2023 April

Live, Laugh and Love what you are doing. It just happens that golf is a great game where you can extend your life with exercise in the wonderful outdoors. Enjoy laughter with new friends who have a common bond with the love of golf. Your success depends on your interest in improving your game. But are your EMOTIONS getting in the way?

We all get inspired by the winners and leaders in the major golf tournaments. Jon Rahm may not have been your favorite to win The Masters but you had to be impressed by his ability to keep his emotions under control. The wind, rain and cold weather were all affecting the performance of every player, but Jon survived it all. SO WHY IS IT THAT JON AND MANY OF THE OTHER TOP PERFORMERS WERE CLOSE TO THE CUT LINE IN THE RBC HERITAGE TOURNAMENT at the end of the first day of play?

Controlling EMOTION AND CONFIDENCE ARE THE KEYS FOR SUCCESS
Every professional golfer saw the $20,000,000 prize money at the RBC Heritage, so they all had the motivation to succeed. All pros also have goals to win their first professional golf tournament or to be the top golfer of the year in order to earn major endorsement contracts.

As a recreational golfer without the pressure to win the big bucks, you still want to improve your performance and possibly win a friendly match for a few dollars. The thrill of improving your game and victory are still the driving forces that bring you back to play your next game. So what should you be doing to control your emotions and to build confidence?

1/ Practice: Get professional assistance and practice at the range. Know what your weaknesses are and focus on the best solutions to improve your next round of golf.
2/ First Tee Jitters: Arrive at the course early and spend time hitting balls with different clubs and putting. Get comfortable with your practice shots and sort out the swing that works for you. I find that a 3 foot takeaway waggle gets my body rotating correctly for my actual swing.
3/ Avoid Mishits: You will make better contact with your ball if you take a practice swing at the same speed that you want for your planned shot. Don’t lose the feeling of that practice swing. Just step up and hit your ball at the same speed.
4/ Hitting from the Rough: Use an iron. The deeper the rough the more you need a lofted club to escape. Don’t hit for a long distance escape. Just get your ball back into the fairway.
5/ Missing Short Putts: Pros average sinking only 30% of their putts between 10 and 15 feet. Lag your putts within 4 feet of the hole. Practice MORE short putts to avoid 3 putt greens.
6/ Missing Long Putts: Lag them close and DON’T EXPECT TO SINK THEM. Take iron lessons to get your approach shots and chips closer to the hole.

Build confidence in your game and control your emotions by practicing and improving your game with GOLFSTR+. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com  

The Masters is watched by more golf fanatics than any other golf tournament.  For many, it is like the First Rite of Spring to get tuned up for the new season.  The world starts to bloom as the grass turns green in Augusta, GA.  So I thought you might enjoy recalling memorable thoughts of golf to prepare for the your new season.

1/ Short putts never go in.

2/ The most important shot in golf is your next one.

3/ Breezy? Swing easy.

4/ Don’t kill the ball.  Even Scotty Scheffler hooks the ball when he gets excited.

5/ No matter how poorly you play, it can always be worse.

6/ How to sink long putts?  Take an iron lesson.

7/ Miracle shots rarely payoff.  Get back in play and make the best of it.

8/ Why do they call it GOLF?  Because all the other 4 letter words were taken.

9/ A ruff day on the golf course is so much better than a day at the office.

10/ This is the first day of the rest of your life.  Take a lesson and turn your game around.

Your lessons may come from a professional golfer, but I hope you are using the nuggets of knowledge that you pick up by reading GOLFSTR Swing Tips.

My Personal Preference for Consistency and Control (make your personal list):

-Distance Control: Know the distance that you can count on for each of your clubs when swinging with 80% of your power.

-Direction Control:  Setup to swing every club with a slightly closed face to add draw.  I swing down from the inside to impact my ball just inside the center line of the ball and directly up my target line to create a draw into the center of the fairway. 

-Driver: I setup with a slightly open stance (like Fred Couples) and limit my backswing to keep my leading arm straight.  As I near the top, I bow my leading wrist to add lag (like Jon Rahm) to shallow my club during the downswing.

-Woods and Hybrids:  Setup with my shaft leaning forward (to square the face of my club).  As I near the top, I bow my leading wrist to add lag and shallow my downswing.

-Irons and Wedges: Setup with my hip shifted to put about 70% of my weight on my leading foot and to keep my nose over the ball during my backswing and downswing. Add extra bend to my knees.

-Chipping: Use any iron (higher lofts for more lift and shorter roll-out) and grip down holding the shaft in a vertical line to chip my ball over the rough using THE TOE of the club face. 

-Putting: Make practice swings to feel the swing needed to pass the hole by up to 18 inches.  Move up to the ball and stare at my target point. Then (IN 1 CONTINUOUS MOTION) trace my eyes back to grass behind the ball where my eyes remain focused as my shoulders swing my arms back on the same line AND up then down along my target line.

Study your game and sort out YOUR solutions for each of these components of your game.  When you LOCK INTO your Personal Preferences and eliminate your hero shots, I guarantee that you will start breaking into the 70’s. 

Practice with GOLFSTR+ to perfect your swing.  Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Watching The Masters is a great opportunity to learn from the MASTERS of GOLF. Augusta put the leading golfers from throughout the world to the ultimate test. Unfortunately, the TV coverage is focused mainly on the leaders’ performance on each day of the tournament. On the Sunday coverage we saw Jon Rahm at his best, Brooks Koepka struggling and Phil Mickelson (with very little TV coverage) plodding along to end up tied with Brooks for second place. You can definitely learn from these master golfers.

They all get into the same problems as we do but they often recovered with intelligent shots.

Attitude: Jon Rahm started his final day 4 shots behind Brooks Koepka and finished the day 4 shots ahead. He placed most of his drives in the fairway and kept his cool when he made poor chips or putts. His patience paid off. After making up 2 strokes on the first hole played on Sunday he reminded his caddy that he had a lot of holes ahead of them.

Luck (“Rub of the Green”): Jon was 4 strokes ahead on the final hole when he duck-hooked his tee shot into the trees. The TV camera followed his shot deep into the forest, but his ball landed short and in the middle of the fairway. He parred the hole.

Cool Head: Brooks Koepka lost his lead with a few weak chips and a number of errant tee shots in spite of some miraculous golf shots. On the tee shot to start his 4th round he landed about 75 yards offline in the next fairway but his recovery shot to the green allowed him to make par. On the 10th hole dogleg left, he hit the dreaded straight shot behind a pine tree. He avoided a risky shot under that tree and hit safely to the fairway. That was followed by a perfect shot to the green and a putt for par.

Wisdom (The Tortoise and the Hare): Phil Mickelson got very little TV coverage so very few of his successes were covered. He used his new streamlined body, added muscle and knowledge of the course to shoot 7 under par on his final round to place second. At the age of 52 he is now the oldest player to end up in the top 5 at any of the 85 Masters tournaments which have been played.

We all need to improve the consistency of our drives (like Jon Rahm), perfect our pitches and chips for more 1 or 2 putt greens and be patient to get our poor shots back in play. Ultimately, putting excellence is the most important component of your game. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to improve every key component of your game. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Martin Chuck and Danny Maude recently sent out blogs talking about trying to hit straight drives. You swing a golf club in an arc, so its almost impossible to get both the swing direction and the club face direction in the correct position for a consistent straight drive. Any imperfection will launch your ball in the wrong direction as well as adding a sideways hook or slice rotation. You really should make slight setup changes to ensure that your ball flight will draw or fade back into your target zone: THE FAIRWAY.

Both Martin and Danny have trained thousands of students to overcome their swing issues, so they realize that every golfer has their own unique swing problems. And of course, you do too.

Martin Chuck referred to his Automatic Accuracy System. Basically, his system only works if you are either a CONSISTENT hooker or slicer. Setup by lining up to your target and then compensate for your hook by slightly opening your club face to offset your hook. If you have a consistent slice just close your club face by different amounts to sort out your ideal launch direction .

Danny describes solutions by slightly moving your stance forward or back along your target line to change the point where your swing arc bottoms-out to compensate for a consistent hook or slice. [You want to bottom-out before impact to launch your drives on your up-swing.] Your next adjustment is to setup with a slightly open club face to add fade or slightly closed face to add draw. Your goal is to curve your ball back into the fairway on every drive.

Small changes can solve problems with your swing. Make your adjustments to find the right setup mix and then hone it into your swing for more consistent drives. Write down your ideal adjustments and read them often. [Driving from a flat tee block is the critical starting point to improve your consistency.]

Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to keep your consistently straight leading arm and controlled wrist action. Buy one today to create 6 swing fixes at www.GOLFSTR.com