2008 May | ProgolferDigest - The Golf Blog by Junger Woods

Archive for May, 2008

Swing Analysis of Jim Furyk – A Perfect Swing

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Here’s Jim Furyk’s perfect golf swing.

Why do I say it’s “perfect”?

If you look at Jim Furyk’s swing very carefully, you can note the following things:

1. Jim’s swing at the top of the backswing looks very unorthodox but it is very very similar to how Jack Nicklaus swung during his prime. Jack Nicklaus always advised golfers to swing in a very upright fashion, and he did say that this is great for hitting the ball high with long irons.

Mind you, Jack Nicklaus was the greatest “fade” long iron player in the history of golf and he did hit them very very high.

Now, this “upright” backswing can be seen in players like Jim Furyk, Jack Nicklaus, and John Daly from what I can remember.

This “upright” backswing can work for you or it may not. Depending on how rest of your swing is like and what your physique is like, this maybe be a good factor in your perfect swing.

2. At follow through, both of Jim’s arms are straight out, completely extended, a trait that almost all great players in the world carry including Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, etc…etc…

Now, it may look to the naked eye that Jim Furyk’s swing may look unorthodox as some say. But remember in golf, there is no such thing as “orthodox”. All golf swing concepts are made by people and not even single one can be named perfect.

Even Ben Hogan or Jack Nicklaus once said, “I hit maybe couple perfect shots in a period of year”.

The important thing to realize is that everyone has their own “perfect” swing whether others think that looks unorthodox or not.

It’s very important for you to find your own swing, a swing that can work for you whether you are playing a round for fun or you are playing for $100 per hole skins.

In this case, Jim does have a “perfect” swing which I have admired over the years and amazed at how low he can go under tournament pressure.

Next time you see a golfer with a bad swing and a bad grip on the course, be aware, he maybe the best golfer you ever played with.

Tags: backswing, Ben Hogan, fashion, golfers, history of golf, irons, jack nicklaus, Jim Furyk, John Daly, long iron, naked eye, perfect golf swing, physique, single one, skins, tiger, Tiger Woods, www youtube
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Course Psychology – How to maintain your inner rhythm!

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

One of the most important aspects of playing scratch or pro golf is to maintain your inner rhythm during a round of golf.

Now, to do this, you need to really control your emotions.

Whether you are happy or sad, you need to really keep that under your feet, meaning you should never get too excited nor feel angry. Of course, you can celebrate that eagle putt you just made, but do try to keep things under control as your heart will beat faster and your swing will be affected on your next tee shot.

Another really great way to maintain your inner rhythm during the round is to walk at the same pace during the whole round. Don’t ever run, walk too fast, or walk too lazy, simply walk at your natural pace. Now this might sound too simple but it works.

This will help you maintain your inner rhythm and that will carry onto your perfectly balanced rhythmic swing.

I share this knowledge with you as I experienced this while shooting a 10 under par, 62. Although my swing was way off that day, I had a really relaxed feeling and my rhythm was great throughout the whole day.

If this tip helped you save couple strokes next time you go out on the course, make sure to come back and subscribe as I will show you more ways to scrape off additional strokes off your golf game, all with great thinking without changing your swing.

Tags: course psychology, emotions, golf game, heart beat, inner rhythm, natural pace, pro golf, rhythmic swing, scratch, strokes, swing course
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How to Practice to be a Scratch/Pro Golfer!

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

If you are trying to be a scratch golfer or a pro golfer, often people will ask themselves how many balls to hit per day.

Now, having experience watching other aspiring junior golfers when I was a junior golfer, the number of balls you hit actually does not mean anything once you get to a certain point. (Let’s say you can consistently shoot around 75 or lower)

I do however, have experince of hitting 10 buckets per day, that’s about 1,000 balls. I did that for about 3 months during summer and school breaks.

My mom would drop me off at the practice range at 8am, she’d pick me up around 8pm when I was done hitting 1,000 golf balls.

After I grew up and around college I was shooting consistently 3 under par. Those days, I didn’t practice with focus on quantity. However, I did focus on hitting each shot on the range as if it were a real tournament shot.

Now, that is called, quality practice. I still do that same type of practice and even do couple practice swings before I even hit the ball.

What does this do for you? Well, it let’s you hit the best possible shot you can on every practice shot.

Now, I average only 100 balls and practice maybe once a month. But I can still go out to the course any day and shoot around par.

So today’s lesson?

Next time you practice, do the following before hitting each shot:

1. Visualize your golf ball flight and your swing.

2. Make 2 or 3 practice swings matching your visualization and “see” the ball hit perfectly to your target.

3. After doing 1 and 2, go up there and hit that ball without thinking too much. Rely on your muscle-memory to hit it, just like in tournament golf or under pressure situations where you’d have to make a birdie to win all those skins.

Explanation

Golf is a game of visualization. If you hit 100 balls in a row at the range without clear thinking (visualization) of what you want to do, you are basically instilling that into your brain.

The next time you go out and “play” on the golf course, your practice habits will be present whenever you encounter any kind of pressure.

More Tips on the Range

1. Do not hit the same type of shot more than 10 shots in a row. You need to keep hitting a 5-iron, sand wedge, driver, etc…etc… and keep it rotating.

2. Practice your weaknesses.

Golf is all about lowering your percentage of failure. The more you practice your weaknesses, the less chance you will make bad shots on the course.

3. Practice your strengths.

Golf is also about having your strengths. For example, if I am at 125 yards from the hole, I can promise you that the ball “will” end up within 10 feet 10 out of 10 times. You need to find out what shot you are good and also practice that a lot.

Pros call this, “bread and butter” shot. Every pro has one including Tiger Woods. It’s a shot you can rely on the most toughest situations. Make sure you have couple in your bag.

4. Practice lots of wedge shots from 100 yards in.

I actually do about 50-60% of my practice shots for wedge shots from 30 yard, 50 yard, 75 yard, and 100 yard targets. These are the shots that can save you “lots” of strokes. Tiger practices these about 80% of his practice balls. I did see Tiger practicing couple years ago, where he’d “hit” every target with his wedges.

Now, try these tips and I am sure it will help your score next time on the course especially if you have been banging those poor balls mindlessly and carrying that to the course before.

Tags: ball flight, birdie, buckets, clear thinking, golf course, golf-ball, golf-balls, junior golfer, junior golfers, muscle memory, practice habits, practice swings, pressure situations, pro golfer, quality practice, scratch golfer, skins, target, tournament golf, visualization
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How to Play the Knockdown Shot! – Part II

Monday, May 12th, 2008

There has been a lot of discussions on the internet about how to play the knockdown shot. I did go over it in brief detail couple months ago but here it is again.

A knockdown shot is nothing but a mini version of your full swing.

There are variety of knockdown shots too. Depending on what kind of lie you have and what kind of results you are trying to achieve, there’s about a hundred ways to play the shot.

But for 99% of golfers and 99% of situations, you play the knockdown shot for the following reasons:

1. You are between clubs. Let’s say you hit your 5-iron 185 yards and you hit your 6-iron 150 yards. You got a 160 yard shot, you can hit a knockdown shot here.

2. It’s windy. Whether that wind is against/with you or a cross-wind, by hitting a knockdown shot, you can keep the flight of the golf ball 20-40% lower than your normal shots and not get affected by the wind. That means you don’t have to worry about how the wind will affect the shot as much.

3. You need to hit it lower than usual to avoid high hanging trees and also put lots of backspin. If you hit a knockdown shot, usually you will get a lower ball flight and get a nice hop and stop action on the ball.

Again, here’s the simplest and the most effective way to hit the knockdown shot that I personally learned from Butch Harmon:

1. Put the ball near center or slightly forward of center of your stance.

2. Swing easy, anywhere between 1/2 to 3/4 swing.

3. On the downswing, feel like you are “trapping” the ball with your body. Now, this “feeling” might take a lot of practice to achieve.

4. Try to contact the ball first, not the turf. Better yet, don’t hit the turf at all. Hitting the turf only makes the ball lose backspin. If you look at Tiger in practice (not in competition), you will see him take zero turf on every one of his ‘good’ knockdowns. If you are awed by tour pros hitting really low sand wedges and they ‘hop and drop’, this is how they do it.

This may be the most important in knockdowns since the less you hit the ground (or take a divot), the more ‘hop and drop’ backspin you will get PLUS your ball will fly a lot lower since you are not hitting down on the ball. The only way to achieve this is to really hit the ball from 0 degree angle, meaning you don’t want to hit down or up on the ball.

Now this method is great since you will be able to use your knockdowns “everywhere” once you get good.

I tend to favor it even if it’s not windy and I don’t need to hit it under a tree since you don’t have to do a full swing and stay in control of your ball flight.

Look at Tiger and he’s doing that.

Next time, I will take a video to show you exactly what I mean. These days, I don’t have much time for golf practice. I hope that changes soon and maybe I will have to try out for PGA again soon.

Tags: backspin, ball flight, Butch Harmon, downswing, full swing, golf-ball, golfers, knockdown, mini version, sand wedges, tiger, trees, turf
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Junger Woods Golf Psychology – Golf is not a game of Perfect!

Monday, May 12th, 2008

Golf is not a game of perfect, and this is a fact. Even all the championship winners, they have so many swing flaws. It’s a great thing they don’t tell you and Tiger is probably being more honest than most.

There’s even a great golf psychology book named, “Golf is not a game of Perfect”.

Now, the correct mind set on the golf course to play your best is to accept the fact that you are not perfect golfer and you do not have a perfect swing.

No one in the world actually has a perfect swing, because it doesn’t exist! Tiger Woods will be first to tell you that.

If you cannot get through this, you will have a tough time dealing with your results.

So what are you telling me, to think negative?

No, that’s not what I am telling you. The best way to play golf is to be positive and to “visualize” all your shots going in the hole.

But, remember it’s what you do with what happens to you, NOT what happens to you.

So before your next round, tell yourself your “realistic” limits at the first tee and think through your course strategy for the day.

Let’s say at the practice range, you keep hitting your irons 50 yards to the left with a big bad hook.

Now, you can fight this big bad hook throughout your round OR you can simply use that as your advantage and start planning your course strategy to fit that.

So do I am 50 yards right on all my iron shots?

Hell yes, that’s what I am telling you to do. Make best of what you have that day, you don’t need to be perfect.

I’ve had those rounds when I’ve shot under par when all my iron shots were going 50 yards left. Now, if I had tried to correct my swing to hit it straight, I’d probably shot over 80 that day AND screwed up my mindset for future golf rounds.

Now if this tip help you break 80 next time you go out there, don’t forget to subscribe to this blog and expect more fun psychology and course strategy lessons straight from my gut.

Tags: championship winners, Course Strategy, first tee, future golf, game, going in the hole, golf course, Golf Psychology, golf rounds, great golf, hook, iron shots, irons, mindset, psychology book, realistic limits, strategy lessons, swing, tiger, Tiger Woods
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Swing Analysis of Sergio Garcia!

Monday, May 12th, 2008

Here’s a front-view of Sergio Garcia’s Swing in slow-motion:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Sergio probably has one of the biggest “lags” out all the top players today.

Now, he probably comes as close to Ben Hogan’s “lag”.

Is lag a good thing?

Well, “lag”, I think is overrated. It’s the egg, not the chicken. In other words, you shouldn’t have to try to create “lag”. These players such as Sergio Garcia and Ben Hogan, didn’t try to do that.

They ended up doing that naturally while trying to hit the ball square in the middle of the clubface.

Even if you look at Tiger’s swing, he does have some lag, but too much “lag” can actually hinder your golf performance and you need fine hand control to be able to play consistently with “lag”.

“Lag”, however, is great for really squeezing every bit of your wrist power efficiency. Now, this is for the top golfers or scratch golfers. If you still can’t break par, you should really stick to simpler ideas.

Sergio Garcia Iron practice at the range:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

What you need is really to practice lots and lots of short pitch shots as Sergio Garcia is doing here. Most good pro tour players will actually hit over 75% of their practice shots for shots within 100 yards.

Why?

Well, this is the worst-kept secret on the Tour that no average Joe will ever listen to. When you hit the smaller shots, you swing in tempo and in control.

Now, once you are swinging in good tempo and control, you can carry that to your longer clubs such as the driver. (It’s never the other way around, even John Daly will tell you so…)

Don’t believe me?

Lol, well if you are ever in San Francisco, we can play for some money and I can show you how to take someone’s money.

Tags: average joe, Ben Hogan, egg, golf performance, John Daly, lag lag, lags, money, pitch shots, power efficiency, practice shots, san francisco, scratch golfers, sergio garcia, Slow Motion, swing analysis, tempo, tiger
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Sergio Garcia Wins the 2008 Players Championship!

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

Sergio Garcia Wins the 2008 Players Championship!

Just in, Sergio Garcia wins the 2008 Players Championship. Remember my 2 predictions? Well, maybe I got lucky or not but it’s easy to tell that a veteran will always win over an event like this.

Paul Goydos is a veteran too but Sergio Garcia has definitely proven himself as “one of the elite” players who can dig down at the heat of competition.

Kudos to the Spaniard for another win for your fan!

Tomorrow, we will do a swing analysis on the champion Sergio Garcia so make sure to subscribe to the blog!

Tags: blog, champion, elite players, kudos, paul goydos, players championship, sergio garcia, spaniard, swing analysis, veteran
Posted in Golf News | 1 Comment »

Paul Goydos in the Lead at the Players Championship!

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

Well, my predictions were a little off for today as Paul Goydos took the lead, Anthony Kim fell way back with a 79, but Sergio Garcia is still in there.

My bet still goes to Sergio Garcia, let’s see what happens tomorrow.

FYI, Anthony Kim still leads in driving distance for the week. That might be his culprit, maybe trying to hit too hard.

In the meanwhile, Paul Goydos leads in putts, which is probably what it takes for a tournament like this.

Too bad again, Tiger wasn’t there to mess up the scores…

Check out leaderboard at PgaTour.com

Tags: culprit, driving distance, paul goydos, pgatour com, players championship, putts, sergio garcia, tiger
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Swing Analysis – Anthony Kim

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Here’s a good video of Anthony Kim’s swing. From what I can tell as a pro golfer, Anthony Kim comes the closes to mimicking Tiger’s followthrough. Well, I think it’s actually better than Tiger’s as Anthony doesn’t lift off his left foot like Tiger used to do at his age.

Swing isn’t everything but does help.

Here’s another look from different angles:

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Tags: angles, Anthony Kim, left foot, pro golfer, swing analysis, tiger
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