Will Curry

Do you freeze-up over your ball for 5 or 10 seconds before you execute your putt or drive? A recent golf tip said that the best putters keep moving their feet and hands before they putt. Patrick Cantlay is one of those movers and shakers. In the past, golfers all used some sort of waggle before they hit their drives, but we don’t see so much of that typical waggle like Jason Dufner. Mike Weir used a takeaway waggle and now I see that Justin Thomas is using a similar pre-shot motion. Is there a benefit adding motion to your arms and legs before you putt or hit any shot?

I decided to experiment with active hands, feet and legs before putting and hitting my driver. It really makes sense that you should not let your muscles freeze up before your make a controlled swing. Fortunately, I have discovered the reasoning with amazing success without using any of the historic waggles.

Putting Issues
Successful putters need to “feel” the right amount of swing required to pass a hole by up to 2 feet and they also need to choose the right target line to anticipate any break in their putt. Your planning is critical but your swing has to be smooth too. Nervous shaking hands will NOT HELP YOUR PUTTS. That’s why putting needs to be completed by rocking the major muscles in your shoulders and avoiding any small muscle jitters from your wrists or hands.

Putting Solution [Don’t freeze-up over the ball.]
After you line-up your putt and make a practice swing (by rocking your shoulders) with enough force to pass the hole, (1) move up to your ball and lift your putter away from your ball to make one more practice swing (by rocking your shoulders). (2) Look up to your straight-line target point for 2 seconds. (3) Then in 1 continuous motion, visually trace the line directly back to the grass behind your ball as you swing your putter back and up your target line without looking up from your focus point (behind the ball). BINGO, you will sink more putts.

Driver and Iron Solution
A poor first hole drive can destroy the mental outlook for your round. You are nervous so you can’t afford to freeze your body waiting to make your shot. Take your practice swing and then move forward to your ball. DON’T FREEZE-UP OVER YOUR BALL FOR 5 TO 10 SECONDS. Make a slow 2-3 foot backswing (waggle) to activate your spine and hip rotation for the backswing that you plan for your shot and then use the same motion to initiate your drive. BINGO, you will no longer miss your first tee shot (and many other nervous iron shots).

Click here to see a video of Mike Weir’s Waggle.

Of course, you may or may not want to use this muscle warm up for all of your woods, hybrids and irons. It wakes up back muscles and helps you slow down your takeaway.

I am really excited to share my personal experience with amazing success to overcome my shaking arms and tight back muscles. You may want to customize your pre-shot motion to suit your swing but I am totally recommending more motion and less time staring at your ball while you wonder how bad your shot will be.

Stay loose and practice with GOLFSTR+ for every swing in your game www.GOLFSTR.com

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

If you could discover the primary flaws in your game, would you be able to attack those flaws and lower your scores?  Of course, you can!  Just recognizing your areas of weakness will give you a renewed purpose to focus on those areas by looking for solutions, taking lessons and applying your findings to overcome your weaknesses.

The game of golf can be broken down into 4 components.  Each one has its own unique requirements and solutions for improvement.  If you look at Performance Stats for any professional golf tournament for the leading golfer as compared to the stats for the worst golfer, you will see glaring differences in the following 4 components of their games. Improve your stats and cut your scores.

1/ Driving Distance (DD): Longer drives will give you shorter approach shots.  

2/ Fairways and par 3 greens Hit in Regulation (FIR): Simplify approach shots and putts.

3/ Greens Hit in Regulation (GIR):  This is the best way to reduce your putts.

4/ Putts Per Green (PPG):  Two putts on every hole is an excellent target so 36 putts is a reasonable score.  Pros typically make fewer than 30 putts per round.

Use the corners of each box/hole on your score to record your successes.  Give yourself a mark for FIR, GIR and to record your putts.  Total each stat for every round as well as your total pars and birdies.  Track your success and focus on improving the weakness in your game.

Track Your Game and Don’t Waste Stokes

a/ Don’t Try Hero Shots.  Hit to a safe location for an easy shot to the green.

b/ Don’t add up your score after 9 holes or as you approach the end of your round.  Just play each hole without adding pressure to hit perfect shots.

c/ Take a Penalty Stroke when you are in a bad lie.   Drop your ball away from a dangerous shot.

d/ Beware of Post Bird Screw Up:  Calm down and get over that birdie on the last hole.  Don’t end up with a Duck Hook or a Slice OB for your next tee shot.

Every golf shot will create a new set of opportunities or disappointments.  Accept your situation and get on with your next shot.  The most important shot in golf is your next shot.  Nothing else should be on your mind.  You will enjoy your game if you lower your scores.  So practice with GOLFSTR+ to fix 6 swing faults.  Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

GOLFSTR Swing Tip blogs are all based on articles written about solutions recommended by professional golfers and trainers. I present their thoughts in a simplified version because I’m always looking for the magic that will set your game (and my game) on fire. In a recent tip by GOLFPASS I discovered a tip that solved a problem for one of my physical limitations and realized every golfer who can’t swing like a pro may be faced with similar problems.

Whether you know it or not, we all have physical deficits caused by historic injuries or wear and tear on our bodies. Every time you recover from a broken bone or a torn muscle or cartilage, other parts of your body adjust to accommodate repetitive motions. That’s also a reason why you have a difficult time trying to change your posture or your golf swing.

In a GOLFPASS on-line lesson I discovered my upper body limitation and a solution to overcome my rotation limitation to improve my swing power and driving distance. When I asked other aging golfers about this limitation, I found that this may be a common problem for most golfers over 50 years of age.

Adding lag in your backswing is a key component which allows you to add power in every swing. Your arm rotation allows you to add lag. The trainer suggested that we should:
1/ extend your trailing arm (right arm for right handed golfers) horizontally from our side
2/ bend it forward (horizontally) from your elbow
3/ and rotate your bent arm (elbow to your hand) vertically and beyond vertical if you can.

My deficit (like many aging golfers) is that I can only rotate my arm upward about 80 degrees. Scratch golfers can rotation their upper arm about 20% beyond vertical. That’s 30 degrees beyond my ability. So that gives them a 30 degrees advantage to add more lag (and power) in their backswing.

Solution
To compensate for this limitation in my lag and backswing, the GOLFPASS trainer suggested that I move my trailing foot 2 inches back from the imaginary line along my toes and parallel to my target line of my ball. This added distance to rotate give me more arc distance in my swing to add power without bending my leading arm in the backswing.

With this new setup, I have been able to add more power and distance for all of my drives where I need more distance. I don’t make this change for my irons as I know the distance that they give me without making a setup change for my feet.

I have also increased my tee height (using a “Martini Tee”); flattened my leading wrist on my straight leading arm (to shallow my downswing) and swing with more confidence into the inside quadrant of my ball to add draw and distance to my shots. I also practice with GOLFSTR+ for the straight arm fix to add more power. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com
 

Whether you know it or not, every golfer has his own personal swing problems. You may have been given advise like “Keep your head down or Slow your swing down” but these tips are not helping. You need professional help to sort out the root cause which is preventing you from landing every drive in the fairway.

Your golfing buddies can only advise you on what they see but they most likely can’t give you the proper approach to solve your swing problems.

Key for Golf Success: Longer Drives
Hank Haney recently reminded us in a blog that longer drives are the key to success on every par 4 or par 5 hole. Longer, accurate drives help you shorten every hole. The only way to achieve longer drives is with faster head speeds at the point of impact with your ball. You don’t want to swing harder, but you do want to swing faster by releasing your wrists with whipping action through the ball.

Your success depends on your ability to generate club head speed in the direct line with your target. Swinging with a slicing or hooking action is minimizing your resulting power. They are just as bad as hitting a shot fat or thin. You need a professional PGA trainer using a LAUNCH MONITOR (or golf ball flight analyzer) to measure the rotation of your golf ball and then present the ideal swing changes for your ideal hits.

My personal driver swing defect was identified as a downward slicing swing path. My correction was made by flattening or bowing my leading wrist at the top of my backswing to shallow my swing path as I swing from the inside and up my target line. I’m an aging golfer and I now drive consistently over 200 yards (up to 250). I have virtually eliminated my 100-yard mishits.

Of course, I have to relax my body and mind before I swing and keep my eyes on the ball through impact. My new power comes from taking a full backswing with lag and shallowing my downswing with more confidence to hit my ball off a higher tee from the inside . The elimination of any hook or slice action on my ball are critical for any golfers success.

Don’t waste more time driving yourself crazy with this game. Hire a pro to recommend the swing that will revolutionize your game and focus on hitting the sweat spot. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ for 6 swing fixes with a straight leading arm and controlled wrist movement for your new and improved swing. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

I recently read an article that described Tiger Woods’ past problems hitting poor drives on the first tee in many tournaments. I did not realize that it was a problem for Tiger but I certainly know that I, like many others, generate poor drives on the first tee for any round of golf. We all practice for that first tee shot but I did some research to understand first tee jitters and how best to fix them.

Chemical Release That You Need to Overcome
Nervous tension on the first tee automatically triggers the release of dopamine and serotonin as well as the hormones: adrenalin and cortisol. They affect the mental way that you react and the physical way that your body moves. You have no choice but to deal with these mental and physical limitations.

Dopamine speeds up your heart rate and serotonin affects your emotions. They get your excited and may be the reason why you are speeding up your swing on the first tee (or any tee for that matter). Adrenalin gives you an energy boost and Cortisol increases your stress level. They are the reason why you shorten your backswing and hit shots off the toe of your open faced club.

Set a Plan to Overcome your First Tee Emotions
Just knowing that you have to deal with your chemical and hormone release will give you a new advantage over your nervous body and mind.
1/ Calm Down: Take a few deep breaths as you select your club and setup for your shot.

2/ Keep Moving: Take a practice swing by shifting your weight from your leading to your trailing foot as you rotate your hips and generate a FULL backswing with your shoulders and arms.

3/ Loosen Up: Move up to your ball and look up to check your target line-up. Keep your hands and feet moving by lifting or waggling your club to avoid tensing up.

4/ Focus on Your Cadence: : Eliminate external thoughts by internally saying “1” to start your backswing, “annnd” as you rotate your hips and flatten you leading wrist to shallow and start your down-swing on the count of “2”.

The key to your successful first hole drive is to calm down and to overcome your swing limitations caused by chemical and hormone releases. Just make a full rotation for your backswing and hold your lag as your legs start your downswing. Practicing with GOLFSTR+ will help you overcome your fears. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Every time you setup to hit a ball you need the right plan in your mind.  You are either planning to LAUNCH with your driver by hitting up or you are trying to POWER off the deck with all of your fairway clubs. You can’t afford to mix these up or you will pop-up your drives and top your fairway shots.  Positioning your ball forward for drives and centering your ball for fairway shots is easy to do but your mind also should focus on the right swing ANGLE OF ATTACK.

Too often we generate power off our back foot when we drive and then repeat the same swing and fall back when we are mishitting a fairway shot with a wood or iron.  We have all read articles where you can’t tell if the author is writing about a LAUNCH or a POWER shot (off the deck).  Make sure you tee up and tilt your shoulders 20 degrees to launch your drives.  It’s the best way to shorten the course.

EARLY EXTENSION Will Kill Your Launch AND Power Shots

Completing your swing by SPRINGING up with your knees will kill your driver or fairway shots.  Don’t do it.  I’m only making this statement to ensure that you don’t misunderstand the launch with your driver.  You still need to let your shoulder tilt and let your limited loft driver do the work.  Use the point of impact off the tee to allow your driver’s trajectory angle take care of the distance.

Tiger Woods Described How He Controls Launch Angle with Irons

He uses the same swing to launch his irons at different heights ONLY by adjusting the ball position in his stance. Of course, his drives are all completed with a forward ball position which is teed up.  (He even out-drove Rory McIlroy at the 2023 Genesis Tournament, so he isn’t losing his touch.)

For low to high iron shots Tiger demonstrates his technique with 3 balls in a row.  The middle ball in the center of his stance is for normal iron shots with a normal follow-through.  The back ball is for low shots where he wants to feel like his is finishing his swing at his waist.  For high shots all he does in move 1 ball forward of his normal position and finishes his swing with his hands high over the top of my head.”

These setup descriptions all require subtle changes.  That’s why your golf game may not be perfect.  The pros have swing coaches to watch for their mistakes.  I learned this when my professional instructor told me to swing more from the inside in order to keep the face of my club open.  BINGO!  I have a whole new game.

Watch your ball flight to spot clues for your swing mistakes.  Practice with GOLFSTR+ to sort out 6 corrections for your driver, fairway and putting swings.  Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com