The golf swing itself is probably the most difficult and certainly
the most elusive action in all athletics.

Beyond question it is the most frustrating, and nowhere more so
than at this very point, where the club and the body make their
first moves down toward the ball.

The peak of frustration is reached here because, no matter what
has gone before it, this one move can make a greater difference
in the result of the swing and the shot than any other.

We can have a perfect grip, start back from the ball properly,
reach the top in faultless position and then ruin it all by the
next move we make.

Not only can the swing be ruined by this move, it is ruined
about 95 per cent of the time.

THE FATAL FLAWS – YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF!

The deadly moves, the most fatal flaws, are these:

(1) Spinning the hips without moving the weight laterally,

(2) With this spinning motion turning the right shoulder
high toward the ball

(3) Trying to move the club head or slowing down the hands.

These moves bring quick disaster by causing two things.

1. They make us hit too soon and,

2. They make us hit from the outside in.

The first robs us of distance, the second of direction

–and what else do we want from a full shot?

Because we hit too soon, the drive that might have gone 250 yards
goes only 220.

Because we hit from the outside instead of from the inside,
the ball is pulled, and, if the face of the club is not square,
it will be hooked or sliced, or perhaps smothered or even shanked.

The best we can hope for is that we will slice it only a little
and that, after starting to the left, it will curve back into the
fairway.

EVEN IF WE ARE LUCKY!

Even if we are that lucky, we will know we have hit a weak and
sloppy shot.

These are the actions and these are the shots that we see on every
course in the country, and in bay after bay of every driving range.

It can truthfully be said that this is the natural way to hit a
golf ball — with the Sunday duffer spin.

It is also the principal reason that the scores of millions of
players remain so high.

These actions in this one area of the swing produce bad shots in
such astronomical volume that the short game, no matter how good
it is, can’t take up more than a little of the slack.

OUR PREDICTION…..

We will say without fear of contradiction that a player who makes
these moves and still gets around in 86 on a good day would cut
ten strokes from his score if he made the right moves.

Golf Tips Involving Golf Equipment

Blaming your moves, shots and swings for your golf mishits and mishaps? Well, no matter how much time and effort you have been spending over practicing your moves to perfect your game, you still won’t achieve your goal if you use unsuitable or defective types of golf equipment, will you?

Now is high time for you to consider the following golf tips that involve checking on your equipment’s quality.

If you plan to choose used golfclubs as beginner’s tools, scrutinizing before purchasing is a must. The clubheads, the shafts, and the grips are golfclub parts that should pass inspection first before landing a decent spot in your golf equipment cabinet. Another excellent golf tip that will get you through the game is making sure that the set of used golfclubs you’re eyeing have set consistency. It will also help a lot if you check first the price of new clubs vs. used.

A golf tip for a golfer that plans to regrip his clubs: Be cautious. This is because the grips are the only contact points one can access to affect the shot. Before carrying out the regripping, know the core grip of the club and your hands grip size. To determine your core size grip, measure the diameter of the butt of the shaft you’re going to re-grip. The shaft’s diameter should match the grip’s core diameter. In determining your hands grip, the available size grips are regular, mid-size, oversize and jumbo. Use only the best re-gripping materials that will provide optimum performance for your golf clubs.

Another golf tip or advice is that using ill-fitted clubs will be an obstacle to your golf playing success. A golfer must consider his or her body type in choosing the best-fitting equipment to support and deliver his backswings efficiently. Too steep angles in carrying out backswings may be avoided if one selects the perfect fitting equipment available.

Custom golfclub fitting makes a better option than just buying new golf clubs. Getting custom fitting golfclubs is a golf tip that translates to a very worthy investment. The uniqueness of each person is attributed to the need of this way of buying new golf clubs. A custom fitting produces golfclubs that specifically suit the height, strength, swing characteristics and clubhead speed of the golfer.

The type of club shaft also helps in predicting whether you’ll do good in a game or you won’t. There’s a choice between a steel club shaft and a graphite-made club shaft. This golf tip aims to make you realize which type of golfclub shaft will benefit your game. Observations tell that the steel club shafts are more preferred by professional golfers while graphite shafts become more popular with women, senior players and beginners. Steel shafts are less expensive than graphite shafts though.

One more golf tip that could help you is that the golf clubs that must be the main content of your bag must suit your skill level. Since various skill levels need various golf clubs, it won’t be wise to just use or bring a golf club that is just lying around. And, don’t ever forget about the maximum golfclub load your bag is allowed to hold. You can only bring 14 golf clubs in your bag. No more. No less. Aside from your skill level contemplation, your mastery of a certain golfclub and your being comfortable with using it must also be put into consideration in deciding which golfclub to hit.

A good combination of the right moves and good choice of equipment will better arm you to become the best golfer you could ever be.

It might well be useful to take a general look at the
top of the backswing.

As this is an area of much confusion.

REMEMBER: THERE IS NO ABSOLUTE TOP!

Yes there is no absolute top, in the sense that
everything which has been moving in one upward and
backward direction reaches its limit at the same
time and starts forward and down together.

All the parts of the swinging system — the club, hands,
arms, body, and legs do not reach their backward limits
at the same time.

They reach them in a steady progression, from the ground up.

The knees get there first, followed by the hips, then
the shoulders, the arms, the hands, and finally the
club head.

There is quite a time gap, too, between the extension
limits of the first three parts and the last three.

There is a similar lag in the time they start down, too.

TOP PRO SWINGS :

Swings of the top professionals vary somewhat, of course,
but sequence pictures never fail to show that the knees,
hips, and shoulders reach the end of their backward
movements well before the arms, hands, and club head.

The same pictures invariably show the knees and hips
moving into the downswing before the upper part of
the body.

How to strike the driving shot in your Golf round with a three wood:

Its a very powerful shot that, when carried out correctly, is a great alternative to the driver if Big Bertha is playing up. More importantly however, Tiger, more often than not, finds the centre of the fairway with a three wood because it promotes further accuracy.

You will feel more in command and the ball trajectory that the shot generates is both piercing and ensures run on the fairway. In fact, there are many reasons to have this shot in your armoury. The little changes to your stance and swing it requires are well worth developing as follows:

Tee the ball up low and aiming a little left of the target – push the tee down low, take your 3 wood and place the golf ball in the middle of your stance with your weight a little more on your target side. In addition you need to aim left as the ball position makes the club collect the ball a little sooner, so the club-face will be to some extent open.

Hold the Grip further down the handle – this will give you much more control over the golf swing, but do not forget to keep your grip firm but not tight, at say number five on a scale of ten where ten is very strong.

Reduce the tension in your arms and hands to get the effect of a nice fluid golf swing. Do not forget to remember not to tense up, not only on this shot but on every golf shot.

Keep your Weight in the middle of your stance – your weight should stay in the middle in the backswing. Do not move it onto your back foot. Limiting your weight shift will allow you to stay over of the ball, fully squeezing it when it comes to impact.

This set up will provide a steeper direction of attack to create that lower, more powerful flight which we are trying to acquire.

Rediscover your club angle – at impact, the shaft of your club needs to rediscover the forward angle it had at address. Create this by keeping the hands a touch in front of the club-head as you hit the ball. This keeps the loft off the club-head, sending the golf ball on a lower more penetrating ball flight.

Shorten the follow through – holding back your follow through is a natural situation to get into when playing this kind of shot. This is because you are not allowing the club to fully release, caused by the club angle you used to get the lower trajectory flight.

Although you might not get the same yardage as a flawless hit with your Big Bertha, but this type of shot will only be a few metres behind. Importantly you will hit the short grass far more often and in nice shape to go for the pin with your next stroke.

Try this on the driving range first and build up your confidence with this shot; you will be amazed how successful it is.

The forward press is simply a device that gets us from the
passive into the active stage smoothly, without a jerk.

Standing in a stationary position, even for a few seconds,
is tiring.

THE TRUTH IS ….

We don’t pass easily from a stationary position into
a big move.

The trick in golf is to go from the stationary position of
address to the big movement of the backswing without a
jerky effort.

UNDERSTANDING THE FORWARD PRESS

The forward press provides this transition. It is the little
move that leads into the big one.

It can be done in several ways, with the right knee, with
the hips, with the hands, with a turn of the hips.

THE LATERAL MOVEMENT OF THE HIPS

We want a lateral movement of the hips, no turn. It is a
slight pushing of the hips to the left, laterally, about an
inch or two.

This press is in the opposite direction from the big move.

But as the hips come back from their little pushing motion,
they keep right on sliding and go into a lateral turning
motion to the right–the beginning of the backswing–and
we are off.

This makes for the smoothest transition of all.

This is one of the most feared shots in all of golf by the amateur.
Why? Because it looks so intimidating when you can barely see
you ball, but it doesn’t need to be that way. You will be hitting
great shots and impressing your friends when you follow these steps!

Let’s say that you just don’t have a “fried egg” (where 50% of
the ball is buried) but only the very top of the ball is visible.
What do you do? Follow these steps and you’ll be able to hit
any lie that you have in a bunker.
Here’s what you do:

1. Choke down on the golf club, about in the same position
as a normal bunker shot (1-2 inches from the bottom of the grip).
2. Take your normal stance, however open it up a little bit.

3. The majority of your weight should be on your front foot .

4. Close your clubface and press your hands forward just a
little (this will ensure you to drive the ball out of the sand).

5. Keep your lower body still! This is so important, especially
in this shot!

6. Just like a normal bunker shot take a steep backswing so
that the butt of the club is pointed at the ball. *Remember that
your left arm is going to lead this shot and will be completely
parallel with the ground. Your right elbow is in the locked position.

7. When you start your downswing do not shift your weight – keep
the majority of your weight on your front foot.

8. So once you’ve started your steep downswing hit about 2 inches
behind the ball. This is very important because if you try and hit the
ball first you’ll just drive it back into the sand. By hitting 2 inches
behind the sand will actually lift the ball out your clubface really
doesn’t even touch the golf ball. *Remember it’s very important to
keep your clubface closed so that is can drive the ball out!

9. Remember to swing through the sand and not stop once you’ve
hit the sand.
10. Keep your angle steep throughout the shot.

Drill:

At the practice bunker stomp a few balls almost completely
submerged (make sure you can only see a little of the ball.
This will give you so much confidence because this only happens
in a small percentage of sand play. Focus on keeping your club
face closed throughout your swing….I can’t stress this enough!
Putting it all together in the bunker:

Normal bunker shot: square to slightly open clubface, evenly
balanced weight or weight on back foot, steep/vertical backswing
(lead with your left arm and keep your right elbow “locked” to its side),
keep your entire lower body still – no weight shifting until you hit the sand.

Buried lie in bunker: slightly closed clubface, forward press your
hand a little, majority of your weight on your front foot, steep/vertical
backswing (lead with your left arm and keep your right elbow “locked”
to its side), keep your entire lower body still

Slicers have generally been taught to have a stronger grip (i.e. the left hand moves slightly further to the left side of the shaft) to encourage them to rotate the clubface closed through impact. But in some cases this isn’t the best way to go as some will learn to hold the face even more open and thus make their problem slice even worse!

Often a more neutral or weaker grip (i.e. where the left hand is rotated more to the left of the shaft, so that the thumb runs only very slightly down the left side of the shaft) will work better as the slicer ends up having to rotate the face closed himself.

In the long term, this will help create a draw shape in combination with a few simple swing tips when trying to rid their game of the dreaded slice. Now of course as well as the Grip, another common fault which slicers come up against concerns the stance.

You need to double check the alignment of your feet. Clearly they must be square to the target line, but slicers have a tendency to have an open stance. An open stance occurs when the left foot is a couple of inches or more back from the square line.

This has the effect of creating an out to in swing, which means that on the backswing the club travels back outside of the ball and then comes in across the body on the downswing, cutting across the ball. This results in slicing action across the ball from out to in, thereby imparting sidespin which causes the ball to start off left and then finishes way right of the target line.

To cure this fault, take your stance and place a club along the toes of your feet. Now stand back and check to see if it is in line with the target. A slicer will probably find that the left needs to be pulled back, square to the target line. Hope this helps.