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How To Break 80 Newsletter

August 22, 2007

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

1) Escaping Through Trees
2) Cutting the Dog Leg
3) Question of the Week - Preventing Swaying
4) Article - Hitting Those Tricky Bunker Shots
5) Article - Improving Your Focus While Playing

Jack’s Note: Don’t own a copy of the How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros yet? Good News. We’re giving away the Audio CD’s (value $29) with your purchase today. Learn More. Also, if you’re looking for help with a specific part of your game and want in-depth instruction, be sure to look at our DVD series. Tap here to find out more.

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1) Escaping Through Trees
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Slicing a drive into the trees may deflate your ego, but it doesn’t have to ruin a hole. Sooner or later every golfer drives one into a clump of trees. It’s not the ideal drive, nor the best place to be on a course. But if you assess the situation properly, consider your options, and stay within yourself, you’ll escape the trees without ruining the hole.

Here are five keys to escaping through trees:

1. Maintain your cool
2. Resist the miracle shot
3. Assess your lie carefully
4. Choose the right club
5. Use the right swing

The key to escaping from the trees is keeping your cool. No one relishes slicing or hooking into the trees. But you must resist making up for a bad drive with a miracle shot. A mistake here could bury you even farther in the trees. Instead, focus on getting out in one swing, even if that means hitting backwards or sideways. You want to find the fairway and position yourself for your next shot.

Having calmed down, assess your lie carefully and decide on your best shot. The more irregular the surface, the more unpredictable the shot. So choose your shot and your club carefully. If a 140-yard, low-trajectory shot is needed, don’t take out an 8-iron and try to keep the ball low. Instead, take a 4-iron or other low iron and use a long chipping motion.

Hitting one into the trees happens. But you can salvage the hole if you keep your wits about you. Resist trying to hit the miracle shot. Instead, assess the lie carefully, choose the right club, and stay within yourself. Do that and you’ll minimize the damage next time you slice one into the trees.
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2) Cutting the Dog Leg
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Cutting a dogleg saves strokes. But it’s a risky shot. You have to be high, long, and accurate. If you miss it, you risk losing your ball in the trees or another hazard. So think carefully before committing to it. A rule of thumb is: Don’t risk it unless you save a full stroke.

If cutting a dogleg means reaching a part 5 in two instead of three or driving the green on a par 4, it’s worth it. If cutting the dogleg means hitting an 8-iron into the green instead of a 5-iron, play it safe.

Here are five keys to cutting the dogleg.

* Know how far you carry your tee shot
* Waggle the club to loosen up
* Choose a flight path before hitting
* Take a couple of super fast swings
* Focus on making solid contact

The secret to cutting the dogleg is knowing how far you carry your tee shot or you won’t reach the fairway. If you need to hit a miracle shot or make the best drive of your life, reconsider the shot. There’s no shame in playing it safe.

Once you commit to the shot, follow this pre-shot routine. Stand behind the ball and waggle the club to loosen up. Golfers tend to tense up in these situations, which hampers their swings. Now, pick a line and a flight path. Envision yourself hitting the shot along that line and path.

Next, take a couple of fast practice swings. You’ll slow down and stay in control on your real swing. With the line and flight path clear in your mind, step up to the tee, take a slow backswing, make a smooth downswing, and execute a balanced finish. Focus on making solid contact at impact, not how high or far you must hit the ball.

Be selective about cutting the dogleg. Make sure the reward is worth the risk. If it is, and you know you can make the shot, go for it. If it’s going to take the best drive of your life, play it safe. It’ll save you strokes and some frustration.

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3) Question of the Week - Preventing Swaying
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Q. Hi, Jack, I’m having a problem staying behind the ball when hitting my driver. This forward movement results in straight, low trajectory drives that don’t achieve the distance I’m after. Do you have a drill or any ideas?

Thanks
Hap Richardson

A. Thanks for the question, Hap. It sounds like you’re swaying— a common problem. Instead of rotating your hips around your spine as you should do in your backswing, you shift your weight from your front foot to your back foot and then from your back foot to your front foot. At impact, you end up hitting the ball off your front foot, producing a low line drive, and moving in front of the ball.

In the proper backswing motion, your front shoulder should turn comfortably beneath your chin, so your chest is aligned over the top of your back leg. As long as you keep your front arm “soft” and relaxed, you should be able to move into a powerful position at the top easily. Also, try widening your stance just a bit.

A simple exercise you can do at home helps with swaying. Adopt your address position, then place a club across the back of your shoulders, holding it in place with your hands. Now take your backswing. As you turn back allow your head and spine to rotate and sense how it feels. Now go into your backswing, allowing your shoulders to straighten out. Do this drill as often as you can. Keep it in mind next time you hit your driver.

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.

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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

To view this newsletter online, please visit:
http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter08222007.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article - Hitting Those Tricky Bunker Shots
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/trickbunk.html

5) Article - Improving Your Focus While Playing
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/focusputt.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

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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.

Some players who come to me for golf lessons want new swings. They’re not playing well, so they want revisit their swings. But golf is like life. Sometimes you get better one step at a time instead of making major changes. A minor change in the how we swing the club or the way we address the ball might not dramatically impact our golf handicap by itself, but string enough of these minor changes together and they do.

Take a friend of mine who recently made a series of minor adjustments to his putting mechanics. These adjustments were things you wouldn’t think would male a major impact, like lightening up on his grip. But for some reason they—along with a slight increase in practice—have really helped him improve his putting. Never known as a great putter, he’s made steady improvement with the flat stick. And the improvement is clearly impacting his golf handicap.

Below are 5 miscellaneous golf tips. None of them are earth shattering, so they may not dramatically alter your game. But they might improve it ever so much. Remember success sometime comes not from taking one giant leap, but from executing a series of small steps.

1. Pre-Set Your Left Hand
Here’s a minor tip that ensures you have the correct grip. Pre-set your left hand (for right-handers) when gripping the club. Assume a handshake with your left hand, keeping your thumb and forefinger close together at the base. Rotate your hand clockwise until you see at least two knuckles. Then curl your fingers as if gripping a club. Slip your left hand onto your grip so the handle sits below the left heel pad. This puts your left hand in a neutral position, promoting clubface rotation through impact. Now add your right. If you can place your hands this way every time, you’ll be a more consistent ball striker.

2. Tweak Your Set
Some experts advise against carrying four wedges. If you carry a standard 60-degree wedge and a standard pitching wedge of about 47 degrees, add a 54-degree wedge. That combination is versatile enough to handle any short game situation. Also, ditch your 3-iron and/or your 4-iron add a lofted fairway wood, a utility club, or a hybrid. These clubs are easier to hit. And get a driver with the right loft. Unless you swing speed rivals that of a PGA pro, you should a driver with at least 10 degrees loft to maximize carry and loft.

3. Devise a Game Plan
Developing a game plan for your home course is smart. It’s also one of the best visualization techniques around. You can change your approach to the holes that cause you grief without ever visiting them, especially those holes that give you trouble. Assess your home course honestly, and then create a new approach to playing them based on the clubs you hit best. If you have problem’s hitting your long irons, but you hit a 5-wood or 7-wood well, use one of those on those long par 3s. If you hit your irons well and you have a par 5 that troubles you, try hitting a 3-wood, a 7-iron, and a 7-iron to reach the green and avoid trouble.

4. Cross-Train Your Game
This is one I mentioned in my golf tips but it works. Don’t just sit around when you’re not playing. Try other activities that sharpen skills your need on the course. Chess teaches patience, improves focus, and sharpens strategy-making capabilities. Golf Video games help sharpen skills like reading greens, factoring in wind, and managing a course. Downhill skiing improves balance and strengthens hips, legs, and core muscles. Darts sharpens your aim concentration, and hand-eye coordination.

5. Get Cozy With Your Grip
Changing your grip too much gets frustrating. If your contemplating changing your grip, there’s no better place to do it than at home. Setting your hands on the club correctly saves time and trouble on the course. Try placing a ball on the floor and swinging over it. By swinging without hitting a ball you can concentrate just on the feeling of the grip, without worrying about hitting the ball. Each swing helps. And when you finally get back to the course, the grip will feel natural.

These five tips won’t suddenly change you from a player with a high golf handicap to one with a low golf handicap. But they may put you on the path to improvement without the help of golf instruction sessions. Remember what Chairman Mao said: The longest journey starts with the first step.

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.

Golf doesn’t have a lot of rules, but you should know them. That’s why it’s good to review the rules periodically. I don’t devote a golf lesson or a longer golf instruction session to the rules, but I mention them during my golf lessons. That way the student learns the rules without detracting from his or her golf lesson.

Below we examine five common rules. Adhere to them whenever you play. Also, don’t forget about local course rules. All clubs have rules covering specific course areas. If you’re playing a course for the first time, check out these rules beforehand. They may save you a stroke or two in a sticky situation. If you’re playing a course for the umpteenth time, refresh your memory as to the local rules. They may have changed.

1. Water Hazards
Golf’s rules define a water hazard as “any sea, lake, pond, river, ditch, surface draining ditch, or other open water course (whether or not containing water), and anything of a similar nature.” Courses mark water hazards with yellow stakes and lines. But the rules don’t stop there, as I mention in my golf tips, they also discuss a lateral water hazard.

The rules define a “later water hazard” as part of a water hazard “so situated that it is not possible, or is deemed by the committee to be impracticable, to drop a ball behind the water hazard according to Rule 26-1b.” In other words, it’s a water hazard that doesn’t lie between the tee and the green. The course marks these off by red stakes or lines.

If you hit into water you have four remedies:

1. Play the ball as near as possible to the spot from which the original ball was played.

2. Drop a ball behind the water hazard, keeping the point at which the ball entered the water’s edge, directly behind the hole and the spot where the ball is dropped. There’s no limit to how far back the ball may be dropped, as long as the point of crossing lies between the drop and the hole.

3. Play the ball as it lies in the water hazard.

4. If a ball goes into a lateral water hazard, drop a ball away from the hazard, but within two club lengths of the point from which the ball last crossed the water. However, the ball can’t come to rest any closer to the hole than the point at which the first ball crossed the hazard.

2. Hang Time
You’re on the 7th green and you hit what your think is a great put. The line is good. The speed is good. And the break is good. It’s a done deal, you think. But the ball stops just at the lip of the cup. How long can you wait for the ball to drop into the cup. According to rule 16-2, you can wait the time it takes you to reach the hole plus 10 seconds. By the way, there’s no penalty for allowing a ball stay in the cup and letting the next player’s ball land on it.

3. White Stakes
You tee off on the 9th hole. You pull the ball left pass some white stakes. White stakes on a course indicate out-of-bounds. You have only one option under Rule 27—the dreaded stroke and distance penalty. Add a stroke and drop a ball as close as possible to where you last played. To keep play moving when you might be OB, play a provisional ball under Rule 27-2. Keep in mind that a wall or other boundary can also mark OB under local rules. That’s why you need to check local rules.

4. Lost Ball
On the 15th you hit a drive just to the left of the fairway in deep rough. You look for the ball but can’t find it. You declare a lost ball. After hitting, you discover your original ball. If you declared a lost ball and you hit a second ball, the provisions of Rule 27 apply. Once the ball is declared lost and another ball played you can’t play the original ball. However, what if the first ball went in the hole?

If the ball goes in the hole, the first ball would be counted, even if you hit a second ball. The first rule of golf states: The Game of Golf consists of playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules. The key words here are “into the hole.” Once the first ball when in the hole, the hole was over for the player. Once you’ve done that, your play of that hole is considered finished. You’ve completed play of a hole as soon as your ball finds the cup

These four rules come into play fairly frequently. They won’t necessarily change your golf handicap or eliminate your need for golf lessons, but they are good to know to enhance your knowledge of the game and avoid getting others mad for not knowing them.

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

August 15, 2007

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

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Maintain Your Swing Radius To Boost Power
2) Hitting the Long Fairway Bunker Shot
3) Question of the Week - Defeating the Dreaded YIPS
4) Article - Golf’s Four Most Common Rules
5) Article - Five Quick Tips For The Weekend

Jack’s Note: Congrats to Tiger on Major win #13. He’s really in a league of his own..especially down the stretch. Was like he was toying with Ernie and Woody at one point until he buried the birdie on 15.

How’s your sand game? Well, I know mine could use a little touch up and you’ll be excited to know we’ve just finished putting together another new DVD specifically for bunker play. Keep an eye out for it later this month…

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1) Maintain Your Swing Radius To Boost Power
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Maintaining swing radius is a must, if you want to boost your power. Radius is the distance from your left shoulder (for right-handers) to the end of the clubshaft. Or, as some like to put it, it’s the distance from the center of your golf swing to the outer-edge. And it’s the key to generating power.

Maintaining radius enables you to strike the ball solidly. To do so, your lead arm must be in line with your other arm at impact. Radius is one of the five keys to consistency and power. The other four are

* Eliminate tension on the tee
* Assume the proper grip
* Generate leverage
* Release the club properly

Unfortunately, many golfers fail to maintain radius during the swing, short-circuiting power. They lift up during the backswing, pulling them away from the ball. Then they lower themselves during the downswing, moving closer to the ball. To hit the ball solidly, the player must come down the same distance as he or she went up. If he doesn’t, he’ll miss-hit the ball. In addition to short-circuiting power, a loss of radius causes you to hook, slice, hit a heel shot, and so on.

Maintain radius by taking the club away low and slow using a one-piece takeaway. Use this visual aid as well: Picture a line running from the bottom of your neck to the ball. This is your swing’s radius. As you swing the club back and through, keep the line steady. Your swing will become shorter and more compact, boosting your chances of making solid contact.

Maintaining radius improves ballstriking. It’s one of the keys to consistency and power. Focus on maintaining radius the next time you’re at the range and you’ll find yourself hitting the ball straighter and longer.
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2) Hitting the Long Fairway Bunker Shot
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PGA pros can hit long irons out of a bunker. But you’re not a PGA pro. And neither am I. For most of us, hitting a long iron off grass is hard enough, never mind trying to hit one out of a bunker. Most weekend players do better hitting a 5-wood or a 7-wood out of a bunker than a 3-iron or a 4-iron. But you have to make some minor adjustments to do it effectively.

Here are five keys to hitting the long fairway bunker shot:

* Open the clubface slightly
* Play the ball back
* Dig in your toes
* Swing normally
* Make ball first contact

To hit a 5-wood or 7-wood out of a bunker, you must hit the ball with a descending arc, rather than trying to pick it clean as you might normally do. To do that you need to make two adjustments. Open the clubface a little, giving you a little extra bounce off the sand. And play the ball back slightly in your stance, maybe an inch or two from the normal ball position. These two adjustments will help you make a slightly steeper swing.

In addition, dig your toes into the sand, not your heels, which will help you avoid hitting a fat shot. And don’t over swing. Many recreation players try to crush the ball when hitting a wood. Instead, pick out a target well within reach and go for it. Swing normally and focus on making first ball contact, which will get you out of the bunker and onto the fairway in good shape to hit the next shot.

Next time you need to hit a long fairway bunker shot, try hitting a 5-wood or 7-wood. They’re easier to hit than a 3-iron or 4-iron and can be just as effective. You want to get out of the bunker and land in good position to hit the next shot.

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3) Question of the Week - Defeating the Dreaded YIPS
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Q. Hi, Jack: My putting was always ok. So most of my practice time has been devoted to the full swing. Lately as my full swing game has improved, I have started yipping short putts. How do I deal with the dreaded yips???

J. McDonough

A. Thanks for the question. Having the “yips” is gut wrenching. They’re generated by a breakdown of the left wrist, causing the right hand to dominate. (For left-handers, it’s a problem with the right wrist.) The cure is anything that locks the left wrist in place, and encourages a pendulum like action in your swing.

One cure is the reverse hands grip. Reversing the hands encourages the locking of the left wrist and creates a pendulum-like swing. Everything else—your pre-putt routine, basic posture, ball position, head position, and so on—stays the same.

Another cure is the clamp grip. With this grip, the left hand reaches down the shaft while the right hand clasps the left forearm to the club to steady the left wrist. The clamp grip is considered the ultimate measure in preventing the left wrist from breaking down during the putt. It also encourages a pendulum like swing.

These cures have worked for others. But whatever the cure, you still must practice to be a good putter. One of the best tools to practice with is a metronome, a device for helping people keep tempo on a piano. The metronome helps develop a nice smooth stroke with great tempo.

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/newsletter08152007.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article - Golf’s Four Most Common Rules
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/rules.html

5) Article - Five Quick Tips For The Weekend
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/fivetips.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.