Breaking 100-90-80

By Jeff Ritter with Ron Kaspriske November 2008

Breaking 100

DRAW IT LIKE A KICKER

It's football season, so when you're not teeing it up you're likely to be on the couch watching your favorite team. Use that time wisely, and you can learn a few things about golf to help you reach your scoring goals. For instance, pay close attention to a kicker when he attempts a field goal. To draw the football through the uprights, he approaches the ball from the inside and kicks it with his foot turning over. Golfers should do the same: Strike the inside part of the ball with a closing clubface.

GOAL LINE: BREAK THE PLANE WITH YOUR DIVOT

When an offense is an inch away from a touchdown, all it has to do is move the tip of the football across the plane of the goal line to score. For crisp iron shots, pretend your golf ball is on the brink of the goal line. To punch through and score a touchdown, all you have to do is create a divot on the goal line—in other words, the divot should be in front of the ball. This thought will get you to swing down on an aggressive angle, make ball-first contact and then create a divot.

PERSONAL FOUL: DON'T TAKE UNNECESSARY RISKS

With his offense deep in its own territory, the coach tends to call plays conservatively. He doesn't call trick plays or risky passes—anything that can compound an already bad situation. When you get into trouble on the course, you're the coach. Throw a penalty flag on yourself if you consider playing aggressively with little chance of success. Your play should be to find the easiest way to get back in the fairway and try to make a bogey or better.

GAME PLAN: CALL TIMEOUT

How many times have you been standing over a shot, gotten distracted by something and still swung the club? You should never swing until you have your full attention on the shot at hand. Don't be afraid to call timeout on yourself, even in mid-swing, if something puts doubt in your mind or distracts you. Surely you've seen Tiger Woods back off the ball when something wasn't right. Anything that breaks your concentration can turn a good shot into a bad one.

Breaking 90

By Jeff Ritter with Ron Kaspriske November 2008

STRETCH THE DEFENSE: REGULATE YOUR BACKSWING TO GAIN YARDS

Football teams have pass plays designed to gain 20, 30 or even 40 yards at a time. When you hit pitch shots, use the same philosophy. Take your wedge and make backswings of three increasingly longer lengths. When you swing through, notice how the longer backswings produce longer shots. Chart how far you hit the ball with each backswing. Those are three stock yardages—your pass plays. If you have three wedges in your bag, you now have nine different yardages for pitch shots­ for a full arsenal of pass plays.

MOVE THE CHAINS: ADVANCE THE BALL ONE YARD AT A TIME

Players on offense know just how far they have to go to get another first down. On the green, you should have a good idea how hard to hit each putt to reach the cup. A drill that can help your distance control is to putt a ball one yard, then the next two yards, the next three, and so on. Focus on how hard you hit each putt, and try to ingrain this feel when you play. Remember to grip the putter lightly, especially on longer putts, so the club can release properly.

GAME PLAN: READY, SET, HIKE!

Just like a quarterback who gets his team ready for the start of a play by saying, "Ready, set, hike," you need to get your body and mind prepared to swing the club. A good pre-swing ritual to try: "Ready," lock your eyes on your target one last time before you look down at the ball; "set," activate your body with some kind of movement such as this Gary Player-inspired "trigger" of kicking the right knee in toward the target; "hike," take the club back smoothly to start the swing.

Breaking 80

By Jeff Ritter with Ron Kaspriske November 2008

HAIL MARY: LEARN THE HIGH DRAW

When it's late in the game and a team needs a big play, they've got no choice but to try something that's both risky and difficult to pull off. In golf, that Hail Mary play is the long, high draw. It's perhaps the toughest full-swing shot to hit. To do it, grab a long iron and set the face a touch open at address to gain more loft, playing the ball forward in your stance and tilting your right shoulder down. Make a long, slow backswing, and then swing down and shut the clubface through impact so you can make the ball draw. The face has to go from open to closed as it contacts the ball, so make sure you roll your forearms over as quickly as you can.

HIT THE HOLE: THE OLD TIRE DRILL IMPROVES TRAJECTORY

Quarterbacks throw footballs through a tire to improve their accuracy. It's also a great visual image to lower the trajectory of golf shots and improve accuracy. Lower shots are easier to keep on line because they spin less and aren't as influenced by wind. To bring your ball flight down, imagine a tire hanging only a few feet off the ground. Focus on that spot, which will help level your shoulders and place more body weight on your front foot—a key to lowering ball flight. Now take a little pace off the swing. I recommend using one club more than normal and gripping down one inch.

GAME PLAN: AT CRUNCH TIME, WATCH YOUR GRIP

Keeping your composure when the game is on the line is not only important in football, but also on the green. When tension and nervousness set in, the first place they usually manifest themselves is in your grip. If you squeeze too tightly, it's hard to keep the face square to your putting line and also make a good stroke. When you face a crucial putt, take your grip low on the shaft then slide it up to the desired height. You should be able to do this easily. That's good grip pressure.