Lee Trevino golf tips are always spot on. Here are some of them.
• The easiest shot is the best shot
Some players like to turn simple shots into hard ones. Even good players do it. This can work against you. The goal is to get the ball from point A to point B in as few a shots as possible. Don’t try “circus shots” unless you have no alternative.
• Simplify draws and fades
You can curve the ball by opening or closing the clubface at address. Or, you can curve it by changing their swing paths. These changes are a bit risky. The most reliable way to curve the ball is to change your hand position at address.
• Let the club do the shotmaking
Equipment choices these days are fantastic. You have all kinds of wedge and driver designs, and all kinds of hybrid and fairway wood designs. Stop trying to squeeze something extra out of your swing. Let your clubs do the shotmaking for you.
• To hit it low, crowd the ball
Standing closer to the ball to hit a low shot. You’ll get the feeling you’re going to hit a shank. So you’ll instinctively make adjustments that encourage your hands to get ahead of the club head, delofting the club.
• Don’t choke down
Choking down lightens the club’s swing weight and effectively makes the shaft stiffer. It also get’s you in the habit of hitting the shot with 100 percent effort. That’s not always good on full shots. But it’s okay to choke down on chips and pitches. It gives you more control.
• Learn to beat fluffy lies
The hardest shot in golf is the 80-yard wedge from light rough. With this lie, the ball tends to fall out of the sky because it lacks spin. How much depends on several factors—lie, swing speed, and your wedge.
But misjudging these shots is costly. Learn the intricacies of the fluffy lie. Then tailor your swing to hitting from this.
• Don’t invent shots from trouble
The desire to save par can lead you astray. Often, the shot is harder than you think. The opening in the trees is smaller. The lie is tougher. Your odds of pulling off a “miracle shot” are probably much worse than you’ve calculated.
What’s more, trouble shots often ask you to do something crazy with shot trajectory. This turns the shot your into a make or break deal. Forget about it
Trevino’s golf tips are different. But they make sense when you think about it. Perhaps that’s why Trevino had such a stellar but colorful career.
Incorporate Trevino’s golf tips into your game and you may see your shotmaking improve and golf handicap shrink.
Written by Jack Moorehouse, the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80”
The more you can repeat your iron swing, the more often you can achieve predictable results—the secret to better scores.
Staying connected on the backswing is critical to building a repeatable swing. This means moving everything together to start the swing—arms, hands, and the club. Loosing con-nection here spells disaster.
Hinging your wrists correctly is also critical to a repeatable swing. It sets the club on the correct plane. You’ve hinged your wrists correctly right if (1) the clubhead points sky-ward at about hip high and (2) the shaft is at the same angle as it was at address.
At the top of your swing, the shaft must be horizontal to the ground and parallel to the target line. In addition, your spine angle and head position should be the same as at ad-dress while your bodyweight is over your back foot.
Making the “magic move” is the final key to building a repeatable swing. This move con-sists of dropping your elbow down to your side as you start back down. Then transfer-ring your weight smoothly and purposely toward the front.
Executing the magic move helps retain power in your swing. Like the other keys to build-ing a repeatable iron swing, it’s critical to achieving predictable results—the secret to lower scores.
Written by Jack Moorehouse, the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80”
5 of the most common swing faults we see in our golf instruction sessions and simple golf tips to fix them.
1. Not swinging to a balanced finish
Golfers don’t always swing to balanced finish. Instead, they either fall backward after swinging or they fall forward. If they fall backward, they’ve pulled the club through with their shoulders. If they fall forward, they’ve started the downswing and came over the top with the club. Both swing faults can cost you strokes.
Fix: Always swing to a full finish—whether you’re on the range or the fairway playing for keeps. This encourages you to swing through the ball and not at it. Also, feel your swing from start to finish. This keeps you focused on finishing your swing, so you don’t check out before impact.
2. Gripping the club too tightly
Gripping the club too tightly creates tension in your hands, arms, shoulders, and body. This inhibits your motion and makes it almost impossible to make a fluid swing. This in turn robs you of power. Be especially wary of this fault when swinging the driver, a club you should hold lighter than any other.
Fix: Do this exercise: Hold a club in front of your chest with the shaft pointing skyward. Hold it as light as possible. This grip pressure is too light. Now let the club fall until its shaft parallels the ground. Note the tension. This grip pressure is too tight. Hinge the club to 45-degree angle. Make some circles with your hands and wrist. This grip pressure is just right.
3. Making poor contact
Approach shots that fall short often come from weak contact. Checking your divots can tell you what kind of contact you’re making. Weak contact produces divots behind the ball. Solid contact produces divots in front of the ball.
Fix: If you’re making weak contact, try this exercise: Address the ball with a mid-iron. Now swing the club and hit the ball. As you do, feel your forward arm leading you through the swing. This allows the grip end of the club to lead the face, enabling you to pinch the ball against the ground—not try to scoop it.
4. Coming over the top
Many students taking our golf lessons commit this deadly error. Swinging over the top puts you on the wrong swing path. This in turn hurts ballstriking, accuracy, and consistency.
Fix: Practice the simple ball-toss drill, where you throw a ball under your arms while placing the palm of your hand over the butt end of a driver. The driver’s clubface should be touching the ground. This is the swing path you want.
For a more advanced exercise, after tossing the ball under the driver a few times, try swinging a wedge with one hand and hitting a ball—all while holding the driver with your lead arm. You can’t come over the top and do this right.
5. Bad alignment
Some students have no idea how to aim the clubface when they first come to us. If they aim it at a distant tree, they might be aimed well left of it. Or, they might aim their bodies right of the tree. Some students do both.
Fix: Follow this sequence whenever you aim a club: First aim your clubface, then aim your feet, and finally aim your body. Here are some specific steps to doing this:
1. Pick out your main target in the distance
2. Pick out an intermediate target a foot in front of the ball
3. Line up the clubface behind the ball
4. Place your feet together and parallel to the ball
5. Make sure your clubface aims at your target
6. Widen your feet so they’re parallel to your target line.
Use alignment sticks (of a couple of shafts) in the beginning to make sure everything is aligned correctly. Use the sticks whenever you go to the range.
Committing any of these 5 common swing faults short-circuits power, hampers ballstriking, and hurts consistency. They also cost your strokes, which can boost your scores and your golf handicap.
If you’re serious about breaking 80, you’ll work hard at eliminating these 5 deadly swing faults.
Written by Jack Moorehouse, the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80”
This is a 5-step pre-shot routine we teach in golf instruction sessions. You can use it next time you play or use it as the basis for a routine you develop yourself:
1. Start behind the ball
The first step in your pre-shot routine is to visualize the ball’s path. That’s done best from behind the ball—not the hole. Crouch down and then determine the predominant break, if one exists, then make a decision on the break. Once you’ve done that you can start forming a mental picture of the correct line.
2. Divide the putt into thirds
After visualizing the ball’s path, go to the putt’s low side, stop at the mid-point, and break the putt into thirds visually. Look at the last third of the putt carefully. It’s where most of the break usually occurs, so focus on what the ball will do here.
3. Connect the line you see with the ball’s roll
Next, connect the line you see for the break with the ball’s roll. To do this, walk up to the ball and look down the line. Holding the putter in your top hand, grip the putter with your bottom hand and make some short practice strokes. Make practice strokes with a purpose. Then standing upright, step in to your address position with your back foot while you continue to track your eyes down the line.
4. Finish your setup
Concentrating on your target, set your front foot in place. Some golfers use a slightly open stance, which they feel enables them to see the line better. Or, you may want to use a stance where your feet are parallel to the target line. Experiment to see what works best for you.
5. Set your putter behind the ball
Finally, set the putter behind the ball. Take one last look at the target, and then make your stroke. Look at a spot an inch or two in front of the ball but on your target line before putting. Try to roll the ball over that spot.
This pre-shout routine works well for many players. Another option for developing a pre-shot routine is to observe the players on the Tour and try to copy one that you admire. Copy the elements of this routine that work for you but modify it to fit your own needs.
Run through your pre-shot routine quickly, so you don’t hold up play. Using a pre-shot routine can help you sink more putts without working hours and hours on technique. Improving your putting is the fastest way to slash strokes from your golf handicap.
Written by Jack Moorehouse, the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80”
Golfers can have weak hamstrings in comparison to their quads, with the aid of a kettlebell you can perform a goblet squat which will work both as well as your calves and shoulders
| Lower Back | Biceps | Adductors | |||
| Middle Back | Triceps | Y | Quadriceps | ||
| Trapezius | Forearms | Y | Calves | ||
| Latissimus Dorsi | Abdominals | Y | Gluteus Maximus | ||
| Y | Shoulders | Obliques | Hips | ||
| Chest | Y | Hamstrings |
Here is how to perform the exercise
Exercise Steps
- Hold a kettlebell by the handle close to your chest and assume a comfortable stance.
- Bring your knees out as you squat down to bring the kettlebell between them.
- Looking straight ahead at all times, squat as low as you can. Pause at the bottom of the squat.
- Keep your head and chest up, with your back in spine-neutral position (straight).
- Rise back up by driving through your heels.
- Repeat for 12-15 repetitions.
three simple steps you can take to conquer those tricky downhill lies:
1. Widen Your Stance
Too many golfers take their same narrow iron or wedge stance when hitting from a downhill lie. Think of what this does to your swing: if you’re taking the same stance and swing as if you’re on flat ground, but the lie is downhill, what’s going to happen? As you approach the ball, you’re going to take a big chunk out of the turf, right?
To help correct this swing flaw, step forward with your front foot a bit–maybe 6-10 inches depending on your height. This moves your entire swing “forward” so that while you hit the ball further “back” in your swing, your club will be at ground level on contact.
2. Don’t Force Yourself Upright
Another key mistake that too many weekend golfers make is to assume that their body should be straight up-and-down, no matter the terrain. If they’re on a 45 degree angle, they insist on getting their body vertical since that’s what they’re used to hitting from.
Unfortunately, combined with a narrow stance, this can prove to be disastrous when on downhill lies. It’s the same reasoning as above; if you’re “straight up-and-down” and trying to hit a ball in a downhill lie, what’s going to happen? You’re going to be even further “behind the ball” when you make contact, and chunk it even worse than you may have before.
If you tilt yourself into the lie a bit, so that your spine and upper body “give” with the lie a bit, it will help you get your swing plane back on target. As a good rule of thumb, try to make sure that your upper body is roughly perpendicular to whatever lie you’re in, unless you’ll lose your footing if you do so. If a lie is that steep, simply widen your stance as much as possible, and try to make the contact point as close to your natural swing arc as possible. The important point to take away is to try to keep your natural swing, but adjust it for the conditions so that the contact point is on the same plane.
3. Use a Club With More Loft Than You Think You’ll Need
When your stance is wider and you’re leaning forward, you’ll automatically hit the ball further “back” in your swing. Again, this is just simple physics.
What a lot of golfers forget is that as you bring the club downward, it gets more square to the ball, which brings the clubface to the desired angle. If you’re making contact further back in your swing, you probably don’t have the time (or the wrists!) to hit the ball at the usual angle for the club’s “regular” loft.
Instead of messing around with your swing, simply use a loftier club than you think you’ll need. If you’re already hitting a lob wedge, then you might have to adjust your angle to the ball, but that would have to be one heck of a bad downhill lie. Again, remember that the key is to adapt your body and setup to the terrain so that your swing stays as natural as possible.
Keep these three keys in mind the next time you find yourself in a difficult (or deceptively steep) downhill lie, and start shaving more strokes off your tough chips and approach shots.
Written by Jack Moorehouse, the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80”
Sometimes there’s an obstacle between you and the green. To clear the obstacle, you must hit a flop shot with some carry. Otherwise, you’ll end up in the obstacle, costing you strokes. Hitting a flop shot is easier said than done sometimes.
Here are 6 keys to hitting a high chip or flop:
1. Set up to hit the ball high
2. Open your clubface and your stance
3. Trace a swing path parallel to your foot line
4. Slide the clubhead under the ball
5. Let your body unwind through the shot
6. Keep your rhythm nice and smooth
As with many shots, setting up correctly is critical. If you fail to do this, you’ll have a hard time getting the ball in the air. Here are the keys:
• Adopt a slightly wider stance than normal, position your hands over the ball, and distribute your weight evenly.
• Open both your clubface and your stance. This adds some loft to the shot and encourages a slight out-to-in swing, which creates a soft floating ballflight.
• Trace a swing path parallel to your foot line for the first 18 inches on the takeaway. Then hinge your wrists up and allow the clubhead to move inside the line as you complete your backswing.
• Slide the clubhead underneath the ball on the downswing. As you come down imagine trying to slice a sliver of turf from under the ball as you move through impact.
• Continue to unwind your body as you come forward, and rotate your left shoulder out of the way as you come through the hitting zone.
• Keep your rhythm nice and smooth as you make the shot. And don’t be afraid to accelerate through impact. You want to feel as if the clubhead is almost overtaking the ball.
Having the confidence to make a slightly longer swing than normal is the key to successfully hitting a high chip. Going high like this can generate low scores.
Based on an article by Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80”