PGA Tour Caddy

3 Ways to Regain Your Feel--Fast

 

So the weather across most of the country is finally starting to act like spring, golf course superintendents are beginning to mow their greens down to mid-season levels, and golfers are starting to turn up at the first tee, ready to put their games on display. At my own club, New Seabury on Cape Cod, this weekend's tee sheet is jammed full, and our Saturday morning group has more players than ever.
But what if you're one of those golfers coming out for the first time this year, and you feel like, as Dan Jenkins once said, the golf club feels like a parking meter in your hands? That's where this column will help you. Here are three tips, from some of the game's top feel players and teachers, to get your touch back fast. The last thing you want to do is three-putt all day, or take extra shots from just off the green, or snap-hook your tee shots.
1. Feeling your hands. When you haven't played in a while, your hands feel weak. So it's only natural to grip the club tighter to compensate. Resist that and do the opposite. As Davis Love Jr. and Bob Toski wrote in How to Feel A Real Golf Swing, with Bob Carney, "Your hands generate clubhead speed. They control the face. They shape the path of your swing. But nothing can sabotage a good grip or good swing quicker than excessive or inconsistent grip pressure. Tension is the enemy of the swing, and it emanates from the grip. Pick up a pencil and write your name. How tightly did you hold the pencil? Just tightly enough to accomplish the task at hand. Which is how you hold your steering wheel, how you hold a book, how you hold your sweetheart's hand. For most golfers, holding a golf club only as tightly as enables the club to swing will seem much lighter than normal." So remember to hold the club lightly, and you'll regain your feel in no time.
2. Feeling the putter. Gain control by giving up control. Sport psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella once told Paul Azinger that he could see tension and artificiality in his stroke. In his book, Putting Out of Your Mind, Rotella recounts how he told Azinger to putt like he hit bunker shots. "I just look at where I want it to go," Azinger said, "splash the sand, and it goes there." Rotella told Paul he had to become relaxed, even nonchalant, at the moment of truth in putting as well. Try it and your stroke will free up and become more natural. You'll regain your stroke very quickly.
3. Feeling your feet. When you've had a long layoff, usually your feet and legs are a little slow; you've lost some agility. Get that footwork back by trying this piece of advice, from Tommy Armour's book How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time. "In simplifying footwork, I'll give you one little tip that probably will greatly improve the hitting portion of your swing. Have the right knee come in fast at the right time. The knee action in a good golf swing is practically identical with knee action in throwing a baseball."
So give these thoughts a try and good luck with your game this weekend. I'll be pulling for you (unless I'm playing against you).

Use Your Think Box and Play Box

 

Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott are perhaps two of the most successful teachers in the game today. I say that because they coached Annika Sorenstam when she was dominating the LPGA Tour, and they also give advice to Yani Tseng, who is currently dominating the women's game. But make no mistake, Nilsson and Marriott, founders of the Golf54 academy and Vision54 Coaching for the Future, also work with plenty of male golfers, including PGA Tour stalwart Kevin Streelman.
Nilsson and Marriott have written three books on golf with Golf World's Ron Sirak. The latest, Play Your Best Golf Now, crystallizes the concept of the Think Box and the Play Box. Their first book, Every Shot Must Have a Purpose, however, introduces the concept. I think their approach will help you shoot lower scores almost immediately. Hey, if it works for Annika and Yani, why not give it a try.
Basically, Pia and Lynn contend that every shot has a decision line. That's an imaginary line that divides the area where you do all your thinking and strategizing (the Think Box) from the area where you simply hit the shot (the Play Box). Annika was superb at this, says Sirak. Once she entered the Play Box, she never hesitated or became distracted. She simply went through her routine, trusted her technique and pulled the trigger. She left all of her thinking behind--in the Think Box.

As you stand in the THINK BOX you should consider all the variables for the shot: wind direction and strength, the lie of the ball (is it below your feet and will it thus fade away from your body?), the hazards you need to factor in, and, if you are in competition, the point at which you stand in the match. VERBALIZE your intentions for the shot. "I am going to hit a

6-iron at the tree behind the left corner of the green and the ball will fade toward the pin in the back right corner of the green. It is a good, firm 6-iron for me." Imagine the shot you are going to hit.
The only time there is any indecision should be when you are in the THINK BOX. When you cross the DECISION LINE to hit the shot, there must be total commitment to the shot. If you get over the ball and are not comfortable with the decision you have made, back off, retreat to the THINK BOX, and come up with a plan in which you have trust. If you are going to be slow in any part of the game, it must be in the THINK BOX and not in the PLAY BOX. The DECISION LINE is the doorway from one room to another.
When you cross the line into the PLAY BOX, leave doubt behind, make your grip, aim the clubface, align the body, connect to the target, and hit your shot. The longer you wait to hit the shot the more opportunity there is for doubt--and tension--to creep into your mind and body. And remember what we said about tension being the most effective saboteur of the golf swing.Decide, commit, swing. It's as simple as that.

A Life Full Of Lessons

John Jacobs

My best tips, favorite stories, & how I knew I was right

 

EDITOR'S NOTE

For more than 60 years -- as an English club professional, at his eponymous schools, consulting various national programs and advising the greats of the game -- John Jacobs has taught more golfers well than perhaps any instructor who has ever lived. The charismatic Yorkshireman has done it with wit, charm and empathy, but most important by imparting a breakthrough unifying principle: diagnosing swing faults by looking at how the ball flies. Because he cut to the game's essence, a who's who of today's top teachers, including Butch Harmon, David Leadbetter, Hank Haney, Jim McLean and Jim Hardy, name Jacobs as one of their most important influences. Along with a record of success, Jacobs' experience testing technique in the fire of competition -- he played in 14 British Opens and won his singles match at the 1955 Ryder Cup over then-Masters champion Cary Middlecoff -- gave him added credibility with the best players. Over the decades Jacobs has "had a look" at, among many others, Peter Thomson, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Ernie Els. "It's frightening, because you could do real harm," says the 2000 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee. "But I would go forth because something inside that I could not ignore told me I was right."

Awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1997, Jacobs also achieved fame as a television commentator, author of several books (including the best-selling Practical Golf), a two-time Ryder Cup captain, and, from 1971-'75, the first director and chief architect of the modern European Tour. Senior Writer Jaime Diaz visited Jacobs, who turns 86 in March, at his home in the south of England. One of the game's great givers is about to share with you some brilliant nuggets from his vast, accumulated wisdom.

WHY MY TEACHING WORKED

I explain well because I was a dunce in school. I've never been so miserable in my life as I was on the first day of class after the glorious summer break. But it's why I became a good teacher. I was always so bored and confused in the classroom, so I know exactly what it's like to not understand. I make sure to give people a careful, logical explanation, along with some fun. I don't want their time with me to remind them of school. But I want them to understand.

Now in his mid-80s, Jacobs keeps himself in good shape and still gives the occasional golf lesson.

I FOUND I HAD A GIFT for feeling like the people I was teaching. Watching their movements, I could put myself in their bodies and even their minds. Probably because I had so wanted to be a great player, I'd already experienced just about every possible problem in the swing. But mostly it's a sixth sense.

MY TALENT TURNED OUT to be teaching, but I wish I'd been given Peter Thomson's talent for competition and winning. He had all those Open Championships, and I sometimes think I'd trade all the teaching for one of those. But in the end I don't think I would. People love when you help them hit it better. You make a million friends among the hackers and choppers. It's an intimate experience, and I've been able to go on and on. I count my blessings.

IN MY FIRST BOOK, Golf by John Jacobs, I remember that the first thing I wrote down on paper was, "Golf is what the ball does." That was my breakthrough as a teacher. I look at what the ball's doing, and then I ask, "Why?"

THE GOLF SWING has only one purpose: to deliver the head of the club to the ball correctly, and to achieve such impact repeatedly. Many unorthodox players achieve correct impact -- so long as it's repeatable, it's OK. If golf were about getting into correct positions throughout the swing, then the greatest players in the world have had it wrong. The only position that matters is the club's at impact, which is determined by the clubface alignment (the most important factor), the path of the swing, the angle of attack and the speed of the clubhead. The biggest step in becoming a good player is understanding how the flight of the ball teaches the correct geometry of impact.

I'VE FOUND TRUTH in just about every book or article I've ever read on the golf swing. But there's usually one thing or another in any particular piece of writing that, when applied by the wrong person, could cause a real setback.

GOLF INSTRUCTION has two distinct phases. There are basic principles, which can be presented as fairly hard and fast and form the skeleton of a good swing. The other has to do with different methods of playing the game, about which a teacher cannot be too dogmatic.

MANY THEORIES HAVE come and gone. Most of them I've disagreed with. Many arise from the originators being focused on fixes that apply to their own games. When the Square-to-Square theory was unveiled in the late '60s, advocating that the takeaway should be initiated with a counterclockwise curling under of the left hand, I found that both co-authors -- my good friends Jim Flick and Dick Aultman -- had flattish actions begun by rolling the face open. If I'd been teaching them, I might have advised them to feel as if they were curling under. But that doesn't mean that fix should have been given to the golfing population at large.

BEN HOGAN'S The Modern Fundamentals of Golf kept me in business. High-handicappers would buy the book and immediately weaken their grips and begin rolling the club open. After that, all they could do was hit a glancing blow 50 yards to the right. The book should have been called How I Play Golf, and it would have been a great anti-hook book. But the title suggested it was good for everyone.

THE FEELING OF WANTING to take the club straight back, rather than on an arc, is intuitively human, but it's the core of many faults. We think the longer we can make a straight line, the straighter the ball will go. But golf is a side-on game with the ball on the ground, so it's the opposite.

THE HARDEST THING about golf is that the natural correction is wrong. Slicers see the ball go to the right and aim farther left. It only makes their slices bigger.

THE CORRECTION given to a student is inevitably going to be uncomfortable because in all likelihood it's an exaggerated contrary of the student's fault. But the real challenge is imparting the fix so the particular individual will understand. Because if they can grasp the "why," they'll stay with it.

WE DON'T ALL react to words in the same way, and the differences in our imaginations, particularly about a thing so subjective as golf, make us more likely to grasp an idea in different ways. Put it one way, and maybe 40 in 100 will get it. Put it another way, and another 20 will get it, and so on.

I'VE FOUND THAT about 80 percent of players will underdo a fix and revert in the direction of their original tendency. Only about 20 percent will overdo it.

THE DANGER WITH GOLFERS taking lessons is, whenever they try something new, their first instinct is to tighten up, and that starts with the grip. As Peter Thomson used to say, "Always grip lightly because you'll instinctively firm up at impact anyway."

MANY PLAYERS never start in an address position that makes a windup back and through possible. If you set up right, it's all done; you don't need any more thoughts. Leave the rest to the good Lord.

GOLF IS NOT PLAYED exclusively with the hands, nor is it played exclusively with the body. The whole art of the game is to synchronize body action with hand and wrist action. You just can't play well enough with either one alone. It's a swinging wrist cock. I like to call it two turns and a swish. That's the correct coordination of movement.

THE COMPLETE FREEDOM of the club from end to end is what we're all looking for. It will come square at impact because we are geniuses. Absolutely we are geniuses. That's one of the things you have to be fearful of losing in the individual. Getting very deep into technique can lead to some successes, but it's dangerous for most.

BEING A GOOD DEMONSTRATOR is important. It helps you be authoritative. Why should people believe you if you can't do it? I was a good demonstrator.

TRYING TO REPEAT a practice swing when actually hitting the ball seldom works. A golf swing is only as good as the position of the clubface at impact, so there is a natural and necessary apprehension about making square contact with the ball. A practice swing has no impact and so is devoid of the necessary focus.

Jacobs played in 14 British Opens, but he was
always best known as the sharpest eye in teaching.

I TAUGHT SO MUCH that the only time I got to practice was when it rained. As a result, I became very good in wet weather.

I NEVER REALLY TAUGHT the short game. Basically I would say, chipping is arms, while pitching is arms with some wrist in it, but never independent of the body. I did enjoy the short game, but I made a mistake myself in that I never practiced it enough. I wasn't good enough for the level I wanted to be. I got it wrong with putting as well by trying to be too straight. I saw the line and tried to take it straight back and through the line. But putting is a side-on game, too. I figured that out after I finished playing.Stupido.

I WAS VERY SYMPATHETIC toward the bad golfer who tried. I got huge pleasure out of getting someone hitting good shots. I remember Mrs. Calendar, who took up the game at age 60, after her husband died, to get her mind off her loss. She saw me every week and did exactly as I told her. I was good at teaching that sort of person, and her dedication brought out the best in me. In two years, she had a handicap, played with the ladies' group, and became very fond of the game. And that's probably the best job I've ever done.

THE GIFTS OF THE GOOD PLAYER

MY PRIORITIES in a good player are: one, temperament; two, technique; and three, physical strength. Of these, the right temperament for tournament competition is by far the most important.

I WASN'T AS CONFIDENT as a player as I've been as a teacher. The first hole was critical to me: If I made a bogey, I rarely played well. Great players don't think like that.

IF YOU'RE A TOP-LEVEL competitive golfer, nobody knows your golf better than you do. Only you know what's in your mind. You can hit a shot and say, That's no good, but I reckon I can get through the round that way. And that's so key to being able to compete.

THERE IS FOR MANY people an ideal golf swing and a competitive golf swing, and taking the ideal swing into competition can be a mistake. Know the easiest shots for you, and don't try the difficult ones under pressure. The way to win competitions is to hit all shots no worse than 80 percent of their potential.

GOLF CAN BE such a difficult game because there are so many different ways of playing it correctly. For golfers to improve, they have to first decide on their own correct way, and then stick with it.

THERE ARE VERY FEW times in life, even with the best players, when everything is working to the effect that you can do what you want. But it can give you a false sense of security. I often went to tournaments playing very well and then wouldn't play well because I lacked a reference point. But when I came in thinking, Well, unless I remember that, I'm in a real mess, I'd often have a good tournament. I was better when I knew what I couldn't do.

WHEN YOU'RE TEACHING good players, they might turn your explanation into a different thought that works for them. You've helped them because they know how to help themselves. A handicap golfer will tend to hang on the words more literally, which makes it more important to find the right words.

AFTER HOGAN and beginning with Nicklaus, good players gravitated toward a more upright swing, thinking this was progress. But it led to more players than ever taking the club back too straight, with the corresponding compensation of excessively driving the legs. This dropped the club underneath the correct downswing plane, causing a massive push-fade off the tee (or sometimes big hooks) and poor contact from the fairway. I called it rocking and blocking, and after the 1971 U.S. Walker Cup team couldn't handle the tight lies at St. Andrews, The American Disease.

THE MISS WITH the opposite swing -- flat going back and then slightly over the top of the plane -- is a much safer, left-to-right flight that's not long but tends to move back toward the intended line. Such a swing has a lot to recommend it: a one-direction miss, better contact with the irons and lower maintenance. It's a wonderful way to play golf badly.

THE MOST HELPFUL fixes for rocking and blocking are standing taller to the ball and making sure the clubhead is neutral to slightly open at address. Both take the steepness out of the backswing and encourage the correct rotary motion. So does hitting shots with the ball above the feet, as well as hitting drivers off the ground, where good contact is impossible if the path is too inside.

ALTHOUGH IT WORKED wonderfully for them, I think the team of Nick Faldo and David Leadbetter set a bad precedent for players becoming too dependent on instructors. I preferred that players work alone and ring me when they had a problem. When they did, I'd ask, "What's the ball doing with the 5-iron and the driver?" Then I'd suggest a fix, and the player would go back and find his own way, building his self-sufficiency. I would say Jack Nicklaus had the right formula with Jack Grout: Meet once a year, with occasional visits for emergencies.

I'M PROBABLY OVERSTATING it because of my own point of view, but nothing would bore me more than seeing a player hit shot after shot after shot. I'd be bound to say too much. And that's dangerous.

I'VE NEVER CHARGED playing professionals for lessons. I've been well paid because I've been thrilled to be asked, and I've enjoyed their success. good players generally know how to find their games. What's most difficult in golf is keeping it. No one has been able to keep it for very long. I suppose it's because we're human beings.

THE BEST I EVER SAW

BYRON NELSON is my golf hero. The best hitter I ever saw. The way he flattened his swing at the bottom with his legs was genius. You could never teach that move. It was better than orthodox, almost beyond technique. He told me that after he went away for six months early in his career to make his backswing more upright, he knew he'd never play badly again. Imagine being able to say that.

PROBABLY THE TWO MOST correct swingers I've ever seen are Roberto De Vicenzo and Ian Woosnam. Roberto was an amazing specimen who had the most beautiful turn that produced a perfect draw, though he got better when he learned to marshal his power with a fade. Woosie is the best exemplar of clubhead speed correctly applied. He is a better Hogan -- more fluid and correct in that he doesn't have to drive through as aggressively and hit as late as Hogan did.

SAM SNEAD was exceptional at keeping his swing in tune. When he would start drawing the ball a bit more than he liked, he would aim off to the right for that week, put a check in his pocket, then go to the practice ground and aim left. He'd find the right medium and go on a tear, until he started to fade it a bit too much, at which time he would reverse the process. Sam was uncanny at staying within the outer perimeters of his tendencies.

BOBBY LOCKE is the most underrated player of my lifetime. He took it inside, looped it over and fell on the ball without any effort, producing a slight hook that ran with the driver but had plenty of spin with the irons. He could have hit other shots, but almost always chose not to, explaining that he wouldn't be as good if he deviated from his repetitive shot. There's a lesson in that.

I DON'T THINK there was ever a golfer who managed his game better than Peter Thomson. He had a low ball flight because he trapped everything, which made it difficult for him to properly flight the driver. But he didn't change, because he knew he had the perfect swing for 13 clubs. As well as the perfect temperament.

JACK NICKLAUS WAS not an exceptional striker in that his shots were not pure in the absolute sense. But his swing was very repeatable when it came to controlling a slightly open face at impact, and I can't recall him ever flipping the club over. He didn't really have a danger shot, which was mostly due to his huge mental strength.

JACK WAS A BIT lost with his technique when I followed him during a practice round at the 1969 British Open, spraying drivers because of a too-steep backswing. When he asked me what I thought, I told him his head and shoulders were too bent over at address, and that raising his chin would allow him to stop tilting and start turning. I didn't pull any punches with Jack. I told him, "You have tremendous physical strength, tremendous mental strength, and you're an incredible winner, but you're doing it wrong for most people." I just had to say it the way it was, because I knew it to be true. I dare say I think he became better because of me.

WHEN I WAS the Ryder Cup captain in 1981, Tom Watson asked me for swing advice at a dinner but understood why I couldn't help him that week. When we saw each other again before the 1983 Open at Birkdale and he complained that he could no longer draw the ball, I had a look. Tom's was a common fault at the time: He was presenting the club in a delofted position -- too strong -- which set up too straight a takeaway and the inevitable rocking and blocking. We put the club in a neutral position, and coincidentally or not, he won his fifth Open.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Jose Maria Olazabal all had the same flaw as Watson did. Faldo was the best listener of the three; Seve the worst. Olazabal was stubborn, but he was diligent about the driver-off-the-deck drill. And he had the gratifying trait of being more receptive before a big occasion.

WHEN TIGER'S MIND was clear, he was probably as good as Jack, but I wouldn't say better. Jack was not as well equipped in his short game, so he had to be better internally, and that's where Tiger is being tested now. Tiger hits more bad shots than Jack did, but he has saved them with his putter and short game. Going forward, he should be focused on hitting fewer bad shots and needing his putter less.

I DON'T KNOW if he's going to pass Nicklaus. My guess would be no, because I doubt whether he'll ever get that super confidence back. But he might if he can get a good golf swing that he believes in and stays with. He's been extremely good technically before, but he's never quite been satisfied with it. He needs total belief that he doesn't need to change his swing again another time.

FOR ABOUT 20 YEARS, beginning in the late '60s, golf wasn't taught very well, but teaching today is better than ever. Why? Well, forgive me, but I think I pointed things in the right direction. Isn't that awful? I just think people have followed my ideas, which are founded on one principle: The flight of the ball tells all.

This driving net behind Jacobs' home outside London was perfect for players needing quick fixes.

Pick the right swing for you

BY JIM HARDY

WITH MATTHEW RUDY

 

We can talk about the concept of swing plane until everybody is thoroughly confused, but in reality, how a "one-plane" or "two-plane" swing applies to your game is simple.

There are two basic ways to swing a golf club: One-planers move the club on the same plane as the shoulders (white shirt), and two-planers move the club on a plane that's more upright than the shoulders (yellow shirt). Neither way is wrong; each has been used to win multiple majors.

However, the fundamentals of these swings are very different, and mixing and matching them is where most players get lost. I'll show you how to identify which swing you have, and how to make it work better for you.

Breaking 100

At this level, your goal is to determine which swing type is natural for you and commit to practicing the building blocks of that swing.

Breaking 90

Whether you're a one-planer or a two-planer, the path to scores in the 80s is reaching greens in regulation.

Breaking 80

Understanding how to control the clubface -- with the trailing arm for a one-planer and the lead arm for the two-planer -- is the key to consistently scoring in the 70s.

 

One Plane vs. Two Plane

One-Planer

How to avoid the snap hook

All great players have a go-to shot -- something they can hit under even the most pressure-packed situations.

For the one-plane swinger, that's probably going to be a shot that curves from right to left. But how do you hit that shot without worrying about snap-hooking? The trick is to hit an intentional draw. The shot that just destroys the one-planer is the snap hook, which happens when your right arm stays under your left too long, then flips over at impact (above).

When you hit an intentional draw, your right arm begins rotating earlier in the swing, and you hit a more controlled draw. With that shot, you can aim at the right edge of the fairway and swing away without worrying about the lake on the left.

Two-Planer

How to avoid the push

The two-plane swinger is probably going to favor a left-to-right shape for a go-to shot. Jack Nicklaus won a lot of tournaments pounding a cut drive out there 285 yards.

The danger for a two-planer is that the act of shallowing out a steep angle through impact opens the clubface. If you don't play the ball far enough forward in your stance, that gentle fade can become a weak push slice.

When you move the ball forward, opposite your front heel, make sure you don't push your hands forward as well (above left. That pulls your right shoulder toward the ball and skews your aim to the left. Keep your hands slightly behind the ball (near left) to maintain the correct shoulder alignment. You'll hit a nice, controlled fade.

Two-planer's alignment check

A two-planer who wants to hit a fade tends to line up too square to the target. You have to be sure to allow for enough left-to-right curve when you set your aim. If you don't, you end up hitting the ball to the right of your target or, even worse, overcorrecting mid-swing and double-crossing yourself with a pull hook.

 

To determine if you're a one-plane or two-plane swinger, try the drills above. First, stand farther from the ball, bend over and hold your driver like a hockey stick. Swing in a flatter, more "around" path. Then try the second drill: Stand upright, swing back and thrust your hips at the ball before your arms swing through. If you hit better shots from the hockey position, you're probably a one-planer. If the upright shots are better, you're probably a two-planer. Match the following drills to your swing type.→

Breaking 100

Think of the basic one-plane and two-plane swings as models. There are lots of different variations within the models, but if you copy the basic elements of the one-plane or two-plane swing, you're going to be a pretty darn good player. Find the model that suits you, then work on the things that make your kind of swing better.

Breaking 90

One-Planers: You don't want to turn your shoulders on a steeper angle. If you do that, you'll just tilt forward on the backswing and tilt back on the forward swing in a reverse pivot.

Two-Planers: A two-planer comes down on the ball from a steep angle. That can make hitting short irons a challenge. The drill below with a rubber tee on a range mat helps two-planers feel a longer, flatter bottom of the swing.

Breaking 80

All great players have a go-to shot -- something they can hit under even the most pressure-packed situations. For the one-plane swinger, that's probably going to be a shot that curves from right to left.

The danger for a two-planer is that the act of shallowing out a steep angle through impact opens the clubface. If you don't play the ball far enough forward in your stance, that gentle fade can become a weak push slice.

Guru Wars

 

Some candid talk about the short game and putting from Dave Stockton, Dave Pelz and Stan Utley

 

His narrow squint and nasal squawk belie that Dave Stockton has always been a people guy. Crouching behind the ball as J.B. Holmes stands over a 10-footer on the practice green at TPC Las Colinas outside Dallas, Stockton, 68, softens his tone. Like a horse whisperer with an unruly stallion, he gently urges, "Where are you looking? What do you see? Do you see it? That's it -- you got it," Stockton says, seeking to activate the corners of the subconscious where he believes putts are made.

"J.B. is my favorite to work with," Stockton says later, pointing out that the long-hitting Holmes has improved from 166th in putting average in 2009 to 13th this year. "He's a challenge because he's pretty ADD. He can't retain anything technical, so he needs to see a picture. I understand that process, because that's what I did as a player, and it's the best way to putt. I'm clearing things out of his mind more than putting things in. And it's going to make him scary good."

Two days before, three of the players taught by Stockton and his sons, Dave Jr. and Ron, all won: Adam Scott on the PGA Tour, Dan Forsman on the Champions Tour and Se Ri Pak on the LPGA Tour. In the abbreviated annals of putting and short-game coaches, it was an unprecedented Triple Play. Combined with the Stocktons' high-profile work with Phil Mickelson, major-championship winner Yani Tseng and, in late 2009, Michelle Wie -- and some 20 other players -- it has the patriarch chirping. "It means that I'm right about what I teach," Stockton says with the conviction that helped him win two major championships despite ball-striking more appropriate to the national Publinx. "Absolutely I can blow anybody else away. I can tell that we have no competition. I mean, there isn't any."

Aside from the risks of getting cocky with the putting gods, Stockton overstates. In the last several years, a growing group of putting and short-game coaches has moved from the fringes of pro golf to its center. After more than a decade in which Dave Pelz seemed to have the field to himself, a new school of gurus beginning with Stan Utley and including Marius Filmalter, Pat O'Brien, Larry Rinker, Mike Shannon and Kevin Weeks (and in Europe, Harold Swash, Mark Roe and Dr. Paul Hurrion) is tending to an increasing number of the game's best.

"It's sort of been overdue," says David Leadbetter, the seminal figure in the earlier rise of full-swing instructors. "Players used to learn short-game shots and get putting tips from other players, but now there are experts in every area. Putting was always considered an art, almost too mysterious to teach. But there is more science attached to it now, and maybe for the first time there's more knowledge than opinion."

Putting in particular is personal and often quirky, and as such is delicate to fool with. Above all, doubt is to be avoided, because in the most exacting areas of the game, to be off a little is to be off a lot.

"You must understand how each player is wired and work within those wires, not try to rewire," says Filmalter, a 54-year-old South African who helped Ernie Els regain his stroke, leading to two early-season victories. "We might suggest adjustments to the posture, ball position and alignment based on what we know to produce sound mechanics, but the change is only made when the player says he can see the line to the hole that he wasn't seeing before. That's all individual to each player."

Like almost all putting coaches, Filmalter employs motion-measuring devices that provide precise feedback on how the putter moves throughout the stroke and how the ball reacts. Readouts that measure the 28 most important components of the strokes of nearly every top player in the world are available for study, validating the tendencies and differences between good putters and bad. "Before, it was hard to know exactly where a player was with the stroke," says Filmalter, who helped develop the devices while researching fine-motor skills in Germany. "Now we know that and can monitor the journey to where he wants to be."

The collective effort has produced some impressive gains, particularly when it comes to the make-or-break distance in pro golf: six feet. In a 1989 study conducted by the PGA Tour, the average success rate on six-foot putts was 54 percent. In 2009, it was 69 percent. Smoother surfaces and better implements certainly contribute, but with more good players vying to play at the highest levels and the margins among them so close, there seems little doubt that greater urgency has bred greater skill. Indeed, PGA Tour players now make 86 percent of putts 10 feet or less -- including, of course, a lot of tap-ins -- and ShotLink statistics show it's not unheard of for a player to never miss inside that range over 72 holes.

As players challenge narrow fairways and tucked pins, the line between spectacular and untidy shot-making keeps getting thinner. Rounds are built around opportunism and recovery, making the wedge and putter a player's most vital tools. The Bobby Jones dictum of turning three shots into two -- for birdies on par 5s and short par 4s, for pars on tough par 3s and 4s -- means more than ever.

The beacon has been Tiger Woods. His biggest edge over his peers has been the ability to make crucial putts and recoveries, causing him to become a model for his peers. "Tiger has almost perfect form -- everything is basically neutral," says putting coach Pat O'Brien, who helps Zach Johnson, Vaughn Taylor, John Rollins and John Senden. "He's helped people understand what a good putter really looks like."

Conversely, examples of players who consistently fail to win despite good ball-striking have also made the case. For all his fine tee-to-green play, Lee Westwood had a 15-footer on the 72nd hole to tie at the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines but hit a putt that missed weakly to the right, and he was undone by poor wedge play down the stretch at Turnberry before three-putting the final green to miss last year's British Open playoff. Then he failed to hold the 54-hole lead this year at Augusta when he was outclassed by Mickelson on and around the greens. That said, Westwood's rise in the World Ranking has been in large part because of short-game work with Roe, the former European tour player who also coaches Ross Fisher.

The group that has been most conscious of its putting and short-game failings has been young players so often projected as Woods' successors. A startling number of them, mostly because of a generational absorption with refining the full swing, just don't putt well enough to be consistent winners. But it appears they're enlisting putting instructors in an attempt to play catch-up. Rory McIlroy works with Padraig Harrington's guru, Hurrion, and Sergio Garcia made strides with Utley. Adam Scott's sudden turnaround with Stockton was stunning because it came after several seasons of Scott appearing permanently marginalized by uninspired putting.

"Yeah, I think the guys our age have become more open to putting and short-game coaches," says Hunter Mahan, 28. "If somebody can help me make putts, I want to talk to him."

None of the great putters of the last 50 years -- Bob Charles, Billy Casper, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, et al. -- had a regular coach to help them on the greens. The same goes for today's acknowledged best: Woods, Steve Stricker, Brad Faxon and Brian Gay. For that matter, Stockton and Utley had no putting coach besides their boyhood teachers. The resistance is evident in the fact that the most recent partnerships were not initiated by the player. Stockton was suggested to Mickelson by his caddie, Jim Mackay, as Utley was to Garcia by Billy Foster. Stockton, at the behest of Mickelson, offered his services to Scott.

But when Stockton seemed to be the pivotal figure in Mickelson's immediate improvement, and when Scott and Justin Rose won soon after receiving a lesson from Dave Jr., it became a powerful narrative. "I highly respect what the Stocktons are doing," Utley says. "The buzz is in their court right now."

THE PIONEER: DAVE PELZ

When it comes to putting and the short game, Dave Pelz still has the buzz record. Distinguishing himself from earlier gurus like Paul Runyan, George Low, Phil Rodgers and Jackie Burke Jr., Pelz, a former researcher at NASA, compiled data in the late 1970s that for the first time offered empirical truth about what had been subject to theory and opinion. Among Pelz's breakthrough findings was that tour pros averaged about a 7-percent error (approximately seven yards from the target per 100 yards) with clubs for which they used full swings, but the error average was about 15 percent with the full array of shorter wedge shots -- essentially because the number of partial swings led to inconsistency in distance control. The data led Pelz in 1979 to make student Tom Kite a 60-degree club, which would allow more full swings from shorter distances. Kite added the third wedge to his bag, a practice that has become standard.

Pelz also opened a short-game and putting school that many tour pros attended. Over the years, he worked with players including Kite, Andy North, Payne Stewart, Paul Azinger, Lee Janzen, Vijay Singh and Steve Elkington.

Pelz, 70, has cut back on teaching pros the finer points of the short game and putting, the biggest reason being the time required to oversee his short-game schools, training aids, books and DVDs. But it's also true that his view that the ideal path of a putter should be straight back and straight through (as long as the hands are not outside the shoulders) has lost favor on the tour.

Mickelson and Pelz.

Pelz's work with Mickelson, which began in 2003, has included very little on technique. Pelz's most important contribution has been preparation at majors, where the two discuss which shots around the green Mickelson will need. It was at Pelz's urging that Mickelson grudgingly went a week early to the 2004 Masters, where he won his first major.

Pelz took the high road when Stockton, whose stroke is much different than the one Pelz advocates (see accompanying chart at the end of this article), was brought in last year as Mickelson's putting coach. "Dave Stockton has been great for Phil," Pelz says while conducting a tour of his office and short-game teaching facility near Austin. "When I was doing my research, I found Dave three-putted less than anyone, at one point going 950 holes without a three-putt. I love his forward press because for some players it keeps everything together. I don't want any problems with Dave. I don't want Phil to have any conflicts about what anybody says or tells him. I'm here to help Phil, period."

Pelz regained some tour cred in May when he signed to work with Michelle Wie for the rest of 2010. It was a surprising move because Wie's work with Stockton last year received so much attention, especially after her play in the Solheim Cup and her first LPGA victory. "No question, Michelle putted well after working with the Stocktons," says Leadbetter, her full-swing coach. "But she didn't feel completely comfortable with the technique, and I think she just wants to hear what others have to say." Leadbetter also believes that Wie's father, B.J., a former university professor, would be drawn to Pelz's expertise in statistical analysis.

THE UTLEY METHOD

Stan Utley also knows about buzz. Renowned among his peers for his short-game and putting skills during a journeyman career in which he has won the 1989 Chattanooga Classic and three Nationwide Tour events, Utley, 48, has always had a calling to teach. "I taught people I was playing with in the tournament, on purpose, because I played better when I was giving it away," Utley says on the practice putting green at Grayhawk in Scottsdale, where he teaches when he's not traveling or competing. "I'm a better person when I'm helping somebody, and I'm going to shoot better when I'm at my best."

Utley never received recognition as a teacher until he gave Jay Haas some putting advice in 2001 that was instrumental in resurrecting the veteran's career. Utley's standing improved even more when Peter Jacobsen won at Hartford at 49 and then the 2004 U.S. Senior Open. Soon Utley was teaching two dozen pros, and his work helped Garcia win the 2008 Players Championship and nearly win the PGA later that year. All three gave credit to Utley, who says, "Golf instructors become notable because tour players make them notable."

An Utley putting demonstration suggests innate genius, even as he modestly insists, "There are a lot of ways to do it." But his ideas were an antidote for the many players who might have overcooked Pelz's principles. Utley's most common fix was for those taking back the club handle first with little or no face rotation -- "outside and shut" in tour parlance -- and thus being forced to open the blade on the forward swing, often producing putts that roll poorly and come up short.

In Utley's stroke, the putterface stays perpendicular or "square" to the curved path of the putter. The toe rotates "open" and "closes" slightly through the ball, as it does in the strokes of Faxon, Woods and most of the best putters. According to computer analysis, it's common in such a stroke for contact with the ball to occur slightly toward the toe and well above the center of the clubface. "I'll just say I'm far happier with a putt that has a little hook coming off the face than a slice," Utley says, "because it rolls great."

Perhaps inevitably, Utley also has been overdone, leading to criticism that his method requires "manipulation," a charge Utley says is based on misunderstanding. "When Dave Pelz was really the only voice in putting, I found a lot of players whose arms were rotating the opposite way and scooping the ball," he says. "I would tell people who had been spinning the putter-face shut to feel like they were spinning it open. But it was just to get them back to the middle, and maybe as my ideas got overstated or misunderstood, it caused people to go past the middle."

At the same time, Utley's contact with his most prominent students was curtailed. "With Jay, he figured out the stroke I wanted him to make very quickly, and then when he went on the Champions Tour for the next three or four years it was staggering how well he putted," Utley says. "Now, nine years later, he doesn't putt great. Part of what makes him phenomenal is that he almost never asks for help. It's just that era. He's a completely independent guy. So I joke with him: 'Can I come out and watch you hit some putts? Because people think I'm teaching you, and you're not putting any good, so I need to come help you out.' We laugh, but we haven't hit it off of late."

Utley and Garcia.

Garcia, because of his potential and the quick initial progress he made under Utley, has been a more frustrating case. "Sergio's lag in his full swing, which is a strength, was a weakness in his chipping," Utley says. "But we got him quite a bit better. With the putter, one of his first comments was, 'On a 30-footer, I'm thinking, How in the world am I going to get the ball to the hole?' Because he was scoop-cut-wiping them, and mis-hitting a lot of putts. We fixed that, and he started enjoying the game more because he could hit a solid putt semi-where he looked."

But two months into 2009, Garcia broke up with his girlfriend and fell into a funk. "I haven't taught him since," Utley says. "Last year I went to tournaments, and though he was always pleasant, he was never in a mood to be taught. He was a brokenhearted guy, in my opinion. This year he hasn't asked me to even be around. What I see with Sergio now is that his stroke path looks good, but his backstroke is too slow and makes him tentative through the ball. He doesn't trust it. I know I can help him, but he has to want to be helped."

According to Garcia's manager, Clarke Jones, Garcia has been working on his short game and putting with his main coach, Peter Cowen. Utley's active students are Kevin Streelman, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Amanda Blumenherst and Paige Mackenzie. Utley mentions that before Wie left Stockton to go to Pelz, he had been asked by Wie's camp if he had an interest in working with her.

"Sure, I have feelings about it, but I'm a tour player, and I've done the same things to other teachers," Utley says. "Bottom line, tour players are looking for what they think is going to work best right now, and it's easy to go with who's hot. I've been there, but my teaching buddies who have all been around tell me it will come and go, and sometimes it's going to go. It's a wave."

STOCKTON: CONNECTING WITH PEOPLE

Stockton, whose ball-striking abilities were limited after he hurt his back in a teenage surfing accident, is riding the wave. As he cut back his Champions Tour schedule, he became more involved with his sons' instruction careers. "I've just always enjoyed watching somebody and giving them something that will make them say, 'This is easier,'" says Stockton, who during his playing days would do as many as 80 corporate outings a year. "I can connect with people, and in teaching, that's large."

Stockton is arguably among the top-10 putters who ever lived and among the top 10 for getting the most out of what he had. "When I first came out on the tour, I averaged hitting eight greens a round if I had a good round, and 23 or 24 putts if I putted normal," he says. "I didn't know I was any different."

Stockton believes in the forward press and using some wrist action in the backstroke, but that hinge remains in place throughout the rest of the stroke. It's an action that Mickelson used in his younger days, and he almost instantly putted well after starting to work with Stockton.

Mickelson and Stockton.

Though he is somewhat familiar with computer analysis of the putting stroke, Stockton says, "I'm much more interested in what you see and feel in your pre-shot routine than your stroke. A good putter locks all that into his subconscious, and once he's over the ball, he's not actively trying to make it. He's just letting it go and rolling it. I mean, putting is at least 80 percent mental."

The way Stockton briskly stepped into the 15-footer without a practice stroke to win the 1976 PGA is an immeasurable part of his credibility. To tour pros, he's the teacher who did it in the majors and helped Mickelson win his fourth at this year's Masters. Sitting on the side of a practice green, Stockton pulls out his cell phone and reads a text Mickelson sent to him after Scott's victory. It said, "Happy for both of you. Amazing how effective you are. It's the message, yes, but also how well you articulate that message."

Of course, the 1991 Ryder Cup captain is hard-wired for challenge, and it nettles him that he has for the moment lost Wie, his most ambitious project. After Morgan Pressel encouraged Wie to see Stockton, they spent two days working together in California. Stockton opened Wie's stance and pared down and sped up her pre-shot routine. Wie's play at the subsequent Solheim Cup was inspired, and in November she got her first LPGA victory.

"I was really excited, because I knew I had bonded with her right off the bat, just like with Phil," Stockton says. "I was really looking forward to working with her this year, but I didn't hear anything after she won in Mexico. I saw her briefly, but we didn't get together. When I asked her mother, 'I hope I didn't do anything wrong,' she said, 'Oh, no, no, everything's fine,' and was very friendly. So it's just bizarre, because how can you argue with the results? I mean, for Michelle, putting and short game are absolutely the key."

Stockton might be cocky, but he's almost certainly right. And as the game's best are increasingly acknowledging, not just about Wie.

Consejos de Stan Utley (uno de los mejores profesores de Juego Corto del mundo)

Feel Is In Your Fingertips

If you don't worry about anything else in your putting stroke, lock down these two fundamentals, and you'll improve right away. First, make sure the putter grip is in line with your right forearm, not hanging below it (inset). This helps the putter swing easily on the right swing plane. Second, set your hands so the grip runs through the lifelines of your palms and you're holding the handle mostly with your fingertips (left). If you were tossing a penny, you wouldn't set it in your open palm; you'd hold it in your fingertips, for feel. That's what you want when you're putting.

Keep Your Read Fresh

You want to preserve the instinctive connection between your brain's ability to judge spatial relationships and the putting stroke. I recently played a round with a 10-handicapper who had a good short game, but he went through a PGA Tour-caliber green-reading routine, then froze over the putt in his address position for almost a full minute before he pulled the club back. His stroke was actually pretty good, but he wasn't getting the kind of results he should have.

An unfocused, drawn-out routine like that robs you of some fantastic built-in skill you already have. Once you make your read and get a feel for the distance, the moment you look away from your target and get into your putting setup that visualization starts to deteriorate. After 30 seconds, you've essentially "forgotten" all of the read information you acquired. Your goal should be to spend no more than 20 seconds between your final read and starting your stroke.

ERASE THE TENSION ON PITCHES

If you get into a rigid, locked position, you're never going to have a good short game. To hit good pitch shots, set up so your arms hang loosely from your shoulders and your feet are close together, to make it easier to rotate (left). To hit the shot, pivot through instead of swinging your arms independently at the ball. The butt of the club should stay pointed at your belt buckle the whole time, which keeps the bounce on the bottom of the club exposed to the ground (inset, top photo). If you flip your hands over (inset, bottom), the club will dig into the turf instead of skid the way you want.

PICKING THE RIGHT TRAJECTORY

Some situations call for a specific kind of shot. Others present choices. When you're close to the hole but with some fringe between you and the green, you have to diagnose the conditions. If you have a sketchy lie in the fringe (or you're really feeling pressure), your best bet is to keep the ball on the ground. Putting is a good option, or you can make a putting stroke with a hybrid club, which helps shoot the ball out if it's sitting down. If you use a lofted club, pick a specific landing spot on the green (above), then read the rest of the shot as you would a putt. I like to play low shots that run out like a putt, but lofted pitches are useful if the flag is on a different tier.

MATCHING AIM WITH READ

You can do everything right with your read and still make a basic mistake that will cause you to miss a lot of putts. The common fault is to focus on the hole, not the apex of the break, during the setup and alignment process (inset, bottom photo). That forces you to steer your stroke to start the ball on line instead of letting the putter swing naturally on a good path. Once you've picked the apex of the break, go through your pre-putt routine from behind the ball—facing the apex point (inset)—then align yourself square to that point, not the hole. Now trust your read and make the stroke.

SIMPLIFY THE LOB SHOT

Instead of contorting yourself into an open stance with a low right shoulder to try to scoop a shot high into the air, use your basic bunker setup for a nearly foolproof lob shot. Set your feet shoulder-width apart, your spine tilted left and your hands slightly behind the ball—which adds loft to the club (far left). Then, using very little arm swing, hinge your wrists aggressively (middle), keeping the end of the grip directly in front of you. Unhinge your wrists fast through impact to produce the speed to shoot the ball up in the air (right), letting your left wrist cup and your left elbow slide along your side. See how the face is pointed straight up in the air? That's how to get loft.

 

Teaching feel to tour players

I helped four top pros improve their touch. The short-game lessons I gave them apply to you, too

 

All of us are trying to get better. Tour players aren't any different from you, the average player, in that way. But working with a tour player is a little different than giving a two-hour short-game clinic, because the stakes are pretty high. These guys are trying to make a living with their games. And I don't want to make anything worse.

The players who come to see me usually fall into two groups. Some of them are in a crisis--they feel like they can't make a putt, or their short game is in shambles. Other players have great technique and are looking for a second set of eyes for confirmation--a tuneup, so to speak. My job is to figure out what they're really asking me. Do they want a lesson, or are they just curious to see what I teach? Do they need to make big changes to get better, or is it a matter of making a small adjustment? What do they think they're doing with their stroke? I'm watching and coming up with some of my own ideas, but what I'm really trying to figure out is if they have a realistic view of their situation and are open to finding some answers.

In this article I'll show you how I've helped tour players improve their feel on and around the greens. I'm sure you'll recognize your own short-game problems in these stories. The stakes might be higher for tour players, but the fundamentals are the same for everyone. Good mechanics let you forget about your stroke and concentrate on feel--the key to scoring.

Jay Haas

Body rotation and pivot add precision to short pitches

The short-game shot Jay struggled with the most was the pitch from a tight lie. He was set up with his weight too much to the right, and he started his swing with a sway and with the grip end of the club moving first.

We first got his weight on his left side at address, and then worked on getting the clubhead to start back first with forearm rotation and the folding of his right arm immediately. He coordinated this with a slight lower-body pivot.

Jay began to shallow out his swing and use the bounce on his wedge more effectively--so the club skipped through the grass instead of bouncing or digging--and his confidence on these shots improved immediately and dramatically.

 

Darren Clarke

 

A better setup can transform your chipping game

When I'm too close to the ball, the tendency is to pick the clubhead up and to the outside of the target line with my wrists.

When I met with Darren at the PGA Championship last year, he was struggling with his chipping game. It turns out that he had a problem in his setup that is common for golfers at every level. Darren stood too close to the ball. It's natural to want to do this, because you feel like you have more control. But from that cramped position, the only way he could take the club back was up and outside the target line. On the downswing, he was really steep--which will make you hit shots fat and thin if your timing isn't perfect.

Once he moved away from the ball, he started swinging more around his body, with more forearm rotation and lower-body pivot. When you do it right, the sensation is like hitting a topspin Ping-Pong shot with your left hand. After two hours of work on chipping, putting and bunker play, Darren felt a lot better. The next day he shot a 65 to lead the tournament.

No
When I'm too close to the ball (see photo above), the tendency is to pick the clubhead up and to the outside of the target line with my wrists. I'll have to compensate for that later in the swing by flipping my hands at the ball. Remember, a great pitching swing blends forearm rotation, wrist action and pivot to swing the face from open to closed through impact--not closed to open.

 

Create Space
On pitches and chips, you want your upper arms (above the elbow) to stay relaxed and close to your sides. The swing comes from pivoting your lower body and rotating your forearms, and allowing your right elbow to fold early.

Notice how my left arm is still hanging straight down, and the top of the grip has hardly moved.

 

Peter Jacobsen

Integrate your short game with your long game

 

Peter and I started working together in 2003, and I noticed right away that he had a lot of shoulder tilt -- his right shoulder dramatically lower than his left--in his swing while putting and chipping. That tilt makes the club work up and down instead of the more around-and-shallow path I like to see. When the club works up and down, you've got to have perfect timing to hit the ball solidly. I wanted Peter to hit these shots with his beltline and shoulder a little more level. Your shoulders do get more tilted on a full swing, but for shots as small as these, they need to stay more level.

Once we started working on this, he commented about how similar it was to what he was doing with Jim Hardy on his full swing -- one plane instead of two, as seen in the May issue of Golf Digest. Once he felt the club work around his body and stay connected to his pivot, he improved very quickly. He hit a perfect pitch from the rough to get up and down for par on the 15th hole at the 2003 Greater Hartford Open--a shot he said won the tournament for him. It would have been much harder for him to hit that shot with his old technique.

Square your stance
I like a player to set up square to the target line for most shots. With the feet square to that line and the ball centered or ahead of middle, it's much easier for the club to swing back on plane. If you set up open to the target line and the ball is back, you'll tend to take the club back outside and close the face. Golf is action-reaction--I never want to be manipulating the face from closed to open on the way to impact.

 

Craig Stadler

Putting on a better path equals birdies

 

Craig and I met after the West Coast swing in 2003, and he told me he was literally four-putting--and he was worried it might be mental. I watched him putt and had great news for him: His stroke was terrible. His putterhead moved on an arc, but it was on an arc opposite to the one I teach. His putterhead moved outside the target line on the backswing, then back outside on the follow-through.

Even though he needed to make a dramatic change, he was relieved because he understood his problem and knew he could make the mechanical adjustment. Now, his clubhead swings on a slight arc inside to inside, and it's the only lesson he's ever taken. I don't know how many millions in prize money he has won since then, but it looks like it's working OK.

Recently, Craig added the claw grip, and I have no problem with that. It helps his right arm work around him, which makes it easier for him to swing the putter on the proper arc. I don't care how a player holds on to it. I just think it's going to work best if you swing on plane.

 

How to find your touch on three short-game shots

In the lessons I give to tour players, I talk a lot about the importance of reconnecting to the natural, athletic feel those guys certainly have. But what if you're a 15- or 20-handicapper, and you don't have a firm grasp of what "feel" really means? Don't worry. You're not going to be left in the short-game wilderness forever. You just need to equate the feel in those short-game shots to moves you already know from everyday life. Here's how to use them.

How to find your touch on three short-game shots

Putting feel

Push a broom

Good fundamentals are important to putting, but a basic understanding of how the arms and body should move is even more important. Many players get stiff, freezing the joints in their arms, which causes the body to move excessively during the stroke. The feel you want is actually more like pushing a broom: Your right elbow pistons back along your side as you draw the broom back, then your right arm extends downward as you push the broom away. The same is true to a smaller degree as you swing your putter. This allows your body to stay quiet while your arms swing freely.
TIP+VIDEO: See a video of this lesson

Pitching feel

Skip a rock

On a high pitch shot, the goal is to keep the bounce on the bottom of the club exposed to the ground throughout the swing. Players get into trouble when they turn the right arm over in an aggressive release. The feel you want is the same as the one you'd get skipping a rock across water. Your right arm throws from the side, fully releasing your wrist and elbow while keeping the palm of your hand facing the sky, or underneath the grip, as you turn through the shot.

Chipping feel

Hit a backhand

It's hard for the average player to resist the urge to try to lift the ball on a chip, or to hold the face open to create loft. Imagine a Ping-Pong paddle in your left hand. The face of the paddle represents the face of the club. Instead of scooping or holding the face open, picture the face of the paddle turning to the ball, like a topspin backhand -- the secret to crisp contact on chip shots.

Winning at match play

Se viene el Campeonato del Club, y para algunos, la Copa de Oro, y unos consejos sobre match-play siempre nos pueden ayudar.

1. Play the course, not your opponent. While you certainly want to be aware of how your opponent is playing and how the match stands, it's important to avoid the trap of getting swept up in the emotion of the match. It's a waste of energy and focus to personalize the competition.
2. Always play first. Whenever possible, play first, because if you hit a good shot, it will increase the pressure on your opponent and possibly force him or her to hit a poor shot. Walter Hagen (below), who won five PGA Championships at match play, would often start a game by hitting a 3-wood from the tee. While he might leave himself a slightly longer approach shot, he knew that by playing first to the green he might get an edge over his opponent.

(Photo by Allsport Hulton/Archive)

3. Get the ball into the hole first. Again, this is a way of increasing the pressure on your opponent. You shouldn't rush your putt by any means, but do putt out if possible.
4. Always assume the worst. This might be the most important rule of match play. There's nothing that sets you back quicker than assuming you have a hole won, only to see your opponent pull off a miracle shot or sink an impossible putt. This doesn't mean you shouldn't be optimistic--far from it. But you should always temper your optimism with a healthy dose of reality.
5. Take it one shot at a time. Just as in medal play, you have to try very hard to play one shot at a time. Don't dwell on the past, since you can't do anything about what has already happened. When the time comes to play, concentrate on the shot at-hand and only the shot at-hand.
6. Play to your par. Now, depending on your handicap, par is the score you figure you need to shoot in order to win a hole. For higher-handicappers, "par" might be a bogey or even a

double-bogey. You might get to a point late in the match when you have to gamble, but establishing your par and sticking to a game plan that allows you to match that number will win you more than your share of holes--and matches.
7. Watch your opponent. People are creatures of habit. But under pressure, they tend to get out of their routine. They walk faster or slower. They become indecisive over what shot to play or which club to use. When you notice that your opponent is struggling or has gotten out of his or her routine, it's a golden opportunity to stay relaxed and try to increase the pressure even more.
8. Don't look ahead. There's a temptation when you are in front during a match to look ahead to the next round of the draw. The danger is that your concentration will slip, and your opponent might be working especially hard to beat you.
9. Study the Rules of Golf. The Rules of Golf can be complicated and difficult to truly understand. But by knowing the rules, you know all your options, and this can help you save strokes. Jack Nicklaus, for example, used to read the Rules of Golf cover-to-cover before the start of every season.
10. Never give up. It's a simple truth that in match play: "It's never over until it's over." You might pull off a miracle shot or your opponent might surprise you and miss a relatively simple shot, and let you back in the hole--or even in the match.

By Ian Poulter:
Get out fast: "In match play you have to attack every pin, and when you get a lead, keep your foot on the accelerator," says Poulter, who is undefeated in Ryder Cup singles play. At the 2010 Ryder Cup, he defeated Stewart Cink in 14 holes. "After every shot, the clock is ticking, and it's a lot easier to win holes early than late. Don't give anything away from the start. That's how you become a player who's tough to beat."
By Jack Nicklaus;
Forget your partner: "Tom Weiskopf used to tell stories when we were partners that I would say, 'Go rack your cue, Tom.' Meaning pick up your ball because I'm going to make my putt,' " Nicklaus says. "Of course, I didn't say that, but the mind-set is a healthy one for match play. If I had an eight-footer and my partner had a 12-footer on a different line, I might want to just hit mine in. Point is, don't rely on your partner, rely on yourself. You're playing your own ball, so think about what you can do."
By Michael Breed:
Have a safety drive: On a crucial hole, driving the ball in the fairway can be the difference between free drinks and picking up the check. "What I tell my students is, make a practice swing and feel what's happening to your body. Feel what it's like to stay in balance," Breed says. "If you can maintain your balance, the club will tend to meet the ball in the center of the face." Staying in balance also will improve your rhythm, he says, which always helps prevent wild tee shots.
By Padraig Harrington:
One hole at a time: "If you're down, your goal is to win that hole. Get one hole, then the next."
By Tim Mahoney:
Up big? Don't coast: "It's natural to be more cautious with the lead and force your opponent to take risks," Mahoney says. "But being conservative should apply only to the target and club selection. Once it's time to hit, make an aggressive swing. When players get a lead, they tend to guide shots or focus on just avoiding disasters. They start thinking about the next thing, like the next match. You have to keep playing."

Aventuras en Guayaquil!!! (dia 2,3 y premiación)

Gracias a los chicos, y a los papás, por todos los momentos que pasamos. Espero que se repitan pronto!!!

Pablo

Un amigo que nos encontramos paseando por el hoyo 9.