So, just a few days ago when I still wasn’t writing – I amazingly became bored and started reading a forum on an internet chat room with the title of something like – “What I Don’t Like About Tiger’s Golf Swing” – where this supposed ‘guru’ that has adopted the title of “ITeachGolf” - listed everything he thinks is wrong with Tiger’s golf swing.

And what’s funny is that I believe he wrote this just as Tiger was winning yet another golf tournament by shooting 13 under par.

His/her contention is that Tiger really doesn’t have a good golf swing – the only reason he wins is that he’s just the best athlete on the PGA Tour. And that my friends is just another reason why you should stay away from Internet chat rooms – unless you want: A) to laugh; B) to cry; C) to be able to say to yourself – “are there really people that think that way?”

This issue with Golfers wanting to improve their golf swing is something that myself and our company works with each day with multiple individuals that travel from around the world to come and see us. So yes, we specialize in golf swings. So when we see people that bring up nonsense like the above – it makes us cringe.

Yet, the scary aspect is that many people might read further into what this ‘closet guru’ has to say about Tiger’s golf swing and even start to use the techniques he suggests Tiger needs to use. And that scares me because I know many Golfers are so desperate to improve – that they’ll try just about anything. Remember when you were young and your Mom said “don’t take candy from a stranger?” Well, many Golfers have forgotten about the dangers of doing that.

‘Don’t Take Golf Tips From A Stranger’

That’s going to be the title of my new book. Yet, as much as you need to continually warn the young about the aforementioned candy from a stranger – It’s my duty to remind you to do the same with golf tips. It can be dangerous for the health of your golf swing.

For example: Last week I was walking through one of the many airports that I walk through each year (this one was LAX) - I really shouldn’t be telling you this because I told everybody in the office and my wife that I was hiking on the Robert Trent Jones Trail. I got to my gate, sat down in a chair to await my plane – and just 2 seats down from me, was a lady that was really into what she was reading – I had to look over to see what magazine she had.

So at closer glance, I could see that she was reading a golf magazine and particularly an article about improving her golf swing. Now, I’m not the kind of person that just walks up to someone else and starts a conversation – yet, I had just finished helping a fantastic gentleman (a pretty famous person) with his golf swing for 3 days at a beautiful golf course – so I was on a natural high and in a really good mood – so I couldn’t resist. I had to ask her what she was reading.

When she looked up at me with this – “Why are you bothering my?” look – I said, ‘I apologize, I’m a Golfer also. And I was just interested in what you’re reading.’

Well, I got more than I was asking for:

She went into a 23 minute briefing of what’s wrong with her golf swing. She then took out a pad of paper and pen and started sketching her swing plane and what her plane needs to look like. She then took the pen and started gripping it like a golf club to show me what her grip looks like and what the proper grip should look like. I was then told about how important it is not to sway on the backswing, why Sergio can’t win a major, and why she would never want to swing like Jim Furyk.

Once she came up for air – she then asked me about my game. I told her I don’t play as much as I’d like (which is true), I’m not as consistent as I’d like (who is) and I’d like to hit my driver 10 more yards (sounds like fun). She then asked me to grip the pen like it was a golf club to see my grip. I then found out that my grip needed to be adjusted. I didn’t have enough knuckles showing. And that I should try interlocking my fingers instead of overlapping. She then apologized because she really couldn’t judge my grip pressure because we were using a pen and not a golf club.

She then suggested that I could become more consistent if I improved my posture – that is even though she never saw me set-up to a golf ball – though that’s something that she read in one of her 3 golf magazine subscriptions and that she has been doing it herself. Although, she hasn’t gained any more yards since working on her posture – she is sure it’ll eventually start working.

I then learned that I could get more distance by turning my shoulders a little more – “have you ever tried the X Factor?” Yet again, it was something she read in a magazine or saw on television.

So what’s the point of this story? The point is that after I said ‘thank you for the advice’ – I asked my “new pro” what her average score was. And although everything she said was very convincing and she said it very eloquently and it really sounded as if she knew what she was talking about – she had yet to ever break 100. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with someone who has never broken 100 – we were all at that point one time or another.

However, when I did ask how long she has been playing and how many lessons she had taken and how many years she has been reading those magazines scanning for tips – all I can say is that I was shocked. Playing golf: 7 years; Lessons: 10 to 15 lessons a year; Subscriptions: 3 different golf magazines for about 6 years.

Now, I’m not shocked that this Golfer hasn’t broken 100 in 7 years – that’s not shocking, everyday we help Golfers who have been in that same situation. What’s shocking is that this Golfer has worked on a hundred million things in her golf swing and she’s still not getting any positive results. Yet, she continues to work on a hundred million things!

So I never said anything about what I do for a living, I just told her that I once heard a really good tip that I’ve used successfully in my game for many years. And that from what she had told me about her game – it might really help her. When she said – “sure, what is it?” I told her about “Tick Tock”. I then told her that if she was going to be successful using “Tick Tock” she had to do it every golf swing she made the next time on the golf course. I then gave her my email address (not my GolfMadeSimple.com email address) so that she could email me her results after the next time she was going to play – which was this past Sunday, July 5th.

She wished me luck with my game and I wished her luck with her game as I reminded her not to forget the “Tick Tock” on every swing. And then I flew home and forgot about the whole conversation - not thinking anything would come of it.

July 5th, 8:07 pm – incoming email: “Marc, thank you, thank you, thank you! You’re not going to believe this!!!! I broke 100 for the first time. I can’t believe it. A 96!!! I have never hit the golf ball so well. It was unbelievable – my friends kept saying to me that they never saw me play that consistent and stay so calm on the golf course. That was the best golf tip ever. Who told you that tip? I need to read more about that person’s methods! Thank you, thank you.”

I then wrote back using my GolfMadeSimple.com email address congratulating her on her accomplishment, explaining why “Tick Tock” was so valuable, why it probably helped her, along with some more encouragement, etc.

Now, why is it that this very nice person that wanted so desperately to break 100 couldn’t do it even with putting her heart and soul into it for 7 years, taking multiple sets of lessons, reading countless magazine articles, thinking she knew what she needed to work on (fancy terms like swing plane and lag and X factor) - yet in one brief, chance meeting she was able to break 100?

The Monkey will get lucky once-in-a-while taking Golf Tips From Strangers, but in the long run it will cause more harm than good

The Player works on simple techniques that create positive results

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

For Anyone Considering Video Analysis - We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to the Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view.

Just click here to be taken to the download page on the http://www.GolfMadeSimple.com website. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

Indoor Putting Drill - If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put ‘Blog’ in the subject line.

Tour Putting Square - Use the Tour Putting Square inside your home to improve your scores. Just send us an email at TourPuttingSquare@GolfMadeSimple.com with the subject: ‘Blog’ – and we’ll email you how to use this game changing drill.

Swing Drills & Core Training - To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, plus 3 exercises to strengthen your core - email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with the words ‘Blog’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD - ‘How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors’

“Does Poor Balance Cause Poor Golf Swings?”

Would a Golfer with poor balance have a better or worse chance of having a consistent golf swing?

The obvious answer seems to be that the Golfer that doesn’t have good balance would have a more inconsistent golf swing than the Golfer that employs good, solid balance. So if that’s true – why haven’t you worked on your balance? If true – should you be spending your time working on your swing path and swing plane or should you be working on your balance skills? Could poor balance be causing your swing path, swing plane and clubface issues?

We believe that much of the golf instruction (not all, but much) is seriously flawed and backwards in the way Golfers are taught. Meaning, for example: Many Golfers go to get a golf lesson (or read in a magazine or see on television) and are immediately admonished that their backswing is being taken too much to the outside. And that you need to work on taking it more inside.

Now, I’m not saying that your backswing shouldn’t go outside (and I’m not saying it shouldn’t come inside or straight back), however – maybe that flaw could be caused by something else. Maybe taking the club too far outside could be a compensation for another swing flaw.

For example: could poor balance cause you to take the club too far outside?

Unfortunately, many Golfers and Instructors only look at the effect (taking the club too far outside) and then teach you a compensation (taking the club more inside) to compensate for that first compensation (taking the club too far outside). So basically, you’re working on fixing one compensation with another compensation. And then you wonder why you can’t consistently take the club more to the inside while hitting a golf ball. Well maybe, just maybe – the club is going too far outside for a reason – maybe it’s compensating for poor balance?

To use the “taking the club more to the inside” example as an example – could bad balance cause you to take your club too far outside? Absolutely! If you’re not balanced at set-up – if your weight is too much on your heels – it could cause you to take the club too far outside in that Instructor’s eyes. Now, I’m not saying that taking the club too far outside is a bad thing (I’m not saying it’s a good thing either) – it’s just an example of something a lot of Golfers are corrected on.

The basis here is to talk about how bad balance could be affecting many of your so-called golf swing flaws. And how many Golfers are misdiagnosed - causing them to have to learn even more compensations to cover up other compensations. For example – learning to swing more inside to correct the outside swing path – yet never correcting the cause of the outside swing path (which could be bad balance).

If your balance at set-up is off – meaning too much on your heels – it could cause you to compensate by pushing your hands and arms away from your body because if they did come back more naturally – it might cause you to fall backwards. So to counter balance having too much weight on your heels – you push your arms away from your body on the backswing to maintain balance. So now you’re compensating for bad balance (which you need to do to remain standing), by taking the club outside.

Now, because of your bad balance – you’re told to change your swing path. Yet, the problem isn’t your swing path – your “poor” swing path is just an effect of your poor balance. Now a big problem arises when you start trying to bring the club more inside without correcting the bad balance. This will cause you to struggle on the golf course by hitting shanks and pulls and killer slices as you work on taking it more inside – which will cause you to add even more compensations to your swing to counteract those bad shots.

So now, when you go back for more help on your golf swing – you’re told that you’re now bringing the club in a little better – but to stop the shanks and pulls and killer slices, you need to stop coming over the top. You need to drop the club from the top of your golf swing into the slot so that you can bring the club more from the inside as you approach impact.

Yet, this happens even though you still haven’t perfected the more inside takeaway (which you can’t because your balance still hasn’t improved). And now, even though you don’t have the backswing, you have to learn how to bring the club down more on the inside as opposed to over the top. Yet, how can you bring the club more from the inside when you’re still don’t have good balance. With the weight too far back on your heels – you have a choice – throw the club to the outside on the way down (what you’ve been doing) or starting at the top of your backswing, move your weight to your toes for a counter balance so that you could drop the club down behind you (where your Instructor says it “needs” to be).

Regardless of which you subconsciously choose – you’re just adding another compensation on top of the other compensations that’s going to cause more problems in your golf swing. Without good balance, you’re like the people in a 10 story building with a wobbly foundation – when the building starts to lean to the front, you all run to the back of the building to counter the forward motion. And when the building now moves to the back, you all run to the front. Yet, nothing gets done in the office because everything is being affected by the bad foundation.

To give you a simple picture on how balance can affect your body’s movements – picture this: If you’re standing up straight, then lower your left arm down the side of your body to pick-up a heavy briefcase positioned to the outside of your left foot. How would you pull that bag up? Most likely by lifting it as you lean your upper body to the right – counter balancing the weight on your left. Then, as you walk with the heavy briefcase in your left hand (with your Blackberry held against your ear with your right hand), which way is your body leaning? Obviously to the right to counterbalance yourself.

Well, a similar thing could happen if you don’t have good balance in your golf swing. If your weight is too much in one direction – your body will compensate for it by moving in another direction. Yet, when similar balance issues happen with Golfers, they are often told that the compensations that they have created (because of the poor balance) are the problem with their golf swing. When in fact, that so called problem is just a compensation you created because of a far bigger issue. So now you’re taught another compensation to fix the compensation that was created by the cause. Yet, you never fixed the cause. And if you never fix the cause – you’re just going to start creating more and more compensations – so that your golf swing just becomes one big compensation.

And remember that - ‘Compensations equal Inconsistency’.

I can’t tell you how many thousands of Golfers unfortunately have to go through this every year – never getting to the cause of the problem, only being told how to fix the effect. Which is backwards because you should be working to fix the cause – yet most Golfers are only taught how to fix the effect by being given compensation after compensation. And that’s a big reason why so many Golfers never get better and swear never to take another golf lesson again because they only get worse afterwards.

Thank goodness for GMS!

How can you work on your balance? It’s easy. Get set-up like you’re ready to hit a golf shot, then pick-up your left foot so that you’re balanced on your right foot. Now to do this – you’re going to have to move your center of gravity over your right leg. See how long you can stay balanced on your right foot (while in set-up). And as you’re doing this – try to move your weight around your foot to feel where you’re the most balanced. After you can hold your balance for 30 seconds without having to put your left foot down or grab onto something – try it with your left foot.

Please remember, this isn’t as easy as it may sound – so don’t try this next to a glass table or at the top of a staircase – make sure you’re in a safe place. If you can only stay balanced for a few seconds on your first attempts – what is that telling you? It could be telling you that you don’t have great balance and that bad balance could be causing compensations in your golf swing that are causing you to create even more compensations and making you even more inconsistent.

The Monkey will continue to work on the effect by practicing taking the golf club to the inside without fixing the cause

The Player is always interested in fixing the cause because they know that if they fix the cause, they also fix the effect

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Are You As Consistent As A PGA Tour Player?

At the PGA Tour event in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago, an interesting thing happened. In round 2, one Tour Pro beat another Tour Pro by 18 strokes in that one round. For the mathematically challenged – that’s 1 stroke per hole. Now that’s about the equivalent and what you might expect to see when a 2 handicap plays with a 20 handicap. Not when 2 PGA Tour Players are playing.

In the second round, JP Hayes scored an impressive 62; while Trevor Dodds endured through an 80. Nonetheless – that’s a 1 stroke per hole difference in score – not something you’d expect to see on that high a level of golf. I guess it just goes to show how consistency is tough for the best Players in the world to grasp day after day and week after week.

What also illustrates this point is that Dodds isn’t a hack. In the first round he shot a very nice 70 – which was one shot better than Hayes’ 71. Which highlights even more inconsistency: Dodds played 10 shots worse on Friday than he did on Thursday. And Hayes played 9 shots worse on Thursday than he did on Friday.

So if the best Players in the world have scores that have 9 or 10 shots swings from Thursday to Friday – I guess for a regular Golfer, it shouldn’t be a big deal if you shot 92 on Saturday and 102 on Sunday! Because these guys have much more consistent golf swings than rest of us – and their scores vary 10 shots from round to round – how can you expect yours to have less of a variance?

For Anyone Considering Video Analysis - We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to the Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view.

Just click here to be taken to the download page on the http://www.GolfMadeSimple.com website. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

Indoor Putting Drill - If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put ‘World Golf’ in the subject line.

Tour Putting Square - Use the Tour Putting Square inside your home to improve your scores. Just send us an email at TourPuttingSquare@GolfMadeSimple.com with the subject: ‘World Golf’ – and we’ll email you how to use this game changing drill.

Swing Drills & Core Training - To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, plus 3 exercises to strengthen your core - email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD - ‘How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors’

There’s so much babble out there about “What’s wrong with Tiger? Why didn’t he win at the Masters or the Players Championship? What’s wrong with his golf swing? Why isn’t he making any putts?”

I gather that all this gibberish is being tossed at you because he’s “only” won one paltry tournament this year. Yet, let’s put things in perspective - there’s not a Player in the world that wouldn’t take his golf game or golf swing or putting stroke right this second. Right now he’s the most consistent Golfer in the world - his results this year prove it: Tiger has played in 5 PGA stroke play tournaments in 2009 - placing in the Top 10 each event. His worst finish was his first stroke play tournament back after surgery on his left leg, where he came in 9th place. And on top of that - he’s a collective 38 under par for those 5 tournaments - which I believe means he’s averaging better than 7 under par for each tournament.

Have I mentioned he’s averaging 69.7 shots per round playing some tough golf courses?

I feel obligated as a Golf Instructor to show how unrealistic (and some might say uninformed or even Monkey) many (certainly not all) in the Golf Media are as it pertains to the sport they’re reporting on. So let’s take a look at Tiger’s results compared to the other top Players on the PGA Tour.

Results from 5 excellent Golfers and 1 incredible Golfer in 2009:

Phil Mickelson - 9 tournaments: 4 times in the top 10; failed to make the cut in 2 tournaments, tied for 55th place in 2 tournaments - meaning he finished worse than 50th place, 44% of the time

Anthony Kim - 8 tournaments: 1 time in the top 10; failed to make the cut in two tournaments, actually in the Top 25 only once in 2009.

Sean O’Hair - 10 tournaments: 6 times in the top 10; failed to make the cut in 2 tournaments

Kenny Perry - 11 tournaments: 6 times in the top 10 - 54% of the time; tied for 59th in 2 tournaments

Padraig Harrington - 9 Tournaments: 0 times in the top 10; in top 20 “only” 2 times, failed to make cut 3 times in 9 tournaments

Tiger Woods - 5 tournaments: 5 times in the top 10 - 100% of the time; worst finish was 9th

Hmmmm, kind of puts Tiger’s “troubles” in perspective doesn’t it? Let’s see - the 2nd best Golfer in the world (Mickelson) has less top 10’s in almost twice as many tournaments as Tiger, has been cut twice before the weekend, in addition to coming in 55th place two times - yet Tiger isn’t playing well? Well, if Tiger isn’t playing like the #1 Player in the World - who is? Maybe the expectations we place on Tiger are out-of-whack?

Or how about the 3rd ranked Player in the world - Sergio Garcia? 6 tournaments and his best finish is 13th. Or the 4th ranked Golfer, Geoff Ogilvy? 9 tournaments with “only” two top 10 finishes. Wow, Number One, Two, Three and Four really stink! These guys are terrible! Or maybe it just shows how good Tiger is. Maybe it shows that what’s truly brilliant about Tiger is not the number of times he wins - but his consistency throughout his game. So that every week, even when he’s not playing his absolute best - he’s as good or almost as good as others when they’re at their … absolute best.

Again - this isn’t to point out the inconsistency of these other Golfers, they’re phenomenal Golfers - this is to show that there isn’t anything wrong with Tiger. It’s just to show how awesome a Golfer he is. We’re talking about the best Golfers in the world besides Tiger - yet look at how far ahead he is compared to them - even coming off a major surgery. This isn’t a put down to Mickelson or Garcia - these guys are phenomenal Golfers - it’s to point out the ‘ridiculousness’ of many individuals (certainly not all) in the Golf Media.

Or to put even more perspective towards how many get it so wrong: besides 2008 and 2009, Tiger has never finished in the Top 10 of each of his first 5 tournaments in any year! And that includes the year 2000 when he won 9 PGA tournaments and came in the Top 3 in 14 of his 20 tournaments!

Do you realize that Tiger’s 8th place finish this year was his best finish at TPC at Sawgrass since way back in 2001 when he was the winner? Yet, he’s not playing well according to the experts. Who hired these people?

Let’s get more in depth when talking about Tiger’s “woes.” Because as every “expert” knows - Tiger’s troubles are starting on the tee with his Driver. However, Mr. and Mrs. Monkey - in 2008 (just an incredible golf year for Tiger before his leg incident) - Tiger hit 57% of his fairways - in 2009 he has hit 56% of his fairways.

So that 1% difference is what’s starting all the talk from the “experts” about what Tiger is doing wrong in his golf swing? Yet, when he was 1% better - they were showing you all the great things he was doing in his golf swing. Is there that much of a difference in that 1% from when he went from the best golf swing in the world to having so many troubles with his swing?

Well …. considering that Tiger had 280 possible fairways he could hit in 2008 and that he’s had the same amount this year - it’s a good place to start to show you how Monkey many (certainly not all) in the Golf Media are when talking about what’s wrong with Tiger’s swing. Why do I say this? Because in 2008 Tiger hit 162 out of 280 fairways. This year Tiger has hit “only” 159 out of 280.

So all these supposed “gurus” that are talking about what Tiger needs to fix in his Driver are talking about this because Tiger has hit 3 less fairways out of 280 attempts than he did in 2008 when he was undisputedly - The Man.

Who are these “experts” and how did they get appointed “experts"?

I need to get out of the golf business - it’s getting too frustrating having these “experts” tell the golf world what’s wrong and having everyone believe them just because they’re on television! Does anyone want to buy a golf company that had record revenue in 2008 and record profit so far in 2009? I need to get as far away from this lunacy of making people golf experts for no reason at all except that they can talk a lot. Maybe I could get into another industry that has fewer “experts” than golf has - something like politics or the stock market.

How about Tiger’s Driving Distance? I mean because the “experts” say he’s not driving the golf ball that great - I guess we should talk about Driving Distance - shouldn’t we? In 2008 he averaged 294 yards a drive. This year he’s “much” shorter at “only” 292 yards.

“In my opinion, it has to be his putting that’s killing him. Tiger is just not making the crucial putts. Where last year he made everything - this year he’s not really making that many putts. Hey, who took my banana?”

In 2008, Tiger averaged 1.7 putts per Green in Regulation. In 2009, Tiger is averaging an “atrocious” 1.7 putts per Green in Regulation.

In 2008, Tiger made a birdie or eagle an incredible 88 times in 360 holes (24% of the time). In 2009, he’s made a birdie or eagle 84 times in 360 holes (a pathetic 23% of the time).

In 2008, Tiger averaged getting up’n'down from the sand for par 48% of the time. In 2009, he’s averaged 54%.

So is Tiger’s game really that terrible? Or have the Monkeys set unrealistic expectations on Tigers game - just like they may have done to their own games?

Yet, if someone is telling you all the things Tiger is doing wrong in his golf swing when compared to the level he played in 2008 - a level that may never have been matched by any Golfer that ever lived - the person isn’t just a Monkey, that person is a(n) _______ well, I’m not even going to say it.

Why was this blog post written? Does Tiger need me to ‘watch his back’? Of course not. Am I such a rabid Tiger fan that’s bordering on stalker that I feel a need to defend my hero? “Mr. Tiger, ahhhh, yeah, um - you know I’m your biggest fan. I have posters of you all around my house. I named my cat after you - Little Tiger.”

This post was written for one reason - to let you know that the Monkeys are everywhere. This doesn’t just apply to speaking about the PGA Tour or LPGA Tour - the same can be said about the so called “gurus” you see on TV speaking about the golf swing. They can be just as far off with the Theories and Assumptions they’re giving you about the golf swing - as they are with the “What’s Wrong With Tiger” schtick they’re throwing at you this week. And will continue to throw at you until he wins again - when they’ll tell you all the improvements he made in his golf swing and putting stroke.

The Monkey watches a show devoted to asking what’s wrong with Tiger as the “experts” breakdown his golf swing and show you what he’s doing wrong. Then after you finish your bowl of ice cream - you stand-up to try to implement the same changes into your golf swing

The Player ignores many (certainly not all) in the media and just plays golf

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Forward “Golf Tips Are For Monkeys” To A Friend

For Anyone Considering Video Analysis - We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to the Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view.

Just click here to be taken to the download page on the http://www.GolfMadeSimple.com website. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

Indoor Putting Drill - If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put World Golf in the subject line.

Tour Putting Square - Use the Tour Putting Square inside your home to improve your scores. Just send us an email at TourPuttingSquare@GolfMadeSimple.com with the subject: World Golf - and we’ll email you how to use this game changing drill.

Swing Drills & Core Training - To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, plus 3 exercises to strengthen your core - email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD - ‘How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors’

The question is why would a person start trying to use a golf swing such as something called a Stack and Tilt? Which, if you haven’t already heard - is just another invented golf swing that was dreamed up by a couple of snake oil salesman preying on desperate Golfers - that somehow became the latest “hot” thing to do for all of about 5 minutes.

However, thankfully it has now been officially thrown in the overflowing dumpster with all the other golf fads that have passed. This new swing sensation was supposedly being used by a bunch of PGA Tour Players - when in fact, how many of these Tour Players are using this concept today? Probably the same amount that are using another once hot fad that’s in the overflowing dumpster of new golf swings - something called Natural Golf.

Thankfully as we scan the golf internet chat rooms - there is little talk of this Stack and Tilt thing - unlike 5 months ago when it was the latest and greatest. And just like much of America was in a real estate frenzy just a couple of years ago where you had to be in real estate or you were missing something big - the gurus of the golf internet chat rooms had desperate Golfers worked up into a similar sort of maniacal frenzy about having to try this new golf swing.

“I heard that Tiger is going to start using the Stack and Tilt!” ‘My cousin has a friend that knows a guy whose wife is friends with someone that lives next to Mickelson’s accountant and she says that Mickelson is also trying it!’ “I usually score around 95 and I shot a 62 my very first round using it!”

And blessedly, as GMS announced many months ago (in the December 12th, 2007 issue of Golf Improvement Weekly) that this new swing should be labeled as the Stack and Shank - it is now (18 months later) being referred to by that moniker by the same gurus who were proclaiming it as the greatest thing since interchangeable shafts for your Driver. All those poor Golfers that got caught up with another golf swing fad - that wasted the last 18 months not improving, but most likely learning to shank the golf ball and lose distance on their tee shots.

Yet, just like all other fads - it seems that there still might be some Golfers that are now just starting to try out the Stack and Shank - kind of like the little kid that arrived at his friends birthday party at 4:00 pm when it really started at 1:00 pm - saying: “Hey guys, where are you going? Why are you leaving the party already?” ‘Jimmy, we ate the cake and opened the presents - the party is over. There is some leftover birthday cake on the table, but it wasn’t very good - too much frosting and sprinkles - not enough cake.’ “Oh, I’m hungry - I’ll eat anything!”

How is it that people that are so smart that they could build businesses or be key personal in a business - people that have to deal with snake oil salesman everyday as part of their career - get hornsnaggled by a couple of golf pro’s touting their revolutionary golf swing?

I was very lucky at the start of my life in golf - as I was able to train under a very smart Golf Professional that said to me: “Marky, the golf swing is like a box of Kellogg Corn Flakes.” To which I answered probably like you are right now - ‘huh?’

He continued - “The golf swing is like a box of Kellogg Corn Flakes. What’s inside the box never changes - the only thing that changes is the packaging.”

And what he meant was: the golf swing is the golf swing like corn flakes are corn flakes - the ingredients of a good golf swing don’t change, just like the ingredients of corn flakes do not change. There are no new golf swings that will make you better. However, the packaging or in golf terms, the way of explaining the golf swing so that a Golfer can improve - can always improve.

The packaging equates (but isn’t limited) to: being able to continually help Golfers using improved concepts such as better, more effective drills that will help you to feel your golf swing. Developing training methods so that Golfers can better understand their golf swing, without having to think about too many things on every swing, along with understanding how to fix it quickly after a bad shot. And then training Golfers to practice their golf swing more efficiently using a PLAN based on their Strengths and Weaknesses as opposed to just beating golf balls like the Monkeys on the range.

There will never be a new golf swing that will be invented that will help Golfers to improve their ball striking (the actual corn flake doesn’t change). However, Golf Instructors can improve their communication skills and knowledge of the golf swing so that we can teach the golf swing in a simpler manner. Yes, there are varying degrees of talent amongst Instructors - yet, there are no new golf swings.

Yes, there are many movements in the golf swing using all the different parts of your body. Most Golf Instructors will teach you all those movements. And unfortunately many Golfers think that just because an Instructor talks about all those movements - that must mean this Instructor is a good Instructor. On the contrary - an Instructor that needs to talk about all those movements is a weak and ineffective Instructor who probably doesn’t have many Golfers that improve. Yet, they maybe held in high esteem just because they talk like they know what they’re doing.

For years (and still today), many less informed Golf Instructors will teach a Golfer to turn their shoulders and turn your hips and to shift your weight. Three things that most Golfers have been taught and try to do on every golf swing - yet, more times than not; fail to accomplish doing it effectively - thus resulting in an errant golf shot.

On the other hand, a talented Golf Instructor can have you doing all three things without you having to think about doing all three things every golf swing. We help you to do all of the above without thinking about it. Talented Golf Instructors help you by formulating drills that will have you doing all those things naturally - meaning without consciously thinking about it.

Creating good habits in your golf swing without you having to think about it is the first step to a consistent golf swing. And when you can do that - you’ll swing smoother and you’ll hit the golf ball better and more consistent.

The Golf Instructor that feels the need to teach you everything about the golf swing is like the sports hero being interviewed on TV that uses big, fancy words to hide the fact that he graduated high school only because he was a star athlete. So he’ll use fancy words to make him appear smarter and/or more talented - although many times he won’t even use these words correctly.

“You have to make sure that you use a one piece takeaway so that your swing path starts slightly to the inside while making sure you maintain the proper posture. As you’re doing this, your club will be starting on plane as your shoulders turn 90 degrees to the target, hips 45 degrees and that you have 55% of your weight on your right foot and 45% of your weight on your left foot. Then you must ….”

‘Oh, that guy sounds like he knows what he’s talking about. I need to listen to what he’s teaching!”

The skill of a fabulous Instructor is to take all those movements and find a way to wrap them up for the Golfer into one movement. For example: If you ever see a Golfer that’s struggling with their game - do they have more or less swing thoughts than someone that’s playing well? Of course - they have way too many swing thoughts. “Oh, this is terrible - I have so much I’m thinking about on every swing.”

And then this Golfer will go take a golf lesson to improve their golf swing and lo and behold, what might that Golf Instructor do? If it’s like most golf lessons - the Golf Instructor gives this already confused Golfer even more to think about. Why? Because many Instructors want to prove to you how much they know about the golf swing. And they’re going to prove it to you that they know a lot - if you like it or not.

And more times than not - that Golfer walks away more confused, playing worse and swearing to never take another golf lesson again. Which is unfortunate because there are some really excellent Golf Instructors available.

On the other hand - when you speak to a Golfer that’s hitting the golf ball great and ask them what they were thinking about on that last shot, it often is: “I don’t know, I was just trying to make a smooth golf swing.”

So if that’s the case - it’s no wonder why most people get worse after the typical golf lesson. Because the typical Golf Instructor talks about all these little movements and you try to do as your Instructor says and then you struggle on the golf course. Yet, the talented Instructor knows how to take all those movements and have you make all those movements without you having to think about it.

A truly great and talented Golf Instructor doesn’t care about being perceived as intelligent - all we care about is that our Golfers are improving.

The Monkey grabs the new, latest and greatest vine that all the other Monkeys are grabbing just because the other Monkeys are grabbing it

The Player understands the golf swing is like Corn Flakes and finds the Instructor that knows how to package specifically for their golf game

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

You do have a practice schedule – don’t you?

You know, a couple of weeks ago, our Stat of the Week in Golf Improvement Weekly was entitled – “If He Putts Well – He Might Win The Masters.” It was about Vijay Singh and how well he has been hitting the golf ball, yet how “poorly” compared to the other top PGA Tour Players he has been putting. If you missed that Stat – we reused it as the The Stat of the Week in this issue of GIW for you to read it.

The point of the Stat was to show that regardless of how good your golf swing is and how well you strike the golf ball – 35 to 40% of those total strokes can be attributed to your putting. And then if you’d like to get deeper into it (and you should get deeper into it if you want to improve your score), at least another 10 to 20% of your strokes are with clubs you use from 1 yard to 35 yards off the green.

So why do I bring this up? I’m not going to try to bore you with another “Short Game, Short Game, Short Game” rant. I mean what’s the point - from what I’ve seen – that advice just falls onto deaf ears.

However, being a stubborn Golf Pro that is attracted to controversy and debate – along with always wanting to be correct about my predictions – I must say – Vijay Singh hit the golf ball just as well as anyone in the Masters. And actually hit the golf ball better than the Champion – Angel Cabrera. And if Vijay did putt as well as the average Player in the Tournament – he probably would’ve won.

Is this the start of the Vijay Fan Club?

No, don’t take what I’m writing as the official fan site for Vijay Singh – it’s not. However, Vijay could be the official poster child for an organization entitled “If I Could Putt As Well As I Can Hit A Golf Ball – I Would Be One Of The Best Who Ever Played”.

And this isn’t a rant on Vijay or Professional Golf. This is a rant about your golf game. Please continue reading to see how this ties into your golf and improvement.

Vijay hit 52 out of 72 Greens in Regulation – Cabrera hit 50 out of 72. Now as far as ball striking statistics – Greens in Regulation is King. There’s not another stat (that I know of) that tells you how well you’re hitting the golf ball. Meaning, if you’re hitting your tee shots into the trees – you’re not hitting Greens on your second shot on Par 4’s. If you’re not swinging your irons well – you’re not hitting Greens from anywhere on the golf course. If you don’t hit your Driver far enough – well … nobody hits many Greens when they’re always hitting hybrids and fairway woods to the green.

So the number of Greens in Regulation you hit basically tells you where you stand as far as your ball striking skills. Or another way of saying it - it tells you how good (or not good) your golf swing is.

And tournament after tournament – Vijay is near the top, along with Tiger as far as Greens in Regulation.

However, Vijay had 122 putts for the four rounds at Augusta National. While Cabrera only had 112. Which, almost coincidentally aligns with the fact that Vijay ended up 11 strokes behind Cabrera. And although this doesn’t perfectly align with the margin of victory by Cabrera over Vijay – it’s pretty darn close and it does show that even though you might have one of the best golf swings in the world – the best golf swing doesn’t guarantee the best score.

As a side note – Tiger also hit 2 more Greens than Cabrera, but he also had 122 putts – the same as Vijay.

Now this isn’t to say that putting is more important than ball striking. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. It all depends on what your Strengths and Weaknesses are. If you have a very good golf swing like Vijay – putting is more important at this point. If you had only 109 putts like Sandy Lyle (2 under par for the tournament and 1 stroke ahead of Vijay) – your golf swing is more important at this point.

The funny thing is that if Vijay and Sandy Lyle had a child – that kid would be sporting a Green Jacket.

So how do you know which is your Strength and which is your Weakness? I ask this even though I know that 7 out of every 8 Golfers believe that their wedges and putting is their Strength. And with me going back to the statement that I don’t mind debate and controversy – Trust me – for most of you – your wedges and putting aren’t even close to being a Strength of your golf game.

And as I know – most of you are probably saying something like – “That Solomon, he’s an idiot – he has no idea how good a putter I am. And how bad my Driver is.” I say to these Golfers – then prove it by doing the test below.

Prove it by finding your ‘Putts Per Missed Green In Regulation Stat’. Meaning most Golfers hit between 0 and 6 Greens in Regulation per 18 holes. So even though it would be great to see you raise your Greens in Regulation to 10 or 12 – which is comparable to a PGA Tour Player – you’re not a PGA Tour Player and you don’t have their skills. So it would be more beneficial for you to focus on Reality.

Reality says that you’re going to miss more Greens than you’re going to hit – so don’t fight Reality. Turn Reality into a Strength. Here’s how:

For every Green you miss – keep count of how many putts it takes you to get the ball into the hole. For example: You’re on a Par 4. Your second or third shot stops 15 yards from the green. You hit your next shot onto the green and 2 putt. That would mean that your ‘Putts Per Missed Green’ (PPMG) stat is 2. If on the next hole, a Par 3, your tee shot lands 5 yards from the green. Then you hit your next shot on the green and 3 putt – your ‘PPMG’ is now 5 (for the 2 holes) or 2.5 per hole. Which isn’t very good.

How should you follow this stat? Every time you play. How do you know if you’re doing well? Let me put it this way – averaging 2 PPMG is not good. If you want to score better – you need to be below 2 PPMG. If you’re above 2 PPMG – you need to spend more time on your wedges and putting. Because as much as you work on your Driver and your irons – 7 out of 8 Golfer won’t hit more than 6 Greens in Regulation. And even if you hit 6 Greens – you still have missed 12 Greens.

And I’ll tell you something else that you might not have ever thought of – The Golfer that hits 0 Greens in a round of 18 holes, yet averages 1.5 PPMG will have a lower score than a Golfer that hits 6 Greens in Regulation, yet has an average of 2.5 PPMG. And that includes if you1 putted each Green you hit and had 6 Birdies!

Here’s an example of the above scenario for the mathematically challenged –

1.5 PPMG: 1 wedge shot per hole + 1.5 Putts per hole multiplied by 18 holes = 45 strokes.

2.5 PPMG: 1 wedge shot per hole + 2.5 Putts per hole multiplied by 12 holes = 42 strokes + 6 putts (the 6 Birdie putts) = 48 strokes.

The 1.5 PPMG Golfer would still beat you by 3 strokes. And that’s if you 1 putted each Green in Regulation (no 2 putts or 3 putts on the greens you hit). And to further show how powerful this statement is - when’s the last time you had 6 Greens in Regulation and one putted each one for 6 Birdies?

Now – don’t take your PPMG lightly. And don’t think of it as being a 100% putting stat. Because a big percentage of your PPMG is based on how skilled you are with your wedges around the green. Obviously – the more skilled you are with your wedges – the closer your first putting attempt will be from the hole.

Also – don’t start to think that your PPMG is 100% based on your putting and wedges. A lot of this stat has to do with your PLAN. Meaning – when you were hitting your approach shot to the green – were you cognizant on where you shouldn’t miss the green. Did you fail to PLAN a ‘what if’ – meaning what if you did mis-hit the golf ball – would it leave you with a tough wedge shot that would be difficult to get close to the hole?

Track your PPMG and see if your average is 2 putts or above. Then if so, figure out why. Was it your putting? Was it your wedges around the green? Was it your PLAN that left you in tough positions around the green? Was it a combination of all three? My prediction is that it’s a combination.

Nobody except GMS is talking about how much better Vijay hit the golf ball than Cabrera. Why? Because Cabrera outplayed Vijay. Would you rather be a one dimensional Player like Vijay was in this past Masters or a multi dimensional Player like the 2009 Masters Champ from Argentina?

You want to score better? Find your PPMG. You want to keep scoring how you’ve been scoring? Keep doing what you’ve been doing. It’s your choice.

The Monkey is still spending hours at the driving range fiddling with their golf swing and hitting golf balls even though their PPMG is over 2

The Player is tracking their PPMG, finding why it’s so high and then working to improve it

Go ahead, be a Player!

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

http://www.GolfMadeSimple.com

GMS Bonus Material

For Anyone Considering Video Analysis
- We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to the Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view.

Just click here to be taken to the download page on the http://www.GolfMadeSimple.com website. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

Indoor Putting Drill
- If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put World Golf in the subject line.

Tour Putting Square
- Use the Tour Putting Square inside your home to improve your scores. Just send us an email at TourPuttingSquare@GolfMadeSimple.com with the subject: World Golf – and we’ll email you how to use this game changing drill.

Swing Drills & Core Training
- To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD - ‘How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors’

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IWantToBe@GolfMadeSimple.com

However, after much practice and experimentation – I was able to figure some things out. And some of what I figured out was that many of the golf techniques I was taught and read about - actually made it more difficult to get out of the sand than it needed to be.

First – One of the worst things that you can try to do is to intentionally try to hit or blast the sand. Yes, you do need to hit the sand before you hit the golf ball. Though, it was beaten into my thick head - that you need to hit the sand. “Hit the sand.” “Make sure you hit the sand.” “Feel like you’re throwing the sand onto the green.” “Make The Sand Explode.” “Blah, blah, blah, blah.”

Again, yes, you do need to have your club hit the sand – but the tip of “you need to hit the sand” and the way it’s often described has caused many Golfers to end up digging too deep. Which would cause you to hit a shot that doesn’t get out of the sand and that will possibly roll back to your feet. Which means that your next shot is going to be a line drive over the green. So the question you might have is – “well, then how much sand should I hit?”

That’s a great question.

In the GMS Survey we send to all Golfers that come to see us – it’s almost unanimous amongst our Golfers as far as if they improved and simplified their sand shots. Why is that? What do we do that makes it so much simpler?

Instead of thinking of all the Sand Shot Junk that has been pumped up to become the “How To Get Out Of The Sand Gospel” – we just have you make a golf swing like any other golf swing. Though, you do need to move your ball position slightly. But the good news is that there’s no opening up your clubface. There’s no having to open up your stance. There’s none of that swinging outside the line on your back swing mumbo jumbo. There’s none of that or any of the other stuff that’s often involved with making getting out of the sand more difficult than it needs to be.

All you need to do is make your golf swing – the golf swing that you would make on any iron shot. But, because you’re moving the golf ball more forward in your stance (as opposed to when it’s on the grass), you’ll end up automatically hitting the sand first – and allowing the sand to knock the ball out. As opposed to deliberately trying to hit the sand or blast it out or blah, blah, blah, blah.

Just make sure you move your body like you would on any other golf shot. Don’t be the Golfer that’s just all arms and doesn’t move their body. Why do these Golfers become all arms? Because they’re told to hit the sand. So what do they do? They lift the club up with their arms and then throw their arms down towards the sand because they want to hit it. And boy, they do hit the sand. Which has an influence on how you swing on your next shot. Because you don’t want to take too much sand on this next shot – you compensate somewhere in your golf swing (to avoid hitting too much sand) and hit the golf ball first.

“Fore, over the green!”

Trust me – in 1994 I was the worst Sand Bunker Player on the Planet. So I know how many of you feel about the sand. I hated the sand. Yet, now it’s not a big deal. It’s just like hitting an iron from the grass just off the green.

Next week – we may continue with the story of how to become a much better Sand Bunker Player by getting into the 4 Levels Of Bunker Players. You won’t believe how much more effective you can become out of the sand once you understand your Level and then learning to play to that Level. I have seen Golfers that have practiced sand shots for years that are still Level 1 Sand Players. However, I have met and worked with some Golfers that were almost as bad as I was in 1994 that quickly became Level 2 Sand Bunker Players by using the GMS way out of the sand while combining the concept of understanding their Level of Sand Play.

The Monkey is trying to hit the sand

The Player hits the sand using their normal golf swing

Go ahead, be a Player!
Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life
www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Considering Video Analysis - We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to the Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view.

Just click here to be taken to the download page on the www.GolfMadeSimple.com website. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

Indoor Putting Drill - If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on this Winter - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put ‘World Golf’ in the subject line.

Tour Putting Square - Use the Tour Putting Square inside your home to improve your scores. Just send us an email at TourPuttingSquare@GolfMadeSimple.com with the subject: ‘World Golf’ – and we’ll email you how to use this game changing drill.

Swing Drills & Core Training - To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors.

The Mantra of the Golf Instructor? When all else fails, tell the Golfer they need to swing more from the the inside out (Compensation #8). Or in other words for anybody that has never heard that phrase before - it’s the feeling of swinging to the right. This maybe the most abused Golf Tip ever created - and if you’ve ever had a typical golf lesson - I’d bet every dollar in my pocket that you have been told to do Compensation #8 at least once.

Though, what often follows after learning and then spending hours upon hours practicing to swing more from the inside - is that you start to push the golf ball out to the right even more. Then, because you’re hitting the golf ball too far to the right - you’re now told that you need to start turning over your wrists and/or forearms at impact so that you can close the clubface to make the golf ball go straighter (Compensation #9).

Yet, because of Compensation #9 - you start to develop an annoying pull/snap hook every once in a while. So you’re told that your wrists are flipping through and that you need to start holding the angle of the club by setting your wrists at the top of your swing and holding them through impact (lag the club by holding your wrists); which turns out to be Compensation #10.

Which now officially means you’ve turned into that cartoon of the Golfer trying to hit the golf ball with way too many thoughts in their head. Meaning - you now might be going through your Checklist of things you need to do on every golf swing before and during every golf swing - starting from Compensation #1 and running through Compensation #10.

And then because you start losing power because you’re holding your wrists for too long - you’re told that you need to snap your wrists at impact at just the right time (Compensation #11).

However, what’s scary is that all these compensations have become bad habits in your golf swing, regardless of whether you’re thinking about them or not on every golf swing. And what becomes even more frightening is that the next time you play - you’ll consciously and/or subconsciously end up adding more compensations to those compensations because you’re on a quest to find a way to hit the golf ball better.

And pretty soon, you have a golf swing that’s built on one compensation compensating for another compensation that’s compensating for another compensation that’s …. well, I’ll spare you the repetition.

Now, where did your Compensation Overload begin?

Your very first compensation probably started the second time you swung a golf club. Why the second time? Well, after you swung at the golf ball the very first time - you watched the result of your shot - then based on how close you were able to produce a perfect shot- you came up (consciously or unconsciously) with a compensation that you felt would bring you closer to that shot.

Now, we can go on and on and on - because the majority of Golfers reading this have more compensation in their golf swing then listed above. Some might have the exact compensations listed above - others may have other compensations that weren’t listed. Though, everyone does have compensations - from Tiger Woods all the way down the line.

The key to remember is - Compensations Equal Inconsistency

Meaning the less compensation you have in your golf swing - the better and more consistent you are. For example: Tiger Woods has less compensation in his swing versus the Golfer that’s ranked #125. A 3 handicap probably has less compensations than a 10 handicap; and a 10 probably has less than a 20 handicap; and so on.

However, whenever all your compensations align, regardless of your skill level - you hit a great shot. And even for the higher handicaps - it is possible for those compensations to align for a few swings or more. For example: a 25 handicap may have those compensations align for their drive and their second shot on a Par 4 and have a 3 foot putt for birdie. And then on the next hole; hit the biggest, ugliest slice you ever saw and make triple bogey.

On the other hand - the 10 handicap doesn’t have as many compensations to align on every swing; so of course those compensations will align much more frequently and allow for those 2 great shots that set-up a Birdie to happen more often. Additionally, because they don’t have to align as many compensations on their next drive, instead of hitting a huge slice; they may hit a power fade that stays in play and allows them the opportunity to make Par or better.

The more compensations in your golf swing - the harder it is to become consistent. The less compensations in your golf swing - the easier it is to become more consistent.

So what’s the simple answer in the question of how to improve your golf swing? Eliminate compensations.

How do you do that? First you find the Strengths of your golf swing. Then you find the Weaknesses. And it’s amazing how simple it is to get rid of these Weaknesses when you use a Results Based Approach. As opposed to the Theories and Assumptions Approach that so many frustrated Golfers use that is similar to what we have described this week and last week of just piling compensations on top of compensations in order to fix simple faults.

Eliminate your compensations and you’ll be amazed at how consistent you can become. The question many ask is: How is it possible for GMS to have all those Testimonials on our Website and display 2 Testimonials in each GIW? Because these Golfers have started the process of eliminating compensations from their golf swing. Now, you’re never going to eliminate every compensation - but the sooner you start reducing your compensations one at a time - the sooner you’ll have a Testimonial on the GMS website about how well you’re playing.

As opposed to the traditional approach that most Golfers use of trying to fix swing faults by adding compensations. And we have found that that’s why some Golfers never improve and GMS Golfers are constantly improving!

The Monkey tries to fix a bad habit by adding compensation

The Player is more focused on finding the cause of the bad shot and then eliminating the compensations that were created because of that cause

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

• For Anyone Considering Video Analysis -

  We have added our report: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to the Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view. Just click here to be taken to the download page on the www.GolfMadeSimple.com website. It’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

• Indoor Putting Drill -

  If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on this Winter - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line.

• Tour Putting Square -

  Use the Tour Putting Square inside your home to improve your scores. Just send us an email at TourPuttingSquare@GolfMadeSimple.com with the subject: ‘World Golf’ and we’ll email you how to use this game changing drill.

• Swing Drills & Core Training -

  To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors.

What’s Compensation Overload? It’s the act of having multiple compensations in your golf swing that you use to correct previous compensations. In other words, you developed a compensation that would sometimes eliminate a bad habit, but occasionally you’d overdo that compensation. So you had a choice – get rid of that compensation and go back to hitting bad shots or keep that compensation, but find another compensation that would help you to use that first compensation more effectively.

Don’t be embarrassed if you have to read that paragraph again – I had to reread it about 16 times to understand it myself!

Sometimes that second compensation will work, however many times it won’t. So once you find that compensation isn’t working as well as you had hoped – it’s off to the driving range to find another compensation that will allow that compensation to work more consistently.

Now, where this becomes frustrating is when that compensation that’s helping the other compensation works for a few holes – but then, without warning that compensation abandons you just as fast as it appeared. So now you’ll have to find another compensation that will allow this compensation to compensate for your first compensation.

To give you a clearer picture of how this might relate to you and to see if you’ve been through a similar experience, read below:

The very first time you tried to hit an iron off the ground - you most likely hit behind the golf ball, missed the golf ball or topped the golf ball. Let’s just say you missed the ball. So after missing, you probably thought to yourself or were told by someone else to “keep your head down” (Compensation #1).

Now trying to keep your head down is the ‘Mantra of the Monkey’. Yet, shockingly to many - it’s just about the worst thought a Golfer can have in their head when going to hit a golf ball. Yet, the Monkey is constantly using it as an excuse for a bad shot. So on your next swing, because you’re trying to keep your head down, you’re not able to move your body athletically – so you become armsy (Compensation #2). Which will most likely cause you to hit straight into the ground behind the golf ball creating a crater big enough to bury a small animal.

Which influences you to think or be told by someone else that you need to use your legs to shift your weight (Compensation #3). So on your next shot; you try to keep your head down while shifting your weight. However, this thought will most likely cause you to shift too much weight onto your back foot on the backswing, yet you won’t move it forward to your front foot because you’re trying to keep your head down (or still). This most likely would cause you to hit behind the golf ball again - yet, maybe not as drastically as on your previous effort.

“You know what you’re not doing? You’re not turning your hips. You need to turn your hips” – Compensation #4. So on your next shot, you try to keep your head down, shift your weight on the way back and then turn your hips on the way through. Causing you to move into a position that would make a Chiropractor smile. However, you’re still keeping your head from moving and you still have too much weight on your back foot - though having your hips turn through helps a little because at least it allows you to end up catching the golf ball on the way up – hitting a topped shot that rolls across the ground.

Which is better than hitting behind the golf ball and having it go nowhere. So you continue to use those compensations, but after a few shots that are just rolling and not getting into the air – you need to figure out what you need to do next.

You then think or are told by someone else that you need to try to get underneath the golf ball (Compensation #5) so that you won’t top it anymore. Now, because you don’t know any better and don’t understand that it’s almost impossible to get your club underneath the golf ball to help it up in the air – you try it. And even though it’s not perfect - you do come close. The ball does start to go up in the air a little, albeit on a line drive. But, at least it’s starting to go up.

Which prompts some Monkey to tell you that “you need to hit down on the golf ball” – Compensation #6.

Yet, because your weight is still too much on your back foot as you’re swinging down and because your hips are turning through with your weight on your back foot and you’re still trying to get underneath the golf ball at the same time that you’re trying to hit down on it – you develop the ‘Compensation that launched a million training aides’ - Compensation #7: Coming over the top. Or as it is often referred to as an outside to in swing or casting or whatever you want to call it. This ‘flaw’ was developed because this Compensation will at least allow you to hit the golf ball first before hitting the ground.

And the beauty of this compensation is that it allows you to keep your head down, shift your weight, turn your hips, as well as it allowing you to try to get underneath the golf ball as you try to hit down on it. This infamous compensation (Compensation #7) allows you to do all these wonderful compensations as you start getting the golf ball into the air.

So because you’re finally happy that the golf ball is getting up - you start to groove this swing because you like the results that you’re seeing a lot better than your prior results.

However, (and this is a big ‘however’) although you’re starting to hit the golf ball more solid and starting to get the golf ball into the air with a greater frequency – the golf ball isn’t always going in the direction you were hoping it would go. So you’re told that you need to swing ….

Since Compensations are such a huge aspect of your golf swing and are unfortunately masqueraded as common golf tips that you’re taught – we have decided that this needs to be a 2-part Golf Tips Are For Monkeys article. Because many of the golf techniques you’re taught as being the “Basics” are really just band-aids to cover other band-aids that you have applied previously. Or in-other-words: Your Golf Swing Was Built Using Compensations.

And Compensations Equal Inconsistency - the more compensations you have in your golf swing, the more inconsistent you’ll be when hitting the golf ball. The faster you eliminate compensations from your golf swing - the sooner you’ll become more consistent.

So we’ll continue with Compensations next week by talking about the Mantra of the Golf Instructor - “when all else fails - teach Compensation #8″. Which unfortunately is something you’re most likely trying to do on every golf swing.

Go ahead, be a Player (and get rid of your Compensations!)

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life
www.GolfMadeSimple.com

New Bonus Material For Anyone Considering Video Analysis - We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to the Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view.

Just click here to be taken to the download page on the website. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

Past Indoor Practice Drills

If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on this Winter - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put World Golf in the subject line.

To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors.

In order to screw in the light bulb - one Instructor will tell you that first you need to position the ladder, then climb up to see what type of light bulb is already being used, then climb back down to get the replacement bulb, then climb back-up to take out the old bulb and put the new one in.

The second Instructor will have you position the ladder and carry up the new light bulb with you before you take out the old bulb - but before you do start to climb up another Instructor will stop you and tell you you’re doing it all wrong because you can’t bring up a new bulb before taking out the old bulb - “you might drop the new one while unscrewing the old bulb. And you DON’T want to drop a light bulb onto the kitchen floor!”

Now the next Instructor will tell you that you can’t replace the bulb yet, you need to go to the store because that incandescent bulb you’re going to put in is not very energy efficient - “you need to use a fluorescent bulb - it’ll save you money over the long haul. So stay in the dark a little longer until you can use the latest in technology.”

And the next Instructor tells you that you shouldn’t even have a light fixture there. You need to move that light away from the center of the room. You should have it a little more near the corner of the kitchen where the table is. But that would require you to get an electrician to come in and rewire the kitchen - you tell the Instructor: ok that sounds great, but my light bulb is out today and I’d like to have light in the kitchen tonight so we could eat dinner and it might be days before you can get an electrician in to rewire.

Which prompts the Instructor to say - “Yeah, but don’t you want to do it the right way? Just switching the light bulb isn’t going to help - you’re wasting your time. What’s a little darkness for a week or so if you can have better light down the road?” (Kind of like the - ‘You have to get worse before you get better theory’).

While the next Instructor tells that you as you’re unscrewing the bulb that you need to use less wrist. “Bend your elbow at 90 degrees and turn your forearm like you’re using a screwdriver. I’ve never seen a successful light bulb changer use their wrist when changing a bulb!”

Light bulb changing of course isn’t the only activity on earth that people have varying opinions on how to accomplish simple tasks - yet at the same time having a perverse fascination of making it much more complicated than it needs to be so that they can appear intelligent in front of others.

I recently witnessed a poor lady at the driving range that was there to hit golf balls. I was forced to watch in shame as she was approached by what seemed like an endless stream of Instructors - (Professionals and Joe Pro Wannabes), that offered so much advice to her about what she was doing wrong that I thought I was back in 4th grade Art Class with my teacher Mrs. Older’ndirt. I can still remember how Older’ndirt was trying to teach me how to draw an abstract of an apple. ‘Abstract? Lady, I’m only 9 years old. I don’t care about abstract - let me draw a picture of my GI Joe action figures in hand to hand combat!’

And just as I was (and still am) completely turned off from drawings of apples - the lady at the driving range was getting more and more upset with her golf after each Instructor gave her their sage, magical, foolproof, you-have-to-do-it-this-way advice.

Here’s a question for you -

If you had to teach a newcomer to golf, what would be the most important thing they need to do to learn to hit the golf ball - what would you tell them? Which “tip” below is of the most importance and what would be the order you would place the other “tips” from most important to least important: A. grip; B. stance; C. weight shift; D. left arm straight; E. eye on the golf ball; F. keep your head still; G. ball position; H. turn your shoulders; I. turn your hips.

Did I miss something?

Ok, now that you told the Golfer one of the above is the most important and they start working on it - what will most likely be the adjustments you need to make: A. you’re holding the club too tight; B. your feet are too far apart; C. no, you can’t sway like that, feel like you’re swinging in a barrel; D. your left arm is too rigid - you can’t cock your wrist with it that straight; E. didn’t you hear me - you have to keep your eye on the ball, don’t peek till you finish your swing; F. don’t move your head on the backswing - it needs to stay over the ball or you’ll sway; G. your ball position is too far forward - it needs to be in the middle; H. your shoulders need to go 90 degrees on the backswing - you’re not turning enough; I. your hips are turning too much and causing you to reverse pivot.

And then the next Instructor this Golfer comes across will tell this person - A. you’re holding the club way too loose - you need to hold it tighter than that; B. your feet are much too close together; C. you’re not moving your weight enough - you have to shift your weight back, you can’t just turn side to side; D. you’re bending your left arm too much - you need more extension; E. your eyes are fixated on the golf ball too much - let your head move with your weight; G. your ball position is too far back in your stance - you need to move it forward closer to your left foot; H. you’re over-rotating your shoulders on the backswing - use more of your arms to swing the club back; I. your hips need to move - you’re not moving them at all, they need to turn 45 degrees in your backswing.

And the next Instructor will say … well, you know how it’s going to be - that Instructor will tell you that everything the previous Instructor told you - was wrong. And the worst part is that you - someone that wants something as simple as just getting a little better - gets stuck in what could be classified as a battle of egos between Instructors.

And that stinks - that’s not the way it should be!

If you read the instructions on the light bulb box on how to change a light bulb - you’d know enough to effectively change the bulb. And if you followed those same instructions when the next light bulb goes out - you’ll improve your light bulb changing skills with this bulb over your performance with the first bulb. And then if you followed the instructions with the next bulb - what took you 3 minutes the first time will take you less than 30 seconds the third time.

Yet, if you got new instructions each time you changed the light bulb - by the third time it wouldn’t take you the 3 minutes it took you on the first bulb. It would probably take you a minimum of 5 minutes because you’d have to think about the new instructions you just received, in addition to the instructions you had from your 2nd light bulb screwing Instructor and on top of that - you’d also have to worry about breaking all those ‘bad habits’ that your 1st light bulb screwing Instructor told you that you absolutely needed to stop doing.

And those 5 minutes don’t include the time you had to spend cleaning up all the bits of broken bulb on your kitchen floor because as you tried to stop using your wrist so that you could start bending your elbow at 90 degrees, you almost fell off the ladder and had to let go of the light bulb to grab onto the ladder so you didn’t fall to the ground yourself.

And that doesn’t include going to the hardware store again to get another light bulb - where the person helping you select a light bulb will without much encouragement be very happy to tell you their opinion on how to effectively change a light bulb.

If you don’t believe me that in the past this is exactly what has happened in Golf Instruction and is still happening today - step into the shoes of one of my Instructors for a day. Because although we do have people that have never taken a golf lesson before - we have enough people that have spent enough money on golf lessons that they could’ve funded the U.S. Economic Stimulus themselves.

How good are our Instructors? Well, watch them work with Golfers that have 52 thoughts going on in their mind every shot because they’ve read too many Monkey Digest’s or spent too much time around light bulb screwing Instructors. Watch them work and you’ll be amazed at how talented they are. Because golf might be the most frustrating thing a person can experience - and people are spending a lot of money to come see us to see improvement and get answers. Come watch them work with a Golfer that’s frustrated and confused and you’ll see why they’re the best in the world (bar none) at helping Golfers brighten their light bulbs more efficiently and brighter than they have ever seen them before.

The Monkey never has the light come on because they’re always changing light bulb screwing Instructors

The Player keeps their light bulb the brightest by staying consistent with what they’re working on with their golf swing

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life
http://golfmadesimple.com/instructor-4life.html

New Bonus Material For Anyone Considering Video Analysis - We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to the Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view.

Just click here to be taken to the download page on the http://www.golfmadesimple.com website. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

Indoor Practice Drills

If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on this Winter - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put ‘World Golf’ in the subject line.

To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors.

This Week’s Poll

Avoiding Errant Golf Shots From The Fairway

Which club causes more penalty shots from the fairway; i.e. errant shots into the water, trees and any place considered to be a Danger Zone?

A) The 5 iron

B) The 3 wood

C) 4 hybrid

D) Sand Wedge

Results of this week’s poll will appear next week.

Why such a difference?

I had some detective work to do to find out why these 2-Golfers are going in opposite directions. Do you know anyone going in the wrong direction with their golf game? And worse than that, not knowing how to stop from going in the opposite direction. So I went out on the golf course with one Golfer at a time to watch them play 1 hole. And what I found was incredibly interesting. They had totally opposite styles of playing.

This is what happened -

I first went out with the 21 handicap to watch him play and before each shot I would ask him some questions about his strategy. On the 1st hole, a 379-yard Par 4 that is pretty straight with a bunker on the left side at about 245 yards and out-of-bounds running all the way down the right side - I asked him - What are you going to do here?

He said “Marc, I’m going to hit my Driver.” So I said where are you aiming? He said “Well down the middle, where else would I aim? That’s where I want the ball to go.” I said “Cool, let’s see a good drive.” So the 21 handicap got up, aimed down the middle and hit a big slice to the right that went about 190-yards and almost went out-of-bounds. So he said “Dang it, I hate this Driver, all I ever do is slice it.”

We get to his golf ball and he had an OK lie about 189-slightly-uphill-yards to the hole with a sand bunker that protects the right-side of the green and a small opening on the left side of the green if he wanted to bounce the ball onto the green. The 21-handicap looks at the pin position chart in the golf cart and says “It’s pin position 3 today, so that means the flag is back right. I’m going to use my 3-iron.” Where are you aiming? “At the green.” Where on the green? “Well that’s a sucker pin placement so I’ll just aim for the middle of the green.”

He hits a really good 3-iron that goes pretty much where he aimed, but it comes up about 5-feet short of the green and lands in the sand bunker. We get up to the golf ball, he takes out his sand wedge, aims for the flag and hits it - the ball, not the flag - and the ball goes screaming over the green. “These sand traps are so inconsistent. I hate them!” He then takes his 8-iron, 9-iron, pitching wedge and putter out of his bag and walks over to his golf ball on the other side of the green. After about 15-seconds of debate with himself over which club to use, he selects his 9-iron and hits a pretty good shot that ends up about 9-feet away from the hole. He then leaves his first putt about 1-foot short and looks at me as he picks up his ball and says “Is that putt good? I always double bogey this hole. It must be muscle memory.”

Just from watching that hole I could tell why he was a 21 handicap, but I could also see how he could cut at least 6-strokes off his game instantly. He hit a pretty solid drive, he hit a really good 3-iron towards the green and he hit a pretty good shot from off the green - but he ended up with a double bogey - hmmm. The worst part of this situation is that he pretty much wasted 3 good golf swings on making a double bogey. So now as I pondered his situation, I wanted to see the 11-handicap play to compare their two styles of play - so I met him on the 1st tee.

The 11 handicap and I are standing on the 1st tee. He takes out his Driver and stares down toward the green in deep thought. I ask him what’s he going to do? He says “Marc, I’m going to hit Driver down the left-side because of three reasons. One is that there’s out-of-bounds down the right and I’ve been fading the ball a little lately and I don’t want to be standing over my tee shot worrying that I might hit one to the right. Two - that sand bunker on my left is basically ornamental. Meaning that even if I aimed at it, I can’t get there unless I hit my best shot ever and even if I do end up in the sand - I rather be there after making the perfect shot rather than aiming down the middle and putting pressure on myself to make the perfect shot so I don’t flirt with the out-of-bounds on the right.”

“I see so many Golfers aiming down the middle that have a tendency to slice the ball, and then get so mad when they do hit one out-of-bounds. Almost as if they think that magically their slice is going to disappear on that tee shot.”

“Also by aiming down the left side, if I do hit a good tee shot, it leaves me a great angle towards the opening on the left side of the green.” So the worst thing that could basically happen to you on this tee shot is that you’ll hit a great Drive and end up in the fairway bunker? “Yea, you can say it like that. And if I do hit that bunker - I’ll only have 134-yards with a great angle to the green. Some people look at fairway bunkers and are scared to hit into them. Well, they aren’t my favorite place to hit out of, but I’d rather be in a fairway bunker as opposed to hitting out of the trees or worse yet, taking penalty strokes for hitting into the water, lost balls or going out-of-bounds. Since I’ve started this style of playing, I’ve cut down the number of lost balls during my round. When I used to aim down the middle in the past, I would lose 3 to 4 balls per round. Now, I might lose 1 if I hit a terrible shot.”

“And even if I make what I would describe as a bad shot, I’m still keeping the golf ball in play!”

So the 11 handicap gets behind his golf ball and again surveys the hole. He walks up to the golf ball, aims down the left side and swings. He hits it pretty well, not great, but with a good slice on the ball. The ball lands just right of the center of the fairway and rolls off into the right rough. “Well, I had a feeling that might happen. I’m glad I aimed left.” Isn’t that kind of negative to think that you might slice the ball like that? “Some people might call that negative thinking on my part - but after practicing yesterday and warming up this morning - I call it reality! That’s my ball flight right now and it will be until I can get a chance to work it out on the practice range after the round. But, I’m on the golf course now and this is the worst place to try and work it out. So instead of “Fiddling” with my golf swing today - I’m just going to dance with what I got.”

We get up to his golf ball and he has about 196-uphill-yards to the hole. He surveys the situation and takes out his 6-iron. I look at him and ask - Can you hit your 6-iron that far? 196-yards? That’s a big 6-iron. “I wish! There’s no way I could hit it that far unless I hit a sprinkler head. I hit my 6-iron on average between 155 to 165 yards, depending on how good I hit it. I’m going to again aim down the left side to give myself a good angle to the flag for my 3rd shot. There’s no reason to take out a 3-iron or fairway wood to go after that flag. If I did, I’d be lucky if I ended up on that green 2 out of 10 times. And some Golfers are satisfied with those 2 miracle shots. I’m more worried about where the other 8-shots end up and then struggling from there and making double bogey or worse!”

I’ve seen that happen. Have you?

So he goes behind his ball - takes a rehearsal swing - walks up to his ball - looks down the left side - looks at the ball and swings. He hits an OK shot that doesn’t go very high, but goes straight towards his target down the left side and ends up 41-yards short of the green. I say - You still have 40-yards to go on your third shot. He replies “Well yes, but look at the angle I have. There are no obstacles in front of me, I’ve taken that bunker in front of the green completely out of play - It’s now an Ornamental Bunker and I should easily be on the green on my next shot. If I can get that shot close enough, maybe I can sink a putt for par or at worst, I’ll 2-putt for bogey. And after the tee shot I just hit and this second shot that I completely missed, I won’t be too upset with bogey.”

But don’t you want to try to make Pars? “Well yes, I’d love to make more Pars - but what I’ve found out in my short time of playing golf is that kind of thinking is the downfall of many Golfers that can never break 100 or even 90. They’re always trying to make Pars when you sometimes should accept bogey. It’s like the old Kenny Rogers song the Gambler - ‘You gotta know when to hold em and when to fold em, when to walk away and when to run’ - The average Golfer that struggles is always playing for the Royal Flush and when they don’t get it, they end up with a double or triple bogey that kills their score. I know that even if I’m not hitting the golf ball great on a given day, that if I play smart, I can limit my worst score to bogey and I’m going to have a good round of golf without hitting the golf ball well that day. Most Golfers just keep raising their bets and are continually going bust!”

So he finds his yardage of 41-yards and takes out his sand wedge - stands behind the golf ball and makes his PLAN. “I’m going to hit a medium high shot that’s going to land about 5-steps onto the green and let it roll to the hole.” He gets up next to the golf ball, looks at the target and rehearses his swing. After 2-swings while looking at his target, he says “That’s it, that feels good.” He swings, hits a pretty good shot that lands about 2-steps onto the green and starts to roll towards the hole. It ends up about 9-feet short of the hole. He looks at me and says “Just missed my spot by about 3-steps, but I’m on the green and even though I have yet to hit a shot exactly like I’ve wanted to, I still have a 9-footer for Par.”

He walks to his ball. Then he walks past the hole and then back to his ball. I say - What were you doing, looking at the putt from both sides? He says “Yea, but I was mostly feeling the putt.” He goes behind his ball, lines it up, sets his putter behind the golf ball, looks a little past the hole, looks at the ball and strokes it. The ball just skirts the right edge and goes 1-foot past the hole. “I thought I had it.” He goes up to the golf ball and casually knocks in his 1-foot putt for bogey. “Oh well. Almost had Par, but at least it was a Bogey. It could’ve been a lot worse the way I hit the golf ball on that hole!”

So the 21-handicap makes a double bogey hitting some pretty solid shots and the 11-handicap makes bogey without hitting one solid shot. And the funny thing is this is just one hole of 18. I’m sure this scenario is repeated often throughout the round. What do you think? Was there a difference between how they both approached this hole? Don’t you think that if they approached each hole like this that there would be a continual difference in their scores? Which Golfer does your game most resemble?

If you see a similarity between the 21-handicap’s strategy and your strategy on the golf course - you may want to think about establishing a new PLAN before your next round of golf.

The Monkey blames their golf swing for their bad scores

The Player knows that two Golfers with equally as good golf swings can have different experiences on the golf course because of their PLAN (or lack of)

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

New Bonus Material For Anyone Considering Video Analysis - We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to the Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view.

Just click here to be taken to the download page on the www.GolfMadeSimple.com website. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

Past Indoor Practice Drills

If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on this Winter - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put ‘GMS’ in the subject line.

To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with the words ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD

Doesn’t that often seem to be the case - almost every Golfer that goes to see an Instructor basically hears how their previous Instructor has told you all the wrong things. The story often goes down like this - “You’re taking the club too much inside on your backswing.” “Oh, I was doing that because my last Instructor told me I was taking it too far outside on my backswing and needed to come more inside.” “No way, I don’t know what they are talking about - you’re way too inside. I can’t believe they told you that!”

And what happens is that the Golfer that is just trying to hit the golf ball a little better gets caught up in hearing about how bad their last Instructor was. And now you’re stuck between trying to do what your last Instructor told you to do (the thing you’ve been practicing your butt off doing for the last 6 months) vs. doing something that this new Instructor insists you need to do (which in fact sounds like the polar opposite of what your previous Instructor said). So in a nutshell: what many Golfers experience while taking a golf lesson - isn’t the love and joy you were hoping to achieve with your golf swing. And that’s unfortunate.

It’s no wonder most Golfers get worse after a 30 minute golf lesson.

Now, why is it that whenever you go for a golf lesson, almost every Instructor has a different grip they like to see on all the Golfers they work with? Yet, while most Instructors are saying that the grip is the most important aspect of the golf swing - how can that be the case when there are so many different grips being used on the PGA Tour? And when I say this, I don’t just mean whether they have an interlocking grip or overlapping grip or a ten finger grip - I also mean that some have their left hand more on top of the grip, some more on the side, and many have their left hand somewhere in between.

Yet, your latest in a line of Instructors seems to think that you need to turn your left hand a few degrees to the right - “Your left hand is too weak. It needs to be more on top of the club. You need a stronger grip” “Ok, but my last Instructor said that my left hand was too strong and that it needed to be more on the side of the grip.” “No, it can’t be on the side - nobody has their left hand on the side!” “Well, he showed me a picture of Ben Hogan’s grip and said it needs to be weak and on the side like Hogan’s. Why was Hogan able to hit the golf ball so well with his left hand like that?”

It’s unfortunate that this has to happen - 1. because now you’re in an awkward position (do I change again or stay with what I have - I want to improve, but grip changes always set me back a few months). 2. although Golf Instructor after Golf Instructor says that the grip is the most important part of the golf swing - how can it be that important to have my hands set in this exact spot if so many of the Tour Pros have their hands in different spots and yet are successful. 3. you can bet everything you have in the bank that the grip this Instructor is teaching you is the same exact grip that Instructor uses him/herself. But does that make it right for you?

Yes, you do need to have a hold of the golf club which will allow you to have control over the golf club and club face. Yes, you need to worry about whether you’re holding it too tight or too loose (too tight can lead to tension and too loose can lead to losing control of the golf club). However, 7.999 out of every 8 Golfers that come to see us has a grip that’s fine and doesn’t need any changing at all. The number of Golfers that we have seen that have been through grip changes because an Instructor has told them to change - is embarrassing!

It’s like one of the Testimonials we had in a recent Golf Improvement Weekly that’s from a Golfer that has come to see us twice. The First time she came to see us - she made significant improvement in her game. Yet, because she had another Instructor that she was working with back home before seeing GMS - she went back to that Instructor hoping to continue the improvement she made with GMS. Well, what do you think happened after seeing that other Instructor?

She got worse. Much worse. She was told that everything that GMS did (the stuff that helped her improve) wasn’t the right way to do it. And that Instructor tried to switch her golf swing back to his method. Why did see listen to this Instructor after improving so much with GMS? Lord only knows. Though she did and her game got worse. However, because she did see so much improvement with GMS the first time - she came back the next year to see us again. And now after going through the GMS Program again - she’s playing better than ever. Go ahead and read what she had to say. It’s not the first time we’ve heard a story like this.

The point is - too many Golf Instructors have egos that are too big. And unfortunately Golfers like you get caught up in the battle of who’s a better Instructor - “this is the correct way; that other Instructor was telling you all the wrong things.” So if anyone is going to get a Golf Lesson - maybe the first question you should ask the Golf Instructor is: “What percentage of Golfers that come to see you need a grip change?” Or “what percentage of Golfers that you see need to adjust their backswing?” Or better yet - ask them “will I have to get worse before I get better?”

Because if they give you a number that’s more than 10% for either of the first two questions or yes to the third question - walk away and don’t look back. Oh, and by the way; just as a FYI; if they use the word “most” instead of giving you a number - that means more than 10%.

If they answer with a number that’s more than 10%, you probably have an Instructor that has a swing method that’s based on everybody swinging the same way. It’s amazing how many Instructors we have run across that say each person should have there own individual golf swing - yet this same Instructor ends up teaching everybody the same swing. So if their answer is more than 10% - that probably means they have a picture of a golf swing in their head that they want everyone to look like when they swing.

If they say that you need to get worse before you get better - that just says that they’re not a talented enough Instructor to see what the Strengths in your golf swing are and what the Weaknesses in your golf swing are. And then be able to use your Strengths to improve your Weaknesses. Because a talented Instructor will be able to work with your Strengths to help you improve - without you having to get worse at all.

Yet, all a less talented Instructor can sense is that since you have never taken a lesson from them before - that you’re not using their swing method yet. So you’ll need to change your golf swing to conform to their swing method. And based on their experience of how many Golfers they have seen that have struggled trying to learn their swing method - they know that you’re going to get worse.

It all goes back to using a Results Based Approach versus using a Theories and Assumptions Based Approach.

The Monkey is stuck using Theories and Assumptions

The Player improves using Results

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

New Bonus Material For Anyone Considering Video Analysis - We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view. Last Week we had over 500 Downloads!

Just click here to be taken to the download page on the www.GolfMadeSimple.com website. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

Past Indoor Practice Drills

If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on this Winter - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put ‘World Golf’ in the subject line.

To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with the words ‘Pushup’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors.

Who do you play for on the golf course? Or let me put it another way - When you’re on the golf course, are you ever worried what other people are thinking about your golf swing or your game?
The Monkey is more worried about how their golf swing looks to others rather than staying focused on their PLAN. Or in other words - it’s more important for you to look like you know what you’re doing in front of other Golfers, rather than staying focused on your game and scoring well!

OK, I understand that you might not understand what I’m saying or are in self-denial - so let’s go to an example. Tell me if you’ve ever been in this situation -

You’re paired up with one other Golfer and through the first 9-holes you’re playing better than normal. The other Golfer that you’re playing with is not playing as well as you. He/she is doing a lot of “Fiddling” with their swing on every shot and saying things like - “If I could just get the golf club set at the top a little better, I’ll be able to hit the golf ball so much better” and “You have to excuse me, but I’m not playing as well as I usually do. In fact, this might be the worst I’ve ever hit the golf ball” or “I’m not really concerned with what my score is today, I’m working on something in my swing.”

So after 9 holes, you’ve scored your best score or close to your best score (pick a number based on your level of golf and use a score you want to break for 9-holes 49, 44, 39 or 35). The Monkey you’re playing with is somewhere else in the stratosphere considering the 8-mulligans he/she’s taken and of course I don’t think that his/her ball has ever hit the bottom of the hole.

You stop in the clubhouse between nines to use the restroom and to allow the Monkey to get a hot dog and Diet Coke. As you’re walking out of the restroom, you pass the Monkey putting some relish on their hot dog as they call you over - “You know Grover, you have a pretty good swing, but, you know if you could just take your club back a little more on the inside on the way back, you’d hit the ball so much better.”

So you kind of blow them off by saying -

“Ok, thanks, I’ll try that.” But, they won’t let it go. So on the way back out to your golf bag, you get the whole Monkey Digest synopsis on why the club must come inside on the way back “… because if it doesn’t, then you can’t bring the club back down on the inside swing path and you’ll be way off plane. So if you can get your arms dropping more down on the inside, you’ll be able to swing the club on the proper swing path through the golf ball from the inside to the outside.”

And then as you get to the 10th tee, you have about 3-minutes to kill as the group in front of you is still in the fairway waiting on the group in front of them. So the Monkey looks at you and says - “here, get your Driver and come here - I want to show you what I mean. Set-up. Set-up like you’re going to hit a Drive. Great, now you could probably get a better spine angle, but let’s talk about your swing path first, though your grip does look a little weak.” And then the Monkey proceeds to grab a hold of your club and put you into all these contorted positions as he/she regurgitates everything that’s wrong with your golf swing.

And you shoot 60 on the back nine holes (which is probably what the Monkey shot – yet they told you that they scored a 41) as you lose a dozen golf balls and have to listen to the Monkeys commentary not just on everyone of their shots, but also yours.

So why’d you allow the Monkey to help you go from so good to so bad?

I believe it’s that we all want to look good in front of others on the golf course. We all want to do things the correct way and don’t want to look like we’re doing things weird or wrong.
So all hail the Players whose swings are all wrong according to the Monkey philosophy of - “I’d rather swing correctly than score my best".

Let’s salute these poor souls that do it wrong:

• Annika Sorenstam for taking her eye off the ball as she over rotates into impact
• Jack Nicklaus and his pathetic flying right elbow
• Jim Furyk and that backswing - oh, that crazy backswing - “that swing can’t hold-up for long, he’s going to have to eventually change that”
• Lee Trevino for aiming so far left with his feet that you wonder what golf course he’s playing
• Tiger Woods for straightening his left leg through impact - “Hey, wait a minute Marc - that’s what a lot of Golf Pro’s are teaching now.” Yeah, but how many times did these same Pro’s tell other Golfers to never straighten their left leg - before they heard Tiger was doing this?
• And if you went to the golf course and used the claw grip for putting before Chris DeMarco made $10 million doing it - what would other Monkeys have said to you and how long would you have used it even if it did help you to make more putts?

All those Players have their own PLAN and nobody, nobody can change it!

And unfortunately for the following Golfers someone changed their PLAN - because if you have a chance to ask Curtis Strange - What happened to your game after you won consecutive US Opens or Sandy Lyle - What happened to your game after you won the British Open, TPC and the Masters or Hal Sutton - what happened to your game after you won the Players Championship, TPC and Memorial in the mid-80’s and was called “The Next Nicklaus” and why it took 12-years before you won again - And if you get to ask Ian Baker Finch what happened after you won the British Open and then just totally lost your game - and if you get to ask ……..

They’d all say - “The Monkey got me! They told me that if I could just change (feel in the blank) in my swing that I’d swing more correctly.”

You want to be a Player? Then beware of the Monkeys - they’re out there lurking - looking for weak minded Golfers that they can convert to their “Evil Monkey Ways". The Player’s motto - Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil! Why Speak No Evil?

Because as my good friend Todd Temkin from Chile so eloquently put it - Monkeys gloat when they play well and mope when they play bad. Players just play!

The Monkey is more worried about what others think of their golf swing

The Player is too focused on their PLAN to really care what others think

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life
www.GolfMadeSimple.com

New Bonus Material For Anyone Considering Video Analysis - We have added our report on: “Using Video Analysis To Improve Your Golf Swing” to Golf Made Simple website for you to download and view.

Just go to the website - www.GolfMadeSimple.com. On the left side of the page you’ll see where you can download this Free 8 page report. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s a pretty extensive report on our findings.

Past Indoor Practice Drills

If you’d like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on this Winter - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put ‘World Golf’ in the subject line.

To view a segment that covers 2 swing drills you can practice inside, email us at: PushUp@GolfMadeSimple.com with ‘World Golf’ in the subject line to receive a link and password to access the video segment from our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors.

What’s Mr. 81? He’s the first Player on the PGA Tour this year to score above 80. Now this isn’t to make fun of or ridicule Vranesh – this is just to show that even people who play golf for a living can have a “bad” round. Yet a “bad” score for Mr. Vranesh might actually be a great round for you. As GMS is a big believer in using a Result Based Approach to help Golfers improve – and the results of our Golfers show GMS works – we’re going to use Vranesh’s “bad” 81 to help you score a “great” 81.

Vranesh scored his 81 this past weekend in the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii. And after looking at his stats – I believe an 81 is well within the reach of many Golfers who previously thought of it being out of reach. Here are his stats:

Driving Distance – 261 yards per drive (not as far as it may seem, I’ll explain below)

Driving Accuracy – 36% (which equates to only 5 out of 14 fairways)

Putts – 34 (almost 2 per hole)

Greens in Regulation – 33% (which equates to 6 out of 18)

Putts per Green in Regulation – 2.16 (no wonder he didn’t have any Birdies)

Now those above stats may look ugly for a Tour Player – but if you were able to replicate these – you could score 81 (or close enough to be extremely happy). I believe each one of the above stats can be accomplished by just about anybody – yes, you’ll need to practice your putting and your golf swing – but you can do it.

Even the Driving Distance stat can be achieved because you must remember – you’re not playing on a 7,000 yard course like Mr. 81. What I mean is that the Driving Distance stat must be converted for you since Vranesh played on a golf course measuring 7,060 yards. And if you’re presently not scoring 81 or below, yet you’re playing from that distance on your golf course – you may want to play another set of tees.

As most men play around 6,300 yards and most women play around 5,300 yards – Vranesh’s distance would be the equivalent of a man averaging 233 yards a drive (on a 6,300 yard golf course) and 195 yards (on a 5,300 yard course) for a woman. These should be attainable for most Golfers (especially after attending a 3 day GMS program). Yet, if you’re a man or woman that drives the golf ball 20 yards less - 213 yards or 175 yards – although it’ll be tougher to score 81 – maybe you could make up for the lack of distance by improving your putting.

What about Driving Accuracy - can you hit the same amount of fairways as Vranesh? Well, it really shouldn’t matter since the most overrated stat in golf is hitting the fairway. If you’ve been reading Golf Improvement Weekly for a while, you’ve seen the stats that back this up. For example: in 2008, 6 out of the top 7 PGA Tour Players (Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Padraig Harrington, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Anthony Kim) were ranked 150th or lower in Driving Accuracy. The other Top 7 Player was Kenny Perry who was ranked 120th as he hit “only” 62% of his fairways – which is “only” 8 fairways per round. You wouldn’t think the top Players in the world would be missing 6 or more fairways every round they play – but they are – so don’t get so down on yourself when you miss 7 fairways out of 14!

If these guys are scoring in the 60’s by hitting 8 or less fairways per round – you should be able to score 81 by hitting 6 or less like Vranesh. Hitting Fairways isn’t important – keeping the golf ball in play is. And although Vranesh didn’t hit Fairways – he did keep the golf ball in play. Although he did shank it pretty badly on the 7th hole - a Par 3 of 176 yards – which left him an 84 yard wedge from the right rough.

Vranesh (in shooting his 81) averaged almost 2 putts per hole – which is not terrible, but it’s not good either. However this is the area that 7 out of every 8 Golfers wanting to score 81 needs to work on. With most Golfers averaging over 40 putts per round – if you did get down to 34 putts – that’s an instant improvement of at least 6 shots! And with many Golfers experiencing rounds of 44 putts – that’s a 10 shot improvement!

How do you go from plus 40 putts to 34 putts per round? Well, have you used the Indoor Putting Drills that we’ve been offering our readers this winter in GIW? If you have, and are still doing them – 34 putts (and probably less) is in your future. If you haven’t – 34 putts might be a dream. Start putting now and 34 or less putts will come sooner than you think!

Now, I believe the hardest stat for most Golfers to reach will be this next one – Greens in Regulation - Vranesh hit 6 out of the 18 Greens in Regulation. Whereas most Golfers that hope to score 81 hit only 1 or 2 per round. So tripling the number of Greens in Regulation you hit can be a tough task – albeit, not impossible.

The two key factors to hitting more Greens in Regulation are improving your ballstriking and understanding your Strengths and Weaknesses. In the GMS Alumni Bulletin (for GMS Golfers only), we’ve written pretty extensively about this topic. However, I know many reading this Golf Improvement Weekly don’t receive the GMS Alumni Bulletin (and you won’t unless you come to see us for a GMS Program). Yet, one of the things we speak about during a GMS Program is how to hit more greens by understanding your Strengths and Weaknesses. And the ones that continue to PLAN based on their Strengths – see significant improvement in hitting Greens in Regulation. And yes, many GMS Golfers that were hitting 1 or 2 are now hitting 6 or more.

Putts per Green in Regulation – this almost directly relates to your putting skills. Though remember – your putting skills aren’t entirely about having a good putting stroke. Putting skills also have something to do with green reading as well as how your putting stroke reacts when you have a 10 footer for par or 29 footer for Birdie – do you leave that 29 footer 10 feet short because you’re scared of going too far past the hole and losing your chance of making Par? Which leads you to the infamous 10 footer for Par – how do you handle this 10 foot putt with the thoughts of 3 or 4 putts dancing through your head?

Putts per Green in Regulation isn’t entirely about having a smooth putting stroke – it’s more about having Putting skills. How do you develop Putting skills? Not by practicing your putting like the Monkeys do – you need to practice like a Player.

Getting back to 2009’s Mr. 81 (Brian Vranesh) – you can easily duplicate his 81 if you kept to the stats above. And if you can’t keep to the stats above because you hit 20 yards less (equating it to the distances I converted for men and women above) – you’ll be several shots higher. If you can’t improve to 34 putts and end up with 39 putts – you’ll be 5 shots higher. If you hit 2 Greens in Regulation as opposed to 6 – you’ll be a few shots higher.

And once you add up all these additional shots - you’ll understand why you’re not scoring 81.

If you don’t score 81, but want to – you’ll need to develop a PLAN. Your PLAN starts by understanding what it takes to score 81 – and I’ve started that for you by listing Brian Vranesh’s stats. Then you have to compare those stats to your Strengths and Weaknesses which will help you understand where you should spend the most time practicing.

Now, someone that’s scoring above 100 or in the mid-90’s that might not yet have the skills to duplicate the stats listed above – shouldn’t get frustrated. Don’t have the expectations that you’re going to be able to duplicate these stats tomorrow. Though, by knowing your Strengths and Weaknesses, you can develop a PLAN so that you can move towards achieving an 81. You might have to go through 100 or 90 before you set your sights on 81, but you can do it if you have a PLAN. You won’t if you continue to swing and practice like the Monkey.

The Monkey just goes to the driving range to swing

The Player has a PLAN to improve

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life
www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Hitting a terrible golf shot might be the most frustrating aspect of playing golf - however, it’s something that every Golfer will experience at least once a round. So although you don’t want to have the mindset that you’re expecting to hit a bad shot - you shouldn’t be surprised when it does happen. Yet, as much as you know that you’ll eventually hit a terrible shot - we all find it extremely difficult to not allow it to bother us.

And it should bother you a little. Anybody that’s competitive should be bothered by a bad golf shot or two or three.

The question though is how do you forget about the bad shot and make your next shot a good one? That’s the question that has launched a 1,000 Golf Psychology books. Many of which are written by modern day snake oil salesmen that pretend to be guru’s that have helped PGA Tour Players become champions. And although I have heard some Golfers talk about liking a particular Golf psychology book by one of these snake oil salesmen - I have yet to meet anybody that has improved their scores because they have read a particular book.

The only people that are benefiting from these books are the authors who are preying on desperate Golfers that feel that it’s the Mental Side of the game that’s holding them back. To set the record straight - the mental side of your game will improve once your golf swing improves. You can use all the strategies they throw at you in these books and still top it off the 1st tee with regularity - regardless of how many positive thoughts you have in your mind.

The fastest way of improving your mental game is to improve the confidence you have in your golf swing. However, reading a book won’t improve your confidence. The only thing that will improve your confidence is experiencing better golf shots while improving your golf swing. Confidence isn’t something you get by reading a book - confidence is earned swing after swing as you watch your results slowly improve. And your confidence will further improve once you take those improvements to the golf course and experience these better shots under pressure situations.

Yes, it is hard to comeback after hitting a disappointing golf shot. You know you can hit a better golf shot, you expect to hit a better golf shot and there’s nothing you want more than to hit a better golf shot. It’s a terrible situation when on a 130 yard shot you hit 2 inches behind the golf ball and then hopelessly watch as it goes 40 yards landing in a fairway bunker. It’s even more frustrating when you try to hit out of the fairway bunker, and hit behind the ball once again and just get it out by advancing it only 25 yards.

After two golf shots like that - it’s very easy to become an unenthused Golfer.

The issue now isn’t what you do on your next shot - the issue now is what you do on your next tee shot. The damage on this hole has already been done. Yes, you should make the most of it and get the ball into the hole in the least number of shots - but in this scenario, it’s not as much about your score as it is about screwing up the rest of your round. The most important thing is … will you be mentally ready for your next tee shot? Will you be calm enough, confident enough, focused enough? Or will you still be agitated over how you screwed up the last hole?

And please don’t think this a malady that’s just reserved for higher handicap Golfers - sure the single digit Player is able to overcome a bad shot more easily, though it still irks the stuffing out of them! Why doesn’t it affect the lower handicap or Professional as much? It goes back to the “C -word” - Confidence. These Players have more confidence to more easily overcome a bad shot because of the success they have seen on the practice area. Yet confidence doesn’t completely block out frustration and disappointment - it just makes it easier to overcome.

In last week’s GMS Alumni Bulletin (which is exclusive to GMS Golfers), we included a GMS Instructor Profile. We profiled our Instructor at our Boca Raton location - Scott Hall. The Instructor Profile consists of us giving the Instructor 19 questions to answer about themselves and golf. One of the questions we ask is: What aspect of the game do you find most challenging:

Now remember - Scott is a GMS Instructor, a PGA Professional and an excellent Player. However, his answer to this question was: “Moving onto the next shot after a bad shot.”

It’s my bet that if you asked Tiger Woods the same question - that he would possibly have a similar answer. Yet, why does it seem that Tiger can overcome a bad shot better than you and I? Do you think it’s because he read a Bob Rotella book? Of course not. It’s because he has earned the ability to have more confidence in his golf swing. As your golf swing improves - your confidence improves and as your confidence improves - your mental game improves. Not vice versa! To believe so is foolish.

Now, the chances of anybody ever having the confidence of Tiger Woods is as remote as someone trying to walk to the moon - however, you could boost your own confidence to a higher level. You just need to get out there and practice using a Practice PLAN as opposed to going to the range like the Monkey and just banging golf balls with the hope that it could be considered practicing.

Our Instructor Scott did have another part to his answer that I showed above. And it’s a technique that if used during practice, will help you to hit the golf ball better and help you to gain confidence. If you don’t receive the GMS Alumni Bulletin - I’d like to share it with you. He said: “Forgetting about a bad shot and blocking it out of your mind before your next shot is something all Golfers need to stay vigilant with. That’s why Tick-Tock is so important - it’s the great Mind Eraser!”

And for anyone that thinks that a great Mind Eraser is a cocktail that includes vodka, coffee liqueur and club soda - which actually would do more good for you on the golf course than anything you’d find in a golf psychology book - the great Mind Eraser on the golf course is actually a much easier recipe for you to use. The key is that you develop confidence with your golf swing before you start lying to yourself that reading a golf psychology book will really help you.

Did Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods need a golf psychology book to get to the level they did? Of course not - they were able to overcome bad shots because they earned the confidence they had in their golf swing. And although you might not ever achieve the level of play or confidence those Golfers achieved - you can learn to overcome bad shots before they create a string of blow-up holes.

In order to do this - you must first earn confidence in your golf swing by improving while using Drills that create a similar pressure that you’ll feel on the golf course. As opposed to thinking you’re improving your golf swing as you beat ball after ball into the middle of the driving range after staying up all night reading a golf psychology book written by a so called guru.

The number one way to overcome bad shots is through confidence that is earned, not witchcraft masquerading as golf psychology.

The Monkey thinks they’re going to find the secret in a golf psychology book

The Player earns it by improving their confidence by improving their golf swing

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life
www.GolfMadeSimple.com

So 2009 is going to be the year you finally commit more time to your golf game. This is the year that you’re going to commit more time to your golf game. 2008 was a rough year for a lot of people and as you look back at it – you wonder: “Why didn’t I spend more time working on my golf game at home before the golf season started?”

As it does every year around October or November - golf season came to a close, cooler temperatures started showing up on the thermometer, the winds started to whip with a little too much bite and/or some of the white stuff started to fall from the sky. And as you think back to golf, or see golf on television this weekend (in sunny Hawaii) – you start to think “I really need to spend more time on my golf game and play better this year.”

Practice Golf Inside – Improve Indoors – You Can Do It!

we encourage you to start your golf season practice in the fall/winter. You should be practicing in your living room, office, basement or whatever area you have a little space to swing a golf club, stroke a few putts or get on the ground to do a push-up.

Simple Stuff – Leads To Great Gains On The Golf Course

Since the November 18th, 2008 we started talking about what you could start doing for winter practice. Now November 18th might not sound that long ago, but with all the hoopla of: the economy, the post-election, Thanksgiving, the economy, Bernie Madoff, Christmas, the economy, the New Year and everything else you might have on a personal basis – it’s been almost 2 months (49 days for those that are counting, tomorrow it’ll be 51 and the next day 52) since we started encouraging you to practice this winter.

And if you think those 49 days went fast – these next 49 days might even be more of a blur. 49 days from now, it’ll be the end of February and golf will be right around the corner.

So is 2009 going to be your year to play your best golf? Well, its 2009 right now – if you want to play well this year, you need to start doing Winter Drills so you’ll be ready for Summer Golf. The 2009 Golf Season doesn’t start in April or May – it starts today! What are you waiting for – November 18th, 2009?

Since November 18th, 2008 – we have followed that up with giving you an email address to receive a 12 minute clip of the GMS DVD (How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors), that included 2 Swing Drills and 3 exercises, plus the opportunity to stare at me for 12 minutes. And it’s pretty incredible how many Golfers have sent us emails for both. Which brings me to two questions: One – if you haven’t sent us an email for either one: “What are you thinking?” and Two – If you have received the 2 Drills: have you tried these drills more than once or was it “one and done?”

So, for the Golfers that have received the Drills – if you’re not continuing with them, start doing them again. For the Golfers that are new to Golf Improvement Weekly (we get 100’s of new subscribers each week), below my signature I have listed the email addresses to send for the two above mentioned Winter Practice Drills.

Though, if you’re one of the Golfers that has been practicing the Indoor Putting Drill and want another one – this week we’re listing a new Indoor Putting Drill for you. I say new, but we actually offered this drill for all GMS Alumni in the GMS Alumni Bulletin back on November 6th, 2008. So if you’re not a GMS Alumni – it’s new for you. If you are a GMS Alumni that has used the GMS Tour Putting Square – start doing it again!

We offer these Drills because putting practice can be the most boring and tedious practice known to mankind. So I’m going to help you perk it up a little bit so that you can get excited about putting practice. The GMS Tour Putting Square maybe the best putting drill in the world. And it’s so easy for you to set-up inside your dwelling. All you need is your putter, another golf club, 3 golf balls, 4 nickels and a quarter.

All I can say about the GMS Tour Putting Square is that it is challenging putting practice that will have your competitive juices flowing – while at the same time improving your putting - thus improving your score on the golf course.

Because we only have limited space in this issue, we’ll send you an email on how to use the GMS Tour Putting Square inside your home to improve your scores. Just send us an email at GMSTourPuttingSquare@GolfMadeSimple.com with the subject: GMS Tour Putting Square and you should instantly receive the GMS Tour Putting Square. Though, if you do have a powerful spam blocker – you might want to put GolfMadeSimple.com on your safe list (we have had some emails sent to the spam folder).

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life
www.GolfMadeSimple.com