In this issue we’ll discuss…

1. What’s In Your Bag
2. Five Keys To Hitting It Straighter
3. Question of the Week - Easy Fixes For Golfers Who Pull
4. Article - Maximizing Distance Off The Tee
5. Article - How To Become A Great Shotmaker (Part II)

What’s In Your Bag

If you’re just starting to play golf, you probably don’t care about what’s in your bag. But you should care. Carrying too many clubs can make a difference in your scores. It can create confusion when choosing a club to hit and cost you strokes. Carrying too many clubs can also slow down your rate of improvement. Smart golfers carry only the clubs that suit their games.

Below are five tips on what to carry in your bag:

• Driving club with 13 to 16 degrees of loft
• Fairway wood with 19 to 23 degrees of loft
• Oversized irons with forgiving design
• PW and SW with substantial bounce
• Putter with heel-toe weighting

A good beginner’s set includes a driving club with 13-16 degrees of loft, with a regular-flex shaft of standard length. Using a 3-wood as your main driving club is a good idea for beginners. It’s shorter and easier to hit than a driver. Later, you can switch.

A good beginner’s set also includes a fairway wood, with loft of 19-23 degrees and a shaft with the same flex as your driving club. If you’re using a three wood off the tee, use a 5-wood in the fairway.

You should also carry a set of oversized irons (5, 7, 9) with a forgiving design, perimeter weighting, and low center of gravity. Choose irons with light, flexible shafts (graphite or steel). Also carry pitching and sand wedges with substantial bounce (12 degrees). The bounce helps prevent the leading edges from digging.

In addition, you should carry a putter that feels comfortable. You may be using this club for a long time. So you want it to feel good. Other putter features to look for are heel-toe weighting and a shaft length that fits your posture.

Golf lessons are important. But not as important as what you carry in your bag. If you’re new to golf, use a half set of clubs. Until you can hit those correctly, you don’t need any more.

Five Keys To Hitting It Straighter

Your goal on every hole should be to hit the green in regulation. That would leave you with a putt for birdie, or better still, an eagle. Hitting a green in regulation is hard if you can’t hit it straight. Hitting slices and/or hooks all the way down the fairway makes it difficult to reach the green in regulation. But a good swing combined with a good line of play should produce a straight shot.

Below are five keys to hitting straight shots:

• Relax your right side
• Memorize the line of play
• Visualize the image of the target
• Fix the line of play in mind
• Start on the line of play

The mental preparation you do before you swing is critical to hitting straighter—and longer— shots. Begin at set-up by thinking about relaxing your right side (left side for lefties). The thought helps keep that side of your body lower through impact.

Next, visualize the line of play and commit it to memory. Create a visual image of this pathway in your mind. When it comes time to hit the ball, the path you want the ball to travel on is fixed in your mind.

In addition, start the club on the line of play. An on-line takeaway increases your chances of actually hitting the ball where you want and often helps compensate for a bad swing.

Triangle Takeaway Drill
This drill grooves a one-piece takeaway and helps you start the club on the line of play. Select a driver. Grip the clubshaft a few inches below the club’s handle and place the butt end of the club gently against your stomach, at a point just above your belt. Practice making small swings while concentrating on keeping your arms close to your sides with the club touching your navel.

Combining this drill with the mental keys described above will help you to hit straight and accurate shots with regularity. That’ can’t hurt your game.

Question of the Week - Easy Fixes For Golfers Who Pull

Q.You always have advice for slicers, but none for us “pullers.” I couldn’t slice in a million years, but I can “pull,” even hook, all day long. It’s more pronounced with my fairway woods. Help!

Roger
Council Bluffs, Iowa

A. Thanks for the question, Roger. Believe it or not, slices and pulls stem from the same fundamental swing flaw—approaching the ball on an out-to-in swing path. To eliminate pulls (and slices), you need to learn to swing on an in-to-out path and square off the position of the clubface through impact.

Try one or more of these fixes:

1. Close the overall alignment of your body
2. Close your clubface a little
3. Encourage your right arm (left arm for lefties) to close early in the swing
4. Encourage your right arm (left arm for lefties) to aggressively cross over your left (right).
5. Strengthen your grip

To strengthen your grip, move both hands to the club’s right until you can see three knuckles. Left-handers would move their hands to the club’s left.
Fixing a pull is often a case of trail and error. So you may have to try a combination of these fixes until you find the right answer. But the solution to your problem is there somewhere.

If you’ve got a golf question you’d like answered, send an email to us at questions@howtobreak80.com and we’ll review it. I can’t guarantee that we’ll use it but if we do, we’ll make sure to include your name and where you’re from.

If you want to truly discover the secrets of shooting like the Pros and creating a more reliable and consistent swing, check out: http://www.HowToBreak80.com

Also, for past issues of this newsletter and some of my most recent articles, visit our blog at www.HowToBreak80.com/blog

Here are some of my recent articles:

Article - Maximizing Distance Off The Tee

Article - How To Become A Great Shotmaker (Part II)

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, go to http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter.htm

About the Author

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!“. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps quickly. His free weekly newsletter goes out to thousands of golfers worldwide and provides the latest golf tips, strategies, techniques and instruction on how to improve your golf game.

What’s the difference between you and a great putter? It just might be the Quiet Eye. In putting as well as in other hand-eye-target skills, the Quiet Eye is emerging as a key indicator of optimal focus and concentration. It’s this focus and concentration, research shows, that sets the good putter apart from the poor one. Fortunately, achieving this focus and concentration is a skill that can be taught in golf lessons or learned on one’s own and can help drive down a player’s golf handicap.

Usually, we attribute the difference between a good putter and a poor putter to mechanics. Good mechanics produces good putting. Bad mechanics produces bad putting. Good mechanics are what most golf lessons and golf tips emphasize. And that’s fine. You can’t be a superior putter if your mechanics are wrong. But mechanics aside, what else makes one golfer a better putter than another? Research shows that focus and concentration is the difference, underscoring the importance of the Quiet Eye.

The Quiet Eye
Simply put, the Quiet Eye occurs when your gaze remains absolutely still on the ball just before and as the stroke is performed. Two key elements in the Quiet Eye are location and duration. Research shows that golfers who putt well focus on either the back or the top of the ball. Which is better? Both locations improve accuracy, but a weight of evidence now favors the back of the ball. As for duration, good putters have a Quiet Eye duration of two or three seconds on average. Less skilled player held their gaze steady for one or two seconds on average.

Why is the Quiet Eye so critical when you putt? Your hands are controlled by your brain, which gets valuable information from your eyes. As you putt, your brain must organize 100 billion neurons. Your gaze keeps these neural networks informed. They in turn control both your hands and body when putting. But these networks stay organized for only a short period, creating a window of opportunity that must be used when it’s at its most optimal: This is the Quiet Eye period.

Unfortunately, the Quiet Eye is the first thing to go when under stress. It moves with the stroke. When you choke, the billion cells in your brain lose their effectiveness in solving the putt’s slope, curvature, distance, and location problems. Even hours of golf instruction sessions and practice focused on mechanics may not be able to save you when the pressure is on. On the other hand, developing proper mechanics builds confidence—another key element in putting. But confidence may not be as critical to putting accuracy as the Quiet Eye.

Developing the Quiet Eye
Routine Research shows that an average golfer using a pre-shot routine based on the Quiet Eye sinks more putts than when not using the routine—whether the routine is learned in golf lessons or self-taught. Visualization is a key element of this routine.

Focus on the hole
Once your putterhead is set behind the ball, pick a specific location on the hole where you want the ball to go, like a blade of grass or a small feature on the cup’s front lip.

“See” the ball go in
Look at this location for about two seconds. Visualize the ball going into the hole.

Scan from the hole to the ball
Smoothly shift your gaze without interruption from the target to the back of the ball. Your gaze should move efficiently and calmly.

Eye on the ball
Fixate on the back of the ball. Imagine just the right contact of the putterhead on the ball. Picture a line through this contact point to your spot on the hole.

Stay steady
Maintain a Quiet Eye on the one spot on the back of the ball from the backstroke through contact. Don’t peek! Take a look at your ball going in the hole only after putting.

The Quiet Eye may be an objective measure of “being in the Zone,” according to some experts. This idea of being in the Zone, or in the “flow,” as some athletes say, has been around for a long time. But until now, there has been little scientific evidence that the Zone exists—let alone can be measured. Developing the Quite Eye technique might not only help you access the zone when putting, it might also help you achieve better putting accuracy, knocking strokes off your golf handicap.

For more about the Quiet Eye, see the Quiet Eye Web site (http://quieteyesolutions.com) or the Web site of Dr. Joan Vickers (http://www.kin.ucalgary.ca/nml) , a leading researcher in this area.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

We all know that hitting the ball properly and as far as possible are very important if we want to score as low as possible.

But did you know that there is one part of the golf swing that can REALLY RUIN your game if not done correctly? See, there’s one thing that can ROB your swing of precious distance and proper ball contact and it can be really frustrating trying to figure it out.

So, I’ve made a short five minute video that shows you exactly what this miscue is and how to avoid it.

Yes, this is part of our latest Seniors DVD but in fairness to those who are not seniors, this same concept and instruction applies so it would be beneficial to see this eye-opening video. It’s just that this issue is more prevalent in seniors but trust me, there are still a great majority of us who commit this mistake, regardless of age.

Make sure to watch the entire video because some of the best drills and explanations are toward the end.

Enjoy!

Jack

P.S. This video tip is part of the brand new Seniors DVD which we recently launched. Learn how to play the best golf of your life with this unique and proven system.

Match play is a somewhat unique golf format. It requires a mental approach that’s completely different from stroke play. It requires toughness, patience, experience, and competitiveness. And it requires paying close attention to what your opponent is doing. What’s more, match play doesn’t always favor the players with the best golf handicaps. It’s quite easy for a golfer with a low golf handicap to lose to a player with a high one.

But match play is a highly popular format. Many golf leagues use it. Many tournaments do as well. So if you’ve never played this golf format, rest assured you probably will. Done right, match play is a lot of fun, especially if you’re on a team. It also provides some variety from stroke play. And it gives you a different perspective on your game. Obviously, you have to approach it differently than you do stroke play.

Below we describe five popular match play strategies. They’re time-tested strategies that work. Keep them in mind whenever you play match play.

Form A Game Plan
To win, you must form a game plan—and stick to it. This is a key golf tip on match play. Don’t let your opponent dictate play. Take control of it early and try to keep it throughout the match. Size up your opponent and the golf course. Disregard golf handicaps when doing this because they don’t mean much in match play. Then, decide how to play each hole based on your capabilities. In formulating your game plan, keep one thing in mind: pars win matches.

Apply Pressure Whenever You Can.
Among the keys to winning at match play is applying pressure. It can cause opponents to make mistakes or take bad swings. So apply pressure whenever you can. For example, if your opponent hits a good drive and you can afford to sacrifice a little distance, try to hit just short of him. That way you can apply pressure by hitting it close. This is an excellent strategy to employ on the closing holes. Making him/her press even a little bit in an effort to match your shots often results in a poor swings.

Control The Match’s Tempo
Controlling tempo is another way to apply pressure to your opponent. If he/she is hyper and fidgety and likes to play quickly, take the opposite approach. Play at a moderate speed, especially if you make a mistake, like skulling one out of a greenside bunker when your opponent is on the green. Take your time raking the bunker and walking to your ball. It allows you to simmer down and it gives him some time to think about his putt. Controlling tempo isn’t always easy. I know. I once had a student taking golf lessons that couldn’t sit still. It was all I could do to slow myself down when playing with him. Just be careful that you don’t unduly delay the game.

Control Your Opponent’s Putting
Putting is just as important in match play as it is in stroke play, if not more important. Concede short putts early but not late in the match. Don’t give your opponent the opportunity to practice any shot that might help him or her later on. This is an old golf tip that works. If your opponent isn’t used to putting short ones, it will be that much harder for them at crunch time.

Know When To Gamble
Know when to gamble and when not to. If you’re down 2 with 3 to play and your opponents plunks one a foot from the hole, it’s obviously no time to lay up. The trick is to recognize those times when it’s absolutely necessary to gamble, when gambling is worth the risk. As you play this format more, you’ll learn when these times occur. Keep them in mind. It may help you in the future.

Match play isn’t about you and the course in a quest for the lowest golf handicap you can achieve. It’s a contest about you against the golf course AND an opponent. That added element makes match play challenging and fun.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.