and function. You need to sort out what works for your body and your set of clubs. The following summary details my idiosyncrasies to help your get started. Make sure that you write down and refine the unique features that work for your game and your clubs.

Driver: I slow down the cadence of my backswing to give me time to add hip and shoulder rotation as I add wrist lag at the top of my swing. I also flatten my leading wrist which allows me to shallow my swing on the down swing so that I can power my drive up my target line.
Woods and Hybrids: These are lighter clubs than my driver and that seems to make my downswing pull about an inch closer to my body during my downswing. To avoid hitting off the toe of my club I setup with the center line of the face of each club about 1 inch beyond my ball. Spraying the face of my irons with foot powder allows me to proves that I now impact at dead center.
Irons: I tend to swing too fast with these lighter clubs, so I rarely give my body time to start transferring weight to my leading foot at the top of my swing. I now cheat my weight transfer by setting up with 60% of my weight on my leading foot. To avoid pull shots I change my target line slightly to compensate.
Putter: For putts over 10 feet I use a conventional grip and force my putter to swing directly up my target line. For putts between 4 to 10 feet I release my trailing hand at the point of impact to allow my leading arm to swing directly up my target line. For putts under 4 feet, to avoid the yips, I grip down on my putter so that about 4 inches of the grip rest against the inside of my forearm as I rock my shoulders to make my putt.

I still practice with GOLFSTR+ to remind myself to keep a straight leading arm and flat wrist during my different shots with different clubs. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: If your opponent has trouble remembering whether he shot a six or a seven, he probably shot an eight.