March 19, 2003

Welcome to The No B.S. Golf Newsletter

This newsletter is by subscription only. The only way you could have
received it is you requested a subscription or someone you
know gave you a subscription. To unsubscribe please scroll
to the bottom and follow the simple instructions. If the link is not
active in your email program, you may have to cut and paste it in your
browser.
=========================================================================
Amazing New 3-Video, Golf School-in-a-Box INSTANTLY Gives You Pro-Level Power & Accuracy...WITHOUT Years of Practice
Finally - Learn What The Big-Bux Equipment Companies Don\'t Want You To Know About Power, Distance, Accuracy AND…Instantly Vaporizing A Chronic Slice With Two, SIMPLE \"No-Brainier\" Exercises That Will Destroy Your Slice Forever - No Matter What Brand Clubs You Play
www.thinkandreachpar.com


Special Notice


Are there any topics you would like discussed or anything you would like information on in this newsletter? If so, just let me know and we will see what one of us can come up with.

If you like this newsletter, I would appreciate it if you would forward a copy to your friends and ask them to subscribe…it’s a free gift!! They will also receive the free book, “8 Steps to Golf.”

Quote of the week:


\"Most great men and women are not perfectly rounded in their
personalities, but are instead people whose one driving enthusiasm
is so great it makes their faults seem insignificant.\"

Charles A. Cerami
Author

Golf Quote of the week:

What’s the point of washing off your ball when teeing off on a water hold?
Bruce Lansky



Spend Some Time on the Beach
by
Mac Stevenson
Almost all amateur golfers fear one shot more than the others: the dreaded sand trap explosion. FDR’s most famous quote fits perfectly here: “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Sand shots--so far as getting out of the trap and on the green--are not hard. You’re sighing and saying to yourself, “I’ve heard this song before.” The hard part of these shots is mental, not physical. It’s true. You can’t always get up and down in two, but you won’t hack and chop until you’ve ruined your round either.
You have to be familiar with and understand the basic fundamentals of the sand shot. They’re available with illustrations in books, magazines, or Richard’s video on the short game.
Four varieties of stances and lies cover 99 percent of the sand shots you’ll face: (1) a level stance and lie, (2) an uphill stance and lie, (3) a downhill stance and lie, (4) and a buried lie.
Don’t despair. You’ll have a level stance and reasonably good lie on a high percentage of your sand shots. The basic fundamentals on the level lie include an open stance with your hands slightly behind the ball; an open clubface; play the ball off your left heel; and pick out a spot just behind the ball where your clubface will enter the sand.
On the standard sand shot, your swing should be upright and outside-in so it’s easier to slice your clubhead under the ball and through the sand.
The most important thing about a sand shot is to have a clear image in your mind of what the clubhead will do.
Your clubface doesn’t touch the ball; it slices through the sand under the ball and literally throws the ball on the green.
Most fundamental instructions are very weak in one area: They don’t describe clearly how much you should open the clubface. Simply put, the clubface should be very open on a short shot and just slightly open for long sand shots. You will have to experiment for the in-between distances to find what is right for you.
And you have to get in a sand trap and hit all four of the shots described above. Just reading a book or watching Richard’s video won’t do it, you have to get on the beach and practice what you’ve learned.
Experiment with various clubface alignments according to different distances until you’re confident with this basic, but important, concept.
Don’t let a buried lie strike terror into your psyche. This isn’t a hard shot. Hood your clubface closed and hit behind and down and through the sand, throwing sand and ball onto the green. Swing hard and follow through.
On most sand trap shots you’ll use your sand wedge. However, on long trap shots (over 20 yards), try using your pitching wedge, nine iron, or even an eight iron. And open the clubface ever so slightly; you’ll find the ball flies much further with less effort than the sand wedge requires.
If you don’t have a sand trap on your driving range, you’ll have to practice on the course. Take five or six balls and work on the four basic lies and stances. When you catch one of those days when you have to wait on every tee and there’s no one behind you, take a few moments to practice sand shots while your buddies are wasting their time gabbing on the next tee.
Keep your head steady on all these sand shots. You should actually see your clubhead go through the sand and make sure you swing hard enough to slide your clubhead completely through the sand.
Another good idea is to write or type the fundamentals on a note card or two and have them laminated at a print shop. Keep them in your golf bag for handy reference while you practice.
Like so many things in life, sand trap shots seem hard or next to impossible until you have the knowledge (fundamentals) and confidence (gained from practice) and know you can hit the shot correctly every time.
Spend some time on the beach and you’ll gain a lot more than a good tan.
Discover how A Bona-Fide Hacker Turned A 40 Handicap into an 8 in one season ... with two simple swing drills.
Discover this simple secret in minutes. So simple, it is 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
Comments from subscribers:

I\'ve written in before on some debatable matters, I was hoping to see some
NO BS news on handicapping. Agreed, that over the years the R&A and
subsequently the USGA have conjured up complex handicapping methods, but my
experience has been that most club members are able to manipulate their
handicaps quite easily if they want to. And believe me a lot of guys do
that, especially those who play regularly with a little bet, even if it is
with the same fourball!.
I have been Golf Secretary (Honorary) in a number of clubs and had so many
complaints from members about the handicap the next guy was holding, that I
devised a system that finally brought everyone into place. This was based
purely on the number of pars a golfer hits during the round. I devised a
stastical formula which gave very accurate results over 5 rounds or so, and
it was virtually an on-line handicapping if required. We restricted the
handicap adjustment to fortnightly so as not to inconvenience a player who
was badly out of form. I have further verified this system against the
normal \"strokes\" system, and found a consistent variation favoring a higher
handicap, and also a total inability to correct a \"fudged\" returned score.
The \"par\" system completely removed the \'unfair\' element, and also reflected
the true \'potential\' of the player’s ability, as the handicapping is supposed
to do.
I hope you can do something about this in terms of taking up the matter with
the authorities, to re-look at the handicapping methods and moving into a
more \'pure\' system based on achieved pars, and not strokes penciled in to
adjust to the maximum allowable, for the handicap.
Regards
Nippy D

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF NIPPY’s SYSTEM? Let me hear from you?


Amazing New 3-Video, Golf School-in-a-Box INSTANTLY Gives You Pro-Level Power & Accuracy...WITHOUT Years of Practice
Finally - Learn What The Big-Bux Equipment Companies Don\'t Want You To Know About Power, Distance, Accuracy AND…Instantly Vaporizing A Chronic Slice With Two, SIMPLE \"No-Brainier\" Exercises That Will Destroy Your Slice Forever - No Matter What Brand Clubs You Play
www.thinkandreachpar.com



Article on Pressure from Joe DeLorenzo

Did you ever wonder why things that seem to work on
the practice range do not seem to work as well on the
golf course? On the practice range, there is no
pressure, since there is no penalty for a bad shot.
Also since you are swinging every few seconds on the
practice range, your muscles can get into a good
relaxed rhythm. On the course, however, it is several
minutes between each shot, so there is less rhythm and
that makes it easier to tense up.
So how can we keep pressure from affecting our shots?
I like Hal Sutton’s advice on this. He says the
smaller muscles do not work under pressure, so use
your bigger muscles to swing. All muscles are
controlled by nervous impulses. Pressure sends lots
of extra impulses into our nervous systems, and it
stands to reason that these impulses have a greater
effect on our smaller muscles than they do on our
bigger muscles. In other words, a wristy swing is
more likely to break down under pressure than a body
(arm/shoulder) swing. This is especially true for
putting, chipping, and pitching. That explains why
the Body Golf concept is likely to improve your game.
You really should see Sensei Mark Anthony’s Body Golf
tape series. Other ideas that might be worth trying
to combat pressure are a consistent pre-shot routine
such as a “waggle” or a “forward press”, or taking a
deep breath and exhaling half way before you begin
your stroke. Then, if you are really serious about
doing everything possible to reduce pressure on
yourself, and give yourself the best chance to
succeed, get the “Own The Zone” CD’s by Jennifer
Scott, available from this site, and you will have a
way to condition your mind to handle pressure.

Joe DeLorenzo


Richard’s Thoughts:

Can you make a decision?

Being a leader is a decision, not a position. I challenge people to step up to the tee and become all that they want to become, to make that decision to become a scratch golfer or at least a low scorer…a good golfer. And it does not have to be golf. It can be anything from work to pleasure.

Are you ready to make that decision?

What would it take to make it?

What are your options? Here are some that might just apply in your case…modify them as you see fit, just make a decision.

I can keep doing what I am doing and getting what I’m getting’
I can set a new lofty goal for myself that will fire me up,
Get me out of the bed in the morning and keep me awake
at night (for the right reasons)
I can ignore this article, having read it and judged it as the rambling of someone who is out of touch with reality.
It’s your choice.

Sometimes the decision is a simple one, sometimes not. What do you want to achieve? What do you want to have? What do you want to become?

It’s about you, the impact you want to have on the world and what you expect to receive in return. On that last point, there is nothing wrong with expecting abundance in return for what you do.

It’s your choice.

Are you wanting for outside inspiration? Forget it. Inspiration has to come from within.

The secret to success as a high performance leader is to take action, starting with a decision to Play Big.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.”
Nelson Mandela

It’s your choice. Whether it is your golf game or your career, it’s your choice.

Until next week…good golfing.



Richard Myers
www.thinkandreachpar.com
www.bodygolf.com


IF YOU LIKED THIS ISSUE
If you liked this issue, we would appreciate it if you would,
right now, just forward a copy to one or two of your golfing
friends with a short note encouraging them to subscribe. We\'d
really appreciate it. Thank you!

PRIVACY
Rest assured that we will not share your e-mail address with
any other party for any reason whatsoever.