Category: Playing Tips

A lot of people try to cream their long irons. This results in poor contact. When good contact is made, it results in excess spin that balloons the ball in the air (or imparts more sidespin). As a general rule of thumb, swing your long irons easily. You’ll make better contact, impart less spin (backspin and sidespin!), and hit more greens or fairways. You rarely see a Tour pro “really go after” a 3I. There’s a reason for that.

It’s quite possible to cheat within the rules of golf… and make more of those testy short, breaking putts when doing it. To the right you see a putt that breaks to the right a few inches (obviously not everything is to scale). You see the paths of three balls: the red ball was struck ¼-inch towards the heel, the blue ball ¼-inch towards the toe, and the white ball dead center. All were struck with the same stroke and speed.

Two of the balls go in the hole. The white ball – a stroke with perfect sweet spot contact – went into the hole, as did the red ball. The blue ball missed low, even though it missed the sweet spot by the same margin as the red ball. How is this true?

Shots struck off-center are weaker. On a breaking putt, a weak putt breaks more. Shots struck off-center also start offline (see the three lines): towards the heel, putts start left and towards the toe, to the right. A slightly slower putt that’s given more room to break (red ball) goes into the hole while a putt with the same diminished speed started below the perfect line misses completely (blue ball).

Use this to your advantage on the course: when you’re faced with a short breaking putt, set up with the ball not on the sweet spot of your putter, but slightly to the high side just under ¼ inch. The “high side” is the opposite of the way the putt breaks: the heel on left-to-righters, and the toe on right-to-lefters (for right-handed putters, anyway).

Building in this small “margin of error” allows you to get the ball on a line and with a speed that rolls the ball into the hole far more frequently. We guarantee you’ll make more of these putts… simply by “cheating” legally!

Today’s tip of the day is a simple one: take a lesson. A new driver costs you about $400. You could get eight pretty good lessons for that price, and your old driver – I guarantee it – will work better than the new $400 one. And so will every other club in your bag.

Apply a little pressure during your practice. For example, if you’re practicing five-foot putts, the following might be an example:

Make < 40%: clean out the garage
Make 40 – 60%: good job
Make > 60%: treat yourself to a nice big steak and a beer

The net time, maybe you bump the percentages to 45/65. Find the point at which rewards are truly rewarding – and difficult to achieve. As with the regular game of golf, you are your own referee. Be honest or your game won’t improve as it should.

Where are your eyes when you putt? Commonly, putting problems start when a golfer’s eyes move too far inside the ball. To find out where your eyes are, take a normal putting stance. Hold a ball between your eyes and then drop it. If you’re properly aligned over the ball, the dropped ball should strike the ball you would putt. If the balls miss each other, adjust your stance until your eyes are over the ball.

Many people suffer from a reverse pivot or a poor weight shift. There’s one simple drill that will help you “get through” the ball with your weight on your left side.

This drill is borrowed from baseball. Start with your feet together and then swing the club to the top. As you start your downswing, step toward the target with your front foot just as you would to hit a baseball.

Starting with your feet together will ensure that you get your weight onto your front side as you swing through the ball. This drill is also very good to get the feel of the swing starting at the bottom and stop those golfers that cast their hands to start a golf swing. Try this drill without a ball first or until you have mastered the stepping motion with good balance.

Golf Digest recently published a “Guide to Caveman Golf” for those people incapable – or unwilling – to overcome their “smash it and then go look for it” tendencies. If you are able to overcome your tendencies, you may score better as a result. We don’t advocate hitting nothing but your 3W off the tee, but do try to ask yourself a few questions:

• If you hit a 3W from this tee, do you still have a 7I or less into the green?
• If you hit to the fat part of the green instead of going at the flag just over that water hazard, can you lag and tap in for par?
• Do you need to make this putt, or would lagging one up there be sufficient?
• What’s more important: being closer to the pin or hitting the highest lofted club you might be able to get to the hole?
• If you go at this par five in two and miss the green, will you be in better or the same shape as you’d be if you safely lay up?
• Would you rather play your next shot from the trees again or from the fairway?

I think you get the point. Golf is a game of risk vs. reward. Being realistic about the risks – and the reward – is the key to playing smart golf.

Need to work on short putts? Putt to a dime. The smaller target will force you to concentrate. Once you get good at that, putt at the edges of the dime. If you can roll it over FDR, you can roll it into the hole.

If you’re looking for information about the dime, well, by all means drop by the Wikipedia.

Lots of people hit the ball thin. Whether they’re afraid to hit the ground or take a divot or simply trying to swing too hard, hitting the ball thin is still an unwanted problem. One way to avoid hitting thin shots (they sure sting sometimes, don’t they?) is to get into the habit of feeling your right shoulder on your chin before you look up for the ball. Let your shoulder bring your head up, and you’ll avoid “coming out of the shot” and hitting it thin. Great baseball hitters say they can see the ball hitting their bats – there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try to see your clubhead meeting the ball as well.