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

Understanding the true distance you hit the golf ball might be one of the top 5 factors in improving your golf swing. Most Golfers have no idea what distance they hit the golf ball and because of that ….. well, bad things happen.

I can’t tell you how many 90 and 100 Golfers I’ve met that believe they can hit the golf ball 270 to 300 yards. This may come as shock to you, but 270 to 300 yards is a long way! The average drive on the PGA Tour isn’t 300 yards.

Yet, there’s a group of Golfers – a massive group of 90 and 100 Shooters – that believe they can hit the ball 270 to 300 yards. Let me put it bluntly – No You Can’t! If some guys on the PGA Tour can’t hit it 300 yards – you can’t either.

Understanding the ‘true distance’ you hit the golf ball is more important than the ‘bragging distance’ you can hit it. Success on the golf course has more to do with knowing your distances so you can PLAN on the golf course rather than just relying on the distances that you think you can hit the golf ball. It’s about knowing what trouble on the golf course is within reach of your tee shot and which trouble is out of reach.

In addition to the total length you hit the golf ball – I find it possibly even more important to understand how far you carry the golf ball in the air. Because if there’s a fairway bunker at about 225 yards down the fairway and you hit the ball 250 total yards on your tee shot – odds are that you’ll land your golf ball in the bunker.

Or if you hit your tee shots 195 yards and there’s a fairway bunker about 190 yards away from the tee – same thing.

Though, what’s troubling is when a Golfer thinks they hit the golf ball 30, 40, 50 and in some cases 80 yards farther than they actually can. In this case – it’s impossible to PLAN correctly around the golf course.

So why are there so many Golfers that think they hit the golf ball farther than they can?

Take the story of Paul – On the 4th tee, a Par 5 that doglegs (curves) to the right – that’s listed as playing 530 yards from the white tees, Paul hits a pretty good drive down the right-side. Now, as Paul feels good about this ‘better than normal drive’ – he finds a sprinkler head within a few yards of his ball that says 230 yards to the center of the green. He then checks the scorecard to see that the white tees were listed at 530 yards.

"Oh yeah, I hit that drive 300 yards!!"

What Paul failed to notice was that the white tees were playing ‘a little up today’ - meaning that the greens crew moved the white tees from the normal position. So instead of a 530 yard hole – it was a 500 yard hole today. Which you might feel is an unusual occurrence, but I can tell you from working at golf courses for many years – this happens on a daily occurrence as Greenskeepers often find it necessary to ‘rest a tee box’.

Now, you may be saying – "oh, so Paul hit a 270 yard drive, that’s still a big drive." Well, maybe he didn’t even hit it 270 yards - Paul might’ve gotten a few more yards on a technicality because the hole doglegs to the right and hit his ball to the right. I say a technicality because the distances to the green from the sprinkler heads on the right-side of the hole are shorter to the green than the sprinkler heads in the middle of the fairway and the left side of the fairway.

For example – if Paul hit his drive the same exact distance, but it ended up on the left-side of the fairway, he might have a 280 yard shot to the green as opposed to the 230 yards to the green on the right side. Which, if all he did was subtract 280 yards from the 530 yards the white tees are listed at on the scorecard, he would have thought that he'd ‘only’ hit a 250 yard drive.

So even though Paul might’ve hit two drives the same exact distance – he would’ve miscalculated them as being different distances based on which side of the fairway his ball was on.

So in reality, the length of Paul’s better than normal drive was probably 250 yards or half of a football field shorter than his ‘300 yard drive’. And this doesn’t take in consideration if the hole is even slightly downhill, or the ground was a little harder because it hasn’t rained in a week, or if there was a slight breeze helping.

Which brings me to conclude based on my professional opinion that Paul’s best drives are possibly 240 yards, his average drive might be around 210 yards and his bad drives are around 180 yards.

Why is this important for Paul to know? Because now he can realistically PLAN around the golf course. Now he knows that his drives will end up between 180 and 240 yards away from the tee on 9 out of 10 tee shots. Now he can look-out at the golf course to see where the trouble is and PLAN whether that trouble is actually reachable or if he can realistically hit over the trouble. This will allow Paul to hit away from the trouble based on his yardages.

Because if Paul believed that he could hit the ball 300 yards ….. well, maybe that’s one reason why he’s been stuck in the mid 90’s to 100’s for 8 or more years. He probably hasn’t allowed himself to realistically PLAN his way around the golf course.

Do you truly know the yardages of your best, average and worst tee shots? Or do you only know the yardages of your ‘supposed’ best shots?

The Monkey hits one or two ‘supposed’ 300 yard drives and believes they should always hit drives over 280 yards

The Player doesn’t care about 300 yard drives as much as they care about knowing the distances of their best, average and worst drives

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 to help you become a Player, 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.

Click here to purchase our new DVD! or call us at 1 (888) 580 - 3635.

Labels: Golf DVD, Golf Instruction, Golf Lessons, Golf Schools, Golf Swing, Golf Travel, Golf Video, Marc Solomon, Skins Game, Video Analysis

posted by Golf Made Simple - Golf Improvement Program  # 11:03 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Who would you rather play golf like – Phil Mickelson or Joe Durant? Now Joe Durant is a fine Player or he wouldn’t be on the PGA Tour – though I’m sure that Joe Durant wishes he could play like Mickelson. So unless you’re Joe Durant’s mother, I’m assuming you’d pick Mickelson.

Yet, from what I’m being told by many Golfers – they’d rather hit the golf ball like Joe Durant, as opposed to the 2nd ranked Player in the world – Phil Mickelson. In fact, I’d say that 7 out of every 8 Golfers I speak to rather hit the golf ball like Joe Durant.

Is that hard to believe? Maybe it’s the crowd I hang with?

I say this because struggling Golfers are obsessed with hitting the fairway with their Driver. Obsessed to the point of judging their entire round on how many times they hit the fairway. It doesn’t matter if they putted well, hit their irons well or got out of the sand well – after the round it’s always: ‘I need to hit my Driver straighter!’

So if how well you hit the fairway is important to you – then you must aspire to be more of a Joe Durant type of Golfer – he’s the Golfer that’s hits loads of fairways, but doesn’t score as well as they should. I say this because even though Durant was the 5th most accurate Driver of the golf ball in 2007, he was 129th in Money made.

While Mickelson was 2nd in Money made in 2007 – though was ranked 181st in Fairways hit. As we like to say at GMS – ‘The Fairways are clogged with short hitters that can’t score. So why not learn to hit the ball long and make putts?’ A la Mickelson and Woods.

It’s funny because almost every Golfer out there will talk about how Golf has become a power game and how important it is to hit the golf ball long. For example, you’re constantly talking with friends and golf buddies about how the best Players in the world are the ones that hit the ball long and make putts. Yet, when it comes to your golf game – all you talk about is accuracy off the tee.

So you’re constantly on the driving range ‘fiddling’ with your swing trying to hit the golf ball straight as opposed to trying to improve your swing for more distance, along with taking a few minutes away from trying to hit the ball straight – and using it on the putting green. Because as the best Players in the world are showing: The formula for success on the golf course is to hit it long and make putts.

Yet, you’re spending all your time on the range practicing to hit the ball straight! Let me ask you – has this strategy been successful for you? Have you improved 6 to 11 strokes in the last year using the strategy of trying to hit the golf ball straight?

There’s a huge difference between missing fairways and hitting trees!

If you’re hitting the golf ball into the trees – yes, you need to become more accurate off the tee. Having to hit out of the trees often or losing your golf ball isn’t conducive to scoring well. Though, is hitting into the trees every once in a while – acceptable? Yes, of course it is – The best Players in the world go into the trees every once in a while and you’re not even close to having their skill.

So it’s expected of you to hit into the trees more often than Tiger Woods or Mickelson does. The sooner you accept that – the sooner you’ll free yourself up to hit better, longer tee shots more often.

If you don’t want to ever hit into the trees, I’ve got a solution for you – hit your wedge off the tee. Is that a stupid idea? Why? Because it goes back to the distance thing. You’ll score better if you’re more focused on maximum distance and moderate accuracy as opposed to moderate distance and maximum accuracy!

Woods, Mickelson and Durant back that up in their respective ways every week.

Most Golfers will cry after a tee shot – ‘Why didn’t that one go straight? See how it curved?’ Although their golf ball went 30 yards farther than usual and is only a yard or two off the fairway. Yet, when they hit a straight shot that goes their ‘normal’ distance – they cry: ‘I need to hit the ball farther!’

It’s this dilemma that’s holding 7 out of 8 Golfers from improving. They believe that a good tee shot is a shot that flies straight in the air – that if it curves a little bit (or more than a little bit), that it’s not a good shot. So the next time on the tee, you try to swing slower, concentrate hard on keeping your head down and left arm straight to hit the golf ball straighter.

Yet, you end up hitting the golf ball 30 yards shorter than the longer shot that curved a little and missed the fairway by a yard. And this shorter, though straighter tee shot will often times leave you with a 3 iron off a tight fairway lie to the green as opposed to a 7 iron sitting up in the rough.

‘The Fairways are clogged with short hitters that can’t score.’

From what I’ve seen and from what Woods, Mickelson, Singh and Durant have proved – how many times you hit the fairway has little bearing on your score. In 2007 - Woods ranked #1 in Money, #152 in Driving Accuracy; Mickelson #2 in Money, #181 in Driving Accuracy; Singh #3 in Money, #155 in Driving Accuracy; Joe Durant #129 in Money, #5 in Driving Accuracy.

So who do you aspire to swing like: Joe Durant – the guy that hits the golf ball as straight as any Golfer alive or Woods, Mickelson and Singh – 3 Golfers that can’t hit the ball straight off the tee and are showing it by winning all the money.

The Monkey complicates their whole round by obsessing over hitting straight tee shots

The Player simply hits it long and makes putts

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.


Click here to purchase our new DVD!

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

posted by Golf Made Simple - Golf Improvement Program  # 11:17 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

If there's one trait that the most successful Players have, it's coming back after a bad hole. Often times the biggest disappointment a frustrated Golfer can have is a 'good streak' of 4 or 5 holes followed by the infamous triple bogey.

Every Golfer in the world is going to experience a triple bogey every-once-in-a-while – it's just part of the game. The difference is whether you bounce back to a 'good streak' or you let a triple bogey become the entry point for a 'bad streak'.

I believe how the losers of the Super Bowl (in American Football) come back from a disappointing loss is a great analogy to how you may or may not come back from a triple bogey on the golf course. There are certain Football coaches that you know will bring their team back ready to play great the next year after a disappointing loss in front of millions of people. And there are coaches that won't be able to bring their team back – starting what may be a 'bad streak' for the team.

Let's start in recent history: The Giants just beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. To many followers of American Football, it was a major surprise (except to some Giant fans I know). The question now remains – will the Patriots be a successful team next season or will they fall like so many Super Bowl losers have in the past?

History shows that often times, the losing team can't comeback from their 'triple bogey': the Chicago Bears lost in the Super Bowl last year – and had what could be classified as a disappointing season this year. The Seattle Seahawks lost two years ago in the Super Bowl – and they followed it up with a disappointing year.

My bet: The Patriots will comeback and start a new 'good streak'. Why? Because their coach has a PLAN that he believes in regardless of one bad game (hole). While other coaches may have panicked after a big loss and moved away from what made them successful – I believe they'll start a new 'good streak'. Just as many successful Players will do after a Triple Bogey.

Take Phil Mickelson as an example – in the 3rd round of this past week's tournament he was 1 under par for the first 13 holes. He was playing very steady – he had 1 Birdie and 12 pars. Then 'wham' he takes an 11 on the par 5 - 14th hole.

I'd call that a 'blow-up hole'!

The key is what he did from there: he made Par on the next 3 holes. He started a new 'good streak'. What would have the average Golfer done? The 95 Golfer that might've made 1 Par and 12 Bogeys over the first 13 holes – what would've they done on the 15th, 16th and 17th hole if they made an 11 on the 14th hole?

Could you start a 'good streak' on the 15th hole? Would you be able to shake-off the 11? Or would you be the Golfer that exclaims – 'That's it; I always do the same thing. I always find a way to mess-up my round.' Then proceed to make a few unenjoyable double bogeys to end the round.

Or do you have a PLAN?

A PLAN that says that you played good, steady golf for 13 holes. Would you understand that you had 'a brain fart' on the 14th, but it was just that: 'a brain fart'. Could you now continue your 18 holes by making 2 Pars and 2 Bogeys? Or 1 Par and 3 Bogeys?

Or would your PLAN go out the window and either play the self-pity game or now try too hard to make a Birdie and end up with more Triples?

The Monkey goes on a 'bad streak' the first chance they get

The Player understands that one hole (or one shot) doesn't make a round

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: California, Driver, Florida, Golf, Golf DVD, Golf Instruction, Golf Lessons, Golf Schools, Golf Swing, Golf Travel, Marc Solomon

posted by Golf Made Simple - Golf Improvement Program  # 3:39 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Have you ever heard someone on the golf course exclaim – 'This is the worst I've ever hit the golf ball!' or 'this is the worst I've ever played, I've never hit the golf ball this bad!'

I've been fortunate enough the last couple of months to have played more golf than usual – some rounds at very high-end golf clubs, some rounds at municipal clubs, even a round or two at a golf course that hasn't even opened yet – though there's at least one common trait amongst Golfers regardless of the price of the green fee: Exaggeration!

Man, Golfers can really exaggerate the negative aspects of their game. Though on-the-other-hand you rarely hear a Golfer exaggerate positive information.

I'm sure you've heard more than one Golfer who has uttered the comment 'this is the worst I've ever played' – but how many times have you ever heard the reverse: 'This is the best I've ever played'? Now we usually hear that positive comment during our 3-Day GMS Programs – but you rarely hear a Golfer saying that during a casual round of Golf.

Yet, there are more Golfers than I can ever count that have the habit of letting everybody know they're 'playing my worst round ever'. And it's usually those people that have this supposed 'worst round' - every round they play.

They're habitual 'Worst Rounders'.

It's like the Golfer that tells you that 'I'm a mid 80's Golfer'. Then when you play with them and they score a 97 – they say, 'that's the worst I've ever played'. Yet, the next time they play and score a 95 – guess what they'll be telling their foursome?

Yeah, probably the same 'worst ever' comment even though he scored higher the round before!

But to dig even deeper – do you really think this Golfer's a 'mid 80's Golfer? Maybe in their mind, but most likely they had a couple of good rounds a few years ago where they scored an 86 and 87 – so in their minds, they're a 'mid 80's Golfer'. When in reality, each of the last 53 rounds they've played have been they're 'worst ever' with scores ranging between 94 and 104.


Though, this Golfer is doing a disservice to their golf game because by believing that they're a mid 80's Golfer when they're really a mid 90's Golfer – they often feel defeated by the 7th hole. Because after 7 holes they might only be 7 strokes over par on their way to scoring a very respectable 45 – though because they don't believe that Bogey Golf is up to their standard (because in their mind – they're a mid 80's Golfer), they start to become disappointed and start convincing themselves 'that I'm playing my worst round ever' – which leads them to making a double bogey on hole 8 and a triple bogey on hole 9 to score their typical 48 for the front 9.

Have you ever seen this happen to somebody? Or maybe, just maybe – you're doing it yourself?

The more you're around Golfers like I'm around Golfers – the more you see this self-defeatist mentality. Golfers are often their own worst enemy – which is an unfortunate event. Because it pains me to hear a Golfer say – 'I'm playing worse than I've ever played before.' I don't feel bad for this Golfer beacuse they're playing bad – I feel bad because they're lying to themselves. Yes, you have played this bad in the past – and once you admit this to yourself – you'll be able to make the next step towards improvement.

For example – for the Golfer a couple paragraphs above: if they accepted that they were a mid 90's Golfer, they'd be very happy being 7 over after 7 holes. And because of that – they might even par the last two holes to score 43 on the front 9 (although if they Bogeyed and shot 45 it would also be good). But because they pressed too hard because they're on track to play Bogey Golf (which isn't good enough for them), they end up finding a way to score the same old 48 (or worse).

The Monkey remembers one time that they shot a career round and believes that they should always shoot that score. Which isn't the best way to think about it because if Tiger looked at his 65 last Friday and carried the same attitude as the frustrated Golfer on Sunday during his round when he shot 6 shots higher – he might've done what many frustrated Golfers do every day by telling himself 'this is the worst round I have ever played'.

And guess what? He might've ended shooting an 84 like Mike O'Meara last Sunday.

The Monkey is constantly shooting their worst round ever

The Player knows that they're going to have some very good rounds and some very bad rounds

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

posted by Golf Made Simple - Golf Improvement Program  # 5:56 PM 0 Comments Links to this post