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Taking the Rough With the Smooth

By Tony Braithwaite

No matter how good a player’s golf technique, we all have experience of the rough. Of course the ideal is for the ball to stay on the fairway, but in practice we all need to know how to play out of the rough on any course.

With a good technique it is possible to welcome the opportunity to play from rough ground. It gives a certain freedom to our stroke. Greg Norman has even been quoted as saying that he can hit further and straighter from the rough than from any other ground. Just remembering that when you come to take your next rough shot may help you swing confidently straight onto the green.

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No Comments | Posted in » Miscellaneous

How to Change Your Golf Swing Plane Angle

By Les Ross

I recently worked with one of my readers who asked me for a second opinion on a video swing analysis that he had just received that brought up an interesting point about adjusting swing plane. He went for the lessons with the goal of increasing his driving distance by 10-15%. He was also experiencing pushed shots to the right.

The video analysis revealed that his swing plane on the backswing was very flat. Being a large-chested man who lacked a little flexibility in his upper body, he had developed a tendency to “wrap” the golf club around his body on the backswing. The net result was a shallow downswing that came into the ball from a sharp inside-out club head swing path that often caused the pushed shot to the right.

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2 Comments | Posted in » Golf Swing

Putt Your Way to a Lower Score

By Jonathan S. Prentiss

Golf is a game that requires skill, mental discipline, the desire to have fun, and a little luck. The purpose of this article is to focus on a key skill — Putting Percentage — that will allow you to better your game, have more fun, and more importantly, knock a few strokes off your total score. You don’t have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to improve; you just need to understand where your game needs improvement and how to improve it.

I believe the trouble most bogey golfers have is that they overprepare their swing, their setup, their delivery, their “mental game” and not spend enough time on having fun and improving specific areas of their game. We all spend countless hours working on our swings, chips, and putts at the driving range, yet how many of us know how to apply what we’ve learned out on the course?

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No Comments | Posted in » Putting

Here’s a Golf Tip You’ve Never Heard Before, Something That Works if You Let It!

By Paul Macleod 

Back in the day, good golfers used to roll their hands open on the backswing. This move opened the club face at the top of the swing. An interesting position to be in since you want the club square at impact.

This open position created a need to make a severe correction on the way to the ball in order to square the club up at impact. This correction required tremendous timing and great hand eye coordination. Only the best players could do it on a consistent basis.

This is absolutely true.

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No Comments | Posted in » Golf Swing

How to Hit a Good Golf Shot Out of a Fairway Bunker

By Mark Pearson

You have just hit a great drive but it runs into a fairway bunker! You are still a long way from the green so you want to get out and get as far as possible up the fairway. So what is the easiest way to get out and get a long way up the fairway?

The first thing is that you do not want to play the same sort of bunker shot you would from a greenside bunker (where you need to float the ball up and out to land softly on the green). Take any sand with your shot and the ball will not fly so far. And there is the clue to hitting out of a fairway bunker: You want to hit the ball taking little or no sand with it.

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No Comments | Posted in » Bunkers

Getting ‘Air’

By Charles Bennewith

You’ll probably agree that opinions across the board vary. However I think it’s probably safe to say that most people think that getting the ball airborne all comes down to the angle of the club face. While that’s partially true, there is a lot more than that to take into consideration.

If you were to actually analyze the point of contact between the club face, the ball and the ground in super slow motion, you’d notice that the face of the club kind of pinches the ball between itself (club face) and the ground. This is what gives the ball air, almost like a micro rebound which obviously happens in a ‘nano second’.

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No Comments | Posted in » Golf Swing

Improve Your Golf Game – Simple Golf Tips That Will Help Lower Your Golf Score

Prevoiusly Published in HumanGolf.com

By Tim Gorman

It would be nice to think that all you have to do to improve your golf score is to read the right book or watch the best video. But the fact is, improving your golf involves putting in some work. You need to have the desire to improve, and be willing to do what it takes to perfect your swing and your game. Once you find the motivation, it will be much easier to put together a plan of action for playing better golf. Your scores will improve and you’ll gain more respect from your golfing buddies.

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No Comments | Posted in » Equipment, Mental Game, Putting

The Way Golfers Screw Up: Strategy

Originally Published in HumanGolf.com

By Martin Vousden

PREVIOUSLY: Club Membership

We should: Study the hole carefully from the tee, trying to understand what was in the architect’s mind, and why hazards, trees, rough and other potential dangers are sited where they are. We should then focus on a particular spot on the fairway (or green) from which we have the best opportunity to attack the flagstick with our next shot.

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No Comments | Posted in » Course Management

The Way Golfers Screw Up: Club Membership

Originally Published in HumanGolf.com

By Martin Vousden

PREVIOUSLY: Sportsmanship

We should: Have understanding, sympathy and encouragement for all club employees, whether they be the secretary, pro, greenskeeper, catering or other staff. We should realize that they have particular skills, knowledge and abilities that we do not possess, and look for ways in which we can help them in running the club.

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No Comments | Posted in » Uncategorized

Don’t Fix It… Buy “Experienced”

Have you broken the shaft or damaged a club and plan to have it fixed by your local club repair service? If you’re under no time pressure, it may make more fiscal sense — and substantially so — to simply buy an identical but used replacement instead.

An option made possible of course courtesy of the various used golf equipment sources on the Internet.

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No Comments | Posted in » Equipment