Tip One – Golf Grip
Don’t use your palms to grip the club – use your fingers. The grip should be felt in the last three fingers of your left hand. Your right hand should at the first stage of gripping the club – quite loose. For your right hand there should be no pressure at all on the forefinger and thumb.
Don’t squeeze the club tightly, keep your hands relaxed.
Next, make sure both ‘V’s’ of your hands are pointing over your right shoulder. Then make sure your grip on your left hand is stronger than your right.
If you are facing a low flight shot, firm pressure should be applied throughout the shot.
For putting, keep your palms facing each other.
If you are facing a problem to the right – strengthen your grip.
Do the opposite is facing a problem to the left – weaken your grip.
Tip Two – The Stance
Aim club face first. Then align your body.
At address, your hands should be about four inches
from your thighs.
Keep your head up.
Bend forward from the hips about 33 degrees and tilt
body toward right at address.
Let your arms hang naturally.
Elbows should be bent slightly inward at address.
Keep your chin up. Maintain minimal knee bend.
Keep right knee flexed and stable. Don’t let it slide or
straighten throughout swing.
For drives, set up with 80% of weight on right foot.
Make sure the ball is not too far forward. For drives, it
should be at a point below left shoulder.
Position ball under the logo on your shirt.
Play ball far enough away from body to get full
extension.
The longer the club, the more the left foot should be
flared out – from perpendicular for short irons to 45
degrees for the driver.
Tip Three – The Swing
Go back to the Grip Tip first and relax as much as you can. Take a few deep breaths and remember that your swing should be about the force of a seven iron.
Start your swing slow and accelerate at about quarter distance. Have 60% of your weight on the right foot.
Here’s the most important point of all. As you are swinging think only of your follow through and where the balls going to end up.
Make sure your left hip never passes your left foot on the downswing.
Tip Four – Putting
Tip Five – Improving Your Wood Shots
The major problem with Golfers having poor Driver/Woods/Metals shots always seems to be the actual point of contact.
Heres a good practice tip. Place your tee in the ground about 1 and 1/2 inches above the surface. Now practice just brushing the top of the tee. If you touch the ground, or, don’t touch the tee – well there lies your problem.
Practice this until you’ve got it absolutely right. After this you can then practice getting your direction right.
Tip Six – Iron Shots
To strike the ball successfully you have to consider the bottom swing in front of the ball.
Visualise an arc, then the lowest point of the arc is where you are striking the ball.
Two things to practice here are either to scratch a line where you are pretending the ball is, or, leave a line of tees where the ball would be. Swing your club in the arc and you should be striking the ground and creating a small divot just before the tees.
Practice this and you will have much more consistent control.
Tip Seven – Short Game Tip
When you are within say 20 yards of the green you are going to be playing the chip and run shot. This is probably the most important shot of your game, as this is going to either give you an opportunity to shoot close to the pin, or, an average shot is going to land you on the green perimeter.
This shot is sometimes referred to as a pitch and run. The idea is that you are going to be playing it with the most lofted wedge in your bag. The aim is to get the shot to as low as possible with adequate speed so the balls run is going to determine where its final location is going to be.
Tip Eight – The Mental Game
There’s probably not another game that can go so downhill so quickly than golf if you haven’t got the mental side going on.
There’s always distractions in golf. Your partners have just played perfect tee shots and now its your turn. The first thing that crosses your mind is I don’t think I’m going to play as good a shot as they did.
Or, how about when it’s your turn to tee off and you’ve got 15 players waiting behind you and watching your tee off. Feeling a little uncomfortable at this point?
Well, it even happens as you know to top amateurs and professionals and once you or they duff that shot it can effect the rest of the day for you.
Well, nobody can help you on this one except yourself. You’ve had all the lessons you can have, you’ve played fantastic tee shots or putts in the past, so you can do it. Get the negative out of your head and just say to yourself “I’m going to go further and straighter than those guys.”
Tip Nine – Fitness
Golf requires endurance, strength and flexibility. Of all these components, flexibility is going to become your greatest strength. I’ve seen very strong golfers beaten many times in length by someone with three quarters of the build, simply because of timing and co-ordination.
Yoga is an excellent fitness medium for flexibility. Go to a class or buy a book. It’s an excellent developer for your game. Yoga is great for relieving tension along with stretching before your game.
Tip Ten – Equipment
A skilled player can play with any set of clubs as they have the experience to adapt to the style and feel of the club. But average players need the best equipment they can afford to bolster their game.
When you do choose your clubs, remember that longer shafts will give you better distance but are more difficult to control than shorter clubs. Maybe best to first choose shorter shafts and get your confidence and golf skills up then buy some longer shafts to improve your distance.
Whatever you choose though, make sure you feel totally comfortable with them.