The Normal Bunker Shot

The normal bunker shot is one that many people struggle with. The main objective with bunkers is to learn how to take a shallow cut of sand. I wrote an article discussing the sure out method for bunkers and if you have not read that I encourage you to read that article first (you can read the bunker method article here) and take that method to the course and practice with it for about ten minutes. The sure out method is the base for all bunker shots and is needed to be a great bunker player.

The normal bunker shot is played the way most people know how to hit bunkers, open clubface, open body. I want you to first draw an arrow in the sand with the arrow pointing away from the target. This arrow represents the standard way of playing a bunker shot. While looking at the arrow, notice how one line points to the right of the target. This line represents the clubface position when hitting bunker shots. We want our clubface open or aimed to the right slightly. The line on the arrow that is pointing to the left of the target represents our bodyline. We want our body aimed slightly to the left and the same degrees that the clubface is open. When we take our normal golf swing with this setup, the ball will fly out of the bunker along the line of the arrow that is pointed at the target. In regards to our swing, the most important fundamental with bunkers is tempo. We want a nice, long flowing backswing and follow through. A great image for those players that struggle to get the ball out of the bunker is to imagine Fred Couples’ golf swing. Imagine his long flowing swing before you hit your bunker shot and you will be much more successful from the bunker. Now that you have a long flowing swing I want the ball to be played forward in your stance about 2-3 inches forward of center. Your focus will be on hitting a spot in the center of your stance and that sand will throw the ball onto the green.

After you have practiced this flowing backswing and full flowing follow through I want you to focus on distance control. The main idea when controlling distance with the normal bunker shot is to control the distance by the follow through. We still want to maintain a nice flowing backswing, but now we need to be a bit more precise with our distance control. I like to divide every bunker into three shots…Short, Medium, and long. For a short bunker shot I want a flowing backswing but with a follow through that is very short. For a medium bunker shot I still want to maintain that flowing backswing, but want a medium finish, and finally a long finish, similar to a full swing for a long bunker shot. After you have practiced hitting three distances with your bunker shot, it will be up to practice and feel to get even more tour like precision, but I am sure that each of you will have improved tremendously in the bunker just based on these simple images and drills.

Keep em Long and Straight,

CJ

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Driver Fitting

I want to make sure I have the right driver and shaft in my bag.

I didn’t seem to trust my head pro and his fitting abilities.

Do you recommend any good senior shafts?

I have a clubhead speed of @ 95 mph.

I recently received this question from one of our readers and wanted to help out.

The key to getting the right driver is understanding the combination of launch and spin and ball flight. To best figure this out you need to divide the golf ball flight into two halves. The first half will tell us launch angle and the second half will tell us spin. We want to launch the ball high initially. The key to launch angle comes from loft of the driver as well as angle of attack, but remember we want the ball to be pretty high. For most people in Texas they do not like seeing this launch, but the ideal launch angle is between 12-16 degrees, depending on clubhead speed. The faster your clubhead speed the lower the launch, but remember that 12 degrees is still pretty high. The second half of the ball flight dictates spin of the ball. What we don’t want to see is the ball rising in the second half of the flight. Sometimes if the spin is too high you will actually see the ball seem as though it is rising in steps. What we want for the ideal spin is the ball to flatten out and maintain the launch angle. If you watch a good player at your club you should be able to see this ball flight. You won’t see the ball fall out of the sky (too little spin), nor will you see the ball climb during the second half of the flight.

The key to finding the right driver is finding a good club fitter. Ask your friends or good players at your club. They will usually know the best fitters in the area. I do recommend finding a fitter that has a launch monitor as this gets pretty precise and can fine tune your driver and get you that extra 20 yards pretty easier.

In regards to the question, I recommend going with a big name brand company. Shafts from UST, Fujikura, Aldila, and Mitsubishi are a few big names that have excellent shafts. There are thousands of shafts out there. It may take a bit of time, but when you find the right one, you will know immediately.

Keep em Long and Straight,

CJ

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Build your swing on solid ground

Too often I see players with a lower body that does not support their swing. Our Goal for the golf swing is to have our lower body stable and quiet. Notice I did not say motionless, but quiet. I see wild lower bodies more in kids, but us adults can learn what not to do by watching these kids.

The proper golf swing should have our upper bodies turn about ¾ of the way back with our shoulders with just a bit of left knee turn in the backswing. Anything more than that and we are not only losing power, but increasing our chances of injury greatly. Any person that has seen a kid swing has noticed the over emphasis of the lower body in their kids swing. The reason that kids do this is because they are compensating for the weight of the club. The club is very heavy for these kids and their hips are the most powerful area in their body. It amazes me how golf instructors will teach adults to swing with these same principles of an active, driving lower body. These kids usually create extremely long swings, lots of mishits, and a reverse C or finish that sends me into pain just by watching it. This is not the way to swing the club, or if it was then why do we not all swing that way. That is what most instructors are teaching. This is definitely the first way to hit the ball unsolid and to never play the game again due to bulging discs and hip replacement.

The key to solid golf is to wind the upper body just enough while maintaining a solid lower body. Once your lower body starts to move that should be enough shoulder turn. This will be about a ¾ turn and is plenty far enough to crush the ball. The basic principle of the golf swing should be similar to life. Would you build your house on sand? Would you shoot a canon from a canoe? I don’t think I would want to be in that canoe, nor would you.

Build your golf swing with a base that is shoulder width apart and not a lot of movement in the golf swing. A great drill for this would be to take your address position and then to bow your knees out. Hit a few shots with this and feel how stable your lower body is and try to maintain that feeling while making your normal golf swing. Build your House on the rock as well as your golf swing and it will be there pain free in the future.

Keep em Long and Straight,

CJ

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“You mean you have to think in this game” (Golf Quote)

“Thinking your way around the course…That’s a concept I have never done before.”

This is the quote after my lesson yesterday and it seemed quite funny to me. I have this student, Jack, at my club and he was in desperate need of a lesson or so he said. He told me that he had been hitting the ball pretty well, but had no consistency and that it was impossible for him to hit our first green even from 100 yards. I watched him hit the ball on the range and he was hitting a slight pull because he was losing lag because his body stopped rotating through the shot. I gave him a simple drill of hitting ¾ finishes similar to a punch shot that everyone here in Texas knows and needs to hit in the high winds. This finish did wonders for him because in order for him to finish in the way that I wanted he needed to synchronize his body with his arms. This instantly allowed him to hit the ball with greater control and allowed him to hit very repeatable shots. I then changed our lesson plan very quickly and took him straight to the first hole about 130 yards away. To describe the first hole at TPC Craig Ranch, it’s a beautiful hole with a creek that runs down the right side of the fairway. The second shot (which is where we were hitting in from) is a side hill lie with the ball below your feet to an uphill green with bunkers short and left and a severe slope to the right of the green. Anything that lands on the right side of the green will end up 20 yards to the right of the green. Jack aimed slightly right of the flag (expecting his pull) and hit it perfectly where he was aimed; however the ball faded slightly to the right and missed the green. I will not tell you what he said, since this is a family website, and a clean one at that, however I asked him if he accounted for the side hill lie. He said no, so I asked him to act like he was hitting towards the tee box and now he was faced with the ball above his feet. I asked him if he thought the ball would curve and he said absolutely he could feel that it would hook. I asked if he thought the same for the ball below his feet and he never thought of that. He then proceeded to hit the next five balls very well and all of them hit the green. He was so excited and I left him to play the next few holes and report back to me.

After his few holes he said that quote to me “Thinking your way around the course…That’s a concept I have never done before”. I challenge all of you to find something simple for your swing so the ball is repeatable. It does not matter if it curves as long as it is curving the same way every time. If it does do that then it is repeatable and applying a bit of course management can make all the difference in your game.

Keep em Long and Straight,

CJ

Are you frustrated with your golf game?

Click here to discover a scientifically proven “body friendly golf swing”, that is so darn powerful yet simple to repeat. Check it out here.

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Right Hand Perfect Connection Grip

The grip is the only connection we have with the club and may be the most important area for you to focus.  The problem I have with golf instruction is that it is all-different in regards to the grip and every teacher has his own personal preference with the grip that they want.  The problem is that their preference is not what may be right for you.  Every person is different and is built slightly different.  I cannot tell you how many times I have taught people with flexible wrists, inflexible wrists, double jointed arms, arms that can’t straighten fully, and people with different size chests.  All of these factors amongst others effect what the proper grip should be for you.  It is physically impossible to put a person into a box and say that this grip is correct for everyone and you should use this grip. 

The perfect connection grip was founded upon solid biomechanics and personal body structure to determine what is the best grip for YOU!  I do want to give applause for all those instructors that have taught that the left hand should hold the club in the fingers since this is correct.  In regards to the grip being strong, weak, neutral, we will discuss that in another article, but for today I want to focus mainly on the right hand.  Many instructors leave the grip there and say that you should hold the club in the fingers of both hands and that is DEAD WRONG!  The grip is in the left hand fingers and more in the palm for the right hand.  The proper way to determine the right hand position is to hold the club at a 45-degree angle in the air and with the right hand make your hand flat and place your right index finger pointed down the shaft.  At this point you will feel that your right elbow is low.  Now simply slide your right hand down until the lifeline of your right hand sits slightly on the side of your left thumb.  Take your normal grip, whether that is the interlock, the overlap, or the 10-finger baseball grip.  This will produce a grip that will feel a lot more together than before and puts the wrists in the position to set the club properly so as to maximize the clubhead speed and give you the best control of the club. 

The grip is so important to swinging the club properly and everyone’s body is so completely different that I encourage you to determine what is the best grip for YOU.    Our previous article focused on the left hand grip and it showed you how to place your left hand on the club so that your joints fall into their natural alignment. You can read it here.

This is the key to the perfect connection golf swing and that is a swing that is easy on the body and tailor made for your body.  Any other instruction that does not take into account your shape, body structure, its weaknesses, and strengths will never allow you to achieve the results that you want. 

Keep em Long and Straight,

CJ

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I just finished a lesson today and noticed one of my members beating balls at the end of the range. I went up to him and asked him what he was working on. His response was “I’m just hitting”. I then asked him where his target was and he didn’t have one. Now this should not surprise me since I think most people practice this way of “just hitting.” The problem with “just hitting” is it is mindless practice with no intention and no outcome to it. We need to be working on something and as Jack Nicklaus has said “achieve then leave.” What this means is that our practice should be focused. That does not mean that we constantly need to be working on your swing. I know that may shock some of you to hear from a teacher, but you don’t need to work on your swing all the time. Hitting balls is great, fun, and relaxing, but just like on the course we need to have a target.

In order to be great we need to train to be great. If you are working on your swing, then work on your swing and don’t worry as much about ball flight. If you are not working on your swing then work on hitting to targets and worry about ball flight. When we are working on our swings 75% of the time we should be doing practice swings, drills, or working with training aids. If we are not working on our swing then the same is true. Seventy-five percent of the time we should be going through our pre-shot routine and trying to hit to a target. Are we trying to hit a fade or draw, and what is the trajectory? We play the way we practice. If we want to play better then we need to practice better. Before we can play like a 15 handicap, 10 handicap, or even a scratch player we need to take our practice to that level.

We cannot expect to perform better or perform to our max, hence performax, without knowing what we are working on and practicing the proper way. Without a plan or strategy to perform better than we are just beating our heads against the wall. Develop a game plan for your practice sessions and you will see your game improve to the level that you practice like.

Keep em Long and Straight,

CJ

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Use the line for improved putting

Perhaps the biggest mistake I see in putting is a faulty alignment. Every golfer goes through periods where they can’t seem to line the putter up correctly, but this is a problem that can be fixed very easily.

The easiest way to improve your putter is to take a sharpie and draw a straight line across the label of the ball. This is a habit that the best players in the world use on every putt and one so common that Titleist put a line on their balls already. The USGA has even deliberated over making this practice illegal. If it has gotten to that point and that much recognition, I would strongly urge that you use this to your benefit. I would still recommend however that you use a sharpie and color over that line so that it will be easier to see and easier to line up your putter to that line. Once you have a line on your ball, stand behind the putt and read it as you would normally. From there bend over and line up that line to the highest point of the break that you think the putt will travel along. From here the putt becomes a straight putt. All you need to do is to align the putter with the line on the ball and your alignment is fixed. This is one reason why I suggest to my students to use a putter that has a line on it already. Virtually every manufacturer out there makes a putter with a line on the top of the putter and this makes your job of lining up that line to the line on the ball even easier. Once you have these lines aligned to each other your only focus becomes the speed of the putt.

Using the line is a habit that most top players use, but one that most amateurs don’t. Learn from the best and use the line on the ball and the line on the putter and you will find yourself holing more putts.

Keep em Long and Straight,

CJ

PS It’s time to end the frustration. Discover a body friendly swing that is easy to repeat over and over.

http://www.performaxgolf.com/long-drive-power/

Are you frustrated with your golf game?

Click here to discover a scientifically proven “body friendly golf swing”, that is so darn powerful yet simple to repeat. Check it out here.

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Back To Basics – Alignment

One area of the game that is so simple yet so confusing to me as an instructor is the alignment. What I mean by this is the chicken or the egg theory. Which came first? There is no real answer to this question just the same way that alignment and swing problems work hand in hand. Are you coming over the top because your aimed right, or are you aimed right because you are coming over the top? My first lesson with LPGA Tour Player Brittany Lang revolved around this same question. Brittany was in high school at the time and was aimed 40 yards right of the target, but remarkably she hit it at the flag every time. For those that may not know, Brittany is an exceptional athlete but struggles from the same problem as the average golfer. Our first lesson, and my hope for her was to give her good fundamentals so that when she went to college she would be easy to fix if her swing ever left her. I am happy to say that we accomplished this goal and the alignment was the easiest fix. To achieve the proper alignment in golf is to simply take a minute or two before you ever hit balls and follow these simple rules.

1. Lay a club down first right behind the ball and point it at your target.

2. Lay a second club down parallel to the ball target line along where your feet will be.

3. Pick up the ball target line club and you are ready to setup.

4. Setup with your feet, knees, hips, and shoulders, parallel to the club on the ground.

Once you have the proper alignment you may feel as though you are not aimed correctly. This is a perfect tell tale sign that your alignment and swing are off.

The simplest fix in the golf swing is without a doubt alignment. This is one area of the swing that is often overlooked and can create a whole network of problems in your swing. Too often I see people hit the ball 10, 20, 30, yards off line in their mind, but it is exactly where they are aiming. Imagine what your mind is telling your body when you hit the ball that far off line supposedly. You will create a flaw in your swing if you do not have the proper alignment. You may also fix a major flaw in your swing once you achieve proper alignment. Lay a club on the ground and take the first step to improving your game.

Keep em Long and Straight,

CJ

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