In this issue we’ll discuss…

1. Short-sided In Tall Thick Grass
2. The Sand Chip
3. Question of the Week – Stop Hitting It Fat
4. Article – Three Principles To Get Your Swing In Sync
5. Article – Two Simple Exercises To Boost Power

Short-sided In Tall Thick Grass

Shots from deep rough are hard. So are downhill putts. But is there a harder shot than being on the back lip of a bunker in tall, thick grass? This shot is about as hard as it gets. You have to deal with not only the thick grass, but also an awkward stance—since you need both feet in the bunker to hit the ball. If you miss, you could plop it in the bunker, costing you a stroke or two. It’s not your everyday shot.

Below are five keys to hitting this shot:

1. Widen your stance
2. Set your weight on front side
3. Grip down on the club
4. Hold the club tighter
5. Take the club head up quickly
6. Play an explosion shot

The keys to hitting this shot are stabilizing the lower body and keeping the clubface from closing through impact. Another key is not trying to hit a miracle shot. You’re goal is to get on the green in one. So stay within yourself.

Select a club with a leading edge, like a pitching wedge, to cut through the grass. Then, widen your stance and set most of your weight on your front side, which restricts lower body movement.

Since the ball is well above your feet, choke down on the club and grip it a little harder than normal. These adjustments keep the club from twisting in your hands as it cuts through the tall grass and from flipping over when it hits the ground.

When you swing, take the clubhead up quickly and play an explosion shot, just as you would a greenside bunker shot. Also, accelerate the clubhead through the ball. Keep the face pointing skyward after impact.

You won’t face this shot many times in a season. But it’s good to know how to hit it anyway.

===================================================
2) The Sand Chip
===================================================
If you have two golfers of equal ability playing on the same course on the same day, chances are the player with the better short game racks up the lower score. One short-game area weekend golfers need to work on is bunker play. It takes practice to master this area of the game. Meantime, there’s an alternative to the normal bunker shot that gets you out in one: the sand chip.

Below are six keys to hitting the sand chip:

• Raise the club on its toe
• Play the ball off the back foot
• Move the shaft forward
• Place your weight on the front foot
• Keep the wrists firm on the stroke
• Make ball first contact

.

The key to hitting the sand chip is making ball first contact. Start by taking a normal stance and then raising the club on its toe. Raising the club makes the shaft more upright and lessens the chance of catching the sand during the shot. If you catch the sand, the shot will probably stay in the bunker.

Also, play the ball off your back foot and move your hands forward so the shaft points to your front shoulder, which helps produce a low running shot that tracks like a putt.

Make the stroke with as little wrist break as possible and with your weight on your front foot. These adjustments allow the club’s butt end and its clubface to move together back and then through the ball.

When swinging, guard against dropping down into the ball in an effort to lift the ball out of the bunker. This miscue—the most common made with the sand chip—destroys ball first contact.

The ball comes out of the bunker low and with lots of roll. So make sure you have a low bunker lip and plenty of green to work with.
3) Question of the Week – Stop Hitting It Fat

Q. Hello Jack, I find myself in a great position on the fairway. Then, I think I’ll take a nice easy iron, whether it’s a 7-iron, 8-iron, 9-iron, or PW, depending on the distance. Instead, I take a divot behind the ball and it flops 10-20 yards up the fairway. Can you offer any help and an explanation as to what I am doing wrong? I play left handed.

Thanks,
Alan Cardiff
South Wales

A. Thanks for the question, Alan. Your miscue is called hitting it fat. The reasons for hitting it fat apply no matter which way you hit.

One reason why you’re hitting it fat could be that you’re trying to take an easy swing. When we do that we sometimes throw off our rhythm and timing. Take a normal swing instead. Other reasons for hitting it fat are an excessively V-shaped swing, a tight lie, a rushed backswing, or a desire to scoop the ball.

To avoid hitting it fat, remember that:

* Ball position determines impact point. You want to strike the ball with a descending blow with your irons, so you should hit the ball just before the lowest point of the arc.

* Loft determines trajectory. There’s no need to scoop the ball or try to get under it. If you strike the ball properly, loft sends the ball skyward.

Also, when you hit, visualize a U-shaped swing, with a pronounced “flat spot” through impact. Use that visual as a guide. Then, focus on hitting the ball at the right impact point and taking a complete backswing.

Here’s a drill that help eliminate fat shots:

With an iron, take your normal stance and ground the club. Make a slight mark there. When you swing, try to create a shallow divot just past where you ground the club. Concentrate on executing a complete backswing and follow-through.

This drill helps improve rhythm and ballstriking. It also ensures that you hit the ball at the right impact point in your swing, curing you of an excessively V-shaped swing.

If you’ve got a golf question you’d like answered, send an email to us at questions@howtobreak80.com and we’ll review it. I can’t guarantee that we’ll use it but if we do, we’ll make sure to include your name and where you’re from.
If you want to truly discover the secrets of shooting like the Pros and creating a more reliable and consistent swing, check out: http://www.HowToBreak80.com

Also, for past issues of this newsletter and some of my most recent articles, visit our blog at www.HowToBreak80.com/blog

To view this newsletter online, please visit:
http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter11182009.php

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Three Principles To Get Your Swing In Sync
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/three-principles-to-get-your-swing-in-sync.php

5) Article – Two Simple Exercises To Boost Power
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/two-simple-exercises-to-boost-power.php

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, go to http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter.htm
About the Author

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!”. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps quickly. His free weekly newsletter goes out to thousands of golfers worldwide and provides the latest golf tips, strategies, techniques and instruction on how to improve your golf game.

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1. Hit Driver Off The Deck
2. Beating Bermuda Grass
3. Question of the Week – Use This Drill To Finish Off The Swing
4. Article – Conquer The Perimeter For A Better Golf Handicap
5. Article – Find A Putting Grip That Works… And Then Change It

Hit Driver Off The Deck

When you’re in the fairway and need something that provides plenty of distance, one option is hitting driver off the deck. It flies low and goes a long way. Driver off the deck is ideal on long par 4s with a ton of yardage left or when going for the green in two on par 5s. It’s not your every day type of shot, of course. But it eats up yardage–if you can pull it off.

Below are five keys to hitting driver of the deck:

1. Use a slightly open stance
2. Position the ball forward
3. Keep your feet and body still
4. Focus on rotating your torso
5. Make a full shoulder turn

The secret to hitting driver off the deck is re-creating your setup position at impact. Make sure you keep your hands in front of your body and strive for full extension of your arms at impact and a balanced finish.

To start, adopt a slightly open stance and a ball position allowing you to pick it cleanly from the turf. Usually, this spot is just forward of a normally teed ball.

During takeaway, keep your feet and legs as quiet as possible. This provides a solid foundation to support the swing’s power. Also, focus on rotating your torso and making a full shoulder turn for power.

From the top, turn your back toward the target, use the ground to push off on, and transfer your weight to the inside of your front foot. Now, power your hands and clubhead into the impact zone.

Next time you find yourself with a ton of yardage to the green on a par 4 or par 5 and you need something low, consider hitting driver off the deck. It’s seldom used, but it works, if executed well.

Beating Bermuda Grass

The type of grass you play on important isn’t important. It’s critical. Just ask those golfers who play a lot on Bermuda grass–a major turf species installed in sports fields, lawns, parks, golf courses, and general utility turfs in Australia, Africa, India, and South America. It’s also popular in the Southern region of the United States, including Florida and Georgia. If you’re not accustomed to playing on Bermuda grass, you’ll be surprised at how it impacts your game.

Here are five tips on how to play on Bermuda grass

• Use a normal stance
• Play the ball back
• Hit down and through
• Follow through to a finish
• Never try to scoop the ball

Bermuda grass grows aggressively in the sun’s direction. This characteristic creates a crook in its growing pattern that causes your ball to “sit up,” which in turn tempts you to try to scoop the ball from the grass. Never try to scoop the ball. Instead, use a normal stance, play the ball back a couple of inches, and hit down and through to a normal finish.

Bermuda grass also affects putting. Get a good read of the green’s grain. Know in which direction it’s running. And give the cup’s sides a good look. One half will look brown and ragged. The other half will look green and clean. The brown side is the side opposite the grain. Your putt will generally drift towards that side.

The type of grass you play is critical. If it’s not what you typically play on, find out what type it is and how it plays. Then adjust to compensate for the turf’s characteristics. It’ll save you a lot of strokes.

Question of the Week – Use This Drill To Finish Off The Swing

Q.I’m left-handed and having a hard time completing my backswing and getting a full shoulder turn. What’s a good drill to follow to get me to get my r/shoulder under my chin and then complete my downswing?

Many Thanks,
Edward

A. Thanks for the question, Edward. One reason golfers have problems like yours is that their strong sides dominate the swing. In your case, that’s your left side. The Let Go Drill helps equalize your sides and trains you to finish your swing off correctly. It’s a simple drill, but if practiced enough, works wonders.

Here’s the drill:

Swing slowly back to the top using a 7-iron. Make sure your make a full shoulder turn on the swing. As you swing through, let go of the club with your left-hand (right hand for right-handers). The club will fly through the impact zone and continue to a full finish. You can’t stop it. Repeat the drill until you feel you’ve trained your right arm (left arm) to keep moving and are finishing full on every shot.

Next, hit balls. Tee up every ball. Now swing. You should feel how doing the drill brings equality to your sides. When you hit shots, the right hand (left hand) leads the club into impact . You’ll be amazed just how far you can launch the ball down the fairway with just your left arm finishing the shot.

It may feel awkward at first practicing this drill, but you’ll get used to it. When it’s time to hit balls, focus on regaining the feel of equality you achieved in your practice sessions.

If you’ve got a golf question you’d like answered, send an email to us at questions@howtobreak80.com and we’ll review it. I can’t guarantee that we’ll use it but if we do, we’ll make sure to include your name and where you’re from.

If you want to truly discover the secrets of shooting like the Pros and creating a more reliable and consistent swing, check out: http://www.HowToBreak80.com

Here are some of my recent articles:

Article – Conquer The Perimeter For A Better Golf Handicap

Article – Find A Putting Grip That Works… And Then Change It

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, go to http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter.htm

About the Author

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!“. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps quickly. His free weekly newsletter goes out to thousands of golfers worldwide and provides the latest golf tips, strategies, techniques and instruction on how to improve your golf game.

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1. What’s In Your Bag
2. Five Keys To Hitting It Straighter
3. Question of the Week – Easy Fixes For Golfers Who Pull
4. Article – Maximizing Distance Off The Tee
5. Article – How To Become A Great Shotmaker (Part II)

What’s In Your Bag

If you’re just starting to play golf, you probably don’t care about what’s in your bag. But you should care. Carrying too many clubs can make a difference in your scores. It can create confusion when choosing a club to hit and cost you strokes. Carrying too many clubs can also slow down your rate of improvement. Smart golfers carry only the clubs that suit their games.

Below are five tips on what to carry in your bag:

• Driving club with 13 to 16 degrees of loft
• Fairway wood with 19 to 23 degrees of loft
• Oversized irons with forgiving design
• PW and SW with substantial bounce
• Putter with heel-toe weighting

A good beginner’s set includes a driving club with 13-16 degrees of loft, with a regular-flex shaft of standard length. Using a 3-wood as your main driving club is a good idea for beginners. It’s shorter and easier to hit than a driver. Later, you can switch.

A good beginner’s set also includes a fairway wood, with loft of 19-23 degrees and a shaft with the same flex as your driving club. If you’re using a three wood off the tee, use a 5-wood in the fairway.

You should also carry a set of oversized irons (5, 7, 9) with a forgiving design, perimeter weighting, and low center of gravity. Choose irons with light, flexible shafts (graphite or steel). Also carry pitching and sand wedges with substantial bounce (12 degrees). The bounce helps prevent the leading edges from digging.

In addition, you should carry a putter that feels comfortable. You may be using this club for a long time. So you want it to feel good. Other putter features to look for are heel-toe weighting and a shaft length that fits your posture.

Golf lessons are important. But not as important as what you carry in your bag. If you’re new to golf, use a half set of clubs. Until you can hit those correctly, you don’t need any more.

Five Keys To Hitting It Straighter

Your goal on every hole should be to hit the green in regulation. That would leave you with a putt for birdie, or better still, an eagle. Hitting a green in regulation is hard if you can’t hit it straight. Hitting slices and/or hooks all the way down the fairway makes it difficult to reach the green in regulation. But a good swing combined with a good line of play should produce a straight shot.

Below are five keys to hitting straight shots:

• Relax your right side
• Memorize the line of play
• Visualize the image of the target
• Fix the line of play in mind
• Start on the line of play

The mental preparation you do before you swing is critical to hitting straighter—and longer— shots. Begin at set-up by thinking about relaxing your right side (left side for lefties). The thought helps keep that side of your body lower through impact.

Next, visualize the line of play and commit it to memory. Create a visual image of this pathway in your mind. When it comes time to hit the ball, the path you want the ball to travel on is fixed in your mind.

In addition, start the club on the line of play. An on-line takeaway increases your chances of actually hitting the ball where you want and often helps compensate for a bad swing.

Triangle Takeaway Drill
This drill grooves a one-piece takeaway and helps you start the club on the line of play. Select a driver. Grip the clubshaft a few inches below the club’s handle and place the butt end of the club gently against your stomach, at a point just above your belt. Practice making small swings while concentrating on keeping your arms close to your sides with the club touching your navel.

Combining this drill with the mental keys described above will help you to hit straight and accurate shots with regularity. That’ can’t hurt your game.

Question of the Week – Easy Fixes For Golfers Who Pull

Q.You always have advice for slicers, but none for us “pullers.” I couldn’t slice in a million years, but I can “pull,” even hook, all day long. It’s more pronounced with my fairway woods. Help!

Roger
Council Bluffs, Iowa

A. Thanks for the question, Roger. Believe it or not, slices and pulls stem from the same fundamental swing flaw—approaching the ball on an out-to-in swing path. To eliminate pulls (and slices), you need to learn to swing on an in-to-out path and square off the position of the clubface through impact.

Try one or more of these fixes:

1. Close the overall alignment of your body
2. Close your clubface a little
3. Encourage your right arm (left arm for lefties) to close early in the swing
4. Encourage your right arm (left arm for lefties) to aggressively cross over your left (right).
5. Strengthen your grip

To strengthen your grip, move both hands to the club’s right until you can see three knuckles. Left-handers would move their hands to the club’s left.
Fixing a pull is often a case of trail and error. So you may have to try a combination of these fixes until you find the right answer. But the solution to your problem is there somewhere.

If you’ve got a golf question you’d like answered, send an email to us at questions@howtobreak80.com and we’ll review it. I can’t guarantee that we’ll use it but if we do, we’ll make sure to include your name and where you’re from.

If you want to truly discover the secrets of shooting like the Pros and creating a more reliable and consistent swing, check out: http://www.HowToBreak80.com

Also, for past issues of this newsletter and some of my most recent articles, visit our blog at www.HowToBreak80.com/blog

Here are some of my recent articles:

Article - Maximizing Distance Off The Tee

Article - How To Become A Great Shotmaker (Part II)

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, go to http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter.htm

About the Author

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!“. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps quickly. His free weekly newsletter goes out to thousands of golfers worldwide and provides the latest golf tips, strategies, techniques and instruction on how to improve your golf game.

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1. Throw Away Those Bunker Problems
2. Five Equipment Tips From The Pros
3. Question of the Week – Making Captain Hook Walk The Plank
4. Article – Sink More Putts With The Quiet Eye
5. Article – Five Match Play Strategies That Work

Throw Away Those Bunker Problems

The biggest obstacle to getting out of bunkers isn’t always physical. Sometimes it’s psychological. Many golfers execute the mechanics of a bunker shot perfectly. But after a bad shot or two, they become too tentative with their swings. That, in turn, causes them to mis-hit the shot, which costs them strokes.

Below are six tips to keep in mind when hitting from a bunker:

• Open the clubface
• Form the grip
• Choke down on the club
• Open the stance
• Aim right of stance
• Dig a solid foundation

The mechanics of bunker shots are straightforward. Start by opening the clubface first and then gripping the club. This ensures that the clubface stays open throughout the swing. Many weekend golfers do the opposite.

Also, choke down on the club to improve control and compensate for digging your feet into the sand. Digging your feet in tells you how soft the sand is and how the club will react when it enters the sand. Digging your feet in also provides a solid foundation, so you won’t slip when swinging.

Open your stance by pointing your feet, hips, and shoulders left of the target line (right of the target line for left-handers). Aim the clubface right of your stance, placing it in line with the target. Then, swing away.

Here’s where weekend golfers often mess up. Afraid of mis-hitting the shot, they take a half-hearted swing and either skull the shot or hit it fat. To prevent this, imagine yourself picking up a handful of sand and then throwing it back over your shoulders at the finish.

Visualizing this commits you fully to the shot, improves the shape of your swing, and allows your sand wedge to glide evenly through the sand, splashing the ball out softly on the green.

Don’t let bunker shots intimidate you. Adjust your stance to the type of sand in the bunker. Then, commit fully to the shot using the sand-tossing image. You’ll get out in one every time.

Five Equipment Tips From The Pros

How important is confidence to your game? Most experts say it’s a critical to playing well. Usually, you can boost confidence by practicing. But sometimes you can boost confidence by finding a club that feels just right. Since that’s hard to do, you may be forced to tailor your existing clubs to improve feel.

Below are five equipment tips employed by the pros to improve feel:

1. Shrink the putter grip
2. Tip the club’s shaft
3. Change shafts completely
4. Counterbalance the club
5. Check the driver’s clubface

Good putting requires a good touch. That’s especially true on the Tour, where the greens are fast and slick. To enhance feel, the pros will often fit their putters with thinner grips. Better feel can only improve your putting, not harm it.

Tipping refers to how a shaft is cut before being placed in the club head. Most times, players who shorten their clubs cut from the grip’s end. But for extra stiffness and increased control, the pros cut their shafts from where it’s inserted into the clubhead.

Today, shaft options exist for nearly every kind of player. If you want to imitate the pros, change your shafts to high-performance ones. Better yet, get fitted for your clubs by a clubfitter.

Counterbalancing a club adds weight away from the clubhead. That shifts the club’s balance point more toward the shaft’s middle, providing a more balanced feel. Look for counterbalanced shafts when buying clubs. Or, add lead tape.

Tour players carry drivers with either square faces or faces that are a few degrees open. These types of faces help prevent big hooks. Consider making the change if hooking is a major problem. But be careful, they also produce a lower ballflight.

Making equipment changes won’t guarantee you’ll shoot par next time you play. But it can boost your confidence. And confidence is vital to playing well, so anything that boosts it is worth considering.

Question of the Week – Making Captain Hook Walk The Plank

Q. Hello Jack, I’ve been playing golf for two or so years and have been trying hard to apply as many golf tips (plenty from you!) to my game as I can. I very rarely slice the ball, but instead I hook/draw the ball too often without getting the ball in the air (mostly from the fairway).

Thanks
Mark Piper

A. Thanks for the question, Mark. Fixing a hook can be just as hard for some as correcting a slice is for others. To correct a hook, you must adjust your swing and then practice the new swing until it’s ingrained.

Basically, there are three ways to fix a hook:

Use a slicer’s grip
Hooking is sometimes due to excessive hand and wrist rotation through the downswing. So instead of hitting the ball with a squared clubface, you hit it with a closed one. If that’s why you hook, the cure is to adopt a slicer’s grip. At address, instead of having the two folds in your hands between both thumbs and index fingers pointing to the right shoulder (right-handers), point both folds more toward your sternum. The change prevents a too closed clubface at impact and encourages you to get more of your body into your swing.

Turn and burn
You may also be hooking because you fail to turn your body during your swing. When the body fails to turn, the clubface closes too fast, causing the ball to hook. To cure this problem, speed up your turn to the target. Increasing your body’s rate of rotation delays the closing of the clubface, eliminating the hook.

Equipment Changes
A third way to fix a hook is to through equipment changes. You could fatten your grips, making it more difficult for you to over-rotate your hands and hook the ball. Or, you might try shortening the shafts on your club. The shorter shafts make you stand a little more upright. You may lose some distance by doing this, but it’s better being on the fairway short than out of bounds long.
Any of these three approaches will correct your hook. The trick is discovering which one works for you. When you do, practice until it becomes second nature.

If you’ve got a golf question you’d like answered, send an email to us at questions@howtobreak80.com and we’ll review it. I can’t guarantee that we’ll use it but if we do, we’ll make sure to include your name and where you’re from.

If you want to truly discover the secrets of shooting like the Pros and creating a more reliable and consistent swing, check out: http://www.HowToBreak80.com

To view this newsletter online, please visit:
http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter10212009.php

Here are some of my recent articles:

Article- Sink More Putts With The Quiet Eye

Article - Five Match Play Strategies That Work

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, go to http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter.htm

About the Author

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!“. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps quickly. His free weekly newsletter goes out to thousands of golfers worldwide and provides the latest golf tips, strategies, techniques and instruction on how to improve your golf game.