In this issue we’ll discuss…

1. Throw Away Those Bunker Problems
2. Five Equipment Tips From The Pros
3. Question of the Week – Making Captain Hook Walk The Plank
4. Article – Sink More Putts With The Quiet Eye
5. Article – Five Match Play Strategies That Work

Throw Away Those Bunker Problems

The biggest obstacle to getting out of bunkers isn’t always physical. Sometimes it’s psychological. Many golfers execute the mechanics of a bunker shot perfectly. But after a bad shot or two, they become too tentative with their swings. That, in turn, causes them to mis-hit the shot, which costs them strokes.

Below are six tips to keep in mind when hitting from a bunker:

• Open the clubface
• Form the grip
• Choke down on the club
• Open the stance
• Aim right of stance
• Dig a solid foundation

The mechanics of bunker shots are straightforward. Start by opening the clubface first and then gripping the club. This ensures that the clubface stays open throughout the swing. Many weekend golfers do the opposite.

Also, choke down on the club to improve control and compensate for digging your feet into the sand. Digging your feet in tells you how soft the sand is and how the club will react when it enters the sand. Digging your feet in also provides a solid foundation, so you won’t slip when swinging.

Open your stance by pointing your feet, hips, and shoulders left of the target line (right of the target line for left-handers). Aim the clubface right of your stance, placing it in line with the target. Then, swing away.

Here’s where weekend golfers often mess up. Afraid of mis-hitting the shot, they take a half-hearted swing and either skull the shot or hit it fat. To prevent this, imagine yourself picking up a handful of sand and then throwing it back over your shoulders at the finish.

Visualizing this commits you fully to the shot, improves the shape of your swing, and allows your sand wedge to glide evenly through the sand, splashing the ball out softly on the green.

Don’t let bunker shots intimidate you. Adjust your stance to the type of sand in the bunker. Then, commit fully to the shot using the sand-tossing image. You’ll get out in one every time.

Five Equipment Tips From The Pros

How important is confidence to your game? Most experts say it’s a critical to playing well. Usually, you can boost confidence by practicing. But sometimes you can boost confidence by finding a club that feels just right. Since that’s hard to do, you may be forced to tailor your existing clubs to improve feel.

Below are five equipment tips employed by the pros to improve feel:

1. Shrink the putter grip
2. Tip the club’s shaft
3. Change shafts completely
4. Counterbalance the club
5. Check the driver’s clubface

Good putting requires a good touch. That’s especially true on the Tour, where the greens are fast and slick. To enhance feel, the pros will often fit their putters with thinner grips. Better feel can only improve your putting, not harm it.

Tipping refers to how a shaft is cut before being placed in the club head. Most times, players who shorten their clubs cut from the grip’s end. But for extra stiffness and increased control, the pros cut their shafts from where it’s inserted into the clubhead.

Today, shaft options exist for nearly every kind of player. If you want to imitate the pros, change your shafts to high-performance ones. Better yet, get fitted for your clubs by a clubfitter.

Counterbalancing a club adds weight away from the clubhead. That shifts the club’s balance point more toward the shaft’s middle, providing a more balanced feel. Look for counterbalanced shafts when buying clubs. Or, add lead tape.

Tour players carry drivers with either square faces or faces that are a few degrees open. These types of faces help prevent big hooks. Consider making the change if hooking is a major problem. But be careful, they also produce a lower ballflight.

Making equipment changes won’t guarantee you’ll shoot par next time you play. But it can boost your confidence. And confidence is vital to playing well, so anything that boosts it is worth considering.

Question of the Week – Making Captain Hook Walk The Plank

Q. Hello Jack, I’ve been playing golf for two or so years and have been trying hard to apply as many golf tips (plenty from you!) to my game as I can. I very rarely slice the ball, but instead I hook/draw the ball too often without getting the ball in the air (mostly from the fairway).

I’ve been told I use too much hip movement and take my eye off the ball, along with a too speedy backswing. Also, I’m not sure what my wrists should be doing in a full shot during back and forward swings.

Any tips would be appreciated!

Thanks
Mark Piper

A. Thanks for the question, Mark. Fixing a hook can be just as hard for some as correcting a slice is for others. To correct a hook, you must adjust your swing and then practice the new swing until it’s ingrained.

Basically, there are three ways to fix a hook:

Use a slicer’s grip
Hooking is sometimes due to excessive hand and wrist rotation through the downswing. So instead of hitting the ball with a squared clubface, you hit it with a closed one. If that’s why you hook, the cure is to adopt a slicer’s grip. At address, instead of having the two folds in your hands between both thumbs and index fingers pointing to the right shoulder (right-handers), point both folds more toward your sternum. The change prevents a too closed clubface at impact and encourages you to get more of your body into your swing.

Turn and burn
You may also be hooking because you fail to turn your body during your swing. When the body fails to turn, the clubface closes too fast, causing the ball to hook. To cure this problem, speed up your turn to the target. Increasing your body’s rate of rotation delays the closing of the clubface, eliminating the hook.

Equipment Changes
A third way to fix a hook is to through equipment changes. You could fatten your grips, making it more difficult for you to over-rotate your hands and hook the ball. Or, you might try shortening the shafts on your club. The shorter shafts make you stand a little more upright. You may lose some distance by doing this, but it’s better being on the fairway short than out of bounds long.
Any of these three approaches will correct your hook. The trick is discovering which one works for you. When you do, practice until it becomes second nature.

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

To view this newsletter online, please visit:
http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter10212009.php

Here are some of my recent articles:

Article- Sink More Putts With The Quiet Eye

Article - Five Match Play Strategies That Work

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

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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.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Golf Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.