In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Sink More Strip Putts Now
2) Cut Strokes By Chipping it Close
3) Question of the Week – Achieving A Great Backswing
4) Article – Ironing Out Long Game Problems
5) Article – Driving For Show With Tips From The Pros

1) Sink More Strip Putts Now
Confidence is what sets Tiger Woods apart from his fellow pros. When Tiger putts, he doesn’t think he’ll sink his putt, he knows it. When he misses, he’s shocked. He firmly believes he’ll sink every putt.

Golfers who lack confidence miss putts—even dead straight ones. To build confidence in your putting—and cut strokes from your scores—start with the right grip. A tour favorite is the reverse overlapping grip.

Here’s a six-step routine for this grip:

1. Hold the club perpendicular to the ground
2. Place your left hand on the grip first
3. Remove your left forefinger from the club
4. Put the fleshy part of your right hand on the grip
5. Slide your right hand down the grip
6. Both thumbs must point straight down the shaft

Using the standard overlapping and interlocking grips produce too much clubface rotation when putting—a killer when it comes dead straight putts. The reverse overlapping grip is popular because it keeps the putterface square to the ball and doesn’t produce too much clubface rotation.

Start by holding the putter by the grip and raising it up until it’s perpendicular to the ground. Now place your left hand (for right-handers) on the putter handle with your thumb pointing down the shaft. Next put the fleshy part of your right hand on the flat part of your grip.

All your fingers should now be wrapped around the grip, except your left forefinger, which should be sticking out. Now slide your right hand down until your left thumbnail is covered. Both thumbs should be pointing straight down the shaft. Close the left forefinger so it overlaps the fingers of your right hand, completing the grip.

Holding the putter this way will help you sink more dead straight putts. Unlike other grips, the reverse overlapping grip keeps the putter face square to the arc of your stroke and the putterface going down the line. If you don’t use this grip, try it. You’ll quickly see why it’s so popular on the PGA Tour.

2) Cut Strokes By Chipping it Close
What are the two most common swing flaws in chipping? The two most common swing flaws are improper distribution of weight and incorrect positioning of the hands. If either, or both, of these faults creep into your swing, your chipping suffers. The Sidewall Drill fixes these faults.

Here are the drill’s key benefits:

* Increases chipping consistency
* Prevents you from scooping the ball
* Ingrains the feel of weight distribution
* Teaches you proper hand location
* Improves short game accuracy
* Boosts chipping confidence

To chip it close, you must do two things. You must lean your weight forward toward your front foot and you must keep your hands in front of the ball. If you do both, you’ll hit the ball straight with predictable height. The Sidewall drill ingrains the feel of the correct weight distribution and teaches you to keep your hands ahead of the ball.

Here’s the drill:

Find two walls that come to a corner. Take your chipping stance, with your forward shoulder facing the wall. Lean slightly toward, with your shoulder’s edge behind the wall. Now simulate the chipping motion. Pretend there’s an imaginary ball in the center of your stance. Make a slow motion swing, keeping your arms ahead of the ball. That way you won’t flip the club through the ball.

Your shoulder should stay leaning up against the wall well through impact and the clubface should remain square to the target. If you can find the corner of two walls with grass below them so you can actually chip, even better.

Do this drill until you ingrain the proper feel of chipping the ball. Then head for the practice green and make some chips. You can also do the drill when playing. Just find a wall or fence corner and practice it a few minutes. You’ll improve quickly.

3) Question of the Week – Achieving A Great Backswing

Q. Hello Jack, One of the problems I seem to be having is that my right arm tends to stiffen up during the backswing. I have been told this is the main reason that my ball flight is generally a left hook. I could not find any reference to the flex of the right arm during the backswing in your articles. Anyway, I am trying to change my right arm flex these days to see if there are visible results in direction control. Do you have any drills that might help?

Regards,
Abdul Malek

A. Thanks for the question, Abdul. A stiff right arm during your backswing causes all sorts of swing problems. To achieve a good backswing, your right elbow must form a right angle—or L-shape—at the top of your swing.

Here are two exercises that will help you achieve this:

1. Imagine yourself standing within a doorframe. Now imagine yourself swinging a club so that your hands are just under the top right-hand corner of the door. For this to happen your left arm must be comfortably straight and your right elbow positioned at 90 degrees. If you hinge your wrists correctly, the clubhead should be parallel to the top of the frame. Try the drill and check your position in a mirror.

2. The Split Hands drill is another exercise that trains your right arm. Split your hands a few inches apart on the grip, then swing the club back and push your right arm away to form a 90-degree angle at the elbow. Keep in mind that in a typical backswing the left arm tends to separate from the body too early. So as you make the backswing, feel that you exert some pressure on your chest with your left arm.

Once you have the feel for a good backswing, hit some balls. Try to recapture the feeling you had when executing the drills explained above.

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/newsletter03112009.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Ironing Out Long Game Problems
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/ironing-out-long-game-problems.html

5) Article – Driving For Show With Tips From The Pros
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/driving-for-show-with-tips-from-the-pros.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, go to http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter.htm

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

Sometimes you have to play when the weather is bad. Unfortunately, the USGA makes no specific provisions for “winter play,” as it’s called. There’s also nothing in the rules about the lift, clean, and place practice used on the PGA tour when it’s wet. Meanwhile, playing in bad weather adds strokes to scores and golf handicap, if you’re not careful. But you can save the strokes, if you know when and how to take appropriate relief.

The USGA prefers players play the ball as it lies. What’s more, most golf lessons or golf instruction sessions don’t cover winter play—leaving many players guessing what to do when they play in bad weather. Sometimes players make up their own rules to cover certain situations. That’s not appropriate. If you’re brave enough to play in bad weather, you should follow the rules as closely as possible. Here are some golf tips that may help you do that.

Check Out Local Rules
Appendix I of the USGA rulebook provides for local rules when playing in bad weather. Check them out. In fact, check out the local rules of any course you’re not familiar with. It’s good information to know before teeing off. Other than that, the key USGA rule concerning bad weather is Rule 25, which covers abnormal ground conditions.

You also need to read up on the procedures covering casual water—defined as an “accumulation of water on the course visible before or after a player takes his stance.” Simply put, if your ball lies in casual water or you must stand in casual water to play the ball, you get relief. The rule doesn’t apply to water hazards or later water hazards. But water that overflows beyond the hazard’s margin is considered casual water.

To take relief, determine the nearest point to your lie that allows for complete relief from the water, but not nearer the hole. Then drop the ball one club length from this spot. The club you use to measure should be the club you intend to use to play the next shot. Your drop may not be on the putting green or in a hazard. Also, you can clean your ball.

Abnormal Ground Conditions
Relief from abnormal ground conditions in a hazard or on the green is slightly different from that above. In a hazard you must take your drop within the hazard. You can drop outside the hazard, but it costs you a stroke. If a bunker is filled with water and the ball rolls into the water no matter where you drop it, you have two choices. After two drops, you can place it in the bunker outside the collected water, or you can take the penalty.

If there’s water on the green you may place the ball at the nearest relief point, even if it is off the putting surface. You can get relief from casual water that’s in the intended line of your putt, but you can’t mop up dew or water on the intended line of your putt. If you’re off the green and there’s casual water on your intended line, that’s tough luck. You can’t mop it up.

Rule on Embedded Balls
Another important rule to know is the embedded ball provision of Rule 25. It says that if the ball plugs in your own pitch mark, you can lift, clean, and drop it, but not if you’re in the rough. Also, you can’t have someone else protect your head while taking a shot. But you can hold an umbrella over your head and hit.

If you serious about cutting strokes from your golf handicap, you’ll keep these golf tips in mind next time you play in bad weather. They provide relief and can save strokes. Also, check the local rules. They can also provide relief as well.

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.

Everyone loses the feel for his or her short game at times. That includes players with high golf handicaps and players with low golf handicaps. Smart golfers know how to find their swings—especially when it affects their short games. The quickest way of doing that isn’t by taking golf lessons or reading golf tips. It’s by fixing your own faults. In other words, it’s by becoming your own swing doctor.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advice from trusted friends and/or instructors. Sometimes, they can see what you’re doing wrong better than you can. And sometimes their advice is right on. But good players also “diagnose” and “treat” their own short game problems. If you’re serious about improving your short game, learn to fix your swing problems yourself.

Losing The Feel For Long Putts
If you find yourself three-putting on long putts, there’s a good chance you’ve lost the feel for speed. Adjusting quickly to the speed of different greens is a key to being a good putter. If you play a lot of different courses, it’s imperative to maintain your golf handicap.

To re-gain the feel for putting speed, try the following drill on the practice green before playing. Start with hitting two-foot putts. Study the optimum speed the ball can be rolling and still fall in the side of the cup. If it misses, the putt shouldn’t roll more than 12 to 18 inches past the hole.

Now work your way back from the hole. Hit five-footers, then 10-footers on up to 40-footers and 50-footers. As you hit the longer putts, try to visualize the ball rolling up to or just past the hole. Doing this helps ingrain the feel for the speed of the green that day. It’s the quickest way to do it.

Pushing Or Pulling Short Putts
If you’re pushing or pulling your short putts, your mechanics are probably off. To correct this problem, take two boards (2×2s or 2×4s) two feet long. Lay the parallel to each other on the carpet at home or on the practice green. The space between the boards should be one-half inch more than the length of your putterhead. Then, with your putter inside the boards, practice short strokes—straight back and straight through.

While using the boards, concentrate on keeping the rhythm of your putting stroke. Make your follow through “quiet” with no sudden acceleration or jerkiness. Don’t use a ball while doing this. Using the boards without thinking of where the ball is going allows you to concentrate on mechanics. And don’t use the boards for longer putts. As your stroke gets longer, the putter naturally goes back inside.

Inconsistent Contact When Chipping
If you’re making inconsistent contact when chipping, you’ve probably become too wristy in your stroke. The means the club is probably past the bottom of its arc when it meets the ball. To regain solid contact on your chips, do the following:

Use your putter grip, with your hands opposing each other, to eliminate wristiness in your stroke. Ideally, you want an arms-and-shoulders motion with the fewest number of moving parts for more consistent contact. Also play the ball back slightly in your stance. This, in effect, shifts your weight forward and promotes a descending angle of attack. You want the club traveling downward when it meets the ball, just as they teach you in golf lessons.

These drills will help you regain the feel for your short game when you lose it. Research golf tips in magazines and books to discover other ways of regaining your swing when you lose. Remember, the quickest way of doing that is by being your own swing doctor. But don’t ignore golf instruction tips from other sources. Sometimes other players can spot what you’re doing wrong better than you can.

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.

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Maintain Balance In Strong Winds
2) Use A Wall To Cure This Common Swing Fault
3) Question of the Week – Chipping It High And Soft
4) Article – Fixing Your Short Game Fast
5) Article – Stop Bad Weather From Boosting Your Golf Handicap

1) Maintain Balance In Strong Winds

A strong wind can severely hamper your putting, costing you strokes. In addition to affecting the ball’s speed—the key to a good putt—a strong wind can affect your feel, your rhythm, and your sense of direction. More importantly, it can affect your balance. If you lose your balance when putting, you’ll be hard pressed to sink the putt.

Here are six keys to putting in the wind:

1. Take a neutral grip
2. Place your eyes over the ball
3. Keep your hands ahead of the ball
4. Square up your body
5. Spread your feet
6. Bow your legs

Putting in the wind is tricky. Start by taking a neutral grip with your thumbs pointing straight down the shaft. Place your eyes directly over the ball. Keep your hands slightly ahead of the ball. And square up your body—with your feet and shoulders parallel to the target line.

To maintain balance, widen your stance slightly, bend over a little more to make up for the wider stance, and bow your legs. Bowing your legs is a trick that golfing great Tom Watson uses to help keep his balance when putting on windy days. It helps provide a solid foundation for putting.

Putting Drill:
Next time it’s windy out, go to the putting green. Drop some balls on the green, take your stance, and make putts taking your putter back the normal length for the distance you face. Hold it in that position for 10 seconds before beginning the forward stroke. After several such strokes, hit putts holding in the backswing position for seven seconds, and then five, three, one, and your normal stroke. Do this drill several times. Concentrate on maintaining your balance while putting.

The drill enhances your rhythm, sensitivity for distance, and ball-putter contact on windy days. It also heightens your sense of balance. Next time you’re playing on a windy day, use the drill on the practice green before teeing off. It will prepare you for the actual play.

2) Use A Wall To Cure This Common Swing Fault

Taking the club too far inside the target line on the backswing spells disaster. It can lead to all sorts of bad shots—pushes, slices, duck hooks, and topped shots. A common swing fault, this move is usually caused by a backswing controlled by the hips and the dipping of the shoulders away from the ball. With practice, you can cure this fault.

Here’s a six-step drill to cure this fault:

1. Situate yourself with a wall behind you
2. Take your address position with a driver
3. Make sure your backside is barely touching the wall
4. Simulate your backswing in slow motion
5. Keep moving your arms until they’re waist high
6. Make sure the toe of club points straight up

If your backswing is correct, you’ll eventually hit the wall. But that won’t happen until after reaching waist high. Since you’re not going beyond waist high, you shouldn’t hit the wall. Just in case, use a head cover to protect the clubhead and the wall.

At the start of a correct backswing, your clubhead should run along the target line for as long as possible. Once the clubhead reaches waist high, the toe should point straight up and away from the wall. If your club touches the wall as you take it back, you know you’re moving too far inside.

In that case, practice your takeaway by first leading the backswing with the upper body along the target line. Once the upper body can’t turn any more, the lower body takes over. That’s the correct way of making your backswing.

This drill also helps golfers who struggle with “laying off”—dropping the clubhead behind the body because of a weak pair of wrists. Women and senior golfers sometimes have this problem.

If your hitting slices, pushes, duck hooks, and all sorts of other bad shots, you could be taking the club too far inside on the backswing. If you think you are, use this drill to cure this common fault. It will cut strokes from your scores.

3) Question of the Week – Chipping It High And Soft

Q. Dear Jack, I play a course with a green that slopes steeply up from the front to the back. The green isn’t very large. If my approach shot goes over the green, I have to chip short but high so the ball lands softly on the green and doesn’t run too much downhill.

If I don’t hit the ball hard enough, it won’t make it over the hill to the green, and if I hit it too hard so it gets up in the air, it rolls across the green and off the front when it lands or else shoots across the green.

I don’t know how to hit the ball high so it lands softly and stops. Can you give me some tips on how to do this?

Thanks.
Carol Cotton

A. Thanks for the question, Carol. The type of shot you make depends on your lie and how far you are from the green. Here are three options:

1. If you’re not too far off the green and you don’t have to hit the ball too high, try a “Runyan shot.” It is named after the late Paul Runyan, who invented it. This shot hits the ball higher than a normal chip shot, but it doesn’t run as much. Here’s how to hit a Runyan shot:

1. Take your normal putting stance with front foot open
2. Stand close to the target line
3. Hold the club (a 7-iron works best) in a vertical fashion
4. Grip the club like you grip the putter
5. Position the ball in the center of your stance
6. Swing straight back and through, pendulum fashion.
7. Keep the toe of the club low to the ground

The key here is hitting the ball with the toe of the club. That deadens the ball while it rides up the face of the club, giving it some overspin so it rolls forward.

2. If you’re off the green but on the back slope, use a less elevated club and swing with the slope of the green. Just make sure you pick out a target before hitting the shot. You’ll need to put some backspin on the ball to control the roll, which you can do by hitting down on the ball.

3. If you’re farther away and have a tight lie, you have to alter the trajectory of your shot. Here’s three ways to do that:

* Move the ball forward in your stance
* Open up your clubface more
* Release your hands through the ball earlier

Again, you’ll have to add backspin to control roll. It takes practice to learn to hit the ball with different trajectories.

The first thing you must determine when your ball rolls off the back of the green is the lie. Based on that, you can decide on what shot to make.

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/newsletter03042009.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Fixing Your Short Game Fast
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/fixing-your-short-game-fast.html

5) Article – Stop Bad Weather From Boosting Your Golf Handicap
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/stop-bad-weather-from-boosting-your-golf-handicap.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, go to http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter.htm

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