Archives for December, 2022

Estimate Your Break and Sink More Putts

I was amazed to see how many long putts were made at the PNC Championships where a PGA Pro teamed up with a non-PGA family member. VJ Singh and his son shot 2 rounds of 13 under par to win the 2022 Championship. Their success came from playing a Scramble Format where they both hit each successive shot from the best location. Their biggest advantage came by understanding the break in their putts.

Every putt was played strategically by allowing the weakest player to make their best putt so that the second putter used the knowledge of the BREAK in the first putt as it slowed down near the hole. Of course we rarely get the chance to putt after someone putts on our exact same line. Watching this 2-putt team approach, we should all recognize 3 key points.

1/ Choosing the right line and speed is your primary focus if you are ever going to be a great putter.

2/ The most break occurs as your ball slows down at the end of your putt. Of course, the greater the side slope, the greater the break so you need to estimate if the break is non-existent (0), slight (1), moderate (2) or major (3 to 10)

3/ To limit your break (as the ball nears the hole on a slight to moderate slope) you should always putt with enough force to pass the hole by 10 to 20 inches. This extra force will eliminate a significant amount of the break as your ball passes the hole.

  • -It eliminates all short putts that will never go in the hole.
    • You will learn to limit the amount of expected break near the hole by consistently putting with enough force to pass the hole by 10 to 20 inches,
Golf Digest used this image to illustrate that putts on a limited side slope start to break as they slow near the hole. So estimate less break on a firm putt.

The best putter, that I have ever played with, sank single putts on 12 out of 18 greens. Every putt was firm (as they never stopped short of the hole). That golfer was confident that he was going to sink more putts with his firm putts SO HE LIMITED THE EXPECTED BREAK DEPENDING ON THE SLOPE NEAR THE HOLE.

You can be a great putter too. Build confidence on the practice green by never leaving a putt short of the hole. Watch for the AMOUNT of break on your putts as they pass the hole and memorize the target distance above the hole depending on the side slope with a 0, 1 or 2 level of slope.

Adam Scott estimates the side slope for every putt using a technique called AimPoint. By feeling the slope with his feet about halfway along his putt he estimates the degrees of slope and then uses his fingers to find a target point. It’s not a perfect system as the slope changes as you walk along your putting line but it is a good idea to estimate the slope near the hole.

Improve your putting by paying attention to the amount of slope near the hole. Choose a target point to aim at for the expected amount of break as your ball passes the hole. Stare at your target point, then return your stare to your ball and keep looking at the spot until 1 second after impact. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to keep your wrist flat during your putting stroke. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

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Solution for the Worst Miss in Golf

We all have a love hate relationship with golf. When its good, we love it. When it’s bad, it can be very frustrating. Burning the side of a hole with a missed putt is only costing you 1 stroke. A poor drive results in losing some easy distance. But a missed chip from 10 to 40 feet is so much more frustrating because its such an easy shot. After your miss, you tighten up and your next attempt is fat or bladed across the green. Then your blood begins to boil as you add-on 3 more strokes putting. Wouldn’t is be nice to make every chip for a 1 putt green?

You need an easy solution for perfect chip shots to limit your putts around the green. Mr. Short Game on a recent GolfersRx blog reminded us to “take your hands out of the swing”. Limiting your hand action is the perfect solution for consistent chips.

He reminded us to chip exactly the way Steve Stricker and Jason Day chip.

-Let your limited hip and shoulder rotation take care of the speed and power of your swing.

-Start with a narrow stance

-With more weight on your leading foot and

-Add a limited wrist lag for your club with your trailing hand during your limited backswing.

Learn this limited lag by practicing with GOLFSTR+. It limits your trailing hand lag by fitting the back of your wrist to the curved plastic shape.

The perfect chip is NOT a full golf swing. It’s a half swing where you keep the face of your club SQUARE in your setup, in your backswing and as you finish your swing directly up your target line. Depending on the distance that you want, just increase your back swing and match that swing distance with your follow-through swing distance.

As Tiger Woods described his chipping success when he sank a 40 footer from 10 feet off the green on the Saturday round of the 2022 PNC Championship: “Just keep a firm left hand and knock it in there.”

Tiger chips with a flat leading wrist and a slight bend in the trailing wrist to ensure that his club returns to the same distance as his setup distance.

The key for successful chipping is in allowing the distance of you arms at setup to create the same distance at impact. Don’t get floppy or flippy with your hands and wrists. Avoid bending your leading elbow in your backswing and through impact. Finish your impact by pointing your club up your target line.

A perfect chip should be the simplest swing in golf but for most of us it can be the most frustrating shot in golf. Practice with GOLFSTR+ strapped to the back of your trailing wrist. The bend on the end of the plastic plate will limit your wrist lag to the perfect angle. GOLFSTR+ was designed to remind you to keep your leading elbow straight in your backswing. A golf pro at our club recommended that I learn to improve my chipping with the limited wrist bend using GOLFSTR+ training aid. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

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Lee Trevino’s Driving Secret

I recently found a blog titled: “Trevino’s Left Hand Secret”. In 1974 he exposed his secret for accurate tee shots: “Keeping your left hand ahead of the club-face.” He said: “If the other guys ever learn that it is the back of the left hand that controls the club-face, there would be a lot more winners, and I would have a lot more to worry about.” He also recommended this “with an open stance which will give your arms room to extend along the way as your body turns.”

I have never heard any pros recommending an open stance for drives, but it really caught my attention as this is exactly the way I setup and drive off a tee to control the direction of my drives. An open stance helps me shallow my downswing so that my trailing elbow grazes my side as I drive up my target line.
Lee also bowed his wrist at the top of his swing (where I flatten my wrist) to shallow the downswing for an in-to-out swing. It’s described as a push-cut swing causing a slight fade.

Lee had a looping swing from his takeaway to his downswing. For Lee this created a slight fade but most golfers hit a draw with this swing.

I’m sharing this description to highlight the fact that you can choose the setup (open stance), transition (cupped wrist) and delivery (inside to out) for your swing as long as it gives you consistency and control.
Your dominant strength in one arm, wrist and leg or a tightness in your hips, spine or neck will all have an impact on the swing that works for your body.

Changes in any position in your swing will continue to provide inconsistent results. You don’ t have to stick to the text book swing. Find the swing that gives you a consistent result and then groove that swing for your driver and another swing for your irons.

Trevino and every other pro found the right swing motion for their driver and irons. Once you find it you need to lock it in for consistency. Unfortunately, the older you get the more the more you have to be aware of your bodies tending to change throughout each round of golf depending on your stamina, the changing temperature and your energy level.

Practice to improve the consistency of your golf swing with GOLFSTR+ and find out what works best for your clubs the way Lee Trevino has done. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

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Tips to Sharpen your Game (#9, Tips 28-30)

This is the ninth in a series of blogs to help you simplify your knowledge of golf and hopefully improve your game. [These tips are distilled from an article published by Luke Kerr-Dineen for a GOLF franchise called “Play Smart”.]

28/ Flare Your Feet: If you’re sitting at a desk all day, you’ve probably got tight hip flexors. That will limit your ability to rotate during your golf swing, which will cost you power—and could even lead to lower- back pain. To increase your hip turn on either side of the ball, GOLFTEC’s resident GOLF Top 100 Teacher Nick Clearwater has found one method works almost instantly and easily: flaring your feet. “Turning your toes out 20 degrees—maybe even more—effectively makes you more flexible,” Clearwater says. “It creates greater range of motion in your hips, which produces a distance boost in short order.”

This is a pretty basic principle to help your body rotation. We should all be flaring our toes to extend our backswing and especially the follow-through.

29/ Use Your Logo Wisely: At the 2012 World Scientific Congress of Golf, researcher Dr. Joan Vickers revealed the fascinating results from an eye-tracking study performed on a group of golfers. She found that highly skilled, lower-handicap players tend to keep their eyes fixed on one portion of the ball. Higher handicaps tend to move their eyes to multiple points.

This is not only important for your fairways shots but also for your putting. Don’t follow your backswing or your follow-through with your eyes. Just focus on swinging in a straight line up your target line.

It may not solve all your problems, but keeping your eyes focused on one tight spot is a quick upgrade you can make to your game. Tiger Woods, places the Bridgestone logo on his ball toward the back (where he wants his clubface to impact) as he tees it up. It acts as a bull’s- eye to hit on every tee shot.

30/ Temperature Impact on Ball Fight: GOLF Top 100 Teacher Andrew Rice and PING have studied the effects of temperature on ballflight. A 30 degree drop in temperature from 80 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit will reduce your drive and iron shots by about 6 yards. Warmer air temperature is thinner and causes less resistance for the flight of your golf balls.

This ends the selection of 30 mini tips to simplify your game for more success. BTW Tiger’s father always reminded him that “you only get out of your game what you put into it“. Practice with GOLFSTR+ as a reminder to limit your leading elbow bend and to keep you leading wrist flat in the backswing and at point of impact. You will love the results. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

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