Things I have learned recently

[paininthenuts]

Now the majority of you are far more experienced than me, so the tips I am just about to list, you probably know anyway. These tips are for the less experienced golfer, desperate to improve. Only 6 weeks ago I was playing off of 28, and not long before that I was actually struggling to play off of 28. As a result of a few lessons and tips from other golfers, I have knocked 5 shots off of my handicap very quickly, but in reality I am playing nearer around 20. Here are the 3 things I have learned of late that have helped me no end.

1) Most inexperienced golfers struggle not to slice drives. In fact, I know a few experienced golfers with the same problem. Because we naturally swing from out to in, and the driver is the longest club, we spin the ball. Try this. If your right handed, move your right foot back about 3 inches, close your club face about a centimeter, and ensure you follow through with your drive. Of course, this is relevant to fairway shots as well, but the problem is more prevalent on drives. Even with a swing speed of only 84mph I am still hitting 250 yard straight drives fairly consistently

2) When chipping on to the green from about 70 yards inward, try narrowing your stance considerably, and putting most of your weight onto the left foot. You will be amazed how much more control over the ball you get. There is always a temptation on these shots to look up early, so make a conscious attempt to keep your head down. 

3) After struggling a lot with putting, I was told that my stance was to narrow. By opening your legs more, you almost create an alignment tool, and you will find it is so much easier judging the weight of the putt. 

 

Of course, there are endless amounts of tips,and none of them replace good lessons, but these three tips alone have helped me a lot. 

[Marty2019]

Good tips. 

My solution to slicing the ball was to get my right elbow in against my side on my downswing.   That seemed to correct my swing plane.   It gave me a lot more power also.   I think if you are coming over the top, often it comes from a flying right elbow. 

As far as your tip #2, I agree with that one.   I see my friends, fellow hackers like me, who are looking at the pin before they've even hit the ball.  I made a point of watching them while they hit these half shots, chips, or pitches, and it's funny, they are still on the downswing and they're already looking up at the pin.  I used to do the same thing, and it took some practice to cure it.  I had to make sure I was still looking at the spot where the ball used to be when the ball was already in the air.  

 

[saevel25]

1 hour ago, paininthenuts said:

1) Most inexperienced golfers struggle not to slice drives. In fact, I know a few experienced golfers with the same problem. Because we naturally swing from out to in, and the driver is the longest club, we spin the ball.

Just to elaborate more on this statement. The driver actually spins less than a 4 iron. Yet the reason why it curves more is because it has a lower dynamic loft and allows more spin axis tilt to be put on the ball. 

1 hour ago, paininthenuts said:

Even with a swing speed of only 84mph I am still hitting 250 yard straight drives fairly consistently

http://flightscope.com/products/trajectory-optimizer/

Play with some numbers and see. If you swing 84 and hit the ball sold, your ball speed should be around 124 mph if you strike the ball well. 

Optimal numbers would be 15-17 degrees of launch, 2000-2300 spin

1 hour ago, paininthenuts said:

2) When chipping on to the green from about 70 yards inward, try narrowing your stance considerably, and putting most of your weight onto the left foot. You will be amazed how much more control over the ball you get. There is always a temptation on these shots to look up early, so make a conscious attempt to keep your head down. 

I will add also do not stick the ball back in your stance and let the pitch be driven by the pivot of your body not trying to force the shot with your hands. 

1 hour ago, paininthenuts said:

3) After struggling a lot with putting, I was told that my stance was to narrow. By opening your legs more, you almost create an alignment tool, and you will find it is so much easier judging the weight of the putt. 

Putting is such an individual thing, maybe more so than the full golf swing. There has been great putters over the years. I don't think many of them had very wide stances, but I don't think many of them had very narrow stances as well.

Tiger Woods had the center of his feet aligned with his armpits. More narrow than his iron stance. 

I would always strive for a comfortable stance. 

[chriswuk]

1 hour ago, paininthenuts said:

If your right handed, move your right foot back about 3 inches, close your club face about a centimeter, and ensure you follow through with your drive.

 

I know this is probably a stupid question but can you clarify something for me here? When you say "move your right foot back", do you mean back away from the ball? Or back away from your left foot (widen the stance)?

I slice my drives quite a bit so I am keen to see if this does help

[uitar9]

He may mean "back away from the ball"?? Helps me a little. The other thing that helped my slice was putting the driver in the garage. I've lost 10-15 straight yards off the tee but gained them back on the second shot. I've also stopped thinking about mechanics and more on playing golf. and...the score is slightly improving and staying slightly improved.

[chriswuk]

Thanks, I don't hit the driver very often because I can keep an iron fairly straight off the tee.
 But it is definitely something I need to/want to work on

Edit: And yes I plan on taking lessons very soon

Edited July 8, 2016 by chriswuk
added info

[70sSanO]

I understand moving the right foot back as you are widening your stance and effectively playing the ball further up in your stance.

My recent learning experience had to do with an early (Faldo type) wrist hinge to keep the club from coming inside too much.  Once that happens there is no recovery because there is no inside path for the downswing.  For me it was either too flat a swing or coming over the top.  I am setting up with the ball closer to the toe as I have a tendency to downswing on a little wider path.  This helps from hitting off the heel.

I am also more aware of shaft lean in my setup, especially with the driver.  If an effort to keep from de-lofting the driver I did not have enough shaft lean and that was causing a bad right of left result.  Things are working much better for me when I put all of this together.

John

[paininthenuts]

3 hours ago, chriswuk said:

 

I know this is probably a stupid question but can you clarify something for me here? When you say "move your right foot back", do you mean back away from the ball? Or back away from your left foot (widen the stance)?

I slice my drives quite a bit so I am keen to see if this does help

So the toe of your right foot is level with the centre of your left foot.

[shanksalot]

With a 84 MPH swing speed you are either misjudging your distance of your fairways are running 50 yards on your drives. All the information I have ever seen on SS versus distance with a driver indicates that at 85 mph your carry should be under 200 yards and at best with 20 yards of roll a 220 yard drive. I myself have a SS under 90 these days and our fairways run 10-15 yards and my distance is usually under 215. Do you use a GPS to determine your length? As an idea of what it takes to hit a ball consistently  250 yards, the average SS on the LPGA tour is 94 mph and the average carry distance is 218 yards. The total yardage with 20 yards of run is under 240 yards. These numbers were taken off Trackman and should be pretty spot on. Are you playing at a high altitude of over 4000 feet? The reason I ask this is I am wondering how your distance is so different than the norm especially for a new player. 

 I just noticed that you are from UK and thus probably play on links style courses that do run and run for lots of extra yards. So my post is probably just a waste of time. Sorry about that. 

Edited July 8, 2016 by shanksalot

[DrvFrShow]

7 hours ago, paininthenuts said:

Now the majority of you are far more experienced than me, so the tips I am just about to list, you probably know anyway. These tips are for the less experienced golfer, desperate to improve. Only 6 weeks ago I was playing off of 28, and not long before that I was actually struggling to play off of 28. As a result of a few lessons and tips from other golfers, I have knocked 5 shots off of my handicap very quickly, but in reality I am playing nearer around 20. Here are the 3 things I have learned of late that have helped me no end.

1) Most inexperienced golfers struggle not to slice drives. In fact, I know a few experienced golfers with the same problem. Because we naturally swing from out to in, and the driver is the longest club, we spin the ball. Try this. If your right handed, move your right foot back about 3 inches, close your club face about a centimeter, and ensure you follow through with your drive. Of course, this is relevant to fairway shots as well, but the problem is more prevalent on drives. Even with a swing speed of only 84mph I am still hitting 250 yard straight drives fairly consistently

 

Pretty much whatever works as long as you hit target.

I learned from struggling with a slice with my driver to do the opposite. Play with an open stance, left foot flared right foot square to target, take a very strong grip on the club yet line up the club face square with the target line. Take the club back on the line parallel with your feet - this is outside the plane, cup the wrist at the top to square the club face. That takes it across the line, start the downswing with your hip slide, then reroute the club down on the target line and the club face will be square to it at impact. Your hips do a slide-turn through the ball and you end up square to the target on your finish. I'm finding more fairways with about a 95 mph SS and I'm not swinging as hard as I can. SS was taken off a GC2. I've got a decent ball flight with a slight fade. The swing is all in the tempo.

Granted Fred is the man. Amazing. 123 mph club head speed in his prime. I like his approach to the game.

 

[colin007]

Yeah 84 mph SS isn't getting you 250 yard drives unless your fairways are the runways at Heathrow.

[paininthenuts]

21 hours ago, shanksalot said:

With a 84 MPH swing speed you are either misjudging your distance of your fairways are running 50 yards on your drives. All the information I have ever seen on SS versus distance with a driver indicates that at 85 mph your carry should be under 200 yards and at best with 20 yards of roll a 220 yard drive. I myself have a SS under 90 these days and our fairways run 10-15 yards and my distance is usually under 215. Do you use a GPS to determine your length? As an idea of what it takes to hit a ball consistently  250 yards, the average SS on the LPGA tour is 94 mph and the average carry distance is 218 yards. The total yardage with 20 yards of run is under 240 yards. These numbers were taken off Trackman and should be pretty spot on. Are you playing at a high altitude of over 4000 feet? The reason I ask this is I am wondering how your distance is so different than the norm especially for a new player. 

 I just noticed that you are from UK and thus probably play on links style courses that do run and run for lots of extra yards. So my post is probably just a waste of time. Sorry about that. 

250 yards includes a decent roll on a dry fairway in warm weather. The distance is measured with my GPS watch. 

Edited July 9, 2016 by paininthenuts

[Rainmaker]

Good tips all of them, imo. 

I did #1 for a while when I first started losing my slice - a process which continues.

[CyboNinja]

For the guys having trouble with slicing the ball I very highly recommend this drill. It will teach you to keep that elbow in.

 

[CyboNinja]

On 7/8/2016 at 8:24 AM, chriswuk said:

 

I know this is probably a stupid question but can you clarify something for me here? When you say "move your right foot back", do you mean back away from the ball? Or back away from your left foot (widen the stance)?

I slice my drives quite a bit so I am keen to see if this does help

He means back foot away from the ball. A closed stance.

While in a closed stance you physically change your swing plane to an inside-out path. Even with a natural out-to-in swing (think baseball) this will at least start the ball out straighter. 

However it I feel it's a poor long term fix. You lose club speed when you close your stance and you aren't going to "cure" your slice issues. If you always do this you can gain quite a bit of yardage by simply learning to hit it straight because of the clubspeed you will gain once you take a more traditional stance.

When it comes to a slice it's almost always about the back elbow. It got too far away from your body most likely. Or possibly a grip issue. Try rotating your grip clockwise (for a RH) slightly (from 12 o'clock to 1 or 2 o'clock) and really focus on what your back elbow is trying to do. Then find a drill you like to help keep that elbow in. I really like the belt drill linked in the post above.

[MrDC]

I worked with the Butch Harmon slice fix for driver a lot, which is the closed stance thing, but my problem with it is it can really exaggerate a push when you miss, this mostly happens when fatigue sets in and you don't turn well, so while it does fix a slice the push can be really bad, like gone bad.

I like the putter suggestion, I've been struggling really bad on the greens this year and will try a wider stance.
 

Edited July 12, 2016 by MrDC