October 2008 Golf Digest

LESSON TEE—Body, body, body. A lot of talk about body by Randy Smith. But read Justin’s comments on page 33 and you’ll see he targets grip and setup. That make’s sense.

BELT BUCKLE TO THE TARGET—Let the body respond to the swing and that’s what you’ll get. Tiger presents it as an action that you initiate. Instead think of it as an action that is in response to the swing.

THE FLOP SHOT—Step 1 is fine. Then just make your normal swing.

FIX YOUR DRIVER MISS—If your miss is the result of off-center contact, the fix is simple. Practice retracing your backswing with your forward swing. The club started set up correctly on the ball, so just retrace.

KEEP YOUR BUTTONS MOVING— Allow your body to respond to the swing.

RIGHT KNEE POWER KEY—If your problem is that you hang back on your right foot too long (as Tom describes). The solution is to not do that. Get balanced at address and stay balanced until the forward swing of the club passing the address position pulls you forward.

SPLIT YOUR HANDS—Unless you are a veteran hockey player, take a pass on this.

GET YOUR STROKE BACK—I’ll take Rick’s word for it. I don’t see how this will fix anything, but it can’t hurt.

HOW GOOD CAN YOU GET—Hank asks some good questions for the player who is ready to look beyond their swing for score improvement. Regarding driving, if you are not sure you can keep your drive from costing you a penalty, widen your landing area to include the rough on the opposite side of the fairway from the hazard. Regarding approach shots realize there is a difference between “distance” and “effective distance”. Regarding chipping, don’t let you interest in precision promote rigidity in your body. And regarding putting, its not distance vs. direction. We need both—while you are putting be visualizing the ball rolling and stopping at your target.

10 RULES—Dave is from an era when psychological principles had not yet been clearly adapted to the game. Dave’s first rule illustrates this. What Dave means to say is that golfers perform on two levels. Our conscious mind should be focused on “what we want” allowing our unconscious mind to mange “how we do it”. Rule 2: read the first sentence and disregard the rest. Rule 3: I wish I was the player that Dave was. That notwithstanding his logic is off. Trust your read. If it looks straight, play it straight. Rule 4: Great. Rule 5: Good. Rule 6: Muscles respond to thoughts. No thoughts no movement. Have a clear mental picture of the ball rolling to and stopping at your target. Rule 7: Good. Rule 8: While this is logical, it is impractical. Imagine a spot one inch in front of the ball. If the ball rolls 1/8 of an inch to the right of that spot when making a 10 foot putt the ball will miss the cup by 2 inches. Rule 9: Good. Rule 10: Good.

HOW TO NAIL THE 4,5, & 6—Pablum.

THE FEEL OF A GOOD SHOT—Words from the king—if they help you, good for you.

THE PATH TO STRAIGHTER SHOTS—Ok, but not practical to use.

100/90/80

THE FORGOTTEN FAIRWAY WOODS—Amen.

Breaking 100

MATCH THE SLOPE ON UNEVEN LIES—When the hill is not too steep this is the correct strategy.

Breaking 90
WHEN TO SELECT A WOOD OVER A HYBRID—A high lofted wood is just as easy to use for heavier rough as is a hybrid. If its really heavy, don’t delude yourself—use a pitching wedge.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN YOUR SETUP—Good.

Breaking 80
LEARN TO HIT THE TOUR’S LAUNCHER SHOT—Disregard.

MASTER THE LONG PAR 3 WITH WOODS—Ok.