Contact Ronald Bruce Romberg

If you are not yet convinced that your golf emotions have a huge
impact on your game, you might as well give up trying to play better
golf.

Extremely satisfying golf is about hitting good shots under some
sort of pressure and where there is pressure, internal or otherwise,
your emotions are at play. Golfers cannot act like a bear with a sore
bum and expect positive thoughts about their next shot and still expect
to feel calm and focused enough to execute it properly.

Similarly, an over-exuberant high five after making a 40-footer
often leads to a five on the following par three. We know that overly
powerful emotions are detrimental to good golf but players let their
emotions get the better of them all the time. Let me explain why this
happens and then I'll suggest an enticing solution.

Nearly all golfers accept that "blowing up" can ruin their round,
but it takes true courage to admit that they missed their drive on 13
because of the bad break they thought they suffered on 12. Golfers do
not acknowledge that their emotions affect their game for three
reasons:

• 1) Our emotions occur naturally,

• 2) Most don't think they know how to handle raw golf emotions, and

• 3) People take it very personally when told to control deeply rooted feelings.

My fundamental instruction message for fellow golfers is that you
may not be able to control what happens to you on the course but you
can control how you react to what happens. Ignoring your emotions is
impossible but you can definitely manage yourself once they happen.

What causes powerful golf emotions?

Powerful golf emotions, high and low, occur because golfers want to
be better players. Our highs happen because we feel proud and we
celebrate truly great shots and our lows happen because we feel
frustrated or angry about a poor putt — or three! If golfers aren't
careful, this strong desire to perform can put them in a constant state
of agitation and frustration because few players are consistently
satisfied with golf performances.

Fred Shoemaker says that most golfers are only two bad shots away
from being very frustrated. In this constantly agitated state, a
golfer's emotions can easily rise up and torpedo their game. But it
doesn't have to be this way. If people can keep their emotions from
torpedoing their jobs and their relationships, I'm convinced they can
do it for their golf game. How? Read on.

Get an emotional caddie who demands respect!

Everybody experiences powerful emotions all the time but we
selectively hide them from people by changing our outward reactions and
behaviors. Why don't we do the same when we golf? Simple. In golf, as
long as we don't rant and rave, our emotions are private and no one is
offended.

We simply don't have to show ourselves the same degree of inward
respect we publicly give to others and this lets our emotions run wild.
So, to keep your emotions in check, I suggest hiring yourself as an
Emotional Caddie (EC). No, I'm not kidding and the job interview goes
something like this:

Self: So, you want a job as my Emotional Caddie?

Emotional Caddie: Yup!

Self: Why do I need you?

EC: Because you're not doing so well on your own.

Self: Maybe not, but what do you know about my game?

EC: Everything — obviously.

Self: What are you going to do?

EC: I'm going to demand the same respect and support you give everybody else!

Self: Hey, what d'ya mean by that?

EC: Last week you told Charlie to regroup and go through his full
routine when he was playing bad but you didn't do that for me yesterday
on the back nine.

Self: Yeah, but I was so annoyed. I couldn't even hit one decent shot.

EC: So? That's golf. Why'd you call yourself "a hacker" for nine holes?

Self: I just felt so bad.

EC: So did Charlie. What did you do for him that you couldn't do for me?

Self: Nothing, I guess.

EC: My point exactly.

Self: So, what are you going to do about it?

EC: Whenever I sense your emotions are about to interfere with your
game, I'm going to ask if you're emotionally OK to hit your next shot.
If you are, it's a green light special!

Self: And if I'm not?

EC: I'll hold you back a little and remind you to use your special
breathing exercise. It works great when you use it, but you're just
like Charlie, you don't use the skills you already have to regroup
after an emotional high or low.

Self: Sounds great. What else are you going to do?

EC: Every time you have an emotional moment on the golf course and
then get yourself under control for your next series of shots, I'm
going to buy you a beer.

Self: You're hired! I feel better already.

EC: I know, and we just earned our first beer!

Ronald Bruce Romberg

The answer to better putting can start by using your belly - your
belly putter, that is. A belly putter has a shaft that is longer than a
traditional putter, so you can anchor the butt end of the grip into
your stomach. Hence the name "belly putter."

The advantage of using this type of putter is that a golfer can use
a traditional, two-handed putting stroke while having the putter
secured to his or her body. This takes the hands and wrist out of the
stroke, creating a stabilizing effect. PGA Tour professionals, such as
Vijay Singh, Fred Couples and J.B. Holmes have used the belly putter
with great success.

The belly putter came into being as many golfers experimented with
the long putter and had trouble finding a consistent repeatable stroke
with it. By making a putter 4 or 5 inches longer than a traditional
putter, golfers found they could eliminate the nervous hands and wrists
during their stroke, and swing the putter with the arms and shoulders
for more control.

As players get older, the nerves come into play more and more. The
belly putter can be a big advantage to all players but especially for
seniors.

So if you struggle with too much wrist action, or you just want to
improve your putting stroke, a belly putter may be just what you're
looking for.

Bruce Romberg Bio

The keys to solid, crisp iron play are sound fundamentals, a good
rhythm and balance through out the golf swing. Here are a few tips to
help you create improved iron play:

• Allow the arms to hang down at address, and don't reach for the
ball. If the arms push out away from the body during impact, the
clubface opens causing players to have to manipulate the face to get
back to square. Address the ball by letting the arms hang down, keeping
the elbows close to the body. As you hit shots, feel the elbows staying
close to the body during the swing.

• Keep the hips quiet upon impact. The key to solid ball striking
is allowing the hips to open before impact but in a subdued and delayed
action. Proper hip rotation allows the arms to remain close to the body
keeping upper-body tilt in the correct position upon impact. Don't
force the hips open, let them open naturally.

• Proper hand position: When approaching impact, the left wrist
should be flat and the right wrist bent back. If the arms are out away
from the body during impact, the right hand will release early causing
the right wrist to prematurely straighten. Early release is the main
cause for loss of power in a golf swing.

Keep the right heel down upon impact. Keeping the right heel
grounded late in the downswing will allow the hips to remain quiet and
keep the arms close to the body during impact. It also allows the feet,
knees and hips to remain directly under the torso, creating a solid
impact position that maximizes solid contact and consistency.

Try these tips and see your iron play improve.

Contact Ronald Bruce Romberg

The key to shooting lower scores should start with your set
make-up. The best way to determine your ideal set make-up is to analyze
your strengths and weaknesses. Once you have determined which golf
clubs you have trouble hitting, you are on your way to seeing your
scores come tumbling down.

Most amateur golfers build their golf sets the traditional way.
Driver, 3 wood, 4 or 5 woods, iron sets 3 to PW, a couple of sand
wedges and a putter. The first step to lower scores is to start
thinking in an untraditional way.

Start by removing all the clubs from your set that you have a
difficult time hitting on a consistent basis. For many golfers, it's
the fairway woods and long irons. Instead of carrying three fairway
woods, just keep the one you hit best in the bag. Next, eliminate the
long irons you fear as soon as you pull them out of the bag. For most
average golfers it's the 3 and 4 iron.

Consider ditching the fairway woods and long irons

A good alternative to fairway woods and long irons are hybrids. The
shorter shaft length along with a more compact head helps most golfers
hit these clubs much better than the harder-to-hit fairway woods and
long irons. The end results are solid shots that give golfers increased
confidence, which leads to better swings.

Finally, take a lesson from Phil Mickelson, and put three or four
wedges into your bag. I recently played golf with a higher handicap
player who tried to use his pitching wedge to get out of greenside
bunkers.

Go out and buy a sand wedge!

In the first 12 holes, he was in four bunkers, and it took him
three shots to get out of each bunker. He was bunkered on the 16th
hole, and by this time I could not stand by and watch this anymore.

I gave him my 60-degree sand wedge and a few pointers on how to use
the club, and said give it a try. To his great relief he swung that
wedge; the ball came out stopping about 15 feet from the hole.

I yelled to him, "Go out and buy a sand wedge!"

Every golfer should carry at least three sand wedges in their bags
as the first place to improve your score is from around the green.

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