Golf Strategy Part 3

Traffic Light Golf Strategy Part 3.

In this third instalment of my 3 part series on Golf Strategy, using the Traffic Light Approach, I discuss and demonstrate the 3 available approach shots into the green from the 3 different target zones, after using the Traffic Light Strategy off the tee. The key always, in planning your strategy off the tee, is to evaluate and weigh up the risk versus reward, before selecting your strategic approach. Think of each golf hole as being a mini tournament in itself. Plan your course management objectively, based on your known skill level and you will be getting the best out of your game. 

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Golf Strategy Part 2

Traffic Light Golf Strategy. Part 2.

 In this lesson I discuss and demonstrate the 3 options off the tee using the Traffic Light  Strategy. A good way to identify whether the shot you are playing is a Green, Amber or Red light shot is to use the 10% Target zone rule. An example would be: for a 100 yard shot, you would have a 10 yard diameter landing zone. 150 yard shot, a 15 yard zone etc:. So to identify the category of shot, you would consider how much of the landing zone  fits into the target area. If 100% fits, long left short and right, the shot is a Green light shot. If 75% fits ( 25% using the 10% rule is outside a safe result) this would be a Amber Light Shot. If 50% or less fits in the safe landing zone area, you will be playing a Red Light Shot.
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Golf Strategy. Part 1.

Traffic Light Golf Strategy. Part 1.

Golf is like a big game of outdoor chess. It doesn't take to long in either chess or golf to learn the basics, but it can take a lifetime to master the strategy of playing the game. In this article I will summarise my philosophy of strategy for golf and give you some key ideas that I have used in my own game and with my students that have helped improve scoring though an improved on course strategy.

The primary key of good golf strategy is to develop a one shot at a time attitude. Always keeping in mind where the next shot should be played from, but never how the next shot will be played. The aim is to ensure that you do not get swamped by events or over-awed by what is going on around you. The proven and most effective way to play is called Procedure orientation (focus only on the procedure of playing the shot at hand).Outcome orientation ( Focussing on the result, what other people will think etc ) should be avoided at all cost.

This philosophy enables you to focus on the job at hand and effectively shut out any and all irrelevancies. Concentration is maximised allowing you to call on all aspects of your practice that will assist in the situation at hand. (refer to last months article on the confidence cycle) A one shot at a time approach gives you permission to forgive yourself for any previous poor shots, wrong judgement and even simple bad luck.

The Traffic Light Strategy

One way of assessing the up-coming shot is to visualise each shot as fitting into one of three categories - red light (danger), amber ( with caution)  light or green light (safe).

 Red light shot

A red light shot is the shot to play when you have absolutely no other option. Running a red light is very dangerous. You might get through and get to work on time without incident, but sooner or later you will get caught or worse. A red light shot is a desperation shot. It is played when you really have your back up against the wall. There is no margin for error. You may consider a red light shot if the position is such that in match play you need to get back into the game. For example you may need to hit the ball over water, against a strong wind in order to land on the green. The down-side of red light shots is that the "penalty" (what happens to your score if you don't manage to pull the shot off) most times is a double bogey or worse. Whereas in Match play. At worst it can only mean loss of hole.

Amber light shot

With an amber light shot, the element of risk involved in the shot is less than it was for a red light shot. You would be looking to produce an amber light  shot, for instance, when things were going fairly well, your confidence is up and you have the chance to make birdie or eagle with some aggressive golf. An example would be if the pin was on the front left of the green just over a bunker. If you shoot straight for the pin and clear the trap a short birdie putt is the result. If you fall short in the bunker you can still get it up and down and salvage par. If the shot fails, this amber light shot should not penalise you more than a bogey at worst ( if the ball bounces through the green you can still get back on the green and save par or at worst bogey the hole).

Green light shot

These are the safest and most conservative shots to play. A green light shot gives you the biggest margin of error, left, right, long, and short of the target. You hit the ball in the middle of the fairway, the middle of the green. Always lag the first putt into the one yard radius circle to guarantee the two putt. There is no real risk involved in your play. The down-side with this play is that there is little chance of making birdies. Many leading Tour Pros elect to play green light golf for the first few holes to set up a foundation of a good score. It requires discipline to fire away from the pin to the middle of the green. It is important to always pick a definite target and hit a positive shot at it. Many golfers fall into the trap of steering the ball when they try to play conservative golf.

Within the overall philosophy of a "one shot at a time attitude', golfers can elect to play a safe shot/game, or to engage in an attacking shot/game. The decision is yours and your approach should change dependent on your confidence and the set up of the course and your prepared game plan. Some golfers prefer to play a round of golf in a cautious way, hitting safe, predictable shots off the tee and from the fairway and weight for the odd birdie to come their way.

This style in match play relies on your opponent making a mistake and letting you capitalise on it by virtue of your reliability. In Stroke play a Pro will make a living but have little chance of being in contention come Sunday if they don’t play some aggressive golf. Other golfers will play an attacking, amber or red light type game hoping to demoralise their opponent and blow them off the course by their audacious approach. In stroke play on their week they will finish high up and make big cheques, when it doesn’t come off they will miss the cut.

You could argue, the second approach for Pros is the best method.  My philosophy is to work toward a blend of conservative and attacking golf and be able to manage the decision making between the two

The key to it all is that you are the one who decides the shot you will play.

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Bann Lynch Golf 7 FreeTraining Videos

Steve Bann Golf-This is one of my most effective drills that I use for freeing up the golf swing and as a added bonus increasing distance Training Videos

Putting Distance Control-Leap Frog

Steve Bann Golf- Putting. For improved distance control with putting, I love this drill, I call it Leap Frog  I believe that our mind-set and focus must change with regard to the line and speed depending on the distance of the putt. From inside 6 feet, around  80% of our focus should be on line and only 20% on speed. We can be 10% out with speed from 6 feet and it won't have much effect on the outcome of the putt. From 6 to 15 feet, around 50% speed and 50% line for our focus, and outside of 15 feet, around 80% of our focus should be on speed. We can be 10% out on line outside of 15 feet and it won't have to much of a negative effect on the result. Most 3 putts originate from poor speed on the first putt and no putt will ever be made if it doesn't have enough speed to roll past the hole if the hole doesn't get in the way. This Leap Frog Drill is designed for us to focus entirely on the speed of the putt, with the goal of rolling every putt just beyond the target. 
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Lesson 7 The 5 Laws of IMPACT

Steve Bann Golf Lesson 7 on the 5 Laws of IMPACT In this lesson, I demonstrate some of my favorite and most effective drills I use to put the 5 Laws of IMPACT into action. Once we understand and can feel and control Face, Path, Angle of Attack, Centered Hit and Speed, the world of shot making and trajectory control opens up to us. www.BannLynchGolf.com

Lesson 6 The 5 Laws of IMPACT

Steve Bann Golf  POWER In this lesson I will show you some of my favorite drills and technique I uses to create more club head speed (POWER) After we have the first 4 of the 5 Laws of IMPACT under control, we can start to work on powering up the swing. www.BannLynchGolf.com

Lesson 5 The 5 Laws of IMPACT

Steve Bann Golf The 5 Laws of IMPACT Lesson 5 This lesson on centered contact covers how to develop consistent posture angles throughout the dynamic golf swing. This is Key to making solid contact. Combined with Face, Path and Angle of Attack, we have now covered 4 of the 5 Laws of Impact. www.BannLynchGolf.com

Lesson 4 The 5 Laws of IMPACT

Steve Bann Golf The 5 Laws of Impact Lesson 4 Angle of Attack. This Law is the biggest influence on trajectory and spin. Understanding that most of Angle of Attack is controlled through our set-up, goes a long way toward simplifying the execution. www.BannLynchGolf.com

Beau Vernon Inspiring Attitude

WHY DO WE EVER THINK THAT A MISS OR MAKE ON A 3 FOOTER IS LIFE CHANGING? BEAU VERNON IS AN INSPIRATION WITH HIS ATTITUDE TO MAKING THE BEST HE CAN OF THE HORRIBLE DEAL HE HAS BEEN DEALT.

BannLynchGolf & Yarra Bend Golf are proud to announce that together with the amazing support of the participants, sponsors, supporters, the media and the wider community, it has raised over $60,000 for Beau and we’re still counting!

Click here for full golf day results, over 500 images, and media supporting the golf day and Beau’s progress.  Donations can continue to be made to the Fund:

Yarra Bend Golf Holdings Pty Ltd – Beau Vernon Fund. Swift Code: CTBAAU2S    BSB: 063 130  Account: 10374177

Lesson 3 The 5 Laws of IMPACT

Steve Bann Golf IMPACT Lesson 3 is all about feeling impact, and the combination of path and club-face. I think this drill, using the shaft extension (chip-stick) is one that all golfers can benefit from. This drill is great for developing shaft lean at impact, a vital element to compressing the ball and also the correct body positions at impact. www.BannLynchGolf.com

Lesson 2 The 5 Laws of IMPACT

Steve Bann Golf The Club Face is King. Once we can control the Face through some simple feel drills, we can take control of where we want the ball to go. NOT where we don't want the ball to go. Learn to hit the ball deliberately to the right, left and straight through understanding the Club Face. www.BannLynchGolf.com

Lesson 1 The 5 Laws of IMPACT

Steve Bann Golf

It is time to get back to blogging. 

I will post regular instructional videos and blog about what I am working on with my client golfers. Here is lesson 1 The moment of truth The 5 Laws of IMPACT. Please let me know what your thoughts are? www.BannLynchGolf.com

Appleby "frees it up" en route to best finish of season

Stuart Appleby sent out the following message on his Twitter on the Sunday before the 2010 Verizon Heritage tournament in Harbor Town:

"Time, age, quality, coaching, competition, direction....many more. All of those but still to know how then play like a kid...swing away....Your direction, what you want.Paint the picture of how you want your game to be.To putt with confidence you need to be ok with missing putts...that's the most important thing. All good putters don't get wrapped up in missing only excited at the chance to make the next putt".

Appleby stayed true to those words all week as he "played like a kid" all the way to a t-8 finish at Harbor Town Golf Links, his best of the season so far.

Shooting rounds of 69, 67, 73 and 67, Appleby finished at 8 under par, 5 shots outside the playoff between Jim Furyk and Brian Davis, which Furyk went on to win. The 67's he shot in the 2nd and 4th rounds were his best scores of the season, one in which he has continued his struggles from last year.

Prior to this week, Appleby's best finish of the 2010 PGA Tour season was T30 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. This coming on the back of his worst season on the PGA Tour where he lost his playing privileges finishing outside the top 125 on the money list. For a man who is ranked 16th in career earnings on the PGA Tour, this was uncharted territory. In fact, he is using his one-time exemption for being ranked in the top 25 in career earnings to play on Tour this year.

For the likable Aussie's fans around the world, it has been a frustrating experience watching a player with such beautiful technique struggle this way. However even the best players in the world can sometimes get too caught up in being technically perfect and lose sight of the most important thing in golf: get the ball in the hole in the least amount of shots.

Judging from Appleby's tweets before this week, he understood the need to go back to having fun playing the game, like he did as a kid. His coach Steve Bann spoke earlier in the week about their preparation for the Verizon Heritage:

"Harbor Town is a course where even if you're in the fairway, you often have trees in your way and it just forces you to be creative with your shot making. Add to that the fact that these are some of the smallest greens you'll see on Tour all year, and you've got a course where you need all the shots....Stuart and I have been working on our 9 ball drill a lot in practice, i.e draws, fades and straight shots at low, medium and high trajectory. It really brings out your creative side and makes you visualize shots...he's had lots of fun with that".

The numbers tell the story: Appleby ranked T8 in Greens in Regulation and T19 in Putts per Greens In Regulation. That translates into lots of birdies and par saves, exactly what you need to do well at Harbor Town.

Appleby's legion of fans will be hoping this is just the spark he needed to kick off a run of strong play to get back to being a regular contender on the weekends.

Thanks to Pure Golf Blog for this article.

Choi contends, finishes T4 at Masters

South Korea’s K.J Choi has emphatically announced his return to top level form with a stellar performance in the final round of the 2010 Augusta Masters to finish T4.
Choi was tied for the lead heading into the business end of Sunday’s final round, however consecutive bogeys at the 13th and 14th holes put paid to his chances. Still, Choi has plenty to be proud of, having demonstrated that he is once again playing the kind of golf that saw him become a world top 10 ranked player earlier in his career. He has recently played his way out of a slump and his results have been very impressive already this year, having finished 2nd at the Transitions Championship and making the cut in every event he has entered.
Choi had the unique distinction of playing all 4 days at Augusta National with Tiger Woods, and contrary to many people’s expectations prior to the tournament that his game would suffer due to the distraction, Choi reveled in the spotlight and matched the world number 1 blow for blow. He might have come up a little short in his title challenge (eventually finishing 5 shots behind champion Phil Mickelson) however Choi will surely take many positives out of this week:
“I’m satisfied and it was gratifying for me this year and the fans were very supportive and just playing with Tiger for the last four days was a very good experience for me,” said Choi, who has previously won Tiger Woods’ event, the AT&T National.
The strongman from South Korea was trying to emulate the feat of his countryman Y.E Yang, who beat Woods at the PGA Championship last year to become the first Asian to win one of golf’s majors. Yang also finished inside the top 10 this year at Augusta, perhaps another sign of the growing influence of Asian golfers in the men’s game. Choi spoke about the increased belief amongst Korean and Asian players that they belong on the world stage:
“In the past … the mindset of the Asian players was that when it comes to the Masters, there was a fear factor there, that we can’t do it. Now I hope that this gives motivation for the younger players, other players, that they can do it at big tournaments like the Masters.”
His coach Steve Bann had been very pleased with the way K.J prepared for this year’s event, having spent a lot of time working on his short game and lag putting and trying to stay fresh by not playing too many practice rounds. “K.J has done a great job of balancing his practice routine to make sure his short game is sharp while his ball striking is the best I’ve seen it for quite some time” he said earlier in the week.
Choi’s game was certainly sharp for the best part of the tournament, and if he keeps playing this way it can’t be too long before he breaks through for his first major win.
Written by on April 12, 2010

Nick Flanagan IIG

Nick Flanagan came to IIG www.iofgolf.com to work with me for 2 days. Nick is preparing for the last 8 events of the Nationwide Tour. Nick has been back in Australia for 2 months recharging his batteries. He has been surfing with his dad and mates daily and as a result his physical condition and upper body strength has improved tremendously. In the picture we are working in our swing catalyst room www.swingcatalyst.com at IIG. We use this room to accurately assess weight distribution and movement, ball trajectory, speed and spin and motion analysis with the combined camera, launch monitor and force platform. We are looking forward to Nick getting back to his winning form.

Putting Technique

The most important element of technique in putting is aim. 80% of the influence of the direction of the ball is the face. What we found with Stuart Appleby's putting early this year was a tendancy to aim the face left. The putting triangle he is using to correct his aim in the photo is also used to practice reading. Stuart has placed a tee behind the hole at his aiming point. Once he makes 3 putts on the triangle he takes it away and makes 3 more from the same position using his normal routine. He then moves to another putt from a different position and starts the routine again. We have been doing this drill for 10 weeks now and his reading and aim have matched up again. More importantly Apple's has been making a lot more putts the last few tournaments. Some good results are very close.

Hee Young Park

Hee Young Park has career-best week. Second-year LPGA Tour member Hee Young Park had a career week at the Honda LPGA Thailand, despite being ill early in the week, recording a runner-up finish behind World number 1 Lorana Ochoa, at 11-under-par 277 (79-64-69-65). Park, who earned $139,852 of the $1.45 million purse on Sunday, overcame an opening-round 7-over-par 79 with a career-low 8-under-par 64 in the second round to move from a tie for 59th into a tie for 19th after 36 holes. Her third-round 3-under-par 69 moved her up to a tie for fifth entering the final round, which started off with back-to-back birdies on the second and third holes. On the par-4, 287-yard fifth hole, Park sank a 60-foot putt after driving the green. From there, she was flawless with birdies on holes eight, 15 and 16, where she made 25- and 30-foot putts, respectively, to move into second place.

Hee Young spent 3 weeks in Melbourne with me in January before returning to the US LPGA Tour. My prediction for Hee young this year is she will win on the LPGA and move into the top 10 on the money list. She is a fabulous young lady to work with and has a terrific, fun and bubbly personality.

Aussie Golf Ranch

Australian PGA professional Rohan Walker has created his dream at Philip Island which is about 90 minutes out of Melbourne. The Aussie Golf Ranch is on the foreshore at Red Rocks Philip Island. Rohan has built a 9 Hole par 3 course that requires a complete range of shots. He also has built a pitch and putt, practice putting green and short game practice area. The Aussie Golf Ranch has 1 and 2 bedroom cabins and is a great place to get away and holday at one of Australia's premier tourist destinations while enjoying a game with the whole family. For the more serious golfer, it is a great place to spend a few days to work at your game. In the picture Stuart Appleby is out playing a few holes with his 4 year old daughter Ella and me in between Christmas and New Year. Apples and his family were the first to stay at a new 2 bedroom cabin. We played holes and practiced at the short game area. When the wind blows, which it does most days on the foreshore, we used clubs ranging from 2 iron to wedge from the back tees.

BMW Bellerive St Louis

Wednesday after the morning pro-am both KJ and Apples were getting some final short game practice before the first round of the BMW at Bellerive in St Louis. Both guys need a strong finish this week in the 3rd Fedex Play Off before the Tour Championship in Atlanta in two weeks. KJ is currently 12th on the standings and Apples is 17th. Vijay is way out in front after winning back to back in the first two playoffs. KJ and Apples will be happy with their years if they finish in the top 10. To do this they both will need two top ten finishes in the last two events.