How To Break 80 Newsletter

February 17th, 2010

"The Web's Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter"

===================================================

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Be More Exact To Improve Your Putting

2) How To Pitch With Extra Loft

3) Question of the Week: Work On Your Short Game To Improve

4) Article: Hit Crisp Accurate Irons Now

5) Article: Straighten Our Your Swing To Go Low

Jacks Note: Do you know the fastest way to drop shots from your scores?  We've put together a video that shows you the "best-of-the-best" in terms of drills to help you improve your game around the greens. See it here. Also, I wanted to take a moment and acknowledge all of you who wrote back or posted on the blog regarding the whole Tiger incident.  It obviously caused quite a stir.  I felt an explanation was in order so I posted so all could read.

This week we're doing something a little different, from now on the newsletter will be more blog based, so be sure and bookmark the blog!

Trouble viewing links? Your browser may be the issue. We recommend using the Firefox browser. Click Here To Download. Some email clients also distort links: try to copy and paste web urls directly in your browser, or turn on images for emails.

===================================================

1) Be More Exact To Improve Your Putting

===================================================

To sharpen your putting, you must become more exact. That means focusing not on the cup, but on the exact spot where you want the ball to fall into the hole. That's because most greens have some slope to them. Some have more than others. To sink putts on greens like this, you must aim for the place on the hole where you think the ball will fall into the cup. If you fail to play the break, the ball will run by the hole.

Below is a five-step routine that helps sharpen your putting:

* Imagine the hole as a clock face

* Identify the entry spot on the lip

* Visualize the exact route to the spot

* Make a confident putting stroke

* Play for maximum break

Start by imagining the hole as a clock face, with the number 6 pointing toward you. That means the number 9 will be pointing to your left and the number 3 will be pointing to your right. Pick the spot where you think the ball will begin breaking to the cup.

Now walk to the hole and identify the exact spot on the cup's lip where you think the ball will roll into the hole. Doing this helps remove any doubts regarding how far outside the hole to aim.

Go back to the ball and visualize the path it will need to take to fall into the hole. Take aim on the desired route you just visualized and make a confident putting stroke

When you account for the break, don't try to negate it. Instead, play for maximum break. Ramming the ball through the curve doesn't help. Pick your line, then the spot on the cup where the ball will drop in, and let gravity do the rest.

Greens differ. So be prepared to make slight adjustments to the targets you pick around the cup and along the line of the putt. But if follow this five-step routine faithfully, your putting will improve in no time.

===================================================

2) How To Pitch With Extra Loft

===================================================

Sooner or later you'll face a pitch shot needing extra loft. You may want the loft to carry a bunker or conquer a tight pin. Whatever the case, you'll want to hit a pitch shot with a high trajectory. A common mistake is cutting across the ball on an outside-to-inside path. You either shank it or hit it fat. Even if you make good contact, the ball starts off line and in the end can cost you a stroke or two.

Below are six keys to this shot:

* Use your most lofted wedge

* Aim the clubface directly at the target

* Hinge your wrists fully going back

* Swing directly down the target line

* Accelerate through the ball

* Slide the clubface under the ball

A lob wedge or an X-wedge works well for this shot. Aim it directly at the target. Make your normal backswing. Hinge your wrists fully. And accelerate through the ball with your arms, swinging the clubface directly down the target line. Complete the swing.

The key to this shot is making a full wrist hinge and accelerating through the ball. If you don't hinge your wrists, you won't get much loft. It's as simple as that.

Don't release the club. If you do, you'll ruin your rate of acceleration. You'll also have trouble keeping the club aimed at the target through impact. Instead, slide the clubface under the ball. That will pop it up nicely and fly straight

You won't get a lot of run. The shot's height and the ball's spin prevent it. But when you're hitting over a bunker or taking on a tight pin, you don't need it.

=====================================================

3) Question of the Week: Work On Your Short Game To Improve

=====================================================

Q.

Hello, Jack:

Thank you for all the wonderful info I get regularly. I read it with absolute passion. The only trouble is, I am a high handicapper (26) and only started playing at the age of 59. I would dearly love to get my handicap down, but am hovering around the 100 mark. While I know this is probably a lot to ask, but here goes: Could you give me some tips on how to get below 100 regularly? I'm so keen to improve, having been a provincial hockey player in my day. I want to get better.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Margie

A.

Thanks for the question, Margie. The best way to break 100 is to improve your short game—especially your wedge play. Hitting a good wedge shot can turn three shots (and sometimes more) into two, as I've often said.

Also, work on your putting. If you two-putted every hole, you'd take about 36 putts per round of golf (18 holes). So about 30 percent of your shots would be putts. If you can knock some strokes off your putting, you'll lower your scores.

There are plenty of drills to help improve both your putting and your wedge play. Here's one below:

The Trough Drill

Take two clubs and form a narrow trough pointing at the pin. Place a ball between the two clubs. Using a seven-iron (or your favorite chipping club) Assume your normal chipping stance and practice chipping the ball to the pin. Keep the club within the trough on the way back and on the way forward.

Once you learn to make solid contact and hit the ball on a consistent ball-flight line, change clubs. Practice with all the clubs you chip with.

The drill's benefit: The player chips it close more often and leaves herself more makeable putts, slicing strokes off her golf handicap. Work on your short game, Margie, and you'll break 100 in no time.

Correction: We inadvertently gave the wrong rule on grounding your club in a bunker in a previous issue. Rule 13-4 does not permit grounding the club in a sand bunker or water hazard. A player incurs a two-stroke penalty for a grounded club. In match play, the penalty is loss of hole. Thanks to Don Davidson for pointing this out.

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

Click here to view this newsletter on the web

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article: Hit Crisp Accurate Irons Now

... you’ll never achieve that next level if you don’t master your irons. One way to do this is to follow a proven process for creating a good iron swing used in many golf lessons...

5) Article: Straighten Our Your Swing To Go Low

Finding the right swing path is critical to hitting straight shots. It’s also critical to shaving strokes off your golf handicap. Slices, hooks, pulls, fat shots, or thin shots off the tee get you in trouble—the kind of trouble that packs strokes onto your 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.

Finding the right swing path is critical to hitting straight shots. It’s also critical to shaving strokes off your golf handicap. Slices, hooks, pulls, fat shots, or thin shots off the tee get you in trouble—the kind of trouble that packs strokes onto your golf handicap. If you hit bad shots off the tee regularly, your swing path may be the cause. Below are golf tips to help you improve an incorrect path.

A common fault we see in players who take our golf lessons is a too steep swing path. A too steep swing path often leads to an open clubface at impact. How can you tell if you’re path is to steep? If you pull a lot, hit a lot of fat or toe shots, and/or create deep divots, your swing path may be too steep. If you slice a lot, your swing path may also be too steep.

Curing A Steep Swing Path
Curing a too steep swing path is straightforward. All it takes is an adjustment or two to your swing and a little hard work. It’s not hard or complicated. Start by making adjustments to your swing that will help square the clubface at impact. To do that, try:

* Strengthening your grip
* Bowing your left wrist at the top
* Using a baseball swing

To strengthen your grip, turn your hands so the creases between your thumbs and forefingers run parallel at address and point toward your right shoulder. Also, when you get to the top of your swing, bow your left wrist, so that it’s slightly cupped. Using a baseball swing is another adjustment that helps flatten your swing.

To grove a flatter swing, hit balls that are slightly above your feet, like off the side of a mild fairway mogul— a drill we often use in our golf lessons. Another good exercise is to take the club back with your left arm only, extending it out as far as you can. Then, grip the club with your right hand. This is the swing width you want at the start of your swing. It invariably leads to straighter shots.

Curing A Shallow Swing Path
A second swing fault we see in our golf lessons is a too shallow swing path. Players with a too shallow swing path take the club back too far inside the target line and return it too far inside. Or, take it back correctly but slide forward too aggressively during the downswing, dropping the club behind them on a shallow plane.

A swing path that’s too shallow produces thin shots, shots with no divots, heel hits, and/or hooks and blocks. A swing path that’s too shallow leads to a closed clubface at impact, producing a hook. To cure this swing fault:

* Weaken your grip
* Keep your body turning
* Delay your forearm rotation

To weaken your grip, turn your hands so that the crease of your thumbs and forefinger parallel each other and point toward your chin. Also, keep your body turning through impact, allowing your head to swivel with your body and watch the ball. This move helps your body rotate and prevents the clubface from closing too soon. Another adjustment is to let your right forearm turn over your left until after impact.

Drills we use in our golf instruction sessions to cure a too shallow swing path is to practice hitting balls off the tee in which you lift your hands as high as you can reach. This automatically makes your swing plane more vertical. Another adjustment is to go down low after the ball. If you can’t get too low, bend over a little more at address or during your backswing.

Use An Empty Plastic Bottle
Another drill we use in our golf instruction sessions to create shallower swings is to put an empty plastic bottle just outside your target line, just ahead of the ball, and hit drives without touching the bottle. You have to swing inside to do that, creating a steeper swing path.

If you’re hitting hooks, slices, pulls, and other bad shots off the tee, you’re adding strokes to your golf handicap. The cause may be an incorrect swing path. Using the golf tips and drills covered in this article will help you correct your swing and make going low a habit.

While the power game still rules, the iron game is graining ground. More and more weekend players are realizing the benefits of hitting crisp, accurate irons. A well-struck iron can make a big difference on a hole: It can set you up for an easily makeable par or birdie. Making more pars or birdies lowers and golf handicap and helps boost your game to the next level.

But you’ll never achieve that next level if you don’t master your irons. One way to do this is to follow a proven process for creating a good iron swing used in many golf lessons. It goes like this:

* Learn the feel of the overall swing
* Develop consistency with your irons
* Learning to shape your shots.

Below we provide golf tips that will help you execute this process and learn to hit better irons. Use the golf tips and practice the drills described below and you’ll quickly improve your iron game and chop strokes off your golf handicap.

Turn To The Top
When it comes to the backswing of an iron shot, many players in our golf instruction sessions just lift their arms instead of turning their body. An arms only backswing eventually leads to a severe problem at impact. To generate a good iron swing begin with the hands and arms swinging away from the ball, followed by the shoulders and hips. This sequence drops the club to the inside on a powerful path to the ball.

To make a full turn, it helps follow this visual imaging exercise that teaching pros have used in golf lessons for years: Picture your arms and shoulders forming a triangle at address. Now turn back. As you do keep the triangle as much intact as possible during the backswing, and through impact and the forward swing.

At some point in the swing, you’ll have to fold your elbows when swinging through. But be careful. Don’t let your elbows pull apart or your arms crisscross. If you do, you’re headed for disaster. Instead, monitor the triangle to keep the face square at impact.

Make Consistent Contact
Another key to hitting crisp, accurate irons is to make solid contact. That always helps when looking to chop strokes off your golf handicap. You make solid contact with your irons by making a downward strike of the ball—just like you’re told in golf instructions sessions and videos. A good solid descending blow compresses the ball, cutting a deep divot in front of it. In creating this divot, your body should be shifting to your front foot and your weight should be moving forward to your front foot at impact. That will position the bottom of your swing well forward, where it should be.

To learn to make consistent contact, try this simple exercise: Create divots by hitting some irons off a tee. Push the tee in very low to the ground. Place a ball on the tee. Then step back and assess your divots. If your weight is forward, your body should be turning open and your arm triangle should be in tact throughout impact. The divot will come after impact, not before.

Shaping The Shot
A third key to hitting crisp, accurate irons is learning to shape your shots. Players with low golf handicaps usually know how to hit both fades and draws when necessary. To draw the ball, close your stance and push your hands ahead of the ball. To hit a fade, open your stance and play the ball slightly forward of center. Make sure the clubhead remains outside your hands on the takeaway and that you make a full turn.

An easy way to learn to hit a draw is to lay a club or your umbrella along your toes in a closed stance. Make sure the umbrella or club is inside the ball. Lay a head cover or a club just outside of the ball. Then follow the path with your swing. The two objects promote an inside-out swing, which generates a draw.

More and more golfers are realizing the benefits of well-struck irons. A good iron shot can set you up for a par or birdie. But learning to hit crisp, accurate irons pays off with lower scores. Following the golf tips and drills provided above will help. So will attending golf instructions sessions on hitting irons. Mastering your irons will chop strokes off your golf handicap.

How To Break 80 Newsletter

February 3nd, 2010

"The Web's Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter"
===================================================

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) How To Play A Shallow Water Ball
2) Playing To A Back Pin
3) Drill of the Week: Sink More Makeable Putts
4) Article: Creating An Effective Golf Club Set
5) Article: Beating Five Common Blowup Holes

Jacks Note: Do you know the fastest way to drop shots from your scores?  We've put together a video that shows you the "best-of-the-best" in terms of drills to help you improve your game around the greens. See it here. Also, I wanted to take a moment and acknowledge all of you who wrote back or posted on the blog regarding the whole Tiger incident.  It obviously caused quite a stir.  I felt an explanation was in order so I posted so all could read.

This week we're doing something a little different, from now on the newsletter will be more blog based, so be sure and bookmark the blog!

Trouble viewing links? Your browser may be the issue. We recommend using the Firefox browser. Click Here To Download. Some email clients also distort links: try to copy and paste web urls directly in your browser, or turn on images for emails.

===================================================
1) How To Play A Shallow Water Ball
===================================================
Many weekend golfers automatically take a drop when their ball finds the water. Usually, that's the correct choice. A ball in the water is rarely playable. But it does happen occasionally. Before making the decision to play a water ball, assess the situation carefully. The wrong choice may not only get you wet, but also cost you strokes--to the tune of a double or triple bogey.

Here are four questions to ask before playing a water ball:

* How far is the ball submerged?
* Can I take a balanced stance?
* What club should I use?
* Can you play the ball to a safe place?

The key to playing a water ball is how far it's submerged. If more than half the ball is under water, take a drop. You won't be able to get the club to the ball. If it's not, do the following:

* Check to see if the lie allows you to take a balanced stance. You must swing aggressively here, so if you can't take a balanced stance you're wasting your time. Also, find a safe landing spot before taking the shot.

* Take the pitching wedge out of the bag. It has a high degree of loft and a sharp leading edge. You'll need both to cut through the water. You're in a hazard, so you can't touch your club at address.

* Treat the shot like a buried lie in the sand: Open your stance, play the ball in the middle, close the clubface a bit, and use a steep wristy backswing and downswing. Bring the club down forcefully through the ball. You want to hit directly behind the ball and to accelerate into the ball when hitting from the water. Punch the ball to a safe landing spot.

Usually, you're better off taking a drop when the ball finds the water. But on those rare occasions where you can hit it from there, follow the keys explained above.

===================================================
2) Playing To A Back Pin
===================================================
Playing a shot to a back pin is tricky. You want to get the ball close enough to the pin for a makeable putt. That in effect turns three shots into two. You can chip the ball there, but your normal chip tends to check up when you hit it. You need something that runs, yet is controllable. One option here is the "hook chip," which produces a ball that doesn't check up. It's great shot to have in your bag when playing to a back pin.

Below are five keys to this shot:

* Use the standard chip set up
* Choke down on the club
* Take a 10-finger grip
* Swing the club inside
* Accelerate through the ball

Making a slight adjustment to your grip is the key here. Instead of using your normal chipping grip, choke down on the club a couple of inches and take a 10-finger grip. Doing so, promotes more release with your right hand (left, if you're left-handed). It also closes the club for a lower flight and a hotter roll.

Having taken your grip, assume your normal chipping setup. Play the ball back in your stance as you usually do for a chip. (Many teachers recommend playing the ball off the back ankle.) Keep your hands ahead of the ball and shift your weight to your front side, which will help you hit down on the ball.

Now swing the club inside, setting up an in-to-out path. Accelerate through the ball, rotating the club with your right hand into a toe up position. It's like hitting a topspin forehand in tennis. The ball will take somewhat of a curved path to the pin.

Playing to a back pin requires some thought. You can chip the ball there, but a chip shot usually checks when hit. Instead, try something that runs. A hook chip is an option in this situation. Master it and you'll cut strokes from your score.

=====================================================
3) Drill of the Week: Sink More Makeable Putts
=====================================================
Many golfers--including Tour players--cut across the ball when they putt. That's because they swing the club from inside-to-out, causing skidding and spinning. To stop this, you need to swing the shaft not the putterhead along the target line. Here's a drill that will cure you of this bad habit.

Take two clubs and line them up on each side of the target line--one club on the outside of the target line, one club on the inside of the target line. The outside club's head points away from the hole while the grip points toward the hole starting at the ball. The inside club's head points toward the hole while the grip points away starting at the ball. Try some putts. Focus on swinging inside-to-in, not inside-to-out.

The clubs help you see your true putting stroke so you can correct it. Also, if you place your right forefinger (left forefinger for lefties) on the shaft, imagine that your holding a pencil and trying to trace the target line with your stroke. You may miss a few putts when you start, but keep at it. Soon, you'll sink more than you miss.

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

Click here to view this newsletter on the web

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article: Creating An Effective Golf Club Set
5) Article: Beating Five Common Blowup Holes

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.