Rolling the Rock

The most important part in bettering your game, is putting. If you three-putt every green, you're adding on 18 shots a round! That makes your 98 and 80 by simply two-putting every green. Sure, sounds easy in text, but it's not that difficult if you can learn how to control your speed. I see too many people trying to gauge the speed with wrong technique or they're simply trying to make the putt with speed excluded. Truth is, you need both to work with each other. When I was about 12, I lost all feel with my putting. I couldn't get anything near a hole. By near, I couldn't put a ball within 5 or 6 feet of the hole. It was pretty ugly. That saying; "Ray Charles could putt better than me." Goes very true to what I was going through. I've never taken lessons from many people. There may be three lessons I still take to the course with me every day. The putting tip I got that day while I was being miserable on the putting green got me through high school and college golf and helped me win numerous junior events. Plus, it helped me pass my play ability test for the PGA of America. It's by far the easiest drill you can learn.

Put a ball in your dominant hand, most commonly it's your low hand unless you use a cross handed grip. Now, just pick a spot, or hole on the putting green and toss the ball so that it rolls to your intended target. Try getting it to the spot as close as possible. You should only be using one hand and standing as if you're in you putting stance. You'll find that it's very easy to get the speed down after a couple tries. You'll also notice that you need to toss the ball a little bit harder on uphill puts and softer on your downhill puts. It's simple chemistry. Now, with your putter in hand, stand up to the ball and try to imagine you still hand the ball in your hand. When you stroke your putts, imagine you're using that low hand to toss the ball near the hole. You should have it down very quickly and easily. Once you start giving the ball chance to be near the hole, you'll start making more putts from longer distances, plus it eliminates three or four-putting a lot. It will really bring down the scores very quickly.

Come Inside. It's Nice in Here.

I used to have a huge problem of hitting the ball great for stretches and then hitting it sideways for 2 weeks. It happened during my college playing days when my coach hardly knew what a golf swing was and it happened when I had no one to help me. It took probably 3 years before I started figuring out that what I felt I was doing right, was never happening in my swing. In my head it felt like I took the club on plane and put my hands in a good position at the top of my swing. In fact I was. I reminded myself to take the club outside (by telling myself outside, it puts me on the right plane rather than inside.) and put my hands "in the top corner of a doorway". Both were fine. My problem was coming down. What felt like me releasing the club never happened.

Here's some steps to get you to come inside the ball and hit it solid and consistently. My plan for fixing this all started one year when I was caddying at the Verizon Heritage at Harbour Towne. While on the range with my player, I was watching Brett Wetterich hit balls. Brett has his umbrella laying on the ground pointed right at his target. From there he dropped balls on the inside of the umbrella and hit balls making divots all the way down the length of the umbrella. He would then roll the umbrella over into the line of the divots he just made and did it again with different clubs. I realized what he was doing and it took it upon myself to try it. The umbrella forces you on the right plane and reminds you to release your hands coming from the inside. Something I wasn't doing or doing consistently. When you release your hands the club never makes contact with the umbrella and allows you to get on the right plane. If you start nailing it down, it's really a great way to work on cuts and draws. For draws you want to have you club going about 5 yards rights of your target on the follow through. Or hold the club in horizontally on the follow through for a cut. 2 X 4's and driveway markers work just as well. It's a great reminder, and grooves your swing for those big tournaments coming up.

Balance Photo

OK, time to get this blog rolling off the ground with my first key step to success on the course.

A lot of players have a tendency to either guide or murder the ball at all chances around the course. With these two mistakes comes balance issues. Players who try to over swing at a ball have a hard time holding their finish and end up either missing the ball or spraying it all over God's creation. This sometimes holds true for players who try to help the ball into the air rather than letting the club do it's work. Truth is, there's an easy fix. Try this: when making a true and controlled swing, imagine you have a photographer ready to take a nice picture of you holding your best pose. Like something you would see on the cover of Sports Illustrated or Golf Digest. When you think of holding your pose, the body allows you to make a full swing (without over swinging), make contact, and hold a pose that would be a perfect 8" x 10" on hanging on your office wall. I've always noticed that some of my best shots come when I'm holding my pose for a perfect picture.

Take this picture, for instance. I put a confident swing on the ball with my 5 iron and put the ball 10 feet left of the flag. Remember, make the swing count and make it look like this years best swing on tour. Your follow through and form are sure to improve.

This Is Me Starting An Idea...

Well, I'll be blunt.

I've played this game since I was 10 and it has consumed my life on a day to day basis. It has now pushed me into making it into a career and I couldn't be happier. I currently am starting out at my level one in the PGA program and I have a history of competitive golf, including both at the high school and collegiate level. Bad decisions and bad luck led me away from playing in college to where I am today. Now, I'm trying to get my life up and down out of this deep pot bunker. So far I think we're on the right track and since then I've started a family who I love and mean the world to me.

As for the blog, I decided this would be another way for me to practice my skills and my words for teachings as I progress through the program. I'll try to update as much as I can on here with new teachings, news, or other stuff I just feel compelled to write about. This is a select audience, so there's not a whole lot of "other stuff" I could find to write about. Thanks for you're time and I hope you enjoy my lesson's, thoughts, and idea's as much as I enjoy writing about them.