TIPS FROM THE GRIDIRON

Breaking 100/90/80

Draw It Like A Kicker 

Breaking
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By Jeff Ritter
with Ron Kaspriske
Photos By J.D. Cuban November 2008

It's football season, so when you're not teeing it up you're likely to be on the couch watching your favorite team. Use that time wisely, and you can learn a few things about golf to help you reach your scoring goals. For instance, pay close attention to a kicker when he attempts a field goal. To draw the football through the uprights, he approaches the ball from the inside and kicks it with his foot turning over. Golfers should do the same: Strike the inside part of the ball with a closing clubface.

 
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Breaking 100: Break the plane with your pivot

When an offense is an inch away from a touchdown, all it has to do is move the tip of the football across the plane of the goal line to score. For crisp iron shots, pretend your golf ball is on the brink of the goal line.
 
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Breaking 90: Regulate your backswing to gain yards

Football teams have pass plays designed to gain 20, 30 or even 40 yards at a time. When you hit pitch shots, use the same philosophy.
 
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Breaking 80: Learn the high draw

When it's late in the game and a team needs a big play, they've got no choice but to try something that?s both risky and difficult to pull off. In golf, that Hail Mary play is the long, high draw.
 
Jeff Ritter
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Too small and too slow for the NFL, Ritter opted to become a golf instructor at ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz., just a 3-wood away from Sun Devil Stadium.
 

Read Photo Credits

November 22, 2009

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