Bobby Eldridge Golf

I know many of you love to use practice drills that will enable you to FEEL the correct way of making a change.  I have used this drill not only for my teaching but I have also used it myself over the years.  

Keep one thing in mind.  When you hit a shot to the right you either hit the ground behind it OR you catch the ball on the upswing and hit it thin or topped.  The reason you hit it thin is because the golf club is traveling too far from the INSIDE and is headed OUTSIDE. 

When you swing the golf club on an arc it travels from INSIDE to SQUARE (at impact) back to the INSIDE on the follow through.  The other thing you have to keep in mind is the flatter the club face the less divot you will have.  When you hit a thin 4 iron (it hurts) you will never see a divot unless you hit the ground behind the ball. 

Now, on to the drill.  Grab a 7 iron and lay two straight edges on the ground, (one for the target and one for your body line).  Lay a towel on the ground about 12 inches behind the ball. When you swing the club back make sure you miss the towel in the backswing and in the downswing. 

Another way to think of it is the golf club has to swing UP in the backswing and DOWN in the downswing.  When you hit it thin you swing to much UP in the downswing.  Start with a 9 iron and progress through your set of clubs.

Tags: Bunker Shots, Chipping, Fairway woods/Hybrids, Full Swing, Golf Instruction, Green Side Bunkers, Hybrids, LOB Wedge, Perfect Golf Swing Drills, Pitching, Short game, Solid Iron Shots, Trouble Shots, Wedges by admin
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I am going to put a really different twist on why you struggle with your long fairway clubs-woods or hybrids.  The club in your bag that imparts the most backspin is highest lofted wedge (LOB, sand or pitching).  The club in your bag that imparts the most side spin is your driver. 

The reason we tee a driver up is to accomodate the loft.  If your driver has 10 degrees of loft and you tee it up, the effective loft on your driver has about 15 degrees of loft.  If you didn’t tee it up the effective loft would be about 5 degrees.

Has the light come on?  When you take a 15-20 degree fairway wood/hybrid and try and hit it off of the fairway it becomes a very difficult shot, even at our level of ability.  On top of that if you are trying to hit it off of a tight lie things can really get ugly.

The most common mistake is to hit tops to the right or ground behind the ball.  The reason is simple-you are swinging the club to SHALLOW…another weird golf word.  When the club head reaches the bottom of the arc the sole is swinging too level to the ground.

You have to have a bit more of a STEEP angle in the downswing.  The best way to practice this shot is to lay a towel 8-10 inches directly behind the ball and practice missing the towel in the backswing and downswing.  If you miss the towel the club head has to swing DOWN into the bottom of the ball and not UP on the ball.

Tags: Fairway woods/Hybrids, Full Swing, Hybrids by admin
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I will give you three guesses as to why you continue to hit your iron shots weak, and the first two don’t count.  The face is OPEN at impact.  Over and done with.  Now the 10 million dollar question is WHY is open???

Now, there are 15 reasons why the face might return open but I am going to give you the most common reason why.  Well there are really two reasons why but they work hand in hand.

The face is open and the path is from OUT-TO-IN.  The combination is the thing that is the killer.  It would be one thing to just leave the face open but no, you have to go ahead and swing from out to in and that imparts even more left to right (side/backspin) on the ball.

Now let’s fix it.  The first thing you have to do is make sure your shoulders are square to feet line.  If your shoulders are aimed to the left the club is going to swing OUT-TO-IN.  The second thing you have to do after you square your shoulders is to make sure you can see two or three knuckles of the left hand. 

The reason you have to see two or three knuckles of the left hand is to make sure the club face closes BEFORE impact.  If the club face is closing in the downswing you will begin to see shots that fly straigh with power and not weak to the right.

Tags: Full Swing, Solid Iron Shots by admin
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IMPORTANT UPDATE: I’m excited to announce my new Golf Video Download site over at igolffixes.com. I recommend you take a look at my new High Trouble Shot Over Trees Module in the new Trouble Shots section of the site.

YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO!!!

The lesson today is going to pay off before you know it. When your tee shot winds up in the rough and you have to hit the next shot over some trees, there are two reasons why you struggle.

You have a shot of 220 yards left to the green. You see an opening in a tree that is just big enough to squeeze a golf ball through it, you pull out your three wood (never checking the lie first) thinking you can hit it straight up in the air 70 feet high, through the opening, slicing it around the lake in front of the green and land it next to the pin. THAT IS THE FIRST REASON YOU STRUGGLE. Thinking like that is what probably got you here in the first place.

Problem number two is proper technique. If you have the proper technique you can get more out of your shots when you are in trouble. Two secrets you have to remember when you want the golf ball to go up. You have to use a lofted club and number two you have to hit down on the ball for it to go up. Three woods from deep rough do not go up over trees-not even for Tiger Woods.

Here we go with today’s lesson for hitting high shots over trees. First things first. You must analyze your situation and see if there is another way out. Going up has its risks. If you can pitch out sideways with a clear shot to the green or down the fairway, you have to give it some serious thought.

Once you have decided to go over the trees, you have to make sure you take MORE than enough loft. Trouble first, distance second. Do you get it? You have to make sure you can EASILY clear the trees or other obstacles in the way and then worry about how far you can hit the shot.

Let there be no misunderstanding. You CAN hit a high 7 iron, you can even hit a high 6 or 5 iron, the lie has to perfect and the technique has to be flawless.

#1 Take more than enough loft for the shot

#2 Place the golf ball slightly forward of your normal ball position for the club you are using

#3 Place 60% of your weight on your left side, and stay there during the swing

#4 Swing the arms UP and DOWN

#5 Follow through low

#6 This is not a pretty swing it is a functional one

#7 The tendency for ALL golfers is to LIFT the shot in the air. You will hit the middle of the trees EVERY TIME

#8 Lastly, don’t be greedy. Make sure you get OVER the trees first

Join me tomorrow for a continuation of backspin.

Golfingly yours,

Bobby

Tags: Full Swing, Solid Iron Shots, Trouble Shots by admin
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Stop hitting the ground behind your iron shots.

When it comes to hitting iron shots off of the ground there is one mishit that is a killer.  Hitting the ground behind the golf ball is one of the most no-nothing shot in golf.   They are painful physically and emotionally.  The sting you get when you clunk the ground with a five can be felt three days later.  I know… enough already let’s get on with the lesson on how to correct the mishit.

First I want to explain why you do it and then I am going to tell you how to correct it.  When you swing a golf club away from the golf ball you have to swing it back and up on an arc.  If you swing the golf club too much outside in the backswing it will return too steep in the downswing.  When the golf club arrives too steep in the downswing you will contact the top of the ball or hit a fat shot to the left.  THIS IS NOT YOUR MISTAKE. 

Your mistake is quite the opposite.  You swing the golf club too much from the inside in the downswing.  Your club is what we refer to as being inside the path heading to the outside.  The golf club is swinging too close to you in the downswing and after it makes contact with the ground it swings too much away from you.  That is where the term in-to-out comes from.

Now it’s time for the correction. 

#1 Check your ball position.  Often times when golfers hit the ground behind the golf ball they address the ball too far back in there stance.  One of the ways to make contact is to swing the club from the inside too much.  It is kind of a double edge sword. 

#2 Make sure your shoulders are not aimed miles to the right.  The club has a tendency to swing along your shoulder line.

#3 This is the best kept secret in the world.  The golf club not only swings back on an arc behind the ball it also must swing around on an arc after contact.  After the club makes contact it can either swing too much to the right (your mistake), too straight towards the hole or left of the hole on an arc around you.

#4 The next time out I have a great remedy for you.  As you address the golf ball, aim it at the target.  The next time you look up-look left of the target (bunker left of the green).  Your aimed at the target but you are looking left of the target and THINKING left.  After impact make sure the clubhead swings around on an arc and not out to the right.

Join me tomorrow with some more backspin secrets.

Golfingly yours,

Bobby

Tags: Full Swing, Golf Instruction, Solid Iron Shots by admin
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GET A GRIP ON YOUR TEE SHOTS…

When you are hooking your driver the one thing you have to keep in mind is the clubface is CLOSED at impact.  That is what a hook is, a golf ball with right to left spin on it.  During this lesson you can not loose focus of what we are trying to accomplish.  There are at least 10 reasons why you hook a tee shot.  Today we are going to focus on two of them and yes they are related.  GRIP and GRIP PRESSURE.

You have heard me say this before “the grip is the steering wheel of the golf swing”.  It is the only part of your body that touches the club and it plays a hugh roll in what the clubface does throughout the entire swing.  Not degress but let’s spend some time talking about how to grip the club correctly.

#1.  The grip should feel like you have the club more in the fingers/palm of the left hand.  The club rests against the bottom of the thumb.  As you grip the club with the right hand it will naturally feel as thou you grip it more with the fingers and less with the palm.  The bottom of the right thumb should cover the left thumb. 

#2.  Now let’s move on to what the grip should look like when you look down at it.  When Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods look down they see the top of one knuckle of the left hand.  The reason for this grip is to make sure the clubface is square at impact.  The speed of their swing has the club head arriving at the golf ball quicker than you and I.  However, if you are hooking your tee shots your grip should look more like theirs.  There is one huge problem.  When I teach slicers most of the time I have them move their grip further to the right.  They fall in love with me in three swings.  When you take a slicer and move their grip, it is usually the first time in their life that the clubface returns square.  On the other hand: when I teach golfers who hook the golf ball I have to move their grip to the LEFT and they DO NOT fallen in love with me immediately.  For that matter it might take a few months.  The reason is simple, comfort.  When you move your grip from the right to the left it feels as thou you can’t even swing the golf club back away from the golf ball.

 #2.  With that being said then next step is vitally important.  The palms MUST face each other.  You can not have the left hand over to the left and the right hand over to the right.  When you look down you have to see no more than one knuckle of the left hand and then you have to place the right hand on the golf club matching the palm of the left.  This is VERY uncomfortable for some time.  It will work, I guarantee it.

#3.  I have a theory, if it works I don’t care how uncomfortable I am, as long as it works.  Let’s get right into the second reason.  Grip pressure.  For those of you that hook the golf ball keep this in mind.  You are probably gripping the club in your left hand to LIGHLTY.  I want you to grip the left hand twice as tight as you normally do.  When you grip the club tighter in the left hand you will slow the toe down in the downswing and the golf ball will fly straighter. 

There you have it.  Weaken your grip and hold on tighter with the left.  As soon as you stop the hook you start drawing the golf ball. 

Join me tomorrow with a lesson on fat iron shots.

Golfingly yours,

Bobby

Tags: Driver, Full Swing, Hooking by admin
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Secrets to Backspin

Secret #9 

Today I am going to spend some time on course management and how that relates to backspin.  The pin placement plays a huge roll in whether or not you want to hit a spinning shot or not.

You have to be sure there is plenty of room in front of the pin as well as behind the pin.  If you are attempting a spinning shot that takes two hops stops and either stops or backs up 10 feet, you have to make sure you have room on both sides of the pin for error.

If you a shot that you think is spinning and it doesn’t, you can wind up over the back of the green in a bunker, water or poor lie.  On the other hand if you hit a spinner and it spins too much you can wind up in a pond in front of the green.  Some of the greens today have false fronts and it does not take much for a ball to back up and roll all the way off of the front of the green.

Another thing to keep in mind is how you stand in the match you are playing.  Maybe you don’t have to risk a spinning shot.  A shot that lands in the center of the green softly and rolls a few feet might get the job done.  You can take a high risk backspin shot out of the equation. 

I want to touch on one more idea.  How you are hitting the ball on that particular day is paramount.  If you are making solid contact, then go for it.  See if you can pull it off.  However if you are not making solid contact the backspin shot becomes a very risky shot. 

These are a couple of things to think about when you are trying to decide if you want to hit a shot that has some backspin on it.  As you know by now there are some other factors that come into play from time to time when you are trying to decide what shot to hit.  Make sure you consider the ones in today’s blog.

Feel free to join my tomorrow for a lesson on how to stop double hitting your wedge shots.  If you want to contact me just hit the Contact Bobby tab above.

Golfingly yours,

Bobby

Tags: Full Swing, Golf Instruction, Pitching, Solid Iron Shots, Wedges by admin
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THIS IS HOW TO LET IT GO!!!

The lesson today is titled “Releasing the Golf Club in the Downswing”.  I was tempted to call it “You CAN NOT Release the Golf Club in the Downswing unless you are in the Correct Position at the top of the Backswing”.   I thought it was a bit long.

I know many of you have struggled over the years with releasing the golf club.  Furthermore I know how frustrated you are reading all of the articles that have been written on the subject.  The problem is simple.  You can not release the golf club if you are not on the correct plane at the top of the backswing. 

If you are not on plane and you do release it you will swing the club either into the ground or on the top of the golf ball.  The lesson I am going to share with you today is going to explain how you can release the golf club into the BACK of the golf ball.

Most of you don’t have to worry about turning too much in the backswing.  However if you do turn too much in the backswing when you release the club in the downswing you will swing over the top of the ball.

Let me tell you exactly how you can teach yourself the correct way to turn in the backswing.  If you are lucky enough to have a small slope on your practice facility you are in business.  I will give you a visual of what the slope should look like and how to use it.  When you address the golf ball on the slope it should be above your feet.  The ideal lie would be where the golf ball was between your ankles and your knees.  DO NOT USE A SLOPE THAT IS BELOW YOUR FEET. 

Once you have addressed the golf ball make sure you sit back on your heels slightly.  From this lie you will develop the feel of turning in the backswing.  As soon as you start the golf club back the right shoulder will turn out of the way and your arms will swing up.  This is what we refer to as staying on plane in the backswing. 

The first 25 shots will feel odd; you might top a few or hit the ground behind some of them.  Give it time and you will begin to see the results. 

If you don’t have a slope to hit from I have another idea.  Address the golf ball and then lift the club head off of the ground three or four inches.  From this position you can simple turn and swing the arms up. 

Isn’t it funny that I haven’t mentioned the release very much?  The reason is simple.  If you get yourself in the correct position at the top of the backswing most of the time the release happens naturally.   

Don’t forget if you have any questions feel free to contact me by opening the Contact Bobby tab.  Come back tomorrow and I will have the continuation lesson on backspin.

Golfingly yours,

Bobby

Tags: Driver, Full Swing, Golf Instruction, Solid Iron Shots by admin
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Secrets to Backspin

Secret #6-#7-#8 

From the beginning the next three steps may not appear to be related.  However by the time you finish this blog you will see how they tie together.  When you combine the firmness of a green, how windy the conditions are and if you used a tee or not they will make sense.

Putting green surfaces have to be the most inconsistent part of the playing conditions in golf.  I am referring to how firm or soft they are.  Obviously if it pours the night before you play they are going to be pretty consistent.  On the other hand if it hasn’t rained in a month and the greens have to depend on the watering system to keep them alive they begin to live up to their own uniqueness.    

For example, if a green faces the sun at high noon versus a green that sits in the trees and faces the west you are going to see a big difference in the two.  This will play a huge roll in whether or not you can spin a ball on the green facing the noon sun.  Usually a green that sits in the trees and faces the west is going to get less sun light to dry it out.  As a matter of fact this is where it gets a bit complicated.  The green might be softer but it won’t grow as much grass so it is faster than most of the other greens. 

On a hot and dry day the greens are going to firm up and they will not accept a spinning golf shot.  When the golf ball lands on a dry green there is not enough traction to grab the ball and help it spin backwards.  The ball will take one big hop forward, lose its backspin and then roll to the back of the green. 

Now let’s move on to windy conditions.  Wind plays two rolls that affect backspin.  The windier the conditions the dryer the greens become.  The combination of a hot and windy day can play havoc on the greens.  The greens not only become bone dry they also become crispy to putt on.  The putting surface is mowed so low that once they dry out it makes scoring very difficult. 

The second role the wind plays in backspin is the impact it has on the golf ball.  If you are hitting a shot into the wind it exaggerates the spin on the golf ball.  (As long as we are at it I might as well tell you this.  It not only affects the backspin it has a tremendous affect on sidespin.   Any shot that has left to right or right to left curve on it will get out of control quickly in windy conditions.)  The key to hitting shots into the wind is simple.  The HARDER you hit it the more it will spin backwards.  If you really go after a pitching wedge into the wind (the higher it will fly-more backspin) not necessarily further.  Keep this in mind.  If you have a shot into the wind you might be better off using one club more so it won’t spin backwards as much.

Hitting shots downwind is pretty straight forward (no pun intended).  There are two things you can’t do to a golf ball downwind.  #1 You can create much backspin.  #2 You can’t curve the ball left to right or right to left very much.  You can try all you want but you are not going to back up a golf ball downwind. UNLESS…the green is soaking wet or you are VERY, VERY talented.

Let’s move on to a teed up shot.  If you tee the golf ball up just right, you can create a spinning iron shot.  If it is teed to high it will be more of a dead shot.  For the golf ball to spin you have to catch the ball in the center of the clubface, if you catch it to high there isn’t enough force to create backspin.  If you tee it just above the grass the club head will hit the ball clean and you won’t have any grass between the ball and clubface. 

At the beginning I told you secrets #6-#7-#8 are tied together.  Any combination can result in a ball with backspin.  However if you tee up a ball on a par three, into the wind doesn’t always result in backspin when it lands on a hard green.

Join me tomorrow for a lesson on releasing the club in the downswing.

Golfingly yours,

Bobby

Tags: Full Swing, Golf Instruction, Solid Iron Shots, Wedges by admin
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Secrets to Backspin

Secret #4-#5 

The next two secrets pertain to the conditions you are faced with.  Although they go hand in hand I want to keep them separate for the time being.  Not all greens are flat.  Not in Kansas, West Texas or Arizona.  Some have more slopes than others and there is one thing you have to keep in mind. MOST greens are designed with drainage in mind and most greens drain towards the front of the green.   

The nature of our sport is that greens have to accept shots that are hit to it.  In other words our game would be much more difficult if the greens were built high in the front and they sloped away from you (low in the back).  Ninety-five percent of all greens are low in the front and high in the back. 

That in itself is one of the 16 reasons you see shots on TV back up on the green.  With that being said you have to remember this:  the entire green isn’t always low in the front and high in the back.  Some greens have areas where they are designed to fall towards the back part of the green.  Sometimes you will see one ball land and stop and the very next shot will land three feet away from the first shot and back up off of the green. 

Some putting surfaces have so much undulation in them that two inches can make the difference between a shot that takes one hop and spins back off of the green or one hop and jumps over the back part of the green.  Most of the time were happy when our ball ends up anywhere on the green.  The tour professionals play at such a high level they have the ability to land a ball within a two or three foot area.

Let’s move on to the next secret, the speed of the greens.  This one is not rocket science.  If a golf ball lands on a green that is mowed really low 7-8.5 on the Stimpmeter, the golf ball is going to spin backwards more than if it lands on a green that is 4.5 on the Stimpmeter.  (The Stimpmeter is a device used to measure the speed of golf course putting surfaces.  During the U.S. Open the greens can run 10.5 on the meter.  I don’t care if Seve, Lee Trevino or Tiger hit a shot into a green that 4.5 it is NOT going to spin backwards. 

We have a long way to go for you to wrap your arms around the whole spin picture but at least you can start figuring out what happens when you hit a shot and it doesn’t spin backwards 20 feet.  Five down and 11 to go.

Come back tomorrow and I will have a lesson on why you hit thin BUNKER shots.

Golfingly yours,

Bobby

Tags: Full Swing, Golf Instruction, Pitching, Solid Iron Shots, Wedges by admin
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