Category: Playing Tips

You’re often taught to swing the club, not to hit the ball. However, there are sometimes occasions in which you do want to do something more than swing smoothly.

When playing out of the sand, many people envision sliding the club through the sand. Some envision spanking the sand, or pulling the heel of the sand wedge down into the sand.

When playing from deep rough, a “hit” is certainly required to wrench the ball from the tall grass. When playing a knockdown shot underneath a canopy of trees, many times you’ll want to “punch” the ball.

Golf, strangely enough, can sometimes be a game of vocabulary as we make associations between verbs and the actions required to pull them off. Who know a dictionary and a thesaurus could lead to lower scores?

The course on which I grew up had a difficult par three – bunkers and mounds left, right, and long, a rather significant ridge in the green, and tight pin placements. The yardage? 227. Needless to say, this wasn’t ranked a bit higher than the 15th toughest hole on the course.

At the time, I’d typically hit a 5W, 3W, or a 2I to the green. I’d usually be short, and I’d usually be in some trouble in a bunker, on a mound, or more. Until I decided to play the hole with a regular old 4I. There was no trouble short, and I could pitch the ball relatively close. I parred the hole half the time and bogeyed the other half. I almost never got up and down when going for the green, so my scoring average on the hole dropped when I played it almost as a very short par four.

Golf is a game of scoring, and sometimes the path to the lowest score involves a bit of creativity in how you play those holes that seem to have your number.

“Oh my goodness, I just quadruple bogeyed the eighth!” Good players will go one direction from here and bad players another. Bad players will assume that their round is trashed and give up. Good players will say “hey, I only have to make up three or four strokes. I’ve got ten holes to do it. That’s just a good chip, a long putt, and a pair of solid shots on that tricky par five.”

Good players don’t get down on themselves after a bad hole. Whether it helps you to think that the golf course “owes you a few” or whether you have to “fight back,” pick a winning strategy, a positive mindset, and not a negative one. You may end up playing some of your best golf.

Having trouble with your distance control on putts? Perhaps you’re rushing your putting stroke. Rushing the stroke leads to a “hit” more than a “stroke” and affects the distance control tremendously. If you’re rushing your putting stroke, concentrate on taking the putter back, pausing briefly at the end of the backswing, and making a smooth, accelerating forward stroke devoid of any “hit.”

On tee shots, I employ a simple technique to avoid coming at the ball from over the top or from the outside. I place the logo of the ball on the rear inside quadrant and above the midpoint (so that I can see it). Then, I try to “hit the logo.”

Obviously, a hit from 45° inside would result in horrible ball flight, but you’d have to be a contortionist or have a very peculiar swing to actually hit the logo. Instead, trying to hit the logo forces a swing from the inside, more on plane. If you’re hitting a shot that starts straight and slices, give this a try and you may soon be hitting a nice solid draw off the tee.

Play a round of golf without lining up your putts. In fact, don’t do much at all: just get up and hit your putt.

“Just Putting” teaches you to observe the break and green conditions while you’re walking up to the green. It teaches you to feel the ground beneath your feet. Putting can’t become instinctual, but “just putting” will help it to become more natural.

Watch a bunch of decent 12-year olds putting. They don’t worry about line and speed. They get up and give the ball a whap. Avoid paralysis by analysis – just putt!

Short term muscle memory lasts about eight seconds. It can be said that “feel” lasts for eight seconds. Use this knowledge to improve your golf game.

When faced with a chip or a pitch, take your practice strokes nearby in similar conditions. Make some swings that feel good, then step up to the ball and repeat the swing within eight seconds. You’ll end up closer to the hole.

Shorten your preshot routine. Pick your target, stay relaxed, and then pull the trigger. Hanging over the ball for a thirty second preshot routine allows clutter – bad visualization, fear, etc. – to creep in. Pick a target, visualize the shot, take a practice stroke (or more, particularly on “feel” shots), take your stance, and hit it.

Eight seconds is probably longer than you think. You can still afford a simple preshot routine – a waggle, a regrip, a deep breath. Just don’t make like Sergio and regrip 37 times.

Scoring is important – it’s how we measure our success and progress. But score isn’t everything, and knowing when to apply a “scoring” mentality and when to apply a “shotmaking” mentality can bring tremendous improvement to your game. A stroke play mentality encourages risk-taking (i.e. “I need a birdie, so I’ll go at that flag tucked over the bunker”) while a shotmaking mentality encourages hitting solid shots (“I’ll start the ball at the middle of the green, and hit it solid. If I miss a bit right I’ll be tight.”)

Both mentalities allow you to score well, depending on the type of player you are. Play a few rounds in each style and try to determine where your balance lies.

A golfer can swing incorrectly and get away with it by compensating. The more fundamental the flaw, the more exaggerated the compensation. Save yourself some trouble by getting the most basic (and easiest) fundamental correct: your grip.

One way to check your grip is as follows: While taking your grip, place a tee between your hands, positioned so that it’s pressed between the bottom of the fleshy pad beneath your right thumb and on top of your left thumb. Take the club back to the top of a normal backswing: the tee should still be in place.

If the tee has fallen out, your hands are separating during the swing. Separated hands let the club wiggle quite a bit at the top of the swing, changing both the angle of the clubface and the swing path.