Hitting out ball successfully off the tee can be a challenge to many players. I know that I have struggled from time to time with this very important skill. Interestingly, there appears to be a shroud of confusion over how to accomplish success when standing on the tee box. If you think about what you immediately do on a par 4 or 5 while walking to the tee box, you might understand where I am going with today’s thoughts. It is not complex, yet as critical as sinking that 3 foot putt for par!
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It Is All About Ball Contact
Iron play is very challenging at best for many beginners. Trying to understand the mechanics of hitting irons is a bit counterintuitive. We want to have a weight forward, hit higher on the club face, and make a divot after the ball. When we first start playing, most of us play with our weight on our back side, we try to scoop the ball and try to avoid divots. Unless you have taken a lesson (which if fully endorse) it could be a long while before you make solid contact with your irons. Believe it or not, this skill is something I struggle with from time to time, but I do know how to fix it. For today, lets talk about how to make solid contact with our irons and see if we can accelerate our learning curve.
Continue readingPlaying A Tough Golf Shot Out Of Deep Grass
Every golf I know has played a golf shot from long, thick grass. It is the nature of golf courses to leave certain areas long and unruly in order to add some degree of difficulty to the playing area. Many times hitting out of this tough location I felt that just making it to the fairway was a blessing. In order to limit the number of stroke added to my scorecard it is important to take our medicine and not try to compound our mistake by trying to hit the ball too far down the fairway. It can be a challenge to keep our ego in check, but from a course strategy standpoint ensuring our next shot is played from the short grass is key. Once we understand what we need to do with a shot out of long grass, the next thought is how we actually accomplish this task. This aspect of the overall golf shot may be easier than you think.
Continue readingIs Slicing The Golf Ball Destroying Your Scores
If a golfer has a swing fault, it usually is a slice. And no matter how hard we try, that slice ball flight never goes away. I am fortunate as I rarely play a slice. My ball travels straight indicating I have made square contact with the ball. This does not mean I do not hit errand shots, but it does allow me to play from a safe position more often than not. When I did have a slice, many years ago, I worked tirelessly with the goal of removing this swing fault. Well, I wish I would have and the internet back then because it might have sped up my learning curve.
Continue readingChoosing The Shot You Prefer In Golf
The majority of amateur players hit the ball, walk to the ball, hit the ball, walk to the ball….ect without much thought as to how changing this pattern could lower their golf scores. The ‘whack a mole’ process of playing golf causes challenges for some players because they never really know what shot they will have next. Sometimes that is a fun approach to golf, but during tournaments it usually costs unnecessary strokes added to our final tally. How can we break this trend in order to be the best version of ourselves on the golf course?
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The Grateful Golfer 