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Blog Tag Line Contest Winner!!!

Posted on September 1st, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

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We have a winner!

Thanks to all of you who participated in our Blog Tag Line contest. The goal was to come up with a tag line – a phrase underneath the banner header image – that helped to explain what the site was all about. When you visit a website the header and tag line are among the first things you see, and I wanted to convey to readers a simple message that lets them know they are in the right spot.

We had over 700 entries for the tag line contest. They were awesome. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your input and creativity. It was very cool reading through each and every one of them. Maureen and I had to think long and hard about the few that made it to the top of our list.

In the end it came down to what YOU want.

When students come to me for lessons, no matter what the goals are for the session it always seems to boil down to just a couple of things: They want to be more consistent, and they want to play with confidence.

It makes the game enjoyable. It usually makes for better scores.

And that’s the goal of the website.

I want you to feel at home when you are on my site, and I think the new tag line will really reinforce the idea of finding compelling and practical resources to help with the things you want most.

My thanks again to all of you who participated. Special thanks to our contest winner Kevin Powers of Northern California for submitting the winning entry. Our final tag line is slightly different than Kevin’s original suggestion, but we really felt he nailed what it is most golfers are looking for and gave us the core of the tag line.

I’ll be sending Kevin a flip camera, and I’ve asked him to video his swing and send it to me so that we could work together to help him play consistent, confident golf.

Thanks again!

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// Category: In The News, Target Centered Golf, golf//

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Journey to the Worlds: Regional Long Drive Championship Results

Posted on September 1st, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

Come along with me as I travel to Mesquite, NV to compete in the Regional Long Drive Championship.

The Regionals are where the winners from all the local long drive qualifying tournaments go to battle it out for just 4 invitations to the World Championships.

Here is my video log. I flew into Las Vegas, rented a car, and drove an hour north to Mesquite. Can you say hot? It was 114 degrees in Las Vegas. We teed it up the next morning at 7:00 am to avoid the worst of the heat, and hit until about 10:30.

For those of you who don’t know about long drive tournaments, here’s a brief summary.

Each golfer hits a set of 6 golf balls from the tee, and they have to hit within a time limit of 2 minutes 45 seconds. The balls have to land in the grid and stay in the grid to count. The grid is 50 yards wide and 450 yards long. The longest ball of your set, including carry and roll-out, is your drive for that set. The tournament is a double-elimination format. The field is randomly divided into six brackets with 8 competitors in each bracket. Half the bracket – the top 4 longest hitters – advance to the next winners bracket. The other half fall to the consolation bracket. Each time you go through a bracket the field is reduced by 50% until you get to the final 4 competitors. The top two in the finals are the winners and get an automatic bid to the World Championships.

My goal in this competition was to earn one of those invitations to the Worlds. I knew it would be a challenge.

As you can see, it was somewhat nerve-wracking to slug it out through the brackets. We had a nasty cross-wind that developed throughout the morning. If you hit a ball with any slice side-spin the wind carried your ball right out of the grid.

I stayed very focused throughout the tournament. Because my shoulder had been bothering me a large part of my preparation was working on my pre-shot routine and my timing.

The practice paid off. I was pretty nervous in my first set, but I managed to hit a 352 yard drive. Good enough to win my bracket and move me into the round 2 winners bracket.

I continued to hit well, and found a groove on the tee. In my next few brackets I hit 5 of 6 in the grid and won each bracket, moving me up through the winners brackets.

When it got down to the final 4 I was really happy to be part of the action, but I was also feeling the pressure. I really wanted one of those invitations to the Worlds!

I hit my best ball of the day – 385 yards – and wound up on top! Exceeded my own expectations. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to get back in the winner’s circle, and to earn my spot at the Worlds!

Now I have until the end of October to continue to prepare and recuperate. I’ll be posting more of my journey to the Worlds as I go (including a visit to the doctor’s office to have my shoulder looked at).

See you down the fairway!

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Tags: distance, eric jones, long drive, Video
// Category: In The News, Journey to the Worlds, Long Drive Golf, golf//

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Press Release: Aerotech’s Claymore Sends Four to RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship

Posted on September 1st, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

BELLINGHAM, Washington – Nearly 150 power hitters squared off in the Long Drive Qualifier last week in Mesquite, Nev., and Aerotech Golf’s new Claymore shafts once again delivered in-the-grid accuracy and superior distance. The Claymore shafts are specifically designed to deliver maximum performance even when under the extreme forces generated by Long Drive competitors, and that innovation is now successfully sending four of the contestants to the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship held later this year in Mesquite, Nev.

In the Open Division, 16-year old Domenic Mazza blasted a 436-yard drive and Randall Dawson took one 424 yards using Aerotech Golf’s Claymore LD400 shafts. Dan Depner and Scott Gery advanced into the final round using Claymore shafts but just missed the cut. Eric Jones, the 2003 RE/MAX World Long Drive Senior Champion, and Tomislav Kralj hit the two longest balls in the Senior Division finals using Claymore shafts and both will now advance to the World Championship. All of the finalists were playing drivers built by professional clubfitter John Greenwood of of Greenwoods Golf in Dublin, Calif.

“Our Claymore shafts had great success again this week, and it’s great to see these competitors swing at their full potential without having to be concerned they might overpower their golf shaft’s ability to perform,” says Chris Hilleary, president of Aerotech Golf. “Typically, stronger players who want to play lighter weight shafts must sacrifice swing speed in exchange for accuracy and durability, but the Claymore combines creative material engineering with a unique composite design to deliver the best of both worlds. The shaft is super-lightweight and extremely stable and low-torque, and specifically designed to perform under extreme force, which is perfect for the big hitters.”

The Claymore shaft features a new micro-thin Micro-Tex Carbon Fiber and incorporates more high-modulus fibers at specific fiber angles, including the hoop wound (90°) surface layer, and minimizes shaft distortion for superior stability. The long drive model (Claymore LD) is available in three flexes LD400 (4X flex), LD300 (3X flex) and LD200 (2X flex). This year, Aerotech introduced two all-new Claymore models – MX48 and MX60 – with five flex levels (F1-F5) each. The MX48 weights are 47 grams (F1 flex) through 50 grams (F5 flex), while the slightly heavier MX60 model weighs in at 57 grams (F1) to 60 grams (F5).

About Aerotech
Specializing in uniquely engineered, performance-enhancing golf shafts, Aerotech has supplied shafts to such renowned golf club manufactures as Nike Golf, Cleveland Golf, Adams Golf, Miura, Srixon, Lynx, Nakashima, Scratch Golf, Zevo and Pure Spin among many others. For more information on Aerotech Golf and Aerotech shafts, call 888.733.8988 or visit http://www.aerotechgolfshafts.com

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Tags: distance, eric jones, long drive, Press Release
// Category: In The News, Long Drive Golf, Press Release, golf//

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Armchair Golf Pro: Kuchar, Laird, Barclays, FedEx, Short Game

Posted on September 1st, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

What an interesting finish to the Barclays. Matt Kuchar beat Martin Laird on the first hole of sudden death. Both players finished the tournament at 12-under par. But when the day began Laird was the front runner, and Kuchar wasn’t even on the radar screen. Laird shot even par 71 the final day, while Kuchar shot a 5-under 66. I was scratching my head trying to figure out the lesson from the day’s play and I found it in the stats.
Laird started off hot with birdies on the first two holes, but from then on looked very shaky. He finished the day hitting only 6 of 14 fairways and 7 of 18 greens. Now hitting only 6 fairways and 7 greens is probably about average for a lot of weekend golfers. But Laird shot even par, while most amateurs posting those stats would wind up somewhere in the mid to high 80′s. Maybe even low 90′s.
The difference is in short game effectiveness.
Despite being inconsistent off the tee and from the fairway, Laird demonstrated remarkable chipping and putting skills. He got up and down 72% of the time by constantly chipping within 3 to 6 feet and making his par-saving putts. The average weekend warrior has a hard time chipping consistently with 10 feet, and as a consequence has an up-and-down percentage somewhere in the 20% range. Part of that was Laird’s ability to use course management to put the ball in a position where he could have a reasonable chip to the pin. Part of it is just plain old practice around the greens. Laird had only 25 putts for the day, where an average golfer probably averages around 34 putts per round.
Kuchar’s stats were even more impressive. He had a bogey-free round, even though he hit only 11 fairways and 12 greens. His up-and-down percentage was 100%! Given the long grass surrounding the greens that is an amazing stat. Kuchar needed only 24 putts!
The other thing that struck me was how accurate these two were once they got to around 100 yards. Both players made 5 birdies on the day, and part of the reason was that they practiced both good course management and game management in order to get themselves to that 100-yard distance. They’ve obviously spent a lot of time hitting 100-yard wedge shots, which is one of the secrets to scoring.
Kuchar seems like a nice guy and his grin is infectious. I’m happy for him. Laird showed a lot of grit and the ability to grind out a good score even on a day when he wasn’t striking the ball particularly well.
The lesson for me is that good scores come from being good from 100 yards an in. Knowing your favorite wedge distance is a key for making birdies. Having a reliable and predictable chip shot is a key for saving par when you miss the green. Spending practice time in these two areas is a lot more important for scoring than hitting a perfect 7 iron. So I’m leaving the driver in the bag, grabbing my wedge, and heading to the shot-game area …

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Tags: course management, eric jones, game management, pga, play better golf
// Category: Armchair Golf Pro//

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Golf On The Line: Curing the “crunch” slice with Target Focus

Posted on September 1st, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

Good session with a student on the line yesterday. His normal fade had turned into a slice off the tee and it was costing him a lot of strokes on the golf course. After watching a few swings it was pretty obvious the issue was a “crunch” on the downswing that was leaving the club face open. When he started his downswing his right hip and shoulder would dip down, making it look like he was doing a right-side “crunch” at impact.
Half the battle in addressing swing issues is becoming aware of what is happening. He couldn’t “feel” the crunch, except that he could tell something didn’t feel right at impact. This is a case where video is really helpful. Once he saw himself on video he could put his focus on feeling the crunch. He identified it immediately on his next swing.
The other half of the battle is identifying the root cause of the issue. The symptoms are often easily identifiable, but the real cause can sometimes be difficult to unearth.
We worked for a bit on keeping his head level (with the crunch it tended to move back and down at impact), then tried focusing on maintaining shoulder plane through the swing, then worked on keeping his belt level throughout the swing. All of these swing thoughts helped, provided he could focus on one of them during the swing. But none of these swing areas was the root cause of the crunch.
After working on the swing I like to switch to target practice or simulated play to see which of the swing changes have a chance to stick and be effective. That’s when we discovered the root cause of the crunch.
I had my student self-rate his ability to stay connected to the target all the way through the swing. In other words, how well could he keep a mental picture of where the target was and relate it to a kinesthetic sense of feel during the swing.
On his first few target shots he reported good target connection of 6 and 7. But when I dug a little deeper it turned out a little differently. He was aware of the concept of target, but he didn’t actually have a sense of where it was. Often the clue shows up in how often a student looks at the target before hitting, and how long and deeply they focus on it before hitting. My student was glancing at the target, so he knew there was one, but he didn’t really connect to it. And the crunch was showing up again in his swings.
We spent some time just working on getting connected to the target. We practiced getting into address position, closing his eyes, and then pointing to where he thought the target was. The first attempt wasn’t close – he was 30 yards left. But he got the idea quickly and nailed it on the second attempt. Then we put that target awareness and connection into the next swing.
The result was a straight shot at the target, and no crunch in the swing. The next few swings were the same.
What we discovered was that he had been working hard on the mechanics of getting his club face square at impact to minimize or eliminate his fade. Over time he had fallen into the habit of “ball focus” rather than target focus. He was so focused on getting the club to the ball in a square position that his body was orienting to the ball at impact, rather than orienting to the target. That was creating the crunch, and it was turning into a habit.
By putting together the video to help with awareness, some drills to work on head position, shoulder plane, and a level-hip swing, and the switch to target focus rather than always working on mechanics we could see the improvement immediately, and by putting it together into a nice practice plan he could make sure that the refinements stayed permanent through good practice.

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Tags: downswing, drills, golf swing, Instruction, lesson, play better golf, target focus, technique, Video
// Category: Golf On The Line, golf, golf instruction//

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How To Get More Distance In Your Golf Game

Posted on August 30th, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

For Immediate Release
August 28, 2010

Contact Maureen McInaney-Jones
mcinaneyjones@targetcenteredgolf.com
415-370-7542

Get More Distance In Your Golf Game
World Long Drive Champion and PGA Teaching Professional Eric Jones Shows You How To Integrate The 5 Keys To Distance Into Your Own Swing

Orinda, CA — In the new edition of The 5 Keys To Distance, World Long Drive champion Eric Jones shows golfers a concise, practical framework for hitting the golf ball farther.

With the knowledge that one does not need a perfect golf swing in order to have distance, Jones, also a PGA teaching professional with a Master’s degree in sport psychology, developed the program with video drills with a focus on helping his own golf students develop an effective golf swing for speed.

The program with video drills debunks the common myth that one needs brawn, girth or power to hit the ball far. In fact, in the book with video drills Jones explains in detail that speed through the impact zone – NOT power — is by far the most important component of a swing built for distance.

“Power can help generate core speed and control the club face square the club face, but it does not itself create more distance and can actually kill distance if it introduces tension in the swing,” said Jones. “However, every mph of speed you add to the swing translates to 2.4 yards of distance. This means if you took your club speed from 120 to 140, you would add about 48 yards of distance.”

The program with video drills also debunks the common myth that golfers have to swing the club according to one specific method to get more distance

“This program with video drills is not about fixing your swing and it is not a method approach” explains Jones. “It’s about helping golfers understand the fundamental concepts that when addressed correctly, and in the right order, can automatically improve distance and consistency.”

The 5 Distance Keys Distance can be remembered by the acronym B.L.A.S.T, which stands for:

1.   Balance
2.   Leverage
3.   Arc Width
4.   Speed of Hip Turn
5.   Target Extension

In The 5 Keys to Distance program with 18 video drills each of these B.L.A.S.T. areas is explained in detail. Golfers will understand What they should achieve, Why you are trying to achieve it, How they can achieve it, and the How-To drills that reinforce execution, explained Jones.

They’ll understand how athletic balance helps them find the center of the clubface and the middles of the fairway, how to use leverage to maximize power, why a wider swing arc produces distance, how to generate speed using core rotation, and why target extension is the key to holding lag and accelerating through impact.

The 5 Keys derive from Jones’s own journey to acquire more distance and consistency in his own game and from his in-depth PGA training and Master’s degree study of how students best acquire the skills they need to lower their index and enjoy the game more.

“Everyone knows that having good distance in your golf game, makes the game easier and more fun. It’s pretty common knowledge that having a short iron into the green is much easier that hitting your 4 iron in the same circumstances. And let’s face it, hitting consistent, pure shots off the tee and fairway at a distance you know is at or near your very best is very satisfying,” he said.

“Conversely, hitting high weak fades off the tee crushes your confidence and leaves you in at state of embarrassment and frustration. We all know the levels of frustration can be immense.”

He explains that some of the old approaches to getting more distance get people into trouble or prevent them from reaching their distance goals.

“I often see people on the range – even long drive competitors with whom I work — struggling to hit the distance they know they hit,” he said.

“As I spent more and more time on the range with my students, I began to see that the approach of trying to use ad hoc tips and a totally haphazard learning and practice strategies to get more distance was totally wrong,” he said

He explains that those strategies don’t help students understand their whole swing — how everything has to work together. And they don’t help students improve the core elements in the swing that – if addressed the right way and in the right order – can automatically lead to more distance and consistency.

“Once I had completed my Master’s degree and continued to work with students in my own teaching practice, I knew I could put my knowledge and experience together in a usable, understandable framework that would help golfers put it all together, get more distance and have a much more grounded, integrated understanding of the golf swing,” said Jones.

For more information about getting more distance or The 5 Keys to Distance, visit
www.Targetcenteredgolf.com.

###
About Eric Jones

Eric Jones, MA, played college golf at Stanford University and later served as an assistant coach for the Junior varsity team. He’s the 2003 Re/Max World Long Drive Senior Champion, and has competed in the World Championship finals each of the last 7 years, notching three top-3 finishes. Eric is a PGA Class A Professional who also holds a Master’s degree in Sport Psychology. As founder of the Seaver Golf Academy and an instructor at The Pleasanton Golf Center, he has been recognized nationally for his innovative approach to instruction, most notably his Golf Coach Program.
He is the author of The 5 Keys To Distance and two new books slated to be released later this year: The Practice Effect: How to Groove A Reliable, Automatic Golf Swing You Can Trust; and The 3 Keys To Scoring: : How to Play Your Best Golf and Shoot Your Lowest Scores (even if you don’t have much time to practice).
About Target Centered Golf

Jones developed target centered golf in 2008 as a comprehensive tool for helping students play confident, consistent golf faster and enjoy the game more.

Jones defines Target Centered Golf as the art of playing golf with automaticity, allowing the natural athlete to emerge through the mind of imagination with the target as the central focus of the swing.

His blog, which can be found at www.targetcenteredgolf.com, Jones covers real world solutions from his own Golf Coach Program and touches on everything from how to hit it longer and more consistently to putting, chipping, pitching and bunker play; scoring-skill development, shot-making, self-management, game management and course management; and how to play in the zone more often…and not just by accident.

As one of the few PGA reaching professionals formerly trained in both swing mechanics and sport psychology, Eric believes that the mechanical and mental sides of the game should not be separated because that is not the way we play golf.

As his teaching practice has evolved it’s become clear to Jones that golfers benefit most when the best of both worlds are combined. Sometimes students benefit most from a mental shift, sometimes from mechanical change. The key is to put the right solution in front of the student at the right time.

About The Golf Coach Program

Information about Eric’s Golf Coach Program teaching practice can be found at www.seavergolf.com His teaching practice site is named in honor of his grandfather Charles Seaver, who was a past president of the Northern California Golf Association and one of the best amateur players of his day.

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Tags: distance, eric jones, golf swing, teacher
// Category: 5 Keys To Distance, Long Drive Golf, Press Release//

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Journey to the Worlds – Let Hip Alignment

Posted on August 25th, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

I’m staying with my low energy swings to protect my shoulder and make sure it doesn’t get any worse.

That means it is a good time to work on fundamentals.

As I was practicing the other day I kept trying to understand why it felt difficult to make my normal turn.

What I discovered was that I had fallen into an old habit which caused my hips to be aligned to the left at address. Whenever that happens I tend to fade the ball more, and my back swing feels restricted.

I probably wouldn’t have discovered it if I were not practicing at slow speeds. That’s one of the benefits of slowing down from time to time to pay attention to what is happening in your swing. It certainly helped me.

In this video I show how I used some common construction stuff like pvc pipe and a 4-way junction to create a stance, alignment, and ball position guide. Total cost of materials less than $5 bucks. (You don’t have to pay an arm and leg for swing aids!).

With this set up I was able to see that my hips were open. When I used it during my full routine I could easily make sure that my hips were square.

The result was a much more fluid and complete back swing and a wider arc. Just what I had been looking for!

The lesson for me is that sometimes you have to slow down to go fast!

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Tags: golf swing, long drive, practice, Video
// Category: Journey to the Worlds, Long Drive Golf, Video, golf//

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Journey to the Worlds – Low Energy Swings

Posted on August 25th, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

Well, I mentioned that this journey wouldn’t be without its trials and tribulations.

A couple of days ago I did a long drive clinic and exhibition for one of my corporate clients. It was fun and everybody had a good time, but I was hitting uphill, into the wind all day for groups as they played.

I think I over-did it.

A couple of months ago I separated my AC joint in my left shoulder. That’s the part where the clavicle comes up and over the shoulder. I did it while exercising, not while hitting golf balls. I tried to rest it for a month, but it wasn’t getting better. So a month ago I got a cortisone shot in the joint.

This was my 4th cortisone shot – I’ve had one in each elbow to deal with tendinitis, and one in the thumb joint of my left hand. There’s a lot of wear and tear in long drive.

So I had to take a couple of days off practice to see if my shoulder would settle down.

The pain hasn’t eased up much, so I certainly can’t practice at full speed. I don’t want to risk an injury that will completely take me out.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t practice.

The shoulder only hurts when I raise my arm up. If I keep my left arm down low enough on the backswing I can swing without pain. That means flattening out my swing a bit. The good news is that I used to swing that way when I first started playing golf, so in some ways it feels completely natural.

The trick now is to practice so that a flatter swing becomes the norm, meaning I don’t have to think about it.

To do that, and still get in some reps, I switched to low energy swings.

Low energy swing are full swings but at reduced speed. They are great practice drills because I am making the full motion, but the slower speed allows me to be much more aware of different aspects of my swing.

I’ll also do low energy swings using my full pre-shot routine as a way to groove the flatter backswing and protect my shoulder.

In this video I am practicing my low energy swings, but using my full pre-shot routine. I discovered a few interesting details doing this drill, which I’ll share in the next post.

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Tags: eric jones, golf swing, how to, long drive, practice, Video
// Category: Journey to the Worlds, Long Drive Golf, Video, golf//

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Journey to the Worlds – Center Contact

Posted on August 25th, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

As I continue my journey to the World Long Drive Championships I’ll share some of the little tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way that help me compete better.

This post is a little ninja trick I learned to help me understand how well I am making contact in the center of the club face.

If I am just 1/4 inch off-center I will lose about 5 to 7 yards. If I am 1/2 inch off-center I’ll lose 12-15 yards. If I am as much as 3/4 inch off-center I’d lose up to 40 yards! And 3/4 inch is only the width of a dime.

So for me it pays to know where on the club face I am striking the ball.

I know my tendency is to hit my long drivers on the inside part of the ball. So earlier this year I changed my eye position to 8:00. Imagine 12:00 is always toward the target. 6:00 is directly in back. the 8:00 position is much more inside, and it helped me to make contact in the center without changing my address position.

In this video I show you how I use a sharpie to make a small circle on a ball. I tee the ball up with the mark directly in back, at the 6:00 position. When I hit the ball a mark gets transferred to my club face, and I can see where I am making contact.

The good news is that I am hitting the ball in the center!

This is a cool trick to try on the range. If you are not hitting it in the center of your club face, try either changing your eye position – where you look at the ball when you swing – or adjust your stance to move either closer or farther away until you can strike it in the middle.

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Tags: club face, eric jones, how to, impact, long drive, practice, tip, Video
// Category: Journey to the Worlds, Long Drive Golf, Video, golf//

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Journey to the Worlds – Practice Drills

Posted on August 25th, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

I’m going to try something a little different here. I hope you like it.

Each year the World Long Drive Championships are held in Mesquite, NV at the end of October.

I won the event in 2003, and have been back every year since, posting three top-3 finishes and six of seven finishes in the top 10. It’s been a blast.

But this year the age brackets changed. The Senior Division is age 45-50, and I’ve officially aged out of the Senior Division. But that’s where I still want to compete.

The challenge is that I have no more exemptions for the Senior division. I’ve been exempt from qualifying every year because of my past finishes.

This year I have to do it the hard way. I have to compete in a local qualifier, and if I win the local I have to go to a Regional tournament. Out of the regional only 2-3 players advance, and it seems like my competition keeps getting younger and stronger.

Still … I am determined to make it.

I’ve already started my journey to the Worlds, so this journal is somewhat mid-stream. I won the local qualifier in June and now I have a chance to compete at the Regional championships in late August.

It’s time to start preparing.

I hope you find my journey interesting. It won’t be without challenges or setbacks. It’s a difficult road. I’ll be up against the best of the best in the Regionals, and I know the competition will be tough. There will be long drivers from all throughout California, Nevada, and Arizona all looking to secure one of the few coveted invitations to the Worlds. There are 9 districts plus Canada all sending their Champions to the Worlds in October. My goal is to be one of those representatives.

I hope you enjoy my journey. I’ll try to share the way I practice and the things I learn. Perhaps you will find something of value to help or inspire your golf game along the way.

Here is a video I shot as I was getting ready to practice. You’ll note that I use exactly the same drills and routines I outline in The 5 Keys To Distance.

In this video I talk about the Tee Back drill, the knee set drill, and the sole plant drill. I haven’t been feeling very fast, so that’s where I intended to spend most of my time – generating more club head speed. But I didn’t want to do it at the expense of other fundamentals, particularly losing my leverage position. One of my big advantages in long drive is the way I use my lower body to generate speed. Leverage is the key to using my lower body, and I try to stay on the inside part of my left foot, right on the ball of the foot, to maximize my lower body strength.

The other key to my club head speed, which gets up around 140 mph in competition, is a wider arc.

So those are the two things that give me the biggest advantage in long drive. Please don’t tell my competitors!

The other thing you’ll see in this video is that after I do my work on swing mechanics I switch to target focus. That give me an opportunity to see what is sticking and what still needs work. On the tee everything has to be automatic. There isn’t time and it’s almost impossible to think of everything in the heat of battle. So I do my target drills to see what is coming out when the swing is on automatic and where I still need work.

The same is true when you play golf. You can’t score well when you are thinking about mechanics. Scoring is all about hitting targets with your automatic swing. You pay attention to what isn’t working when you play, and plan to address it when you have time on the range.

The same is true in long drive. I hit my automatic swings as though I am in competition, and see what emerges. If I notice an issue, I drop out of competition mode (target focus) and work on mechanics. I’m NOT working on mechanics for the sake of improving my swing. I’m working on mechanics for the sake of improving my performance.

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Tags: distance, drills, eric jones, golf swing, how to, Instruction, long drive, play better golf, practice, technique, tip, Video
// Category: Journey to the Worlds, Long Drive Golf, Video, golf//

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Press Release: Eric Jones Wins Long Drive District 8 Regional Championship

Posted on August 23rd, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

For Immediate Release
8-23-10
Contact: Maureen McInaney-Jones
www.targetcenteredgolf.com
415-370-7542

Eric Jones Wins Long Drive District 8 Regional Qualifier
385-Yard Blast Earns Him a Spot in the Sr. Division
at the 2010 World Long Drive Championships

Orinda –CA (August 23, 2010) – Eric Jones, 51, won the district 8 regional qualifier and will compete in the senior division at the 2010 RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship this coming October.

Jones, who hit the ball 385 yards, will be joined by Nayo Garcia from Phoenix, Arizona, who earned his spot with a drive of 377 yards. Also qualifying to compete in the senior division in October, were Tomislav Kralj from Pleasanton, CA and Lance Reader, from Tempe, Arizona, who a battled their way out of the losers bracket to earn the final two slots.

The four qualifiers were selected from a field of 56 who competed on Sunday August 22nd in Mesquite, Nevada on the championship grid that will host the World Championships in October.

Jones, a former world long drive champion in the senior division and a PGA professional with a master’s degree in sport psychology, competed earlier this year at a local qualifier in Pleasanton, CA to earn his spot at the district 8 regional qualifier.

Each year an excess of 10,000 competitors attempt to qualify for the RE/MAX Finals. These qualification events occur at approximately 300 plus sites around the globe. The 2010 RE/MAX Finals qualifying kicked off March 25-26 at the Diamond in the Desert Classic in Mesquite, Nevada on the Championship Grid.

The RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship powered by Dicks Sporting Goods evolved out of the National Long Drive Championship, which began in 1975. It has grown from a mostly low-key event to one that includes golfers from virtually every corner of the world.

Competitors come from more than 125 countries, and vie for a purse worth over $450,000. The RE/MAX World Long Drive Finals are tape-delayed to air each year during the Christmas season on ESPN and ESPN2 and have become a holiday tradition.

This year marks the Sixteenth year that RE/MAX has sponsored the event. In the early years, drives of 325 yards gave hitters a chance at finishing in the money. Today, hitters typically need to drive the ball at least 350 to 360 yards to advance to the qualifying rounds and 400 yards has become a common yardage during competition.

About Eric Jones

He is the author of The 5 Keys To Distance and two new books slated to be released later this year: The Practice Effect: How to Groove A Reliable, Automatic Golf Swing You Can Trust; and The 3 Keys To Scoring: How to Play Your Best Golf and Shoot Your Lowest Scores (even if you don’t have much time to practice).

About Target Centered Golf

Jones developed target centered golf in 2008 as a comprehensive tool for helping students play confident, consistent golf faster and enjoy the game more.

About The Golf Coach Program

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Tags: eric jones, long drive, news, pga, Press Release
// Category: Journey to the Worlds, Long Drive Golf, Press Release//

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Golf On The Line: How to Prepare for Tournaments

Posted on August 19th, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

On the line yesterday a first-time student asked how to best prepare for a tournament. He’s going to tee it up in 10 days, and wanted to get a swing check and some things to work on to get ready.

The best advice I could give him – or to anybody – is to split your practice so you spend half your time working on shot-making, and half on mechanics. Only half your time on mechanics! In fact, the closer you get to your tournament the more your emphasis should be on shot-making, and the less you should be working on mechanics.

To be honest, I think he was used to the kind of lesson that picked apart his swing and focused mostly on mechanical elements. He’s a very good player with a very solid swing. But he’s been consistently under-performing in tournaments. I suspected the big issue was his thinking, not his swinging.

It’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that a better swing will result in better scores. He wanted to get on the video and check his take-away, swing plane, and release positions. But I knew it wouldn’t help him score better.

Hitting better shots closer to his targets would help him score better.

That’s the difference between efficiency and effectiveness.

We work on mechanics to make our swings more efficient, and then we work on shot-making to make our swings more effective. The two should work hand-in-glove as you climb the skill ladder and your game improves. Unfortunately, a more efficient swing doesn’t automatically guarantee more effective results, and we seem to have largely gotten away from talking about how to make swings more effective in favor of getting ever-deeper into mechanical analysis.

Rather than focus on his take-away I asked him to focus on targets and his connection to the target.

We picked a target, then I asked him to take his address position, close his eyes, and point with his left hand to where he thought the target was. When he opened his eyes he was surprised to see he was pointing 30 yards left! He self-rated his connection to the target as a 2 (scale of 10). His next try was an 8, and his third a 10.

Then we hit balls, using the same self-rating scale. He started at 4 and worked his way up to 8′s and 9′s. He got the idea, and I believe he realized how it would help him get ready to play better golf.

The elements of shot making are skills, just like the mechanical elements of swinging on plane and making a pivot are skills. They can be practiced and the skills can be developed.

I asked him which he would prefer to know about his game as he was stepping up to the tee for the tournament:

1. That he could hit 9 out of 10 within 20 feet of a target from 120 yards, or

2. That his club face tended to get a little open at impact whenever his backswing got above plane?

If you’ve got a story about how you play when you are thinking about mechanics vs. thinking about targets, I’d love to hear it.

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Tags: eric jones, game management, golf swing, play better golf, practice
// Category: Golf On The Line, Self Management, Sport Psychology//

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Armchair Golf Pro: PGA Championship, Dustin Johnson, Bunkers, Rules of Golf

Posted on August 19th, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

I mentioned in an earlier post the heart-breaking ending of Dustin Johnson’s bid for the PGA Championship title at Whistling Straits. Essentially he was assessed a two-shot penalty for grounding his club in a hazard – a bunker – on his second shot to the 18th green on the final hole of the tournament. He thought he was walking into the clubhouse tied with Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer. But the cameras clearly showed his club touching the ground before he made his stroke. Dustin claimed that he did not think he was in a bunker.

I thought it would be worth going over the definition for bunkers in the situation.

Here is how the Rules of Golf define a bunker:
“A “bunker” is a hazard consisting of a prepared area of ground, often a hollow, from which turf or soil has been removed and replaced with sand or the like.
Grass-covered ground bordering or within a bunker, including a stacked turf face (whether grass-covered or earthen), is not part of the bunker. A wall or lip of the bunker not covered with grass is part of the bunker. The margin of a bunker extends vertically downward, but not upwards.
A ball is in a bunker when it lies in or any part of it touches the bunker.”

The key words are the notion of a “prepared” area of ground, and ground “bordering” a bunker.

From where I sat in my armchair I could clearly see there was a leading edge to the bunker in front of Dustin’s ball, meaning it was prepared. But the front edge also had a curve to it, and it appeared from my viewpoint that if you extended the curve past where Dustin’s ball lay, the line of the bunker would have been to the right of his ball. Meaning his ball would have been outside the hazard.

The problem was that spectators had been standing in the sand and walking through it. The border of the trap was obscured where his ball was at lie. While it is true his ball was resting on sand, it looked as though it was sand that had been kicked out of the bunker by spectators. And once any sand is outside the border of the hazard it is no longer part of the hazard, just a loose impediment.

So was he in the hazard or not?

If I had been in Dustin’s shoes I would have argued that my ball was outside the border of the hazard, and I would have asked the officials to define where they thought the “border” of the bunker was relative to the lie.
There was a local rule that said all sand on the course is considered part of a hazard, and all the players were aware of the local rule. Maybe the local rule trumped the Rules of Golf definition. In any case I will say that the PGA officials who make the rulings are VERY good at their job, and would never penalize a player unless the rules were clear. I only know what I saw from my armchair.

The real lesson is this: if there is any doubt, don’t ground your club.

If you have similar lessons to share I’d love to hear them.

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Tags: eric jones, game management, Instruction, pga, rules of golf
// Category: Armchair Golf Pro, Rules of Golf, golf//

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Armchair Golf Pro: PGA Championship, Dustin, Kaymer, Bubba, Whistling Straits

Posted on August 19th, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

The 92nd PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis. had one of the wildest, weirdest finishes ever, and some good lessons for the weekend warrior.

3 players ended up tied at -12 under. No, wait! Dustin Johnson grounded his club in the sand on his approach shot on 18 and had to assess himself a two-shot penalty! What’s this? Was he in the bunker or not? More on the sand controversy in a moment.

After 30 minutes of deliberation only two players headed to 16 for the 3-hole playoff: Big-hitting Bubba Watson and steady Martin Kaymer of Germany. Bubba nearly drove the green on the 360 yard par 4, made birdie, and it looked like he was going to put the hammer down. But Kaymer rolled in a 12-foot putt for birdie on the 17th, squaring up the playoff. Then came the 500-yard par 4 18th hole, nicknamed “dyeabolical” because there is so much trouble. I’ve seen an aerial of the hole and there are more sand traps than a mangy dog has fleas. Plus Seven Mile Creek guards the front of the green.

Both players hit their drives into the right rough. Bubba hit first, and that’s when he made a major strategic course management mistake. I wrote about one of the key philosophies of good course management in “Golf’s 3 keys to Scoring” which is this: pit your strengths against the course’s weakness, and avoid pitting your weakness against the course’s strength. (PS – I’ll share this awesome report on course management with you as a free bonus when you sign up for my newsletter).

From the rough with a long 225 yard carry – a position of weakness – Bubba had to go against the hole’s strength: ravines, bunkers, water, and the rough. His other option would have been to pitch out. Pitching out would have left him 175 yards to the hole, but in the fairway with a flat lie. That position would have played to Bubba’s strength – his distance – which would have matched up better against the hole’s strengths.

Bubba elected instead to try the Hero Shot and go for the green. But all he found was the water. Then he had to drop in long grass and pitch to a narrow landing area on the green. He wound up long in the bunker behind the hole. He almost pulled off another Hero Shot when his bunker shot hit the pin and almost went in. That would have been an amazing recovery. But he wound up with a double bogey instead, and that cost him the tournament.

Kaymer, meanwhile, elected the safer strategy and pitched out of the rough to the fairway. He hit his approach shot to 15 feet, and by the time Bubba was through all he had to do was two-putt for the win.

Granted, Kaymer’s strategic decision was easy knowing Bubba was in the water. But the lesson we can take away from this: to avoid big numbers make good strategic decisions by practicing good course management and game management. Take your lumps when you have to, and put yourself in a position where you are pitting your strengths against the hole’s weaknesses. Avoid the Hero Shot when you are in trouble by getting out of trouble first. Save the heroics for your approach shot or your putt on the green.

Do you have a good course management philosophy you’d like to share?

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Tags: course management, eric jones, game management, pga, play better golf
// Category: Armchair Golf Pro, golf//

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Armchair Golf Pro: Bridgestone, Mahan, Tiger, Mental Toughness

Posted on August 11th, 2010 by Eric Jones, MA, PGA

This week’s armchair golf pro post is about mental toughness and how difficult it can be to let everything else go and just stay in the moment.

Hunter Mahan had an amazing finishing day, closing with a 64 to win the Bridgestone invitational by two strokes over Ryan Palmer. You have to give it up for Mahan and his ability to close. He’s won three tournaments with final round scores of 65, 65, and this week’s 64. That’s a stellar display of mental toughness, and I’ll talk more about how staying in the moment is a key aspect of being mentally tough and finishing strong.

But what really struck me was the Tiger Woods interview after his round. Tiger posted an 18-over par score – the worst performance of his professional career. They showed a 6-minute interview with Tiger right in the middle of the broadcast, and even though Mahan’s triumph was terrific, the lesson I took away from my armchair was how much your game can be influenced by things going on outside the golf course and just how hard it can be to let it go. You don’t always recognize how the pressures of your day-to-day life affect your play, and that’s a lesson for all of us.

During his interview I thought Tiger seemed bitter. And not necessarily because of his score. The bitterness seemed deeper. There are a lot of unhappy things going on in Tiger’s personal life, and I suspect that is what is affecting his game more than any swing issues. At one point in the interview he was asked about his poor performance this year. Initially he talked about making swing changes in the past and how it took two years to get his game back. But later in the interview he just said “It’s been a long year.” I think we know what he was referring to.

Here’s a guy who is one of the toughest mental competitors to ever play the game. If there’s anybody who should be able to let go of his personal baggage when he tees it up, it’s Tiger. So if it’s that hard for him, what does that say to the rest of us?

It’s hard.

Somehow you have to find a way to create the space for your game when you are on the course and let the outside world take care of itself for awhile. Perhaps you need to remind yourself that you are playing a game, and games are supposed to be fun. When you pull into the parking lot, sit for 30 seconds and relax, slow down, and be in the present moment. I call this “getting on golf time.” When you play, take a moment to enjoy the scenery and your companions. Smile for an entire hole. Crack a joke. You probably know what works best for you.

What works best for me is to stay in the moment and focus on the task at hand. The more I concentrate on what is right in front of me the more other stuff fades into the background. Let me know if you have your own solutions. I’d love to hear them.

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