Avid Golfer - February Article

Here's my instruction article for the February issue of Avid Golfer.  Learn the best use of your body motion throughout the swing.

Avid Golfer Magazine - February Instruction Article

Anthony Paolucci - PGA Tour Debut

Congratulations to High School Senior Anthony Paolucci for his play this week at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.  In his first PGA TOUR Event Anthony shot 70-71 to make the cut then followed it up with a pair of 72's to finish at 3-under par for the tournament and in a tie for 29th.  If he had been entered as a professional he would have taken home $33,814.  BTW, he finished two shots ahead of former World's Number 1 Tiger Woods.  Not bad for a kid.

Building confidence

Confidence is a fleeting thing. One day you have the next day you don't. Translate to golf, the front 9 it's there the back 9 it isn't.
What I've learned about confidence is that it's directly related to success. Success breeds confidence. The more successful you are at a given subject the more confident you become. Small successes such as hitting the ball over the water, not stubbing chips, hitting more shots solid are examples of small successes. You just have to keep building on them. Do your best to delete all the bad shots and holes. Build on the good ones.
The second part of the equation is to be as positive as you can be. Always attempt to find the good in your golf game. You must continue to accentuate the positive and do what you can to improve the negative. I always ask my students to enjoy their good shots. Hold your finish, watch the ball till it lands, remember what it sounds like. All these sensations are key to replicating a future shot.
In summary, remember that success breeds confidence. Do whatever you can to live off your positive memories.

Importance of Lag Putting

In my opinion, the hardest thing for any golfer, 100 shooter to Tour Pro, is the ability to lag putt consistently. Whether putting a 10 or 40 footer hitting a putt the proper speed is paramount. Going on the premise that most putts are missed outside 10 feet you would like to lag the ball as close to the hole as possible to have a tap in. Tap ins are stress free and allow you to save mental energy for a shot later in the round. The more proficient you become at hitting putts the proper speed you give yourself a better opportunity to make longer putts.
I stress to all my students the importance of practicing lag putting. An effective drill is to putt the the edge of the green. This practice eliminates focusing on direction and puts the emphasis on distance. I challenge you to improve your lag putting. It WILL improve your scores.

Il Hee Lee - LPGA TOUR Player

Attached is a video of a student of mine Il Hee Lee.  2010 was her rookie year on the LPGA TOUR.  She finished 89th on the money and retained her exempt status for 2011.  She's recently made Dallas her U.S. home.
Il Hee has been a student for 4-5 years and has shown tremendous progress with her game.  Her ball striking can continue to improve as well as her putting.  Have a look at her swing from our first session of 2011.  

Northern Texas PGA Seminar

Attended the Northern Texas PGA Section Annual meeting today.  The morning consisted of three separate seminars.  First up was Callaway Golf.  A big part of their research has shown that most golfers hit way too low on the clubface with an iron.  More so than even they suspected.  As a result, they've designed a performance iron with a lower center of gravity which moves the weighting lower and deeper into the back of the club. Additionally, they've strengthen the lofts a bit as well.  From a clubfitting standpoint, some good info when you're looking to improve this mistake.
Next up was Texas PGA Legend Joe Black.  He's a past PGA National President and the former Head Professional at Brookhaven CC in Dallas back in the 80's.  He had Andrew Magee, Scott Verplank and Brian Watts come through his junior programs.  His message was basically that the Golf Pro needs to position himself as the expert and not be shy about spreading the word of his expertise.  He told one story that while the Pro at Brookhaven he positioned his loft and lie bending machine right in the middle of the golf shop.  He and his Assistants would constantly work on member's clubs and draw a crowd while doing so.  Member's would line up to get their loft and lies checked.  Great information about being an expert at your craft and positioning yourself accordingly.
Last was a presentation from a marketing firm called Retail Tribe.  Very professional and hit home on a lot of subjects.  One of their marketing practices is the following:
1.  Inspire -  Customers to visit your outlet.
2.  Engage - With the product.  Pick it up and touch.  Try it out.
3.  Convert - Interest into a sale.
4.  Retain - Loyal customers.  Add value to their experience.
A very motivating and inspiring morning.  Lots of good information to help with teaching, clubfitting and marketing the golf professionals expertise.

Trackman notes of Interest

Having access to a Trackman Launch Monitor is a very useful tool for both clubfitting and teaching.  I've found some very interesting points of interest for my teaching. 

-  A golfer with less than 110 mph of ball speed with their 6 iron has no need to play a 3-iron.  The reasoning is that this type of golfer can't create sufficient speed to keep a 3-iron in the air to benefit carrying in his or her bag.  A more useful club would be a lofted fairway wood or hybrid in the 24 degree range.

-  The swing path into impact of a typical PGA TOUR player is no more than 1.5 degrees from inside the target line to 1 degree outside the target line.  This is a tight range but further shows why they maximize their contact, carry distance, trajectory and control of distance. 

- On the PGA TOUR, the difference between the clubface angle at impact and the path angle at impact is usually no more than 1 degree.  This stat explains why most of the shots they hit are fairly straight.  Another stat that's interesting is with their drivers, swinging in the 115-120mph range, it only takes the club face to be open or closed 3 degrees to send the ball out of the fairway.  Not much room for error at higher speeds. 

-  One last stat.  The Trackman supports that up to 90% of the initial direction of the ball off the club is created by the clubface.  The path plays a part, but a small one.  Keep this in mind the next time the ball is curving too much for your liking.  When you get the clubface more square at impact you minimize the curvature. 

You Tube Channel

I've created a You Tube Channel for my instructional and swing analysis videos.  My goal is to continually upload different video clips of my students as I do their analysis.  I'll also post some videos on certain subjects in golf. 
To view my channel go to http://www.youtube.com/.  Once you've reached the site search timcusickgolf.  This will pull up my site.  I would ask that you subscribe, no charge, to my site and then friend it.  Thanks in advance for having a look.

A Dusting on Lord Byron

The snow has returned in Dallas, Texas today.  Presently have about 2 inches on the ground at the Four Seasons.  Yesterday it was sunny and 58 degrees and now snow on the ground.  Probably will stick around for a few days as the high temperatures are supposed not get above freezing till Tuesday afternoon.
Having grown up in Rochester, New York this would be nothing but in Dallas the city shuts down.  Don't mind the two day break but I'll be happy when it's back to the 50's and sunny.
Glad to get it out of the way now so we hopefully have decent weather for our big Super Bowl Week coming up the first part of February.

Avid Golfer - January Instruction Article

Here's my instruction article for January.  The three areas that most all golfers struggle with on the golf course.  Improve these areas and your scores will get lower.

January article - Avid Golfer

PGA TOUR - 2011

The PGA TOUR starts its 2011 season tomorrow on the island of Maui for the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.  The field is comprised of tournament winners from the 2010 season.  Although the field will be missing a number of Top 10 players on the World Rankings list it's always good to watch golf on Maui when most of the world is freezing.  The other nice feature of this tournament is that it's prime time television due to the time difference. 
There's certainly many questions to ask of the Tour as the seasons starts.  The biggest is what game and state of mind does Tiger bring to the Tour?  We'll find out probably the end of January at Torrey Pines.  Lots of young players stepped forward last year.  Will Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Hunter Mahan, etc.. continue their rise?  Will the European young guns like Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy become Major winners.  Will major winners Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell and Luis Oosthuizen emerge to challenge for all four majors? 
Lots of talent and questions are present for the start of the year.  Should be very interesting how the young battle against the experienced.  Ultimately the Tour and TV will need Tiger to regain his winning ways to satsify the financial side of things. 
I'll have my seat in front of the tube tomorrow night to check it all out.  Looking forward to it.

Short Game Case Study

Was working with a long time student late last week on his short game. He had a tendency to hit too much with his hands and not use enough of his body to turn through. As a result he would hit a fair number of shots fat.
I got out my new teaching aid I'm endorsing called the Tempo Teacher and used it to help minimize the hand action and maximize the body motion. After just a few shots he started hitting crisp wedges with nice backspin.
The Tempo Teacher guides you through the downswing and into impact with your lower body leading the way. Once I took the device off, the feeling still remained for my student.
I'm not a big user of teaching aids but the TempoTeacher really has helped me get students to synch up their hands, arms, club and body. Check out www.tempoteacher.com for more information and a series of videos on it's usage.