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Being a bit of an old farm boy and house-building youth (mostly at Grampa’s insistence) we learned how to use and care for the tools-of-the-trade. We would NEVER leave our hammer out in the cold damp world … a fate flirting with death by Grampa or Dad!

One tool we used a lot in framing was a ‘Chalk Box & Line’. It was like an enclosed ‘Fishing Reel’ that contained chalk, a powdery substance that permeated the string line. Why? So as to be able to mark a straight line on the subfloor or anywhere for a useful purpose. When we fastened wall framing to the floor, we knew that the base plates were straight, true and square!

Golf loves ‘Straight, True, Square & On Length’ too! A ‘Stymp Meter’ is a wonderful golf tool.

You may find this to be a worthwhile understanding as well as a useful real physical function? Of this we on the ‘555 Team’ are certain! Use it regularly with predictable success!

Think of the human power (mechanical advantage) and Alignment Axes … Ankles, Knees, Hips, Shoulders and Ears. All you ‘555 Family Round Table Members’ will already be well informed. If not, we are here to assist you in any way we can. Why are our ‘Ears’ listed as Alignment Axes’? Feel free to dialogue with your very own personal ‘Certified Teaching Professional’! We love your questions and have had appropriate, functional answers for over four decades of satisfied members. That shall continue! Ask away!

Where were you with your golf skills a year ago?

Where will you be with your golf game in another year?

Where do you want to be five years from now?

You cannot accomplish a lot in a day or a week, but in an organized year you may well have traveled the Earth and be full of great memories and achievements! “Never Give Up!”

For a ‘Country Gentleman Golf Teacher’, that is a very simple $64,000 question! May I share my reason for this simplistic approach to our ‘Great Game’? Thank you! We are here because you are there and we have shared your painful and pleasureful space over decades! True caring is a raw human trait!

My direct topic is ‘Alignment’. I just read that it was the #1 World failure in our ‘Ball & Stick’ endeavours. Perhaps. Let’s get ‘Simple’ and address this quandary or predicament?

‘555 Golf’ is totally and firmly about ‘The 5 Set-Ups’ …

1. Posture
2. Grip
3. Stance
4. Ball Location
5. Alignment

Well then, ‘Practise Less and Practise Smarter’ … with more intensity and working at skills that you will actually use ‘Out There’ to score lower! ‘Practical Practice Makes Repeatable’!

If you have a dedicated ‘Pre Shot Routine’ (PSR) I can assure you that your ‘Practice Sessions’, as well as your ‘Playing Ventures’ shall be both more productive and more fun!

We see really dedicated ‘Range Rats’ working buckets of ‘Full Swing Long Irons’ and especially their ‘Driver and III Woods’. Outcome? Sore hands, joints and soft tissues.

1. ‘EVALUATE’ the wind’s ‘Direction and Velocity’ remembering that these change significantly with height above the ground and when trees and other factors are present.
2. ‘VISUALIZE’ the ‘Ball Flight’ or ‘Shot Pattern’.
3. ‘KEEP UNDER THE WIND’. Logically, if there were no wind or less wind, you could do less to compensate for it. There is generally less of it closest to the ground (‘Shift & Veer’). More simply put, the closer you are to the ground, the less time and margin there is for error to take place. Putts are less effected by the wind than are ‘Drives’.

This took some statistical digging so please excuse me if I have a few sequential and total earnings errors. You will get the picture … not your average career sports figures incomes worldwide!

Curiosity kills the cat and tempts the mouse?

We must strive every day in our golf pursuits to ‘Keep It Stupid Simple’! Our golf lives will improve with this approach and attitude. How important are our ‘Approach Shots’, strikes to those ‘5/10/15 Foot Circles’? Oh, what a rhetorical question! Any substantial golfer … ‘Player’ … can hit his or her circles! Produces really great ‘Putting Numbers’ needed to be a champion! (see ‘Quadranting Greens’)

So, let us look at ‘Chipping & Pitching’ if you don’t mind?

QUESTION   ART:

"Golf is my first love but I hate those 'Big Beaver Pelts' some people call 'Divots'. It seems my long irons are the worst."

ANSWER:       These are what is known as 'FAT HITS' and can be cured quite simply if you pay attention to one simple necessity. (‘Thin Strikes’ are just the ‘Flip Side’. Grasp that reality.)