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Free E-Mail Golf Newsletter
Vol 1, Issue 1, January 30, 2002

Penny Pulz, Editor
newsletter@pennypulzgolf.com

Happy New Year, now lets get this year going with a great game of golf!

Know Your 90º Angle For Perfect Aim

What a perfect subject to start the New Year newsletter off with. We’ve all made our New Year's resolutions. How many of them are broken or forgotten?  Here is a great New Year’s golf resolution.

• I promise to check my aim before I go out to play a game of golf.  

Oh, how I long for the day when I can see, every day, my 90 degrees to all golf shots without such mental strain as to distract me from my swing thought to target. 

Ah hah, the great truth to you, the golfer, who only THINKS she or he can SEE the exact line to the target for every golf shot. Hah, I say to such a pompous thought; that one can see the target line to every golf shot he or she plays without learning an aim check routine. Keep reading for my solution!

One of the most under estimated, and also the hardest and simplest little skill is to:

1. aim the clubface and your body to the target.

2. swing the club in the path set up by the ready position.

I know unequivocally that super duper aim today, may be super duper aim gone tomorrow. Check, check, and check every day that your aim is 1) sharp first in static, ready position; and 2) swing, swing, swing path to target.

* * * * I have more to coach you and I have the solution – read on. * * * *

Putting is critical to check every day. Each golfer will have the tendency to aim the clubface left or right of target, and then of course, the counter “band-aid” loopy swing will appear very quickly.  This is followed by more severe mental screw ups as we leave the aim check unchecked. 

I always teach my students how to aim the clubface and body to a target before teaching the corresponding swing path to target. You would think that as a retired tour player and now a golf coach who emphasizes emphatically the value of awesome aim; that I would not relegate such an important skill to the basement of my own golf check list. 

I share with you my latest screw up with this simple aim check. 

I am off to the Square 2 golf tournament in Palm Springs; my second competitive event of the year. I had a busy year teaching golf and only had one week to prepare. I played a couple of rounds and drilled my swing to achy, achy body to get the swing plane to match my posture. My full swing is grooving to the pin. 

Now on to putting; which is mentally shaky, physically lifeless. I feel lucky to make a putt. Not a good space to be in going to a professional golf tournie. I love the Betsy King putting aim routine. I teach it to all my beginners. Plunk the putter behind the ball; you aim the clubface from behind the ball and then step around and get your eye over the ball. The putter is aimed and off you go. Well, I was in the mental ozone of seeing the line and relied HEAVILY on the routine of aim to get the correct aim. Naturally I putted as if there was no hole on the green. I couldn’t make a 12 inch putt to save our score from total ruin. Thank heavens it was a team event. My partner saved us from total embarrassment. Doing an inventory of my tournament play at home, I was mortified and demoralized to realize that . . . . . . . . . . I broke my own golden rule.

• Check your aim

• Eye over the ball

• Swing in the putting tracks to get the correct feels for straight back and through

• Use the T-Tech to check for ball position and clubface alignment.  (Big aim tool here!)

• Then carry on with all the other stuff for putting after you have trained AIM AT TARGET.

Why did I share this sad little story? To emphasize to you that AIM CHECK is not a waste of time. It is the most important beginning to any practice session you have.

If you know your 90º angle and can see your 90º angle to every golf shot and you will have perfect ball position and a very good chance of a perfect swing path every time. Wow!!!  How do you see this 90º angle?

Here is a solution; I found this little alignment tool to help you with this confounding aim problem; a T-Tech. Its light, portable and effective. You can buy one from me; $20. Don’t be dopey dora like me and forget to use the T-Tech on the putting green and have to be embarrassed at my lack of putting prowess at a competitive event. Use it every time you practice for the first 15 balls or until you have observed enough to see your 90º angle.  Use it on the putting green and on the driving range.  Sharpen your eye and your aim.  Click here to see at my website the T-Tech.

Till next time,
Your favorite golf teacher/coach

Penny

My instruction brochure can be seen at my website, download it if you wish.  I believe in personalized training, there is an instruction option for everyone. Please email any of your questions about golf instruction.

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We welcome your questions, comments, suggestions and ideas; email newsletter@pennypulzgolf.com.

Penny Pulz
LPGA Tour Professional, 
LPGA Teaching and Club Professional, Class A
2 Time LPGA Champion, 
Golf Coach, Golf Schools
Motivational Speaker, Author
ppgolf@pennypulzgolf.com