A good grip allows your wrists to hinge freely — and the better your wrist action, the better you strike the ball.
With most golfers, the body moves too early and races ahead of the hand-and-arm action (the opposite problem is unusual). This is one of the main causes of a sliced drive: the shoulders and upper body unwind too fast in the downswing, throwing the hands and arms outside the ideal swing plane, causing the clubhead to cut across the ball from out to in.
If you slice, strengthen your grip.
Correct ball position in iron play is important, since it partly determines whether the clubhead will meet the ball at impart on the correct angle of attack.
One of his tips was: start your downswing at the same speed as you began your backswing. This helps you avoid the tendency to rush the first move down, which will ruin any golf shot, and gives your hands, arms, club, and body plenty of time to work together.
The transition from backswing to downswing is a critical phase in your swing. In the split second when you change direction, you have 2 choices: you can make a great first move down and successfully store the power in your swing, or you can rush it and forget about producing a good shot.
Swinging the club into the ball on an inside path is one of the greatest challenges in golf: perhaps on a par with serving an ace in tennis.
A long putt is a better prospect than a tough bunker shot.
Poor pitching is often the result of either too much wrist hinge in the backswing, where the hands pick the club too abruptly, or too little wrist hinge, where the wrist remain stiff as the club swings back.
It is easy to hit pitch shots on practice ground and be satisfied with a loose grouping in the distance. In reality, however, pitch shots need to be accurate. You should be looking to knock them close to the flag each time: merely hitting the green is not enough.
Think of gradual acceleration in the downswing.
Although pitch shots are control shots, gradual acceleration is still required in the downswing to produce a proper strike.
When you play a round of golf, you only ever get one attempt at each shot. The pressure of your pitching is perhaps the greatest of all the shots, because you are aiming at the most well-protected area of the course, where all manner of hazards, such as sand or water, guard the green.
It is amazing how many golfers put the ball too far forward in their stance for chip shots. Although having the ball forward in your stance may feel comfortable, it can also cause problems with ball striking: either you hit the ball on the up or hit the turf before the ball — both scenarios are disastrous.
One of the most perplexing dilemmas for golfers is when the ball rests against the collar of rough bordering the apron of the green. In this situation, neither a putter nor a wedge seems to be the appropriate club. The solution is a shot called the “Bellied Wedge” shot, which involves striking the equator of the ball with the leading edge of the clubhead.
Throw some balls.
This drill is designed to train your to visualize your shots before playing them. It uses the simple action of throwing a ball to improve your understanding of height and roll. A better grasp of these key concepts will be of great benefit to your chipping.
It is the sand, and not the ball, that you are trying to hit.
The softer the sand, the more bounce you need on the sole of the sand wedge; on heavier sand you need less bounce.
Since putting accounts for about 40% of the total shots played in a round, it would be a terrible mistake to neglect this department of the game.
- First and foremost, your grip should be neutral, with your palms facing one another in the form of a comfortable and correct grip. Position your eyes directly over the ball.
- Make sure your shoulders, arms, hands, and the putter all move away together to produce a smooth and nicely synchronized start to the takeaway. The putter-head should stay very low to the ground. A useful method of keeping the lower half of the body stable is to keep the knees very still.
- When you make the transition from the backswing to downswing, there should be a softness in your wrists that causes the putter to lag behind your hands momentarily. This ensures that the putter does not overtake your hands at impact, which would cause the face to close and the ball to go left.
- In putting, the impact position should be identical to the setup. Keep your head steady, ensuring that no unwanted upper body movement can upset the perfect path of the putter into and through impact.
- Let your putter-head finish higher in the follow through than it ever reached in the backswing, which is a product of smooth acceleration and an upward strike.
Hold the club at least as softly as in the full swing. Putting relies on delicate touch.
Good posture is important for a full swing. But it is critical to the success of your putting stroke, too. Ideally, you should adopt a posture at address that allows your arms to hang down — not totally straight, but tension-free for a smooth action back and forth.
When you watch good putters in action, it is almost as if there is no “hit” as such; instead, the ball simply gets in the way of the swinging putterhead.
Judging breaking putts is not an exact science. There is always more than one line into the hole, and the route you choose depends on the amount of speed you apply to the ball.
Speed is everything.
To give your ball the optimum chance of dropping into the hole, the ball should move fast enough to travel 45-60cm past the hole. This ensures that the ball holds its line as it approaches the hole, when subtle breaks can all to easily knock the putt off line.
The only place on a course where you can guarantee a totally level lie is on the teeing ground. Once off that manicured turf, you have to accept that the ball may well come to rest on a sloping lie, whether it be an upslope, a downslope, or a sideslope lie.
When playing from an upslope, the clubface is effectively more lofted than if you were playing the same shot from a flat lie. A downslope effectively reduces the loft on the clubface, relative to the horizontal lie.
Ball below your feet.
This is the toughest of the sloping lies because it necessitates a swing from such an uncomfortable address position. The keys to success are establishing a balance address position an then maintaining your height through the hitting area. However, you will not be able to make as powerful a swing as from a flat lie, therefore use a less-lofted club to make up the extra distance.
When the ball is below your feet, adjust your position to facilitate a solid strike. “Sit down” a little at address by flexing your knees, and widen your stance to further enhance your sense of balance. Because the ball is lower than usual, stand a fraction closer to it so that you are not overstretching. Because the ball will fly from left-to-right off this type of lie, aim left of the target to compensate.
With sloping lies you must swing smoothly and not overextend yourself. This is certainly the case when the ball is below your feet. Keep your knees flexed and make an “arms-dominated” swing to keep your balance. The slope tends to force your weight downhill, which can produce a shank. To counter this problem, keep your weight back on your heels as you swing.
With this sort of shot, the ball is effectively raised. Therefore, on a severe slope, shorten the club by choking down on the grip and standing more erect at address. To maintain your balance as you swing, settle your weight a little more toward your toes.
Never use a sand wedge from a bare lie, since the rounded sole bounces off the ground into the middle of the ball.
A strong wind makes a difference to the break and speed of a putt, especially on fast, well-manicured putting surfaces.
Ball flight is determined by the clubhead’s path in the swing and the aim of the clubface relative to this path. This imparts sidespin on the ball, which makes the ball deviate one way or the other. The less loft is on the club, the easier it is to shape the ball. Also, you need a good lie to shape a ball.
If you want to swing the ball from right-to-left through the air, align your feet, hips, and shoulders right of the target. The more you want to draw the ball, the farther right your stand. Then aim the clubface straight at the target. Also position the ball a little farther back in your stance than is normal.
A draw requires an aggressive release of the club, whereby the right hand rolls over the left. The alignment of you stance encourages an in-to-out swing path through impact, parallel to the line of your feed. And, the clubface will be closed to this path at impact, imparting “draw-spin” on the ball.
The slice: poorly aligned setup.
It is hard to say which fault comes first — an open clubface or an out-to-in swing path. However, both these problems arise from a poor address position. The typical slicer is aligned to the left of the target, and the swing path simply follows the lines established at address. An open clubface at impact may be the result of not releasing the club properly. Soften your grip pressure for a free “swish.”
To cure a slice you must start by straightening your address position. Stand square to the target line, with your shoulders and feet in parallel alignment. This will promote a more correct path in your backswing. Then attempt to strike the ball so that it starts on a course to the right of the target line, encouraging an inside path of attack into impact. Also feel yourself rotating your forearms through impact to promote an aggressive release of club.
Heavy contact is the result of trying to help the ball into the air rather than letting the loft do the work. Employing the scooping action causes the clubhead to pass the hand prior to impact. In this shot, the clubhead buries itself in the ground, which absorbs most of the power in the shot.
The skied drive is not the most damaging shots — indeed the ball tends to fly reasonably straight, which means you rarely lose a ball. You do, however, lose as much as 70% of the normal distance for any given club. A skied drive occurs when the clubhead chops down steeply under a ball that is teed up (occassionally too high).
A skied drive is the result of picking the club too steeply with your hands in your takeaway. This promotes a narrow swing arc, and the downswing becomes a product of your poor backswing.
To promote a shallower angle of attack, widen your backswing arc. Concentrating on sweeping the club away “low and slow,” turning your back on the target, and swinging your arms and club around your body more. This promotes a backswing that is full and wide. In the downswing, focus on sweeping the ball away rather than hitting down on it.
Monitor your posture from address to impact.
Whichever fault is causing you to top the ball, the conclusion is the same. You have to make sure that you maintain good posture from address until the point of impact.