Fairway Bunker Shot

Those who are new to golf are often terrified of playing out of bunkers. When that bunker is 150 yards or more from the green many players come out in a cold sweat. There really is no need. All it takes to play any bunker shot successfully is a few alterations to your address position. Once they are made you can make a fairly normal swing and the ball should behave as desired.

When taking on this shot be sure the club you are using has sufficient loft to get the ball over the front lip of the bunker. You do not want to strike the ball perfectly only to see it smash into the face of the bunker and dribble back to your feet.

If you are to hit your ball 150 yards out of a bunker towards the green you must catch it cleanly, that means removing as little sand as possible. Come into the sand even half an inch behind the ball and the club will meet with such tough resistance that very little power will be transferred int the ball and you’ll be lucky to clear the bunker.

In order to catch the ball cleanly just below its equator, you should stand tall and grip a couple of inches down the handle. Also, don’t shuffle your feet down into the sand as you would for greenside bunker shots where you are trying to hit the sand before the ball. Try to remain on the surface. Play the ball an inch further back in your stance that normal to help guarantee you catch the ball, not the sand.

As you are about to take the club back imagine the ball is lying on a sheet of thin ice, or concrete. This will certainly encourage you to pick it cleanly off the top without disturbing too much and. Keep the swing short and quiet - that means a smooth takeaway and no lunges from the top of the backswing - and pick the ball off the top.

REMEMBER…Pick the ball cleanly off the top trying to disturb as little sand as possible. The less sand you take, the further the ball will travel.

Keeping Square from Start to Finish

Everybody seems to have a different idea as to how the clubface works going back and then forward. I used to think of shutting it on the backswing and working it from shut to open on the hitting stroke. More recently I have discarded this idea and have been going with a different conception—and I have been hitting the ball much straighter than before and doing this much more easily. The key to the approach I use now is to try to visualize, feel and maintain my clubface so that it will be squarely parallel to my intended line of flight at three very important stages of the swing: halfway back, at the top, and halfway through the follow through. For myself, it is easier to reach these positions with the clubface squarely parallel if I think there is a wall behind me that is parallel to the line of flight. That wall is my point of reference. When I work with this thought in mind, I find that my hips and my clubface close and later open at the same time.

At address you want the back of your left hand to be squarely perpendicular to the line of flight. During the swing, you want that other type of squareness where the clubface is squarely parallel to the line of flight at the points I mentioned. It puts you in wonderful positions throughout your whole swing and makes your impact solid and sweet.

Two Putter Railway Track

Maintaining a square to square putter head through the ball on short putts. For these putts, the putterhead should ideally move straight back and straight through, remaining square to the line of the putt at all times (as the putt gets longer so the putterhead starts to move on more of a curve, coming back slightly inside the target line.

To practice this put two clubs on the ground slightly more than a putterhead’s width apart. They must run parallel to each other and run towards the hole. As you make your stroke keep the putterhead inside the two clubs for the entire stroke. Do this at least 50 times to groove that straight back and straight through movement.

Greenside Bunker Shot

Most high handicappers have two main problems in the sand. First, they don’t set up to the ball correctly and secondly they are not certain what is the right amount of sand to take. Some believe if they crash into the sand powerfully they will move so much sand the ball will inevitably be in amongst it somewhere. Others think the best way to play the shot is to pick the ball off the top without moving so much as a grain. Neither method gets consistent results so learn how to play the shot properly.

You need to get the ball up quickly so open your stance a little but keep your clubface aiming at the hole. This has the effect of adding loft to the club and forces you to cut across the ball, perfect for this shot. Take up your open stance, place the club head behind the ball and then grip the club. DO NOT grip the club then open the face. Play the ball between the instep of your front foot and the centre of you stance. Flex your knees almost to the point where you feel you are sitting down and shuffle your feet down into the ground a few inches. These measures help you come into the sand a couple of inches behind the ball and get the club head moving underneath it.

Remember to focus on a spot a couple of inches behind the ball, not the ball itself. Hit down on to that spot and scoop the ball out with the right hand feeling dominant. Make a follow through, don’t let the club get caught up. ABOVE ALL; Splash, don’t crush!!!

The Position of the Head

Although there is a good deal of variation in the methods and styles of the top tournament stars, there is one fundamental, I have observed, that is common to all of them. This is the head position at impact. At the moment they strike the ball, the head is positioned two or three inches behind the ball.

The large majority of average golfers, struggling to improve their games and more often than not finding this very difficult, have no idea where their head will be at impact. Many golfers habitually thrust their head ahead of the ball—and slice the shot. Others go to the opposite extreme. Their head is a good many inches behind the ball at impact—which encourages hooking. For that matter, it is not uncommon for golfers to alter the position of their head from day to day or even from swing to swing. This defeats the very thing they are trying to get: consistently accurate shot production based on a steadfast “groove.” The time to get the head set properly, of course, is at the start of the swing when you are addressing the ball. Line yourself up so that your head is two or three inches behind the ball and anchor it there surely, not tensely but firmly. It’s a key position. Get someone to watch you swing or set up your video camera, and video tape yourself.

The Importance of Footwork

One very important part of the swing that is often overlooked by players who are striving to become better golfers is footwork. There is a temptation in golf, as in nearly every sport, to grow careless about your footwork when your hands are working well. Professionals soon learn, however, that if they allow their footwork to grow sloppy, their whole game will deteriorate. I know from my own experience, and from conversations with other golfers that the days when it is easiest to play good golf shots are invariably those days when the feet are really doing their job.

What does their job consist of? Well, your footwork determines how well you pivot. In turn, the correctness of your pivot largely determines whether or not you will be in the right position to hit the ball to the best of your ability. There are two checkpoints to establish clearly in regard to the role the feet play. First, at the top of your backswing, your left heel is raised off the ground and your weight transferred to your right side. Second, at the completion of your swing, the positions are reversed. The right heel is raised and the weight has been fully transferred to the left side.

Unwinding the Shoulders

Golfers frequently question about what appears to be, in swings of the best golfers, a sitting-down motion at the beginning of the downswing. I explain to them that they get this impression because a good golfer starts his hands down without unwinding his shoulders too soon. He wants to keep behind the ball with his shoulders as long as possible, arriving at the point of impact with his shoulders parallel to the line of flight.

Many times the shoulders have get out ahead of the ball before impact. This position is a very common one among average golfers. It is, a weak position and one that is bound to result in a misdirected shot. Because the turn of the shoulders is a short turn compared to the wide sweep of the club head, it is easy to unwind the shoulders on the downswing before the club head completes its wider arc. I find that players who are experiencing this trouble can remedy it by keeping the right elbow close to the hip and the right shoulder well inside the line of flight.

Beat the Speed Trap

Too many golfers swing too fast, when the whole idea is to swing as slowly as possible. Bobby Jones once opined that it is impossible to swing slowly enough. And, it is said, the South African star of the 1950’s Bobby Locke, worked on slowing his tempo by doing everything slowly from the moment he woke up on the day of a tournament. He would get out of bed slowly, brush his teeth slowly, get dressed slowly, and so on.

You won’t have to go to such lengths, but it is in your best interests to slow down. And the best way to achieve that is to pause at the top of your swing: Count “one” on your backswing, “two” as you pause, and “three” on your downswing.

Swinging fast forces you to start the downswing before you’ve finished your backswing. The pause ensures that you keep the two movements separate, improves your tempo, and slows you down immeasurably.

The Hands Ahead of the Ball

One of the major points of difference in the swing of a fine golfer and the swing of a hacker is the position of the hands in relation to the club head at the instant of impact. A good golfer’s hands are ahead of the ball. The hacker's are behind it. This business of getting your hands ahead of the ball at impact is something like the explanation Jack Dempsey used to give for his tremendous hitting power. “I never hit a man on the chin,” Dempsey used to say. “I hit through his chin right for the back of his head.”

In golf, to get your hands through the ball, you must make a very conscious effort, just before impact, to get your hands a foot past the ball. You have to have the feeling that the club head is lagging well behind the hands as it approaches the ball. Actually, you can’t get your hands a foot past the ball—they are never as far in front of the club head as you think—but by making a mental and physical effort to get them there, you will develop the correct action that allows you to hit through the ball with power. When your hands are behind the club head at impact, your power is lost and the best you can do is scoop the ball up weakly and improperly.

How to Hit a Draw Shot

Golf Digest did an extensive test into the differences between a fad/slice and a draw. They found that at the same swing speed and a driver at one and one-half degrees, closed to produce a draw, and one and one-half inches open to produce a fade while keeping the swing angle and angle and angle of attack the same for both shape of shots, there was much difference. The differences between a fade and a draw were Great, as the drawn shots averaged 233 yards in carry and roll, the fades only 216. Therefore it is possible for you to gain at least 17 yards in distance on a fade.

Here is how you draw the ball. Use a slightly wider stance that usual and play the ball slightly back of center and aim your feet, hips and shoulders squarely but to the right of the target. Adjust your feet to aim t the right of the target. The angle of your feet depends on your individual swing and desired results, and can range from 5 to 45 degrees. Try 10-15 degrees to the fight to start. Aim the club face directly at your target and use your normal grip. Take your club back low and wide along the line of your feet. Regulate the amount of hook by how much you toe-in the club at address. Swing normally and with a sweeping motion. You may want to stand a little taller at address to create a flatter swing plane.

On your drives, set your body to right of the target, and aim your club at the target, and swing along your body line. Keep your left hand grip light and your right hand grip firm. Make your left foot perpendicular to the target line, and turn your right foot out. Use strong grip and light grip pressure. Let your right hand overtake your left hand through the impact.

The above directions are for right-handers, and all you need to do is reverse them for lefty’s.

No Peeking

Before I have told you that you can tell if you’re over swinging by sneaking a peek with the left eye as you reach the top of your swing. That’s true-for practice shots.

When you are hitting shots for real, the last thing you should do is look at your golf club.

A good swing begins with the club head moving back slowly along the target line, as low to the ground as possible. It sounds simple enough, but man golfers actually look at the club head to make sure it stays low!

Peeking at this point takes your eyes off the ball, causes your head to move, and generally provides a poor start to the swing.

The Centre of the Clubface

Anyone who has played golf seriously over a period of years (and has worked during that time to develop a good smooth swing) inevitably learns a tremendous lot about technique. This often can become a burden rather than a help. A golfer soon knows more about technique than he can ever hope to apply. His head can hold only so much. He cannot work on ten things at one time without doing nine of them badly or, at any rate, less well than he might if he could concentrate all his attention on each of them—which he can’t. I think the best way for any golfer to find his way out of the woods of over-knowledge is to select one or two key parts of the swing, which, if he executes them right, automatically ensure that he will execute the other tied-in movements correctly.

Now, in this connection, the prime thing I concentrate on doing on the downswing is try to hit the ball in the centre of the clubface. There is nothing subtle or “inside” about this, I realize full well, and maybe that is its best recommendation. Simply working to hit the ball squarely with the middle of the face, I find, effects several important things. It smoothes out the swing. It eliminates your doing a lot of things in the impact area you shouldn’t do. It puts you into a position where you take your turf naturally with your irons. It bolsters your ability to stay down and over the ball as you come into it and strike it. I think of none of those things consciously. I think only of trying to hit the ball in the middle of the clubface, and they are the results of this.

The Swing For The Simple Bunker Shot

Bring the club head away on the line of your feet. Allow your wrists to hinge but don’t let your arms and wrists go stiff. Come down aggressively into the sand an inch or two behind the ball and come out of it a few inches in front of where he ball was lying. The right hand should be the dominant force in the swing.

Through the Bag

A key to good chipping is to get the ball rolling on the green as soon as possible. And as you’re likely to face chips of varying length during a round, it’s a good idea to practice your chipping with as many different clubs as possible. Rarely, though, do you see golfers doing this. In fact, many golfers don’t practice chipping at all.

All you need is a practice green that isn’t too crowded. Drop a bunch of balls by the green (just let them fall, so you end up with different lies). Now hit different shots to different holes, beginning with the sand wedge and working your way through to the 5-iron.

You won’t have the luxury of hitting to different holes once you’re out on the course. Here, then, is a good rule of thumb for club selection: Take the club with the least amount of loft needed to get the ball to the edge of the putting surface on its first bounce.

Maximum Speed at Impact

Shortest definition of a golf swing: feel the weight of the club head and swing it to produce maximum speed at the moment it hits the ball. If maximum speed has not been reached at impact, you are not hitting the ball.

Since the speed of the club head at the hit results finally from the wrists unbending and releasing, golfers should learn to delay this wrist action by pulling the hands into the ball on the forward swing with the wrists cocked until the last moment. This is the mark of a good swing.

Don't get ahead of yourself on the way down by throwing the club head away from the body, straightening out the wrists and the right arm. This is hitting too soon. Correctly, the hands should pull the club head to the ball. If you pull, the hands lead, and this keeps the wrists cocked and the right elbow folded up. It also preserves the greatest angle possible between the extended left arm and the club. On your pull, use all your strength, even your back muscles. The more pull, the more speed at impact and the more distance.

The transfer of the weight to the left foot and the unwinding of the body are tied in with the pull of the hands. Practice both at the same time. You can feel the resulting centrifugal force, which hits or propels the ball. When you are playing, just swing and time this hit. You will be pulling to create maximum club head speed at the split second you make contact with the ball.

Keeping the Left Arm Straight

Two of the most common errors that harm mediocre golfers is their failure to make a proper pivot and their tendency to let the left arm collapse before impact. Let us confine ourselves at this time to discussing the latter.

In a correct golf swing the left arm should be straight throughout an arc of some 180°: from shoulder height on the backswing through shoulder height on the swing-through. When the left arm collapses before impact, nine times out of 10 a pronounced slice results. Usually this collapse of the left arm is tied in with a premature turning of the right side and shoulder into the shot. When you rush the right side into the shot too soon, you throw your body and arms outside the correct line to the ball, and you are then compelled to swing from the outside in to contact the ball. That right side must stay relatively inactive until much later in the swing. Maintaining your left arm straight and firm through impact will delay the action of the right side until the proper time.

When I had the pleasure of working with a student of Sensei Mark’s on his game, one of the points Mark gave major attention to was this alliance of the straight left arm and the retarded right side. I think the students master of this was as important as any one feature in his improvement from a 100 golfer to a low-80s player.

Top It

Why would anyone want to top the ball?

Because more than anything a golfer wants to make solid contact, and hitting the top half of the ball ensures that.

Your next question: Shouldn’t you make solid contact by hitting under the ball? Ideally, yes. But golfers become so wrapped up in getting the club to the correct impact point that they forget to make solid contact and end up hitting a poor shot.

In addition, golfers tend to think of the chip shot as a full shot hit with half the heft, so they lay off actually hitting the ball and hit behind it (this is called chili-dipping).

By keeping your hands ahead of the ball and hitting down onto the top three-quarters, you will guarantee good contact and move the ball up and out of its lie.

Practicing Your Putting

Try putting one-handed to increase your control of the putter head and the acceleration of the putter through the ball.

To do it right very simply putt with only your right hand. Place your other hand behind your back. Hit 10 putts with one hand from five feet then revert to using both hands trying to recreate the sensation of putting with one hand.

Keep your head still. Many putts are missed by players looking up to see where their ball has gone. They hope to watch the ball disappear rather than listen to it drop. In doing so they risk affecting the path of the putter head and the quality of strike.

Try placing your ball on top of a ball marker or similar flat object and make a normal stroke. As the ball moves away from the ball marker your eyes should still be focusing on it rather than the ball. It is a good idea to combine this drill with others so that you are constantly working on keeping your head still.

To enhance your feel for distances putt to different distances. Most golfer have more trouble getting the pace of a putt right than the line. If you’ve played golf before you will know that getting the ball to roll in the general direction of the hole is not that difficult whereas achieving the right distance from long range can sometimes be tricky.

Try this drill. Stick four tee in the ground, 10 feet, 20 feet, 30 feet, and 40 feet away. Then hit balls to them at random; e.g. two to the 20, three to the 10, one to the 40, etc. Do this for at least 20 minutes to build your confidence.

Pulling Down and Through

Golfers who can play the game every day and who start off having exceptional control of their body action—which the average golfer doesn't­-can inaugurate the downswing with their hips. For the average player, though, the best way to launch the downswing is to pull down with your left arm. What sort of pull down is it? Well, as you have heard before, it is something like pulling the rope of a bell. Do you pull straight down? Not exactly. You should pull the butt of the club toward the ball. Remember, this pulling down is done by the left arm. It's the controlling agent, and if you let it be you will escape the many troubles that result from trying to push the club down from the top with the right hand and the right shoulder. By pulling down with the left arm and keeping that arm straight you automatically bring the right arm into the proper hitting position: the elbow is leading and the upper arm comes in close to the body. The right hand then will be just where it should be when it un-cocks into the ball.

Let me emphasize that, as far as conscious moves are concerned at the beginning of the downswing, limit this to the left arm and hand. They not only pull the club into position, but they must keep pulling all the way through the swing until the left hand is hip high on the follow through. When you pull all the way through, you will finish high. It is the natural, inevitable result of the correct, strong swing. Of course the rest of your body has to follow with your arms.

Leave the Left Out

Winter is coming on and it rains a lot. It is raining and you take out your umbrella. What hand do you carry it in?

If you’re like a lot of other right-handed golfers, you’ll probably carry it in your left hand. Why this happens is a mystery, but it is a hard fact.

It’s also a bad idea, for two reasons. First, this is the hand on which you wear your glove. The umbrella will shelter your left hand, but it will still be exposed to the elements when it might be better off in the dryness of your pocket. Second, the left hand is the firmer hand in the golf swing: it controls so much of the swing. After eighteen holes of holding up an umbrella it’s going to get pretty tired (especially if there’s wind).

So think twice before you hold your umbrella in the wrong hand.

Golf Quote:

It is nothing new or original to say that golf is played one stroke at a time. But it took me many years to realize it."

Bobby Jones

How to Cure Hitting from the Top

Most errors in golf are caused by hitting from the top and coming into the ball from outside the line. Proper coiling and uncoiling will prevent this. Most average golfers, however, don't have a clear picture in their minds as to what they should be doing to get into position on the backswing. Their hands and club move in one direction, so consequently they are never in a position to make a coordinated inside-out downswing with the club, hands, arms and body fused together. Quite the reverse, in fact. At the finish of the backswing, in a poor position, which permits them no balance or feel, they have to hit from the top. This they do by moving the right shoulder and arm to the outside, for, although this is a wrong source of power for golfers to use, it is the only one they can summon.

Developing a proper coil on the backswing with the hands, arms and body working together is not the easiest thing in the world for average golfers. The best short cut I have found is to picture and feel that your heels remain in the same position from the time of address until long after the ball is contacted. If they can remember this, it is remarkable how quickly the entire pattern of their swing changes and they start building a good swing which delivers maximum speed at the bottom of the arc and from the inside.

Long-Iron Attack

Many of the subscribers have told me that they have great difficulty hitting long irons. One reason so many people miss-hit long irons is that they try t scoop the ball up with the clubface. This attempt to hit the ball on the upswing ruins more potentially good shots than any other fault, unless the other fault is fear or being afraid to trust the long irons. The three most important essentials in hitting long irons are balance, ball position and hand position.

Weight should be evenly distributed on both feet and slightly back on the heels. The head should be anchored over the ball and should remain there during the swing. The ball should be slightly inside the left heel at address. Assuming that a drive would be addressed opposite the left heel and that a five-iron would be played opposite the middle of the stance, the long irons would be just about halfway between. Hands should be kept well ahead of the club head at address to induce a descending blow. Hit down and through the ball. Take a bit of turf and finish your swing with your hands high. There are few more satisfying shots than the properly hit long iron. Over come any fear you may have for the two and three irons, and you’re on your way to more golf enjoyment and lower scores.

Lining Up the Clubface

As a rule, golfers don’t pay enough attention to the face of the club. The face of the golf cub is so small that few golfers realize how important it is in correct shot-making for that face to be square to the ball throughout the swing. A surprisingly large number of golfers don’t even start their swing with the face square. They think they do, but somewhere these golfers have picked up the erroneous notion that it is the top line of the clubface that one should refer to, to determine if the face is square at address—that is, resting so that it is perpendicular to the intended line of flight. Now, that’s not right. It’s the bottom line of the face that determines whether the club is square or not. One other thought on this matter. If the player rushes his backswing, the club will change position in his hands. It’s bound to - just the way a pitcher in baseball would lose control of the ball if he wound up like lightning. You must start square and control your swing so that you stay square.

Work on Timing

Timing is controlling the motions of your body and club to create the optimum effect. If your timing is out slightly you will lose distance and control. Try this drill to help with your timing.

Swing a club with only your right hand. Simplify it at the start by cutting the heads off a few daisies but as you get used to the motion and become more confident try hitting a golf ball. It is very difficult to begin with so expect to hit a few shanks and tops at first. After 10 or so attempts, however, your body will become attuned to the task and start releasing the right hand at precisely the right time, thus achieving good contact. Do it many time to develop the correct release of the right arm.

The Power Shift

To hit the ball with power, one of the most important things to keep in mind is effective foot action. If the feet are positioned properly and act in conjunction with a good sound swing, added distance is almost certain to follow. When I address the ball for a shot that requires a little more effort, I have my weight evenly distributed (fifty-fifty) on the insteps of both feet. As I take the club back, I transfer most of my weight to the right instep. At the top of my backswing, approximately 75 percent of my weight is now on the instep of the right foot. There are two basic reasons for this weight transfer. First, it tends to keep you from swaying as you take the club back. And second, it braces you for the start of the downswing. With most of the weight on the inside of the right foot as begin my downswing, I have a solid foundation to “push off,” like a sprinter using starting blocks in a track meet.

Utilizing the right instep in this manner helps me to generate more club head speed and thus gives me added distance. Of course, as I make the downswing, my weight shift is not the initial movement, it will most likely cause you to fall away from the shot. This is a common fault of many golfers. By using good foot action, you’ll be taking a giant step to more power.

The Modified Baseball Grip

The woman or lady golfer too frequently thinks in terms of trying to steer the ball with her hands. When she tries to do that, the tendency is to pull the club head across the ball (from the outside in), and a slice is the result. To overcome this, I recommend that women golfers—and beginners especially - use what I call a modified baseball grip. The left thumb is in line down the shaft of the club, as in orthodox golf grips, but there is no interlocking or overlapping with the little finger of the right hand. This grip causes a golfer to get more right hand into her action. More right hand will enable her to get more power into her swing, and it keeps her from pulling the club head across the ball, makes her swing through the ball and straightens out that slice. This modified baseball grip may result in a slight hook—which would be good for most women golfers. (This is the reverse of what is true of most men; they tend to overemphasize the hit, to get too much right hand into their swings.) I also think that the woman golfer should wear a full-fingered glove on her left hand. It gives her a much better grip than she could get with her bare hand or a half-fingered glove.

Gripping with the Palm

A bad grip has wrecked many a golf game. It can cause hooks and slices and increase the natural tendency of most golfers to use their right arm in too strong a fashion. I advocate gripping the club in the palm of the left hand, not the fingers. If you get all of the grip from the fingers, it increases the chances of letting your wrist bend. A lot of golfers tend to let their right hand slip around toward the bottom of the shaft because it makes the arm feel stronger. That’s the thing you should be trying to get away from—that feeling of power in the right arm. If the right arm slips toward the bottom of the shaft, it leads you to pick the club up drastically on the backswing. The result is you smother the ball. Some golfers start off with a correct right-hand grip but they don’t maintain this correct grip throughout the backswing. This causes the golfer to close the face of his club as it reaches the ball, and a hook results. Turning to the left hand: this is where the slice begins. Gripping the club too much in the fingers makes the wrist collapse on the backswing. This opens the clubface and a slice results. A rule of thumb works something like this: If you’re slicing, look at your left hand and see if the wrist is collapsing. If you’re hooking, reappraise your right-hand grip.

Pathfinder

Establishing the correct path of the club head in the takeaway and approaching impact. The golf swing is a chain reaction. If the outcome of the chain reaction is going to be positive then the first link in that chain has to be correct. This drill will ensure you start the club back on the correct path ­ neither too far inside nor outside the target line. In addition to that it will also ensure you bring the club back to the ball on the correct path ­ again, straight down the target line.

Try this to do it right. Place two tees in the ground about six inches behind the ball and about eight inches apart. One should be on the outside of the ball, the other on the inside. Swing back and through avoiding the tees.

Positive Thinking

Approach shots must be played with confidence, any hesitancy on your part will result in an uncertain shot which invariably ends up in trouble. Do not let your concentration be affected by a bad shot you may have played at the last green or by what will happen if you mis-hit the ball ad it lands in a trouble spot. The pro’s do not think about what happened a while ago or what might happen in a minute, they only concentrate on what is happening now-that is, the shot about to be played.

Watch For It

I read this tip somewhere the other day, and it sounds pretty good advice for someone that is having trouble keeping their head down on short approach shots to the green. It said a good way to ensure that you are doing this, is for you to watch and see the ball actually being struck by the clubface. Of course, you won’t be able to see this, but trying to do so ensures that you keep your head down at impact. Hope this helps.

Commitment Builder

Works on making sure you totally commit yourself through the ball. A major fault of many amateur golfers is their inclination to come off the shot. This simply means not committing yourself all the way through the impact zone. Contact, after this fault has occurred is rarely solid. This basic drill is an effective way of improving your impact position and encouraging you to extend through the ball.

The way to correct this is just place a tee about 6 inches in front of your ball (using a driver) and imagine you are trying to hit another ball off that tee.

Taking The Club Back Smoothly

Seventy five percent of the average player’s bad shots are caused by his getting out of position on the backswing. He gets out of position mainly for two reasons. Grabbing the club at the start of the backswing and starting back abruptly. When you take the club away from the ball abruptly, you destroy your normal tempo. This of course invariably leads to getting into improper position on the backswing. Experience has taught me that whenever I hit a bad shot, it’s due to the fact that I put myself into a bad position on the backswing.

Thus the importance of starting the club head back smoothly from the ball can’t be overemphasized. For the average golfer, this smooth takeaway is largely a matter of concentration. Before starting your backswing, you must think just what you want your hands to do with the club. This same discipline applies to grabbing the club at the start; you have to concentrate on not doing it. The average player is often too impatient. He is thinking of hitting the ball before he even gets the club back. A smooth takeaway, I might add, is just as important in putting as in driving. You’ll find you’ll yip far fewer putts.

Avoiding Flatness

Not picking on anyone, as I am guilty as anyone, but many of us have a little too much around the mid-section. Here is a couple of tricks I have found that has helped me. The major problem for chunky or portly men in golf is keeping their swing from being too flat-that is, on too shallow or horizontal a plane. The first thing they must learn in order to avoid this flatness is to take a more restricted pivot. Employing a slightly open stance helps considerably to cut down an excessive body turn. So does concentrating on taking the club back on a straight line from the ball, since it leads the player into a more upright swing. I recommend that when heavily built golfers practice, they place a club parallel to the line of flight as a visual aid to coming back straight on the line.

Even for the average golfer of chunky physique I advocate the short, upright swing with the emphasis on firmness and timing. Don’t let your left arm get stiff at address. Make sure your shoulders come underneath your chin, not out and around your chin. As for stances, I have found I get the best results by playing the woods with an open stance, the medium irons from a square stance, and the short irons from a slightly open stance.

A Bucket of Balls

Helps you to work on keeping the clubface square throughout the swing. There is a great temptation for many amateurs to fan the club head open as they bring the club head away for the ball. It feels like a powerful move because they sense they will need to flip the wrists back in the opposite direction later in the swing.

It may add a few yards to some of your shots if you time it right but that won’t happen with any great consistency. The club head should really be square throughout the entire swing and your hands should not twist if you are to deliver a square clubface to the ball on a regular basis.

To do it right, take up your address position but instead of holding a golf club hold a bucket of range balls. (hold the bucket in front of you with both hands and hold the bucket straight up and down, not tilted) As you turn back to halfway keep the bucket straight up and down with the open end continuing to face upwards. None of the balls should fall out of the bucket. This represents a square clubface (back of hand facing in front of you). If you tilt the top forward the balls will obviously fall on to the ground. This represents a closed clubface (back of the left hand facing to the ground). If the balls fall out of the bucket behind you it means your hands have, in effect opened the clubface (back of the left hand facing the sky).

It is the same for the follow through. As you swing past the imaginary impact position a few balls may leak out of the bucket because of the acceleration in your swing. The top of the bucket continues to face upwards.

This drill demonstrates very well the relationship between the back of the left hand and the position of the clubface. At address the back of the left hand faces the target, halfway back it should face in front of you while halfway through it should face behind you.

The Friendly Grip

A good golfer is recognized by his grip. Rightly so, for a proper grip is the basis for at least 60% of a man’s swing. Some say a high as 90%.

Beginners, and players who are uncertain of their game, tend to grab the club and hang on like grim death, or else they hold the shaft gingerly as if they were afraid of the damage they might inflict on the ball. Both excesses can throw you off your game. Whenever I see a someone’s fingernails whitening as he holds the club, I ask him to let go for a minute and shake hands with me. Usually they give me a nice firm “friendly” grip, and that’s just what I want—not a bone-crusher or a limp paw. Once we’ve shaken hands, I ask him to grip his golf club the same way, firmly but in a friendly way. His execution of shots usually improves.

I always check to see that my pupils’ hands are set properly on the shaft—that goes without saying—but what I am trying to bring out here is the importance of gripping with the right amount of pressure. To the beginner, the golf grip feels at first like the most unnatural thing in the world, but he will soon find out that only through practicing the correct grip can be control with any degree of steadiness the arc of the club and the flight of the ball. Repetition of the right grip will result, in due course, in confidence and a well-founded swing that will bring good results regularly. Give the friendly grip a try.

Welding the Grip

I have had one theory about golf ever since I was knee high to a duck: nature, with golfers in mind, shaped the right palm so that the left thumb fits into it perfectly. When the left thumb and the thumb pad of the right hand are welded together, the golfer’s hands will stay together and work as one, and nothing is more fundamentally important than this.

Women golfers frequently want to know why they are hitting the ball straight but are getting no distance at all. Their trouble frequently is that their grip comes apart. Much more often than men, women will open their hands at the top of the backswing. They tend to do this because their forearms are not as strong as a man’s. The constructive move, in any event, is to make sure that the left thumb and the right palm are in perfect contact with each other throughout the swing—and especially at the top of the backswing. If you have a genuinely welded grip, then, even if you are late with your footwork or some other aspect of the synchronized action of a fine golf swing, you will still produce a fairly good golf shot. What is more, keeping the two hands firmly together is the direct route not only to consistency but also to power.

Checking the Grip with the club head

I never play a shot without first glancing at my hands. What I check before address is the alignment of the grip with the face of the club. They go together. Most golfers know of this relationship between the hands and the clubface—at least, they know it theoretically - but the ordinary golfer rarely puts it into practice. Very often, while he is fiddling with his grip, he inadvertently rotates the shaft and twists the clubface out of alignment. Most pros, on the other hand, knowing that the grip is correct only when it is correctly aligned with the clubface, take pains to check this fundamental of good golf. If you have ever watched Sensei Mark, you have no doubt seen him affix his grip, raising the club until his hands are only a foot or so in front of his eyes. Then Mark sights down the shaft and checks both his hands and the club head as one unit. Gripping a club, you see, is like aiming a rifle. If your hands are improperly aligned with the club head, you will hit only a few isolated accurate shots. I never trust my grip entirely to feel. It can go off too easily, and after a couple of days the incorrect grip will feel fine and natural. Once you start your swing, you must trust entirely to feel, for your eye is fixed on the ball. However, before you start to play your shot, you have the chance to check the relation of the grip and the club head visually. The results are well worth the effort.

Balance and Rhythm

This drill is one your should use often. It works on virtually every part of your swing, the end result being a smooth, balanced action and better ball striking. Many of us develop quick, jerky swings as we believe the quicker we swing the club back the further we will hit the ball. The takeaway is over in a flash and we are in such a hurry to get back to the ball from the top of the backswing we lose all of our rhythm, tempo and balance. This drill will put a stop to that.

Here is how to do it right. Stand with your feet together and hit a few shots trying to maintain our balance. It will be difficult at first as you are so used to having your feet further apart but the more you do it, and the more you slow your swing down, the easer it becomes. Use no more than an 8-iron to begin with. You will notice this drill has a dramatic effect on your hip action too. If you’re a slider you will no longer be able to sway backwards then forwards as you would inevitably fall over if you did.

Alignment of the Body

The alignment of the body requires that the feet, hips, and shoulders are parallel to the target line. (The Target Line is a straight line drawn from the ball to the target). This means that your body actually aims to the left of the target and not at the target. To learn this concept stand directly behind your golf ball on the target line and imagine a straight line from your golf ball to the hole, this is the target line. In order to keep the perspective of the target line as you set up to the ball pick a spot on the ground about 12 inches in front of the ball on the target line. Once you have found the target line set your body up so that your feet hips and shoulders are parallel to this target line. Initially you will feel like you are aiming way too far to the left…trust it… this is the first step to curing your slice. When practicing on the driving range it helps to set up a practice station which allows you to monitor the correct alignment for every shot. If you have ever watched touring professionals or a top amateur practice you will notice that they often lay clubs on the ground. The purpose of this habit is to make sure that their body is consistently aimed parallel to the target line and not AT the target which results in aiming to the right.

The Clubface

The correct aiming of the golf club requires that the leading edge (the bottom edge of the clubface) of the club forms a 90 degree angle with the target line. Then take a magic marker and put a X on your ball. Set the ball down so that one of the lines becomes the target line, the perpendicular line represents the correct position of the leading edge of the club face. Set the club down so that the leading edge of the club face matches the line on your golf ball. If the club points to the left your club is closed which will result in your shot going to the left and conversely if the club points to the right your club is open which will result in your shot going to the right. It takes a little practice, but if works.

Hitting the Green

The one word that I think best describes the faults of the average golfer is overextending. If there is a secret to golf, it is to know one’s capabilities. My advice is never to overextend even if a particular hole or situation seems completely hopeless. Play within yourself, and you will be surprised how often the cup seems to come to you.

Lets us say you have a fairly long approach shot. Nine times out of ten, you are much better off playing for the middle of the green instead of for the flag. Whenever you sit down after a round and review it hole by hole, you will find that when you went for the flag, you usually missed the green entirely or ended up in a sand trap. How much wiser to give yourself a larger target to hit: the whole green. And really, even on that exceptional occasion when you play a fairly long approach right on the line to the pin, what do you gain? Generally, you still end up just about as many feet from the cup as you do when you succeed in hitting the area around the centre of the green. Concentrate on hitting the green. The cup will come to you.

The Umbrella for a Slow Takeaway:

Many golfers ruin their chances of making a smooth swing and hitting a good shot by jerking the club away form the ball. Their first motion is hurried and there is no harmony in their swings between the arms and body. The swing must start smoothly and slowly, the hands and body working in unison to help build up the power.

To do it right, try this. Position an umbrella up against the back of your club as you address the ball. (the umbrella is still rolled up, right out of your golf bag). Then simply move the umbrella away from you as you bring the club back. It should move slowly along the ground. Your whole body responds to the umbrella’s resistance by slowing down and working as a single powerful unit rather than several destructive ones working in opposition to each other. Your wrists become less active and the emphasis is put on the big muscles making the powerful coil of the body you need to make in order to hit the ball a good distance.

The Short Pitch

There is an old saying that a good putter is a match for anyone and a bad putter is a match for nobody. I propose that the same thing applies equally to a golfer’s ability or inability to play the short pitch shot from 50 yards or less from the hole.

In executing the short pitch, it is essential to concentrate on hitting through the ball with the hands. It is the speed with which the hands go through the ball that determines how far the ball will travel. From the identical stance, holding the club in exactly the same position, it is possible to pitch the ball anywhere from 20 yards to 50 yards simply by altering the speed of your hand action. How far you take the club back doesn’t enter into the matter at all. I stress this because I have had dozens of golfers complain they could not hit a short pitch because they always took the club back too far. If they concentrated on the hand speed through the ball and let the length of the backswing become instinctive, they would produce much fine shots and lower scores.

Practice Your Game

Correct hip action is very important. A lot of golfers tend to slide the hips back then forwards, rather than rotate them. This has several undesirable effects. First of all, in the backswing, it pushes your weight on to the outside of your back foot. This can play havoc with your balance and severely reduce your chances of making solid contact. Secondly, it makes it more difficult to achieve a full shoulder turn and the swing becomes a lateral movement sideways rather than a turn and coil. This loses you a lot of power. Third, your head inevitably moves backwards too. Your head should ideally be pretty still, and inch or two’s movement to the right is okay to encourage the shift of weight on the back foot. Any more is potentially dangerous. If then you slide forwards your head gets ahead of the ball before you make contact. This too loses you power and is likely to result in a block that goes straight right.

Your Golfing Mental Game

Many golfers make the mistake of treating golf as a purely physical game. Nothing could be further from the truth. While the main functions of making a shot might be physical in nature, the end result depends on what thought has gone into playing it.

Consider a simple chip shot from just off the green. It is relatively easy to practice the mechanics of the shot to obtain consistency of swing and accuracy in where you land the ball. The problem arises when you actually have to do the shot onto an actual green not the same practice green you have been using for two years. All of a sudden you are looking at a different picture with a lighting fast slope that is undulating and perhaps even taking an over hit pitch into a lake or bunker. Now it is about where you land the shot and how much it will roll or turn and not necessarily how far you pitch it.

Picturing the actual shot; the ball landing, jumping up, spinning, rolling forward, taking a curve etc is not easy to master. It needs skill, imagination and most of all the patience to actually stop and think about what is going to happen after you hit the ball.

The mental approach to a shot is never better observed than when a golfer faces a hazard. How many times have you hit a six or seven iron unerringly towards the marker on a practice ground with never a moments thought. Stand on a tee with a small lake or pond between you and the green and you just know you are going to top the shot and go for a swim. Even worse is when the pond or lake if to the right or left of the fairway ... here comes the hook or the slice.

The question you have to ask is why do I suddenly hook or slice on this particular hole when I have been playing straight down the middle for the rest of the round.

Normally the answer lies in your frame of mind when you are about to play the shot. If you do not adopt a positive approach and picture a successful conclusion to the shot then it is nearly certain that tenseness and stress will creep in to your swing. Picture a positive outcome (really picture the shot that you want to see) and you are more likely to relax and play a good shot. Not only are you picturing a positive outcome but you are putting yourself into a positive frame of mind.

THINK ABOUT IT....IT ONLY TAKES A MOMENT BEFORE THE SHOT AND YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE.

The mental game is very important in golf.

The Coordinated Swing

If I were to select one idea or thought for golfers of all playing abilities, except perhaps for the good golfer, it would be this: Develop an easy, relaxed manner of taking your grip, walking up to the ball, soling the club, moving into the waggle and the forward press, and then and only then, swinging the club.

Every good player has a distinct rhythmic movement in the address and waggle before he starts his swing. It is so well coordinated and blends into his backswing so easily that it is not noticeable or seems not to be to the average player watching. It has become part of his swing from imitating good players as a youngster or simply from trying to feel a coordinated movement before starting the swing. Many good players have worked hours at a time changing their preliminary movements to achieve a more coordinated swing. If these preliminary movements are so necessary in a good player’s swing, then they certainly should be helpful in improving an average player’s swing.

Remember. The beginning movements of your swing start the moment you first sole your club to the ball. From that moment on, there should be no point at which you come to a complete stop before your start a swing from the ball. You cannot develop a powerful, smooth, rhythmical swing from a still position. You have to be in motion, and you have to keep yourself in motion until you move into your backswing.

Three Foot Putts

Three footers can be tough. They can ruin your day. Part of the problem is everyone expects you to hole it. You begin to fear what the reaction of your playing partners might be should you miss and that takes your concentration away from the job at hand. Also, three or four foot putts can have some break in them (sideways movement caused by a slope) and a strong breeze will certainly affect the path the ball takes too. That can make some short putts anything but straightforward.

The secret is to be hold, take the break out of the putt and aim straight for the hole. You may miss some by being too bold but you will definitely hole more than you miss as the temptation to second-guess yourself over the line of the putt, usually a fatal error, will be removed. Another good tip is to focus on hitting the back of the cup. Don’t try to dribble the ball over the front edge as this will let any break in the putt take hold of your ball and push it to the side of the hole. Apart from that, use your normal positive, pendulum stroke.

Forty Foot Putts

The task from this distance is to get down in no more than two shots. You can’t realistically hope to hole a putt of this length but you can avoid an ugly three-putt every time. A very effective way to ensure you get down in no more than two is to imagine the hole is the size of a trash can lid. Creating this bigger target in your mind immediately takes some of the pressure off you and allows you to make a smooth stroke with your normal tempo.

Once you get your ball inside the trash can lid the second putt should be easy. Good tempo is crucial on putts this long. Continue to use the “one-two” or what ever works for you, but make the stroke longer. If you watched the same pro golfer for 18 holes you would notice his tempo for every single putt, be it four feet or 40 feet, is the same. The only thing that changes is the length of the stroke.

Chipping from Traps

Many golfers make the sand trap shot more difficult than it has to be. This is because they were taught that the only way to come out of a trap is with an explosion shot, a rather unnatural stroke for the beginner since the club head has to strike the sand behind the ball and does not strike the ball itself.

There are a number of occasions when the lie of the ball and the lay of the land make playing an explosion shot unnecessary and even unwise. Whenever the bank of the trap is low and there is enough putting surface between the trap and the hole, a golfer would be more sensible to play a variation on a chip shot—with the club head contacting the ball cleanly and lofting it onto the green. Allow for some roll.

A chip from the sand is played the same as a chip from any other lie, with two modifications. First, you grip the club low on the shaft, as far down as the bottom of the leather if this is comfortable. Secondly, glue your eyes on the left half of the ball rather than on the right half as you do on ordinary shots. This enables you to deliver a clean, descending blow, and that is the essence of all chip shots.