January 8, 2003

Welcome to The No B.S. Golf Newsletter

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Special Notice

We have put up The History of Golf as a free e-book on the thinkandreachpar.com website. It covers from the beginning of golf in about 1413 thru 1963. Has some very interesting information in it. The link is on the left side of the front page. Check it out and I hope you enjoy it.

Special Notice


For Women Only: Have a new e-book on the website Golf For Women that can be downloaded free of charge. GOLF FOR WOMEN is a complete instruction guide for women golfers. Here is a must read book for every woman who has been, is, or wants to be, on the course. Hope you enjoy it and let me know how you like it. Go to www.thinkandreachpar.com and you will see the icon to click on to download.


How A Bona-Fide \"Hacker\" Turned A 40 Handicap into an 8 in
one season with two simple swing drills and can show you
his secret in minutes. \"It\'s so simple, it\'s embarrassing,\" he says \"and he INSISTS he can quickly teach his simple secret to you\" and show you how easy it is to swing a golf club, and add up to 70 accurate yards to every tee shot you hit for the rest of your life.
www.thinkandreachpar.com/tarp/bodygolf.htm



Special Notice

We have two video clips on the website for you to view. One is from the Full Swing video and the other is from the Short Game Clinic. When you have a chance, take a look.

Don\'t forget that we put up a new golf tip on the website each week. Also the newsletters thru October have been listed on the website.

All of the Body Golf videos are now available in PAL for all of our friends in Europe.

If you like this newsletter, I would appreciate it if you would forward a copy to your friends and ask them the subscribe…it\'s a free gift!!


Quote of the week:

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared
to what lies within us.

-- William Morrow
Golf Quote of the week:

The reason the pro tell you to keep your head down is so you can\'t see him laughing.
Phyllis Diller



Question for Sensei Mark Anthony

Sensei Mark, I am a 14 hdcp and I\'m sculling a good percentage of my chip shots. I don\'t feel like I\'m coming up and out of the shot, but the result tells me that I\'m doing something like that or worse.
Thanks,
George

Sensei Marks Reply

George...
If you\'re skulling your chips, here\'s what you\'re most likely doing.
Chips shots require a lot of confidence to do well. Mostly, you need to get a lot of practice with them. However you have to practice correct things or you\'ll just drill in the bad stuff. A good way to practice is to get a practice putting cup and set up in your living room with a few balls and a 5 iron. Yes a 5 iron!

Begin like this. Set up about a foot from the cup and hold your 5 iron as if it were a putter and putt the balls into it. When it becomes too easy, go out to 2 feet and repeat. Keep repeating because a dull short game is a hard blade that takes a long time to hone to a sharp edge.

Remember, PUTT the balls, don\'t chip them.
Use a putting grip, setup and stance. By the way...this little trick will work whenever you\'re just off the green and want to roll the ball to the hole.

HOW? OK...here goes.
GRIP...shorten the club by gripping down to the bottom of the grip. Use your WHOLE HAND to hold it, not your fingers as if you were holding it for a full swing.
Use a shoulder stroke and don\'t let your wrists break down during the stroke.

SETUP...put the ball in the back-center of your stance. NOT the front. You\'ll lift the ball and shorten your roll that way. Also, let your hands lead the club head as if the grip were leaning over the ball a bit.

STANCE...place most of your weight on your front foot to minimize any hip rotation during the stroke. Parallel feet and a wide-ish stance is also good here. You do not want anything moving except your shoulders!

Remember this...if you\'re looking for short-shot accuracy, the fewer things moving in the bottom half of your body, the better! That also goes for pitching too. But that\'s another lesson.

Practice this over the next couple weeks and get back to us.

Have a great New Year!
Sensei Mark

\"I purchased the \"Body Golf\" video and implemented Mark\'s techniques. The part about the double-club pendulum swing really helped in my timing that otherwise was erratic, at best. From the practice tees to the course was the real test. Without getting too long-winded about my new playing style, the lower score at the end of the game set the tone for the rest of the day.
Thanks Mark, I enjoy walking away from the 18th with a smile on my face. The neat thing? I now have the tools for more improvement.\"
Sincerely,
- T. McCarl, Huntington Beach, CA

My Favorite Season

by Patrick Riley

I\'ll golf in any weather.

The resulting water-logged golf shoes can\'t taint my victory at finishing a
round during a relentless spring rain. Lost balls in snowdrifts or sweated
brows during the mid-August heat won\'t keep me away. I\'ll golf in any
weather, any season. I must admit though that my favorite time of year to
golf is Fall, when the leaves abandon their monotonous green overcoats in
favor of more splendid hues and the cool bite of the morning air makes even
the drive to the course exciting.

Many of the leagues have closed down for the year, which makes the
experience on the course much more relaxed. There isn\'t that implied rush
of a course filled with anxious golfers.

Often, during the height of the golfing season, I worry that our group is
keeping up, that we\'re now slowing the group behind us, particularly if
we\'ve got a couple players in trouble. But in the Fall, everyone relaxes.
People saunter across the course, glad just to be able to play one more
round. No one\'s harried. No one\'s keeping score.

If I chunk a shot it\'s no big deal to drop another ball and try that shot
again. No one\'s pressing the group and it\'s a chance to diagnose the
problem on the spot.

If an early-morning tee time is your preference, Fall is perfect. The most
popular and/or challenging courses will gladly take your reservation during
the Fall. They won\'t have their early weekend tee times blocked up with
regulars who\'ve passed those times from generation to generation. Give the
course a call, they\'ll be happy to accommodate your group. I just love
standing on the first tee on a cool morning, waiting for the sun to peer
over the horizon.

And there\'s little chance of frost keeping you off the course. Fall is
cool, not cold. An hour or two delay, anxiously waiting for the frost to
clear, can really put a crimp in the day, particularly because it\'s likely
you won\'t have access to the putting green either. But Fall won\'t do this
to you.

Even if the Fall day is a little cold, it\'s no unbearable. It\'s usually no
so cold that you\'re shrouded with clothes and unable to swing your arms.
Many times I\'ll pull off my sweater after the first few holes and there\'s
always the option of wearing a coat or gloves in between shots.

The grass has gone dormant and the ball rolls farther down the fairway than
at almost any other time. (I should exclude that mid-summer hardpan that
often provides so much roll it feels like cheating.)

And as the trees drop their leaves, they become smaller targets, though
sometimes you\'ll lose a ball in those fairways lined with fallen leaves.

But hey, relax, hit the ball, and have a great Fall season playing golf.





Comments from subscribers:

Received many, many nice comments from you in response to the Christmas and New Years Letters. They are two many to mention, but I would like to thank all of you for the kind remarks that you had, and I do appreciate it.

As a high school counselor and golf coach I receive lots of stuff by mail and e-mail. Yours is one of the few I look forward to and appreciate seeing when it comes. I like the personal touch and the common sense approach. You take a stance of how all who play golf share the game. You take a very inclusive approach rather than an exclusive approach.
Again, thanks for the good work.
Jerry

Congratulations
Thank you for your very nice letter. Our nice Christmas was high lighted by my second hole in one on Dec.24.I\'m 85 and a half. Again, Thank you for the nice letter. Walt Coats
Congratulations to you Walt!!!

Golf Article:

Joe DeLorenzo has offered to write an article for us, and I would like to thank him, and hope you enjoy it.

Pace vs. Rules
Sometimes you can\'t have your cake
and eat it too. Sometimes the same people who
complain about the pace of play are the same people
who say the rules of golf are sacred and cannot be
changed. Yet some of the rules are the very things
that unnecessarily hurt the pace of play. Take, for
example, the penalty for hitting a ball OB is stroke
and distance, but it you hit a ball out of play into a
lateral water hazard (identical type of shot), you do
not have to take the time to hit a second shot from
the tee. Solution: For all non-tournament play,
abolish the stroke-and-distance penalty, and also the
provisional ball rule. Instead use the same rule (for
OB or lost ball) that exists for lateral water hazard
(hit only once and drop ahead if you cannot find the
ball) and everyone\'s pace will improve. I would like
all golfers to start a movement to come up with more
ideas on improving pace. Other than formal
tournaments, any rule that interferes with pace of
play should be evaluated for possible change. Let\'s
hear some other ideas.
Joe DeLorenzo, Elk Grove, IL


Quick Tip of the Week:

Setting your tee:

For irons, make sure that only the cup is visible with the ball just touching the top of the grass. The club head will meet the ball on a slightly descending path. For woods, you are sweeping the ball away. The tee should sit up so that you can achieve an easy, sweeping action through impact.

Driving in Windy Conditions:
Varying the tee is a neglected but vital part of the strategic game. For woods, you should be able to see half the ball above the top of the wood. Deep-faced woods need even higher tees. But wind affects this half-ball rule. When it is windy, it is best to tee off into the wind with a slightly higher tee; this actually promotes a flatter swing plane and lower ball flight. When driving downwind, use a lofted wood and lower tee.

Long Rough Grass

Is a common hazard when you veer off the fairway If your ball sits deep in the rough, hold a lofted club, such as a 9-iron or wedge, firmly, and play the shot powerfully with the ball closer to the back foot. Use an early wrist break and take a steep upward and downward swing of the arms. Keep the right knee bent and the eyes down. Your priority is to get back on the fairway.


For Your Information:

A good friend of mine sent me an email the other day and since, I have talked to him about his new business and thought I would pass it along to you. I have know Steve for several years and he is a straight shooter. If any of you are in need of some extra income, you may want to check out Steve\'s websites. Please rest assured that I am in no way connected to this and will receive no compensation from it. I just thought that it may be able to help someone.

I\'d like to tell you about an exciting new venture I\'ve started... It\'s
SoftNuggets.Com. My partner and I have learned the only real way to make
money on the Internet is to integrate websites into real world businesses.

As you know, I\'ve been trying to do this for years with varying degrees of
success. But I think Viktor and I have finally found the right formula to
get this done.

At the moment we have two products - both real estate oriented - the
first, NuggetRealty, is a turnkey website designed for real estate
brokers. It gives them complete control over their agents, listings, and
website and is so simple to learn it can be done over the phone in 10
minutes or less. You can find out more about NuggetRealty at
http://www.softnuggets.com/nuggetrealty/

But the one I am really excited about is a full turnkey - internet and
real world - business. NuggetHomes sets you up to help people sell their
own homes. You provide the signage, a book that explains the process to
them, and a website that displays their home to its best advantage.

SoftNuggets provides you with everything you need (except the customers)
to get started within 72 hours of placing your order. You can find out
more by going to http://www.softnuggets.com/nuggethomes/

Why does this one excite me so much? Because Viktor and I have found a
way to help people help themselves AND help others by providing a real,
honest service for a reasonable fee.

Oh, one other thing that might interest you... Viktor lives in the
Ukraine! How is that for bringing the world together!

Steven W. Johnson
471 W. Wilson Road #36
Pahrump, Nevada 89048
steve@softnuggets.com


Richard\'s Thoughts:
Jan 8 03

I mentioned to you about a friend of mine several weeks ago, Bruce Walker. Bruce and I play in a foursome twice a month, so we know each other pretty well. Let me tell you a few things about Bruce. He is about 6\'4\" tall and weighs in about 235. Bruce spends a good bit of time at the nineteenth hole over there at the Lake Bowen Country Club, but puts in several hours a week practicing his game. One of the few people that I know that spends more time practicing than actually playing. His handicap? Two months ago it was 26.

Just a few weeks before Thanksgiving, I went over to Bruce\'s to play a round. When I got there Bruce was on the driving range hitting balls. As I joined him, we began to talk and carry on as we usually do. Bruce was full of questions this particular day and asked me several that I thought I would share with you. Mind you that I never recommend or encourage any of my friends to purchase any of my videos, unless they give me a chance!! And this day Bruce did. Bruce has since lowered his handicap to 18. (that\'s in 6 weeks) Here are a few of the questions that Bruce asked me:

Is golf like other sports?
Golf places great demands on the body. Although it is not necessarily cardiovascular, but it puts explosive movements on the muscles that you have to have strength and flexibility in very specific ways. You have to be in good physical condition to play good golf. Fitness and flexibility. If you are not in good physical condition, there is a good chance that you can hurt yourself.

What is the ideal swing for me?
An ideal swing is one that delivers optimal performance with the least effort. The purpose of your swing is to get the club back to where you started it, in the proper position. Faulty swing mechanics can derive from physical restrictions. That\'s just a fancy way of saying that to have your best swing, you need to be in good physical condition and flexible. Any of us that have a weight problem know that when we gain weight, the less flexible we are, and the harder it is to keep your swing. Of course we can make adjustments in our swing to help offset some of this. The golf swing is unique to each of us.

If I take golf lessons, won\'t that help me improve my swing?
Sure lessons will help your swing. But, they have to be the proper lessons. If your swing does not fit you, then you can practice 6 hours a day and not improve your swing. That is why Sensei Mark Anthony\'s Full Swing method is so useful. It is so simple and easy to learn that most all high handicappers can benefit for it.

How do I know which areas need to be worked on?
It\'s not like we are going to quit playing golf and go on a six week fitness program before we play again. We just need to work on our fitness a little at the time and we will see improvements. And no you don\'t have to have a \"perfect\" body of be in perfect shape to play good golf. But you do need exercise on a regular basis. What is regular? Well the professional fitness people will tell you at least an hour a day. Most of us are not going to take that much time, but I try to get in at least 30 minutes a day. An this is not just for our golf game, it is also good for our overall health.

Those are just a few of the questions that Bruce asked me that day. I don\'t want to make this too long, so I will cover some of the others in the coming weeks, then we will wind up the series with Bruce\'s side of the story.

Now keep in mind that you cannot lower your handicap 40 strokes in 6 weeks, but 9 strokes in 6 weeks is a heck of a start. I am proud of Bruce, because he is using the videos like they were designed to use. Watch and practice. When I saw him the other day, I asked him which of the video\'s that he thought had helped him the most so far, and he said the full swing was the number one, but the fitness and flexibility exercises had him reaching places he has not reached in years.

Until next week…good golfing!

Dr. Richard Myers

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