“The Web’s Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter”

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Hit It Close From A Sidehill Lie
2) Attacking A Pin From 100 yards
3) Question of the Week – Keep Your Hands In Front Of Your Body
4) Article – Roll It Like A Pro
5) Article – A Golf Lesson on Plane Angles Shifts (Part I)

Jack’s Note: Wondering how to get the most of your hybrids? Check out this video.
1) Hit It Close From A Sidehill Lie

A sidehill lie with the ball above your feet is tricky. Miss-hit the shot and it could be costly. You could add several strokes to your score, depending on where the ball lands. No one wants that. To knock it close, you must factor in three things: the distance to the green, the hill’s slope, and the type of club in hand. Many weekend golfers factor in the distance to the green and the slope of the hill, but fail to account for the club in hand. That proves their undoing.

Below are six keys to this shot:

1. Match your stance to the shot
2. Center the ball in your stance
3. Distribute your weight evenly
4. Shape your swing to the slope
5. Consider the club being used
6. Keep your weight on your heels

A sidehill lie with the ball above your feet causes the ball to curve. The amount of curve depends on the club in hand. A short iron, for example, points much farther left (right, if you’re right-handed) from the same lie, which means you must aim farther right to compensate.

Keep two rules of thumb in mind when hitting from this type of sidehill lie:

* If you’re hitting a short iron, aim your shoulders, hips, and feet 10 yards to the right of where your clubface is pointing.

* If you’re hitting a mid-iron or a long iron, cut the amount you aim your body to the right in half (about 5 yards).

If you set up properly, the clubface looks like it’s facing a little left of your bodyline.

Also, keep your weight back on your heels throughout the swing. If you set up with your weight on your toes, you’ll fall back onto your heels during your backswing and your contact will suffer.

Don’t let sidehill lies throw you. Let the club in hand point you in the right direction, saving strokes in the process.
2) Attacking A Pin From 100 yards

If you watch the pros carefully, you’ll notice that they play aggressively, especially when they’re within 100 yards or so of the pin. When they’re that close, they go for the green whenever the opportunity presents itself. So should you. But that advice comes with a caution: On well-protected pins, the smart play is to lay-up. That saves you from hitting into trouble and adding strokes to your score.

Below are three keys to this thinking process:
1. Know your lay-up distance
2. Assess the pin location
3. Decide on the type of shot

First, know your perfect lay-up distance. Most professionals on the tour can hit a full sand wedge about 95 yards, so they use a SW to lay-up with. Weekend golfers may need to use the pitching wedge to hit the ball that far. But that’s okay. The club doesn’t matter. The key is to know your perfect lay-up distance.

Second, assess the type of pin location your facing. Is the pin in the back or the front? Is the green protected or wide open? If you’re faced with a pin in a position that dares you to make an extremely difficult shot, aim for the center of the green.

Third, decide on the shot:

* If the pin is back, bring the ball in lower than usual, so it skips up to the pin after it lands. Move the ball back a hair in your stance, pinch it at impact, and cut your follow-through.

* If the pin is in the front, create a shot that flies high and stops by playing the ball in the center of your stance making a full finish.

* If the pin is short-sided without any hazard, go right at it. The worst that can happen is that you’ll end up in the rough.

Smart golfers play aggressively when the opportunity presents itself. When it doesn’t, they lay up, avoiding trouble in the process.
3) Question of the Week – Keep Your Hands In Front Of Your Body

Q. Hi Jack, I started working on your drills and noticed that my arms and hands still come way inside on the backswing. How do I keep my arms and hands in front of my body?

Thanks,

Mark Cardelli

A. Thanks for the question, Mark. Many weekend golfers have the same problem—keeping their hands in front of their bodies. But there’s a simple drill to correct this:

Get square by setting a club parallel to your target line and your feet parallel to the club. Make your normal swing. Start with a smooth backswing. When you’re half way back, stop. Check to make sure your club shaft is parallel to the club on the ground and the clubface is in a square position.

Practice this drill until the move is ingrained. When it is, you’ll find yourself hitting straighter and longer 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

Also, for past issues of this newsletter and some of my most recent articles, visit our blog at www.HowToBreak80.com/blog

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Roll It Like A Pro
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/roll-it-like-a-pro.php

5) Article – A Golf Lesson on Plane Angles Shifts (Part I)
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/a-golf-lesson-on-plane-angles-shifts-part-1.php

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.

By Jack Moorehouse

Adam Scott is one of the best young golfers on the PGA tour. His record proves it. In 2006 he won the Tour Championship and finished third on the PGA Tour money list. In 2007 he finished third in the official world golf rankings with a second place finish at the Mercedes-Benz Championship. And in 2008 he played enough events on the European Tour to qualify for the Order of Merit team for the first time since 2005. But in 2009 his form dipped. He dropped out of the top 50 in the world rankings and the top 100 on the PGA Tour money list.

Scott is working with instructor Butch Harmon to regain his winning form. Harmon’s golf instruction sessions have been focusing mainly on eliminating inconsistency in Adam’s swing. That’s a great goal for weekend golfers. Inconsistency really hurts your game. It’s caused by any number of things, like swing plane or alignment. Eliminating it is critical to achieving a lower golf handicap. In fact, you’ll be hard pressed to cut any strokes from your golf handicap unless you develop a repeatable swing. The golf tips below can help.

Good Timing Is Essential
The first step in eliminating inconsistency is timing. Good timing guarantees accuracy off the tee. To improve timing, shorten your backswing by stopping your shoulder turn when your arms stop going back naturally. If you keep your arms moving back, you’ll get yourself in trouble at the top. Also, keep your hands as far away from your head as possible. This keeps you short of parallel and eliminates overturning. In addition, keep your feet on the ground. This braces lower body and prevents swaying.

Achieve Consistent Ballstriking
To achieve solid ballstriking, move your arms and body as a single unit. In other words, your arms and chest must move together during the downswing. You also must maintain the triangle formed by your arms and chest into impact. It’s the only point in the swing where both arms are perfectly straight and your swinging at maximum speed.  Also, watch those hips. If they move too fast, you’ll hit a hook or block. To achieve solid ballstriking consistent, focus on moving your body and your arms together as a single unit.

Generate Power Consistently
To create a power-laden swing, you must increase clubhead speed. To do that you must tap the four power sources: weight shift, body rotation, arm swing, and hands release. Weight shift involves the right foot rising (left, if left-handed) slightly off the ground and the left leg straightening in the downswing. When this occurs, you’ve started to move your weight onto your left leg. Your arms, which are another major source of power, should start to straighten as you approach impact. Meanwhile, your belt buckle should move past your shoulders as you start rotating your body. Don’t engage your hands—until just before impact.

Straighten Your Front Leg
A good power checkpoint is your front leg. It should be straight in your follow through, allowing you to rotate fully. And you should finish with your eyes looking directly at your target. This indicates you’ve made a complete body rotation. But don’t keep your head down too long. It can restrict your ability to move into your follow-through.

Great Ballstriking From The Fairway
Great ballstriking in the fairway is keyed by a solid position at impact. Because your hips have started the downswing, they should be more open than your shoulders through impact. The back leg should be slightly off the ground, which means that you’ve correctly rolled your weight to your left side off the inside of your right foot, if your right-handed.  The opposite is true if you’re left-handed.

Inconsistency hurts your game and your golf handicap. Don’t let it. Take a golf lesson from Adam Scott and work on eliminating inconsistency. The golf tips provided above can help.

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.

“The Web’s Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter”

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Pinpoint Your Aim For Increased Accuracy
2) Stop Overturning For Straighter Drives
3) Question of the Week – Eliminating Pulled Putts
4) Article – Three Drills To Improve Your Touch
5) Article – Building A Better Golf Swing
1) Pinpoint Your Aim For Increased Accuracy

Many golfers use the imaginary line between tee markers to align their drives. Usually, that’s right on target, but not always. Tee boxes can fool you. They don’t always point to the best spot on the fairway to hit your ball. In fact, some tee boxes are intentionally set to create trouble. It’s what course designers do to increase the shot’s visual difficulty. What you need is an alternative way to align your drive.

Below is a three-step technique for increasing accuracy off the tee:

1. Aim for a small spot down the fairway
2. Aim for an intermediate target
3. Aim for a target a few feet from the ball

Rather than trusting to tee markers, check out the hole’s shape. Locate the area on the fairway you think is the best spot for a second shot. Make this your target area. If you’re not sure about a good spot, work backwards from the green and pick out where you want to take your approach shot into the green.

Having chosen a good landing spot, get even smaller. Pick out an area in this spot you want to hit. It could be a dark patch of grass or a small brown patch of fairway. Just make sure it’s in the landing zone.

Having chosen a landing spot, pick out an intermediate target to the spot. Use the top of tree, a jutting branch, or anything that gives you a good line to your smaller target. This will ensure that even if you miss your target area, you’ll still make the fairway for your approach shot.

Finally, pick out a target within a few feet of your ball. Take you address position, aim for the closest target, and swing a way.

Don’t be fooled by the tee boxes and tee markers. Use the method described above to increase driving accuracy.
2) Stop Overturning For Straighter Drives

Everyone knows a big turn produces power. More power generally translates to better approach shots when team with good accuracy. But you must avoid overswinging when trying to generate more power. That spells trouble. Overturning pushes your head toward the target and out in front of the ball, causing you to miss-hit. So while you want to make the biggest turn possible, avoid overturning.

Here are five tips to help you stop overturning

* Start with your head behind the ball
* Let your shoulders lead your arms
* Finish your backswing when you stop turning
* Let your body unwind through impact
* End with your head behind the ball

You can stop yourself from overturning by keeping your arms in check. Start with your head behind the ball at address. As you swing back, allow your shoulders to lead your turn away from the target. When your shoulders have turned as far as they can, don’t swing your arms any more.

The key is finishing your backswing as soon as your body stops turning. If your arms continue to swing back after the turn is complete, you will force your head out of position, creating a power leak.

But allowing your shoulders to control your arms keeps your head behind the ball, where it should be, and you’ll be able to turn as far as your body allows. This enables your body to unwind at impact, allowing you to make the most of your backswing in the form of extra power.

If you’ve lost some flexibility over the years, you may not be able to turn as much you once could. To increase your flexibility, try this drill:

Stick a club behind your back parallel to the ground. Hold the club in place with your arms and turn your body as far as you can to the right. Turn back to center. Then turn your body as far as you can to the left. Then turn back to the center.

Do this drill religiously and you’ll improve both your flexibility and your turn, increasing your power.
3) Question of the Week – Eliminating Pulled Putts

Q. Hi Jack,Is it just practice or are there ways to ensure your putts go on the line you would like? I am getting to the green in three or less, but I still make a mess of the putts! Even from in close (3 feet). I don’t have the confidence to “go for it” because I pull it left too often and miss. I think it’s using the wrists in the final event, so is there a way to ensure the rotation of the shoulders, if you think that’s the problem?

Thank you for the helpful tips,
John Inman
Aylesbury, UK

A. Thanks for the question, John. It sounds like you’re not squaring yourself at setup. It’s essential to good putting. The direction your putterface points at address determines where the ball goes. A closed putterface at address, if you’re right-handed, causes you to miss left. An open putterface at address, if you’re right-handed, causes you to miss right. Use the lines created by the putter alignment aid on your putter, plus the heel and toe sections of the blade, to square yourself to the target line.

Also, work on developing good rhythm. All great putters have it. To develop good rhythm, make a fluid transition from your backstroke to your forward stroke. You want to almost pause your putter at the end of your backswing, then smoothly accelerate through the ball. Also, match the length of your backstroke to that of your forward stroke. Do these two things and you’ll achieve right ball speed without jerking your hands forward or slowing down through impact.

Square up at address and you’ll stop missing those pesky three footers. Draining more of these short putts builds trust and confidence in your stroke for longer putts. Trust and confidence are essential to good putting.

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

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Three Drills To Improve Your Touch
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/three-drills-to-improve-your-touch.php

5) Article – Building A Better Golf Swing
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/building-a-better-golf-swing.php

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.

By Jack Moorehouse

Golf can be maddening at times. Take its rules. The game is supposed to be played by gentlemen, so there are no judges, referees, or umpires watching our every move to make sure we follow the rules. You’re supposed to know the rules, even though few teachers, if any, give golf lessons on them. And when players play in a group, they’re responsible for penalizing themselves and their playing partners. In other words, you’re supposed to be honest when you play, no matter what your golf handicap. Most golfers are honest and follow the rules.

But some rules leave even the most astute golfers shaking their heads. Put simply, the game has some of the strangest rules of any sport. Even if we spent several golf instruction sessions going over the rules with you, we probably couldn’t help you with all the strange things that are covered in the golf course. Nor could we help you understand the rationale behind the rules covering these incidents. In other words, golf’s rules don’t always make sense. Below are six of those rules.

Power Line Interference
If your drive strikes a power line that’s within the course’s boundaries, you must re-tee the ball and hit another shot (Rule 20-5 applies). But if your ball caroms off any other man-made obstruction, you must play the ball as it lies. You can get relief if your ball is in an obstruction or the obstruction impedes your swing. But otherwise, you have to play the ball where it lies. Aren’t power lines man-made objects?

Carrying A Non-conforming Club
You can be disqualified if you’re found carrying a damaged or non-conforming club—even if you don’t use it. (Rule 4-1/1 applies). In fact, one PGA professional was disqualified for just this reason. Dudley Hart, a PGA Tour Professional, was disqualified from the 2004 Buick Championship for carrying a bent club during the tournament’s second round. That rule doesn’t apply, of course, if you’re club is bent or damaged during the round you’re playing. This rule seems harsh, doesn’t it? How big an advantage can you gain by playing a ball with a broken or damaged club?

Fairway Divots
You blast a drive straight down the middle only to have your ball land in a divot. It’s unfair, but you still have to play the ball from the divot, even though someone else created it. Think about it. Aren’t you being penalized for something someone else failed to do? Wasn’t the other player supposed to replace his or her divot, if possible?

Provisional Announcements
Rule 27-2a/1 states that you must say you’re playing a provisional ball, even if it’s clear that was what you meant when you said something else. For example, if you say, “I think I may have lost that ball” or “I’m going to hit a second ball, just to be safe,” you could be penalized. The penalty: a stroke and distance. So when it comes to playing in tournaments, make sure you say “provisional ball.”

Practical Joker
We’ve never covered this rule in any golf lessons we’ve given, but maybe we should. What would happen if someone decided to move the pin somewhere other than the correct hole on the green and some players played to it? It’s not something that happens daily. In fact, we can’t recall this ever happening in all our years of golf. But if it does happen, the rules have it covered. They say you can’t replay the hole. You have to finish the hole and take the strokes. This rule goes under the heading “strange but true.”

Golf is a great game. The quest to hone your skills and lower your golf handicap can fill up the time, absorb your interest, and provide plenty of entertainment. But some of its rules should come with golf tips designed to explain the rationale behind them. Sometimes, the rules just don’t make sense.

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.