Joe,
Happy New Year to you and all. What can I do to have the same swing plane ?
Jimmy

Hi Jimmy,
I use a device that is a grip with no shaft with a laser pointer at one end. First I have the laser pointing at my chest while addressing the ball. Then in slow motion I take a backswing and notice where the laser is pointing. As I start the downswing, the laser should pass thru the ball position, indicating that the club will be on plane. Next, I address the ball with the laser pointing at the ball. Then I take a swing to make sure the laser passes thru the ball position. The second part of this drill is more important than the first part, because you can make sure your swing path is inside to square at impact. If you cannot get such a device, you can stop at the top of your backswing and look at the positions of your leading arm and the club shaft. Adjust this position to where you think the shaft is on the same plan as your leading arm, and then get a feel for this position as you try some full swings. Use a movie camera to view your own swing to make sure you stay on plane during the downswing.
Joe

Joe,
Please let me know if you can help me with my big problem. during follow through (or at impact) my left elbow start bending toward the sky and the result lack of distance. i put towel under my left chest and didn't work. i hope you will find a good tip in this regard.
regards,
bahman

Hello Bahman,
It sounds like you have the granddaddy of all clucking chicken wings. Once your body movements are ingrained into your motor muscle memory, they can sometimes be difficult to change. However, here are some things you can try. First, take a slow motion swing, and after the impact position keep your left elbow under your right elbow. You can make this happen by rolling your right forearm over your left. This should force your left elbow to point toward the ground instead of the sky. As a drill, swing continuously back and forth faster and faster until you ingrain this move into your motor muscle memory.
Joe

Joe,
What are some key tips to hitting a fairway wood solid?
Thanks man
Caleb

Hi Caleb,
Does this mean you can hit your irons solid but not your woods? If so, it could mean your set is not matched. If this is not the case, and your set is matched, then I would suggest experimenting with different ball positions. Do you take a divot with your woods? If you do, try a more forward ball position. If you are topping your woods without taking a divot, then maybe your ball position is too far forward. Try to use the same swing for both irons and woods.
Joe

Joe,
Why do they make drivers that have the face lined up for a pull when you rest them on the ground, what good does that do?
Pedro

Hello Pedro,
The idea is to help cure a slice. If you take your normal grip while the driver is resting on the ground, and then you raise it off the ground and line up the clubface to the target line, you have effectively rolled your hands to a stronger grip, which eliminates one of the main reasons people tend to slice. Of course there are other reasons too, but many people find this to be helpful.
Joe

Joe,
This time of year I try to play whenever the temps are above 40 and there is no wind. I seem to be hitting the ball OK but my scores are much worse. I know wearing extra clothing might restrict my swing so I wear loose fitting clothes and I do not feel restricted. The ground is rather hard and I get good roll, yet my distance is still lower than normal. I try to use more club sometimes but I cannot hold a green. Are there any strategies that work better for this time of year?
Gert

Hi Gert,
There are several factors working against you this time of year, the ball does not fly as far, the greens are firmer, and the pins are not moved as often. As a result, the area near the hole gets trampled down by all the traffic near the hole. This means you may have a slow green away from the hole and a fast green near the hole, so lag putts will either stop short or sail right on thru this area, leading to more 3 putt greens. This also makes it harder to stop chips and pitches anywhere near the hole, so you may be having a good day with ball striking, but you will still have a problem scoring, so just enjoy the challenge and the experience rather than having high expectations for a great score. In fact, if you can shoot your average under such conditions, think of it as a great round, not very many people can do that.
Joe

Joe,
I have a bad habit of swinging from the top. You can imagine all the ugly things that can happen. Speed is somewhat important at the bottom of the swing so I go at it from the top. What can I do to get rid of this swing habit??
Thanks
Jarry, J. A. Roessler

Hi Jarry,
Yes, speed is important, but only at the point of impact. At that point clubhead speed is the sum of arm speed and wrist speed. If you allow your wrists to break too soon, the only speed left at impact is arm speed and you have robbed your overall swing of the wrist contribution. You must delay your wrist action until the last possible instant before impact. To illustrate this, take a ping pong paddle and ball, and hit the ball with arm speed and no wrist action. Then do the same thing with no arm action and all wrist action. Then do it with both and you should get the idea. Watch the slow motion replays of the pros on TV and you will see this is exactly how they do it.
Joe

I have a question for Joe:
A couple of days ago, while playing the front nine, I pulled seven or eight shots and hit three or four of them fat. An unusually bad evening for a guy who has shot as low as a 37 on this nine. A couple of these mis-hits were a combination of a pull and a fat shot. Something has crept into my game, and I have a strong feeling that the pulls and the "fats" are rooted in the same cause. If pulls and fat shots have been addressed simultaneously before, I certainly have not seen or heard of it. I'm guessing a problem at address, but it's just that -- a guess. Your thoughts on this? Until a couple of years ago, we used to play golf here on an all-sand course, hitting all our shots (except putts) off a piece of Astroturf that we carried around with us.Thanks a lot.
Garth Jahraus
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Hello Garth,
A pull is caused by the path of the club going from outside the target line to inside at impact. Since this is an incorrect swing path, it could also cause inconsistency in ball striking, so in that sense they could be related to fat shots, but not necessarily. Fat shots can also occur when your club is correctly on the target line, but your head is not steady enough. It is OK if your head moves sideways a little bit, but not up and down. Jack Nicklaus had an instructor who held the back of his hair to keep his head steady while he swung, and since Jack had a pretty good career, I would go along with that advice. That should take care of fat shots. For your pulled shots, you are going to have to try to swing more inside out. You can get a better feel for this by doing the double clubber drill, which allows you to view your swing path more clearly, since the extra weight slows you swing down enough for you to view it. I hope this helps.
Joe

Joe,
I am a believer of Never Up Never In, so when I 3 putt it is usually because my first putt is too far past the hole. However I do not want to lose my aggressiveness or else I will never sink anything. How can I reduce 3 putts?
Marv

Hi Marv,
Most people who miss a putt show their disappointment by turning away and giving an Oscar performance of pain and woe with an overabundance of body language. It would be much better to pay attention to what the ball does after it goes by the hole. You should notice which way it breaks as it trickles to a stop, and then you will have a much better chance at making the comebacker putt.
Joe

Joe,
My buddies and I play golf just for fun and small bets. We do not have handicaps and we do not play in tournaments, but sometimes they call penalties on each other for reasons that seem silly. Whenever I ask for logical reasons why these must be penalties, the answer is always a rule is a rule – duh, yup yup yup. Nobody seems to know the reasons some of the sillier golf rules got made. Do you know?
Confused Victim

Dear Confused,
The game was originally played only by rich people who made bets while playing golf. Money and egos were both on the line, so if there were any chance of catching an opponent with the smallest of rule violations, these people would pounce on it without mercy. Common sense and sportsmanship had nothing to do with it. The point was, and apparently still is, all about money and pride, not common sense. Some say there is integrity involved with following these rules, but common sense says many of these rules were made by egotists with very little integrity and some of these rules had nothing to do with the skill of the game. For recreational players, I don’t think there is much integrity or sportsmanship in calling a penalty on someone who had no intention of gaining an unfair advantage with some miniscule violation that had no bearing on shot making. That is like playing the kids game Simon Says. This leads to the question, do you really have any integrity if you have no sportsmanship? I say no. Sportsmanship suggests to give a person a break if an incident had nothing to do with the skill of the contest, for example, a meaningless penalty for the wind moving the ball after you ground your putter, especially if you are only playing for fun. You might enjoy a website called sortagolf.com, where there is lots of information on similar topics, for example, there really is a difference between tournament golf and recreational golf, and if you are not a tournament player, you will enjoy the game less if you subject yourself to tournament rules, so sortagolf suggests what recreational rules should be.
Joe

Joe,
I consider myself to be a pretty good ball striker, I do not hit many fat or thin shots. But one day I will hit everything left and another day I will hit everything right, and sometimes both ways. My set of clubs has been custom fitted, so that cannot be the reason. My friends say I am not swinging any differently, and I am not overswinging. What can I try to fix this?
Harvey

Hello Harvey,
This is typical of a backswing that is too loose at the top and pays no attention to keeping the clubface square to the target line. Without you thinking about it, sometimes your clubface will be closed at impact and other times it will be open. Picture your clubface being square at setup. Using your chest as a reference point as you turn on your backswing, keep the clubface square to your chest. When you have completed your turn, your chest has turned away from the target line and so has the clubface. If you have ever seen Mike Weir swing, you will notice that before his swing he will take the club halfway back and look at it to make sure the clubface is in the correct position, and ingrain that feeling in his mind. Then while he still has that feeling, he quickly starts his backswing the same way. Give that a try and let us know how it turns out.
Joe

Joe,
I know we are supposed to keep a positive attitude all the time, but that is hard to do when you get a snowman on the first hole, which ruins the entire round, especially after you have just had a good practice session. That is very deflating and I do not know how to handle it. Help please.
Frosty

Hi Frosty,
With a name like that you deserve to get a snowman, just kidding. Having a bad first hole is something that will occasionally happen to everyone. The way to handle this is with a mental strategy. Tell yourself you would still rather be on the golf course that be at home doing chores. You still have 17 holes left to go, and you can only play this game one shot at a time, so just look forward, not backward. You cannot change what just happened, but your attitude can affect what happens next. Each shot is a new adventure, you can never be sure if the outcome will be good or bad. Your round is not yet ruined, sometimes your better scores will include one bad hole, so you have just gotten that bad hole out of the way sooner. Enjoy the rest of the round as much as you can. Or would you rather go home and do some chores? Fooey. Feel better now?
Joe

Joe,
Is it just a myth, or is it true that if you act confident when you putt, you will make more putts?
Ashley

Hello Ashley,
It is true, because those who feel confident are committed to the read and to the execution of the stroke. Those who are not confident of the read are not likely to commit themselves to make a confident stroke. Instead they make a tentative stroke and look up too soon. The lesson here is that even when you are not sure of the read, you must commit to your best guess and make a confident stroke. A tentative stroke has very little chance of success.
Joe

Joe, quit griping about the rules. People who do not follow all the rules must be lacking in integrity.

Answer to Mr. Integrity: If you have so much integrity, the next time you drive one mile per hour over the speed limit, go to the nearest police station and report your violation and insist on paying your fine, or else you are a hypocrite. Of course you think that would be silly because there was no harm in such a minor violation. Now do you get my point? If a minor violation has nothing to do with the skill of the game, it is an insult to sportsmanship to spoil anyone’s round by calling a penalty for any petty instance that had nothing to do with gaining an unfair advantage.
Joe

Joe,
Sometimes I hit shots too fat and sometimes too thin. Any suggestions on improving this?
Marty

Hello Marty,
There are a few things that can cause this. First is allowing your front elbow to bend too much. You do not have to keep it rigid, but comfortably straight to eliminate this unwanted variable. Next cause could be allowing your head to move too much during the swing, you need to keep it reasonably steady. Another possibility, your problem may be caused by a swing that tries to sweep the ball up off the ground. I would recommend hitting down at the ball, so that your club first strikes the ball at the equator and then takes a divot. Notice on TV how the pros take a divot on every fairway shot. By hitting down, the ball spins up the clubface, even when you strike it at the equator. If you do not hit down, and you strike it at the equator, the result is a grounder or low line drive. This means by hitting down you improve your margin for error. Even if you think you are risking hitting more thin shots (and you might not), this is better if you have eliminated fat shots, because fat shots usually do not travel as far as thin shots. Everyone hits occasional bad shots, but there is an old saying that improvement begins with better bad shots, so thin shots would be an improvement over fat shots.
Joe

Hi Joe,
I have a constant problem with ball position. Not the typical should the ball be in the back, middle or front of my stance, but how far should I be away from the ball. What happens, and sometimes I can go an entire round and not figure it out, is that I stand too close to the ball. When I get home and look in the mirror it can be come obvious. When I stand too close, I tend to "jam" my front arm swinging at the ball, and my back hand tends to get too active and scoop the ball. Also, with club too close, my front shoulder tends to tilt more than swing back and around. It seems like this should be obvious, but it is clearly not.Thanks. Larry

Hello Larry,
One of the reasons people stand too close to the ball is because they sole the club flat on the ground and then take their stance, assuming you are supposed to leave the club soled flat against the ground. This may sound logical, but the force of the swing causes the toe to dip down, and to prove this you can check your divots to see if they are deeper towards the toe end. Therefore when you set up, the toe should be higher than the heel, and that will move you a bit further away from the ball. At setup the distance between your hands and body should be at least 6 inches, maybe more depending on your body build. If you can keep this distance consistent, the problems you described should be lessened.
Joe

Joe,
You say to avoid the no mans land area where you must use a half swing for 20 yards out to 70 yards. I am OK with a full swing wedge, but the half swing I either hit it too low with my pitching wedge or skull it with my sand wedge. I actually get a fear attack as I take my backswing for these shots. Is there anything to cure these things?
Bradford

Hello Bradford,
This is the most delicate area of the game, so you can get the yips for pitching just as bad as yips for putting. As a matter of course management, many golfers try to stay away from these distances due to the same problem you described, but sometimes you will find yourself in those spots anyway, so you might as well try to learn a stroke that can execute these shots with some confidence. It sounds like you only carry 2 wedges, and the soles are different. Notice a sand wedge does not lay on the ground the same way as a pitching wedge because the back edge of the sole is lower than the leading edge while the pitching wedge sole is more flat. The term for this is bounce angle. If your sand wedge has a lot of bounce, this might explain why you are skulling shots if you do not change your ball position. Try playing the SW off the back foot to reduce the effect of the bounce angle. Do not be afraid to take a bigger divot. You might find this works well for shorter pitches but not for longer ones. If that is the case, get a lob wedge which does not have much bounce angle and then you can use your normal ball position for longer pitches with less fear of skulling it. You will also get the extra height that you will not get with a pitching wedge. As strange as it sounds, a pitching wedge is not always the best club to pitch with.
Joe

Joe,
Is your game as consistent as your sarcastic remarks?

Answer: Here is an example of my consistency. Last week I played a quick 9 at my local course Fox Run. The course was empty so I played alone and hit two balls off the tee, first with a hybrid and second with a 3 iron as a contest. On the first hole the hybrid went down the middle but the 3 iron went into a fairway bunker. Then, of course since nobody was watching, the first ball 8 iron went into the cup for an eagle. Although that is hard to believe, the rest of the story is much easier to believe. From the fairway trap, I topped the second ball about 20 yards forward, pushed a wedge into the greenside trap, blasted long and 3 putted for a triple bogey 7. That was a 5 shot swing, resulting in aggregate score of one over par for that hole, which is what I usually score on that hole anyway, thus restoring the fundamental equilibrium of the universe. That should answer your question about my consistency. For what it is worth, over the 9 holes the hybrid went just as far as a decent 3 iron shot, but was much more consistent and forgiving on off center hits. Is it spring yet?

Joe,
Please give me some advice on tendonitis in the right elbow. I am 63, and have played 160 rounds this year and have this pain in my right elbow, and it started in the last part of the year (that is in September). I have never had this condition before. I am interested in preventative measure for the 2007 season, and I have decided to rest my arm for several months before 2007. I have used the common wrap while playing, and have felt no pain while wearing the wrap. But I would like to cure the condition and start anew in 2007. In advance, thanks!
Roger Dodger from Minnesota

Hi Roger,
Wow, 160 rounds is a lot, I think my arm would fall off. Since I am not a doctor, I can only guess what to do. Are you sure this is tendonitis and not arthritis? There are plenty of items you can buy off the shelf at your local drug store for arthritis, just in case that might be the problem. If it really is tendonitis and the wrap seems to help, there is no rule that says you cannot keep wearing the wrap. However if the wrap restricts you, I can understand why you would like to play without it. I have heard other people having this problem if they swing with the flying elbow like Jack Nicklaus, Fred Couples or John Daly. I do not know if you also do this or not, but it might be worth a try to swing with your elbows closer together like Vijay Singh or Tiger Woods.
Joe

Joe,
Sometimes I read about how a pro was struggling in a tournament and had to manufacture a swing in the middle of the round. What does that mean and how do they do that? I have always heard that it is a bad idea to try changes in the middle of a round and to save swing changes for the practice range, right?
Ryan

Hi Ryan,
That is a great question. When our muscles begin to tire, they behave differently, so the good swing we had on the practice range can disappear during a round, and we must do something different to avoid ruining that round. People who rely only on their natural ability usually find it harder to make adjustments because they do not know what to adjust. On the other hand, people who understand their swing mechanics already know there are several things going on during a swing, such as the relationship between hip turn and shoulder turn. If either one is turning more or less than usual, the overall swing can change. At the same time, tiring muscles can cause the arc of the swing to become too flat without you realizing it. Your tempo may also change slightly or you may be overswinging. So to manufacture a swing in the middle of a round, you have to analyze the results of your shots and decide which of these things has the best chance to correct the erroneous shots. Most good golfers have a list of keys, or swing thoughts to focus on. On some days, one key may work better than another key. I personally do not want to wait until the next time I get to the practice range, because that is giving up on the round. I simply try some practice swings using another key that I know has worked in the past and see how it feels. If I do not feel confident with it, I will pick a different key until I find a practice swing that give me a feeling of confidence. Your comment about saving things for the practice range is correct for new ways to swing that you have never tried before.
Joe

Joe,
if you are not sure if you hit a ball out of play, if it is a yellow stake you cannot take a provisional, you have to take a drop and play on, but if it is a white stake you are allowed a provisional or else you have to go back to the tee and play it over. Since the ball may be out of play in either case, why is there a difference? Why is it you cannot take a provisional for a yellow stake?

Answer: For the same reason in North Dakota, it is illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on. It is dumb but true, you can look it up. This means if you are not sure that your shot cleared a pond with yellow stakes, you have to walk all the way around the pond to see if you can find your ball. If you cannot, you must walk all the way back and drop behind the pond, no provisional is allowed for yellow stakes, only white ones. This means if you are in North Dakota, you can possibly get arrested for falling asleep due to the slow play this dumb rule can cause, unless you remember to take your shoes off first.