POLL: Which Part of Your Golf Game Needs the Most Improvement in 2010?

The holiday season is coming to an end. We hope you enjoyed time with family and friends.

It’s time to get back at it. Today we have a new poll regarding your golf game improvement in 2010. Once we gather the results, our own Steve Atherton (in the ASK STEVE segment) will offer his thoughts on the results, answer any questions and tell you a little about what he’ll be working on in 2010.

Below, you can answer the poll question. As always, feel free to leave a comment or ask a question in the comments section. Steve would love to personally answer your questions.

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Practice the Right Way to Accelerate Your Golf Improvement

James Standhardt — GolfTEC Coach and PGA Member, Naperville, IL — shows you how to practice better.

I’m often asked how long someone has to practice a certain change before we can officially consider it “changed.” I’ve discovered that the best answer is that it completely depends on how you practice. Many studies have concluded that in order to change a learned motion (like those in a golf swing), anywhere from eight to ten thousand correct repetitions are necessary. While that number may sound daunting, it can be lowered significantly by over-correction, or exaggerating a desired motion.

Exaggerate the desired motion

For example, if you and your Coach are working on shortening your top position to gain more consistency with your contact and shot dispersion, you may find that what you feel often doesn’t coincide with how long your swing actually is. In this instance, it is effective to challenge yourself to make swings that are well short of the desired position. Most likely, you’ll find that if you’re able to develop a feel for where that shorter point is, making the change becomes much easier and requires less time.

Where to practice

This brings us to the key point of where you practice. I recommend that all my students allocate a considerable amount of their practice time to in-bay practice for most changes. For some, the absence of ball flight can be a tough hurdle to get over. However, once you begin to let go of the result and start to focus more on the process, you tend to discover that your swing not only changes more quickly, but it often does so with less frustration! Very few of us are able to hit the necessary number of poor shots on the range without reverting back to what is comfortable (i.e. incorrect) in order to see better short-term results. Hitting in a controlled environment—with cameras that can pick up every motion in your swing and allow you to play them back in slow motion—allows you to focus on the process and helps you make the connection between what you feel and what you do.

In the end, your pace of improvement relies on many factors: how much time you devote to making a change, how you attempt to make that change and where you attempt to make that change are just a few. It only makes sense to stack the odds in your favor and do it in an environment that caters to utilizing your time in the most effective manner possible, doesn’t it? As we enter the off-season in many regions, the next three to four months offer the opportunity to make effective, long-term swing changes that will stay with you for years to come. I suggest working with your Coach to develop an off-season practice regimen (if you don’t already have one) and sticking to it in the coming months. When next season starts, you’ll be glad you did.

What’s in the Bag: Steve Lippincott

Steve Lippincott — GolfTEC Coach, Director of Instruction and Store Manager, Tampa, FL — shows us his current set makeup.

Driver: 10.5-degree Adams Insight Tech A4 Driver; Matrix Ozik shaft, stiff flex

This club is as solid and good looking as any driver on the market today, but it really flies under the radar. The look is very simple; it has no alignment aid, which I prefer because I line up my driver on the toe so that when the club gets to impact height, the center of the face meets the middle of the ball. What I like most about this club is the shaft—it gets the ball up in the air quickly with minimal backspin, which gives me increased roll.

Fairway wood: Adams Insight XTD A3 5-wood; Aldila NVS shaft, stiff flex

I recently switched from two fairway woods to one. It was an easy decision after spending time on the launch monitor. I found that the 5-wood not only gave me a higher launch angle, but also increased my carry distance by 10 yards. You certainly don’t have to carry a 3-wood anymore. If you look in a lot of Tour Pro’s bags, they carry one fairway wood that has 16-18 degrees of loft instead of a 13-degree club.

Hybrid: Adams A3 22-degree (4-iron) Hybrid; Graffaloy Prolaunch Red shaft, stiff flex

Adams is known for their hybrids on Tour and this one is a beauty. It’s shorter than most hybrids because the length is based on a normal 4-iron instead of a fairway wood. It gives me a great option in the 200-yard range—most recently I used it for a par-5 second shot to record a rare albatross. For that reason alone, I love this club.

Irons: Adams A4 Forged 3- and 4-irons; Adams A3 5-PW, stiff-flex steel shafts

If you add it up, I actually carry 15 clubs in my bag, which is one over the USGA limit. Depending on the conditions, I will choose between my hybrid and 3-wood. If it’s windy out I will generally leave the higher-launching hybrid in the trunk and put the 3-iron in for more control in the wind.

These A3 irons are different from any other set I’ve played because they are a blended set. This means the 5-, 6- and 7-irons are more forgiving cavity-back irons, while the 8-iron, 9-iron and PW are more of a blade iron, providing greater control. (To learn more about blended sets, check out this post)

Wedges: Cleveland CG12 (50-, 56- and 60-degree)

I carry four scoring clubs (including my PW) because it gives me three swing options depending on yardage. Each wedge has a yardage assigned to it for a full, three-quarter and half swing. This eliminates the guessing and changing of swing speeds, allowing me to control distance with the length of my backswing.

Putter: Couture Golf Carnoustie, 32.25″, 365 grams

If you haven’t been fit for a putter—playing an off-the-rack putter instead—you’re missing out in a big way! Playing a custom-fit putter like this one allows me to get into the same setup every time and putt consistently from round to round. The head weight is heavier, which reminds me to accelerate through the ball.

Ball: Srixon Z-STAR X

Despite being a slower-swing-speed player, I choose to play a lower-spin ball (normally recommended for higher swing speeds) because it improves my accuracy. Less spin on the ball means it curves less. For a straight hitter like me, that’s an advantage. This ball also has a very resilient cover—allowing me to play the same golf ball for more than just five or six holes.

GolfTEC Named to Franchise 500 by Entrepreneur: A Word from CEO Joe Assell

Comments from Joe Assell – GolfTEC President, CEO and Co-Founder – on GolfTEC’s most recent accomplishment.

Being named to the Franchise 500 by Entrepreneur is exciting news for our company. Since our first franchise location opened in 2003, we have worked hard to build a strong, supportive franchise system.

The experience and initiative of our individual Franchisees backed by the structure and guidance of our Corporate Franchise team has proven to be a successful combination. Ranking in the Franchise 500 for the second consecutive year affirms our efforts. I personally would like to thank all of our Franchisees and our Corporate Franchise team for their commitment to making our entire system successful.

GolfTEC is honored to be ranked #210 in the Franchise 500 and we look forward to continued improvement and growth in the future.

ASK STEVE: How the USGA Groove Rules Change will Affect Steve Atherton

Steve Atherton — GolfTEC VP of Research and Development and PGA Master Professional in Instruction — responds to last week’s poll on the groove rules change.

Well, the responses to our poll regarding the USGA groove rules change came as no surprise. (Learn more about the rule change) Over 75% of you said that you aren’t planning on making any changes until you need to buy new equipment, or you don’t plan on making any changes at all.

In all honesty, the new rules have affected my equipment choices the same way they have the majority of you. I am playing a set of Mizuno MP-60 irons and Cleveland CG12 Zip Groove wedges, and I have no plan to switch to clubs that conform to the new groove rules anytime soon. In a few years I will be ready for a new set, and the clubs I choose at that time will conform to the new rules.

One of our readers commented that they, “don’t believe the grooves are going to make a noticeable difference to the average player (myself included) which is why I am not going to worry about the rule change until I buy new clubs.” I completely agree with his thoughts. I believe that the average golfer will see absolutely zero difference in performance between current clubs and the clubs with the new grooves. The new rules are really designed to limit a Tour player’s ability to spin and stop the golf ball from the rough, so there’s little reason to jump into a new set if your current set still fits your needs.

The new grooves will create an increased demand on Tour pros to hit the fairway from the tee and discourage the “bomb-and-gouge” mentality. I think that’s a good thing for golf. You should be rewarded for hitting the ball in the fairway, and the clubs on Tour right now allow the players to stop the ball too quickly from the rough.

As long as you don’t have aspirations of playing on Tour in the near future, I think I’d refrain from quickly switching over to the conforming grooves unless you’re already in the market for some new sticks!

That’s it for the USGA groove rules change. What’s next? That depends on you. If you have any golf-related questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them next week.