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We must strive every day in our golf pursuits to ‘Keep It Stupid Simple’! Our golf lives will improve with this approach and attitude. How important are our ‘Approach Shots’, strikes to those ‘5/10/15 Foot Circles’? Oh, what a rhetorical question! Any substantial golfer … ‘Player’ … can hit his or her circles! Produces really great ‘Putting Numbers’ needed to be a champion! (see ‘Quadranting Greens’)

So, let us look at ‘Chipping & Pitching’ if you don’t mind?

A Putt is all ‘Run or Ground Distance and Time.

A Chip Is A Putt With A Hop … created primarily by the factory ‘Loft’ or by the tool. A Chip is mostly Run (Ground Distance and Time) with very little ‘Air Distance and Time’.

Being a bit of an old farm boy and house-building youth (mostly at Grampa’s insistence) we learned how to use and care for the tools-of-the-trade. We would NEVER leave our hammer out in the cold damp world … a fate flirting with death by Grampa or Dad!

One tool we used a lot in framing was a ‘Chalk Box & Line’. It was like an enclosed ‘Fishing Reel’ that contained chalk, a powdery substance that permeated the string line. Why? So as to be able to mark a straight line on the subfloor or anywhere for a useful purpose. When we fastened wall framing to the floor, we knew that the base plates were straight, true and square!

Golf loves ‘Straight, True, Square & On Length’ too! A ‘Stymp Meter’ is a wonderful golf tool.

‘SGGS‘ is the ultimate ‘Course Management’

In golf as in life, ‘Data Is Often Kingly’ … we need information to help us navigate our daily lives. Let’s get right to the point … things you might already know! ‘The 555 Golf System’ utilizes several highly efficient ‘Shot Making Frame-Works’ or procedures. Players make their shots predictably!

‘The CAD Sheet’ (Calibrated Average Distance) simply lists, on one sheet, all the clubs we generally use along with their ‘Optimal Carry Distances’ … Full Swing Driver on the top and Lob Wedge on the bottom. Therefore, after we ‘Laser’, we can simply pull the most efficient golf club so as to give the ‘Little White Ball’ a mighty whack on direction (line) and on distance! Carry and use your ‘CAD Sheet’!

When you get into an ‘Address Ready’ set-up condition, like the short stop ready to pounce upon a sharply hit grounder, you are in an ‘Athletic Balance’ but that may well not be appropriate or as needed by YOU. There is no ‘One Golf Swing’! You are unique and need that treatment!

In baseball we are ready to move in any direction, left, right, forward and back. In the golf full swing we are only preparing to invite and accomplish ‘Pivot or Coil’ and not to ‘Travel’. The golf swing is highly Head & Core Stable. It is not a ‘Go Any Where’ motion.

The ‘Primary Lower Body Machine or Core Articulating Joints’ (Ankles, Knees, Hips and Neck) are meant more to resist movement than they are to accomplish movement. (see ‘The Steady Head’) Mother Earth resists our ‘Thrust’. We brace and push off from her … step by step!

In golf, that is when the ball flight climbs steadily and keep climbing to a distinct top of trajectory, from which it falls sharply to the earth. We professionals refer to them as ‘Floaters’.

They do not go as far as we might hope … for a reason. They inefficiently consume a lot of energy with too much ‘Back or Under Spin’ that is contrary to our desire for distance and optimal roll … more Air and Ground Time.

Club factory ‘Loft’ factors. More ‘Loft’ produces higher ‘Launch Angle’.

Angel Of Attack (AOA) factors. The steeper your Clubface descends to the ball in the ‘DOFT’ phase (Down Out Forward & Through), the greater the ‘Back or Under Spin’ … usually negative condition. Your Driver requires and ‘Ascending Strike’. (see ‘Ball Location’)

Do not focus on where NOT to hit your shot! That is a ‘Negative Mental Image’ ... Hazards, Water, Grunge, OB. These invite stress and FEAR. Negative energy and chemistry never make much good happen! Do you know that a ‘Feared Target’ produces more ‘Negative Energy’ than a perfect ‘Positive Energy’ target that is sitting right in your face? We are very susceptible to bad chemistry!

It is where to hit your ball precisely that matters … most often just A To B … in straight lines! This simplicity is a ‘Positive Image’ that invites relaxation, COMFORT and Clubhead Speed. Positive energy and chemistry usually make good things happen!

Whatever you do on the golf pitch, strive towards feeding your ‘Probability Of Success’. (POS).

We get thousands of e-mails and text messages every month and are grateful for your efforts. We are here because we have been where you are! Without YOU we are just ink or type on a page.

Each person has unique physical and metal capacity. Thus, there is ‘No One Way’ to swing a Driver or any of our clubs. Remember, there are only two ‘Swing Limits’ … Full and Less Than Full. There are also only two ‘Swing Basics’ or types of swing … ‘The Push Basic (Putting & Chipping) and the Punch Basic’, which is ‘Pivot Pressure Generated’ or having ‘Brace Leg Drive’.

We thus have ‘Horizontal Plane, Round & Round Motion about our X or North South Polar Axes. This is a ‘Pivot or Core’ consideration and function. We also have ‘Vertical Plane, Up & Down Motion around our Y or Equatorial Axis’.

Your ‘555 Team’ gets really great questions from YOU every day … and we respond promptly. Thank you!

What is the ‘Power Line Delivery Sequence’? It is ‘Accumulate, Load, Store, Deliver & Release’ or our acronym ‘ALSDR’. This is about how we accomplish the ‘Back and Front Swings, better known as the ‘Back & Up, Transition and the ‘Down & Out’. Pitching an Underhanded Soft Ball reveals this mechanical reciprocity. We have to ‘Set-Up’ to accomplish the ‘Take-Away and Load Swing before we can undertake the Un-Load or Delivery & Release segment. Logical?

If you can grasp this baseline you shall be blessed! The Back Swing is accomplished ‘From The Outside-In and From The Top Down’. The ‘Tip Of The Balsa Airplane Propeller winds up the Body Rubber Band ‘From The Outside-In and From The Top Down. (see ‘ALS’)

A proper, logical and efficient golf ‘Set-Up’ is key. A good swing ‘Accumulates and Activates or Applies properly Stored or Potential Energy’ into its ‘Kinetic or Dynamic State’.

You get somewhere in the order of 3 yards per ‘Properly Applied Mile Per Hour’. Thus, creating an additional 7 or 8 MPH will get your ball ‘Out There’ as much as 25 more yards … lots of factors! 25 yards is two club lengths! Instead of coming at the flagstick with a 7 Iron, you might be using a 9 Iron or big wedge! Big deal? #PW beats #7 Irons into the ‘5 Foot Approach Putting Circle’.

‘Cutey, Swipey or Glancing blows are really counter-productive and disappointing! We must improve ‘Purity Of Strike’ without delay and then strive to maintain our ‘Quality Of Strike’.

Basics Never Go Out Of Style
Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention

I just saw one of my golf teaching friends deliver a ‘Faults & Fixes’ lesson. He is unquestioningly talented. A major part of his topical material was ‘Alignment and Clubhead Path’. You absolutely know our ‘5 Set-Ups’ (Posture, Grip, Stance, Ball Location & Alignment … no single golf swing is without all five!) You also know our ‘5 Essential Elements’ (Clubface Aim, Clubhead Path, Clubhead Speed, Sweet Spot & Angle Of Attack) ‘Swing Plane’ and your ‘Pivot Axis’ are key ingredients.

A very big personal concern! With so much focus on ‘Mastering Golf Basics’, my friend had no ‘Ground Stick’ (Alignment Rod) in place. He had no specific reference to ‘Target and Body Lines’. Thus, he had no specific reference for ‘Clubhead Path & Plane’. A ‘Big Miss’! Shame on us teaches when we are boldly neglectful! Our audience needs an ‘Alignment Reference’.