“Going ahead from this day forward – I solemnly swear to work on my golf game with the specific goal of improvement. Not a minute of my time will have anything to do with just mindlessly hitting golf ball after golf ball. My game is too important for me to fall into that bad habit.

“From now on, I’m committed to working specifically on the drills that will help me to improve the Weaknesses in my golf swing. I will not just see a golf tip in a golf magazine and decide that this is what I need to work on. I will have to make an honest decision on whether that tip really pertains to my golf swing as opposed to just trying it because it’s in the magazine or on television.

“I realize that I need to hit the golf ball better to score better, but I also need to convince myself that 36 putts a round or more is too much. In the past, I’ve always had the philosophy that my putting is good enough and that I’ll start working on it when I get my golf swing more consistent.

“Yet, I’ve been working on trying to become more consistent for the last 5 years and if I kept that same philosophy, it might be another 5 years before I get to my putting. I need to really stay adamant about this because 36 putts is at least 4 putts too many per round. And really, if I do have only 36 putts a round, it was good putting day for me – in reality I probably average 40 or more putts per round.

“And if I just spend 25% of the time I usually reserved for the driving range and used it for my putting – I could easily go from 40 putts to 32 putts in a short timeframe. Hey, an 8 stroke improvement isn’t a bad thing! If you had asked me if I wanted to improve my full swing to improve 8 strokes – I’d be all over that as quick as you could flip a switch, but for some reason – it never meant as much when it came to putting.

“I wonder why Golfers aren’t as enthused about improving their putting 8 strokes? Why is it that in the past that improving 8 strokes with my putter didn’t seem as appealing as improving 8 strokes with my Driver?

“I mean, 8 strokes is 8 strokes regardless of what area you improve upon.

“My goal is to improve. And the way to see improvement and have it continue through the years is to have a PLAN - that’ll allow me to stay focused on what I need to work on. In the past, I’ve jumped from drill to drill and swing thought to swing thought trying to find “The Magic". Yet, the only thing I found was that I was never happy with my game. From now on – I’m staying focused on the drills that I know are going to improve the Weaknesses in my golf swing!

“Golfers around the world often times become so distracted that they lose focus at the driving range. They fall prey to getting away from their PLAN of improving how they hit the golf ball and get into a ball bashing session that often includes alternating moments of exhilaration; followed closely by long periods of despair.

“Not me anymore – that’s the old me. I want to be a Player. And you just can’t call yourself a Player and expect to become one – You Need To Earn Player Status!!”

It’s easy to read the above – it’s a little more difficult to make sure you live by it. Though, if you want to earn Player Status – you need to stay committed as opposed to getting distracted by all the new swing tips that are put in your path each year.

The Monkey says they want to become a Player, yet doesn’t commit to a PLAN

The Player reads this GIW over and over and lives it

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

And the funny part is that there are Golfers out there that believe in this stuff because they feel as though – ‘the more complicated, the more better’. These Golfers don’t want to make their golf swing simple. This group of Golfers has a weird perversion towards making things more complicated. They feel as though they need to have 8 steps in their swing. They feel as though that in addition to keeping their head still, they also need to get their elbow tucked into their side as they shift their weight, keep their golf club on plane and use the X-Factor.

It’s not that these Golfer don’t want to make it simple – it’s more about that they get so involved with listening and reading all the golf information out there, that they start believing the golf swing has to be complicated. But I believe these Golfers are in denial because as much as they say that they want to think about all that stuff (and the hundreds of other things they’re thinking about every swing) – they truly wish that they could make it simpler.

They often say to themselves that they’re thinking too much and need to swing without so many thoughts - Yet, many of these aforementioned Golfers have a tendency of getting frightened if they’re not thinking of enough things every time they swing. And although they readily admit that their bad shots are brought about because they were thinking too much – as they approach the golf ball, regardless of how much they try, they go back to thinking about everything they need to do in their golf swing.

These Golfers are constantly telling themselves to swing with no thoughts – that is until they prepare to hit the golf ball when they automatically revert back to thinking too much before, during and after their golf swing.

New Golfers Improve Faster

How is it possible that using the GMS - Results Based Approach, we can get a Golfer that’s just learning to play to be able to break 90 in less than a year? While at the same time there are Golfers that have been playing for years and have taken 100’s of lessons, been through countless golf schools – and still aren’t able to break 90 and/or 100 with any consistency?

As one Golfer that had spent enough money on golf lessons to support a small country (without seeing much improvement); recently wrote to us: “I think the difference between GMS and the other schools that we have attended are that you don’t get students bogged down with mechanics. Your explanations are easy to understand, the drills are fun, and your focus is on one thing…impact.”

Impact – What An Interesting Concept!

Yet, when you hear frustrated Golfers talking about what they’re working on in their golf swing, it often has nothing to do with impact. Everything is about how they saw themselves on video, how they’re taking the club too far outside, how their head is moving too much, how they’re not turning enough on the backswing, how they don’t have the butt of the club pointing down the target line at a certain point of their golf swing or how they don’t get enough fiber in their diet.

Well maybe, just maybe the reason that all those above compensations are happening is because you don’t know impact. Maybe if you worked on being able to get the different parts of your body working together so you’re more in control of the golf club, and/or understood what the motion of impact felt like – maybe all these other so called problems would self correct.

As the majority of Golfers that are struggling with their golf swing are learning to fix compensations by being prescribed more compensations that are being masqueraded as swing fixes – we see Results with our Golfers because many bad swing compensations will be eliminated by simply working on impact.

Do you know that you can eliminate the “over the top, outside in, casting” problem by working on impact?

Yet, many Golfers that have a simple slicing problem are told that the reason for this slice is the above mentioned “over the top, outside in, casting” problem. They are then given another compensation being masqueraded as a swing fix such as learning to ‘tuck in your elbow on the down swing’. And although it’s very easy to tuck in your elbow (or use any other swing “improvement” compensation) on practice swing after practice swing – this Golfer can never do it when there’s a golf ball to hit.

Why?

Because trying to tuck in your elbow is a swing “improvement” compensation that is being used to fix another compensation already in your swing. And that compensation is being used to cover-up another compensation. And thus, you’ll have to learn another compensation to fix that compensation and then another compensation to fix another. And pretty soon you have a golf swing that’s built upon compensations.

And when all these compensations align – you hit a good shot - yet, this doesn’t happen the majority of the time. This is why some Golfers hit the golf ball straight sometimes, to the right sometimes and to the left sometimes; why you hit the golf ball solid sometimes, behind the ball sometimes and top it sometimes – any of these could happen on any swing because you never know which compensation in your swing is not going to work.

So golf becomes frustrating because you have so many compensations in your golf swing that you end up saying – “I’m so inconsistent, I have so many things wrong with my golf swing.” And out of desperation, this Golfer now seeks out someone that will give them a complete swing overhaul that has nothing to do with impact – and as this Golfer struggles worse than ever with this complete swing change, they hear the infamous phrase of “well, you have to get worse before you get better!’

Great, by hearing that, it should make you feel better about your struggle. And the funny thing is that all that could be avoided and good golf swings could be created by understanding impact.

The Monkey jumps from compensation to compensation because each compensation they add to their golf swing to fix another compensation leads to more bad swing habits that cause you to add more compensations

The Player understands the motion involved with impact

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Both the 300 yard drives and the 27 putts are great stats to have. Both signify that you have talent. But, it’s rare to have a Golfer that can do both. I guess the way I look at it is - 100 yards more off the tee box doesn’t equal 14 strokes. Besides it’s a lot simpler to acquire a good putting stroke than it is to acquire the swing speed (and control of that swing speed to make center contact) so that you can propel the ball an extra 100 yards. So why not improve your scores instantly by practicing your putting more this year?

Would You Rather be inconsistent, yet sometimes spectacular out of the greenside bunker (meaning you can hit it close every other shot, but you also have just as good a chance to hit the ball over the green) or Would You Rather be consistent (meaning that you always get the ball on the green in one shot, though sometimes you have a rather long putt)?

There’s nothing like sticking the ball tight out of the bunker. Yet, is there anything more frustrating than hitting your ball over the green and possibly into another sand bunker. That’s how Double Bogey’s and Triple Bogey’s are made. Have a PLAN out of the sand to hit to the biggest part of the green even if it may mean a longer putt. You might not have as many one putts, but you’ll have far, far fewer Blow-up Holes!

Would You Rather have a slice 100% of the time or Would You Rather hit a slice 33% of the time, a hook 33% of the time and hit it straight 33% of the time (but of course not knowing before the shot which way the ball’s going to go)?

There maybe nothing in golf that’s thought of more negatively than the slice. And as frustrating as a huge slice is – there are many Slicers that have one thought in mind – get rid of the slice and learn to hit the golf ball straight. Yet, it doesn’t have to be that difficult. ‘Learn to love your slice.’ Why? Because it’s consistent and by knowing that you’re going to consistently slice the ball – you can aim for that shot. As opposed to the Golfer playing Army Golf (Left, Right, Left, Right).

Yes, many Golfers need to cut down on how much their ball slices, but that doesn’t mean you need to completely overhaul your golf swing to eliminate your ball from drifting a little right (for a right handed Golfer). Are you more interested in losing your slice or being more consistent off the tee? The key should be consistency. And if you’re consistently hitting your golf ball in the same direction, don’t fight it – aim for it!

Would You Rather be in a group that’s waiting for the group in front of you every shot around the golf course or Would You Rather have a group behind you pacing around and looking at you as they wait on your group every shot around the golf course?

Either of these situations is enough to foul-up a Golfers game. Yet, both of these situations are reality! You’re going to have to accept that you’ll be in one or the other of these situations frequently on the golf course and many times both situations at the same time. Don’t fall into the trap of the Monkey that uses these excuses as a crutch for why they didn’t have a good round. Yes, of course both situations are frustrating and tough to deal with – if it was easy, we wouldn’t use it as an excuse. But, these situations are going to happen and there’s nothing you can do about it except to either quit golf or build your own golf course.

So expect this to happen every time you play and there will never be any surprises. This way you can make your PLAN with a clear, calm mind before each shot. Let the other Golfers in your group gripe and complain as they work themselves up to the point where the only thing they can say is – “I can’t play like this. I can’t get in a rhythm by having to always be waiting before my shot!” or “I feel so rushed by the group behind us that I can’t concentrate!”

Would You Rather, during your practice time, spend an hour hitting a bucket of golf balls working on your golf swing or Would You Rather spend 30 minutes practicing your golf swing along with 30 minutes on and around the green?

This is an easier said than done question. Obviously the 30 minutes of each is what you’re going to answer. Right? I mean, I’m sure you already know that close to 65% of your shots are taken within 40 yards of the green. So of course you know that if more than half your shots are taken around the green that you should use at least half of your practice time there.

I must be an idiot to even ask this question to you because it’s so logical to spend half your practice time practicing shots that represent well over 50% of your score. I apologize for even asking you this question. I should be punished and lose my status as a member of the PGA by even thinking that you’d even consider spending most of your time banging ball after ball on the driving range and not spending at least equal time on and around the green since most of your shots are taken there.

Would You Rather, after a round of golf, go inside and have a drink and/or leave the golf course or Would You Rather go to the practice range to work on improving your game while things are fresh?

99 out of 100 Golfers have it backwards. They practice before they go play on the golf course. Whereas the successful PGA Tour Player is simply warming up before a round of golf; then practicing after the round while their swing thoughts are fresh in their mind.

The everyday Golfer is often practicing their swing before they play and then when it’s the most important time to practice (after the round), they’re either having ‘a cold one’ or in their car on the way home. When’s the last time you went to practice for 30 minutes after your round? Do you think it would be beneficial? Or are/were Tiger and Jack Nicklaus just wasting their time using this method since they were both teenagers?

Would You Rather use the strategies listed above to improve your game or Would You Rather read another lame Golf Magazine article about the ‘new secret to gaining ten more yards with your Driver?’ Which is going to give you faster, longer lasting results as opposed to fast fixes that often don’t work?

The Monkey continues to do things like they’ve always done things and then wonders why their game hasn’t improved in 5 years

The Player is constantly looking at their game to see where they’re lacking, what they’re missing out on and comparing it to how other successful Players are improving

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

And to many, Golf is a stressful situation - especially if you have high expectations for yourself.

When was the last time you breathed on the golf course? Well, in last week’s PGA Tournament in Houston, breathing was a big part of winner Johnson Wagner’s PLAN. As Wagner said - “Warming up on the range, I was very nervous, but still tried to stay calm and breathe all day.”

He won his first tournament by staying in control of his game, emotions and breathing. On the other hand, we see many Golfers on the golf course with the look as if they’re being chased by lions!

What happens to some Golfers on the golf course? Why do you stop breathing normally?

As you’re set-up over the golf ball, try to take a nice, cleansing, deep breath before you swing to clear out all the tension that your swing thoughts are causing. When you exhale, feel as if you’re pushing it all out as your body relaxes before you swing.

Two – Stop Fiddling with your golf swing. Fiddling? What’s Fiddling? It means that you’re frequently trying something new in your swing when you go to practice or play on the golf course. All it takes for some Golfers is two or three bad shots and they abandon everything that’s worked in the past for some new swing tip they saw on the Golf Channel last night.

As opposed to staying with what has helped you hit good shots before. Everybody’s going to hit bad shots and everybody will hit two or three bad shots in a row – hopefully not often, but it’ll happen. When it does happen, it’s not the end of the world. It doesn’t mean that you’ve lost your golf swing. It doesn’t mean that the swing that helped you hit great drives on holes 3, 4 and 5 is lost because you hit a bad drive on hole 6.

For some people – after one or two bad shots you’ll see them off to the side working on something new. Yes, you should always strive to get better. You should always crave improvement in your golf swing. Though, there’s no truth to the saying – “The more you Fiddle, the better you get.”

Stick with what has given you Results in the past – even after two or three bad shots.

Three – Practice your putting. Seriously, and this may sound like a cliché to many, but for 7 out of 8 Golfers – the fastest way to lower scores is improved putting. Our Stat Of The Week in this Issue of Golf Improvement Weekly shows this to be true again. Read it – you’ll see that Joe Durant played much better off the tee than Johnson Wagner – though Durant didn’t make the cut and Wagner’s going to the Masters with $1,000,000 in his front left pocket.

As the 95 Golfer averages 41 putts per round – how difficult would it be for this Golfer to break 90 on a regular basis? All it would take is for you to go from 41 putts to 35 putts. That’s a lot simpler than going somewhere for a complete swing overhaul that’ll take months upon months to see Results – that’s if you ever do see improved Results from the overhaul!

Yes, everybody can learn to improve their golf swing – we do that every week with Golfers who travel to see GMS for 3-days. Though, if you improve your golf swing so that you hit 4 more fairways during a round, how many strokes will you improve? If anything, a maximum of 4 and most likely less because you’re not improving that many strokes by hitting out of the fairway as opposed to the rough on your missed fairways.

Yet, if you improved your putting by 5 strokes – you’ve improved your score by 5 strokes!

How can you improve your putting without practice becoming boring? What’s the best way to practice as opposed to the Monkey that just drops 3 golf balls and putts to one hole, then putts to another, then putts to another – accomplishing nothing except maybe reinforcing that putting practice is more boring than watching paint dry?

The Player uses Drills and Games to improve not just their putting stroke using specific Drills, but also allows the Player to experience a little bit of pressure as they practice specific Games. When’s the last time you practiced handling the pressure and anxiety of making an important putt for birdie or par?

At GMS, we use Drills and Games like the ‘Ball Behind Ball Drill’, ‘Eyes Closed Putting Drill’, ‘Toe Of The 5 Iron Drill’ (which is also on the GMS DVD), ‘The Uphill Downhill Drill’, along with the ‘Shrinking Boxes Drill’. And then our Level 2 Classes feature ‘The Tour Putting Square’.

When’s the last time you used these Drills and Games? Or are you too busy watching the Golf Channel for Ledbetter’s or Pelz’s next secret?

Four – Tiger Woods. Why Tiger? Because you’re able to watch first-hand a person that in the next generations will be thought of as a mythical figure just as Babe Ruth is to many of us. We’ve heard all about the Babe’s greatness and his records – but really have never seen him play. Well, 50 years from now, Tiger will be thought of as the same.

Tiger should be an inspiration to many struggling Golfers since you have the same type of game as Tiger. What do I mean by that? Like you, Tiger isn’t satisfied with his game and he still wants to improve. Tiger isn’t the longest hitter – in fact, there are many Golfers that hit the golf ball farther – he’s tied for 48th in Driving Distance this year. He isn’t the most accurate off the tee – in fact, he’s ranked 168th and only hitting between 7 and 8 fairways per round.

So how does Tiger do it? There’s a lot more involved to playing your best golf than the above. In 2004, he was ranked 47th in Greens in Regulation. Which wasn’t good enough, so he practiced his ballstriking. And in 2005, Tiger was ranked 6th. Which wasn’t good enough, so he practiced his ballstriking. And in 2006, 2007 and 2008 he’s been ranked 1st.

In 2006, Tiger was ranked 137th in putting. Which wasn’t good enough, so he practiced his putting. And in 2007, Tiger was ranked 48th. Which wasn’t good enough, so he practiced his putting. And in 2008, Tiger is ranked 11th. What do you think Tiger will work on after this year?

Tiger is always working on his Weaknesses to make them his Strengths. Tiger practices – he doesn’t go to the range to hit golf balls or to the putting green to stroke putts. He has a Practice PLAN – do you?

Though, there’s more to his ever improving game than just the ballstriking and putting. To see why he’s the most dominate athlete of our generation, more dominate than Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky or Pete Sampras – click here to watch a segment that he filmed for ESPN.

You may have seen the highlights of this interview, but do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing. Make sure you’re in a place that you can sit and watch in quiet so that you can listen to what he’s saying. So if this isn’t the time to watch, finish reading Golf Improvement Weekly and come back later to click through to this video – it’ll still be here and worth watching.

Five – The willingness to do things different than how they’ve always been taught to you. The ability to look at your golf game and to say that “I’ve been playing for __ years and I haven’t played up to my expectations. I do everything my Friends, the Golf Magazines, and even some Local Pro’s have told me to do – and I still haven’t improved as much as I feel I should’ve at this point.”

Maybe all the “Theories and Assumptions” you’ve been using aren’t what you should be working on. Are the things that you’re trying to do with your swing really the right things for your swing? How much has your swing improved over the last ___ years? The easiest way to answer that – How much have your scores improved?

We’ve found that for Golfers to improve, they must get away from the “Theories and Assumptions” approach of practicing swing positions in their golf swing. 99 out 100 Golfers are taught to keep their head down, left arm straight, shift their weight, turn their shoulders and hips, hold the angle of the club, blah, blah blah, blah. And these same Golfers end up practicing all these positions – yet never work on the motion of getting everything working together.

No wonder so many Golfers are struggling with their swing on the golf course. Move away from the struggling Golfer that’s only practicing positions. Become the Player that uses a “Results Based” approach of incorporating the swing motion into your Practice PLAN.

The Monkey looks at these 5 ideas on improving their game, blows them off and goes back to doing what they’ve been doing

The Player will watch and listen to what Tiger says as he speaks about what it means to use a Results Based Approach

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life
Golf Made Simple Inc.

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

To the mass majority of Golfers - practice is the science of banging golf ball after golf ball on the driving range; one after the other until every ball has been hit as far away from you as possible.

Practice is different things for different people.

For the majority of Golfers - it’s about getting your bucket of balls, starting with your wedge, hitting a few balls with your 7 or 8 iron and then making the jump to your Driver. Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing to do if you had a PLAN to practice as opposed to just hitting golf ball after golf ball trying to find a golf swing.

The above group is what we call Range Monkeys. Now before anybody that doesn’t like it when we refer to some Golfers as Monkeys - before you get upset - you must understand what the term signifies. This term has nothing to do with ones skill level - nothing, nothing, nothing!

So as one Golfer wrote that he’d rather be called a Hacker than a Monkey - I find the term Hacker to be more offensive than being called a Monkey. A Hacker is a derogatory term to mean a terrible Golfer - Monkey has nothing to do with one’s ability level. A Golfer that we term a Monkey is just a Golfer that has no PLAN. All they do is watch the other Golfers around them and do what they do - even though the Golfers around them might be as frustrated as you are.

It must be a case of Monkey See, Monkey Do.

Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to watch a Player that has recently broken 90 and is progressing into the low 80’s? Or watch a Player that was once scoring in the 100’s, but is now into the 90’s and progressing towards the 80’s? Or a Golfer that has achieved the ultimate - going from the 100’s to 90’s to 80’s and into the 70’s? These are Players - Players are Golfers that are improving using a PLAN. Monkeys are Golfers that have been stuck for years without a PLAN.

Now, just because someone can score in the 70’s occasionally, doesn’t make them a Player. If the Player that improves from the 100’s into 70’s stops using their PLAN because they feel they’ve ‘made it’ - they may start losing their Player status!

A Player is a term for a Golfer that’s using their PLAN to improve. It signifies a Golfer that’s learning something that’ll help them improve every practice session and every time on the golf course. I’ve seen Golfers that score in the high 90’s that I believe are Players. Why? Because they’re improving from the 100’s and have a PLAN laid out to continue improving.

Though I’ve seen Golfers that score in the high 70’s and low 80’s that I’d call Monkeys because they’ve been stuck there for years - yet continue to do the same things over and over again - instead of making a PLAN based on their Strengths and Weaknesses to get where they want to be - down into the 70’s consistently.

The terms Monkey and Player have nothing to do with skill level!!!!

The Monkey is the Golfer that goes from one tip in Golf Digest to the next tip that’s handed out on the Golf Channel to the next one that they’ve read on an Internet Chat Room Discussion Board by someone that has a nickname such as ’swing guru’. Yet at the same time - none of these Golf Tips has ever helped you to break 100 or 90 or 80 or 70 - like they were advertised to do. So it’s on to the next swing tip.

Trust me - there’s nothing offensive about the term Monkey - it’s more of a term that you could use the next time you go to the practice range to hit golf balls. After you set your bucket of balls down and before you take your first swing - look around, look at the other Golfers. And study them. Can you pick out any Range Monkeys?

Who’s the Range Monkey?

It’s the Golfer that has hit more than 2 balls without stepping back to make a PLAN. Why is this important? Because on the golf course you don’t have the luxury of hitting multiple golf balls in a row. Each time you walk up to the golf ball on the golf course - you need to make a PLAN for your shot. Shouldn’t you ‘practice like you play’?

It’s the Golfer that’s just hitting to the middle of the range. They don’t have a target, they’re just hitting to nowhere - especially with their Driver. But in their mind, they’re practicing their swing. They feel as though practicing to targets isn’t important at this point - it’s more about their swing than where they’re hitting the golf ball. They believe that they’ll start to practice hitting to a target after they get their swing correct.

It’s the Golfer that doesn’t have a Warm-up PLAN. Their way of warming up is to hit 5 or 6 wedges and a few 7 irons because they have the fear of wasting golf balls. They need to conserve as many balls as they can for their Driver. ‘I mean, if I hit more than 5 or 6 wedges and a few 7 irons - I’d only have about 50 golf balls left to practice my Driver.’

It’s the Golfer that’ll hit one good shot and say to themselves - ‘That’s it!’ Then try to repeat that swing on their next shot. And if that shot is good - they try to repeat that same swing on their next shot and so on. But, whenever they try to repeat that same swing and hit a bad shot - they’re off to another vine (or I should say another swing tip) trying to find ‘it’ again. And if that tip works for a few swings and then leaves them - it’s on to another tip.

And for many Golfers, this routine goes on for years upon years. Maybe that’s why GMS sees over 1,000 Golfers a year that have been stuck in the 100’s, 90’s and 80’s for 3, 5, 10 or 20 years. Why? Because they get into one of the above Monkey Routines - or because they haven’t improved in such a long time, they end up not practicing at all. Now, that’s not to say that they haven’t tried hard to improve or break those barriers. I’m sure the majority of Golfers have tried. My belief is that many Golfers just aren’t trained or taught how to have a Practice PLAN.

Who’s the Player?

It’s the Golfer that uses their Strengths and Weaknesses to formulate a PLAN. The Player’s PLAN is to have a Warm-up PLAN. The Player’s Warm-up PLAN is about knowing how to get your golf mind working so that you’re ready to get the most out of your Practice PLAN. The Player’s Practice PLAN is about incorporating your Swing Drills in between the shots that you’re hitting to targets. And by target, I don’t just mean to a green. The Player divides the green into multiple targets, just like they should when they’re on the golf course.

Are you a Player?

The Monkey practices based on nothing more than just going from one swing tip to another while they hit ball after ball

The Player has a PLAN to improve by using a Results Based Approach

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Is it because they’re cleaning your clubs after each shot, raking your bunkers or even carrying your clubs? That may be a small influence. Or can it be that after a couple of holes of watching you play, they know more about your game and your abilities than you may know about yourself? Now, can you learn how to do develop this talent and apply it to your game?

I believe that your good rounds with a Caddie are because the Caddie is giving you the correct club for each shot, along with making a PLAN for you. The Caddie isn’t allowing you to play shots that you don’t have the ability to play consistently. The Caddie is forcing you to play to your Strengths and away from your Weaknesses.

“Mr. Smith, it’s 135 yards to carry the bunker on the right, but there’s nothing to carry on the left – it’s a wide open approach. So aim left and make a smooth swing with your 8-iron.” Though, if you were playing without a Caddie, it might’ve turned out to be you trying to hit the ball over the sand bunker with your 9-iron.

Maybe you need to be your own Caddie on the golf course. Not just doing the usual Caddie duties of taking care of the clubs, sand bunkers and tending the flag – maybe you can learn to PLAN your game around the golf course like a high ranking Caddie would help you do.

When a Golfer is playing on the golf course – they can’t see themselves play. And I’m not talking about watching your swing on video. I’m talking about how you play and the decisions you make on the golf course. When a talented Caddie watches a Golfer – that Caddie can see within a couple of holes what distance you should be hitting your 7-iron from. Or I should say – they know the distances you can consistently hit all your clubs.

Yet, many Golfers go for years, hundreds of rounds, thousands of shots without knowing as much about their game as a Caddie would by just watching you for two holes. Now this isn’t an advertisement for you to get a Caddie your next round. This is to say – Most Golfers don’t have a PLAN based on what truly are their Strengths and Weaknesses.

Are the yardages you can hit your golf clubs - on a consistent basis - important to know?

Absolutely! Because 99% of the time – you have to be your own Caddie on the golf course – and I’m not talking about just the club cleaning and raking the bunker tasks – you need to determine what your abilities are. You need to understand the yardage you can consistently hit your 7-iron as opposed to the yardage you can hit the ball when you hit it your best – “I can hit my 7-iron 155 yards when I hit it well.”

Yet, how many times out of 10 can you hit it well? If you hit your 7-iron 155 yards only 3 times out of 10 – what distances and directions are you hitting it the other 7 times? I don’t know – maybe 147 yards, but I guarantee that there isn’t a Golfer on the Planet that hits the ball the best they can more than 3 times out of 10. And most Golfers are basing their distances on only what they can hit it on their best shots.

Again, this example can be made with any club or any distance that pertains to your game. Let’s just make this simple by sticking with a 6-iron and 7-iron, along with a 155 yard shot.

Though, many Golfers blame bad shots primarily on their golf swing – yet, maybe you make a lot of bad golf swings because you continually have the wrong club and an unrealistic PLAN for many of your shots? On the other hand, if you were able to make your PLAN based on how your Caddie would be doing it - by watching you and understanding what your abilities are – maybe you’d come to the realization that if you played your 6-iron from 155 yards that you might hit the ball well 6 times out of 10.

If you could instantly double your consistency by going from one club to another – would you do it?

Though, I’m sure that there are some Golfers that are now saying – “Yea, but what would happen if I hit my 6-iron really well? I don’t want to hit the golf ball over the green.” Yet, you wouldn’t hit it over the green because if it were 155 yards to the center of the green – it’s most likely at least 170 yards to the back of the green. And if you hit your 7-iron 155 yards on your best shot – trust me, you’re not hitting your 6-iron more than 170 yards on your best swing.

So, if it’s true that you should take your 6-iron as opposed to your 7-iron in the example above – and most people don’t ever consistently switch to a longer club and swing smoother; usually most Golfers switch to the shorter club and swing harder – but if it’s true that you could hit the golf ball better - twice as often: Why wouldn’t you do it consistently?

I can’t tell you how many times during our GMS 9 hole On-course Training that a Golfer would say that they were going to hit a club from a distance that I knew they couldn’t hit the golf ball well - consistently enough. So after a discussion, I’m was able to convince the Golfer to hit their 6-iron as opposed to their 7-iron. And then after they hit the green with their 6-iron, I’d ask them to hit the same shot with their 7-iron.

How many times do you think the person that successfully used their 6-iron was able hit the ball on the same green from that same distance with their 7-iron?

Exactly, less than 10% of the time. Because the Golfer knew that they’d have to swing just a little bit harder ‘to get it there’ – and because of that they wouldn’t hit the golf ball as solid and they’d end up missing short of the green or flaring the ball off to the side into the sand, water, trees or otherwise.

Why were so many Golfers that took their 6-iron able to hit the green much more often? My belief is that they knew that they had the correct club in their hands and were able to make a smooth, natural swing that had all the parts of their body working together to produce a solid ball strike. Which are exactly the kinds of swings we like to see at GMS.

Why did they miss so frequently with their 7-iron? My belief is that because you know you have to be absolutely perfect, while at the same time giving it a little bit extra to be able to ‘get the ball there’ - was enough to throw off your golf swing.

The Monkey just goes out and hits the clubs they always hit because “if I hit it well, I can get it there”

The Player makes a more consistent swing because their PLAN is based on what their Caddie would tell them to do

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Be your own Caddie.

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Was Tiger Woods the best ballstriker last week in the tournament at Bay Hill? Was Tiger the best putter in the tournament?

No, surprisingly enough – he wasn’t even close in either category!

Over the 4 Rounds of Golf:

13 Players had more Greens in Regulation than Tiger Woods. In fact, Cliff Kresege hit 7 more Greens than Tiger. Cliff who?

18 Players had fewer Putts per Round than Tiger Woods. In fact, Frank Lickliter had 8 less putts than Tiger.

37 Players hit their average Drive farther than Tiger Woods. In fact, Bubba Watson averaged 22 yards more distance off the tee than Tiger.

46 Players hit more Fairways than Tiger Woods. In fact, Brian Gay hit 10 more Fairways than Tiger.

So what’s the point of these stats? The point is that these Players listed above, along with a bunch of other Players, although not necessarily household names – hit and putted the golf ball better than Tiger. And in fact, Tiger wasn’t even in the Top 13 in any of these categories!

And if I had taken a poll asking who was the best ballstriker on the PGA Tour – would anyone leave Tiger out of their Top 5?

How is it possible that Tiger wins as much as he does, when he’s not the best ballstriker (or according to the stats, not even in the top 13) or in the top 17 best putters? What’s the secret to Tiger Woods? Is there any category that he’s ranked #1?

Yes, there’s one category that he’s always #1 – Scoring Average and Winning. Or as GMS prefers to say – he’s #1 in Cashing Large Checks! How is it possible that Tiger is the best at winning Tournaments, but not close to the best in any of the ballstriking or putting categories? Simply put - there’s nobody on this Planet that’s better at sticking with his PLAN.

How good are you with sticking to your PLAN? Or do you not even have a PLAN?

What’s the first aspect in having a PLAN? Knowing your Strengths and Weaknesses. What’s the second aspect of your PLAN? Playing to your Strengths on the golf course and staying away from your Weaknesses. And nobody does this as well as Tiger Woods!

Now I’ve received emails in the past that have said – “Marc, it doesn’t matter how I PLAN if I can’t hit the ball where I want to.” Well, that’s the point of your PLAN. Do you think Tiger intentionally tried to miss 27 Greens at Bay Hill?

Of course not, but because he knows what his Strengths and Weaknesses are, he can PLAN for his misses. He can PLAN that if he misses the green, he won’t be in a spot near the green that he’d have to play a shot that’s a Weakness. He makes a PLAN to only hit shots that he knows won’t get him in trouble if he hits that shot bad.

In essence - he makes a PLAN so that he knows that either he’s going to hit a good shot or if he hits a bad shot, it won’t end up in a place that he’ll have to play a shot he can’t execute well. Now obviously, every once in a while, we’re all going to hit a horrible shot that no PLAN can help – but this doesn’t happen as much to Golfers as they might think it does.

Unless of course - they continually attempt to hit a golf club that they’re not skilled enough to hit.

Does Tiger hit a 3-wood on every Par 5 when the only club that could get him to the green would be a 3-wood? No. Why? Because the set-up of the hole might mean that if he doesn’t hit his 3-wood well – he possibly could end up playing a Weakness the next shot. So, many times he’ll play a Strength for his second shot (possibly a 5-iron) that’ll put him position to play another Strength (possibly a wedge). And probably make birdie!

Do You Have Any Weaknesses?

Do you have a club in your bag that you only hit well 50% of the time – yet you still play it on the golf course? Do you think Tiger would ever hit a shot that he hits well only 50% of the time? If you only hit a shot well 50% of the time – I’d consider that a Weakness. And a Weakness shouldn’t be played on the golf course unless you enjoy hitting bad golf shots and making double and triple Bogey’s.

I don’t know a Golfer that scores above 80 that hits their 3-wood off the ground well more than 50% of the time. Yet, I know thousands of Golfers that score above 80 that hit it on every Par 5 and a high percentage of Par 4’s because as they say – “I’m trying to get close the green.” Yet, 50% of the time you hit it bad. And 99% of those bad shots don’t get close to the green!

In fact many of those shots end up closer to the trees and/or water than they do the green!

The reason you should have a PLAN is not for your good shots – the reason for your PLAN is so that your bad shots won’t hurt you as much. What are your Strengths? What are your Weaknesses? Have you ever written them down and then made sure that the next round you play that you didn’t hit one shot that was a Weakness?

Sadly, that’s not the case for most Golfers. Sadly, most Golfers don’t even consider their Weaknesses. And sadly, most Golfers end up with scores that reflect that.

The Monkey continually plays their Weaknesses as they wish that magically, one day they’ll find the secret of hitting their 3 wood

The Player avoids their Weaknesses regardless of what the other Golfers in their group are wishing for

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

But, because most of the time these Players in contention are in the “Zone” or as we like to say - they’re on a Good Streak - you only see the best Golfers playing at their very best. And in a way, this is unfortunate because it would actually help your game if you’re able to watch the other Golfers in the tournament that are having more of a struggle.

Why?

Because you would see how Players who are hitting it all over the place are still able to score well. You’d be able to relate more to the Golfer that’s hitting their tee shots into the trees than the Golfer hitting their Tee Shots in play every shot. You’d be able to see how they recover and score versus watching a Golfer that plays a totally different game than you and I.

What I mean by this is that the Players you’re being shown on television during the broadcast are the 10 or 12 players of the 72 that are playing their best that day.

You don’t get to see the ‘Reality of Golf’. You don’t get to see the many bad shots that the Pros are hitting because the TV people only show you the good shots. Now I guarantee someone is saying to themselves “Yeah Marc, so what’s the big deal about only seeing the good shots, I don’t want to watch the guy in last place messing up all over the golf course.”

And I agree with that statement - but at the same time by only seeing great shots all the time – it may be affecting your game in a negative way!

Why do I say this?

It influences you to set ‘Unrealistic Expectations’ for your golf game. Of course you understand that you’re not going to hit the golf ball like the Pro does, but at the same time, you virtually never get to see them hit multiple bad golf shots. This is because they only show the leaders of the tournament and the leaders are probably in “The Zone” at that point - meaning they aren’t going to hit many bad shots.

I’ll give you an example – Ernie Els was the star of the Honda Classic two weeks ago. And all the announcers proclaimed that “The Big Easy is Back!” And – “Ernie has found “it” again! He’s getting ready for The Masters!” Where were these announcers this past week when Ernie shot 73, 73 to miss the cut for the weekend by a couple of shots?
If Ernie found “it” two weeks ago – does it mean he lost “it” last weekend?

The point is about your ‘Expectations’.

Let’s continue with Els – Ernie has probably only had maybe 6 weeks where he’s played well over the last 60 weeks he’s played Tournament Golf. Now, if you played well once in every 10 weeks – how many of you would say the following (or some variation of the following): “I stink. I’m so inconsistent. I’m not enjoying myself. I’m thinking of giving up the game”?

But, getting back to golf on television -
This is for you to understand that even the best Players in the world struggle with their games and they struggle often! Just imagine if Els came out in five weeks after missing four more cuts and won another tournament. The announcers would surely say something like - “Ernie Els, what a consistent Player. He’s always lurking around the leader board and you can never count him out.”

Yet, with all this praise that would come to Els (or anybody else who struggled one week then won a few weeks later), most people would assume Ernie is playing fantastic every time he steps on the golf course because 99% of the people that saw him win, didn’t even know he played in the last five tournaments (because he missed the cut and didn’t play on television during the weekend).

‘Out of sight – out of mind’ - and this contributes to you feeling like you should be much more consistent.

We only see what I call ‘Highlight Golf’. We only see the best shots that are played and we’re led to believe that the Pros are playing shots like this all the time. So that when we go to the golf course, we put unreasonable standards on our golf game. And when we don’t meet these standards - we get upset and maybe even disappointed with ourselves and our scores reflect this.

It’s like the Golfer that struggles to break 100. We go on the golf course in the afternoon and he/she hits a pretty good drive about 215-yards (which is about 15-yards longer than their usual Drive), but about 3-yards right of the fairway. Now I say “Good shot.” And they look at me like I’m an idiot and say “No that isn’t! It’s not where I aimed.”

The Expectations that many Golfers set for themselves are amazingly unrealistic. And I believe golf on television is a significant contributor to this problem because all you get to see is the best Players playing at their best and making it look so easy!

Imagine a Golfer that struggles with their game and admits to struggling and the need to get better - complain about being only 3-yards off their target and totally ignoring the fact that they hit the golf ball farther than they have in the past.

Another example of how inconsistent the Pros can be - Jeff Maggert was playing close to the best golf he can play on Thursday at the tournament in Tampa last week when he shot 66 - then maybe close to his worst on Saturday when he shot a 77. That’s an 11-stroke difference. Lee Janzen shot a 65 on Friday and a 75 on Saturday. That’s a 10-stroke difference.

But even though they struggled on those bad days - I doubt that they’ll go back home and try to rework their golf swing. I’m sure they’ll just put that bad day down as a bad day and leave it at that.

Do you do that? Do you get frustrated because you’re inconsistent? To excel in this game, you must accept some inconsistency! When you can truly accept that, you’ll be ready to take your game to the next level!

I could also mention Steve Stricker who shot 75 on Saturday and 66 on Sunday or Steve Elkington who shot 68 on Friday and 77 on Sunday. Or I could mention -

The Monkey is watching golf on television and setting their Expectations based on watching the best Players playing at their best

The Player understands that if Steve Stricker has a 9 stroke difference from round to round – they should accept a much higher stroke differential from time to time

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Yet, if the 85, 95, 105 or 115 Golfer doesn’t hit their best drive at least 3 out of every 4 drives – you’re disappointed. If Tiger is hitting his best drives only 24% of the time – what percentage of time can you expect to hit your best drives?

Well, to help you answer this question, I have come up with a complex mathematical formula (or if I wanted to sound smart – an algorithm) to give both you and Tiger a Consistency Rating to see if your Expectations match Reality – Let’s take the years you’ve been playing golf, add that to the number of days each week you’re on the golf course (playing in front of millions of people and/or playing regular rounds of golf), add that number to the hours each week you’re on the practice range, then multiply that by the number of PGA Tour Events you’ve won.

So Tiger’s Consistency Rating would be: 30 (years of playing golf) + 6 (days a week playing on the golf course) + 24 (hours of practice each week) x 63 (PGA Tour wins) = 3,780 (Consistency Rating).

Now it’s your turn. Take your time and add it up. You probably won’t need a calculator like I needed while figuring out Tiger’s rating.

Though, based on what my 9th grade math teacher Mr. McNamara taught me – any number times zero equals zero. So since you haven’t won a PGA Tour Event – you can’t even compare your game to Tiger’s. But, even if we blur the lines of Reality a little and give you 1 PGA Tour win – would it make that much of difference?

Tiger plays a completely different game than you and I play!

And although situated in the gap between the Consistency Rating of you and Tiger there are 720 Players playing on the PGA, LPGA, Nationwide and Senior Tour. Along with thousands of Golfers playing on the smaller Tour’s (trying to make the big tour), 24,000 PGA Professionals (like myself) and thousands upon thousands of low single digit Players that could probably give you 9 shots a side and still squash you like a grape – there still are many Golfers that have Expectations that they should hit their best drive at a higher rate than not just all these ten’s of thousand’s of Players above, but also more consistently than the Best Player On The Planet’s current rate of 24% of the time!

Tiger’s ‘only’ hitting his best Drives 24% of the time. So in order for you to start playing to your PLAN and your potential on the golf course – it needs to be time to stop thinking you can hit your best Drive a higher percentage of the time than Tiger does.

Once you can move away from ‘Unrealistic Expectations’ and embrace ‘Reality’ to accept that as a 95 Golfer that your average drive maybe 210 yards (85 Golfer - 240 yards; 105 Golfer - 180 yards) – your golf swing, ball-striking and scores will improve. The Golfer with ‘Unrealistic Expectations’ will never be happy with the progress they’re making and will continually start to “Fiddle” with your swing in the middle of every round trying to hit that 250 yard drive that in Reality should ‘only’ happen 12% of the time.

Though, if you’re not happy or disagree that you should hit your best shot ‘only’ 12% of the time? Let me ask you - if Tiger is hitting his best drives only 24% of the time – do you think you should be able to hit yours the same percentage of time as Tiger? Do you believe that you’re golf swing is as consistent as Tiger’s? Or think about it this way - do you believe that you should hit your best shot once out of every 6 Drives which equates to 17% of the time? If so, then you must believe that Tiger is only 29% more consistent than you.

How much more consistent is Tiger than you?

Can this be determined? I’m not sure – I’m definitely not smart enough to figure something like that out. But, I don’t believe that I’d be going out on a limb if I said that Tiger is at least 100% more consistent than you or me. And if that’s the case – it puts you at hitting your best drives at 12% of the time. Once out of every 8 drives.

And considering that during an 18 hole round, you most likely are using your Driver on 14 holes – it says that you should ‘only’ hit one or two great drives a round. And just as importantly, it means that you need to accept 11 or 12 average to below average drives per round.

Yet, I’ve seen Golfers on the golf course complain when every other drive isn’t their best drive. And because of these ‘Unrealistic Expectations’ – your game gets worse and worse every shot – sometimes to the point of such disappointment, that you just don’t enjoy golf anymore.

Are you expecting too much from yourself on the golf course. Do you have ‘Unrealistic Expectations’ on the golf course that’s causing you to always ‘Fiddle’ with your golf swing because you’re not hitting your golf ball the best you can on every shot? And before you automatically say – “No that’s not me!” – you might want to think about it. Because I can’t tell you how many Golfers we see each year that don’t have a ‘Realistic PLAN’ and are making it harder and harder for themselves to improve because of it!

The Monkey gets disappointed and starts to ‘Fiddle’ with their swing if they don’t hit their best drive 50% of the time

The Player understands that the ‘Best Player On The Planet’ (Tiger Woods), only hits his best shot once out of every 4 Drives

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

I can’t tell you how many 90 and 100 Golfers I’ve met that believe they can hit the golf ball 270 to 300 yards. This may come as shock to you, but 270 to 300 yards is a long way! The average drive on the PGA Tour isn’t 300 yards.

Yet, there’s a group of Golfers – a massive group of 90 and 100 Shooters – that believe they can hit the ball 270 to 300 yards. Let me put it bluntly – No You Can’t! If some guys on the PGA Tour can’t hit it 300 yards – you can’t either.

Understanding the ‘true distance’ you hit the golf ball is more important than the ‘bragging distance’ you can hit it. Success on the golf course has more to do with knowing your distances so you can PLAN on the golf course rather than just relying on the distances that you think you can hit the Golf ball. It’s about knowing what trouble on the golf course is within reach of your tee shot and which trouble is out of reach.

In addition to the total length you hit the golf ball – I find it possibly even more important to understand how far you carry the golf ball in the air. Because if there’s a fairway bunker at about 225 yards down the fairway and you hit the ball 250 total yards on your tee shot – odds are that you’ll land your golf ball in the bunker.

Or if you hit your tee shots 195 yards and there’s a fairway bunker about 190 yards away from the tee – same thing.

Though, what’s troubling is when a Golfer thinks they hit the golf ball 30, 40, 50 and in some cases 80 yards farther than they actually can. In this case – it’s impossible to PLAN correctly around the golf course.

So why are there so many Golfers that think they hit the golf ball farther than they can?

Take the story of Paul – On the 4th tee, a Par 5 that doglegs (curves) to the right – that’s listed as playing 530 yards from the white tees, Paul hits a pretty good drive down the right-side. Now, as Paul feels good about this ‘better than normal drive’ – he finds a sprinkler head within a few yards of his ball that says 230 yards to the center of the green. He then checks the scorecard to see that the white tees were listed at 530 yards.

“Oh yeah, I hit that drive 300 yards!!”

What Paul failed to notice was that the white tees were playing ‘a little up today’ - meaning that the greens crew moved the white tees from the normal position. So instead of a 530 yard hole – it was a 500 yard hole today. Which you might feel is an unusual occurrence, but I can tell you from working at golf courses for many years – this happens on a daily occurrence as Greenskeepers often find it necessary to ‘rest a tee box’.

Now, you may be saying – “oh, so Paul hit a 270 yard drive, that’s still a big drive.” Well, maybe he didn’t even hit it 270 yards - Paul might’ve gotten a few more yards on a technicality because the hole doglegs to the right and hit his ball to the right. I say a technicality because the distances to the green from the sprinkler heads on the right-side of the hole are shorter to the green than the sprinkler heads in the middle of the fairway and the left side of the fairway.

For example – if Paul hit his drive the same exact distance, but it ended up on the left-side of the fairway, he might have a 280 yard shot to the green as opposed to the 230 yards to the green on the right side. Which, if all he did was subtract 280 yards from the 530 yards the white tees are listed at on the scorecard, he would have thought that he’d ‘only’ hit a 250 yard drive.

So even though Paul might’ve hit two drives the same exact distance – he would’ve miscalculated them as being different distances based on which side of the fairway his ball was on.

So in reality, the length of Paul’s better than normal drive was probably 250 yards or half of a football field shorter than his ‘300 yard drive’. And this doesn’t take in consideration if the hole is even slightly downhill, or the ground was a little harder because it hasn’t rained in a week, or if there was a slight breeze helping.

Which brings me to conclude based on my professional opinion that Paul’s best drives are possibly 240 yards, his average drive might be around 210 yards and his bad drives are around 180 yards.

Why is this important for Paul to know? Because now he can realistically PLAN around the golf course. Now he knows that his drives will end up between 180 and 240 yards away from the tee on 9 out of 10 tee shots. Now he can look-out at the golf course to see where the trouble is and PLAN whether that trouble is actually reachable or if he can realistically hit over the trouble. This will allow Paul to hit away from the trouble based on his yardages.

Because if Paul believed that he could hit the ball 300 yards ….. well, maybe that’s one reason why he’s been stuck in the mid 90’s to 100’s for 8 or more years. He probably hasn’t allowed himself to realistically PLAN his way around the golf course.

Do you truly know the yardages of your best, average and worst tee shots? Or do you only know the yardages of your ‘supposed’ best shots?

The Monkey hits one or two ‘supposed’ 300 yard drives and believes they should always hit drives over 280 yards

The Player doesn’t care about 300 yard drives as much as they care about knowing the distances of their best, average and worst drives

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

I can’t tell you how many 90 and 100 Golfers I’ve met that believe they can hit the golf ball 270 to 300 yards. This may come as shock to you, but 270 to 300 yards is a long way! The average drive on the PGA Tour isn’t 300 yards.

Yet, there’s a group of Golfers – a massive group of 90 and 100 Shooters – that believe they can hit the ball 270 to 300 yards. Let me put it bluntly – No You Can’t! If some guys on the PGA Tour can’t hit it 300 yards – you can’t either.

Understanding the ‘true distance’ you hit the golf ball is more important than the ‘bragging distance’ you can hit it. Success on the golf course has more to do with knowing your distances so you can PLAN on the golf course rather than just relying on the distances that you think you can hit the Golf ball. It’s about knowing what trouble on the golf course is within reach of your tee shot and which trouble is out of reach.

In addition to the total length you hit the golf ball – I find it possibly even more important to understand how far you carry the golf ball in the air. Because if there’s a fairway bunker at about 225 yards down the fairway and you hit the ball 250 total yards on your tee shot – odds are that you’ll land your golf ball in the bunker.

Or if you hit your tee shots 195 yards and there’s a fairway bunker about 190 yards away from the tee – same thing.

Though, what’s troubling is when a Golfer thinks they hit the golf ball 30, 40, 50 and in some cases 80 yards farther than they actually can. In this case – it’s impossible to PLAN correctly around the golf course.

So why are there so many Golfers that think they hit the golf ball farther than they can?

Take the story of Paul – On the 4th tee, a Par 5 that doglegs (curves) to the right – that’s listed as playing 530 yards from the white tees, Paul hits a pretty good drive down the right-side. Now, as Paul feels good about this ‘better than normal drive’ – he finds a sprinkler head within a few yards of his ball that says 230 yards to the center of the green. He then checks the scorecard to see that the white tees were listed at 530 yards.

“Oh yeah, I hit that drive 300 yards!!”

What Paul failed to notice was that the white tees were playing ‘a little up today’ - meaning that the greens crew moved the white tees from the normal position. So instead of a 530 yard hole – it was a 500 yard hole today. Which you might feel is an unusual occurrence, but I can tell you from working at golf courses for many years – this happens on a daily occurrence as Greenskeepers often find it necessary to ‘rest a tee box’.

Now, you may be saying – “oh, so Paul hit a 270 yard drive, that’s still a big drive.” Well, maybe he didn’t even hit it 270 yards - Paul might’ve gotten a few more yards on a technicality because the hole doglegs to the right and hit his ball to the right. I say a technicality because the distances to the green from the sprinkler heads on the right-side of the hole are shorter to the green than the sprinkler heads in the middle of the fairway and the left side of the fairway.

For example – if Paul hit his drive the same exact distance, but it ended up on the left-side of the fairway, he might have a 280 yard shot to the green as opposed to the 230 yards to the green on the right side. Which, if all he did was subtract 280 yards from the 530 yards the white tees are listed at on the scorecard, he would have thought that he’d ‘only’ hit a 250 yard drive.

So even though Paul might’ve hit two drives the same exact distance – he would’ve miscalculated them as being different distances based on which side of the fairway his ball was on.

So in reality, the length of Paul’s better than normal drive was probably 250 yards or half of a football field shorter than his ‘300 yard drive’. And this doesn’t take in consideration if the hole is even slightly downhill, or the ground was a little harder because it hasn’t rained in a week, or if there was a slight breeze helping.

Which brings me to conclude based on my professional opinion that Paul’s best drives are possibly 240 yards, his average drive might be around 210 yards and his bad drives are around 180 yards.

Why is this important for Paul to know? Because now he can realistically PLAN around the golf course. Now he knows that his drives will end up between 180 and 240 yards away from the tee on 9 out of 10 tee shots. Now he can look-out at the golf course to see where the trouble is and PLAN whether that trouble is actually reachable or if he can realistically hit over the trouble. This will allow Paul to hit away from the trouble based on his yardages.

Because if Paul believed that he could hit the ball 300 yards ….. well, maybe that’s one reason why he’s been stuck in the mid 90’s to 100’s for 8 or more years. He probably hasn’t allowed himself to realistically PLAN his way around the golf course.

Do you truly know the yardages of your best, average and worst tee shots? Or do you only know the yardages of your ‘supposed’ best shots?

The Monkey hits one or two ‘supposed’ 300 yard drives and believes they should always hit drives over 280 yards

The Player doesn’t care about 300 yard drives as much as they care about knowing the distances of their best, average and worst drives

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Yet, from what I’m being told by many Golfers – they’d rather hit the golf ball like Joe Durant, as opposed to the 2nd ranked Player in the world – Phil Mickelson. In fact, I’d say that 7 out of every 8 Golfers I speak to rather hit the golf ball like Joe Durant.

Is that hard to believe? Maybe it’s the crowd I hang with?

I say this because struggling Golfers are obsessed with hitting the fairway with their Driver. Obsessed to the point of judging their entire round on how many times they hit the fairway. It doesn’t matter if they putted well, hit their irons well or got out of the sand well – after the round it’s always: ‘I need to hit my Driver straighter!’

So if how well you hit the fairway is important to you – then you must aspire to be more of a Joe Durant type of Golfer – he’s the Golfer that’s hits loads of fairways, but doesn’t score as well as they should. I say this because even though Durant was the 5th most accurate Driver of the golf ball in 2007, he was 129th in Money made.

While Mickelson was 2nd in Money made in 2007 – though was ranked 181st in Fairways hit. As we like to say at GMS – ‘The Fairways are clogged with short hitters that can’t score. So why not learn to hit the ball long and make putts?’ A la Mickelson and Woods.

It’s funny because almost every Golfer out there will talk about how Golf has become a power game and how important it is to hit the golf ball long. For example, you’re constantly talking with friends and golf buddies about how the best Players in the world are the ones that hit the ball long and make putts. Yet, when it comes to your golf game – all you talk about is accuracy off the tee.

So you’re constantly on the driving range ‘fiddling’ with your swing trying to hit the golf ball straight as opposed to trying to improve your swing for more distance, along with taking a few minutes away from trying to hit the ball straight – and using it on the putting green. Because as the best Players in the world are showing: The formula for success on the golf course is to hit it long and make putts.

Yet, you’re spending all your time on the range practicing to hit the ball straight! Let me ask you – has this strategy been successful for you? Have you improved 6 to 11 strokes in the last year using the strategy of trying to hit the golf ball straight?

There’s a huge difference between missing fairways and hitting trees!

If you’re hitting the golf ball into the trees – yes, you need to become more accurate off the tee. Having to hit out of the trees often or losing your golf ball isn’t conducive to scoring well. Though, is hitting into the trees every once in a while – acceptable? Yes, of course it is – The best Players in the world go into the trees every once in a while and you’re not even close to having their skill.

So it’s expected of you to hit into the trees more often than Tiger Woods or Mickelson does. The sooner you accept that – the sooner you’ll free yourself up to hit better, longer tee shots more often.

If you don’t want to ever hit into the trees, I’ve got a solution for you – hit your wedge off the tee. Is that a stupid idea? Why? Because it goes back to the distance thing. You’ll score better if you’re more focused on maximum distance and moderate accuracy as opposed to moderate distance and maximum accuracy!

Woods, Mickelson and Durant back that up in their respective ways every week.

Most Golfers will cry after a tee shot – ‘Why didn’t that one go straight? See how it curved?’ Although their golf ball went 30 yards farther than usual and is only a yard or two off the fairway. Yet, when they hit a straight shot that goes their ‘normal’ distance – they cry: ‘I need to hit the ball farther!’

It’s this dilemma that’s holding 7 out of 8 Golfers from improving. They believe that a good tee shot is a shot that flies straight in the air – that if it curves a little bit (or more than a little bit), that it’s not a good shot. So the next time on the tee, you try to swing slower, concentrate hard on keeping your head down and left arm straight to hit the golf ball straighter.

Yet, you end up hitting the golf ball 30 yards shorter than the longer shot that curved a little and missed the fairway by a yard. And this shorter, though straighter tee shot will often times leave you with a 3 iron off a tight fairway lie to the green as opposed to a 7 iron sitting up in the rough.

‘The Fairways are clogged with short hitters that can’t score.’

From what I’ve seen and from what Woods, Mickelson, Singh and Durant have proved – how many times you hit the fairway has little bearing on your score. In 2007 - Woods ranked #1 in Money, #152 in Driving Accuracy; Mickelson #2 in Money, #181 in Driving Accuracy; Singh #3 in Money, #155 in Driving Accuracy; Joe Durant #129 in Money, #5 in Driving Accuracy.

So who do you aspire to swing like: Joe Durant – the guy that hits the golf ball as straight as any Golfer alive or Woods, Mickelson and Singh – 3 Golfers that can’t hit the ball straight off the tee and are showing it by winning all the money.

The Monkey complicates their whole round by obsessing over hitting straight tee shots

The Player simply hits it long and makes putts

Go ahead, Be A Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Every Golfer in the world is going to experience a triple bogey every-once-in-a-while – it’s just part of the game. The difference is whether you bounce back to a ‘good streak’ or you let that triple become the entry point of a ‘bad streak’ of holes.

I believe how the losers of the Super Bowl (in American Football) come back from a disappointing loss is a great analogy to how you may or may not come back from a triple bogey on the golf course. There are certain Football coaches that you know will bring their team back ready to play great the next year after a disappointing loss in front of millions of people. And there are coaches that won’t be able to bring their team back – starting what may be a ‘bad streak’ for the team.

Let’s start in recent history: The Giants just beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. To many followers of American Football, it was a major surprise (except to some Giant fans I know). The question now remains – will the Patriots be a successful team next season or will they fall like so many Super Bowl losers have in the past?

History shows that often times, the losing team can’t comeback from their ‘triple bogey’: the Chicago Bears lost in the Super Bowl last year – and had what could be classified as a disappointing season this year. The Seattle Seahawks lost two years ago in the Super Bowl – and they followed it up with a disappointing year.

My bet: The Patriots will comeback and start a new ‘good streak’. Why? Because their coach has a PLAN that he believes in regardless of one bad game (hole). While other coaches may have panicked after a big loss and moved away from what made them successful – I believe they’ll start a new ‘good streak’. Just as many successful Players will do after a Triple Bogey.

Take Phil Mickelson as an example – in the 3rd round of this past week’s tournament he was 1 under par for the first 13 holes. He was playing very steady – he had 1 Birdie and 12 pars. Then ‘wham’ he takes an 11 on the par 5 - 14th hole.

I’d call that a ‘blow-up hole’!

The key is what he did from there: he made Par on the next 3 holes. He started a new ‘good streak’. What would have the average Golfer done? The 95 Golfer that might’ve made 1 Par and 12 Bogeys over the first 13 holes – what would’ve they done on the 15th, 16th and 17th hole if they made an 11 on the 14th hole?

Could you start a ‘good streak’ on the 15th hole? Would you be able to shake-off the 11? Or would you be the Golfer that exclaims – ‘That’s it; I always do the same thing. I always find a way to mess-up my round.’ Then proceed to make a few unenjoyable double bogeys to end the round.

Or do you have a PLAN?

A PLAN that says that you played good, steady golf for 13 holes. Would you understand that you had ‘a brain fart’ on the 14th, but it was just that: ‘a brain fart’. Could you now continue your 18 holes by making 2 Par and 2 Bogeys? Or 1 Par and 3 Bogeys?

Or would your PLAN go out the window and either play the self-pity game or now try too hard to make a Birdie and end up with more Triples?

The Monkey goes on a ‘bad streak’ the first chance they get

The Player understands that one hole (or one shot) doesn’t make a round

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

I’ve been fortunate enough the last couple of months to have played more golf than usual – some rounds at very high-end golf clubs, some rounds at municipal clubs, even a round or two at a golf course that hasn’t even opened yet – though there’s at least one common trait amongst Golfers regardless of the price of the green fee: Exaggeration!

Man, Golfers can really exaggerate the negative aspects of their game. Though on-the-other-hand you rarely hear a Golfer exaggerate positive information.

I’m sure you’ve heard more than one Golfer who has uttered the comment ‘this is the worst I’ve ever played’ – but how many times have you ever heard the reverse: ‘This is the best I’ve ever played’? Now we usually hear that positive comment during our 3-Day GMS Programs – but you rarely hear a Golfer saying that during a casual round of Golf.

Yet, there are more Golfers than I can count that have the habit of letting everybody know they’re ‘playing my worst round ever’. And it’s usually those people that have this supposed ‘worst round’ - every round they play.

They’re habitual ‘Worst Rounders’.

It’s like the Golfer that tells you that ‘I’m a mid 80’s Golfer’. Then when you play with them and they score a 97 – they say, ‘that’s the worst I’ve ever played’. Yet, the next time they play and score a 95 – guess what they’ll be telling their foursome?

Yeah, probably the same ‘worst ever’ comment even though he scored higher the round before!

But to dig even deeper – do you really think this Golfer’s a ‘mid 80’s Golfer? Maybe in their mind, but most likely they had a couple of good rounds a few years ago where they scored an 86 and 87 – so in their minds, they’re a ‘mid 80’s Golfer’. When in reality, each of the last 53 rounds they’ve played have been they’re ‘worst ever’ with scores ranging between 94 and 104.

Though, this Golfer is doing a disservice to their golf game because by believing that they’re a mid 80’s Golfer when they’re really a mid 90’s Golfer – they often feel defeated by the 7th hole. Because after 7 holes they might only be 7 strokes over par on their way to scoring a very respectable 45 – though because they don’t believe that Bogey Golf is up to their standard (because in their mind – they’re a mid 80’s Golfer), they start to become disappointed and start convincing themselves ‘that I’m playing my worst round ever’ – which leads them to making a double bogey on hole 8 and a triple bogey on hole 9 to score their typical 48 for the front 9.

Have you ever seen this happen to somebody? Or maybe, just maybe – you’re doing it yourself?

The more you’re around Golfers like I’m around Golfers – the more you see this self-defeatist mentality. Golfers are often their own worst enemy – which is an unfortunate event. Because it pains me to hear a Golfer say – ‘I’m playing worse than I’ve ever played before.’ I don’t feel bad for this Golfer that they’re playing bad – I feel bad, because they’re lying to themselves. Yes, you have played this bad in the past – and once you admit this to yourself – you’ll be able to make the next step towards improvement.

For example – for the Golfer a couple paragraphs above: if they accepted that they were a mid 90’s Golfer, they’d be very happy being 7 over after 7 holes. And because of that – they might even par the last two holes to score 43 on the front 9 (although if they Bogeyed and shot 45 it would also be good). But because they pressed too hard because they’re on track to play Bogey Golf (which isn’t good enough for them), they end up finding a way to score the same old 48 (or worse).

The Monkey remembers one time that they shot a career round and believes that they should always shoot that score. Which isn’t the best way to think about it because if Tiger looked at his 65 last Friday and carried the same attitude as the frustrated Golfer on Sunday during his round when he shot 6 shots higher – he might’ve done what many frustrated Golfers do every day by telling himself ‘this is the worst round I have ever played’.

And guess what? He might’ve ended shooting an 84 like Mike O’Meara last Sunday.

The Monkey is constantly shooting their worst round ever

The Player knows that they’re going to have some very good rounds and some very bad rounds

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Why is it that the majority of Golfers that we see are more over Par on the Par 5’s and the Pro’s are more under Par on the Par 5’s. It’s primarily based on 2 factors: Hitting the ball farther off the tee and playing smart.

75 percent of the Golfers we see average more over par on the Par 5’s than on the Par 3’s or 4’s.

Yet, the Pro’s are far, far more under Par on the Par 5’s than the Par 3’s or 4’s. It’s completely opposite between the best Players in the world and the regular Golfer. Maybe there’s something we can learn from the best Players?

Now many people will say - “well the Pros are probably getting on the Par 5 greens in 2-shots a lot". Yes they are getting on in 2-shots once in a while, but most likely not as much as you think. Vijay Singh was 125 stokes under Par on the Par 5’s in 2004 (that’s not a misprint - 125 strokes under Par - INCREDIBLE), yet he only had 17-Eagles. I say “only 17-Eagles” not because I belittle his accomplishment (that’s an incredible number of Eagles, more than most people get in a lifetime), but it’s such a small percentage of the 125 strokes under Par. Even without the 17 Eagles, he was 91 under Par!

Contrast that with Mark O’Meara who hit more Fairways than Vijay, but hit the ball 30-Yards less on average with his Driver and was only 57 under Par and had only 2 Eagles on the Par 5’s. Again I say only not because 57 under Par is not good, but because it’s such a huge difference between the #1 Money Earner on the PGA Tour and the #135 Money Earner on the PGA Tour.

And O’Meara was more accurate off the Tee, had less Putts per Round and was better out of the Sand.

When we see Golfers ready to hit their second shots on Par 5’s, it doesn’t matter what the situation is, they always have their 3-wood or 5-wood or 3-iron in their hands ready to go - even before they size up the shot they’re about to play. They get out of their cart, walk right to their bag, pick out their 3-wood, go to their ball, look for the middle of the fairway and then hit the ball.

And they end up taking 2-Double Bogeys and 2-Triple Bogeys every round that account for 10-shots over Par.

So most Golfers are 10 over Par on what should be the easy holes and still have to play the 14-hard holes that are left - where they’ll have to score only 7 over Par if they want to break 90. I say the 14-hard holes because Vijay Singh averaged just under Par - 3.96 shots on Par 4’s and over Par 3.02 on the Par 3’s. So if the Pro’s are scoring Par or over on the 3’s and 4’s - what do you think is happening to you?

So to see if we could help Golfers to start making more Pars and (at worst) Bogey’s on the Par 5’s - we now go out on the golf course and force you to think through every shot like a Pro. And we do this by allowing you on the first day of Golf Made Simple to only use 4-golf clubs on the golf course, your Driver, 7-Iron, Sand Wedge and Putter. And you know what has happened using these clubs? The average score on the Par 5’s has improved, not just a little, but dramatically! Where we used to see a lot of “blow-up holes” of 7’s, 8’s and devastating 9’s - now we see 4’s, 5’s and 6’s. Yet, when most people hear that after they hit their Driver, that they’ll rely on their 7-Iron to get them down the fairway, they often say “How are we going to play the Par 5’s?”

This isn’t to suggest that you should always play your 7-Iron for your 2nd shot on the par 5’s. This is to say that instead of doing the “same old, same old” on the Par 5’s - there might be a better way. Maybe after an OK Drive, you could take your 6-Iron, get the ball 150-yards down the course, and then take another 6-Iron and an end up 20-yards short of the green. From this spot - hit your Sand Wedge onto the green and 2-putt for Bogey or maybe 1-putt for Par.

And some Monkeys will say “Bogey, I don’t want to make a Bogey on a Par 5 - I’m trying to make Birdies!” And I say - OK, keep the same strategy you’ve been using of trying to make Birdies (and ending up with Double’s and Triple’s) and I’ll wager a good sum of money that you’ll make more Double Bogeys than you’ll make Birdies on the Par 5’s. I’ll also wager that you’ll make more Double Bogeys than you’ll make Pars. Guess what, I’ll even wager you that using the strategy of going for it with your 3-wood in order to make Birdie is causing you to make more Triple Bogeys than you make Birdies, Pars and Bogeys combined.

So why is Vijay the #1 player in the world right now, why is he playing the best golf of his life? My vote is that he’s hitting the ball longer and he’s matured as a Player. He’s playing smarter than he did in the past - I’m not saying he was playing un-smart in the past - he’s just playing smarter now.

So have your best year of golf and step off the “I’ve gotta get the ball in the fairway” bandwagon. Hit the ball long off the tee and then play smart to the hole! And if you still think that hitting the ball in the Fairway is more important than Distance ….. then what do you think would happen if we had a match between Vijay Singh (hitting only 60% of his Fairways), Allen Doyle (the most accurate Driver on the Senior Tour hitting 84% of his Fairways) and Seol-An Jeon (the most accurate Driver on the LPGA Tour hitting 84% of her Fairways) - and had them all play from the same distance of 7,000 yards. Who would you lay your money on winning that match? I tell you what - I’ll give you both Allen Doyle and Seol-An Jeon, plus 1000 to 1 odds and I’ll take the long but inaccurate Vijay. Any takers?

Hit the ball long and play smart - the Fairways are clogged with short hitters that don’t score!

The Monkey’s favorite club on a Par 5 is their 3 wood

The Player’s favorite club on any hole is whatever puts them in position to play to their Strengths

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com