Joe,
Is it true that a hook rolls more than a slice because a hook has overspin?
Spud

Hello Spud,
Anyone who has ever played ping pong knows if you put overspin on the ball it will dive down quickly, and in golf that is known as a duck hook, so overspin is not the answer. The ball must have a little bit of underspin in order to stay in the air longer, and you can also prove that with a ping pong ball. There are two reasons why a hook rolls more than a slice. First reason is a hook has less underspin, and the other reason is that the clubface must strike the ball in a more closed position for a hook, which means less loft and lower shot trajectory than the slice, which has a more lofted open clubface position. As a result, the lower hook is likely to roll more than the higher slice.
Joe

Joe,
I enjoy your newsletter and was wondering if you can help. For some reason I keep topping the ball with the fairway metals on the fairway, never when I am hitting them off the tee or with the irons or driver and the annoying thing is that it only happens on the course. I can always hit the ball properly on the driving range and even draw and fade at will. The miss hits are costing me a lot of shots in our competitions.
Look forward to reading the solution in your newsletter.
Best regards Tom Boyd

Hello Tom,
There are a number of possibilities for this, without watching you swing I can only offer a few suggestions. Perhaps your fairway metals are not well matched to the rest of your set. Perhaps at the driving range you are hitting off synthetic mats, which are more forgiving than grass. If neither of these are the case, then other possibilities are the lack of tension on the range allowing you to make more relaxed swings while on the course tension causes a slight change. Some instructors say to swing fairway woods differently than irons, in other words sweep the ball without taking a divot, but I say if this is causing you to top the ball, then by all means swing the same way you do with the irons and hit down at the ball and make sure you complete the follow thru with all your weight on your front foot, or else you might be doing a reverse pivot with some of your weight on the back foot, which can also cause topping. I hope this helps.

Joe,
Sometimes I read about good golfers being able to will the ball into the hole with positive thinking. I have tried this with no good results. I do not believe that can work, after all we are not magicians. Is this a bunch of baloney or not? How can the average golfer make this work?
Marvin

Hello Marvin,
Positive thinking cannot guarantee anything, but it will give everything a better chance for success than negative thinking will. This is why the better players visualize a successful shot beforehand, because that thought process leads to proper execution. You cannot execute properly if you are not sure the shot is going to work. This is most evident with putting. Those who commit to the read will usually make a better and more confident stroke than those who are not sure of the read and make a tentative stroke. The average golfer, or any other golfer, can make this work simply by convincing oneself to avoid making tentative strokes by focusing on proper execution and follow thru.
Joe

Joe,
Why is it that whenever I feel confident that I will have a good round, I am usually disappointed, and the opposite is true, when I am not so confident, sometimes I have a great round? I thought it was a good thing to have confidence, how should we handle this?
Fordham

Hello Fordham,
When we are overly confident, our human tendency is to lose a bit of focus because we just assume we are going to hit good shots without properly concentrating. The next time you feel this confidence, tell yourself that you are determined to execute your main swing thoughts. Take nothing for granted. You can only play the game one shot at a time, and any one of those shots can mess up your round if you lose concentration to execute each shot fully and properly. Once you understand this, you will have fewer disappointments.
Joe

Joe,
I used to be a pretty good putter, and I never really believed what I read about how the yips affect senior golfers until I got them myself, and my putting got worse and worse. I have tried everything, fancy putters, belly putters, chest putters, claw grips, cross handed grips, you name it and I have tried it. I got books from Pelz, Utley, Crenshaw, Watson, and other putting gurus, but I still have the yips. I am right handed and I even tried putting left handed, nothing seems to work. I am out of ideas. I need a new and different idea, is there anything else I can try?
Bernie

Hi Bernie,
You came to the right place because I have been there too. When ordinary methods do not work, you might as well try something else. Here is what I did, and it is still working. Of course there is no guarantee that this will work for you, but at least it is another thing you can try. You won’t hear this anywhere else because this is my own discovery. Take a regular length putter and grip it with your left hand really low on the shaft below the grip. Use your wrist to press the handle against your forearm and keep it there. Now add your right hand below the left with an ordinary ten finger grip. Keep your head completely still, make sure the handle is still pressing against your forearm, and use your shoulders to make the stroke. I use an open stance and center ball position for this, but you can experiment with whatever stance and ball position that works best for you. Of course you will have to bend over quite a bit, so find a comfortable stance, but if this hurts your back, get a longer putter and you will not have to bend over so far. If this works for you, consider getting your putter regripped with a much longer grip so your hands do not have to grip the skinny shaft. Let me know how this turns out.
Joe

Joe,
I am not a golfer but my husband reads this newsletter, and now he makes me read it too. Up to now it seemed stupid to me, the complicated rule book makes no sense, all you are doing is hitting a ball into a hole. Is it OK to ignore the rule book and just have fun and go play? Otherwise give me some reasons why I should bother to try it?
Jane

Hello Jane,
If you are a beginner, don’t worry about the rule book so much until you decide to take the game more seriously. Golf can be simple but purists make it overly complicated. If you want reasons to try it, here are some facets of golf to consider. Ages and genders do not matter, all can play together. Children can learn to play it well, while adults can never master it. Every round brings unexpected thrills while seemingly good shots can end up in disaster. It can be treated like a science, or a puzzle. Answers to problems are only temporary, good swing corrections only last for awhile, and then they no longer work for no apparent reason, so one must learn how to make adjustments. It requires concentration, but is played better when feeling relaxed. It allows you get into the great outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature. It satisfies the thirst for adventure, but frustrates the mind. It can be rewarding and it can be maddening. You can experience the thrill of a good shot and the agony of a shot gone awry. For every attempt you never know for sure which one you will get, until the ball stops rolling. It gives you a great opportunity to meet new friends and to recap the round afterward, recounting good shots and bemoaning bad breaks and injustices, encouraging each other and ourselves. Just as in life, you can use each experience as a chance to grow, improve, and reach your full potential. Because of these things, golf is the greatest game ever invented. That is why you should bother to try it.
Joe

Joe,
i'm 67 years on this earth, (can't say old or young) started golf three years ago, have a fairly good athletic body, plays golf twice weekly, left handed , from 9iron to 3 iron between 85 &150 yds. with a slight draw 3&5 wood between 160 & 180 on good shots. my driver a vicious slice about 200 yds out of bounds, normaly use a strong grip, would i be better off to weaken my grip. also my clubs are a cheap grade would better clubs improve my game can't seem to break 100.
frank.

Hello Frank,
If you draw all your other clubs but slice the driver, get a different driver, it does not match the rest of your set, and yes, better clubs might help, but don’t discard your old clubs too soon, you might find a little draw is a good thing, and there is no guarantee that newer clubs will perform any better until you try them. I would not recommend changing your grip if you can draw the ball with your natural stroke. There must be another reason why you cannot break 100 besides your driver, I suspect you need to work harder at chipping and putting. Good luck to you.
Joe

Joe,
I am a 71 year old male in good physical shape. I am using Taylor 465 driver with 9.5 degrees. For a month now I haven't been able to launch the ball. They just seem to be low drives. Would I be helped with a new Taylor R545XD with 10.5 degrees?
ThanksJay

Hi Jay,
I had the same problem as you. Trying to adjust my swing to get more height did not work. I finally tried drivers with 15 degrees loft and for me they work great. I have a Ping G2 that has a draw bias and a Golfsmith Snake Eyes High Launch model that I can hit straight or fade with a little weaker grip. There is a theory that a shaft with a low kick point will make a big difference in launch angle, but for me it also introduces wildness, but maybe that’s just me. If you really like Taylor Made, try the shaft with the low kick point.
Joe

Joe,
I've got a problem I can't seem to shake. I keep hitting into my left side (in baseball we call it stepping in the bucket!). What drills can I do to solve this situation. When I do this the ball is either pulled left, or I cut across the ball and slice it. I'd appreciate any help I could get.
Tom VanoverSpringdale, Ohio

Hi Tom,
In baseball when you step in the bucket, your front foot actually comes off the ground and comes back down away from the target line. If you are doing the same thing you probably are shifting too much weight to the back foot on the backswing. I would recommend the toe drag drill as shown in the Body Golf videos. If your front foot is not really leaving the ground, your pull is probably caused by your downswing path. This happens to many people who try to swing down the target line while their body is still turning, and by the time the club arrives at the ball, the turning has caused the path to change, and that leads to a pull. Try to change your downswing path. If you consider your target line to be 12 o’clock, if you are right handed, extend your follow thru to 1 o’clock. If you are left handed, extend to 11 o’clock.
Joe

Joe,
i have handicap 14. these days i suffer from putting. Most the time, when i take the club back it goes to inside and result miss the hole and cost me one shot extra. i have tried many way but without success. My main problem is one metter away from the hole. Kindly let me know if you have any tips for me in this regard.
rgds
bahman

Hello Bahman,
Since I have never seen the way you putt, I can only guess that your backstroke is too long. For a one meter putt, keep the backstroke as short as possible and keep the clubface square to the target all during your follow thru. If you can do that, you should make more putts.
Joe

Joe,
I don't know if it's due to improper use of arm, my shoulder inflexibility, but one point caught my intention. Someone watching my pitching/chipping noticed that my front arm wrist breaks way too early, about 1/2 the way to hip high. When that happens, bad things occur as my wrists/hands flip on the way down and I ground the ball. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Larry

Hi Larry,
Some instructions say to break the wrists early and some disagree. I feel it is an individual preference, whatever leads to better ball striking. In your case whatever you do, you cannot allow your wrists to flip on the way down, keep your hands ahead of the club all the way thru contact. As a drill, take the club back and stop, set your wrists to the desired angle, and keep them locked in that position as you execute your downswing.
Joe

Joe,
There is a theory that an object flies farthest when it starts with a 45 degree launch angle. That seems ridiculous to me because in golf that would be like a popup. What do you think?
Louie

Hi Louie,
This theory assumes the object has no underspin and the force path of the propellant is also at 45 degrees. In golf the ground obviously prevents such an angle for the path of the club, so there must be some loft on the clubface in order to keep the ball airborne longer. The more loft, the more you have underspin. If the ball were to be launched anywhere near 45 degrees with underspin, it would balloon up to an even higher angle, and the result would be like a 9 iron shot. So the ideal launch angle would have minimum underspin but still be as high as possible to stay airborne as long as possible. With the ground being in the way, it is not easy to hit the ball while the club is in the upswing, but if you play the ball further forward in your stance, you can at least reduce underspin.
Joe

Joe,
I am fighting a hook, and I am told that my grip is OK (Vs pointing at the chin), but I am rolling my forearms too much, but that is my natural move, and whenever I try a move that feels unnatural, I have poor contact. Other than just playing for my hook, is there anything else I can try?
Herbert

Hello Herbert,
During the setup, look at your leading arm. If your leading elbow is pointing at the target, this could cause your arms to roll on the downswing. If you have ever seen a photo of Ben Hogan’s setup, both his elbows are pointing in toward his body. This helped Ben fight his hook because the forearms are less likely to roll as much from that position. I hope this helps you.
Joe

Joe,
With today’s better balls and better clubs, the experts say a lot of courses will become obsolete because they have no more room to expand. But everyone I talk to says they are not scoring any better than they ever did. How can this be if everyone is hitting the ball longer than before?
Tabby

Hi Tabby,
Many courses in my area cannot expand, so they have undergone renovations to make them more attractive and more difficult, some call it tricking up the course by adding more bunkers and water hazards and letting the rough grow taller. But the main thing I have noticed is faster and more sloping greens with thicker grass around and up against the edges, so if you miss the green, there are no easy chip shots. You can forget about chipping with any other iron but a wedge. Even if you hit the green, if these greens get firm, your approach shots will bounce on and over into the thick grass. So even when these courses are not longer, they are certainly not as easy to score on.
Joe

Joe,
If a wider swing arc leads to more distance, it would seem to make sense to use clubs with longer shafts than standard length. I have tried such clubs without much success. What is the reason for this?
Ray

Hello Ray,
It is true that clubhead speed increases with wider swing arc, but there is something more important going on here. The longer the shaft, the more difficult it is to strike the ball in the middle of the clubface, which we call the sweet spot. I have seen cases where a golfer improved simply by getting shorter shafts than normal and being able to strike the sweet spot more often. Longer shafts may give you occasional longer shots, but your average distance is not that great if you have more mis-hits. Unless you can strike the ball on the sweet spot every time, longer shafts may not be such a great idea.
Joe

Joe,
Here's a question that I've never seen asked or answered: What is a drill or a technique to help hit the ball on the sweet spot more consistently? Everyone talks about hitting the ball on the sweet spot but what is a good drill to get you into hitting that sweet spot.
Thanks,
Bill Lapitsky

Hi Bill,
I like to start with the double clubber drill as shown in the Body Golf videos. Then I use a single club and a practice mat that has a permanent rubber tee and repeat this back and forth motion, trying to clip the tee on both the forward stroke and the backward stroke continuously. This helps to train your muscles into the same groove for each stroke. If you can do this every day, it should help your consistency.
Joe

Joe,
I have been trying several different brands of balls, but I do not notice much difference between them. I shoot in the 80s and I think I could shoot in the 70s if I can just hit more greens. I can hit pretty straight but I always seem to be long or short even tho I think I am using the right club for the distance, wind or no wind. What kind of ball might help me?
Tyrone

Hello Tyrone,
It is possible that you are going long or short because you are using different types of balls, each of which may be giving you different distances for the same kind of shot. This is less likely to happen if you just picked one type of ball and stayed with it all the time. Since you are hitting straight, you might also benefit from a high spin ball instead of a distance ball. The opposite would be true for people who do not hit straight.
Joe

Joe,
Are used golf balls any worse than new ones? Is there any way to tell when it is time to stop using a ball?
Ned

Hi Ned,
Sometimes used balls are worse, especially if they have been hit too many times. Do not use any balls having scuff marks, even small ones, because those can affect the way the ball flies. If the ball has no marks, you can do this rebound test to compare one new ball to one used ball. Find a smooth cement surface and hold the two balls together in the same hand, as high as possible over your head. Drop the balls together and see if they both rebound to the same height. If they do, they are both OK to use.
Joe

Joe,
I'm left handed. Don't hold that against me. I can hit the ball realistically 300 yards every drive. My problem: it is a crab shoot as to where it will go 200 yards straight 100 due east, 250 yards straight 50 yards due west. It looks good on the driving range but it kills me on the course and tight courses forget it. My 180 yard 7 iron goes pretty straight most of the time, but ego won't let me play golf with that off the tee and hitting 4th on the second shot. Please advise.
Rich

Hi Rich,
Since I have never seen your swing, there are a lot of possibilities here. If you hit a 7-iron off the tee and you still have the longest drives in your group, that should squash the egos of the others in your group, and in return that should help your own ego. I guess that means you also have this problem with fairway woods and lower numbered irons, or else you would be using them instead of a 7 iron, right? Have you always had this problem or only recently? Have you tried to shorten your swing? Have you tried a different set of clubs? It could be that your clubs are not matched to your swing. On the other hand, if you are able to hit most of your clubs straight, then try a different driver, because there is a good chance your current driver is not matched to your other clubs. There are so many different types available that will give you different results with the same swing. Even the same brand with a different shaft will make a difference. Try to attend some demo days where you can try out different types for free.
Joe

Joe,
Any tips for those of us who lose concentration when we get nervous?
Laurie

Hello Laurie,
Everyone gets butterflies in the stomach, so the trick is to make those butterflies fly in formation. In other words, accept the fact that you are nervous, don’t fight that feeling because it is not going to go away. Tell yourself that the more nervous you feel, the more you are going to focus on execution. You can only control what happens before the ball is struck. After that you are only an observer, so just make sure you finish your stroke completely before you look up. Most people who give in to nervousness cannot wait to see where the ball goes, so they look up too soon and never finish the stroke properly, whether it is a putt, a chip, or a full shot. Part of a game plan is to know ahead of time what you will focus on, whenever you get a case of the heebie-jeebies. Then when that happens, you are already prepared. The swing thought is to execute fully, and don’t cut it short.
Joe