This Rock sits on the left side of hole #7 Tee Box at Evergreen GC.   The arrows point at 2 Rock Badgers who sit and watch as golfers tee off.  They live in the cave beneath the rock.

I read today that 70% of all golf shots take place from 100 yards in to the pin.  The article went on to say that the pros spend 80 to 90% of their time practicing in this area of their game.  Having a long game that will get you to the green in few shots is great, but you don’t have to be long in order to score well.  Here are some golf short game tips that will help you to become lethal around the green.

In his book the “Short Game Bible” Dave Pelz talks about how he spent years collecting data on pro golfers and their shots.  He discovered that they were very good at selecting the right club and swing for their distance into the green but the landing pattern was often a spray to the left or to the right. In other words their distance was usually very accurate, while their direction was not always what they were hoping to accomplish.  For us non professional golfers, I suspect that generally this would be true as well.

So this means that once we know the distances that a given club will fly, our next task is to get extremely accurate.  The first obvious task is to build a repeatable method of aiming.  The best way I know is the “intermediate target”; pick out a spot directly in front of your ball, imagine the ball flying over this spot on its way to the hole.  You would select the spot when standing behind the ball but make sure that you can see it when you align yourself for the shot. As you go through your set-up routine you should insure that your club face, shoulders and hips are aimed directly over this spot.  This should be an automatic part of your set-up routine.

Next is your attitude, the professionals generally consider anything from 120 yards in as a make-able shot.  Think about it, do you see the ball going into the cup when you are 80 to a 100 yards away?  I call it a “Hole in One Mentality”.  It may sound like voodoo, but I assure you, your body will cooperate in helping you to make the best possible swing to achieve this goal when you incorporate it into your thoughts.  You do this on the green, so why not use it from 120 yards in.

The next aspect of scoring well around the green is what is referred to as “touch”.  Touch is the ability to get close to the hole, leaving yourself with a make-able putt.  Touch can be developed with practice. Use a three club system at the practice facility and learn how far a chip will go with a 7, 8,9 or any combination of wedges. Learn your distances in correlation to your back-swing. If my ball is considered 6 o’clock and I swing back to 8 o’clock; how far does it travel?  Now learn those same distances for a 9 o’clock swing and an 11 o’clock swing. When you arrive near the green armed with this knowledge you will perform with touch.

As a long time student of the game I have read my fair share of theory and articles on golf. A few years ago I picked up the Purepoint Golf Short-Game DVD.  Bobby Eldridge finally helped me to develop a repeatable swing for my short game.  His series has now expanded to include  Pitching and Bunker-shot DVD’s as well as written PDF’s so you can study in a variety of ways.  For less than the cost of a single lesson from a Professional you can add a terrific resource to your library. It is currently on sale for the next few days as a bundle package but that will not last for long.  It deserves a serious evaluation and I might add Bobby has a guarantee that is unlike any I have ever seen.  See for yourself.

Hit them Straight and Seldom

Michael Brown

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Golf training is a never ending pursuit for the golfer who has been bitten by the allure of golf.  As golfers there is always something more to learn and improve upon.  When you spend time on the range you find yourself wondering what this or that shot would look like on the course. When you are on the course you only get one chance to make your best golf swing for that particular hole.  The goal is to find a way to take your best golf swing onto the course every time you go.The Ultimate Golf Society may be the answer  for you.

As you think about your round of golf coming up tomorrow.  What are you planning for tonight? Do you know you can go online and get all your questions answered ?  Do you have a routine for when you arrive at the course?   If you are like me, you like to arrive at least an hour early and hit some balls to warm up. Then head for the practice green and get a feel for the speed and break of your putts.   If there is time, you go over to the practice chipping green and work on your short chips as well.  With any luck you will be able to demonstrate your best golf swing on the tee box.

This game has so many aspects to it.  On the tee box you want to hit the ball as far as you can;  then you get to the green and try to slow your shot from  deep rough to a close pin. Of course the putting green can be a whole different story.  I played last year for the first time on “rolled greens”, after the morning cut they bring in a heavy roller and mash the grain down.  Wow, if you hit the ball too firm and miss you are easily 12 feet beyond. If you gently tap it the ball literally moves like a snake back and forth.   I felt lucky to get away with a two putt on most of those holes and three was my average.

Score Card From Lakota Canyon Colorado; Yes those are real piles of rock along the right hand side

One of the joys of golf is getting to play different courses. Each course is unique and each will have some things that are deliberately designed to frustrate the casual golfer.   So, how do you maintain your handicap when you go to these different courses for a one time experience?   In most cases you are not quite sure of what to expect.

Having sound fundamental skills is essential to enjoying the game.   When you get into trouble, the ability to recover critical.

That's me in the sand, 100 yards out at Bear Dance

I know the professionals play a different course every week,  but you and I  probably play a different course 5 to10 times a year with most of our time spent on our home course.

Tracy Reed spent over 20 years analyzing the golf swing.  He put together Golf Swing Control and released it as a book to selected few.   A client convinced him to put together a golf training video, which was released in 2008.   (That video completely turned my game around)  On his Blog he has an 18 minute slow motion critique of Tiger Woods golf swing; which is the best explanation of the complete process of a golf swing you will ever see.  Last October he put together The Ultimate Golf Society to make sure that as golfers, we are prepared for what ever a golf course can throw at us. This website features discussions and training on all aspects of the golf game.

This is a membership website, a 21 day trial is available for a buck and then it will cost you  a monthly fee.  You will get access to Tracy Reed live in a monthly training call, access to videos on all aspects of the game, short game, putting training, a member forum and much much more.  For a buck it is well worth the visit.   With help for all aspects of your golf game available 24/7.

The Ultimate Golf Society

The Bullets below are just a sampling of what you will find:

• Putting and Chipping
• Long Game
• Mental Game
  
• Golf and Business
• Monthly Coaching  Call
• Golf Humor
• Member Questions
• Featured Resources
• Discussion Forum
• Member Profile
  

The Ultimate Golf Society

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I live in a mountain community and our local course is just that, mountainous. This means that there is no such thing as a flat lie from which to hit the golf ball. This is kind of an exaggeration as the tee boxes are generally level, but not always. It is a municipal course owned by the city of Denver and their budget over the years has not been very generous. A few of the more shaded tee boxes will loose their grass over the course of the season and you find yourself looking for a place to stand that is level enough to hit the shot.

I mention the above to stress the amount of awareness that you need to bring to the course when you come to play golf. Standing on an unlevel tee box can present some subtle challenges to your game and it is important to be aware of those differences. Paying attention to the level can be very important, if the ball is slightly below your feet and you are not standing close enough you could hit it off the toe.  On the course itself you are usually aware of the fact that the ball is above or below your feet and make adjustments accordingly. I say usually but that is not always the case. If your drive sliced off into the rough above a sloped fairway and the others in your foursome were all in the fairway you might hurry to your ball and (even though you selected the correct club for the job)take a hasty shot to get back into the fairway. In the process you neglect to correct for the fact the ball is above your feet and wind up pulling the next shot way left across the fairway into the rough on the opposite side.

This brings up the importance of having a pre-shot routine that you employ with every shot that you are going to take. You cannot have a a consistent golf game without a consistent approach to the ball and a routine that you use every time. It took me years to figure this out and when I finally did the change in my overall score was amazing. Starting from behind the ball as I approach, I am thinking about the lie of the ball itself. is it standing up on the top of the turf or is it nestled down? This makes a big difference in your club selection. Next I check the ground above/or below the feet? What are the other factors that I need to correct for? Do I have trees or obstructions to get through or around? All of this plays into the club selection. Once I have made up my mind as to the club that I will use then I start my pre shot routine.

Standing behind the ball I pick out a long distance target, usually beyond the green itself. A big tree, a house across the hill, even a mountain top. Then I pick out an intermediate target about 3 to 5 feet past my ball. When I approach the ball and get into my stance I am focused on aligning my body with that intermediate target. Now I want to check and insure that my grip is correct. Next I insure that I am the correct distance from the ball. I set the club down centering the face at a perpendicular angle to the target and check to insure that my hands are comfortably hanging straight down from my shoulders. (Not reaching out or too close to my belly) Next I check my balance am I comfortably balanced on the center to the ball of my feet and are my knees slightly bent without sitting down. Is my back straight and am I keeping my chin slightly up so that I see the ball staring down a line from my nose rather than looking straight at the ball with my head angled down. Now I am ready to pull the trigger and make my shot. I have refined this to take about 30 seconds or less but the results are so much better than when I had no routine at all.

Your results may vary, and I am not suggesting that you copy my routine.  More to the point if you are not using a routine you need to develop one.  When I finally understood the importance of a good routine, I looked around for the best training that I could find to help me develop one.  I found actually two instructors online who stressed the importance of a good setup routine.  The first person I would recommend that you read is Tracy Reed.  His Ultimate Golf System is a bit pricey.  He has the most excellent video review of Tiger Woods swing that I have ever seen. And his blog is full of excellent points and advise on the whole game of golf with special emphasis on maintaining your balance through out the swing.  His free golf instruction videos are fantastic.

Obviously the second system that I would reccommend is the Purepoint system for the rock solid fundamentals that Bobby Eldrige teaches.  Bobby recognizes that we are all different in swing speed, heighth and ability and his teaching is designed to take you from where you are and help you to improve.  The  apprentice class will enable you to chart your current ability and then set goals to improve over time. The  golf instruction DVD’s that he offers cover all aspects of your game.  There is no better way to improve your golf game than by having good fundamentals and the beginning of that is a good setup routine.

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