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Hitting your Driver is the greatest aspect of golf. There’s nothing I’d rather do more than be able to go on the golf course and hit my Driver. Walking to the tee of a Par 3 is a let down. Why even have Par 3’s? Let’s have only Par 4’s and Par 5’s so that we can hit Driver all the time!

And it’s a shame that there are Golfers out there that are afraid to pick up their Driver. “Oh, I can’t hit my Driver. I miss every fairway. So I just use my 3 wood.”

That’s no way to play golf!

Isn’t it a let down when the other Golfers in your group hit their Drivers and then you come up to the tee with your 3 wood? Or worse – an iron! Yes, there are holes on the golf course where Driver might not be the best club to play – but there shouldn’t be more than 2 or 3 of these holes.

Let’s face it – there are 3 Major aspects of your game that need to be aligned to have your best score ever. Your PLAN, your Putting and your Driver.

Though, if you have any 2 of these 3 working well – you’re still going to have a good score. Maybe not your best score ever, but you’re going to feel good adding up your scorecard after the 18th hole. Let’s say these scores will be in your top 10%.

Yet, if you go out and have only 1 out of the 3 working - you’ll be scoring what you’d consider as an average score. Nothing to be ashamed of, but it’s not improvement. And we want to see improvement!

Where a lot of Golfers go wrong, is in their assessment of how well they hit their Driver during a round. There are too many Golfers that consider themselves to be having a bad day with their Driver if they miss 7 out of 14 fairways.

Fairways hit is the most overrated stat in Golf!

For example – You’re on a 390 yard hole and pop-up your tee shot that goes 105 yards, but lands on the fairway. That counts as a fairway hit, although you’ve got 285 yards to the center of the green. Is this a good thing?

Or for example – Same hole and you bomb the farthest drive you’ve ever hit 285 yards into the right hand rough. This counts as a missed fairway, although you’ve got only 105 yards to the center of the green. Isn't this a better thing?

Let me see - which second shot would you rather have?

The key with driving well isn’t Fairways Hit – the stats on the PGA Tour will show you that. The key is keeping the ball in play. A ball in the rough is in play – a ball in the trees can be trouble. But, as it says above – ‘if you have any 2 of the 3 Major aspects of your game working, you’re going to see a good score.’

So even though you’re in the trees on 3 or 4 holes doesn’t mean that you’re scoring badly. If you’re playing to your PLAN (the 1st Major) – you’ll make the correct decision out of the trees and be on the green in 3 shots. Then with your putting working well (the 2nd Major) – you’ll 1 putt for Par or 2 putt for Bogey – after a drive in the trees.

Though, if you take that same scenario, but you aren’t “Playing to your PLAN” – you might be on the green in 4 shots. Though, if one Major is working (your putting) – you’ll 1 putt for Bogey or 2 putt for Double Bogey – after a drive in the trees. Doing this 3 times a round isn’t going to stop you from having an average score.

Yet, if none of the 3 Major’s are working – you’ll have a bad round!

Every email we receive about one of our Golfers whose playing better than they did before seeing GMS includes at least 2 of the 3 Majors working well. They don’t always say that they’re hitting their Driver better than ever or putting better than ever. Though, they all say that at least 2 of the 3 Majors were working well.

What does this mean for you?

It means you don’t have to be hitting your Driver better than ever to score better than ever. It means you don’t have to be Putting better than ever to score better than ever. It means you don’t have to have your PLAN working better than ever to score better than ever.

Don’t be so hard on yourself to hit the ball better than ever – it’s not necessary in order for you to improve your score. Though, remember – if you’re struggling with your Driver – you can still have a good score if you focus on your PLAN and your Putting.

The Monkey is trying to hit every fairway and if they don’t, they can’t score because they have no PLAN and they don’t practice their putting

The Player knows that if they work hard on their PLAN, that they only have to either drive or putt decent to have a good score

Go Ahead, Be A Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon -Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Labels: California, Clubs, Driver, Florida, Golf, Golf Instruction, Golf Lessons, Golf Schools, Golf Swing, Golf Travel, Lake Tahoe, Marc Solomon

posted by Golf Made Simple - Golf Improvement Program  # 4:42 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

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The story of the year in Golf just might be Zach Johnson. And his game might be a perfect blueprint for you to follow so that you can also have your game get to the next level. I don’t know much about Zach Johnson – but I do know that he’s having a career year having won the Masters and then the tournament last week in Atlanta.



You hear all this talk about Zach being an overnight sensation – coming out of nowhere. But, here’s a guy that turned Professional back in 1998. So I guess that means that in golf terms that overnight equals 9 years of hard work. Oh, but that’s not counting 4 years of competitive college golf and 4 years of high school golf and I’m sure a few years of Junior Golf Tournaments.



Johnson’s story is one of persistence and patience and I believe that’s why he’s now successful.



Now look at the average Golfer – they want it now! They’re always looking for the next gimmick to go from scoring 100 to 72 the next day. And if that doesn’t work – they’re up late at night with credit card in hand watching infomercials on the Golf Channel.



For example – A few weeks ago I was reading an issue of a golf magazine that had a story about these two guys that are now considered the New Swing Guru’s according to ...... I’m not sure who this is according to – well, I guess it's according to themselves. And they have this new concept that’s all the rage on Tour (according to them). They say that you need to do this and that – and if you do, you’ll hit the ball like Jack Nicklaus.



Every couple of years, these new tips come out and Golfers jump on the bandwagon and every couple of years these tips slowly fade away because there was more hype than positive results. I can’t tell you how many Golfers that have signed up for GMS because of their frustration with all these tips. I can’t tell you how many Golfers that were so frustrated from jumping tip to tip and frustrating golf swing to frustrating golf swing – that they’ve said things such as – “That’s why I’m here – to get away from all the gimmicks. I’ve gotten nowhere with them.”



The Golfers that are successful have a PLAN and stick with it. The Golfers that are continually frustrated are the ones that are constantly jumping tip to tip or swing guru to swing guru hoping to find something magical that will instantly transform them into a Player. How many Golfers are going to jump on the tips that these latest Guru’s have come up with?



Probably the same amount that jumped on ‘Toe up to Toe Up’ and ‘Square to Square’ and ‘The X Factor’ and having two Drivers (one for Draws and one for Fades). And it’s funny because it’s always the same people that are jumping from tip to tip – and these same people are probably scoring the same and are as frustrated now as they were before they started their Golf Tip Addiction.



Is that how Zach Johnson improved?



Did Zach Johnson just find ‘a genie in a bottle’ that granted him his wish to win the Masters? Do you think he was reading Golf Digest and came across a tip that he used to win the Masters? Maybe he went out and bought one of those swing vests that you hook up to a computer to analyze your swing. Yeah, I bet that’s what he did!



I’d put my money on hard work and his desire to improve. I’d put my money on his focus to stick with his PLAN. I’d put my money on that it just took him some time to slowly improve his game to get to the level it is now.



For you it’s much easier to improve faster than it is for Zach.



See, when you get to the PGA Tour level – improving one stroke on your average score is equivalent to a 100 Golfer improving 10 strokes. This year, Zach’s scoring average is 70.02 strokes per round. In 2003 (4 years ago for the mathematically challenged), his scoring average was 72.69.



What’s 2.6 strokes difference per round? It’s only about 10 strokes difference over the course of the 4 rounds of a PGA Tour event. Meaning if the winner was 8 under par – Zach would be way down at the bottom of the list at 2 over par.



How did he improve those 2 strokes per round? Do you think he found it in Golf Digest? Or a swing vest? Neither will you!



The Monkey is going to try to find out who these two new Swing Guru’s are



The Player is looking up Zach Johnson’s stats to see where he’s improved the most over the last several years and will use those stats as a blueprint to improve your game





Go Ahead, Be A Player!



Regards,



Marc Solomon -Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Labels: California, Clubs, Driver, Florida, Golf, Golf Instruction, Golf Lessons, Golf Schools, Golf Swing, Golf Travel, Lake Tahoe, Marc Solomon

posted by Golf Made Simple - Golf Improvement Program  # 2:06 PM 0 Comments Links to this post