I am a P.G.A . Director of Instruction at Carmel Country Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. 2013 Carolinas PGA Teacher of the Year. I am an AimPoint Green Reading Certified Instructior, K-Vest certified, A certified Coutour Putter fitter, D-Plane certified. I am a christian, married with 2 children. I love to flyfish and am an avid runner
Ignore the video quality, still working out this editing AVCHD and uploading. I think the info is still solid so I hope you enjoy it.
Feel free to leave comments and I will see you on the lesson tee,
Guru
The Orange Whip Training Aid
is slowly becoming one of my favorite training aids and I know a few of you have ordered one after using it in one of our lessons. I contacted the company and expressed to them how much I love the product and have teamed up with them to offer a discount for anyone buying an Orange Whip Trainer from the website. If you buy one, please type in the promo code: GURU to receive 10.00 off your purchase. Here are the benefits that I have found and my review that I did from the archives.
1. Great way to warm up before practice or a round
2. Helps to develop rhythm and tempo in your swing
3. helps with the proper sequence of the golf swing by helping you feel the role of the body pivot and how that creates the shape of the swing and proper release of the club.
I have filmed a few students using the aid and the changes that were created by what I call interval training with mixing it with ball striking and impact drills. I will post a few vids of the changes that were made which were pretty incredible. Visit the website at www.orangewhiptrainer.com
Please leave comments on your experience with this training aid and if it has helped your game.
See you on the lesson tee,
Guru
STOP SCOOPING. HERE IS ANOTHER VID THAT I SHOT ON PITCHING. Using the raw footage until I figure out this new camera software.
After a long but very rewarding week of golf schools and private lessons, I get a day off to relax. The week started with our Signature Golf School on Tuesday. When asked about this unique school, I always answer that this is the way we would teach in a perfect world. In the Signature School, Dana, Julie and myself take the students out onto the course first thing in order to observe them playing golf. This gives us teachers a live look into the students golf game that we normally don’t get. This is so valuable as most golfers have a hard time with self assessment and tend to leave things out or don’t assess accurately (not intentionally). We then bring them back in and go through what we observed and pick their brain as to what they were thinking as they were playing certain shots. We spend three days on the golf course coaching and playing a few holes in the meantime. It gives me a great opportunity to work on the mental side of golf including course management and decision-making. We have seen awesome results from this fantastic program and I thank the students that I had this week (if any of you are reading my blog) for their willingness to change and great attitudes that is crucial for long-lasting change. What they find is that it is often as hard to make a routine or mental change as a physical motion change. The week ended with a co-ed three-day school which was well attended with 18 students. I had so much fun with my group of brand new players, guiding them through the learning process and arming them with etiquette and golf course questions that would help them to be comfortable getting out and playing golf. It is very rewarding to expose new golfers to this great game that you can enjoy for a lifetime. I normally work with the lower handicap players so it was a nice change of pace to work with these very excited and ambitious beginners that were soaking up every nugget of info like a sponge. We finished on a high note with all of them hitting some quality shots which makes it all worth it. So back to my day off. For those of you that know me understand that I don’t do relax very well so I will be shooting a few episodes of Guru TV tomorrow and then spending a few hours at the Quail Hollow Championship pro-am capturing some video. Why, because I care about you….Guru Nation and I want to take advantage of every opportunity to help you all play better golf. It is my mission and my privilege to teach and coach and I try to never take that for granted.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE NEXT
Feel free to leave a comment on a topic or a question that you would like to see on upcoming episodes of Guru TV and I will try to make it happen or at least do a post about it. Have a great week and enjoy the one of the best tournaments on the P.G.A. Tour. Most of the players stay at our hotel so It should be an interesting week. Stay tuned for upcoming posts and some video.
See you on the lesson tee,
Guru
How is your bunker play? Are you getting it out or are you wasting shots? Are you getting it close? I have included an archive video from a short game series that I did last fall. I know that the bunker shot can be a very scary shot for the average player. There are so many misconceptions on how to play from a green side trap. Here are a few ideas that you might have about bunker play that are false. I have two views of the Guru (me) hitting a short bunker shot….(Phil Mickelson said that he practices 30 foot bunker shots and has improved his bunker play).
Misconception #1 – You must open your stance. Not true. You can play great shots with a square stance and a square blade as long as you lean the shaft backwards slightly so the club doesn’t dig (Claude Harmon Sr. used to teach this method)
Misconception #2 – You cut across the ball in a bunker swing. Not True. I encourage an early hinge which creates a steeper angle of approach but not an outside to in swing. Remember: The ball flies the direction that the sand is thrown. The sand is thrown the direction that you swing. If you swing too much to the left, the ball will likely pull the left.
Misconception #3 – The ball will fly the direction the clubface is looking. If you open the club face to the right, you can still hit the ball at the target if the club is swing on plane.
Misconception #4 – your spine needs to tilt away from the target at address. Wrong. Tilt your spine towards the target to ensure that the bottom of the swing is close to the ball. Get the buttons on you shirt over the ball.
Study the video and you will be making bunker music and saving strokes before you know it. I will be back soon with some new videos.
See you on the lesson tee,
Guru
To schedule a lesson, call 704-542-7635 or visit our website at danarader.com
Every golfer has goals. Mostly of breaking one of three scoring barriers: breaking 100, breaking 90 or breaking 80. The lower you get the more difficult this achievement becomes. According to NGT Research, there are over 60 million golfers in the world today and less than half of them will never break 100. 33% will break 90. However, only 5% will ever break 80. That’s 3 million people out of 60 million golfers. So this makes breaking 80 an elite club for sure. If you have done it once in your life, congratulations. For those of you who follow the guru’s blog already know my formula for breaking 100 and breaking 90. Recently, one of my twitter friends posed the question,”What are your keys to breaking 80?” So after some thought and a bit of research, Here are my keys to success. Building from my list of breaking 90…………..
1. Drive the ball in play and average 230 yards. I am assuming that you are shooting in the low 80’s from the back tees at this point.
2. Most Important: You must average 8 greens in regulation. Assuming you make at least 2 of 8 birdie putts and don’t three putt. This leaves 10 greens that you have to chip, pitch and hit bunker shots.
3. Get it up and down an average of 40 percent of the time. This leaves us a few shots to play with
4. Limit three putts and average 32 putts per round. 2nd most important stat.
Get in the habit of keeping your vital statistics of your rounds of golf. FIR, GIR, Putts/round and up and down pct. If you are looking for a website to keep stats and track your progress, I suggest ShotbyShot.com. This will give you starting point and show you how close you are to reaching this barrier that most golfers can’t cross. Of course, this is just my opinion and there are many factors that go into a golf game that help make up the level of player but this is a great place to start. Here are a couple of ideas that just might get you over the hump if you are trying to turn 81 into 79.
1. Use the 80/20 rule. If you do find trouble, don’t be Phil Mickelson and try to hit the career shot. If you can’t pull it off at least 80 percent of the time, play it safe. Punch it out and make your bogey.
2. Aim for the middle of the green. Refer to my past post of the stop light theory. There are very few green lights out there, proceed with caution and hit more greens.
3. Work on your mental side. Focus on pre-shot routine and TARGET and quit playing golf swing. Ask yourself 2 questions before every shot……”Where’s my target?” and “How do I want to play this shot”…..Sure beats standing over it saying, “Just don’t hit it in the water”
Best of Luck with your golf and enjoy the journey. I will see you on the lesson tee.
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Guru……….. call 704.542.7635 to schedule a lesson or check out our website at danarader.com
1. Great to see Phil be courageous and actually pull it off. The shot on 13 was phenomenal.
2. My childhood idol, Fred Couples gave us some hope and nearly won at 50, wow that would have been a story.
3. Tiger continues to amaze at how he can get the most out of his round with his C swing, incredible. I hope he comes to Charlotte.
4. Anthony Kim seems to have his form and head on straight, great to see.
5. Biggest Disappointments were Jim Furyk, Ernie Els and Charl Schwartzel.
6. Lee Westwood officially gets the label of the best player without a major. He will win the British Open.
Give me your thoughts on the Masters. It was one for the ages.
See you on the lesson tee: to schedule a lesson call 704-542-7635 or visit danarader.com,
Guru
Great golf is about predicting the shot you are about to hit, simple as that. I get aggravated with students that I work with that think that they must hit a draw. There was a guy named Nicklaus (whom I named my very son after) that won a few tournaments while playing a fade. Ben Hogan talked about hating to hit a hook. Now, if you hit a 30 yard draw or hook and can repeat it then you will do pretty well. The main thing in my opinion is taking one side of the course out of play if possible. This gives you a one-sided miss which again is predictable. Something that I still teach in course management classes and playing lessons is not crossing your line (this is something that Jack Nicklaus often talked about especially at Augusta). What this means is this: Imagine that you are playing number 13 at Augusta and are hitting your second shot into a back right pin. According to Nicklaus, the shot calls for a fade that starts left of the pin. The key is to not let the ball flight cross over the target line and finish right of the flag. the same goes for a draw shot into a back left pin. This is a great way to manage your round. This means that you can’t shoot at every pin but should take advantage of shots that fit your typical ball flight but not over do it to miss on the short side. DON’T CROSS YOUR LINE AND YOU WILL PLAY GREAT GOLF AND WHO KNOWS, MIGHT GET YOU A GREEN JACKET. predictability and consistency in your misses are the key to great golf. Thanks for letting me vent and I will see you on the lesson tee.
Guru
danarader.com 704-542-7635
We often talk about the importance of putting but I don’t think we fully understand what it takes to be reach our goals. Aimpointgolf.com was developed by Mark Sweeney and is the technology that you see used on the PGA Tour to show the actual break line of a putt. This is a chart that I found interesting and might make you think about what is really important in achieving your golfing goals. I want to thank my good friend, John Graham which is a certified Aim Point Instructor and a great resource for golf instruction and information for making me aware of this wonderful technology. Check his site out at johngrahamgolf.com. I will be checking into getting more info about the green reading information developed by AimPoint to help my students and peeps of Guru Nation. I hope you enjoy the post and enjoy the Masters.
http://aimpointgolf.com/whatdoesittake.html
See you on the lesson tee,
Guru
To schedule a lesson call The Dana Rader Golf School @704-542-7635 or visit our website at danarader.com
It’s Official. The golf season officially starts this week as the years first major championship starts this week. I managed to make it down to what I feel is the most beautiful place on earth, Augusta National Golf Club. My day started at about 4:30 as I arrived at the gate just before 8 o’clock. I immediately hit the course with video camera in hand, hoping to get a shot at Mr. Woods and Fred Couples. I timed it just right as Woods and Couples were coming down the second. I camped out behind the long par 3 fourth hole. Tiger approached the tee to a welcoming applause and proceeded to slice it in the front bunker and I captured it on camera. He appeared pretty relaxed and was very engaging with the crowd that seemed to accept him back to the game. I am sure he was thinking about his press conference that would take place a few hours later so I didn’t read much into the loose shots that I saw Tiger hit. It looked as though he was just glad to back out on the course and in his comfort zone. The golf course looked very good even though the azaleas were not quite in bloom. I am sure the Masters staff are going to work there magic and get them to pop by Thursday for the television coverage. It is great to see the best players and how they prepare for a tournament and there is a lot to be learned if you pay attention. Hitting shots to different parts of the greens and hitting chips and rolling putts to every possible pin position. I spent a lot of time at the newly constructed practice tee and short game area (which is phenomenal to say the least). This is where you can really see how the guys put the work in and work with their coaches. As I watched the players hitting balls, working on their short games and putting, here are some simple things that I observed and are great reminders for all of us trying to improve our games.
1. Ross Fisher rolling putts while his coach lined him up from behind.
2. Rory Mcilroy rolling putt after putt using a chalk line for alignment
3. Every player had dowel rods or clubs on the ground for alignment (including Els, Quiros, Schwartzel and Singh), taking nothing for granted………do you?
4. Vijay Singh using a variety of objects including an umbrella placed just outside the target line to keep him from swinging too much from the inside.
5. Kevin Na and Matt Kutchar making slow motion rehearsal swings in between every shot. Something that I preach in every lesson
I took plenty of video that I will edit and share if I find appropriate in the near future. Many of the players looked sharp but I was particularly impressed with one young player. Charl Schwartzel.
For those of you that are in a Masters pool, I will make him my dark horse pick of the week. See you next time and enjoy watching the Masters. Oh, and lastly……Alvero Quiros is as long as advertised…..Wow he is long.
What a great day at The Masters,
Guru
The Golf Guru Show 