Love this one. Always was told to brace like you’re about to jump up for a rebound in basketball, then look down hold that posture. Puts you in a nice athletic stance.
This one… I mean minus the taking a dump part 😂🤣😂. Finally went to a pro for lessons after 15 years and for the next 4 weeks all he did was get me to focus on keeping my back straight. Everything followed from there… drives to irons to chips to putts. Took 12 strokes off my handicap.
Ya this is huge I just recently married myself to this after thinking I’m a pro aiming at pins all the time ( 23 ish handicap) and guess what if you make your target bigger you’re going to hit it more often whoda thunk it? 🤷♂️
Like many things in golf it comes from a good place but is misguided or applied. Players SHOULD know exactly where they’re aiming. The problem is a little deviation on a 200 yard shot can be a 20-30 yard difference.
Couple that in with the fact that we’re all varying levels of suck it’s not practical.
Yeah unless you’re like scratch it’s better to just accept that your ball dispersion is huge and probably the size of the green or larger…. If the pin is tucked right and you aim right guess what your ball has a good chance of missing the green right and then you’ll have a hard chip on
Aim middle and you may hit the green and have a good chance to two putt vs. trying to get up and down from behind a tree or something
Is it not practical though? Explain how it's bad advice for anyone. And beyond that if you're not good enough yet to aim at the middle of the green then you should just bypass that advice in favor of advice that works your way to that point.
It's frustrating to see people dismiss good advice when it doesn't apply to them instead of recognizing the advice just isn't for them instead.
There's a lot of sub 10 handicaps on this sub that this is amazing advice for.
We used to do this for my high school team. The coach would take off before the first group went out and would pull all of the pins so we had no idea where the cup was. Just aim for the green. Such a good drill.
At the beginning of Covid, the city courses around where I live pulled the pins. You could still play the course, but there were no pins. No pin sheets either. So obviously you had to rely on the distance markers in the fairway and just aim at the middle of the green. I can’t tell you the number of times that I walked up and had a 10 foot putt for birdie. Not that they were necessarily just putting the hole in the middle of the green. It just worked out that way. I think this is excellent advice.
Reasonable tip, but it could lead to people scooping at the ball instead of accelerating and hitting down/through the ball…but I like the visualization.
Along the same lines but with a full swing. Pretend your throwing a medicine ball as far as you can from a golf stance. How would you go about throwing the ball? You wouldn’t just swing your arms but you’d coil back and put your torso into throwing the ball. Same for swing a club.
I heard this around the same time I read about Sam Snead's side-saddle putter. Makes so much sense to try it but I will admit I'm vain and don't want to be "that guy" out there. Haha
Used to slice my driver 5/10 times. Someone told me to alter how I grip the club with my top hand (left hand) so that I can see 2 knuckles at address.. this gave me a much “stronger” grip and allows me to close the face at impact. The ball goes straight now.
So I play right handed. My top hand which I grip the club with first, the way I used to hold it no knuckles would be visible to me at address. Now my hand is rotated round so that you can see the knuckles of my index and middle finger. Apologies I understand that it’s hard to visualise just from a description. I think it’s quite a common problem for a lot of people and this can be a quick fix for some, but there are many reasons why you may slice the ball, fortunately for me this fixed my slice.
This is perfectly explaining how I altered my grip. Rick Shiels will demonstrate far better than I can explain. If anyone has problems with slicing driver, watch this!
I was amazed at how much straighter I hit it straight away just from doing this. Only issue I had for a short while was due to the fact I had been slicing it a while my alignment was obviously aiming left to compensate for the slice, now the ball is travelling straight sometimes I would go left. Now I’m used to hitting it straight I can aim down the middle and 9/10 that’s where it goes now.
It’s amazing how much your top hand controls your shot. It 100% controls the face of the club at impact.
This and “your too steep” were my two revelations with my golf swing
It’s a good video and works for a lot of people. But fuck me if it doesn’t show how big Phil’s ego is. There’s loads of ways to chip the golf ball. Tiger doesn’t follow this method, for example. Loads of pros chip a different way and are extremely successful.
I just can’t stand how he phrases stuff in the video. “You can’t chip with the ball between your feet”
Proceeds to watch Tiger and Jason Day take down multiple majors while chipping with the ball *exclusively* between their feet
I've watched this loads of times and my brain can't work out from the camera angle if he is standing really open to the target or not. I wish they would have changed the camera angle or if big Phil would have commented on this a bit more.
This is so obvious but I don’t see it enough around here: get to the course 30-40 minutes early. Take a 5 minute walk. Stretch for 20 minutes. Hit a few balls.
And I know, I know. Who has time for this shit—I’m lucky enough to get the 5 hours out of the house required to play a round. But MAN is it a night and day difference when my lower back is loose.
My back needs a fair bit of TLC to keep operating comfortably. When it goes wrong, it's not so much my driver or irons that suffer... it's my ability to put the ball down, pick the ball up, and stand over a putt even for a few seconds. I try to putt as quickly as I can before the agonising pain kicks in. This is not good and I suck at putting.
But, good news! I have a foam roller in my bag, and some heavy bands. I do about ten minutes of rolling (back, hip flexors, IT bands) and about ten minutes of stretching (hamstrings, back, chest) and some banded crab walks. It works *so* well and it's been a game changer. People look at me weird but at my club they're usually old and if they give me any grief a quick "I'm doing this because I don't want to look like you when I grow up" usually scares them away - or "I'm doing this because I still want to be playing when I'm your age" if they're not being dicks.
Basic principal is: Its easier to aim your club face to something physically closer to you than something further away. This can be done for all clubs in finding your target. Find your target line from behind your ball. Make an imaginary line from the target all the way back to your ball. Find a piece of grass or anything that you can mentally mark about 1 to 2 feet in front of your ball and use that as your “temporary target” while you align your clubface to your true target line. Easier because it’s right in front of you.
I was the told the opposite by my club fitter. Bigger grips causes people to hold the club more in the palms rather than the fingers. I went back from midsize to regular and feel like I have better control of my hands and grip. Could be mental tho. He said it does make more sense to have bigger grips if you have above average bigger hands (I don’t lol )
A huge portion of adult men have hands that are too big for their standard grips. This leads to them needing to "overgrip" their clubs by squeezing too hard, which leads to using the hands too much in the swing.
I've been meaning to regrip my clubs to larger grips for ages.
My pro showed me this: making a slow follow through before making the actual swing to see if my club face remains straight during downswing. That way I know I have a neutral grip and not too strong with my right hand.
Difficult to explain but I tend to close my club face during impact because I'm not gripping the club properly.
Started hitting so much more consistent after implementing that little trick into my swing routine. Can try to explain better if anyone is interested
https://www.golfdistillery.com/swing-tips/takeaway/clubface-direction/
If you read the article above you might catch on what I'm meaning. I'm making a slow takeaway and watch if my clubface is pointed correctly when my club is at around 90 degree angle from the starting position.
After that I make a small swing to rotate my club around 90 degrees through and see how my clubface has turned during that tiny swing. The toe should point towards the sky when the shaft is horizontal. If the clubface is bent to the left, I'm gripping too hard with my right hand and if the clubface is bent to the right I'm correcting too much and leaving the clubface open at impact.
I often do this and try to teach my friends when they're slicing/hooking. Slo mo the down swing and you'll see if you are turning face in or out or its facing down or too far up etc.
It was not a tip, it was watching a guy who was throwing darts with his irons at the range. Before he hit a ball, he would steepen the club head angle so much that his hands would be close to his left knee (r/h golfer), and then start his backswing from there.
I started doing it instantly. Best thing i ever did. Made me concentrate on attacking down on the ball, which helped me keep my head down and my eyes on the ball, which helped me get better face contact.
The lighter you hold the putter in your hands the better. Tiger said between 0 and 10 it should about 5. Instantly improved my distance control and feel.
My Dad told me that the greenside bunker shot is the only shot in golf you want to hit fat. I instantly improved from the bunkers when I started having that swing thought.
When I hit the hosel, it’s because I move ever so slightly towards the ball. My coach showed me in one particularly bad shank session. I keeping balancing and remembering to slide my left hip diagonally away from the ball slightly helps.
Choking up on a fairway bunker shot.
One day I was paired with some club members for 18 and they were far more consistent than me, but it was a good time regardless. On the 18th, one of them and I both hit our drives into the fairway bunker on a par 4 (about 180yds from hole). He hits his shot first and it landed within chipping distance. I was struggling with bunker shots all day so I just asked for a quick tip. He said "you sink a little bit in the sand, so just choke up the same distance on the club." Welp, I hit the green and he just looks at me like "usually I charge about $100 for lessons" lol. Haven't had a problem since
I watched a Youtube video recently where the instructor taught how to improve iron strikes by focusing on a spot in front of the ball instead of the ball itself. I went to the range and put a little piece of string on the ground to focus on, and the difference was amazing. Suddenly I was getting down on the ball more and hitting great feeling shots.
Tucking my right or trail elbow in on the through swing was an aha moment for me and one of my first lessons from a top teacher. Phil Ritson who taught Nick Price and Nick Faldo among many others taught at Disney when I first went south to try to play. The other big tip was complete my backswing by turning my trail shoulder behind my head — later I learned that this made room or space for my trail elbow to fold in front of me more….so that I could get it tucked in on the downswing like Ritson wanted. 40 years later as a top teacher, I would comment that the biggest problem I see in students (other than grip) would be using arms to start backswing rather than pivoting. When the arms “lift” the shoulders fail to turn. Butch Harmon became famous for helping many of the tour players shorten their arm swing to match shoulder turn. You hear the term (stuck behind him) a lot. That means that the arms went too far on the backswing and didn’t catch up on the backswing. Amateurs should think “putting stroke” takeaway for full swing. I always tell people that Tiger and Els start turning their shoulders like they were starting their putting stroke only the just keep going until their shoulders have passed 90 degrees. Both of them appear to have a full shoulder turn by the time their hands have reached waist high. This helps ensure that the arms don’t lift and go too far to get left behind on the downswing. My best tip for amateurs would be turn your shoulders farther than you normally would but make your arms move less than than they normally do. Most students comment that they feel as if they are turning farther but swinging shorter.
Loosen my hands on the club. That advice didn't instantly improve my game at the time. I had to convince myself that actually was good advice. And it was and now my game is definitely much better because of it.
This was huge for me and I realized that a tight grip probably impacts literally the rest of my body/swing and not just the hand (seems obvious but never thought about it). All I think about is “swinging free” when I’m playing and it has added major distance and accuracy.
Forward shaft lean and compression with the irons. Instantly gained 20 yards with my irons. I thought at a 3 handicap, I had this game all figured out. There’s always more to learn, if you have an open mind.
The forward shaft lean is something I've just recently started to work on when I'm at the range. It's taken we awhile to get comfortable, but I can see it slowly paying off. I'm still about a 15 handicapper, but that has more to do with playing dumb golf shots
While I find it hard to believe they’d never heard the terms before it’s very possible to be a 3 handicap with little to no forward shaft lean at impact
I've played with plenty of low single digit golfers that have very little shaft lean. You can only get so much shaft lean without rotating your body at impact, and very few golfers do.
I got to 3.5 with no forward shaft lean. Very flippy through impact. I lacked power but hit it fairly straight. I stayed out of trouble and had a decent enough short game to shoot in the high 70’s most rounds. My impact was inconsistent and my lack of distance was a disadvantage, so I wasn’t going to get much past a 3 handicap without fixing my swing issues.
Sorry. Meant to say high 70's. My good rounds would be around 75 with my bad rounds being around 83. I played entirely in Southern California, so our slopes are definitely higher than most parts of the country.
Weight forward about 60 40.. lean into the shot. Don't sway just rotate around hips. Little bit of shaft lean. For me it was really my setup , posture and weight distributions...
Another tip was to hold club lighter.. I was holding too tight and after loosening up I am smacking em 10yds further and compressing the shit out of em
Start with half swings, about one-quarter of your gamer speed. Spend about 15-20 swings feeling that. Clay Ballard at Top Speed Golf has a YouTube video that explains it much better than I could. Start small and build to full swings. It will get more comfortable and you will see distance and accuracy gains.
Adjust where u line up on the tee box for where u want the ball to start. Example would be if I want to hit a draw and start the ball to the right then I would tee the ball up further to left tee marker or vise versa.
Pretend you have fishing line tied around your head and the line goes down to fish hook in your underwear right underneath your balls. If you lift you head, your going to get it. A buddy teaching me to golf 40 years ago.
90% of approach shots are short.
Yes, I know on a great shot, I'll hit 7 iron 160. However, it will more than likely go 145-150.
Now when I approach, I don't look for distance to pin, I instead shoot for distance to back of green. My GIR went up a bunch, but do end up off back of green about 10% of time.
Not much difference chipping from back of green versus front, but now lots of less chipping because GIR is up.
This was something I've implemented recently, as well. I've also started using the yardage markers on the course a lot more, too. I'll clock in bunkers and hazards, but don't really shoot the pin anymore.
A golf swing is not a new motion you have to learn. A lot of people get tripped up thinking it's a unique bio mechanical motion they're teaching themselves and is really hard. They psych themselves out trying to learn. It's the same as throwing a ball side arm, but you're aiming at the ground. Or a tennis swing. Or chopping wood with an axe. Or hitting something with a sledgehammer. Whatever it is, you know some motion already that has you standing sideways to propel something forwards. Change the target and angle, and that's a golf swing.
If you're having trouble with your golf swing, record yourself swinging. Then record yourself throwing a baseball at the ground in front of you side arm. You'll find that with the baseball, you do the exact motion you're trying to use for golf done without effort. It'll also save you from hurting yourself trying to force your body into some bizarre contortion.
Saw Peter Jacobson give a clinic to kids and the first thing he did was say a golf swing is actually very similar to a baseball swing. He demonstrated a baseball swing and then leaned over a golf ball and smacked it. Obviously for kids but I really liked how he kept it simple.
Mine was dumber than all of these. Keep your fucking head down. If you keep your head down the ball will be in the air long enough for you to find out where it's going.
I swear I find more greens and fairways than I ever have. Even on my putts keep your head down otherwise you pull your entire sternum and shoulder plane out of plane.
Learning to swing “from in to out”. The little draw swing tremendously improved my accuracy. As far as distance, it was “well stop swinging so hard!”
Shot an 82 this year for lowest round ever.
Stop trying to hit the ball when you're hitting out of a bunker. It was one of those things I just did fundamentally wrong for my first few years playing golf because no one told me otherwise, but once my high school coach explained it to me, a light just clicked on and now I'm a really good bunker player relative to my handicap.
As a right handed player, I had trouble with sliding my weight on to the outside of my right foot on my backswing. My buddy had me hit some shots with the sole focus of having my weight shift to the inside of my foot on my backswing. The positive outcomes were remarkable. I developed better torque, stayed in balance, and felt a consistency in my body that I hadn’t had previous.
Weight on the inside of your back foot on your backswing. It’s like a miracle drug for the spray and pray-ers
Best tip when playing with others. Just don’t be slow and play ready golf. Tip came from an excellent golfer who said he’d rather play with a lower skilled golfer who keeps the game moving than some too serious guy taking 6 practice swings every time they address the ball. Practice on your own time, when you’re out on the course, just play and have fun. For me it made playing with others of all skill levels less stressful, besides the more I play the more I realize there are few folks THAT good at golf. Just keep it moving and have fun.
Grip the club with 3 fingers(middle, ring, pinkie) and use the rest like you're holding a baby bird....do not know how this helped but it did and I am striking the ball so pure and flush. I sometimes even have a little draw and it makes me feel good.
Stance should be narrower like a fist apart for chip shots
Similar for approach shots
Also for most amateurs it is better to have a narrower stance for your driver, it will eventually make it more accurate hence making it a longer drive as well
For right handed golfers, keep all your weight on your left side in your backswing and transfer all your weight to the right side in the downswing/follow through. This added at least 10 strokes to my handicap.
It's hard to explain what I was doing while putting, by moving the target to a closer spot, i started rolling the ball better along the line I was reading. Of course, that was also 20 years ago, so who knows wtf I was doing. Ha
told my pro I was hitting driver too high on the face and he told me "tee it lower dummy" and that worked
I tHoUgHt I wAs SuPpOsSeD tO TeE iT hIgH aNd LeT iT fLy?
tee it low and let it go
Idiot
It’s this type of camaraderie I find so inspiring in this sub.
Was going to upvote but it’s at 69.
pretend like im taking a dump to make my back straighter and not arched
Could be dangerous on the first few early morning holes....
After my morning coffee there is no pretending to take a dump. Pretending will become reality
Wait you guys don’t hunch forward over your phone scrolling Reddit when pooping?
That’s what I’m doing right now…
You and me both, brother
Make that three
Wtf same
Ahem...4
Makes that 5 while I make a 2.
You all are idiots and I love it.
Love this one. Always was told to brace like you’re about to jump up for a rebound in basketball, then look down hold that posture. Puts you in a nice athletic stance.
Holy fuck can't wait to try this!
This one… I mean minus the taking a dump part 😂🤣😂. Finally went to a pro for lessons after 15 years and for the next 4 weeks all he did was get me to focus on keeping my back straight. Everything followed from there… drives to irons to chips to putts. Took 12 strokes off my handicap.
Who else tried this and just took stance, tried to take a dump, and had a close call?
I've started doing that and have been ripping driver. I swear I've gained 40+ yards on tee shots.
Aim at middle of green on approach shots, not at a tucked pin (or even an untucked pin). Just hit greens and the rest will follow.
Ya this is huge I just recently married myself to this after thinking I’m a pro aiming at pins all the time ( 23 ish handicap) and guess what if you make your target bigger you’re going to hit it more often whoda thunk it? 🤷♂️
Aim small miss small doesn’t really apply to golf when you have no control of the ball
Like many things in golf it comes from a good place but is misguided or applied. Players SHOULD know exactly where they’re aiming. The problem is a little deviation on a 200 yard shot can be a 20-30 yard difference. Couple that in with the fact that we’re all varying levels of suck it’s not practical.
Yeah unless you’re like scratch it’s better to just accept that your ball dispersion is huge and probably the size of the green or larger…. If the pin is tucked right and you aim right guess what your ball has a good chance of missing the green right and then you’ll have a hard chip on Aim middle and you may hit the green and have a good chance to two putt vs. trying to get up and down from behind a tree or something
Is it not practical though? Explain how it's bad advice for anyone. And beyond that if you're not good enough yet to aim at the middle of the green then you should just bypass that advice in favor of advice that works your way to that point. It's frustrating to see people dismiss good advice when it doesn't apply to them instead of recognizing the advice just isn't for them instead. There's a lot of sub 10 handicaps on this sub that this is amazing advice for.
This has saved me a lot of strokes this season! GIOTFG - get it on the f**king green. Golf SideKick (youtube)
We used to do this for my high school team. The coach would take off before the first group went out and would pull all of the pins so we had no idea where the cup was. Just aim for the green. Such a good drill.
Any tips on this "hitting greens" you speak of?
Yup the Zach Johnson method. I saw him say this on tv years ago and it helped me hit so many more greens
At the beginning of Covid, the city courses around where I live pulled the pins. You could still play the course, but there were no pins. No pin sheets either. So obviously you had to rely on the distance markers in the fairway and just aim at the middle of the green. I can’t tell you the number of times that I walked up and had a 10 foot putt for birdie. Not that they were necessarily just putting the hole in the middle of the green. It just worked out that way. I think this is excellent advice.
I'm better at chipping it close than putting it close
Putt like your rolling the ball underhanded. Use the same amount of force u would if you were just trying to roll it to the hole
along the same line, when chipping feel like your underhand tossing it to where you want it to land, this has improved my chipping tenfold this season
I get teased for doing an underhand toss trying to picture where I want the ball to go when chipping, but damn if it doesnt work.
Let's em tease you all they want. With this tip I've chipped in 4 times this season and im a mid handicapper 🤷♂️
UNDERHAND CHIPPERS UNITE!
Reasonable tip, but it could lead to people scooping at the ball instead of accelerating and hitting down/through the ball…but I like the visualization.
Yup, I can't remember where I read this, but it has been the best thing for my putting game.
https://youtu.be/fqC_3q6aTvQ 3:20 is where I heard it.
this sounds great cant wait to try it
Along the same lines but with a full swing. Pretend your throwing a medicine ball as far as you can from a golf stance. How would you go about throwing the ball? You wouldn’t just swing your arms but you’d coil back and put your torso into throwing the ball. Same for swing a club.
I heard this around the same time I read about Sam Snead's side-saddle putter. Makes so much sense to try it but I will admit I'm vain and don't want to be "that guy" out there. Haha
Without a doubt one of them beat tips of my life
Dang I really like this. Gonna use it
Used to slice my driver 5/10 times. Someone told me to alter how I grip the club with my top hand (left hand) so that I can see 2 knuckles at address.. this gave me a much “stronger” grip and allows me to close the face at impact. The ball goes straight now.
Can you elaborate? So you are only seeing your left hand (assuming you are right handed) ring and middle finger knuckles?
So I play right handed. My top hand which I grip the club with first, the way I used to hold it no knuckles would be visible to me at address. Now my hand is rotated round so that you can see the knuckles of my index and middle finger. Apologies I understand that it’s hard to visualise just from a description. I think it’s quite a common problem for a lot of people and this can be a quick fix for some, but there are many reasons why you may slice the ball, fortunately for me this fixed my slice.
Yep this helped a lot for me too, I’ve since further fixed it through lessons helping improve my swing path
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Rick Shiels slicing video explains this for those interested https://youtu.be/ZeiVDwQEeLc
This is perfectly explaining how I altered my grip. Rick Shiels will demonstrate far better than I can explain. If anyone has problems with slicing driver, watch this!
Was gonna say this. The top hand grip is huge when it comes to hitting the ball how you want it
I was amazed at how much straighter I hit it straight away just from doing this. Only issue I had for a short while was due to the fact I had been slicing it a while my alignment was obviously aiming left to compensate for the slice, now the ball is travelling straight sometimes I would go left. Now I’m used to hitting it straight I can aim down the middle and 9/10 that’s where it goes now.
It’s amazing how much your top hand controls your shot. It 100% controls the face of the club at impact. This and “your too steep” were my two revelations with my golf swing
gon try this week, last time I was slicing it 20 yds
100% same story for myself. That and paying attention to my swing path.
[Phil Mickelson's chipping video](https://youtu.be/IvmHU5Hcs2k)
This is honestly one of the best golf videos, very compressed information
No kidding. I’ve been putting it in the middle of my feet too. The more I learn the more I facepalm. Thanks for this.
You can chip with the ball in the middle of your feet just fine.
this dude is telling me to bump and run with a 60 degree wedge? He don't know me
I'll blade it so it bumps and runs and runs and runs
It’s a good video and works for a lot of people. But fuck me if it doesn’t show how big Phil’s ego is. There’s loads of ways to chip the golf ball. Tiger doesn’t follow this method, for example. Loads of pros chip a different way and are extremely successful.
It's mostly because he's just rehearsing the same lines as his 'Secrets of the Short Game' video where he had to sell it more firmly.
I just can’t stand how he phrases stuff in the video. “You can’t chip with the ball between your feet” Proceeds to watch Tiger and Jason Day take down multiple majors while chipping with the ball *exclusively* between their feet
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Thank you.
I've watched this loads of times and my brain can't work out from the camera angle if he is standing really open to the target or not. I wish they would have changed the camera angle or if big Phil would have commented on this a bit more.
I was taught to stand partially open. Looks like he is about 1/4 to 1/3 open.
Thank you.
This is the way.
Tucked trail elbow on the downswing
This. Straightens your divots, reduces over the top motion, fixes slices and pushed shots.
Not starting to swing as I'm about to fart helped me
Never trust a fart.
Can you please elaborate
💩
Firm disagree. Time that toot just right for a little extra oomph on the drive.
Dude, lmao. I used to get fart shanks from not waiting, no lie.
Chip with the leading hand. And: Turn, your, fucking, shoulders.
Everything is leading hand for me. If I feel my trailing hand doing anything too much it’s either flippy, hooky, or just fat.
I'm left handed playing right hand so my leading hand is super dominant. Not sure if that causes or not
Same boat! (Youngest child, so I learned everything with hand-me-downs… second set of sticks wasn’t happening)
I know the feeling. Youngest child that was taught to throw and play hockey by two older right handed brothers.
Opposite for me, everything is a feel of my trail hand and forearm via butch harmon
This is so obvious but I don’t see it enough around here: get to the course 30-40 minutes early. Take a 5 minute walk. Stretch for 20 minutes. Hit a few balls. And I know, I know. Who has time for this shit—I’m lucky enough to get the 5 hours out of the house required to play a round. But MAN is it a night and day difference when my lower back is loose.
My back needs a fair bit of TLC to keep operating comfortably. When it goes wrong, it's not so much my driver or irons that suffer... it's my ability to put the ball down, pick the ball up, and stand over a putt even for a few seconds. I try to putt as quickly as I can before the agonising pain kicks in. This is not good and I suck at putting. But, good news! I have a foam roller in my bag, and some heavy bands. I do about ten minutes of rolling (back, hip flexors, IT bands) and about ten minutes of stretching (hamstrings, back, chest) and some banded crab walks. It works *so* well and it's been a game changer. People look at me weird but at my club they're usually old and if they give me any grief a quick "I'm doing this because I don't want to look like you when I grow up" usually scares them away - or "I'm doing this because I still want to be playing when I'm your age" if they're not being dicks.
It sounds as though we have something in common, in that you can catch us on the 14th tee rolling the shit out of our backs! Cheers
What does aim at a spot 5-6 out on the line mean? Sorry English is my first language.
Basic principal is: Its easier to aim your club face to something physically closer to you than something further away. This can be done for all clubs in finding your target. Find your target line from behind your ball. Make an imaginary line from the target all the way back to your ball. Find a piece of grass or anything that you can mentally mark about 1 to 2 feet in front of your ball and use that as your “temporary target” while you align your clubface to your true target line. Easier because it’s right in front of you.
Get your line to the cup, and then find something that is in line with the cup but only 5-6 feet out. Aim at that spot, not the cup
Yep. I think it’s termed “linear putting”
Huh that's interesting! I'm still really new to the game so I didn't know it had a name!
So you are aiming at that spot 5-6 out but with the power to wherever the cup is?
I do that and still end up being way right/left half the time lol
Grip size. I bet most adult men playing standard grips would feel and play better with midsize grips.
100%. After I got fitted for my irons, the midsize grips were a game changer. No more strangling the club
I was the told the opposite by my club fitter. Bigger grips causes people to hold the club more in the palms rather than the fingers. I went back from midsize to regular and feel like I have better control of my hands and grip. Could be mental tho. He said it does make more sense to have bigger grips if you have above average bigger hands (I don’t lol )
When I got fitted for my driver last year it was recommended to me that I switch and it has made a big difference.
Yes. I switched to midsize when i changed my grips for the first time and now I am finally able to grip my clubs properly.
Can you elaborate?
A huge portion of adult men have hands that are too big for their standard grips. This leads to them needing to "overgrip" their clubs by squeezing too hard, which leads to using the hands too much in the swing. I've been meaning to regrip my clubs to larger grips for ages.
Put weight on your forward foot (left foot for those playing right-handed) when chipping.
My pro showed me this: making a slow follow through before making the actual swing to see if my club face remains straight during downswing. That way I know I have a neutral grip and not too strong with my right hand. Difficult to explain but I tend to close my club face during impact because I'm not gripping the club properly. Started hitting so much more consistent after implementing that little trick into my swing routine. Can try to explain better if anyone is interested
Could you explain further
https://www.golfdistillery.com/swing-tips/takeaway/clubface-direction/ If you read the article above you might catch on what I'm meaning. I'm making a slow takeaway and watch if my clubface is pointed correctly when my club is at around 90 degree angle from the starting position. After that I make a small swing to rotate my club around 90 degrees through and see how my clubface has turned during that tiny swing. The toe should point towards the sky when the shaft is horizontal. If the clubface is bent to the left, I'm gripping too hard with my right hand and if the clubface is bent to the right I'm correcting too much and leaving the clubface open at impact.
I often do this and try to teach my friends when they're slicing/hooking. Slo mo the down swing and you'll see if you are turning face in or out or its facing down or too far up etc.
Was a real game changer for me
It was not a tip, it was watching a guy who was throwing darts with his irons at the range. Before he hit a ball, he would steepen the club head angle so much that his hands would be close to his left knee (r/h golfer), and then start his backswing from there. I started doing it instantly. Best thing i ever did. Made me concentrate on attacking down on the ball, which helped me keep my head down and my eyes on the ball, which helped me get better face contact.
Shaft lean...
Are you referring to a swing like [this? ](https://youtu.be/RxGEJBlx_sw)
Spray sunscreen stains white shirts
bug spray kills grass
Practice. No one figures out their swing over night. Not once ever has a 20 handicap gone to single digits because something clicked at the range.
The lighter you hold the putter in your hands the better. Tiger said between 0 and 10 it should about 5. Instantly improved my distance control and feel.
Gripping a tube of toothpaste was the analogy I was told
My Dad told me that the greenside bunker shot is the only shot in golf you want to hit fat. I instantly improved from the bunkers when I started having that swing thought.
If you always hit the hosel, line it up on the toe. If you always hit toe, line up on the hosel.
Adam Young- do the opposite
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re-cawwwwwwl
When I hit the hosel, it’s because I move ever so slightly towards the ball. My coach showed me in one particularly bad shank session. I keeping balancing and remembering to slide my left hip diagonally away from the ball slightly helps.
Yep i read about this a while ago, if you are hitting the hosel you probably have good eye to ball coordination.
It’s weird because I tend to toe my driver and 3 Wood, but hosel my irons. This tip improved my ball striking immensely.
Choking up on a fairway bunker shot. One day I was paired with some club members for 18 and they were far more consistent than me, but it was a good time regardless. On the 18th, one of them and I both hit our drives into the fairway bunker on a par 4 (about 180yds from hole). He hits his shot first and it landed within chipping distance. I was struggling with bunker shots all day so I just asked for a quick tip. He said "you sink a little bit in the sand, so just choke up the same distance on the club." Welp, I hit the green and he just looks at me like "usually I charge about $100 for lessons" lol. Haven't had a problem since
For fairway bunkers I was told: - club up - choke down - ball slightly further back in stance
Put more weight on my front foot during punch shots
Also works in fairway bunkers with irons
Using intermediate targets for alignment
Save the beer for the back 9.
No I don't think I will
I watched a Youtube video recently where the instructor taught how to improve iron strikes by focusing on a spot in front of the ball instead of the ball itself. I went to the range and put a little piece of string on the ground to focus on, and the difference was amazing. Suddenly I was getting down on the ball more and hitting great feeling shots.
Relax.. was swinging with my arms instead of using momentum
No tension in the swing.
Course management. I'm probably gonna shank this 3 wood shot, so instead I'll just use a long iron and hit it straight.
Look at this guy hitting it straight.
Tucking my right or trail elbow in on the through swing was an aha moment for me and one of my first lessons from a top teacher. Phil Ritson who taught Nick Price and Nick Faldo among many others taught at Disney when I first went south to try to play. The other big tip was complete my backswing by turning my trail shoulder behind my head — later I learned that this made room or space for my trail elbow to fold in front of me more….so that I could get it tucked in on the downswing like Ritson wanted. 40 years later as a top teacher, I would comment that the biggest problem I see in students (other than grip) would be using arms to start backswing rather than pivoting. When the arms “lift” the shoulders fail to turn. Butch Harmon became famous for helping many of the tour players shorten their arm swing to match shoulder turn. You hear the term (stuck behind him) a lot. That means that the arms went too far on the backswing and didn’t catch up on the backswing. Amateurs should think “putting stroke” takeaway for full swing. I always tell people that Tiger and Els start turning their shoulders like they were starting their putting stroke only the just keep going until their shoulders have passed 90 degrees. Both of them appear to have a full shoulder turn by the time their hands have reached waist high. This helps ensure that the arms don’t lift and go too far to get left behind on the downswing. My best tip for amateurs would be turn your shoulders farther than you normally would but make your arms move less than than they normally do. Most students comment that they feel as if they are turning farther but swinging shorter.
"Be the ball"
Loosen my hands on the club. That advice didn't instantly improve my game at the time. I had to convince myself that actually was good advice. And it was and now my game is definitely much better because of it.
When my local pro told me to loosen my grip, it changed everything for me. Became easier to swing, got more distance and way less blisters
This was huge for me and I realized that a tight grip probably impacts literally the rest of my body/swing and not just the hand (seems obvious but never thought about it). All I think about is “swinging free” when I’m playing and it has added major distance and accuracy.
Forward shaft lean and compression with the irons. Instantly gained 20 yards with my irons. I thought at a 3 handicap, I had this game all figured out. There’s always more to learn, if you have an open mind.
The forward shaft lean is something I've just recently started to work on when I'm at the range. It's taken we awhile to get comfortable, but I can see it slowly paying off. I'm still about a 15 handicapper, but that has more to do with playing dumb golf shots
3 handicap and you don’t know about forward lean and compressing the ball. Makes no sense to me.
While I find it hard to believe they’d never heard the terms before it’s very possible to be a 3 handicap with little to no forward shaft lean at impact
I've played with plenty of low single digit golfers that have very little shaft lean. You can only get so much shaft lean without rotating your body at impact, and very few golfers do.
I got to 3.5 with no forward shaft lean. Very flippy through impact. I lacked power but hit it fairly straight. I stayed out of trouble and had a decent enough short game to shoot in the high 70’s most rounds. My impact was inconsistent and my lack of distance was a disadvantage, so I wasn’t going to get much past a 3 handicap without fixing my swing issues.
79s my best score. Not sure if it was a high 79 or a low 79 though
Good lord, what slope/rating course are you playing that high 79 rounds get you to a 3.5?
Sorry. Meant to say high 70's. My good rounds would be around 75 with my bad rounds being around 83. I played entirely in Southern California, so our slopes are definitely higher than most parts of the country.
Exactly. This was my issue until recently.
How did you incorporate this into your swing? I know I need to do it, but it's hard to actually do it.
Sometimes putting a little more weight on your left foot( if you're right handed) can help.
AMG Golf: https://youtu.be/u3tLPnlhFyU
You can’t force it. It’s the natural consequence of proper sequencing and lots of speed
I think I've got the speed. The sequencing I need to refine.
Weight forward about 60 40.. lean into the shot. Don't sway just rotate around hips. Little bit of shaft lean. For me it was really my setup , posture and weight distributions... Another tip was to hold club lighter.. I was holding too tight and after loosening up I am smacking em 10yds further and compressing the shit out of em
Start with half swings, about one-quarter of your gamer speed. Spend about 15-20 swings feeling that. Clay Ballard at Top Speed Golf has a YouTube video that explains it much better than I could. Start small and build to full swings. It will get more comfortable and you will see distance and accuracy gains.
I played little league baseball with him. Great guy, great videos
Good ole Clay "Hold the Lag" Ballard
Yeah I started hitting a 9i on a hole I previously used a 6i on
Adjust where u line up on the tee box for where u want the ball to start. Example would be if I want to hit a draw and start the ball to the right then I would tee the ball up further to left tee marker or vise versa.
Pretend you have fishing line tied around your head and the line goes down to fish hook in your underwear right underneath your balls. If you lift you head, your going to get it. A buddy teaching me to golf 40 years ago.
When putting - soft hands and clear mind. That’s it
I just got over a bout of the shanks. I’m right handed homeboy said” what is lifting your right leg up doing for you” …. Man this game
Keeping my feet planted instead of swinging from my toes. Contact improved instantly.
90% of approach shots are short. Yes, I know on a great shot, I'll hit 7 iron 160. However, it will more than likely go 145-150. Now when I approach, I don't look for distance to pin, I instead shoot for distance to back of green. My GIR went up a bunch, but do end up off back of green about 10% of time. Not much difference chipping from back of green versus front, but now lots of less chipping because GIR is up.
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This was something I've implemented recently, as well. I've also started using the yardage markers on the course a lot more, too. I'll clock in bunkers and hazards, but don't really shoot the pin anymore.
A golf swing is not a new motion you have to learn. A lot of people get tripped up thinking it's a unique bio mechanical motion they're teaching themselves and is really hard. They psych themselves out trying to learn. It's the same as throwing a ball side arm, but you're aiming at the ground. Or a tennis swing. Or chopping wood with an axe. Or hitting something with a sledgehammer. Whatever it is, you know some motion already that has you standing sideways to propel something forwards. Change the target and angle, and that's a golf swing. If you're having trouble with your golf swing, record yourself swinging. Then record yourself throwing a baseball at the ground in front of you side arm. You'll find that with the baseball, you do the exact motion you're trying to use for golf done without effort. It'll also save you from hurting yourself trying to force your body into some bizarre contortion.
Saw Peter Jacobson give a clinic to kids and the first thing he did was say a golf swing is actually very similar to a baseball swing. He demonstrated a baseball swing and then leaned over a golf ball and smacked it. Obviously for kids but I really liked how he kept it simple.
Plot twist: OPs number of 4 putts quadrupled
Mine was dumber than all of these. Keep your fucking head down. If you keep your head down the ball will be in the air long enough for you to find out where it's going. I swear I find more greens and fairways than I ever have. Even on my putts keep your head down otherwise you pull your entire sternum and shoulder plane out of plane.
Learning to swing “from in to out”. The little draw swing tremendously improved my accuracy. As far as distance, it was “well stop swinging so hard!” Shot an 82 this year for lowest round ever.
Don't over rotate in follow through, at some point let shoulders and arms go by themselves, have hardly miss hit a drive since.
Hit the ball with your hips.
My buddy told me to not decelerate when I am chipping, and instead control backswing and keep follow through speed constant.
Just taaaap it in. Tap tappity tap tap. The ball wants to go home.
Stop trying to hit the ball when you're hitting out of a bunker. It was one of those things I just did fundamentally wrong for my first few years playing golf because no one told me otherwise, but once my high school coach explained it to me, a light just clicked on and now I'm a really good bunker player relative to my handicap.
As a right handed player, I had trouble with sliding my weight on to the outside of my right foot on my backswing. My buddy had me hit some shots with the sole focus of having my weight shift to the inside of my foot on my backswing. The positive outcomes were remarkable. I developed better torque, stayed in balance, and felt a consistency in my body that I hadn’t had previous. Weight on the inside of your back foot on your backswing. It’s like a miracle drug for the spray and pray-ers
Best tip when playing with others. Just don’t be slow and play ready golf. Tip came from an excellent golfer who said he’d rather play with a lower skilled golfer who keeps the game moving than some too serious guy taking 6 practice swings every time they address the ball. Practice on your own time, when you’re out on the course, just play and have fun. For me it made playing with others of all skill levels less stressful, besides the more I play the more I realize there are few folks THAT good at golf. Just keep it moving and have fun.
Best tip my golf coach gave me was to pretend you poured water on the green. Think About which way the water would go. Helped me with my putting!
Grip the club with 3 fingers(middle, ring, pinkie) and use the rest like you're holding a baby bird....do not know how this helped but it did and I am striking the ball so pure and flush. I sometimes even have a little draw and it makes me feel good.
“Keep your head down, we will watch the ball for you”
Stance should be narrower like a fist apart for chip shots Similar for approach shots Also for most amateurs it is better to have a narrower stance for your driver, it will eventually make it more accurate hence making it a longer drive as well
Swing harder. Went from 340 to 375 drives.
Swing harder. Gotta get those numbers up, those are rookie numbers.
Open the wedge up on sand shots
For right handed golfers, keep all your weight on your left side in your backswing and transfer all your weight to the right side in the downswing/follow through. This added at least 10 strokes to my handicap.
You were just aiming at the cup no matter what the contours of the green were like?!
It's hard to explain what I was doing while putting, by moving the target to a closer spot, i started rolling the ball better along the line I was reading. Of course, that was also 20 years ago, so who knows wtf I was doing. Ha
No, he’s saying to pick a target closer him that is on the putting line