How To Make A Consistent Golf Swing With Your Driver

The Driver is the name of the game. There's nothing more satisfying than walking off the 18th green knowing that you hit your Driver well all day. In fact, there are times that I play golf just because I want the adrenaline rush that accompanies hitting great drives on the golf course.


To put it bluntly – you need to hit your Driver well to have fun on the golf course. Yes, you can hit your Driver well and still not score well on the golf course. Though, it's very difficult to score well if you're hitting your Driver poor - tee shot after tee shot.


So saying that – let's talk about your Driver and how you can start experiencing the euphoria of great drives. Let's start out with a little quiz:

When hitting your Driver – should you try to:

A) Swing harder than you swing your pitching wedge

B) Swing easier than you swing your pitching wedge

C) Swing with the same amount of effort as you swing your pitching wedge

Answer C


So, if your Driver is holding you back – it could be caused by the effort you're putting into swinging your golf club. We often have many Golfers coming to see us either swinging way too hard with their Driver or (and this may surprise many of you) we see almost as many Golfers swinging way too easy with their Driver.

We see the greatest improvement from our Golfers when they learn and understand that if they put the same amount of effort into swinging your Driver as you do with your pitching wedge – that you'll see incredible improvement in a short time.


Why is this?


Well, let's start with the swinging too hard problem that many face tee shot after tee shot. Listen, everybody at one time or the other has been accused (or self-accused) of swinging too hard at the golf ball with your Driver. "Oh, dang it – I just tried to kill that golf ball!"


I'm sure Tiger has done the same – so you're in good company.


It's frustrating that you know that you shouldn't swing so hard at the golf ball, yet time after time, slice after slice – we continue to do it! Believe me, there isn't any way to guarantee that you'll never swing too hard ever again. Though, there are proven ways to make sure you swing smoother most of the time – or at least 9 out of 10 times.


Though, what about the swinging too easy issue you might be experiencing? There's a lot more of these type's of Golfers out there than you may have thought. You actually maybe doing this and not even know it because many times Golfers are swinging too easy – yet it appears to others that you're swinging too hard.


I guess a simpler way of saying it is these Golfers decelerate their swings when swinging their Driver. Which may come as a shock to many because deceleration is often pegged to other clubs such as wedges (around the green) and putting strokes. Many Golfers can't imagine that they're decelerating with their Driver – yet many of you are.


The question that is often asked when this subject is brought up is – "Why would anyone decelerate their Driver?" And the best answer I can give you is that it's probably because you've been accused of swinging too hard too many times. And we all know – it's been pounded into our heads – that swinging too hard with your Driver is one of the '7 Deadly Sins' we can commit on the golf course. What's another 'Deadly Sin' on the golf course – 'Thou shall not use your ball retriever to fish for more golf balls after you found yours!' Once you find it, drop it, hit it and move along. Amen.


So the affect of constantly being told that you're swinging too hard is that you end up standing over the golf ball wanting to hit a good tee shot, while at the same time you're convincing yourself to "swing nice 'n slow, swing nice 'n slow, swing nice ‘n slow". It's almost like you're trying to hypnotize yourself.


And using the philosophy of – if you hear the same thing over and over, you'll start believing it – you start to be more and more cautious about swinging too hard.


So to give you a better picture/understanding of what I'm speaking about: There are two ways to decelerate – you could be decelerating your body so that your arms are out racing your body to the golf ball (thus becoming disconnected) or you could be decelerating your arms and having your body out race your arms to the golf ball (also becoming disconnected). Either way – you're becoming disconnected and causing yourself to lose control of your club, your club face and thus ... your golf ball.


Either way – it'll appear to others that are watching you (and to yourself) that you're swinging too hard because you lost control. Yet, is it that you're swinging too hard? Or is it that since your arms are out racing your body (which had decelerated) – it just appears as if your arms are swinging too hard.


Think of it this way - if you're body didn't decelerate and was moving along with your arms – you'd hit a great shot and it would appear as if you had made a smooth, fluid, easy golf swing. Yet, because your body slowed down – it makes it appear as if you were swinging your arms too fast. When in reality, your arms were moving at the proper pace.


And the same is true vise versa: if your arms slow down and your body continues to move as it should – others will be telling you that you're swinging too hard and that "you're getting way too far ahead of the ball".


Yet, in reality, all that's happening is that your arms were decelerating. And because you looked so discombobulated – it appears as if you were swinging harder than you should.


Do you want to become more consistent with your Driver? Learn to control your Pace of Swing. GMS uses more than a few Drills to help Golfers to become more consistent with their Driver. The Golfers that continue to practice these Drills see tremendous improvement off the tee with their Driver. Tremendous Improvement!


Now, I obviously can't get into great detail here in this format – so I'll go through a few fairly quickly. The first is almost always mentioned in the Testimonials we receive and display on our website and in Golf Improvement Weekly – simply "Tick Tock". The Golfers that are serious about "Tick Tock" – improve dramatically. The Golfers that aren't committed about it still improve – though maybe not as much as the ones that are serious about it. So simply – get serious and stay committed to your "Tick Tock".


The second is the Half Swing Driver Drill. I can't think of a better way to warm-up than Half Swing Drivers. The control that you achieve over your Driver using the Half Swing Driver Drill when it's a part of the 29 Ball Warm-up is incredible. In fact, I know one Golfer that has improved dramatically that says that he attributes the 29 Ball Warm-up to being one of the main reasons he was so much more consistent in 2008 than ever before. And he maybe the world's biggest advocate for the Half Swing Driver Drill!


The third is the Alternating Clubs Drill. What we have found is that Golfer's that are constantly practicing with their lower number clubs and then gradually moving up to their longer clubs and eventually to their Driver – get into the habit of swinging each club harder and harder. And then after they discover they're swinging their Driver too hard – they move into the decelerating debacle I mentioned above.


The Alternating Clubs Drill allows the Golfer to feel as if every club is being swung with the same amount of effort. It's amazing how this Drill allows a Golfer to swing the club more controlled in a short period of time. And because of this, its fun to watch our Golfers smile again as they walk up to the 1st tee in anticipation of hitting a good Driver as opposed to glum and hesitant about hitting another you know what.


And it's even more fun watching that same Golfer hit a fantastic Driver, and then walk off the tee feeling great about their golf game, their golf swing and their Driver – as opposed to you know what.


Saying that – It's amazing to me that with the success that Golfers see with the GMS program – that people choose others methods. When other programs are struggling so badly that they are constantly lowering prices to get customers because they never have any returnees – GMS had a record 2008. And that record can be attributed to the hundreds of returning Golfers and the friends they brought back with them.


And there's nothing more rewarding than seeing a Golfer that comes back to see us and who says something along the lines of – "I had so much fun playing Golf this past year and I attribute it all to GMS, the Drills and the PLAN you gave me."


So if you come to see us in what remains of 2008 or in 2009 – we're continuing our commitment to helping Golfers continually improve their golf games. You can trust that in addition to all the GMS Drills (some mentioned above), we're still leading the Golf Instruction Industry in developing and improving our program so that our Golfers continue to improve at the fastest rate in the business.


Our belief at GMS is – 'When you succeed in Golf – we succeed in Golf!' Therefore we want to see you play your best golf ever!


The Monkey swings too hard, then swings too easy, then swings too hard, then …


The Player finds consistency with their Driver by swinging all clubs the same


Go ahead, be a Player!


Regards,


Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life


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Hit Your Driver Like A Top Tour Player

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Here we go again with Driving Accuracy. As this may come as a shock for any Golfer that has been diligent in trying to keep their golf ball on the short grass – Driving Accuracy when it comes to simply hitting Fairways is the most overrated stat in all sports. Now, I know that reading this information probably upsets many Golfers whose battle cry on the links is simply – "if I could just hit more fairways I could …!"

And I know that I risk you canceling your subscription to GIW if you read this and say – "Marc, you're a complete idiot. Hitting Fairways is the most important thing in golf." But if you could just leave your preconceived notions in the next room for a few minutes – you might actually see something you've never thought of before.

When we're speaking about Driving Accuracy – yes, you need to keep your golf ball in play to have fun on the golf course. There's nothing worse than hitting your tee shots into the trees or water or losing golf balls. It's incredibly upsetting to always be taking penalties or having to chip out of the trees.

We all want to be in position to have our next shot have a chance of getting on the green – so being out of play with your tee-shot is down-right frustrating. And frankly – I've seen Golfers quit the game over the agony of not being able to keep their tee shots in play. I'm sure we're all in agreement that nothing causes more frustration than errant tee shots.

Though, as you'll see - the top Golfers aren't worried about hitting Fairways and if you watch their games and then look at their stats – this can be backed up. The top Golfers keep their golf balls in play, hit the golf ball far, are very good around the green and make putts. Whereas the average Golfer trying to break 90 or 100 is overwhelming consumed with hitting Fairways (and is often not happy hitting 8 out of 14) – the best Players in the world (that score in the 60's) hit the same 8 out of 14 Fairways you're not happy with.

We see it week after week, year after year, Tiger win after Tiger win. What do we see? We see that the winner is "almost never" the most accurate Driver. And the only reason I say "almost never" is because it will happen once a decade – so I can't just say "never" because someone will send me an email saying – "Well, Harvey Bufufneck won the 1998 Camden Society of Urologists Tournament and he led the field in Fairways Hit."

I'm not just saying this because it's my opinion. I'm stating the facts based on Results. GMS is a Results Based Program. Everything we do is based on having our Golfers see Results – as opposed to most Instruction that's built on Theories and Assumptions. We determine if a Golfer is doing better based on their Results and we have found that Golfer Results don't improve even 1 stroke solely based on hitting Fairways.

Yes, Golfers will improve dramatically by learning how to keep the golf ball in play – but they don't improve one stroke by hitting more Fairways. We have conducted tests with Golfers that have backed this up. For example: We have a test where we play the 220 Yard Game. We assume the Golfer hits a 220 yard drive on each Par 4. We put one ball 220 yards from the tee in the middle of the fairway and we put another golf ball the same distance, but to the side of the fairway.

The Golfer then plays each ball until they get it into the hole. The Results show that the scores stay the same regardless of whether the ball was hit from the Fairway or from the rough. Yes, sometimes the Golfer's score on one hole will be better from the Fairway vs. off the Fairway – but on the next hole it maybe the opposite. All in all – the scores after playing 12 Par 4's come out to be the same. Try it yourself.

Now let's go to the Pro's on Tour. Let's start with the Nationwide Tour – at the Nationwide Tour Championship a couple of weeks ago: The winner (1st) was ranked 39th out of 58 Golfers in Hitting Fairways. The guy in last place (58th) was ranked 6th in Hitting Fairways. The Winner was ranked 12th in Greens in Regulation. The guy ranked 6th in Hitting Fairways was ranked 45th in Greens in Regulation.

This goes against the beliefs of many struggling Golfers. The struggling Golfer wants to hit Fairways because they believe it will lead to more Greens. The Results show that's not the case. Read the above stats again to get an even clearer picture. This is happening week after week, year after year, Tiger win after Tiger win.

Which just shows that hitting Fairways has very little to do with hitting Greens. Though, to clarify – missing the Fairway and being in the rough is very different than hitting into the trees or water or losing golf balls. But, this is to show that the Golfer with the singular thought on the tee being Fairways, Fairways, Fairways – might be holding themselves back from better scores.

More proof? The guy leading the PGA Tour in Driving Accuracy (Olin Browne hitting 80% of the Fairways) is ranked 165th in Scoring Average. While the guy leading in Scoring Average (Phil Mickelson) is ranked 181st in Fairways Hit (hitting just 55% - meaning Browne is hitting 25% more Fairways). The difference in the amount of Fairways hit is staggering, but so is the difference in their winnings (which tells the story of how well they score week after week).

We're not saying for you to be wild off the tee. You need to keep your golf ball in play. But, too many Golfers are so worried about hitting Fairways that they don't allow themselves to make a free flowing swing. The tension that you're creating (by feeling you need to hit your shot in the Fairway) is doing more damage than good. The tension you're creating is actually causing you to hit drives out of play. The worry you're creating about hitting your tee shots in the Fairway could be causing you to lose 20 to 50 yards off your tee shots!

On the other hand – take Mickelson – there's little regard in his game for hitting Fairways. His game is about keeping it in play (with the occasional ball out of play), getting good distance from his tee shots (to allow for easier clubs to the green), having a strong wedge game and then making putts. And as much as Golfers believe that Mickelson and Woods have different styles of play – they don't. They both use the same PLAN mentioned above!

I'm not saying that your style should be like Tiger's or Mickelson's style, but look at the top Players in the game according to best Scoring Average: Mickelson, Garcia, Singh, Harrington, Kim and Villegas. They're ranked: 181st, 153rd, 150th, 154th, 159th and 166th respectively as far as hitting Fairways. While all these phenomenal Players are averaging only hitting around 55% of the Fairways – they are still achieving better scores than other Golfers hitting 80% of the Fairways.

Yet, you're styling your game around 80% of Fairways. If so, you're playing golf like the bottom half of the Players on Tour. Golf Made Simple believes that your PLAN should be based on the Top Players on Tour – Keep your ball in play, improving the distance you hit the golf ball (without causing anymore inaccuracy), having a strong wedge game and then making putts. This formula works – we have the stats from our Golfers to prove this.

Why anyone would even consider taking any other Instruction is mind boggling to me!

GMS would like you to improve your scores by helping you to improve your golf swing to strike the golf ball better. This will help you to keep more golf balls in play as well as hit your Drives farther. Which will help you to have shorter clubs to the green. Which will allow you to be more accurate and have shorter putts. Which will allow you to have better scores.

That's how the top 6 Golfers mentioned above do it year after year. Oh, and that other guy seems to be doing the same thing – you know who I mean – some guy named Eldrick. Or better known as Tiger Woods – the guy that this year was ranked 169th in Driving Accuracy and 1st in Greens in Regulation.

Improve your golf swing so that you hit the golf ball more solid and keep it in play. Don't improve it just for the sake of hitting Fairways. The Results show that Fairways Hit is extremely overrated. The Results show that the stat of "Keeping Your Golf Ball In Play" is far more important for you if you want to play consistent golf.

The Monkey is so worried about hitting the Fairway that tension leads to inconsistent golf swings

The Player is too focused on their Tick Tock to worry about the Fairway

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com


By the way, last week’s offer for the GMS Indoor Putting Drill was a major success. With over 1,000 requests last Tuesday alone – as well as 100’s of requests each day through the weekend - including many from people who weren’t even subscribed to GIW (the offer was forwarded from Friends). It has been both borderline overwhelming as well as very rewarding to be able to have so many requests – as well as GIW readers forwarding the offer to friends.

So, just in case you missed last week’s GIW or are new to GIW – you can still receive the Indoor Putting Drill by emailing us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put GIW in the subject line.

We hope you enjoy the drill – but more importantly – we hope you practice the drill.

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Golf Practice In The Winter

Are you tired of going into each new golf season with high expectations and then ending your season not reaching your goals? This is often followed by you promising yourself that you're going to work hard during the winter on your grip, your swing plane, keeping your head still, blah, blah, blah. It seems as if every year around this time I get the same emails - "Marc, where I live I can't play during the Winter, but I want to be ready for the Spring. What can I practice inside my house during the Winter?"

Working on your golf swing in your house without hitting golf balls or let me rephrase that by saying - without hitting golf balls and being able to see the flight of the golf ball - isn't going to help you. Or worse - it could be the start of the infamous "Fiddling Disease!" Have you ever had "Fiddling Disease"?

"I'm working on sliding my left thumb over to the right about a 1/2 inch and extending it a little" - "I'm trying to come through impact with a straighter left knee so that I hit against a strong left side" - "I'm trying to block the water hazards out of my mind. If I can close my eyes and click my heels together three times and say there's no water, there's no water, there's no water - I think it will stop the ball from going into the water."

Listen – you and I know that once Spring weather comes around, you won't spend as much time as you should on the practice putting green. You're going to be either out on the golf course or hitting golf balls on the driving range. Now, I'm not saying that's what you should be doing – I'm saying that that's reality.

So use the time you have during the winter to do some putting practice. In our bi-weekly GMS Alumni Bulletin that we send out only to GMS Golfers – we asked everyone to email us if they wanted for us to send them a great putting drill/game they can use inside. The response was spectacular.

Now, we can't offer the same drill here – but we do have another Putting Drill we'd like to offer you that will help you with your distance control. Because believe it or not – 3 putts are caused by not being able to control your distance more than they're caused by directional problems. Additionally – making more 1 putts is based more on Distance Control than Directional Control - but that explanation will be left for my Instructors in our GMS 3-day Program.

So, if you'd like for us to email you a special Indoor Version of an excellent GMS Putting Drill that you could spend hours on this Winter - email us at IndoorPuttingDrill@GolfMadeSimple.com and put GIW in the subject line.

Spend your time on this drill during the Winter and your putting will improve dramatically. And if your putting improves – your scores improve!

The Monkey spends their Winter at a golf dome or heated driving range working on their Driver

The Player spends their Winter improving their scores by working on their putting stroke

Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

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On The Golf Course – Winners and Whiners

I've noticed two types of Golfers on the golf course – Winners and Whiners. Now there's not much difference between the words if you look fast – the only difference is the 'h' in Whiner and an extra 'n' in Winner. What does the 'h' stand for?

It could stand for humility. Meaning, in order to play to your potential, you need to take the good with the bad. If you're too worried what others might be thinking about you after a bad shot, or two or three – you might fall into the trap that many Whiners do. The Golfer often defends themselves by Whining about their golf game – "I usually hit my irons so much better than this. I'm not playing very well today. I usually play better than this."

Everybody is going to have a round where they don't hit their irons well. Or a round that they hit their Drived bad. Or putt bad. This is just part of the game of golf. Though more importantly - other Golfers don't care if you're hitting your Irons bad – they're more concerned with their game and probably don't want to hear your negative talk about your golf game.

A Whiner tells everybody about their problems on the golf course. And what often happens is that their problems get worse and worse as the round goes on. Almost as if they're trying to convince themselves of the problem or prove it to the other Golfers they're playing with.

A Winner just makes their PLAN and plays.

Perhaps the 'h' stands for humble. Because as soon as you think you got it and don't make as thorough a PLAN as you need to make – boom: Triple Bogey, Double Bogey, Double Bogey. Seven over par in three holes.

You must never let your guard down to think – "oh, I just have an easy wedge to the green." Because more times than not, you don't make your best golf swing and the ball ends up in a tough spot around the green. Which often leads to the Triple Bogey that could've - no should've - been a Par or Birdie.

Often times we get on a good streak on the golf course where we start playing our best golf. The game seems easy. You start to hit your stride and play like you feel you should all the time. Birdie, Par, Par, Par – "I love this game!"

"Ok, I have 110 yards to the green. I can make Birdie here. The flags on the left side, there's plenty of room on the right side of the green to get on safely and two putt for another par. No, I know I can get the ball closer to the hole to make Birdie."

"Crap! I pulled it! In the left bunker." Then after taking 2 shots to get out. The second of which rolled over the green. 1 shot to get on the green (that you hit slightly behind the ball) and 2 putts – your decision to go away from the PLAN that was working has cost you big time. What could've (or should've) had a 5 hole stretch of Birdie, Par, Par, Par, Par – which turned into Birdie, Par, Par, Par, Triple Bogey.

"Triple Bogey from 110 yards away. I can't believe it. I stink!" Which may lead you into the aforementioned humility category above or the other 'h' below.

A Whiner forgets how hard they had to work for the easy Pars and Birdies. A Whiner abandons what has been working for them because they become greedy. As they say on Wall Street – 'Pigs get slaughtered!'

The Winner just makes their PLAN and plays.

The 'h' could also represent hot - as in hothead. Have you ever gotten upset over one or two bad shots only to allow those one or two shots to get you in such a mental funk that you lose conscious thought over the next 3 holes because you're so pissed at yourself?

I have witnessed this over and over on the golf course. Yes, everybody gets upset with themselves on the golf course. There's nothing wrong with that. The so called Mental Guru's that say that you shouldn't get upset are pretty much idiots that are selling you on nonsense and are not living in reality.

It's natural to get upset after a bad shot.

Though, the 'hothead' can't let it go. After missing a putt on the 2nd hole, they carry over the frustration to the 3rd tee. Which contributes to a bad tee shot. Then the bad tee shot added to the missed putt is directly involved with the next bad swing – which contributes to another bad swing after that and the one after that and the one...

And for the next 6 holes, the 'hothead' collects Double and Triple Bogeys like my junk mail folder collects worthless emails.

A Whiner is always thinking about their last bad shot. Sometimes it seems that the hothead thrives on getting mad at themselves. Almost as if they're out on the golf course more for the thrill of getting upset over their game – than for the actual enjoyment that golf can bring.

The Winner just makes a PLAN and plays.

How does one Golfer go from scoring in the 100's to scoring in the 80's within a year – while another Golfer stays stuck in the 100's after 3 years? It could be the 'h'.

Would you classify the Golfer that improved from well above Bogey Golf to well better than Bogey Golf as a Winner or a Whiner? It could be the 'h'.

The good news is that the Whiner can turn into a Winner in a short period of time. It's not easy – you really have to watch yourself because the old habits of the Whiner come back pretty fast if they're not watched. All you have to do is take the 3 'h's' above out of your game and add the 'n'.

What's the 'n' stand for? 'Nothing'. You really don't have to do anything else besides getting rid of the 'h' to go from a Whiner to a Winner.

How about you? Are you a Winner or a Whiner?

The Monkey spends more time on the golf course whining about their golf game then they do making a PLAN for their golf game

The Player always seems to be winning in their effort to improve because they focus their energy towards making a PLAN

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com



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Golf's US Open Next Week - Watch and Learn

So we have one more tournament on the PGA Tour until everybody whips themselves into frenzy the following week at the US Open in San Diego, California. I associate the US Open with being in the heart of golf season – so that may mean that Golfers are starting to get into their weekly games and enjoying life.

I believe there a few things you should be observing when watching the US Open on television. One of which is the Players making their PLAN before each shot. I'd like for you to take notice and compare how you do it, versus how they do it.

The common Golfer walks (or drives their cart) down the fairway to their golf ball; once at the ball; they find their yardage, look at their clubs and say to themselves – 'I'm 185 yards to the green, that's my 3 iron' – and away they go.

The Player you'll see on television at the US Open will walk down the fairway to their golf ball; they'll get the yardage to the flag; the distance to front of the green; the distance to the back of the green; along with the distance the flag is to the left-side and right-side of the green. The Player will also observe where the trouble is around the green; take into account their predominant ball flight; along with taking into account which way their ball goes when they do hit a bad shot.

Then and only then will they select a club and aim for their shot. How close does that come to how you prepare for each shot?

And although, their golf swings are much better than the common Golfer's golf swing – the main reason the Player doesn't make a slew of Double Bogies and Triple Bogies is that they have a PLAN for every golf shot that's based on their Strengths and Weaknesses.

Yes, there will be people that debate me that the reason the Player has less Doubles and Triples is that they have better golf swings – I won't deny that that's part of the reason. But, it's not the whole reason.

And although the Player has more talent than the common Golfer, one reason they can make better, more confident golf swings for each shot is because they thoroughly PLAN each shot before they even select a club. And additionally, because their PLAN is so well made; that when they do make a bad golf swing; the ball doesn't end up in a position that will leave them the potential to make a Double or Triple Bogey.

The common Golfer just glances at the yardage to the center of the green and hits the club that pertains to that yardage based on making perfect contact with the golf ball. Though, unfortunately, this Golfer has decided the yardage they can hit their 3-iron based solely on a couple of pure hits that they had back in 1993. Yet, they stick with that yardage even though they usually hit the ball short of the green in the bunker or they'll try to get that extra yardage to the green by swinging too hard and ending up in areas of the golf course you rather not be.

Now the Golfer will often times say – 'Well, I don't have a caddie to give me those yardages and I can't take too long to decide what club to use because the other Golfers I play with will be waiting for me.'

Well, you can PLAN if you know when to PLAN and how to PLAN.

No, you don't need to know the exact yardage from the left-side of the green to the flag, but you could and should have a good estimate or even turn it into a fraction. For example: 'The flag appears to be 2/3's across the green'. Which means that 2/3's of the green is to the left of the flag and only 1/3 of the green is to the right of the flag.

If that's the case, which side of the flag should you aim towards?

And the answer isn't straight at the flag. If you do aim at the flag in this scenario, hit a good golf shot, yet the golf ball drifts a little to the right (has that ever happened to you), you'll end up missing the green to the right and possibly short siding yourself with a tough wedge shot. And this is the classic case of you hitting a really good golf shot to the green, but possibly ending up with a Double Bogey.

The Player won't let that happen. The Player in the scenario above would aim to the 2/3's side of the green so that if the ball drifts a little right, it would end up on the green. If it drifts a little to the left, it would also end up on the green.

So yes, there's a big difference in the way the Players in the US Open hit the golf ball versus how you hit the golf ball, but they do make bad golf swings during the course of a round of golf. And those bad swings could lead to disasters when you're playing a golf course set-up for the US Open. But, the top Players won't experience a lot of disasters with their bad shots because they'll have a PLAN to avoid them.

The common Golfer will aim at the flag like they think Tiger Woods would do – yet, in many of those situations Tiger wouldn't be aiming at the flag. Tiger has a PLAN that's based on more factors than just on how far he hits his 3-iron on his very best golf swing.

The Monkey selects their club and shot based solely on the distance to the center of the green


The Player selects their club and shot on a whole lot more

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon - Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

Here We Come Toronto, Canada

GMS is excited to announce that we'll be conducting GMS Programs in Toronto this summer! Along with hosting 2 and 3 day Level 2 GMS Programs that are open to returning GMS Golfers that have seen us in Florida, California and Arizona - we'll also be hosting Level 1 Programs for Golfers that haven't been to see us yet.

Why Toronto? Well the Toronto area is the 3rd biggest supplier of Golfers to Golf Made Simple's programs in Florida, California and Arizona. So when we received the opportunity to come ‘North of the Border' this summer – we jumped at the chance

We heard a lot of "You need to open up in Toronto because I'll be your #1 client" and "If you ever come to Toronto, I'm sure all my friends will sign-up!" Well Toronto, here we come!

For dates, rates and location of our facility in the Toronto area – just give us a telephone call at 1-888-580-3635 or email at IWantToBe@GolfMadeSimple.com.

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Your Best Summer of Golf Ever!

Do you want to have your best summer of Golf ever? Then repeat after me – say it out loud so it means more than just it saying to yourself:

"Going ahead from this day forward – I solemnly swear to work on my golf game with the specific goal of improvement. Not a minute of my time will have anything to do with just mindlessly hitting golf ball after golf ball. My game is too important for me to fall into that bad habit.

"From now on, I'm committed to working specifically on the drills that will help me to improve the Weaknesses in my golf swing. I will not just see a golf tip in a golf magazine and decide that this is what I need to work on. I will have to make an honest decision on whether that tip really pertains to my golf swing as opposed to just trying it because it's in the magazine or on television.

"I realize that I need to hit the golf ball better to score better, but I also need to convince myself that 36 putts a round or more is too much. In the past, I've always had the philosophy that my putting is good enough and that I'll start working on it when I get my golf swing more consistent.

"Yet, I've been working on trying to become more consistent for the last 5 years and if I kept that same philosophy, it might be another 5 years before I get to my putting. I need to really stay adamant about this because 36 putts is at least 4 putts too many per round. And really, if I do have only 36 putts a round, it was good putting day for me – in reality I probably average 40 or more putts per round.

"And if I just spend 25% of the time I usually reserved for the driving range and used it for my putting – I could easily go from 40 putts to 32 putts in a short timeframe. Hey, an 8 stroke improvement isn't a bad thing! If you had asked me if I wanted to improve my full swing to improve 8 strokes – I'd be all over that as quick as you could flip a switch, but for some reason – it never meant as much when it came to putting.

"I wonder why Golfers aren't as enthused about improving their putting 8 strokes? Why is it that in the past that improving 8 strokes with my putter didn't seem as appealing as improving 8 strokes with my Driver?

"I mean, 8 strokes is 8 strokes regardless of what area you improve upon.

"My goal is to improve. And the way to see improvement and have it continue through the years is to have a PLAN - that'll allow me to stay focused on what I need to work on. In the past, I've jumped from drill to drill and swing thought to swing thought trying to find "The Magic". Yet, the only thing I found was that I was never happy with my game. From now on – I'm staying focused on the drills that I know are going to improve the Weaknesses in my golf swing!

"Golfers around the world often times become so distracted that they lose focus at the driving range. They fall prey to getting away from their PLAN of improving how they hit the golf ball and get into a ball bashing session that often includes alternating moments of exhilaration; followed closely by long periods of despair.

"Not me anymore – that's the old me. I want to be a Player. And you just can't call yourself a Player and expect to become one – You Need To Earn Player Status!!"

It's easy to read the above – it's a little more difficult to make sure you live by it. Though, if you want to earn Player Status – you need to stay committed as opposed to getting distracted by all the new swing tips that are put in your path each year.

The Monkey says they want to become a Player, yet doesn't commit to a PLAN

The Player reads this GIW over and over and lives it

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.

Please Click here to purchase through our website or call us at 1 (888) 580 - 3635.

Click here to purchase on Amazon.com

and/or to read the reviews of Golfer's that have purchased the DVD

What Causes Compensations in Your Golf Swing?

Click Here To Listen to The Audio Version of Golf Improvement Weekly



The idea that golf needs to be as complicated as many Golfers are making it is a frustrating/confusing concept to me. Every week, I hear of a new, groundbreaking concept that someone has come up with that’ll help all Golfers to hit the golf ball farther and straighter. I’ve heard about new grips, swing plane concepts, weight transfer systems, along with stuff I don’t want to even mention that supposedly will make your swing automatic.


And the funny part is that there are Golfers out there that believe in this stuff because they feel as though – ‘the more complicated, the more better’. These Golfers don’t want to make their golf swing simple. This group of Golfers has a weird perversion towards making things more complicated. They feel as though they need to have 8 steps in their swing. They feel as though that in addition to keeping their head still, they also need to get their elbow tucked into their side as they shift their weight, keep their golf club on plane and use the X-Factor.

It’s not that these Golfer don’t want to make it simple – it’s more about that they get so involved with listening and reading all the golf information out there, that they start believing the golf swing has to be complicated. But I believe these Golfers are in denial because as much as they say that they want to think about all that stuff (and the hundreds of other things they’re thinking about every swing) – they truly wish that they could make it simpler.

They often say to themselves that they’re thinking too much and need to swing without so many thoughts - Yet, many of these aforementioned Golfers have a tendency of getting frightened if they’re not thinking of enough things every time they swing. And although they readily admit that their bad shots are brought about because they were thinking too much – as they approach the golf ball, regardless of how much they try, they go back to thinking about everything they need to do in their golf swing.

These Golfers are constantly telling themselves to swing with no thoughts – that is until they prepare to hit the golf ball when they automatically revert back to thinking too much before, during and after their golf swing.

New Golfers Improve Faster

How is it possible that using the GMS - Results Based Approach, we can get a Golfer that’s just learning to play to be able to break 90 in less than a year? While at the same time there are Golfers that have been playing for years and have taken 100’s of lessons, been through countless golf schools – and still aren’t able to break 90 and/or 100 with any consistency?

As one Golfer that had spent enough money on golf lessons to support a small country (without seeing much improvement); recently wrote to us: “I think the difference between GMS and the other schools that we have attended are that you don’t get students bogged down with mechanics. Your explanations are easy to understand, the drills are fun, and your focus is on one thing…impact.”

Impact – What An Interesting Concept!

Yet, when you hear frustrated Golfers talking about what they’re working on in their golf swing, it often has nothing to do with impact. Everything is about how they saw themselves on video, how they’re taking the club too far outside, how their head is moving too much, how they’re not turning enough on the backswing, how they don’t have the butt of the club pointing down the target line at a certain point of their golf swing or how they don’t get enough fiber in their diet.

Well maybe, just maybe the reason that all those above compensations are happening is because you don’t know impact. Maybe if you worked on being able to get the different parts of your body working together so you’re more in control of the golf club, and/or understood what the motion of impact felt like – maybe all these other so called problems would self correct.

As the majority of Golfers that are struggling with their golf swing are learning to fix compensations by being prescribed more compensations that are being masqueraded as swing fixes – we see Results with our Golfers because many bad swing compensations will be eliminated by simply working on impact.

Do you know that you can eliminate the “over the top, outside in, casting” problem by working on impact?

Yet, many Golfers that have a simple slicing problem are told that the reason for this slice is the above mentioned “over the top, outside in, casting” problem. They are then given another compensation being masqueraded as a swing fix such as learning to ‘tuck in your elbow on the down swing’. And although it’s very easy to tuck in your elbow (or use any other swing “improvement” compensation) on practice swing after practice swing – this Golfer can never do it when there’s a golf ball to hit.

Why?

Because trying to tuck in your elbow is a swing “improvement” compensation that is being used to fix another compensation already in your swing. And that compensation is being used to cover-up another compensation. And thus, you’ll have to learn another compensation to fix that compensation and then another compensation to fix another. And pretty soon you have a golf swing that’s built upon compensations.

And when all these compensations align – you hit a good shot - yet, this doesn’t happen the majority of the time. This is why some Golfers hit the golf ball straight sometimes, to the right sometimes and to the left sometimes; why you hit the golf ball solid sometimes, behind the ball sometimes and top it sometimes – any of these could happen on any swing because you never know which compensation in your swing is not going to work.

So golf becomes frustrating because you have so many compensations in your golf swing that you end up saying – “I’m so inconsistent, I have so many things wrong with my golf swing.” And out of desperation, this Golfer now seeks out someone that will give them a complete swing overhaul that has nothing to do with impact – and as this Golfer struggles worse than ever with this complete swing change, they hear the infamous phrase of “well, you have to get worse before you get better!’

Great, by hearing that, it should make you feel better about your struggle. And the funny thing is that all that could be avoided and good golf swings could be created by understanding impact.

The Monkey jumps from compensation to compensation because each compensation they add to their golf swing to fix another compensation leads to more bad swing habits that cause you to add more compensations

The Player understands the motion involved with impact

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.


Please Click here to purchase through our website or call us at 1 (888) 580 - 3635.


Click here to purchase on Amazon.com

and/or to read the reviews of Golfer's that have purchased the DVD

Who's Your Caddie ... On The Golf Course

Click Here To Listen to The Audio Version of Golf Improvement Weekly


Come on, tell me - Who's Your Caddie? I can't tell you how many times I've heard a Golfer tell me that they played better when they've had a chance to play 18 holes with a Caddie. Why is this? And how can you incorporate these same strategies and techniques into your game all the time?

Is it because they're cleaning your clubs after each shot, raking your bunkers or even carrying your clubs? That may be a small influence. Or can it be that after a couple of holes of watching you play, they know more about your game and your abilities than you may know about yourself?

Now, can you learn how to develop this talent and apply it to your game?

I believe that your good rounds with a Caddie are because the Caddie is giving you the correct club for each shot, along with making a PLAN for you. The Caddie isn't allowing you to play shots that you don't have the ability to play consistently. The Caddie is forcing you to play to your Strengths and away from your Weaknesses.

"Mr. Smith, it's 135 yards to carry the bunker on the right, but there's nothing to carry on the left – it's a wide open approach. So aim left and make a smooth swing with your 8-iron." Though, if you were playing without a Caddie, it might've turned out to be you trying to hit the ball over the sand bunker with your 9-iron.

Maybe you need to be your own Caddie on the golf course. Not just doing the usual Caddie duties of taking care of the clubs, sand bunkers and tending the flag – maybe you can learn to PLAN your game around the golf course like a high ranking Caddie would help you do.

When a Golfer is playing on the golf course – they can't see themselves play. And I'm not talking about watching your swing on video. I'm talking about how you play and the decisions you make on the golf course. When a talented Caddie watches a Golfer – that Caddie can see within a couple of holes what distance you should be hitting your 7-iron from. Or I should say – they know the distances you can consistently hit all your clubs.

Yet, many Golfers go for years, hundreds of rounds, thousands of shots without knowing as much about their game as a Caddie would by just watching you for two holes. Now this isn't an advertisement for you to get a Caddie your next round. This is to say – Most Golfers don't have a PLAN based on what truly are their Strengths and Weaknesses.

Are the yardages you can hit your golf clubs - on a consistent basis - important to know?

Absolutely! Because 99% of the time – you have to be your own Caddie on the golf course – and I'm not talking about just the club cleaning and raking the bunker tasks – you need to determine what your abilities are. You need to understand the yardage you can consistently hit your 7-iron as opposed to the yardage you can hit the ball when you hit it your best – "I can hit my 7-iron 155 yards when I hit it well."

Yet, how many times out of 10 can you hit it well? If you hit your 7-iron 155 yards only 3 times out of 10 – what distances and directions are you hitting it the other 7 times? I don't know – maybe 147 yards, but I guarantee that there isn't a Golfer on the Planet that hits the ball the best they can more than 3 times out of 10. And most Golfers are basing their distances on only what they can hit it on their best shots.

Again, this example can be made with any club or any distance that pertains to your game. Let's just make this simple by sticking with a 6-iron and 7-iron, along with a 155 yard shot.

Though, many Golfers blame bad shots primarily on their golf swing – yet, maybe you make a lot of bad golf swings because you continually have the wrong club and an unrealistic PLAN for many of your shots? On the other hand, if you were able to make your PLAN based on how your Caddie would be doing it - by watching you and understanding what your abilities are – maybe you'd come to the realization that if you played your 6-iron from 155 yards that you might hit the ball well 6 times out of 10.

If you could instantly double your consistency by going from one club to another – would you do it?

Though, I'm sure that there are some Golfers that are now saying – "Yea, but what would happen if I hit my 6-iron really well? I don't want to hit the golf ball over the green." Yet, you wouldn't hit it over the green because if it were 155 yards to the center of the green – it's most likely at least 170 yards to the back of the green. And if you hit your 7-iron 155 yards on your best shot – trust me, you're not hitting your 6-iron more than 170 yards on your best swing.

So, if it's true that you should take your 6-iron as opposed to your 7-iron in the example above – and most people don't ever consistently switch to a longer club and swing smoother; usually most Golfers switch to the shorter club and swing harder – but if it's true that you could hit the golf ball better - twice as often: Why wouldn't you do it consistently?

I can't tell you how many times during our GMS 9 hole On-course Training that a Golfer would say that they were going to hit a club from a distance that I knew they couldn't hit the golf ball well - consistently enough. So after a discussion, I'm often able to convince the Golfer to hit their 6-iron as opposed to their 7-iron. And then after they hit the green with their 6-iron, I'd ask them to hit the same shot with their 7-iron.

How many times do you think the person that successfully used their 6-iron was able hit the ball on the same green from that same distance with their 7-iron?

Exactly, less than 10% of the time. Because the Golfer knew that they'd have to swing just a little bit harder ‘to get it there' – and because of that they wouldn't hit the golf ball as solid and they'd end up missing short of the green or flaring the ball off to the side into the sand, water, trees or otherwise.

Why were so many Golfers that took their 6-iron able to hit the green much more often? My belief is that they knew that they had the correct club in their hands and were able to make a smooth, natural swing that had all the parts of their body working together to produce a solid ball strike. Which are exactly the kinds of swings we like to see at GMS.

Why did they miss so frequently with their 7-iron? My belief is that because you know you have to be absolutely perfect, while at the same time giving it a little bit extra to be able to ‘get the ball there' - was enough to throw off your golf swing.

The Monkey just goes out and hits the clubs they always hit because "if I hit it well, I can get it there"

The Player makes a more consistent swing because their PLAN is based on what their Caddie would tell them to do

Go ahead, Be a Player!

Be your own Caddie.

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.


Please Click here to purchase through our website or call us at 1 (888) 580 - 3635.




Click here to purchase on Amazon.com

and/or to read the reviews of Golfer's that have purchased the DVD

On The Golf Course With Tiger Woods

Now, I know you're excited about Tiger Woods. But, let's all calm down, take a deep breath and repeat after me – 'Tiger is a Player. He holds the title of The Best Player On The Planet. And although I'll never hit the golf ball like Tiger, I can at least watch how he's in control of his game and sticks with his PLAN.'

Was Tiger Woods the best ballstriker last week in the tournament at Bay Hill? Was Tiger the best putter in the tournament?

No, surprisingly enough – he wasn't even close in either category!

Over the 4 Rounds of Golf:

13 Players had more Greens in Regulation than Tiger Woods. In fact, Cliff Kresege hit 7 more Greens than Tiger. Cliff who?

18 Players had fewer Putts per Round than Tiger Woods. In fact, Frank Lickliter had 8 less putts than Tiger.

37 Players hit their average Drive farther than Tiger Woods. In fact, Bubba Watson averaged 22 yards more distance off the tee than Tiger.

46 Players hit more Fairways than Tiger Woods. In fact, Brian Gay hit 10 more Fairways than Tiger.

So what's the point of these stats? The point is that these Players listed above, along with a bunch of other Players, although not necessarily household names – hit and putted the golf ball better than Tiger. And in fact, Tiger wasn't even in the Top 13 in any of these categories!

And if I had taken a poll asking who was the best ballstriker on the PGA Tour – would anyone leave Tiger out of their Top 5?

How is it possible that Tiger wins as much as he does, when he's not the best ballstriker (or according to the stats, not even in the top 13) or in the top 17 best putters? What's the secret to Tiger Woods? Is there any category that he's ranked #1?

Yes, there's one category that he's always #1 – Scoring Average and Winning. Or as GMS prefers to say -- he's #1 in Cashing Large Checks! How is it possible that Tiger is the best at winning Tournaments, but not close to the best in any of the ballstriking or putting categories? Simply put - there's nobody on this Planet that's better at sticking with his PLAN.

How good are you with sticking to your PLAN? Or do you not even have a PLAN?

What's the first aspect in having a PLAN? Knowing your Strengths and Weaknesses. What's the second aspect of your PLAN? Playing to your Strengths on the golf course and staying away from your Weaknesses. And nobody does this as well as Tiger Woods!

Now I've received emails in the past that have said – "Marc, it doesn't matter how I PLAN if I can't hit the ball where I want to." Well, that's the point of your PLAN. Do you think Tiger intentionally tried to miss 27 Greens at Bay Hill?

Of course not, but because he knows what his Strengths and Weaknesses are, he can PLAN for his misses. He can PLAN that if he misses the green, he won't be in a spot near the green that he'd have to play a shot that's a Weakness. He makes a PLAN to only hit shots that he knows won't get him in trouble if he hits that shot bad.

In essence - he makes a PLAN so that he knows that either he's going to hit a good shot or if he hits a bad shot, it won't end up in a place that he'll have to play a shot he can't execute well. Now obviously, every once in a while, we're all going to hit a horrible shot that no PLAN can help – but this doesn't happen as much to Golfers as they might think it does.

Unless of course - they continually attempt to hit a golf club that they're not skilled enough to hit.

Does Tiger hit a 3-wood on every Par 5 when the only club that could get him to the green would be a 3-wood? No. Why? Because the set-up of the hole might mean that if he doesn't hit his 3-wood well – he possibly could end up playing a Weakness the next shot. So, many times he'll play a Strength for his second shot (possibly a 5-iron) that'll put him position to play another Strength (possibly a wedge). And probably make birdie!

Do You Have Any Weaknesses?

Do you have a club in your bag that you only hit well 50% of the time – yet you still play it on the golf course? Do you think Tiger would ever hit a shot that he hits well only 50% of the time? If you only hit a shot well 50% of the time – I'd consider that a Weakness. And a Weakness shouldn't be played on the golf course unless you enjoy hitting bad golf shots and making double and triple Bogey's.

I don't know a Golfer that scores above 80 that hits their 3-wood off the ground well more than 50% of the time. Yet, I know thousands of Golfers that score above 80 that hit it on every Par 5 and a high percentage of Par 4's because as they say – "I'm trying to get close the green." Yet, 50% of the time you hit it bad. And 99% of those bad shots don't get close to the green!

In fact many of those shots end up closer to the trees and/or water than they do the green!

The reason you should have a PLAN is not for your good shots –- the reason for your PLAN is so that your bad shots won't hurt you as much. What are your Strengths? What are your Weaknesses? Have you ever written them down and then made sure that the next round you play that you didn't hit one shot that was a Weakness?

Sadly, that's not the case for most Golfers. Sadly, most Golfers don't even consider their Weaknesses. And sadly, most Golfers end up with scores that reflect that.

The Monkey continually plays their Weaknesses as they wish that magically, one day they'll find the secret of hitting their 3 wood

The Player avoids their Weaknesses regardless of what the other Golfers in their group are wishing for

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.


Please Click here to purchase through our website or call us at 1 (888) 580 - 3635.




Click here to purchase on Amazon.com

and/or to read the reviews of Golfer's that have purchased the DVD

Is Your Golf Swing As Consistent As Tiger Woods' Golf Swing?

Continuing from last week's Golf Improvement Weekly about the length of your drives ….. Tiger Woods only hits a drive over 300 yards 24% of the time. Or in other words - only once in four drives. So if his drives over 300 yards can be considered his best drives – then 3 out of every 4 drives the 'Best Player On The Planet' hits would have to be classified as either average or below average for Tiger.

Yet, if the 85, 95, 105 or 115 Golfer doesn't hit their best drive at least 3 out of every 4 drives – you're disappointed. If Tiger is hitting his best drives only 24% of the time – what percentage of time can you expect to hit your best drives?

Well, to help you answer this question, I've come up with a complex mathematical formula (or if I wanted to sound smart – an algorithm) to give both you and Tiger a Consistency Rating to see if your Expectations match Reality – Let's take the years you've been playing golf, add that to the number of days each week you're on the golf course (playing in front of millions of people and/or playing regular rounds of golf), add that number to the hours each week you're on the practice range, then multiply that by the number of PGA Tour Events you've won.

So Tiger's Consistency Rating would be: 30 (years of playing golf) + 6 (days a week playing on the golf course) + 24 (hours of practice each week) x 63 (PGA Tour wins) = 3,780 (Consistency Rating).

Now it's your turn. Take your time and add it up. You probably won't need a calculator like I needed while figuring out Tiger's rating.

Though, based on what my 9th grade math teacher Mr. McNamara taught me – any number times zero equals zero. So since you haven't won a PGA Tour Event – you can't even compare your game to Tiger's. But, even if we blur the lines of Reality a little and give you 1 PGA Tour win – would it make that much of difference?

Tiger plays a completely different game than you and I play!

And although situated in the gap between the Consistency Rating of you and Tiger there are 720 Players playing on the PGA, LPGA, Nationwide and Senior Tour. Along with thousands of Golfers playing on the smaller Tour's (trying to make the big tour), 24,000 PGA Professionals (like myself) and thousands upon thousands of low single digit Players that could probably give you 9 shots a side and still squash you like a grape – there still are many Golfers that have Expectations that they should hit their best drive at a higher rate than not just all these ten's of thousand's of Players above, but also more consistently than the Best Player On The Planet's current rate of 24% of the time!

Tiger's 'only' hitting his best Drives 24% of the time. So in order for you to start playing to your PLAN and your potential on the golf course – it needs to be time to stop thinking you can hit your best Drive a higher percentage of the time than Tiger does.

Once you can move away from 'Unrealistic Expectations' and embrace 'Reality' to accept that as a 95 Golfer that your average drive maybe 210 yards (85 Golfer - 240 yards; 105 Golfer - 180 yards) – your golf swing, ball-striking and scores will improve. The Golfer with 'Unrealistic Expectations' will never be happy with the progress they're making and will continually start to "Fiddle" with your swing in the middle of every round trying to hit that 250 yard drive that in Reality should 'only' happen 12% of the time.

Though, if you're not happy or disagree that you should hit your best shot 'only' 12% of the time? Let me ask you - if Tiger is hitting his best drives only 24% of the time – do you think you should be able to hit yours the same percentage of time as Tiger? Do you believe that your golf swing is as consistent as Tiger's? Or think about it this way - do you believe that you should hit your best shot once out of every 6 Drives which equates to 17% of the time? If so, then you must believe that Tiger is only 29% more consistent than you.

How much more consistent is Tiger than you?

Can this be determined? I'm not sure – I'm definitely not smart enough to figure something like that out. But, I don't believe that I'd be going out on a limb if I said that Tiger is at least 100% more consistent than you or me. And if that's the case – it puts you at hitting your best drives at 12% of the time. Once out of every 8 drives.

And considering that during an 18 hole round, you most likely are using your Driver on 14 holes – it says that you should 'only' hit one or two great drives a round. And just as importantly, it means that need to accept 11 or 12 average to below average drives per round.

Yet, I've seen Golfers on the golf course complain when every other drive isn't their best drive. And because of these 'Unrealistic Expectations' – your game gets worse and worse every shot – sometimes to the point of such disappointment, that you just don't enjoy golf anymore.

Are you expecting too much from yourself on the golf course. Do you have 'Unrealistic Expectations' on the golf course that's causing you to always 'Fiddle' with your golf swing because you're not hitting your golf ball the best you can on every shot? And before you automatically say – "No that's not me!" – you might want to think about it. Because I can't tell you how many Golfers we see each year that don't have a 'Realistic PLAN' and are making it harder and harder for themselves to improve because of it!

The Monkey gets disappointed and starts to 'Fiddle' with their swing if they don't hit their best drive 50% of the time

The Player understands that the 'Best Player On The Planet' (Tiger Woods), only hits his best shot once out of every 4 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.


Now Available on



Click here to read what people are saying about the new DVD on Amazon.com!

Who Has A Better Golf Swing - Phil Mickelson Or Joe Durant?

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