One thing that some may not know about me is that before I became a member of the GGA team in January of 2004, I was a student of the GGA.  I, like you, was looking to Todd and Tim to offer me a way to improve my golf game.  I already knew without a doubt that Moe Norman’s Single Plane golf swing was the golf swing for me, and at my first interaction with Todd and Tim, I knew they were the ‘masters’ I would follow to achieve the improvement I sought.

One of my favorite things about Todd and Tim as teachers, besides teaching the simplest swing on the planet, is their desire to look for ways to improve, enhance, and evolve their instruction.  In recent years, we have begun to try to simplify our instruction, and we now look at the golf swing in these terms:

1. Task – Hit a golf ball towards the intended target
2. Tool – The golf club in your hands
3. Machine – Your body

Of those 3, you really only have control over 1 of them; your body.  Golf clubs can be fit to you, but they still are just a tool, and without a machine to use the tool, they are useless.  Your body is truly the only variable that you can control, and over the last 6 years, I’ve often seen it hinder many, if not most, of our students trying to swing like Moe.  Hell, it hinders me too.  My body isn’t as strong, supple, or flexible as it was 20 years ago, and I’d bet a “dollar to a doughnut” that yours isn’t either.

So Why bring this up?

Simple; Todd, Tim and I believe with our entire beings that Moe Norman’s Single Plane golf swing is by FAR a simpler, more bio-mechanically efficient and effective way to accomplish the task of hitting a golf ball toward an intended target.

Here’s the rub, however.  For the students who’ve found renewed hope in Moe’s swing, the vast majority simply don’t have their “machine” in the correct working order to move the tool and perform the task.  It’s their bodies that are failing them, not their desire or willingness to work and practice.  Their machines, for lack of a better term, are broken and need some work.

As I write this, I’ve just finished watching our new Flexibility & Golf Exercises DVD.  I had previously seen it all in clips, but had never had the chance to watch it beginning to end until today.

After viewing it, I will make the pronouncement right now – there isn’t one single Moe Norman golfer out there who shouldn’t own a copy of this DVD.  Period.

Now I know you’re reading this going, “Sure he says that, they’re trying to sell them to make $’s”, and you’d be right.  HOWEVER, let me pose this question to you.  If you buy a product that helps you tune your “machine”, which in turn helps you achieve Moe’s swing more easily, which in turn helps you perform the task more consistently, and we make a few $’s in the process, isn’t that a win-win proposition?

The Flexibility & Golf Exercises DVD came into existence for only 1 purpose, and that was to be helpful in getting your “machine” in the correct working order to give you the best chance to play your best golf.  Simple as that.  Go check it out, and get a copy.  Do the tests, the exercises, and go forward knowing that your machine, your body, will no longer hinder your ability to swing like Moe.

All the best,

Scott Renfrow

I am not judging Tiger but I must say, like many, I am disappointed. Disappointed that even the strongest of persons can succumb to a weakness. I also feel a bit defrauded but there is a part of me that feels compassion for Tiger. Here’s why.

It comes down to this. Any addiction or compulsion, in Tiger’s case women, shows that somewhere, deep inside of Tiger, something is missing. What could this possibly be? It would seem, on the surface, that he has everything – enough for one thousand men. Yet, he was still searching for something in women outside of his marriage.

Think about it. Most people learn about themselves when they go through life’s struggles whether it be trying to find a job, money, loss of relationships or simply trying to survive.

Tiger has never had to face these challenges. He has been in the spotlight since he was four years old. His teen years were consumed by golf and becoming the best player in the world. When did he ever find time to discover himself behind the layers of a golf superstar? When Tiger won his first Masters in 1997, his mystique deepened. He took the spotlight and never looked back and he never had a chance to really discover himself.

Some people think that his Asian heritage gives him a deeper understanding about concentration and mental toughness. I say bullshit. Let’s face it, what Tiger is searching for in all of those women is himself. He is looking for something that he can’t find by winning tournaments, cruising around on his yacht or having a billion dollars. There is not doubt about it, Tiger is on a spiritual search – looking for the part of him that is missing.

Because of Tiger, I go to the gym more often, play with more passion and look at the game from an entirely different perspective that before I ever saw him play. I have learned a lot from Tiger. For that, I thank him.

Of course, I am not happy with his “transgressions” however, I offer him my prayers that he can find what he is looking for. If he does, it will be his, and our, biggest lesson of all. Good luck Tiger.

The separation is the person who gets out of bed at an hour early to get on a bike for 30 minutes before work and the one who sleeps to get every last minute of sleep before hitting the snooze button. The separation is going an extra mile instead of stopping. The separation is the difference between excellence and mediocrity. It is the difference between winning and losing – in life.

I began thinking about the separation with my good friend Larry Jacobs. Many of you may know Larry as the weight loss coach – with his program weight loss for golfers. Larry mentioned a little interesting fact to me the other day. He said “think about the holidays – this is weight gain season. We over eat, eat sweets and before you know it, we’ve packed on 15 pounds and here comes spring”. Then he said something even more interesting. He said, “What if you could lose 15 pounds over the holidays, it would be like a 30 pound net loss”.

I thought to myself, that type of thinking is what separates the disciplined from the non-disciplined. That is the separation I am talking about. This concept goes with everything in life whether it be golf, weight loss or anything. It is this type of thinking that takes people from mediocre to greatness.

So think about it – what is separating you from reaching your potential? What habits are keeping you from what it takes to get what you want. Write them down and then take a hard truthful look at yourself in a mirror. As yourself one very important question. “If not now then when”? When are you going to get started? Be honest and get busy.

The key word here is fundamentals. Let me repeat this word a different way by defining it.

Fundamentals: Principles from which other truths can be derived;

I love this definition because in its own definition, fundamentals is based on principles and truth. Therefore, when you
are applying the learning of Moe Norman’s golf swing – you are applying the “truth” to you golf game.

As an instructor, I have no secrets. This concept of “secrets” has always bothered me. There are literally hundreds of people touting to know Moe’s secrets or that they are the only one to know a “secret” about the golf swing.

Calling them a secret makes it seem that you must be privileged to know the information. Lets get this straight. There are no secrets – only golf swing truths.

These truths are the fundamentals – which, if you plan on hitting the ball well, can not be violated. I have often said that if you want to know the secret to hitting the golf ball well, ask the golf ball. What I mean by this is that it is the movement of the golf club that tells us whether your golf swing is working and the ball tells us what his happening. It expresses the truth – most of the time.

However, it can also lie. Actually, the ball doesn’t lie, we lie about the ball. Let me explain. The other day, a student was hitting the ball perfectly straight – yet not very far. He was feeling pretty good about his ball striking except for the fact that his 5 iron was only going about 110 yards. He had the illusion that he needed more power but the fact was that he was coming over the plane in the downswing with an open face creating the illusion that the ball was going straight. He was lying to himself about his ball flight.

This is a common problem I see in golfers attempting to improve. They will fool themselves into thinking things are going well and start seeing things that are not really there. In this situation, hitting golf balls becomes a hindrance to improvement. The occasional “good” shot is nothing more than an illusion of progress.

You must break through this illusion. For every swing issue there is a fundamental solution. Every golfer wants consistency, power and reliability so he can go “play” the game. Without these results, often golf is more suffering than playing.

So, how do you achieve these fundamentals more easily? The answer is to remove the illusion and start facing the truth. The truth is your golf swing mechanics. Videos do not lie and it is time to stop lying to yourself, take a good look at your swing and improve it fundamentally. This is the shortcut and the secret you are looking for. I guarantee it.

You are extremely lucky because you have available to you all the tools, videos, training aids and technology to shortcut the learning process –When I found Moe, I did not have many of these tools.

There is one thing though, that I had that you may not have and this may keep you from finding the success that you strive for. Desire.

People ask me every day why Moe chose me. A reporter in 2002 asked him why he thought that I was the only one who could teach his golf swing. Moe in his eloquent simplicity said “Because he really wants it”. He was right.

Moe didn’t talk about talent, money, strength, physical attributes, or past successes. Moe, as usual, saw what was most important in a person – he saw desire. The desire to do whatever it took to achieve my goal.

My question to you is this: Do you have the desire? Do you want it?

The reason I ask you this question is because when you really want something you do whatever it takes. You go the extra mile and practice the extra hour. You ask for help when you need it and you willfully make things that seem impossible – possible. And throughout this process, you also understand that failure is a launching pad for success.

Desire gets you through the tough times and the times when you feel as though you are spinning your wheels. It gets you past the heartache of a bad round and the bad practice day. Desire is what holds you together when your friends think you are crazy for changing your golf swing.

Looking back at my time with Moe and how I learned his golf swing, I can now reflect on what it would be like to be starting over again. With that in mind, I thought I would give you my formula for success with the tools of today. But before I get into specifics, let me make a few things clear.

You must be mentally READY to learn.

This is a prerequisite for change. Most adults I have met have forgotten how to learn or they have never really known how. This might sound a bit critical but lets see if you fit into my definition of mentally ready – or not.

1. You are willing to accept getting worse before you get better.
2. You admit that you know nothing and are open to anything
3. You can stop judging yourself and your results.
4. You have complete commitment. This means you are not trying Moe’s swing but actually doing Moe’s swing.
5. You are willing to ask for help and accept the answers.
6. You are completely committed to getting it right.

Read the above questions carefully. If you can honestly answer YES to all of the questions, you are open to learning. If there are any questions that you hesitate to answer yes to, these issues will cause resistance to your learning.

Once you have fully committed to this learning process, let me share with you what I would do if I were to start all over again.

I would begin by preparing my surroundings for my success. Similar to removing the sweets and cookies from your house when you go on a diet, you must prepare your golf surroundings. I believe this is the basis for many successes and failures. This means you must purchase the necessary equipment, space, cameras, range membership etc. If you really want success, you must sacrifice for it. Once you have prepared your world for success, do this.

1. I would first learn exactly what I am trying to achieve – I would get educated.

This is an important step mostly because knowing the exact destination; you can start building a road map as well as monitor your progress. The goal is a Single Plane Golf Swing. The Model is Moe Norman.

2. I would Study as much Video of Moe as possible for comparison.

Most of us learn from watching. Watching Moe was a great learning tool for me. Luckily I watched Moe in person but there is plenty of video available to watch. Eventually you will get your own camera (see next step) and you will be able to compare yourself to Moe.

3. Get Training Aids to shorten the learning process

Get the tools you need to speed things up. This includes training clubs, PVC pipes, video cameras, computers etc. Do not hesitate to invest in your success.

4. Invest in instruction.

IT was not available to me as it is to you today. This is the shortcut to the learning process. You must get help, ask questions and work at the suggestions given. One teacher of mine once said an important thing to me. He said, even if you practice something and you can’t get it, you still learn from it. You learn how not to get it. All practice is good practice but great practice comes from knowing exactly what to practice so get help so you know what to do.

5. Develop a Practice Plan and Goal Book

Now that you have fully committed, acquired the necessary tools and invested in some instruction, set a plan. It might be a bit contrary to most people that I waited until the 5th step to set a practice plan and goal book however, I believe that you must have full commitment, involvement and investment or a plan will never work.

This is my Ready Fire Aim approach. Don’t hesitate to dive right in and get going and develop a plan as you go. You can’t plan for everything but with this approach, everything fits into the plan.

The above approach is my roadmap for success. Of course, there are other things I would do regarding how I would develop my golf swing. I will get further into these things in the next e-tips and webinars.

For now, get going on the above process and don’t look back. Success is just around the corner.

Todd Graves

I am not talking about what makes people tick from a psychology standpoint – that is too complicated. I am talking about it from a personal standpoint. I like to hear peoples stories. We all have them and every one of them is interesting.

I like to know what motivates people to play golf, go to workout, read the paper or simply what gets them out of bed in the morning.

Why orange juice and not grapefruit juice? Why a Honda and not Toyota? Why California and not Florida? These questions of why we do what we do can be revealing to say the least. Oh, by the way, not only am I interested in why others do what they do, it makes me ask often “Why do I do what I do? Why do I like big dogs better than small ones? Why do I enjoy Starbucks coffee so much when I don’t really like coffee? Why, at times am I extremely motivated and others, I could stay in bed until noon? Sometimes my answer is simply “I have no idea why I do what I do.”

Golf, on the other hand, has always been something that is a part of my life. It has become a part of me. I have been a part of golf for so long, it has become more than what I do, it has become who I am. How did that happen?

What is even more interesting, and maybe a bit disturbing, is that when I was 12 years old, I played more golf than I do now. That doesn’t mean I don’t have the time to play golf now, it is simply that I see the game differently now. I enjoyed the challenge of golf when I was 12, now golf is a challenging business. How times have changed for me. How golf has changed for me.

I still love golf. Every bit of it. But now, after looking at golf from a different perspective where I now look at from others eyes, I see a different game. I see people who play the game for the same reasons I played it years ago – because it does something for them. What is it doing for them? Most people have an answer to why they play golf but usually it is much deeper than what they think.

Some say that when they play golf, they are able to go outdoors. So why not sit on your porch? Some say, that they like the competitive nature of golf. So why not play chess? Some attribute playing the game to having fun yet many, who I watch play, do not have fun when they play.

I have a different perspective on why people play golf – maybe this will resonate with you. I think people play golf because, for all the things we do and the reasons we do them, the game of golf helps you find yourself.

What do I mean by this? When you play golf, even if you think you enjoy being outdoors, you will still play in rain and bad weather. The game makes you deal with adversity and adversity builds strength in character. Your character is who you are.

If you are competitive in golf, you must face your opponent. This means that you must once again confront yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. You must learn how to deal with yourself against your opponent. When you win, you feel victorious and when you lose, you feel defeated. Once again, through competition, golf found a way for you to look at yourself.

You see golf, for those who know it and love it, is a game for self discovery. It brings you closer to yourself. This is what I love about golf and why I do what I do.

Don’t get me wrong, the guys played great in tough conditions. Not the weather. It was perfect. What I am talking about is the course, competition and stage -those conditions. And under those conditions, the ball striking was, to say the least, frustrating.

Kenny Perry played great steady golf, until he came to the finishing holes and drove the ball into the bunker on 18. Tiger drove it into the woods and made bogey on the last two holes on Thursday and Sunday. Chad hooked it into the left side rough. I have played Augusta and the tee shot on 18 is no bargain. The hole dog legs right, uphill with a sloping fairway left into the bunker. Most of the guys try to bomb the ball down the right side. If they miss, like Tiger, they end up right. If they turn the ball at all, it ends up where Chad or Kenny hit it, in the bunker or left. Whatever happened to hitting fairways?

Augusta is one of the most generous courses for hitting fairways. Some, like 10, 13 and 15 are almost too big to miss. Thank God or we would never see a fairway hit on the back nine. Tiger, missed the fairway on 14, 17 and 18 in the last round. Oh by the way, did you see his tee shot on 1?

The quality of Ball-Striking always bothers me in every tournament – especially the Masters where we are watching the best of the best playing their best. I can understand a few stray irons of of the sloping lies into the undulation greens. What bothers me is the quality of the drives.

It wasn’t me standing there under those conditions so could I be a bit too critical? Possibly. I still love the Masters, the most beautiful golf course in the world and the greatest stage for golf. I would just like the guys to hit the fairway on 18. Maybe they should take out the bunker on the left and make it easier.

If you would like more information about a school agenda, etc.. or would like more information about a particular area, please feel free to call or email anytime:  timkgraves@aol.com or 866-377-2316 within US, 405-823-9693 (outside US).