1. FOCUS ON THE TARGET...ALWAYS
If you want to play like a pro, you have to practice like one. In the following pages, I’ll show you how I practice and the things that help me fine-tune my game, so come time to compete, I don’t have to worry about my swing. Instead, I can play shot-by-shot and concentrate on lowering my score.

To get started, when you practice, always do so with a target in mind for every shot. After all, why hit balls if you don’t aim? Think of a target and don’t forget it.

2. GET BEHIND AND SET UP
When I see amateurs hit shots, I notice many don’t have the right pre-shot sequence. So try this. First, take your grip behind the ball while facing the target. I?like to do this so I?can focus more on alignment, and not worry about my hands. I pick my target, make my grip and I don’t readjust it. Once it’s on there, it’s on for good.

While still fixated on the target, I approach the ball from the side. This helps me see the target and align my body considerably to the left of the target (as evident by my orange stick to the side of the ball). I don’t step directly into position just yet. I’m still zoned in on the target, and the club is held out in front of me. I’m ready to go.

My eyes have moved off the target, and I’m looking at the ball. I also track my eyes across the orange stick representing my target line. Then, I step into my stance from the side, not from behind or at an angle. This helps me align my body more squarely, with the clubface aiming at the target and my body situated parallel to the left.

Now I’m ready to strike. My stance is squared, I have a mental picture of the target in my mind, and my eyes stay glued to the ball throughout my swing. I may peek at the target, and if it doesn’t feel right, I start all over again. Your preshot routine and alignment is critical if you want to compete out here on the PGA Tour.

Few swing fundamentals are more overlooked than tempo (the consistency of the pace at which you swing your club). Tempo is a difficult concept to grasp. There's more to it than swinging your club faster or slower. You need to feel it. In the same way that you developed your natural walking pace, you need to find your natural swing speed or your motion will lack the smooth, rhythmic feel associated with solid ball striking.

The Drill:
Use this exercise to find perfect swing tempo:
• Tee up four balls in a row.
• Address the one closest to you and hit it at 25 percent of your standard swing speed.
• Immediately move to the next ball. This time, make a swing at 50 percent speed. Hit the third ball at 75 percent speed and the last at full throttle.

Perform this drill a few times. Focus on the feel of the different speeds, and keep in mind that your goal is to not slow down or speed up your swing in order to hit your ball longer or straighter.

The short game is where you can save the most strokes. You can hit only so many 300-yard drives or stiff iron shots from the rough or fairway. Inevitably, you’re going to hit an errant shot from time to time. But the short game, specifically with regards to your putting, is the one place where you can strive for consistent results. And no, that doesn’t mean you’ll drain every putt, but with the right fundamentals, you can make a lot more putts than you would with poor fundamentals and the wrong kind of practice routines.

I’m here to share a few of my favorite tips and drills to help get your short game back on track, especially if you haven’t been playing much golf lately. To get started, check out the picture to the left. Notice how my eyes are closed? That’s not a mistake.

Stay Relaxed In addition to good fundamentals, better putting requires you to stay relaxed in order to produce a smooth motion.

Practicing with your eyes closed is a great way to retrain your body and mind to get used to making smooth, pendulum-like putting strokes. If you want, go ahead and set up over a golf ball on the practice green. Read the putt, judge the distance, then close your eyes and stroke the putt. Then open your eyes and judge the results. Keep practicing until you can gauge the length of the putt with your eyes closed. This will, in turn, help train the body to recognize how hard to stroke a putt from varying lengths from the hole.

This story is for you if...

• You miss as many fairways as you hit
• You rarely make clean contact from the rough
• When you do make solid contact you have no clue where the ball is headed

 

THE SITUATION
You've hit your drive into the rough and are tired of just hitting a wedge out to the fairway — you know there must be a way to reach the green.

 

THE SOLUTION
As long as the ball isn't completely buried, you don't need to back off. The following keys will give your second shot the boost it needs to escape the hay and end up near — or on — the green.

SETUP
Play the ball in the center of your stance and set the majority of your weight on your front foot. Pull one more club than you'd normally use for the distance and open the face about 5 degrees.