Watching The Open, the oldest and most prestigious tournament in golf, always makes me think about the level of my own play.

It would at best be described as 'poor'. I'd hate to think how it would be described at worst, but let's just say there are only 2 friends who are prepared to play with me, I am that bad!

It can be so frustrating, and yet of course it's highly addictive - when you hit a good shot, you want to hit another one, to repeat the good feeling... Then when you hit a bad shot, you want to hit another one to erase the bad feeling...

You can see the idea - there's always one next shot to do it right- it can be a life-long addiction! Watching the Major Tournaments is a chance to see goal achievement theory at work in quite a pure form.

Let's face it, golf is a simple game to understand, but difficult to master. Difficult, but not impossible! All the top players, the ones that stay there for year after year, they simply took instruction on how to play, learned the technique, and then worked. Worked hard. Worked hard for years.

In fact they never stop working at it. They all have coaches, even Tiger Woods, and you can see them churn inside with frustration when they get it wrong. Notice though, that after they've had a strop at getting it wrong, they buckle down to getting it right!

A successful golf game is based almost entirely on constant hard work to implement techniques which have been taught.

Yes of course you get people who have natural talent, but the huge majority of players on the golf circuit just use this simple goal achievement lesson.

If you apply it to most things in general life, you'll see the same kind of results.

So, do you you hate (but love) golf like I do?

By: Gordon Bryan
Gordon Bryan is the author of 'Transform Your Life in 21 Days!' which has been described as 'motivational magic.' Read about it and grab his free 8 Step Goal Achievement Plan at: http://www.transformyourlifenow.com.

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Golf instruction is based on the need to know doctrine.

It is also based on the goal of the student. Some times getting the ball in the air is good enough. And so when you take a golf lesson and learn to do that, well, you are done. Good!!

Some of you, however, have higher aspirations. Your goals are to play as well as the body the good Lord gave you will allow. This is where the "need to know doctrine" comes into play.

This article is for you. Those who think their game can be better than just getting it in the air.

It is an advanced on line golf lesson that will give you a tremendous boost if you will go to the range and practice with purpose. You will never get to your full potential without this golf lesson.

Remember this ..practice makes perfect, but only if your practice is perfect.

And for you who are not so " into it" you should read this too. It will give you information that you will not hear during a golf swing instruction. But you can tuck away the knowledge and when you are ready, you can adopt it, and put it in your swing. There is nothing wrong with having an advanced lesson, even if you are not ready to use it. You will have it for later. Especially if it's free.

So what follows is based on the need to know doctrine. If you want to play as good as you possible can, you need to know what is contained here.

As always, I will first tell you that there has hardly ever been a good player with a bad grip. So, for crying out loud get a good grip. Start with left hand more on top than on the side of the club. Two knuckles viewed when held in front of you at eye level.

The right hand then should be a bit on the side more or less matching the left hand. The thumb of the left hand goes snugly into the pad of the right hand. The pad is the fat part of you right palm that is the extension of the palm side of your thumb. It's just above where your life line is.

Funny thing about that.

Your grip is not a light wimpy grasp. It is very snug with the right hand onto the left hand. You should be able to feel some tension here.

And just for the heck of it, if you don't think the golf swing is a violent athletic move, take a look at the faces of the Pros on the weekend when they are hitting a full shot.

It is not at all relaxing. And their grips are not light and soft. If they did have a bird in their hands the life expectancy of the bird would be less than a nano second. Sorry!

So, if you have been taught to grip lightly, I am sorry to tell you to forget about it right now.

Need proof? Watch any pro golfer on any weekend on any full swing. See if you can look at their forearms during the swing, best is at setup. You will see the muscles and tendons are very tense, not at all relaxed.

The idea here is to get the grip right because as you progress, your grip will lead you into the magic moves that are required to get to the next level.

The grip is not something that you can afford to take lightly. It is incredible important.

If you do this grip wrong, it is true that you will not be able to do the rest of this swing. One thing depends on another here. You will build your golf swing in increments.

Starting with the grip.

Let us assume that you now have a good grip and you are in an athletic setup position. This is when you are well balanced and you have a reasonable straight back and your butt is slightly in the out position. Your hands hang directly under you shoulders and you chin is slightly up, not laying on your chest.

Your knees are comfortable bent and are directly over the top of your shoes. You are ready to spring in any direction. You are an athlete ready for movement. Ready for action.

You are not just hanging around in a relaxed oh hum manner. This will not work.

So .. now with the club in your hands and a good grip.

Let's push the right hand against the left hand. Just enough to feel pressure, while at the same time using the middle finger and the ring finger of the right hand to pull against the grip of the club.

This is a push / pull action. And it is slight but noticeable. Slight but noticeable. It is not something that an untrained eye would even see or suspect you are doing.

That is part of the reason you won't get this information from too many instructors. It is not because they are holding back on you. It's because it is not an obvious move and it won't show up on any video.

It's a feeling. But absolutely required to help create and maintain the power angles.

Continuing!

And one last feeling, still with the right hand. You should feel some pushing pressure with the right index finger, as if it were a trigger finger on the shafts grip. This is located ( the pressure) on the inside of the index finger just below the interphalangeal joint, or the joint that is in the middle of your finger.

This pressure is also important because it will help you feel the creation of the power angles. And it will help you maintain the angles.

Once you feel this pressure, your job is to remember how it feels and how you created it. This little tidbit of information will also be your key to the knowledge of whether you maintained your power angles or not.

It is the tattler.

It will give you up and let you know that you failed to maintain angles through out the swing. If you lose the feeling you lost the angles.

Now get a club and do this. Do this before you read any more. This is way advanced for most people. It is stuff that you will never hear about on the lesson tee. Or at the range.

But when and if you do this and get it right, you will not believe how much of a difference it makes.

So please, re-read the above, grab a club and try like the dickens to create the feelings. I know it is hard to understand these words and then turn them into feelings, but try.

I also understand and hope you do to, that this is only part of what is going to become a whole concept.

We are building a swing based on solid and time tested techniques. But not necessarily well known.

Ok, here is the key to this grip. Once you have your hands properly on the club, you now will begin to build these feelings described above. And for clarity sake, once again described below.

Start by pushing the right hand bent.

This is pushing against the left hand and allowing the right hand to bend back toward the outside of your right forearm ever so slightly. By the way this is one of the angles and it will increase as you make your moveaway motion into the backswing.

So , for now make sure you push against the left thumb with the inside of your right hand and allow the right hand to bend back. This is not a big move. Slightly is the key word.

At the same time as this is happening, pull slightly with the middle finger and ring finger of your right hand against the grip. This little move will help with the pushing action against the left thumb and it serves to " key in " the grip. Make sure you lock into this feeling.

Last but not least, make sure you feel some pressure against the index finger of the right hand.

Finally you have it. Push right wrist bent, pull with the middle and ringer finger of your right hand and feel a tad of pressure against the index finger of your right hand.

This is not three feelings. It is one feeling with three components.

All done without a single move on your part. Just a little pushing and pulling. Not one single athletic move has occurred. Not one. So anyone, and I mean anyone should be able to do this with not one problem.

Now the fun begins.

You will begin your backswing by turning the middle of your chest to the right, you will take your hands and arms and hence the club with the chest. The chest conducts this movement, not the hands. The hands are like stone in this move.

Turn them into wood if that idea helps. You must turn the chest that will bring the arms and hands along for the ride. This is the hardest part for most people.

It is a very connected move.

The important part is that the hands are dead. The reason for this is that all that pushing and pulling you did with the grip must stay in tack through out the swing. Keep the feeling the whole time, all the way to impact.

So you must not manipulate your hands in any way. Just turn with your chest and bring your arms and hands with it.

Backing up a little. Note the angle that is created as a result of the right wrist being pushed bent. This angle is between the back of the right wrist and the back of your forearm.

Also note the angle between you right forearm and the shaft of the club.

These are the two angles that are your power angles. You have created them by using the proper grip described several times already.

Your objective is to maintain these angles all the way to and through impact.

So turn to as full a backswing as your body allows, do not try to get more than this move lets you have. Frankly shorter is better with this move.

The right hand will have a slightly " trayed " position at the top of your backswing. Make sure that you left hand is not " cupped" back towards the left forearm.

The back of the left hand should be flat at the top. Or in line with it's forearm. No cupped left hand.

There is a very good reason for this. As you do not need to do anything with you hands through out this swing if you have gripped correctly, a cupped left hand will lead to an open clubface and a poor shot.

Or worse it will cause you to intellectually know that something is amiss and you will drift into the land of correction and manipulation, that will kill this swing concept.

You must maintain the angles you created at set up through the entire swing.

Practice this with short chip shots, over and over and over. Get the feelings down pat.

You may be wondering about the release of the clubhead at impact. Good question. The fact is your body will release it for you. You grip has already set it up to happen. That is why the grip and it's associated pushing, pulling and pressure points are so important.

If you just turn your shoulder in the backswing and then turn then into the downswing you will see what I mean. Dead hands. A squared clubface and a solid hit.

Maintain the angles using a little chip shot until you are sure you have established that you know how to create the angles, can feel the needed grip parts and pieces and can turn the whole thing back and forth without manipulating the hands in any way.

The fun part about this swing is that if you want to hit it further, you just turn your shoulders a little faster.

What is even more fun, is that once you learn how to keep the angles, this is the most automated swing you have ever seen and you will hit it as if by magic.

Caution, this move takes practice and patience. It is exactly the swing that many PGA players use. It is simple and repeatable. There is no reason in the world why you can't do it.
Angles = leverage
Leverage = Power
Power = Distance

No angles no leverage
no leverage no power
no power no distance

All good players do two things exactly the same. They have good grips and great angles.

And they keep them both throughout their entire golf swing.

Now you know what they know.

By: Paul Macleod
My name is Paul Macleod.. I love angles and my golf swing has two. How many does yours have?
Questions? paulm39083@aol.com
If you want to know if there are any real magic moves in the golf swing the answer is yes, there are four. You can learn the first one here for free and take it to the range for a spin, click here: http://www.ebooksbestbuy.com/golf.

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In any sport the athlete's preparation before starting the activity is the key to success and allows for more consistency. A common complaint from golfers is that they are inconsistent in their game. For most of these golfers the solution lies not in changing their swing but in adjusting their preshot routine. Have they set themselves up for success or failure?

All great athletes have a set of motions they use before executing specific techniques. For example, a basketball player goes to the foul line with a set routine before shooting the basketball. He may dribble three times, bend at the knees, take three deep breaths, and then shoot. A tennis player may dribble the ball a set number of times and then throw it to be served. The point is that a routine allows athletes to prepare, focus on the intent, and relax before execution. Once this routine is set, athletes movements can be automatic, which results in more consistency. Show me a golfer who hits the ball randomly, and I'll guarantee that he sets up to the ball randomly before each shot.

A preshot routine for the golf swing starts behind the ball. Imagine that the target line runs from the target back and through the golf ball. This allows for a more accurate view of your intended direction. Place your hands on the club in proper position as you stand behind the ball. Fix your eyes on the target and then look at the target line. This is the intermediate target. Identifying a spot closer to the ball helps when lining up the clubface to the target.

As you stand behind the ball locating the proper target line, take one or two deep breaths. Walk toward the ball. As you walk toward the ball, you will move to the side of the ball keeping your eye on the target and intermediate target. Tilt your body toward the ball and set your club in place. The clubface is lined up directly to the target. Once you have set your target line, you can position your body parallel to the target line. Now that you are set up over the ball, you may want to waggle the club slightly back and forth or tap your feet back and forth to get into rhythm. This is common among top players.

Your preshot routine does not have to look like anyone else's, but you should repeat it before every swing. Make sure that whatever personal moves you decide to put into your routine are positive actions that allow you to focus on the target, relax your muscles before the swing, and align yourself properly. Having a solid and consistent preshot routine will also help when you are faced with more stressful situations on the course such as hitting over a water hazard.

The preshot routine combines the three fundamentals of grip, posture, and alignment into one repetitive action to allow for more consistency on the course.

By: Joel Williams
Joel is the author of "Golf: The Game and the History", plus numerous articles on golfing. He has been an avid golfer and amateur instructor for years. He specializes in the fundamentals of golf and firmly believes mastering the basics is the key to continous improvement. Go to http://golferstoday.com to read his many articles on different aspects of the game.

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For a real links-style golf experience we discovered the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links, located in St. Cloud, about 25 minutes southeast of the Orlando airport or the Disney area. The Royal St. Cloud Links greet you with a rolling layout of links-style fairways, punctuated by classic links bunkers that feature names such as Hell, Spectacles, Devil's Pocket and Hoofprint. True to its link heritage, every club in the bag will be utilized as the terrain is naturally varied.

Unlike other Orlando golf courses, the Royal St. Cloud is free of any residential developments and offers a pure golf experience. The design features four sets of tees and from the blue tee offers a championship length of 7,111 yards and a 74.6 rating, all on flawless fairways and silky-smooth Tifeagle greens.

Its motto, as printed above the entrance to the club house is "Original Golf Played Here", and indeed the Royal St. Cloud features original style golf at its unpretentious best. I had a chance to talk to Bill Filson, the Director of Golf and since 2002 co-owner of this facility.

Bill has an extensive teaching background. He has personally studied under some of the top-ranked teaching professionals and brings 12 years of teaching experience that featured beginners to PGA tour professionals. Bill has consistently been a top-ranked PGA Professional. The Royal St. Cloud's teaching staff is complemented by Dave Rummels who brings 17 years of valuable PGA Tour experience with him and can share advice from the "Tour" with the students. Associate Professional, Doug Holloway, has 16 years coaching experience.

At the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links the commitment to teaching the game of golf commitment includes state-of-the art video equipment and even a teaching tent for inclement weather. Lessons, programs, and clinics are offered for every skill level and requirement. Bill explained that they run very reasonably priced children's clinics at $7.00 per clinic and the club has 120 members in their junior program. Ladies can also learn the sport without embarrassment in a relaxed, comfortable environment. And with every family membership at the club kids play for free.

Bill prides himself on offering one of the greatest values in golf in the Orlando area. For the 2005-2006 season rates vary from $46 to $48 from November 1 to January 10, and $64 from January 11 to April 30, 2006. Discounted tee time rates are available after 11 am or 12 pm respectively, 7 days/week. Bill went on to say that the fees at the Royal St. Cloud are always reasonable, and that he aims not to oversell his course, but to exceed the visitors' expectations.

In addition, he offers a very unique proposition: a 100% money-back guarantee with no conditions if you didn't enjoy your playing experience at the Royal St. Clouds. He said in the almost three years since he has run this course only 2 people ever asked for a refund; a phenomenal achievement, considering that several tens of thousands of rounds are played here every year.

One of the very unique features of this course is the handcrafted stonework which is evident in four bridges found throughout the course that have been hand-built by one individual brick by brick. Bill said that some of the bridges are even a little bit crooked, just to give them more character. The most famous stone bridge can be found on the 5th hole and many of the British visitors to this golf course come here specifically for this unique feature.

Bill explained that his golf course serves a value-based market that is composed of local residents, snowbirds escaping the cold northern winters, and British golfers, a very loyal crowd who refer this facility to many of their friends back home.

The Royal St. Cloud Golf Links have been rated as one of the Top 5 Most Underrated Golf Courses in the Orlando area and they have hosted the 2004 and 2005 British Junior Amateur. With its wide-open fairways the course looks deceptively simple, however, I experienced very quickly the unique challenges offered by the Royal St. Cloud. Traditional links golf is played on the ground, unfortunately I still managed to find water several times, despite the generously open fairways.

The other feature I really enjoyed were a number of the ponds on the back nine of the course that were playing host to a variety of local wildlife and water birds. I particularly enjoyed watching a very rare specimen of wood stork stalking the edges of a pond for food, and a crane standing upright with stretched out wings. The course had a very relaxed, casual and friendly feel to it and we enjoyed a tasty hot dog after our game on the beautiful patio outside the clubhouse as a way to cap off a very enjoyable golf experience on a gorgeous day.

Driving Directions from the Disney Area: Royal St. Cloud Golf Links is an easy 25 miles from the Disney area. (25-35 minute approximate drive time) * Take Osceola Parkway to the Florida Turnpike * Take Exit 244 to Hwy 192, turn left. * Go 4.6 miles to Vermont Ave, turn right. * Take Vermont 2.1 miles to Creek Woods Road, take a left. * Go only .7 miles to Michigan Ave, take a right directly into the Golf Club.

Statistics Par 72 Yards Rating Slope Blue 7111 74.6 128 Gold 6680 72.2 125 Green 6083 69.2 115 Citrus 5531 66.6 111

For more information please visit Royal St. Cloud Golf website or call them at (407) 891-7010.

By: Susanne Pacher
This entire article including photos is located at travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/orlando_royal_stcloud_golf.
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of http://www.travelandtransitions.com, a web portal for unconventional travel & cross-cultural connections. Check out our brand new FREE ebooks about travel.

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