Imagine a big ball between your knees to stop a collapsing left knee.
A lot of golfers collapse the left knee (for righties) on the backswing. This is especially evident in reverse pivots, though it can occur elsewhere as well. Collapsing your left knee causes your shoulder to drop and makes your hips sway.
To cure this problem, imagine that you have a basketball or a soccer ball between your knees during your backswing. You’ll keep your knees separated and probably make a better weight shift.
Correct ball position is critical to good ball striking.
Setup is many things, and one of the most important of those is ball position. The ball, on woods and irons, should be positioned at different points in the swing relative to the bottom of the swing. This differs from player to player, but is typically centered to about three inches ahead of center. The shorter the club, the closer to center the ball is positioned.
To determine your correct ball position:
Start with the ball at center and move the ball forward between ¼ and ½ inch as you move down through your irons and woods. When you get to your driver, the ball should be three to four inches forward.
Run this simple drill every few weeks to stay in tune.
Experiment with your tee height to improve your shotmaking.
Yesterday I played 18 holes of golf on a 9-hole course. On the eighth hole, a 169-yard par three, I played a regular 6-iron that landed beside the hole and stopped rolling 25 feet away. The second time I played the hole, I teed the ball up higher to promote a higher, softer shot. The ball landed in nearly the same place, but stopped after rolling just ten feet.
Tee height can influence your driver and 3W as well. With your woods (or whatever they’re called these days!?), teeing the ball higher promotes a draw, while teeing the ball lower promotes a fade.
Experiment with tee height and you’ll improve your shotmaking.
Use the whole tee box to maximize your chances for a good shot.
The 156-yard par-three fourth hole drives you nuts. You hit your 8-iron 150 and your 7-iron 165: what club do you use? You factor the wind, the pin position, and you’re almost sure that you can hit your 7-iron, but you still think it’ll go too far. This is a time to use your noggin – and the rules – to your advantage.
The teeing box is as wide as the tee markers and two clubs (your longest club) deep. Tee the ball back two clublengths to more closely approach your 7I distance, and position the ball to the left or right to hit into whatever breeze might exist to take a bit of distance off. Then, swing with confidence!
We take a break to offer you words of advice: finding someone who cares about your golf game is difficult!
Today’s tip is very simple: keep your mouth shut. Very rarely does anyone want to hear about your golf game. Today’s tip is a humorous one from Dilbert.
Of course, the folks on this site are a rare exception! We love to talk about golf!
Putt on aerified greens to groove a smooth-rolling stroke.
In the fall, many courses aerify their greens. Little (or not so little) holes are punched all over the place. Good putters still putt well on aerified greens, their balls seeming to float over the holes. Bad putters become worse.
What makes for a good putter on aerified greens? Find out. Your putting stroke on smooth greens will improve as well.
Pitching drills help you learn distance control.
You’ve got a 35-yard wedge shot, but have no idea how hard to hit your wedge. If you don’t have the time to apply the Dave Pelz school of thought here (four different swings, four different wedges, 16 distances), then there’s another way to help develop the feel necessary for these shorter shots.
Start with your highest wedge, and hit a ball about ten yards. Try to land your next shot with the same club on top of the ball you just hit. Try to land your next shot on top of the second ball. Keep working your way out until you reach about a 3/4 swing, then drop down to your next club and start over again. Work your way through the clubs you typically pitch or chip with and you’re well on your way towards learning the feel for your wedges.
Woods and irons require different kinds of shots. Sweep your woods to become more effective.
The driver remains one of the most important clubs in the bag. Besides your putter, you probably hit your driver more than any other club in your bag. Unfortunately, your driver requires a slightly different swing than your irons. With the driver, you hit the ball while the clubhead is ascending. You “sweep” the ball off of the tee, while with the irons you hit down on the back of the ball.
Grouchy Golf has Swingvision shots of Ernie Els’ hitting the driver and, for comparison, Tiger Woods hitting an iron. Notice how high on the clubface both shots are struck.
Putting with one hand can improve the two aspects of putting.
Practice putting with one hand – your right or your left. You’ll find that each hand is typically responsible for part of the putt. Your right hand typically controls distance and your left controls the swing path. If your distance control is suffering, putt with just your right hand. If your stroke is suffering, putt with just your left.
