nickbayley on September 1st, 2010

As part of my retirement package you will receive the following 3 products:

  • The Long Game System
  • The Short Game System
  • The Putting Game System

Here is a sample of each of those products; we’ll start with…

The Long Game System

Lesson 22 - The Downswing (Part 1)

When you look at a golfer’s swing you can check to see how good their downswing is at one specific point in the downswing. And that point is when the left arm is parallel with the ground.

Now when looking at a downswing of a golfer at this point there are two major things I look for. The first is the angle formed with the left arm and club. It should be at 45 degrees or less:


Then when you look down the line at a golfer’s swing you can clearly see how good that golfer’s swing is as far as direction and accuracy is concerned. And when the left arm is parallel with the ground the club shaft should be angled so that it’s either pointing at the ball or to the right of the ball like I’m demonstrating below.

Downswing Plane

The club shaft plane should NOT be pointing inside the ball on the downswing, because that means the club is coming down too steep which creates all sorts of directional problems.

And if your remember that when your left arm is parallel with the ground the clubshaft angle on the backswing should be pointing at the ball or to the inside, i.e. to the left like I’m demonstrating below:

Backswing Plane

These pictures clearly show you that the plane of your swing should be more upright going back and flatter coming down.

So I hope you now have a good image in your mind as to what should be happening with the clubshaft during the backswing and downswing, because that understanding is very important.

However I will explain this in more detail in the following 3 lessons on the downswing. And to start this off…..today you’re going to be working on creating a swing plane that will allow you to attack the ball from the inside. So to find out how you’re going to learn this keep reading.

As I said above, at the point in your downswing where your left arm is parallel with the ground your club shaft should be pointing at the ball or to the right.

Downswing Plane

Now before I explain how you’re going to learn to do this I want to point out that this position should be the result of all the correct moves that have gone before.

BUT for most golfers they’ve swung down far too steep their entire golfing lives. And even though everything up until this point will have helped to flatten the shaft on the downswing, if you’re anything like me you’ll still need to work on this some more.

And personally, this is the hardest part of the golf swing that I’ve had to learn and change.

So if you struggle with what I’m about to teach you I know how you’re feeling. But persevere and practice it a lot, because the rewards of perfecting this move are HUGE!

Now to help you learn this here’s what I want you to do first. Get a driver or a 3 wood or something similar and attach a torch to the end of it like this:

Then find a dark place where you’ll be able to see the light from your torch easily and setup to a ball like I’m demonstrating below:


Then swing back slowly and make sure your backswing plane is good.


Then swing to the top of your swing and start down. And to do this make sure your club goes to the left at the top of your swing, like I showed in you in the last lesson.

Then stop your swing when your left arm reaches a point where it’s parallel with the ground.


Now at this point the light from your torch should be pointing well to the right of the ball like I’m demonstrating above. And when you get good at doing this drill simply start to increase the speed so you do it almost as fast as a real swing.

Important Note: You can and should do this drill with a torch at either end (like in the Two Torch Drill) as that way you can work on your take-away and back & down swing planes at the same time.

Now this torch exercise will give you the feeling of the correct downswing movement with the shaft. BUT it may unduly give you the impression that this flattening of the shaft is a result of you manipulating your hands, i.e. bringing them from the inside.

Well, let me clear that up right now.

__________________

The Short Game System

So with that being said, here’s what the short game consists of…

  • Chipping
  • Pitching
  • Distance Wedges
  • Bunker shots

And that’s the order you’re going to work through to improve your short game.

When you do this you’ll notice that the action of chipping is very close to the putting action. Then you’ll notice that the action used for distance wedges is very close to the full swing action.

That may be one reason why a lot of golfers suffer with the short game. It’s a mixture of different aspects of golf. But the short game can definitely be mastered. And that’s what I’m going to teach you in this program…

Mastery Of The Short Game

So with that in mind, this program will be a very unique way of improving your short game. And the uniqueness comes from the mind set of mastering the short game. You see, this program has not been created to simply save a few shots here and there.

No!

It has been created so that by the end you will have the basics of each aspect of the short game at a great level from which you can then progress to tougher shots. And more specifically, here is the goal I’ve set for this short game improvement program….

The goal of this Short Game Improvement
Program is to teach golfers how to consistently
land their ball ball on the spot they want it to land.

Now you may think that’s a strange goal to set for this program so let me explain that some more by telling you the…

3 Things You Need To Have For A Great Short Game

1. You need to have control over the physical swing as that produces the trajectory, velocity and spin rate of each shot. And all of this determines where your ball lands.

2. You need to be able to determine and accurately predict how the condition of the ball is lying is going to affect the shot you’re going to play.

3. You need to have a good idea and feel for how the ball is going to react when it lands.

If you look at that list above you’ll notice that it doesn’t matter how good you can become at number 2 and 3….if you can’t consistently hit the ball so it lands on the spot you’ve chosen for your ball to land then everything else is irrelevant.

So that’s why for all four main parts of the short game….

  • Chipping
  • Pitching
  • Distance Wedges
  • Bunker shots

…I’m going to teach you how to hit the ball consistently on the spot you want. And you’re going to learn to do this from a perfect lie.

Naturally you won’t always have a perfect lie on the golf course but that’s not the point of teaching you the short game this way. The point is that if you can’t hit the ball the distance you want from a perfect lie then it doesn’t matter what the lie is like because you won’t be able to hit the ball the distance you want from a bad lie!

So please understand this…

All the practice I get you to do during the main part of this program will be from a perfect lie. Then, after you’ve finished this main program I will then teach you how to tackle the last 2 components needed for a great short game i.e. how the lie is going to affect your shot and how you determine the ball will react when it hits the green.

__________________

The Putting Game System

Why Most Golfers That Practice Putting Don’t Improve

Most golfers who realize how important putting is try to improve their putting strokes on the greens – which is only natural. But that’s a big mistake, because when you miss or make a putt on a green there is basically no feedback as to why you missed or made the putt. This lack of feedback is not good and does not help you to improve long term.

If anything – it makes you worse.

That’s why so few golfers who actually practice their putting on the greens get much better.

So if you’re practicing your putting and have no feedback on whether or not you just made a good stroke or a bad stroke then you’re just as likely to make the bad stroke a habit.

Doesn’t make any sense does it?

So the best way I’ve found to practice putting mechanics is by doing so with immediate, accurate, and reliable feedback at home. Because by doing this it helps your brain to quickly come to terms with the new position or habit that you are trying to learn. Without feedback your brain will only make compensations from what it believed happened, and compensations are not good for consistent putting.

And most of what I’m going to get you to do will be done at home indoors, and so it should be. The reason for this is because the putting green is a terrible place to try and improve the mechanics of your putting stroke. And as I’ve mentioned before the reason for this is because the green isn’t perfect, so you won’t know why a putt has gone in or why it has missed.

The practice putting green should only be used to improve your mental toughness for the golf course (i.e. recreating course like conditions), and for improving putting feel/touch and for improving green reading knowledge.

So what I’m going to train you to do in this putting program is to make the simplest, easiest putting stroke possible. Because no matter how talented or coordinated you are, the less you give yourself to do the more consistently you can do it.

And the simpler and easier your putting stroke is to execute, the more accurately and repetitively you’ll learn to repeat it.

The 13 Fundamentals Of Putting

Now here are the 13 fundamentals in putting that we are going to work through one by one.

1. Mental Toughness/Attitude

2. Putter Fitting

3. Putting Setup

4. Putter Face Aiming

5. Putting Routine (both physical and mental)

6. Putter Path

7. Putter Face Angle

8. Power Source

9. Impact Pattern

10. Putter Acceleration

11. Putting Rhythm

12. Putting Feel/Touch

13. Green Reading

These 13 fundamentals can be put together in many different ways, and again, not everyone will look the same after following my advice, and that’s exactly how it should be. Just as long as the putter and ball interact well together within the framework of these 13 fundamentals, then a golfer will receive good putting results.

Having said that, here’s how I’m going to help you to put these 13 putting fundamentals together so you create the simplest, easiest and most repeatable, and therefore the most consistent, way to putt…

1. You should….

  • love putting
  • enjoy the challenge of each putt
  • believe you’re a great putter whether you miss or make any putts!
  • believe you can hole every putt
  • trust your putting stroke 100%

2. Your putter should be perfectly fitted to your body shape to encourage a straight back, straight through, dead hands pendulum putting stroke.

3. All elements of your setup should be consistent and repeatable as well as making it easier for you to naturally produce a straight back, straight through, dead hands pendulum stroke.

4. Your putter face should be aligned directly to where you want your ball to start.

5. You should have a physical and mental putting routine that is consistent and helps you to setup and prepare for each putt so you will have the best chance of success.

6. Your putter should swing straight back and straight through directly along the line that you want your ball to start.

7. Your putter should contact the ball with a square putter face (this is very important, as you’ll learn).

8. You should use your arms and shoulders only to “power” the putter. There should be no extra power given to a putt by any other part of the body, i.e. the hands, wrists, lower body, upper body, head etc.

9. When you contact the ball with the putterface it should be directly on the putters sweetspot. The more you can do this the better you’ll putt.

10. Your putter must be accelerating through impact (you’ll learn how easy this is to do).

11. Your putter must move in a rhythmical motion that closely matches the tempo determined by gravity. And your putting tempo and rhythm should remain near enough the same for every putt you have, regardless of the length of the putt.

12. You should be able to quickly determine what is the best line and speed for your putt to travel on to gently fall into the hole.

13. You need to be able to read a green and evaluate quickly and easily what is likely to happen when your ball is rolling.

If you could do all of these things I’ve just outlined, just imagine how good you could putt!

Well you’re going to learn how to do exactly that, one step at a time. And some human examples of what you’re going to look like when putting after you’ve finished this program are Bob Charles, Greg Norman, Loren Roberts or Phil Mickelson.

All pretty good putters, I’m sure you’ll agree!

__________________

When I release my retirement package you’ll get all of these 3 products. Next week I’ll send you the final product that you’ll receive in this package. Until then, have fun using this advice to improve your golf game.

Thanks.

-Nick

Soon to be ex-golf coach :-)

nickbayley on August 24th, 2010

As part of my retirement package you will receive the following 3 products:

  • The Mental Game System
  • The Long Game Blueprint
  • The Short Game Blueprint

Here is a sample of each of those products; we’ll start with…

The Mental Game System

Lesson 2 – The A, B, C’s Of Every Golf Shot

Every shot you face on the golf course basically offers up 3 options. There’s an aggressive option. There’s a conservative option. And then there’s the cautious option. So for every shot you’ve got to get in the habit of assessing the 3 options and then choosing which option you’re going to play for the shot at hand. And here is an acronym which will help you to way up the 3 options…

A = Aggressive

B = Be Conservative

C = Caution (or Cautious)

An example of an A shot would be if a golfer hits a great drive down a long par 4 and they’re in the middle of the fairway with a great lie. They have 190 yards to go to the pin and that’s the perfect distance for a solid 4 wood. There’s a big bunker in the front of the green but this golfer has a lot of confidence in their 4 wood and they’re confident that they’re going to hit a good shot over the bunker. So that’s a situation where a golfer would choose the A (Aggressive) option.

An example of choosing a B (Be conservative) shot in that same situation may be hitting a 6 iron so the ball ends up in the fairway with a simple pitch over the bunker to the pin. But here’s a clearer example where most golfers should choose a B shot.

Let’s say you’re playing a short par 5, which is playing downwind, and you’ve hit a terrific drive straight down the middle of the fairway. You have a good lie and there’s 220 yards between your ball and the pin. But there is a small lake in front of the green that you need to carry. And to carry this lake you need to hit the shot 200 yards in the air.

You have a 3 wood that could do this but it’s at the very limit of how far you can hit the ball with that club. If you miss-hit the shot slightly it will probably end up in the lake. So a B shot would be to figure out a distance you’d like to be pitching from. You decide you’d like to pitch from 80 yards as that is a distance you’re confident from. So to do that you’d have to hit a shot 140 yards. For you that’s a solid 7 iron.

See, that’s smart thinking golf and it’s those sort of decisions that will help to slash shots from your score.

Now here is an example of a C shot. You’ve sliced your drive deep into some trees on the right of the fairway. You get to your ball and amazingly you can have a full swing. You’re 160 yards from a small green that is surrounded by deep bunkers.

As you’re assessing your shot options you notice a small opening in the trees that would be about the perfect height for a 6 iron shot. Also, that is the perfect distance for your 6 iron but you decide it’s too risky, because if you hit the shot just slightly less than perfect you’ll hit trees and who knows where the ball will end up. So you then try and find a way that you can get the ball to finish just in front of the green….before the bunkers.

To do this however you’d have to hit a low punch shot and make sure the ball travels the correct height. Because if it goes too high the trees will catch it, and if it goes too low the rough will stop it and you’ll still be in the trees.

So even though that’s a B shot option you think it’s still too risky. Now the C option (remember, C stands for caution) is to chip the ball out to the fairway and have a shot of about 140 yards. You’re confident you can get that 3rd shot on the green so that’s the smartest play and one that will greatly reduce your chance of a big number.

Now after reading this I need you to understand that you’ve got to apply this mental fundamental to all your straight forward shots as well. For example, let’s say you’ve hit a great drive on a par 4 hole. Your ball is sitting in the middle of the fairway with a perfect lie…and you’re 150 yards from the pin. But the pin is hard to the left side of the green. In fact, just 10 feet to the left of the pin is a big bank that will cause any ball left of the pin to run down it leaving a very difficult shot back.

Now in that case an A shot would be to fire straight at the pin. But you would only ever do that if your confidence was sky high and you’ve been stiffing your iron shots all day. Even then I’d say it’s a very risky shot.

Then you have a B shot which is to aim 15 feet right of the hole. And lastly a C shot would be to aim 30 feet to the right of the hole so it takes the bank completely out of play.

So when you’re assessing your shots you’ve got to look at where the ball is going to land as well and what could potentially happen to it.

This is true for every shot….even putting! And here’s an example to prove it.

Let’s say you’ve got a 5 foot putt with a slight right to left break. Now the A option there would be to ignore any break and aim straight for the back of the hole. To do this naturally you’re going to have to hit the ball quite hard and you do run the risk of running the ball way past if you miss, and possibly missing the next putt. But if you’re putting really well and your confidence is sky high then that may be a good option to take.

The next option…the B option is to aim your ball to finish about 1 foot behind the hole if it misses the hole. At that pace you’ll have to allow for the break but you have much more margin for error than the A option.

Finally a C option would be to allow for a lot of break and for the ball to just die in the hole. That way there’s no possible chance of a 3 putt but then the chances of the ball going in are much less than the B option.

Trust me, every shot you face in golf has these three options. The only exception is a simple tap in putt. So that’s the A, B, C rating that you should use before each shot you play. Now you know this you’ve got to put it into use. To help you do this here’s your…

__________________

The Long Game Blueprint

OK, I’ve covered some very important things that need to happen in your backswing. Now I’m going to go over a quick summary of what should be happening in the backswing from the feet up.

Feet

Your left foot should not move at all during the backswing, and the majority of your weight should move to the heel of your right foot. Also, you must make sure that the weight does not move to the outside of the right foot during the backswing.

Knees

During the backswing the right knee should remain flexed. It doesn’t need to remain in exactly the same place as it was at address, but it must never completely straighten at any time in the backswing. Now with your left knee you should just let it move naturally where it wants to go during the backswing, you shouldn’t try to restrict it.

Hips

By the time your club is parallel with the ground your hips should have moved laterally to the right by a couple of inches. Doing this transfers most of your weight to your right foot. But remember, it must never go to the outside of your right foot. Then after that point the lateral shifting should stop and then the matter goes to turning the hips behind you. Doing this causes most of the weight to move to your right heel.

Spine Angle & Shoulders

The spine angle that is setup at address should be maintained during the backswing. You should not move your spine towards the ball or away from it as you’re swinging. And your shoulder rotation should be on a 90 degree angle (or near enough) to the spine angle at the top of the backswing.

Also, you want to turn your shoulders as far as they will go (keeping everything else the same). If you can get your shoulders to turn at least to 90 degrees that’s great, and even further would be a bonus. For example, Tiger Woods rotates his shoulders about 120 degrees!

Head

When you make your backswing your head should move to the right by a couple of inches. So don’t try and keep it still because if you do you run the risk of doing a reverse pivot and that’s not good. Also, your head shouldn’t move up or down at all in your backswing. It should pretty much maintain the same level throughout the entire backswing that it was at setup.
Arms

In the first part of the backswing the arms should do very little. Then your arms should reach away from the target to create a wide arc. During the backswing your left arm should remain pretty straight. It doesn’t need to be kept perfectly straight throughout the backswing, but as you complete your backswing your right arm should naturally bend so that at the top it is very bent. This should just happen naturally though.

Wrist Cock

At the half way point in your backswing your left arm and club should form about a 100 degree angle. Then at the top of your swing you want your left arm and club to form about a 90 degree angle. It doesn’t need to be exact, just pretty close to those numbers.

Swing Plane

When you take the club away your hands and club should move very close to the plane line. This will happen if you take the club away with a one piece take away and along the correct swing path.

Then when the club reaches a point where the club is parallel with the ground the club and hands should be close to the plane line. Now the most important check for the plane of the golf swing is once you’ve reached the position where your left arm is parallel with the ground. At this point you want the butt end of your club to point at the ball or slightly inside the ball. Then at the top of your swing (with the driver) your club should be aligned parallel with your target like this:

__________________

The Putting Game Blueprint

Introduction

Welcome to The Blueprint For Putting Game Consistency And Success. Now before we begin this blueprint I need to make one thing clear…

Putting is a separate game within the game of golf, because no other shot in golf has the same objective as a putt has, which is to….

Roll the ball along the best line
with the best speed, so the ball
rolls gently into the hole.

And if you want to become the best putter you can then you SHOULDN’T use a throttled down driver swing. Equally you won’t want to use your putting technique to drive with.

You see, to become a great putter you need a different technique than you do to become a great driver of the ball (or any other part of golf for that matter). And that’s a great thing because it means you don’t need any special athletic ability to become a great putter.

You simply need to know what to do to improve and then do it.

Now knowing what you need to do to become a great putter is not easy. Because there’s a million and one things you could focus on to improve, but a lot of them will simply waste your time or even make you worse!

And here’s a very real, personal example of this.

When I was about 15 years of age I was having some problems with my putting. So I went to my local pro and asked him what I could do to putt better.

He told me that all good putters put a good end-over-end roll on the ball. And if I wanted to be a good putter I must do the same thing. So of course I then asked him how do you do that, i.e. put an end-over-end roll on the ball.

He then told me about Bobby Locke and how he was a great putter and he used to hook all his putts.

My local pro told me that by hooking your putts the ball rolls better. And to do this, the local pro simply told me to hook my putts by taking the putter on an in-to-out path so the ball would have hook spin on it.

So I tried doing this, but guess what?….it didn’t improve my putting one bit.

In fact, I got worse!

Do you know why?

It’s simply because I was focusing on something I didn’t need to. I had the wrong “what”.

And I was focusing on something that was completely wasting my time and taking me further away from the goal I wanted, i.e. to putt better.

Important Note: If you’re not sure who Bobby Locke is this is what Gary Player is quoted as saying about him:

“One six-foot putt, for my life? I’ll take Bobby Locke. I’ve seen them all, and there was never a putter like him. In the 100 or so competitive rounds I played with him, I saw him three-putt just once. … You had to see it to believe it.”

Now here’s the reason why I was completely wasting my time.

It’s been scientifically proven that within about the first 20 percent of the roll of a golf ball, the friction from the green removes all side spin, top spin or back spin. In other words, no matter what you do to start a ball rolling on a green, in the end it will be rolling end over end.

The bottom line was that I was wasting my time trying to hook my putts!

Important Note: Do NOT try and put any spin on the ball when you’re stroking your putts. You’re wasting your time on something that does not matter!

Hopefully that true story has proven to you how crucial it is for you find out “what” you need to do to improve your putting game.

And that’s why I put this blueprint together.

To explain what you need to do to improve your putting. Because I don’t want you to waste anymore time on things which won’t help you to improve, like I’ve done. So this blueprint will give you a clear focus on the areas you need to work on to improve. It will tell you what the things are that matter.

This 7 part blueprint will be your roadmap to putting success.

It will save you a lot of time and effort too.

Because instead of trying one thing after another in a desperate attempt to improve your putting you’ll know exactly what you need to focus on to improve. Then once you know what you need to focus on then you need to have a proven step-by-step practice plan that outlines exactly what you need to do to improve. Then it’s simply up to you to put into action the steps in the plan.

It’s only through having an intelligent practice plan and then action will you really make a noticeable difference to your putting.

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that trying one thing after another without any real plan will NOT lead you to improvement. You’ll be wasting your valuable time doing that.

Important Note: A planned, structured, step-by-step approach to improving your putting will always get better, more consistent results than any other approach.

Reading this blueprint for putting game success is the start of you becoming the great putter you’ve always wanted to become. So let’s make a start by looking at…

__________________

When I release my retirement package you’ll get all of these 3 products.  Next week I’ll send you a sample of 3 further products that you’ll receive in this package.  Until then, have fun using this advice to improve your golf game.

Thanks.

-Nick

Soon to be ex-golf coach :-)

As part of my retirement package you will receive the following 3 products:

  • How To Fix Your Swing Plane…So It’s Like That Of A PGA Tour Pro
  • The Short Game Blueprint
  • Golfers 7 Biggest Problems and Solutions

Here is a sample of each of those products; we’ll start with…

How To Fix Your Swing Plane…So It’s Like That Of A PGA Tour Pro

Now when you take the club away it should move on an arc just inside the target line NOT straight back along the target line.

Why?

Because a straight back takeaway gets the club travelling too much outside (off plane) and causes your arms to become separated from the body. All of this will require compensations later in the swing which will result in inconsistent ball striking.

Obviously we don’t want that, so here is a great drill that will help you to start taking the club on the correct path and with repetition this will fast become a habit. But to do this drill you will need a couple of things. The first is a small torch.

The second thing you’ll need is a golf shaft (you can also do this with a driver) with a grip on it.

Once you have these two things then simply tape the torch to the bottom of the shaft, as shown on the next page…

Then find a straight line to do this drill. And where the wall and floor meets is perfect.

Now, it’s a good idea to do this drill at night time because you’ll be able to see the torch light easier.

So to do this drill turn the torch on and then setup as normal and make sure the torch is about 2-3 inches away from the line you’re going to use as a plane reference line. And make sure the torch’s main light is pointing directly at the line.

From this position simply take the club away with your one piece takeaway (concentrating on turning your left shoulder to the right and keeping your arms, wrists and hands passive) and make sure the light remains pointing at the line as you’re taking the club away.

Important Note: As you’re taking the club away the torch will move further away from the plane reference line.  And so it should as you need to take the club to the inside.  But the light should also point at the plane reference line at all times in the take-away.

Keep moving the club away until you get to the place where your left hand is over your right leg and then stop. Then repeat this takeaway, and I suggest you do this drill at least 30 times a day for the next 30 days to really groove a good on plane, one piece take away. But feel free to do this drill as much as you want as it’s a real good one and quite interesting.

__________________

The Short Game Blueprint

The short game is one of the most important parts of the game of golf.

Why?

Because it’s been discovered that 60 to 65% of all golf shots are from inside 100 yards of the hole. Naturally a big part of those statistics comprises of putting (which is not the short game) but the fact is….about 80% of all golf shots golfers lose to par happen within 100 yards of the hole. And the large determining factor of this is how close golfers hit their short game shots.

Yes, that’s right….it’s generally not how well a person putts that determines whether they save par or not but it’s how close they hit there short game shots to the hole.

Let me explain that some more…

When it comes to putting it doesn’t matter how good a putter you become because the bottom line is that the closer you hit the ball to the hole the more chance you have of holing the putt. And here are some telling statistics from the best putters in the world…

  • PGA Pro’s hole putts in the 0 – 5 ft range about 95% of the time.
  • PGA Pro’s hole putts in the 5 – 10 ft range about 55% of the time.
  • PGA Pro’s hole putts in the 10 – 20 ft range about 25% of the time.

As you’ll notice from those stats above….there is a big drop off each time you move further away from the hole. The point is, the further you are away from the hole, the less likely you are to hole a putt. And that doesn’t matter how good a putter you become you’ll always be around those figures because the greens are not perfect.

So once you get your putting to a good standard the only way you can lower your scores is to get the ball closer to the hole. And the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to doing this is with the short game. Because if you’re averaging 30 feet from the hole with a wedge from 75 yards and with practice you get that down to averaging 10 feet from the hole on average then you WILL score lower.

The bottom line is that with the short game it’s very possible to cut a lot of strokes from you scores by working hard and smart on improving this area of your game.

Now before I tell you anything else I first want to explain what the short game is not.

The short game is NOT putting!

Putting is a separate game all by itself as you will see from the putting improvement blueprint. I get sick and tired of people lumping putting in with the short game. It’s not part of the short game…it’s a game all by itself.

So with that being said, here’s what the short game consists of…

  • Chipping
  • Pitching
  • Distance Wedges
  • Bunker shots

And that’s the order you should work through to improve your short game.

Now the action of chipping is very close to the putting action. Conversely, the action used for distance wedges is very close to the full swing action.

That may be one reason why a lot of golfers suffer with the short game. It’s a mixture of different aspects of golf. But the short game can definitely be mastered.

Now when you first start working on improving your short game you should focus on consistently landing your ball on the spot you want it to land.  You may think that’s a strange thing to focus on first so let me explain that some more by telling you the…

__________________

Golfers 7 Biggest Problems and Solutions

Problem #3 – When I’m faced with bunker shots I tend to either leave the ball in the bunker or hit the ball way over the green. Have you got a solution?

Solution – The main reason this happens is because most golfers find it hard to come to terms with the fact that they don’t have to hit the ball to get it out of the bunker. And this leads to two things happening.

The first one is hitting the ball first, which obviously results in some bad shots. And the second one is decelerating at the ball and letting the club contact the sand way behind the ball and because the club is going so slowly the sand does not have enough force to get the ball out.

Now luckily, I’ve got a great drill for you that with practice will get you used to the feeling you should have through the bunker shot. And funnily enough you don’t even need to do this drill in a bunker and if you have one of those soft practice golf balls, you should be able to do this drill at home.

So what’s the drill?

Well, you simply have to tee up a ball very high and setup to it like you would for a bunker shot i.e. clubface open, stance open etc. Once you’ve setup to the shot the next step is to swing back to halfway and then through the shot to a full-finish. And the goal is to hit the tee under the ball so the ball simply falls to the ground.  Here’s some pictures that will help explain this.

As you can see, the ball is sitting on the ground because I’ve hit the tee. Also notice how my follow-through is much longer than my backswing. For 95% of bunker shots you should have a longer follow-through than your backswing.

You hardly ever want your follow-through to be the same or shorter than your backswing. The reason is because having a longer follow-through automatically creates acceleration.

And you must accelerate through bunker shots to ever be successful at them.  Also you must get used to not hitting the ball and this drill helps to teach you both of these aspects.

So in conclusion, you should practice this a drill a lot. And once again, if you have a practice golf ball (one of those balls that goes about 50 yards with a full shot) then simply use that and do this drill at home.

__________________

When I release my retirement package you’ll get all of these 3 products.  Next week I’ll send you a sample of 3 further products that you’ll receive in this package.  Until then, have fun using these drills and advice to improve your golf game.

Thanks.

-Nick

Soon to be ex-golf coach :-)