Blog

I just had a stranger (customer now!) call me about ‘Unusual Lies’ … situations wherein the ground is not ‘Usual’ (level and clean). In this situation, your ‘Stance’ will also be a little ‘Non Standard’. Don’t fight the ‘Unusual’! Learn to adjust efficiently!

So, how do we prepare (‘Set-Up’) and ‘Execute’ abnormally?
The answer is, “As close to Normal / Usual as possible!”

If you pay attention, listen to your body talking, you shall not struggle with these anomalies!

If the ground is NOT level, do not stand as though it were! We may be ‘Plumb’ in the ‘Static State’, but we are ‘Forward Leaning’ in the ‘Dynamic Mode’.

What does this term mean?

When we ‘Set-Up’ and stand on flat ground, ready to ‘Trigger Our Take-Away and Back Swing’, that would be classified as a ‘Usual Lie’. (see ‘Flat Lie’)

Anything else would be an ‘Unusual Lie’. (see ‘Uneven Lie’)

This situation is sometimes appropriately called an ‘Unbalanced Stance’ … where the ground, ‘Mother Earth’, causes us to be ‘Out Of Balance’ … feeling like we might fall over or become unstable in our ‘Full Golf Swing’ … ‘Front and/or Back Swing’.

There are really only three categories of ‘Unusual Lies’ …

Be aware of your ‘Clubhead Mass’ at all times from pulling the golf club out of your bag, to warm-up swings and to the real thing! When you ‘Feel The Steel’ you control your ‘Momentum and the three dimensions of ‘The Working End’ of your short stick … or any golf club … just a head, shaft and a grip!

There is a fabulous ‘Short Game Bunker Drill’, a ‘555 Golf Bullet-Proof Skill Drill’, called the ‘2x4 Splash Drill’. Take a 24 inch length of 2x4 and push it back & forth in the sand until the top face becomes level to the beach! Set up to it rather neutrally or normally! Pick a precise spot on this 2x4 and strike it positively back and forth 5 times or ‘Reps’. (see ‘Tick Tocks’ with little thumps!) You will have left a distinct small impact mark! Add a very small handful of sand to the ‘Impact Point’ of the board … on the mark that your Clubhead sole left! Make a short to medium ‘Back & Up Swing’ … with your “&” Word … with a ‘Gravitational Drop’… Bend & Straighten … Pinch - Thump! Amazingly, the small ‘Pile Of Sand’ will go away very much under control! (5 Reps and 5 Series … Feel The Steel)

adding the word “SNAP” is no improvement
There’s got to be a simple FIX!

So, how might I protect from and prevent this nasty ‘Champion Killing Shot Shape Outcome’?

The three elements in a Draw Hook are 1) Inside-Out Clubhead Path, 2) Closed Clubface Aim through ‘Separation’ and 3) Fast Closing Clubface Hand Speed through the ‘Impact & Separation Zone’. (see ‘Flippy Handed’ … some instructors promote ‘Pronation’ to your peril!) (see ‘Arms Over Legs’ … your Lower Body Machine must ‘Lead The Front Swing Power Train Sequence’ … ‘From The Ground Up’ and ‘From The Inside Out’!)

Approach Shot Basics

This ‘Short Game’ will include every shot from inside your Full Swing #PW optimal distance.

We can come at the green in two manners.

1. High & Soft
2. Low & Running

Wind and the slope of the ground are big factors that directly affect ball movement!

WHAT IF COMMON SENSE IS NOT ALL THAT COMMON?

We should chronically strive to gather more good old ‘Common Sense’ from around the ‘Golf Pitch’ … ‘Inch By Inch, It’s A Cinch’ for all of us, even if we are in need of a bath to wash off some of that nasty grime we know as ‘Frustration and Disbelief’!

Your ‘555 Team’ has what we refer to as the ‘Perfect Progressive Golf Swing’. An accurate saying that we have is “I Drive As I Putt”. I know! I know! “How on God’s Green Earth could a 25 footer and a 250 yarder have anything in common!” Well the ‘5 Essential Elements’ (Clubface Aim at the Moment Of Separation, Clubhead Path, Clubhead Speed, Sweet Spot & Angle Of Attack) provide the relevant answer for YOU and me! When you embrace these five elements, make them your ally, you shall have ‘Magical Control’. You shall shine in the eyes of all your ‘Golf Buddies’ and competitors.

In your ‘Putting and Short Chipping’, (Stage 1 Procedure … No Wrist Cock & No Pivot) you can actually utilize ‘Address Ready’. This is the ‘Ball Location’ where you simply tap the grass in front of your hips in as comfortable a manner possible. Remember, this ‘Stage 1 Procedure’ has ‘No Pivot or Lower Body Machine’ action or created and applied ‘Impact & Pressure’.

A rather well-known golf instructor just sent me a video wherein he told us to “Let Your Hands & Arms Hang From Your Shoulders with a moderate ‘Wrist Break’. This is the ideal way to set-up!” Perhaps with a ‘Putting & Chipping Shot’ but it is ‘Simply Not The Case’ with any bigger or longer shots! (see Stage 2 Procedures [Wrist Cock but No Pivot] and especially Stage 3 Procedures [Wrist Cock & Pivot]

When you make a Stage 3 Procedure, a short (Less Than Full) to long (Full Swing), involving ‘Brace Leg Drive’ and ‘Clubhead Speed’, you will, by Newtonian Physics’, accomplish Centripetal or Centrifugal Force’.

The foundation of this common sensical approach to making golf more Fun, is just one ‘555 Golf Statement’ … “I Drive As I Putt” or “There Is A Putt In Every Drive”.

To start along this paradigm journey, if we were to take a #7 or #8 Iron, ‘Set-Up’ properly, with a good Pre-Shot Routine (PSR) and then make Chips, Bump & Runs Knock-Downs and Punch Shots, we would unavoidably realize that the statements in the first paragraph above are both absolutely true!

Once we have accomplished this ‘Range Of Motion Success’, we can expand ‘The Back & Up Swing’ to becoming an ‘Abbreviated or Full Swing’.

Our Back Swing will soon teach us what the ‘Horizontal Shaft Position’ is all about.

We must strive every day in our golf pursuits to ‘Keep It Stupid Simple’! Our golf lives will improve with this approach and attitude. How important are our ‘Approach Shots’, strikes to those ‘5/10/15 Foot Circles’? Oh, what a rhetorical question! Any substantial golfer … ‘Player’ … can hit his or her circles! Produces really great ‘Putting Numbers’ needed to be a champion! (see ‘Quadranting Greens’)

So, let us look at ‘Chipping & Pitching’ if you don’t mind?

A Putt is all ‘Run or Ground Distance and Time.

Being a bit of an old farm boy and house-building youth (mostly at Grampa’s insistence) we learned how to use and care for the tools-of-the-trade. We would NEVER leave our hammer out in the cold damp world … a fate flirting with death by Grampa or Dad!

One tool we used a lot in framing was a ‘Chalk Box & Line’. It was like an enclosed ‘Fishing Reel’ that contained chalk, a powdery substance that permeated the string line. Why? So as to be able to mark a straight line on the subfloor or anywhere for a useful purpose. When we fastened wall framing to the floor, we knew that the base plates were straight, true and square!