We all have days when it feels like you never played golf before or had golf lessons. Even the pros have them. Look at what’s happened to Tiger Woods since he’s returned from his hiatus. He hasn’t played well since coming back. In fact, he had his worse day ever as a pro just a few weeks ago. He also didn’t play up to his capabilities in the PGA Championship. Playing poorly happens to everyone.

What separates golfers with low golf handicaps from those with high golf handicaps is how they handle bad days. On bad days you must recognize what you can and can’t do and use that knowledge. If you start planning and executing shots—no matter what type they are—your confidence will come back and you’ll start playing better. This skill isn’t easy to teach in golf lessons or group golf instruction sessions. But we can give you four helpful golf tips.

Find A Swing That Works
Hitting drives out of bounds costs strokes. When you’re driving poorly, make up your mind to find a swing that works. On days you’re not hitting the fairway with your driver, choke down on your driver. It creates a shorter swing that’s easier to control. Or, use your 3-wood or 2-iron. If you’re missing to one side, plan for it. For example, if you’re missing right all day, aim for the left edge of the fairway and let it come back. If you hit a draw and you’re missing right, use a baseball swing. It gives you the smooth, powerful feeling you want in a swing.

Manage Your Misses
Greens in regulation (GIR) are a key. Every GIR saves a stroke. But it’s crazy to aim for a close pin on bad days—especially if it’s protected. The trick when not swinging your irons well is managing misses. Miss your shots on the correct side of the hole, so you land on the green, not in the rough. If there’s a flat side to the green, aim for that, so you don’t waste a stroke. Also, set up with your feet a little closer together, choke down, and move the ball back a little. These changes improve ball-first contact. You hit lower shots this way, but they work.

Get The Ball Rolling
Hitting a chip to tap-in range saves a one stroke—maybe more. The key to chipping is getting the ball rolling quickly. On bad days, focus on doing that. Check your lie. If it’s deep use a club with more loft. If it’s shallow use a club with less loft. Also, don’t try spinning your chips. You get better roll with less spin. And think draw when chipping. Make practice swings and focus on pointing the toe of your wedge to the sky in your backswing and your follow-through. Notice how you release your left hand through impact, just as you do with your full swing.

Trust Your Instincts
Often, we miss putts because we overanalyze or overthink. After missing a few, we lose confidence. When this happens, trust your instincts. Line up in a comfortable position and swing away. Your instincts are often good barometers. Also, try making practice swings with one hand to regain your putting stroke. The left hand—right hand, if you’re left-handed—is a good hand to do this with. It helps you stand square to the target line and set-up correctly. If you’re having trouble trusting your feel, a good drill is putting with your eyes closed and guessing where the putts go. The drill restores feel.

Everyone has bad days—even the pros. But golfers with low golf handicaps tend to fare better than golfers with high golf handicaps because they don’t let bad days throw them. Low handicappers find what’s working for them that day and what safe shots will get them through the round. Remember our golf tips on bad days and you’ll survive them. Today, you need to figure out how to get it done. Tomorrow you can go to the range or attend golf instructions sessions.

Golf is a thinking man’s game. Ask veteran players with low golf handicaps what they think about golf and they’ll probably agree with the preceding statement. Like many thinking men’s games, such as chess, staying two or three strokes ahead often saves you from disaster. Course management is one of those skills you pick up by playing, not by attending golf lessons or group golf instruction sessions. Those who master course management shed strokes from their golf handicaps without even using up a club.

But even the most skilled course managers can’t always control where the ball ends up once it hits the ground. Even if you’ve learned to stop the ball dead in golf lessons, you can’t always count on controlling the ball after it hits. Sometimes, you get a good lie. Other times, you get a bad lie. A lot depends on the course and the kind of day you’re having. But golfers with low golf handicaps don’t panic when the get bad lies. Instead, they let the lie dictate their shot.

Below are some poorer lies you’ll face on a course and golf tips on how to play from them. If you’re serious about lowering your golf handicap, ingrain these golf tips. They’ll save you strokes.

Normal Bunker Lies
Not all bunker lies are the same. But you can use your feet to tell what kind of lie you have and how hard the sand is beneath the ball. Get a feel for the sand as you dig your feet in for stability. If the sand is wet and firm, you’ll need a shallow angle of attack, since you want to take less sand with this shot. So open your clubface and stance slightly and aim for a spot about an inch behind the ball. If the sand is deep and fluffy, you’ll need a full explosion shot. Your clubface and stance should be wide open. Take a full steep swing to allow the club to remove plenty of sand.

Shallow Bunkers
Shallow bunkers can fool you. While the loose sand looks fluffy, there’s often a hard surface beneath it. Your clubface will bounce off this surface, resulting in a long bladed shot. Play this lie like a normal pitch shot. Square your clubface and open your stance slightly. Make a three-quarter swing and half an inch behind the ball. Stay firm through impact and into your follow-through. The ball flies out like a pitch shot that you hit slightly fat.

Muddy Lies
The tendency with muddy lies is to try to pick the ball up. This usually results in either a skulled shot or a fat shot one. Instead, cock your wrists in the back swing and hold the position for as long as you can on the downswing. Your hands will be ahead of the ball, which ensures a descending blow. Releasing your hands will cause the ball to fly low and left, if you’re right-handed. Keeping the clubface open, on the other hand, results in a straight and true shot.

Pine Straw
Not every course has pine straw. But many do. Hitting from here is similar to hitting from a fairway bunker. Don’t sole your club, which 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, make thin, ball-first contact and sweep the ball off the ground, as you would in a fairway bunker, instead of swinging down on it.

This list of bad lies is not exhaustive. There are plenty more out there, like sidehill lies or hardpan lies. If you’re serious about chopping stokes off your golf handicap, keep track of the bad lies you face regularly and learn to hit from them. If you’re having trouble doing so, set up a golf instruction session with a local pro. Your game will improve greatly by learning to handle bad lies.

Here’s a golf tip that’s proven effective more times than not: If you want to cut strokes from your golf handicap, learn to hit shots that hit the green and stick. That’s right. Learn to hit shots that stick. They can save you anywhere from one to two strokes per hole. More depending on how far away the ball bounces from the pin. If the ball really takes off after it hits, look out.

The key to hitting shots that stick is backspin. Golfers need to apply backspin to balls more than ever before. Faster greens, tighter pin positions, more forced carries, and lower-lofted wedges and short irons demand it—the USGA’s new ruling on wedge grooves not withstanding. This ruling affects both professional and weekend golfers alike. What’s more, learning to control backspin helps slash your golf handicap.

The Backspin Equation
You probably already make swings capable of producing shots with good backspin—even if you don’t do it on purpose. But just your swing alone isn’t enough. To complete the backspin equation, you must add the right type of ball and the right face grooves on your wedge. Nail these factors and your spin potential increases dramatically.

To generate backspin: (1) position the ball back of center one to two ball widths, (2) place your hands ahead of the clubhead, and (3) accelerate through impact. The more you accelerate through impact, the more spin generate and the more likely your shots will stick. Combining the right swing with the right ball and the right type of groves is how many instructors teach this skill in golf lessons.

Ball Construction Is Key
Ball construction is also a key to generating backspin. To hit backspin sufficient enough to have a ball stick, play a ball with a cover soft enough to be engaged by the grooves in the clubface. Generally speaking, urethane covers are softer than Surlyn covers. Urethane and Surlyn are the principal materials from which most covers are made.

While balls with Surlyn covers are longer off the tee, balls with urethane covers help control backspin better. They’re also more expensive balls. If some one takes golf lessons from us and they’re not using a ball with a urethane cover, we figure they just don’t know about the benefits of doing so.

Grooves Are Also Key
Your wedge’s face grooves are also key to adding spin. A high-producing wedge must have aggressive enough face grooves to engage the ball. New grooves spin more than old grooves and clean grooves spin more than dirty ones. Also, the sharper the groove edges, the better they grab the ball’s cover and produce spin. More importantly, box grooves are better than U-grooves and V-grooves and worn out grooves of any shape.

The USGA recently made a rule change that can affect your choice of wedges with box grooves. This new ruling downsizes volume and limits edge sharpness for all grooves manufactured after January 1, 2010, so they’re equal to or less than the previously approved V-groove dimensions. If you’re an amateur, you have a choice of which grooves to play until at least 2024. On the other hand, if you buy a wedge manufactured after last January, it must have grooves with spin performance at or below V-groove levels.

If you want to hit shots that stick, learn to add backspin to your ball. The keys to adding backspin are using the right setup and swing, a ball with a urethane cover, and a wedge with the right grooves. These keys affect all shots that hit the green. Getting shots to stick when they hit can chop two to three strokes from your golf handicap.

Concentrating on your mechanics while swinging usually leads to disaster. Thinking about how to hold your hands, make a good shoulder turn, or execute one of the other golf tips we pick up from magazines, newsletters, or golf lessons leads to topped shots, shanks, pushes, and other bad shots. More importantly, thinking about your mechanics causes you to ignore critical swing elements like rhythm and tempo, which contribute greatly to accuracy and consistency.

A great way to stop thinking about your mechanics while swinging is to build a swing you can trust—one that lets you focus on rhythm, tempo, and timing. How do you do this? You do it by ingraining key moves at critical swing points—like your set-up, downswing, and follow-through. Ingraining these moves enables you to forget about your mechanics and focus entirely on the task at hand. Improved focus leads to better shots. Better shots lead to better scores and better golf handicaps.

Let’s look at five key points where can ingrain moves that build trust in your swing:

Set-up
Setting up incorrectly generates swing faults that lead to bad shots. So you always want to set up correctly. For example, if you set up so that you’re reaching for the ball with your arms disconnected from your body, you’ll tend to take the club back to the outside. To build trust in your address position, set up your arm hang so that the club swings back automatically on plane. You can do this by bending from the waist so that when your arms hang down your triceps rest against your chest.

Takeaway

What you need to do with your takeaway, as I’ve said in hundreds of golf instruction sessions and golf tips, is start everything back in one piece. To help execute a one-piece takeaway correctly, try lightly brushing the grass behind that ball. When you keep the clubhead low to the ground like this, it makes it easy to stay on plane and create proper width in your swing. You may not actually hear the clubhead brush the grass during your takeaway, but keeping low helps builds trust in your takeaway and your swing.

Backswing
Your backswing is the source of many swing errors. If you could eliminate your backswing, you fee yourself of many swing errors. Obviously, you can’t eliminate your backswing. But you can build trust in it. To do that, you need to let the club swing freely to the top. You can do this by turning your back hip pocket behind you so that it feels like your clubhead and torso are moving back together. They should arrive at the top simultaneously.

At The Top
The top position is another key point where you want to build trust. But there’s some dispute as to where the toe of your club should be pointing when you reach the top. Some say it should be square or closed. Others say it should be pointing downward to provide the freedom to let the club go at the bottom. Most great golfers—the one’s that have lasted for years—pointed the club down and cupped their left wrist at the top. To build trust in your top position, do the same. It jump-starts a powerful release through the ball.

Impact
When you make good impact, you should feel like your back shoulder is on top of the ball. Too many weekend golfers ignore their back shoulders when swinging. To them the only thing that counts is their front shoulder. But ignoring your back shoulder produces pushes and hooks. To build trust at impact, swing the club so that it feels like the clubhead is passing through your hands at impact, not your hands trying to hold the face square at impact.

Building trust at these five key points in your swing builds trust in your entire swing. As a result, you won’t be thinking about the newest golf tips you’ve read or learned about in golf lessons during your swing. Instead, you’ll be focusing on more important things like rhythm, tempo, and timing—things that contribute greatly to better shots. Better shots lead to better scores and better scores lead to better golf handicaps. Trust me.

“Improve your short game.” That’s may answer to those readers who ask me how to chop strokes off their golf handicaps. It’s always the same—whether I’m addressing someone in a golf lesson or a group in a golf instruction session. Improving your pitching, chipping, and putting as well as your bunker play does more for cutting strokes from your golf handicap than learning to hit monstrous 300-yard drives.

But improving your short game is easier said than done. That’s why it’s always good to talk with professional players about their games. They can often give you golf tips that you won’t find anywhere else. Below are five golf tips from tour players we’ve recently unearthed. They’ll improve your short game and reduce your golf handicap by a stroke or two.

Let The Lie Tell You What To Do (Nick Price)
Pay more attention to your lie on short-game shots. Weekend golfers see those of us on tour hitting beautiful shots around the greens and think they can do it, too. But nine times out of ten, it’s because we’ve got a good lie. If you have a poor lie, focus on hitting the ball hard enough to carry whatever’s in front of you and get it on the green.

Pitch With Your Body (David Toms)
The best pitchers in the game use a lot of body; the worst use almost none. If you freeze your body and throw your hands at the ball, you’ll make a sweeping swing and tend to hit it fat. Good touch around the green isn’t about having good hands. It’s about turning your body through, which keeps the club shallow and lets it get under the ball.

Also, if you’re having trouble making contact on greenside shots, try setting up with your feet or belly button pointed more toward the target. This pre-sets the body in a through-swing position. From there the club will stay shallow and slide through impact. Always turn your body to the target, with the club staying in front of your chest. With the focus off your hands your touch will improve.

Put Aggressively—But Not To The Hole (Jack Nicklaus)
To avoid three putting, pick a spot on long putts three feet short of the hole, and putt aggressively to that spot. You’ll rarely be short by more than three feet because you “charged” to that short target. If you hit the putt too hard, it can roll five feet further than your target, and you’ll only have two feet coming back.

Change Club, Not Swing (Chuck Cook)
On long greenside sand shots, instead of trying to punch or chip the ball out with a sand wedge, make your same bunker swing but use a club with less loft. With a little practice you can hit a perfectly acceptable explosion shot from the sand with an 8-iron—which will come out on a lower trajectory and roll more. That’s a nice shot to have in your bag when you’re 40 yards from the green.

Speed Up Your Pitches (Phil Mickelson)
A common mistake is taking the club back too low, with straight, stiff wrists. If you swing the club back that way, your tendency will be to try to scoop at the ball to help it in the air, because you’re subconsciously aware that you haven’t generated enough speed. The stiffness in your hands and arms also hurt your sense of feel, so your distance control won’t be as sharp.

Shorten The Club To Dial In Your Wedges (Judy Rankin)
Spend some time on the range with your wedges, moving your hands down the grip in one-inch increments. By gripping down an inch you can subtract five to eight yards without changing your swing. See how it affects your yardages. You’ll have to get closer to the ball but you’ll be taking a full swing.

Improving your short game will quickly reduce your golf handicap. So if you’re serious about becoming a better golfer take golf lessons, read golf tips, attend golf instructions sessions with friends, and practice, practice, practice. Do whatever you can to improve your short game. The work will pay off.

If you usually slice off the tee, you’re costing yourself strokes. Slicing lands you in instant trouble, leaving you with bad lies and tough shots. More importantly, slicing boosts your golf handicap and increases pressure on your short game. Most slicers know this. That’s why they’re always looking for a cure. Some find it. Others don’t. Those who don’t find a solution often get frustrated.

But you don’t have to get frustrated with your slice. You can eliminate it once and for all by following a simple, four-step process. It tells you why you slice and provides golf tips that can help correct it. In the end you get a slice-free swing that has you thinking—and acting—like a new player. Eliminating your slice helps chop strokes off your golf handicap and eliminates frustration. Below is the four-step process:

Step 1: Examine Your Divots
Slicers create three types of divots. Each reveals the mechanical problems behind their slice.
Divots that move extremely left of the target line result from swings combining an open clubface and an incorrect swing path.
Divots that move somewhat left of target and then curve back across the target line result from a faulty swing path traveling outside in and across the ball.
Divots that move relatively in line with the swing path but drift slightly left result from and open clubface at impact.

Step 2: Determine Your Downswing Type
Downswings are driven by either a pulling (rotary) or a pushing (lever) motion. A rotary-driven swing uses the hip and trunk rotation as the primary force moving the club. With this type of swing, the golfer turns his or her body counterclockwise, with the club being dragged through impact. A lever-driven swing is one in which the right hand and forearm are the primary force behind the downswing. With this type of swing, the shoulder and chest rotation are delayed as the right hand and forearm power the club down into impact.

Step 3: Match Your Grip
It’s critical that your grip matches your downswing type. If you’re a rotary swinger, you need a stronger grip than a leverage swinger. A stronger grip counters the open impact position by keeping the right hand and elbow bent and tucked into the body, which in turn lowers the right shoulder and keeps the clubhead on the correct path.

If you’re a lever swinger, you want a more conventional grip or even a bit of a weaker grip. For a lever swinger, a grip that’s too strong results in a closed clubface at impact, producing hooks. To make sure your grip works with your swing type, focus on developing a setup position that’s correct and use your impact position to check on your grip—when your wrists unhinge at impact, the clubface should be square.

Step 4: Find The Slot
It’s critical you get the club properly slotted.  It’s also critical you match your transition to your swing type. If you’re a rotary swinger, the most important things to focus on when making the transition into the slot are letting the arms be relatively passive so they can swing freely and maintaining a slightly closed clubface position. At the top the rotary swinger’s position is somewhat flatter than the lever swinger’s and the left wrist is slightly bowed. Both are musts.

If you’re a lever swinger, the most important things to focus on when making the transition is shifting your weight onto the left leg, shifting the left shoulder left with no pulling of the left arm, and keeping the right wrists bent. At the top, the most important things are keeping the clubface square and the right hand and wrist bent to maintain width and keep the club on path.

Slicing is the game’s most common swing fault. It’s also among its deadliest. If you slice consistently off the tee, you’re often find yourself in instant trouble. This costs you strokes and boosts your golf handicap. To eliminate your slice, follow the four-step process described above. It will help you to hit them long and straight. Hitting them long and straight like they teach you in golf lessons boosts confidence and saves frustration.

Average size players like Sergio Garcia and Annika Sorenstam prove that you don’t have to be a giant to hit the ball long. To hit the ball long like Sergio and Annika, you’ll probably have to change your mind-set a little and make some minor adjustments to your every day routine. Making these changes can add 20 or even 30 yards to your shots and help you chop strokes off your golf handicap—without spending hours at the range. We call it power over easy.

The hardest thing for weekend players to accept is that they don’t have to swing hard to hit the ball long. I see students in my golf lessons swing harder all the time. Professional golfers seldom swing harder than 85 percent on any shot. More often, they’re swinging at 70 percent. They’ve learned to swing easily and smoothly and let leverage and clubhead speed work for them. To gain extra yardage, work on things like rhythm, tempo, and technique.

Upgrading Your Fitness Level
Fitness level is another key to power. Many weekend golfers do little to maintain their fitness levels. You can gain extra yardage to your shots just by upgrading your fitness level. Doing cardio, Pilates, Yoga, and/or light weightlifting can transform your body. Improving your fitness level may not directly translate into more distance on your shots, but the improved endurance that comes with upgrading your fitness level will help you hit the ball as far on the 17th tee as on the first.

Another golf tip on generating more yards from your shots is to take advantage of today’s advancements in golf technology. New drivers, shafts, and balls are great, but players don’t benefit from them completely unless they work together. For example, some balls spin less and launch higher than others. These balls enable you to use higher-lofted drivers, which provide more carry. More carry translates into longer shots, especially when playing on firm fairways.

Plug The Power Leaks
In addition to modern technology, plug the power leaks in your swing. For example, among the biggest power leaks is the tendency to take the club back with your hands and arms not in sync with your body. When the hands get too far from you, your body sucks the club inside and the player “lays-off” at the top. In other words, he points the club left of the target at the top. Once this happens you must correct this power leak with your hands. This is a leading cause of inconsistency. Golf instruction sessions can help you plug the power leaks in your swing.

Finally, learn to release the club properly. When weekend golfers feel like they need to hit the ball a long way, they tense up—almost as if they were going to get punched. They clench their muscles and hold the club really tight. That tension restricts the player’s ability to cock his wrists and reduces his turn, as I’ve mentioned in my golf tips newsletter. That, in turn, leads to shorter shots. Keep your hands loose and soft and you’ll add distance to your shots.

Also, learn to feel the clubhead releasing. When you’ve released the clubhead properly, you should feel like your left side is bringing the club back and right side is bringing it forward. To reinforce this feeling, hold a heavy club—like a sand wedge— in your right hand (left for left-handers) and take small swings, holding the club lightly in your fingers. Use the right hand, arm, shoulder, and hip to swing the club through, and feel the weight of the club itself promoting a good release. With a good release, there’s no holding on or manipulation to try to square the clubface at impact.

You don’t need to attend dozens of golf instruction sessions or hit hundreds of golf balls at the range to generate more power. There are easier ways. Work on rhythm, tempo, and technique, upgrade your fitness level, plug the power leaks in your swing, and learn to release the club correctly and you’ll see yourself hitting longer shots. Longer shots can help you hit your targets more often. Hitting your targets in turn can help you chop strokes off 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.

One way to chop strokes off your golf handicap quickly is to improve your pitching. The closer you land the ball to the pin on a pitch, the easier your putt. To improve your pitching, you first must learn to hit all your wedges. That sounds like a lot of work but it’s not. You don’t have to master pitching with each wedge. You just have to practice enough to develop a favorite while knowing which shots to avoid. Then make that favorite your go-to pitch shot under pressure.

Once you’ve learned to hit all your wedges, the next step is learning to control your pitches after they land. It’s one of the keys to pitching success. Usually, it’s best to land a pitch shot at least three feet on the green, as I’ve said in my golf tips newsletter. It’s better to hit a higher, softer shot with a 64-degree wedge than to try and hit the fringe and roll the ball to the pin. Fringes cause more bad bounces than the green, making it harder to control the shot after hitting.

Choose An Approach
Another key decision with pitches is choosing an approach. Some players hit low pitches that run. Others hit high pitches that land softly. Both approaches work. However, the best finesse players prefer shot trajectory rather than spin to control the placement and bounce on greens. High soft-landing shots are more predictable when well executed. Plus, they’re easier to hit time after time, as you may have learned in your golf lessons. Low running shots are harder to hit well consistently.

Let your skill at executing the shot, plus its margin for error and its probability of success, determine your approach. If you think you can get the ball closer with a flop shot than a bump-and-run, use the flop shot. The key is getting the ball as close to the pin as possible. Also, commit to the shot before swinging. If you’re not committed to the shot, your chances of executing it drop. Practice the shot in your mind first, then take your stance and hit.

Decide On Loft
If you choose to hit a high shot, you must then decide on the shot’s loft. This is a key decision because a shot’s loft affects its roll. How much loft do you need? A good golf tip to keep in mind is that when hitting a pitching wedge from bent grass, the ball rolls about as far as it flies. With a sand wedge from bent grass, the ball runs about two-thirds of its carry. If you hit a sand wedge with 15 yards of carry, it runs about 10 yards. With more lofted wedges on bent grass, the ball runs about half the carry distance.

Modify these estimates based on the green’s conditions. For example, the harder the green, the farther the ball rolls after landing. The softer the green, the sooner it stops. Also keep in mind that the higher the shot, the deeper the pitch mark the ball makes and the faster it stops. Shots from bent, rye, or bluegrass are easier to hit because the grass doesn’t grab your club as much as other grasses. Bermuda grass is difficult to pitch from, especially if you’re hitting against the grain. Kikuya grass, the dominant grass in Japan, is the most difficult to pitch from.

Effects Of Grass
Many greens have bent, rye, and Bermuda grass. They all affect the ball differently after hitting. Below are some golf tips to keep in mind:

* Expect more roll on bent greens and a little less on the thicker, stronger-bladed Bermuda greens.
* Expect almost no affect from the grain on bent grass, unless you can see it growing in once direction or another.
* Bermuda grain has a big affect on roll. Hitting into the grain, the ball stops faster. Hitting with the grain, the ball rolls farther.

Ask in the clubhouse what type of grass the course uses on its greens. Then use the above golf tips as guidelines when pitching. Also keep in mind that pitch-shot execution errors can be magnified or minimized depending on where a ball lands. So if you want to quickly chop strokes off your golf handicap, improve your pitching by controlling where the ball lands.

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.

If you’re a professional golfer playing in PGA-approved Tournaments like the British Open, you’d better know how to salvage a bad round. When you play for the purses today’s pro golfers play for, a bad round can really cost you. If you’re a weekend golfer playing in local tournaments or just with friends, you also should know how to salvage a bad round. It not only increases your fun, it also prevents you packing strokes on to your golf handicap.

Bad days are a part of every golfer’s life. Even the best struggle once in a while. Unfortunately, most teachers don’t show you how to salvage a bad round in their golf instruction sessions. Usually, you learn how to do it through personal experience or by reading about it in golf tips newsletters or sports magazines. However you learn it, it’s a good skill to have. Below are some tips that can help you reverse your momentum and reclaim your game when things go bad.

Disastrous Driving
It’s really frustrating when you can’t get off the tee. It also costs you strokes. But there’s never been a golfer yet who hasn’t had some bad driving days. Many golfers try to make mechanical adjustments during the round. Unfortunately, this often leads to more mistakes and more frustration. Save adjustments for the range. So what do you do during the round?

Try hitting a fade. A fade is the most common ball flight in golf, as I explained in one of my recent golf tips newsletters. To hit a fade, open your stance a little, aim down the left side of the fairway (right side if your left-handed), make a full turn, and hit the ball hard with your right side. Make sure you hold on past impact with the last three fingers of your left hand, which keeps the clubface slightly open, producing a fade. If bad driving persists over several rounds, take golf lessons to help get back on track.

Inconsistent Irons
A good mantra to recall when your irons let you down is: more club, less swing. Your first priority when your irons go bad is regaining the feeling of making solid contact and swing fluidity. If this happens to you, take an extra club and make an easy three-quarter swing. This relaxes your muscles. It also relieves the tension generated from hitting several bad shots in a row. Three-quarter swings give you more control over the clubhead and the ball, and revive the feeling of what it’s like to hit a good iron.

An off day on the green is most apparent from eight feet in. Dave Pelz, the short game guru, calls this distance the “golden eight,” to give you an idea of just how important he considers putting from this distance. Tiger Woods is better from here than anyone on Tour. Maybe that’s why he’s won so many majors and is still considered golf’s top dog.. Weekend golfers who improve their average putts made from eight feet in slice more than a stroke or two off their golf handicaps.

Change Your Approach
If you’re having problems draining short putts during a round, try changing your approach. Instead of finessing the hole, bang it into the cup’s back. This technique takes your mind off your putting woes and your mechanics. Use this technique to create a break in a string of bad putts and help yourself regain good rhythm and tempo when putting. Once you regain rhythm and tempo, you’ll see more putts go in.

Keep these tips in mind when you start going bad. You probably won’t find them taught in many golf lessons. But they’re a proven way to help reverse the downward slide and reclaim your game. More importantly, they’ll help you revive your confidence. Restoring confidence helps you play your best. That in turn prevents you from falling into a slump that could see you pack several strokes onto your golf handicap.

The British Open gets underway on Thursday, July 15th, and the field of golfers playing in this year’s tournament is impressive—as always. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Ben Crane, and Angel Cabrera are all there. So are Sean O’Hair, KJ Choi, John Daly, Eduardo Molinari, and Sir Nick Faldo along with a host of other professional golfers. Golf handicaps don’t go low enough for this group. But they’ll all find this year’s Open a challenge thanks to the course.

The Old Course at St. Andrews is the venue for this year’s tournament. Among golf’s most revered courses, The Old Course is hosting the game’s longest running major for the 28th time since The Open was first played in 1860. Tiger Woods won the last two Championships at St. Andrews, setting a record score of 19-under-par to win by eight shots in 2000. But as pretty as St. Andrews is, this links course is bound to provide the field with some golf lessons and golf tips on playing a links course. The question is: What are the keys to winning the Open?

Length Not A Factor
Course length won’t be a factor at St. Andrews. The Old Course is long, but not overly so. St. Andrews is a par 72 that plays at 7305 yards—3584 yards on the front and 3721 yards on the back. The longest hole is the 14th at 613 yards. The next longest hole is the 5th at 568 yards. These are the only two par 5s on the course. The two par-3s on the course are just over 170 yards and the remaining par-4s are about average pro length. Golfers that can hit the ball long won’t have as much of an edge as at other pro tournaments.

Course design will be a factor at St. Andrews. The course’s design has withstood the test of time. Players have gotten bigger and stronger over the years and the equipment they use has changed dramatically in the 600 years golf has been played there. Yet St. Andrews remains a challenge because golfers must often hit from difficult angles at The Old Course.

The wind will be another factor. It can blow really hard at times. On a calm day, golfers can shoot 65. But on a windy day, they can shoot 80. Sometimes, the wind blows so hard you see golfers hitting wedges 20, 30, or even 40 feet. So if the wind picks up during a round, players will have to deal with it.

Good Shotmaking Is Key
Given these factors, what will be the keys to success at the Old Course? Good shotmaking is one. Controlling trajectory is a must at St. Andrews—probably more so than at any other venue on the pro circuit. So is placement. Players must determine not only where to place the ball, but also how it will run once it hits. They will also have to play shots they don’t normally play, making creativity imperative at St. Andrews, as it is with many links courses.

Another key at St. Andrews is putting. This year’s winner must putt well. Wet weather in the build-up to the Championship has kept the greens at around 10 on the stimpmeter, rather than usual 14. This means the greens will be much slower than normal. The pros usually do better on faster greens. Golfers in this year’s field will need to adjust quickly to the slower speed when putting.

Greens Are Large
St. Andrews’ greens are also large. How large are they? Let’s just say that you can hit a par-4 in two and still make bogey. In other words, the players are going to have a lot of long putts no matter how accurate their shots, so lag putting will be key. Then, of course, there’s the wind, which could also affect putting. The wind will influence strategy and execution dramatically.

Good shotmaking, creativity, and accurate lag putting are keys at the British Open this year. They’re also keys to achieving low golf handicaps on local courses. Weekend golfers able to see this year’s tournament should look for golf tips that will help them sharpen their skills. Golf lessons can provide the basics of how to hit a draw or a fade, but they can’t always provide the finer points or teach you things like creativity. Watching other golfers can.

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.

Last year, when Don Trahan came out with the Peak Performance Golf Swing, I wrote about it.  It’s controversial and teaches a lot of opposing theory to modern golf instruction.  The same seems to apply to the new Perfect Connection Golf Swing.

These swings are mainly targeted for the older set in golf and advocate a 3/4 turn in the backswing.  The whole point I suppose is that the usual aches, pains and injury that come with a traditional golf swing can be alleviated by adopting this new swing type.

But I can’t honestly say whether the new Perfect Connection Golf Swing by C.J. Goecks is panacea or paltry.  All I know is there are a lot of golfers talking about it right now and I am in the process of reviewing it myself.  Will provide updates as I do so.

If any one has a review on it or first hand experience, leave a comment below.

One the one hand, I can appreciate that the traditional golf swing and instruction is not only difficult to grasp and execute at times.  This is probably why “new” swing techniques and teachings create such a stir.  But whether or not they hold the test of time…

So, any of you guys used it?  What did you think?  Good/Bad/Ugly welcome.

To be clear, this is not an endorsement.  The jury is still out on this new swing…it is too soon to tell.  Which is why I am asking you guys what you think.

You can get more info on CJ Goecks and Perfect Connection Golf Swing’s home page here http://perfectconnectiongolfswing.com

Look forward to your comments.

Jack

You have to love technology. It not only makes our lives easier, it also enables us to see and do things we might not see and do otherwise. Take the Internet. If you haven’t been to the official U.S. Open Web site (www.usopen.com), go there. The site provides numerous high tech features, like an iPhone app, to help you truly enjoy the 2010 U.S. Open at California’s Pebble Beach golf course. The Web site also provides some unique articles that will not only peak your interest, but also help you chop strokes off your golf handicap.

Perhaps the most interesting high-tech feature on the Web site—for serious golfers, that is—is the course preview page. It gives you a great overview of the course from a variety of angles. It’s so good you almost feel like you’re walking the course. The Web site lets you not only watch a Fly-Over video of Pebble Beach, but also do a video walkthrough of the course. The walkthrough is like you were really there. In addition, the page offers tee, fairway, and green views of the course. The preview page comes as close as you can to being at the course without actually being there. The page is a golf instruction session all on its own.

Among The Prettiest Courses
The Web page’s overview of Pebble Beach is so detailed that people who’ve never had a golf lesson or read a golf tip in their life will enjoy it. Pebble Beach is among America’s prettiest public courses. Opened in 1919, it hugs the rugged California coastline. The course offers wide-open vistas, cliff-side fairways, and slopping greens. Pebble Beach claims Jack Neville and Douglas Grant as its designers. Home for the annual AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Championship, the course often serves as a site for PGA events. This is the fifth time it’s hosted the U.S. Open. It also hosted the event in 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2000.

Another interesting feature of the Web site is a two-part article on how the U.S.G.A gets a course ready for an open championship. The article examines all the decisions and changes that need to be made by the grounds keepers to get the course in shape for the U.S. Open. In this case officials from the United States Golf Association walked the course addressing the changes that needed to be made.

For example, one changes involved the rough: Would it be a graduated? Officials decided to make it graduated. Another decision involved the bunkers. Previously, Pebble Beach had light rough running into around the fringes of its bunkers. Officials had all the fringes cut. Now, a wayward shot is more likely to run into the bunker than be stopped by the fringe, penalizing the golfer. This year Pebble Beach has a course rating of 76.6 and a slope of 149 for the Open. Course length is over 7,000 yards. Players will hit from the black tees.

Experts Choices To Win
Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood are among the more popular choices to win the Open.

Westwood is fresh off his win at the St. Jude’s Classic. It was his first win in the United States since 1998 and he seems to play well on West Coast courses. He also plays well in the U.S. Open. He’s played in three Opens and finished near the top in all three. He came in seventh in 1998 at Olympic, fifth in 2000 at Pebble Beach, and third in 2007 at Torrey Pines. He had a good chance to win in 2000, but left some shots out there and made some bad decisions. Westwood is playing well, Woods, on the other hand, is not playing well. His layoff seems to have affected him more than some experts thought. Then he had some problems with his neck a few weeks ago, so it’s anybody’s guess how well he will play this year around. Still, Wood is 113th in driving accuracy and 164th in driving length.

His putting accuracy this year is 1.708, which would be first on Tour if he were eligible for the ranking. Experts who pick woods say he needs to leave his driver and the bag and use his 2-iron off the tee. They thing the course sets up well for him, if he features his “stinger” out of the tee box.

It’s anybody’s guess which player will win this year’s tournament. But if you really want the full U.S. Open experience, stop by the championship’s Web site and make use of the technological features there, especially the course views. You’ll not only get a up close and personal view of the course, you may also get glean a few golf tips based on how the course is set up to help you chop a stroke or two off 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.

Golf studies are intriguing. But some are more intriguing than others. Take those done on power. They show you can gain 25 yards off the tee without going to a gym or buying a new driver. All you have to do is improve your swing’s sequencing and efficiency. How do you do that? Strengthen your core. That’s right. Beef up your core and you could quickly become the top dog in your foursome when it comes to driver. With luck, you could also cut strokes from your golf handicap. Increasing clubhead speed is the key to hitting bombs. More precisely, you add 2 yards to your drive for every mile per hour you increase your clubhead speed, as I’ve said in my golf tips newsletter. Increase clubhead speed by 10 miles per hour and you add about 20 yards to your drives. Pro golfers average clubhead speeds of about 130 miles per hour. Long drive champs average clubhead speeds of about145 miles per hour. And weekend golfers average speeds of about 100 miles per hour. That’s a big difference.

Seven Groups Power Your Swing
Seven muscle groups power your swing—(1) glutes, (2) groin, (3) abs, lats, and obliques, (4) quadriceps, (5) pectorals, (6) hamstrings, and (7) rotator cuffs. But many other muscles also help. For example, while the left adductor (groin) pulls the body forward, the right latissimus dorsi (lat) balances the body so it doesn’t topple over as you shift your weight. If you’ve taken golf lessons or read a lot of golf tips, you know how vital a balanced sequential weight shift is.

Nevertheless, while your legs, shoulders, back, and chest help generate power, it’s your core—abdomen, pelvis, and thighs—that’s the true producer of power. In fact, if you watch the pros closely, you’ll see just how critical the core is to drilling a golf ball a long way. In other words, to belt drives 250 yards or more, you must fire your hips through the hitting area quickly and efficiently. To do that, strengthen your core muscle group:

Two simple exercises and two easy-to-do stretches can help you strengthen your core. They make a difference because they improve the flexibility, coordination, and strength of your hips, abdomen, and pelvis. Do the exercises faithfully and you’ll be hitting bombs without having gone to any golf instructions sessions or trekking over to your health club.

Here are the exercises and stretches:

Hip Rotation Stretch
Stand next to a wall, with your shoulders perpendicular to it.  Step forward with the right leg, knee bent. Keeping most of your weight on your right leg, place your hands on the wall and turn your shoulders to the right, sliding your hands back as far as you can.

Hip Flexor
Kneel on your right knee in a lunge position until you can feel a stretch in your left hip. Holding a club in front of you, slowly turn the upper body to the left while keeping the lower body stable and the club at chest level.

Single Leg Rotation
Stand on one leg, knees slightly bent.  Holding the club in front of you, mimic the spine angle you would have when you address the ball. Now slowly turn as if you were making a backswing then a through swing, before returning to the address position.

Step-down Hip Rotation
Stand on a platform so one leg hangs off the edge. Holding a club in front of you, turn your upper body toward the platform as the hanging foot taps the floor. Then return to the start position. Be sure to work the opposite side equally.

Perform these stretches and exercises in sets of three (10-15 reps), then alternate sides. Perform each stretch for 15 to 30 seconds. Do them as many times a week as you’d like and before long you’ll be the top dog in your foursome.

We all want to generate power off the tee—whether you have a golf handicap in the low single digits or one in the high teens. Longer drives mean shorter approach shots. Shorter approach shots mean more GIRs. More GIRs mean more par and birdie putts. Sinking more of those can help cut your golf handicap dramatically.

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.

Tools To Help Your Game!

How To Break 80
Books:
Digital eBook
Physical Book

How To Break 80
Audio:
Audio Program

How To Break 80
DVD’s:
Putting
Short Game
Short Game Drills
Driver
Draw
Bunker
Full Swing
Full Swing Drills
Full Swing Lessons
Max Distance
Precision Putting
Swing Plane
Trouble Shots
Perfect Impact
Pitching
Seniors

Pro golfers are known for many things. Some are known for driving. Others are known for putting. And then there are those known for chipping. Phil Mickelson, for example, is known for his wedge play. Regardless of what they’re claim to fame is, professional players are top-notch in all phases of the game. They’ve achieved a level of consistency well beyond that of the average player. For weekend golfers, achieving consistency like that is the key to lower golf handicaps.

Good iron play, for example, cures a multitude of golfing woes. Hitting an iron is about controlling three things: trajectory, spin, and distance. Control these factors with consistency when hitting irons and you’ll find yourself playing from the fairway more and in a better position to hit approach shots. You’ll also stay out of trouble. Below are seven golf tips that will help you not only increase consistency with your irons, but also chop strokes off your golf handicap.

Keep Your Shoulders Level
When addressing the ball with a driver, your shoulders are slightly tilted. But when addressing a ball with your irons, your shoulders should be level. Level shoulders position you to hit crisp iron shots, like they teach in golf lessons. To achieve this position stand with a club in front of you and push downward with both palms on the butt end. This centers you.

Pre-Set Your Wrist Hinge
You need a compact swing to hit solid irons. In fact, the more compact your swing the easier it is to hit solid irons. To eliminate wasted motion, pre-set your wrist hinge then simply turn to the top. Feel this sensation when starting from your normal address position. Before long, you’ll find yourself hitting crisp irons like they show in golf instruction sessions and videos.

Maintain Your Spine Angle
Maintaining a consistent spine angle is critical to good iron play. Your spine angle enables you to hit down on the ball. Weekend golfers often rise up when hitting an iron in an effort to lift the ball in the air. Lifting leads to poor contact, producing thin and fat shots. To correct this tendency, swing to a finish position and hold it for a second. Then bring the club back down, as if someone hit the re-wind button. You should be back in your address position. If you are, you’ve maintained your spine angle.

Rehearse Your Impact
To achieve the correct pinching action, like that described in my golf tips newsletter, rehearse an exaggerated impact position at address. You want to feel the clubhead meeting the ball and then descending into the turf. To encourage this, lean the shaft forward with your hands well ahead of the clubhead. Make your normal swing. Try re-creating this feeling when striking the ball. Work on this often and before long you’ll be hitting solid irons.

Bow Your Left Wrist
Professionals hit their irons solidly because they deloft the clubface to a degree when hitting the ball. Maintaining your wrist hinge keys this move and produces a penetrating ball flight. Keep your left wrist bowed through impact for a solid hit. To ingrain this move, pretend you’re holding a club and practice bowing your left wrists so your knuckles point downward.

Focus On The Basics
Weekend golfers sometimes try to do too much. They try to make shots their not capable of making. Attempting a miracle shot often throws your swing off. Instead, focus on the basics: Hit the ball hard and straight, without getting too fancy about shotmaking. Concentrate on three things: focus on your target, swing freely, and try to hit the ball solidly. This approach simplifies the shot and helps you hit crisper irons.

Consistency is the key to lower golf handicaps. The seven golf tips described above will help you achieve consistency with your irons. Hitting crisp irons puts you in good position for your next shot, keeps you out of trouble, and helps generate better approach shots more often than not. That in turn will help you chop strokes off your golf handicap and take your game to the next level.

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.

To say that golf has evolved into high tech endeavor is an understatement. State-of the art golf learning centers use cameras, sensors, and accelerometers to help golfers perfect their technique and match the correct club, grip, and shaft to the golfer’s swing. GPS-base range finders measure yardage. Software keeps track of how well a golfer does. Whether you want to cut your golf handicap or ingrain key golf tips, technology is at your disposal. But you better bring your checkbook. Some are rather expensive.

For statistically minded individuals, there’s performance-tracking software, which you can buy relatively inexpensively. If you’re not into buying software, you can always find a Web site that tracks performance. All you do is log in and enter your round. The Web site does the rest. It provides an accurate record of time on the course, plus the ability to look back and track progress. Some sites also provide performance-based golf instruction sessions to help whittle down your golf handicap. Price: $4.95 per month or $29.95 annually.

Another interesting technological innovation is what the manufacturer describes as a “digital coaching” system. It teaches you concepts like ball flight laws, swing mechanics, and swing dynamics to help you analyze and correct your swing. It’s like taking golf lessons on demand. This system compares your swing side by side to that of a professional to help diagnose swing flaws. Once it isolates the flaws, it then describes drills to eliminate them. The price: about $100.

Teaching Feel
Other technological innovations focus on feel. These help identify the right “feel” of a swing by letting you know when you’ve done it correctly. The goal is to remember the shot’s feel on the course. These devices are rather expensive. One innovation, a swing vest, is really interesting. It helps improve your swing’s kinetic efficiency. The vest’s video and wireless sensors attached to your spine, hips, and clubshaft capture your swing. The vest then sends the data to the swing analysis software on your PC or laptop. The price: about $1600.

Some technological innovations are designed more for professionals giving golf lessons. But serious golfers with deep pockets can buy them, too. Launch systems, for instance, are more popular than ever. One is especially interesting. From a single swing, it calculates spin rate, speed, and vertical launch angle, giving a whole new meaning to the term “club selection.” This system is somewhat exclusive. It’s available only through equipment manufacturers, club retailers, and golf professionals. The price: over $4,000.

Simulating The On-course Experience
Golf simulators are another technological breakthrough growing in popularity. They’re for golfers who want an on-course experience. According to one manufacturer, his simulator is the “next best thing to being on the course.” This simulator uses a projection screen, topographic 3-D maps, and a set of clubs. The simulator lets you play a full round of golf, analyze your swing, or find the right clubs. The price: about $8000

And let’s not forget ball-tracking systems. These are growing in popularity, too. One innovation uses a unique 3-D tracking radar system—the same technology used extensively by military to track ballistics and projectiles at distances of 50 kilometers and speeds of 3,000 km/hour. This system measures things like clubhead speed, carry distance, drag, and backspin, giving you all the statistical information needed for club-comparisons and single-club analysis. The price: $15,000.

Whether you’re a professional looking to take your golf instruction sessions high-tech or a weekend golfer looking to lower her golf handicap, you’ll find technological innovations out there to help ingrain most golf tips. But as the innovations get more sophisticated, they get more expensive. So if you’re looking to buy, bring your checkbook. It can cost you.

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.

Wedges are among the most sophisticated clubs in your bag. In fact, they’re almost as sophisticated as drivers. Wedges come with a wide variety of designs and features and a broad range of lofts and bounce angles. Yet you probably pay as much attention to your wedges as you do to a sand trap. This disinterest may be packing strokes onto your golf handicap. If you’re serious about lowering your golf handicap, learn more about wedges.

Some golfers think shaft length, shaft flex, turf conditions, and lie when it comes to wedges. These factors are important. They can dramatically affect your shot. But sole design is probably the most important factor when selecting wedges. Sole design, which includes bounce angle, determines how your club reacts to the ground (or the sand) on impact. Other factors are gaps between wedges—as we’ve said in our golf tips newsletter—and sole design variation.

Effective Bounce Is The Key
Bounce is the distance of the bottom of the sole extending below the clubface’s leading edge when the club is squarely soled in the impact position—something often mentioned in golf lessons. Bounce is completely independent of loft, length, weight, and shaft flex. In other words, there’s no assigned bounce to specific types of wedges. The club’s designer chooses its bounce. But there is an optimal bounce for each of your wedges that will provide the best results for you and your swing. Get to know what the optimal bounce is for each wedge.

Depth of bounce also matters in wedge performance. Depth of bounce, as you may have heard in golf instructions sessions, determines the wedge’s “effective bounce” at impact. Effective bounce depends on how much bounce is designed into the club’s sole, how deep it is in the sole, and how open the clubface is at impact. An open clubface can dramatically affect a wedge’s performance. Wedges come with shallow, deep, or anywhere-in-between bounce. Shallow bounce wedges don’t change effective bounce much. Deep-bounce wedges do.

Gaps Between Wedges
Some golfers carry only two wedges—a pitching wedge, with a loft of about 48 degrees, and a sand wedge, with a loft of about 56 degrees. This approach leaves a huge gap between wedge lofts. Other golfers use three wedges, which let you easily cover shots from 100-yards in. They carry a pitching wedge for full wedge shots (about 100 yards out), a sand wedge used for shots about 30 yards out, and a gap wedge, with about 52 degrees of loft, for shots in between. Some golfers with low golf handicaps also carry either a lob wedge and/or a flop wedge. (We recommend carrying three or four wedges in our golf tips newsletter.)

Sole Design Variation
Sole design variation is just as important as gap coverage when it comes to wedges. You want to carry a set of wedges with a variety of sole designs to handle a broad range of lies. For example, always carry at least one wedge with a small and shallow-bounce sole design for hardpan and other hard-ground lies, and at least one wedge with a deep-bounce sole design for deep rough or sugar-fine sand. You never know what kind of lie you may be facing. Having the proper sole variation covers all contingencies.

As you can see, wedges are rather complex clubs. If you’re among those players who seldom think about them, you may want to change that approach. They can help shave strokes off your golf handicap, so the more you learn about them—whether through attending golf instructions sessions or reading golf tips—the better.

Also, when assembling a wedge set, remember these factors: bounce, gaps between wedges, and differences in sole variations. Above all, tailor your set to what you face the most, but have a wedge or two you can substitute when playing courses with different conditions.

Occasionally, you hear of a PGA player hiring a new swing coach to help the player change his swing, like Tiger Woods did a few years ago. Or, you hear of a little known player suddenly winning tournaments thanks to a major swing change orchestrated by his swing coach. Making major swing changes takes hours and hours of practice. But when you’re playing for big money like today’s pros, it’s worth it.

Most weekend golfers don’t have that kind of time. Taking a couple of golf lessons a month, hitting the practice range now and then, and playing once a week is all they can muster. That doesn’t mean that weekend players can’t whittle some strokes off their golf handicap. Below are five simple golf tips for making tricky shots. Perfecting them may not make players the best in town, but they’ll help reduce golf handicaps.

1. Making A Wedge Back Up
Getting a wedge shot to back up is harder than ever. Manufacturers do a great job of combining trajectory and spin characteristics in golf balls, but today’s balls just don’t spin the way they used to. But you can make the shot if you execute it right. Use a wedge with extra loft and then hit the ball with a descending blow. Since you must hit the ball first, play the ball back in your stance. Also, swing hard but stay under control. You’ll need clubhead speed to make the ball spin, but if you swing too hard, you’ll lose control.

2.  Playing Out Of A Divot
Don’t try and scoop the ball. Scooping exposes a club’s leading edge, producing sculls and worm-burners. Instead, play the ball back slightly in your stance and lean toward the target. This sets up a steeper swing plane and a downward blow. The ball comes out lower with some run. You can also take an extra club, play the ball forward, and open your stance and clubface slightly. Then, swing across the club, as if you were hitting a bunker shot. This approach lets you hit the ball higher and stop it faster. But it’s harder to execute.

3.  Chipping Off Hardpan
This shot crops up more than you think. So for novice players, mastering this shot can help you whittle a stroke or two off your golf handicaps. Mastering this shot will also help veteran players. Play the ball back in your stance, set the club’s heel off the ground, and make sure the shaft is vertical. To do this, you must stand closer to the ball. Keep the clubface square to the target when you swing, and use a putting type stroke by rocking your shoulders up and down. Focus on ball first contact.

4. How To Hit It Over A Tree
If you find yourself playing a course filled with trees, knowing how to hit the ball high may come in handy. To hit it high, hit the ball from a shallow angle, drive with your legs, keep your head and upper body behind the ball, and create clubhead speed. Also, position the ball farther forward at address, open the clubface, and allow for a fade. Then, hit hard with your right hand. Make sure you’re working “under” the left through impact. Left-handed golfers need to work “under” the right.

5. A Soft Pitch To A Tight Spin
If you’re in light rough, play this ball like a bunker shot. Open your face, cock your wrists early in the backswing, and hit the grass behind the ball with some speed.  The harder you swing, the higher the ball goes. But from a tight lie, you’ve got to make perfect contact and nip the ball off the grass. To do this, keep your grip pressure relaxed and your head positioned constant. Don’t raise or dip it through impact.

There you have it. Five golf tips that can help chop strokes off your scores and golf handicap. You don’t have to attend golf instruction sessions to learn how to hit them. But you’ll be surprised how many strokes they’ll chop from your golf handicap.

Nobody, of course, swings on plane every time. Usually, we swing on a “reasonable” plane as it approaches the ball. The closer you are to being perfectly on plane—all things being equal—the better off you are. So you don’t have to swing perfectly on plane. Two golfers may have very different backswings, but if they’re good ballstrikers, their swings will look similar as they approach impact. Swinging on plane is so important some instructors spend a great deal of time on it in golf lessons.

An On-Plane Swing
So what do we mean by an on-plane swing? Simply put, it means swinging the club on the same angle as it rests on the ground. A 6-iron at rest leans on a natural angle to the ground of about 45 degrees. To swing on plane, you must swing the 6-iron either right on, or closely parallel to that angle, throughout the swing.

If you watch golfers hit balls during golf instruction sessions, you’ll see that some players have a one-plane swing. Others have a two-plane swing. In a one-plane swing, the arms stay on the same axis as the shoulders. If you look in a mirror and your shaft and left arm are aligned, you’re a one-plane swinger. To be a one-plane swinger, simply crush the logo on your golf shirt with your front arm. With a one-plane swing a golfer can unwind without much concern for timing. One-plane swingers usually stand a little farther from the ball.

In a two-plane swing the arms swing on an axis that’s different from the shoulders. Taller players, like Jim Furyk, tend to have two-plane swings. Two plane swings, as I’ve said in my golf tips newsletter, have downswing planes flatter than their backswing planes. So their planes match up with someone who has a one-plane swing as they approach the ball. Two-plane swingers must start their swings with their lower bodies and unwind their hips to the left so the club drops to the inside of the their target line. Two-plane swingers usually stand close to the ball.

Training Your Backswing
The Stand Bag Drill helps teach you to swing on plane. An “at rest” stand bag has the same angle as a 6-iron when it’s grounded. You can use the bag to gauge whether your swing is on plane. First, stand a bag on the ground with the club heads pointing away from the target line. The bag’s base should rest on the target line. Take your address position along side the bag with a 6-iron and make a backswing. Stop about half way through the backswing. Your shoulders, arms, and clubface should match the bag’s angle at rest.

Now move the bag in front of you, with the base resting on the target line and the clubheads pointing away from the target line. Swing the club. The club’s angle at the finish should be the same as the bag’s angle. You’re on plane if your eyes, right arm, shaft, and shoulders are parallel to the bag. If they are, you’ve made a good swing and stayed on plane throughout the swing.

Practice Anywhere Anytime
You can practice swinging on plane anywhere anytime using a drill we teach to students who take my golf lessons. Take your address position with a club. Now make your backswing. Stop when you get about halfway back in your backswing and check your hands. Your “open hand” (right hand) should be parallel to the clubface. If it is, you’re on plane.

Swinging on plane boosts ballstriking. That’s because swing n plane greatly influences key factors in your swing, like depth of divot. Better ballstriking leads to longer and straighter shots, not just from the tee but from the fairway as well. Hitting longer and straighter shots helps you avoid trouble, which in turn, will help you lower your golf handicap.

Actually, bunker shots are easier to hit than most golfers think. They have a wider margin for error than many other shots if you use the right mechanics, according to one well-known golf guru. Dave Pelz, author of Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible, analyzed dozens of bunker shots in a recent study. The study shows that using the proper technique makes “sand play easier because it is more forgiving and minimizes the consequences of making normal human errors.” Nevertheless, golfers still fear greenside bunker shots.

Poor Mechanics A Key Reason
Poor mechanics are one reason most golfers hit bad bunkers shots. Even after taking golf lessons and/or reading golf tips on the subject, they still can’t hit a good bunker shot. The main problem, says Pelz, is that these golfers don’t understand how the club interacts with the sand on bunker shots. As a result, they hit poor bunker shots. Pelz is right. Watching dozens of students hitting hundreds of bad bunker shots during my golf instruction sessions has made me a believer.

Your setup, as you probably know, is one key to hitting good bunker shots. You can’t hit good bunker shots if you’re setup is poor. What’s a good setup? Your feet should be about shoulder width apart, with your knees slightly flexed, your upper body bent forward slightly from the hips, and your weight centered on the balls of your feet. The ball should be on-line with the inside edge of your front foot and the clubface wide open. Your stance should be pointing slightly left of target, if you’re right handed.

But understanding how the clubface interacts with the sand is just as important as your setup, if not more important. Many bunker players use what Pelz calls the “dig and push” method of hitting bunker shots. With this method the golfer aims the clubface square at the target, so the wedge enters the sand about an inch behind the ball. At impact, the clubface’s leading edge digs down two or three inches and, hopefully, pushes the ball out ahead of it. Unfortunately, this method has little margin for error. Plus, it requires a great deal of energy to execute. Under pressure, the method often breaks down.

The Scoot And Spin Approach
A better approach, Pelz says, is the “scoot and spin” method. (Actually, it’s probably better referred to as the “skim and spin” method.) This method uses the same setup as the dig and push method, except the clubface is wide open at address. Helped by the wedge’s bounce, the clubface skims under the sand and past the ball, blasting it out high, soft, and with spin. If hit correctly, the ball bounces once or twice, checks, rolls slightly to the right, and stops near the hole.

The scoot and spin method offers numerous advantages over the dig and push method. To start with, it’s easier and simpler to execute. All you need do is aim left of target, open the clubface, and play the ball forward on the inside edge of your left heel. Then take your normal wedge swing. Also, the method requires less energy to get the ball out of the sand and it provides a wider margin for error. More importantly, it doesn’t break down under pressure, so you’re less likely to flub the shot.

Don’t let greenside bunker shots intimidate you. Although they probably account for more strokes being added to golf handicaps than any other shot, they’re not as hard as they seem, if you understand how the clubface interacts with the sand. Switching from the dig and push method of hitting a greenside bunker shot to the scoot and spin method, along with taking golf lessons and reading golf tips on the subject, improves bunker play. Eventually, bunker shots won’t intimidate you.

If you’re among golfers who’ve started shanking the ball and can’t stop, you’re not alone. Plenty of golfers have suddenly had this problem. Many were unable to stop, even if their lives depended on it. As with most mis-hits in golf, specific reasons exist for shanking a shot. There are also fixes that can help you shake off the shanks. These fixes are simple to execute and apply, and can really benefit your game. With their help, you can rid yourself of the shanks, keeping your golf handicap in check.

Swinging From The Outside In.
A shank can happen many ways. One way is by swinging the club from outside the target line to inside the target line. When you swing outside in, you risk hitting the ball with the clubhead’s neck and hosel. If you’re really good at finding the clubface before impact (or your clubface is closed at impact), you probably won’t shank. If you’re not good at making hand adjustments—and most golfers are not—you’ll shank the shot.

The key to stopping this cause of shanks is to swing the club more from the inside out. In other words, start your takeaway inside the target line, and initiate the downswing with the body to prevent coming over the top and swinging across the ball. Some teachers refer to this as “dropping the club in the slot.” Do this and rotate through to the finish and you’ll shank your shots a lot less.

Hands Not Releasing
Another cause for shanking is not releasing your hands through impact or releasing them too slowly through impact. The hands must release the club through the impact zone square to the face before contacting the ball. If they don’t, the club makes contact with the neck of the iron first, boosting your chances of shanking the shot.

To fix this problem, loosen your hands. Then take a few short swings while focusing on releasing the hands well before you reach the ball. This type of release is unusual, but it helps greatly when it’s time to make a full swing. At that point, your hands will be ready to release right over the golf ball, the way they should.

Open Face And Body
A third cause of shanking is an overactive body turn. If you’ve read my golf tips newsletter, you know how important body turn is. If the body slides or rotates too much and the arms don’t have time to catch up, the clubface reaches the target wide open, increasing your chances of hitting the ball with the club’s neck. In fact, anytime your body and arms disconnect, you risk shanking your shot. To overcome this swing flaw, try this simple drill that I use in my golf lessons:

Align your stance so your front foot is closest to the target and is about a foot in front of your other foot. Your other foot should be behind you. At this point, you should be standing so that it looks like you’re walking forward. Now hit some balls from this stance.

The drill teaches you to maintain your turn away from the ball. It also allows your arms to swing from the proper path and release the clubhead on time. It’s a great drill to get your swing coming from the inside out and for limiting excess body rotation through impact—both of which lead to a mis-hit.

Shanking is among the most frustrating shots in golf. Once you start, you can’t always stop. Shanking affects golfers at anytime and at any level. Even veteran golfers with low golf handicaps sometimes have a bout of the shanks. Swinging the club from the outside in instead of inside out can cause you to shank. But learning to swing from the inside out will help prevent the dreaded shanks from occurring and your golf handicap from rising.

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.