Kyle Stanley missed a critical short putt at this year’s Farmer’s Insurance Open that probably cost him the match. The miss tied him with Bruce Snedeker, who eventually won the tournament in a playoff. Short putts can fool you. Just because you’re more likely to hole them than long ones doesn’t make them easy. In fact, short putts can be more difficult because you expect to make them. The added pressure increases the tension in your hands, causing you to stiffen over the putt. If this happens to you, the simple tips below can help:

Below are five keys to draining more short putts:

• Choke down on the putter
• Lower your center of gravity
• Accelerate through the putt
• Stay low without lifting up
• Putt with confidence

The key to sinking more short putts is getting low over the putt, like Jack Nicklaus does. To do that, take a normal putting grip and stance and then choke down on the grip a couple of inches. Getting low makes you feel like you’re not only closer to the ground, but also that the putt is closer. It also lowers your center of gravity.

When putting, take a slow backswing and then initiate the forward stroke. Make sure you accelerate through the forward stroke and stay low through the finish without lifting up. Make a confident stroke.

Getting low helps you hone in on the putt with greater precision. It also helps you eliminating swaying or deviations away from the putting line through the stroke. Picturing Jack Nicklaus in your mind staying low over a putt can help.

Use the golf tips described above the next time you’re facing a short putt and you’ll drain more of those pesky little short putts.

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How To Break 80 Newsletter

February 23, 2012

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

1) Tip: Drain More Short Putts
2) Tip: Add Ten Yards To Your Drive Now
3) Drill: Create Lag For Power and Accuracy
4) Article: Golf Tips On Mid-Round Quick Fixes
5) Article: Six Golf Tips On Long Distance Driving

Jack's Note: You guys enjoying the 2012 Golf Season so far? I was able to get up to the Northern Trust Open last week and boy, what a finish on Sunday! Let me know your thoughts on the 2012 season...what do you need help with in YOUR game? Look forward to hearing from you.

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) Drain More Short Putts
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Kyle Stanley missed a critical short putt at this year’s Farmer’s Insurance Open that probably cost him the match. The miss tied him with Bruce Snedeker, who eventually won the tournament in a playoff. Short putts can fool you. Just because you’re more like-ly to hole them than long ones doesn’t make them easy. In fact, short putts can be more difficult because you expect to make them. The added pressure increases the tension in your hands, causing you to stiffen over the putt. If this happens to you, the simple tips below can help:

Below are five keys to draining more short putts:

1. Choke down on the putter
2. Lower your center of gravity
3. Accelerate through the putt
4. Stay low without lifting up
5. Putt with confidence

The key to sinking more short putts is getting low over the putt, like Jack Nicklaus does. To do that, take a normal putting grip and stance and then choke down on the grip a couple of inches. Getting low makes you feel like you’re not only closer to the ground, but also that the putt is closer. It also lowers your center of gravity.

When putting, take a slow backswing and then initiate the forward stroke. Make sure you accelerate through the forward stroke and stay low through the finish without lifting up. Make a confident stroke.

Getting low helps you hone in on the putt with greater precision. It also helps you elimi-nating swaying or deviations away from the putting line through the stroke. Picturing Jack Nicklaus in your mind staying low over a putt can help.

Use the golf tips described above the next time you’re facing a short putt and you’ll drain more of those pesky little short putts.

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2) Add Ten Yards To Your Drive Now
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Want to add 10 yards to your drives right now? Learn to release the clubhead through impact properly. Weekend golfers often release the clubhead by straightening the right wrist just before impact. This causes the left wrist (right wrist for lefties) to straighten prematurely, releasing the club. When you straighten the left wrist prematurely, you re-verse the wrists’ roles.

This spells trouble. You’ll hit all sorts of blocks, pushes, and pop-ups. And when you do hit the ball on the nose, it doesn’t go very far. What you want to do is create lag. This means retaining the bow in your right wrist on the downswing until just a split second before impact. Then, slap the club through the impact zone. The slap adds the extra power you need to drive the ball and extra 10 yards. It’s a lot like the motion you use with a paintbrush stroke.

Below are two drills that will teach you how it feels to release the clubhead properly:

1. Stick a tee in the ground. Set up to the tee with your driver. Now, reverse your hands like you would do with a cross-handed putting grip. Make sure your fingers surround the shaft and you have a good hold on the club. Take some short swings, back and forth. Try to just flick the top of the tee. Feel the bow in your right wrist? That’s what releasing the club properly feels like.
2. Take your golf towel. Tie it in a knot around your driver’s shaft. Let it slide all the way to the clubhead. Now, stick a tee in the ground, set up to the tee with your driver, and take some short swings. The towel adds weight to the clubhead and promotes a better feel for the clubhead as it passes through impact. Try to remember this feeling when you hit some balls without the towel.

Practice these drills often. They will groove the feeling you want. Learn to hold your re-lease until the bottom of your swing and you’ll max out clubhead speed and power.

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3) Drill: Create Lag For Power and Accuracy
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“Casting” is a common swing flaw among weekend golfers. You “cast” the club when you release it too soon from your swing’s top. Casting dissipates power and hurts accura-cy. Creating “lag” corrects this flaw. Lag creates a 90-degree angle between your left arm and your club shaft and enables you to hold the bow in your wrists till just before impact. Lag is a must if you want to hit powerful, accurate shots. The drill below teaches you to create lag.

Milking The Cow

Address the ball as usual. Then swing the club to the top. Swing halfway down while re-taining a 90-deree angle between your hands and the club. Return the club to the top of the swing. Swing halfway down again and retain the 90-degree angle. You should feel as if you’re making a pumping motion and that your right hand (left hand for lefties) is “milking the cow.” Swing to the top one more time, and then swing through the ball in one fluid motion.

Practice this drill whenever you hit balls. It not only improves ballstriking, it also boosts power and accuracy—two things we must have to hit powerful shots.

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.

Let’s face it. We all love to crush the ball off the tee. There’s something truly pleasurable in driving for distance. For some golfers, it’s the single most enjoyable thing in the game. But hitting long powerful drives on demand takes hard work to learn—even for veteran players with single digit golf handicaps. Not every golfer masters this much-needed skill. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work at it.

One place to start this effort is with your mechanics. Long distance driving takes great mechanics to pull off. Without the right mechanics, you’re lost. The six tips discussed below will help you perfect your long distance mechanics. Knowing how to hit the ball long when you need to will comes in handy when trying to clear water, fairway bunkers, or other obstacles on the course. Long accurate drives can also help you shave strokes off your golf handicap.

1. Add Flex To Knees

Golf tips for long distance driving often discuss shifting your weight correctly. Doing so is one of the keys to hitting the ball long. Sliding, on the other hand, is a power killer. To prevent sliding, add some flex to your knees and point them slightly away from each other—not too much, of course. Adding some flex not only stops swaying, it also harnesses the power of good weight shift.

2. Extend Your Arms

Big swing arcs produce big power. To hit blasts from the tee, work on extending your arms to create a big swing arc. Extending your arms also helps you generate maximum clubhead speed. One mental technique we suggest in our golf lessons is to imaging someone behind you when you swing. Now try to touch that person as you take the club back. Be careful, though. You don’t want to lose your balance.

3. Create Plenty Of Lag

Extended your arms is only half the battle in long distance driving. You also must create maximum lag. This means retaining the 90-degree bow in your right wrist (left wrist for lefties) until just a split second before contact with the ball, and then slapping the club through impact. The longer you can hold the bow in your right wrist before straightening it the better. Bracing yourself against your right quad as you approach impact also helps.

4. Accelerate For Power

Among the biggest power leaks we see in golf instruction sessions is clubhead decelera-tion. Weekend golfers tend to accelerate right up until they make impact. Then, that’s it. They decelerate through the rest of the swing. Some golfers even decelerate pre-impact. Awesome power comes from constant acceleration, so start your swing slow and work your way up to full speed at and through impact.

5. Keep Feet Firmly On The Ground

This advice seems like something you’d take for granted. But as we’ve seen in our golf lessons, some people do it better than others. Two things trigger power: Dropping your hands down at the top of your swing and retaining a strong left arm while shifting your weight onto the ball of your right foot (left foot for lefties) during the downswing. These moves activate your right knee and help drive your right hip through the ball.

6. Stay Loose Through The Swing

Tensing up when trying to hit a bomb short-circuits power. Instead, stay loose through the swing. By loose we mean loose in the right places—the shoulders, arms and hands. These upper body parts must remain flexible. The key is staying loose with your hands. If you tense those up, you’ll tense up everything else. Staying loose through the swing also helps you maintain rhythm.

These golf tips are proven to help you generate power off the tee. But bombing a 250-yard drive is no good if the ball lands deep in the rough. So when it comes to driving for distance, it’s sometimes wiser to take a little off. Drives in the fairway improve your chances of hitting the green in regulation (GIR). The more GIRs you hit, the greater your chances of making pars and birdies and shrinking your golf handicap.

It’s happened to all of us one time or other. We’re driving the fairways. We’re hitting our irons solidly. And we’re sinking putts left and right. Then something happens—a bad drive, a chunked iron, a missed putt. Whatever it is, it shifts things. We start making mis-takes—both mental and physical. Our game goes downhill from there on. Instead of fi-nishing with a solid round, we end up with a less than stellar score.

If you’re serious about achieving a low golf handicap, you must know how to recover when you lose it like this. Quick mid-round fixes help you recover when things start going south and regain both your rhythm and timing. That in turn boosts confidence—the key as we tell students in our golf instructions sessions to having a great round. Below are four simple mid-round fixes that will help you right the ship and boost your confi-dence when things start going wrong.

Straighten Out A Slice

Slicing can really impact scores, so you need to correct this quickly, if you want to have a good round. Two things contribute to a slice: an open clubface at impact and an overly steep downswing. When these two things join in a swing, look out for banana balls.

One way to cure slicing is to flatten your swing a little. This means rotating your hands and arms over one another through the swing. To groove this motion take practice swings on a side hill (with about 15 percent slope) with the ball above your feet. Doing this flat-tens your swing and squares your clubface.

Eliminate Chunking

Is there anything more embarrassing than chunking a shot? But players with low golf handicaps chunk shots periodically. When you start doing it during a round that spells trouble. Chunking usually stems from not transferring your weight correctly in the down-swing. The result: you start hitting the ground behind the ball.

We teach students in golf lessons a simple technique to stop chunking. Place a head cover about six inches behind your ball. This forces you to avoid hitting the obstacle, which you can only do by transferring your weight correctly. This allows the club to “bottom out” at the right point in your swing and improves contact.

Shedding The Shanks

If you’ve ever had the shanks, you know how devastating they can be. They can really undermine a solid round. When you shank, you hit the ball off the club’s heel. This hap-pens in two ways—by either “coming over the top” or by “getting stuck.” Either way hurts your swing. In both cases, your hands are too far away from your body.

To stop shanking, brush your hands against your pants when making your downswing. You want to get as close to your body as possible getting hung up on them. When you do that, you end up strike the ball with a good center hit, just the way we teach students in golf instruction sessions.

Back On Track

The path of your putter determines the ball’s direction. A putterhead going from outside the target line to inside usually makes the ball go left (right for a left-handed putter). A putterhead going from inside the target line to outside makes the ball go right. Good put-ters generally have a putterhead path that travels inside the target line to square at impact then back to the inside.

Losing your putting stroke during a match is the kiss of death. You’ll make more shots with the putter than any other club in your bag. If you’re struggling to find your stroke, find an area on the fringe that has a slight arc. Place the toe of the club against it, then make some swings and trace the path. This simple drill not only re-aligns your putting stroke, it also encourages a proper release.

The best cure for a bad round is a good post-round session. But when you’re playing well and you suddenly lose it, you need to recover quickly. Players with low golf handicaps usually do. The simple drills described above will help you not only re-gain your form, but also re-build your confidence.

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How To Break 80 Newsletter

February 3, 2012

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

In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Chipping Tips: Chipping Made Easy
2) 5-Wood Tips: 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.

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) Chipping Made Easy - Increase Chipping Accuracy
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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 chipping 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

If you’re serious about improving your game, you must master the full swing’s key me-chanics. Doing so increases power, consistency, and accuracy. These capabilities help po-sition you to hit more greens in regulation (GIR). That’s big, as I’ve often said in my golf tips newsletter. Hitting more GIRs leads to more pars and birdies, which in turn helps you card better scores and chops strokes off your golf handicap.

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.