Golfers Seven Biggest Problems & Solutions

Table of Contents
Introduction 1. Problem - What should my legs be doing during the swing? 2. Problem - I tend to miss a lot of short putts and I think it's because I look up too early, so what can I do to prevent this from happening? 3. Problem - When I'm faced with bunker shots I tend to either leave the ball in the bunker or hit the ball way over the green. Have you got a solution? 4. Problem - I keep 3 putting all the time, what can I do to stop this? 5. Problem - I am a very inconsistent chipper, what can I do to improve this? 6. Problem - I am a very inconsistent pitcher of the ball. My shots either go too far or too short. How can I improve? 7. Problem - I'm trying really hard to hit the ball up in the air but no matter how hard I try I seem to just barely get the ball above the ground. And often I top the ball. What am I doing wrong? Conclusion

Introduction
The seven golfing problems contained in this special report are what I believe the biggest faults found in most golfers games (this excludes slicing as Ive got a system which fixes that problem). As you can imagine it was a very hard decision to decide on just seven golfing problems. But after extensive thinking and remembering of my over 15 year golf career I managed to narrow it down to the seven contained within this document. I think youll find that you can use the suggestions in every solution to improve your golf game. Even if you dont think you have one of these golfing problems try the drills and exercises in the solution anyway. They can only improve your game. So lets get into the seven biggest golfing problems & solutions and good luck.

1. Problem - What should my legs be doing during the swing? Solution - Answer M-O-V-I-N-G! The amount of golfers that don't use their feet and legs during the swing is amazing. Watching a lot of golfers hit a ball you'd think they had concrete shoes on! If you want to hit the golf ball as far as you can then you must learn to use your feet and legs well. To give you a graphic illustration of how your feet can effect the distance you hit a golf ball I want you to do the following exercises. 1. On the practice range setup to a shot as normal 2. Now I want you to put the club down and pick up the ball and get ready to throw it.

3. Once set like above I then want you to throw the ball as far as you can without using your feet or legs. Try to keep them as still as possible like the pictures show over the page

Okay, excellent. Now I want you to throw another ball but this time use your feet and legs, especially on the follow-through. Look at the example below to see exactly what I mean.

If you do this exercise you'll find that your throws go a lot further when you use your feet and legs in combination with your body. So now you know this, how can you use this information to improve your swing? Well, you need to have a crystal clear image of what your legs should be doing in the swing so that you can get the most power. To show you how to use your legs properly I'm going to give you two examples. One is good the other is not. When you setup to a shot you should have some flex in your back leg. Now listen carefully because I want you to remember this like you've never remembered anything else before. Your back leg MUST stay in the same position as it was at address during the entire backswing. Do not straighten your back leg at all during the backswing because that will promote a reverse pivot, which basically means the weight is going onto your front foot instead of your back foot. Over the page is a good setup position and then following that is two backswing positions. One is a good backswing position the other is not. Have a look at both of them and then I'm going to explain what youre seeing.

Setup

From the good backswing position, what should happen? Well, I believe the very first move in the downswing should be initiated by the front knee moving towards the target. And ideally what you want is for the front knee to move towards the target while the back knee remains where it is. This knee separation creates lag in the downswing, which creates the late hit that every golfer wants. Every long hitter in the world does this knee separation and the longest hitters start this knee separation before the backswing has been completed. To get this feeling I suggest you do the following exercise.

At the top of your backswing get to a position where you are fully loaded into your right side, and as I've already said, I believe that to start your downswing you should do it with your left knee and left hip first. So as you are about to reach the furthest point going back you should be starting your downswing movement with your left knee first and then your hip. The feeling should be one of moving in two directions at once for a split second. This is not the easiest thing to do but with practice it creates tremendous club head speed and you'll notice a big increase in distance. Here's a great drill that teaches you the leg movements I'm talking about. Get a beach ball and place it between your knees at setup, just as I'm doing below.

Then swing back as normal. And to start your downswing separate your knees so that the beach ball falls down, and then swing through normally.

As you can see from the pictures above, at the very top of my backswing my first move is to separate the knees. If you master this knee separation move you'll hit the ball longer than you ever have before, and you'll be more consistent too. I'm sure you'll love both of those benefits won't you?? Now the follow-through really is a reflection of the backswing. So you must concentrate on getting a good solid backswing before you even look at your follow-through. With that being said it's good that you get a clear picture of what you want to look like at the end of your swing and where your weight should be and what your feet should be doing. Once again I'm going to show you a good follow-through and a not so good follow-though. OK, OK, it's a bad follow-through. So have a look at the pictures on the next page and I'll discuss what you're seeing in a second.

Hopefully now you've got a good idea as to how you can best use your feet to get the most power. So I'll now summarize the points you should work on 1. During your backswing you should concentrate on keeping your back leg in the same position as it was at address. 2. At the top of your backswing your back leg should be in the same position as it was at address and your weight should be concentrated on the inside of your back foot. No weight should be present on the outside of your back foot. 3. To start your downswing you should do so with your front knee moving towards the target, attempting to separate the knees. 4. At the finish of your swing you should have the majority of your weight on your front foot, with your belt buckle pointing towards the target. Plus your back foot should be up on it's toe so you can see all of the spikes as the picture on the next page clearly shows.

If you follow these points your shots will be more powerful and more consistent and consequently you'll have more fun. I suggest you concentrate on your backswing first, and then the start of the downswing and then the follow-through last. But when you go to work on your follow-through here's something that will help you. Pose your follow-through so that it's perfect, then have a swing and attempt to get into the same follow-through position that you just posed. At the end of every shot you should be able to hold your follow-through until the ball has stopped rolling. And you'll only be able to do this if you have swung within yourself. Lastly remember a good finish generally means a good shot so get in the habit of holding your follow-through until your ball has stopped moving.

2. Problem - I tend to miss a lot of short putts and I think it's because I look up too early, so what can I do to prevent this from happening? Solution - Looking up too early on a putt is one of the biggest reasons short putts are missed. So what can we do to stop this? Well, here are a couple of great drills you should do on a regular basis to build up trust and confidence in your stroke so you won't feel the need to look up. This first drill is very simple. Just set yourself up about 3 feet away from a hole and get ready to putt towards the hole. Now just before you're ready to putt simply close your eyes and then stroke the ball and don't open your eyes until the ball has either gone in the hole (and you'll know this because you'll hear the ball go in) or missed. Keep putting like this and you'll build up faith in your stroke and you'll also feel awareness of what your stroke is doing. Now the secret behind this drill is that it makes you concentrate solely on the process and that's exactly what you want. You can control the stroke but you can't control what happens after the ball has been struck. And you'll play your best golf when you concentrate on the process of making a stroke rather than the outcome. Here's another great drill that will help to develop this. Again set yourself up about 3 feet from the hole and get ready to putt towards the hole. When you're ready simply turn your head so you are looking directly at the hole and then putt. Doing this means you won't be so preoccupied

with looking up to see where the ball has gone because you can clearly see the result. But because of this it will allow you to make a smooth stroke that is not manipulated by your conscious mind. These drills are all well and good but what are you now going to do on the golf course? Well you can continue putting on the course doing these two things I've just mentioned but here's something less extreme. Setup over your short putts and pick out a spot that your putter head should finish over at the end of your putt. For example, lets say the spot is 5 inches in front of your ball. So you setup over your putt as normal, now instead of looking at your ball look at the spot in front of your ball and keep your eyes focused there throughout the stroke. Then only look up to see where the ball has gone after the clubhead has passed over this mark in front of the ball. Doing this means that no one will know what you've done and you'll be able to beat your short putting problem. Do these drills consistently because they'll really improve your short putting, and you know how depressing it is to miss short putts, so you'll do these drills won't you??

3. Problem - When I'm faced with bunker shots I tend to either leave the ball in the bunker or hit the ball way over the green. Have you got a solution? Solution - The main reason this happens is because most golfers find it hard to come to terms with the fact that they don't have to hit the ball to get it out of the bunker. And this leads to two things happening. The first one is hitting the ball first, which obviously results in some bad shots. And the second one is decelerating at the ball and letting the club contact the sand way behind the ball and because the club is going so slowly the sand does not have enough force to get the ball out. Now luckily, I've got a great drill for you that with practice will get you used to the feeling you should have through the bunker shot. And funnily enough you don't even need to do this drill in a bunker and if you have one of those soft practice golf balls, you should be able to do this drill at home. So what's the drill? Well, you simply have to tee up a ball very high and setup to it like you would for a bunker shot i.e. clubface open, stance open etc. Once you've setup to the shot the next step is to swing back to halfway and then through the shot to a full-finish. And the goal is to hit the tee under the ball so the ball simply falls to the ground. On the next page are some pictures that will help to explain this.

As you can see, the ball is sitting on the ground because I've hit the tee. Also notice how my follow-through is much longer than my backswing. For 95% of bunker shots you should have a longer follow-through than your backswing. You hardly ever want your follow-through to be the same or shorter than your backswing. The reason is because having a longer follow-through automatically creates acceleration. And you must accelerate through bunker shots to ever be successful at them. Also you must get used to not hitting the ball and this drill helps to teach you both of these aspects. So in conclusion, you should practice this a drill a lot. And once again, if you have a practice golf ball (one of those balls that goes about 50 yards with a full shot) then simply use that and do this drill at home.

4. Problem - I keep 3 putting all the time, what can I do to stop this? Solution On the next page is a table of results from a survey Golf Digest did on the putting of amateur and professional golfers. They tested a total of 302 golfers with handicaps ranging from 0 to 40, at St Andrews G&CC in West Chicago, Illinois; Troon North GC in North Scotsdale, Arizona; and Pinehurst R&CC, North Carolina. Each golfer tried 12 three-foot putts, 24 six-foot putts and 15 putts of 24 feet, no two putts were from the same location, so take a close look at this table on the next page and then we'll use these figures to help your 3 putt problem.

Handicap 0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 20+ Men

%3-foot putts sank 85% 87% 82% 82% 76% 83%

%6-foot putts sank 50% 50% 46% 45% 39% 45%

%24-foot putts left within 3 feet 80% 75% 71% 68% 52% 68%

Women All Participants PGA Tour pros*

73% 81% 81%

38% 44% 60%

49% 65% 85%

*Under tournament conditions at selected PGA Tour events Reference: Australian Golf Digest First of all take a close look at the 24-foot range results. As you see the pro's are the best from this range but what is most interesting is that from the 20+ range to the 0-5 handicap the percentages get better and better according to the player's handicap. Isn't that interesting?! Now lets look at the 6-foot range results. You'll notice the same trend from this range as well, with the lowest score being the 20+ golfers and the highest being the pro's again. But this time the difference between the 20+ to the scratch golfers isn't that wide. And certainly not as wide a margin as the 24 footers. The last range, which is 3 footers, provides us with some of the most important findings of this survey. As you'll notice the difference between the highest and lowest scores (excluding gender groups, I'll get to that in a second!) is only 11%, whereas the difference between the highest and lowest scores in the 24 foot putt range was a huge 33% margin. Incidentally the difference between the highest and lowest in the 6 foot range was 21%. What can we take from these findings that are going to improve your golf game? Well, the range between the short putts was very close and in fact the 6-10 handicapper's beat the pro's but I'm sure this would be different if the amateur statistics where taken from tournament conditions like the pro's were, but that's another story. Now, if you're a women reading this article please take a close look at your gender stats. If you're a male then move on to the paragraph after the next one because the following comments are just for women. Women Only Women, in every category you're behind the men from as little as 10% to as much as 19%. Why? I'm not sure either, but I do know that you have a great opportunity. You see if you apply yourself and improve this area of the game so you are equal to if not better than a good man putter then what a huge advantage you will have over your lady opposition. There's no reason why you can't be a better putter than a man and every reason why you can be better. So it's now down to you to learn about good putting and then become a good putter. Now onward with the rest of today's lesson. Whether you're a man or woman what can you get from these findings to improve your golf game? Well, it's pretty clear from these findings that for amateurs to improve their score they need to first work on their long putting, and second improve the amount of putts they hole from the 4-10 foot range, and lastly work on the 3 footers. Now I know this is a very simplistic view but the stats support me on this one. The only figure that is close to the pro's for all participants is in the 3 foot range which incidentally is the same as the pro's with 81%. But then the figure for all participants for the 6 foot range is 16% away from the pro's and the distance between all participants and the pro's in the 24 foot range is 20%. So now you have a plan to improve your putting which is.... 1. Use drills and techniques to improve your distance control on long putting.

2. Improve the success rate on the 4-10 foot range. 3. Build confidence in the 3 footers and closer putts.
I realize this sounds awfully easy but don't make it more complicated than it is and the facts support these findings. You can't argue with the fact that if you were to putt as well as a pro from 24 feet you'd improve. And if you were to

putt as well as a pro from 6 feet you'd improve. And the 3 footers were about the same. So doesn't that prove to you that the most important thing is distance control first, accuracy second? Most people get so caught up in getting the right line and maybe that's why the results are so close in the 3 feet range. But obviously the pro's have seen the light and found through long hours and experience they need to master the distance they hit their putts if they want to improve. Because no one hits it to inside 3 feet all day. Now the next question is, "how can you improve your distance control?" There is a hundred and one ways to do it but the best way I've found to do it is by.....practice. Wow, what a revelation, "you mean I have to practice my long putting before my touch will improve?" You got it in one. But just don't think you can go and hit long putt after long putt and you'll get touch because you won't. You'll get good at hitting a putter into a golf ball but that's not touch. So what is touch? Touch is assessing the conditions around you, deciding on the weight and line that you need to get the ball close to the hole after taking in all the elements that effect the speed of a putt, i.e. the speed of the green, the direction of the grain, the time of the day, whether your putt is uphill or downhill, etc., etc... Do you want to know the magic formula for calculating all of these factors so you can putt every putt within a 3 foot radius of the hole?....you do....OK, wait for it, it might shock you but here it is anyway....."EXPERIENCE!" You might be saying, "experience, yeah right I've been playing golf for years and I've hit thousands of putts and I'm still 3 putting, how much more experience do I need??" Well I'm here to tell you that what you've been doing is not experiencing putting but merely hitting a ball. If you were to truly experience putting you would be aware of every single putt you hit as to what happened and how you can improve it next time. Now this is not paralysis by analysis but it is being aware of what happened on the last putt and what you can do differently next time in a similar situation to make sure it doesn't happen again. A lot of people think they do this when they hit a putt too hard and so next time they think they learnt from this shot so they hit the next putt a fraction easier and we all know the result and that's the key word "result." These golfers are so concerned with the outcome that they forget the process. The question they should be asking themselves is, "what did I do that caused the ball to go too far?" Maybe it had nothing to do with how hard you hit the ball, instead it could be that you were down grain with a downward slope to the hole that was steeper than you realized. So after figuring this out to ensure this doesn't happen again and you learn from the mistake the next time in a similar situation, you'll realize that when the green looks shiny it's down grain. You'll also take a closer look at the slope of the green as you're walking to the green, not just when you're on it. Now that's experiencing putting. So you see there's no magic formula apart from learning from your mistakes and mistakes are extremely beneficial ONLY if you learn from them. Most people keep making the same mistakes over and over again and then wonder why they keep getting the same results. You have to change your approach to long putting so you become more aware and it all starts by asking yourself good questions about what just happened. Good questions lead to good answers and good answers lead to improvement and more enjoyment. Here's a quick drill that you can practice to improve your awareness skills and to learn from experience much faster than normal. On the practice green put about 5 balls on the green 30 feet away from a hole. Now putt those balls to the hole trying to hole them with your eyes closed. As you putt feel all the movements and hear the ball leave the putter. At the completion of your stroke with your eyes

still closed, guess as to how close the ball is to hole (e.g. it's 3 feet past on the right side and it's a foot to the right of the hole). Once you've made your informed decisions from feeling your movements then look to see where the ball did in fact end up. All you have to do is keep practicing like this until you can tell by your stroke where the ball has ended up. I would say about 99.9% of golfers see where the ball has gone and then decide what went wrong. Another great way to improve your long putting touch is by hitting putts to the fringe of the green instead of the hole. This forces you to focus on distance control.

I guarantee that if you did these two drills for only 10 minutes a day from different distances not only would your scores dramatically improve but your confidence and enjoyment would as well. Because you will be learning through experience not through results. You must learn from the process first and the result second not the other way around if you want to improve quickly. 5. Problem - I am a very inconsistent chipper, what can I do to improve this? Solution - Chipping is very easy, or at least it should be. Next to putting it's one of the easiest actions you make in golf. Now the biggest problem I see when most people chip is that they use their wrists way too much. When you setup for a chip you should form a triangle with your arms and club as is pictured over the page.

From this setup position you simply have to keep this triangle intact throughout the stroke. Now here's a great drill that forces you to do this. Simply setup to a chip shot as normal but get another club and hold it next to the club you are going to chip with so the club extends out the top. From this position simply swing back and through attempting to keep the triangle intact. To make it crystal clear as to what you should be doing, here is a couple of pictures that show you the action, using the second club as a guide.

Now, if you're doing this exercise and the second club hits your body on the follow-through that indicates that your wrists have collapsed. If you keep the triangle in tact and don't have any wrist action then this won't happen. And if you do this drill consistently you will learn the art of good consistent chipping. Another important point to note when chipping is that you should always follow-through further than you take the club back. Always!

6. Problem - I am a very inconsistent pitcher of the ball. My shots either go too far or too short. How can I improve? Solution - The reason most golfers are inconsistent when it comes to pitching is because, the swing needed to hit the ball the required distance needs to be shorter than a full swing. Now because most golfers hit full shots the majority of the time, they find it difficult to make these shorter swings. But do you know what will help? Practice! You've got to practice swinging back shorter than a full swing and then follow-through. And here's the most important point from these instructions. When pitching you should always follow-through further than your backswing. The reason for this is simple. By following through further than your backswing you are creating a swing that will accelerate through the ball. If you don't do this, then your results are going to be inconsistent at best and disastrous at worst. So I want you to practice a shorter swing and for consistent pitch shots you must make sure that your ball position is the same time after time. I suggest that you have your ball positioned in the middle of your stance as I'm demonstrating below. Do not have it any further forward than this unless you are playing a flop shot (high shot). From a setup position similar to this (see picture 1) I want you to take your club back halfway so your arm is parallel to the ground (see picture 2). Now from this position simply follow-through but DO NOT stop at a position similar to picture 4 but carry on through until you achieve a position similar to picture 5.

So to improve your pitching simply keep practicing this back and through motion, with or without a ball. And remember on all pitch shots to follow-through further than your backswing and you'll dramatically improve your consistency. One last point. To start with really exaggerate the short backswing and the long follow-through. This will help.

7. Problem - I'm trying really hard to hit the ball up in the air but no matter how hard I try I seem to just barely get the ball above the ground. And often I top the ball. What am I doing wrong? Solution - Golf's a funny game because it's largely a game of opposites. And one of the opposites that you must grasp is that if you want the ball to go up you have to hit down. Now for most beginners that's a hard concept to grasp but even for some experienced golfers it's a difficult one to actually do. To get a golf ball up in the air using the loft of the club you need to hit slightly down on the ball with every shot you play, with the exception of your driver (from a tee) and your putter. Every other shot will require a slightly downward attack. One of the most common sights I see on the golf course is golfers in an impact position similar to what I'm demonstrating below on the left. Bad Impact Position Good Impact Position

As you can clearly see the head is well behind the ball. The weight is mainly on the right side and the club is starting to go up. Now compare that picture with the one on the right where I'm about to hit the ball. You'll still notice that the head is slightly behind the ball which is good, but the weight is more balanced between the two feet and the club is coming down into the ball. Unfortunately the only result from the impact position on the left is either a low thin at best or at worst the ball will roll along the ground. The reason an impact position like this happens is because a golfer who believes they actually have to help the ball up leaves a lot of their weight on the back foot in an attempt to get the ball up. Your golf clubs have loft on them and it's built in so you don't actually have to "try" to get the ball up. But instead you should just swing and let the in built lofts get the ball up. When you hit a crisp well hit iron shot the divot should start after you've hit the ball. So, to get this feeling of hitting the ball first and with a descending blow, I want you to do the drill on the next page. Setup to a shot as normal but just before you start your swing I want you to lift your back heel off the ground. From this new setup position, simply swing as normal but don't let the back heel down on the backswing. Keep it in exactly the same position as it was at address.

Doing this drill will force you to move down and through the ball with a descending blow. And your follow-through should be completely onto your left side to finish. With your spikes completely showing on your back foot.

So keep doing this drill over and over again to get the feeling of hitting the ball first and then taking the divot. I can promise you that when you get this move correct your shots will go higher, straighter and with a more solid feel. Lastly - remember to hit down on the ball to make it go up.

Conclusion
Thats what I believe are the 7 biggest problems in most golfers games apart from slicing. So hopefully if youve done what I suggest in the solutions then you wouldve started to improve your game. But dont stop now because the secret to success in anything is in always looking to improve whatever it is you are doing. If you keep trying to improve some aspect of your golf game then you will score better and have more fun. But things take time, so make sure you stick with something youre working on for at least 30 days to make your new move a habit. And if you have a golfing problem that you want solved simply contact me and Ill solve it for you. You can contact me in the following 4 ways 1. Mail - G.P.C. 65 King Street, Taradale, Napier, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand 2. Phone In New Zealand: 06 845 0079, Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm Phone Outside New Zealand: Put in your countries International Access Code for New Zealand followed by - 6 845 0079 3. Fax In New Zealand: 06 845 0079 Fax Outside New Zealand: Put in your countries International Access Code for New Zealand followed by - 6 845 0079 4. Email nick@fixgolfslice.com I wish you all the success in golf and life and if I can help you in any way I will. Yours truly,

Nick Bayley Author of The "Draw" System