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The ‘Old Country Gentleman Golf Teacher’ is not prone to many new attitudes or directions. He does not believe in many ‘Golf Dildos’… Training Aids. He has believed for over 40 years that golf is played bare-footed and naked on a ‘150 Acre Grassy Billiards Table’ with only a ball and oddly curved stick. Pretty purist? A bit!

When you learned to drive, you had to master ‘Parallel Parking’ … “Oh what a testy and fearful chore” that was! Better to run over an orange or red cone than someone else’s property, but ultimately one had to pass the test in the real world of ‘Curbs and Third Party Vehicles! It was your wheels and tires against the curb! It worked to varying degrees and has survived for eons!

Being a good ‘Parallel Parker’ stems from ‘Work Smart Conditioning’. So too does being a good putter and chipper. Golf too is a real-world functional test that strives towards ‘Small Number’ on a scorecard!

There is absolutely no point ‘Practising Bad Habits or Weak Skills’. What a waste of time!

If you make even ‘One Perfect Strike’, your powerful brain remembers that process with intimate details, virtually forever especially if you ‘Set-Up’ properly! (PSR) If you are focused and have a ‘Perfect Practice Makes Permanent Plan’, your rewards will increase manifoldly.

What if you stretch efficiently, pay a visit to the Putting Green’ (Down & Back Drill and a little more) and thereafter go to the Driving Range and execute 6 perfect #8 Irons? Other than a few Chips & Pitches, that is realistically all you have to do before heading to the #1 Teeing Ground.

All fishermen know the term ‘Hook Line & Sinker’? Well, ‘Sinker & Stinker’ are pretty similar words! A turd, disguised or not, is always a turd! It is this golf authorities opinion that there are a plethora of ‘Golf Turd Ideas’ all around us! How do we avoid them? Simply not that simple!

You will possess and own a golf baseline!

It starts to form and grow unavoidably in minutes. Always strive to clarify yours! Question everything you see and hear about ‘Golf’. “Simplicity Solves Complexity … always!” Simple ‘Musculo-Skeletal Physiology’ is the safe path by which you can and shall enjoy this marvelous life-long journey game. Succumbing to STI (Soft Tissue Injury) is so unnecessary! I want to tell you that, when I am feeling tight and headachey, I go to our golf property and hit balls … starting with ‘The 555 Down & Back Putting Drill’ and working longer and patiently from there to Full Swing!

When your ball is resting in a divot, you have to know how to fix that problem with a confident state of mind! Knowledge and experience can and will provide a remedy. You have to ‘Dig It Out Of There … no lifting moment required … no feeling up in the Front Swing Impact Zone!”

This divot extraction demands a rather ‘Steep Angle Of Attack’. (AoA) Think ‘Pinch and Punch’! Don’t be fearful. Go after it! If you miss, reload and give it another go! It is just a game!

Tinker a little! Try to ‘Shut Down The Clubface Aim’ just a smidgeon! That will prevent the common ‘Leaky Outcomes’. Remember your ‘Intermediate Target’ and that ‘Release & Chase’.

If anything a golf authority tells you does not make sense, don’t do it until it makes sense!

Putting & Chipping involve two distinct skills that are closer to each other than one might think! “A Chip Is A Putt With A Hop!” You could actually hold your #8 Iron like your putter and make exactly the same stroke with confidence and success!

I only use my ‘Putting Grip’ for putting for various well-based reasons! Happy to answer your related questions!

Bunker procedures are often vilified, perhaps unfairly so. A properly executed ‘Sand Shot’ is one of the easiest and safest procedures in your artillery. That is why the ‘Tour Players’ and very talented ball strikers often deliberately hit their golf ball into a green side bunker rather than run the risks of hitting it elsewhere. Bunkers are quite predictable. Players assess the target risks and react intellectually to the determinations. These folks are very practical mentors and create a lot of ‘Saves or Up & Downs’!

There are two normal and specific Bunker techniques ...

1. A normal firm sand bunker shot (Fairway or Greenside) is very similar to your regular ‘Pitch Shot Procedure’. (see ‘Pitching Protocols’) Among other very usual Set-Up requirements (Posture, Grip, Stance, Ball Location & Alignment), you hit the ball first and then take a few tablespoonfuls of sand. (see ‘Leading Edge Dominant’)(Ball Location is slightly AFT)

Picture these two realities!

Think about this task you have often faced!

In the ‘Short or Approach Game’ …

Get The Ball Acting Like A Putt As Soon As Possible!

We forever get into really good conversation regarding “What are Golf Basics?” “What makes a golf swing work repeatably?” Very good questions, right? Like a quick cellular conversation with both hands on the steering wheel, see if this couple brief moments makes sense for you?

Golf is physiologically comprised or the ‘Lower Body Machine’ (LBM) or what we refer to as ‘The Core’. It, ‘The Pivot’, provides all the highly stable ‘Horizontal Motion or Round & Round’. If we can understand and somewhat master a ‘Stable Pivot’ upon which to ‘Found or Build’ our golf ‘Clubhead Swings’, we shall be blessed. (see ‘The Tether Ball Pole Concept’) The 5 Set-Ups are never far from center stage … Posture, Grip, Stance, Ball Location & Alignment … are in every swing world-wide! Worthy? Absolutely!

Now add the ‘Upper Body Machine’ (UBM) or what we refer to as the swinging and hitting ‘Lever Assemblies’ … Shoulder Sockets, Upper Arms, Elbows, Forearms, Wrists, Hands and the actual Golf Club. This ‘UBM’ provides all the Vertical or Up & Down Motion. (see ‘Bend & Straighten’ as well as the ‘The Brace 3 Lever Single Action’)

Nobody teaches him or herself how to golf and arrives at an optimal destination still intact and more than glancingly happy … even sane! Golf is not a contact sport but it delivers more than its deserved share of bumps and bruises … ruthlessly and at it whim. “When do I get mine?”

Confidence, Comfort and Consistency’ can be very flirtatious and illusive. You think you’ve ‘Got IT’ and moments later you know you do not … three curving and crooked with one straight will seldom produce a prolonged ‘Golf Smiley Face’!

Golf is just too demanding and hungry for the ‘Physical and Mental Truth Of This Great Game’ to enable or allow the ‘Self Taught’ avenue.

Initially this is about your ‘Approach Phase’ … from your Full Swing #PW in. For the entire scope of golfers, that may be from 70 yards all the way out to a well-struck 130 yards or even more! We have had ‘555 Family’ (Clients) who manage over 160 yards with a #PW. Pretty significant distance, right? Bluntly, that is really way too far!

Do you want to improve your ‘Putting Stats’? Of course you do! Less putts means more free food and drinks on the 19th Hole! Bigger pay cheques! More happiness! Reputation!

Along the same line of discussion, let’s shuffle to the ‘Last Short Distance’ from the fairway or fringe on to the green. From here we no longer strive for the ‘5/10/15 Foot Circles’ but for an even more precise ‘12 Inch Landing Circle’. I have to admit, I really enjoy holing out my ‘Chips and Bump & Runs’. This gift directly affects our ‘Putting Numbers’. ‘Zero Putts’ are good! How many of you special family members understand ‘Quadranting The Greens’?