2 Key Putting Tips

I have been working on my putting for sometime and have come down to 2 key ways I suggest you practise with.

Let's start with long putts. The chances of making a putt over 20 to 40 feet is slim. Thus, it is important that you are able to lag it close. Go to the practise green and take 20 balls with you. Put the first 10 balls with your usual style to a target about 30 feet away. Take the next 10 balls and do the same thing; only this time, do it with out looking at your putter or ball. Instead, look only at the hole. You will be surprised at the results. The putts you made without looking at the ball were close and tracked more online. Guess what, your eyes actually told your hands what to do.

Now that you have practise lag putting without looking at the ball, we need to look at how you can bring this to the course. While making your practise stroke, feel like you are making you putt without looking at the ball. Swing the putter back and forth till you feel that you have the right momentum to bring the ball to the hole. This will help you greatly with your lag putts.

Next comes the testy and nerve wrecking 3 footers. For months, I panicked when I stood over a 2 footer. Till my friend Moose offered some great advise. He suggested that my focus should be to have a square putter face at impact. Do not try to stroke the putter as you do on the long putts. Your stroke would be more like a gentle jab to keep the putter face square. This worked wonders for me. You should give it a try.

Hope the above helps you with your putting. And my last advise is that nothing is more powerful than your ability to visualise :)

Quiet Eye for Better Putting

Yup. Finally something about putting. So what is the secret to good putting? I will safely tell you it is not the latest putter that the size of a baseball. And honestly, I don't even care how you grip it.

Picture this for a moment. How would you throw a golf ball to the hole from 20 feet aware? Chances are you just throw it without any thought. Did you look at your hands? Probably not. So the question is why do you focus so intently on your putter head when you are making a putt?

This brings me to Quiet Eye. Dr Joan Vickers from the University of Calgary is an expert in this area. I'll spare you the details. But the following is an excerpt from Dr. Vicker's article in 2004 in Golf Digest.

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR QUIET EYE
A Quiet Eye routine on straight, flat putts has the following characteristics that you can learn. Repeat this on each putt.

* FOCUS ON THE HOLE: As soon as your putterhead is set behind the ball, pick a specific location on the hole where you want the ball to go, such as a blade of grass or a small feature on the front of the cup.

* 'SEE' THE BALL GO IN: Look at this location for about two seconds, and visualize the ball going into the hole.

* SCAN FROM HOLE TO BALL: Smoothly shift your gaze without interruption from the target to the back of the ball. Your gaze should move calmly and efficiently.

* EYE ON THE BALL: Fixate on the back of the ball, and imagine just the right contact of the putterhead on the ball. Picture a line through this contact point to your spot on the hole.

* STAY STEADY: Maintain a Quiet Eye on the one spot on the back of the ball during the backstroke and forward stroke and through contact. Don't peek! Only after you've done this, take a look at your ball going in the hole.

Mike Austin's 515 Yard Drive

I came across Mike Austin when a friend introduce me to watch Austin's golf instruction. Personally, I have tried the swing and it does feel great. In case you have not heard of Austin, he recorded the longest drive in a PGA competition.

At 515 yards, "Austin, then sixty-four, unleashed all hell on the ball, sending it 515 yards before it finally came to rest—sixty-five yards beyond the flagstick on the par-four fifth hole. Thirty years later, it's still the longest drive ever, according to Guinness World Records. (The PGA Tour began logging individual driving distance in 1980. The longest drive since then is thought to be 457 yards, by J.C. Goosie, at a Senior Tour event in 1988; the longest recorded drive on the regular Tour is 427 yards, by Chris Smith in 1999.)" (David Hochman, 2004).

If you look at the swing instruction he gives, you will first note that he does not tell you to hold any positions. As most golfers know, we have often been told to hold the lag. Austin's method is to let it all go at the top with the right pivot (he calls it compound pivot). I put he's swing style t test and am glad to say I gain backed the distance I lost of the tee.

You can read more about Austin here (Mike Austin 515 Yard Drive )

If you wish to purchase a copy of the DVD on how to hit powerful drives without unnecessary stress on your body, please drop me an email at stan3383@gmail.com. (DVD is $35 shipped worldwide via paypal payment).

The Correct Golf Grip Size

Getting fitted for the correct grip size is a must to swing the golf club efficiently (i.e. effortless power). Most club fitters follow a standard chart that recommends grip size based on measurements of your hands and length of the fingers. In particular, they measure the left hand if you golf right handed.

My experience has been that most golfers are playing grips that are a little too big for their hand size. And this is not based on the recommendations of the grip size charts. If you are holding your club correct, chances are that your grip will be too big. Having too big a grip will encourage you to squeeze the grip more than necessary. With a correct grip size, you were end up just holding the club without any unnecessary pressure. And yet, it should still allow you to exert your strongest grip (example when you hit out of the rough) comfortable without tensing up your forearms too much.

Also, do ensure that your grip fits both hands (after all, you do use both hands to swing the club). For instance, a golfer can have extra tape added (to make it thicker) or have it stretch a little (to make it smaller) so the right hand (for right handed golfers) will be able to mold itself onto the left hand.

So what does the correct grip size do for you? First, you will be able to take your hands out of your swing. This is very important especially at the start of your downswing. Any hand action to start your swing can be disastrous. Second, it will help with better extension after impact. By this, I mean both arms are fully extended after impact (in case you are unaware, at impact, your right elbow is actually still slightly bent). Third, the correct grip size will allow you to exert pressure on shots you need to hit it hard with greater ease and confidence.

Based on conventional grip charts, I am supposed to play with a grip size that is currently 2 sizes bigger (standard being the recommended and I am currently using ladies grips). So for 10 years I have been having the wrong grip size.

Look at the black and white photo and you will see how small the grip is relative to the hands. Next, the color photo actually shows Ernie Els' grip. Here, you can also see how small the grip is relative to his hands.

My recommendation is to try the various sizes of grips to find out which is most comfortable for you. And if you have been working on Chapter One The Grip in Hogan's Five Lessons, the process will be much easier :)

Ben Hogan - An American HERO

Just finished watching the first disc from Ben Hogan's Collection. The other 2 disc talks about the swing (brought Jr to the range today; no time to finish the rest).

I learned quite a few interesting things about Hogan.

After the 1949 accident, Ben Hogan came back 11 months later to take part in the Greenbrier tournament. With the full tour there, he short a total 259 to win the event.

6 of his 9 majors were won after his return from the 1949 accident. Yes, Tiger had a bad knee and won the U.S. Open in 2008. But we are talking about Hogan. The same Hogan that doctors said it would be impossible to golf again, much less to become a dominant force in competitive golf again.

It was more than having the perfect swing. Hogan had an unbelievable ability to focus. At Carnoustie, he did not even notice or hear the train go by when he was making his stroke.

In the DVD, Nicklaus said it best. "So many things about Hogan was special. He was the greatest shotmaker I ever saw. He was more determine and could totally out focus anyone else in his time of play. No one know hims very well which makes him much more feared as a competitor. He probably worksharder than anyone to reach the top and took him a long time. When he got there, his body was all but destroyed by the car accident. All he did was start all over again at nearly forty he got even better. nobody was like Hogan."

Not only is he a golfing legend, he is also a good friend and a loving husband. I really recommend your kids to watch it if they get a chance to do so. It is one of the best life stories I have come acrossed.

I seriously rate this part of the DVD 100 out of 10. AWESOME!!!!

Off-topic. Gave a friend one of the two copies of Five Lessons. And he is loving it. Please do yourself and your golf game a favor, go get THE FIVE LESSONS.

Happy Golfing.

Too Young to Start Golf???

That's my boy. He's 6 years old now and first swung a kid's club at 2. Was I expecting to groom the next Tiger? No, just wanted him to have fun (ok. wasn't fair that he plays lefty because I am one).

Junior loves golf and I am guilty for not bringing him to practise more often. I see many kids at the practise grounds and sometimes I see parent's who are just too demanding. 'Keep your head down", "No no no..you are lifting up", "Look at the ball"...wait...didn't we mean to tell them "Go have fun". Well, that's not the point of this posts. Just something for parent's to ponder.

Back to the main point. Junior was in the bunker for the first time and managed to take a picture right after impact. And it's wonderful how he had the perfect impact position. Flat wrist on the leading hand and a bent wrist on the trailing hand.

Could he be a golfing genius? Maybe. But I am sure that's not why he get's into a perfect impact position. You see, kids who start at 2 to 3 years old tend to have a hard time manipulating a golf club. They simply do not have the arm strength (like most adults do) to so. They still manage to swing the club because they make use of momentum. Kids instictively use their body to move the club. On the downswing, they do not lunge at the ball. Instead, they make use of the same momentum and gravity to bring the club to the ball. And they arrive at the impact position because (as you remember) they do not have the arm strength to flip the club. With gravity and momentum, they create serious club head speed. Quite possibly, they are pound for pound swinging faster than Tiger.

For you parent's out there who haven't start your kids on golf, you know what to do. If they end up at the Masters, great. If not, just remember this.

Golf builds character. Teaching them the rules, proper gentlemenly (or ladylike) behaviour, and managing the game will help them to be better people. You will be glad that you did just give them a set of clubs. Rather, you thought them how to enjoy golf the way it was meant to be.

And with their God given talent to swing a club they do deserve a chance.

In Search of 13 Spikes

Why 13 spikes? Take a look at the picture on the left. This is a magnified photo of Hogan's shoe. From what I can see, there is at least 13 spikes on the shoes. As Mike Maves (more on him later) quoted Hogan, you swing into the ground.

So what's the next best thing to wearing Hogan's old shoes? The Adidas Tour 360 Limited. By far the only golf shoes I have seen with 10 spikes. With the added traction design, I guess this will make up for the lack of 3 spikes.

Ben Hogan DVD Collection

Today, the Ben Hogan DVD collection I ordered came in. Can't wait to watch it. Will watch the DVD containing Hogan's Legacy. Should be interesting to find out more about his accomplishments. The other DVDs talks about his swing mechanics in greater details. Now to find a golf shoe with 13 spikes ;)

Scratch Golf Custom Studio

Here's the link to Scratch Golf's Custom Wedge design studio.

www.scratchgolf.com

You can go through the software and choose your options. Plus, you will be able to see how it actually looks like. I have order my 3 lefty custom wedges. Will post pics when they get here. (it is a agonizing wait).

You can drop me a mail and I'd be glad to help you place your order.

Drop me a mail at stan3383@gmail.com

Shimada Golf Iron Shafts

Had my lefty Miura CB irons re-shafted at the shop today (http://www.torquegolf.com/). Decided to try the Shimada K-7001. This was after 3 months with the Fujikura Rombax graphite shafts. And WOW, love the feel of the Shimadas. They feel unlike any steel shafts I have hit with. Shimada also makes a wedge shaft. Excellent feel on it. Shots were very sweet. Previously had the Dynamic Golds on my wedges. One really cool think about the K's wedge shaft was that it has steps on the butt area of the shaft. The remainder of the shaft is stepless (like a Royal Precision shaft). Ok, nothing was wrong with my wedges. But the cool factor on the shafts just made it a no brainer for me. Pics of the 'superman' CG10s by Cleveland.

Something in the Swing Clicked

The first part of the range session was close to horrible if not destructive. Was going through what I have read in Five Lessons. The grip was working well and never really feel the need to squeeze the grip for more power.

Was executing Hogan's Move (more on this when the time comes), at did not feel anything was wrong either. While on the way to the gents, had a swing thought (yes, I do have many). I suspected that while I was making a proper hip turn on the back swing, what I did not do was maintain the same flex on my knees. In so doing, my hips actually rised up. So thought to myself I have to keep the hips turning more level.

The picture on the left shows that Hogan's hips have remain quite level. You can see the bottom of his shirt line through the his pants and they are quite parallel to the ground.

In so doing, it created space and with the right tempo and patience, I could feel the club SWINGING down to the ball. This also prevented the spin out since I was in no hurry to look at where my ball where. Overall a very productive day.

Summary of KEY THOUGHTS

1. level hips

2. watch tempo

3. let club pull you to your finish

4. hands to hold the club and nothing more

Crisp striking is inevitable. I can have a good sleep :)