CollegeGolfer

It's hard to explain without picture or video, but I will try. Basically, this drill is to help you prevent rolling your wrists (too much) on the follow-through. Keeping your right wrist firm will help you to keep the club-face square at and through impact, and if you are able to control the face, you'll be able to hit a cut or draw on demand with the firmness or lack of firmness of your wrists. At impact, your right wrist should be in line with your left thigh and through your follow through keep the wrist in front of the club-face as it was at impact. Again, if you were to draw a line on the bottom side of your wrist, it'd look the same as the club-face. You should not be swinging hard enough to where you feel you need to turn the club-face over. The ball should probably only go about 20 yards or so (I use PW.) You'll know you are doing it right when your forearm starts to burn.

2 Words - Face control Drill: Go to the range with about 50 balls. Lay down an alignment stick that lies just below the heel of your club at address. Using only your right hand (choking down on the club obviously), strike the ball while on plane with focus on keeping your right wrist firm at impact and in your follow-through If you were to draw a line on your wrist, it should match the shape (parallelism) of the face of the club. Strengthening/Controlling the firmness of your wrist will give you face control to which, with the right swing plane, you'll be able to shape your shots on demand.

Your grip can change your swing completely. I'd say it is the third most important mechanic to a golf swing, behind swing plane, and head movement.

Driver: 305 4-wood: 260 3 Hybrid: 230 4 Iron: 220 5 Iron: 208 6 Iron: 197 7 Iron: 185 8 Iron: 175 9 Iron: 165 P-wedge: 155 A-wedge: 142 55 degree wedge: 125 60 degree wedge: 100 Driver - Taylormade R11S 4 Wood - Nike VRS 3 Hybrid - Titleist Irons +A-wedge - Nike VRS Forged Wedges - Titlest SM4 Vokey

1) How long did it take to break 70? If it took you 2 years, was that 2 years from the first time you picked up a golf club, or did you just play around for the first year and then take the second year seriously? The first time I broke 70 was my Junior year of high school. I've been swinging a club since I was 6 months old, but I didn't start playing seriously until I was about 10 years old. (Tournaments and such.) The first time I shot in the 70's was my freshman year of high school. 2) What methods did you follow? Did you pick and choose from different instructors, books, DVDs, or even just watching tips on the golf channel? Did you follow a single set method/book/DVD/instructor and follow it like it was your bible? I've had one lesson all my life, and that was a grip change. Other than that, i've only learned from high school and college golf coaches, but for the most part I taught myself. I would watch Tiger Woods videos for hours because his swing is what I would want to emulate. At a young age (12), I would always record my swing, put it side by side with Tiger's and then just fix what looked wrong. It helps that I am very athletic. I've played basketball and football for about as long as i've played golf. 3) What does it take to score in the 70s consistently (in your opinion of course)? A consistent swing? A good mental game? 70% mechanics 30% mental? Please share. Hmm, this is a great question! For me, it is about 90% mental, 10% physical. I don't ever try to "fix" my swing during a round, i just take what my swing is giving me because it is usually consistent, whether it be consistently straight, fade, draw, slice, hook, whatever. I fix whatever I need to ON THE RANGE. I also tend to play smartly. I don't go for sucker pins and I take my time, especially with club choice. If I even think about clubbing up, I go ahead and do it, cause i'd rather have enough club to get there than hit a perfect shot and it end up short. Like the saying goes, "Play smarter, not harder." Last little mental note, stay calm. Don't get mad just because you hit ONE bad shot. If you stay mad, that one bad shot can lead to several more bad shots, whereas if you keep level-headed, you can easily come back with a birdie, and get yourself back in the zone. Also, short game, short game, short game. Sand saves, up and downs, etc. will get you in the 70's quickly. Other than that, work at the game. If you don't like where your golf game is, fix it. Don't be a weekend warrior, buy a range card, figure out what's wrong with you swing, and if you have the finances, find a teacher that you like and are comfortable with and get to work! I'm hoping to be near scratch handicap at the end of this season. I know it'll take a lot of work because of the "plateau curse", but i'm ready to work at it. Just my 2 cents. Edit: One thought to leave you with, work from the bottom up . This means, putting > chipping > pitching > approaching > driving

Honestly, I find people sizing themselves up, if that makes any sense. Basically what i'm trying to say is this. Let's say Player A and Player B are playing stroke play against one another. If Player A gets off to a hot start, say going Birdie, Par, Birdie. Player B will end up psyching himself out by thinking he needs to play at Player A's level, even when the fact of the matter is, Player A is just playing out of his mind, and this doesn't happen very often at all, but Player B doesn't know that!. In result, Player B doesn't play his game and ends up going, Bogey, Double B. Par, and now he's down 5 strokes through three holes, whereas if he were to just play his game and not worry about Player A, he could easily be even or one under. I hope that makes sense.

Ok, so if I want to teach her how to play, then I need too... Not mention shoes Don't push her to much, let her learn at her own pace Not mention shoes And, not mention shoes I think I got it. :-)

I practice about 1 and 1/2 hour every day after work and this is my routine. Take from it what you will, it has worked for me so far. Driving Range - About 75 balls (40-50 minutes) Order: SW, PW, 7i, 4i, 9i, 6i, 3i, 8i, 5i, 4w, 54degrees, Driver, LW (58degress) Method: For the first 5 or so shots, i'll lay down alignment sticks for the path of my club to follow on the takeaway and follow-through. After that, i'll take away the alignment sticks, stand back and pick a target for every shot. Chipping - (20 minutes) Order: SW, LW, PW, 8i Method : I take a hoola-hoop that has about a 3ft radius and i'll place it around a flagstick on the chipping green, and just chip from different areas with the goal in mind to get the ball inside of the hoola-hoop. I try to work with as many slopes as possible and use more realistic spots rather than just place them just outside of the fringe. Putting (w/ some chipping) - (10-20 minutes) Method: I'll start off by hitting about 15 putts from 3feet using alignment sticks as railroad tracks to keep my putter square through the entire stroke. Then i'll do lag putting from 20-40 feet with the goal in mind to two-putt all of them. Afterwards i'll take 5 balls, my sand-wedge and try to get up and down with all 5 of them, and usually I won't leave until I get all of them up and down. The most important thing for me is to try to make a game out of every drill. Maybe make point values or something and try to beat my personal record. Hope this helps!

Knowing my girlfriend... that is very accurate... I'll just let her wear sneakers for now. She doesn't have much of a powerful swing, so I don't think she'll absolutely need the stability. :X

I can relate. Whenever my swing isn't top notch and "loose" as you described, I try to sharpen up my mental game even more during the round. I know that if I play smarter and just take what my shot gives me, i'll still be able to put up a decent score. This includes not going for "sucker pins", not putting myself in 3-putt situations, taking my time with chips and/or pitches, not forcing my ball to shape a way it hasn't all round, etc.

huh... weird... well... last time I was fitted for my driver I had a 116MPH swing speed.. and I haven't let up since then.. so you think i'm taking the club back at 120MPH It might just be the video quality but how does the swing plane look to you?

This. I usually will let one by while turning around to see if it was an accident or not, but if it happens a second or third time, i'll either take out my 4 wood and knock it back at them, or pick it up and throw it into a near by hazard. If they wanna come up and say anything about it, go ahead, try it. I'm 6'2" 195 and my dad is 6'4" 240. We'd love to take on any challengers

I think the American side is going to be sorry if they don't get Dustin Johnson in there. Still though, the American side seems to be pretty stacked though, especially if Hunter Mahan and Webb Simpson peak.

flew right*, but yes, Zwick is about spot on.

Quote: The reason why that is not allowed is because that gives the player an opportunity to test the conditions of the sand before they hit their shot. It's the same reason why you can't take practice swings that touch the sand in a bunker, because you're giving yourself an idea of how the ball may react out of the sand. (How soft the sand is, etc.) Plus if you could touch the sand with your club, you could craft yourself a tee out of sand! Which honestly... sounds pretty cool now that I think about it. The rule I hate the most is having to hit out of a divot. If all courses were over-seeded properly then I wouldn't have a problem, but playing out of most divots is like playing out of a crator.

The lowest I've ever shot is 67. Par 72, 6,650 yards 71.4 course rating. Other than that, i've only broken 70, 3 other times.

Putting > Chipping > Pitching > Approaching > Driving That's how Tiger built his game, from shortest to longest. 300-yard drive and a 3-foot putt count for the same amount of strokes, yet I bet all golfers agree one means much more than the other.

Pay attention to this video. This was my problem throughout my early high-school career, and by my Junior year, I was able to have a slight draw.

Hello, Golfworld! So my current girlfriend of 26 months has finally decided that she wants to learn how to play golf after watching me hit range balls for 2 years. With my passion for the game and the amount of experience I have with it, I obviously have no problem teaching her the basics and helping her to develop a solid golf swing, but there are a couple problems/questions that I have for you. Should she (well... I) invest in some women clubs for her? or is it ok if she uses Junior clubs? (which just happen to be fitted pretty well for her height and swing speed.) To those who may have taught their girlfriends how to golf, how "serious" do you get about the mistakes they make? Do you just give them a little coaching at a time, let them try to figure it out, then after a few swings make the adjustments? or do you go the professional route, video their swing, show them what they are doing wrong, tell them how to fix it, and make adjustments every other swing? (in a nice way of course) If I have any more questions, or run into any more problems, i'll post them here. Thank you for all the help!

I've been Playing Golf for: 20 Years, (12 Years competitively) My current handicap index or average score is: 3.5 My typical ball flight is: Baby fade The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: The occasional slice Basically, all my life I've gone back and forth between a draw and fade. Currently i'm hitting a 5-10 yard fade, with every club except for 8-iron and below (9-Pw etc.), to which I basically hit dead straight, if not a 2-yard fade. When I watch the video below, I see an obvious "over-the-top" motion at the beginning of my down swing. I'm currently working on keeping the club on the same plane that I take it back on, or even just drop it inside the plane slightly. Anyone see any red flags? (I also suggest watching the video(s) in the highest quality available and in full-screen. Videos :