Archives for January, 2023

Solution for Your Crisis Mishits

There are lots of ways to create mishit shots, but you should learn the 3 basic tricks to eliminate at least 50% of YOUR mishits.  If you are falling back when you swing or taking a divot before impact with the ball, your swing arc is bottoming out too early.  Using the following “tricks” will help you learn the correct impact position to avoid mishits and should help you reform your swing.

Mental Preparation

Before you start to use these swing “tricks”, calm your mind and stop trying to knock the skin off your ball.  Your last great shot or your last missed shot may be motivating you to swing harder.  Get that out of your mind. Setup and make the exact practice swing that you plan to make before you hit your next shot.  Learn from that swing by watching where you skim the ground or take any divot.  Adjust your setup and make the practice swing that you want to execute.

Use the following “tricks” when you find that you are rushing your swing on a windy day, hitting from a bad lie in the rough or when you are planning to hit a miracle shot.  A proper swing will allow you to transfer your weight to your leading foot during your transition and allow your swing-arc to bottom-out at the correct point for your driver, irons and wedges. 

1/ Driver Trick: [Error to avoid: bottoming out under your ball and causing pop-ups]

Tee your ball up to about half the ball height above the top of our driver head.  Impact should be on a 3-to-7-degree upswing.  Setup with the ball off the heel of our leading foot and the face of your driver about 5 inches directly behind your ball (where you want to bottom-out your swing arc – just like Moe Norman).  [Tilting your trailing shoulder down and moving your trailing foot back 2 inches off the target line during your setup will help you create the right swing arc.] Swing from the inside-and-up to launch your ball for more distance.

Moe Norman is a pro who was recognized for his accuracy. Setting up at the bottom of his swing arc helped him launch his drives

2/ Iron and Wedge Trick: [Error to avoid: swing arc bottoming-out before the ball.]

Your weight needs to be transferred to your leading foot before impact.  Setup with a bent leading knee to keep 60% of your weight on your leading foot throughout the swing.  Your ball is centered in your stance (narrower for your wedge shots), square the leading edge of your iron and point your shaft grip at your belt buckle.  Control the distance of your shot with a full backswing (or limited for a wedge) keeping a straight leading arm.  Let the weight of your club start your downswing (DON’T RUSH IT).  Complete your follow-through directly up your target line.

3/ Bunker Trick: [Error to avoid: Burying your wedge and losing power to exit the trap.]

Bend your leading knee to keep 60% of your weight forward.  Setup with a wide AND open stance (20 to 30 degrees open) with the ball centered between your feet.  Open the face of your chosen wedge to ensure that the blade will bounce through the sand (NOT DIG IN).  Control the distance of your shot with the loft of your club and with an equal amount of backswing and follow-through.

Practice these tricks with GOLFSTR+ to learn the impact of a straight leading elbow and a flat leading wrist with every club in your bag.  Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

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Dumb Mistakes that Ruin Your Round

I found a great summary of mistakes published by Josh Berhow when interviewing PGA pros at GOLF’s Top 100 Teachers Summit . You really don’t have to change your game to lower your scores. just don’t make the following mistakes.

Golf.com used this image to help you understand how bad you may feel during a bad round of golf. Don’t make these DUMB MISTAKES!
  1. Arriving Late for Your Tee Time: Arrive early for your tee time or your round will suffer. Warm up with stretching and hit some wedges, chips and putts. Ideally you should get there earlier, don’t rush, practice with a purpose (stretch and practice your woods, chip, putt, etc.) and stroll to that first tee with confidence.
  2. Play from the right tees: Choose the tee that allows you to reach the green in 2 shots on the longest par-4 hole. Do it and you will have a lot more fun.
  3. Hit the Shots that Work for You: If you are hitting a 10-yard slice with their irons and a 20-yard slice with the driver on the range, don’t try to make changes during your round. Use the shots that work for you. Stick with it. Own it. Be confident in it. And if the issue is still there after your round or again for your next, then it’s time to check in with a teacher.
  4. Know your gear: Don’t try to get more out of your clubs than they are designed to give you. Understand that your 5-wood will give you a higher ball flight (than a 3-wood) with more stopping power on the green. Apply the same rule for all of your clubs.
  5. Stop going after pins: Just don’t do it. Even pros don’t go at every flag. Aim for the middle of the green and favor the side with less trouble. Even Bernhard Langer has said he sometimes does this when he has a lead down the stretch. He calls it being “cautiously aggressive.”
  6. Find the fairway when you are struggling: World GOLF Teachers Hall of Famer Mike Adams says, in short: tee it low. This makes you hit more down on the ball, and if you stand a little closer and flare your lead foot out, it will force you to rotate and, worst case, your mishit will be on the heel and lead to a harmless cut that still finds the short stuff.
  7. Avoid double bogey or worse: Stop playing hero shots and get your ball back in play. Punch out from a dire situation, find the green and two-putt for bogey. Call that a win and move on.
  8. Know your distances: High-handicaps miss short way more often than they miss long. Golfers with a handicap of 21 or higher missed short 70 percent of the time. So, if you are in between clubs, remember that stat.
  9. Get over bad shots and move on: After a poor shot Tiger Woods told his son, Charlie: “I don’t care how mad you get. Get over it and be 100 percent committed to the next shot. That’s all that matters. That next shot should be the most important shot in your life. It should be more important than breathing.”
  10. Don’t get too cute around the greens: Unless you really know how to hit a high-lofted wedge, chip with a safer club or if you are close enough to the green, use your putter. Learn to let the bounce of the wedge do the work for you after your round of golf.
  11. These tips will help your game without changing your swing. Why not practice with GOLFSTR+ to help you learn 6 types of swings with a straight leading elbow and to control your wrist position for putting, chipping and iron shots. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com
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Control Your Tempo to Control Your Game

Easier said than done. How does your mind slow down your backswing and execute the rhythm to add power to your swing? We have the ideal solution to blank-out extra thoughts and add the proper tempo to your swing. Avoiding a Wandering Mind and adding Backswing Actions are the keys to the future success for consistency in your swing.

I realized that I was on the right track when I started my new season of winter golf in Florida. I read a simple golf tip by Sean Zak a senior writer for the Golf.com blog who referred to the “Hideki-esque” move. Hideki Matsuyama has changed his swing from an actual pause at the top to a slow transition. Most golfers lose their tempo when they jerk or rush the transition. All of the power in your swing comes from the down swing so there is no need to rush your backswing up to the top!

Hideki actually slows down his transition but he never stops moving. Rushing at the top destroys your swing so we should all try this slowdown at the top.

You can enjoy the benefits of a Hideki-esque transition as long as you control your mind AND execute a critical windup sequence.

1/ Eliminate a Wondering Mind
I have covered this in many previous blogs but you will improve your tempo and focus if you mentally repeat the following words during your backswing: “1 annnd 2”. If you say these words in your mind you will not be able to say or think any other thoughts. Buy saying these words you will slow down the tempo of your backswing.
-Say “1” to start your WIDE takeaway as your hips and shoulders rotate.
-Say “annnd” as you flatten your leading wrist and add lag at the top of your swing.
-Say “2” as you accelerate your downswing.

2/ Take Your Time to Build your Backswing Actions.
Hank Haney
often points out that you need to impact your ball with a square face to eliminate slice. The critical motion is to take a wide backswing (without swaying your head or body) and add a shallowing loop at the top of your swing. This is just a natural motion when you flatten your leading wrist and add lag to your club by cocking your wrist 90 degrees.

Dustin Johnson and Michelle Wie West set their wrists in a lag position at the start of their takeaway. Of course Dustin also adds a bowed wrist (instead of a flat wrist). I’m just adding options that you may want to try but you at least need to build in a flat leading wrist and lag during you deliberately SLOOOOW Hideki-esque backswing.

If you practice a wide takeaway with a flat wrist and add lag at the top, you can easily build this pattern in your mind, ESPECIALLY when you do it SLOOOWLY. Make sure you practice your backswing using your GOLFSTR+ as a reminder to keep your leading arm straight. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

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Golf Can be an Easy Game

Golf is a lot less frustrating if you learn this game backwards. Putting is the easiest part of this game so why not practice until you learn to 2 putt every green. After that chipping and pitching with your irons to hit every green is a special art that you need to perfect. To make those shots easier, you need longer drives that land in the fairway. That’s why Hank Haney recommends that perfecting your game with his “Speed Slot” technique will make this an easy game.

Longer drives will improve your game faster because it’s easier to hit shorter shots into the green. So we all should have learned this game by using the forward tees until we learn the most difficult skill of hitting longer drives and landing in the fairway.

In short: Your goal is to improve your driving and iron accuracy in order to hit more greens in regulation. Then the pars and birdies are easy.

Speed Slot Technique
Hank Haney
teaches this technique for power, accuracy and to avoid the dreaded slice. The Speed Slot is the opposite of the Slice Slot. You have all heard that slicing is caused by “swinging over the top”. It’s a natural tendency that we all learn when we swing a baseball bat from the top of our backswing and down into the strike zone.

In golf you need to learn to swing your driver from the inside and up your target line. The critical move in golf is to flatten your wrist at the top of your backswing so that you can swing your club from the inside and up the SPEED SLOT.

Golf Digest is even showing that Charlie Woods has mastered his drive by swinging from the inside slot.

By flattening your leading wrist at the top of your backswing, you are actually shallowing your swing path the way every professional golfer swings. When you swing down from the inside SLOT you naturally clear your hips by rotating your waist forward and INCREASE THE POWER of your driver with a swing path from the inside and up your target line.

We all want a consistent swing for distance and direction control. Learn to shallow your driver in your downswing and set your game on fire. You may want to try opening your stance to add power as every golfer has different levels of power. You should sort this out on the driving range. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to keep you leading elbow straight and your leading wrist flat in the backswing. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

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