Will Curry

There is only one way to improve your game. I just saw another ad promising: “Shoot Under 80 for Under a Dollar, 10 Minutes to Tremendous Power”. Wouldn’t that be nice? If only it was true we would all jump on that bandwagon. There is a right way and a wrong way to improve your golf game. The quick fix is not the solution. You need to commit to a plan to make it happen.

Golf is a complex game so there is no quick fix. We play it as a challenge to ourselves to improve our performance and to feel that wonderful glow of success. Sure we have poor rounds but when we par or birdie a hole we know that this game can be wonderful. The only challenge left is to do the same for 18 holes. We just wanted to give you a plan:

1./ Learn the Correct Swing for each Club
Reading Golf Digest, Golf Magazine and Golf Tips Magazine will give you great insights for the correct way to complete each swing for each condition that you can run into when you play golf. You should also be watching NBC Golf Channel with Michael Breed’s Golf Academy “The GOLF FIX”, Martin Hall’s Training Programs and all the tournament golf that you care to watch. Taking lessons from a PGA Golf Professional is the best way to fast track your game for success. Whatever you choose you need to learn the correct way to swing.

GOLFSTR+ is a great aid to help you groove that perfect swing. Use it to help you correct your swing. It’s an amazing Brain Trainer.

2./ Practice with a Brain Trainer
Knowing the correct swing is just the starting point. Grooving a consistent swing, demands a lot of practice to help you get it right when you play under pressure. Golf Training Aids should be used to practice for excellence. You need a brain trainer. There are hundreds of golf training aids to choose from. GOLFSTR+ is a training aid with 6 swing fixes that train you to get it right. You can use it for every swing in your game from Driving, Fairway Shots, Chipping, Sand Shots and Putting.

3./ Gain Confidence and Overcome your Mental Handicap
Hitting the perfect shot is just the starting point to breaking 80. Building confidence in each swing will eventually overcome your mental handicap. Your confident swing will eventually eliminate those crazy killer swings. A confident calm and relaxed swing will deliver every time.

Watch your game improve with GOLFSTR+. One of its 6 uses is training for a straight arm swing while you play 18 holes (Use #2 above). Keeping your leading arm straight in your backswing and through to impact is so important for your consistent impact with the ball. Both arms straight in the takeaway force your chest to rotate. Then your trailing arm bends to pull your leading wrist back for lag (Use #1 above). Relaxed wrists let your club accelerate through the ball with a straight leading arm. Focus on breaking 90, 80 or 70 and your game will get there. Click here TO BUY YOUR GOLFSTR+

If you are already using your GOLFSTR+, send us an email about your success or pass this blog along to others who will really appreciate your suggestion.

Questions?    Call 289-837-0563 or send us an email with your number: sales@golfstr.com

Putts are missed as a result of indecision in your mind. You need a process to commit, feel the swing and make the putt.  The longer you stand over a putt thinking about your last missed putt, the more your muscles tense and the worse your tempo becomes.

I saw a series of lessons called The Four Factors by putting guru Geoff Mangum. It made me realize that indecision and tension are your 2 worst enemies when you putt.

Here is a 4 step plan to help you sink a lot more putts.

Swing with the large muscles controlling your shoulders. Lock your wrists to avoid the yips!

1/ Learn to Hit a Straight Putt:
Place your ball just in front of the center line between your feet to hit the ball on the upswing of the putter face for a true roll of the ball. Learn to swing your putter with the rotation of your shoulders (not your wrists). Follow through with your putter UP your intended putting line. Use your GOLFSTR+ to learn to putt with locked wrists to gain confidence with your putting stroke. Choose your target line. Line-up a line on your ball with your target line. Focus  on the line on your ball as you swing your putter to impact on the exact center of the putter face.

2/ Get a Feel for the Green Speed
If you have played this game for any time at all you have a feel for the impact of rolling speed up, down or across a hill or any combination. Unfortunately the speed changes based on when the grass was last cut, rolled and watered. You have no control over these changing conditions so it is up to you to get a feel for the greens on the day that you are playing. Practice putting is a must before you start any round of golf.

3/ Read Your Putt to Choose Your Line:
Walk around the hole and the line of your putt to understand the slope of the green. Read the final roll of the putt from below the hole and choose your line when you are standing below the hole. [When you stand above the hole you tend to lose the perspective of the general slope of the green.] Plan to hit 10 to 18 inches past the hole to allow the speed of the putt to minimize the impact of slope and surface imperfections. For example: When putting across the slope, the smaller the slope the less you should account for the arc as most of it will occur as your ball slows down in the last 10 inches of roll.

Some of the top pros like to “let the putt die into the hole”. Dumb idea as 25% of those putts never reach the hole and 100% of short putts never go into the hole.  Slope of the green and distortion at the edge of the hole (from wear and tear around the hole) will always have the greatest impact on the roll of the ball as it slows to a stop. Always plan to putt hard enough to pass the hole by 10 to 18 inches and avoid the worst impact of the slope or distortions of the green. Try to figure out if your ball normally breaks above or below the hole. Then adjust for this and watch your putts drop.

4/ Practice the Right Amount of Swing:
You need to (1) choose your target line and (2) you need to PRACTICE THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF BACK SWING, before you make your putt. Get your spine and shoulders moving. Practice the right length of back swing and follow-through so that you know that you will be putting firm enough to hit 10 to 18 inches past the hole (the same way the best putters in the world did at the Ryder Cup). Feel it in your practice swing and then make that putt.

GOLFSTR+ is a great training aid to help you lock your wrist and get ride of the yips.  Click here to buy one and make more putts.  Thank you for passing this on to a friend.

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If Horschel and Kirk had been on the team, USA would have won the Ryder Cup. When you’re hot you’re HOT and when you’re not . . . .

Congrats to the USA Team for a well fought battle.  The amazing part of this story is how the Rookies played.   Imagine what could have been had Chris Kirk and Billy Horschel played.  Time to move the old guard out.

You may have seen how Patrick Reed suffer through a missed short putt and we all know how this happens.  All the more reason to work on your putting game.

What a great line to remember!  Jim McLean preaches this at the Doral Golf School and summarized it in his recent Golf Link Blog. Knowing that tension kills the golf swing is a great starting point but you need a plan to overcome tension for more consistent golf. You need to expect that tension will creep into your game when you really want to make a shot. Recognizing tension is only half the battle.  The other half is to learn the ways to overcome tension on every shot.

Have you ever heard the saying that bad shots come in groups of three. A fourth bad shot is actually the beginning of the next group of three. Funny but it is so true that your body just gets tighter after a bad shot and we ALL tend to tighten up and swing harder to compensate for the last poor shot.

Recognize when you are up-tight and get over it. Take your medicine. Hit to a safe location with a swing that you know you can make or take an unplayable penalty stroke. Reset your body and your brain. Accept the fact that you have lost a stroke. Don’t try to recover with a miracle monster swing or impossible shot.  No matter how bad you are playing, it is always possible to get worse.

A great scene from Caddyshack or is this what you look and feel like after your last bad shot.

GET THE TENSION OUT!
1/ RIGHT MINDSET: Admit to yourself that you can tense up before every golf shot. You may want to use the mantra “calm and relaxed” as a mental starting point when you setup to the ball. Recognizing that you are squeezing your club too tightly should be a mental trigger that you are uptight, so back away and shake it off.

2/ LIGHT GRIP: Whatever you do, start your setup with a light grip on your club. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is very tight, you need to be at 5 or below. Jim McLean said “grip pressure goes into the wrists, and when the wrists are tight you take a lot of speed out of your golf swing. Mobility in the wrists and soft arms will relax your shoulders.” So let your shoulders drop and relax during your setup.

There should not be any stain in the muscles in your arms when you keep BOTH arms straight in your takeaway for drives  or when you rotate your shoulders during the putting or chipping stroke. Try holding your arms straight without tensing your muscles right now. Practicing with GOLFSTR+ with a light grip will help you learn to control your swing without rigid arms.

3/ MOTION BEFORE YOU SWING: Standing over your ball just builds tension. Jim McLean suggests trying any of the following: “waggle the golf club, look at your target or get some nice rhythm and balance into your body before you start your swing”.

Getting your mind, grip and body relaxed before you swing are absolutely crucial to hitting great golf shots. GOLFSTR+ will help you learn the correct motion for every swing in your game but you need to swing without tension. Check out all of the Swing Tips in Your Swing Support Center on www.golfstr.com.

Are you coming over the top? I heard it first on the Golf Channel: up to 80% of golfers are making this mistake so you need to learn the most important golf swing move to avoid coming over the top. In the last event for the FedEx Cup the slow motion swing analysis of Chris Kirk, Rickie Fowler and Billy Horschel showed that they all have the move but they all do it differently.

Don Trahan calls it the BUMP, others call it THE KEY or the SHIFT. As your hands reach the top of your swing, start your downward swing by moving your hips forward.  Tip of the week from Golf-Info-Guide by Thomas Golf   highlights that this shift of the hips will guide your hands down without casting at the top.

It’s that simple. Start the swing from the HIPS and up to the shoulders, then the arms and finally the wrists not from the shoulders down. If you start your swing by rotating your shoulders you will release your wrists too early in your downswing and lose all of your power. You need to be shifting your hips forward as you punch THE BUTT OF YOUR CLUB DOWN. CASTING your club at the top and early chest rotation will just cause a steep swing down at the ball. If you are slicing or pulling your shots then CASTING is causing you to swinging from outside to the inside of the ball (across the target line).

Forget the “cool” RLX brand Ralph Lauren pants. Check the great straight arm swing position. Billy has rhythm.

LEARN FROM THE PROFESSIONALS: I was amazed to see that 3 of the top players at the Tour Championship by Coca-Cola have radically different swings but they all had the same hip motion to initiate their downswing.

• Chris Kirk actually pauses his swing at the top as he moves his hips forward to initiate the downswing.
• Ricky Fowler swings so fast that his hands are still rising as he starts his hip shift.
• Billy Horschel actually has the best rhythm. He combines his hip motion exactly at the same time as his hands start to punch down with his club. It sure paid off as he picked up $13.5 million over the past 3 weeks.

Last year Billy was almost out of control. Everything that he did was in a rush. He looked so tense. He would setup and smash it. We all need to bottle whatever his coach did to calm him down,  give him RHYTHM and a swing that we should all try to duplicate.

Why not practice with GOLFSTR+ to learn the correct positions before you execute your hip shift and downswing. Chris Kirk proved that you don’t have to have a fluid motion. (1) Get to the top pulling your club shaft 90 degrees from your straight leading arm, (2) shift your hips and weight to your leading foot and (3) swing from the inside.

This game is so simple.

We are pleased to announce the improved ways to use GOLFSTR+.      4,000 of our customs including PGA Professionals from around the world love this golf swing training aid. Fortunately they suggested a number of improvements .  And now with added Velcro and better ways to use GOLFSTR+, it’s easier to assemble & more stable on your arm.

GOLFSTR was designed as a reminder to keep your leading arm straight in the backswing.  As a result of your input we added a Black Rubber EXTENDER to give you 3 options to increase pressure on the back of your arm during your swing. Best of all, you can wear GOLFSTR when you play 18 holes as a brain trainer to see results as you play.

Double Click page 1 of the User Guide  to increase the  size

The product name was changed to GOLFSTR+ to highlight the fact that it is the only GOLF TRAINING AID IN THE WORLD with 6 swing fixes.  CLICK TO CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO WITH ALL THE LATEST DETAILS

We are now adding 4 inch strips of Velcro to both ends of the arm band to simplify the assembly and to make this product ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL. With this change the arm band fits around any 5 inch to 14 inch wrist or arm.  Our User Guide has now been updated to show 2 NEW WAYS to improve lag for more control and power in your golf swing:

User Guide #1: TAKEAWAY LAG TRAINER:

• 

  Double Click page 2 of the User Guide to increase the size

  We have now moved the Wrist Lag Trainer Position to the front of your trailing upper arm for more stability.

• We call this the “Takeaway Lag Trainer” because you need a wide takeaway with BOTH arms straight until your club is horizontal to the ground. This forces your chest to rotate. We learned this from Michael Breed on the Golf FIX show [Golf Channel] when he pointed this out as the reason for Adam Scott’s powerful drives.
• As your club continues to rise, bend your trailing elbow 90 degrees (to feel the rubber EXTENDER press on your lower arm as you pull your leading wrist to 90 degrees. Holding this lag angle at the start of your downswing gives you more power and distance in your hits.

User Guide #4: LIMITED WRIST LAG TRAINER:
Train with GOLFSTR+ on the back of your trailing wrist to limit your wrist lag in the backswing and to lead with your hands as you impact the ball. This limited lag swing gives you more control and consistent hits. Let the momentum of your club head complete the chip. Just sweep through to finish with a flat leading wrist and pointing your club in the direction of your target. Phil Mickelson calls it “hinge and hold”.

For the full story, check out this updated video which you can also find on our website: www.golfstr.com

As the inventor of the GOLFSTR GOLF TRAINING AID, I hear from many of our 4,000 users.  One of them gave me an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  My wife’s mother died from this terrible disease so we are anxious to find a cure as it may affect others in our family and it may affect your family too.

Of course I took the challenge and also donated to the ALS Association.

I am now challenging the 4,000 GOLFSTR+ users to take my Ice Bucket Challenge and get drenched within 24 hours or CLICK HERE to make a donation at the ALS Association  or both.

Best Regards, Bill Curry

Facts About ALS
ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) also called “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, according to the ALS Association.

Lou Gehrig was a Hall of Fame first baseman for the New York Yankees in the 1920s and 1930s. He was diagnosed with ALS in 1939, and died of the disease in 1941.

With ALS, the motor neurons degenerate until they eventually die. When this happens, the brain loses its ability to control the muscles. Since voluntary muscle action is affected, patients with ALS eventually become totally paralyzed.

“Glass coffin”: That’s ALS in a nutshell,” wrote Ron Schaffer, a 67-year-old ALS patient who communicates through a speech app on an iPad.

According to the ALS Assocation, there are around 5,600 people in the US who are diagnosed with ALS each year.

ALS can happen to two in every 100,000 people. It occurs globally and can affect any ethnicity.

Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood, the recent years have brought a wealth of new scientific understanding regarding the physiology of this disease. While there is not a cure or treatment today there are drugs in clinical trials that hold promise.

Thank you for learning about ALS and considering this challenge as an opportunity to help so many people avoid an agonizing end to their lives.

This notice is brought to you by GOLFSTR WWW.GOLFSTR.COM   Please accept my challenge and pass it on to all of your friends.

Strength or Flexibility? Unfortunately most of us sit at a computer or commute for too many hours in a day. There is never seems to be enough time to get in the proper exercise before we play a round of golf. After all, golf is exercise so why should you have to get in shape for a friendly round?

Unfortunately golf is an explosive exercise. If you are looking for a way to strain your muscles . . . GOLF is a good way to do it. Strength is important but flexibility and timing are far more important in golf for you long term enjoyment.

STRENGTH: You need a planned exercise program to build up over time. Good golf depends on strength in your arms, core and legs. Core conditioning is most important for a golfer because all movements in your entire body stem from the strength in this area. Tiger is an example of a great golfer who needed a more balanced exercise program.

Rory’s drives were over 300 yards before he focused on strength exercises to lose body fat. Flexibility and core strength gave him his distance, NOT his newly developed muscles.

Men’s Health Magazine published an article about Rory McIlroy’s new exercise program since winning his first major in 2010, “McIlroy was a classic skinny-soft golfer, with obvious natural ability and flexibility—but with a tiny bit of paunch and jiggle.” He has since changed some body fat to muscle, “gained stability” and he still hits over 300 yard drives. My point here is that his flexibility gave him his distance NOT THE EXTRA MUSCLE.

John Daly’s driving distance comes from his AMAZING flexibility. There must be some core strength in there too.

FLEXIBILITY: Ideally you should warm up all of your muscles before you start your stretch exercises. 5 minutes on a stationary bike or treadmill are recommended. If you don’t have time to warm up, make sure that you don’t stretch to your limit. Here are 3 flexibility exercises that I received from the Revolution Golf Blog and a personal trainer. Always start any program in moderation with a limited number of repetitions and increase over time.

Neck Mobility: Power comes from rotation of your spin and core but if you want to keep your eye on the ball then your shoulders need to rotate while your head stays stationary. EXERCISE: up to 10 turns to the left and then 10 to the right, 10 times nodding of your head up and chin down to your chest and then 10 head tips to the right (ear toward your shoulder), center and left. [Build up the stretch over time.]

Arm and Shoulder Mobility: If you are ever going to swing with a straight leading arm during the backswing and follow through, you need to do this EXERCISE: Lay on your back with your arms at your sides. Slowly slide them up along the floor to form a U shape and then slide them over your head. ONLY move your arm up to the point where they lift off the floor and stretch that position for 30 to 60 seconds. Do this daily to stretch out your chest.

Spine Mobility: Lay on your back with your arms pointing straight out from your side and both knees bent with your feet flat on the floor. Roll your knees to the left while keeping your shoulders and arms outstretched on the floor (or as close as you can) and hold for 10 seconds. Then return to your starting position and roll to the right side. Repeat this 3 to 5 times.

Flexibility is the key for longer distance and better golf. GOLFSTR+ is the right training solutions for 6 swing fixes for a straight arm or flat wrist where you need it for Putting, Chipping, Drives or Fairway Shots. Order your GOLFSTR+ today. Buy it on line at www.golfstr.com.

Michael Breed, The Golf FIX guru on the Golf Channel preaches straight arms in the backswing (YES, both arms are STRAIGHT)  for a WIDE takeaway to build more torque and power. He talks about “swinging with your chest”.  His focus is on forming a triangle with your straight arms during the takeaway to force your chest to rotate more than your hips. BINGO, this builds up the latent power in your backswing.

Wide Takeaway [Shown by Rory McIlroy (blue shirt)]
The lines across your shoulder and arms form a triangle. Keeping both arms straight during the takeaway until your club is parallel with the ground will force a wide swing arc and chest rotation.

Rory McIlroy (on the right) showing a Wide Straight Arm Takeaway. Jason Day (on the left) is showing his bent trailing arm creating wrist lag.

Wrist Lag [ Shown by Jason Day (red shirt)]
1/ Complete your backswing by lift your straight leading arm across your chest.
2/ Use the 90 degree bend of your trailing elbow to cock your leading wrist to 90 degrees for the perfect lag position.

PREFERRED SETUP: GOLFSTR helps you feel when your trailing arm is bent 90 degrees to force a 90 degree lag in your leading wrist.

Takeaway Lag Trainer:  Using this swing we developed an improved use for GOLFSTR+ as a lag trainer to gain over 30 yards on drives. Bend your trailing elbow 90 degrees and strap GOLFSTR+ on your upper arm and resting on the lower arm.  It helps you feel when your arm is bent to 90 degrees (forcing your leading wrist to bend 90 degrees).

Note:  There are 3 ways to use GOLFSTR+ as a Lag Trainer: PREFERRED SETUP: On the trailing upper arm and point to your lower arm,  Option 2/ On the inside flat of your trailing arm and pointing to your upper arm or Option 3/ On your leading arm and pointing to the back of your thumb.

Lag Trainer Assembly OPTION 2: On the flat surface of your trailing arm pointing to your upper arm

Always start with a loose grip and relaxed arms.  Your trailing hand is just guiding the hinge of your lagging wrist. Bending the trailing elbow to 90 degrees in the backswing will pull your club down to create the 90 degree wrist lag (while you keep your leading arm straight).

Lag Trainer Option 3: On your leading arm pointing to your thumb.

At the top of your backswing you can feel the black rubber extender press against your upper arm. At this point, you know that your elbow is bent 90 and your wrist lag is 90 degrees.
To start your forward swing, shift your weight forward while holding the wrist lag and release from the inside to out as you swing through the ball to a balanced finish.

Check out this video for the complete story.

Check out the GOLFSTR+ website for all 6 of the swing fixes at  www.golfstr.com

Do you mishit shots when you really WANT to hit the perfect shot?  Henrik Stenson shanked a shot in the final round of the PGA Championship (and placed 3rd). The pros all shank shots but you rarely see these shots replayed on TV. Knowing what causes this unexpected mishit will help you minimize your shanks. We also found a simple practice swing that will help you recover your perfect swing.

First you need to understand that your mind and your intensity to hit the perfect shot can cause you to freeze up. Yes, you are actually missing part of your swing when you mishit the ball. Your practice swing may be perfect but that pause before you commit to hitting the ball tends to clutter your mind with too many bad thoughts. Memories of past mishits tend to freeze up your muscles (especially the big one between your ears).

You are actually missing part of your perfect swing. When your mind and body tighten up (in preparation to hit the ball) you may be rushing your backswing, minimizing shoulder rotation, forgetting to shift your weight to your forward foot or falling back before you reach a full balanced finish.

YES: You just messed up your shot. [Mispronouncing “mishitting” is more like it but I’m not going there.]

I see this happen in my swing and also when I watch every golfer mishit their ball. The practice swing is perfect. Why does a little white ball in front of you cause a disaster?

Winning pros like Rory McIlroy at the PGA Championship, practice relentlessly to build confidence in every swing.

SOLUTION: When you know that you have an important shot and you are waiting for others to hit, just relax your body by completing a few Spit Grip Swings with a slow speed swing. I picked this up from the Jim McLean Golf School. It gives you the correct backswing rotation, the correct feel for wrist lag and the correct release through the ball to a balanced finish position.

For the Spit Grip Practice Swing, just place your leading hand on your club as you normally would grip it. Then place your lower hand with a separation of about 2 inches lower on the grip. Now complete your back swing with a straight arm & full 90 degree wrist lag and swing rolling your wrist through the hitting area to a balanced finish. You can feel a full shoulder and chest rotation as you make this mid-air practice swing.

Use this practice swing to break out of your failure mode. Of course you need to do this practice with a straight leading arm just the way you practice with your GOLFSTR+. If you don’t have one, please check it out on www.golfstr.com and don’t leave home without it.

Do you ever wonder how a 5 foot 5 inch tall, Lydia Ko at the age of 17 can hit a longer drive than your best effort? It sure is not strength or height or arm length.  With her small frame, she has earned over a Million $$$ this year with an average driving distance of 250 yards and 78% of her drives land in the fairway.  What’s holding you back.

I received a wonderful summary from Golf-Info-Guide.com (by Thomas Golf) providing a simple way to generate more club head speed and distance. Practice the following in slow motion to get the feel for the release of POWER at the bottom of your swing as you connect with the ball.

Create the POWER . . . Store the POWER . . . Release the POWER

Rory’s game is on fire winning The Open and WGC Bridgestone with amazing lag and power.

Create the POWER: Train with GOLFSTR+ to learn your straight arm backswing. At the same time you need to cock your wrists to hold your club at a 90 degree bend from your straight arm. This is called LAG.

Store the POWER: You need to hold the LAG in your 90 degree wrist bend until your arms swing down to horizontal (to the point where your thumbs are pointing up to the sky). If you release your wrists at the start of your down swing, you will just waste the POWER.

Release the POWER: Let your wrists whip the club head through impact with the ball. All of the power comes when your hands are moving 2 feet (at 25 miles/hour) and your club head is moving about 8 feet (at 100 miles/hour). The more you can relax your wrist muscles the faster you can snap the club through the ball.

Understand this POWER in slow motion and then practice the whipping action at full speed. Get this right and you can add 50 yards to your drives.

I love to reference Golf-Info-Guide.com (by Thomas Golf) because they included a reference to GOLFSTR+ as a golf training aid to help you learn The Right Way to Keep the Left Arm Straight

In addition to GOLF-Info-Guide.com,  golf celebrities and golf professionals have called us to praise GOLFSTR+ as a wonderful golf training aid. We hope to share these endorsements with you someday soon. In the meantime please check out our user endorsements by clicking GOLFSTR TESTIMONIAL PAGE.

Recent Testimonial:  One of our golfing Friends from Florida sent us this note which she received from Diane (her friend):  “I had a really bad day of golf on Thursday so when Bruce and I golfed yesterday I wore the GOLFSTR training aid that you gave me and Boy! Did it ever work! After my game, I showed my friend and she plans to order one too.”

Please tell your friends about GOLFSTR+