golf tips

Golfing in Cooler Weather

/ The Grateful Golfer / 4 Comments
DSCF4783

Golf in cooler weather is a challenge.

Golf is not a sport for fair-weather players. Well actually, many golfers are fair-weather players, but I am not one. I play in the rain, wind, heat, and cold. Of all these conditions, I find playing in the cold the most difficult.

Playing in the cold is a given in Canada. Unlike this year, the cold weather starts to set in around October and does not leave until April. However, if the brave are willing to embrace the cooler weather, the off-season can be shortened by a couple of months.

I have written about playing in the cold weather before and I touched on 5 main topics to consider when playing fall or spring golf in the northern climates. For more details on the 5 topics below, click here:

  • A toque is a must.
  • Gloves are a benefit.
  • Keeping hydrated is critical.
  • Choosing the correct golf ball!
  • Lastly, avoid getting wet.

I recently did a poll on about golfing in cold weather and wondered what the golfing community considered what to keep warm when playing in cooler temperatures. Not surprisingly, here is what the masses had to say:

Keeping our hands warm is the most important thing for me aswell. When my hands get cold, I loose my feel, strength, and flexibility. Also, every miss hit feels like I am holding a giant frozen tuning fork that will not stop vibrating! Playing with cold hands is extremely uncomfortable and sometimes painful.

As many of you venture out to play golf in cooler temperatures, remember to keep your hands warm; warm hands will help you shoot lower scores and have fun as you loop the links enjoying the great outdoors!

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

Golf Tips, We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Golf Tips!

/ The Grateful Golfer / 6 Comments

If you scour the internet for golf tips, 150,000,000 searches appear in 0.41 seconds. Now, I am an avid golf fan and enjoy increasing my knowledge about my favorite sport; but really, 150 million hits for golf tips! The challenge is to sift through all the white noise to figure out which tip is best for us!

Everyone has their own process to cut white noise.  Everyday, we are bombarded with information that is filter, processed, acted upon, or discarded.  The difficulty is to figure out what is important and which process works best; then apply it to golf.  For me, the process is simple:

  1. Identify the problem;
  2. Collect information on the problem;
  3. Analyse the information;
  4. Determine possible solutions or courses of action; and
  5. Decide on way ahead.

This process empowers me to move forward when faced with many challenges. In 2015, I did have the arsenal required to really improve my golf game and lower my scores. So, I have decided to fix that short fall starting next week.

I have decided my way ahead for the my winter golf project. I am going to write on article a week on golf tips. Not my normal, this is the way The Grateful Golfer does it, but a review analysing tips I find while researching golf. I hope to provide a video with each article, but that will depend on the tip that I find.

I cannot guarantee that each tip will be useful to you, but I suggest that it will broaden your library of golf resources that you can tap into at a moments notice. I think that this project will be fun and beneficial to everyone. If nothing else, I look forward to learning new golf tips that will help me reach my goal as a scratch golfer!

What do you think? Any suggestions on which tip should be researched first?

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

 

Golf Tip – Hitting the Club Face

/ The Grateful Golfer / 2 Comments

In a previous post, I discussed where the ball should be placed in my stance and how I adjusted my alignment to make solid contact. But one of the most basic tenants of making solid contact was the shaft angle when the club head strikes the ball. As I watched the simple video below, many of my ideas of solid ball striking came together.

To confirm my new-found knowledge, I watched 30 minutes of professional golfers hit balls in various scenarios. Of the many similar aspects of their golf swing, the ball contact was created the same way: the club grip was in front of the ball during contact. Having the club grip past the ball, creates the proper shaft angle so the club head strikes the ball about 3 or 4 grooves up from the bottom of the club head. It is like trapping the ball with the club head.

Next, I looked for a simple drill to reinforce my what I have learned. This is what I found:

What do you think?

I am off to the course tomorrow with my new-found knowledge. I am sure positive things are going to happen!

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

 

Fixing your Golf Swing in One Easy Step

/ The Grateful Golfer / 3 Comments

I have the sure fire way to fix your golf swing in one easy step! It came to me while playing golf yesterday. It fits every level of player and can be adopted with little or no trouble. Yup, it is amazing how simple it is and I am not surprised that I did not think of it sooner.

For $19.95, I will send you blah, blah, blah…..how many times have I read or heard about the one solution that will fix everything. The funny thing is that I do believe there is one thing that any golfer can do to improve their swing at any given time.

Yesterday, I was playing golf with a couple of friends and someone I never met before named Kevin. Kevin is our club champion and his swing is as smooth as silk. He was always in control and his shot routine was flawless. However, what caught my attention was his tempo! It was always the same regardless of which club he was using. After watching him, I realized that my swing tempo was way out sync!

After coming back from a long break, my swing was actually out of sync regardless of my scores. Watching Kevin I realized that if I fixed my tempo, many of my swing challenges would be fixed. So, I decided to slow down my tempo. I know, this is the wrong time, but I our season is quickly coming to a close and I need to take advantage of every opportunity to improve my game.

Immediately I found success! My ball striking improved and my confidence increased. I felt better about my swing and hoped that it would continue through that round and during my next. So, I today headed for a quick 9 to see if my new-found success was still around. And to my surprise and happiness, my slower tempo is still working.

This video is an example of my tempo that is quicker than I want:

I go back to my original statement, ‘fixing your swing in one easy step’ is possible and anyone can do it! However, I will admit that finding that one area to change can be challenging, but it is possible. It just takes time and patience to work your way through whatever it is you want to fix.

The only real suggestion I have is that once you decide on what you are going to change, do it with confidence, focus and intent. It will be challenging at first, but you what you can conceive and believe, you can achieve!

I am a grateful golfer!

Who Likes Talking About Golf?

/ The Grateful Golfer / Leave a comment
Greg, always teaching!

It is always a good time to talk golf.

The PGA Championship is in full swing and media hype is continuing to grow. Every sports venue is pontificating on the possibilities of what is to come. It appears that the Tiger watch is over, The Open Champion, Zach Johnson, is done, and John Daly shot a 10 on a par three (and threw his club in the water). All of these, and many more aspects of this Major, top the list of things people like to talk about. It appears that no matter where golfing nuts turn, all eyes are on the last Major of 2015…..or are they?

Since the start of the PGA Championship on Thursday, my regular day consisted of work, talking about golf, playing golf, and following the events of this weekend’s tournament. Surprisingly, while talking about golf with my friends it had nothing to do with the PGA Championship.

  • I had a discussion on Facebook with a friend about the advice I gave him last week about keeping his left arm straighter during his swing. He was filling me in on how this advice helped and what he was doing to improve his score.
  • I talked to a friend about how a high follow through (putting your right wrist on the nape of your neck to finish your follow through) was helping him crush the ball with a slight draw. His excitement was contagious.
  • I discussed the attributes of learning to play slowly while on the links yesterday. We discussed that slowing our pace and taking more time to read putts helps pass the time when waiting for others to play.
  • And, an old friend dropped me a line and we were able to set up a game at Keystone Links Golf and Country Club on Sunday. Neither of us have played this course, but more importantly, we will get a chance to catch up.

Talking about golf is a daily thing for me. It does not matter what the aspect, with whom, or when, it just happens. It is not that golf is my only interest, but I never shy away from the opportunity to talk about my favorite sport. Of course being from Canada, we talk about hockey and basketball in the winter, but if the topic of golf comes up, I am always game.

So, I ask again, Who Likes Talking About Golf?

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!