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How To Break 80 Newsletter

June 28, 2006

“The Web’s Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter”
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In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) How to Hit a Ball When It’s Above Your Feet
2) Chipping It Close-Which Club Is Best?

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1) How to Hit a Ball When It’s Above Your Feet 
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Hitting a ball when it’s above your feet is a fairly common shot. And like many shots in golf, hitting it successfully is a matter of making a few adjustments to your stance and swing. Unfortunately, some recreational golfers fail to make these right adjustments and end up hitting into more trouble or out of bounds.

Here are 6 keys to hitting the ball when it’s above your feet.

• Aim right of the target
• Line up with target line
• Stand tall throughout the swing
• Keep your weight centered over your arches
• Swing along slope
• Stay in balance

Among the keys to executing this shot is aiming right of target. That’s because the ball tends to move right to left (for right-handers) with this shot. If you line up dead center on target, there’s a good chance you’ll pull the ball to the left. Also, line up your shoulders, hips, and feet with the target line, not the flagstick. And since the ball is closer to your upper body, stand taller throughout your swing.

Another key to the shot is centering your weight above the arches of your feet, not on the balls of your feet. The change will help you swing along the slope and stay in balance throughout the shot.

Many recreational golfers shift their upper body forward during the swing and come into the ball lower than what they were at address, resulting in a fat shot. Or they’ll lose balance, pop out of the stance, and hit a weak slice. Instead, keep your posture constant. Maintain the same spine angle that you set at address right on through impact.

Sometimes, with this type of shot, you need to make major adjustments to your stance and/or swing. In that case try choking down on the club and aim about 20 yards to the right of the hole.

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2) Chipping It Close-Which Club Is Best?
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Among Tom Watson’s best shots is a chip-in for an eagle on the 18th hole at the SBS Senior Classic. He hit a running 9 iron up a slope and into the hole. Afterwards, he credited club choice for his success. Tom’s philosophy: There’s too many different situations and lies to rely on just one club.

Indeed, club choice is key when chipping it close. Ideally, you want to choose a club based on how far the ball will roll on the green, and then let the club’s loft do the work. The idea is to let the ball run to the hole like a putt. The clubs of choice for this shot are the 7, 8, 9, PW, and SW.

Five tips on chipping it close to the pin are:

• Aim for a flat landing spot
• Consider the green’s condition
• Decide on the required loft
• Use less lofted clubs for uphill shots
• Match the swing to the club

Your address position depends on which club you hit. Before choosing the club, consider the lie, condition of the putting surface, and green’s speed before hitting the shot. Also consider the wind, slope, and grain of the green. Once you selected the club, aim for a flat spot on either the green or the fringe, and let the ball run to the hole.

In general, the higher the club’s loft, the shorter the roll. The farther you’re away from the pin, the more roll you need. Some players like to use a less lofted club with an uphill lie. Others like to use a more lofted club with a downhill lie. Swing a little harder with a more lofted club.

A good drill for chipping it close is hitting chip shots with different clubs from various distances around the green. This drill helps develop a feel for the roll you can expect with each club.

Keep practicing this drill until you have a good feel for the club’s roll. Once you do, you’ll find yourself chipping the ball closer and closer to the pin, cutting strokes from your scores.

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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

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
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About the Author
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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.

Everyone eventually lands in a bad lie. It’s just a fact of life. Even a good shot sometimes ends up in a divot. Shots off the mark, on the other hand, sometimes land on bare ground or in the rough. Pitching successfully from a bad lie cuts strokes from your score and positions you for your next shot.

A key to pitching from a bad lie is maintaining your focus. Pitching from a divot or bare ground isn’t as tricky as it seems, if you do. In fact, it’s fairly straightforward, as I’ve often say in my golf tips. It’s just a question of selecting the right club and making a few adjustments.

Here are 5 things you absolutely must do in order to chip well out of a bad lie:

1. Select a club with a sharp leading edge
2. Position the ball in the middle (or back) of stance
3. Keep your hands ahead of the ball
4. Set wrists slightly earlier
5. Take a steeper attack angle on downswing

No single club is ideal for hitting from a bad lie. While a sand wedge is tempting, it’s better to hit a pitching wedge or a 9 iron. Their sharper leading edges increase your chances of striking the ball solidly. Club selection, as I emphasize in my golf lessons, is almost as important as technique, so choose wisely.

Also key to hitting from bad lies is your attack angle. After selecting your club assume a normal posture, with the hands ahead of the ball and the club shaft and your left arm (for right-handers) forming a direct line down to the ball positioned in the middle of your stance or toward the back of it. Lean forward slightly. The ball position and weight shift encourage a steeper angle of attack than usual.

The downswing is similar to hitting a pitch shot from a clean fairway lie, except for the wrists. Set these slightly earlier in the takeaway than normally. Also critical is the centering of your weight over the ball. Coil your upper body over your flexed right knee. As you coil, you’ll shift your weight slightly backward, positioning to hit the ball with a strong descending blow.

You’ll need force to punch the clubhead down into the back of the ball, driving it forward. Most of your weight should be on the front foot at impact, while your head should be centered over the ball as the clubhead cuts through the grass. Also, keep your left-hand firm.

In my golf lessons I show students a photograph of a club striking the ball when hitting from a bad lie. The photo shows that the angle of the shaft relative to the target is shifted forward quite dramatically. It also shows the hands leading the clubhead through impact.

A ball landing in deep rough is one of the few times on a golf course where brute force is required. Don’t change your swing; just put some muscle into it. Your main goal here is simply to get of the grass and onto the fairway, in good shape for the next shot. The last thing you want to do, as I emphasize in my golf lessons, is ending up in the rough again.

Also, experiment with different clubs. Experimentation will tell you which clubs you hit best from which lie. Of course, not every pitch shot has to be perfect. So try hitting the ball close to the pin by landing on spots other than the green, such as a few feet in front of the hole, and letting the ball roll. Or, try using the green’s contour help funnel the shot to the hole.

Landing in a bad lie doesn’t have to ruin a good hole. If you maintain focus, choose the right club, and make adjustments to your stance and swing, you’ll be able to hit successfully from a bad lie. Players with low golf handicaps are adept at this. Players with high golf handicaps, on the other hand, need to practice this. Once you’ve developed confidence in your ability to do so, you’ll take landing in a bad lie in stride.

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.

When I mention the word basics in my golf lessons, players start thinking about things like grip, posture, ball position, alignment, and so on. That’s only natural. Golf pros talk so much about these subjects in golf instruction sessions that players assume they’re the focus when the discussion comes round to the basics of a golf shot.

But there are four other basics—plane, centering, radius, and face—that key good ball striking. Players must master the four factors to cut their golf handicaps down to size. These factors, which are sometimes neglected in golf lessons and golf tips, determine consistency. If you’re off with these even slightly, you’ll slice, hook, or mis-hit the shot, regardless of your grip, posture, ball position, or alignment.

Plane:

Plane is the angle your club takes at address. Your swing should have a circular look to it when viewed from a face on perspective. The swing won’t be a pure circle, but it will have a recognizable circular shape. Looking from down the target line, the circle should be tilted the same angle as the clubshaft as it sits at address. This area encompasses the most direct and powerful route back to the golf ball.

The club must remain in this defined plane as it approaches the golf ball on the downswing. While your swing plane may change from waist high in your downswing to waist high in your finish, your club must go through the original plane at address to hit straight shots solidly. So while you may see some odd looking swings by Tour players, you’ll also see that they always return the club to the same plane of address at the bottom of their swings.

Face:

Face is the second important factor. To gain control over the clubface at the moment of impact, your hands must be at the same position when you make contact with the ball as at address or may be a bit forward. Returning your hands to the same position guarantees that your clubface is pointing in the same direction as when you set up to hit the ball.

There are three ways you can hold the club at address—with your hands on the left side of the grip (weak), the middle of the grip (neutral), or the right hand side of the grip (strong) for right-handers. The best grip is the one you can produce naturally shot, after shot, after shot. If you look closely at the pros, you’ll see players with different grips, yet they still hit consistently straight shots. Why? Because the way you grip the club matters less than the how your hands are at address. If you have a strong grip at address, you better not have a weak grip when making impact; otherwise, you’ll end up with either an opened or a closed clubface at impact.

Radius

Radius is the distance from your left shoulder (for right handers) to the end of the clubshaft. In other words, it is the distance from the center of your golf swing to the outer-edge. Your lead arm must be in line with or trailing your arm at impact, known as “maintaining radius.” Bobby Jones, the great amateur, called this “good timing.”

Maintaining radius enables you to strike the ball solidly. Many recreational players that I give golf lessons to try to force the shaft of the club past the lead arm prior to impact. This effort causes the clubface to travel up not down, resulting in a fat or thin shot. A loss of radius causes a hook, slice, loss of distance, and wide assortment of other poor shots.

Centering:

Centering refers to the spine and head at address. While you may have some lateral movement of your head and spine in your swing, consistent hitters keep these areas, or their centers, steady. A steady center involves two things. From a down-the-line-look, the amount that you bend forward from your hips at address is constant throughout your swing. From a face-on perspective, your center (spine and head) remains as constant as possible as well. Your swing, as I’ve explained in my golf tips, revolves around your center.

While the basics like grip, posture, ball position, and alignment are important, they only prepare you to take your swing. They increase your chances of hitting a golf ball when the more important basics are in order, producing accurate, solid shots. To lower your golf handicap, you must the other “basics” of the swing—plane, fact, radius, and center.

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.

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How To Break 80 Newsletter

June 21, 2006

“The Web’s Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter”
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In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Developing the Proper Release
2) How to Hit a Chop Shot

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1) Developing the Proper Release 
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Jack Nicklaus is arguably the game’s greatest player. During his career he won more major tournaments than any other player in history. He also won a lot of money along the way. But as good as Jack was, there’s one thing about his swing we wouldn’t want you to copy—his release.

If you look at a photo of Jack’s release, you’ll see him in the traditional reverse-C position. It dictates that the player’s head stay well behind the ball at impact, while the hips slide laterally. This release places significant stress on the body. Maybe that’s why Jack has an artificial hip.

The modern release, on the other hand, places little stress on the body, since there’s no backward bend of the spine, as there is with the reverse-C release. Instead, the modern release requires the golfer to finish in a relaxed upright position. Because the release is the result of a strong pivot motion in which the body—not the hands and arms—power the club through impact, it features a natural and full extension of the arms.

In addition, the right side of the body is stacked over the lower body, while the right shoulder is closer to the target than the left, which is made possible by rotating the hips in a counterclockwise motion. The head, which lagged the ball in the old release, moves slightly in the modern swing. Compare photos of modern players with those of senior players and you’ll see the difference.

To develop a modern release, take two irons and grip them together. Assume your address position and place the irons behind your back foot. Using the pivot of your hips and the core of your body, drag the clubs along the ground as you would a broom. When you approach the impact zone, use your core to heave your arms and clubs though impact and into the release. Remember to keep turning your body in a counterclockwise direction all the way through.

The modern release, unlike the reverse-C, places little stress on the golfer’s hips and back. It requires practice to master, however, like everything else in golf. Next time you’re on the range, try the release drill. It may dramatically change you game.

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2) How to Hit a Chop Shot
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Note I said “chop”, not “chip.” Nothing’s worse than hitting into long, wet grass. If you try pitching onto the fairway using standard techniques, you’ll probably end up hitting from a lie only a few feet away or from the exact same spot, with no better hope of improvement. Worse yet, you may find yourself digging into your pocket for another ball.

The best way out of this dilemma is the chop shot. Here are 5 keys to hitting this shot:

• Choose the right club
• Center the ball in your stance
• Choke down on the club
• Shift your weight forward
• Take a steep, chopping swing

Taking a normal swing is obviously out of the question. The problem is the grass, which will twist the clubhead in your hands before impact. To play this shot, choose your most lofted club and center the ball in your stance. Choke down on the club a bit and shift your weight forward.

Now, take a steep, chopping swing. Think in terms of swinging the club as if it were an axe and you were chopping wood. Make the backswing and the downswing as steep as possible. Don’t worry about your follow-through. Swing to make impact only. The lack of follow-through augments the swing arc, causing the loft of the club to pitch the ball high in the air and land softly on the fairway.

It’s no fun landing in long, wet grass. But when you do, your best bet is the chop shot. Executed properly, it will pitch you onto the fairway.

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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:
Fix Your Finish to Improve Your Golf Handicap
Debunking Popular Golf Myths

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.