Do you know how far you hit each club? If you dont then you should. Its hard enough getting direction right without having to guess what club to hit. Spend an hour or so on the practice fairway hitting 5 or 6 shots with each club. Measure the average distance of where the balls land and write it down. You should find that each club is around 10m apart.
Now when you go onto the course make sure you are clear of how far you have to the green and can pick the club to suit.
This will greatly improve your ability to hit greens. NO GUESSING!
When faced with a slippery downhill putt its very easy to decelerate on the putt causing all sorts of problems.
Try setting up with the ball on the toe of the putter rather than the centre. This is a dead spot on the face which will reduce the amount of force on the ball at impact allowing the ball to roll slower. So simply make a smooth stroke and the ball will trickle down the slope rather than race past the hole.
The majority of golfers fade the ball and would love to draw it instead.
To draw the ball set your body to where you want the ball to start and then set your clubface to where you want the ball to end up (closed to your body alignment). Now simply make a smooth swing along your body line making sure you keep the clubface closed and not trying to turn the ball yourself. The closed clubface will put the side spin on the ball necessary to make the ball draw.
To get the most distance out of your tee shots make sure you tee the ball up nice and high and try to launch the ball upward. This will produce a higher launch angle with less spin to make it carry further. By teeing it low, even into the wind, the ball will launch low then rise with the increase in backspin which will dramatically affect your distance.
If you find you are ‘popping’ the ball into the air when you tee it up high you are more than likely hitting down on the ball. So tee it up high, and swing up through the ball.
Chipping is really a simple part of the game but golfers tend to overcomplicate it but having too many variables in their shot. Its all about keeping it as simple as possible so that means doing the same thing over and over with ease and as little moving parts as possible.
1. Keep the landing spot close to the edge of the green (1m on) for EVERY chip. This requires the shortest swing necessary to hit the shot required, there is no need to “fly it to the flag”.
2. Simply change the club to determine the roll distance, longer club = longer roll. We are keeping the swing the same for each shot and letting the club do the work.
If you are changing landing spot, swing length, ball flight and club for each shot that it is definitely going to lead to inconsistent results.
As humans we rely on routine in every day life. Getting ready for work, preparing for bed we a constantly going through procedures to get whatever it is done. So our golf should follow the same patterns. A pre shot routine should incorporate a rehearsal of the swing, a visualisation of the shot and a process for aligning yourself to your target. Not only should you do this before each shot but you should be doing EXACTLY the same thing before EVERY shot.
Routine means ‘every time’ not ‘sometimes’. It is a way to get you into the ‘zone’ for the shot at hand, to clear your mind of any pressures of what the shot is for or what could go wrong. You are simply going through a process and the swing itself is only a part of the process.
Build a sound pre shot routine and stick to it! It WILL help your game.
This weeks tip is on how to play good golf in the wind. The old saying “when its breezy, swing it easy” is so true. The harder you hit at the ball the more spin you create, and as most golfers do not hit the ball perfectly square on both with the clubface and the swing path, this means side spin is created. The more side spin on the ball in windy conditions the harder it is to keep the ball on line especially if the spin is the same direction as the wind.
So swinging smoother to reduce the spin will definitely help control your shots better in the wind. Play the ball a little backward in the stance to lower the loft of the club and swing it smooth.
When in bunkers, firstly assess the sand conditions, this will help you to play the correct shot. If you can see the sand is soft and fluffy then we need the bounce sole of the sand wedge to help get the club through the sand and help the ball out. So open the club face aswell as your stance, this will increase the bounce and make it easier. If the sand is hard, damp or not much sand at all then we DO NOT want bounce. We want the club to cut through this hard layer with the leading edge not bounce off it so use a square clubface or even a Pitching wedge (club with little or no bounce).
Welcome to the tips section. Here you will find a weekly tip on how to improve your game.
This weeks tip is on how to improve your putting warm up on the putting green before a round. So often golfers will drop a few balls and putt to any old hole with no real process of getting ready to putt well on the course. Try just using one ball, starting with a putt of no more than 1 foot away from the hole. You wont miss this (hopefully) and after repeating the putt 5 or 6 times you would of gained confidence in your ability to hole putts that day. If you start with putts longer than this you are most likely going to miss them and each one you miss will be having a direct effect on your confidence of holing putts.
