By Jack Moorehouse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Jack Moorehouse

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

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

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

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

Takeaway

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

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

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

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

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

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Run It Up Tight
2) Juice Up Your Irons For More Distance
3) Question – Swinging the Driver
4) Article – Spin Control Slashes Golf Handicaps
5) Article – Trusting Your Swing Cuts Golf Handicaps

Jack’s Note: I’ve never had the privilege of playing some of the best courses in the world…you know…St Andrews, Pebble, Sawgrass, etc. But I’ve got to tell you…there is a new online golf game that lets you play these courses in full HD quality. Best part? It’s free. VERY REALISTIC.

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1) Run It Up Tight
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Some golfers think that the only time the ball should roll on the ground is when they putt. That’s false. Sometimes, it’s better—and safer—to roll it up tight than fly it there—like when you have a poor lie and you’re short of the green with the pin in front. When this happens, forget about hitting a half-wedge to a postage stamp-size landing area on the green. Instead, play a bump-and-run and roll it up there close.

Here are five keys to this shot:
Assess your route to the pin
Pick your club carefully
Choke down a little on the club
Lean left to ensure crisp contact
Feel like you’re trapping the ball

This shot spends more time on the ground than in the air, so assess the route to the pin carefully. Note impediments to the shot, the ground’s firmness, and any slope that could interfere with the shot. Then, pick your club accordingly. Plan to fly the ball one third of the way to the pin. The more you need to fly the ball, the more club you’ll need.

Next, address the ball with a slightly open stance. Choke down on the club and play the ball right of center (left of center, if you’re left-handed). Lean toward the target and press the shaft slightly forward to ensure solid contact. Now, swing.

At impact you should feel like you’re trapping the ball between the ground and the club. If you abbreviate your finish and keep the club close to the ground, you’ll guarantee a low ball flight, which is exactly what you need to nuzzle the ball close to the pin.

You don’t always have to fly the ball to the hole when short of the green. Running it up close is often simpler—and safer—than hitting a complicated half wedge from a bad lie.

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2) Juice Up Your Irons For More Distance
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Do you need a 7-iron to hit the same spot others hit using an 8- and 9-iron? If so, you could be costing yourself strokes. Obviously, hitting shorter clubs into the green is obviously easier than hitting longer clubs into the green. So you want to maximize distance with every iron. You can do that by increasing swing speed. Increasing swing speed increases an iron’s distance.

Here are three keys increasing swing speed:
Achieve steep shoulders through the swing
Keep your head centered over the impact area
Slap the ball with your right hand prior to release

Many weekend golfers think the way to generate more swing speed is from the top. Not so. You increase swing speed—and add yards to your irons—by accelerating through the ball and into your follow-through.

To do this, go into your release with level hips (or as close to level as possible) and steep shoulders. In other words, your back shoulder should be lower than your front shoulder at impact. This proves that your back shoulder is working under your chin, allowing you to move your club at a right angle to your spine, the fastest route possible.

Also, keep your head centered over the impact area. This allows you to make your swing as wide as possible on the target side of the ball. If your head moves in front of the ball, you’re limiting your swing radius and slowing swing speed.

In addition, “slap” at the ball through impact with your right hand (left for lefties). Continue the slap into your release so that your right arm gets very long with the club as far away from your head as possible.

Increasing swing speed adds distance to your irons. Maximizing distance with each iron makes the next shot easier. And helps you save strokes.

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3) Question of the Week: Swinging the Driver
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Question

Dear Jack:

Can you clear up a question I have about the driver once and for all? I hear two things about swinging the driver: Some people say the driver is swung just like all the other clubs. Other people tell me you swing the driver more around your body. Which is it? Do I swing the driver the same way I swing my 7-iron, for example, or not?

Carol Cotton

Answer

Thanks for the question, Carol. It’s a good one. Students who’ve just started playing golf ask me this question all the time.

The swing’s basic fundamentals don’t change, whether you’re swinging a 6-iron, a driver, or a wedge. So if your mechanics are sound, your swing is sound with any club. However, when swinging longer clubs, like the driver, shaft length becomes a factor: the longer the shaft the more “rounded” your swing automatically becomes. So in a sense you’re still swinging the club the same, it’s just that the swing itself is more rounded.

For example, if you’re hitting a pitching wedge, your swing is shorter because the shaft is shorter and the ball closer to you. To hit the ball solidly, you must swing the club on a more vertical plane. With the driver, it’s a different story. Your swing gets longer because the shaft is longer and the ball farther away. Thus, you have to swing the club more around your body than vertical to compensate for shaft length and keep it on the right plane.

This idea sometimes confuses people. Hope my explanation helps.

If you’ve got a golf question you’d like answered, send an email to us atquestions@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

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Controlling Pitches After They Hit
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/Spin-Control-Slashes-Golf-Handicaps.php

5) Article – Power Over Easy
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/Trusting-Your-Swing-Cuts-Golf-Handicaps.php

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, go tohttp://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.

By Jack Moorehouse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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