Per last weeks discussion on lower ball flight, I have once again included the impact photos below. After implementing last weeks impact position with your lead arm vs. shaft position, several of you discovered that your divots were too deep. Some of you were down far enough to find some lost treasures and the cracked bones of perished golf dreams. This week we will discuss a power move that allows you to get into the tour impact position and create shallow divots.
Separation- sep·a·ra·tion [sèppə ráysh'n] (plural sep·a·ra·tions) n keeping of things apart: the act or process of separating things
This weeks power move is created with SEPARATION of lower body and upper body movement. Congrats to Louis Oosthuizen on winning the British Open. You probably noticed that he hit a lot of low shots without taking deep divots. This is the result of the lower body sliding towards the target while the upper body is (separated) and tilted away from the target. This upper body tilt shallows the swing path and allows for clean contact and thin divots.
As you read this golf tip, please keep in mind that it may not apply to your unique needs. Always consult with your local PGA professional (that would be Scott Seifferlein if you are new to how this worksJ) before attempting to apply any golf tip you have read from a newspaper, magazine, book, internet, your 20 handicap brother-in-law, etc.
I was atEgyptValleya few weeks ago to conduct a beat the pro for the West Michigan Dental Society (call me directly to learn how a beat the pro can raise an extra $800 for your non-profit). We were on the 12thhole of the Valley course. The flag was up front on the narrow part of the green. Most golfers were either short left or short right, leaving themselves a shot from the deep rough to a flag only 10 to 20 feet from the edge of the green. The green is also pitched up about 8 feet so the players who were short right or left had to go quite a bit up hill as well. On top of that challenge, the rough was 3 inches deep in preparation for the national junior championship to be played in July. This made for some difficult shots. But to add to the difficulty...
It really surprised me how many of these players tried to hit Pitching wedges in this situation. After a while, I started asking a few of them why they were using pitching wedges. Some said that was all they had. Others thought the sand wedge was only for the sand and they didn't have a lob wedge (nor did they know what one is) and then a few had a lob wedge but didn't know what it was for.
We are talking dentists here. You know, the guys and gals that take Friday afternoon's off and have plenty of time to learn how to hit a lob wedge. I digress.
Hopefully you have a lob wedge already. If not, you need to get one. And they are currently on special offer at The Highlands Golf Club. Anywho... here is how to use it.
Depending on your risk tolerance, you may want to hit this shot like a normal pitch shot, just use your lob wedge and allow the club to create the loft. If you want to get on ESPN with the Phil Mickelson lob shot follow this (high insurance premium) shot type-
Please keep in mind that this is a high risk play and should only be used if there is no other option or if you have practiced like it was your job. Take your highest lofted club. Set the clubface to the ball slightly open and with added loft. (You artificially add loft by having your hands even with the ball or even slightly back of the ball vs. the common hands slightly ahead position) Play the ball slightly forward in relation to your bodies center. Make an aggressive swing that is slightly more vertical (earlier hand hinge will set the shaft more vertical) in the backswing. On the downswing you will need to create a path that swings a bit outside of the plane and then back inside and across the ball through impact. If you exagerate this swing path more than ½ inch you will create too much risk and end up shanking and topping the ball.
The aggressive swing utilizes all parts of the body. If you find that you are blading this shot over the green your hands are probably creating all the forward motion of the club head and it will be on its way up at impact. Your body should still turn through this shot and your weight should be into your lead leg before impact.
A correct pivot makes this shot much easier. If you have a tendency to reverse pivot your spine will tilt towards the target and make the lob shot very difficult. Even though your weight is moving left you should still have a spine direction away from the target to hit this shot high and soft.
As you read this golf tip, please keep in mind that it may not apply to your unique needs. Always consult with your local PGA professional (that would be Scott Seifferlein if you are new to how this worksJ) before attempting to apply any golf tip you have read from a newspaper, magazine, book, internet, your 20 handicap brother-in-law, etc.
Last week we talked about putting consistently fromanydistance. On Sunday, I played with 3 other golfers in the Annual Elks Officer's Golf Tournament. And sure enough, we were almost always on-line with our putts, but we were either coming up short or long. Regardless of whether it was a 20 footer or a 50 footer many of our putts looked like they would go in. Unfortunately our speed was off and they either rolled through the break or came up short. We had a whopping 29 putts as a result. And we didn't win anyDOUGH.
So to improve your winnings, I designed a practice routine exclusively for your distance control. Watch it here:
How to be a sharp shooter on the golf course and the gun club.
As you read this golf tip, please keep in mind that it may not apply to your unique needs. Always consult with your local PGA professional (that would be Scott Seifferlein if you are new to how this worksJ) before attempting to apply any golf tip you have read from a newspaper, magazine, book, internet, your 20 handicap brother-in-law, etc.
Golf has a lot of similarities to other swinging and throwing sports like baseball, football, hockey and tennis. But did you know; it is also similar to shooting an M1A1 Thompson Sub Machine Gun?
I certainly did not. At least not before last Monday when I shot off 320 rounds of ammunition with an M1A1 .45 Caliber Thompson Sub Machine Gun. Here are the similarities.
1.Balance-To get into a good position my shooting instructor had me lean towards the target. In golf the similarity is the back leg. As a right handed golfer your right leg is your back leg and it should lean towards the target as we discussed in week 8 and 9 of this champion success series.
2.Awareness of muscle control-As you shoot a Tommy Gun, the gun will rise and you will miss your target on the high side. It takes some awareness with your hand that holds the barrel to control the direction of the shot. You must allow your barrel hand to pull the gun down slightly to counter balance the rise. On the shooting range I was instructed to fire off some single shots to get a feel for the rise of the gun. Firing them off slowly allowed for more awareness and control. As I developed some skill, I was able to have improved control over the automatic fire. In golf, you need to develop similar awareness of club head control. That is why it is always good to warm up and train a new motion with shorter, slower swings before you move into full speed swings.
Video of the shooting at
http://seifpro.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/320-reasons/along with a special offer for you to obtain up to 320 swings or 3 rounds of golf for FREE at The Highlands Golf Club. Simply by upgrading your golf improvement membership.
As you read this golf tip, please keep in mind that it may not apply to your unique needs. Always consult with your local PGA professional (that would be Scott Seifferlein if you are new to how this worksJ) before attempting to apply any golf tip you have read from a newspaper, magazine, book, internet, your 20 handicap brother-in-law, etc.
Last week we talked about hitting a standard green side bunker shot. This week I got caught up learning 320 reasons why you should not gamble with gangsters on the golf course. I'll be sharing more later this week, but for now, let's talk about how to hit out of hard sand around the greens. You won't want to miss this one. I cover the secret to avoiding the 50 yard bladed bunker shot.
Stick it from Greenside Sand - Golf TIps Fuerteventura
As you read this golf tip, please keep in mind that it may not apply to your unique needs. Always consult with your local PGA professional (that would be Scott Seifferlein if you are new to how this worksJ) before attempting to apply any golf tip you have read from a newspaper, magazine, book, internet, your 20 handicap brother-in-law, etc.
A majority of golfers miss-interpret the idea of swinging "out to in" for a greenside bunker shot. Let's assume for a moment that you have astandardlie in average sand. Also assume that you have some 25 feet of green to work with. (average bunker shot is 40 feet, 15 feet to get out and 25 feet of green to work with. On the PGA Tour the flags are cut tighter to the edges of greens and they have to hit a lot of specialty bunker shots that only roll 10 feet.)
The average bunker shot you will encounter aroundWest Michiganrequires nothing more than your normal swing (half to ¾ length). You do not need to swing outside to in, set up open or any of the things your golf magazines lead you to believe. In fact, the more you change your set-up, the moreriskyou add to the shot.
What about the club face? You will also read that the clubface that needs to be wide open. Hold on a second. Keep in mind, the more you open the club face, the higher degree ofdifficultythe shot becomes. Sure there are some specialty bunker shots that require different set ups and different swing fundamentals. But for this week, I want you to practice hitting bunker shots just like you would a ½ to ¾ length pitch shot. With exception of the impact point. Enter the sand about 2 inches behind the ball and go into the sand at a depth of about ½ inch. This will allow for enough sand between the club face and the ball to give you the right amount of carry and backspin.
You will find that going deeper into the sand will reduce your carry distance and decrease your back spin. Entering the sand at less than ½ inch of depth will create too much carry distance, but sometimes a lot of spin.
Keep things simple for all but the specialty bunker shots and you will find yourself with more pars and bogeys and less doubles and triples.
As you read this golf tip, please keep in mind that it may not apply to your unique needs. Always consult with your local PGA professional (that would be Scott Seifferlein if you are new to how this worksJ) before attempting to apply any golf tip you have read from a newspaper, magazine, book, internet, your 20 handicap brother-in-law, etc.
At long last, we have completed our series on set-up fundamentals that encourage good impact.It is now time to move on to some specialty shots. This weeks topic will cover the dreaded fairway bunker shot. I'll proceed assuming that you are playing golf courses with well manicured bunkers and you will rarely get a bad lie. Those of you playing at Mike's Whack A' Mole Muni may want to play by Judge Smails rules from the fairway bunkers. If however you choose to "play it as it lies" or you get a rare bad lie on a normal golf course, then take a lofted club with very little bounce (Lob wedge or pitching wedge, not your sand wedge). A lofted club with little bounce will allow you to dig in deep and muscle the ball out of the bunker. Now back to a normal lie in the fairway bunker.
Your first step is to consider your options. Consider the potential risk/reward. Where are the water hazards, trees, additional bunkers that could cause you trouble. You may consider laying up rather than going for the green. And this is a wise option if you do not feel at least 90% confident you can pull off the shot. If you choose to lay up, pick your lay-up yardage carefully and commit to the shot.
For those of you going for the green- take one extra club. Grip slightly lower than normal on the grip (½ inch to an inch down is sufficient) Dig your feet in a small amount for some traction. Use your normal golf swing with the exception of a little less leg action (assuming you have a lot of leg action. If your legs are normally passive in the golf swing you can use your normal golf swing). Place another five to ten percent of your weight on the lead side of your body at set-up. This will help you catch the ball first. Commit to the shot. That is all there is to it. Your ball will fly a little shorter than normal without the extra leg action and also with the lower grip. By taking one extra club you are balancing out the loss of distance. Although not an easy shot, if you implement these strategies you should be able to avoid a big number. And that is why you landed on planet Scott. To be more consistent...Right?
