2023 October

What do you think is the easiest way to improve every golf shot? It’s important for our driver, irons and putter. The distance from your shoulders to your ball should remain the same for your setup and your point of impact. The shaft of your club is not changing so it’s up to your spine, shoulders and arms to find the same distance at impact. Early extension at the point of impact is a killer.

Shoulder Control
Most golf pros suggest tilting your shoulders at setup for your DRIVER to ensure that your impact is in an upward direction. It keeps your swing arcing upward toward the forward position of your teed up ball. For all other clubs your shoulders should be level and square to your target. In all cases, your job is to just rotate your shoulders with your spine.

Spine Control
Your hips and spine generate a lot of the power in your swing. You can’t afford to sway back during your swing. Spine ROTATION allows your hips and your shoulders to wind-up in your backswing.

Arm Control
In your arms you have 3 active sets of joints: shoulders, elbows and wrists.

• A normal arm socket can only rotate about 45 degrees across your body when your shoulders are square to your body. Don’t try to move them further (like Rory and many of the pros).
• Your leading elbow should remain straight throughout your back-swing and down-swing or you will be forced to make split second (potentially disastrous) corrective actions at the point of impact. GOLFSTR+ will help your train for a straight arm back-swing.
• Your wrists both need to cock for lag at the top of your swing and then release at the bottom of your swing, for direction and power control.

Feel the weight of your club head taking charge during your back-swing and down-swing as you rotate your body to a balanced finish. John Daly and Jon Rahm are examples of the 2 extremes in the back-swing. Find your happy medium without swaying or bending your elbows. And, heaven forbid, never extend your legs and back until after impact.

Trick to Prevent Leading Elbow Bend: Setup with a straight leading elbow and then rotate your elbow to point directly up your target line. Rotating your elbow will help you lock your leading elbow like Rory McIlroy during your backswing and downswing.

Practice with your straight leading elbow using GOLFSTR+ to keep that perfect distance from your shoulders to your ball at setup and impact. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf opinions researched by GOLF blog: #2. “Music on the golf course is trash. Have a beer in a backyard or go to a concert if music is so important to you.” Do you agree?

Every golfer hits errant shots, and some hit more than others. Wouldn’t it be great to have an easy reminder, like getting a kick in the butt, when your game goes off the rails. Two bad shots in a row are enough to trigger a melt-down. We all tend to knock the poop out of the next shot. The pros have better solution to control their games and so should all of us.

Over the past many years, I have seen golfers like Billy Horschel and Jon Rahm react violently when they miss a shot. Of course, their coaches see this on TV and realize that they can make these examples a real learning point. Blowing up can only ruin your next shot. And possibly the rest of your round. When you mishit your ball, take action and get back on your game.

Whether you make a mishit from a bad lie or a poor tee shot from a perfect setup we all need to reset our minds, get over the mistake, reevaluate our next shot and get on with our game. Compounding an error with another bad shot is not going to help your game. Following are remedies that have been suggested by trainers in GOLF MAGAZINE.

Take These Specific Step for Corrective Action
1/ Admit that You Made a Mistake: Use an abnormal wake-up when you don’t like the outcome for any shot (especially a mishit). You need to pause, calm down and ADMIT TO YOURSELF that you made a mistake. Trainers suggest that you should make an ABNORMAL ACTION like pinching your hand or slapping the flat of your hand on your side to force a pause before you make another stupid shot.
2/ Identify your Mistake: Was it caused by early extension, a poor lie, a wrong club selection, irritation from others talking during your swing or just a rushed backswing causing a poor result? Identify it and take action to correct it.
3/ Take a Corrective Practice Swing: Many pros (like Jim Furyk) will pause and make a perfect practice swing after they identifies their mistake. Focus on your correction during your next practice swing.

Changing your mood from ugly to positive is always the first step that you need to take when CORRECTING your game. Get over it. Life is too short to live it in anger. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to feel the correct swing and improve your game. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf opinions researched by GOLF blog: #1: “Players should get free relief from divots in the fairway.” Do you agree?

I was reminded about the importance of TIMING while watching one of my favorite weekly blogs by Danny Maude. He actually copied the phrase that I have been exposing in many of our past blogs. He suggested that you count the words: “one and two” during your back and forward swing to add time to slow down your backswing. There really are 2 reasons why you need to repeat these words. The first is to add rhythm to your swing and the second is to block out distractions.

Swing Rhythm
I use the phrase “one and” during my backswing to slow my backswing and to give myself time to rotate my hips & shoulders as I lift my arms while I cock both wrists at the top of my swing. Wrist cocking allows me to shallow my club during my downswing as I swing up the inside slot. Releasing my cocked wrists, during the bottom half of my swing, generates most of my power through my ball. Listen for the woooshing noise near YOUR point of impact.

Block Out Distractions
Our minds can be tricked to avoid distractions. For example, you may be watching advertising on TV while your mind is thinking about getting ready for an upcoming event and you have no recollection of the content of the ad that you are watching. Another example is that you can say the words “one annnd” but you are not able to mentally say another word at the same time as your eyes stare at a dimple on the back of your ball.

You can pre-program your mind to create a full backswing (hip rotation, shoulder rotation, arms rising, and wrist cocking) during the time it takes to say “one and”. By the time you say the word “2” or “finish” you should only be making your downswing with a focus to reach a balanced finish on your leading foot.

Golf is a MIND GAME!
You are only playing this game against yourself and your personal past performance. It’s up to you to focus on your swing and to block out any other thoughts. Your ball is at rest. Natural elements like wind, rain and the sounds from birds or passing cars or planes or machinery could be distracting you. If others in your foursome are talking, you can ask them to keep quiet. The only thing that you can’t control is their constant stare or any mental hex (or evil-eye) from others in your foursome.

During Tiger’s hay days, he would put himself into a mental trance. Anything to disturb that trance caused him to stop his swing and then start the process again. You need to have the same dedication for your swing. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to build your swing as you say the words “1 annnd 2” or “1 annnd finish”. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Wouldn’t we all like to create longer tee shots when we start a round of golf? I happen to be golfing on northern courses in the Fall so the cooler mornings seem to be having more impact on my driver success. This limitation got me thinking. Why do I generate shorter and more inconsistent drives during my first 9 holes?

We all need to accept the fact that our minds and bodies need to be tuned into our game before we generate the success at golf that we expect. Younger golfers may not be experiencing the problems of aging golfers, but I just wanted to list the causes that may be limiting our games.

Rev Up Your Engines
While driving to a golf course at the start of a day or at the end of your workday we all need to recognize that our minds and bodies need to change modes.
1/ Relax Your Mind: Easier said than done. Get the frustrations of the day out of your mind before you arrive at the golf course. Choose a calming station on your radio and get your mind thinking about successes in your last round of golf.

2/ Flexibility: Use your arrival time at the course to ensure that you can flex your body and rotate with your clubs to relax your swing. A few swings of your club will not do the trick.
3/ Practice: You really need to hit balls into a net or on a range before your body will adapt from driving in a car to playing a great round of golf. Test your swing and make sure that you test out your putting to get a feel for the speed of the greens. Over 40% of your strokes are on the putting greens so make sure that both your full swing and your putts are turned-in for the golf course.
4/ Body Rotation: If you rush your backswing you will never allow enough time for a full hip, shoulder and arm rotation, especially early in your round. It’s amazing to see how much further your can drive a ball with better direction control as you get well into your round.

Golf is a game that needs your full attention. Make sure that you change your mental station over to the game that you want to play.

Practice with GOLFSTR+ when you have time but make sure that you apply the key principles for your successful swings. Slow down your back swing to improve your rotation and focus on a full rotation to a balance finish to improve your direction control. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com