We made it to the end!

This is day five of total game improvement week. Each day for the past week (OK, five days), I posted a series of tips, drills, advice, and information designed to help every aspect of your game.

I haven’t gotten much response on the request for reader submitted tips, so tomorrow I’m just going to wrap it up with a recap of the week.

But first, we have one more day’s worth of tips, drills, and info.

Putting

One of the fascinating things that Dave Pelz shares in his Putting Bible is the fact that his research shows that golfers rarely read enough break on putts.

In fact, he tested 1,500 golfers, including 50 tour pros, and not one was reading enough break on their putts. Not even the tour pros!

When we talk break, we’re talking about the line where you start the ball, if it were extended past the hole. If a putt requires three feet of break, we’d say that the apex (high point) of the arc was three feet to either side of the hole. He found that most players, when asked to relate how much break they were playing, in fact only accounted for about 30% of the true break.

Even more staggering is that after his test subjects stated the amount of break they were playing, he measured their body and putter face alignment and found that they were still playing too little break, but that they were actually allowing for 65-75% of the true break, or more than double what they “thought” they were.

So how do golfers make any putts? Subconscious stroke corrections. During the stroke, they actually make subconscious corrections that then push them to 85-95% of the true break.

The question remains: how do golfers make any putts? By getting lucky bounces through footprints, or by stroking putts too hard.

Don’t believe it? Next time you play, write down how many putts you miss to the low side of the hole. Unfortunately, most players chalk that up to improper speed. Certainly that’s the case sometimes. But if you’re not missing some to the high side too, then there’s another problem. You can’t be hitting them all too softly, right?

The way to overcome the problem is by grooving a simple, repeatable pure inline square (pils) putting stroke that’s free from subconscious corrections. Then, you should start seeing how much you really under-read the break.

Short Game

Striking wedge shots crisply is critical for scoring. As we know, scoring happens within 100 yards. The closer you hit that wedge, the better the chances that you’ll make a birdie on a hole.

One fault that can creep in during finesse wedge swings is taking the club too far inside on the back swing. By that, I mean instead of taking it back and up in a nice arc, you roll your hands open and get the club head and hands moving way inside behind the body.

Since you’re standing closer to the ball and wedges are more upright, you should be taking the club back and through in a more upright plane.

I found a good drill to work on this in David Leadbetter’s Faults and Fixes book.

To do it, get two old club shafts (or anything of similar nature with a pointy end that can be stuck in the ground, like an umbrella).

Take your normal wedge stance and stick one of the shafts in the ground about two feet outside your right foot, in line with your right heel. Take the other shaft and put it two feet outside your left foot, in line with your left heel.

Take some swings with your wedge, concentrating on not hitting either shaft. You’ll need to take the club up a little more upright than you might be used to. After you feel comfortable, hit some shots like that. Getting that plane right will help you hit crisp wedges.

Recovery

Too often, we hit shots off the mark and end up in the trees. There might be a lane, but low-hanging limbs make it impossible to hit a regular shot. This is where a good punch shot proves its worth.

The first key to remember is that to keep the ball down, the most important factor is spin. That means you have to take more club and swing easier. The hard your swing, the more spin you’ll put on the ball, and the higher it will go.

If you’re an 8-iron away from the green, then take two more clubs. Play the ball in the center of your stance (or even slightly behind center), choke down on the club, set your hands a little ahead of the ball, and take a nice, easy swing. Your backswing should be about 3/4 of your normal length, and the follow through should be shorter as well. The hands should finish fairly low in the follow through.

The decreased loft and reduced spin will keep the ball down and get it under the branches. Try some punches on the driving range to get the feel of how low you can keep the ball as well as how far you can carry a punch with each club.

Course Management

One of the trickiest features that golf course designers like to use is the “false front” on elevated greens.

When you’re standing down the hill looking up, you might see the top of the flag and it will appear that the green starts right at the crest of the hill. Unfortunately, sometimes the green actually starts many yards beyond the top of the hill. The front may be guarded by bunkers or rough.

The only defense against the false front is trust in your yardage. When you look at the shot, your mind tells you that the yardage is way too long because the top of the hill looks much closer. That’s because it is.

Uphill shots already require more club to get there, then when you start doubting the yardage you give yourself little chance of getting on the green.

It helps to know in advance that a green has a false front, but if it’s you’re first time at a course you might not. If you can do so without delaying play, walk or ride up and have a look. Then trust and absolutely commit to your yardage. Don’t forget to allow for the uphill shot with a little more club.

Driving

A simple but effective driving tip I try to use in my own driving is the thought of “clip the tee”. I believe that’s another gem from Harvey Penick’s writings, but I can’t recall for certain.

Instead of trying to think of planes and hitting the ball, just try and clip the tee. That will release your mind from worrying about the act of hitting the ball and let you simply swing through it.

Normally when I strike the ball, I instantly know if I caught it thinly. Before I even look down, I know the tee is still sitting in the ground, totally undisturbed. When I concentrate on clipping the tee out of the ground, I tend to strike the ball much better.

Sand Play

If you have a tough time with typical greenside sand play technique, there may be an alternative. If you’re close enough to the green, have a good lie, and the bunker has little or no lip, then you can try and chip the ball, as if it were on the short grass.

There is little margin for error on this shot, but if you really struggle with the blast shot, then it might work.

Take some practice swings and get the feel of where your head and left arm are during the swing. They must be kept at a constant height (in other words, no dipping down or lifting up during the stroke).

Play the ball back half and inch from the center of your stance and use your normal chipping swing. Practice it first to get a feel for it. Under the right circumstances, the shot may come in handy.

Mental Game

One of my favorite topics is gamesmanship. When you’re playing a match, it’s not about just hitting shots, posting a score, and hoping it’s good enough to win. You’re playing against someone.

Gamesmanship is all about gaining the mental advantage over your opponent. It’s not about cheating or breaches in etiquette, it’s about getting in your opponent’s head and throwing him off his game.

Back in April, I covered gamesmanship, and followed it up with gamesmanship revisited.

Fitness

Summer time is peak golf season. I know I don’t mind playing when it’s really hot out. Heat leads to sweat, and sweat leads to dehydration.

There are studies that show that in general, we don’t drink enough water. Tack on physical exertion and we’re really in a deficit. A 4+ hour round in the heat of summer can lead to serious dehydration.

Not only will you feel terrible after your round, but dehydration can lead to headaches, cramping, fatigue, and other things that can degrade your on-course performance and even cause more serious problems.

I try to drink at least half a gallon of water a day on days when I’m not doing anything, and on days when I’m working out and/or playing golf, it’s much, much more.

If you know you’re going to be playing, exercising, or anything else that will dehydrate you, drink water well before the activity and continue drinking during and after. Once you start to feel parched, it’s too late. You’re already dehydrated at that point.

Stay hydrated and you’ll feel (and perform) better.

Iron Play

One of my major swing faults is that I tend to hang back on my right side too long. I get my weight to the left too late in the swing, causing a loss in power and some other issues.

One swing thought my pro gave me that helps me to correct that is trying to have my right knee and hands pass the ball together on the down swing. When I’m having trouble, my hands pass the ball at impact and my weight is still on my right leg.

When I get the feeling of getting off that leg and driving my right knee to the target along with my hands, I’m able to get my weight on my left side and start striking the ball much more solidly. It means that my weight has transferred and my hips are opened up, allowing for a much more consistent, powerful strike.
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Further Reading:

Gamesmanship (Life in the Rough)
Gamesmanship Revisited (Life in the Rough)
Review of Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible (Life in the Rough)
David Leadbetter’s Faults and Fixes (Amazon.com)

Previous Installments:

Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 1 (Life in the Rough)
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 2 (Life in the Rough)
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 3 (Life in the Rough)
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 4 (Life in the Rough)

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