Joe,
Whenever I have a short downhill sidehill putt, I get so nervous that if I miss it, it will roll way past the hole unless I baby it, so my stroke gets affected because I am afraid I might baby it too much. Any tips on how to deal with these Yips?
Dutch

Hi Dutch,
Instead of worrying about missing it, tell yourself that you are going to execute the putt to the best of your ability, and even if it does not go in, at least you can say you gave it your best shot with a decent stroke instead of missing it due to a tentative stroke. That’s what The Yips are all about, causing you to make a tentative stroke. The only way to defeat The Yips is to get determined enough to tell yourself that you are not going to make a tentative stroke, you are going to execute the proper stroke no matter what. In the meantime I would suggest you go to a couple of different practice greens and place your ball in similar downhill sidehill positions and keep practicing them until you get a better feel on how to handle them, then you can build a feeling of confidence with those types of putts, or any other tricky types of putts, especially those that you have the most trouble with.
Joe

Joe, why don’t recreational golfers follow the all the Rules of Golf so we can all have a level playing field?

Answer: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD. Pros have the best equipment, the best custom fitting, personal swing coaches, the best caddies to give them exact yardage to the pin, and to recommend club selections, and to carry and clean their clubs, and forecaddies to find their ball. They get to practice and play every day on the world’s finest courses. Recreational golfers, for the most part, are at a disadvantage because they cannot afford these luxuries. They are not even allowed to get yardage from an inaccurate optical device, so they must make their own decisions without a caddie’s advice (it could be a penalty to ask anyone else). When pros play, it is just a day at the office, when recreational golfers play, it is a special event. Greens fees can be expensive, so recreational golfers should get their money’s worth by enjoying the game using simplified rules, and not have their round spoiled by USGA-holes. Leave the nit-picky rules for the tournaments. People who play recreational golf do not get to play as often as they would like and they look forward to the enjoyment shot making, and you can’t make good shots out of divots, or sand shots out of footprints, or having to putt thru someone else’s spike marks, or having to hit a ball with mud on it, even the pros have lift-clean-place rules sometimes, even though their courses are much nicer than yours. Do you really think your lies on public courses are likely to be as good as lies on the highly manicured Tour courses? Come on, wake up and smell the coffee. For recreational golf, you can reduce the 162 page rule book a few sentences. For example: If a technical infraction happens to occur, ask this question: Did this infraction have anything to do with gaining an unfair advantage, or did this have anything to do with the skill of shot making? If the answer to both is NO, then for recreational golf there is no need for a penalty, play on. Or, if you enjoy being punched in the nose, you can endear yourself to others (especially those who beat you) by hiding their scorecards so they can’t sign them, and then disqualifying them because they forgot to sign their scorecards.

Joe,
I keep reading about older clubs that had names instead of numbers. Can you tell us which of these names match up to today’s numbered clubs?
Cal

Hi Cal,
There were lots of variations in the older named clubs, so you may find different definitions depending on where you look up the information, but in general, a Brassie is a fairway wood. That name came from the brass plate on the bottom to reduce wear. A normal Brassie was a 2-wood, if it had more loft it was a Spoon (3-wood) or a Cleek (4 or 5-wood). A Mashie was like a 5-iron, a Niblick was like an 8-iron, and in between was a Mashie-Niblick (6 or 7-iron). There are others, depending on where they were made. I do not like today’s terms, I think it is stupid to call a 3-wood a 3-metal just because it is no longer made of wood because a 3-iron is also made of metal (duh). We don’t really want to use terms like 3-composite or 3-titanium, do we? I think the solution is to go back to using the old names. My clubs are usually named with 4-letter words, except for the “helicopter” because that’s what it looks like when I throw it.
Joe

Joe,
Will it help to buy an expensive putter?
Pam
Hi Pam,
Putting is the great equalizer in golf, it allows short hitters to have a chance to beat the long hitters who can’t putt very well. When you count all the strokes used for each of your clubs for any round, the putter by far is used the most times, so it makes sense to get a putter that you like. That does not mean it has to be an expensive putter. Consider this, even if you have a perfect putting stroke, you still will not make very many putts unless you read the green perfectly, and who is perfect? The reverse is also true, if you are good at reading greens, you still will not make very many putts if you stroke it too hard or too soft. To make matters more complicated, even if you read the green correctly and make a perfect stroke, the putt may still hit an imperfection in the green and lip out. The answer to your question, in my opinion, is that there is a good chance you can putt just as well with a cheap putter as you can with an expensive putter, just find one that feels good and have a contest between that one against a borrowed goochy-fufu-expensive one and see which one wins the contest. The mind is a powerful thing, so you are more likely to make a more confident stroke with a putter that you like, expensive or not. It is the confident stroke that makes you a better putter, more so than the type of club.
Joe

Joe,
Why is it that I can get my old persimmon fairway woods up in the air more easily than today’s metal headed fairway clubs? I have tried several metals but I can’t seem to get them off the ground consistently.
Monty

Hi Monty,
I have noticed the same thing, and I think it is due to the metal plate on the bottom of the persimmon woods making the center of gravity much lower than today’s metal fairway woods. The metal woods that seem to work the best are the really thin ones like Tight Lies, because they are so thin, the center of gravity has to be lower than the center of the ball. I think the idea of bi-metal or tri-metal might help if the metal sandwich has the heavier metal on the bottom to lower the center of gravity.
Joe (see my Bio at thinkandreachpar.com)

Joe,
All I want for Christmas is the single most important move a golfer can make during a swing.
Eddie

Hi Eddie,
OK, but you will have to be a good little boy first, and wait until Christmas for it.
Joe

Joe,
I live in Canada where the season is very short. Any tips on winter golf?
Answer: Don’t eat yellow snow.

Joe,
I watch lots of golf programs on TV, such as the PGA Tour and I notice that the leading arm or left arm of the pros are always straight right to the top of the back swing during tee off, and fairway shots. I would appreciate if you can tell me how they do that or perhaps what sort of drill to do to maintain a straight left arm during the back swing. Thanks again and bye.
JLIM

Hello Jlim,
The straight arm allows the widest possible swing arc, which leads to higher clubhead speed. If you are having trouble keeping the arm straight, perhaps you are trying to take the arms too far back without enough shoulder turn. Try making the arms work together with the shoulders, and if the elbow starts to bend, do not go back any further.
Joe

Joe,
I finally set my ego aside and moved to a senior flex shaft from a stiff shaft. The first thing I noticed was, someone told me, was the “whip action” of the shaft. The first time was by accident…the ball went long… 260 yards, high with a slight fade. I had slowed down my swing speed from 96 mph to around 80 mph…like I just wanted to hit my drive 100 yards.
Now..how to I repeat this action?
Thanks for any suggestions
Larry

Hi Larry,
In my opinion, if you have a swing speed of 96, a senior flex shaft is too flexible for you. If you try to slow your swing down to 80, the chances are you will not be able to repeat that swing consistently, sometimes you will swing just a little too fast or a little to slow, and the shaft will flex a little too much or a little too less, and as a result you will hit a lot of wild shots. If the stiffer shaft was not working for you, I am guessing you just wanted more distance, but your accuracy was OK, right? If so, try a regular shaft instead of a senior shaft. Good luck.
Joe

Joe,
Shanks. I play on a 10 handicap and on average every couple of rounds I shank the ball badly with irons. My swing is on the correct path I am told and I hit a straight ball. I suspect that my hands drift away from my body nearing impact as I often hit the ball towards the heel of my driver when I start swinging too hard or towards the end of the game when I am maybe getting tired. Would this be the cause and what is the best fix or practice drill to remedy the shank?Regards,Pat.

Hello Pat,
I also had the shanks in the past, and it is a horrifying feeling to see the ball go 45 degrees off line, that can really ruin a round. In my case my weight was too much on my toes. The problem went away when I put my weight more on my heels. This does not mean it will also work for you, because maybe you are already on your heels, I don’t know. If so, you can try a more upright swing because a flat swing will tend to go more outward when you swing hard, as you described. Also when golfers get tired their swings tend to flatten a bit so that could explain it. I hope this helps. Good luck.
Joe (see my Bio at thinkandreachpar.com)

Joe, what do you think of Retief Goosen? Don’t you think he is a bit dry, like a robot?

Answer: You can’t please everyone, no matter who you are. Retief conducts himself like a real gentleman, and when you do that, some people think you are too boring. Maybe Retief can take a few lessons from the Terrell Owens school of manners and etiquette, then after hitting a good shot Retief can do situps, flap his arms, or dance like Ray Lewis. That would be quite entertaining, but the USGA might hit him with a penalty for forgetting to suck a lemon in order to obtain the proper facial expression to play on the tour.

Joe,
I have shot a lot of 18 hole rounds under par and feel pretty good about my game. I know that distance isn't that important to scoring, but it sure helps on longer courses. What can I do to be able to hit the ball farther? What muscles can I build up to hit it farther? I can hit it 250 yards, but not all the time. I have a good enough build to swing the right path. I know that weight shift has a lot to do with it, but is that all?
Thanks

Hello, whoever you are, maybe you are not familiar with our rule that if you do not give you name, the question is handed over to the Evil Twin, which means you never know what kind of answer you are going to get, so Jody what do you think about this?
Answer: The guy is breaking par and is still not happy? I say we beat him up. But wait, how do we know it’s a guy? We don’t, so maybe it’s a gal, and if so, how about a date?

Joe,
I'd like to know your feelings about using drivers with more loft - 11, 12, 13 degrees instead of the conventional 9-10.5 degrees of loft? What is the principles behind more loft on your driver and do you think that more loft would help a golfer like myself who hits the ball relatively straight but I don’t get real good distance.
Terry

Hi Terry,
Older theories promoted lower lofts for more distance, and this only made sense if your drives had some underspin. People used to love to see low line drives rising upwards like a plane taking off, but on today’s softer fairways you do not get as much roll on lower drives, especially if there is some underspin. So today’s theory is to hit higher drives to get longer carry, so your launch angles must be higher to get this carry. Launch angle is not the same as the "loft" angle of the driver due to the way you swing and the type of shaft used, so to get the best launch angle, which is about 9 degrees as measured by a computerized hitting bay, you might need a driver with more loft, even as much as 13 degrees (oh no, I am turning into a techno-geek-nerd!).
Joe

Joe,
I'm just starting having a problem with rolling my arms on the followthru, is there a drill that would help me regain it?thanks Shen

Hello Shen,
Is the problem too much roll or too little roll? If it is too much roll, you probably hook too much, so try to extend your arms more outward to reduce the roll. If you have too little roll, you might have a "chicken wing" on the leading arm. Try to make the leading elbow fold down instead of up.
Joe

Joe,
Why was Francis Ouimet’s US Open victory any more important than other Opens?
Frank

Hi Frank,
Imagine Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh showing up at your local golf club for a tournament, and this teenager who lives down the street joins the tournament, tops his first drive 40 yards into the left rough, and then goes on to beat both of them, winning the tournament with a ten year old caddy carrying only 7 clubs. OK, so Francis was not really a teenager, he just turned 20 one month earlier, forgive me for exaggerating. Harry Vardon (for whom the overlap grip is named) and Ted Ray were the biggest names in golf at that time, just like Tiger and Vijay are today, and they came all the way from England just to get beat in a head-to-head playoff by this skinny little kid from down the street, whose two practice rounds were horrible 88 and 88. Therefore this event, in my opinion, is the most astounding golf story ever, and also was the birth of golf excitement in America, because the newspapers went nuts over the fact that American golfers were just as good as the British legends. As I said last week, you have got to read the book "The Greatest Game Ever Played" by Mark Frost. Amazing stuff.
Joe

Joe,
In the Chrysler tournament recently I saw a golfer apparently hit his ball into a lateral water hazard but he had to go back to the tee and hit again. I thought you could drop and hit from the point where it entered the water? What gives?
Will

Hi Will,
The Rule says (and I think it is a bad rule) that someone must have watched and seen the ball actually enter the water, or else it is considered to be a “lost ball” which means you must go back to the tee. I think this is a bad rule for a couple of reasons. First, the pace of play is greatly hindered any time you have to march back to the tee and play again, everyone on the entire course behind you will suffer for this. Aside from that, even if you did watch the ball go into the hazard, you probably lost it anyway, so the penalty is different for a watched ball that got lost in the water instead of a lost ball that was not watched and ended up in the same place. Look, logic says if you hit a shot out of play, the penalty should be the same no matter if it is water, OB, lost ball, or unplayable lie. This should be a game of skill, not technicalities. Nobody should ever ever ever have to walk back to the original spot to play the next shot, it would be more logical to just take the penalty and hit from the spot nearest where the ball went out of play. But that is only my opinion, the rules say otherwise, but rules like this hurt the game. When I make my first billion dollars I am going to buy the USGA and change that stupid rule.
Joe

Joe,
I think belly putters should be illegal because it anchors the end of the club, let’s go back to the original rules of the game. What do you think?
Ernie

Hi Ernie,
If we go back to the original rules, then you also must play a plugged ball as it lies, even on the green. You also were not allowed to clean mud off your ball, even on the green. Try to putt with a wad of mud stuck to your ball and maybe you will understand that sometimes the rules really do need to be changed, otherwise it becomes more of a game of bad luck instead of skill. Belly putters have saved the careers of several pros, and they also have given new hope to recreational golfers who otherwise were going to quit the game because of the Putting Yips. However, if you really do not like belly putters, you can still get rid of those Yips by pinning your front elbow to your torso firmly (the anchor you mentioned) and using the “claw” grip like Mark Calcavecchia, which reduces unwanted right hand motion, and using your shoulders to make the stroke instead of your hands.
Joe

Joe, does golf give you a peaceful feeling?
Answer: The geese laugh at you, the trees taunt you, the sand mocks you, the water calls your name – there is no peace. This is war.

Joe,
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW
1. WHY I TEND TO HIT THE BALL "THIN" OFF MY IRONS.
2. WHAT DRILLS CAN I DO TO HELP THAT.
3. I HAVE A REAL HARD TIME GETTING THE CLUB BACK TO PARELLEL AND INOTONLY WATCH THE PROS BUT SOME GUYS AT DRIVING RANGES DOING ITEFFORTLESSLY. WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP MYSELF WITH THAT?THANKS,Rob Wing


Hello Rob,
I think your number 3 might have something to do with your number 1. You might be so concerned with getting the club back to parallel, that you ball striking may be suffering because of that. Although it looks like the classical thing to do, it is not absolutely necessary. Some of us are not built the same as others so we cannot swing the same way. Look at how short the backswings are for Dana Quigley, Allen Doyle, Jim Thorpe, and several others, they do not even come close to parallel, and yet they are very successful. As for your number 2, I would recommend the drills shown on the Body Golf videos, such as the double clubber and the toe drag drills. You may also find that the Body Golf drills and exercises might result in your getting closer to parallel without having to concentrate on that.
Joe

Joe,
Thank you for accommodating me in your golf tips. I've been playing for almost six months now but I still could not break 100 on my games. Could you also help me cure my left arm to be strait during backswing up to impact on the ball and slice.
Respectfully yours
Alex Ricohermoso

Hello Alex,Keeping the left arm straight (assuming you are right handed) accomplishes two good things. It assures the widest possible arc, and the wider the arc, the higher the clubhead speed. It assures a more consistent arc, for example, if you allow the left elbow to bend, you have to be consistent in how much it bends or else the arc will be inconsistent, and therefore your ball striking will be inconsistent. Of course you should not make too much of an effort to keep it perfectly straight or else you might restrict your natural swing, just keep it comfortably straight. If you are slicing, there are probably other reasons at play, possibly your grip or your weight shift, or your swing plane.
Joe