===================================================
How To Break 80 Newsletter

March 31st, 2011

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

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Mastering Four Footers
2) Sticking Uphill Approach Shots
3) Drill of the Week: Learning To Make Solid Contact
4) Article: Five Golf Tips To Shake Off The Rust
5) Article: Two Golf Shots The Pros Need At The Masters

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) Mastering Four Footers
===================================================
Is there any golfer who hasn't taken a four-foot putt for granted? We've all done it sometime in our playing careers. We miss short putts because we fail to execute the fundamentals. Instead, we commit any number of putting errors, from moving our heads to not squaring the clubface. The result: a missed putt and another stroke added to your score. Learn to hole these putts consistently and you'll shave strokes from your golf handicap.

Below are three keys to sinking four-foot putts:

* Keep your head still
* Stroke with your shoulders
* Focus on a squaring face

Peeking is probably the biggest fault on short putts. If your eyes move, your head moves. If your head moves, your body moves, throwing your stroke off line. A good drill to conquer this tendency is to place a dime on the green four feet from the hole. Place a ball on the dime. Now stroke the putt. Make sure you see the dime after the putt.

Another big fault with four-foot putts is not using your shoulders. Because the putt is so short, we tend to use just our hands and arms and pop the ball at the hole. That seldom works. Instead, focus on rocking your shoulders as you do with longer putts. That improves consistency.

A third fault with four-foot putts is failing to square the clubface. Direction is the key on short putts like these. The ball will go wherever you're pointing the clubface. So if the clubface is off, your shot will be off. Trying squaring the clubface before you take your stance. On longer putts, the face will rotate open then closed. On short putts the clubface should always point at the hole.

Don't take four-foot putts for granted. Execute the fundamentals correctly and you won't miss them.

===================================================
2) Sticking Uphill Approach Shots
===================================================
If you find yourself coming up short on uphill approach shots, you're not alone. It happens to many of us every year. Uphill approach shots are a challenge to begin with. Add some large bunkers in front of the green and these shots get nasty. With uphill approach shots, objects like large front bunkers (or even the top of the flagstick) often create optical illusions that mess up your depth perception. The result is that the green seems closer than it really is making you choose the wrong club.

Here are five keys to sticking uphill approach shots:

* Choose the right club
* Don't be fooled by obstacles.
* Play to the back of the green
* Drive your weight forward
* Think of the shot as a level lie

The proper strategy on uphill approach shots is to use at least one more club than normally--maybe two clubs. In other words, if you would normally hit an 8-iron from that distance, drop down to a 7-iron or a 6-iron.

Also, when calculating yardage, be aware of any objects that can create optical illusions. For example, intermediate bunkers 50 yards from the green can make the target seem a lot closer than it really is. Don't be fooled by these obstacles.

When it comes to swinging the club, the tendency on uphill shots is to hang back and try to lift the ball in the air. Instead, do the opposite. Drive your weight forward and through the shot. Think of the shot as having a level lie and you're just playing a longer distance.

Don't let uphill approach shots throw you. Take an extra club or two and play to the back of the green. You'll rarely hit the ball over the green.

=====================================================
3) Drill of the Week: Learning To Make Solid Contact
=====================================================
You must distribute your weight differently when hitting approach shots and drives. With approach shots, you should be driving down and through the ball because the ball is on the ground. With drives, we should be hitting up and through because the ball is on a tee. The Heel Drill described below teaches you the right weight distribution on approach shots and drives.

Go to the driving range. Place a ball on a tee in the ground. Take your stance. Lift your front heel up slightly while keeping your back heel down. Now hit some drives like that. Keep your front heel lifted all the way through impact. With irons, do the opposite. Keep your front heel down and lift your back heel slightly. Then hit some shots off the ground.

Do each drill five times between regular swings. The Heel Drill puts positions you correctly for making solid contact--whether you're hitting and iron or a wood. The drill also gives you a feeling of how you should see the ball. Look at the front of the ball with your irons and the back of the ball with your driver.

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: Five Golf Tips To Shake Off The Rust
... Re-turning players tend to grip the club too much in their palms. This creates tension in the hands and arms, and inhibits a free flowing swing. Instead, grip the club more in your fingers for a quicker swing. Ideally, you want the grip to run diagonally across your fingers...

5) Article: Two Golf Shots The Pros Need At The Masters
... The 10th hole is typical of what you face at Augusta Nation. Obviously, driving accuracy (as well as great putting) is a big key to winning the Masters. You must be able to hit both fades and draws from the tee box with pinpoint accuracy if you want to win the tournament. So what other shots would players with any kind of a golf handicap have to know to play at Augusta National Golf Club? Below are two shots experts say you must hit well to win The Masters and golf tips on how to hit them...

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.

Augusta National is one of the longest golf courses on the PGHA Tour. As a result, good driving is among the keys to winning The Masters. Take the course’s par 4, 495-yard 10th hole. Named Camelia, this hole is among the toughest on the course, if not the toughest. You need to gain extra distance on the hole’s sloping fairway, if you want to make par or birdie. Drives that go too far right leave a long second shot. Drives that go too far left hit the trees. Drives that miss the slope leave you with an extra long shot into the green.

The 10th hole is typical of what you face at Augusta Nation. Obviously, driving accuracy (as well as great putting) is a big key to winning the Masters. You must be able to hit both fades and draws from the tee box with pinpoint accuracy if you want to win the tournament. So what other shots would players with any kind of a golf handicap have to know to play at Augusta National Golf Club? Below are two shots experts say you must hit well to win The Masters and golf tips on how to hit them.

Chipping off tight lies
You probably won’t see tighter lies on a golf course than those at Augusta National. In fact, you could probably base a whole golf instruction session on chipping from tight lies at Augusta. While it is challenging, chipping off tight lies isn’t as difficult as some think. It’s actually similar to playing off hardpan. The main problem is that there is nothing under the ball. Thus, a conventional chip shot won’t work. The club’s bounce will catch the ball before the face and you’ll hit the ball thin. What you need is a sharper strike into the ball.

One way to achieve this is to use the clubface’s toe. This gives you a much sharper edge going into the ball. Using the toe let’s you catch the ball first and pinch it off the lie. Use a normal stance—ball opposite the right heel, weak grip, and shaft leaning forward ——but move closer to the ball. That makes the shaft stand up almost vertically. Having moved closer, you can make a normal chipping shot. It takes a little work to master this shot. But with some practice, you’ll learn how the ball comes off the club and to hit the shot with some consistency.

Hitting half wedge shots
Another necessary shot at Augusta is the half wedge shot from about 100 to 125 yards out. Players with medium and high golf handicaps probably face this shot more often than a pro would. They don’t stick their approach shots as often as the pros do. So learning to hit a good half wedge shot can really help your game. It can save strokes and keep a birdie or a par in play. What are the keys to hitting a good half wedge shot?

The biggest is maintaining “quiet hands” during the shot—a fundamental students work hard on in our golf instructions sessions. Let your arms swing back with the rotation of the body core and keep the hands relatively inactive. The other key is shortening your backswing correctly. The club should only go about waist high. The left arm should be parallel to the ground and your body core should be almost fully turned, as with a full shot. Use your normal wedge shot stance. Simply rotate your sternum away from the target and stop at the appropriate height. It should feel like your hands and arms are following your body core and maintaining their “in front” relationship to your sternum.

These two shots are good to know—whether you’re playing Augusta National or your favorite course. Reading golf tips and taking golf lessons on them—along with practicing them—can help you master them. Key shots in your short game arsenal, they can help turn three shots into two, keep a par or a birdie in play, and help you chop strokes off your golf handicap.

Golfers living in colder climates usually take winters off. That means they’re idle from golf for three or four months—maybe more. That’s a long time for weekend golfers to layoff—regardless of their golf handicaps. Doing drills at home can help, but it’s not the same as swinging a club on the course. So many golfers y return from their winter hiatus with a lot of rust on them.

Below are five golf tips to help you shake off the rust. They’ll help you “re-learn” the feel of things after a long layoff. Working on these fundamentals is a good way to shake off winter rust and jumpstart your game for the spring.

Relax Your Grip
Re-turning players tend to grip the club too much in their palms. This creates tension in the hands and arms, and inhibits a free flowing swing. Instead, grip the club more in your fingers for a quicker swing. Ideally, you want the grip to run diagonally across your fingers. This relaxes your hands and arms and allows your wrists to cock naturally. To ensure the proper grip position, grip the club when it’s off the ground and in front of you. It’s an old golfer’s trick teachers often use in golf lessons.

Create A Solid Base
Golfers must create a solid base at address. The key is to engage and stabilize your core muscles—the area around your belt buckle. A solid core encourages good balance throughout your swing. It also encourages consistency. To recognize what a solid base feels like, position a short iron in front of you with the grip angled toward you. Put your right hand on top of the grip. Put your left hand on top of your right hand. Then, push the club into the ground with your forearms. You should feel solid from the ground up.

Aim The Face First
Teachers often need to remind golfers how to aim the clubface. It’s one of the things we cover in our golf instruction sessions with returning students. Golfers tend to align their bodies and feet first at the target and then the clubface. Instead, square the clubface to the target first, then align your body and feet to the clubface. Aim the face at something on your target line close to your ball, like a tuff of grass. Or, place a ball a foot or so in front of the first ball. Use the second ball as a guide to reinforce the direction your clubface is aiming. Now, hit some practice shots.

Check Ball Position
Ball position is another fundamental players need to be reminded it of in golf lessons in the spring. It’s a fundamental you must get right to make solid contact. Adjust your stance in relation to the ball. Why—because the bottom of the swing arc varies with each club. For example, a driver’s shaft is eight to 10 inches longer than a pitching wedge’s shaft. So keep these three guidelines in mind when thinking about ball position:

* The longer the club, the father forward the ball in your stance
* The longer the club, the father away you should be from the ball
* The longer the club, the wider your stance should be

Coil And Uncoil For Power
If you don’t coil and uncoil correctly—and many in our golf instruction sessions don’t—you lose power. To remind yourself what a good coil feels like get into your golf posture and put your hands on your hips. Now, turn your upper body as if looking at someone directly behind you. You can even look back over your right shoulder. If you do this correctly, you’ll feel your upper body torqued against your lower body. Now simply move your weight onto your front foot and uncoil your upper body aggressively. This will carry you into a poised finish where your chest is facing the target and you’re up on your toes.

It’s hard to stay sharp after a long layoff. Executing the golf tips we discussed above—will jump start your swing and get you back on track in the spring. Work on them until they become second nature. Mastering these tips will help you chop strokes off your golf handicap.

If you’ve been following Tiger Woods lately, you know he’s changing his swing again. Making major swing changes for a pro is a huge undertaking. It takes a great deal of work to ingrain the new swing. Most weekend players don’t have the time to do this. Nor do they have the money to have a world-class swing coach give them private golf lessons. If weekend players are going to keep their swings sharp—maintain their golf handicaps—they often must serve as their own swing coaches.

So what do you do if your swing is off? Below are several golf tips covering key stages in your swing. Compare the positions they describe with the positions you achieve in your swing. Correct any that seem off. Keep in mind that while we’ve broken things down in stages, your swing is one still continuous motion Use the golf tips here to get back on track and to help maintain your golf handicap.

Setup:
You must start your swing in balance. Good balance allows you to move freely during your swing. When you’re in balance your weight is in the middle of your feet—both left to right and front to back. Also, the right side is slightly lower than the left and that the back of your shoulders, your kneecap, and your foot line up vertically. Picture a bowler holding a bowling ball poised to start his delivery.

Takeaway:
The parts of your body go back in this order: clubhead, hands, arms shoulders, and hips. As you go back, your right arm stays close to your side. If you stopped just after starting the takeaway, here’s what you would see: The clubhead lines up with your hands and the shaft is just outside the toe line. When the clubhead reaches parallel to the ground, it’s also be parallel to the target line.

Halfway Back:
As your weight continues to move back, the swing’s momentum and the folding of your elbow help hinge the club at a 90-degree angle with your left arm. The left arm is slightly higher than your right arm. The shaft now starts to move around your body while your shoulders are into their rotation and pulling your hips into the swing. You should feel a “loading action” in your right hip.

Top Of The Swing:
At the top, your wrists are fully hinged. Turn your shoulders to complete the backswing. You’re in perfect position to start your downswing. Make sure the clubface is square to the top and the leading edge is parallel to your left forearm. Also, make sure the clubhead’s toe is pointing down to the ground.

Halfway Down:
Begin the downswing with a slight lateral shift to the left. If you stop at this point, your left knee and hip will be over your left foot. This movement causes your arms to drop. Your right elbow is in front of your right hip. And your belt buckle is pointing toward the ball. The clubhead splits the gap between your forearms.

Impact:
At impact, your left side is in a straight line. The hips continue to turn open, so the left hip can clear. The chest is less rotated and facing the ball, which shows the hips are pulling the ball. The ball of your right foot is still on the ground and your left foot flat. Make sure your head remains behind the ball.

Follow-Through:
Both arms are fully extended in the follow-through while the right shoulder is pointing down, not turning level with the left. Your arms are straight and starting to swing back to the inside. They point down the line for a split second before traveling inside. Your spine is angled down. Your right knee is kicking inward, your left leg is straight, and the clubhead is below your hands.

Finish:
Keep the right side moving through the swing. The right side rotates past the left, so that the right shoulder is the closest body part to the target. Momentum carries the hands behind the head and the arms fold softly. You pose for the finish, holding the shaft across your neck.

No matter what your golf handicap, your swing is going to get out of sync at some point. It may even feel at times like you’ve never swung a club before. When that happens, apply the golf tips discussed in this article to correct the swing. It will save strokes and the cost of some golf instruction sessions.