In this issue we’ll discuss…

Mastering The Hybrid Chip Saves Strokes
Walking The Line

Article – Accuracy Is Critical At Turnberry
Article – Finding And Fixing Swing Faults

Mastering The Hybrid Chip Saves Strokes

Having just missed the green and landed in a tight, fluffy, or unpredictable lie, you instinctively reach for you wedge. But wait! A lot of things can go wrong with a wedge. You can pop it up, chip it past the green, or cause it to check, costing you strokes. In a fluffy lie, a wedge often can slip under the ball, causing a flubbed shot. Your hybrid is a better option. It does everything a wedge does with better control and less risk.
Here are six keys to executing the hybrid chip:

• Adopt your putting stance
• Choke down on the shaft
• Shift your weight forward
• Place the ball forward
• Use your putting stroke
• Play for plenty of roll

The hybrid is the most versatile and most forgiving club in your bag. Chipping with it almost guarantees the ball gets airborne a few feet, and then immediately starts rolling toward the target. You don’t have to worry about checking the ball, popping it up, or slipping the wedge under the ball.

Use a putting stance. Choke down to a comfortable level. Position the ball slightly forward in your stance. And shift your weight slightly to your front foot. When swinging, make a putting stroke. Glide the clubhead across the grass, just as you would with a putter.

The ball gets airborne quickly, and then hits and runs. For best results, read the green just as you would for a putt and play for plenty of roll. Play the break like you would if you were putting.

The hybrid chip is great from about 10 yards out. Using the hybrid this way feels a little awkward at first. But with practice, you’ll increase your comfort level.
Mastering the hybrid chip cuts strokes from your scores. It’s a highly effective way to chip from just off the green.

Walking The Line

Bad alignment leads to bad shots. You can’t hit a good shot if you’re not aligned properly, not without a lot of luck. Unfortunately, many golfers set up with an alignment error, like closed shoulders and open feet. Bad alignment invites disaster. If you want to hit shots like a pro, align your clubface and your body to your target once you’ve determined what it is.

Here’s a five-step routine that guarantees proper alignment:

1. Identify your main target
2. Pick out an intermediate target
3. Place your clubhead behind the ball
4. Grab the club with both hands
5. Step into your stance

Start by identifying a main target. It can be the flag, a distant pine tree, or a dark patch of grass. Use whatever works. You may even want to imagine a ballflight for the shot. Keep the ballflight in mind as you start the swing.

After identifying a target, find an intermediate target—something a few inches in front of your ball and in line with your target. Place your club behind the ball in line with both the intermediate and the distant targets. Then, step to the ball, placing you’re feet parallel to the target line.

Another approach to proper alignment is to simply make sure the leading edge of your club is perpendicular to the target line. Then set your feet accordingly, making sure they’re parallel to the target line.

Whichever approach you use, place two hands on the club when you set your feet. That way you don’t spend too much time standing over the ball. That can kill a shot.
Practice setting up to the ball using a routine. Then, take it to the course and use it with all your shots. It increases your consistency and helps eliminate bad shots.

Question of the Week – Curing The Yips

Q. Hi Jack, About a year back I was playing to a handicap of 9. However of late I have developed the yips. I have a major problem with 2 to 3 foot putts-at times double touching the ball. Because of this I am now playing to a handicap of 14. My confidence in my putting is shattered. Please advise on a course of action.

Regards,
Balli

A. Thanks, Balli. There’s no set way to cure the yips. What works for one person may not work for another. Still, all cures for the yips have one thing in common. They lock the left wrist (for right-handed putters) in place, encouraging a pendulum like action in your swing. Keeping the left wrist quiet keys a sound, repeating, and successful putting stroke.

When the PGA’s Bernard Langer first had the yips, he used the cross-handed grip to cure them. When he got them again, he used the “clamp” grip-a grip in which a golfer’s right hand is “clamped” to the wrist of the left hand. Langer was right-handed. Other golfers have even used a long putter or a belly putter to cure the yips with varying degrees of success.

But the reverse grip seems to be the most popular approach. Here are five keys to this cure:

• Assume a normal putting stance
• Place the left hand below the right
• Lock the left wrist as you putt
• Swing back and through, low and smooth
• Keep the head down throughout the putt

As I said, the reverse grip works well for some but not for others. But whatever cure you try, you still must practice it. One of the best tools to help improve putting is a metronome-a device for keeping tempo for music. The metronome encourages a smooth stroke and a rhythmic tempo. It’s great to practice with when you can’t get to a practice green.

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/newsletter07152009.php

Here are some of my recent articles:

Accuracy Is Critical At Turnberry

Finding And Fixing Swing Faults

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…

Hitting A Long Explosion Shot
Hitting A Flop Shot From Bare Ground
Question of the Week – Hitting A Ball Above Your Feet
Article – Which Shot Hits The Spot?
Article – Swing Keys Help Trim Golf Handicap

Hitting A Long Explosion Shot

A greenside bunker 20 to 30 yards from the pin isn’t where you want to be with an approach shot or a drive. But even the best of us find ourselves there occasionally. The long explosion shot from a distant bunker is one of the hardest shots for weekend golfers to make, if not the hardest.

Below are six tips for hitting a long explosion shot:

1. Close your stance instead of opening
2. Widen your stance a couple of inches
3. Work your feet firmly into the ground
4. Concentrate on just skimming the sand
5. Rotate the clubface open to closed

The keys to this shot are two adjustments in your stance. Since you want to make a long accelerating swing, you need a firm foundation. Widening your stance helps. So does working your feet into the ground. But don’t work them in so much that you can’t move them. In addition, close your stance. Your feet should be parallel. That lengthens your swing and makes it easier to bring the club into the ball from inside the line of play.

Use your sand wedge for this shot and focus on just skimming the sand as you go through the ball. Also, rotate the clubface from open to closed on the downswing, which you can do by turning your right hand over your left through impact. Incorporating these adjustments into your stance helps you hit an accurate shot.

We can’t stop ourselves from landing in a bunker 20 to 30 yards from the green. No one can. But good golfers get out in one. Hitting a long explosion shot will help you do that, keep your scores in check, and trim strokes from your golf handicap.

Hitting A Flop Shot From Bare Ground

Phil Mickelson hits accurate flop shots from difficult lies—including bare ground. Hitting a flop shot from bare ground is a challenge. It’s also risky. If you mis-hit it, it can cost you strokes big time. That’s why golfers stay away from hitting a flop shot from this type of lie. But when you have to do it, a flop shot from bare ground can help turn three strokes into two.

Below are six keys to hitting a flop shop from bare ground:

1. Use a lob wedge with minimal bounce
2. Keep the shaft vertical or leaning away
3. Swing your arms to the left (right for left-handers)
4. Swing longer for higher shots
5. Keep legs quiet throughout the shot
6. Complete your follow-through

The secret to hitting a flop shot from bare ground is the wedge’s sole. Use a lob wedge with a sole that has minimal bounce—especially in the heel. Bounce is the flange on the club’s sole that extends below the leading edge. To hit a good shot, you must use the bounce effectively.

Also, keep the shaft vertical or slightly leaning away from the target, which means your hands will be even with or slightly behind the ball. Keeping the shaft vertical exposes the club’s bounce and enables its leading edge to slide under the ball. You want the trailing edge to go into the ground.

And keep your legs quiet from start to finish. On the follow-through, swing your arms to the left (right for right-handers). This prevents the club from de lofting and bouncing off the ground and into the ball. Remember, the longer your swing the higher the ball goes. But it travels only slightly farther.

This approach to hitting a flop shot works for any lie. Of course, there’s no flop shot approach that’s fail-safe. That’s why you need to be judicious about when you use it. But if you’re going to use it, make sure you commit to the shot before swinging.

Question of the Week – Hitting A Ball Above Your Feet

Q. Dear Jack, My question is, whenever I have a shot where my feet are lower than the ball I tend to take more dirt than I would like to, loosing all power and distance.

Help?
Judy Siblock
Northern Ontario, Canada

A. Thanks for the question, Judy. Hitting a ball above your feet is simply a matter of making a few adjustments.

Three things can happen when you don’t make the right adjustments. First, since the ball automatically moves left to right, you’ll pull the shot out of bounds. Second, on shots above your feet, you can shift your upper body forward during the swing and come into the ball at a lower than normal, hitting the ball fat. Third, you can lose your balance and pop out of you stance, resulting in a weak slice.

To hit a ball above your feet, adjust your stance so you’re aiming right of the flagstick, which compensates for the tendency to pull the ball left. Center your weight above your arches feet, not on the balls of your feet, which helps you swing along the slope and stay in balance throughout the shot. And keep your posture constant so you can maintain the same spine angle you set at address through impact. You can also choking down on the club.

Make these adjustments next time you have this type of lie and you’ll hit the ball solidly.

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:

Which Shot Hits The Spot?

Swing Keys Help Trim Golf Handicap

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.