April 14, 2009

"The Web's Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter"

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Hitting From Pine Straw Like Phil
2) Conquering Short Uphill Chips
3) Question of the Week - Stop Pulling The Ball
4) Article - Golf Tips To Help Master Your Irons
5) Article - Simple Tips To Master Six Of The Strangest Golf Rules

Jack's Note: Wow! What a Masters. Congrats to Phil...and what could have been for Tiger, Freddy and Lee. One thing that stood out was the exceptional iron play of all the leaders. You can't go low without accurate approach shots and the good news is we've got a free video for you to see some of the secrets of the Pros. Our Perfect Impact DVD will make sure you hit all your irons flush each time you go for the green. We recently re-launched it with a limited quantity so give it a look before they're gone.
1) Hitting From Pine Straw Like Phil

If you saw the Masters on TV, you might have seen Phil Mickelson’s extraordinary shot from the pine straw. Lee Westwood hit a shot from there as well. So did Tiger Woods. Hitting from pine straw is tricky. It’s slippery, so you have to watch your footing when you swing. You also have to be careful not to nudge the straw touching your ball. If you do and it moves the ball, you incur a one-stroke penalty.

Below are six keys to hitting from pine straw:

1. Play it safe. Don’t sole the club
2. Hover the clubhead off the ground
3. Stand a bit taller than normal
4. Make ball first contact
5. Sweep the ball off the ground
6. Pretend your standing in cement

This shot is similar to hitting from a fairway bunker. To avoid a one-stroke penalty, play it safe: Don’t sole your club. This prevents you from disturbing the straw and moving the ball. Instead, hover your club an inch off the ground and stand a bit taller at address to compensate for the change.

To prevent slipping, pretend you’re standing in cement. Keep your feet planted and your weight centered as you swing. This helps you steady yourself and make solid contact.

Also, you must make thin, ball-first contact. So sweep the ball off the ground, as you would in a fairway bunker, instead of swinging down on it.

Not every course has pine straw. But many do. If you land in it, avoid soling your club, stand a little taller at address, hover your club above the straw, keep your lower body quiet, and sweep the ball off the ground. If you’re in among the trees and there’s no opening to the green, aim for a good spot on the fairway, setting yourself up for the next shot.
2) Conquering Short Uphill Chips

Short uphill chips are tricky shots for some weekend players. If you watched this year’s Masters on TV, you saw plenty of these shots. You also saw several methods of playing them, from putting to chipping with a fairway wood. These methods all work because they allow you to control the shot’s spin and speed. But the best way to handle this type of shot—at least for the weekend player—may be the running chip, a short-swing shot that minimizes risk.

Below are five keys to this shot:

* Choose a 6- or 7-iron
* Play the ball off your back foot
* Lean your weight forward
* Use your arms and shoulders
* Pinch the ball against the dirt

The running chip cuts short uphill shots down to size. The shot is easy to learn and simple to execute. When you’re close to the green, you want to hit low risk shots like this.

Use a 6- or 7- iron for this shot. Try both in practice and see which works best for you. Position the ball opposite your back foot, lean three quarters of your weight on your front side, and swing the club back using your arms and shoulders. Hit down, pinching the ball against the turf. This kills the club’s momentum and cuts off your follow-through. The ball will jump forward, bounce a few times, and roll like a putt.

Pinch Shot Drill
Stick a shaft in the ground about 12 inches ahead of your front foot. Practice hitting down on the ball, never letting the clubhead reach the shaft in the ground. With your weight forward and the ball back, swing down on the ball. Keep practicing until you’ve ingrained the shot and can control the distance of each shot. You can also practice with the different irons until you feel comfortable with one.

Mastering the running chip helps you conquer troublesome uphill shots. If it’s hit correctly, the running chip shot turns three strokes into two, lowering your score.
3) Question of the Week - Stop Pulling The Ball

Q. Dear Jack,

I am always hitting my drive to the left. When the fairway is narrow, I lose the ball. Could you let me know how I can correct this, please? This does not happen on all the drives but more often than not.

Thanks,
Bipin Patel

A. Thanks for the question, Bipin. Sounds like you’re pulling the ball—assuming you’re a right-handed golfer. The key factor is the clubface’s position at impact. If it’s closed too much at impact, you’ll pull the shot.

To eliminate this fault, you need to the club on an in-to-out swing path or change the clubface’s position at impact. You can achieve both by trying one, all, or a combination of the five golf tips below. It’s often a case of trial and error, but the cure is here somewhere.

1. Strengthen your grip
2. Close your body alignment
3. Close the clubface slightly
4. Straighten your right arm early
5. Encourage your right arm to cross over

To strengthen your grip, move both hands to the right until you can see three knuckles on the back of your left hand. The thumbs and “V”s between both thumbs and forefingers should be parallel.

Also, try closing the overall alignment of your body a little by aiming your feet, hips, and shoulders to the right of the target and by moving the ball back a little in your stance. Or, close the clubface slightly as you move the ball back, keeping it “looking” at the ball for a little longer than usual.

In addition, try straightening your right arm a little earlier in the downswing and/or encouraging your right arm to cross over. If you’re left handed, try straightening your left arm a little earlier in the downswing and encouraging your left arm to cross over.

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 - Golf Tips To Help Master Your Irons
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/golf-tips-to-help-master-your-irons.php

5) Article - Simple Tips To Master Six Of The Strangest Golf Rules
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/simple-tips-to-master-six-of-the-strangest-golf-rules.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

Fred Funk has been playing professional golf for almost 30 years. A veteran PGA and Champions Tour player, Fred has won more than $25 million dollars as a professional golfer. He’s also won 15 professional tournaments. His most notable win is the 2005 Players Championship against arguably the toughest playing field in golf. Fred has been a member of the 2003 and 2005 President’s Cup teams, and the 2004 Ryder Cup team. Although he’s not an odds-on favorite to win every tournament he’s in, Fred is a highly competitive professional golfer.

Fred stands 5-foot-8 and weighs about 165 pounds. Obviously, he’s not among professional golf’s biggest players. Nor is he among its longest hitters, averaging only about 260 yards on his drive. These numbers make places him among professional golf’s shortest hitters. Yet Fred has been highly competitive since he went pro in 1981. How does he do it? Accuracy. Fred is among the Tour’s most accurate golfers. He hits about 80 percent of the fairways he faces from the tee—a nice number no matter what your golf handicap is.

Golf Lessons From Fred
If your drives aren’t overly long, watching Fred play is like taking golf instruction sessions for free. Fred’s key is that he plays within his range of motion. He doesn’t try to do more than his body is capable of, focuses on swing fundamentals, doesn’t overswing, and maintains posture and balance throughout his swing. These factors help Fred achieve his incredible accuracy. Nevertheless, Fred could use 20 or 30 yards more off the tee. It would give him shorter approach shots, which in turn would boost his greens in regulation—a key to achieving a low golf handicap, if you’re a weekend player.

Physics suggest that short hitters like Fred gain more distance off the tee using longer shafts. A longer shaft should increase clubhead speed, which in turn should boost the speed at which the ball leaves the clubface. Every extra mile per hour of ball speed adds about two or more yards to a drive. So if Fred’s clubhead speed is 108 miles per hour—the PGA Tour average—and his ball speed only about 160 mph, then a player would need to generate clubhead speed of about 112 mph to produce the 190 mph of ball speed needed to add 20 or 30 yards to a drive.

Longer Shafts Are No Guarantee
But using a longer shaft doesn’t guarantee that Fred would generate sufficient clubhead speed to produce more distance off the tee. In fact, there are instances where players have used shorter shafts and still generated more clubhead speed than before. So instead of trying a longer shaft, shorter hitters should take a golf lesson from Fred and work hard at maximizing launch conditions, including ball spin and launch angle. In other words, work on getting “dialed in.”

Another way a short hitter could generate more clubhead speed is through physical conditioning. If golfers are fit and stretched, then their muscles are stronger and they can swing the club harder. In addition, he could plug any power leaks he finds in his swing and/or widen his swing arc. Widening one’s swing arc increases clubhead speed, adding more force to the clubhead when it hits the ball. Finally, short hitters can gain more clubhead speed by getting more of his body into the ball.

Lengthening Tee Shots
Short hitters have any numbers of ways to lengthen their tee shots off the tee—from physical conditioning to using longer shafts. Longer tee shots mean shorter approach shots, which in turn mean more greens hit in regulation, which you know if you’ve been reading my golf tips newsletter, is a great way to increase your up and downs and cut strokes from your golf handicap. Every time a golfer hits a green in regulation, she’s cutting two or more strokes from her score.

But generating more distance of the tee is great as long as it doesn’t hurt your accuracy. It’s better to be 20 yards shorter in the fairway than 20 yards longer and in the woods. Also, take some golf tips from Fred and work on honing your swing fundamentals, improving your physical conditioning, increasing your flexibility, and staying within your self. Do all this and you’re sure to see a significant drop in your golf handicap.

By Jack Moorehouse

All eyes are on Tiger Woods this week. It’s been 6 months since he played in a professional golf tournament. That’s a long time for a professional golfer to be away from the game. Plus, he’s playing at Augusta National, among the toughest golf courses on the Tour, and he may have some lingering affects from his knee surgery last year. It won’t be easy. That’s why most sports writers aren’t picking Tiger to win the tournament. But if anybody can do it, he can.

Tiger’s biggest problems at the Masters will probably be mental. When you’ve played as long as Tiger has and hit as many balls, it doesn’t take long to get your swing in shape. Some practice grounds should do it. Plus, Tiger keeps himself in good shape all year round, so from a physical standpoint, he should be ready to go on Thursday. But will he be ready mentally? Below are five mental strategies that Tiger—and you—can use to cut stroke from their golf handicap.

Forget your mechanics
When you’re been away like Tiger has, you tend to think about your mechanics too much. When you start focusing on where your hands are or where your shoulders are when you swing, you’re thinking about your mechanics. The place to work on your mechanics is in practice. There you can isolate a swing flaw and work on it without adding strokes to your golf handicap. On the course, think about where to hit the ball, not how to hit it. Trust your body to do the rest.

Think small
Hitting to an area on the fairway isn’t good enough. Think smaller. Pick out a spot on the fairway, like a dark patch of grass or a brown spot, and hit to it. It’s called narrowing your focus. Ben Hogan did it all the time. When told by his caddy to hit the ball to a clump of trees, Hogan asked him which tree he had in mind. Narrowing your focus works well when putting, too. When you have a tricky three-footer, focus on an imperfection in the back of the cup and stroke the ball confidently toward it.

Use visualization
Visualization is a powerful mental tool that can help shave strokes off your golf handicap. Use it as much as possible. The easiest way to access the power of visualization is through mental imagery. Imagine the type of shot you want to make and then hit several of those shots in your head. Now hit the shot for real. Mental practice helps both your tempo and your feel for the shot. That’s why some teachers devote entire golf instruction sessions to visualization.

Stay in the moment
This is one of Tiger’s strengths. It should serve him well at the Masters. When you think about a shot’s outcome, you’re focusing on something you can’t control, generating anxiety. Players who haven’t played in a while have enough anxiety. They don’t need more. Instead, focus on what you have to do then and there. That lessens the anxiety. If you’ve seen Tiger play in the past, you know how intently he concentrates on every shot, especially in pressure situations.

Enjoy the game
When you’re playing poorly, you tend to get down on yourself. If Tiger starts off poorly, this strategy will help. When playing poorly, ask yourself why you play? Is it for relaxation? Camaraderie? Mastery? Whatever the reason, remind yourself why you started playing the game in the first place. If you’re going to play golf, you might as well enjoy it. It takes the pressure off and puts the game in its proper perspective.

Tiger’s quest for the Masters depends on his mental and physical games. Your quest to cut strokes from your golf handicap rests on your mental game and physical games, too. The strategies above help. They may not turn you into a PGA pro overnight, but they will help you cut strokes from your scores. That in turn will shave strokes from your golf handicap. If you’re serious about improving your game, work on both sides of it.

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Be Aggressive In The Rain
2) Flop Shot From A Fluffy Lie
3) Question of the Week - Hitting Clean Crisp Irons
4) Article - Five Strategies That Lower Golf Handicaps
5) Article - Golf Tips For Short Hitters

Jack's Note:
1) Be Aggressive In The Rain

None of us can control the weather, so there will be times when you find yourself playing in the rain—whether your grinding it out in a tournament or playing in a grudge match with your buddies. You can gain a big edge over others when it rains, if you keep a few things in mind, such as be aggressive with your short game.

Below are five golf tips on playing in the rain:

* Be prepared for rain
* Keep your grips dry
* Have extra gloves in your bag
* Keep your balance
* Be aggressive in the rain

Always carry rain gear. A rain suit, a clean towel, and a pair of rain gloves help keep you and your equipment dry. If you can’t find rain gloves, store extra regular gloves and a pair of cotton gloves in your bag. The cotton gloves enhance your grip when needed. In addition, wipe your grip with a towel before hitting.

Once it starts raining, keep your equipment and yourself as dry as you can. Cover your clubs when not in use. Change your spikes periodically between rounds to prevent slipping. You don’t want to lose your balance. And use your umbrella to shield you from the rain when putting or while waiting to hit.

When pitching and chipping, be aggressive in the rain. Wet grass inhibits roll, so forget the bump and run. Instead, pitch and chip all the way to the hole. Putts run more slowly and break less in the rain, so make sure you get the ball all the way to the hole. If it starts lightning out, get off the course.

Keep these golf tips in mind when it rains and you’ll have a big edge on your opponents.
2) Flop Shot From A Fluffy Lie

No golfer hits every green in regulation. In fact, weekend golfers miss a lot more greens than they hit. That’s why they need a short solid game. A good short game can bail you out of tight situations and help you save par. A flop shot is a good shot to have in your short game arsenal. It’s great when you have to go over water or sand, or you want to keep the ball from running off the green. But be extra careful with this shot when you have a fluffy lie.

Below are five keys to this shot:
1. Waken your grip a little
2. Open the clubface a bit
3. Play the ball of front heel
4. Keep your elbow close
5. Pick the club up quickly

Ideally, you want to use a flop wedge for this shot. But if you don’t carry one, take your most lofted club use that.

Now, weaken your grip on the club a bit, open the clubface to achieve maximum loft, and play the ball off the heel of your front foot. Cock your wrists sharply as you take the club back keep your back elbow close to your side, and swing the club down with a wristy motion but a firm let hand (right hand for left-handers).

Focus on preventing the clubhead from passing your hands through impact. This prevents your wrists from rolling over on the shot. The key with this shot is letting your wrists hinge more freely than you would on a typical pitch shot without letting them rotate through the ball at impact.

The flop shot isn’t appropriate for every lie. Avoid it on tight lies and hardpan. They don’t give you enough room to slide the clubface under the ball. Make sure you have the right lie before attempting this shot.
3) Question of the Week - Hitting Clean Crisp Irons

Q. Hi, Jack. How do I improve my iron ballstriking in the fairway? I have a tendency to hit it fat when I get nervous. The ball is in the middle of my stance and my body may be dipping down a bit on the downswing, or I might be too vertical and just digging too much. I want to hit it with the club handle forward and pinch the ball to get the correct flight and stopping effect, which is what happens about 50% of the time. I want to know how I can improve my chances of a good ball strike. Any tips you have would be appreciated.

Steve

A. Thanks for the question, Steve. Good iron play is the sign of a good player. Below are five swing keys to a good iron swing

* Feel loose at address
* Flex your knees for balance
* Keep your forward wrist flat
* Create lag in your downswing
* Keep your feet on the ground

Of these five keys, keeping your wrist flat and creating lag in your downswing are perhaps the most important. Obviously, you never want to feel jammed up at address when hitting irons or woods and you always want to flex your knees so your shoulders are in line with your hips and your knees are in line with the balls of your feet. These are givens not matter what club your hitting.

Also, keep your keep your left wrist (right, for left-handers) flat or just slightly bent during your backswing. Think of your left arm swinging up and through your right shoulder. That keeps you on plane during your backswing. Spend some time making sure your clubface remains square at the top in practice. When you’re square at the top, you don’t need to get handsy at impact.

In addition,create as much lag as possible in your downswing. You create lag in your takeaway by stretching both arms as far as you can during your takeaway while making little wrist hinge. This creates the widest possible arc. Then, when you drop your hands to start your downswing, your arc will go from wide to narrow.

Build these six keys into your swing and you’ll hit cleaner, crisper irons. You’ll also hit more accurate approach shots, leaving you with more makeable putts.

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 - Five Strategies That Lower Golf Handicaps
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/five-strategies-that-lower-golf-handicaps.php

5) Article - Golf Tips For Short Hitters
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/golf-tips-for-short-hitters.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