Golf tournaments show what kind of golfer your are and could be. The pressure of playing in a competition will accentuate our strengths and more importantly or weaknesses of our game. The area that I notice the most challenge for amateur golfers competing is on the mental side of the game. They are more concerned with what other players are doing, that they let it overshadow their game. For full disclosure, I have fell into this trap in my early years. As I mature as a player and developed my game, I found that what other players were doing was less a factor as what I am doing on the course. I am not sure there is a simple solution to the mental challenge of ignoring what other players are doing, but I seem to have know I turned the corner to success many years ago.
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Watching The Club Face Hit The Ball
If I heard the saying “keep your head down/still” once, I heard it a thousand times. Although the saying does not offer a solution to most swing issues, it does point to a foundational swing move that all golfers need to perform to be successful. During a golf swing, there are many planes of movement that require synchronization and to do so, keeping our head still is the key to success. Knowing this, it is still a challenge to keep all parts of our of our swing coordinated enough to hit the ball where intended because we continue to have an overactive head. If only there was a drill to help with the bobble head challenge!
Continue readingHitting Long Drives
After reading and researching on how to hit long drives, I have come to the conclusion that there is no set standard. Each player has a slightly different swing and this causes challenges to come up with a definitive way to hit long drives. I realize that there is a foundation for the proper swing and I think I found a video that offers a step by step process for hitting the long ball. When I watched it, I felt that as a single digit handicapper it fit my swing more than most, so I thought it was worth talking about.
Continue readingPlaying It Safe: A Failing In Golf
How many times have I tried to play the safe shot and failed. Knowing what the proper shot during a difficult situation is not that challenging, yet I seem to have a only a 50/50 chance of hitting a successful shot. Usually, my woes occur when I drop down to a 3 wood from my driver. For some reason, I swing poorly and pull the ball left. Sometimes, I mentally start to fail even before I start my pre-shot routine. Knowing I can physically hit the ball properly, I think my challenge is mental. What do you think?
Continue readingHitting A Long Putt
The chances of sinking a long putt of 20+ feet is very slim. It is not because we have inferior skills to those of professionals (and we do), but it comes down to the physics of distance control. Hitting the ball in a 1.70 inch ball into a 4.25 inch hole does not leave a great margin for error. To improve our chances, we should develop a method of putting that improves our chances of at least leaving a tap in putt if we happen to miss. There are many styles and techniques to hitting a ‘lag put’ that most golfers could try in order to improve their long putting. I use a few techniques myself and feel that for the most part they are very successful. In today’s article I am going examine a few presented by Scratch Golf Academy plus a couple of techniques I use to ensure I avoid the dreaded 3 putt.
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The Grateful Golfer 