Tuesday's Tip: Learn from Missed Putts

As I write this, I am sitting in the airport in Savannah, GA coming home from our first spring tournament at Savannah Quarters (I am the head coach for Transylvania Women’s Golf, an NCAA DIII school).

Getting on the golf course with my team in competition for the first time since October is always exciting and also provides me with several ideas for golf tips.

One big take away from this week has been the importance of examining your misses on the green. Not all misses are created equal, so it is very important to pay attention so that you can see how to improve your next putting attempt.

What to Look For

Remember the 3 skills required to be a good putter:

1. Speed Control

2. Direction Control

3. Green Reading

If you miss a putt, at least one of these three skills (if not two or all three) are to blame. In my experience, speed control is the number one issue causing most players to miss putts. However, if it is not your speed control, you better be able to distinguish between a bad starting line (direction control) or a poor read.

This is so important because hopefully you can make some in-round adjustments to make sure your speed control adjusts to the speed of the green. If your speed remains a problem, then you know that all you need to do is get on the practice green and practice your distance control.

But let’s assume that your speed control is pretty good. If you’re still missing putts then it’s either your read or your direction control. Knowing which one can be tricky, so here’s a few tips to help you know:

• Verify your read using a green reading technology like AimPoint. Reading a green using AimPoint allows you to objectively identify an exact line and commit to it. If you hit a putt and it does not start on that line, then you’ll know to get to work on your direction control.

• Learn how to adjust your reads mid-round. This is again where AimPoint gives you a great weapon to do this. Otherwise, you have to kind of wing it. For example, you are under reading putts and everything is missing on the low side (which can also give the appearance of poor speed control). Force yourself to add more break to whatever you’re currently reading.

Speed control is of upmost importance if you want to be a good putter. Without it, you simply will not be successful. Contact me today about how I can improve your putting!

Also… learn to read greens like the best players in the world by checking out my AimPoint clinics this spring by clicking here.

Tuesday's Tip: A Great Way to Lock In Your Yardages

Do you know how far you hit each club in your golf bag?

Unfortunately the answer is no for way too many golfers, including for whom I would consider serious golfers. The only thing worse than not knowing your yardages is if you “think” you do, but you don’t.

Being able to predict how far you are going to hit every club in your bag is an obvious advantage for any skill level. If only it were as easy as just knowing the yardage, picking the corresponding club, and having the ball automatically go there, golf would become a much simpler game.

What makes mastering your yardage so difficult are all the variables that go in to what makes a ball fly any certain distance. External variables such as wind, elevation, and your lie can all have serious effects on your distance. Internal factors like your swing speed, quality of contact, and impact geometry make guessing your yardages even more unpredictable.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to spend about a week in Phoenix, AZ at the headquarters of Ping Golf. In their testing facility they house one of the most famous swing robots in the world, named Ping Man. This robot is capable of producing the exact same swing every single time. However, after watching shot after shot, I noticed that every ball landed somewhere different (although very slightly) every single time. If a robot can’t make the ball go the exact same yardage every time, it’s fair to say we won’t either.

Now that we know how hard it is to accurately predict your yardages, what are some things you can do to get as close as possible?

The bottom line… get a launch monitor.

Trackman is the hands down leader in the golf industry for measuring club and ball data. But unless you want to spend $25k, I’d recommend something else. The Bushnell LaunchPro is a $3k option that (so far) has proven to me that it can display club data and (predicted) ball flight data as good as Trackman. Another unit called Flightscope Mevo+ has shown some good signs of quality data as well.

Units like Trackman and Flightscope, in their outdoor versions, are using doppler radar to actually follow the ball after it is hit. External factors like wind and elevation are automatically factored in. However, I believe that including these external factors confuse many players when they’re trying to get accurate distances. (You can tell these units to ignore these factors by “normalizing” the numbers).

When trying to learn your yardages, I find it much easier and less confusing to do this with as little external interference as possible. Therefore having a launch monitor that accurately predicts the carry distance of your shots is all you need to learn your yardages. Once you see your average carry distance for a particular club, you can take that knowledge to the course and then factor how the external factors will calculate to that particular shot.

Not intersted in spending a few grand on a launch monitor? Sign up for a session with me at the High Performance Golf Academy and in 45 minutes we can go through your bag and begin learning your yardages.

Below are two launch monitors not named Trackman that are a little more affordable and provide reliable carry distance data:

Tuesday's Tip: Hitting Many Range Balls? READ THIS!!

Do you hit a lot of range balls? Especially this time of year when the weather is keeping many of us away from the golf course, hitting range balls (indoors from a mat) may be your only option.

When hitting shots from a mat, you get the luxury of not having to worry about frequently cleaning dirt and grass from the club. However, if you take a close look at the picture below you will see that the wedge on the left has a dark spot, almost like a dark film, on the face where clearly impact with the ball has been occurring.

When I look into the golf bags of my students this time of year, it is not unusual for me to find several of their club faces that look like the one on the left. So what’s the big deal?

It wasn’t until my recent purchase of my Bushnell Launch Pro that I started to notice a problem. I have long known that in order to get the most spin and accurate performance from your wedges that the club face better be free of anything that may reduce friction with the ball*. Ask any student of mine about my insistence that they keep their clubs clean for further proof.

*Side Note on Spin

Spin is a very valuable tool in making your wedge shots accurate and predictable. Created when friction occurs between the ball and the club face, spin will help your ball flight remain consistent as well as makes what the ball does when it hits the green more predictable. A wedge shot lacking in spin will have a tendency to “run up” the club face resulting in inconsistent launch angles and carry distances. When you’re inside 100 yards and can’t predict how far the ball will go due to low spin numbers, good luck getting as close to hole as you may want to be.

So when I started training my students with the LaunchPro, I noticed that their spin numbers on their wedges were very low. For example, on a 60 yard wedge shot, we were recording spin rates around 2100 RPMS. Ideally you would want spin about 1000x the distance of the shot (6000 RPMS for a 60 yard shot).

When I first noticed this I went through the usual suspects for low spin: grass clumped on the club face, wet golf ball, poor delivery of the club through impact… etc. But silly me had missed something very obvious.

Their clubs were “clean”, the ball was dry, and I could detect nothing in their delivery that made me concerned. That’s when I noticed what we see in the picture above. Depending on the type of range ball, the cover will literally melt an extremely thin layer of plastic (or whatever the cover of the ball is made of) when the friction occurs between the ball and the club face. After several shots this layer can become quite noticeable.

The only thing worse then having a dirty club face would be literally having a layer of film, kind of like a nonstick pan surface, on your club face. This dramatically reduces spin, and therefore creates the problems mentioned above.

When we cleaned the face, and made it look like the wedge on the right in the photo, spin returned to 6000-7000 RPMS instantly. Ball flights came down and the carry distance dispersion was tighter.

So the moral of this story is to make sure you are keeping your clubs clean! Even if the only thing on your club face is that annoying mark left from a range ball.

The most effective way to clean your club face is to use a brush similar to the one below:

Tuesday's Tip: Putting's Most Important Skill?

I guess I’ll start this post by addressing the question mark… because actually there is no question in my mind what the most important skill is in putting.

SPEED CONTROL

That’s right, good old fashioned speed control on the putting green is the single most important skill you can possess on your way to becoming an accomplished putter. That doesn’t mean the other two skills (green reading and hitting your line) are unimportant. It just means that without the ability to control your speed, there is little the other two skills can do for you.

Speed control is so important to green reading that AimPoint founder Mark Sweeney has integrated speed control instruction into his green reading classes. If you need further proof that speed is the most important skill, feel free to contact me with your skepticism and I will help you see the light.

So what are some ideas that may help you become a master of touch and feel on the greens? The first is understanding that the skill of controlling your speed is simply the skill of making the ball stop where you want.

On putts inside 20 feet, you will want the ball to stop 18-24 inches past the hole if it doesn’t go in. Practicing with a ghost hole (see the pic associated with this post) is a great way to see if your roll out past the hole is adequate.

For those putts outside 20 feet, simply getting the ball to stop within 10% of the total length of the putt will suffice. For example, if you are 40 feet from the hole you should be able to stop the ball within 2 feet short or 2 feet past the hole (total of 4 feet: aka 10%).

If you struggle with speed control, here are some quick tips to get you on track:

• Check the length of your putter. Most players simply need a putter that matches the length of your wrist to floor measurement. If you are a few inches off on this, you may have a hard time making consistent contact with the sweet spot.

• Be consistent on where the ball hits the putter face. The sweet spot in the middle of the face should probably be the goal for everyone. But if you consistently hit the same spot on the putter face then you will get the desired result of the ball leaving the face with a consistent amount of force. When the impact spot changes from putt to putt, your ball speed changes making it very difficult to acquire touch/feel/speed control.

• Rhythm and tempo. Most putting strokes will operate pretty well with a tempo of 74-82 beats per minute. If you’re starting from scratch on this, just pick a tempo in that range using a metronome and get to work. The putter will go back on a click then return to impact on the next click. Do not hesitate to adjust the speed if it feels too fast or slow.

I could write a lot more on this subject seeing as how it is the most important skill in putting. But hopefully this is enough info to get your mind right so that when you are ready to commit to getting better you will know where to start. And don’t forget… come in to see me at the High Performance Golf Academy so we can get to work on making you the best putter you can be!

Need a metronome? Check the one out below:

Tuesday's Tip: Green Reading 101

Are you a good green reader? This is a question that I have asked myself throughout my career. Beginning with junior golf, then college golf, and eventually playing in PGA Section events as a professional, I never really knew if I was a good green reader or not.

I knew I was a good putter. This was obvious when every scramble team I’ve ever played on usually wanted me to putt last. I’m not trying to brag… but let’s just say I didn’t miss very often. What is unique about this is that I get to watch the other players in my group hit the exact same putt three times! Therefore I didn't need to be a good green reader in that situation.

Fast forward to the present where I have completed AimPoint certification and can now, with more confidence than ever before, say that I am a good reader of the greens.

So what are some of the basics to reading a green? Yes… if you click here and sign up for one of my AimPoint Express clinics, you too can obtain a level of confidence that I have found in green reading. However, below I will explain some of the basics in green reading that can get your brain thinking correctly the next time you are playing golf.

Green Reading 101

• The ball will roll downhill. Groundbreaking stuff I know. But seriously, the ball will roll downhill. Not toward the water, the setting sun, the mountains or the river… it rolls downhill.

• Grain rarely affects the break. For those of you enjoying sunshine and warmth right now, you’re probably playing on greens that have a noticeable grain. Grain affects speed, which in turn could affect read, but that is all.

• Learn to identify the slope with your feet. This is where an AimPoint Express clinic with me can help you tremendously. Your eyes will lie to you. Once you learn to detect slope with your feet, you will have a foolproof way to detect slope every time.

There’s a lot more to learn about reading a green, and as you’ve heard by now there is no better way to learn than by joining one of my AimPoint Express classes!

Tuesday's Tip: Line? Logo? Blank? Using Your Ball to Aim Putts

In what is sure to be the most hotly debated topic in golf (lol I doubt it)… Should you or should you not use your line on the golf ball to aim your putts?

This question is asked almost every time I give a putting lesson to someone new. And every time I give the same answer: it depends.

So what does it depend on? After all, when using the PGA or LPGA Tours as examples or a place to find best practices on stuff like this, there doesn't seem to be a clear answer.

Before we go head first in settling this debate, it is important to understand exactly what the three skills are that makes a great putter:

1. Speed Control

2. Direction Control (ability to make the ball roll on your intended line)

3. Green Reading

Please note that Aim is not listed above. This means that it is entirely possible for you to be a great putter but not necessarily be very good at pointing your putter precisely on your intended line. Now, that doesn't mean that I would ignore poor aim in the middle of a putting lesson. I believe that it is always better to know where grandpa’s gun (aka the putter - I stole this from putting guru and Flatstick Academy founder David Orr) is pointing. But there are some cases throughout history of some excellent putters that did not point the putter on their intended target line.

Tiger Woods may be the most famous of these putters, as he was notorious for aiming his putter about 2-3 degrees to the right of his intended line (although not necessarily on purpose). In Sam Putt Lab terms, that is a lot.

So now that we know it isn’t a big deal if you aim precisely on your intended line, should we even worry about using the ball to help us aim?

I tell my players the following if they are considering using the line or logo on the ball to help aim:

Use the line or logo IF…

• You can accurately point the line or logo precisely on your intended line in two attempts or less. In other words, you can set the ball down, check the line, then fix it one time. If it takes more attempts than that you are running into a pace of play issue and you should not be wasting time using the line!

  • This doesn't mean you need to give up ever using the line of logo. Just simply get to a practice green and rehearse using the your ball to help you aim.

• You can make the line on your putter match the line or logo of the ball. It drives me crazy when a player goes through the trouble of setting the ball up only to abandon their work and aim somewhere else. Even worse, you must be able to see if the line on the putter matches the ball or not (this happens way more often than you might think).

• It does not affect your ability to control your speed or hit your line. I’ve seen too many players (me included) that get so caught up in their initial line that they lose their feel or try to steer the ball precisely on the line, versus being an athlete and stroking the putt.

It is the last bullet point that I believe needs more conversation. Currently I have developed a hybrid model in determining whether to use the line or logo in my own game. I will use the logo on the ball for any putt inside 8 feet, which is when I am less concerned about getting the speed correct. Personally, I felt myself lose the ability to feel good speed control when getting locked in on my line for longer putts.

That being said, now that I am AimPoint certified and my green reading confidence is at an all time high, I may extend how far back I use the logo (or line) to closer to 20 feet. Why this distance? Anything inside 20 feet is considered a makable putt. Outside 20 feet and the goal is to get it close and avoid three putts! And the more confident I am that my line is correct, the more energy I can direct to making a good stroke with good speed control.

So what should you do? The answer is experiment! Just make sure you are following the three guidelines above and you are good to go on using the line!

Do you need help deciding or just need to get better at one of those three skills required to be a good putter? Contact me and click here to learn more about my programs and how I can improve your putting. Specifically, click here to learn about green reading with one of my upcoming AimPoint Express Clinics!

If you're going to use the line, I recommend the tool below to make sure you are getting the most accurate line you can possibly draw on your ball.

FREE Introduction to AimPoint Express!

Tuesday's Tip: Make the Most of Cold Weather Practice

January and February in Kentucky, along with all the other states equal to or further north, are two of the worst golf weather months of the year. So far in 2022 it has been no exception.

Typically, we can expect a handful of days that are generally nice enough to see some time to get on the course or at least practice outdoors. But so far this year has given few of those opportunities.

Despite the weather, this is the time to be working on any technical aspects of your swing. With the guidance of a qualified instructor, you can accomplish a lot by practicing indoors. So what can you do to keep your golf game tuned up during this time of year? Check out some of my suggestions below, and as always I’m here to help you improve your game at the High Performance Golf Academy!

• Convert your garage or basement into your own practice space. Believe it or not, this can be done on a budget. You can also spare no expense with launch monitors and simulators. Whatever your budget may be, a mat, net, and a space large enough to swing a golf club is all you need to make your own indoor practice area.

• Spend the time. A phrase I love repeating to my players is practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent! I’m a big believer in quality over quantity, especially when practicing during cold months. 10-15 minutes of practice per day can be all you need to improve this time of year. Assuming of course that the 10-15 minutes you are spending is quality practice.

Speaking of quality practice… here are a few tips to make sure your practice is quality and not a waste of time.

• Accuracy in your motions. There are no shortage of tips online that can help you self diagnose your swing. But there is no substitute for getting in front of a qualified instructor and undergoing an evaluation (you can book one with me here). Make sure that you are spending the time to work on the things that will make you better. A qualified instructor is the most efficient way to do this.

• Feedback. All quality practice requires feedback. Below are a few ideas to get the best feedback when you practice:

  • Mirror work. Connecting what you feel with what it looks like is very important when trying to make any change or adjustment to your golf swing. Find a room at home (or make one) that has enough space for you to make slow motion swings in front of a mirror.

  • One of the easiest and most effective forms of feedback during indoor practice is knowing the quality of your contact. If you are lucky enough to have a space to hit golf balls indoors, make sure you know where the ball is hitting the club face. Dr. Scholls foot spray powder is excellent for this.

  • Recording your swing on video is another great way to see if you are achieving the changes you want to make. However, be warned that when using video you will want to pay attention to and use a consistent camera angle. Talk to your instructor on exactly how to do this.

• More on spending the time: Limit your time to make sure you remain focused. Let’s be honest, practicing indoors during cold weather months can get boring. Mindlessly going through the motions accomplishes very little. When you begin to notice your attention span drifting off, take a break. If you can go 5 to 10 minutes at a time before you lose your focus you’re doing really good.

Are you ready to get the most from your golf game? Click here to access my online lesson book and let’s get started!

Tuesday’s Tip: Managing Expectations

Asking yourself why you play the game of golf is important not just for elite competitive players, but also for the recreation golfer. Many give up on this great game because their expectation level doesn’t meet up with their reality.

Before we go any further, understand that you can change your reality. If you currently struggle to break 100, your reality will not be to shoot under par and win a tournament. But if you put forth a plan to practice and play enough you can start to change that reality so that over time you may be able to break par.

Judge Your Play by Time Spent on the Game

When I say time spent on the game, I don’t necessarily mean that once you’ve played for 30 years you will officially become an expert on golf. Ask any club member that’s played 30 years and they will probably agree. What I do mean is that your expectation level must be set by the overall time spent and quality of your practice.

I’d love to spit out some data that says if you play X amount it will equal Y results. Unfortunately no such data exists. So many factors go into a player’s development that it is impossible to come up with the rate of progress one should have.

The closest thing to it would be the “10,000 hour or 10 years” rule that Malcom Gladwell made famous in his book Outliers, saying that if you spend 10,000 hours or 10 years of deliberate practice you can become a master at that skill. The key is deliberate practice. If you are spending quality time practicing your game then your expectation level can change. If not, then your reality is set.

One of the best ways to know if you’re achieving what you should would be to get with a qualified instructor to evaluate your current skill set and start managing your expectations. You can also begin putting together a plan to improve your skills and begin changing your expectations.

Understand and Use Basic Statistics

Do you know many greens in regulation (GIR) you average hitting when you play? What about fairways hit? Your percentage you get up and down for par? Or the number of putts your average per round?

For most golfers this is simply too much to keep up with or worry about when you’re playing. And if you’re expectations level is low, then by all means continue. But if you find yourself questioning your abilities or getting mad because you think you should be doing better, then you need to start paying attention to your stats.

One of the most basic reasons to know your stats is so you can easily compare what you do with the best players in the world on the PGA or LPGA Tours. The number of stats available for each professional players is extremely detailed and published for free to see by anyone.

The most obvious reason to keep your stats is so that you can take them to an instructor and begin putting a plan together to start improving. What can be measured can be improved so be more diligent in keeping track of your current statistics and give your self another way to see your improvement.

NOTE - It should be noted that statistics are not the “end all, be all” for your golf game. They are simply a tool. For example, the average number of putts stat is possibly the most worthless stat in golf because it is directly tied to your ability to hit greens in regulation. Learning to keep a strokes gained putting stat is much more valuable.

Remember… It’s Just a Game!

The most important thing that everyone should remember (except for those that do it for a living) is that golf is a game! By keeping your expectations in line with the reality of your skill set will free you up to enjoy the game of golf from start to finish.

At the end of the day I think it should be every golfer’s goal to walk off the golf course feeling good about the time they just spent. Don’t worry about score, especially when you’re playing a recreational round of golf!

If you feel like you are struggling to align your expectations with your skills you can schedule a session with me by clicking here and we will work together to get the most from your game.

Tuesday's Tip: Tips for the Busy Recreational Golfer

Tips for the Busy Recreational Golfer

When you are a working professional that loves the game of golf, it seems like there is rarely enough time in a day or week to spend adequate time on the golf course or working on your game. Unfortunately the work life balance is set for many, leaving a small, finite time to get better and enjoy your golf game.

If this sounds like you, consider the 3 tips below to make sure you are getting the most from your game when you do get to play.

GASP

GASP simply stands for Grip, Aim, Stance, Posture. Believe it or not, if you can manage these 4 simple keys when you play your chances of getting the most from your golf game significantly increase. Unfortunately many players simply hit the course on the weekends or after work throughout the week with little to no thought about these keys.

If you are unsure of your ability to accurately execute these four skills, it may be time to schedule that first (or next) golf lesson. Any competent golf instructor should be able to guide you to executing GASP effectively in one session.

Once you know the information, it is time to execute and sharpen your skills. This can be done with as little as 10 minutes per day at home with a golf club in your hands. No swings or golf balls needed. I’m yet to meet anybody that doesn’t have 10 minutes they can spare each day to work on GASP.

Mirror Work

If you do not have a full length mirror at home it may be time to get one. One of the key ingredients to effective practice is feedback and there is no better form of feedback than watching what you do as you do it (in a mirror).

Not only will it make working on GASP that much more effective, you can also work on any key positions in your golf swing that may be of concern. This obviously requires that you have quality information about your golf swing and a clear plan to improve. And yes… lessons are your most direct way to get that information and formulate that plan.

Being able to watch a position in your swing helps to build the connection between what you do and what you feel like you do. For many golfers there is a huge disconnect between the reality of what you’re doing and what you’re thinking. 15 minutes in front of a mirror every couple days in between practice sessions can go a long way in helping make that connection.

Time Management

You may have noticed by now that the tips I’ve discussed today have minimal time requirements. After all, you are busy so finding time to play golf is hard and practicing golf is next to impossible. However there is hope.

If you truly want to improve your golf game you can with as little as 1 hour a week of effective practice. That’s right… 1 hour a week. Here’s what that could look like:

Monday: GASP (10 minutes)

Tuesday: GASP and Mirror Work (15 minutes)

Wednesday: GASP (10 minutes)

Thursday: GASP and Mirror Work (15 minutes)

Friday: GASP (10 minutes)

Is this the pathway to becoming a scratch golfer? Nope. Not even close. But if you commit to this kind of practice plan I can promise you, with the right information from a qualified instructor, you will begin getting the most from your golf game.

Need help getting started? Click here to schedule your first lesson today and let’s get you going on the right track!