LessonTee Ernie s Easy Tips By Ernie Els Golf Digest Playing Editor stay smooth Fight the urge to rush down from the top with your fairway woods. My 80 percent rule It will turn your fairway woods into scoring clubs Even though hybrids are more popular than ever (and easy to hit), you still have to be able to handle your fairway woods to have a complete long game. If you can hit your 3- and 5-woods with confidence from the fairway, par 5s become birdie opportunities and 420-yard par 4s are a lot less scary. When you re hitting a fairway wood, you ve got a lot of real estate to cover to get to your target. Your first instinct is probably to give it a little more power, because you re worried about coming up short. But if you try to hit it hard, you ll tend to speed up your transition at the top and get out of sync. Lunging at the ball from the top leads to a lot of pulls and slices. You ll get better results and often more distance if you swing at 80 percent effort. I almost never hit a shot all out, and I make a conscious effort to swing my long clubs just as I do my wedges. Keep this in mind when hitting your fairway woods. Ernie Els writes instruction articles only for Golf Digest. For more tips from Els, click golfdigest.com/els. ernieisms changing it up I rarely change equipment during the season, but before the Byron Nelson I went back to an old Ping putter I had in my garage. It was a confidence boost, and I led the field in fewest putts for the week. tough choices The championship series the PGA Tour is starting next year is going to put pressure on players who want to support both the PGA and European tours. I ll have to miss events I like because they don t fit my new schedule. 36 GolfDigest.com august 2006 getty images

make me better 1. ADDRESS Think of your knees as shock absorbers for the motion you re about to create. 1. break 2. YOUR 3. SWING 4. into 5. segments 1 0 2 / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 p h oto g r a p h s b y / J. D. C U B A N

by sean foley GOLF DIGEST TEACHING PROFESSIONAL WITH RON KASPRISKE Whether I m working with Tiger Woods, an elite college player, or a once-a-month golfer, the following statement holds true: There are no shortcuts to getting better. You re going to have to put in some work. That s the bad news. The good news is: If you follow my advice, the things you have to do to improve and make that improvement last can be fairly simple. I m a big believer in working on one thing at a time. So to help you get started, I ve broken down the swing into five segments. Within each segment I ll give you a single element to focus on. If you work on any one of them, you should begin to see positive changes in your swing. And if you spend time practicing all five, I guarantee you ll be a better golfer in 2011. 1. address Build a powerful platform So many golfers would get better by simply improving their address posture. The guys I teach on tour set up in different ways, but the one common denominator is that they feel the ground under their feet. They get into a position where their legs are like shock absorbers (left), and they re poised to use the ground to create force. They re virtually gripping the ground with their feet. To get a feel for this, try making some swings in your bare feet. Your goal is to feel the ground under you at address, and then pay attention to your footing as you swing. Unless you re properly grounded, it s tough to control a swing with any power. 2. TAKEAWAY turn everything back together When I ask amateurs to show me how they start back, most will move the club away with only their hands and arms. What I want to see is the hands and arms moving in sequence with the rotation of the upper torso. All three should move together as one unit until the left arm gets parallel to the ground at that point the swing s momentum will keep the hands and arms on plane. This first part of the swing is crucial to staying in sync. Ingrain this feeling of everything moving together by stretching a towel across your chest with the ends under your armpits. Practice starting back while holding the towel in position (below). 2. TAKEAWAY If the towel stays in place, your hands, arms and shoulders are moving together.

3. AT THE TOP Practice with your right foot dropped back to get the feel of a full hip turn. 3. AT THE TOP INCREASE YOUR HIP TURN You might have been told to make a backswing where your left shoulder is under your chin. That way you know you ve reached the top and can start down. This isn t the worst advice I ve ever heard, but it s possible to turn that left shoulder under the chin without rotating your upper torso much at all and that can put too much emphasis on the arms. It s better to focus on your hip turn. Ideally, your hips turn away from the target as much as they can. Here s a great drill for feeling the proper rotation: Make practice backswings while posting up on your right toe. Your right foot should be set back about two feet from its normal position (left). This allows the hips to turn freely. If you don t turn them, it s difficult to keep your balance at the top. 4. IMPACT For solid contact, the pencil should point off your left side through the hit. 4. impact THINK ABOUT THE SHAFT, NOT THE BALL T his can be a difficult concept for amateurs to grasp, but if you want to use the club properly and hit the ball flush, the bottom of your swing has to be in front of the ball. Your shaft should be leaning toward the target at impact, and the divot should start after you strike the ball. But if you re focusing too hard on hitting the ball, your wrists can break down as you try to scoop it into the air. It s much easier to hit solid shots if you focus on the shaft: You want it pointing ahead of your body at impact (left). To help ingrain this move, stick a pencil into the butt end of the club (inset) and practice chipping and pitching with the pencil pointing ahead of your body through impact. Once that becomes easy, move up to full swings with the same goal. 5. finish GET TALLER FOR MORE POWER It s no secret that tour pros use the ground to create force to hit the ball farther. So when students tell me they re trying to stay in their posture to the finish, I shake my head. This really restricts the body s ability to continue rotating and leads to back injuries. Instead, I want you to keep your arms extended and push your belt buckle up and toward the target, which will allow you to finish tall. It ll feel as if you re pushing off the ground. A useful drill is to get in your impact position, then push up with your pelvis and stand tall into your finish (right). sean foley, a Golf Digest Best Young Teacher, works at Orange County National Golf Center in Winter Garden, Fla. His PGA Tour students include Hunter Mahan, Sean O Hair, Justin Rose and Tiger Woods.

make me better 5. FINISH Push your pelvis up as you swing through to get as tall as you can at the finish. MAKE ME better: Test, track + tweak your game it s easy and free With spokesman Sean Foley, Golf Digest s Make Me Better is ready to help you for the sixth straight year. An online gameimprovement program for golfers of all abilities, it gives you the best instruction from the best teachers and players, all in an easy-to-use format. And it costs you nothing. Here s a look: check your vitals Tour pros decide what to work on by looking at their stats, and so should you. With stats partner shotbyshot.com, we ll show you what to keep track of and how to do it. If you re like a lot of golfers even the pros you might be surprised by what you discover. work out a plan Once you know where you need help, it s time to get organized. You ll be able to flip through a vast archive of Golf Digest instruction and select the tips and lessons you like. Or pick your favorite Golf Digest expert, from Butch Harmon and David Leadbetter to Jack Nicklaus and Phil Mickelson. track your game Post your scores using our program scorecard, and you ll immediately get a long- and short-game handicap. By splitting your game in half, you ll quickly see your best opportunities to improve. And these handicaps will update with every round you play. GET A FREE LESSON Got nagging swing faults? Follow the simple instructions to send in a video of your swing. We ll have a top instructor analyze it and provide quick feedback. Get all this and more with Make Me Better 2011. Isn t it about time you do something for your game? Check it out at golfdigest.com/makemebetter.

lesson tee david leadbetter learn from the legends a small man with big power Gary Player, despite his 5-foot-7 frame, was always a solid striker of the ball. In his era, there was a lot of talk about the rolling of the ankles to shift the weight. You can see that here. As with many players back then, Gary had an active, kneesy lower body as he transferred his weight on the downswing. This is not something you commonly observe with today s players. There s more focus now on stability, where the left foot stays flat on the ground throughout the swing. SNAP IT chips: Keep your left wrist firm Use a putting-style grip to ensure solid contact 28 / G O L F D I G EST. C O M / C hipping, especially from longer distances, requires a lot of feel. You need some wrist action to control the distance, spin and trajectory of the shot. Unfortunately, many golfers overuse their wrists. The left wrist breaks down at impact, causing them to blade or chunk the shot. Your goal should be to keep your left wrist relatively firm through the swing, which helps you hit down crisply on O C TO B E R 2 0 1 0 the ball and keep the clubface square to the target. It s much easier to keep the left wrist solid by chipping with a putting-style grip, which is a variation of the common Vardon (or overlapping) grip. Simply invert the pinky and index fingers that connect your hands (above) so your left index finger rests outside your right-hand fingers (called the reverse-overlap grip). You ll keep your left wrist firm. Everything else is standard for chipping slightly open stance, ball position well back of center, a little hinging of the wrists in the backswing, etc. But the grip change will stabilize that left wrist for more predictable contact. Dav i d L e a d b e t t e r is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional based at ChampionsGate near Orlando. He operates 26 golf academies worldwide. P H OTO G R A P H S B Y / stephen szurlej golf digest resource center tipsplus To see video on this lesson, click golfdigest.com /go/tipsplus. Or visit gettag.mobi from your current smartphone and download the free app to snap a photo of this coded image. For help, go to golfdigest.com/go/tag.

lesson tee JIM McLEAN tee time Stick a tee in the grip, and make sure it points at one spot from start to finish. chipping: don t drag the handle Why hands ahead is killing your short game M ost golfers have been taught to chip by pushing their hands ahead of the ball at address, then dragging the handle through impact with the hands leading the clubhead. The thinking is, this creates a downward strike for solid contact. But trying to keep the hands ahead often causes the left arm to pull the butt end of the club away from center, which actually makes it harder to catch the ball flush. The best chippers make a small pivot or body turn toward the target as they swing through. This helps keep the arms and body moving in sync. To groove this, try my tee drill: Stick a tee in the butt end of the grip, set up with the tee pointing just forward of your belly button, and keep it pointing at that spot throughout the swing. Play the ball slightly back in your stance, and put more weight on your left side. As you swing, retain the triangle formed by your arms and shoulders. The tee in the grip should stay close to your body and move to the left as you turn through the shot (above, left). And it should stay pointed at the spot where it started (above, right). That proves your arms and body are in sync, and your chipping is sure to improve. jim m clean, a Golf Digest Teaching Professional, is based at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami. walter iooss jr. 3 6 / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M / n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1 TIP FOR OUR VIDEO-LESSON LIBRARY, CLICK GOLFDIGEST.COM/GO/TIPSPLUS P H OTO G R A P H S B Y / N A M E H E R E

II ve been fortunate to work with some of the best short-game players ever guys like Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Jose Maria Olazabal. What I ve learned from these players is that greatness around the green comes from always picking the right shot, then totally committing to it. No second-guessing it, no flipping or scooping at impact. If you commit and make a positive swing, you re virtually guaranteed to do three things right: (1) accelerate through the ball; (2) shift to your front foot; and (3) deliver the same clubface loft at impact as you set down at address. Those are the three biggies. Here I ll show you how to use them and a few other tips on five shots you face every round. 5 shots to save your game by butc h h a r m o n / golf digest teaching professional / WITH PETER MORRICE 8 8 / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M / d e c e m B E R 2 0 1 0

T H E so f t lo b 1 SWING LONG AND LAZY E very golfer wants to be able to hit the lob shot; the smart ones use it only when no other shot will do. The first thing you have to realize is that you need a decent lie a little cushion under the ball to have a good chance of pulling it off. Take your most lofted wedge, play the ball just forward of center and open the clubface. (For extra loft, weaken your left-hand grip by setting your left thumb on top of the handle instead of down the right side.) The open face will let you slide the club under the ball without the toe turning over through impact. Swing back about threequarters, and make a gradually accelerating pass through the ball. The open face will send the ball high, so commit to accelerating. Don t think about hitting the ball: Make a long, smooth swing, and turn your body to the target. KEY MOVE Swing to a full finish, with your weight on your front foot. When the clubface is open, you need a long swing to apply enough power to get the ball to the hole. COMMON FAULT Trying to lift the ball, many golfers fall back and flip the club up. This leads to chunks or skulls. Shift to your left, and turn through, trusting the loft on the clubface. P H OTO G R A P H S B Y / j J. D d. Cc u b a n

P I TC H -a n d - ru n HIT IT WITH FIRM WRISTS With a fairway lie and plenty of green to work with, the pitch-and-run is the best shot to play. There s no reason to fly the ball all the way to the hole even if you do see the pros doing it on TV. Using your 9-iron or wedge, play the ball middle to slightly back in your stance and push your hands and weight forward. Get a clear focus on where you want to land the ball to run it to the hole. (It s a good idea to carry it onto the green for a predictable bounce.) Swing the club straight back about halfway, and accelerate into the back of the ball, finishing with your arms and club pointing at the hole. Think of this as an arms-andbody swing: Turn your body and swing your arms through together. Resist the urge to help the shot at impact with your hands. 2 KEY MOVE Use minimal wrist hinge on the backswing. Unhinging adds swing speed, making it tougher to judge the distance of the shot. COMMON FAULT Even from 30 or 40 yards, I see some players making a full backswing. Then they realize they ve created too much swing, so they ease off on the way down and usually mis-hit the shot. 9 0 / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M /

HOLD THE CLUBFACE OPEN When you miss a green on the same side as the hole, you re left with a touchy little shot that s easy to leave in the grass or chip too far. The secret is making solid contact and controlling the amount of hit you put on the ball. Pick your most lofted wedge, and play the ball back in your stance with the clubface square or slightly open. Take a narrow stance with your weight forward and your hands well ahead of the clubhead. From there, make a firm little swing, dropping the clubhead behind the ball. You re trying to just pop it forward, so don t worry about swinging through. And don t let the clubface close through impact; that takes the loft and softness out of the shot. The correct feel is, you re hitting it with the back of your left hand. KEY MOVE At address, lean on your front foot and angle the shaft forward. Your priority is to hit the ball solid, and because the swing is so short, these setup positions will do it. 3 COMMON FAULT Amateurs tend to play the ball forward and set their weight back. They think they can hit a softer shot this way, but they usually catch it fat or thin. s h o rt-s i d e d p o p D E C E M b e r 2 0 1 0 / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M / 9 1

MAKE A STEEP SWING Digging the ball out of a buried lie and hitting it with touch might seem like an impossible combination, but it s not. You have to understand that you re going to trap some grass between the clubface and the ball at impact. The trick is catching the ball as cleanly as you can. Your sand wedge is the best choice here because you can use the extra weight in the sole to slide the clubface under the ball. With your weight forward, play the ball in the middle of your stance, and make a steep backswing by hinging your wrists right off the ball. On the downswing, throw the clubhead into the grass behind the ball. Don t think about making a follow-through the resistance of the heavy grass will slow the momentum of the club. KEY MOVE To create the correct motion, picture the letter V: The steeper you swing the club back and down, the higher the ball will pop out on the other side. COMMON FAULT If you don t hinge your wrists going back, you ll make a shallow swing into the ball. As a result, the clubhead will catch too much grass before impact. 4 d e e p - r o u g h c h i p 9 2 / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M / d e c e m B E R 2 0 1 0

SNAP IT tipsplus To see video on this lesson, click golfdigest.com/go/tipsplus. Or visit gettag.mobi from your current smartphone and download the free app to snap a photo of this coded image. For help, go to golfdigest.com/go/tag. b u n k e r b l ast 5 SLAP IT WITH THE RIGHT HAND With a bunker lip to get over, you need clubface loft and swing speed to create height. Your first priority is putting the ball on the green; second is getting it close. Use your lob or sand wedge, and play the ball forward, opposite your front instep, so the club can enter the sand a couple of inches behind the ball. Swing back about threequarters, and accelerate the club into and through the sand. Don t cut across the ball, as you ve probably been told; that only adds sidespin. Swing out to the flag. It s a very right-handed swing: Feel as if you re slapping the sand with your right hand. KEY MOVE For more loft, angle the shaft away from the target at address. To do this, move the ball forward but keep your hands in line with the inside of your front leg. COMMON FAULT Many players try to open the face by pushing the grip toward the target and turning the right hand under. This exposes the hosel, leading to thin shots or shanks. / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M / 9 3

lesson tee Best young teachers TIP TO SEE A VIDEO ON THIS LESSON, CLICK GOLFDIGEST.COM/GO/TIPSPLUS don t get bit Draw lines behind and in front of the ball, and imagine them as snakes. Then get em outta there. hate snakes? try this Groove a good bunker swing with this killer image If you tend to skull the ball out of greenside bunkers, you likely have a reputation with your playing partners. They watch you closely out of self-preservation. Check your spine angle. It just might save someone s life. Seriously, many golfers hit these shots because they set up with their spine leaning away from the target like on a driver swing. In the sand, this leads to the club bottoming out too far behind the ball. The farther back the club contacts the sand, the greater your chances of hitting the ball on the upswing and blading it. My snake drill can help you eliminate these shots. When you practice, scrape a line in the sand a few inches behind the ball and another line a few inches in front (above, left). I tell students to pretend these lines are snakes that you want to knock out of the sand. (People hate snakes almost as much as they hate bunkers.) Play the ball opposite your front heel, and tilt your spine two inches toward the target. Swing back halfway, and on the downswing try to hit the first snake. If you keep the club moving, you ll catch the second snake, too (right). And you ll execute a perfect explosion. tom stickney Age 39 Lesson rate $200/hour Facility Bighorn G.C., Palm Desert, Calif.; The Club at Cordillera (Colo.) Contact 970-904-2485 Background I played for the University of Memphis, then tried the mini-tours but quickly got into teaching. My first round as a pro got me on track: I shot 74, and the guy I played with shot 64. I said to myself, I need to get a real job. Best lesson I once worked for a pro named Bob Kinard in Boca Grande, Fla. He taught on a range that was only 120 yards long. He d say, They gotta be able to hit it here first. Point is, you have to learn to crawl before you can run hurdles. 4 4 / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M / M ay 2 0 1 1 P H OTO G R A P H S B Y / s t e p h e n s z u r l e j

breaking get it out In the sand, start with your hands back. Keep your weight left, and swing the clubhead end, not the grip end, fast. 100/90/80 by Stan Utley Golf Digest Professional Advisor with Matthew Rudy Ranked No. 6 on Golf Digest s 50 Greatest Teachers in America, Utley is based at the Grayhawk Golf Learning Center in Scottsdale. Adapted from the new book The Art of Scoring, by arrangement with Gotham Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright 2009 by Stan Utley. 192 pages, $26. Learn the art of scoring scoring is a kind of vision a way of seeing the variety of shots you can hit in a given situation. And I know from firsthand experience it s a vision you can learn. On and around the greens, develop the ability to see the options tour players see, and pick the one that matches your skill, confidence level and risk tolerance. Then understand the mechanics of how to hit it. You have more choices than you think: For example, the basic bunker shot I m hitting above works just as well from grass as a lob. On the next three pages, I ll demonstrate a short-game shot and give a strategy tip for each level of player. PHOTOGRAPHS BY / J.D. Cuban october 2009 / GOLFDIGEST.COM / 131

strategy Keep your read fresh You want to preserve the instinctive connection between your brain s ability to judge spatial relationships and the putting stroke. I recently played a round with a 10-handicapper who had a good short game, but he went through a PGA Tourcaliber green-reading routine, then froze over the putt in his address position for almost a full minute before he pulled the club back. His stroke was actually pretty good, but he wasn t getting the kind of results he should have. An unfocused, drawn-out routine like that robs you of some fantastic built-in skill you already have. Once you make your read and get a feel for the distance, the moment you look away from your target and get into your putting setup that visualization starts to deteriorate. After 30 seconds, you ve essentially forgotten all of the read information you acquired. Your goal should be to spend no more than 20 seconds between your final read and starting your stroke. technique feel is in your fingertips If you don t worry about anything else in your putting stroke, lock down these two fundamentals, and you ll improve right away. First, make sure the putter grip is in line with your right forearm, not hanging below it (below). This helps the putter swing easily on the right swing plane. Second, set your hands so the grip runs through the lifelines of your palms and you re holding the handle mostly with your fingertips (right). If you were tossing a penny, you wouldn t set it in your open palm; you d hold it in your fingertips, for feel. That s what you want when you re putting. touchy feely Having nine of 10 fingertips touching the grip gives me more feel. Y N breaking 100 132 / GOLFDIGEST.COM / october 2009 PHOTO illustrations BY / jim luft

pitching setup Muscle tension kills short shots: Let your arms hang and your knees flex. breaking 90 technique Erase the tension on pitches If you get into a rigid, locked position, you re never going to have a good short game. To hit good pitch shots, set up so your arms hang loosely from your shoulders and your feet are close together, to make it easier to rotate (left). To hit the shot, pivot through instead of swinging your arms independently at the ball. The butt of the club should stay pointed at your belt buckle the whole time, which keeps the bounce on the bottom of the club exposed to the ground (below, top photo). If you flip your hands over (bottom), the club will dig into the turf instead of skid the way you want. Y N strategy picking the right trajectory Some situations call for a specific kind of shot. Others present choices. When you re close to the hole but with some fringe between you and the green, you have to diagnose the conditions. If you have a sketchy lie in the fringe (or you re really feeling pressure), your best bet is to keep the ball on the ground. Putting is a good option, or you can make a putting stroke with a hybrid club, which helps shoot the ball out if it s sitting down. If you use a lofted club, pick a specific landing spot on the green (right), then read the rest of the shot as you would a putt. I like to play low shots that run out like a putt, but lofted pitches are useful if the flag is on a different tier. FOR A VIDEO LESSON, CLICK GOLFDIGEST.COM/GO/TIPSPLUS. TIP

strategy matching aim with read You can do everything right with your read and still make a basic mistake that will cause you to miss a lot of putts. The common fault is to focus on the hole, not the apex of the break, during the setup and alignment process (below, bottom photo). That forces you to steer your stroke to start the ball on line instead of letting the putter swing naturally on a good path. Once you ve picked the apex of the break, go through your pre-putt routine from behind the ball facing the apex point (below, top) then align yourself square to that point, not the hole (right). Now trust your read and make the stroke. 80 breaking Y N get in line You need to set up square to the apex of the break, not to the hole. technique simplifying the lob shot Instead of contorting yourself into an open stance with a low right shoulder to try to scoop a shot high into the air, use your basic bunker setup for a nearly foolproof lob shot. Set your feet shoulder-width apart, your spine tilted left and your hands slightly behind the ball which adds loft to the club (far left). Then, using very little arm swing, hinge your wrists aggressively (left, middle), keeping the end of the grip directly in front of you. Unhinge your wrists fast through impact to produce the speed to shoot the ball up in the air (near left), letting your left wrist cup and your left elbow slide along your side. See how the face is pointed straight up in the air? That s how to get loft. 134 / GOLFDIGEST.COM / october 2009

4 things you should do, but don t by dave stockton w i t h r o n k a s p r i s k e Ddo me a favor and sign your name on a piece of paper. See how quick and easy that was? Now try to slowly duplicate that signature. Not so easy. The reason is, you re thinking about it and not tapping into your subconscious, the way you did when you signed the first time. Putting is no different. The best putters see their target line and then roll the ball on that line, just like you saw the paper and then signed it. The lesson is, keep it natural, and don t let yourself get bogged down by anything. With the help of my sons, Ron and Dave Jr., I ve developed a philosophy that focuses on this notion but also incorporates basic tips for improving your setup and stroke the same tips I ve given major champions like Phil Mickelson and Yani Tseng. Our method might really differ from what you do now, but it s the most effective way to roll the ball into the hole. 74 / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M / o c to b e r 2 0 1 0

1 Lead with your left If you shot a free throw with your right hand only, you d realize you need your left hand as a guide. The same is true on the greens: The left hand is the direction hand, and it s just as important as the right. Practice putting left-hand-only (above), or have someone hold a club in front of your hands on the target line. Bump the grip with the back of your hand, not your fingers, like Dave Jr. is doing (left). p h oto g r a p h S b y / wa lt e r i o o s s j r.

2 think roll, not hit USe your fingers 3 Grip the putter any way you like, as long as it doesn t hinder your left hand s role in the stroke. But make sure to grip the club in your fingers. The shaft should run up the lifeline of your left hand for clubface control, but your fingers must contact the grip (above). You can drop the right forefinger down the shaft, but don t steer with it. Forget about what your palms are doing. Fingers equal feel. The key to distance control is to roll the ball, not hit it. To do this, take an open stance, your weight slightly favoring your left side and your putter shaft leaning toward the target (above). The open stance makes it easier to feel the left hand going out and down the target line. The forward lean offsets the 4 degrees of loft I recommend for a putter and helps the ball roll smoothly. When you make the stroke, keep the putterhead low to the ground past impact, like Ron is demonstrating (left). The putter will ascend slightly, but don t try to hit up on the ball whoever told you to do that was wrong, because it makes the ball hop. 7 6 / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M / o c to b e r 2 0 1 0

4 SPOT THE SPOT If you stare at the ball too long at address, it s easy to get brain-locked and hit a bad putt. To avoid this, I don t even look at the ball. Try looking at a spot just in front of the ball on your target line and rolling the ball over that spot. Put a tee in the ground in front of the ball when you practice (left). This gets you thinking about the target line instead of the stroke the opposite of what most golfers do. Another trick to free your mind is to picture the ball going in on the high side of the hole on a breaking putt. Most golfers miss low. For this left-to-right putt (below), I want the ball to enter the cup well left of center. Do you get ball-bound? Look at a spot just in front of it. MORE LESSONS Based in Southern California, Ron, Dave Sr. and Dave Jr. have been teaching together for several years and have worked with Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Yani Tseng and Morgan Pressel, among other tour players. Now it s your turn. Go to golfdigest.com/go/putting to watch Dave demonstrate his preputt routine. You also can attend one of their schools, including events at the Grand Del Mar in San Diego on Oct. 1, Oct. 29 and Dec. 10. o c to b e r 2 0 1 0 / G O L F D I G E S T. C O M / 7 7