David DeNunzio

There’s a yellow-lined notepad on my desk that’s home to my monthly GOLF publishing to-do list. For two years running one note failed to receive the strikethrough treatment: “Talk to Dave Pelz.” Despite my calls, e-mails and IMs, “DP,” as his friends and family called him, had gone quiet. I knew he was sick. He had been battling the C-word. So, I didn’t press and instead sent prayers that he was on the mend. When the timing was right, DP would respond. But he never did.

The standard, by-the-book advice when you're behind a tree is to play safely out to the fairway. But what if you're down in your match and need to make something happen? Or it's the 18th hole and you need a par to break 90 for the first time? You don't care if you make triple because the chance to shoot 89 is right in front of you—or, more accurately, right on the other side of that tree.

If you're hitting your irons straight, but you're still not getting the kind of explosive power you want, you're probably not creating enough lag in your downswing. Lag is produced when you maintain the angle between your arms and the clubshaft almost all the way down to impact. Here's how to do it. Grab an iron by the hosel and make the widest backswing possible while keeping both arms straight. Stop when you feel tension in the left side of your torso.