@VokeyWedges Seminar at #PGAShow #RinkersGolfTips

Last Wednesday, January 22, 2014, Bob Vokey spoke and did a seminar at the PGA Show for the Titleist Staff professionals. He went over the new Spin Mill 5's or SM5's coming out in March and described the different grinds available. He talked about the difference between the effective bounce (what you have at impact) vs bounce angle (which is built into the club.)

Low Bounce: L Grind 14 degrees of bounce, but effective bounce 4 degrees. Firm conditions.
Mid-Bounce: T Grind only on the 62 degree wedge which has a forward and trailing bounce. S Grind Full Sole
Mid/High Bounce: M Grind The grind that I use and it's for players who like to play different shots. F Grind Full Soles Most forgiving wedge.
High Bounce: K Grind High lofted only.

I personally like the M grind because it is a mid to high bounce and the sole allows the player to open and square the club face to hit different trajectory shots. I asked Voke why he made mid-lofted wedges 54-56 with only 8 degrees of bounce and he said they are not going that low with the bounce anymore on those wedges. Lowest will be 10 degrees. Voke also talked about swing types for bounce and someone with a more up and down swing, which I prefer and teach with a sand wedge, can use more bounce. A flatter swing could use less bounce.

I'm looking forward to getting my SM5's in March. For the record I play a 55/12 and a 60/10 with the M grind. For my students I recommend SM5's with a 54/10 and a 58/8 all in the M Grind. These can be bent to a 55/11 and a 59/9 if you add one degree of loft to those wedges. Add a degree of loft = adding a degree of bounce. I've been playing Vokey Wedges since they came out on Tour in the late 1990's.

#RinkersGolfTips Short Game Seminar with James Sieckmann

PGA Tour Short Game Coach, James Sieckmann visited the Core Golf Academy on Thursday, January 23rd and did a presentation for the coaches and then worked with the students on their short games. James said he watched Seve Ballesteros and Raymond Floyd, two of the best short game players of all time, and came up with his short game program based on these two Hall of Famers.

To me it was a breathe of fresh air to hear a short game coach talking about the club head swinging and passing the body on these shots. James said the club head moves first and fastest from the top of the swing with the finesse wedges inside of 30 yards. He explained the sequence from the top with 3D graphs, and the 3D graphs showed the finesse wedge shot is not the same kinematic sequence as the power golf swing. Different mechanics.  
Here are some highlights.
Set-up
1. Weak trail hand grip.
2. Where chest is at set-up determines the bottom of the arch which you want in front of the ball.
Swing
1. Swing plane. Handle and club head on plane. Right elbow has to fold or external rotation on the back swing. Yips in chipping is caused by under the plane with a shut or closed club face.
2. Shaft lean at address will match shaft lean three inches past impact.
3. Energy always flows to the pin.
4. Tension ruins motion.
5. Wanted students to hit four trajectories to the same pin.
6. Said lob wedge should be 2 degrees flatter than 6-I and SW one degree flatter than 6-I.
7. Want to expose the bounce with the club head is passing the body.

James also talked about bunker play,distance wedges, and how to practice with block, random, and tests or playing games. It was a great seminar and it was nice to hear someone who coaches the mechanics of the short game very similar to the way I do.

#RinkersGolfTips #PGA Show #TPI

Great seminar at the PGA Show with Dave Phillips and Greg Rose of TPI or Titleist Performance Institute. The focus was on power and how to get more club head speed. 
Rose's top three exercises were:
1. Train both sides of body for power. Be explosive in the opposite direction.
2. Overload vs Over speed. Make it harder, make it easier. Run uphill and then run downhill. Live in over speed swinging a bat, throwing a baseball, swinging a club. Swing a heavier club first, then swing your driver, then swing the lightest club. 6 balls each.
3. Sprinting. 

Power technique.
1. Load the back leg. Let lower body and head move in the back swing. Lift left heel off the ground for right handed golfer.
2. Get your hands high at the top of your back swing with a bent lead arm. 100% width with the lead arm at the top doesn't mean anything. Want to go from narrow at the top to wide going through the impact area.
3. Squat down in downswing and jump through impact. Power is coming through the traction in the ground. After the lower body shifts, the trail foot, leg, and knee fire first and then the forward leg pushes up from the ground rotating the lead hip as the club head goes flying through impact.

#RinkersGolfTips January 19, 2014

@RinkersGolfTips on @SiriusXMPGATOUR Host @LarryRinker had on special guest Dr. Bob Winters, who specializes in Sports Vision and Sports Medicine. Dr. Bob has a new book coming out Masters week titled, Mistake-Free Golf, which goes over the nine most common mental errors all golfers make. Dr. Bob said, "The most important number in golf is one and that is the next shot." He stated that many golfers have conditional confidence, which is results orientated, and therefore susceptible to a loss of confidence after one poor shot. Another mental error is worrying about what other people think or social evaluation anxiety. Dr. Bob said, "we have to play our game, not someone else's and it's just you, the ball, and the target. Disconnect from everything else." To gain trust in your game, there is the building block of composure. With repeated exposure to being uncomfortable, which he described as stretching your risk potential, we learn how to better execute when it matters most to us. Lastly he said, "KISS which is not keep it simple stupid, but keep it simple and specific." RinkersGolfTips is on weekly 9:00-10:00 am EST on Sirius 208 and XM 93.

January Golf Tip-Putting-Module I Rinker Five Fundamentals

Many people have come to me for help with their putting. To putt well you need to master four things: 1 Set-up, 2 path and clubface, 3 rhythm and tempo, and 4 mental focus. Over the years I have had to continually work on all four of these skills sets to improve my putting. When I had the yips in college and also when I fist turned pro (yes I had them twice), my mental focus was the issue. I had to change what success meant, and in college, that was a smooth stroke where the ball rolled nicely. At least the ball now had a chance to go in the hole. Then I had to work on my path because I was cutting my putts. I remember hitting 50 putts every night in a track to get my stroke more straight back and straight through. My first year on Tour, I struggled with the speed of the greens, and finally realized that I was decelerating with my putter. I shortened my backstroke, and worked on my rhythm and tempo to be able to putt Tour speed greens more aggressively. Lastly I had to keep an eye on repeating a consistent set-up. In 1990 my dad and I worked on maintaining the fundamentals of a solid set-up, and I led the Tour in putting. I've pretty much been a good putter ever since. If you are struggling with your putting, identify one skill set that you think would help your putting the most, and work on that.

Student finds the sweet spot!

Here's an email that I received from one of my students who did a full day private with me on Thursday January 16th: "Thank you so much Larry. I played at Eagle Marsh today and my full swing shots were awesome. I only missed the sweet spot with 2 swings. Have not done that in years. I will keep in touch."

Ken

Rinker's Golf Tips January 2014-Putting