The Golf Swing Blog - Golf Instruction and Golf Lessons for Golfers

As we were reviewing some past articles from Golf Improvement Weekly, we came across this ‘gem’ from January 18th, 2005 about playing better on the Par 5’s. As many of the people reading this weren’t subscribers 3 years ago and I doubt the people who were subscribers would remember this article – we’re repeating it. Not because we’re lazy – but because it has some excellent points that’ll help you eliminate your ‘Blow-up Holes’.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com



By the way – Golf Made Simple has just completed our first DVD. After years and years and offers upon offers from people that wanted to produce a DVD for us – we decided we wanted to do it our own way. We’ve created a DVD for Players, as opposed to all the other Monkey stuff that’s already out there.


Our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors – is improvement GMS Style. What’s GMS Style? It’s a Results Based Approach as opposed to a Theories and Assumptions Based Approach.

Labels: Boca Raton, California, Driver, Florida, Ft. Lauderdale, Golf, Golf DVD, Golf Instruction, Golf Lessons, Golf Schools, Golf Swing, Golf Travel, La Quinta, Marc Solomon, Palm Springs, Video Analysis

Can you improve your golf game by watching John Daly? Yes, you absolutely can. You just have to know what to look for.

As much fun as it used to be to watch John Daly hit a golf ball – it’s sad to see him now. It doesn’t look as if he’s having a fun time on the golf course – well, I guess the same can be said of most Golfers that are struggling. If you only were able to see Daly during his prime on television when he – ‘Gripped it and Ripped it’, you missed something special because there was nothing like seeing him live and standing next to him as he hit a golf ball. It was incredible!

Nobody in the history of the game – well, at least for as long as I’ve been around – has captured the imagination of Golfers as Daly did in the early to mid 90’s. He didn’t win many tournaments – though nobody has won a more memorable Major Championship (in my opinion) than John Daly at the 1991 PGA Championship at Crooked Stick.

Come on – he was like the 14th alternate on the list! The chances of him getting into that tournament were the equivalent of the Arizona Cardinals winning the Super Bowl.

Yet, he’s now golf’s version of Brittany Spears – and is nowhere near either his 1991 PGA Championship or his uber-dramatic win in the 1995 British Open Championship. And maybe 12 ½ years is a long time ago - but boy could that guy hit the golf ball and make golf an exciting game to watch.

But, getting back to your golf game -

Compare the progress (or lack of progress) of John Daly’s golf game to the way your golf game has been going the last few years. Have you been on the John Daly training program where your game has gotten worse (or stayed the same) over this time as others around you are passing you by? Or have you been on the Tiger Woods training program where your game has improved each year and you’re doing the passing?

Two of Golf’s most famous Golfers – one struggling more and more each year; one dominating more and more each year. Who would you want to be at this point?

Do you prepare for the golf course like Tiger or do you prepare like Daly?

If it’s Monday and you know that you’re going to be playing golf on Saturday – what do you do to prepare? Are you like John Daly or are you like Tiger? How much more do you think Tiger prepares for a round of golf versus how much John Daly does?

Now, I know you’re not a Professional Golfer – your income isn’t based on how well you play golf. So you don’t have to prepare as extensively as Tiger does, but if you want to play well on the golf course – you should do a little more than Daly does!

Seriously – if you did some push-ups on Monday, sit-ups on Tuesday, 10 minutes of swing drills (without a ball) on Wednesday, push-ups on Thursday and 5 minutes of swing drills and some sit-ups on Friday – would you be more prepared to play golf on Saturday than if you hung out at Hooters and drank beer each night.

Please know this isn’t an attack on John Daly. I like John Daly. I’ve met him and know people that know him and he’s a great guy. This is more about how someone’s not living up to their potential to play better golf. And although, you might not be parking your RV at Hooters – are you preparing well enough to play your best golf?

Most Golfers that play on Saturday at 9:07 AM – prepare for their round on Saturday morning at 8:37 AM when they get their bucket of balls to bring to the driving range. Yet, Tiger is preparing for his next round everyday.

Are you preparing for your next round yet? Or are you saying – “Well no. It’s winter where I live and I won’t be playing golf for a few more months.”

If that’s you – you’re in luck because you couldn’t be in a more perfect situation - you have about 90 days of push-ups, sit-ups and swing drills to prepare for that first round.

The Monkey prepares to play the morning of their round.

The Player is preparing everyday.

Go ahead, start preparing today and be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com




By the way – Golf Made Simple has just completed our first DVD. After years and years and offers upon offers from people that wanted to produce a DVD for us – we decided we wanted to do it our own way. We’ve created a DVD for Players, as opposed to all the other Monkey stuff that’s already out there.

Our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors – is improvement GMS Style. What’s GMS Style? It’s a Results Based Approach as opposed to a Theories and Assumptions Based Approach.

Labels: Boca Raton, California, Clubs, Driver, Florida, Ft. Lauderdale, Golf, Golf DVD, Golf Instruction, Golf Lessons, Golf Schools, Golf Swing, Golf Travel, Marc Solomon, Palm Springs, Video Analysis

It’s getting to be the time of the year when many Golfers get ‘the itch’. It’s been 2 or 3 months of cold, gray weather that’s not conducive to playing golf – so you get ‘the itch’ for sunshine, warmth and green grass. Your golf group then makes plans for Arizona or Florida to play 36 holes a day for 3 or 4 days in a row.

You make it to your location ‘totally jacked-up’ about playing golf on some beautiful golf courses – if you were born pre-1960, you might not be familiar with the phrase ‘totally jacked-up’ – unless you still have teenagers in the house. You stay up late the night before your first round of golf because your blood is pumping and everyone is excited about playing great golf over the next few days.

That feeling lasts all the way to the driving range the next morning when you don’t just walk up to hit some shots to warm-up – you strut like you’re Tiger Woods. As the line of ‘totally jacked-up’ Golfers are pounding ball after ball as they satisfy ‘the itch’ that they haven’t had a chance to scratch in a few months – you pull out your wedge to start hitting balls because your tee time is in 45 minutes and you need to work on a few things!

After three pretty good wedge shots, you move onto your 7 iron without a care in the world – “this is paradise, I need to do this more often – I work hard, I deserve this.” On your third 7 iron shot, the ball starts to draw to the left a little and you say to yourself – “hey, that’s cool – I haven’t seen that happen very much”. On the fourth shot, the ball draws a little more to the left. And on the fifth shot, it starts to resemble a hook.

“What happened? Why is my ball going so far to the left? I must be turning too much.”

On the next shot when you try not to turn as much – you hit 3 inches behind the ball. Then on the next shot when you try to shift your weight, though without turning too much – you shank the ball. And on the next shot when you make sure that you don’t swing so much outside in (by trying to make a more inside to out swing), while shifting your weight and not turning too much …. Well, let’s just try to forget about that shot because it wasn’t pretty.

Now what?

You look at your watch and see that you have 25 minutes until your tee time and you need to figure out what you’re doing wrong before you get to the 1st tee. So you make a desperate move and look for one of the guys in your group that’s also hitting golf balls to come over and help you. Hoping to spot Jimmy because he’s ‘the swing guru’ of the group – I mean he’s constantly talking about the golf swing, reads all the golf magazines and is always more than happy to give golf advice to anyone that will listen (along with giving advice to those that don’t want to listen).

There he is – “Jimmy, Jimmy – I need your help. Can you watch me hit a couple of shots?”

So as you set-up to hit a golf ball – Jimmy’s standing behind you with his legs crossed and leaning on a golf club like all the great teaching pros do so that they can look studious, yet relaxed at the same time. You hit another bad shot – and Jimmy says “hit one more, I think I know what you’re doing.” You hit yet another bad shot; and then look at Jimmy for his sage advice and hope he can help you get out of your funk.

Jimmy says – “Well, you’re doing the same thing I’m working on. On the way down, your right hand is taking over causing the club to flip. So you need to work on lagging the club – make sure that your hands stay in front of the club head till just before impact and then release it. That’s what Sergio does so well, I’m working on the same thing and I’ve almost got it!”

Now as I mentioned – Jimmy is considered the swing guru of the group, although he rarely breaks 90 – well let me put it out on the table for you: nobody in his group has ever seen Jimmy break 90, though he says he’s scored 78 a couple of times. In fact, Jimmy can be often heard saying – “I’m not playing well because I’m working on something new in my swing.”

But desperate times require desperate measures and Jimmy has a library of golf tips in his head and maybe he can give you a tip that will get you through the round. So with just 10 minutes left before your tee time and Billy yelling up to you – “We’re on the tee in 5 minutes” – Billy’s always in a hurry to get to the 1st tee, he’s often trying to gather everyone by the starter 30 minutes before your tee time in his quirky quest of always trying to tee off early – you try to ignore his plea so that you can work on Jimmy’s tip of taking the right hand out of the swing and lagging the club.

After hitting two or three more shots that have shown absolutely no sign of improvement, Jimmy saying to you after each shot – “that’s better, that’s much closer”, and Billy pleading to you that you’re on the tee – what you thought of as paradise just 40 minutes ago has turned into – ‘Maybe I won’t play tomorrow.”

At which time you say that you want to hit just one shot with your driver before going to the 1st tee. So you stand up to the ball with no expectations, saying to yourself – “forget about everything and just swing smooth” – and hit the best shot you’ve hit in 3 years. While Jimmy says – “See, I told you, that time you took your right hand out of the shot. Like I said, you need to lag the club. Now you need to think about that every shot today.”

And then you look at Jimmy knowing he tried his best, yet he’ll come in with his typical 76 – meaning the 76 times he’ll tell you over the 18 holes that “I’m not playing well because I’m working on something new in my swing” – and you say “Ok Jimmy, I’ll work on that”. Knowing that in reality you should just go out there, forget about all the swing tips, swing smooth and have fun.

The Monkey has a reputation for saying “I’m not playing well because I’m working on something new in my swing”


The Player knows that when they get in a little swing funk that they can often just focus on swinging smooth to get the funk out


Go Ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,


Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com




By the way – Golf Made Simple has just completed our first DVD. After years and years and offers upon offers from people that wanted to produce a DVD for us – we decided we wanted to do it our own way. We’ve created a DVD for Players, as opposed to all the other Monkey stuff that’s already out there.



Our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors – is improvement GMS Style. What’s GMS Style? It’s a Results Based Approach as opposed to a Theories and Assumptions Based Approach.

Labels: Boca Raton, California, Florida, Ft. Lauderdale, Golf, Golf DVD, Golf Instruction, Golf Lessons, Golf Schools, Golf Swing, Golf Travel, La Quinta, Marc Solomon, Palm Springs, Video Analysis

As it is the New Year, there are always Golfers with Resolutions to play better Golf. Have you made yours already or are you just recycling the same Resolution you used in 2007, which you might’ve recycled from your Resolution in 2006.

As Vince Lombardi most likely said at one time or another – ‘Talk is cheap. First you need to prove that you want to play better.’

I wish there was a way that I could list all the Golfers that came to GMS in 2007 and then list what they accomplished after seeing GMS. This would be virtually impossible to do in this newsletter as we had over 1,000 Golfers and I’m sure you’d stop looking after about 10 or so names.

Though, I’d like to list just 10. Why? Because these Golfers had Resolutions to improve and they showed more action than talk. Are there more than 10 GMS Golfers that improved this year? There’s 100’s and 100’s more. Some may have improved at the rate of the 10 Golfers below – some may have simply improved their handicap a mere 5 strokes.

Though, here are just 10 off the top of my head that I can write down without having to look at our records - Name, Date Attended - Home - What They Accomplished:

Roger Irwin, May 2007 – Ontario, Canada – Shot his best round ever of 82 in the final round to win Senior Club Championship. Mid 90’s Golfer before GMS.

Jim Cedrone, January 2007 – Massachusetts – Shot 89 and is consistently in the mid 90’s. Before GMS shooting 125 – 130.

Linda Arns, November 2007 – South Carolina – Shot 81 and 82 to win Women’s Club Championship at Berkley Hall C.C. by 10 strokes. Before GMS was shooting mid-90’s.

Chris Stevenson, January 2007 – North Carolina – Shot 79 and achieved goal of breaking 80. Before GMS was shooting in the mid 90’s.

Gary Shaver, June 2007 - Florida - Broke 100 several times and has made it down to the mid 90’s. Before GMS average score was 108 and had never broken 100.

Mike Donahue, February 2007 – Massachusetts – Shot 76 and several rounds in the low 80’s. Before GMS average score was 95.

John Murphy May 2007 – California – Shot ‘best score ever’ of 87 and now averages low 90’s. Before GMS typical score was 105 to 110.

Ivan Carrillo, January 2007 – Switzerland – Achieved goal of breaking 90 (shot 88). Before GMS scored between 105 and 115.

Jacqui Langdon, March 2007 – Manitoba, Canada – Broke 100 several times and improved handicap by over 10 strokes. Before GMS scored between 110 and 120.

Greg Rowe, January 2007 - California - Broke 100 for the first time with a 94. Before GMS average score was 109.

These are real people that have made nice improvements with their golf games. And you can do the same. How did they do it? I believe the main factor in their improvement was their commitment to sticking with their PLAN.

Too many Golfers get excited about some new swing they’re working on and then after not seeing improved Results after a couple of weeks – they become disappointed and then begin ‘Fiddling’ with another new golf swing. Then once that next new swing doesn’t produce improved Results …. well, it’s on to yet another golf swing.

And this process seems to repeat itself year after year – and before you know it, you’ve been playing Golf for 10 years without seeing much improvement. Has that happened to anyone you know?

Yet, the 10 Golfers above and the over 1,000 Golfers that came to see GMS this past year have all improved and will continue to improve using their PLAN.

What's your PLAN for 2008?

And as long as I’m listing names, I can’t forget – Rick Darst who won the Super Senior Division of the Pacific Amateur Classic by 12 strokes – Bob Sewell who won his Club Championship – Brenda Acker who won the Lancaster County Championship – Charles Eaton who shot his age of 73 - etc., etc., etc.

Well done everyone!

From our GMS Instructors: Hayden Lewis, Wataru Tomita, Jeff Seigler, Scott Wittosch, Paul Moore, Chuck Williams, Trevor Harvey, Javier Rivera – our office crew: The Queen Bee, Scott Herlihy, Manley Branham, Alex Ortega – and myself (I'm not sure what category I fit in); we all wish you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

The Monkey will make a Resolution to improve their golf swing in 2008

The Player will say that a Resolution is only meaningful if you take action to make it happen

How can you accomplish your goals? Do what the above Golfers did at this time last year – sign-up for a GMS class – take action and be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com



By the way – Golf Made Simple has just completed our first DVD. After years and years and offers upon offers from people that wanted to produce a DVD for us – we decided we wanted to do it our own way. We’ve created a DVD for Players, as opposed to all the other Monkey stuff that’s already out there.

Our DVD - How To Improve Your Golf Swing Indoors – is improvement GMS Style. What’s GMS Style? It’s a Results Based Approach as opposed to a Theories and Assumptions Based Approach.


To order: Either call us 1-888-580-3635 (Internationally 011 904 460 8355) or go to www.GolfMadeSimple.com/dvd.html

Labels: Boca Raton, California, Clubs, Driver, Florida, Golf, Golf DVD, Golf Instruction, Golf Lessons, Golf Schools, Golf Swing, Golf Travel, Marc Solomon, Palm Springs, Video Analysis