you think you can’t, you’re right.

The statement above is attributed to wise old Henry Ford who built one of the most successful companies in America that is still going strong today.  He may have had other things in mind when he made the statement, but it certainly applies 100% to the game of golf.

Today we are going to discuss attitude. Do you play regularly on one single course? Are you familiar with this course enough to be able to play it mentally even away from the golf course. Have you heard the story about the pilot who was shot down in the Vietnam conflict, and wound up in prison for the next 3 years?

Every day of his capture he would play a round of golf in his mind. When he was released and finished with all the debriefing he went to that course and played his first round in 3 years of “no golf.” He shot a 76!

Prior to leaving for Vietnam his best round had been 85. How could that happen? After three years of torture and sleep deprivation, anguish about surviving another day with not much hope of even being released, he returns to his golf course and performs a near perfect round of golf.

(For the record, Snopes.com says that this story is an urban myth. Though it has been repeated often from some fairly reputable sources including Zig Ziglar, and Dr. Denis Waitley which is where I originally heard it.)

While it may indeed be an urban myth, the concept is not. You can use your imagination and visualization techniques to vastly improve your golf game. Lets go back and look at your home golf course as an example.

“Attitude is Everything”

There are times when you arrive at a certain tee box on your course and you may remember that the last few times you were here that you may have performed poorly on the tee shot or approach or whatever. Over time this can lead to developing an attitude about this hole. “It always gives me fits,” or “Every time that I play this hole I,___fill in the blank_____.” “When I compete with my buddies and I double bogie my first 2 holes, the game is finished” “I will never catch up.” You know that these attitudes are game killers, but you are not quite sure how to correct them.

Lets examine those statements a bit. Notice that they have a universal finality, the words “always” , “every” and “never” are called universals in logic. These words are also making statements about your behavior that are not necessarily true. You really don’t “know” always and every, you “know” that in the past you have had that experience.

However, you do not “know” that this is true of your future performance. So, the first step is to watch your “self” talk and catch yourself when you are tempted with an “I’m always” thought. It simply is not true on the golf course or even of life in general.

Speaking of self talk, this should be a part of your set up routine. You have probably played your home course often enough to have accomplished a great shot on any given hole. Remember when you chipped in for a fantastic birdie? Remember when you sank that 60’ putt or that drive down the middle that left you with the perfect approach on the dog-leg? (the shot that you accomplished that was absolutely a thing of beauty) This is the kind of victorious thinking that you want to have on every shot that you take.  Part of your setup routine as you stand behind the ball looking down the fairway should be a knowing attitude that you have done it before and can do it again.

Hey that is why we play the game!

In a word it could best be described as a visualization which leads to an attitude of “I can”. The power of visualization is certainly a strong factor in everything that you learn to do. When you think about it you have already been through this process many times before.

We move through 4 stages of learning from unconsciously incompetent to conscious incompetence, to conscious competence and finally unconscious competence.  Put another way, when you are totally new to a subject you don’t even know that you don’t know, but when you get it completely learned you can execute without thinking like tying your shoe.

Think back to when you learned how to ride a bike or drive a car, the first few times you performed it was scary for you and for others watching. Eventually you got to the point where you did what you needed to accomplish without even thinking at all.

With visualization you can spend some time off the course playing the hole in your mind and seeing yourself make those perfect shots. The professionals are taught in “Q” school to “see” any shot from 120 yards as being a “make-able” shot. Your chances of making a putt are significantly better when you “see” the putt going into the hole. When you know that you can make any given shot on a golf course then it becomes a matter of attitude. You approach every shot with the confidence that since you have done it before there is no reason why it will not happen again, right here and right now.

“Be still my beating heart”

Golf is touted as a non-contact sport. It is one of the few sports that can and often is performed with only yourself playing against the challenges of the course itself. Then you add in the challenges presented by the fact that you are playing with presence of others. You are adding a competition element that can sometimes get the best of you.

Beginning golfers or even professionals have encountered challenges in their own minds that come from the presence of an audience. It is amazing to watch sometimes as some uncouth heckler yells some unkind words at a professional during a tournament. The “Pro” ignores the remark and executes a perfect shot anyway.

Sometimes however, we let that uncouth spectator be ourselves and yell in our own minds. In a word, “Don’t” There is no substitute for practice, you need to know that you can execute. You discover that on the practice facility first. You need to know how far your irons and woods travel. You need to own some wedge shots with a half swing or quarter swing that you know you can repeat.

As you develop a successful “golf shot ownership” you will know that you can execute. When you know that you “can” then all that is left is that you “do.” You need to concentrate on your knowledge of past successes. Meaning “success” is your dominant thought when it becomes your turn; don’t self sabotage by thinking of past failures.

Thanks for taking the time to read. If you liked this, be sure to sign up for my 10 part course on  golf mental habits that you can develop to improve your game.

Until next time, hit them straight and seldom.

Michael Brown

Technorati Tags: golf attitude, golf mental game, Mental Golf Game, visualization in golf

For most of us weekend warriors, golfing is more about relaxing and having a nice time on the golf course. Having the ability to shape your golf shot to draw or fade (not slice or hook) at will can add immensely to that enjoyment. After we have succeeded in learning to hit the ball straight at the target, the next important thing is to learn how get around the occasional tree or obstacle in the way.

The fade and draw are important to know even when there are no obstacles in our path. More often we will encounter situations where the ball is above or below our feet. The simple act of trying to hit the ball straight at the target is then complicated by the hill-side lie. So learning to compensate for the conditions you naturally find on most golf courses will go a ways in training you to hit these shots

For instance the draw is a shot that you want to curve to the left (if you are a right handed golfer). When you find yourself on a hill side with the ball below your feet you will be forced to set up to the ball in a way that will slightly emulate the same stance you would use for a draw if you were hitting off of a level lie. This is just so you can produce a straight shot.

Why?

Because you will automatically draw the ball to the left if you adopt your normal stance without compensating for the hill side. Here is what I mean, the ball below your feet will have you bending over more and your swing will be more around yourself than normal. If you address the ball with your shoulders pointing directly at the target your shot will wind up left of the target, because your club-face is closing more quickly with this type of “around” swing. Instead, set up to the ball with your club-face aimed slightly right of the target(don’t change that club-face alignment), move your right foot (non-target foot) back about 2″ depending on the severity of the hill, aim your shoulders in the direction established by your feet and then make your swing. Here is what should happen: your body alignment will have you making a more inside to outside swing, your club-face will be closed with respect to your body, the ball should start out heading to the right and then curve back to the left.

You would think that the opposite should be true for the different lie of the ball above your feet. However, the dynamics are the same, in both cases you are swinging around your body more than you would be for a level lie. In the case of the ball below your feet you bend more at the waist/knees and stand closer to the ball, with the up-hill lie you are standing more upright waist and knees (TO KEEP YOUR BALANCE) and also swing more around your body. The correction is also the same. Drop your right foot back a few inches and swing inside to out with a shoulder/body alignment pointing to the right of the target. Having grown up playing mountain courses with un-level fairways I have proven this to myself on numerous occasions. On too many of those occasions I found myself way left of my intended target until I learned to correct for the hill-side.

The next time you go to the driving range try to find an un-level lie situation and try this out for yourself. You may need to watch the video more than once to understand the technique, but these shots are a great thing to be able to pull out of your bag for certain situations. Comments are most welcome, let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Curved Golf Shot, Draw Golf Shot, Draw or Fade, Fade Golf Shot

The introductory video that I watched had an interesting feature to it that I had never seen or heard about.  Tracy gives a thorough explanation of  the value of balance in the golf swing and what he says makes a tremendous amount of sense.   Before I heard Tracy’s ideas my standard approach to the golf swing was a rushed address and a hasty swing which was rarely a deliberate setup  with an in balance stance.

After viewing this small piece of information I went out to the course to give it a try.  As someone who rarely broke 90, my swing was inconsistent, my setup routine was non-existent and my drives and fairway irons rarely went as far as they should have.  The balance aspect was the root cause of most of my problems.  In a word, I was “SWAYING.”

I would move over onto my right side in my back-swing, usually too far.  Then struggle on the downswing to get back to center to hit the ball, much less have any sort of weight transfer to my left foot for a proper finish.  On top of that my timing was poor and my wrist cock was expended before the club had even passed 9 oclock on the downswing.

Tracy’s simple counsel was to start with a balanced stance, that you settle into so that you truly feel balanced.  Then tilt your upper body slightly toward your right or non target side.  In other words instead of moving there in your back-swing you start out there.   This puts you in a position to take an efficient back-swing without moving your weight outside of your back foot enabling you to focus on transferring your weight onto your front side.

There is no magic or hocus/pocus here, when you start your swing in balance and stay within the parameters of the balls of your feet the weight transfer occurs naturally. The consequence is that you are able to deliver maximum power to the ball.  The results are immediate, your swing improves immensely.  The timing takes place naturally and your body co-operates by spending  it’s energy swinging through the golf ball instead of trying to regain your lost balance.

If you add to this a good setup routine in which you insure a correct grip, insure that correct muscles are engaged (every time you address the ball) and a short mental/visual check-list (where do you plan to land).  You will have given your self a chance at curing the most common complaint that golfers have.  Which is: Golf Consistency!

That is what I discovered.  Those two simple video’s on Tracy’s site showed me how to setup in balance, how to swing in balance and finish with my weight transferred to my target side foot.  The swing became repeatable because the steps to get into balance were repeated every time and this made the results predictable.  I did not have to change my grip, or change my swing or add anything new.  I simply learned how to setup in balance and stay there through-out the swing.

Tracy  spent 20 years developing and refining his technique to come out with Golf Swing Control .  The issue of staying in balance is the beginning of building a consistent golf game, once that is mastered the game becomes much more exciting as you can now focus on mastering the ability to draw or fade the ball at will.  When you have learned to craft your shots you can then move on to learning how to control your golf focus to get even more consistency into your golf game.

You can opt in to see the two video’s that I mentioned at http://ultimategolfsystem.com I won’t make any outrageous claims as to decreased strokes for your game, for each golfer it will be different.  I can tell you however,  that  having a predictable golf swing is priceless.

Technorati Tags: consistent golf game, Golf Consistency, Golf Swing Control, Tracy Reed

Getting up and down from the sand does not have to cause any jitters for you if you know what to do. I have only heard stories of famous sand-traps on some golf courses which give even the professionals trouble. The 17th hole of St. Andrews comes to mind, Hells Bunker looks pretty scary. Certainly, when you are confronted with a ten foot wall the prospect of making your shot go straight up will be intimidating.

Lets take a look at some strategies for getting out. There are two strategies for dealing with bunkers. With a fairway bunker the obvious choice is to get out of the bunker with maximum travel for your ball. In most cases the lip of a fairway bunker is a bit lower than a hole-side bunker. So you will want to take a club that will clear the lip of the bunker and still give you the most distance. On occasion your ball may alight in a place where it is not possible to do much more than get out and sometimes that even mean by going backward. I can hear you you saying, now you have lost me “why would you want to go backward?”

Consider, your ball sits in the sand right next to the 3′ lip, if you try to advance the ball it will hit the lip and remain in the bunker. In this case the best strategy would be to go sideways or even backwards to lose one stroke getting out and being favorably set up for your following shot. Th fellow in the video below obviously missed this part of the lesson as he takes 10 strokes before he decides that backwards is a better course of action.

So, take enough club loft to clear the edge of the bunker. Next for the fairway bunker you want to pick the ball as cleanly off the sand as you can. To insure the best chance for that to occur you should line up to the ball with the ball slightly behind the middle of your stance. This will insure that your club comes into contact with the ball before it hits the sand. As long as you hit the ball before the sand you will get most of the distance (I would venture at least 80%) for whatever club you are using. I have used as much as a 3 Wood to hit from the sand with reasonable results.

For the fairway trap that is the only thing that will change as far as alignment. Your shoulders, hips and knees should remain on the target line with just the adjustment of ball positioning being the only change you would make.

The green-side bunker is a different animal entirely. Here you are faced with °number of decisions. Club selection may vary depending on how close or how far you are from the hole. You could go from using a 64° lob wedge for something nearly up and down to a 9 iron if you are 75 yards away from the pin.  For the green-side bunker your body alignment will change to an open stance. By body alignment I mean the knees and the hips, your shoulders should always be pointed at the pin or your target.  The reason for the open alignment is to insure that the club will swing through the sand and the ball and not be inhibited or blocked by your body.

Two things real quickly.  Number one is attitude; if you landed in the sand next to the green you are close and your next shot could be “in” so remember, “Sand is my friend” is a good saying to have.  Secondly the technique and swing is always the same for a green-side bunker shot, to get more distance for your shot you may change clubs to decrease the loft and increase the distance.  Finally, a well struck sand shot will have a lot of back-spin and tend to stop unless you are above the hole so it is usually safe to aim for the shot to go straight for the pin.

 Now here is the important thing to remember sand shots are always full swing shots.  The fact that you are close to the hole makes no difference in the size or fullness of your swing.  Your distance is controlled by the loft of the club and the openness of the face.  If I need the ball to travel three yards laterally I would use a very open faced 60° lob wedge.  On the  other hand  if I needed 40 yards of carry I might use a 48° pitching wedge with a square facing alignment.  In both cases I would take a full swing into the sand expecting to hit behind the ball by an inch or two at the most and accelerate through the ball knowing that the ball was coming out with a cushion of sand to slow it down and land it softly.

How do I know that I will hit behind the ball?  For every golf shot you take  the bottom of the arc of the swing will be in the middle right? That is when the leading edge of the club is at it’s deepest point.  Knowing this, I simply line up with the ball in the center of my stance, the butt end of the club will be pointed directly at my belly button.  I know that at this point the clubhead will be burried in the sand during my downswing.  Next I want to open up my body so I don’t block the swing and to do that I simply move my target side foot back about 6″, this opens my lower body and I keep my shoulders aimed at the target.  This is the set up that I use on every sand shot, when I want to reduce the distance of lateral travel I open the face of the club as well.  I would do this for a very close shot.

A few trips to your local range will give you an opportunity to try this out.  Here is what you want to find out.  How far does the ball travel with my lob60°, sand56° and pitching48° with a square face alignment.  Next by degrees open up the face of your club you want to know how open your clubface needs to be to take the shortest (Laterally)possible shot.  In 45 minutes at the practice facility you can own 3 full swings for 3 different clubs that will give you a range of distances from 60 yards on in. 

I hope this helps you to feel comfortable with the sand.  By practicing to own a swing you can repeat it any time any where with a good degree of confidence that you will be close to the pin every time.  The ball in the center setup eliminates the fear of “flyer’s” when you know the club will be beneath the ball for every shot that you take.

Agree? Disagree?  Hit the comments below and we will talk, thanks.

Hit them straight and seldom,

Michael Brown

Technorati Tags: full swing, sand shot, sand-traps, sandtraps

garmin-approach-s1-gps-golf-watch

Garmin has finally seen the light with this wrist watch. The Garmin Approach S1 GPS Golf Watch gives you all the essential information you need to make the correct club selection without the hassle of fumbling for a separate device.

Why?

Because the device is attached to you in the form of a wrist watch. What a great idea. Glance down at your wrist period, no fumbling through your golf bag for the laser finder, no running back to the cart to check the GPS (If the course has one).

Duh, where have I been? I love to play golf and it is a lot of fun to play new courses. It is especially enjoyable when the new (for you) course you are playing has GPS in their carts so you will have some clue about distances. Over the years I have played around with many different range finding devices, from the simple $10 telescope with a line on the top of the inner glass to a fancy program for my palm pilot.  I discovered with the palm  that I needed my reading glasses to make use of the program. This became so much of a distraction that I stopped carrying it after the third round.

I never had the urge to buy the laser binoculars as one of the guys in my normal foursome already has a pair.   I find it interesting to watch as I am standing next to a marked sprinkler head and watch as my partner struggles to hold the binoculars steady to get a reading and then tells me a couple of yards more than the head indicates. The bottom line is that all you need is a fair approximation of the distances.  Assuming you have done your work on the range and know the distances that each of your clubs will carry then you will know which club to choose.

The Garmin Approach S1 GPS Golf Watch has three modes besides telling you the time.  It will keep track of the total distance (odometer) that you have walked on the entire course.  It will track the distance of your individual shots,  so you can set it after you take your shot, walk to your ball and get the distance.  Finally, it will give you a distance to the pin so you can make the best choice of an approach club.  For your local course you probably already know that, but for an unfamiliar course this can be highly useful.  (My first round on an unfamiliar course usually adds 4-6  strokes due to miscalculations)

If you are looking for a full-blown GPS lay-out with maps to the hazards, you will probably not like this device.  It does not yield this kind of information. But if simple distance and convenience is important then this is the best choice I have seen.  No more digging in your bag for the glasses or laser finder, no trips the cart to check the map (especially on a “cart path only” course).  It comes with 14,000 courses pre-loaded, with more being added, so your course is probably already there.  Plus you will not have any software subscriptions or extra fiddling.  The only serious complaint that I have heard is the charge time, apparently it is only good for a single round before it needs to be recharged.  (36 hole days are rare for me so this will not be a problem).

You can see the approach watch at the Hole in One site

Technorati Tags: Garmin Approach S1 GPS Golf Watch, golf range finder, GPS for golf

Online golf lessons are becoming increasingly more prevalent. In just a few short years you are now able to go to the internet and search on Youtube for almost any aspect of your golf game. You will find after a bit of searching a little snippet of video that will begin to address some of your concerns.   I say begin, because 2 minutes is hardly enough to satisfy you when you have just spent 4 hours  of misery on the golf course trying to figure out what went wrong with your swing.

When you take lessons from a professional you typically show up in your golf attire with your bag in tow.  He comes out and begins to speak, he will then demonstrate his desired result and then turn it over to you to attempt to duplicate. Since this is a hands on training, you will probably not whip out your notepad to take notes.

You may or may not be able to copy his swing pattern and accomplish the required motion.  Forty-five minutes later the lesson is finished and you are “fixed” with new technique.  For this you paid at least $50 if the professional is worth his salt.  I know, you bought the package for $300 and you get a two day intensive or a 10 lesson series.  Rarely do they send you home with the “Cliff notes” that you can refer to when you are having challenges later on.

What do you do two months later when the exact motions begin to fade and you have reverted to your old patterns?

Today you are able to purchase DVD’s that will address the specific areas of golf that  challenge you.  Not only are you able to own a DVD with the lesson but several of the available coaches also offer forums and live webinars that enable you to ask questions directly.

Bobby Eldrige and Purepoint golf offer both of these things.  You are able to select from a series of online golf lessons that deal with several different aspects of the game. Whether it is the driver, the long irons or closer to the pin with your wedges, there is a training DVD available to address that specific area of your game.  The sweet thing about owning the DVD is the ability to go back and review a year or two later if any problems crop up.  Not only that the DVD’s are often priced at less than the cost of a single lesson.

You may want to simply brush up on your skills or find some warm up exercises.  The Apprentice club may be just what you are looking for.  For $1 you can sample a month’s worth of the great training tips, short training videos (downloadable) with a private forum and monthly training webinars.  A major key to improving your game is knowing your statistics, the “apprentice club” gives you a series of tools to track your game and chart your improvement as the weeks go by.

Each month there is a different focus, from putting to the driver, all aspects are covered over the course of a year. This is a great investment, for $14.97 a month you will receive a complete golfing education.  Online golf lessons on demand for your total golf game, you can tune in on your own schedule and work on any aspect you need to focus on.  If you are serious about improving your game it deserves a look; it worked for me.  The Apprentice Club

Technorati Tags: online golf lessons

It is amazing to watch as week after week the pro’s go to different golf courses and no matter what the conditions they seem to score well and meet the demands of the course.  In most cases for a 4 day tournament they will have arrived on Monday or Tuesday at the latest, typically play in a pro-am on Wednesday and by Thursday they are teeing off. In their golf mental game they have already developed strategies for the methods they will use to conquer the more challenging holes.

Here are some questions to consider when you play a course for the first time.  Use these questions to formulate your strategy for your next visit.

• Should I be using a driver to tee off on this hole? Sometimes a driver will get you into more trouble.  In a lot of cases the better option would be to use a lesser distance club that you can control to set yourself up for the next shot.  A driver may bring you the distance that you want but it is not the most accurate club in your bag. If you can shape your shots with a driver then use it. If that distance will put you through the fairway into the deep rough, it is not the best club to use.

• What is the best club that I can be using to make the shot that I need? You are 120 yards out and beneath some trees, do you use your 9 iron? (I know dumb question  but I have unfortunately seen it happen more than once) Maybe the better club would be a low flying 5 iron chip or “stinger”.

• Is it always best to shoot straight for the hole? Should I always advance the ball toward the target?  If you are in serious trouble as in behind a tree it is better to take your next shot to get back into the fairway so that your following shot is set up to get you there. I see this all the time, people trying impossible shots that most professionals would not attempt.

• Where is the flag on the green? What is the best angle of approach to the flag. As a general rule this does not come into play very often, however there are times when the pin placement means that you can access it much better from the left side or right side. When you are teeing off it is very useful to know. A pin placement on the back left side of the green is much more accessible from the right side, than over a bunker on the left.

• Is the shot that I am about to attempt within my capabilities? I know, you have seen Phil Mickelson execute this fantastic “butterfly lob” from the hillside of the raised green. Have you practiced this shot enough to be able to execute it?  If not then use a shot that you are confident of making.

• When do you lay-up? You are 230 yards out from the hole, but there is a lake to cross a hundred yards down the fairway. Too many times I see this, the odds of getting the perfect fairway boomer with your three wood are significantly less than a couple of well placed wedge shots. The first shot will keep your ball dry the second could be in the cup!

• Does my previous experience on this hole dictate my performance today? So the last time you played, this or that happened and you had a bad experience with this hole.  Does that mean that every time you play this hole something bad is going to happen? Take some time to study the hole.  Course designers lay out a lot of holes out with visual obstacles that really shouldn’t affect your shot, but they do if you let them.  You tee off on a hole with a lake running down the right side, the lake seems to creep into the center of your vision even though the fairway is directly in front of you.  Focus on your perfect shot for the fairway, your previous lake ball should not dictate today’s performance.

Keep these questions in the next time you hit the course. They may help you to score better, especially on the second round for a new course.  Below is a good video which illustrates some of the things which I have mentioned. I apologize for the dimensions, unfortunately Youtube will not let me change them.

Hit them Straight and Seldom

Michael Brown

Technorati Tags: Golf Mental Strategies, Mental Golf Tips

This Rock sits on the left side of hole #7 Tee Box at Evergreen GC.   The arrows point at 2 Rock Badgers who sit and watch as golfers tee off.  They live in the cave beneath the rock.

I read today that 70% of all golf shots take place from 100 yards in to the pin.  The article went on to say that the pros spend 80 to 90% of their time practicing in this area of their game.  Having a long game that will get you to the green in few shots is great, but you don’t have to be long in order to score well.  Here are some golf short game tips that will help you to become lethal around the green.

In his book the “Short Game Bible” Dave Pelz talks about how he spent years collecting data on pro golfers and their shots.  He discovered that they were very good at selecting the right club and swing for their distance into the green but the landing pattern was often a spray to the left or to the right. In other words their distance was usually very accurate, while their direction was not always what they were hoping to accomplish.  For us non professional golfers, I suspect that generally this would be true as well.

So this means that once we know the distances that a given club will fly, our next task is to get extremely accurate.  The first obvious task is to build a repeatable method of aiming.  The best way I know is the “intermediate target”; pick out a spot directly in front of your ball, imagine the ball flying over this spot on its way to the hole.  You would select the spot when standing behind the ball but make sure that you can see it when you align yourself for the shot. As you go through your set-up routine you should insure that your club face, shoulders and hips are aimed directly over this spot.  This should be an automatic part of your set-up routine.

Next is your attitude, the professionals generally consider anything from 120 yards in as a make-able shot.  Think about it, do you see the ball going into the cup when you are 80 to a 100 yards away?  I call it a “Hole in One Mentality”.  It may sound like voodoo, but I assure you, your body will cooperate in helping you to make the best possible swing to achieve this goal when you incorporate it into your thoughts.  You do this on the green, so why not use it from 120 yards in.

The next aspect of scoring well around the green is what is referred to as “touch”.  Touch is the ability to get close to the hole, leaving yourself with a make-able putt.  Touch can be developed with practice. Use a three club system at the practice facility and learn how far a chip will go with a 7, 8,9 or any combination of wedges. Learn your distances in correlation to your back-swing. If my ball is considered 6 o’clock and I swing back to 8 o’clock; how far does it travel?  Now learn those same distances for a 9 o’clock swing and an 11 o’clock swing. When you arrive near the green armed with this knowledge you will perform with touch.

As a long time student of the game I have read my fair share of theory and articles on golf. A few years ago I picked up the Purepoint Golf Short-Game DVD.  Bobby Eldridge finally helped me to develop a repeatable swing for my short game.  His series has now expanded to include  Pitching and Bunker-shot DVD’s as well as written PDF’s so you can study in a variety of ways.  For less than the cost of a single lesson from a Professional you can add a terrific resource to your library. It is currently on sale for the next few days as a bundle package but that will not last for long.  It deserves a serious evaluation and I might add Bobby has a guarantee that is unlike any I have ever seen.  See for yourself.

Hit them Straight and Seldom

Michael Brown

Technorati Tags: golf lessons dvd, golf setup routine, Golf Short Game Tips

When I started playing golf and got bitten by the golf bug, I was not that good.  It took a long time to master the technique of getting off of the tee box without embarrassing myself.  In self defense for my lack of a long game I focused on my short game and now I am fairly good at getting up and down in regulation.  Here are five short game tips that I picked up over the years that have served me very well.

• Always Keep Your Weight on Your Target Side Foot.

Whether you are pitching or chipping  you need to insure that you will hit cleanly through the ball so keep your weight on  your target side foot.  I have heard estimates of anywhere from 60 to 90 percent, I don’t know how much nor could I even tell how much while I am doing it but keeping my weight forward toward the target insures that I will make crisp contact with the ball before I hit the ground.  Whether I am pitching from 60 or 80 out or chipping from 20 yards that part of my stance is the same.

• Lead With Your Hands

When you set up to the ball make sure that your hands lead the club through the ball as you strike it.  By leading with the hands I am making sure that there is no independent wrist action to interfere with my swing. (Don’t be scooper!)  It also makes me depend on the length of my back swing for my distance.   These days most golfers carry at least 3 wedges,  I carry 4  (No 3 or 4 irons for me) I have taken the time to learn my full swing distance with all of them.   I also know approximately how far it will go with a 11 o’clock,   9 o’clock and 7 o’clock swing. (See Judging Distances) Now the only thing remaining is the shape of my shot do I want it to release and roll? Use a lower lofted club.  Do I want it to land and stop?  Use a higher lofted club.

• For Short Chips Use a Putting Stroke

So you are in the fringe; your putter cannot make clean contact with the ball.  What do you do?  Treat it like a putt.  Read the green, look for the break, do all the things you would do if it were a putt.  Now select the club which will get you to the hole, it may be a 7 iron if you have a long putt, it could be a wedge for a shorter putt or a downhill lie.   Now use a putting stoke to make contact with the ball, straight back and straight through.  Remember you are going for the hole, when you treat it like a putt and stroke the ball with the same care you would take for a putt you will be amazed at how many chips you make.

• Sand is My Friend!

In a lot of cases, on a lot of golf courses the green-side sand traps are there to challenge you.  In some cases they are a much better alternative to the other obstacles nearby.  Wouldn’t you rather hit out of the sand than the lake next to it?  Make a decision today… from now on:  “Sand is my friend!”  There, now that we have cleared the psychological issues, remember;  sand shots are always full swing shots.  Half swings will get you half way out of the trap.  Make sure that the ball is slightly forward of the center of your stance.

Why?

Your club must go through the sand to launch your ball, it is at its lowest point of arc at the center of your stance, it will enter the sand slightly behind the center of the stance, it will come out slightly ahead of the center of your stance, carrying your ball with it cushioned by a nice layer of sand.  Knowing this, you will always get out of the sand in one stroke as long as you take a full stroke.   The bigger question is how far will it go and how do you tell.  Glad you asked, for a shorter shot open the face of the club and as you open the face open your stance (Move your target foot back and face the target more with your body, open the face of your club aiming the toe of the club farther to the right).  For a longer shot stay straight and keep the club face perpendicular to the target as in a normal shot.   The sand wedge should be your normal sand club , but when you are really close use your 60 degree lob wedge.  You can take a full swing with an open faced lob wedge and only travel 5 feet if you want.  Remember, “Sand is My Friend”

• Accelerate Through the Ball

It happens to us all, we are in the rough but close to the pin, we know that we need to swing hard enough to get the club to the ball through the grass but that we might catch it thin and skull it across the green.  Oh how many times have I seen this happen or done it myself.  Midway through the swing the brakes go on and we slow the swing down.  The result? A dismal little phuttui, the ball rolls over the descending club and goes nowhere.   Put your weight on the target side foot, take a couple of good practice swings to get a feel for the grass, open the club-face if it has to be  really short (If you open your club face you should open your stance as well)  then make your normal swing and keep accelerating through the ball.  Yes, you will get an occasional flier, but more often you will have a great shot.

Several of the tips I have mentioned are fully explained by
Bobby Eldridge on his Short Game DVD   Golf Training Video

Thanks, Michael Brown

Technorati Tags: Golf Short Game

We have been told for years to visualize the shot; “See in our minds eye the perfect shot, landing where it is supposed to, setting us up for the next one…” Tracy says no, that is all in the future, that happens after you have made the swing. If you concentrate on the activities after the swing you are ignoring the important part of the activity that has to occur first. That is the swing itself.

The swing is constituted of the set-up, the back-swing, the transition, and the down-swing and it is here that you should be concentrating your efforts. Seeing the perfect swing is the most critical activity you can perform. However all the conscious imaginings of perfect swing may not occur unless the subconscious mind is also intimately involved in the process of making the swing happen.

So how do you get your subconscious mind involved? First, think about what the subconscious mind controls. The subconscious mind is the part of our system that remembers to breathe, it is in charge of all of our autonomic functions,(I know another big word) heart-beat etcetera. Basically it is in charge of all our life and death functions. One of those functions is staying in balance.

Think about the very best, most incredible swing you ever performed. When you finished the swing you were certainly in balance. In fact throughout the swing, you never for a micro-second lost your balance. The subconscious mind is in control of your balance, by consciously setting up for the swing in a way that will give you an optimal chance to maintain your balance you are at least optimizing the chances to remain in balance throughout the swing.

Now, how about consistency? I remember last week connecting on my drive on #9 for a booming drive that left me standing with this awesome club held high finish.  Whoohoo! I went on to number 10 and hooked my drive way left. So much for setup; I thought I did it the same thing each time. Tracy has an excellent suggestion which I have not yet tried.

Make your subconscious mind participate in the process by training it to cooperate with your conscious mind. How? Go to the range and hit a bucket of balls with your eyes closed. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? But think about it. With your eyes closed you will have to rely on your sense of balance and feel and combine it with your conscious imagination. You are allowed to set up to the ball with your eyes open, but from the time you start your back-swing until you connect keep them closed.

Nuff for now, I am going to the range.   Check out his blog

Technorati Tags: golf mental game, Subconscious Golf Training