Howdy fellow golfer,

How was your weekend?

Mine was fantastic! 18 holes at the local country club, followed by margaritas and golf chat.

It’s a beautiful thing…

The most striking difference between most public and private courses I play are the greens.

At most public courses (with plenty of exceptions) the greens are slower and bumpy.

At the Country Club, the greens are immaculate!

FAST, with hidden breaks. Locals have an advantage because they know the tendencies…

The guy I was playing with is a real Richard (if you know what I mean) but a pretty good golfer. He mentioned several times about my pre-putt routine. Said I could probably take 6 strokes off per 9 with a better pre-putt routine (which would translate into a better actual putt).

Plus, I got a couple of requests last week for more short game vids.

Now, I’m a thick-skulled dude in general – but even I can take this hint.

So, without much ado, the lesson of the day is on the pre-putt routine. Without this… you’ve missed the putt before you ever take it:

http://www.chucktheputter.com/golf-tips/pre-putt-routine/

And speaking of putting…

Have you ever been to a PGA tourney and watched the pros putt? Or chip for that matter?

It’s the great equalizer.

Half (or more) of all the strokes you take are from around the green.

Lets take two golfers – one a long hitter, and one a shorter hitter, and follow ‘em through an average 370 yard Par 4:

Golfer 1 bombs his drive 285 yards to the first cut of rough. He is left with an 85 yard pitch to the pin.

Golfer 2 pushes a respectable 240 drive to the center of the fairway. He is left with an 8 iron from a very good lie.

In this case each golfer, with a respectable approach, can be on or near the green. From here, it’s all about the short game…

The PGA Pros, who are golfing at Turning Stone in NY today will spend 50% or more of their time practicing their short game.

Can you say the same?

If not… it may be time to re-evaluate your practice…

Travis

PS. For a few weeks, we were offering a way for people to sign up for our upcoming PRO membership. It was a test to see if people would buy it… We didn’t advertise, or even tell anybody about it.

Well, lots of people DID get in. (The lucky folks who found our “hidden” PRO Membership signup section got high resolution photos of Turning Stone for their computer desktop background.)

In addition to the incredible technology we are building, PRO members will get customized golf instruction (yes, I’ll know how many times you slice the ball in a round) and cool perks like high-res photos of everywhere the pros are playing each week.

You can’t get in now – we locked it down to focus on building the software – but you can click below to sign up for a notification when we launch again in a month or two:

http://clubhouse.swingbyswing.com/pro-notification/

(At the link above, you can learn about all the technology and perks you’ll get as an SbS PRO Member.)