Play Zone, Golf CARE Oncourse Weekly Instruction

Today we discussed helpful tips on Driving (see recap below). As always the clinic was on course. This is an ongoing weekly clinic in which, each week, a different shot is focused on, on the course. This is an 9 week course that starts with driving tips then moves the next week to fairway shots, then the next week on to lob shot tips, to bunker, then shorter pitches, then to chips, then to the texas wedge formula, then to long putts, and finally to short putting tips. We rotate thru these 9 weeks about four times a year. For more info. go to www.blacklake.com, under instruction look for Golf CARE and then find our weekly schedule.

Here is today's Driving Tips recap:
1. UNIQUE TRAINING: I have designed a unique way for a group of students/learners to get both group and custom fit tips. We start with short distance drives exercises and progress to hitting longer and longer drives until the students learn how long they can swing and hit it in the fairway. Most come to realize that to hit their drivers consistently straight they have to reduce the length of their backswings.

2. Railroad Track Alignment: I focused on every shot that they hit on their correct alignment (some due to binocular vision trouble align to the left and some to the right naturally so they both have to be corrected on the spot!) "If you don't aim the gun you can't hit the bulls eye" as one of my mentors likes to say.

3. Ball Position: The driver is designed to be placed more forward in the stance thus you will see the back of the balls equator when making contact.

4. Calif. Fway: Due to our liberal state we have liberal fairways, so the playable rough is part of the fairway.

5. Define the boundaries of the Calif. Fairway not the center point. So your hitting to an area not a spot.

6. Get your mind on something other than the golf swing. For example those who are kinesthetic concentrate on balance, and those visual learners imagine the target, and those who are audio dominant learners can hum or whistle a song while swinging.

OUT of 9 Student/Learners all drives today were hit in the Calif. Fway the entire hour!!!

Tiger Woods and "The Mirror"

Tired of the quick fix? Check out what Tiger said today in this AP article, specifically what he said about mirror training...

http://www.charter.net/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CD9JHCAKG1%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=1013

I have been training with mirrors for all of my 25 year teaching career, not only for my game but for those who are tired of the QUICK FIX! I have two unique mirror studios: One at Monarch Dunes and one at Black Lake. So here on the Central Coast of Calif. you can learn to train in "The Mirror".

Play with the Pro Day 11-12-10

Who: Each Friday Golf Care Members are treated to playing with me on the Golf Course

Where: Black Lake Golf Course in Nipomo Mesa, Calif.

When: 2pm to 2:45pm

How: With the avg. number of students being anywhere from 2 to 15 I have designed a way to watch and play with them under pressure. We usually get in 1 to 3 holes.

Format: Scramble

2:00 Load the Carts and travel out to one of the 3 Nine Hole Courses

2:05 Introductions and organizing the groups... You use my balls and your clubs and your tees for speed of play...

2:10 I model the warm-up procedure and first tee shot of day keying in on the where I want to hit the ball (this area I call the DART BOARD), correct club, slope of the hill, 10 baseball warmup swings, a flush grass or tee clip before hitting, and then I do some thing to distract myself from thinking about the large crowd (While hitting shot, for audio learners I will whistle, for visual I will keep the target area in my imagination, and for kinesthetic learners I will focus on balance with the hill slope) Today I chose whistling.

2:15 Their turn. I will now pay attention to their alignment of both clubface and feet. Some will line-up accurately, and some will line up to the right naturally (I call righties), and some line up naturally to the left (I call lefties)...

2:25 In the fairway after taking the best drive of the group, I let them hit away with no instruction, but paid attention to their aim. Some neglected the odd slope of the hill and thus fell off balance, which I then proceeded to model the "Hilly Lie Formula". After that how to strategize in finding the approach shot bailout locations around the green vs. becoming short-sided to the pin.

2:30 On the green we started the unique CARE League which is a chance for them to make putts in front of the crowd under pressure... Had them start with a one foot putt and had them be aware of perfect speed for the one footer = swish without hitting the cup liner.

2:35 Went to Hole 2 fairway and layed golf balls down for all of them, on a very sloped hill, about 170 yards away from the green... made sure they were aware of the hill and where the bailout was near the green, at any cost... Paid attention to alignment this time as well as noticed several were freezing up, taking too much time to hit the ball after looking at the target. So I modeled how to make a seemless transition after settling down in the set up and taking one last look at the target, and seemlessly starting the backswing. One commented that I "Connected the dots" seemlessly.

2:40 Took them to a pitching shot over a bunker, on hole 3, to let them experience a seemless takeaway.

What did they learn today: "Make the swing seemless", "Connect the dots", "Keep your mind distracted with humming or the like", "Find the Dart Board for each shot"