In this issue we’ll discuss…

Revive Your Short Game With These Tips
Knock It Close From The Rough
Question of the Week – Maintaining Tempo Increases Consistency
Article – Finding Your Rhythm Cuts Strokes
Article – Four Golf Tips To Achieve Distance and Pinpoint Accuracy

Revive Your Short Game With These Tips

You can’t make up strokes from the tee box or the green. But from 25 yards and in is a different story. You can do a lot from there to save strokes. As one great golfer said, the game is played from 100 yards and in. Chip, pitch, and bunker shots impact your score than you might think. So if you can’t break 90 or 100, maybe it’s time to revive your short game.

Below are six keys to reviving your short game:

Play the ball a clubhead from the front foot
Shift your weight to the front foot
Don’t scoop the ball
Keep hands in line with your front leg
Rotate your body through the shot
Release the hands after impact

Playing the ball back, trying to scoop the ball, and placing your weight on your back foot are the three most common short game mistakes. With most short game shots, play the ball a clubhead from the front foot, shift your weight forward, and don’t try to scoop the ball. Scoopers don’t understand the mechanics of chipping or pitching. Instead of trying to scoop the ball, let the club work for you. Trust that it has the loft to do the trick.

In addition, align your hands with your front leg at address, rotate your body through the shot, and release your hands after impact. Aligning your hands encourages a downward blow. Rotating your body allows your hands to reach the impact zone at just the right time. And “knocking your knees” on the follow through says you’ve hit the shot correctly, whether it’s from the grass or a bunker.

If your scores are suffering, maybe it’s time to resuscitate your short game. Check your mechanics to see if you’re making any mechanical mistakes. If you are, first eliminate them. Then, watch your scores drop.

Knock It Close From The Rough

Every golfer lands in the rough sooner or later—even the best of us. If the lie is near the green, the shot becomes critical. It can mean the difference between making a bogey or double bogey and a par. To score low, you must know how to knock it close from the really deep stuff. Knocking it close from there chops one or two strokes from your score and often saves par.

Here are five keys to hitting it close from the deep rough:

Add more club and choke down
Position your hands in front of the ball
Play the ball slightly forward
Retain the right angle
Use a steeply descending blow

Some golfers like to use short irons from the deep rough. But that’s hard. It requires a strong grip, a steeply descending blow, and strength. Plus, you can’t release the club too early. Otherwise, you’ll end up hitting a lot of grass and no ball.

Instead, try using a longer iron and choking down. But don’t change anything else: Take your normal stance from the rough. Position your hands in front of the ball. And play the ball slightly forward in your stance. The longer shaft adds leverage to your swing.
Also, retain the right angel formed by the club and your left arm (right for lefties) at the top of your swing as long as possible.

Holding this angle generates the additional club head speed you need to escape deep rough. It also encourages a steeply descending blow and prevents your hands from releasing too early. The ball flies lower coming out of the rough, but that beats a flubbed shot or a complete miss.

Find some thick stuff at an open field or the range and practice hitting from there. You’ll be glad you did.

Question of the Week – Maintaining Tempo Increases Consistency

Q. Hi Jack, How can I slow my swing on a regular basis? When I slow down, I perform as good as anyone. Unfortunately, my head lets me down and up comes the tempo!

Kindest regards,
Colin D.

A. Thanks, Colin. Tempo is the time it takes you to complete your full swing. It’s geared to your personality. If you’re deliberate, for example, your tempo is likely to be somewhat slower than a person who’s fast paced. When you’re playing well, your tempo is pretty much the same on every full shot. But when your tempo goes, your game goes as well. That’s why you play well one day and poorly the next.

But developing an appreciation for your tempo isn’t easy. It takes hard work. Below is an exercise for developing your appreciation for tempo:
Address the ball. Raise the club head off the ground slightly. Move it forward to a position a foot or so into the follow-through, and start swinging. Guide the club head back over the ball, complete your backswing, and swing through the ball all in one motion. Repeat this exercise several times. Continue for a while. Eventually, you’ll develop a feel for your swing 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

Here are some of my recent articles:
Finding Your Rhythm Cuts Strokes

Four Golf Tips To Achieve Distance and Pinpoint Accuracy

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.

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Stop Pulling Your Shots
2) Beating Blocked Shots
3) Question of the Week – Hitting Long Irons
4) Article – This Simple Move Adds Yards To Your Drives
5) Article – Practice With Scoring Clubs To Cut Golf Handicaps

Stop Pulling Your Shots

Pulled shots, like block shots, are high on the list of bad shots. If your spine angle and weight distribution are off at address, there’s a good chance you’ll pull the shot. Putting too much weight on your forward foot at address pushes your spine angle too far forward. It also prompts a swing path that moves from outside the target line pre-swing to inside the target line post impact, resulting in a pulled shot.

Below are five keys to preventing pulled shots:

Address ball as if on an upslope
Shift weight to back foot
Lower your back shoulder
Position your hands behind the ball
Stay behind ball on the swing

Correcting both your weight distribution and spine angle prevents pulled shots. Start by setting up as if you were hitting on an upslope. Then, shift your weight from your front foot to your back foot. Drop your back shoulder slightly so that it’s lower than your front shoulder. And position your hands behind the ball at address. This set-up tilts your spine away from the target and changes your swing path.

To visualize the set up, take an iron from your bag and have a friend step on the clubface. Now match the angle of your shoulders to the angle of the shaft. That sets you up with your spine angle tilted away from the target and your front shoulder higher than your back shoulder. If you keep this image in mind at address, you’ll set yourself up nicely behind the ball. Stay behind the ball when swinging.
By re-distributing your weight and correcting your spine angle, you’ll prevent pulled shots. From this position, your downswing comes from inside the target line and arcs back inside that target line past impact. This results in a square clubface at impact and a straighter flight path. You’ll also gain some distance.

Beating Blocked Shots

Block shots rank high on the list of bad golf shots. If you tend to block shots, you could be swinging too aggressively. If you are, you need to curb your aggressiveness to improve your shot making and improve your game. Once you learn to control your aggressiveness, you can use it more productively.

Below are four golf tips for beating blocked shots.

Better posture, better impact
Less tilt, more coverage
Release the head early
Brace your left side and release

Bad things happen when you’re too aggressive. Over aggressiveness often causes your lower body to outrace your upper body. That forces your upper body to tilt away from the target. When this happens, your back shoulder can drop too far under the backswing plane, leading to a blocked shot. To prevent this, try to “feel tall over the ball,” with your knees slightly bent, and keep your upper body straight during the swing. Better posture means less tilt. Less tilt means better impact.

Lack of head movement also causes blocked shots. It, too, can force you to lose your forward tilt toward the ball. If your head stays down and straight, your hips lunge toward the ball, pulling you out of your posture. But if you turn your head slightly with the shot you’ll have better results. You’ll keep your spine straighter and get the club back in front of your body sooner. When your arms get out in from of your body, they can swing down the line better.

If you block shots off the tee, it may be because you’re swinging too aggressively. Learn to curb your aggressiveness a little. You can then use it to your advantage.

Question of the Week – Hitting Long Irons

Q. Hi Jack, I have been hitting my 3-wood and 5-wood at the driving range, but I am always hooking the ball. I have noted that the contact mark of my ball contact in the clubface is on the toe side. I can’t seem to hit it at the center of the clubface. I would appreciate very much your advice.

Thanks.
Euls Austin

A. Thanks, Euls. If you’re hooking (or pushing), your clubface isn’t square at impact. You can stop hooking with a few minor adjustments at address.

First, check your grip. It could be too strong, which means your right-hand is turned too far to the right. If it is, turn it slightly to the left. (If you’re left-handed, reverse the process.) Turning your right hand prevents it from dominating the shot, a key contributor to hooking. Second, play the ball forward in your stance. Third, open up your upper body slightly in relation to the target line at address.

In addition, make sure the toe of your club points skyward you’re about halfway into your backswing. Point the toe skyward helps square the clubface at impact. Also, work on clearing your body through impact. If you do it right, you’ll feel as if your hips are opening up towards the target and your front shoulder is moving forward as you strike the ball. You’ll also feel as if the grip is moving left, but that the clubface remains open. Ingraining these tips in your swing eliminates hooking (and pushing).

Below is a drill that helps you stop hooking (and pushing):

Lay down two clubs parallel to the target. Position the first is along your feet and the second outside the ball, creating a track with the ball in the middle. Now, swing. As you do, keep your cap’s brim in line with the outer club. This keeps your head on the right swing path. Practice this drill faithfully and you’ll hit straighter shots.

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

Here are some of my recent articles:

This Simple Move Adds Yards To Your Drives

Practice With Scoring Clubs To Cut Golf Handicaps

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.