The Importance of a Level Spine

One of the more overlooked things in putting is having too much spine tilt to the right. I see it everyday with my students, and I am certainly as guilty of it as anybody. We are used to tilting to varying degrees when we hit full shots, but it is imperative to lose that tilt when you step onto the putting green. Here is why: When your spine is tilted to the right, there is a very good chance your neck is also tilted. Simply put, your right ear is lower than your left. Your eyeline is therefore not only pointed upward, but also to the right of your shoulder line. Your aim gets compromised and your putter path will go low and inside on the backswing, and high and to the right on the follow through. That is your perception of the correct path. If you hit putts on the heel or thin, and left to righters scare the heck out of you, you are too tilted! Most of the time in this position, your aim will be to the right of where you think it is. You can see it is very hard to be consistent when all of your lines do not match up. In addition to these things, as if that is not enough, your body is out of balance. It is harder for your hands to move freely back and especially through. Try this test: Set up without a putter and your hands together. Tilt to the right and notice your weight go more to your right leg. Now move your hands back and through. You should notice some resistance and how much your hands travel upward on the way through. It is like they are fighting an uphill battle. You may, however, not notice it as much until you experience the difference. When your spine is level, your pectoral muscles are even, as a reference point. Your shoulders are fairly level, with the right being slightly lower because the right hand is lower on the putter. It is a great deal easier to have your eyes level and square in this position. Your weight will be evenly distributed. Your aim and path of the putter will improve immediately. (I will cover aim in greater detail in a future post.) When your hands are even with your sternum or navel, you are truly centered and your body is in a calm state. Your hands will move back and through without effort. Perhaps now you can feel the difference. I have found the easiest way to achieve this position is to take your left hand and touch the top of your left knee on the outside of your leg. Do this before you place the putter behind the ball. Now grip the putter and keep the position the same. It is that simple! You may feel like you are more on your left side, but you are not. Check it in a mirror to change your perception and trust it. You are ready to make a free stroke, especially when you grip it correctly. (See earlier post.) Remember, a putter is designed to swing on an arc, and that arc travels UPWARD on the backswing, then down through the ball, then back up. I do not agree with the putter moving low to low. That takes way too much effort! Stay tuned for updates from The FBR Open, as well as The PGA Show. Frequent flier miles this week! Putt well.

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The Importance of a Level Spine

Who Do You Play Golf For?

As we were looking through Golf Improvement Weekly archives for a quote of the week, we came across a Classic GIW from 2006. As we read it – we couldn’t stop laughing at how true it is. So we want to present this GIW to you to read. This truly is a classic! Who do you play for on the golf course? Or let me put it another way – When you’re on the golf course, are you ever worried what other people are thinking about your golf swing or your game? The Monkey is more worried about how their golf swing looks to others rather than staying focused on their PLAN. Or in other words – it’s more important for you to look like you know what you’re doing in front of other Golfers, rather than staying focused on your game and scoring well! OK, I understand that you might not understand what I’m saying or are in self-denial – so let’s go to an example. Tell me if you’ve ever been in this situation – You’re paired up with one other Golfer and through the first 9-holes you’re playing better than normal. The other Golfer that you’re playing with is not playing as well as you. He/she is doing a lot of “Fiddling” with their swing on every shot and saying things like – “If I could just get the golf club set at the top a little better, I’ll be able to hit the golf ball so much better” and “You have to excuse me, but I’m not playing as well as I usually do. In fact, this might be the worst I’ve ever hit the golf ball” or “I’m not really concerned with what my score is today, I’m working on something in my swing.” So after 9 holes, you’ve scored your best score or close to your best score (pick a number based on your level of golf and use a score you want to break for 9-holes 49, 44, 39 or 35). The Monkey you’re playing with is somewhere else in the stratosphere considering the 8-mulligans he/she’s taken and of course I don’t think that his/her ball has ever hit the bottom of the hole. You stop in the clubhouse between nines to use the restroom and to allow the Monkey to get a hot dog and Diet Coke. As you’re walking out of the restroom, you pass the Monkey putting some relish on their hot dog as they call you over – “You know Grover, you have a pretty good swing, but, you know if you could just take your club back a little more on the inside on the way back, you’d hit the ball so much better.” So you kind of blow them off by saying – “Ok, thanks, I’ll try that.” But, they won’t let it go. So on the way back out to your golf bag, you get the whole Monkey Digest synopsis on why the club must come inside on the way back “… because if it doesn’t, then you can’t bring the club back down on the inside swing path and you’ll be way off plane. So if you can get your arms dropping more down on the inside, you’ll be able to swing the club on the proper swing path through the golf ball from the inside to the outside.” And then as you get to the 10th tee, you have about 3-minutes to kill as the group in front of you is still in the fairway waiting on the group in front of them. So the Monkey looks at you and says – “here, get your Driver and come here – I want to show you what I mean. Set-up. Set-up like you’re going to hit a Drive. Great, now you could probably get a better spine angle, but let’s talk about your swing path first, though your grip does look a little weak.” And then the Monkey proceeds to grab a hold of your club and put you into all these contorted positions as he/she regurgitates everything that’s wrong with your golf swing. And you shoot 60 on the back nine holes (which is probably what the Monkey shot – yet they told you that they scored a 41) as you lose a dozen golf balls and have to listen to the Monkeys commentary not just on everyone of their shots, but also yours. So why’d you allow the Monkey to help you go from so good to so bad? I believe it’s that we all want to look good in front of others on the golf course. We all want to do things the correct way and don’t want to look like we’re doing things weird or wrong. So all hail the Players whose swings are all wrong according to the Monkey philosophy of – “I’d rather swing correctly than score my best”. Let’s salute these poor souls that do it wrong: Annika Sorenstam for taking her eye off the ball as she over rotates into impact Jack Nicklaus and his pathetic flying right elbow Jim Furyk and that backswing – oh, that crazy backswing – “that swing can’t hold-up for long, he’s going to have to eventually change that” Lee Trevino for aiming so far left with his feet that you wonder what golf course he’s playing Tiger Woods for straightening his left leg through impact – “Hey, wait a minute Marc – that’s what a lot of Golf Pro’s are teaching now.” Yeah, but how many times did these same Pro’s tell other Golfers to never straighten their left leg – before they heard Tiger was doing this? And if you went to the golf course and used the claw grip for putting before Chris DeMarco made $10 million doing it – what would other Monkeys have said to you and how long would you have used it even if it did help you to make more putts? All those Players have their own PLAN and nobody, nobody can change it! And unfortunately for the following Golfers someone changed their PLAN – because if you have a chance to ask Curtis Strange – What happened to your game after you won consecutive US Opens or Sandy Lyle – What happened to your game after you won the British Open, TPC and the Masters or Hal Sutton – what happened to your game after you won the Players Championship, TPC and Memorial in the mid-80’s and was called “The Next Nicklaus” and why it took 12-years before you won again – And if you get to ask Ian Baker Finch what happened after you won the British Open and then just totally lost your game – and if you get to ask …….. They’d all say – “The Monkey got me! They told me that if I could just change (feel in the blank) in my swing that I’d swing more correctly.” You want to be a Player? Then beware of the Monkeys – they’re out there lurking – looking for weak minded Golfers that they can convert to their “Evil Monkey Ways”. The Player’s motto – Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil! Why Speak No Evil? Because as my good friend Todd Temkin from Chile so eloquently put it – Monkeys gloat when they play well and mope when they play bad. Players just play! The Monkey is more worried about what others think of their golf swing The Player is too focused on their PLAN to really care what others think Go ahead, be a Player! Regards, Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life www.GolfMadeSimple.com New Bonus Material For Anyone Considering Video Analysis – We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view. Just go to the website – www.GolfMadeSimple.com . On the left side of the page you’ll see where you can download this Free 8 page report. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings. Past Indoor Practice Drills If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on this Winter – email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put ‘World Golf’ in the subject line. To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD – How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors.

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Who Do You Play Golf For?

Golf at Reynolds Plantation, Spousta on Amelia Island Plantation, the TRX Suspension Trainer

Click here to hear this latest episode of TravelGolf.com This Week . In this week’s podcast, host Dave Berner talks to Charlie King , director of instruction at Reynolds Golf Academy , about Reynolds Plantation in Georgia. “We’re located halfway between Atlanta and Augusta, so it’s a very golf rich feel to it because of that,” King says. “It’s hard to find a better collection of designers and golf courses than we have here” at Reynolds Plantation. Plus, WorldGolf.com National Correspondent Tom Spousta reports from Amelia Island Plantation , near the Georgia-Florida border. “They’ve really done a good job here with the four courses,” he says. “I kind of think this is one of the more underrated golf destinations.” WorldGolf.com’s Mike Bailey experiments with a new fitness training gadget, the TRX Suspension Trainer from Fitness Anywhere. “The whole idea is that you can do a lot of strength and flexibility exercises with you on the road,” Bailey says. “A lot of athletes, including some golfers on the PGA Tour, are using this thing, and supposedly getting some pretty good results.” This podcast is supported by Walter’s Golf in Las Vegas and San Diego Golf Central .

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Golf at Reynolds Plantation, Spousta on Amelia Island Plantation, the TRX Suspension Trainer

Scoring 81

Congratulations to Brian Vranesh. Who’s Brian Vranesh? He’s Mr. 81 on the PGA Tour this year! What’s Mr. 81? He’s the first Player on the PGA Tour this year to score above 80. Now this isn’t to make fun of or ridicule Vranesh – this is just to show that even people who play golf for a living can have a “bad” round. Yet a “bad” score for Mr. Vranesh might actually be a great round for you. As GMS is a big believer in using a Result Based Approach to help Golfers improve – and the results of our Golfers show GMS works – we’re going to use Vranesh’s “bad” 81 to help you score a “great” 81. Vranesh scored his 81 this past weekend in the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii. And after looking at his stats – I believe an 81 is well within the reach of many Golfers who previously thought of it being out of reach. Here are his stats: Driving Distance – 261 yards per drive (not as far as it may seem, I’ll explain below) Driving Accuracy – 36% (which equates to only 5 out of 14 fairways) Putts – 34 (almost 2 per hole) Greens in Regulation – 33% (which equates to 6 out of 18) Putts per Green in Regulation – 2.16 (no wonder he didn’t have any Birdies) Now those above stats may look ugly for a Tour Player – but if you were able to replicate these – you could score 81 (or close enough to be extremely happy). I believe each one of the above stats can be accomplished by just about anybody – yes, you’ll need to practice your putting and your golf swing – but you can do it. Even the Driving Distance stat can be achieved because you must remember – you’re not playing on a 7,000 yard course like Mr. 81. What I mean is that the Driving Distance stat must be converted for you since Vranesh played on a golf course measuring 7,060 yards. And if you’re presently not scoring 81 or below, yet you’re playing from that distance on your golf course – you may want to play another set of tees. As most men play around 6,300 yards and most women play around 5,300 yards – Vranesh’s distance would be the equivalent of a man averaging 233 yards a drive (on a 6,300 yard golf course) and 195 yards (on a 5,300 yard course) for a woman. These should be attainable for most Golfers (especially after attending a 3 day GMS program). Yet, if you’re a man or woman that drives the golf ball 20 yards less – 213 yards or 175 yards – although it’ll be tougher to score 81 – maybe you could make up for the lack of distance by improving your putting. What about Driving Accuracy – can you hit the same amount of fairways as Vranesh? Well, it really shouldn’t matter since the most overrated stat in golf is hitting the fairway. If you’ve been reading Golf Improvement Weekly for a while, you’ve seen the stats that back this up. For example: in 2008, 6 out of the top 7 PGA Tour Players (Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Anthony Kim) were ranked 150th or lower in Driving Accuracy. The other Top 7 Player was Kenny Perry who was ranked 120th as he hit “only” 62% of his fairways – which is “only” 8 fairways per round. You wouldn’t think the top Players in the world would be missing 6 or more fairways every round they play – but they are – so don’t get so down on yourself when you miss 7 fairways out of 14! If these guys are scoring in the 60’s by hitting 8 or less fairways per round – you should be able to score 81 by hitting 6 or less like Vranesh. Hitting Fairways isn’t important – keeping the golf ball in play is. And although Vranesh didn’t hit Fairways – he did keep the golf ball in play. Although he did shank it pretty badly on the 7th hole – a Par 3 of 176 yards – which left him an 84 yard wedge from the right rough. Vranesh (in shooting his 81) averaged almost 2 putts per hole – which is not terrible, but it’s not good either. However this is the area that 7 out of every 8 Golfers wanting to score 81 needs to work on. With most Golfers averaging over 40 putts per round – if you did get down to 34 putts – that’s an instant improvement of at least 6 shots! And with many Golfers experiencing rounds of 44 putts – that’s a 10 shot improvement! How do you go from plus 40 putts to 34 putts per round? Well, have you used the Indoor Putting Drills that we’ve been offering our readers this winter in GIW? If you have, and are still doing them – 34 putts (and probably less) is in your future. If you haven’t – 34 putts might be a dream. Start putting now and 34 or less putts will come sooner than you think! Now, I believe the hardest stat for most Golfers to reach will be this next one – Greens in Regulation – Vranesh hit 6 out of the 18 Greens in Regulation. Whereas most Golfers that hope to score 81 hit only 1 or 2 per round. So tripling the number of Greens in Regulation you hit can be a tough task – albeit, not impossible. The two key factors to hitting more Greens in Regulation are improving your ballstriking and understanding your Strengths and Weaknesses. In the GMS Alumni Bulletin (for GMS Golfers only), we’ve written pretty extensively about this topic. However, I know many reading this Golf Improvement Weekly don’t receive the GMS Alumni Bulletin (and you won’t unless you come to see us for a GMS Program). Yet, one of the things we speak about during a GMS Program is how to hit more greens by understanding your Strengths and Weaknesses. And the ones that continue to PLAN based on their Strengths – see significant improvement in hitting Greens in Regulation. And yes, many GMS Golfers that were hitting 1 or 2 are now hitting 6 or more. Putts per Green in Regulation – this almost directly relates to your putting skills. Though remember – your putting skills aren’t entirely about having a good putting stroke. Putting skills also have something to do with green reading as well as how your putting stroke reacts when you have a 10 footer for par or 29 footer for Birdie – do you leave that 29 footer 10 feet short because you’re scared of going too far past the hole and losing your chance of making Par? Which leads you to the infamous 10 footer for Par – how do you handle this 10 foot putt with the thoughts of 3 or 4 putts dancing through your head? Putts per Green in Regulation isn’t entirely about having a smooth putting stroke – it’s more about having Putting skills. How do you develop Putting skills? Not by practicing your putting like the Monkeys do – you need to practice like a Player. Getting back to 2009’s Mr. 81 (Brian Vranesh) – you can easily duplicate his 81 if you kept to the stats above. And if you can’t keep to the stats above because you hit 20 yards less (equating it to the distances I converted for men and women above) – you’ll be several shots higher. If you can’t improve to 34 putts and end up with 39 putts – you’ll be 5 shots higher. If you hit 2 Greens in Regulation as opposed to 6 – you’ll be a few shots higher. And once you add up all these additional shots – you’ll understand why you’re not scoring 81. If you don’t score 81, but want to – you’ll need to develop a PLAN. Your PLAN starts by understanding what it takes to score 81 – and I’ve started that for you by listing Brian Vranesh’s stats. Then you have to compare those stats to your Strengths and Weaknesses which will help you understand where you should spend the most time practicing. Now, someone that’s scoring above 100 or in the mid-90’s that might not yet have the skills to duplicate the stats listed above – shouldn’t get frustrated. Don’t have the expectations that you’re going to be able to duplicate these stats tomorrow. Though, by knowing your Strengths and Weaknesses, you can develop a PLAN so that you can move towards achieving an 81. You might have to go through 100 or 90 before you set your sights on 81, but you can do it if you have a PLAN. You won’t if you continue to swing and practice like the Monkey. The Monkey just goes to the driving range to swing The Player has a PLAN to improve Go ahead, be a Player! Regards, Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life www.GolfMadeSimple.com

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Scoring 81

Pat O’Brien Launches A Golf Blog – by Traveling Golfer.com

Heres another new golf blog youll want to bookmark. Pat OBrien, putting and short game teacher to some fine golfers has started to blog. Hes the putting guru for Zach Johnson and works with several other tour pros as well. A real test would be to see if he could make me into a putter. Nobodys done it yet by Mike Sigers – TravellingGolfer.com

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Pat OBrien Launches A Golf Blog – by Traveling Golfer.com

Zach Johnson

Obviously my congratulations go out to Zach for his win yesterday at The Sony Open ! I am so proud of him not only for his golf, but for his faith and the kind of man he is. What you see is what you get with Zach. He is a great guy and a true friend. I admire him so much for the competitor that he is. He is truly unafraid of the challenges in golf and I look forward to him having a great year! One of the most special things about working with Zach is being part of such an incredible team. I have so much respect for Mike Bender , his swing coach, Morris Pickens , his mental coach, and Chris Noss , his trainer. Damon Green, his caddie, is one of the best out there. We all are on the same page with Zach and we truly enjoy spending time together. Last fall, during Zach's hiatus from the Tour, Mike and I worked on Zach getting his shaft angle more neutral at set upin both his long game and putting. It was easier to change them both at the same time in that set up tendencies usually carry over into both parts of the game. Through looking at somevideofrom a few years back, Zach was finally convinced thatthe shaftand his spine had been tilted a little too muchto the right. When I saw him in San Antonio before The Texas Open , I knew good things were coming. Everything had fallen back into place.I told him I was going tostart sleeping alotbetter again! I owe a tremendous amount to Zach and the team. I would not have mydream job today at Lakewood without them. Now I want to see myother good friend, VaughnTaylor, win a few more.I know Zach does too!

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Zach Johnson

Jim McLean’s Building Block Approach golf instruction DVDs, Bailey on Bayonet and the Black Horse, and President Obama a friend to golf

Click here to hear this latest episode of TravelGolf.com This Week . In this week’s podcast, host Dave Berner talks to legendary golf instructor Jim McLean about his new DVD series, “ The Building Block Approach .” “I use eight DVDs, and we go through each part of the swing, and there are building blocks in each DVD,” says McLean, who is a PGA Master Professional. “It’s a comprehensive approach to teaching the game of golf.” Mike Bailey praises the Bayonet and Black Horse golf courses in Seaside, Calif. “Both of these courses have recently been renovated, and they’re just absolutely spectacular,” Bailey says. Plus, WorldGolf.com National Correspondent Tom Spousta explains why President-elect Obama might be a close friend to golf. ( BadGolfer.com thinks so too .) This podcast is supported by Arizona Golf Packages and Florida Golf and Travel .

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Jim McLean’s Building Block Approach golf instruction DVDs, Bailey on Bayonet and the Black Horse, and President Obama a friend to golf

My Grip

Anyone who knows me can attest that I am a big stickler on how to grip the putter correctly. Having taught thousands of golf lessons, I have seen the power of having a proper grip work over and over. While I am very particular on the specific sequence of how the hands go on, there is a method to my madness! Learning my grip will help you free up your putting stroke and control the putter without any tension. Let's get to it! First and foremost, I want you to approach the putter with your left hand and arm hanging naturally. (If you are a left-handed golfer, you know the drill by now…) Assuming your shoulders are not rounded, your left palm should be facing your right palm. Keep this angle as you grip the putter first with your fingers. Do not rotate your left arm counterclockwise! This arm angle will allow it to rotate naturally without any manipulation during the stroke. By gripping first with your fingers and not the palm, like holding a suitcase, you will not find the need to tense up your left forearm. As you grip with the fingers, let the hand fall on the club. Please don't try to get the hand on top by rotating it clockwise. It is already where it needs to be. The heel pad of the left hand will sit on top of the putter grip. You should be able to balance the putter on that pad and your index finger when the putter is parallel to the ground. In this position, the left wrist will not break down! To fit the right hand on there, simply lift your left index finger off the club without changing anything else. With your right palm facing the target now, gently place the tips ofyour right pinkie and ring finger under the pad at the base of the left index finger as all four fingers grip the putter. If you have large hands and or a small grip, you mayinterlock the pinkie. I would prefer having seven fingers on the club if at all possible. The right heel pad fits against the last three fingers of theeft hand. No part of the right hand touches the club. You don't need it because the control is all in the fingers. You should sense a pocket of air between the grip and the right palm. This is what I call my conventional claw, as it is very hard for the right hand to take over. The right forearm is in a natural position to rotate out of the way on the backswing. You now can make a free, arc stroke without thinking about it. The thumbs fit into each other with the left down the middle of the shaft and the right to the right of center. Having the correct grip size helps immensely. I think a midsize grip is appropriate for most people; my favorite is the Golf Pride Classic. Finally, be sure not to push down on the putter through the thumbs. Let them gently rest on the putter. Show me someone who reluctantlyuses a claw or cross-handed grip, and I will show you someone who for too long had a submissive left hand with a left wrist and arm rotated counterclockwise. That person also had a dominant right hand that would take over time and again, causing the left wrist to break down. My grip will change that, if it is not too late! Commit to it, take the time to create a new habit, and your putting will improve. For a visual demonstration, please refer to my DVD – Pat O'Brien On Putting. Thanks!! pictures courtesy of Golf World UK

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My Grip

How To Overcome Your Bad Golf Shots

What’s the hardest thing in golf? While you may ask eight different Golfers that question – you may receive eight different answers. Yet, the one answer that will always be in their Top 2 will be … “Moving onto the next shot after a bad shot.” Hitting a terrible golf shot might be the most frustrating aspect of playing golf – however, it’s something that every Golfer will experience at least once a round. So although you don’t want to have the mindset that you’re expecting to hit a bad shot – you shouldn’t be surprised when it does happen. Yet, as much as you know that you’ll eventually hit a terrible shot – we all find it extremely difficult to not allow it to bother us. And it should bother you a little. Anybody that’s competitive should be bothered by a bad golf shot or two or three. The question though is how do you forget about the bad shot and make your next shot a good one? That’s the question that has launched a 1,000 Golf Psychology books. Many of which are written by modern day snake oil salesmen that pretend to be guru’s that have helped PGA Tour Players become champions. And although I have heard some Golfers talk about liking a particular Golf psychology book by one of these snake oil salesmen – I have yet to meet anybody that has improved their scores because they have read a particular book. The only people that are benefiting from these books are the authors who are preying on desperate Golfers that feel that it’s the Mental Side of the game that’s holding them back. To set the record straight – the mental side of your game will improve once your golf swing improves. You can use all the strategies they throw at you in these books and still top it off the 1st tee with regularity – regardless of how many positive thoughts you have in your mind. The fastest way of improving your mental game is to improve the confidence you have in your golf swing. However, reading a book won’t improve your confidence. The only thing that will improve your confidence is experiencing better golf shots while improving your golf swing. Confidence isn’t something you get by reading a book – confidence is earned swing after swing as you watch your results slowly improve. And your confidence will further improve once you take those improvements to the golf course and experience these better shots under pressure situations. Yes, it is hard to comeback after hitting a disappointing golf shot. You know you can hit a better golf shot, you expect to hit a better golf shot and there’s nothing you want more than to hit a better golf shot. It’s a terrible situation when on a 130 yard shot you hit 2 inches behind the golf ball and then hopelessly watch as it goes 40 yards landing in a fairway bunker. It’s even more frustrating when you try to hit out of the fairway bunker, and hit behind the ball once again and just get it out by advancing it only 25 yards. After two golf shots like that – it’s very easy to become an unenthused Golfer. The issue now isn’t what you do on your next shot – the issue now is what you do on your next tee shot. The damage on this hole has already been done. Yes, you should make the most of it and get the ball into the hole in the least number of shots – but in this scenario, it’s not as much about your score as it is about screwing up the rest of your round. The most important thing is … will you be mentally ready for your next tee shot? Will you be calm enough, confident enough, focused enough? Or will you still be agitated over how you screwed up the last hole? And please don’t think this a malady that’s just reserved for higher handicap Golfers – sure the single digit Player is able to overcome a bad shot more easily, though it still irks the stuffing out of them! Why doesn’t it affect the lower handicap or Professional as much? It goes back to the “C -word” – Confidence. These Players have more confidence to more easily overcome a bad shot because of the success they have seen on the practice area. Yet confidence doesn’t completely block out frustration and disappointment – it just makes it easier to overcome. In last week’s GMS Alumni Bulletin (which is exclusive to GMS Golfers), we included a GMS Instructor Profile. We profiled our Instructor at our Boca Raton location – Scott Hall. The Instructor Profile consists of us giving the Instructor 19 questions to answer about themselves and golf. One of the questions we ask is: What aspect of the game do you find most challenging: Now remember – Scott is a GMS Instructor, a PGA Professional and an excellent Player. However, his answer to this question was: “Moving onto the next shot after a bad shot.” It’s my bet that if you asked Tiger Woods the same question – that he would possibly have a similar answer. Yet, why does it seem that Tiger can overcome a bad shot better than you and I? Do you think it’s because he read a Bob Rotella book? Of course not. It’s because he has earned the ability to have more confidence in his golf swing. As your golf swing improves – your confidence improves and as your confidence improves – your mental game improves. Not vice versa! To believe so is foolish. Now, the chances of anybody ever having the confidence of Tiger Woods is as remote as someone trying to walk to the moon – however, you could boost your own confidence to a higher level. You just need to get out there and practice using a Practice PLAN as opposed to going to the range like the Monkey and just banging golf balls with the hope that it could be considered practicing. Our Instructor Scott did have another part to his answer that I showed above. And it’s a technique that if used during practice, will help you to hit the golf ball better and help you to gain confidence. If you don’t receive the GMS Alumni Bulletin – I’d like to share it with you. He said: “Forgetting about a bad shot and blocking it out of your mind before your next shot is something all Golfers need to stay vigilant with. That’s why Tick-Tock is so important – it’s the great Mind Eraser!” And for anyone that thinks that a great Mind Eraser is a cocktail that includes vodka, coffee liqueur and club soda – which actually would do more good for you on the golf course than anything you’d find in a golf psychology book – the great Mind Eraser on the golf course is actually a much easier recipe for you to use. The key is that you develop confidence with your golf swing before you start lying to yourself that reading a golf psychology book will really help you. Did Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods need a golf psychology book to get to the level they did? Of course not – they were able to overcome bad shots because they earned the confidence they had in their golf swing. And although you might not ever achieve the level of play or confidence those Golfers achieved – you can learn to overcome bad shots before they create a string of blow-up holes. In order to do this – you must first earn confidence in your golf swing by improving while using Drills that create a similar pressure that you’ll feel on the golf course. As opposed to thinking you’re improving your golf swing as you beat ball after ball into the middle of the driving range after staying up all night reading a golf psychology book written by a so called guru. The number one way to overcome bad shots is through confidence that is earned, not witchcraft masquerading as golf psychology. The Monkey thinks they’re going to find the secret in a golf psychology book The Player earns it by improving their confidence by improving their golf swing Go ahead, be a Player! Regards, Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life www.GolfMadeSimple.com

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How To Overcome Your Bad Golf Shots

Money Golf author Michael Bohn, golf in Malaysia (part 2), and golf rap from The Golf Ballerz

Click here to hear this latest episode of TravelGolf.com This Week . In this week’s podcast, host Dave Berner speaks with author Michael Bohn about his book “ Money Golf ” and the long link between golf and gambling. “The professional tour owes its origins to betting among players in Scotland and Great Britain,” Bohn says. “In the mid to late 1800s, challenge matches were the most common form of entertainment in golf. The gentlemen would back their pro or their caddie against someone else, and the pros would take some cash home from those matches. That was the origin of the money list.” Also, part two of Dave’s conversation with TravelGolf.com’s Brandon Tucker about golf in Malaysia . (Click here for part 1.) Plus, Berner plays a clip from a new video by The Golf Ballerz , the first golf rap band. This podcast is supported by Walter’s Golf in Las Vegas and San Diego Golf Central .

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Money Golf author Michael Bohn, golf in Malaysia (part 2), and golf rap from The Golf Ballerz

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