February 3, 2012

"The Web's Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter"
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In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Tip: Chipping Made Easy
2) Tip: Hitting The 5-Wood
3) Question: Sticking a Greenside Bunker Shot
4) Article: Mastering The Full Swing: Five Proven Golf Tips
5) Article: Buying Women's Clubs

Jack's Note: Struggling with your pitching? I want to show you a cool little trick to help you get more loft on those pitch shots and get them closer to the hole.
See video here.

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1) Chipping Made Easy
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A chip is a relatively easy golf shot. But some have a really hard time chipping even with good lies. Instead of hitting nice clean shots that nestle up close to the pin, some golfers hit fat or thin shots that land nowhere near the hole, costing themselves strokes. Other golfers have a hard time gauging shot distance and roll from different places around the green. If this sounds like you, you might try adopting a simpler, easier approach to chipping that could improve both your accuracy and your consistency.

Below are five keys to this different approach:

1. Select the right
2. Assume a slightly open stance
3. Position the ball off your back ankle
4. Move your hands ahead of the ball
5. Swing down on the ball

Bounce angle is a key factor when selecting a club to chip with. If you struggle with fat chips, opt for a wedge with a higher bounce angle. If you play on tighter lies or hit the ball thin, try a wedge with a lower bounce angle.

Open your stance slightly, with the ball positioned off your back ankle. Now shift your hands forward so that they form a lowercase “y.” This move will create a straight line be-tween your left-arm and the club’s shaft. Now just turn your hips and swing down on the ball. Try to keep the “y” intact as you scuff the ground.

Maintain the “y” set up is critical here. The “y” should be present at both setup and im-pact. Keeping the “y” intact ensures your hands stay ahead of the ball and the clubface faces the target. This approach also reduces dips and chunks into the ball while increasing consistency.

Using this simple approach to chipping will not only reduce bad chips, it also simplifies gauging shot distance and roll from different places around the green. Learning to chip with accuracy and consistency is all part of becoming a complete player.

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2) Hitting The 5-Wood
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The 5-wood off the deck can be a lifesaver, but it’s not always easy to hit. Golfers either top the ball or hit it low and thin off to the right, leaving them in deep grass a good dis-tance from the hole. The two main reasons why golfers mis-hit the 5-wood are that they’re trying to smash the ball or that they’re “hanging right,” which leads to a severe incline on the downswing. Either fault throws your swing out of sync and destroys rhythm and tempo.

Below are five keys to hitting the 5-wood:

• Set up with a slightly wider stance
• Position the ball just to the left of center
• Cock your wrists at the start of the backswing
• Transfer your weight to your back foot
• Seep the club down on a wide arc

Set up with a slightly wider stance than normal. Position the ball just to the left of center. And angle your back knee inward slightly toward the target. Now, cock your wrist at the beginning of the downswing and transfer your weight to your back foot while pulling the club back from the start position.

With your weight on your back foot, sweep the club down on a wide arc, keeping it low to the ground through the follow-through while maintaining an even tempo during the swing. Make sure that your shoulders are square at impact and that you transfer your weight from the back foot to the front foot during impact.

The secret to hitting the 5-wood is to make sure your posture is correct. Also, make sure you flex your knees and you stick your butt out a bit. Your back should be slightly for-ward but feeling comfortable and your spine should be straight and perpendicular to the shaft of your club. Your arms should now feel natural and in position, without feeling as though you need to stretch for the ball.

The 5-wood is ideal for second shots from the fairway on par 5s and for reaching long par 3s. It’s also good for reaching long par 4s in two, setting you up for more birdies, and maybe an eagle or two. Learn to hit the 5-wood accurately and you’ll be able to reach the green from 180 to 240 yards out.

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3) Question: Sticking a Greenside Bunker Shot
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Q.

Hi, Jack:

Is there a drill I can do to promote the correct feeling/movement of starting the swing motion with the lower body? Every good player I see starts his pass with the lower body initiated with a weight shift and an uncoiling effect that leads the way ahead of the upper body.

Thanks,
Dan Serpico
A.

Thanks for the question. Starting the golf swing correctly is critical. Below are two drills that train you to start your swing correctly.

Front Knee Drill

Tee up a ball, using a square stance. Swing back, concentrating on moving your hands, the club, and your front knee together. Feel the pressure off the instep of the front foot. This knee will gradually break inward and behind the golf ball. You’ll likely need to practice doing this drill to sync up the upper and lower body properly.

Raise Your Heel Drill

Take your address position. Just before starting the swing, raise your back heel slightly off the ground, so you feel some weight start to shift to your front leg. This is an ignition move to get things in motion properly. Now, re-plant your back foot to trigger a smooth takeaway that allows your body weight to shift into your back leg.

The Heel teaches you to create a far more athletic move away from the ball, a move that is rather dynamic. The Front Knee drill teaches you to shift your weight away from the ball automatically and free up any stiff lower body action. Many instructors use both of these drills to train students to start their swings correctly.

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.

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

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

Click here to view this newsletter on the web

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article: Mastering The Full Swing: Five Proven Golf Tips
...If you’re serious about improving your game, you must master the full swing’s key mechanics...

5) Article: Buying Women’s Clubs
...The purchasing decision, however, is somewhat different for a woman than a man. That’s because the decision must account for the physical differences between the sexes...

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

But mastering the full swing’s mechanics isn’t easy. It takes hard work to eliminate the flaws that can creep into a swing. Player’s adept at eliminating these swing flaws will record a lot more good rounds. Implementing the five golf tips discussed below helps you eliminate the common swing flaws that ruin a round and bring you a step closer to break-ing 80 consistently.

Left Side Is Key

Leading with the left side (right side for lefties) is critical to good ballstriking. The left side’s uncoiling sets up a pulling motion back to the ball, which is critical to accuracy and consistency. So you need to work on strengthening and training your non-dominant side. Lift weights, squeeze a tennis ball, or practice swinging the club one-handed. Do whatever strengthens and trains that side. Also, keep your left arm closer to your chest as you start the club back. Keep it there as long as you can. This move puts your left arm “in the slot” between your head and right shoulder—the proper backswing position that many players so hard at in golf lessons.

More Width Keys Distance

If you hit weak shots, you may lack width in your backswing. The bigger your backswing arc, the greater your swing width is. The greater your swing width, the more room you have to increase clubhead speed before striking the ball. It’s that simple. To create more width, space out the distance between your right hand and right shoulder (opposite hand and opposite shoulder for lefties) at the top of your backswing. This move gives the shoulder more room to turn, improving both your width and your torque. We’ve seen stu-dents in our golf lessons achieve 20 or 30 yards more just by mastering this simple move.

Resistance Keys Distance

Another key to more distance is the “X-Factor” in your swing. The X-Factor describes the lines created if you looked down at a golfer from above and drew lines through the shoulders and hips at the top of the backswing. The greater the difference between the shoulders and hips, the more resistance created between the upper body and the lower body. The greater the resistance between these two, the more power you deliver at im-pact. To make a powerful turn—not just a big turn—the upper body must rotate much more than the hips. The X-factor is another key fundamental that teachers emphasize in golf instruction sessions. It’s like a slingshot: The farther you pull the rubber band back from the handle, the farther the stone goes.

Master Back Knee Flex

If want a truly powerful swing, however, you also must master your back knees flex. The flex does two things: It tightens your hip turn in the backswing, creating more distance and more resistance between your upper body and lower body (the X-factor again), and helps you drive your weight into your forward side on the downswing, just as they teach in golf instruction sessions. Substituting a straight leg for a flexed one at the top of your backswing is bad. It messes up your swing plane, leads to the dreaded reverse pivot posi-tion, and robs you of power. To perfect this move, practice swinging the club while fo-cusing solely on keeping the back knee flexed. This drill will improve your swing in no time.

Mastering these five golf tips will help you achieve a swing that’s consistent and accu-rate. They’ll also help you hit the ball father, setting you up for shorter shots into the green. Shorter shots lead to more GIRs. More GIRs lead to more pars and birdies—and a better chance breaking 80 and lowering your golf handicap.

January 20, 2012

"The Web's Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter"
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In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Tip: Maintain Your Spine Angle For Consistency
2) Tip: Sink More Putts With This Change
3) Drill: Achieve Consistency Now
4) Article: Golf Tips For The Complete Player
5) Article: Lies: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Jack's Note: Did you see those two cool videos I sent out earlier this week? They're all about hitting the ball further and fixing a slice. If you missed them, you can see them here below. Lots of great comments! We look forward to your input as well.
Video #1 - Add Big Yardage
Video #2 - Stop Pushing/Fading In 30 Seconds

Trouble viewing links? Your browser may be the issue. We recommend using the Firefox browser. Click Here To Download. Some email clients also distort links: try to copy and paste web urls directly in your browser, or turn on images for emails.

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1) Maintain Your Spine Angle For Consistency
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If you lack consistency in your swing, you’re not alone. Many golfers do. One reason why is that they don’t maintain their spine angles throughout the shot. Instead, in an effort to generate more power, they jab the upper body up and away from the ball as they try to lift and pull the ball into the air. Jabbing alters the spine angle during the shot, throwing the swing completely out of sync. Changing your spine angle not only fosters inconsistency, it also results in weak shots.

Here are five keys to maintaining your spine angle throughout your swing:

1. Lean by hinging from your hip socket
2. Maintain a straight back and neck
3. Add knee flex to posture
4. Rotate your hips fully through the shot
5. Maintain back shoulder under chin

You must maintain your spine angle through impact to achieve consistency in your golf swing. Achieving consistency is a key to becoming a complete player.

Use your 5-iron for this golf tip. Start by leaning forward at address. Make sure you lean forward from the hips and that your back and chin are straight. Next, add a little knee flex. Use your 5-iron to judge how much lean and knee flex you need. With the proper lean and knee flex, the 5-iron’s shaft and your spine angle should be perpendicular to one another. This is your optimum spine angle.

Having found your optimum spine angle, you must learn to maintain it through impact. The best way to do this is to rotate your hips fully through the shot. When your hips don’t rotate, the body has nowhere to go but up, leading to weak shots and a lack of consistency.

If you focus on maintaining your back shoulder under your chin through impact, you’ll maintain your spine angle throughout the swing. I you want to achieve consistency, learn to maintaining your spine angle throughout your swing.

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2) Sink More Putts With This Change
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If your putts tend to fall short of the hole, it could be due to left-wrist break down (right wrist for lefties) during your stroke. When you do this, you push the putterhead in front of the shaft, adding extra loft to the ball and causing it to bounce and skid over the green. Putts that bounce and skid lose momentum and invariably fall short of the hole. The best way of keeping your left wrist firm at impact is to use an all-shoulders putting motion.

Here are five keys to putting with an all-shoulders motion:

1. Form a "V" shape with your shoulders and arms
2. Point your elbows away from the club shaft
3. Bend your arms slightly
4. Lighten your grip and keep your head still
5. Keep your body still by locking your legs

With an all-shoulders motion, your hands should feel like they’re just holding the putter, as your shoulders work the putter back and through. This motion allows you to strike the ball with the correct amount of loft to produce pure roll. The drill below trains you to use an all-shoulders motion:

Pin the shaft of your sand wedge against your chest using your elbows. Secure it by pressing your elbows to your side. This creates a triangle of your shoulders, arms, and hands. Now stroke some putts holding the shaft firmly in place. Spend 10 minutes like this hitting medium length putts.

If you still find it hard to maintain a firm left wrist, try a different grip. Grips like the left-hand low grip and the claw grip are good options. Studies show that these grips help gol-fers control left-wrist breakdown by reducing the influence of the left hand during the stroke. Less wrist breakdown means you’ll get the ball to the hole more often and sink more putts.

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3) Drill: Achieve Consistency Now
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A common swing fault among weekend players is swaying. This fault occurs when you move laterally during your downswing. Excess swaying can cause all sorts of problems, including a critical one—inconsistency. If you’re in a different spot at impact each time you hit the ball, your ball will wind up in different spots on the course. Use this drill to curb swaying:

Take your normal stance at the practice range. Have a friend brace your golf bag against your back leg. Now make some practice swings. Try to make the swings without pushing into the bag on your backswing. If you brush against it, you’ve swayed. Now do it again with the bag between you and the target. Brace the bag so it’s even with your front shoe but leave a little extra space between your shoe and the bag. That way your front leg can move slightly toward the target and become perpendicular to the ground.

Practicing this drill curbs lateral swaying. Do that and you’ll not only boost consistency, you’ll hit the ball solidly every time.

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

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

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

Click here to view this newsletter on the web

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article: Golf Tips For The Complete Player
...Scoring well during a round depends on two things: keeping the ball in play and playing well from 100 yards in...

5) Article: Lies: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
...While making adjustments is the key to playing a good, solid round of golf, it’s more critical to adjust to some than others...

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

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About the Author
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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.

Having a great short game is also a key to being a complete player. In fact, you can’t be one without a good short game. If you’re short game isn’t what it should be, you can im-prove it by mastering these four fundamentals: learn the correct set-up position for each shot, create a clear picture of the shot in your mind, choose a specific landing area for the shot, and focus on your finish to promote feel and acceleration. Below are golf tips we recommend to players in our golf lessons to help them master key short game fundamen-tals.

Chip Shot

We cover this shot thoroughly with players in our golf instruction sessions. It’s that im-portant. The key with chip shots is to set-up in a pre-set impact position so all you have to do is let your hips turn to bring the club back to impact. Also, play the ball back in your stance, open your hips slightly, create one line with your left arm and the club, and shift more weight to your front side. And take a few practice swings to make sure you’re scuffing the grass ahead of the ball.

Pitch Shot

This is another shot you want to keep simple. So set up as if you were going to hit a chip, and then set your hands in a pre-impact position. Now just turn your hips. That’s it. Other golf tips are play the ball off your nose, open the clubface slightly, and create one line with your left arm and the club. Also, keep your wrists relaxed during the shot, focus on swinging through the ball, and accelerate through impact. You want to hit down on the ball and create spin. Taking a few practice swings with your eyes on the target is also a good practice.

Flop Shot

You need more height than spin on this shot. The key is to set up correctly and to bend your left wrist so your hands are low. This position allows you to use the club’s full bounce. Keep the hands more in line with the clubhead, aim slightly left of target, and swing the club on a more vertical plane with an open clubface. At impact, the hands should be ahead of the ball so the clubface stays open and can slide under the ball. Take a good aggressive swing. That’s something we remind players about in golf lessons all the time. The more aggressive you are, the higher the ball flies. Also, the deeper the lie, the harder you have to swing. Finish with your chest facing the target.

Bunker Shot

No one likes bunker shots. But you can master them with practice. The key is to open the clubface to create bounce first, and then set your hands and club in a pre-set impact posi-tion. Make sure your hands lead the club when you hit the sand. Turn your trunk in the backswing to keep your arms in front of your chest, which lets you hinge on plane. Other tips are play the ball forward, about 2 inches from the center, open the clubface slightly to capitalize on the club’s bounce, and aim about a club length left of your target. Bunker shots fly about one-third of normal shots, so plan accordingly.

You must master the fundamentals of the short game to become a complete player. The golf tips discussed above, gleaned from our golf lessons and group golf instruction ses-sions, will help you master the fundamentals. Keep things as simple as possible, so they’re easily repeatable, and be aggressive. Learn to trust your fundamentals once you’ve mastered them and you’ll find yourself breaking 90 or 80 and chopping strokes off your golf handicap.

Take a good lie. Most times, you’ll make only minor adjustments to your swing at most with a good lie. Since the ball sits up nicely, you can stick to the basic iron fundamentals. Just remember to hit down on the ball and to avoid the most common mistake we see in our golf lessons, swinging too hard. It throws your rhythm and tempo off. Instead, swing at about 80 percent, but gradually accelerate so you reach maximum club speed at impact.
Below we discuss three common, but “bad” lies and provide golf tips on how to play them.

Deep Rough

Deep rough is tricky. You want to get the ball out of the rough and in play. The key, as we tell students in our golf instruction sessions, is to stand a little closer to the ball than normal. This forces you to swing on a more upright plane. Also, your head and hands should be higher than normal in the backswing. You should swing almost as though the shaft was going through your neck not your right bicep.

In addition to swinging upright, hinge your wrists earlier in the swing. Hinging early helps you avoid hitting too much grass behind the ball. Also, grip the club more firmly than normal to offset the grass, use a club with more loft than normal if you have to, and shorten your swing to stay balanced. It’s hard to hit down on the ball in deep rough. So expect your ball to come out more on a line.

Flier Lies

With this lie, the ball sits up in the grass, but still has some grass behind it. This means the ball will launch higher and with little spin. It will probably fly farther than normal as well. You find flier lies in intermediate rough cuts or in thick, fluffy grass. Flier lies encourage you to hit more of a draw, so adjust your aim accordingly. You may also want to use less club, since the ball will roll when it lands.

The key with flier lies, we tell players in our golf lessons, is to move away from the ball a little. This helps you sweep the ball off the ground. Since this is somewhat of an easier lie to hit from, you can get lazy rotating through impact. Make sure you rotate fully. Also, choke down about two inches on the club. Choking down prevents you from hitting un-derneath the ball. It also quiets your hands. Finish with your belt buckle facing the target and your weight on your front leg.

Ball Above Feet

It’s easier to hit a ball above your feet than below your feet. But it’s still tricky. Flatter swings work better with balls above your feet. The key is to stand slightly taller, which lets you swing with a more rounded, flatter motion. Standing taller means you’ll also have a slightly more erect spine angle, so make sure you retain some of your knee flex. (With a ball below your feet, you want to squat lower to the ground.)

With the ball above your feet, envision swinging the clubhead around your body and fi-nishing with your turn and release in a lateral position. You also want to finish with an extended right arm, a sign that you didn’t try to hold the clubface open through the swing. Shorten your swing a bit, and focus on making solid contact. Be careful not to hit the club’s toe on the ground.

These golf tips should help you hit more solid irons. Hitting the green is not as much of a priority with bad lies as with good lies. With bad lies, it’s safer—and better— sometimes just to get it close to the green. From there, a chip and a putt will earn you a par. Make more pars with solid irons shots and you’ll cut your golf handicap.

January 5, 2012

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

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Tip: Regaining Your Form
2) Tip: Chipping With A Wood
3) Question: Sticking a Greenside Bunker Shot
4) Article: Five Must Read Instruction Books
5) Article: Five Simple Steps For Great Driving

Jack's Note: Happy 2012 everyone! Promising to be a spectacular year for golf and I hope the same holds true for you as well. Remember, it's important to keep those "golf muscles" working during your off season so even if it's just holding a club while you watch television at night, it'll keep your grip in check.

Trouble viewing links? Your browser may be the issue. We recommend using the Firefox browser. Click Here To Download. Some email clients also distort links: try to copy and paste web urls directly in your browser, or turn on images for emails.

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1) Regaining Your Form
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Has this ever happened to you? You’re sailing along during a round and hitting the ball well. Plus, everything is going your way. Drives are finding the fairway. Approach shots are sticking. And your putts are all dropping. Then, you hit a bad shot…and the wheels come off. You can’t drive anymore. You can’t stick your irons anymore. And you can’t hit full wedge shots anymore. You’ve let your anger get to you, which has thrown your swing completely out of sync. How do you regain your rhythm?

Here are five steps to regaining rhythm:

1. Rehearse your takeaway
2. Take a deep breath before you swing
3. Make a slow, smooth takeaway
4. Make a fluid transition at the top
5. Let the club drop naturally into the downswing

First, compose yourself. Instead of getting angry and upset, calm yourself down and fo-cus on regaining your rhythm. One reason your swing is off is because you’re snatching the club back during the takeaway. That throws destroys your rhythm and tempo, throw-ing your swing out of whack.

Instead, address the ball as you usually do and take a deep relaxing breath. Now, start back smoothly with your arms and hands. Focus on making a slow one-piece takeaway. Making a good takeaway is the key to getting your swing back on track.

Another danger zone is at the top of your swing. A quick, jerky transition almost guaran-tees a poor swing. Instead, make an unhurried and fluid transition and gradually accele-rate during your downswing. A smooth transition inspires rhythm.

Don’t let one bad shot spoil your day. Instead, compose yourself down by taking a nice deep breath, make an unhurried one-piece takeaway, and accelerate during your down-swing. Slowing yourself down often works wonders. Before long, you’ll have regained your rhythm and tempo.

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2) Chipping With A Wood
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Occasionally, golfers find themselves with unusual lies. Sometimes these lies can be downright strange, like inside the trunk of a hollowed out tree or lodged between the branches of a tree. Unfortunately, you can’t always hit the ball with these lies. But when you can you often must get creative to advance the ball forward. That’s when its good to know some non-traditional shots, like chipping with a wood.

Below are six keys to this shot:

1. Choose the right club
2. Stand close to the ball
3. Set the wood on its toe
4. Bow your wrists
5. Use your normal swing
6. Make a descending blow

The wood chip is great in heavy rough. But it also works in light rough. A wood’s smaller head separates and slides through the grass, unlike the heads on irons, which often get caught up in the grass. Use the 5-wood or the 7-wood for long grass and the 3-wood or the 4-wood for lighter grass.

Start by taking your normal chipping stance, with the ball positioned even with or just behind your back foot. Shift your weight on your front foot and place your hands just in front of your back thigh.

Now move close to the ball. Set the wood on its toe. This move is key. It minimizes the clubface’s exposure to grass. Use a normal chipping swing and a descending blow, but bow your wrists as you deliver the blow.

If your practice swing isn’t descending sharply enough, choke down on the club more. But don’t try to scoop the all. The club’s loft will start the shot up and out. The ball comes out without backspin, so it can run like mad.

Strange lies can come out of nowhere. So practice some non-traditional shots, like chip-ping with a wood, for times when you need to get creative. You want to have the feel of the shot when you need it.

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3) Question: Sticking a Greenside Bunker Shot
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Q.

Hi Jack,

A very enjoyable issue as usual!

I was wondering if you had any tips for very short bunker shots—the ones where you have to pop the ball up to a pin that’s only a few meters away. I played the other day, and although I was hitting nearly everything very well, I got hurt three times with these shots, which ruined my round. Would you change your technique for this shot if the sand is wet/dry/soft/hard?

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,
Nick McKimm

A.

Yes, Nick. You do have to change technique depending on the lie. Failing to do so is gets weekend golfers in trouble. Below are some keys to a greenside bunker shot:

Make sure you hold the clubface open through impact. This enables the club to slide under the ball, throwing it up and out of the sand. If you don’t open the clubface, you'll probably mis-hit the shot, costing you strokes.

Also make sure you swing the club on an outside-to-in path along your stance line. That’s critical. And don't stop when you hit the sand. Keep accelerating through the swing to a full finish. Deceleration is among the most common errors in greenside bunkers. To pop the ball up, play the ball forward a couple of inches from the middle.

With a buried lie, use a more descending blow. Gripping down on the club helps you make more of a descending blow. With a partially buried lie, open your clubface a little more. With wet sand, set up as a normal sand shot, but make a shorter and shallower back swing. Play hardpan bunker shots like a normal bunker shot, but enter the sand a little closer to the ball than normally. Use your SW or LW, but make sure you open the face wide.

Dave Peltz, the short game guru, explains of how to escape a bunker in his book, Dave Peltz’s Short Game Bible. It’s a great read.

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 can’t take lessons or you don’t want to, don’t despair. You can still improve your game with help from the game’s greatest players and teachers through golf instruction books. Dozens of well-written instruction books crafted by professional teachers and Tour players are available. Packed with golf tips, these books will help you master the game and cut your golf handicap. Below are five you might want to add to your reading list in 2012.

1. The Mental Art of Putting by Patrick Cohn and Robert Winters

Fifth on Amazon’s list of the 10 best selling books on golf in 2011, this book is an excel-lent aid for “the putting impaired.” It teaches golfers to use their most important asset in putting—their minds. Using self-evaluation, step-by-step instruction, and practice exer-cises, the book offers tons of golf tips on putting. If you can master the golf lessons con-tained in this book, you’ll not only become a great putter, you’ll also shrink your golf handicap.

2. Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals On Golf by Ben Hogan

This book is a classic. It’s also among the most popular instruction books on golf ever. Hogan believed that even people with average athletic ability can learn to break 80, if they apply themselves. Thus, Five Lessons is designed to help the average person master the full golf swing quickly and correctly. Each chapter contains a tested "fundamental" explained and demonstrated with amazing detail and clarity. It’s a must read for every golfer.

3. Golf My Way: The Instruction Classic by Jack Nicklaus

This is another classic golf book written by one of the game’s greatest players. Newly revised and updated, it covers the whole game, presenting an all-inclusive A-to-Z expla-nation of how Nicklaus thinks about and plays the game. Packed with golf tips and golf lessons, the new edition contains:

• A new introduction and endpiece, plus additional illustrations
• Brand-new chapters discussing the changes in Nicklaus's outlook and techniques
• Reflections on the differences in tournament golf today compared with when Nicklaus joined the PGA tour in 1962
• Advice on the mental elements of improved playing not directly related to ball-striking or shotmaking

Golf My Way will help reduce your golf handicap whether you’re new to the game or a veteran of 20 years.

4. The Natural Golf Swing by George Knudson and Lorne Rubenstein

If your game is plagued by inconsistency and poor performance, you could be going against your “natural” swing. The book’s authors believe that the golf swing is governed by laws of nature and is subject to logical, physical fundamentals that golfers all too often ignore. With help from the book’s written golf instruction sessions, you’ll learn to gen-erate a more powerful, accurate swing that can help you cut strokes from you scores and gain control of your swing. Extensive illustrations and golf drills make this book’s golf lessons memorable.

5. Dave Peltz’s Short Game Bible by Dave Peltz

This book is among the game’s best books on the short game. Peltz explains the golf les-sons in this book in great detail. His lessons are backed by years of research and teaching. A scientist by profession, Pelz provides photos, illustrations, charts, and plenty of sage advice on pitching, chipping, sand play, putting, equipment, execution, mechanics, tech-nique, practice, and attitude. While he mainly addresses better players and serious golfers, his basics are appropriate for players at any skill level of the game.

These five instruction books will help you improve in 2012. Each provides dozens of fruitful golf instruction sessions. Each is designed to slice strokes from your scores and golf handicap. And each is well written, so you’ll not only learn a lot, you’ll also enjoy reading them. Have fun.

• Hit A Draw

Some players like to hit power fades off the tee. Jack Nicklaus did. That might not work for you. Tour players fade the ball differently than a weekend golfer. They use a draw type swing, with the clubhead approaching from inside the line of play instead of swiping across it. This approach increases control, but is difficult to learn. If your fade is costing you yardage, you might be better off hitting a draw. It adds distance to your drives be-cause the clubhead comes into the ball on a shallow, head-on angle, compressing the ball more efficiently. Draws also tend to run when they hit, lengthening out the drive.

• Catch It On The Upswing

One key to hitting great drives, we tell golfers in our golf lessons, is catching the ball on the upswing. This adds both carry and distance to the drive. To increase your chances of hitting on the upswing, tee the ball a little higher than normally and position the ball an inch or two farther forward. The ball should be directly below your left pectoral muscle. Another golf tip is to increase your backswing turn. You need a full turn to hit great drives.

• Increase Loft

Many of the weekend golfers attending our golf instruction sessions tend to hit their drives more on a line than Tour players. The ball shoots up like a line drive, hangs up at the peak of its trajectory, and then flutters down. This type of ball flight costs you yar-dage. Instead, try hitting the ball higher. Balls hit with more height continue to fly for-ward rather than fluttering down. Watch your ball flight next time you go to the driving range. If you see your ball falling abruptly from its peak, find a driver with more loft than your current club, say one with 12 to 15 degrees of loft.

• Get A Good Lie

Another tendency we see in our golf instructions sessions is failing to find a good lie in the tee box. Tee boxes aren’t perfect. They may slope in one direction or the other or have a hollow or two. To hit great drives, you must find a level area to hit from. If you tee your ball up in a place where your feet are even a half-inch higher or lower than the ball, you’re asking for trouble because you’re hitting off a side hill lie. Instead, tee up near a ball marker or move back a club length-or two. The flatter the spot you hit from, the better.

• Play Safe When You Need To

Some golfers in our golf lessons can ramp up their swings on command. But many can’t. It just messes up their swings. Our advice: Avoid trying to carry a bunker or other trouble spot if you can’t carry it with your normal swing. If you have to swing even a little harder than you normally do, then lay-up. If you gamble and lose, you’ll cost yourself a stroke or more. It may also put you into a bad frame of mind for the rest of the round. Also, never aim for a bunker, a water hazard, or other trouble. If the ball goes straight, it costs you. Don’t get penalized for hitting the ball straight.

Mastering these five golf tips helps generate more distance off the tee. Longer drives that hit the fairway mean shorter and easier shots into the green, which increases your chances of hitting more greens in regulation (GIR). Hit more GIRs and you increase your chances of carding more birdies and pars. More birdies and pars slash scores and golf handicaps.

December 27, 2011

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

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Tip: Escaping A Bunker From An Upslope
2) Tip: Mastering The 40 Yard Pitch Shot
3) Drill: Creating Controlled Clubhead Speed
4) Article: Golf Tips On Making A Swing Change
5) Article: Little Known Rules Of Bunker Play

Jack's Note: Happy Holidays all! Hope you are enjoying the time and getting some relaxation in. In case you missed it, there is a method for foolproof pitching (no chili-dips or sculls anymore) that I posted about last week that is receiving a lot of commentary. See the action here: http://break80today.com/pitching/

Trouble viewing links? Your browser may be the issue. We recommend using the Firefox browser. Click Here To Download. Some email clients also distort links: try to copy and paste web urls directly in your browser, or turn on images for emails.

===================================================
1) Escaping A Bunker From An Upslope
===================================================

Greenside bunkers intimidate many weekend golfers. A lot of these players have a hard time escaping in one, adding extra strokes to their scores. Of all the bunker shots you could face during a round, however, hitting from an upslope is probably the most misun-derstood. If you make the right adjustments and don’t panic, you should have few prob-lems getting out in one and landing close to the hole. From there, it’s just a matter of tap-ping in the putt.

Below are six keys to this shot:

1. Shift weight to back foot
2. Make sure the back shoulder is low
3. Brace yourself on the inside of the foot
4. Play the shot with a square clubface
5. Let the toe turn over
6. Accelerate through the shot

Hitting from an upslope in a bunker is a bit tricky. Your natural tendency is to lean into the slope. If you do that, you’re liable to leave yourself with another bunker shot.

Instead, lean your weight on your back foot. Make sure you brace yourself on the inside of that foot, not the outside, and drop your back shoulder. Your right shoulder should be very low for this shot.

Play the upslope bunker shot with a square clubface, instead of an open clubface like you do with your typical bunker shot. Take a nice slow swing and let the toe turn over and release through the ball. That gets the ball to carry forward, instead of just popping straight and landing short.

Also, make sure you accelerate through the shot. Many weekend golfers decelerate with bunker shots. That’s the kiss of death. It almost guarantees you’ll be hitting from the bunker on your next shot.

Hitting from an upslope in a greenside bunker is dicey. But if you make the adjustments described above and stay cool, you’ll escapie the bunker in one.

===================================================
2) Mastering The 40 Yard Pitch Shot
===================================================

If you're serious about chopping strokes off your golf handicap, learn to hit the 40-yard pitch shot. Golfers often struggle with this shot because of poor club selection, not me-chanics. You can use one of three wedges from this distance. The key is to know not only how the ball comes off the club, but also what happens after it hits the green.

Below are the key wedges and their degrees of loft:

• Sand Wedge (56 degrees)
• Gap Wedge (52 degrees)
• Pitching Wedge (49/48 degrees)

The three wedges used from 40 yards out are the lob wedge, pitching wedge, and sand wedge. All three work well in the right situation.

The lob wedge is ideal if the flag is up front and there’s some green to work with. The ball will flyer higher and roll less. It is especially effective in light rough. But you don’t want to use it from a tight fairway. You also don’t need to open the clubface. It has plenty of loft. Square up to the target and make a good swing.

The pitching wedge is ideal when the flag is back and there’s plenty of green. It’s well suited for the fairway or light rough. In deep rough, try one of the other clubs. The ball will fly hotter and lower with this club, so swing easy. And open the clubface a bit. The ball will roll significantly with this club.

The sand wedge is ideal for pins in the middle of the green or questionable lies in the rough or fairway. It is customizable, so you can easily alter roll and trajectory. If you want more carry and less loft, close the clubface. If you want less carry and more loft, open the clubface. But be careful. An open clubface often sends the ball off to the right.

A pitch shot from 40 yards out is one of the game’s more critical shots. Mastering this shot will help you chop strokes off your golf handicap. To do that, learn which wedge to use when and keep all your body mechanics repetitive for all three shots.

=====================================================
3) Drill: Creating Controlled Clubhead Speed
=====================================================

Many professional hockey players are good golfers. That’s because the motion to hit slap shots in hockey is similar to that for hitting golf balls. The key when hitting a slap shot is to keep the arms relaxed while securing a good grip with the fingers. The relaxed arms help increase stick speed when hockey players need to fire the puck at the net. Below is a drill that helps you feel the same sensation.

Take your 7-iron and grip the club as you normally do. Move your hands apart about 8 inches. Now hit some balls. Keep hitting balls until the sensation is ingrained. Once the feeling is ingrained, go back to your normal grip and hit some more balls. Try to retain the feeling you had when your hands were split.

Splitting your hands fosters a feeling of control with your hands, but with your arms relaxed. Try to remember that sensation. Also, try to remember the grip pressure you used. You want to copy that, too. Experiment with different grip pressures until you find the ideal grip for you.

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

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

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

Click here to view this newsletter on the web

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article: Golf Tips On Making A Swing Change
...Why do savvy golfers make swing changes? ... The long-term goal with a swing change is to lower your golf handicap...

5) Article: Little Known Rules Of Bunker Play
...you must extend the rules sometimes to address some unusual situations, like whether you can hit with one foot in a hazard...

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.

Making a swing change is also about identifying one major fault and correcting it. Taking care of that problem often cures a lot of other ills. Making a swing change is also about having faith. You might not see a quick payoff initially. You may even regress for a time. But you can let that throw you. Eventually, you’ll see progress. When the new swing fi-nally takes effect, you’ll see a lasting difference in your game and your golf handicap.

Below are five golf tips that will help make a swing change easier:

It Won’t Feel Good

Because a swing change involves a different motion, it won’t feel good at first. It will feel rather awkward, whether you’re making a slight adjustment or changing your whole swing. But it should feel strange. You’re doing something totally different. You also have to play through the uncomfortable parts and expect it to feel different at first. So you need to practice the change until it becomes second nature. But be careful— as we tell students who take our golf lessons. Your old swing can easily sneak up on you.

Practice The Change In Slow Motion

Tiger Woods has been working on a swing change the past two years. Tiger is no stranger to swing changes. He’s made a couple before. Like some weekend golfers, Tiger doesn’t like drills. But he is a fanatic about repetition. So he practices his new swing in slow mo-tion—over and over again. Practicing in slow motion is a good way to ingrain the feel of a change. You can’t always do that when hitting balls because the swing is over so quick-ly. Combining slow motion practice and golf drills also works.

Use It On The Course

Some golfers will work on a swing change in practice and abandon it when playing a round. These golfers are counting on the change sneaking its way into their swing. That approach doesn’t work. You must use the change over and over again to make it second nature. That’s why we encourage students who take our golf lessons to use a swing change during practice AND when they play—the sooner the better. It might be hard at first, but it’s the best—and the fastest—way to make the transition.

Identify One Thing

Focus on one thing when making a swing change. Make sure it’s a major fault. Then de-vote all your time and attention to addressing the fault. It’s what we do in our golf in-struction sessions, and it works. By correcting that one fault you may also be eliminating a host of other ills that plague your swing and your game. And don’t forget about the other parts of your game, like your short game. It’s easy to get completely absorbed in making a swing change and forget about the other areas of play.

Address The Root Cause

There’s nothing wrong with using golf tips during a round. But don’t be fooled by quick fixes on the course. They may help during a round but that’s it. That’s because golf tips often address only the symptom and not the cause. After awhile, they wear off and you’re back where you started. If you’re making a swing change, you must address the problem’s root causes. In fact, we encourage students who take our golf instruction sessions to have an open mind about golf tips and swing changes.

Ball flight tells you when to make a swing change. It’s also a good tool to monitor progress. Making a swing change can be frustrating. But you must stick with the change. Eventually, it becomes second nature. When that happens, your ball flight will improve and you’ll chop strokes off your golf handicap. Also, don’t go it alone. Work with someone who can see what you’re doing. Why—because what you think you’re doing and what you’re actually doing are often different. Another set of eyes helps.

Golf’s rules are designed primarily to prevent a player from gaining an advantage. They do a good job of that. But in trying to achieve fairness, you must extend the rules some-times to address some unusual situations, like whether you can hit with one foot in a hazard. One place where you can find yourself facing an uncommon situation is in a bunker. Most times, bunker play is cut and dry. When it’s not, it’s good to know the rules. Below are some golf tips on little known rules in bunker play.

Touching The Sand

Most students who take our golf lessons know they can’t ground their clubs in a bunker, even during their backswings. Most also know that they can’t touch the sand in a bunker with their hands. But there are exceptions to this rule: You can touch the sand with your hand to look for a buried ball, prevent yourself from falling, remove an obstruction (a so-da can or cigarette butt), or put down a club. However, these exceptions don’t apply if, in doing so, you test the surface or improve your lie. The penalty is two shots in stroke play and the loss of hole in match play. (Rule 13-4)

Playing A Wrong Ball

It doesn’t happen often but golfers sometimes play the wrong ball in a bunker. (We teach students in our golf instruction sessions to always check the ball before hitting to make sure it’s theirs.) You certainly don’t want to be penalized for playing the wrong ball, es-pecially if you’re having a good round. Sometimes the penalty for playing the wrong ball in a bunker is rather severe. It costs you two strokes in stroke play and the hole in match play. (Rule 15-3)

Moving A Loose Impediment

Another little known rule covering bunker play is the one Addressing loose impediments. Accidently moving a loose impediment in a bunker is okay as long as it was not moved in making your backswing. Accidently moving a loose impediment is also okay as long as you don’t improve your stance, your swing, or the ball’s lie. (Rule 13-4) You also have to be careful not to move the ball when taking your stance. If your ball moves as a result of shifting sand caused by your taking a stance, you must take a penalty stroke and replace the ball. (Rule 18-2a)

Casual Water In A Bunker

Sometimes after a good rain, water collects in a bunker, creating a pool. This is considered casual water. If the ball finds this water, you may drop it in a dry area of the bunker with no penalty, as long as it’s no closer to the hole. If the whole bunker is under water, you may drop the ball outside the bunker, keeping the point where the ball lays between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped. The penalty for this is one stroke.

These are just some of the rules covering bunker play. We encourage golfers who take our golf instruction sessions to go through the rulebook periodically and familiarize themselves with the rules as much as possible. You should do it as well. It won’t help your golf handicap much, but knowing a key rule can save strokes. And if you’re won-dering about playing a ball while standing in a hazard, you can. It happened to pro golfer Tim Clark in the 2008. Officials ruled he could play a ball with one foot in a hazard. (Rule 20-2c)

November 22, 2011

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

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Tip: Save Strokes With Skull-Proof Chip Shot
2) Tip: Stop Overswinging
3) Drill: Curing The Yips
4) Article: Sand Play - Getting Back To Basics
5) Article: Faults And Fixes

Jack's Note: Happy Thanksgiving all! Today I am thankful for the opportunity to serve you and help you play better golf. Wishing you the very best - Jack

Trouble viewing links? Your browser may be the issue. We recommend using the Firefox browser. Click Here To Download. Some email clients also distort links: try to copy and paste web urls directly in your browser, or turn on images for emails.

===================================================
1) Save Strokes With Skull-Proof Chip Shot
===================================================

Is there anything more frustrating than skulling a chip shot? Often, it comes after a good shot that comes up just a little short but in front of the green. If you’re not adept at chip-ping, you’ll have a hard time getting up and down. Poor chipping can cost you strokes and boost your golf handicap into the stratosphere. But you can eliminate those extra strokes by using your putter instead of a wedge. It’s a high percentage play that works in many situations.

Below are five keys to chipping with your putter:

1. Set up with the ball in the middle
2. Place the handle of the putter forward
3. Pick a good target before swinging
4. Gauge the distance to the pin
5. Keep your head down during the shot

Using a putter instead of a wedge to hit chips eliminates the chance of skulling the shot. But you must achieve true roll for it to work.

Set up with the ball in the middle of your stance and the handle of the putter just to the left of your zipper. You don’t want a lot of forward press here. Too much forward press inhibits solid contact.

Next, look at the hole and gauge the distance to the pin. Pick out a path that accounts for both the slope and break of the shot—just like you’d do for a normal putt. Now make a smooth, rhythmic stroke.

Keep your head down as you make your stroke until the ball is well on its way. This keeps your eyes focused on the ball so you can make solid contact—a must if you want to achieve true roll.

Mis-hitting chip shots costs you strokes. It’s also frustrating and can ruin your confi-dence. Using your flatstick to chip eliminates mis-hits, but you must achieve true roll to pull this shot off.

===================================================
2) Stop Overswinging
===================================================

We all like to drive the ball long and far. But trying to really belt a drive often leads to overswinging, caused by making a backswing that’s way too long. Taking an overly long backswing not only forces your swing out of sequence, but also hurts your ballstriking and accuracy. Needless to say, overswinging is a swing fault you want to avoid. Instead you want a short compact backswing that encourages synchronization of your body and arms.

Below are five keys to a shorter backswing:

• Relax your hands on the grip
• Make your normal backswing
• Keep your hands below shoulders
• Start turning your hips and torso
• “Whip” the club toward the ball

They key to driving the ball with power is delivering the club back to the ball squarely. You don’t have to have an overly long backswing to do this. A short compact backswing will do.

To tighten up your backswing, start with your normal stance and relax your grip. Some golfers tighten their grips when trying to drive one off the tee. If your hands are tight, your arms will be tight, inhibiting the flow of your swing.

Now make your backswing as you normally would, but don’t allow your hands to go above shoulder height. Start turning your hips and torso back to the ball before you feel like your “normal’ backswing is complete. This helps shorten your backswing.

Also, “whip”: the club through impact. The whip creates more clubhead speed while promoting solid contact. This in turn adds the extra power you need to drive the ball long and far.

Some golfers overswing when trying to drive the ball for distance. This often results from an overly long backswing, which can throw your swing out of sequence. Shorten your backswing and focus on hitting the ball squarely at impact and you’ll achieve more dis-tance on your drives.

=====================================================
3) Drill: Curing The Yips
=====================================================

The last thing you want to do coming down the stretch of a good round is miss short putts. Golfers call this the “yips.” Usually, the yips are the result of decelerating your putter on short putts, causing the putt to go offline. Use the drill below, to train yourself to accelerate through the putt, even on short ones:

Place a few golf balls one to two feet from the hole on the practice green. Take your normal putting stance and then with no backswing start pushing the balls toward the hole. Hold the finish until the ball is holed. Now back away and do the same from a distance of three to five feet. Once you feel comfortable from short range try uphill, downhill, and breaking putts.

This drill ingrains the feel of what it means to accelerate through the ball. But the drill has limited effectiveness for putts beyond eight feet, since most golfers accelerate anyway from more than that distance anyway. Once you’ve learned to accelerate threw the ball on short putts, all you have to do is read the line, pick your spot, and make a confident stroke.

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

===================================================

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

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

Click here to view this newsletter on the web

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article: Sand Play - Getting Back To Basics
...Most golfers hate landing in a bunker—greenside or otherwise. But there are few exact-ing shots when it comes to greenside bunkers...

5) Article: Faults And Fixes
...swinging the golf club the way the body is designed to move improves consistency and limits injuries...

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.

The other part is that they fail to make the right adjustments in their stances and swings. That can cost you strokes. Many weekend golfers, for instance, try to dig the ball out of the sand with a sand wedge. This leads to fat shots that don’t leave the sand. The basics of the sand shot are relatively straightforward. Once you’ve mastered them, you’ll have few problems hitting from a greenside bunker. If you’re serious about knocking strokes off your golf handicap, you must master the basics of sand play. Below are some golf tips that will help you do that.

Most Common Mistake

The most common mistake weekend golfers make in bunker play is positioning the ball too far back in their stance. We see it all the time with players who take our golf lessons. They position the ball in the middle of their stances or sometimes even a little farther back. That’s too far back when you have a good lie in the bunker. A good lie in a bunker is one that has the ball sitting nicely on top of the sand without much of a depression. Playing the ball too far back creates a steep angle of attack and often leads to far shots.

With a good lie you should position the ball off your left heel and open the clubface slightly. This eliminates the need to purposely try and hit behind the ball. Also, open your stance a bit, but not too much. And don’t try altering your backswing by taking the club up too steeply. Instead, take a normal but slightly open stance and focus on a good amount of speed as the club approaches and passes through impact. You want to accele-rate through the ball on this shot. Deceleration kills the shot.

Another common mistake we see in our golf instruction sessions is hanging back behind the ball. Doing so forces the club to bottom out too soon, leading to fat and thin shots. Instead try for a more shallow swing plane and “slap” the ground. If your ball comes to rest in a bunker with fluffy sand, open the clubface a bit more. But don’t open it too much. It can confuse your aiming point and promote shanking.

Playing Bad Lies

A bad lie in a greenside bunker is a lie where the ball is buried deep in the sand. This is among the most dreaded shots in golf. That’s because most weekend golfers fail to make the right adjustments. Students in our golf lessons tend to open the clubface too much when making this shot. Instead, shift your weight more forward a little more, creating a steeper angle of attack, and hit down on the ball a bit more. In addition, close the clubface so it digs more into the sand. You never want to make contact with the ball in a greenside bunker. You want the ball to ride the sand out.

Some players in our golf lessons find the club bottoming out too soon with this approach, causing them to shank. If you find yourself doing this, shift your weight back a bit. You want to have about 60 percent of your weight on your back foot. Shots hit from a buried lie don’t spin as much as shots from a good lie. Plan for some release once your ball hits the ground. As with good lies, take a full swing through impact.

Hitting from a greenside bunker is easier than you think. But you must develop confi-dence in the shot and you must make the right adjustments in your stance and swing. These depend on whether you have a good lie or a bad lie. You also have to accelerate through the shot. Deceleration kills the shot. Needless to say, players who want to cut their golf handicaps down to single digits must master bunker play. It will save dozens of shots over the course of a season.

The five myths covered below are among the most popular—and the most deadly to your game. Where possible, we’ve provided golf tips gleaned from our golf instruction ses-sions on how to correct the myth along with drills to help correct the problem.

Starting The Backswing

One popular myth says to start the backswing with your left shoulder (right shoulder for lefties). Beginning the swing this way creates two faults: It limits shoulder rotation and causes the club to get “inside” or “behind” your body. These faults hamper your power and consistency. Instead start the swing with your right shoulder. Doing so keeps the hands in front of the chest and assures a full shoulder turn. More important, it keeps the body connected.

Drill: Cross your arms in front of you. Lift your elbows and arms away from you until they’re parallel to the ground. Rotate your left shoulder to your chin. Return to the begin-ning and rotate your right shoulder to your chin. Notice how much easier it is to rotate the upper body when your start with your right shoulder.

Keep The Left Arm Straight

This is a classic myth we often see executed in our golf lessons. Trying to keep your left arm (right for lefties) straight leads to limited range of motion, poor weight transfer, and a lack of power. It also encourages the right shoulder to dip on the downswing. Correcting this fault is easy. Just maintain the natural bend in your left arm (right for lefties). This allows the shoulders to complete the backswing, eliminates dipping or lifting, and lets the chest rotate fully for a full release at impact.

Drill: Take your address position. Now take the club up until it rests on your back shoul-der. Complete the backswing so that your upper body is behind the ball. This is the cor-rect position at the top of your swing. Lift the club off your shoulder, make your swing and hit the ball.

November 11, 2011

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

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Tip: Avoiding The Lift And Dip
2) Tip: Hit Sweet Spot To Drain More Putts
3) Question: Chipping To A Close Pin
4) Article: Five Golf Tips To Sink More Putts
5) Article: Scoring From 100 Yards And In

Trouble viewing links? Your browser may be the issue. We recommend using the Firefox browser. Click Here To Download. Some email clients also distort links: try to copy and paste web urls directly in your browser, or turn on images for emails.

===================================================
1) Avoiding The Lift And Dip
===================================================

If you’re hitting fat a lot lately, you may be “lifting and dipping.” Golfers with this swing flaw feel the need to raise the club high on their backswing, only to dip the body as they lower the club during the downswing. Some golfers commit the opposite fault—the dip and lift, in which golfers dip on the backswing and then lift on the downswing. This flaw can cause golfers to hit thin shots. Committing either swing fault spells trouble.

Below are five tips on avoiding these swing faults:

• Keep your head still throughout
• Use your body correctly
• Move the arms up as body turns
• Maintain your spine angle
• Stay flexed throughout the swing

The key to eliminating the lift and dip (or dip and lift) is to keep your head still. If you watch tour players swing, you’ll see they keep their heads stationary throughout the swing. Occasionally, their heads may move a little from side to side, but not up and down. Any up and down motion—slight as it is—comes from their bodies during the swing not their arms and hands.

Instead of lifting and dipping, move your arms up simultaneously as your body begins to turn and you rotate away from the ball. This move will put you into the proper position at the top of the swing as opposed to just lifting your arms and hands with no rotation.

With some tour players you’ll see them momentarily dip their heads, but it’s not the kind of dip you think. It’s only momentary and its designed to help them leverage their lower bodies against the ground. But these are the best players in the world. They can some-times do things weekend golfers can’t. Plus, the pros maintain their spine angle and stay flexed throughout the swing.

If you’re hitting thin and fat shots, you could be lifting and dipping or dipping and lifting. Keep your head still through out your swing and rotate your hands and arms simultaneously as your body begins to turn into the backswing. These changes will help eliminate fat and thin shots.

===================================================
2) Hit Sweet Spot To Drain More Putts
===================================================

Most golfers change focus when hitting long and short putts. With long putts, golfers fo-cus on hitting the ball solid. They need to to get it close to the hole. But on short putts golfers focus on distance and direction. Unfortunately, if you become too focused on these distance and direction you can miss the sweet spot on your putter. That can cost you.

You want to hit the ball on the putter’s sweet spot. Hitting it there affects both distance and direction. Putts hit on the club’s toe or its heel often end up short whereas putts hit on the sweet spot almost always reach the hole. Balls hit on the toe or the heel also tend to stray offline, even though the putterface is still square to the target line. That can cause you to miss short and mid-length putts.

Many putters are imperfectly weighted, so your sweet spot might be left or right of center on your putter Here’s an exercise from Golf.com to help you find the sweet spot on your putter:

Finding The Sweet Spot

Dangle your putter halfway up the shaft. Take a tee and start tapping the face on the toe, which causes it to twist going back. Tap your way to the center. The closer you get to the center, the less twisting you'll see. When you tap your putter and the toe and heel swing back in perfect sync, that's your sweet spot.

Hitting a putt solid is critical for making putts of any length but especially for short and mid-length putts. So if you’re missing a lot of these putts, focus on hitting the ball solid instead of where it’s going. It could make a big difference in your putting.

=====================================================
3) Chipping To A Close Pin
=====================================================

Q.

One of my worst shots is a chip to a pin that's only 5-10 feet away on the green. I either chunk it and leave it still in the rough or I skull it across the green. Any suggestions?

Bob Gilly

A.

Thanks for the question, Bob. Short chips can cost you strokes, if you’re not careful. But you could try hitting a short check-up shot when the pin is so close. The keys to this shot are maintaining focus and making solid contact. You want to land the ball softly, check up, and then release. And you don’t have much room to do it in.

The club of choice for the check-up is your 60-degree wedge. Open the clubface slightly and play the ball off your back foot. Playing it back guarantees that you’ll not only deliver a descending blow but also make solid contact. The open face adds loft and spin.

The swing is straightforward. Use a simple arm motion back and through. Avoid hinging your wrist. And aim to land the ball on the green. If all goes well the ball will grab on the second bounce and creep down to the hole, just the way you want.

Practice the check-up shot to master the shot’s mechanics and build confidence. Then take it to the course.

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

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

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

Click here to view this newsletter on the web

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article: Five Golf Tips To Sink More Putts
...improve your putting without ever visiting the practice green...

5) Article: Scoring From 100 Yards And In
...most short game shots are “in between” shots. That’s a problem. It’s much easier to make a full swing shot than a shot where you’re in between clubs...

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.

Distance Control Is Key

The key to making these short-game shots is distance control with your wedges. Some players like to control distance by “feel.” But that can be difficult to do. An easier ap-proach is to control distance mechanically. You can do that by controlling the length of your swing. It’s the length of the swing with consistent tempo that creates the desired shot distance. If you can master this method, you’ll be able to dial in your shots from 100 yards and in, saving strokes.

Many players who have trouble controlling distance have two major flaws. They have a backswing and downswing that are not the same length and a swing tempo that varies significantly from shot to shot. Both are killers when it comes to distance control. Both are also the result of trying to hit shots with “feel” only. This method might work for Tour players, but its extremely difficult for weekend golfers to master. And judging from what we see in our golf lessons, few do. What’s needed is method that eliminates feel from the shot.

A Proven Method

A proven method for controlling distance involves three components: 1) where to place your hands on the club, 2) the width of your stance, and 3) the length of the swing. Each component contributes equally to controlling distance. Each changes based on the length of the shot. The method works well for many golfers because it is simple and easy to execute.

For example, if you were half the normal distance of a full wedge shot, your stance would be wide but not as wide as for a full wedge shot, and you’d choke down a couple of inches on the club. Your swing length would be shoulder height on both the backswing and downswing. These components would change if you had a shot that was 20 percent of a full-wedge shot. Your hands would be placed almost at the bottom of the grip, your stance would be narrow, and your swing would be short, both in the backswing and the downswing.

Keys To Method

One key to executing this method is that you must maintain a consistent tempo through-out your swing. Golfers at our golf lessons that often have a hard time achieving a consis-tent swing tempo. One way to overcome this is with a metronome. A metronome is a de-vice used in music to mark time. It’s a great way to train yourself to swing with a repeat-able tempo. When training yourself to do this, make a concerted effort to rotate your body all the way through to the finish while letting your arms and hands follow. This creates a smoother “connected” motion.

A second key to this method is to determine how far you hit the ball with each setup and swing length. That’s easily accomplished by going to the range or an empty field where you have plenty of room and hitting balls using the different setups and swing lengths. Once you learned the distance for each setup and swing length, you’re ready to dial in short game shots from any distance.

Developing a good short game is among the fastest way to chop strokes off your golf handicap. A good short game saves tons of strokes. One way to hit accurate short game shots is through feel. But this method is hard to master for weekend golfers. A simpler and better approach is the method described above. It enables you to control distance me-chanically and eliminates inconsistency. Once you’ve achieved these goals, your short game will take off.

Improving your putting requires practice. It’s not easy to become a better putter by just playing. But you can also improve your putting without ever visiting the practice green. Studying putting golf tips, such as those we have in our golf tips newsletter, can make you a better putter if you apply them. Below are five golf tips that we’ve gleaned from past newsletters that will help you not only improve your putting but also chop strokes off your golf handicap.

1. Develop A Routine

Better golfers all have routines. It doesn’t matter what type of a shot it is, they have a routine for it. When it comes to putting, having a routine is imperative. It’s necessary for making consistent strokes. That’s why we encourage players in our golf instruction ses-sion to develop one. What kind of routine should you have? That’s up to you. It’s your routine. You can incorporate anything you want into it but make it quick. The routine should never take more than a minute or two. And make sure you do it before every putt.

2. Practice The Right Putts

Watching students in golf lessons practice putting is instructive. Many start with long putts, say 45 feet or so. While these are fun, how practical are they? You could go a whole round and not have a putt that long. So while you want to put time in on those long putts, make sure you practice the shorter putts. Odds are the vast majority of your putts will be from about 15 feet or so in. So start there and work your way in. Force your-self to make three in a row before moving to a shorter distance.

3. Maintain Your Confidence

Confidence is a big factor in putting. If you lack confidence when putting, you won’t sink many. So if you’re putting poorly these days, work on getting your confidence back. One way to do this is to make a change. Try a new grip, for example. You could try a claw grip or a low left-hand grip. Just make it different. New grip styles take the focus off your stroke itself—and often that helps. Also, work on making solid contact on short putts. That’s something we focus on in golf lessons. If you don’t hit the ball on the sweet spot, you’ll miss many of those short putts that we all need to make to drive down our golf handicaps.

4. Relax When Putting

If you’re tense when you hit the putt, you’ll probably be tenser after you’ve putt. You can’t be tense and be a good putter. If your arms and hands are too tense, you’re more likely to make a quick, jabbing strike through the ball, rather than a nice flowing stroke. To release tension, take a few practice strokes. Focus on feeling the weight of the club-head. Try to lag it behind the ball on the forward stroke. This promotes better speed and direction control. It also helps feel.

5. Use Alignment Aids

Every putter has some sort of alignment aid. It could be something as simple as a line on the putter. Don’t be afraid to use them. Confirming your aim helps you focus on other equally important things, like speed and making solid contact. Align the alignment aid with a mark on the ball from behind the ball. Make sure it’s aiming at either the hole or where you want to start you’re putt. Using alignment aids increases your chances of hol-ing more putts.

These five golf tips will help you sink more putts. That in turn will impact your scores and golf handicap. But you do have to put some time in on the practice green. So try to set aside some time each week to practice your putting and incorporate these golf tips in each of your practice session. Also, practice the putts you’re most likely to see during a round. Regular practice will pay off.

Weekend golfers speed up the learning process by watching the pros. That’s why we en-courage students who take our golf lessons to observe the pros carefully, whether watch-ing them on television, online, or in person. It’s amazing what you can learn by simply watching the best golfers in the world. And what you learn isn’t always about shot me-chanics. Here are some things we observed the last time we watched a pro tournament:

Power And Control

Tour players exhibit power and control with their shots. Key to doing this is the release of the club through impact, as we’ve mentioned in our golf tips newsletter. Some players, like K.J. Choi, like to hit lower piercing shots with a strong left to right ball flight. The key: his arms and club go immediately left aft impact. Other players like Luke McDonald approach things differently. His arms and clubs go out and away from his body after im-pact. This allows his club to transfer the stored energy into the ball. It also increases the shot’s trajectory.

Releasing The Putter

In golf lessons on putting, teachers often talk about how important it is to release the putter. Releasing the putter is actually a simple concept. It basically entails keeping the butt end of the putter pointed at a fixed throughout the stroke. This is a key putting fun-damental and something professional golfers are work on religiously. It allows the put-terhead to swing on plane while the putter ace travels naturally through the stroke.

If you want to get a feel for this, try practicing with a belly putter, as we have some of our students do during golf lessons. The belly putter is attached to the your navel during the stroke—just the way it should be. It’s a great putting tool for golfers who struggle with releasing the putter, even if you want to continue putting conventionally.

Power And Consistency

If you watch the pros you’ll see that they exhibit power and consistency. One without the other doesn’t really help your golf handicap. But watch closely and you’ll see that both qualities actually start at the feet, not with the hands. The body needs to lead the hands on the downswing and that motion begins with the feet. Tour players move aggressively toward their front foot without spinning to begin the downswing. This maintains the club on the proper angle, shifts the player’s weight into the ball, and let’s her snap the club-head into the ball through the use of the body pivot.

Practice Shots You Use

One key thing that separates pro golfers and weekend warriors—and something we strive to emphasize in our golf instruction sessions— is practice. When the pros practice, they not only practice shot mechanics, they practice shots that they will actually need to hit during a round. Many weekend golfers don’t take this approach. They go to the range instead and bang out a bucket of balls—with very little thought to hitting shots they might need during a round. That’s a hard way to shave strokes off your golf handicap.

Weekend golfers don’t usually have the skills that the pros do. They also usually don’t have the time needed to hone their skills at the range. But they can shortcut the learning process is by closely watching the pros play with a goal of picking up golf tips that can help them shave strokes off their golf handicaps.

A dead straight shot is hard to hit. Everything in your swing has to be absolutely perfect to hit the ball dead straight. That’s why many great players hit fades and draws. They are easier to hit when it comes to precision and timing, and easier to repeat. And that is a big plus when it comes to playing well and/or shaving strokes off your golf handicap. You need consistency to shave strokes from your scores, as we tell student in our golf instruc-tion sessions.

Among the keys to hitting a fade or draw with control is the downswing. How the body initiates the downswing is critical, as are attaining specific positions at key points in the downswing. And while the differences in hitting the fade and draw are subtle, they are substantial. Below are some golf tips that will help you master the subtleties of the down-swing when trying to hit fades and draws.

The Fade

To hit a fade you need a steeper swing plane into the ball than with a draw. The steeper swing plane lets you to hold the clubface slightly open at impact. To achieve that steeper swing plane, the hands need to be high above the head at the top of the swing, your gloved hand cupped, and the left elbow (right for left-handers) flared out. In addition to coming in at a steeper plane, you must also maintain a more upright plane midway through the downswing. (Here’s a golf tip: If you look in the mirror you’ll see the shaft bisecting your left arm, ensuring the steeper angle into the ball.)

It’s critical at this point as you come into the ball that the body rotates fully to meet the clubface. To do that with a fade, you must use more of an upright angle to get to the ball. You can’t hit a fade (as a right-hander) if you never get to your left wrist. Simply put: A strong lower body rotation is critical to avoid hitting blocked shots.

The finish position for the fade is with the hands held high, the torso fully rotated, and the head facing the target. For more fade, simply open the clubface more. Whatever you do, don’t try to over manipulate the your body. You don’t want to get too upright and/or too steep into the ball. That will cause you to slice. One drawback with the fade: it doesn’t usually travel as far as draws because of the ball’s backspin. On the other hand, fades tend to stay in the fairway. A good swing thought to have when hitting a fade is to remember to keep the clubhead high after impact.

Hitting The Draw

Let’s look now at the same key areas of the downswing and how they differ with a draw. The key to hitting a draw is the position of the upper body at the top of the swing. To hit a draw your hands must be lower at the top than when hitting a fade. That’s because your downswing doesn’t need to be as steep as with a fade. You also need a flat left wrist and a more rounded swing plane.

The draw is more of an arms-driven swing. And you need to come from the inside. If you can’t get there, you won’t be able to start the ball to the right (left for left-handers) and draw it back toward the fairway. Unlike the fade, the bottom of your swing arc is charac-terized by a more active rolling of the hands. Since you can’t hit a draw with an open clubface, the clubface must be square or slightly closed at impact.

The finish to a draw mimics the lower position you were in at the top and midway through the downswing, like the finish on the fade. This helps flatten out the downswing, so it becomes more rounded. If you want to adjust how much draw to put on the ball, close the clubface a little more at impact.

These golf tips will help you hit better fades and draws. Hitting a crooked shot with con-trol is much easier than trying to hit a dead straight shot. So if you’ve been trying to hit your shots dead straight and that strategy hasn’t done much for your golf handicap, do what we often tell students at our golf lessons: try hitting fades and draws.

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Tip: Speed Reading Greens
2) Tip: Hitting The Super-Soft Pitch
3) Drill: Controlling Your Pitches
4) Article: Work the Ball Both Ways With Ease
5) Article: How PGA Pros Are Different from Us

Trouble viewing links? Your browser may be the issue. We recommend using the Firefox browser. Click Here To Download. Some email clients also distort links: try to copy and paste web urls directly in your browser, or turn on images for emails.

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1) Speed Reading Greens
===================================================

The fastest way to lower your golf handicap is by improving your putting. That’s easier said then done. Where do you start, for example, when looking to improve? One place to start is by learning to read a green correctly. A good read tells you not only where the green’s contours are but also where the putt breaks. Once you know where the putt breaks, it’s just a matter of determining how much speed you need to sink the putt.

Below are five green reading tips for weekend golfers:

1. Start from 70 to 80 yards away
2. Some greens slope from back to front
3. Some course designers build up greens
4. Take a 360-degree view of the putt
5. Study the last few feet of the putt

Professional golfers start reading greens when their 75 to 80 yards away. You should, too. Reading greens from this distance enables you to see the overall shape of the green. Once on the green look for low spots. They’ll tell you the putt’s true direction.

Below are some other green reading tips:

• Many greens slope from back to front. But some greens slope from front to back in-tentionally. These greens are hard to stop shots on. To compensate, aim for the center of the green with your approach shots.
• Some course designers build up their greens with mounds—a design characteristic that often defies rational thought. For example, instead of the green breaking toward the water, it breaks away. Study these greens carefully before putting.
• Different perspectives give you different views of the green. Squatting behind the ball to see how the putt breaks is only one viewpoint. Take a 360-degree view of the putt, if time permits, keeping the natural terrain in mind as you do.
• Speed is the biggest factor in determining how much a putt will break. When the ball slows down, the green’s contours and gravity really affect a putt’s progress. So study the putt’s last few feet carefully. Take note of where the putt starts to break.

Improving your putting starts with reading the green correctly. Take every opportunity to read greens, even when practicing. The more you read them, the better you’ll become at doing so.

===================================================
2) Hitting the Super-Soft Pitch
===================================================

When facing a tricky pitch with an obstacle between you and the pin, you have several types of shot to choose from. One is hitting a high floating lob shot with a 60-degree wedge. A second choice is hitting a lower pitch with tons of spin to get your ball to stop after a single hop. A third option is the super-soft pitch using a simple technique that adds extra loft to your standard pitching motion. This gives you a high pitch shot that stops near where it lands.

Below are six keys to executing the super-soft pitch:

• Sole your 56- or 60-degree wedge
• Play the ball slightly back of center
• Swing your arms and chest away
• Stop your backswing at knee level
• Swing your arms and chest at the same speed
• Rotate your chest through impact

The key to this shot is pre-setting your body in the correct impact position. This helps you strike the ball with just the right amount of loft.

Start by soling either your 56- or 60-degree wedge with the face square and pointing di-rectly at your target. Play the ball slightly back of center and lean your shaft forward. Be careful not to close the clubface. Make sure that your shoulders are level and hang straight down and that you ease up on your grip pressure. You need soft hands to execute this shot.

Now, swing your arms and chest away from the ball using an easy wrist hinge. Make a slight turn so the club’s toe points straight up as you execute your backswing. Stop your backswing just as your hands pass your back knee. Now turn toward your target to start the downswing and unhinge your wrists, so that you return to the same position as at ad-dress.

Finally, rotate your chest through impact while swinging your arms at the same speed as your chest. You want everything working together. Finish with your hands low and di-rectly in front of your chest. The ball will pop up high and land softly on the green.

=====================================================
3) Controlling Your Pitches
=====================================================

You must be in sync when executing precise pitches. More specifically, the action of the hands and arms must blend with your body movement to achieve accuracy consistently. Below is a simple drill to learn the feel of everything working together:

Take your normal address position with a wedge. Place a spongy ball between your fore- arms just below the elbows. You can also stretch a towel across your chest and hold it under your armpits. Now make half-swings with the goal of keeping the ball or the towel in place. After practicing without a ball, drop one and hit some pitches with the ball or towel under your arms.

The only way to prevent the towel or ball from coming loose is to rotate your body and swing your arms back through in harmony. If one part moves independently of the other, such as your arms swinging without your body turning, there’s little chance you’ll hit an accurate pitch.

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

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

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

Click here to view this newsletter on the web

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article: Work the Ball Both Ways With Ease
...What's the most difficult shot in golf? Some say the downhill bunker shot. Others say driver off the deck. Then there are those who say a high soft lob over a short-sided bunker. The most difficult shot in golf is the straight shot...

5) Article: How PGA Pros Are Different from Us
...It's amazing what you can learn by simply watching the best golfers in the world. And what you learn isn't always about shot mechanics...

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.