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The most extreme form of the draw, a duck-hook, is a full-swing shot, is not topped, and obviously has forward topspin to do what it does. Obviously the straightest possible shots have the least spin of any kind.

Chances are, if you play your regular game, you won't be on many greens in regulation. I don't agree with blasting it off the tee. Practice your short game extra hard so that you can pull off more up-and-downs from 50 yards in.

Depends on the situation. As noted above, chipping and putting are alternatives depending on what is front of the green. I will only hit down on it hard if it's a relatively long pitch. For short, delicate pitches, I play the ball in mid stance and try to slide a 60 degree wedge with minimal bounce under the ball. This last shot is difficult and requires concentration, good technique, and a very modest backswing. And lots of practice.

On the driving range, most golfers are hitting multiple shots with a given club and tend to get better as the swing gets grooved for that club. One drill I do toward the end of practice is to pretend that I am playing holes. So I hit driver, then 5 iron, then pitching wedge. Next hole, driver, 5 wood, 9 iron. Next hole 6 iron, lob wedge. And so on. Constantly changing clubs puts more pressure on your swings because, no matter what people might say or think, the swing is somewhat different for different clubs. This drill helps to approximate what you will face on the course.

I would go one better than the previous post. Keep your right arm glued to your side through the backswing. If you do that, it's almost impossible to come over the top.

Keep your right arm glued to your side through the backswing. If you do that, it is virtually impossible to come over the top.

Suggest you read "The Fine Green Line" by a writer jock who spent a year preparing for Q school. The advice he got from a pro teacher was that a year of dedicated practice might lower his low handicap by about a point. Good luck!

Golf is a two dimensional game, requiring both distance and lateral accuracy. Everybody should routinely use the shot shape which they can hit most consistently. For most pros and amateurs, that just happens to be a fade. There is no point in being an extra 15-20 yards out of bounds, in the woods, or in a sand trap. Any pro can give up 10-20 yards in distance if it comes with a commensurate increase in consistent accuracy and still remain in the hunt.

Here is another way to think about this problem. To shoot bogey golf (90 for par 72), you cannot hit more than 1 bad shot per hole (and that shot can't be so bad that multiple strokes are need for recovery). So a bogey golfer hits 72/90 or 80% good shots. You have to be good to be a bogey golfer. To shoot 80 requires a golfer to hit 72/80 or 90% good shots. Someone who can break 80 regularly is a very good golfer. And it is a lot harder to go from 90 to 80 than it is to go from 100 to 90. So I would suggest that you ease up on yourself. After only 5 months, your expectations are just unrealistic.

This was a good reference. It explains the theory behind plumb bobbing and the biggest potential problem, namely that the observer may not be vertical if standing on a slope. Best way to limit this problem is to kneel down so that you are closer to the ground. A prior post states what should be obvious, namely that you have to hold the putter so that it hangs true vertical. Lastly, the technique does not tell you how much the putt breaks, only whether or not there is a break. For the technically illiterate, it probably is best to forget about doing it. For those who can understand simple physics and geometry without an instruction manual, it is a useful aid which can usually be accomplished in a few seconds.

As already noted above, if you are standing behind the ball, holding the putter at the end directly over the ball, the hole will be to the right for a left-right break and to the left for a right-left break. The more dramatic the slope/break, the further the hole is from the vertical. Try it on a steeply sloping green to see how it works. In practice, it is more useful for detecting more subtle slopes and breaks.

What is really important is tempo, and it will differ somewhat from player to player. Too fast or too slow a backswing is no good. The purpose of the backswing is to progressively stretch core and arm muscles so that they can contract more powerfully in the downswing. In the ideal swing, the core is starting to reverse just as the backswing is coming to a halt. Pro golfers make it look easier than it is. Baseball players always do the same thing, but the backswing is much shorter. Making the transition from back to forward smooth is what is critical.

Another one of those areas where some no-nothings prefer opinion over fact. First, if the handle does not line up with the hole, there is slope somewhere and it is up to you to find it. Second, if the handle does line up with the hole, the ground you are on and the hole is on are likely horizontal, but there may be slope in between. Third, as already mentioned, the shaft is a helpful vertical reference for your eyes. Please spare us these I don't understand it so it must be no good comments.

This may be semantics, but the swing plane is a key element of the swing. If you change the swing plane, you change the swing. Even if all the other elements remain the same, the swing is different. And, incidentally, both golfers in the diagrams are changing swing planes.

I just can't agree with this. Although the plane from 9 to 3 in the hitting zone is indeed most important, the more one is in this plane throughout the whole swing the more likely one will finish in that same plane.

Let me use an analogy from skiing. Unless you are racing straight downhill, it is always better to be turning slightly (on one edge or the other) to remain in control. In golf, I think one should always play to the flight your most natural swing consistently produces (assuming it's not a wild slice or hook). So I agree with the folks above who argue for not attempting to hit a ball perfectly straight--it requires too much fortuitous swing perfection. Having said that, for me personally, switching to a mixed grip (slightly strong left and weak right) helps with my driver swing, which is very slightly out-in at contact. Paradoxically, the weaker right grip helps me get my right arm through and released better, preventing any tendency to slice. So my ball flight ranges from slight straight pull to slight fade. This keeps me on most fairways.

A physicist might argue that a clubhead that stays in a single plane is maximally efficient. And that would mean that for any given player, and club, and stance, there is only one ideal swing plane. And then you have players like Furyck, whose swing has been described as like "an octopus falling out of a tree." And so in golf, consistent repeatability trumps stylistic perfection.

In absolute terms, as opposed to career stats, Tiger is better just as Barry Bonds was better than Babe Ruth. Athletes (and equipment) are better today than they were 40--or 80--years ago. These "comparisons" go on all the time in multiple sports and are really meaningless. The only real valid comparisons are how given athletes compare to their temporal cohort. On that score, both Woods and Nicklaus were truly exceptional. Can we leave it at that?

I asked myself this question. The best answer I read (somewhere) was: "If the pros use 460 drivers what makes you think you shouldn't." So I went out to the driving range with my old driver and four demos. Simple fact, and not very surprising, is that the bigger heads provide more consistency. The sweet spot is bigger. Slight mis-hits go further than they would otherwise. Really this is simple physics and statistics. If nothing else in your swing changes, a bigger driver that feels comfortable will give you better results. To go back to my first comment. Pros have nearly flawless consistent swings and don't change equipment for any reason other than results. Almost all use 460 drivers of one kind or another.

I envision myself as the batter. I didn't see this scheme as addressing backswing or initial downswing. For a long time, I had trouble with proper follow through of my right hand and arm. Now I use a weak right hand grip and this scheme for thinking about my follow through and release, irrespective of what actually happens biomechanically. The result is much more consistency, especially with driving. Shots now range from slight draw or slight pull to mild fade. I can now aim drives slightly to the right of center and be reasonably certain that I will finish on the short grass.

Interesting that you have this post. I just started the following thread which is related: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20375 My thread is about how to release the club, but it very much involves wrist action. I have two suggestions: 1 Use a weak right hand grip 2 As you finish your swing, think about an underhand throw with your right hand to the shortstop or third baseman. Doing these two things will very much assist right wrist rotation. Hope you played baseball sometime in your life. Good luck.

So how do you all get consistency on sweeping the fairway woods? I can hit them reasonably in light rough, but when I get on short or hard-packed fairway, all heck can break loose--fat hits, topped balls, etc. Sweeping a ball off a tee with a 460 driver leaves a lot of room for slight error. Hitting down on a ball with a variable divot also leaves some room for error. Sweeping a fairway wood off the deck is clearly a more demanding shot. So what are people's tricks for consistency?

Hand position in releasing the club is very important in determining whether the club face is closed, square, or open. Unfortunately, thinking about hand position while swinging a club fast was hard for me to do until I came up with the following scheme. I envision myself throwing a baseball under-handed with my right hand around the infield as I complete my swing. If I am trying to keep the club face relatively closed, I think about a throw to the shortstop or even the third baseman. A more neutral position would be a throw back to the pitcher. To fade or block a shot, I think about throwing to the second baseman or to the pitcher's left side. And I vary this depending on how my shots are moving on any given day. This has been useful to me. Anybody else do anything similar?

I don't see anything wrong with a dead straight consistent 20 degree pull. Aim slightly to the right and perhaps close your stance a bit and your divot will be pointing to the hole. Nobody has to apologize for a consistently straight ball. Your swing must be slightly out-in as mentioned above, but if your clubface is right, the ball will be straight. Sammy Snead always aimed right and hit a very slight pull--consistently. Lee Trevino aimed left and hit a slight fade-cut--consistently. As long as you are not hitting erratic slices or hooks, consistency always trumps "perfect" form.

Glad to read that there are some physics guys around. I wrote a similar response in another post about this concept of "pinching" the ball against the ground. Inertia is what causes the ball to be compressed by a descending club face not the ground. The old truism which is correct is "hit the little ball first and the big ball (the earth) second."