How To Break 80 Newsletter

May 7, 2008

“The Web’s Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter”
===================================================

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Beating Long Bunker Shots
2) Fine-Tune A Draw
3) Question of the Week - Avoiding Toe Hits
4) Article - Sinking Short Putts Cuts Golf Handicap
5) Article - Changes At TPC Sawgrass Dictate Play

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1) Beating Long Bunker Shots
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Your drive plops down in a bunker 30 yards to the green’s right. Normally, you’d use your standard bunker shot. But that won’t work here. Even if you take a longer backswing, you won’t hit the ball much beyond 20 yards, leaves you short. So what do you do?

Below are five keys to executing longer bunker shots:

1. Square your clubface
2. Narrow your stance
3. Use extra body
4. Employ a full finish
5. Keep your heel down

Even if you’re a great bunker player, your normal bunker shot won’t work here. But making a few adjustments to your normal shot helps.

First, set your clubface slightly open at address. But square it through impact like you do with your normal shot. Now pull your feet in closer and just barely dig them into the sand. This move produces a shallower divot and gets the club and the ball moving faster down the target line.

Also, when you swing, turn through the shot, just like you would with a normal iron shot. You’ll need extra body with this shot, so keep everything moving—body, arms, and club—to a full finish. And keep your back heel down. You won’t have a solid stance with this shot, so keeping your back heel down helps stability. And don’t try pivoting on your back heel, either. You’ll lose your balance.

Use your 9-iron instead of your sand wedge on longer bunker shots. Make the adjustments suggested above. And swing away. The adjustments, combined with extra body behind the ball, will land you on the green and leave you in position to complete the up and down.

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2) Fine-Tune A Draw
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Few shots offer the benefits of a draw: It carries more, runs more, and holds its line better in the wind than a fade. But learning to hit a draw if you normally hit a fade or a slice is hard. Since your body is used to making the opposite moves, you must re-train your muscles to hit a draw. That’s hard. But adjusting your stance and grip, plus practicing two drills work wonders.

Below are five keys to hitting a draw:

1. Adopt a closed stance
2. Use a stronger left-hand grip
3. Follow an inside track
4. Aim right at the top of the swing
5. Release the club through impact

The key to hitting a draw is shallowing out your swing. If you start your downswing by spinning your shoulders, you create a steep angle of attack, resulting in a slice, pop-up, or pull. To create a shallow angle of attack, quiet your shoulders and let your arms control the swing. Adjusting your stance and grip help.

Take a square stance. Now draw your back foot back a few inches, which closes your stance and clubface. With this stance, your clubface aims directly along the target line, but follows an in-to-out path in to the ball, rather than a fade’s out-to-in path. Adopting a slightly stronger left-hand grip also helps. It encourages an active release of the hands and imparts the necessary sidespin on the ball for a draw.

To fine-tune a draw, try this drill:

Tee up a ball. Position it forward in your stance. And drop to your knees. Now swing back and through, knocking the ball of the tee. Don’t worry about how far you hit it. Swinging back is easy. But coming forward is not. You’ll probably hit the ground a few times before hitting the ball cleanly. That’s your shoulders kicking in. You’ll make solid contact with the ball once your arms learn to control the shoulders.

In addition to this drill, try hitting a ball off a sidehill—a drill we’ve discussed in previous golf tips. Use a hill with a 15 percent to 20 percent slope. However, the angle of the slope is less important than the re-training of your muscles, so don’t go crazy measuring the slope’s angle.

Practicing these two drills fine-tunes your draw. Before long, you’ll be hitting one on demand, just like the pros do.

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3) Question of the Week - Avoiding Toe Hits
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Q. Hi, Jack, I recently applied impact tape to the clubfaces of my irons and realized that I consistently hit the ball off the toe. The result is a lower trajectory and lost distance. My hands hang almost directly under my chin at setup, and I take a short backswing to avoid distorting the swing. I just have a hard time hitting it on the club’s sweet spot. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Dan Foster

A. Thanks for the question, Dan. Toe hits can drive you crazy. But you can eliminate them by keeping these five keys in mind:

* Swing down on the ball
* Keep your arms extended
* Focus on center-face contact
* Swing the club around your body
* Visualize two balls before hitting

Losing arm extension at impact causes toe hits. These often happen when trying to lift the ball off the ground, which retracts the swing path. Instead, focus on swinging down on the ball, keeping your arms extended, and making center-face contact. Also, swing the club around your body. Visualizing two balls on the ground and trying to hit the outside one helps, too.

The Tee drill helps with toe hits:

Stick two tees in the ground about a clubhead length apart. One tee is closer to you than the other. Set up to the tee that’s closer to you. But swing at the one that’s farther away. Try picking the tee out of the ground.

This drill is simple but effective. It flattens your downswing path, forces you to extend your arms, and makes you swing around your body. Practice it until you can pick the tee out of the ground instinctively. Eliminating toe hits shaves strokes off your scores and may just save your sanity.

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

To view this newsletter online, please visit:
http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter05072008.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article - Sinking Short Putts Cuts Golf Handicap
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/sinking-short-putts-cuts-golf-handicap.html

5) Article - Changes At TPC Sawgrass Dictate Play
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/changes-at-tpc-sawgrass-dictate-play.html

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, send a blank email to break80ezine@aweber.com

===================================================
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.

The 2007 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass was, as one writer put it, all about change. From remodeling the clubhouse to replacing the dirt on the course, the changes revitalized this Championship venue, bringing a fresh look to the anchor of the PGA Tour’s Florida swing. And nearly every player in the tournament greeted these changes positively, especially Phil Mickelson, last year’s winner.

But two changes stood out. The re-schedule of the tournament from March to May and the on-course alterations significantly increased the challenge of winning The Players Championship for a star-studded field that included Tiger Woods. These changes not only illustrate just how much weather conditions can impact a player’s score, but also why even weekend golfers must study the courses they play if they want to maintain a low golf handicap.

Re-scheduling The Tournament
The Players Championship anchored the Tour’s Florida swing for years. When most of the country was just warming up to the golf season, this tournament was showcasing the sport. However, the reasons for moving the date of The Players from March to May outweighed the tradition of maintaining the Florida Swing—which remained intact with the addition of the PODS Championship in Tampa and the playing of the World Golf Championships-CA Championship at Doral in Miami.

The schedule change eliminated the late March pattern of inconsistent weather in north Florida, which often brought tournament-halting rain. It also brought together the game’s top players in key tournaments for five straight months, from The Masters in April to the PGA Championship in August. The change creates a nice flow of events, good for attendance, players, and television viewers. With all these pluses going for it, the change was easy to approve.

Shaping Up The Course
The change of dates also meant that tournament officials could set up the course the way course designer Pete Dye intended—fast and firm with Bermuda grass rough. When the tournament was played in March, officials seeded the course with rye grass to get the course ready. But now, they didn’t have to use rye grass.

In addition, the officials had the grounds keepers dig up the entire playing surface and replace the soil with 6 to 8 inches of water-draining sand. The old soil had become clogged over the years with organic material that inhibited drainage. Officials also lengthened some holes.

“Over the years, technology has taken away some of the holes that were at one time considered the long holes,” said PGA Master Professional And TPC National Director of Golf, Billy Dettlaff, in a recent interview. “So we’ve added a little bit of yardage to certain holes to bring back the original integrity of the course. Now for example, hole no. 8, which was always intended to be the longest par 3 on the course, will play as a long par 3 again, vs. a mid-iron shot which is what it had become in recent times.”

In addition, the PGA TOUR installed a SubAir subsurface mechanical drainage system under the greens to vacuum water in wet conditions and inject air, if necessary. However, the course was draining so well on its own last year that the maintenance staff only had to turn on the SubAir for testing before last year’s tournament. Hopefully, it will be the same this year’s.

Forced To Be Accurate
The changes at TPC Sawgrass force players to be more accurate off the tee than previously, since off-line tee shots would bounce more readily into difficult positions. Meanwhile, new chipping areas around the greens make the short game even more vital to good scoring. In addition, the change to drier weather and the course alterations make the surface firmer. It also makes scoring more difficult.

In short, the course is designed to host championship golf and the conditions reflect that. The course tests every facet of a player’s game. You have to hit good approach shots, so you need good drives in order to hit those. All your short game shots have to be working, because if you miss the green, saving par is a really tough task. And you have to putt well to win, since the greens are small and roll fast.

Add to the changes three of the toughest finishing holes in golf and you have a challenge worthy of the Tournament’s field. With Tiger Woods out, look for Phil Mickelson to win again this year or at the very least, make a strong showing. To do so, however, he’ll again to account for all the changes made to the course and play accordingly. Adjusting to weather and course conditions helps players maintain low golf handicaps year after year.

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.

Most of us think we sink a lot of short putts. But research indicates otherwise. Weekend golfers sink only about half of their 12-foot putts. While professional golfers under tour conditions sink only about 20 percent of them. The emphasis here, of course, is on “under tour conditions,” which increases putting difficulty.

But sinking more short putts improves your golf handicap, since we usually have many more short putts than long ones during a round. So if you’re really serious about lowering your golf handicap, work on sinking more short putts.

One area of short putting to focus on is alignment. Poor alignment causes more missed short putts than almost anything else. The tips below on help improve alignment.

Correct Shoulder Misalignment
Pulled putts hurts many a weekend golfer. Among the biggest causes of pulled putts is shoulder misalignment. Players with low golf handicaps tend to blame pulled putts on a breakdown of the wrists. But that’s not always the case. If your shoulders are misaligned, you’ll pull putts.

Next time you’re on the practice green, try this simple test: Go through your pre-shot routine. Take your address. Now, bend down and place your club’s shaft lengthwise along your feet so that it’s touching your toes. If the shaft is not running parallel to the target line, you may have discovered why you’re pulling your short putts.

How can you fix this? First, push your hands as close together as possible. The closer your hands, the less likely you are to dip your back shoulder toward the ball, caused by how you grip the club. Second, think of the line of your shoulders as you address the ball. If you’re fighting a pull, make sure your shoulders are parallel to the target line. That way when you swing, it will be along the line of the putt, not out to in.

Aligning The Putterface
In addition to aligning your shoulders properly, your must also align your putterface correctly. The putter’s sweet spot must be perpendicular to the target for the ball to be online and stay that way during the putt. If you’re missing short putts, you could be taking this fundamental for granted—a common error among players with high golf handicaps.

Practicing the credit card drill helps eliminate this problem:

Find a straight 8-foot putt on the practice green and drop a ball down. Go through your normal pre-shot routine, and then take your address. Once you’re set, have a friend switch the ball for a credit card, placing it square to the ball with the long sides pointing toward the hole. Now rise up, stand back, and look along the card’s long edges. These lines should bracket the hole.

If you’re off, repeat the drill, but align the credit card first. Then place the ball on top of it. Now set your putterface square to the edges of the credit card. This allows you to see what straight looks like. After a few practice sessions, you’ll get an idea of what straight really is.

Line-up The Lettering
Another method of improving alignment is perhaps the simplest of all. Find a green where you have a straight putt about 10 to 12 feet. Now drop a ball down and take your address. Align yourself as you normally would. Make sure the clubface is at right angles to the ball. Now, holding the putter tightly, kneel down behind the putter and look over the putterhead to see if you had the putter aligned correctly. If not, keep working on this until you do.

In addition, you can reduce alignment problems when playing by using an old trick that many pros use. Before putting, place a marker behind your ball. Now bend down and align the ball’s lettering so that it’s aiming directly at the hole. Go through your pre-shot routine and take your address. Make sure the putter’s sweet spot is perpendicular to the lettering on the ball before putting. If it is, you’re aligned properly.

Tiger Woods spends about 45 percent of his time on the practice green hitting short putts. That tells you how important sinking those 10 and 12 footers really is. To sink more short putts, take proper alignment seriously. Make sure you are correctly aligned on every putt, even the short ones. Sinking more short putts chop strokes off golf handicaps.

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.

How To Break 80 Newsletter

April 30, 2008
===================================================
“The Web’s Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter”
===================================================

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Warming Up Your Wrist Hinge
2) Elbows Rule In Putting
3) Question of the Week - Getting It Together On The Course
4) Article - Hitting More Greens Cuts Golf Handicaps
5) Article - Smashing It Straight

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1) Warming Up Your Wrist Hinge
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Maybe you were finishing a last minute project at work, traffic was heavier than anticipated, or something out of the ordinary occurred. Whatever it was, it prevented you from hitting balls at the practice range. Now you find yourself on the first tee, and you’re tight.

Luckily, you hit your first drive fairly straight. You’re about 170 yards to the green and you need a mid-iron to get to the pin. But with a tight swing, you know you’ll never make it. What do you do? You need to find the rhythm and timing in your swing before hitting your next shot.

Setting the club correctly in your backswing is the key to doing this. This critical move ties everything in your swing together. The key is rehearsing this move a couple of times before swinging.

Here are 5 tips on how to do that:

* Take your regular address position
* Cock the club
* Bend your wrists back
* Make sure the club is parallel
* Watch for the wrinkles

Take your normal address position. Then, cock the club straight up by hinging your wrist until the shaft is just short of horizontal. Now, take the club back by bending your wrists until the club’s shaft is parallel to the target line. As you do, check your right wrist. If you’re left-handed, check your left wrist. If you see wrinkles across the back of your right wrist, you’ve done it correctly.

Do this exercise a few times before you hit your next shot. It only takes a few seconds. But it helps produce a more fluid swing. And getting off to a good start makes a difference in how well or poorly you play the round.

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2) Elbows Rule In Putting
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Starting the ball on line is critical in putting. If your putts are not on line, there’s no way to correct for it once the putt is made. The ball just keeps rolling right on past the hole. That’s why professional players emphasize this phase of putting. They know what happens when they don’t

Your elbows play an important role in making sure your putts start on line. New studies using advanced motion analysis systems indicate that the distance between your elbows says a lot about your putting setup and your ability to start the ball on line when putting. These studies show that when your elbows are 12 inches apart, with the pockets pointing almost straight up, they bend the right amount to put you in the best position to smooth stroke back and forth on the ideal path.

Here are the findings from the studies:

* When your elbows are less than 12 inches apart, your arms become too tight to make a fluid stroke. You have to stand up to keep your hands on the handle of the club.

* When your elbows are about 12 inches apart, your arms hang relaxed and tension- free, they way they should. In addition, your shoulders square up to the target line.

* When your elbows are greater than 12 inches apart, your posture becomes too hunched over. You’re likely to stand up during your stroke and push the ball to the right. Vice versa for left-handers.

One of the keys to sinking a putt is placing your elbows about 12 inches apart when you set up. Once you’ve taken your putting stance, check to see how far apart they are. Use a mental picture of a ruler to figure the distance. If you’re elbows aren’t 12 inches apart, make an adjustment. This exercise helps your putts get off on the right path every time you putt.

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3) Question of the Week - Getting It Together On The Course
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Q. Hi, Jack, I started playing golf again after nearly 40 years and I just love it. Things have changed some during that time, and basically, I have had to start over. I have extensively studied swing mechanics and I am familiar with them. However, I have a hard time putting it all together on the course. I usually do fine on the range and putting green, but struggle on the course. Do you have any suggestions on how to overcome the mental “overload “on the course and bring everything together?

Thanks,
Joe Klumpp
Mandeville, LA.

A. That’s a great question, Joe. Many people have the same problem. And one of the biggest reasons is thinking too much about what happened on the last hole. Forget the two-footer you just missed, the bad drive you just made, or the lake that’s coming up. Instead, focus on the five-footer you have right now. Block everything else out.

Below are other mental strategies you can use to help you control the one thing in your game you can control—how you play.

Think Small
Hitting to an area isn’t always good enough. Think smaller. Pick out a spot on the green or the fairway and hit to it. It’s called narrowing your focus.

Use Visualization
Visualization is powerful. Use it as much as you can. All sport is led by the mind: what you see is what you get. The easiest way to access the power of visualization is through mental imagery.

Stay in the moment
Stay in the moment. Don’t think about the outcome of your shot. When you do, you’re focusing on the uncontrollable. Focus instead on what you can do now.

Enjoy the game
Why do you play? Is it for relaxation? Camaraderie? Mastery? Whatever the reason, remind yourself every why you originally started playing. If you’re going to play golf, you might as well enjoy it. Right?

These mental strategies work. They may not turn you into a PGA pro, but they will help you get it together on the course. If you’re serious about improving your game, work on both the physical and the mental sides of the game.

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

To view this newsletter online, please visit:
http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter04302008.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article - Hitting More Greens Cuts Golf Handicaps
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/hitting-more-greens-cuts-golf-handicaps.html
5) Article - Smashing It Straight
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/smashing-it-straight.html

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, send a blank email to break80ezine@aweber.com

===================================================
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.