Golf Blog by The Orlando Golf Blogger

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity (whilst doing laundry for nine hours… yeah, we’re a little behind ) to watch Dr. Gio Valiante’s Fearless Golf – Mastering the Mental Game.

Dr. Gio is a golf psychologist and currently serves as a professor at Rollins College here in Winter Park, FL. He’s also a mental game consultant for the Golf channel, Golf Digest and UF. In addition, he’s worked with many players on the PGA tour, including Camilo Villegas, Stuart Appleby, Justin Leonard, Chris Dimarco, Chad Campbell, Jack and Gary Nicklaus, Heath Slocum, Notah Begay III, Charles Howell III, Tommy Armour III, Bryce Molder, Matt Kuchar, Davis Love III and more.

All of his research, study and philosophies on the mental game were bundled together and put into a three DVD set called Fearless Golf.

The DVD gives you some good insight into why your body and mind reacts to stressful situations the way it does. Dr. Gio’s primary philosophy and the basis for the DVD is that whether conscious or subconscious, the reason we play the way we do sometimes is our reaction to something that we all experience, fear.

I don’t want to give anything away, but, he brought up some really interesting points to consider. One of my favorite was the way we associate memories to emotions and how whenever we’re in a similar situation, we recall those memories and thus recall those emotions which we then begin to fear the outcome (should the emotion and experience be negative).

Confusing? Well, lets say you’re chipping from about 30 yards out. When you make contact with the ball, you take a huge divot and the ball travels three yards and goes into a bunker. You get pretty angry(justifiable ) at yourself because of the shank. The memory of the shank, coupled with the strong negative emotion, forms a pretty strong imprint in your mind and the next time you’re in a similar situation, you recall that experience and you begin to fear the outcome of the shot which with the way your body responds to fear makes an unfavorable shot more likely. Although this seems pretty obvious, it’s something that I’ve never considered.

It’s kind of crazy,  but a lot of the fear we feel goes into the way we grip our clubs and thus affect the outcome of our shots. Dr. Gio gives some good tips on how to recognize this and drills to overcome it. There’s also a big emphasis put on the pre-shot routine and clearing the mind at various stages of the round.

Although at times, the DVD was a little dry and classroom educational video-ish there is a ton of good info to be found as well appearances by many of the PGA Tour players Dr. Gio has helped.

What I really liked about Fearless Golf is that although there’s a lot of info passed on in the DVD, Dr. Gio boils it down to only a handful of teachable points that are easy to remember and easy to improve on.

If you’ve watched the DVDs, I’d like to hear your thoughts on it.

I was supposed to post this on Monday, sorry for the delay!

This week’s prize is a $30 gift card to Dicks Sporting Goods.

Dicks Sporting goods is trying to get the word out about their signature golf services, which include services like grip installation, shaft installation, custom club fitting, special ordering and PGA trade-in network.

Presently, Dicks Sporting Goods is offering 50% off golf club regripping.

If you get a second, go to the website and check out some of the services they offer.

This week’s winner is Nick Del Ponzo from 4 Kids Golf Academy.

Congratulations Nick! Any idea what you’re going to use the gift card on?

Thanks everyone for reading and signing up for the newsletter!!

-Dave

Today’s Orlando Golf Lesson is “How to Hit a Punch Shot” or “Knockdown Shot.”

A punch or knockdown shot is a shot played with a very low trajectory, usually to avoid interference from tree branches when a player is hitting from the woods. Similar to the knock-down, it can also be used to avoid high winds.

The setup is relatively simple.

• Place the ball towards the back of your stance near your back foot
• Shift your weight forward
• Move your hands forward so that you decrease the angle of the clubface
• Choke down on the club close to where the grip meets the shaft
• Take a normal swing, stopping about 3/4 of the way to the top
• Keep your hands ahead through impact
• Stop the follow through 3/4 way to the top

I’ve often read that this is an “advanced” shot and mid-high handicappers don’t need to focus on it. I completely disagree I think for us hackers this would be a great addition to the arsenal. Think about it… Who spends the most of their time in the trees?

Here’s a couple videos I found to help illustrate the shot.

I really like this shot for a couple of different reasons…although typically, you’ll use 3I-8I for a punch shot, you can use pretty much any club in the bag.

It’s a shot that has significant room for error. What I mean is, if your body is aimed at the target and you hit a bad shot, there’s a good chance its still heading in the right direction and you’re still going to be moving the ball in a forward direction.

Hope you’ve learned something useful today!

What’s your take on the punch shot?

-Dave

Holy busy Friday!

I’m going to change the format a bit today and instead of a long post on a single topic, I’m going to a long post a couple of different topics.

First things first. Everyone’s Favorite Golf Ball, the Top Flight Gamer Ball is on sale at GolfSmith. They’re running a special 2 for $35! Not a bad deal at all! You can pick em up in the store or online. If you’re looking to buy, click the image below so I’ll make like $.20 cents from it

If you haven’t heard about this ball, it’s a super sweet, relatively inexpensive Golf Ball. It received a gold rating on the Golf Digest 2009 Golf Ball Hotlist. Click the link below to read about it.

Golf Digest Golf Ball Hotlist 2009 – Top Flite Gamer

and here’s a slightly dated, yet still relevant review of the ball.

Top-Flite Gamer Golf Ball

If you play or if you’ve played this ball, I’d like to hear what you think about it.

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I’ve just started reading Carl Hiaasen’s newest book called “The Downhill Lie.” I’m not very far into it, but I can tell already it’s going to be an interesting read. Within the first couple pages, there comes a scene where two guys are using golf clubs to hit toads off their front porch!

Stay tuned for a full review!

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Golf Tip of the Day – Be mindful of the leading shoulder

Recently, I’ve been hitting an unusually high number of fat shots. The divot was starting about two inches behind the ball instead of infront of it. With a little help from the world famouns Brendon Elliott, I soon realized that I was dipping my lead shoulder during my back swing.

This bad habit started when I was attempting to hone my weight shift. By emphasizing my weight shift to my back foot on my back swing I was inadvertantly dipping my lead shoulder which lead to some seriously screwed up shots. I’ve thus begun correcting this oversight but it did cost me some strokes.

So, if you’re experiencing some fat shots and can’t figure out why, you might be dropping that lead shoulder on your backswing. When you’re on the range, concentrate on keeping the shoulder up and twist more with your upper body.

Just my two cents.

Happy Friday!

-Dave

Here’s your Orlando Golf Lesson of the day!

I received this story in an email and thought it was worth sharing. I’m glad he associates one of the “big” things to golf!

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is ever ything else—the small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’ The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers with a friend.

Have an awesome day!

-Dave

Continuing on from last weeks post Orlando Golf Lessons – Chipping, this weeks post is all about that glorious art form, pitching.

A super quick recap, Brendon Elliott is a local golf pro and he’s been giving me short game lessons.  So far we’ve covered putting and chipping and those posts can be viewed below.

Orlando Golf Lessons Week 1 -  Putting
Orlando Golf Lessons  Week 2 – Putting

I’ve mentioned this before, but Brendon has the greatest backyard ever..

We conduct all of our lessons from here and it’s awesome.

To make the lesson even more enjoyable, we used the new VJ Singh mat and practiced pitching from his elevated back porch, the only thing missing was a fired grill and a couple of cold ones, preferably some Three Fellas Brew.

When pitching, typically you’ll use any wedge or a 9-iron.   Here’s the setup (as best I can describe it)

• Use a full swing grip
• Distribute your weight evenly between your left & right foot
• Heels should be 10 to 12 inches apart
• Ball position is center or slightly back
• Square clubface
• Shaft angle slightly forward (around 1 o’clock)
• Stand closer to the ball

The swing involves turning your shoulders and coiling your upper body during the backswing.  The greater the shoulder turn, the greater the swing speed.

During the backswing, there will be full setting of the wrists along with a fuller arm swing and shoulder turn. On the downswing, your body will uncoil while delivering the forward lean of the club shaft at impact.  This forward lean of the club results from maintaining the wrist bend.  It is of the utmost importance that the wrist is bent at impact so the clubhead is hitting down through impact.  This results in the “hitting down on the ball.”

Once you get this down, all that remains is to control the distances.  The best visual I can give is to imagine your arms are the hour hand on a clock.  To hit a short shot, your backswing should take your arms to 8 o’clock and they finish at 4 o’clock. A medium shot will take your back swing to 9 o’clock, finishing at 3 o’clock.  Last, a long shot takes your backswing to 10 o’clock and finishes at 2 o’clock.

I know how confusing the above might seem, so here’s a great video from Jeff Yurkiewicz.

Hopefully between my ramblings and this sweet video you can piece together something that will help your short game!

-Dave

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I’m a little late on posting these and I apologize for that..

As a quick refresher, I’ve been taking golf lessons from a local golf pro named Brendon Elliott.  If you haven’t been following along, you can catch up by clicking on the posts below.

Orlando Golf Lessons Week 1
Orlando Golf Lessons Week 2

Weeks three and four focus on chipping and pitching.  Not much worthy of note occurred during week three, Brendon spent the time taking video and pictures of my swing from all angles.

For Pitching, we used this sweet new VJ Singh mat he picked up at the PGA Merchandise Show.  When I was at the show, I tried the mat and hated it, but I’ve since begun singing a different tune, that thing is sweet!

Week four we discussed the outcome of the previous weeks evaluation.  To keep it short, we decided to start from scratch…

Chipping

“Minimum air time, maximum ground time”

The easiest way to describe a proper chip is to treat the shot as if you were putting with a lofted club.

Rest the club head behind the ball with the club face aimed where your shot is intended.

Elevate the grip four inches and move it forward four inches.  This will cause your hands to be forward in your stance.

You want to take a narrow stance that is slightly open with the ball a little behind the center of your stance.

The weight dispersion should be 60/40 with most of the weight on the lead foot.

Because of the position of the club, you’re going to “grip down” on the club and because the club rests more in your palms, you can choose either a standard grip or a putting grip.

It is said that using a putting grip is preferred because it allows minimal wrist action which will lead to more consistant shots.

The swing is very similar to a putting stroke except it involves a slight turning of the shoulders.  The swing speed should only be as fast as the rotation allows.  It’s very important to keep your wrists silent throughout the entire motion.  Keeping the wrists quiet ensures the club head trails the hands into impact.

There are two main elements to any chip, carry and roll.

Carry is the amount of arc in the shot.  As a general rule, the larger the arc, the greater the carry distance.  The length of the arc is determined by the distance the club head moves back and through.  So a larger swing will correlate into a larger arc leading to greater carrying distance.

Roll is the distance the ball…….rolls…    The amount of roll to a chip is determined by the amount of loft the club has.  As the loft of the club increases, the distance the ball rolls decreases.

Now this isn’t a perfect science, but here’s what I’ve been told about chip shots.  Regardless of where you are in relation to the green or pin, you always want to land your chip three feet (one pace) onto the green and let it roll the rest of the way.

To determine the club to use (this is where it gets tricky and i’m still working on this), you need to understand that every club has a carry:roll ratio.  See below.

PW  1:1
9i    1:2
8i    1:3
7i    1:4
6i    1:5

Ok, so check this out.  you’ll want to divide the number of paces your ball is from your “spot” (three paces onto the green) into the number of paces your spot is from the pin.  For an example, lets say your ball is four paces from the “spot” and the pin is eight paces from the “spot.”  You want to divide eight by four.  So your ratio is 1:2 and you’ll want to use a 9i for the shot.

Hopefully, this isn’t totally confusing…

I haven’t quite perfected the technique myself, but I’ve been practicing since the last lesson and I feel ALOT more comfortable with chipping than I did before.  The comfort has led to confidience and I no longer dread the shanks from three feet away like I used to.

As always, I thank the almighty Brendon for imparting such techniques on such a pitiful golfer as myself.

I’d love any feedback you guys have on this, I’ve found it very helpful!

-Dave

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Last Saturday, I had my second short game lesson from Brendon Elliott.

If you missed the first weeks lesson you can find it here – Orlando Golf Lessons.

For a quick recap, the first week was a putting evaluation, complete with video, pictures, dixx putter stats and a review of my last 10 golf scores.

Brendon compiled all that data and came to a simple conclusion, I’m a crummy putter. 

So this weeks focus was to unlearn my crappy habits and learn some better ones.  There was quite a few things that I needed changed, the first of which was my putter length.

I picked up the putter from play it again sports about four years back.  I think I paid twenty bucks for it and it was made for a giant.   The putter was about 2 1/2 inches too long for me and because of that, I was having to hunker down over the ball and bend my elbows so that the putter rested flush with the green.

This caused my swing to be totally inconsistent and made it very difficult to control the swing speed.

The proper putting form is displayed in the image on the left.  You want your shoulders and arms to form a perfect triangle with your hands holding the grip forming a point.

This triangle should never be broken through out the putt.

You need to swing in a low arching pendulum motion and the stroke should be even with the back swing distance matching the follow through distance.  For example, if your back swing is three inches, your follow through should also be three inches.

Additionally, your swing speed must remain constant.  Another problem with my putting was that my back swing was slow and I’d muscle the putter forward to strike the ball.  This opens you up to many inconsistencies in the swing path, swing speed and point of impact.

To help me get my swing speed rhythm down, we used a four count metronome.  Two counts for the back swing and two counts for the follow through.

Another problem that I had was that after the point of impact, I was turning my body towards the target, opening up my stance and causing the putter face to open and put some unwanted spin on the ball.  This was also causing me to extend my follow through out longer and higher than it should have been.

We used the Eyeline Putting Plane Alignment System to help break that habit.

This has guide  rails that helps to keep your swing path constant.

It also helps with the back swing and follow through distances.

Brendon has measured out the perfect distance from one of the holes on the green that if you take your back swing to the left of the putting plane and end it at the right of the putting plane, the putt will end up in the cup.

The last thing we covered was bending forward at the waist until your eyes are directly above the ball.  See that black line running down the center of the training device?  You square your shoulders to the red line closest to your feet and bend forward until your eyes are over that black line.

This lesson has helped me tremendously.  After I had my putter resized, I threw on a new grip in an attempt at a fresh start.  The very next day I played a round out a Dubsdread and manages to shave five strokes off my putting game.  I feel after a bit more practice and my body gets used to the new posture, I’ll be able to shave off another five strokes easy.

Stay tuned for more vicarious short game lessons via Brendon Elliott.

-Dave

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Check out this video blog entry from Marc and Coach Dave over at the Golf Is Hard blog.

Seems like a lot of golf bloggers are breaking the trail into vlogging.  Buried within this video are a couple nuggets of golf wisdom, but I think there’s a little too much filler.  I especially like the section on the mental aspects of a shot.

Can’t believe Marc is a Seminoles fan, I used to have soo much respect for him.. HA!

-Dave

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A couple days ago I wrote a post about the awesome swag I received from OOBGolf.com’s mystery bags.  In one of the bags I received three Eidolon V-sole wedges that I can’t use because they are wrong-handed.

Well good news my friends!

I sent them an email detailing my plight and much to my elation, Terry Koehler, President, CEO, Head-honcho and Big-wig responded to my email informing me that they’d be more than happy to swap them out.

How’s that for some awesome customer service??  I was not really a customer, just some lucky stiff and they still decide to take care of me.  I’ll tell you one thing, I may not have been a customer before, but I am now, and my bag will only be sporting Eidolon wedges from here on out.

What’s even cooler is that Mr. Koehler is also a fellow golf blogger and unlike this rag I call a blog, his has some really great content.  Terry writes The Wedge Guy and in it he shares his 25+ years of golf industry experience and his expertise on the short game, otherwise known as the “scoring” game.

I’m hoping he’ll permit me to repost some of his knowledge here, he’s got a lot of really good content.  If you get some time, definately recommend checking the blog out.  I cannot wait to get my new clubs and take them to the links!

Thanks again Terry!

-Dave

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