I got this question for the first time today and thought that I would shout out.

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I’m looking to start an indoor golf center utilizing High Definition golf simulators.
I would like to incorporate your mats as well.

Do you know if any of your clients used them in this manner?
I was told there could be a compatibility problem due to the reflection of the turf.
If you have any information regarding these questions I would greatly appreciate your help. 
Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
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Let me know if you know something – you can post the answers to my blog here
If you want to make the public or replay back to me personally if not.

Thanks for your help,

jay

Check out Bubba’s new golf cart! I thought it was silly at first, but the more I think about it it’s a great idea

• easier on the course
•           a lot more fun
•           need I say more?

The golf mat I’m suing is a 5×5 teaching mat second from china,
but it’s working great as my Optishot stance mat.

The fibers are shedding some and there is a layer of fabric
on the back that is not securely attached.

If you order the Optishot from me I can send you one of these
5×5 teaching mats with the optishot cut-out for an extra $150
(more than half off if this was a first).

Just put “OptiShot Mat add $150″ in the BONUS field at checkout
and we will charge your card an additional $150 (free shipping)

I’ve still got one who was enthusiastic about halloween this year

20″ x 36″ CCE Mat with the inferior mat now being used as a stance mat

I purchased a larger mat last year from X X  XXXX Golf which is also in the picture.  That mat started tearing the first week I started using it.  You can sees the numerous rips and tears on that mat in the picture.  I contacted the XX  XXXX Golf who advertise a warranty on their products, and they ignored my request.  Obviously I’ll never buy or recommend them to anyone.

Bottom Line: I have dropped my handicap about 5 strokes this spring by using your mat to help me develop a solid, repeatable swing that I can trust … How much is that worth?

Greg Palmer
East Greenwich, RI

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CCE Mat Wins When Tested against 5 manufacturers

We tested mats from 5 different manufacturwers and consulted with our teaching professionalsas well as our golfing clientele – Your Country Club Elite Mats received the most votes. I’d recommend them to anyone.  – Chris Hanson, PGA

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The way you place your hands on the grip will largely dictate how you swing the club and what shape of shot you can hit consistently.  I am going to show you how to form a grip that will encourage a right-to-left ball flight, but it’s up to you to put this information into action.

Now to start with, I highly recommend that you EXAGGERATE the grip I’m going to show you because you’ll make the change from a slicer to a golfer who draws the ball, so much quicker.  And when practicing your grip, I highly recommend you do so with your feet together (see the picture below) as this is a stance you can repeat consistently and this will allow you to form a repeating grip day after day.

Once you’re in a position similar to the one above, the next step is to place your left hand on the grip.  So bring your left hand up to the grip and make sure the back of your hand is pointing at the target.  Now position the grip of the club as is pictured below, running across the top joint of your forefinger and under the heel of your palm.

At this point I must emphasize that the more you hold the club in the fingers of your left hand, the easier it is to draw the ball.  Below is a picture that demonstrates from a different angle what I’m talking about.

Once your left-hand grip is in a position similar to what I’ve demonstrated in the previous couple of pictures, you can now crook your forefinger around the shaft.  And from doing this you’ll find that you can raise the club up off the ground and maintain a firm grip just by supporting the club with the muscles of your forefinger and the pad of your palm.  Here are some pictures to demonstrate what I mean…

Once you’ve achieved this position, lower the club back down and simply close the last three fingers of the left hand around the club.  And before you place your thumb on the grip you need to know where to position it.

Your left-hand thumb should be put in a position just to the right side of the front of the grip.  Doing this will cause a V to be formed through the line between the thumb and your index finger.  This V should point up towards your right shoulder, but don’t be too concerned about where it points.  Rather take very careful notice of how many knuckles you can see when you look down on your left-hand grip.

And I suggest to really promote a draw, that you should see at least 3 knuckles when you look down on your completed left-hand grip, but 4 knuckles would be advisable at this early stage.  Remember that exaggeration will result in quicker change.

So when your left hand is in a position similar to the picture on the previous page and you can see three to four knuckles when you look down, then proceed to placing your right hand on the grip.  But before you do this I want to discuss something about your actual physical grip (i.e. the thing you hold onto on your club!) that can either make it easier or harder to draw the ball.

Grips come in different sizes, shapes and styles.  The key-determining factor that a grip has on the shape of shot you can hit is the size of the grip.  If your grips are too thick for you, then you will find it hard to ever draw a golf ball.  So it makes sense that if you want to draw a ball you should select a grip that is thinner rather than thicker.

A good way to tell if a grip is either too thick or too thin for you is by gripping a club with just your left hand as I’ve just shown you and then noticing the positioning of your middle fingers.  And here is a rough guide that will indicate whether your grip sizes are right for you or not.

• If the tips of your middle fingers barely touch the pad of your palm then the grip is OK for you.
• If your middle fingers don’t touch the pad of your palm then that indicates that your grips are too big for you.
• If your fingers push into the pad of your palm then that indicates that your grips are possibly too small for your hands.

Below are some pictures, which will clearly explain what you should be looking for when testing your grip sizes…

Go through all of your clubs and test this NOW! 

And if you find that your grips are too small or just right then great, but if you find that any of your grips are too fat then get them changed immediately.  I mean today, right now.  Go and get them taken off and get new thinner grips added.  You may find that when the pro takes your grips off they have tape under them.  Tape is placed under grips to fatten them up so be careful that this hasn’t been done to your grips.

Now let’s move on to joining your right hand to your left hand.  There are basically three different ways in which you can grip with the right hand, and I’m talking about the underneath part of the grip at the moment.  The three differences are called the Interlocking grip, the Vardon/Overlapping grip and the Ten Finger grip.  Each of these variances is pictured below for you to have a look at.

The Interlocking grip is used by Jack Nicklaus and John Daly, but for most golfers and especially for golfers that slice the ball, this should not be used because the Interlocking grip tends to restrict the hands from releasing in the swing, which can cause slices.

The Ten Finger grip is great for young children and some ladies, and it’s especially good for golfers who slice the ball to practice with as it encourages a more free and relaxed use of the hands, which can only encourage a draw.

The Vardon/Overlapping grip is used by the majority of the top golfers in the world today and this is the one that I recommend most golfers should use.

And I am only going to cover the Vardon grip from now on as that is the most popular and probably the best grip to use for most golfers.

So to grip the club with the right hand you must understand that the grip should be completely in the fingers.  Here is a picture that shows you where the club should lie in the right hand.

Here are some more pictures that show you how you should attach your right hand to the already completed left hand.  It is very important that you note that the grip of the right hand is all in the fingers, not in the palms.   And like the left hand, the more you have your right hand in the fingers the more likely you are to draw/hook the ball.

After getting to this position you simply have to overlap your right hand so the lifeline of your right hand fits snugly over your left thumb.  There should be no gaps between your right hand and left thumb, as they should fit snugly together.

Over the page is my completed grip, and the important thing to notice is that the V’s of both hands are pointing in the same direction (along the same parallel lines). This is critically important.

Don’t make the mistake that many do of thinking that the V of the right hand should be pointing to the same place as the V of the left hand.  If you do this your right hand will be weaker than your left hand and this will cause the hands to fight each other during the swing and lead to inconsistencies.

Also make sure that the thumb of your right hand rides down the left-hand side of the grip and not on top of the club, as many people do.

So once your grip is formed like above, go in front of a mirror and complete your grip again and compare it to the picture of my completed grip.

I know there is a lot of information here so following is a summary to help you practice your new grip.  And you should practice making and re-making your grip on the club for at least 15 minutes today and remember, exaggerate!

Day 1 Tasks

• Position the shaft so that it’s running across the top joint of your forefinger and under the heel of the palm of your left hand.  Note: the more you place your left-hand grip in the fingers the more it will encourage a draw/hook.

• The thumb of your left hand should be put in a position just to the right side of the front of the grip.

• Once you’ve completed your left-hand grip you should be able to see at least 3 to 4 knuckles when you look down.  The more knuckles you can see, the quicker you’ll be drawing the ball.

• Check your grips to make sure they are not too fat.  And remember, the thinner your grips the more they’ll help to promote a draw/hook.

• When joining your right hand to your left hand use either the overlapping or ten-finger grip, as these grips will help to promote a draw/hook more than an interlocking grip will.

• When gripping the club with your right hand make sure that you grip the club entirely in the fingers and the more you place the club in the fingers the more this will encourage a draw/hook.

• Make sure the V’s of both hands of your completed grip are pointing along the same parallel lines.

So now that you know how you should be gripping the club to encourage a draw, it’s now up to you to practice it.  Anytime you have spare today practice gripping the club following the points on the previous page.  But make sure you practice this for at least 15 minutes.

Another thing I must mention before you move onto to Day 2 is relaxation.  Your hands, arms and wrists must be relaxed when practicing and using your grip.  Most golfers who slice the ball have way too much tension in their arms, wrists and hands, which stops the club from releasing through impact.

A good technique to reduce tension over a shot is to tense your arms, hands and wrists as hard as possible before the shot.  By doing this you’ll reduce the chances of tension creeping in when you are hitting your shots.

So, you have your assignment for today.  Practice it as much as possible, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Where you position the ball in your stance and how you place your feet at setup has a huge effect on the shape of shots you can hit.  And I’m going to show you what you need to do with these two setup components to encourage a draw/hook.  Remember that exaggeration is the quickest way to turn your slice into a draw.  So once again, do what I recommend, and more.

Let’s cover ball positioning first.

So with this in mind, today you should hit some balls concentrating on placing the ball no further forward than the middle of your stance.  Also when doing this, remember to implement what you learnt in Day 1.  The following illustrations show you exactly what you should be doing today as far as ball positioning and the grip are concerned…

Now the second important aspect of your setup that will definitely help you to produce a draw/hook is your feet placement, and more specifically, your left foot.  It is infinitely easier to draw/hook the ball with your left foot square to the target rather than turned out.  The next few pictures will clearly show you what I mean…

With all this in mind here’s what you should be doing today.

Day 2 Tasks

1. Practice setting up to shots, or hitting shots if you can, while positioning your ball at least in the middle of your stance, but definitely do not have the ball positioned any further forward than the middle of your stance for the first 20 days of this system.

 2. Square your left foot up, as this will encourage you to use your hands on your downswing.

3. Also remember to grip the club so that you can see at least 3-4 knuckles of your left hand as well as doing all the other grip pointers that were mentioned on Day 1.

Here is a pictorial summary of what you should be doing for at least 15 minutes today…. 

Also remember to exaggerate.  I know I sound like a broken record, but I’m going to keep saying it until you do it.  Most people find it very difficult to get out of their comfort zones and often when they think they are making a change, in reality they aren’t.

So get out of the scoring trap for a few days and be willing to accept a few bad results to start with, because the end results will be worth any short term sacrifices.  Good luck for today and I’ll see you back here tomorrow….

If you really want to be able to consistently draw the ball 9 times out of 10, (and I know you do, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this right now) then you must have a good athletic posture position.  Now to achieve such a position is really, really easy, but unfortunately most golfers either don’t place enough importance on posture or they think their posture is OK.

Sadly, most amateur golfers have terrible posture and they don’t realize what an impact posture has on the swing itself.  But like I said a second ago, it’s really easy to have good posture and here’s exactly what you should do to improve yours.

1. Stand up straight with your feet about shoulder width apart, then
2. Take the straightness out of your knees, then…

3. Place a club along your spine, and then

4. Bend forward making sure that your spine remains straight.  And here is a very, very important point when doing this exercise – you want your buttocks to move back when doing this as it creates a balanced posture position.  Also you want your weight to be on the balls of your feet when setup, and it won’t be unless you follow the steps I’ve suggested. And the final step is…5. Having bent over (by moving your backside back and keeping your back straight), the next step is to move your left hip slightly towards your target.  Doing this automatically places your head behind the ball – which is just what you want.

Once in this position, you can set up with a club as if to hit a ball. And you’ll probably either have to bend over more or stand up straighter, depending on what club you are using.  For example, you will have to bend over more for a wedge than you would for a driver simply because a wedge is quite a bit shorter than a driver is.

You should practice this posture exercise for at least 15 minutes today.  And use different clubs when practicing so that you can become accustomed to this new setup with all the clubs in your bag.

Now, before we wrap up this day’s exercises I want to explain to you a few extra little things you can do when you setup that will help to encourage a draw/hook.

As you can clearly see in the picture below, the right arm is slightly flexed (i.e. there is a slight bend at the elbow).  This is a position that you should definitely attempt to emulate in your setup, because this is a position you want to get into at impact, as it will encourage a draw/hook. 

To check that your setup has the above characteristics simply setup in front of a mirror (so you are shooting directly away from the mirror) just as I’ve shown you, and then look back in the mirror.  If you can’t see your left arm at all then you simply need to slightly bend your right arm so you can see just a fraction of your left arm from behind (down the line).

The final thing you can do in your setup that encourages a draw/hook is to stand slightly further away from the ball than normal.  And the easiest and best way I’ve found to tell if I’m standing a good distance away from the ball is to setup as I normally would, and then I take the right hand off the grip and swing it back and forth like an elephants trunk.

Now if your right hand swings back to almost the same place as it was at address then you are standing a good distance away from the ball – See Picture 2 over the page.  But if your right hand swings back and finishes down the club as Picture 1 indicates, then you’re standing too close to the ball, especially if you’re trying to draw the ball.

And finally, if your right hand swings back and hits your top hand then that indicates that you are giving yourself more room than the norm.  But because you’re trying to draw/hook the ball it’s better at this stage to stand further away from the ball than the opposite – See Picture 3 over the page.

The reason I’m recommending that you stand further away from the ball is because doing this naturally produces a more rounded swing, whereas the closer you stand to the ball the more up and down your swing will be and this certainly encourages a fade/slice.

A good reference to check that you’re standing far enough away to encourage a draw/hook is when you swing your right hand like an elephants trunk it finishes up about half way covering the left hand as you can see in Picture 3.

This exercise creates a great reference for you, and you can easily do this yourself in front of a mirror or even when you’re practicing.

Day 3 Tasks

Your task for today is to practice the posture exercise I’ve shown you for at least 15 minutes.  And here is a summary of the posture exercise as well as the other two points you should integrate into your setup…

Posture Exercise

1. Stand up straight with your feet about shoulder width apart, then
2. Take the straightness out of your knees, then
3. Place a club along your spine, and then
4. Bend forward making sure that your spine remains straight, and here is a very, very important point when doing this; your backside should move back when doing this as this creates a balanced posture position.  Also you want your weight to be on the balls of your feet when you setup, and it won’t be unless you follow the steps I’ve suggested. And finally….
5. Once you’ve bent over (by moving the backside back and keeping the back straight) the next step is to move your left hip slightly towards your target.  Doing this automatically places your head behind the ball, which is just what you want.

Then, after completing this posture exercise make sure you have some flex in your right arm so you can see some of your left arm from behind (down the line).  Also give yourself slightly more room between the butt end of your club and your body, and check this by doing the swinging arm exercise.

This posture exercise is not something that you need to exaggerate.  But once you’re in this posture position you should continue to exaggerate the following setup points…

• Positioning your ball back from the middle of your stance. 

• Square your left foot up.

• Make sure that you can see at least 3-4 knuckles of your left hand as well as doing all the other grip pointers that were outlined on Day 1.

Ok, you’re doing brilliantly.  I know this may not be the most exciting thing you’ve ever done but these setup fundamentals are critical if you’re ever going to hit long, consistent draws.  So keep persevering…

Alignment is perhaps the most important aspect of the setup that will largely determine whether you can consistently draw the ball or not.  It is also the easiest part of the setup to put into practice, BUT it will most probably be the hardest thing for you to do out on the course.

Why?

Because most right handed golfers who slice the ball tend to aim further to the left to compensate for their slice, however that only makes it worse.

To hit a consistent draw you have to go against your natural instincts and aim the opposite way than you think you need to – and obviously if you want to draw/hook the ball then you need to aim to the right.  This logic makes sense, but when you actually go to do this you’ll probably find it hard and uncomfortable at first, but you must persevere and keep aiming to the right.

A great definition of insanity is doing what you’ve always done and expecting different results.  So do something-different TODAY by aiming your body to right.

And to show you what you should and shouldn’t be doing today, I have some pictures below showing the differences between a slice and a hook alignment.  Please notice the alignment differences closely because it’s very important to your success with this system.

So to produce a draw/hook you should make sure that all parts of your body are aimed to the right.  And it’s very important that ALL parts of your body are aimed to the right because some golfers think they are doing this, however upon closer inspection they find that their shoulders are actually open while the feet are closed.  This conflict in setup positions creates great inconsistencies in the swing.

Ok, below is a summary of what you should be doing today…

Day 4 Tasks

Your task today is to practice setting up to a shot with all the parts of your body, i.e. your feet, knees, hips, shoulders pointing to the right of your target.  Also your clubface should be pointing in the same direction as your body, i.e. to the right.  And once again, remember to exaggerate this “closed” alignment, as this is one of the most important aspects of the setup that will determine your ability to draw the ball consistently by the end of this system. 

Here’s a picture that shows you exactly what you need to practice today for at least 15 minutes…

Also remember to incorporate the following setup points into your final setup as well…

• Athletic posture position with some flex in your right arm so that you can see some of your left arm from behind (down the line).  Also give yourself slightly more room between the butt end of your club and your body, and check this by doing the swinging arm exercise.

• Position the ball no further forward than the middle of your stance. 

• Square your left foot up.

• Make sure you can see at least 3-4 knuckles of your left hand as well as doing all the other grip pointers that were mentioned on Day 1.