In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Perfecting Your Backswing
2) Escape From The Bunker’s Back
3) Drill of the Week: Curing Inconsistent Chipping
4) Article – Controlling Pitches After They Hit
5) Article – Power Over Easy

Jack’s Note: Who wants a new set of irons? Alex from the Golf Swing Speed Challenge is giving away some really nice ones if you’re interested. He’s also unloading some GPS’s and other cool stuff. Oh yeah, he’s the guy who has the simplest system I know of to add massive distance to your game.

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) Perfecting Your Backswing

If your ballstriking with your irons is inconsistent, it’s can be due to a faulty backswing. In fact, your backswing can be the source of many swing errors. Needless to say, if you can eliminate backswing mistakes, you’ll hit longer, straighter shots. Most golfers get their iron swings off to a decent start with a good takeaway. But once they reach the backswing’s midpoint, their swing breaks down. At that point, they stop making a turn and simply lift their arms. This contributes to swing errors.

Here are four keys to a good backswing:

* Move your front side under your chin
* Stretch the left side of your torso
* Turn to the top instead of lifting
* Stretch your arms far from your head

The secret to creating a dynamic backswing is to continue your rotation at the top of the swing. Once you reach the backswing’s midpoint (about hip high), your arms have finished their work. It’s up to your shoulders to finish the job.

The key to turning is moving your front shoulder under your chin. If you feel a stretch to the front side of your torso, you’re doing it correctly.

By turning at the top instead of lifting, you increase your chances of setting the shaft and clubface on plane and getting your hands as far from your head as possible. This increase in swing width adds yards to your irons.

For practice, stand sideways in front of a mirror, so you can see your swing. Now make your backswing. As you go back the arrangement of your front arm and shaft shouldn’t change—only your shoulders and hips should move.

Your backswing is the source of many errors. If you think “turn” at your swing’s midpoint, you’ll eliminate many swing errors and will hit crisper, cleaner irons.
2) Escape From The Bunker’s Back

Your approach shot lands near the back edge of a bunker. You’ll have to take an awkward stance with your feet close together to hit this shot. But doing so moves the ball back to your right foot. With the ball so far back in your stance, you’ll have to make an awkward swing to hit the ball. Doing so, however, is a good way to botch the shot. Your best bet is to find an alternative to this shot.

Below are five keys to blasting it out of the bunker:

* Move your right foot back on the grass
* Close your stance slightly
* Tilt your shoulders with the slope
* Move the ball forward in the stance
* Swing down the hill

Placing two feet in the bunker encourages an awkward swing. Instead, move your right foot back onto the grass behind you. Place your foot far enough back to make your shoulders and hips even with the slope, which closes your stance slightly. Set your left heel even with the ball and flare out your front foot.

Next, tilt your shoulders with the slope. Your front shoulder should be lower than your back shoulder. Doing this creates the out-to-in swing path needed to hit the shot.

Now, take a few practice swings. Be sure not to touch the sand with the club, disqualifying it from use. Also, you want to make sure you don’t touch the back of the bunker’s lip on the downswing.

When you swing think about moving your left-hand knuckles down the hill on your way to the ball. Since you’ve adjusted your body to the slope, the ball will pop out like a regular bunker shot.

Placing your foot out of the bunker may seem weird. But it does the trick. If you keep both feet in the bunker, the ball will be too far back to make a good swing.
3) Drill of the Week: Get Back To The Basics To Hit Solid Irons

The Trough Drill is a proven exercise that been around for years. It teaches players to swing the club on the proper path and become a more consistent chipper. The drill’s benefit: The player chips it close more often and leaves herself more makeable putts, slicing strokes off her golf handicap.

Take two clubs and form a narrow trough pointing at the pin. Place a ball between the two clubs. Using a seven-iron (or your favorite chipping club) Assume your normal chipping stance and practice chipping the ball to the pin. Keep the club within the trough on the way back and on the way forward. Once you learn to make solid contact and hit the ball on a consistent ball-flight line, change clubs. Practice with all the clubs you chip with.

With practice, this drill works wonders. It shows you the correct impact alignments for chipping with different clubs and the basic move all golfers need to learn the full swing.

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

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

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Controlling Pitches After They Hit
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/controlling-pitches-after-they-hit.php

5) Article – Power Over Easy
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/power-over-easy.php

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

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

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

By Jack Moorehouse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Jack Moorehouse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Punching It From A Fairway Bunker
2) Pop It Over Trees
3) Question of the Week: Get Back To The Basics To Hit Solid Irons
4) Article – How To Salvage A Bad Round
5) Article – Placement And Putting Are Key At British Open

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) Punching It From A Fairway Bunker

What do you do if you’re in a fairway bunker, but you’re so close to the hole that a full swing with a short iron rolls off the green? Good question. If the front of the green is clear of obstacles and the lip is small, you can play a punch shot that lands short and then rolls to the pin. This type of shot accomplishes two things: It gets you out of the bunker and it encourages solid contact so you don’t leave the shot short.

Here are six keys to punching one from a fairway bunker:

* Use a 6-, 7-, or 8-iron
* Position the ball back of center
* Take a narrow stance with your weight forward
* Hinge your wrists at the start of the swing
* Focus on making ball first contact
* Keep your wrists firm at impact

Let your distance from the pin determine club selection. With a 6-iron, a bunker punch shot carries about 100 yards and rolls about 50 yards.

Set up with the ball back of center and the shaft leaning forward. Use a narrow stance but shift your weight to your front foot. Your sternum is in front of the ball to create a downward angle of attack.

Hinge your wrists as soon as you start your backswing. Use a narrow arc and cut your backswing when your hands reach hip height. You won’t need more power than this.

Pinch your knees at the top of your backswing and focus on making ball-first contact on the way down. Keep your wrists firm at impact—maintaining the clubshaft angle you created at address. Now swing.

You don’t need a full finish, since you’re just hitting a punch shot. Instead, focus on your backswing, downswing, and impact. With this shot, the ball flies low to the ground and runs to the green.
2) Pop It Over Trees

Laying-up in front of water or punching out from the rough can save you strokes. But some times you have to go for it, like when you’re playing a match and you’re stuck behind a clump of trees. That’s not a good place to be even with a good lie. But knowing how to hit extra-high approach shots pays off here. With a few minor set-up adjustments, you should be able to loft the ball high enough to clear the trees.

Below are five keys to hitting extra-high approach shots:

* Position the ball forward in your stance
* Hinge your wrists early and aggressively
* Stay behind the ball with your body
* Keep your hands even or just behind the clubhead
* Finish extra high with your follow through

The secret to hitting high approach shots is steepness. You must use a more vertical than normal downswing to really hit down on the ball and create the steepness you need to fly the ball high. Here’s how:

Position the ball forward in your stance, toward your front heel. After soling the club, set your hands even with the ball or just behind it, and rotate the clubface open a few degrees to provide extra loft on the shot.

Hinge your wrists early and aggressively in the backswing to attain the steepness you need to get the clubhead up quickly. Hitting down on the ball causes it to rise quickly and fly extra-high.

Keep your body behind the ball on the downswing. You should feel as if your front ear is behind the ball at impact.

Keep your hands even or slightly behind the ball. Getting your hands ahead of the ball—as you do with normal iron shots—delofts the clubface, which will prevent you from making it over the obstacle.

Finish high with your follow-through. Try to bring your hands higher than your front ear on your finish while staying in balance.

While playing it safe on the golf course often pays off, you sometimes have to go for it. When that happens, knowing how to hit an extra-high shot pays off.

=
3) Question of the Week: Get Back To The Basics To Hit Solid Irons

Q.

Dear Jack:

“How do you make solid impact with your irons? I can hit from a 7-iron to a 3-iron and seldom hit the sweet spot.  No matter what club I use there is little variance in the distance the ball travels in the air.

Thanks for your help,
James Neely ”

A.

Thanks for the question, Jim. I suggest you get back to basics:

First, check your ball position. Play short iron shots in the center, middle iron shots an inch forward of that, and longer iron shots another inch forward.

Second, check your set-up. Things like weak left-hand grip, poor posture, and bad aim often prevent solid contact. Study your set-up in a mirror. Make sure it’s solid. If not, change it. Practice your new set up in front of a mirror until it’s ingrained.

Third, check your weight shift. Good iron contact comes from a descending strike. To hit down, your weight must be moving toward the target. Many golfers hang back on their right sides when hitting irons. Also, make sure the knuckles of your left hand are pointing down when making your downswing.

To improve your irons, hit balls with your left hand only. Keep hitting them one-handed until the feeling is ingrained. Also, hit balls with your feet together. It will improve your balance.

If all this doesn’t work, consider taking a golf lesson or two from a teaching pro.

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

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

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – How To Salvage A Bad Round
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/how-to-salvage-a-bad-round.php

5) Article – Placement And Putting Are Key At British Open
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/placement-and-putting-are-key-at-british-open.php

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

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

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