18holeclub.com

Using a weak grip is among the most common causes of a slice. Usually, it’s the right hand that’s the culprit for right-handers (the left hand for left-handers). In a weak grip, the right hand is rotated too much toward the target. This limits any chance of a proper hand rotation, making it difficult to rotate the clubface closed at impact. If you correct the grip, you’ll correct the slice.Here are 5 steps to check your grip:

1. Assume a normal address position
2. Take the club with your left hand
3. Leave your right hand in place
4. Open your right hand
5. Put the club’s butt in your palm

First, you need to determine if you have a weak grip. Take your normal address position. Remain still and lift the club up with your left hand. But don’t alter the position of your right hand. Now open your right hand. Place the butt end of the club in the center of your palm.

If the club points down or toward you, your right hand is in a weak position. To correct this flaw, adjust your right hand until the club’s shaft points straight toward the target. That’s the position you want your hand in when you grip the club.

And don’t forget about grip pressure. While it doesn’t cause you to slice, it still affects how you hit the ball. Not enough pressure and you lose control of the club. Too much pressure and you retard clubhead speed. Hold the club as lightly as possible but just tight enough to control the club.

If you’re among the many golfers who slice, take the grip test. If it shows you have a weak grip, adjust your hands. And don’t strangle the club. Hold it just tight enough to control it. These adjustments will help you hit longer straighter shots.

By Tom Stickney
GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teacher
Published: April 01, 2007

The Problem

You’re sailing through a round, when all of the sudden — whoa! You slice a tee shot that lands one fairway over, and you repeat the shot on the next tee.

What you typically do

You become bogged down with too many swing thoughts—Is it my backswing? My downswing? You should know from experience that this kind of overthinking never works, and usually just makes matters worse.

What you should do

Save swing fixes for the practice range and concentrate on this emergency cure:

As you swing through impact, make a conscious effort to square up your clubface. If you’re wearing a watch on your left wrist, try to allow an imaginary person standing behind you to see what time it is immediately following impact. It’s a good trigger to remind you to rotate your forearms through the hitting area to p revent leaving the clubface open. Aim 10 yards right of your intended target in case the ball hooks a little.

After your round, forget this quick fix and try to determine the real cause of your slice. Most likely it’s an outside-in downswing path. That requires more than a Band-Aid. But the watch trick works and can definitely help you turn a bad driving day into a decent scoring day.

When a PGA pro hits an approach shot, it usually holds the green. However, when a recreational golfer hits an approach shot, it doesn’t always hold the green. In fact, the shot often runs off the green onto a sideslope This leaves him or her with a tricky little pitch shot, especially if the lie is above the player’s feet.Keep these five keys in mind when hitting form a slide slope:

1. Choose the right club
2. Keep weight on toes
3. Don’t extend your arms
4. Grip down on club
5. Swing a little harder
The key to this shot is deciding where to aim. The ball usually falls in the direction of the slope on short shots, just like with long shots. With the ball above your feet, the more loft you use, the more the ball will go left. Experience will tell you which club to use and how far left the ball will go with that loft.

Keep your weight more on your toes to stay in balance. Don’t extend your arms, since you need the break in your wrists to play the shot. Grip down on the club and swing a little harder to compensate for the shorter swing arc. If you have some rough in front of you on the shot, try using a sand wedge and making ball first contact.

Find a green with a sideslope and practice hitting different clubs from different lies. This will give you an opportunity to find out which club you’re most comfortable with when hitting this shot. Keep a close eye on how far left each shot goes, then make adjustments accordingly. The goal is to get the ball close enough for a short makeable putt, which will cut strokes off your score.

 From How to Break 80 Newsletter

What’s the difference between hitting a weak shot and a powerful one? It’s synchronization. If the key movements in your swing aren’t synchronized, they will be out of sequence and you’ll hit a weak shot. If they are synchronized, your movements will be in sequence and you’ll hit a powerful shot.

Nowhere is synchronization more critical that in your downswing. Two body parts—the right hand and the right knee—must start the downswing simultaneously and at similar pace for you to produce a power-laden swing, whether you are using a driver, a wedge, or a middle iron.

 Here are five keys to starting your downswing:

* Keep head still
* Avoid sliding forward
* Start right hand/right knee in unison
* Point hand/knee toward ball
* Stay behind the ball

The key to executing a good downswing is synchronizing the movement of your right knee and your right hand. Having completed the backswing, you should move these two body parts by first turning your right hand and right knee slightly toward the ball and then starting them downward in unison and at the same pace.

Unfortunately, some golfers start their downswing with the right knee only. Their hands and arms trail their body as it moves toward the target. To square the clubface and hit a good shot, these golfers must manipulate the club with their hands at the last second or they’ll hit the ball to the right of the target.

Other golfers are all arms. They make and out-to-in downswing with very little body movement. This is known as “casting” because it resembles an angler casting with a rod and reel. This becomes a slice or pull, neither of which is what the golfer intended when he began his shot.

If you want to get more power from your swing, start your downswing with your right and knee in synchronizations. Doing so eliminates the need to make last minute adjustments to your swing to square the clubface to the ball. You’ll find yourself hitting the ball farther and straighter.

From How to Break 80 newsletter

The most efficient, effective putting stroke is one in which the putter swings like a pendulum, back and forth, smoothly and rhythmically. But the stroke doesn’t come naturally. You must train your body to produce a perfect pendulum-like motion. Once trained, you must practice regularly to maintain your stroke’s fluidity and rhythm.Here are 6 keys to making a smooth, pendulum-like putting stroke:

1. Keep your grip pressure light
2. Maintain a steady head
3. Keep the front shoulder down
4. Strike on the upstroke
5. Keep the wrists firm
6. Accelerate through the stroke
Keeping your grip pressure light and maintaining a steady head throughout the putt are two “musts” in putting. A light grip provides more feel when putting, and feel is a big part of putting. A steady head—with your eyes directly over the ball—keeps the putter square to the target line. Moving your head throws your putt off line.

The takeaway is a one-piece action. Move the arms, shoulders, and putter away from the ball together, with the hands remaining passive. If you think “front shoulder down,” you’ll produce the correct motion. Make a smooth, rhythmic stroke and accelerate the putter through the ball. If your ball position is correct, the pendulum action enables you to strike the ball on the upswing.

In addition, keep the wrists firm through impact and follow-through—one of the most important moves in putting. Try imagining them encased in plastic casts. Accelerate the putter-head through the stroke, even on short putts, and make sure your follow-through is as long as the takeaway.

A useful putting drill that builds fluidity into your swing is to start by taking a normal practice stroke, using a smooth, rhythmic motion. Then address the ball, close your eyes, and repeat the motion—letting the ball get in the way of the stroke. This drill helps make the real stroke more like a practice stroke, and improves putting accuracy.

From Howtobreak80 newsletter

By Glenn Deck
GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teacher
Published: May 01, 2007

The Problem: You miss putts that break hard from right-to-left or left-toright because you focus on the hole rather than the

The Solution: Follow this three-step process on every putt.

1.         After judging the amount of break you need to play, focus on the point where the ball will stop moving away from the hole and start rolling toward it - the

2.         Stand behind the ball and look down the line you’ve selected - not the line from the ball to the hole - to confirm your aim.  Then make a few practice strokes while remaining behind the ball.  As you practice your stroke, focus on the speed, not mechanics. 

3.         A smart way to ensure that you aim your putter correctly on all putts (breaking or straight) is to align the logo on the ball (or a line drawn through it) with your aiming point.  As you step into address, set your putterface square to the logo or line on the ball.

The low runner is a low risk shot. You need plenty of green for this shot and a tight lie. You also need the least loft of any of the three shots. Play the ball back in your stance, keep your front shoulder lower than the back shoulder, and lean the shaft forward.

The mid-trickler is a moderate risk shot. You need a moderate amount of green for this shot and a rather grassy lie. Play the ball in the middle of your stance, keep your shoulders level, and lean the shaft forward slightly. You want to take advantage of the true loft of the club.

The high softie is a high-risk shot. You need the least amount of green for this shot and a rough-like lie. Play the ball forward in your stance, keep the back shoulder higher than the front shoulder, and maintain a vertical shaft, adding loft to your club.

 From Howtobreak80 Newsletter

By Jack Moorehouse

On difficult courses, hitting good approach shots is often the key to scoring well. On these courses, good approach shots are as critical as driving and putting well. But conquering a difficult course doesn’t just happen. If you’ve never played the course before, studying it will tell you whether or not you need to concentrate on hitting better than average approach shots.

How can you recognize such a course? These courses often have what Jack Nicklaus calls “created challenges”— narrow fairways, hard-to-hold greens, and heavy, thick rough. Add to these things, awkward tee shot angles, uneven fairway lies, and small and elevated greens, and you have a course where hitting a good approach shots is a must. If you play the course a lot, you must learn how to hit precise approach shots to maintain your golf handicap.

On The Tee
Hitting a good approach shot starts on the tee. Rather than blasting the ball as far as possible with your drive, play target golf. You’ve probably read about playing target golf in my golf tips. The key to doing it is picking specific targets for your shots, targets with a real purpose. On courses where good approach shots are vital, playing target golf usually means finding level ground. Sacrificing some power off the tee in favor of hitting the right spot is the smart play, even if you have to tee off with a short club.

Why level ground? Hitting a 5-iron into a green from a level lie beats hitting a
7-iron from a severely angled lie every time. In other words, if you have a course with undulating fairways and you have to hit the ball high to have any hope of stopping it on the green, catching flatter spots from the tee is critical. On difficult courses you often find yourself in situations where it’s next to impossible to hit shots with the high trajectories needed to hold greens, like a steep downhill lie. So target these spots whenever you can.

Below are five keys to a hitting a shot with a high trajectory. As usual some of the more important elements are built-in at address

* Play the ball a little farther forward in your stance
* Keep the clubface slightly open
* Hold your hands level with or slightly behind the ball.
* Swing under the ball, not around your body
* Release the club freely with your hand and wrists
As far as your swing is concerned, there’s not that much different when hitting a high trajectory. Swing the club pretty much as you normally would, although you may want to swing a little more upright, if you really want to deaden the ball when it hits. Using a fade spin on the ball also helps. Also, try keeping your hands from turning over during the release until well after impact.

Around The Greens
In addition to hit the ball high, you may want to put some backspin on the ball. Backspin works best when the greens are not too hard and there’s some moisture. When the greens are hard, dry, and slick, the ball tends to skip off the green. Also, the more elevated the green, the shallower the trajectory into the spot, so the harder it is to deaden the ball and the stronger the skip off the green’s surface. Also, the smaller the target, the less skipping room the ball has when it hits.

The problem with having the ball bounce off the green is that you never know where it will stop. Depending on the landing spot, you need to consider your options carefully. Choosing the wrong option can really cost you strokes. Depending on the lie and the situation, hit a shot you have confidence in and are proficient at, not a shot you’ve never player before. Staying conservative in this situation saves strokes more often than not, as I’ve said in my golf tips.

If you see players hitting a lot of shots with high trajectories, you know you have a course where hitting good approach shots are a must. Learning to hit approach shots with high trajectories will help you conquer many difficult courses and will keep your golf handicap from ratcheting upwards. Conquering these coursed is a challenge. But it can be done with the help of a well-conceived pre-round strategy and technically sound swing. So don’t be intimidated by them.

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.

Keep it under the trees with this low runner

By Chuck Winstead
golf magazine top 100 teacher
Published: November 01, 2005

What it is: A running punch shot

What it’s for: Keeping your ball below low-hanging branches

When a tree branch is hanging between your ball and the green, hitting the ball under it requires some adjustments. But the payoff is big: If the ball is sitting clean, a low-flying runner just might scoot all the way to the green.

The Play
To keep the ball low and chase it down the fairway, you need to control the three things that make it go up: loft, clubhead speed and backspin. Typically you hit down on irons. In this case, you want to flatten out the bottom of your swing.

1. Use a 5-iron and position the ball two inches back from the middle of your stance. This will tilt the club’s shaft forward and de-loft the face.

2. Make a three-quarter-length backswing for better control.

3. At impact, don’t let your right forearm rotate over your left. Think of this shot as a really long chip and finish with the clubhead below the level of your hands. It might help to squeeze the club a little tighter with your left side so your right forearm can’t turn over.

4. The low knuckleball produced should run well down the fairway after landing so, when possible, aim away from any bunkers short of the green. If bunker play is a weakness, plan to hit short of them.

From Golf.com

We’ve all faced this shot at some point—a lob over a greenside bunker. And we’ve all probably chipped the ball into the bunker at one time or another, costing ourselves strokes. It may even have cost us the hole, if we’re playing match play. Mistakes like that chip away at our confidence, so the next time we face the same shot, we’re worried more about coming up short than hitting the ball past the hole. It’s enough to keep us awake at night.While the greenside lob is a challenge for most weekend golfers, it doesn’t have to be your undoing, not if you follow the keys listed below.

Six keys to hitting a lob over a greenside bunker:

* Check out your lie
* Take a nearly full swing
* Drop the club into the ball
* Keep the clubface pointed to the sky
* Let your legs and body rotate
* Keep your head stable and centered

The key to making this shot is the lie. Check it out carefully before making a decision. If you have a tight lie, you won’t be able to slide your club under the ball and you’ll skull it. If have a fluffy lie, you’ll get under the ball too much and dump it into the bunker. Neither mistake is good. So get a firm sense of how much grass is behind the ball and how much air is under it before deciding what to do.

Once you’re committed, assume a slightly open stance, take a full backswing, and “drop” the club into the ball, popping it up. Keep the clubface pointed to the sky as you complete a short follow-through. And let your legs and body rotate forward, but keep your head stable and centered. If you’re in deeper rough, make a slightly faster swing to compensate for the grass.

You’ll need to work on this shot in practice to master distance control. Place a club 15 yards ahead of you and try landing shots just past it. With practice, you’ll learn to hit the shot properly and stop worrying about coming up short. You’ll also build confidence. And you’ll be able to sleep again.

 Article from www.Howtobreak80.com Newsletter - November 7, 2007