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.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Golf Articles. 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.