Instruction
This Hot Wheels drill will get your putting back on track
One of the easiest ways to consistently lower your scores is to avoid three putts during your round. And the best way to ensure yourself of a one or two putt is to concentrate on speed, which will help you to lag the ball up to the hole.
Good news for you, there’s a great way new to work on your speed. And if you look around your attic, basement, toy storage area, or your child’s room, you might find the same orange strip of plastic that I use in this drill. It’s a piece of Hot Wheels track, and it looks something like this.
It’s useful because usually when you’re practicing speed, you also spend time focusing on your aim and mechanics, which distracts you from having 100 percent attention on speed. The track allows you to focus everything on the speed while never worrying about aim or stroke mechanics, because the track will direct the ball at the hole on the right line every time. So all you need to do is put the right speed and roll on the ball.
The Hot Wheels drill
To set the drill up, flip the track over so you have the bottom rails facing up (I have colored the rails with a black Sharpie). Aim the track along the break of the putt so that a putt struck the perfect speed will take whatever slope is on the green and go in the hole. Then place the ball in the middle of the track.
When we have this setup, I tell the player to look at the hole and take several practice strokes feeling the speed they want to hit the ball to roll it in the hole. After they do that, I have them put the putter behind the ball and stroke it without thinking about aim or stroke mechanics. Naturally, the Hot Wheels track will give them the proper aim and stroke direction, freeing the player up to focus solely on speed.
We like to play several games at my club with the Hot Wheels track, each of which helps golfers groove their distance control with the putter. My favorite game is called “Call It,” in which players hit a putt, but are not allowed to look up to see where it went. They have to decide what speed the ball is rolling by feel alone. They call out “short,” “long” or “perfect,” and then look up to see if their prediction was correct. The game is great for building awareness of touch and speed control on the greens.
Hot Wheels drills can be both fun and very effective, so climb up to the attic and find that box of old Hot Wheels cars and orange track. Take a piece to the course so you can focus only on speed, while honing your stroke as well.
Editor’s Note: Rob Strano recently appeared on the Golf Channel Morning Drive show and demonstrated for everyone how to do the “hottest” drill in putting. Watch the segment here: http://www.golfchannel.com/media/four-disciplines-improve-your-putting/
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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Gareth
May 15, 2016 at 4:06 am
Best putting trainer I’ve ever seen was something that Euro player Jason Scrivener developed. Best money I’ve ever spent on my golf game… http://www.theputtingsquare.com/
golfraven
May 14, 2016 at 4:17 pm
Like the tip but my son will freak out when I steal his Hot Wheel stuff.
LabraeGolfer
May 15, 2016 at 8:46 am
Same but my dad lol. He has over 20,000 hot wheels and probably 300 feet of track.