Golf My way 2"},"lengthSeconds":"3348","ownerProfileUrl":"http://www.youtube.com/user/leekyosik","ex

Jack, we are very excited to work with you in

golf

. In my way too. Golf my way. One was a very successful instructional video that helped millions of

golf

ers with their games and now this video promises to deliver even more. Thanks Jack, now that I've tried to convey everything I know about the mental side of golf in this videotape. You know not everyone can hit the ball 250 yards, but I think every golfer can think about the course to reduce scores after watching the tape, I'm sure. It will be of great help. Success in golf or business ultimately depends on properly managing your skills and resources.

You have managed yours to the point of becoming the player of the century. Usfg shares their approach to success with strategic planning and perseverance in all. insurance areas thanks jack now let's get started let's get started hello and welcome to golf my way 2. before we start trying to help you with your golf game, I would like to thank our hosts, the loxahatchee club, here in jupiter, florida. I hope you like what you see of the golf course because not only did I design it, but I practice and play most of it here when I'm home. Loxahatchee is a private club and also a residential club.

We are here in high season. So inevitably this member is bothering other members and wants to offer his sincere thanks for their tolerance and understanding. Now in the business of helping your golf game. I have always considered golf to be a game of two parts. The first half is hitting the ball and hitting shots and we cover that very completely in Golf My Way, the second half of the game is managing yourself and the golf course, making the most of your shot making ability to get the highest score. low possible every time you play, most people work. much harder in the first half of the game than in the second, with the result that they never reached their full scoring potential when I hit the ball well but managed my game poorly.

I rarely won, but I have won many times when I hit the ball poorly, but handled myself and the golf course well. That's what this program is all about: mind over muscle. what do I want to say with that? I think when you play a golf course, every golf course is different, of course, but the position on the golf course. Where you hit the ball where you place your tee shots where you place your second shots are much more important than how far you hit the golf ball. Sure power is an important part of the game and sometimes it can be used in part to use your mind.

It's power because you can eliminate bunkers, trees, water hazards and offside things with power, but in general, if you use your head going around the golf course playing with your head plane to position yourself, then that's the most important thing, I think. that one of the The most perfect example of that was 1966 and I won the British Open at Muirfield that year. We had a hayfield for the hard ground, it was knee high, I mean if you hit it in the rough it was a missed shot, if you hit it in the bunker. It was a missed shot.

I only used my driver 17 times during that entire golf tournament. I used one iron, three woods, three irons, two irons, played all kinds of clubs off the tee to get in the right position. The result was what I got. the correct position more times than anyone else and I ended up winning the mind over muscle golf tournament playing the percentages, that's what the pros call it, what do I mean by playing the percentages well if you've gone off the bounce on one side of the ball? hole and there really isn't much trouble or a slight rough or even trees or anything like that.

I would rather have the ball in the trees than off the bounce. There's nothing worse than turning to your caddy and saying, can I have another ball, please? two shots I can always find some way to get the ball off the left side of the fairway or out of the trees onto the green and what I'm trying to do is if the fairway is 40 yards wide and I went out of bounds five yards to the right of that fairway, then I'm going to favor the left 20 yards of that fairway, that's where I'm going to play, if I miss a little then I might put it on the right side, but my my most likely I'll keep it on the left side or even in the left row if I have a second chance.

If I'm in the rough and I play towards the green. I have water on one side. or I have a deep bunker on one side I want to make sure I hit the smart approach shot and leave myself if I miss it in a place where I can recover I want to make sure I have an uphill putt that I don't I don't want to put myself in a position where I can make three putts, if I miss that green and then the little putting shot I'm going to hit, I want to make sure my recovery is in a position where it's easier. putt it is possible that all of these things together will result in a lower score.

I think that's really what we're trying to do is play the percentages to try to get a lower score, of course you need some shot making ability to play this way. and I'm going to go over it for you, like I did completely in golf my way, like I said before, you're going to need some ball striking technique to be able to play golf this way, so I'm going to go over a little bit of the fundamentals of the golf my way, starting with my three exercises that I have used for years, they are very simple and when I want to start practicing I want to make sure I don't hurt myself, so I did my morning exercises at home, but when I get to the golf course, the first thing What I do is just swing very loosely without trying to create tension.

I want to make sure that I'm relaxed and I just swing the club very loosely and then I take the club behind my back and I just twist my upper body to stretch my back and my shoulders and very gently and place the club on the small part of my back, I kind of stretch my lower back back and forth. I do these things. Every morning, right before I start hitting balls, just to make sure I don't hurt myself, then I start hitting golf balls, starting very loose, hitting a pitching wedge very lightly, and making sure I'm not going to take the first shots you take.

I got hurt, that's my warm-up routine. I'm here with a pitching wedge and most people think you use a different swing for each club. I have 14 clubs in my bag, but basically, except for the putter, I'm using the exact same thing. swing and exactly the same technique for everyone certainly as the club gets longer the swing gets a little bit longer but the swing has the same tempo, the same speed and fundamentally everything is exactly the same here with a pitching wedge, let's look at that again here with five irons in exactly the same swing exactly the same tempo just a little bit wider stance swing this a little bit longer because the club lengthens a little bit and with a 3 wood they are all the same obviously the swing of the club will be a little longer with a 3 wood just because it is a longer golf club and everything is essentially the same, the game of golf is difficult enough to develop one swing let alone 14 different swings so remember a basic swing to all clubs, not 14 different swings now to build that one.

Basic Swing I think you have to start with the most fundamental of all fundamentals and that is how you grip the golf club. I try to drip the grip of the golf club or make anything in the game of golf as natural as possible inside, like if my hands were hanging at my side I want to make sure that I would just put the club in my left hand right when it was hanging at my side I lift the club with my right hand just as I reach it towards you I put it basically straight to the golf club, now both hands are exactly against each other, apart and closed, that's how I put my hands on the club now, no I don't care if you use an interlocking grip, an overlapping grip, or a baseball grip, I don't think.

How you connect your hands really makes some difference, whatever is comfortable for you, I think the important thing is that you are using the solid part of your left hand, the back of your left hand is in front of the club, so I choose the stick in the left hand through the palm of the right hand I am giving the power, so I use the fingers of the right hand, so I put the palm of the left hand, the fingers of the right hand put them together and I get a good solid and comfortable grip so you can deliver the club without any tendency to want to turn to one side or the other in a natural position which is a good grip, you can have all the basic fundamentals correct and the most beautiful golf swing and shot in the world .

Great golf shots, but if you can't aim, you're obviously not going to get the ball to hit the target. I use a very simple method to aim a golf ball. I think it's much easier to aim at something that's a couple feet away. or three feet away, that's something 150 yards away. I've placed the t down here on my line. Now what I do is I walk behind the ball and I find a point that's easily recognizable on the line of this target right here, okay? In this case, I walk back, I look at it, I walk towards the ball, I take a stance parallel to the target line, I draw that line back across here on the ground, I also know that the ball is positioned approximately outside of me. left heel when I do that so I not only know that I'm lying this way, but that I have correct alignments this way.

Now I can stand here all day and make good golf swings and the ball has to go to the target, so what I do is I take that parallel stance, I walk up, I adjust for comfort and then I hit the golf ball. Remember to choose a spot right in front of your bowl, this makes lineups much easier so you can hit good golf shots, you need to have good balance and have a good personality. You have to have good balance, you have to have good posture and good posture. What I mean by this is that because I'm here talking to you, I don't have my weight on my toes, my heels, my right foot, or my left foot.

The weight is very balanced on the middle of my feet, then I bend slightly from the waist while holding the grip stick here and I have been slightly from the waist, I let the stick reach the ground, I let my legs not tilt, no straight but relaxed, I mean all sports are played from what I call the ready position, in other words you are ready to be able to move in any direction, you have good balance and I think golf is no different, you must be in that position to be able to move your weight comfortably.

Move your weight back like this, your head is in the middle of your body, leave it in the middle of your body, so I try to take a stance that as the clubs get longer, they get wider as the clubs They shorten, they become narrower. I think it's very important to have a balanced posture and a comfortable width, legs slightly bent, just relax your head right in the middle of your body and then you swing. around the head, all in good balance while you make the golf swing, if you find your head moving back it will throw you off balance as if you move from the top of the swing with your head, throw it over the bottom of your body and it will come back this way, the body wants to balance you, in other words, no matter what, your body will try to balance itself if you are swinging the golf club and moving your head with your legs, your body will want to return, the game of Golf is played with a good solid posture and the game of golf is played within the feet, so if we maintain balance within our feet we have a chance of recovery, in other words, as we swing the golf club we wanna. to make sure my balance stays within my feet as we swing I want to make sure my balance stays within my feet good posture good posture results in good balance I don't care how many of the fundamentals of the game of golf you work on If there is one more important fundamental you should work on: head position.

Head position is the cause of most golf swing failures. Head movement up and down, moving your head back and forth, all of these cause more problems than you. I can believe that I try to work as hard as I can on the golf swing. I talked about balance here a second ago and I can work as hard as I can to try to keep my head in a position in the center of my body. I would like to feel like there was an axis going down through my head and down the middle of my back and I rotated my upper body on that with my head staying there in the correct position.

My head can spin but I don't want to. It swings up and down, I don't want it to move back and forth and every movement I make moving my head I have to counteract that with another point in my swing on the scale, my head goes down and then my weight goes down to the toes so I have to go back to my heels, if my head goes up my weight goes to my toes so I have to move back the other way and if I move my head back suddenly I have something . That I will have to lose my balance to cometowards the other side.

I mean, no matter what I do, there is a counter reaction that will cause me a problem, so the most important thing in the golf swing is to keep your head there. I still feel like there's a shaft going through your head and you just hold it there and you rotate around that area and when I do that, I produce good golf shots if you had to pick one part of the golf swing that was the most important, which part would you choose? Well, I think you'd obviously have to say the start of the swing because everything that happens after the start of the swing is reactionary to that, so if I start the club again on the outside if I start cutting. going back inside or taking it too low or too high will all result in something uncomfortable for the rest of my golf swing.

I want to be very smooth, very consistent, very slow and very precise, right off the ball. All of these things produce a good backswing from that point, the rest of the golf swing should happen automatically as well and make sure you draw the club very accurately and very smoothly back, without a smooth and consistent start you are going to produce a lot of bad golf shots. When I hit a golf shot I want to get the most out of that golf club that I can get and with a short, tight little arc and a little bit of a hands-on swing I'm not going to get all the power I can out of that golf club.

I want to make sure I make as wide and full a turn as possible so that it wraps completely at the top of the backswing. I make sure to swing through the ball of the club and get as full an extension as possible through the ball and full follow through. This combination gives me the widest, fullest arc and most potential I can get out of that golf club with my body for every golf. club, I think that's important, so what I try to do is make sure I get into a nice, smooth, comfortable stance, and a big full swing back and through should produce longer, straighter golf shots to repeat a golf swing and try to get into the proper sequence of movement.

What I mean by this is that the game of golf works from the ground up, meaning that when you take your backswing, the first thing that finishes the backswing is your feet, then your knees, your hips, the top of your back. body. shoulders your arms your hands and then the club and exactly the same sequence starting down since your feet were the first to end up moving back your feet are the first to start going down so your feet start here then your knees your hips your top of the body, your shoulders, your arms, your hands and the club is the last thing you should start with, as the proper sequence with each club gives you a nice fluid movement, creates the most possible leverage that you can create here to get the most speed of the club head at impact.

I'll show you what I mean: we take back the club, you will see that the feet stop first and the club is the last to stop and the opposite, performing a proper sequence of movement is essential to repeat your golf swing with what you hit the Golf ball. Obviously, this hits the golf ball, the head of the club, so the faster you move, the farther you're going to propel that little golf ball. So what do we have to do to make that happen? Well, we have to let go of the golf club completely, that's the most important thing.

What do I do to make this move fast now? How do we release it? What do I mean by liberation? I mean, a release is at full extension at the moment of impact of the golf ball. Okay, so my club head is where I want to go as far as possible. as far away from the golf ball as it might be during that golf swing. Okay, now how do I do that? I go to the top of the swing when I get to the top of the swing. The first thing I do at the top of the swing is I release the golf club I let it go I don't hold on to the golf club here and I try to get it down which I think most people talk about getting it into the hitting area I let the golf club go right down here on the line if I stay on the right foot and then hit from the top, but if I do the exact same motion and move to the left side, it looks like I've made a good golf swing, so I let go of the stick from here. that when I come to impact I said I am as far away from the ball as possible, but I am also facing the golf ball at impact with the upper part of my body, if I have moved my body beyond the ball at impact, so I'm not going to get a full release if I'm looking past here if I've left my body behind the ball here then I've probably been in the wrong position by starting with my head too far behind the ball and I'll probably hit a hook and the The ball is going to go left, so to face the ball at impact, getting a full release is very important to get maximum club head speed into the ball, right here, this is a full release, a very important. from being consistent and playing good golf now to finish this golf swing review let me give you a few swings and you can see the fundamentals in slow motion starting with a narrow pitching wedge stance now with a slightly wider seven iron stance a little wider away from the ball now with three irons wider stance again a little balance and good posture wider stance with three woods but the ball is still in the same position aim the same tempo remains the same and we will hit a driver so playing The Good golf starts long before you tee up at number one.

This is how I start preparing for a big round when I get up in the morning. I'm trying to prepare for that first tee shot. The most important blow of the game. To start the day off right, how do I prepare to be in the right frame of mind? Well, I get up at least two and a half hours before playing if I play in the morning a little more than that if I'm playing in the afternoon I get up in the morning I'm going to have breakfast, which can consist of orange juice, melon, cereal, sometimes, an egg white omelet, some decaffeinated coffee, something that's not going to cheer me up, something that's not going to fill me up but something that will give me good energy, good complex carbohydrates for the day.

I try to get to the golf course about an hour and a half before I play. I want to make sure I am relaxed and not rushed. I want to make sure I'm thinking about what I'm doing I go to practice tea about 45 50 minutes before I tee off I hit the balls for about 25 minutes I go to the green I hit a few putts I hit a few long putts I hit some how many short putts then I hit some chips and about six seven eight minutes before I'm supposed to play. I'm going to the first tee.

I want to make sure I have enough time to get there and count my suits. Make sure you have 14. The clubs make sure everything is set up, everything I want is ready and I'm relaxed and I have a minute to just take a couple of breaths, relax, think about that tee shot, put the ball in the tee and say, "Okay, I'm ready to play." I took my game from the pax team the first tee now let's show it get up I do my routine behind the ball I take a couple of practice swings because it's been 20 or 25 minutes since I actually hit the balls and then I'm ready to go, focus, focus on what I want to do, this is probably the most important shot of the day, go out in the right frame of mind, focus on that, decide what I'm going to do and then do it, hopefully, from there. you're started in the right direction I'm getting ready to play a round of golf I want to make sure that what I have in my golf bag is what I need on the golf course I really don't want to carry a lot of extra weight for my caddy I also want to make sure to have enough.

I have my golf bag, of course, with a bag cover. I have 14 golf clubs. I carry a 3 wood driver and a 1 to 9 iron pitching wedge. Sand wedge. and a putter, those are my 14 clubs. I always have an umbrella and I always like the oversized umbrella. I always carry six to twelve golf balls. I use three golf balls, the front nine, three golf balls is the back nine and if I cut one or two of them or lose a pair I will make sure I have some spares I always carry some spare tees I carry some new gloves and some used gloves which I've already used I always carry some bandaids you never know when bugs bug spray can come in handy rule book yard booklet local rules rain suit spare sweater rain hat and of course I usually put some on of food, whether it's a banana or a bagel or something that my wife has given me a little energy during the round, those are the things that I need to take to the golf course, of course, and then back to my hotel room .

When I travel, I usually have a few spare golf clubs. I always carry one. or two spare putters, a spare driver, occasionally there are three woods left over and I usually carry spare wedges. You never know when something might happen to one of the clubs that are actually clubs you play a lot of shots with, so I always have a spare with me when I go to the British or Open course. You could add a thicker sweater. You could add a thick hat or you could even have some gloves. I want to make sure that when I get to the golf course I'm prepared and not.

You don't have to go find something drier to show and putt to make money, that's not my book. The correct strategy for playing each hole begins at t. I believe that to produce better golf shots over and over again you must develop a procedure or routine and something that you can follow. and something that will take the pressure off when you find yourself under pressure situations. Now what I try to do is stand behind the golf ball and imagine or visualize what's in front of me. I evaluate the situation and what kind of shot. This is the opening hole here at Loxahatchee and the wind is a little bit from right to left.

I would like to use the street in others. I like to use the right side of the fairway and cross the ball with a little forehand. I shoot left, that's the easiest shot to start with here, so I'll aim the ball toward the right center of the fairway and use the left half of the fairway to bring the ball in from, I think, a reasonably high tee shot. that one is soft, it doesn't run too far, it's not a long hole, I want to keep the ball in the fairway and not have it move as much, so I visualize all that in my mind, I say, well, now, jack, that's the shot .

I want to play now. How to play well? I think good. I want to sit here and point to the right side. I want to go ahead and swing a pretty normal swing. I'll make sure I get a good pitch. I want to play. I make sure my head stays in position so I can release the club, the ball will go up in the air and fall to the left, that's my thought pattern. Well, I have that in mind now that I'm behind her. I choose that. notice it's going to point to the right side of a regular, maybe there's a little white dot in front of my ball here.

I'll aim maybe two inches to the right of that and walk toward the ball, place my club behind the ball, draw a straight line back through that point, take a stance parallel to it, keeping in mind and visualizing the shot. that I want to do and I adjust it for comfort, I make sure I'm doing what I want to do and then before I can. I change my mind or have negative thoughts in my mind, then I want to do it. I should try it more often now if you're going to use a procedure and I think you should use a procedure, what will it do for you.

Firstly, you will have to get the type of shot you want to play firmly etched in your mind, fully assess the situation and approach the matter with a positive frame of mind and it will take the pressure off and alleviate any outward appearance. I thought it would allow you to get closer to the ball and do what you think you need to do to make the best shot. When I strategize how to play a hole, I look at the hazards on a downhill hole. ordering obviously out of bounds is the worst danger, uh, nothing worse than becoming your caddy and saying, can I have another ball please?, because you have a two-stroke penalty, I mean, that's something that you should avoid, uh, the second one, uh.

The worst penalty would be water. If you put the ball in the water, you're obviously going to play it again here on the tee or you're going to play it somewhere but lose distance on one shot. The next situation is if you have bushes or unrecoverable situations where you could create an unplayable lie, those are situations where you want to select your club off the tee accordingly and then if you can have a deep or steep edge bunker, which obviously it's a situation if you need to have 200 yards to the green and you hit that bunker and you just hit a wedge, you're not going to make it there, so that's another situation you want to avoid on a deep rough on one side of the fairway or in both sides of the fairway, which could mean you might want to hit an iron to keep the ball in the fairway.

Is there severe terrain where I will have an uncomfortable posture? Is there a shallower low lip bunker that could make it difficult if I have to hit a long iron? but it's not that difficult if I have to hit a short iron, it may notI don't have to worry about playing in light rough, that is, in light rough it could be a situation where it could be an advantage to put the ball in the rough, I can get a better angle to the hole, I could have a slight slope of the terrain which might or might not help the second shot or might hurt it or might end up on the bare ground which is a niche, a situation that maybe I just don't want to be there or maybe I want to evaluate the situation if I get a better situation from the ground naked than from the fairway, sometimes I'll even play that, so if you look at the hazards, I mean the hazards can be penalties, obviously, uh, out of bounds water or unplayable lie or a deep lip bunker something that's not recoverable are things you should avoid, but sometimes other hazards really aren't a big factor and you should calculate whether it's better to take a chance on them. and get a better angle to the hole or a better second shot and not worry about it, then worry about it, so I think you just have to assess the situation, figure out what your best chances are and then go after it while I'm driving. a golf ball, I never try to hit a straight shot, in other words, which means I never point the ball straight down the middle of a fairway because if I have a 40-yard fairway I'm not sure if I'm going to hook it or cut it. .

I only have 20 yards to move it. Everyone always has a basic shot for me. It's been left to right over the years as I can aim down the left side of the fairway if I can get it. straight or move a little bit to the left, I'm probably still fine, but if I'm going to try to fade it, I have 30 or 40 yards of fairway to fade the ball, it gives me more room for air and everything. Golfers are like that, most people are cutters or have a tendency to hook, so I think it's very important to be able to choose your best shot and when you have a tough situation make sure you use it, whereas here I'm going to aim to the left side of the fairway, slice the ball into the wind and keep it there, aim to the left side, open the clubface slightly at address and then just swing there a little bit from left to right, to the right down the fairway. street.

Being able to play from there now for some people getting a tie is an easier shot and when I want a little more distance and I'm going to try to hit a par 5, I'm most likely going to go from right to left. I shoot because the ball seems to run a little further, it seems like you can hit it a little harder and it goes a little further when you play it from right to left, so I aim to the right side of the fairway and close my face a little bit at address make sure I stay behind the ball make a good turn and release I like that one too let me go over how I play those two shots first of all the shot from right to left I just face a The golf ball slightly closes the face of the club, aim to the right of the target and take a normal golf swing now with the driver because I'm taking a lot of the loft out of the golf club.

I close the false clubface slightly but let the head drop. slightly behind the ball, which means I will come into the golf ball a little more from the inside with a slightly closed face, but I will hit a little bit on the upswing, so I will still have a little bit of loft in the shot playing from left to right, all I do is open the clubface at address, aim left of the target and take a normal golf swing, which is a simple way to play a golf shot from right to left or left to the right, ah, what an awkward shot, actually it wasn't the shot, although it was uncomfortable, it was the posture, the position in which I left the third hole here at the loxahatchee club has a high fairway, a nice flat ledge here in the top of the hill, it has a transition area the side of the hill where my ball ended up and it has a low fairway, if you can't hit it to the low fairway you have a good chance of ending up on this side of the hill instead of backing up here on the platform. which is a good easy shot so position is a very important thing off the tee get off a side hill come back up here on the flat get to where you can play uh from a nice flat yeah I played six irons down.

Here on the side of the hill, but a very awkward stance made it a very difficult shot here on top of the whole hill. Yes, I have two more suits. Maybe I have to play a four iron on the green, but you know I don't. I don't think it's a big deal, you're going to use the same golf swing with a four iron as you do with a six iron, it's a much easier shot from a flat position, so if I take the tee shot a little bit playing a three wood . or maybe cut a driver, put something up here on the flat, it puts me in a position to be able to play any percentage position on the green, play any type of shot I want to play on the side, he'll lie.

It leaves me in a very uncomfortable situation of being limited to just being able to try to hit the ball solidly and get it somewhere on the green, so the point of what I'm saying here is that position off the tee is very, very key. When playing a hole, think about where you want to hit your tee, think about where you want your ball to end up, choose the club on the tee that will leave you in a position to play a variety of shots to suit any situation, so here we are at about 185 yards playing with a four iron with a much better result than from the side of the hill, think about it on the tee, think about what club you want to play, where you want the ball to end up, play that club to have the easiest one. second shot to the green there are times when we all want to hit the ball further we want to hit the ball lower on a hole to get a shorter shot to the green well there are many times when that is an advantage if I have I have a hole where there really isn't a big risk a very long par four like this hole the ninth hole at loxahatchee is a 431 yard par four.

I can gain something by hitting the ball 20 yards further now if I have a par 5 where I can make it in two, that's an advantage. I could try it there too but I only want to hit the ball hard when there's a lead otherwise I want to make sure I keep it in play so I'm going to go ahead and on this particular hole and take a chance and try to get a little lower because it's definitely An advantage is to hit the ball a little closer to the screen. It is not a large green and one that accepts, obviously, a six or seven iron. better than a three or four iron, okay, now we all want to know the only question: how do you hit it better?

There's only one thing I know and I said: do this, the head of the golf club moves faster, not my arms, not my hands, no. my legs, not everything else, just the head of the club. Now when I do that, I tend to want to swing as fast as I can, so what I'm going to try to do to hit the ball further and make this swing faster is to make sure I use all of my elements in my swing to the max. I want to make as long and full a swing as possible. I want to make sure my legs move to create as much leverage as possible when I release the club. head, the club is coming towards the ball faster and I want to make sure I hit a long finish to keep the club head moving so I never stop the ball or stop the club head in the hitting area, all of these are It's very important, but the natural tendency when you want to hit the ball hard is to swing faster, so I make a very conscious effort to swing slower, so I give myself all the time in the world for all those elements to happen, so that this is the club.

The head can move faster and the volume will go further. I'll show you what I mean. Make sure you are nice and relaxed on the ball. Make sure you are in a comfortable position. Make sure my goal is the same. Make a decision. what I'm going to do and then those first six inches are very important, make sure you take the club back a little bit more slowly and if you do that, I think you'll find that not only are you not going to be able to hit the ball further, but you're also going to control it. better than if you did, if you're just swinging wild, try it when I'm getting ready to tee off in a major championship.

Just like you are preparing to play your first tee shot of any golf tournament, I am just as nervous as you. I want to make sure that that opening tee shot and one of the most important shots of that golf tournament is as good as a tee shot I'm going to play on any other hole. I want to make sure I'm good and relaxed. I want to make sure I get to the tee with enough time to recover. Get ready, decide what kind of shot I'm going to play. Get it into your head that the shot I'm going to play is the correct one for that hole.

Imagine it. I evaluate the situation. Do all those things now, once it's there. I've decided on the right shot over the years. I have found that there are two things in my golf swing that I need to look at. I mean, I always have a tendency to want to be quick on the first tee shot, so I want to do it. I'm sure I take the club back slowly so I can keep a good rhythm, a good timing, a good timing and a good rhythm for that golf swing. Secondly, everyone wants to do it, you always want to see where the ball is going to go, so I have to do it.

I make sure to keep my head still so I'm not looking up and watching where the ball is going to go. If I keep my head still, I make a nice slow backswing. I know the shot I'm going to take and I play. That and my chances of making a good opening shot are pretty good, so here I am, I'm behind the ball, I line it up where I want to go, I get it into my head positively what I want to do with the ball, I walk behind it and I take my stance. parallel, club behind the ball, parallel stance, I know I have the shot in my mind, don't have negative thoughts, have that positive thought of what I want to do, bring the club back slowly and keep your head still and when you start .

Hitting a good tee shot like that gives me confidence and I'm ready to play the rest of the golf course. You need to use your mind before your muscles in every part of golf, but never more than your shots on the green. More than any place is where you make or break your score. I never play a shot if I don't know the exact distance here I am on the fairway I am one, two steps behind sprinkler 157, sprinklers 157 to the center of the green, that means I am 159 yards from the center of the green, the pin is one couple of yards less than that so maybe I have 150,655 yards that's not good enough when I'm playing a tournament I want to be exact I want to know exactly how far away I am I want to know exactly how far the front of that green is to know what club I can get out of my bag to make sure I get it over the front of the green I want to know how far the back of the green is, so I want to make sure I can get a club out of my bag that can't get to the back of the green green.

I want to know how far it is to carry a bunker that may be on the side of the green or a small appendage that goes around the side or how close the pin is to one side to be able to play on the safe side of that hole. I always want to know everything. the information that I have and I can put it on my little computer here and say, okay, I finished with 157 yards, I have 13 yards in front of the flag, that means I have 144, good 8-iron power. More likely you will need a 7 to get to the green or a 6 to get to the center of the green.

An average of six will probably get me into that area, so I'm starting to think about all those things when I'm playing a golf shot. Now how do I do that and how do I prepare for a round of golf? When I go out and play a practice round, I grab a sprinkler like the 157 sprinkler and I take it and write it down on my little scorecard and follow it by grain. Now that I've gone through the years, I've walked a lot, so my pace is pretty precise and when I get to the front of the grain here, I might get to 144 yards and then I might get off the green, the green might be 30 yards long and that It means that if the green is 30 yards long, then I have 187 yards to the back of the green, so I always know my limits.

I write it down and then before the round I'll send my caddie. They usually give us a pin sheet during the tour that says exactly where the pins are, but I usually send my caddy to make sure. and if the pin is 13 yards on the boom of the green 144 13 1357 I know exactly, I know from my little sheet where that bunker is, where the side of the green is where all the problems are, I can do that once I have all my information then I can go to my bag, pick the right club from my bag, figure out what type of shot I need to play, and play it with confidence.

Sometimes, the first time you play a golf course, the sprinkler heads don't have any markings. There are no 150 yard markers and you really have no idea how far you go because most people play on a cart nowadays, you just know they really have no idea you're guessing all the time, so what? Do you have what I call a progression method? Maybe I know what 50 yards is like, maybe I could make it through thepractice or other times I've done that kind of thing and I'll say 50 yards 100. yards 150 yards that looks like 100 just over 150 yards or I could even uh if I'm a hundred yards from the green I could even walk 30 or 40 yards I look back I said well it's 30 yards I have another 30 yards here and another 30 yards I mean I ended up with 90 yards I mean I think you can guess pretty good if you just use your head and you can get pretty close to the right club.

I never try to hit a straight shot, what do I do? I mean, I never try to make a straight shot, well, I'm playing the percentages. I think we all have a tendency to fade or hook the golf ball and I think it's very possible that you take that into account when you play each shot and use it. to your advantage as i'm here on the ninth hole at loxahatchee, i'm looking here for a 150 yard shot, it hits pretty good, cross left to right, so it's just a good seven iron shot. I look at the green, the green is much smaller. in the front or narrower in the front than in the back, it's much wider in the back, so the percentages here are I want to make sure I get the ball at least through the hole or past the hole , so I have the full width of the green to play on I have as much screen behind the hole as I do in front of it and it's not a bad putt coming down the hill, so that's where I want to hit the golf ball, okay?

How am I? I'm going to carry the golf ball well. I feel like I always like to play a little faded if I aim the ball just to the left of the hole. I have a tendency to let the ball drift to the right and particularly left to stop just as it will drift to the right, so I might aim a seven iron 10 or 15 feet to the left of the hole that will still be on the left side. of the green, so if I hit it straight, I'll be there if I get to that little fade and the wind helps a little bit.

I'm going to practically reach the hole. If I fade it too much then I'll only be 10 or 15 feet on the other side of the hole, so I'll always be somewhere around the hole, whether I hit it straight or hit a pretty good air, obviously the only problem is if I hit it straight. I cross and hook it, and the same applies to playing a tie on a hole you're aiming for. to the right of the hole and you have 30 feet to hit it on one side of the hole or the other and uh, or a 30 foot draw will end up only 15 feet from one side of the hole and the other, whereas if you aim straight ball in the hole and you don't know where you're going to hook it or cut it and you move it 30 feet and then you're 30 feet from the hole instead of 15.

So it's a matter of math and percentages. It's a matter of using your head to know which side of the hole you want to play towards which is the safe side of the hole uh always make the club and the air the club of choice and the air to that side of the hole is just common sense and produces best golf scores, we all tend to do it hit the ball from left to right or right to left and we all like to favor that shot and I think that's okay, I mean if you look at this hole here, we've put two flags on the greens, one on the left side of the green one on the right side of the green the obvious situation would say well let's play for the fat of the green and the pin on the left we will hook the ball to the hole the pin on the right will cut the ball the hole always use the fat of the green as the logical place to play from I think it's okay I think it's great in theory but we all can't do that I can do it sometimes sometimes I can't if I'm playing very well and playing from left to right, then I'll continue Go ahead and shoot at the right pin location, but avoid the left pin location.

I'm going to hit the ball into the hole and I'm going to make my air to the right of the hole, so I'm using the grease on the green to lift the grain, so first let's try to get the left pin in with what I call the safe shot, Hit the ball into the hole and let it run toward the center of the hole. green and it's probably five or six bowls a day