How To Break 80 Newsletter

May 14, 2008

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

1) Putting Basics: Jack’s Way
2) Four Tips On Hitting the Fairway
3) Question of the Week – Spread Your Feet For Stability
4) Article – Hitting Driver, 3W, 3I
5) Article – Website Scores Big With Golfers

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1) Putting Basics: Jack’s Way
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Jack Nicklaus was unique. In addition to being among the all-time greatest golfers, he was also one of its most unorthodox. He did a lot of things differently than what is recommended by traditional wisdom. Nowhere was Jack more unorthodox—or more successful— than in the way he putted.

Here are five tips on putting Jack’s way:

1. Open your stance slightly
2. Keep your head behind the ball
3. Visualize the ball going in
4. Hit the ball on the upswing
5. Rest your elbow against your side

Jack set his feet open to the target line when putting. He felt this set-up gave him a better look at the hole and kept his eyes on the target line. He also set his head behind the ball and the shaft tilted slightly forward. And he set his back shoulder lower than his front shoulder, which resembled his driving stance.

Jack putted the ball only after he visualized it dropping in. He used his arms and forearms not his shoulders to putt. As he got older and the greens got faster, he putted more with his forearms than his hands, taking the putter back low to the ground. And since his putter was tilted slightly forward at impact, Jack putted the ball on the upswing.

In addition, Jack kept his right elbow and arm tucked against his right side when putting. He had a slight “pop” to his stroke, with the through-stroke often shorter than the backstroke. Because of his unusual set-up, his putterhead worked low to high, not the other way around. Jack liked to use the putterhead to control the ball.

If you’ve soured on your putting style, try Jack’s approach. While it may not be consistent with what teaching pros recommend, you can’t argue with its results as far as Jack’s concerned. You never know. It might work for you, too.

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2) Four Tips On Hitting the Fairway
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Smart golf is about creating opportunities for oneself. If the first shot doesn’t set you up for the next shot, then you aren’t playing smart golf Better to have a longer shot from the fairway, than a shorter shot from deep rough. What’s more, driving the fairway provides an opportunity to hit the green in regulation, increasing your chances of paring or birding the hole.

Below are four tips on driving the fairway:

1. Slice proof your grip
2. Check your heels for aim
3. Swing it wide
4. Maintain your tempo

Before stepping to the tee, check your grip. Make sure grip it isn’t weak. If it is, make adjustments. Grip the club first with the fingers of your left hand (right hand for left-handers), and then add your right hand. This exercise slice proofs your grip.

Good alignment is a must. Your feet, hips, and shoulders must be aligned to the target line to hit the fairway. In practice, use a clubshaft placed square to the back of your heels to determine alignment. Then, correct for error. Once your heels are set, align the rest of your body.

Keep your swing arc wide. A wide arc keeps the club on line. On the takeaway, keep the right arm (left for left-handers) as straight as possible by stretching it out. This move helps prevent the club from coming too far inside. Coming down, make sure the club is in front of you, so you can move through the swing together.

Swing all your clubs at the same speed. If you feel yourself speeding up your swing, count 1-2-3 in your head to reclaim a nice smooth tempo and rhythm. Swinging to a count prevents you from whipping the club back and/or rushing it through the hitting zone.

These tips will help you drive the fairway consistently, critical to scoring well. Driving the fairway not only sets you up for your next shot, it also gives you a chance to hit the green in regulation. That, in turn, increases your chances of making par or birdie. That’s smart golf.

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3) Question of the Week – Spread Your Feet For Stability
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Q. Dear Jack, When you read in golf magazines that your feet should be shoulder width apart, is that the outside or the inside of your foot that is in line with the outside of the shoulder? Is that the heel or toe?

Thanks,
Brian

A. Thanks for the question, Brian. I can’t speak for the golf magazines. But when I say that a golfer’s feet should be about shoulder width apart, I’m generally referring to the inside portion of the player’s feet along the arch. In other words, line up the arch of your foot with your shoulders. This position stabilizes your body. Lining up the outside of your foot with your shoulders creates a narrower a stance. That affects stability and encourages sliding, which isn’t good for your swing.

Some instructors say that to hit the ball with power you need to widen your stance to a bit beyond shoulder width. A wider stance, they say, provides a solid base from which to drive the ball and affords better balance. Better balance, in turn, enables you to apply more force to the ball.

Keep in mind that these width suggestions are guidelines only. Since everyone is different, you must find a width that works for you. Try experimenting with slightly different widths until you find one that’s right for you. Just remember, too wide or too narrow a stance affects your swing.

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/newsletter05142008.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Hitting Driver, 3W, 3I
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/hitting-driver-3w-3i.html

5) Article – Website Scores Big With Golfers
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/website-scores-big-with-golfers.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.

While golf isn’t a contact sport, it has its share of injuries. Whether it’s a stiff back, pulled hamstring, or bad shoulder, golf-related injuries occur in many players. Often, they require specific medical attention. Left untreated, these injuries often can affect not only a player’s game, but also his or her work and every day life. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a resource golfers could go to for advice on golf-related injuries? Well, there is. It’s called GolfersMD (www.golfersmd.com).

GolfersMD isn’t just a Web site, though. Created in 2008, it’s an online golf health community dedicated to preventing injuries, treating golfers, and applying cures. Through articles, expert-hosted videos, tips from top sports doctors, golf lessons, and even a natural health store, GolfersMD educates and enlightens golfers on how to treat injuries and address specific health concerns. And since it’s online, it’s available 24 hours a day for golfers with low golf handicaps, high golf handicaps, and everything in between.

Web Site’s Mission
The Web site’s mission is straightforward. It focuses on keeping golfers and their games healthy and strong. With this goal in mind, the Web site offers separate pages covering health and fitness, technology and equipment, experts and videos, and doctors and other professionals. It has a forum where you can discuss medical issues, a store where you can buy a variety of health related products, from vitamins and sinus medication to golf equipment and hangover help, a doctor finder to locate golf specialists in your area, and a newsletter. There’s even an electronic symptom checker.

Each week the site features one topic. When I visited the site, the topic was back pain. The site had articles and videos on back pain, with tips and techniques from the pros to help players get over back problems. Other features include tips from Dr. Morris Pickens, psychology coach for 2007 Masters Champion Zach Johnson and one of the largest golf-health video libraries in the world, if not the largest. The site also has a “Giving Back” program. It donates one percent of all sales to important programs that promote the health and education of children.

Credible Health News Content
The key to a site like GolfersMD is its health news content. It must be credible and reliable. This Web site contains medical content from two major health care resources. The Healthwise knowledgebase’s content is comprehensive, in-depth, and decision-focused. A non-profit, Healthwise has a goal of helping people make better decisions about their personal health.

HealthDay is a division of ScoutNews, LLC — a news and information organization staffed by experienced health journalists. It produces up to 20 health-related articles during weekday. HealthDay writers have extensive experience in health, science and several medical disciplines. Their news articles come from published journals, conferences and major releases from healthcare institutions. HealthDay is the only consumer health news provider based on the U.S. Government’s Healthfinder.gov search engine.

Advisory Board Members
To ensure the information GolfersMD provides is of the highest quality and the most advanced, the site features a strong advisory board, which includes two key people. Dr. Vijay B. Vad, M.D., is the official physician for the PGA Tour. He has treated every possible golf injury and can guide players of all levels with confidence that real-world experience provides. Dr. Vad is also a sports medicine specialist and researcher at the prestigious Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, where he specializes in minimally invasive treatments of sports injuries, spine, and arthritis. In addition, he is the author of Back Rx, Arthritis Rx and Golf Rx, all published by Penguin Books.

Dr. Robert Donatelli, a PhD PT Orthopedic Certified Specialist, is National Director of Sports Specific Rehabilitation and Performance Enhancement Programs at the Physiotherapy Associates in Las Vegas, NV. From March to August of 2004, he worked as physical therapist on the PGA Tour treating injuries sustained by the pros playing on tour. In addition, he has served as a Physical Therapy Consultant to several Major League baseball teams. He lectures throughout the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and has lectured at the Swedish Foot and Ankle Society.

Staying free from injury and improving your overall health helps not only your golf handicap but also your life. So if you’ve recently incurred a golf-related injury or are just curious about your health, check out GolfersMD. You’ll find it a reliable source for golf health news and information.

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 is a thinking man’s (and woman’s) game. But thinking too much can get you in trouble. That’s why many players with low golf handicaps try to keep the game as simple as possible. Instead of running down a litany of checkpoints before hitting, they isolate three or four items and then key on those, eliminating the paralysis that often comes from over analysis. Or, as one golf lesson student put it, “Just hit the ball.”

The “Keep It Simple, Stupid” method works in just about every area of golf, from driving to putting. But the area where it seems to work the best is on full swing shots. It’s these shots where so many things can go wrong that players tend to focus too much on the mechanics of the shot, rather than those three or four key points they need to make a great full swing.

The Driver
Start stable: Take a wide stance, about shoulder width apart. Play the ball off your front heel. Bend forward comfortably from your hips. Maintain balance.

Create Coil: Make a full shoulder turn going back, with you left shoulder turning all the way behind the ball at the top. Try to turn your hips no more than half as far as your shoulders. Or as Tiger Woods likes to phrase it, “Turn your shoulder twice as far as your hips.”

Keep Order: Begin the downswing from the ground up. Shift your weight to your front foot, rotate your hips, then your shoulders. Your arms and hands come through last, releasing the clubhead for a full extension with your hands. Looking at the back of the ball is a good way to ensure that you sweep the ball off the tee.

Again, this is just one example of a short list of key checkpoints for hitting the driver. You may have other ideas. That’s fine. The key is bringing order to an otherwise chaotic process, which in turn relaxes you and generates consistency. Let’s look at some more examples.

Fairway Woods
Here’s a sample checklist for a three-wood:

Start stable: Take a wide stance, about shoulder width apart. Play the ball off your front heel. Bend forward comfortably from your hips. Maintain balance.

Hinge Up: Start the club back so that it comes off the ground right away—a result of your wrists cocking, just as they show you in golf instruction videos. This keeps the club in front of you, not letting it move to quickly to the inside. Maintain this width all the way to the top.

Swing Easy: Shift your weight to the front side and then swing the club with a little more downward motion than with a driver. Swing the club to about 90 percent. You don’t have to kill the ball to make a good shot. You just need to make solid contact. Extend your arms full through impact. Make sure you swing all the way to a balance finish.

Long Irons
Here’s a sample checklist for a long iron:

Even Shoulders: Set up more on top of the ball than you do with your woods. Position the ball slightly ahead of center in your stance.

Swing Up The Plane: Your setup and the shorter iron shaft will create a more upright backswing plane. This is natural. Keep your arms extended as you go back.

Hold the hinge: Coming down, maintain your wrist hinge. Don’t try to help the all in the air by scooping. Turn all the way through the ball. Finish with your weight all the way to your left side.

Unless you hit the ball 275 yards with your irons, you should hit most long iron shots with a hybrid. They’re shorter and easier to hit. But if you connect solidly, the ball goes just as far.

I think you get the idea. If you are taking golf lessons, you may have already work out a short checklist with your teacher for all your clubs. If not, work out one for each club. A short checklist not only eliminates over thinking about your shot, it also generates consistency, which you’ll need to chop strokes of your golf handicap.

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

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.