vol. 3, number 7

In This Issue

Game Improvement Golf Newsletter

Information to improve your golf game (August 2013)

Thanks Bobby Dean and Edel Golf!

Many of you may know that Sir Nick Faldo is now part owner of Edel Golf because of his belief in the Edel products. Because of this Edel Golf is growing in sales of their putters, wedges, and irons.

I believe that Edel putters and wedges are the best short game clubs golfers can buy. I have personal testimonies from a number of players who have dropped their handicaps by 2 to 4 strokes when they put these clubs in their bags. I personally play them and my short game is far better than it ever has been.

I am delighted that I will continue to be an Edel putter and wedge fitter. But unfortunately, because of the growth of sales of Edel clubs and the fact that my sales have not kept pace, I will be returning the full Edel putter and wedge fitting systems that I have. Bobby Dean has assured me that when I have groups of golfers who want to be fitted in Edel putters, he will send me his personal full fitting system to use. And I will have a group of right and left handed Edel fitting wedges to continue to use in fittings.

If any of you reading this have been thinking of being fit for an Edel putter or wedges, let me know within the next few days and I can accomodate you by the end of next week. You will be getting the best for your game.

Thanks to Bobby Dean of Edel Golf for all of the help and training he has provided to me in the past year. I learned a huge amount about putter fitting from him, and I am grateful for that. He and Edel Golf are a class act, and I know all of you will be hearing more about them in the future. I look forward to continuing to offer Edel putters and wedges to you to help you play your best golf!

Bifocal Eyeglasses and Golf Performance

When my brother Harry told me that he wears bifocals when playing golf, I said doing so affects his golfing performance. But how can I be sure of this? Well, I asked my AGCP fitter friends if they knew about any studies on this, and Keith Chatham - AGCP Master Fitter - connected me with someone who in fact had done a very detailed study.

I spoke this week with John Mathieson from Golfsmith International. In 2004, John conducted a study on the effects of wearing bifocal eyeglasses on golfing performance. He graciously has allowed me to provide you with a summary of the results from this study - they are included in this download:

The Effect of Bifocals on Golfing Performance

This document is copyrighted by Golfsmith International.

John conducted tests with 22 golfers who had handicaps ranging from 0 to 25. These 25 golfers did not wear eyeglasses when playing golf. He had them hit shots with one driver - 10 shots without eyeglasses and 10 shots with reading glasses that had a small amount of correction. The major results from the study are these:

When the golfers wore the reading glasses, their swings changed. For example, at address the golfers' head position lowered to allow them to see the ball clearly. This inhibits a full shoulder turn during the golf swing.

On average, the golfers who did not wear the reading glasses hit the ball about 20 yards longer than when they wore the glasses - 228 vs 207 yards.

Maybe most important, the worst miss for golfers not wearing glasses went 157 yards; the worst miss when the golfers wore the glasses was 69 yards.

Quoting John from the actual 2004 article - "Bottom line - golfers can't play their best golf with bifocals."

Note that the results of this study also apply to golfers who wear progressive lens eyeglasses.

So if you wear bifocals or progressive lenses, why not treat yourself and buy a fairly inexpensive pair of single vision lenses to wear when playing golf. What have you got to lose? - except perhaps some of your poor shots and strokes off of your handicap!

Find YOUR Reference Putt!

Below is a blog post that I wrote on my web site in late July. I thought many of you may not have seen this, and believe it is valuable - so here you go!

What a great ending to the British Open, Phil Michelson truly performed well and earned the victory.

As I watched some of the replay, I noticed how important making or missing short - four to six feet in length - putts was to the final outcome. Over and over, the golfers who did not win missed those putts down the stretch, and most often it was because they did not make a confident stroke.

In my game, most often when I am not putting well, it is also often due to missing 4 to 6 foot putts, and most often leaving the putter face open at impact.

What does it take to create Total Confidence in hitting those 4 to 6 footers? I asked The Putting Doctor, Glen Coombe - who trained me in using the SAM PuttLab - that question. He graciously provide the following thoughts on how to create a repeatable stroke that allows you to hit short putts with confidence - here is his note....

"Tony, you pose a great question as always.

Distance control, even on the short putts is key. Training the brain to react to speed and distance is the remedy for what we see in situations both at the tour level and in every-day golf at the amateur level. I have said that you may never hit it 300 yards but you can beat the tour professional at his own game on the putting green. It just takes a little dedication to focused practice.

The first stage of training for speed and distance putt training is knowing your reference putt distance. You ask, "What's a reference putt?" This is the simple putt on a flat portion of the practice green with no target in mind. For a medium width stance the putter is regulated in back stroke so that the face does not go past the middle of the rear foot. If this backstroke is a measure of 2 then the forward stroke is a measure of 3 (a stroke of 2 back and 3 forward), then the forward stroke will slightly exceed the lead foot in travel. We simply need, then, to find the distance on today's putting surface relative to this stroke.

Once we understand the distance created by the reference stroke we only need to amplify or decrease the amount of back stroke length to control distance. The same tempo is used for each and every putt. If your stance is narrow the back stroke will perhaps be a few inches longer and not exceed the outside of the rear foot. A wider stance my have the putter face only come back to the big toe of the rear foot.

Knowing your reference putt will allow you to adjust for conditions as you travel to new courses as not every club will have the same green speeds. Simple drills are then put into practice that allow you to train the brain for more specific distance control. My students are well equipped to judge speed and distance as a result of the time spent doing the three exercises in my copyrighted lesson plan The Money Back Guarantee Putting Experience. With this base of knowledge and the use of the reference putt they are able to adjust quickly for changes in green speeds.

By the way, my students would all stand up to that 4 foot putt with the mindset of being 100% inside 6 feet due to their focused practice sessions.

Visit my web site - The Putting Doctor - for more on putting or to obtain a copy of my putting lesson plan and Putting Doctor Training Aide."

Cheers - Glen Coombe, The Putting Doctor

Sound and sensible advice Glen - all of us can learn to stroke - and make - our short putts with confidence!

Counterweight Testing Continues

This past month I worked with two golfers to see if counterweighting - adding butt weight to the end of the golf club - can improve their shot performance. Pretty interesting results so far:

The first golfer had a 6 iron swing speed of about 75 mph. He hit my Aerotech 80 gram shaft counterweight test clubs. With a 20 gram counterweight, his distance and shot height increased.

The second golfer had a 100 mph swing speed, he hit his 6 iron about 210 yards (wow!). I put various counterweights in his 6 iron, and he loved the feel of the 30 gram counterweight. Most importantly, he did not lose distance but the dispersion of his misses was much less than he had without the counterweight. I am putting 30 gram counterweights into all of his irons.

If you are interested in finding out for yourself if counterweighting can help your game, get in touch with me for a free test session.

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"Inconsistency is your golf brain's best friend" - Golf World, August 12, 2013 issue - more on this next month!!

The Fit Is IT!!

Tony Wright (Helping Golfers Get "Lucky!")

GAME IMPROVEMENT GOLF

Oak Ridge, TN

The PREMIER Short Game Fitting Center in East Tennessee!

tony@gameimprovementgolf.com