During today’s PGA Championship telecast, I was watching Tiger on the putting green pre-round and was loving his use of Butch Harmon’s Two Tee Drill. 
While watching that pure stroke bang putts into the hole with perfect form, I immediately grabbed a couple balls out of my bag and set up shop on the carpet. Using a golf ball in lieu of a tee on each end, I quickly found out how perfect you had to be to slide that putter head through the gate. Though not nearly as proficient as Tiger, I still can’t wait to take this out to the course tomorrow and give it another try.
The effort got me thinking about all the excellent and not so excellent golf tips I have received this year and I was trying to pick the best. Do you have one or more to share? Here are my top three:
1st place:
“Push out your pecs!” I received this from a friend while warming up in Myrtle Beach before a round. After a particularly bad ball striking day the day before, I was still all over the place in my warm up and just didn’t feel right at address. My friend told me to push out my pecs and all of a sudden, I felt like I was in a good strong athletic position and started hitting it pure.
2nd place:
“Keep your left upper arm tight to your chest on the back swing and down swing.” Got this one from Graeme McDowell in one of the spring Golf Digest magazines.
This worked great for about two or three rounds till a hook worked it’s way into my swing. Maybe that’s why G-Mac fights a hook.
Honorable mention:
“Hinge and hold.” Resurrected this one from the archives of my own practice notes. Back in the spring I was fighting some very loose and embarrassing green-side pitch shots with my new 58 degree wedge. Skinny and lateral were in the lexicon and it turned out that I was trying to release the club on these short shots. Found the tip and started holding my finish with the club face pointed at the sky and down my target line and all of a sudden, I was cured. More importantly, I remain cured.
If you’ve come across a great tip or two, please share. I’d love to put some good ones into play. Thanks!
All About Golf 
By far my favorite drill to improve my ball striking is an absurdly simple one. I can’t even tell you why it works, but it always helps me hit the ball cleaner. Next time you go to the range for practice or are warming up before a round, stick 10 tees in the ground and take a swing at each one with the goal of chopping them in half. Once you are done, put a ball down and make a swing. It is uncanny how good the contact is. I try to do this drill a bunch and definitely before I go out and play.
Funny how your drill works. I’ll bet it has something to do with focusing on a small target (the tee) and not dealing with the consequences of a poor swing because there’s no ball involved (relaxation). Then it leaves your mind in a good state and your body with good rhythm.