Relax

Breathe in, breathe out.  Don't freak out.

One common thing I see in many golfers is the inability to relax.  In order for our muscles to work most effectively, as any athlete will tell you, we must relax.

Look at any sprinter, gymnast, or swimmer while they are competing.  You will see them shaking their arms and shoulders, stretching their muscles, and doing anything to shake out any stress or tension they have.

You will also see things like this with professional golfers, some will waggle the club or pull up their left sleeve before they step in to hit the ball. 

Tension in the muscles anatomically shortens our muscles which in golf can lead to disasters.  Think about the golf swing as a rubber band.  When we turn back to strike a golf shot we are pulling the rubber band, and as we return back to the ball we are releasing the rubber band.  If we slowly release the rubber band rather than just letting go, the snap back to its normal shape will not have the same force.  For those of you who want to increase distance, and make solid contact this is of the utmost importance.

I realize that most of us are not finely tuned athletes, golfers, gymnasts, or swimmers.  However I do believe that the best thought when doing athletic things is no thought, the second best thought is to prime ourselves for action by relaxing first. 

In your next round of golf even if you only have time for 9 holes or even 3 holes,  I challenge you to let yourself relax on each shot. 

If you are having a difficult time relaxing, imagine warm liquid wax flowing through you.

3 ways to Create Clubhead Speed and More Power

What is one thing that almost all golfers, old and young, small and large want in their game? The answer is more distance and increased consistency in their particular game.

I am going to talk about 5 ways to create more distance that all golfers can use to create speed and power, 3 of which can be done without being too drastic.

1. Use the ground.  Stand tall and relaxed at set-up.  Once you reach the top of the swing, sit your butt down and flex your knees and rotate your entire body toward the target aggressively.  This will require some timing but can immediately increase distance assuming solid contact.
2. Learn to hit up on the ball with driver.  You can do this by increasing right side bend by having the left shoulder higher.  Play the ball off the left heel and feel as though you stay behind the ball like a great home run hitter in baseball.
3. Crack the whip.  Relax as much as possible. Our muscles fire the fastest when they are relaxed but ready.  Think Michael Phelps shaking his arms before he jumps in the pool or Steph Curry shaking his right arm before a free throw.  They are simply shaking out the tension so their muscles are in a peak performance state.  In order to achieve this on the golf course, feel as though warm wax is flowing through your body as you swing the club but right before impact by releasing that potential energy you created from relaxing, you can crack the whip and release all that energy into the golf ball.

Check out this video of Fred Couples in the 2017 US Senior Open.  He is one of the best at relaxing and cracking the whip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZkV8YHSZLM

Pop It Like Snedeker and Henley

Two of the best putters on the PGA Tour over the last 5 years have been Brandt Snedeker and Russell Henley. Both are multiple winners on tour and Snedeker even has a Fed-Ex Cup title to his name. What do these two have in common? They both have old fashioned pop style strokes, featuring a quick rhythm and when the putter strikes the ball, it makes a  nice noise where you can actually here the strike.

Amateurs who struggle with speed especially leaving the ball short of the cup, will do well to copy these two on the greens.

Drill: Drop 3 balls about 10 feet from the cup with a putt that breaks slightly. Take a couple tees and place 1 tee on the line behind the ball so you will need to shorten your stroke so as to not hit the tee on your backswing. Strike the putt and make a pop stroke like Snedeker and Henley on the ball to get it rolling forward. You will notice the ball will start on line and the putter head will come through impact more square and the strike will feel more solid. It is easier to manipulate the face when the putter has more space to travel to get back to the ball.

Check it out here:
https://youtu.be/Bwk2rsEuyZg

Five Quick Tips Before Playing Golf after 4-6 Months Off

1. Check Your Grips & Your Grip
2. Become Athletic, Relaxed Athleticism
3. Check Your Expectations at the 1st Tee.
4. Simply Enjoy Being Outside 
5. Don't Get Too High on a Good Start or a Bad Start

• Check your grips because if they are old and worn down, this will affect how tightly you hold the club. Gripping the club too tightly introduces tension, which is a killer to any golfer.  If you do not have time to put new grips on, wash them with warm, soapy water for the short term. 

Check your grip on the golf club to make sure you can see 2 knuckles on your left hand (right handed player) and make sure the right hand "v" points up to chin (illustration below).

• As any athlete will tell you, they tend to perform their best when they are relaxed but ready for anything.  If they are ready and relaxed they can more clearly react to whatever comes their way. This is exactly what the early season golfer should do, simply react to shots. Don't think technically just try and produce a shot.  If you succeed great, if you fail great.  Learn from what worked and what didn't and leave it at that.

• Checking expectations at the 1st tee is great for any player, early or late in the season.  It is especially important early in the season as many of us will be rusty that we cut ourselves some slack.

• To follow up on checking expectations, a great way to have lower or preferably zero expectation is to simply enjoy being outside on a nice day!

• Last but not least, stay even keel.  A great start to the season is a nice positive way to begin and can be a momentum builder but it can also cause raised expectations.  On the flip side, a bad start is not the end of the world either.  

Happy May Day! 

Kevin Trobaugh, PGA Apprentice at Des Moines Golf & CC

Ranting About the Rules of Golf

As far as I am concerned on Sunday, Lexi Thompson won the ANA Inspiration Tournament at Mission Hills CC in Rancho Mirage, CA.  She receieved a 4 stroke penalty after her 12th hole on Sunday.  From the previous day's round for failing to replace her ball correctly after marking it on the green.  Clearly if you watch the video, Lexi Thompson certainly did not play the ball from the correct place.  She moved the ball a quarter inch to the left as she marked her ball back on the green to clean up a 2 foot putt she had on the 17th hole Saturday.  

How did she get the penalty?  From a fan, a viewer at home who paused and rewound the video.  The governing body of golf allows for spectators and fans to call in if they see any possible rule infractions or discrepancies.  

Why did she receive 4 strokes?  Lexi received 2 strokes for mismarking her ball and 2 strokes for signing an incorrect scorecard. 

As I said, she definitely moved her ball a fraction of an inch to the left.  It is unfortunate that it happened and she handled it like a true champion making 2 birdies in her last 6 holes to still force a playoff before losing on the first playoff hole to So Yeon Ryu.  Had Lexi received the penalty by the end of the day Saturday, I would have no problem with her receiving a penalty of 2 strokes for strokes.  However, the additional 2 strokes for signing an incorrect scorecard is not fair to the game. Getting penalized on top for signing an "incorrect scorecard".  

These types of rules are where golf needs to make big strides in simplifying the rules of the game.  They have started to with the new rule changes for 2018 and many of those are great.  The next step is to attack this issue of having armchair rules officials being able to affect golf tournaments. My suggestion would be if by the end of the day a rules infraction is found then penalties can be added.  If not, than you CANNOT go back and add penalties the next day, week, or month.  In reality golf is the only sport affected by fans being able to call in.  

It may just take a bit of out of the box thinking in order to keep these types of disasters from happening.  The integrity of the game was not compromised by Lexi.  She gained no advantage for what she did even though it was incorrect.  Her lie was not improved at all.  As Rickie Fowler said outside influence needs to end, if the tour wants to have someone manning a camera on each green looking for these things, fine.  But fans should not be allowed to have a direct affect on outcome. 

The Data on Breaking Barriers & Parallels of Self-Awareness in Golf and Business

How do I break 100, 90, 80, 70, 60?  By going through understanding progressions mentally and physically.  Breaking barriers is basically all mental once you understand what is physically needed to do so.  Please look forward to posts and videos about our mental state and strategies on the golf course!  What I want to talk about is the actual data behind breaking barriers, why they get broken.  Now I have a lot to learn and a lot of knowledge and understanding to gain, but through learning from smarter individuals than myself, I have come to an understanding of the numbers of how and why certain barriers are broken.

The key to breaking scoring barriers or thresholds is very simple.  Improve your bad shots.  As Ben Hogan says, "golf is a game of misses, you are only as good as your misses."

No matter your skill in the game all players who shoot a good round for their skill level all have one thing in common; their bad shots are better than normal.  What do I mean by that? For a tour player who shoots a round of 64 or 65, their bad shot hits the green 25-30 feet from the pin and they two-putt par. On the flip-side, a tour player who shoots a round of 74 or 75,  rather than hitting the green to 25-30 feet, their miss ends up in a bunker or in a tricky spot.

Why is this true? Let's take look at some simple stats and scenarios of a tour player and a bogey golfer.

The 100th ranked player on tour from will 2 putt or better 91% of the time on average from >25 feet and the 100th ranked player will make about 7% from 25-30 feet.  Quick mental math means that tour players only 3 putt 2% of the time from >25 feet.  So simply if a tour player can get on THE GREEN his chances of making par or better are high.  IF the player misses the green for his bad shot rather than hitting it to 25-30 feet, his chances of making par or better go down and his bogey percentage goes up.  A quick stat shows that the 100th ranked player on tour has a 60% scrambling percentage or they will get up and down 60% of the time.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, let's think of a bogey golfer.  This is the player who on a good round may shoot 85 but during a bad round on a tougher golf course than they may be used to, will struggle to break 100.  For a bogey golfer it can bit more volatile because golfers struggle in different areas, HOWEVER, most bogey golfers who play the correct tee boxes for their driver distance give away strokes within 125 yards.  Although many bogey golfers struggle in this area, they may struggle with slicing the ball, inconsistent contact, lack of distance, etc.

This is where understanding your game comes into play.  It takes self-awareness of your game to know what your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are.  Just like an entrepreneur who is building a business, they must be self-aware and perform a SWOT analysis.  Please, be honest with yourself.  Maybe you absolutely suck at bunker shots (Look for my video on bunker shots soon!). If that is the case, the way I see it you have two choices: either avoid that weakness as much as possible or adapt and learn to play from the beach.  Maybe you have a great idea for an app, but you don't know to develop and build it.  Again, the way I see it is that you have two choices: learn how to build an app or find a product developer who can do it for you. If you can't do it internally yourself, you may need to go external and hire or partner with someone who can.

Either way it takes self-awareness and an honest understanding of where we need to improve in order to break scoring barriers. 100% the point I am trying to make is that the bad needs to be better in order to break scoring barriers whether you are a tour player, a bogey golfer, an aspiring entrepreneur, or a successful business.

Please, please, PLEASE if you want to learn how to break scoring barriers, please contact me. 😊

Take a look at this data. This table shows the importance of better bad shots because simply getting on the green or fringe improves scoring for all players regardless of scoring ability.

The King

Are you a member of Arnie's Army? Who exactly was Mr. Arnold Palmer?

Yes he was a hall of fame golfer with an impressive résumé. A 7 time major champion, 3 Masters, 62 professional wins, successful businessman, a member of the Great Triumvirate, and a cool, refreshing drink to his name. Everyone recognizes that famous colorful umbrella.  Mr. Palmer along with Jack Nicklaus was also instrumental in the starting of the Golf Channel and the PGA Tour which helped shape the PGA Tour over the next 40+ years.

Mr. Palmer was also a man of extreme character. He was known to make everyone around him feel important and loved and he did it with a twinkle in his eye. He has said many times that he is grateful for fans that gave him everything because without them, he would have had nothing.

He was a trendsetter. He was the type of man who would take the time and write handwritten letters to players, especially those young in their careers after they achieved something. He even was his own pilot, flying to his tournaments, before it was popular to travel that way. He was aggressive, go for broke, and fearless. He lives by the repeating the "Hit it hard and find it" method.

He is old school. If you are around Mr. Palmer it is best to be clean shaven and take your hat off in the clubhouse. If you have a scruffy beard, he may ask if you missed a meeting this morning?

"What meeting Mr. Palmer?"
"The meeting with Mr. Gillette in the bathroom."

I never actually talked to the man, but I the first time I saw him was at the 3M Championship in MN, around the age of 8 and even as young as I was, I noticed that he had a different aura about him.

If we can so much as adopt a few of Arnold Palmer's characteristics, the world will be a better place.

Arnold Palmer was the embodiment of the Great American Dream, during the Great Depression, growing up through wars and tragedy. Palmer grew up in a working class family in Latrobe, PA where his father was both Pro and Superintendent at Latrobe CC. Palmer was taught to work hard by his father, to love people and to be happy by his mother.

After joining the military for 3 years, Palmer began his golf career and from there, the rest is history.

After his playing career, he began his he gave some of his good fortune back to the people. In 2009, he won the Congressional Medal unanimously. Some have said that it may be the only unanimous vote in the history of the Democratic and Republican parties.

The King's legacy will be etched into history with the greats that lived before him.

I am a member of Arnie's Army.

We are members Of Arnie's Army.

Long live Mr. Arnold Palmer, The King.

#ArnieWould