Accidently hitting my ball during my practice stroke as happened maybe once or twice over the years, but I do not remember it happening to me. However, I won a golf tournament because my opponent did this on the last hole of play. It was a very small local military event and nothing to brag about it for sure. Regardless, I was shocked to see him do this and under the old rules, it was a 1 stroke penalty. Under the new rules, a player can replace their ball without penalty because intent is a factor guiding the new rules. Matthew Wolff found this our a few short days ago.
Continue readingFlipping The Club Head At Impact
Does your golf swing lead to a tendency to flip the club head through impact? Do find that you are losing distance and ball control because of the way your hands react at the bottom of your swing? These and many more challenges happen when players develop counter moves to their poor swing techniques and flipping the club through impact is on of the more common mistakes. Generally, players with a poor takeaway, as seen in the video below, and weak club head control find themselves struggling with the flip. Chris Ryan explains how to correct this swing challenge in simple and understandable terms. Take a look.
Continue readingReplacing a Cut or Scuffed Golf Ball
For many amateurs, like myself, who pay for their golf balls, I try to play my them for as many holes as possible. It is not that I am really cheap, but $5.50 Cdn a golf ball can get expensive if I willy-nilly change my golf all. This propensity to use my golf ball as long as possible leads to a less that favourable playing condition for my white gold. Hence, I pay attention to when I can replace my ball and when I cannot. Not surprisingly, there is a rule that covers this topic and one that if you are in competition is very important.
Continue readingHaving Fun On The Golf Course
Having fun on the golf course is a primary goal of any golfer. Realistically, if we are not having fun (even on the bad days) why spend 4 hours-ish looping around 18 holes. Playing our best game is always a good way to turn up the fun meter, but that is not always the case. Others play side games for cash or bragging rights. An others just play for the fun of playing. There are a plethora of options and one that I like is playing head to head on a challenging hole…..just like Wolff, Morikawa and Johnson did at the 10th hole at Riviera.
Continue readingChipping Tip From Rory McIlroy
As I research possible golf shots I would like to incorporate into my game, I sometimes come across a shot I kind of have, but need to improve. This is the case with a chipping tip from Rory McIlroy. The ‘one hop stop’ short chip shot is something I work on through the course of my golf season. I find this shot very useful and often wonder why my percentage of success is much lower than I want or expect. Well, I found out why thanks to a short video by Rory.
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The Grateful Golfer 