Swing Solutions

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could change your setup for your driver and for your irons to hit more fairways and Greens In Regulation? That’s every golfers dream and I believe that Hank Haney has given us a few great setup ideas for more consistent hits with better direction controlled.

Hank Haney, Martin Chuck and Danny Maude have recently been bombarding blog followers with opportunities to purchase swing tips which will solve your inconsistent swing problems. They are promising to fix your swing using 1 to 10 balls at a practice range. I have not purchased their programs but wanted to provide the key tips that they shared on their promotional videos.

Basic Setup
I’m NOT going to detail the basic setup that you can find on any YouTube training video as the proper grip and stance should give you the proper distance from your ball for consistent hits. Whatever you do in your swing, your distance from you shoulders to your ball must be the same at impact as it was during your setup. Don’t pull your leading shoulder away from the ball before impact. Increasing the distance of your leading shoulder away from the ball will cause toe hits (which look like a major slice). Test for this problem by spraying foot powder on the face of your clubs as your impact should be on the center of the face.

Driver Grip Tip Setup
After you line up your shot and take your stance on a line parallel to your target line, rotate your club across your body and parallel with the ground, with the face of your driver pointing perpendicular to the ground. Adjust your fingers by holding the grip of your club in your fingers (not your palms), [You may want to rotate the face of your club 2 degrees forward to add draw to your shot). Without changing your grip; bend forward and rotate your club back down to your ball with your shaft pointing at your belt buckle.

Your swing will feel strange with this finger grip, but your result will be straight. You may want to use a swing thought of shallowing your driver at the start of your downswing to launch your club head from the inside and up my target line.

Iron Setup Tip
Grip your club in your fingers, similar to the driver tip, and make sure that you line up with your shaft pointing at your belt buckle (without any forward press or shaft lean). [You may want to try bending your leading knee slightly to place 60% of your weight on your leading leg as that’s where your want to be at the point of impact.] The low point of the arc of you swing needs to be just beyond your ball.

Gripping in your fingers with a shaft pointing directly at your belly will give you amazing direction control for every shot. Practice with GOLFSTR+ as a reminder to keep your leading arm straight throughout your limited backswing and downswing. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: A recent survey shows that of all jobs, caddies live the longest. They get plenty of fresh air and exercise, and if there’s ever a medical emergency, a doctor is always nearby.

At the end of televised rounds of golf, commentators attempt to glean nuggets of thoughts from the pros. Often they never really answers the questions but occasionally you really get a good insight into the success for their game. Instead of flipping your PVR fast forward, you may learn some good strategies by listening to the pros. Every successful golfer has their own game plan.

I heard an interview with Brooks Koepka who described his swing thought as “no thought at all”. He knew the swing that was needed to execute his draw or fade or height of shot to avoid trouble or land on a green. His mind blocked out any other thought as he simple executed the swing needed to make the perfect shot to the point where he wanted to land his ball. He couldn’t explain any thought process as his mind seemed to go into a blank zone as he executes the shot that he wants.

In the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield in Scotland, after the 3rd round when Ashleigh Buhai, a South African, was leading that Major tournament by 5 strokes she was asked about her success. She simply said that she “followed her process”. She simply stuck to her routine for every type of shot. She knew what she wanted to execute and simply blocked extraneous thoughts from her mind after she made her club selection, setup her stance and fixed her grip. She actually visualized her past successful swings and swing speed in the image of another great South African golfer: Ernie Els. He made a deliberately controlled backswing and release through the ball WITHOUT TRYING TO KILL HIS BALL.

Ashleigh was actually building confidence with ever swing by focusing ONLY ON HER SUCCESSES. When playing on links courses in Scotland, you can only control the direction and length of your shot. The surface of every fairway can throw your ball in any direction. You can’t be focused on the result of your last shot. You can only apply your mind on making a success of your next shot.

Buhai, the 84th ranked player in the world, was leading the Women’s Open. She ultimately landed in a terrible bunker and lost her lead but won it back in a playoff. One mishit almost lost the tournament, but she stuck to her process, blocked the thought of losing and won the tournament. You may never be in her position, but you should keep your mind on the perfect swing that you practice. GOLFSTR+ is a training aid that helps you practice 6 key corrections in your swing. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: The best wood for lowering your score is a pencil.

In a recent GolfersRX blog Christo Garcia recommend a driver swing setup that will help you generate longer, straight drives. When I tried his recommendation, I realized that his 2 suggestions were exactly what I have been doing subconsciously for my best drives. He suggested a STRONGER grip and keeping your trailing ELBOW CLOSE TO YOUR SIDE during the downswing, like Lee Trevino and Dustin Johnson. A stronger grip is easy to position during your setup, but the tight trailing elbow needs a flat or bowed leading wrist to create the inside swing path.

More Power for your Drives
The Garcia recommendation uses an inside to outside swing path so that your trailing elbow almost grazes your rib cage. I understood what he was trying to describe when he commented about Jack Nicklaus who liked to play with a “PALM UP CUT”. He was adding power to his swing by forcing his trailing hand to swing through the ball as if he is swinging a hammer with his strong trailing hand on the backside of his club and into a wall as he swung through the point of impact.

Dustin Johnson bows his leading wrist at the top of the swing in order to swing with a bowed wrist as he powers the back of his bowed leading wrist up his target line. That forces his trailing elbow to narrowly miss his side during the downswing.

Another Suggestion
If those 2 descriptions are not helping you understand how to swing with your trailing elbow narrowly missing your side, my personal option my help. As I approach the top of my backswing I remove any “cup” shape in my leading wrist by flatten my wrist. This shallows my swing path from the inside and up my target line. I’m not sure if my wrist is actually flat or slightly bowed, but I definitely shallow my swing plane and feel like I am hammering my club directly up my target line.

Slice Solution
Hank Haney highlights the fact that an open club face at the point of impact will ALWAYS create a fade or slice. If you are trying the “hammer” swing and experiencing fades or slices, setup with a 1 or 2 degree closed face on your club. That should create a slight draw or at least a straight ball flight.

If you want more distance with your drives you need to hammer them with more swing speed. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to keep your leading arm straight and hammer the club face of your driver up your target line. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: The greatest sound in golf is the “Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh” of your opponent’s club as he hurls it across the fairway.

Why not soup-up your game with fixes for your existing putter? You chose your putter for your own personal reasons about the feel and the ease of sinking more putts. Unfortunately, your game change over time and some of those 3 putt holes start to creep in. That puts doubt in your mind and that never helps your game. Why not try a few easy fixes with your existing putter?

I recently discovered a few ideas about changing my putting game and hope that these concepts will help you too.

Adding Weight and Momentum
My first improvement came when I tried hitting with a friend’s tennis racquet (yes, in a tennis match). We both had the same racquet model but the head weight on his racquet was a bit heavier than mine. From my fist hit, I realized that the perimeter weighting was adding momentum to my swing. Hitting balls seemed effortless.

That made me recall a practice swing with a friend’s heavier weighted putter. I love my White Hot Odyssey putter but realized that I should try it out with some extra weight. I bought some lead tape at my local golf retailer and used it to tape on an extra weight to the top center of my putter head. [BTW Tiger Woods always adds lead tape to his putter for The OPEN to manage longer putts on the oversized British greens.] I now realize that the extra weight adds momentum which makes it easier to limit shaking hands and swing directly up my putting line. The feel is different and takes a little practice, but I love the ease of making this simple change to my existing putter to improve my game. It’s WORKING!

Change Your Putting Grip Style
Why not try different ways to grip your putter. It doesn’t cost anything. There is a trend for professional golfers to grip their putter handle with the lead hand low (instead of the traditional trailing hand low as we do for all other clubs.)

Brooke Henderson was in a slump and realized that missed putts were hurting her game. By gripping her putter with her leading hand below her trailing hand she removed the dominant force from her trailing hand and FOUND IT EASIER TO pull her putter with her leading arm STRAIGHT up her putting line. This change certainly helped her win the ShopRite LPGA Classic and her second Major, the Amundi Evian Championship. It may help you too.

Any change to your putting stroke will require practice before you determine if the change is a benefit. Make sure that you also practice with GOLFSTR+ to keep your leading wrist straight. You should always putt by rocking your shoulders, not by bending your wrists. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: If profanity had any influence on the flight of a ball, most everyone would play better.

You should actually start your downswing by pressing your leading hip forward but I was hoping to get your attention by referring to YOUR BUM. The shift of your hip is caused by a slight bend of your leading knee which will shift your leading hip and shoulder during the transition at the top of your swing. This motion should happen before your forearms start their downswing.

The downswing for low handicap golfers starts during their transition as their weight starts to transfer to their leading foot. This is especially important for iron shots to ensure that you are shifting to allow your club to impact the ball before taking any divot. If you are rushing your transition, you should notice that you are often hitting the ground before the ball and losing distance. If this is your problem, we have a solution for you.

The downswing chain reaction starts from your foot to your hip and then your shoulder rotation starts your straight leading arm downswing. The release of your cocked wrists to whip your club through the ball is last and most important part of your downswing to generate power.

Solution for the Rushed Transition
If you are one of the many golfers who starts their downswing before their weight shift to their leading leg, you need to learn the feeling for this change and see the impact of an improved swing.

CHEAT your forward “pressed position” during your setup with 60% of your weight on your leading leg by ADDING bend to your leading knee. That’s the move that you really want to make at the top of your swing but by starting with this forward press during your setup, you can learn the feeling that you want to add during your transition.

Trainers and pros will NOT recommend that you learn to play with this “forward pressed position” DURING YOUR SETUP as it can cause problems with your direction control. Test this forward press setup at 60% to 80% of your swing speed to avoid pulls or fades by focusing on swinging up your target line. Your clean shots (without fat hits) will dramatically improve.

Use this CHEAT to learn the feeling of the forward press that you want during your transition. After a number of successful hits, learn to include this forward press in your normal swing with irons. Then let your BUM and hips trigger this forward press. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to keep your leading arm straight and enjoy your powerful wrist release at the bottom of your swing without fat hits. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: It’s easy to keep your ball in the fairway, if you don’t care which fairway.

You will never lower your handicap if you don’t set a plan to make it happen. Hank Haney recently released an interesting program called “Tour Consistency Clinics”, which reminded me of the ideal way to lower your scores. Just eliminate your BIG MISS — one at a time. It’s that easy!

You, like every other Weekend Worrier, have had some great rounds of golf followed by a number of high scoring rounds of golf. To lower your scores, your plan has to centered around DETERMINING your BIG MISS. You CAN correct it (with training and practice) and then determining your next big miss and repeating this process to drop your scores by 10 strokes. Consistently good shots will produce consistently lower scores. It’s that simple.

Set Your Plan
1/ Record Every One of Your Scores on a Handicap System: Members of private golf clubs enter the score from every round to establish a true handicap in order to balance-out scores for weaker players against better players in tournaments. Golf associations around the world have now adopted a consistent handicap system using the average score from 8 of your last 20 rounds of golf. The only scores entered are limited to a maximum of 2 strokes over your handicap for every hole.
2/ Obey the Rules of Golf and Be Honest: You can’t tip up a ball to improve the lie and you can’t ignore a mishit. Mulligans don’t exist. Every swing counts. You will never improve your game if you are not entering an honest score for every hole as well as only entering your maximum handicap allowance on your handicap system for a permanent, accurate record. (You may want to use: www.ghin.com or your local Golf Association handicap systems)
3/ Record Your Misses on Every Hole: On holes where you score a bogie, double bogie or worse, they were caused by a missed shot. To keep a simple record of your poor shots, enter a letter in the scoring box for each hole on your score card in the lower left corner. (ie “W” for water, “T” for tree, “R” for rough, “M” for mishit, “S” for sand etc). You also need to mark a “1” in the upper left of each box for the Fairway Hit on your drive (or greens hit on par 3’s), a “1” in the upper right of the box for Greens Hit in Regulation and the number of putts in the lower right.
4/ Analyze Your Card: After your round, sort out your worst big miss which caused your blow-up holes. Knowing this fact is the perfect starting point to improving your next round of golf.

Take Action!
Do something about your worst big miss. Find solutions on the internet or take lessons with a professional golf instructor. Get out to the practice range and make sure that you hit some great shots to overcome your BIG MISS before your next round of golf. Don’t expect miracles. Focus on your solution for your worst BIG MISS and you will eliminate those blow-up holes.

You may also want to purchase a GOLFSTR+ to practice 6 swing fixes with your straight leading arm or flat wrist. Put some effort into your game to eliminate your BIG MISSES. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: Golf appeals to the child in all of us. This is proven by our frequent inability to count past the number 5.

Last week we presented the 2 critical issues to help you Perfect Your Game: Mental Focus and Knowing Your Ideal Swing for Each of your Clubs. Mental Focus was covered last week and now we want to share your INDIVIDUAL SECRETS that creates distance and direction control for each club.

These SECRETS are unique for every golfer and every type of club. The weight and flexibility of each club from your driver down to your putter require a special setup and swing for each type of club. You should take lessons to sort out the proper techniques and then you should sort out the exact setup that works for your strength and flexibility.

If you can recognize a pro, just by watching their swing, you can understand why each pro and each golfer actually swings every type of club differently. That’s why you need to tailor your perfect swing for every type of club to your PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CAPABILITES.

I have finally sorted this out for my clubs and I’m starting to shoot just over par for 9 holes on the back nine of every round. I have studied what works for my swing on every type of club but my changing flexibility over 18 holes must be another variable for my swing.

Study Your Ideal Setup and Swing for Every Type of Club
Start by taking lessons to add distance & consistency and to avoid slices & hooks. Each club and type of club has a unique weight, flexibility and function. You need to sort out what works for your body and your set of clubs. The following summary details my idiosyncrasies to help your get started. Make sure that you write down and refine the unique features that work for your game and your clubs.

Driver: I slow down the cadence of my backswing to give me time to add hip and shoulder rotation as I add wrist lag at the top of my swing. I also flatten my leading wrist which allows me to shallow my swing on the down swing so that I can power my drive up my target line.
Woods and Hybrids: These are lighter clubs than my driver and that seems to make my downswing pull about an inch closer to my body during my downswing. To avoid hitting off the toe of my club I setup with the center line of the face of each club about 1 inch beyond my ball. Spraying the face of my irons with foot powder allows me to proves that I now impact at dead center.
Irons: I tend to swing too fast with these lighter clubs, so I rarely give my body time to start transferring weight to my leading foot at the top of my swing. I now cheat my weight transfer by setting up with 60% of my weight on my leading foot. To avoid pull shots I change my target line slightly to compensate.
Putter: For putts over 10 feet I use a conventional grip and force my putter to swing directly up my target line. For putts between 4 to 10 feet I release my trailing hand at the point of impact to allow my leading arm to swing directly up my target line. For putts under 4 feet, to avoid the yips, I grip down on my putter so that about 4 inches of the grip rest against the inside of my forearm as I rock my shoulders to make my putt.

I still practice with GOLFSTR+ to remind myself to keep a straight leading arm and flat wrist during my different shots with different clubs. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: If your opponent has trouble remembering whether he shot a six or a seven, he probably shot an eight.

I’m a real fan of Rory McIlroy. His swing is perfection but like every golfer in the world his mind can wander, and his swing may look perfect but his ball does not comply. During the first round of the Travelers Championship, he shot a bogie-free 8 under par. During his second round he was on track for another great round with 1 bogie and 6 birdies when his mind lost his FOCUS.

On the 12th hole he made a wild tee shot which led to multiple poor shots and a quad-bogie. Yes, that’s 4 over par. That was followed by a par and then a double bogie. self destruction reminded me of his 10th hole duck hook drive a few years ago during the 2011 Masters. Even Rory must question why his mind starts to wander.

We can only imagine the soul searching that Rory must go through to first identify the cause of those shots and then to overcome his fears for all future rounds of golf. All golfers and especially Weekend Warriors (WW) make poor shots. How can we minimize these poor shots?

What Causes Poor Golf Shots
1/ Pros are faced with a continuous barrage of stupid comments from spectators and the roar of excitement when others make a great shot on adjacent holes. WW don’t have those problems.
2/ Pros are faced with perfectly manicured courses but the greens have Stimpmeter speeds that we rarely experience. Putting those greens is an artform that we rarely encounter.
3/ Weather, wind and ground moisture are problems that we all face.
4/ An injury will cause problems but when you are playing as well as Rory was playing, we can rule out any physical or exhaustion problems.

SOLUTION:
A. Learn to keep your focus on YOUR NEXT SHOT for direction and distance control.
1/ Recognize that your mind controls your focus.
2/ Every shot needs a target and a plan to reach that point.
3/ Rory has a caddie who can lay out the options and recommend the best approach. For WW’s, you have to rely on your past experience to set your plan and practice the swing for your shot.
4/ BLOCK OUT EXTERNAL THOUGHTS: You can’t think 2 thoughts at the same time. The best solution is to mentally say words to control a specific motion and cadence of your swing.
[ I mentally say the words: “Flat aaand 2” during my backswing, to help me slow down. I start my backswing by saying “FLAT“, which reminds me to keep my leading arm straight and my leading wrist flat. Saying “aaand” gives me time to finish my hip and shoulder rotation as I add wrist lag. Saying “2” just starts my down swing to a balanced pose.]

B Determine the setup and swing which is ideal for your body to execute your shot with each type of club (Driver, Hybrid, Iron, Putter). If you haven’t figured these out, start taking lessons to add distance & consistency and avoid slices & hooks. STAY TUNED FOR THESE SOLUTIONS NEXT WEEK.

Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to lock-in the swings that you learn in your lessons. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: If there’s a storm rolling in, you’ll be having the game of your life.

The US Open was a spectacular display of golf perfection by the best golfers in the world. The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts was a ball strikers dilemma. Many of the fairways were setup like a snake going through grass and the rough was even worse than the deep rough plays the previous week at the Canadian Open. Only the best ball strikers survived.

I was surprised to see that most golfers who hit errant shots seemed to know that they were in trouble as soon as they hit the ball. Their swing either ended up with a one-handed grip on the club or they were struggling to keep their balance. They seemed to sense that their shot was in trouble from the get-go. They had either rushed their backswing or tried to add more power into their down-swing. They lost their balance!

Frustrating Miss-Hits Happen
Recreational golfers create a lot more miss-hits than the pros. That becomes a lot more evident when you play with golfers who shoot under 40 for 9 holes. Most of their drives are dead nuts on the center of their club face. Then, out-of-the-blue, they hit a duck hook or booming slice for no apparent reason. Of course, this happens more often for higher handicappers and their miss-hits get worse as they try to hit the greens in regulation.

If the pros and recreational golfers could just eliminate their adrenaline rush to avoid those miss-hits, golf would be easy. I must admit that Matt Fitzpatrick’s miracle bunker shot on the final hole of the 2022 US Open must have been filled with adrenaline.

Strategy to Avoid Miss-Hits
1/ Make a controlled practice swing exactly with the speed that you want to execute your shot.
2/ Your drives need more body rotation to generate more power, but your focus needs to be on a smooth accelerating swing through your ball and up your target line
3/ Limit the backswing for your iron shots with your straight leading arm at about the 10 o’clock position. Your power is primarily coming from the release of your lagging wrists through impact.

4/ A limited iron backswing also helps you avoid casting from the top and helps you control your swing direction up your target line.
5/ Include a flat wrist lag in your backswing and a full follow through to a balanced pose for your drives and fairway shots.

Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to create a smooth, balanced swing for every shot in your game. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: A good golf partner is one who’s slightly worse than you.

When you look back at your most successful rounds of golf, you may realize that your CALM state of mind was the most important factor for your success. Of course, there are many contributing factors which create confidence in your game. Your skill level for every swing with every club will only culminate in success if you can minimize the fear of failure. Your mind needs to focus on the simplicity of every shot and then doing it well.

I was reminded of the importance of a CALM state of mind when I watched the movie, King Richard. It was about a father’s tenacity to teach 2 of his daughters, Venus and Serena, to overcome the fears of racism and failure by committing to the sport of tennis and practicing to built confidence that they could win, both inside and outside of the actual game of tennis.

You will never reach the skill level in golf that the William’s sisters achieved in tennis. But you can apply everything that you have personally learned about golf if you allow your CALM mind to focus your simple skills.

State of Mind Can Lead to Failure
I saw this example of a tournament leader arriving late for his tee time on the second day of a 2-day tournament. Without any time to practice, his mind was in a state of panic. He made a few jokes about his late arrival and tried to calm down, but he shanked his first tee shot. By the end of the round, he was 10 shots out of the lead. Yes, he was rushed but he never calmed down enough to focus on success for each shot.

A CALM Mind Allows you to Focus and Make Better Shots
-When you hit a great drive, your ball lands in the fairway on a flat lie and closer to the hole to make your next shot that much easier.
-When you hit the green in regulation, it just makes it that much easier to make par with a 2-putt green.
-When you pitch or chip your shot close to the hole it’s also easier to sink your putt.

Every golfer is faced with the same wind or weather conditions so don’t make that an excuse for failure. As a golfer, you have already faced every bad lie or deep grass situation. If you take a CALM approach to every shot, you will chose the right club to land your ball in the best position for your next shot. A CALM State of Mind will allow you to make the best decisions and give you the best results.

Of course, you need to improve your skills for your game. Once you have the skills, just like the William’s sisters, you can use your CALM state of mind to execute your next shot [which is the most important shot in golf]. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to learn the key straight arm and flat wrist skills of golf so that you can approach every shot with a CALM mind. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Thought for the Day: A good drive on the 18th hole has stopped many a golfer from giving up the game.