Good stuff, Adam.  I really appreciate the conversation about chipping, and after spending some time on my chipping yesterday with different degree wedges, I’m reminded of how much more time I need to spend on it : )

I also thought that I would share something that has helped my lag putting tremendously.  My ex-father-in-law had me stand open to the target line on my putting when he was teaching me how to put, and I didn’t really understand why.  He wasn’t always the greatest at explaining why he wanted you to do something, even if he had won a lot of money doing it that way. And what I mean by ‘open’ is that instead of lining up to putt in the traditional way where your feet are lined up parallel to the target line, he had me stand more facing the target, where my left foot was behind the parallel line that my feet are on, and toed more open towards the target, than when I take my normal swing stance (I am right-handed).

I know that Jack Nicklaus stood open to the target line, but he crouched way over and also stood pigeon-toed, and so I didn’t really get it until I saw another tip where the instructor talked about how good your targeting is with your dominant hand—for me, again, my right.  He said that if you faced the target and took a ball in your right hand and simply tossed it at the hole, you’d get it very close.  Gary McCord has gone as far as redesigning his putter to be straight up and down so he can face the target and swing beside his leg at the hole while simply facing the hole.

I’m not that ‘open,’ but I do get my read for each putt, facing the hole, and then always imagine tossing the ball at the hole, underhanded with my right hand.  Then I take my stance and just try to toss the putter head that same way toward the hole, or on my intended line.  The human targeting mechanism is an amazing thing—some of you may have read a book called ‘instinct shooting,’ about shooting a gun, and it’s the same idea.  If you’re having trouble getting your putts close, you may want to use some trial and error with how ‘open’ to stand, but give this a try, and let your natural dominant hand targeting help you.

For mid to high handicappers, double bogeys do not come from bad drives as much ase they come from dumb short game decisions.  Here is what happens- we hit a decent drive, hit an iron to 15-35 yards off the green then chunk/skull a chip, get mad and chip again,  two putt for double bogey.

Now I am not going to give anyone advice on how to chip as I have my own issues, but what I can tell you is that an average golfer is horrible at getting up and down-we just don’t do it.  Sure, every so often we snuggle one up to the hole, but that is the exception. The good news is that we putt pretty well. Typically we can two putt from most anywhere.  Don’t believe me?  Track how many times you get up and down in a round (even if it is not for par).  Track how many 3 putts you have and track how many times you have to chip more than one time to get on the green.  If you don’t get up and down more times than you have to chip more than once then this advice is for you!

Once you acknowledge the fact that amateurs can’t chip for beans, you can approach the situation smarter.  For example, if you ever are thinking “I just need to lightly pitch it to the fridge and run it down to the hole” …STOP!  You are not going to make that shot nearly as many times as you are going to chunk the ball and have to make the same shot again.

Statistics show, amateurs rarely get up and down outside of 10 yards off of the green so we should be thinking-Just get it on the green.  Take your chance at a 15 foot par putt and settle for a tap in bogey.

If you are taking 3-7 doubles a round, I would bet nearly all of those come from dumb play around the green.  I really think that by watching the pros play, we start to believe we should be trying to chip to 4 feet no matter what.  Well, I am sorry, we are not that good.  Learn to play safe chip shots and you will quickly eliminate the doubles.  Just find a club and spot that is the safest.

It seems like everyone wants to have Tiger’s swing, or maybe Phil’s, but what about Rocco?  I mean didn’t this guy take Tiger to the limit a few years ago?  I know it is not super pretty or technically perfect, but it actually looks a lot more like us regular guys.  I will admit I am a bit of video whore when it come to golf, but I really like this one.  He makes some very simple points, namely keeping your elbows toward the ground at all times.

Like most amatures, we all get caught up in too many swing thoughts so finding just a few simple ones can really help.  Rocco helps to show that a simple not so technical swing can be very effective.

Feel vs Real: My day job is that I’m a professional musician, and I’ve had the pleasure of doing that for the past 20+ years.  One thing I understand is muscle memory, and what it’s like to perform under pressure. And despite being from a very athletic family, I’ve never done anything like golf; where one day, or even for 9 holes, or even three holes for that matter, you’ll seem to have it, and then it seems to go away–  the feel… the ‘it’ that you can sense in your swing.  The ball is going the right distance, the right trajectory, and things seem pretty good, and then maybe you make a few rough swings and then you feel it slipping away, and in a few holes the good feelings are lost.

Today, I played a decent front 9 for me, and made some key up and downs when I missed the green.  I was feeling like I didn’t have my normal distance on my drives, but I was mostly hitting it where I was looking.  Somewhere as I turned to the back 9, I felt like I was starting to come across the ball, and I started losing distance. It only got worse as I tried harder to feel what was wrong and make changes.  After the bogies piled up and I couldn’t get it together except for a few decent swings, I went to the range to see if I could make any sense of the change from the front 9 to the back 9.

Something I try to look at every time I’m at the range is a few keys… grip, posture, setup, connection with my left arm laying on top of my chest.  Finally after hitting some decent shots, but still fighting an outside-in move, which is not normal for me, I checked a position in my takeaway where I’m halfway back.  I like the club to be parallel to the ground, and on my toe line when the club is just below waist high at that point.  And as turned my shoulders and I swung back to check that point, I realized that I had felt like I was in the right position, but in fact, I had been taking the club away outside, and missing where I wanted to be.  I knew from there, I was taking the club up and then swinging back down outside the downswing path I wanted, and then across the ball on my release.

So, I worked on hitting some shots where I made sure that I hit the position I wanted on the way back.  And it felt wrong at first… too inside and like maybe I was crowding myself.  But in working with the ‘wrong’ feeling, my ball flight straightened out, my distance returned with short and long irons, and I even it the exact post on the fence with my driver that I was aiming at around 250 yards out.

I went back out and played three more holes, and made very easy pars where the birdie putts just rolled across the edges.  Good drives, good approaches and straight ball flight back to my correct distance.  Does any of this sound familiar?  I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts and experiences on how your ‘feel’ vs. ‘real’ affects your game.

So there you are in front of the TV watching golf when the sudden urge to hit balls comes over you. Here’s a little trick to get you over the craving. Just take a little piece of practice mat and gather some of those pesky gum balls that drop in your yard. They actually fly pretty true and you get a little yard work done while you groove your swing.