Swing Solutions

No, I don’t mean that you should beat-up on yourself. Every time you play a round of golf you should be using your strengths to improve your game. Why not play a game against your current handicap or an average score that you would like to beat. Or you may plan to shoot a round under 100 or 90 or 80. The best way to succeed is set a realistic score for each hole that you are about to play based on the handicap level for each of the 18 holes.

You will never improve your game if you keep taking the same approach to every hole.

Every hole on every golf course is rated from 1 to 18 based on the hardest hole being the #1 handicap hole and 18 being the easiest. Before you start a round of golf decide on the number of strokes that you will allow yourself over par and mark your card on each of the lower handicap holes (difficult holes) to play those holes as a bogie or double bogie hole.

Stay in the Right Frame of Mind
1/ Take the pressure off your mind and relax the swing with each club. You will be amazing at how easy it is to hit every shot to 80% of your expected distance with your chosen club.

2/ You will lower your scores if you take the pressure off your game by playing shots to a safe area at the front of the green and then chipping for a 1 or 2 putt green.

3/ Use a club with less loft so that you can back-off on the power that you are attempting to hit. This will improve the consistency of your shots.

4/ Be realistic about your ability to hit each club exactly with your best hit in the center of your club face. Typically 80% of your shots will not reach the distance that you expect.

5/ Driver is the only club that you want to hit with more power for more distance (to shorten every hole). Don’t get carried away! Know your setup and swing that will give you the most power with draws or fades using your driver. Know your ability and stick with a controlled swing.

Learn to be a strategic golfer BY AVOIDING KILL SHOTS. Choosing more club with less power will help you keep more shots in the fairway. They call your other option in the ROUGH because it’s not where you want to be.

Remember to play YOUR game against YOUR ability without trying to kill the ball. Take more time to rotate your hips as you start your backswing and add lag by cocking your wrists to generate more power. GOLFSTR+ is designed to remind you to keep your leading arm straight and to limit your backswing. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

I really enjoyed watching the final round of the Waste Management Championship with 3 leaders who fought neck and neck throughout the day. I like to root for the underdog, so Nick Taylor (ranked 223rd in the world) had a surprising performance as he kept up with Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm who were fighting it out to take the number 1 golfer position in the world. Nick Taylor has not won a major championship in years so I was really curious to find out how he had changed his game to stay in contention.

Bonus money was added to this tournament, so the winner took $3.6 million and second place took $2.18 million. That prize money added pressure on every shot for the leaders and especially on Taylor who really has been a Canadian No-Name in golf for some time.

Game Changer
Nick Taylor had to make a number of pressure putts over 10 feet throughout the final round. After the round he described his NEWFOUND SUCCESS. Over the past few months, he has been putting with a claw grip with his trailing hand.

–His lead hand is a conventional putting grip but with his first finger pointing directly down the leading side of his putter grip.
–His trailing hand is a claw grip with his wrist turned sideways so that it can’t bend during his swing.
-As long as he chose the right line and the right amount of swing speed his claw grip allows him to swing directly up his target line. Eliminating any trailing wrist action stops his stronger right hand from pushing his putter in an arc around his body.

I love this concept and plan to adopt this claw grip as I have been putting by releasing my trailing hand at the point of impact so that my leading hand swings my putter directly up my target line. Using a claw grip with my trailing hand should give me more stability in my swing especially for putts under 15 feet.

A key principle for putting is to avoid bending your wrists and ONLY using the rocking action of your major back and shoulder muscles. That’s why one of the 6 swing fixes provided by GOLFSTR+ is to hold your leading wrist flat during your putting stroke. The claw grip with your trailing hand ELIMINATES putter face rotation. BINGO! Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Recreational golfers love to imitate the pros that they watch on TV but it may be doing you more harm than good. Of course we all want to make shots like the pros but their exceptional shots may be killing our mental focus and sending our games down the drain.

If the pros can land a 150 yard shot over a well trapped narrow green, why can’t we? For one thing, we don’t have the height and backspin with our 6 or 7 iron to hold the green. I tried this shot yesterday and it cost me 2 more shots to get my plugged ball out of the forward lip of a trap. What was I thinking?

Here are 2 more common sense thoughts that we should learn from the pros.

1/ Sinking 10-15 foot Putts: Last year’s leader in this category was Alex Noren. He sank 43% of those mid-range putts. The Tour average was just 30%. Recreational golfers should be happy to sink 10-15% of these putts. My point here is that you should not lose your cool if you miss a 10-15 foot putt. Plan on passing the hole (as the short ones never go in) to give yourself a chance for success but you should be happy with a 2-putt from that distance.

If you miss a 10-15 foot putt DON’T GET ANGRY WITH YOUR PERFORMANCE.

2/ Chip Your 30-60 yard Wedges to within 10 Feet: Recreational golfers typically miss half of their approach shots to every green (and that’s including the short par 3 holes). That’s why you should be including at least 25% of your practice time developing your chipping skills to within 10 feet of a target hole.

Minimize your score by practicing chipping close to the hole and sinking more of your 1-5 foot putts.
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Ask any pro how they sink more long putts. ANSWER: Take a chipping or iron lesson!

Cut down on the time that you spend learning to perfect your long clubs. Over half your time should be spent on perfecting your chipping, sand shots and putting because that is where you will save more shots in every round of golf. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to limit your wrist lag when chipping and to keep your leading wrist flat for putting. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Each golf shot is a fresh new opportunity to deliver your ball to your target. You can’t do this without a methodical plan and response that works for you. I realize that very few golfers will ever achieve the distance and control of the male pros so I like to focus on the graceful swings of the female pro golfers. If they can consistently deliver drives that are controlled and over 250 yards, that should be good enough for 90% of all golfers who will never be scratch golfers.

When my game is going sideways, I have always been told that I’m swinging too hard. That’s exactly when I try to take control of my mind and body and place it in my own private box where I can take control of my takeaway tempo.

Slowing down your backswing gives you more time to complete a full shoulder rotation and wrist hinge for a 90-degree lag. Rush it and you will miss your opportunity for a great shot with less effort and an amazing result.

The Korda sisters, Nelly and Jessica, both have graceful swings. During a training session with their coach, Jamie Mulligan, they were asked how they controlled their takeaway. Nelly said that Jamie taught her to imagine that her club head is like a rock on the end of a string. She uses a slow acceleration through-out her backswing to create a graceful tempo (as she swing her rock away from the ground).

That’s a great image to help you create a wonderful tempo for your backswing. It will help you slow your transition and accelerate your downswing.

When you take more time for your backswing, don’t let your leading elbow bend to wrap your arm around your neck. Just limit your backswing and practice with GOLFSTR+ to find your straight leading arm limit and to also feel your trailing arm create a 90 degree bend for lag. Those are just 2 of the 6 uses for your GOLFSTR+. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

There are lots of ways to create mishit shots, but you should learn the 3 basic tricks to eliminate at least 50% of YOUR mishits.  If you are falling back when you swing or taking a divot before impact with the ball, your swing arc is bottoming out too early.  Using the following “tricks” will help you learn the correct impact position to avoid mishits and should help you reform your swing.

Mental Preparation

Before you start to use these swing “tricks”, calm your mind and stop trying to knock the skin off your ball.  Your last great shot or your last missed shot may be motivating you to swing harder.  Get that out of your mind. Setup and make the exact practice swing that you plan to make before you hit your next shot.  Learn from that swing by watching where you skim the ground or take any divot.  Adjust your setup and make the practice swing that you want to execute.

Use the following “tricks” when you find that you are rushing your swing on a windy day, hitting from a bad lie in the rough or when you are planning to hit a miracle shot.  A proper swing will allow you to transfer your weight to your leading foot during your transition and allow your swing-arc to bottom-out at the correct point for your driver, irons and wedges. 

1/ Driver Trick: [Error to avoid: bottoming out under your ball and causing pop-ups]

Tee your ball up to about half the ball height above the top of our driver head.  Impact should be on a 3-to-7-degree upswing.  Setup with the ball off the heel of our leading foot and the face of your driver about 5 inches directly behind your ball (where you want to bottom-out your swing arc – just like Moe Norman).  [Tilting your trailing shoulder down and moving your trailing foot back 2 inches off the target line during your setup will help you create the right swing arc.] Swing from the inside-and-up to launch your ball for more distance.

2/ Iron and Wedge Trick: [Error to avoid: swing arc bottoming-out before the ball.]

Your weight needs to be transferred to your leading foot before impact.  Setup with a bent leading knee to keep 60% of your weight on your leading foot throughout the swing.  Your ball is centered in your stance (narrower for your wedge shots), square the leading edge of your iron and point your shaft grip at your belt buckle.  Control the distance of your shot with a full backswing (or limited for a wedge) keeping a straight leading arm.  Let the weight of your club start your downswing (DON’T RUSH IT).  Complete your follow-through directly up your target line.

3/ Bunker Trick: [Error to avoid: Burying your wedge and losing power to exit the trap.]

Bend your leading knee to keep 60% of your weight forward.  Setup with a wide AND open stance (20 to 30 degrees open) with the ball centered between your feet.  Open the face of your chosen wedge to ensure that the blade will bounce through the sand (NOT DIG IN).  Control the distance of your shot with the loft of your club and with an equal amount of backswing and follow-through.

Practice these tricks with GOLFSTR+ to learn the impact of a straight leading elbow and a flat leading wrist with every club in your bag.  Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

I found a great summary of mistakes published by Josh Berhow when interviewing PGA pros at GOLF’s Top 100 Teachers Summit . You really don’t have to change your game to lower your scores. just don’t make the following mistakes.

1. Arriving Late for Your Tee Time: Arrive early for your tee time or your round will suffer. Warm up with stretching and hit some wedges, chips and putts. Ideally you should get there earlier, don’t rush, practice with a purpose (stretch and practice your woods, chip, putt, etc.) and stroll to that first tee with confidence.
2. Play from the right tees: Choose the tee that allows you to reach the green in 2 shots on the longest par-4 hole. Do it and you will have a lot more fun.
3. Hit the Shots that Work for You: If you are hitting a 10-yard slice with their irons and a 20-yard slice with the driver on the range, don’t try to make changes during your round. Use the shots that work for you. Stick with it. Own it. Be confident in it. And if the issue is still there after your round or again for your next, then it’s time to check in with a teacher.
4. Know your gear: Don’t try to get more out of your clubs than they are designed to give you. Understand that your 5-wood will give you a higher ball flight (than a 3-wood) with more stopping power on the green. Apply the same rule for all of your clubs.
5. Stop going after pins: Just don’t do it. Even pros don’t go at every flag. Aim for the middle of the green and favor the side with less trouble. Even Bernhard Langer has said he sometimes does this when he has a lead down the stretch. He calls it being “cautiously aggressive.”
6. Find the fairway when you are struggling: World GOLF Teachers Hall of Famer Mike Adams says, in short: tee it low. This makes you hit more down on the ball, and if you stand a little closer and flare your lead foot out, it will force you to rotate and, worst case, your mishit will be on the heel and lead to a harmless cut that still finds the short stuff.
7. Avoid double bogey or worse: Stop playing hero shots and get your ball back in play. Punch out from a dire situation, find the green and two-putt for bogey. Call that a win and move on.
8. Know your distances: High-handicaps miss short way more often than they miss long. Golfers with a handicap of 21 or higher missed short 70 percent of the time. So, if you are in between clubs, remember that stat.
9. Get over bad shots and move on: After a poor shot Tiger Woods told his son, Charlie: “I don’t care how mad you get. Get over it and be 100 percent committed to the next shot. That’s all that matters. That next shot should be the most important shot in your life. It should be more important than breathing.”
10. Don’t get too cute around the greens: Unless you really know how to hit a high-lofted wedge, chip with a safer club or if you are close enough to the green, use your putter. Learn to let the bounce of the wedge do the work for you after your round of golf.
11. These tips will help your game without changing your swing. Why not practice with GOLFSTR+ to help you learn 6 types of swings with a straight leading elbow and to control your wrist position for putting, chipping and iron shots. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com
    

Easier said than done. How does your mind slow down your backswing and execute the rhythm to add power to your swing? We have the ideal solution to blank-out extra thoughts and add the proper tempo to your swing. Avoiding a Wandering Mind and adding Backswing Actions are the keys to the future success for consistency in your swing.

I realized that I was on the right track when I started my new season of winter golf in Florida. I read a simple golf tip by Sean Zak a senior writer for the Golf.com blog who referred to the “Hideki-esque” move. Hideki Matsuyama has changed his swing from an actual pause at the top to a slow transition. Most golfers lose their tempo when they jerk or rush the transition. All of the power in your swing comes from the down swing so there is no need to rush your backswing up to the top!

You can enjoy the benefits of a Hideki-esque transition as long as you control your mind AND execute a critical windup sequence.

1/ Eliminate a Wondering Mind
I have covered this in many previous blogs but you will improve your tempo and focus if you mentally repeat the following words during your backswing: “1 annnd 2”. If you say these words in your mind you will not be able to say or think any other thoughts. Buy saying these words you will slow down the tempo of your backswing.
-Say “1” to start your WIDE takeaway as your hips and shoulders rotate.
-Say “annnd” as you flatten your leading wrist and add lag at the top of your swing.
-Say “2” as you accelerate your downswing.

2/ Take Your Time to Build your Backswing Actions.
Hank Haney often points out that you need to impact your ball with a square face to eliminate slice. The critical motion is to take a wide backswing (without swaying your head or body) and add a shallowing loop at the top of your swing. This is just a natural motion when you flatten your leading wrist and add lag to your club by cocking your wrist 90 degrees.

Dustin Johnson and Michelle Wie West set their wrists in a lag position at the start of their takeaway. Of course Dustin also adds a bowed wrist (instead of a flat wrist). I’m just adding options that you may want to try but you at least need to build in a flat leading wrist and lag during you deliberately SLOOOOW Hideki-esque backswing.

If you practice a wide takeaway with a flat wrist and add lag at the top, you can easily build this pattern in your mind, ESPECIALLY when you do it SLOOOWLY. Make sure you practice your backswing using your GOLFSTR+ as a reminder to keep your leading arm straight. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Golf is a lot less frustrating if you learn this game backwards. Putting is the easiest part of this game so why not practice until you learn to 2 putt every green. After that chipping and pitching with your irons to hit every green is a special art that you need to perfect. To make those shots easier, you need longer drives that land in the fairway. That’s why Hank Haney recommends that perfecting your game with his “Speed Slot” technique will make this an easy game.

Longer drives will improve your game faster because it’s easier to hit shorter shots into the green. So we all should have learned this game by using the forward tees until we learn the most difficult skill of hitting longer drives and landing in the fairway.

In short: Your goal is to improve your driving and iron accuracy in order to hit more greens in regulation. Then the pars and birdies are easy.

Speed Slot Technique
Hank Haney teaches this technique for power, accuracy and to avoid the dreaded slice. The Speed Slot is the opposite of the Slice Slot. You have all heard that slicing is caused by “swinging over the top”. It’s a natural tendency that we all learn when we swing a baseball bat from the top of our backswing and down into the strike zone.

In golf you need to learn to swing your driver from the inside and up your target line. The critical move in golf is to flatten your wrist at the top of your backswing so that you can swing your club from the inside and up the SPEED SLOT.

By flattening your leading wrist at the top of your backswing, you are actually shallowing your swing path the way every professional golfer swings. When you swing down from the inside SLOT you naturally clear your hips by rotating your waist forward and INCREASE THE POWER of your driver with a swing path from the inside and up your target line.

We all want a consistent swing for distance and direction control. Learn to shallow your driver in your downswing and set your game on fire. You may want to try opening your stance to add power as every golfer has different levels of power. You should sort this out on the driving range. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to keep you leading elbow straight and your leading wrist flat in the backswing. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

I was amazed to see how many long putts were made at the PNC Championships where a PGA Pro teamed up with a non-PGA family member. VJ Singh and his son shot 2 rounds of 13 under par to win the 2022 Championship. Their success came from playing a Scramble Format where they both hit each successive shot from the best location. Their biggest advantage came by understanding the break in their putts.

Every putt was played strategically by allowing the weakest player to make their best putt so that the second putter used the knowledge of the BREAK in the first putt as it slowed down near the hole. Of course we rarely get the chance to putt after someone putts on our exact same line. Watching this 2-putt team approach, we should all recognize 3 key points.

1/ Choosing the right line and speed is your primary focus if you are ever going to be a great putter.

2/ The most break occurs as your ball slows down at the end of your putt. Of course, the greater the side slope, the greater the break so you need to estimate if the break is non-existent (0), slight (1), moderate (2) or major (3 to 10)

3/ To limit your break (as the ball nears the hole on a slight to moderate slope) you should always putt with enough force to pass the hole by 10 to 20 inches. This extra force will eliminate a significant amount of the break as your ball passes the hole.

• -It eliminates all short putts that will never go in the hole.
  • –You will learn to limit the amount of expected break near the hole by consistently putting with enough force to pass the hole by 10 to 20 inches,

The best putter, that I have ever played with, sank single putts on 12 out of 18 greens. Every putt was firm (as they never stopped short of the hole). That golfer was confident that he was going to sink more putts with his firm putts SO HE LIMITED THE EXPECTED BREAK DEPENDING ON THE SLOPE NEAR THE HOLE.

You can be a great putter too. Build confidence on the practice green by never leaving a putt short of the hole. Watch for the AMOUNT of break on your putts as they pass the hole and memorize the target distance above the hole depending on the side slope with a 0, 1 or 2 level of slope.

Adam Scott estimates the side slope for every putt using a technique called AimPoint. By feeling the slope with his feet about halfway along his putt he estimates the degrees of slope and then uses his fingers to find a target point. It’s not a perfect system as the slope changes as you walk along your putting line but it is a good idea to estimate the slope near the hole.

Improve your putting by paying attention to the amount of slope near the hole. Choose a target point to aim at for the expected amount of break as your ball passes the hole. Stare at your target point, then return your stare to your ball and keep looking at the spot until 1 second after impact. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to keep your wrist flat during your putting stroke. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

We all have a love hate relationship with golf. When its good, we love it. When it’s bad, it can be very frustrating. Burning the side of a hole with a missed putt is only costing you 1 stroke. A poor drive results in losing some easy distance. But a missed chip from 10 to 40 feet is so much more frustrating because its such an easy shot. After your miss, you tighten up and your next attempt is fat or bladed across the green. Then your blood begins to boil as you add-on 3 more strokes putting. Wouldn’t is be nice to make every chip for a 1 putt green?

You need an easy solution for perfect chip shots to limit your putts around the green. Mr. Short Game on a recent GolfersRx blog reminded us to “take your hands out of the swing”. Limiting your hand action is the perfect solution for consistent chips.

He reminded us to chip exactly the way Steve Stricker and Jason Day chip.

-Let your limited hip and shoulder rotation take care of the speed and power of your swing.

-Start with a narrow stance

-With more weight on your leading foot and

-Add a limited wrist lag for your club with your trailing hand during your limited backswing.

Learn this limited lag by practicing with GOLFSTR+. It limits your trailing hand lag by fitting the back of your wrist to the curved plastic shape.

The perfect chip is NOT a full golf swing. It’s a half swing where you keep the face of your club SQUARE in your setup, in your backswing and as you finish your swing directly up your target line. Depending on the distance that you want, just increase your back swing and match that swing distance with your follow-through swing distance.

As Tiger Woods described his chipping success when he sank a 40 footer from 10 feet off the green on the Saturday round of the 2022 PNC Championship: “Just keep a firm left hand and knock it in there.”

The key for successful chipping is in allowing the distance of you arms at setup to create the same distance at impact. Don’t get floppy or flippy with your hands and wrists. Avoid bending your leading elbow in your backswing and through impact. Finish your impact by pointing your club up your target line.

A perfect chip should be the simplest swing in golf but for most of us it can be the most frustrating shot in golf. Practice with GOLFSTR+ strapped to the back of your trailing wrist. The bend on the end of the plastic plate will limit your wrist lag to the perfect angle. GOLFSTR+ was designed to remind you to keep your leading elbow straight in your backswing. A golf pro at our club recommended that I learn to improve my chipping with the limited wrist bend using GOLFSTR+ training aid. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com