The start of my 2024 golf season has seen the resurgence of a swing challenge: making solid ball contact. This is challenge is not unique to this year’s start, but on I face each year. It takes weeks for me to find my swing, train my body to play golf, and to feel comfortable with hitting a golf ball. It is a process that is a yearly tradition (much to my chagrin) the accentuates the lack of solid ball contact. I go through many different stages of improvement and finding drills to help is always a boon. Well, I have one from Colin Morikawa that I use each year. It is simple, easy to replicate and sustainable; hence, a drill made for a grateful golfer.
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Looping The Club For Consistent Contact
The more I read about my golf swing, the more I realize how much I still need to understand. Recently, I stumbled across the concept of looping the club in practice in order to maintain a strong swing plane on the golf course. The concept, at least how it is described, is similar to other swing mechanics I studied. The loop movement is worth understanding and can help improve our contact with every club. It is something being taught throughout the higher levels of golf and thus will trickle down to our level sooner or later.
Continue readingCreating Solid Contact With Focus
Creating solid contact on the golf ball is every golfers goal. It is not something that can be overlooked because control, distance, and accuracy are negatively affected if we cannot hit the ball well. I have tried many different drills that promise to create solid contact, but many of them are an illusion because my swing abilities did not meet the expectations. Well, Kevin (an avid reader of The Grateful Golfer) sent me this video that solves my previous challenges. It is simple to follow, easy to replicate, and sustainable. All the tenents of a great golf drill.
Continue readingHitting Solid Irons Produces Great Golf Scores
Lower golf scores is the goal for every golfer. Sure, there is the odd player who does not care about their score, however these golfers are a rare breed. Many amateurs struggle with hitting consistent irons and as a result their (my) scores rise higher than expected. The major problem I have noticed relates to players trying to help their ball with respect to distance, direction and flight. They feel that their ball needs some assistance to achieve their desired outcome, when nothing farther from the true truth is the reality. There are many reasons for the conundrum, however I will focus on one fix that applies to all shots; a universal approach is a better way to describe it.
Continue readingStop Topping The Ball
Topping the ball is a challenge that plagues many beginners. I know when I first started this miss hit was a minor issue. I corrected this swing hitch, but I never really thought of how. I just continued to hit more and more balls without being conscious of what I was doing. After all these years of playing, I came across a video by Hank Haney that actually described my error from long ago. It is a simple fix and I wish I knew about it when I first started.
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The Grateful Golfer 