By Jack Moorehouse

Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Whoever first said that never played golf. In golf, consistency is the key to a low golf handicap—the game’s holy grail It’s impossible to achieve a low golf handicap without developing consistency, golf lessons and golf tips not withstanding. Flipping the club at impact, however, destroys consistency. It also robs you of distance.

Flipping is all too common. Here’s a quote from Jim Flick, longtime teacher and golf guru, that suggest just how common he it is: “Having taught thousands of golfers for the past 53 years, I’d estimate that 80 to 90 percent of amateurs flip the club at impact.” Jim’s numbers maybe off a little, but one thing is certain. If you flip your club at impact, you’ll be hard pressed to achieve a low golf handicap.

The Proper Release
The most important position in the golf swing is where the club, wrists, and arms are through the strike zone. If you take a slow motion view of some pros swinging a club, you can see the way they release the club to achieve the required ball flight. The face is square to the target line, the shaft leans a bit forward, and the left wrist and forearm are slightly bowed.

Inconsistent golfers, on the other hand, flip the club through impact. They cup the left wrist (right wrist for left-handers) through the strike zone, resulting in too much loft and weak, uncontrolled shots. The grip is in back of the clubhead, instead of in front of it, and the left elbow is tense, instead of relaxed, preventing a controlled rotation of the forearms.

Causes of Flipping
The reason flipping hurts consistency is simple. Flipping forces the hands and arms to compensate for either your body or your hands being out of position at impact. Instead of delofting the club through impact, it adds loft to it. This results in a weak, less-penetrating shot.

Basically, there are four causes of flipping:

1. right hand dominates
2. body is too active,
3. club is too open,
4. body is too open.

Each cause has its subtleties when it comes to swinging the club, but the key is that either your hands or your body is out of position at impact.

Below are three drills you can practice to help groove the proper release. Drills are good because they undo bad habits and keep them from returning. But you have to practice them frequently—not just once or twice. If one of these drills is hard to do, then it’s probably the drill you need to practice the most.

Right Hand Off Drill
Start with your shorter clubs. Then move down the line to the longer clubs. Swing the club as you normal do, but let your right hand come of the club just after impact. This move teaches your left arm to lead the swing. It also teaches it to bow, rotate, and fold, eliminating the chicken wing swing fault.

Stability Drill
This drill develops the ability to stabilize the left hand at impact and works wonders for your release. Using a wedge, hit knock down shots less than 50 yards. Exaggerate your finish. You want to keep the clubhead low to the ground and your chest facing down. But keep your arms and shoulders relaxed.

Front-Loader Drill
This drill teaches you to hit a draw. Start with the clubhead in front of the ball. Make half- and three-quarter swings. Then move into a through-swing position, feeling your left forearm rotating and the clubface closing. Swing your arms and club back and through, hitting the ball with no cupping of the left wrist. Make sure your arms and hands swing freely with little tension.

In addition to these drills, hit shots at full motion, but different speeds with all your clubs. This drill develops sensitivity to squaring the clubface at impact. You should feel the face closing through impact without your left wrist breaking.

Conclusion
These drills not only train your muscles to release the club properly at impact, they also build trust and confidence. They give you a clear idea of what your body and your club should be doing at the most important position in your swing—impact.

If you’re serious about reducing your golf handicap, you’ll work on these drills as often as you can. Do them faithfully and you’ll improve consistency and generate distance regardless of the club used.

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.

By Jack Moorehouse

Professional courses like Torrey Pines or are no picnic, even for the pros. For weekend players, forget it. PGA courses have narrow fairways (less than 30 yards wide), punishing rough, and lightening fast greens. They also have length. One mistake and you’re putting a big number up. Putt enough big numbers up and you’ve had a miserable round, damaging your golf handicap.

While you may never play a PGA course, you probably play courses you find hard. These courses give you fits. They also frustrate you. Maybe they don’t fit your game. Or, maybe they’re too long. Whatever the case, you don’t play them well—even when you’re swinging the club your best. Still, you want to play these courses. They’re a challenge. And they teach you a lot about golf. It’s like taking 18 golf lessons.

Below are some strategies to keep in mind next time you play a tough course:

Stay Focused
The hardest thing about playing a difficult course is the mental grind. Every hole, it seems, is narrow and long, with deep rough. Or, it has a tricky layout. Or, you have to carry water a lot. With these courses, you must stay focused. You can’t let a bad break throw you off.

Instead, stay within yourself and don’t try to do more than you can do. If a bad break occurs—your ball hits the pin and bounces off the green, a good drive ends up in a fairway bunker, a well-struck iron fails to make it over the water—don’t let it throw you. Take some time on your next shot and get yourself under control.

Play From The Fairway
Another goal when playing a difficult course is playing from the fairway. Resign yourself to the fact that you probably won’t hit many greens in regulation. And stop thinking long and deep off the tee or hitting the green on second shots. Instead, focus on staying short and accurate and hitting your targets on the fairway.

In addition, play par 4s like short par 5s. Use the 3-wood, the 5-wood, or the longest club you can hit straight instead of the driver. Pick out a target within range and go for it. If you shoot for a bogey, you’re staying away from the kind of trouble that leads to a triple bogey. Playing conservatively has its advantages.

Get Back In Position
One hallmark of hard courses is the rough. Hard courses often have deep, thick rough that entangles a clubhead just prior to impact, causing you to mis-hit. Once you get in the rough on these courses, it’s almost impossible to get out. You end up wasting a shot or a couple of shots trying to hit the green.

Instead, aim for the 150-yard or 100-yard marker, or from a spot where you know you can hit a full shot. Then, go for it. If you hit that target, you have an easier shot to the green. And you won’t have wasted a shot trying to do something you couldn’t do anyway.

In addition, when you do hit from the rough, don’t just take a mindless practice swing. Play your practice swing to the depth of the ball. Find a similar patch of grass and practice your swing to the depth that your ball sits. Use this information to calibrate your real shot.

Get The Ball On The Same Tier
Another hallmark of hard courses are the greens. Often, these courses have tiered greens. The idea about getting back into position holds for them, too. On any shot—chip, pitch, or sand—aim for the same tier as the hole, even if you’re only 30 feet away. You’re chances of two-putting from there is greater than the same chip from a nasty lie or the same spot.

On holes close to the edge of the green, hit lofted shots, instead of low running shots that can sail past the green. And make sure you’ve spent time on the practice green before hand. Try to get a read on just how fast the green is. In fact, make your first half dozen practice putts long ones, just so you can get a reading on the green’s speed. Once you have that, translate that information when putting.

Hard courses are a challenge to a golf handicap. But they reward you if you take a more calculated approach. Study the course before hand. Stay focused after bad shots. Get back in position. And be careful on the greens. These golf tips help you tame a tough course and improve your scores on them.

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 difference between good and great isn’t always physical. Sometimes, it’s mental. Take Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. Both are gifted players physically. Both have great short games. And both have creativity and imagination. But Tiger, it seems, has a more disciplined approach to the game than Phil—or any other player on tour. That’s why he plays so well and wins so often.

If one player has a more disciplined approach than another, chances are good he or she will have a lower golf handicap, even if the two have equal amounts of physical talent. In fact, sometimes a player with less talent outscores a player with more talent because of a great mental approach. The key to shrinking your golf handicap, golf lessons and golf tips not withstanding, might just be developing a more disciplined mental approach.

Strive for Soft Focus?
On the course, strive for soft focus. What do we mean by the term “soft focus”? Dr Bob Rotella, the well-known sports psychologist, offers a great example of soft focus in his book The 15th Club. It’s a term borrowed from Padraig Harrington, a golfing client of his. Rotella worked with Harrington before his British Open win in 2007. Harrington wanted to change his mental approach to the game and he contacted Rotella. Here’s how he describes Harrington’s focus:

As Padraig begins his pre-shot routine, his mind is clear. He’s thinking about only one thing: his target. But his focus does not cause his jaw to jut or knuckles to go white. It’s not grinding. It’s not that intense. Because he already knows that he’ll accept whatever happens to his shot, he’s relaxed.

Rotella explains that Padraig doesn’t watch the leader board. He relies on his caddy for that type of information. Sometimes his caddy tells him in words. And sometimes he tells him by his club choice. Harrington doesn’t want to break his focus on his target by looking at the leader board and starting to think about the implications. Instead, he wants to focus just on the task at hand.

Later, Rotella describes a situation in the British Open where Harrington loses focus. Instead of stepping off and refocusing, as we’ve suggested in our golf tips, Harrington went through with the shot, drilling it into a hazard. Not only did it cost him a penalty stroke, but it also left him with a difficult second shot. That’s what losing focus does to you. Fortunately, Harrington recovered and won the tournament.

Other Mental Keys
In addition to soft focus, Rotella points out other mental keys that helped Harrington win the British Open and that can help weekend golfers cut their golf handicaps. These mental keys include:

* Visualize the shot
* Use a pre-shot routine
* Commit to your swing
* Accept the result

Of these, perhaps the most important is accepting the results of your shot. Sometimes even the best of shots goes awry. Maybe it rolls into a divot on the fairway. Or, the ball takes a bad bounce and lands in a bunker. Whatever the case, you need to put the results out of your mind and focus on the next shot. Thinking about a mistake two holes before or how bad your luck is only serves to distract you and ruins your focus.

The other essential mental key is visualizing the shot. No matter what level you play at, you need to eliminate conflicting thoughts before you swing. You must commit to your shot whatever it is. You must also have a clear idea of where you want the ball to go and how you’re going to get the ball to go there. If you don’t have that clear picture, stop and regroup. Then clear your mind of everything but where you want the shot to go.

Develop A Mental Routine
Achieving the right mental discipline is something every player should add to his or her game. But keep in mind that even the best players fall short of achieving the right mental attitude on every shot. Few players manage to keep their minds focused on every shot during a casual round of golf never mind a club championship. But trying to visualize each shot will pay off by eventually improving your ability to focus.

The best way of staying focused for a shot is developing a mental routine as well as a physical routine before hitting. The mental routine should have the concept of soft focus as its foundation. Of course, a good mental routine won’t replace the need for taking golf lessons and reading golf tips. But running through your mental routine before hitting the ball can help you cut strokes from your scores and your golf handicap.

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.

When you’re watching the U.S Open this weekend, look at how Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, and the rest swing the club. I’ve been watching them for years. They swing so effortlessly it’s amazing. Yet they still bomb the ball 275 yards off the tee. Some average almost 300 yards. Hitting bombs with so little effort seems like magic. But it’s not. It’s efficiency. And it’s a golf tip on hitting the long ball.

The pros swing efficiently. Nothing is wasted. And one of the keys to swinging efficiently is maintaining spine angle through impact. This dynamic encourages the arms, hands, and clubhead to accelerate through the ball—not hit at it. The pros understand that the body wants to stay in balance. Thus, the spine will try to straighten during the swing, upsetting your spine angle and sapping your power. Eventually, power loss adds strokes to your score and boosts your golf handicap.

Below are some golf tips and drills designed to help you maintain your spine angle and your posture. These tips may not help you bomb the ball as far as Phil, Tiger, or Fred. But they’ll help you increase your technique, athleticism, and efficiency.

Start In A Good Position
If you start in a good position, chances are good you’ll stay in one after you swing. When you take your stance bend from the hips. Bending from the hips positions you to make a much better turn. Unfortunately, many weekend golfers don’t bend from the hips. They bend from the waist instead. Setting the spine at the right angle is step one in swinging more efficiently.

Spine Angle Drill
Hold a club out in front of you at the points of your hipbones, just under your belt buckle. This pulls your shoulders back, locking in a straighter spine angle. Now pull the club toward you and bend from the hips. Once in position, move the club up to your chest, just under your armpits. Now turn as if hitting the ball. Make sure the shaft points just above the ball. If the club points at or below the ball, you’re dipping instead of turning. Do 3 sets of 20 repetitions.

Activate Your Lower Body
A strong lower body makes it easier to swing efficiently, hitting the kind of drives you hope you’ll learn in golf lessons. A stronger lower body also helps you achieve and maintain a more athletic swing. Your big leg muscles are the key to a strong lower body. These muscles are the seats of power. Work on then constantly. Do whatever you can to strengthen them. Power squats build powerful leg muscles. They’re a great way to warm up as well.

Power Squats
Balance on the balls of your feet and bend down. Keep your back straight and your abs flexed. Now squat. As you go down, pump your arms up. As you stand, pump your arms down. You can also stand against a straight wall, then slowly lower yourself, wait a second or two, and then raise yourself slowly—an exercise I covered in one of my golf tips. Do three sets of 20 to build powerful leg muscles.

Stay In Your Posture
Maintaining your spine angle, as we said, is essential to increasing the efficiency of your swing. So is maintaining your posture. It must stay the same as well. The only thing that changes is how your arms and hands release through impact.

Ball Throwing Drill
Adopt a posture as if hitting a golf ball. Now throw the ball underhanded from your setup without altering your posture. Throw the ball down in front of you to hit a low shot. Throw the ball under your front arm and into the air to get the feel of a high shot. Do this drill until the feeling of hitting both shots without out altering your posture is ingrained.

The Rope Drill
The rope drill to adds speed and technique to your shoulder turn while maintaining your spine angle. Loop a jump rope around a table leg or a post about a third of the way up. Now pull the rope from side to side. Feel as if you’re starting a lawn mower while keeping your head steady. Do 20 repetitions per set and do three sets.

These drills help you maintain your spine angle and enhance your athleticism, increasing your swing’s efficiency. What’s more, they’ll help you increase your range of motion, add to your power, and improve your swing tempo. Together, they’ll help you cut your average score and your golf handicap in the process.

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.