Instruction

Golf is FUN

Published

11 years ago

Feb 13, 2013

I’ve just moved jobs. I’ve gone to a fantastic new place, with a huge number of golfers of all ages and abilities. This has given me time to question why I do what I do. I feel very fortunate to be in a job that I honestly love. The truth is that I teach golf and build connections with my players because I truly believe the game of golf can teach us so much. To share this gift and do my part in improving people’s game thus increasing their enjoyment and having a positive impact on their outlook on life is my way of giving back.

With that in mind, this article is going to be about how you, the golfer, can have some more fun on the links. After all, if you really thought about it, isn’t that why you play the game? To have fun? To enjoy being outside with good company?

Just this week I taught a member who was considering leaving the game after a run of terrible rounds. Of course, as a golf professional and coach, my advice would be to get alongside your golf professional who can work with you to help you reach your goals but this article will give you other ways.

Play an appropriate length course

If you look at the average driving distances for PGA Tour professionals (compared to the length of course they play) and then compare that with your distances, you may realize how difficult reaching your goals are. Chances are the tees on the course you play are disproportionately long for the driving distance you have. If just playing with some friends, try this one out: Play from a forward set of tees, maybe even from the very forward tees and enjoy the feeling of driving close to the green of a par 4 or marking a birdie down on your card. It is fun hitting more greens in regulation too. After working with a lot of juniors this summer with Nike Junior Camps in Pebble Beach, I know how resistant they were to trying. When this was tried out though, the levels of fun shot up massively. Give it a go; it is also a fantastic way to build confidence and your comfort shooting lower scores.

Play some different formats

There are a whole heap of alternatives to typical stroke play, which can be a lot of fun to try. Rather than stroke play where each mistake is seen and attention drawn to it, have fun with a skins game or stableford round where you can move on quickly and not let a bad hole get you riled up. Away from the mistake-avoidance environment that stroke play often induces, you will have more opportunities to learn and discover new things while trying other formats. If you are playing with a group of friends, but not in a monthly medal, why not go out and try a Texas scramble competition. Or in a pair, allow yourself to play the hole, alternate shots, from the position of your best drive or, if you really want a challenge, from the worst ball. From personal experience, I can say that playing golf with friends who play much less than me, but within a fun format, can greatly increase enjoyment for all of you. If you find this one tough to do, perhaps start tracking a few stats and see how your improvements go. A few examples that will leave you focused on the positives rather than your score could be: number of solid drives hit/crisp irons hit/birdies or pars made.

Lose the scorecard

Every golfer is different, and there are many way to enjoy this great game. But, as a challenge, in the next round that you play just forget to pick up a scorecard and play a round without keeping track of your strokes. Less focus on your score frees you up to really enjoy the company, the surroundings and much more. As crazy as this idea sounds, give it a go. See what happens. You may even notice your level of play greatly improve.

Go play a different course

I’ve been fortunate enough to play a few courses that hold top professional events, and it is a great feeling to go out there, on holes you may recognize from TV, and see how you fare. This season, go try a few different courses and make a day of it. I can’t imagine you won’t enjoy it.

Practice with games

Rather than just treating some putting practice as something boring that you need to do to lower your score, bring a friend along and play some games at the same time. Sudden-death holing-out competitions starting from near the hole and getting farther away are sure to get interesting when the loser is paying for food in the clubhouse afterwards. On the driving range, experiment with different heights and curves of golf shots. Imagine golf holes out on the range that you hit toward, or create nearest-the-pin competitions. I imagine your practice will suddenly become more interesting.

For those of you who don’t want to throw away the scorecard, move away from your current golf course and the back tees or deviate from playing stroke play, I have one final idea that may help:

You know that strange phenomenon where you have nine great holes and then nine terrible holes? Or you start awful only to finish it off with a great back nine and end up finishing somewhere near your handicap? My suggestion is this; next time you go to play, split your scorecard into six rounds of three holes instead of one round of 18 or two halves of nine each. This simple change in mindset often allows you to let go of previous bad holes a lot more easily than having to wait till the back nine for a new start. It also helps you stay in the present, not getting nervous/excited/ahead of yourself when on for a career best round after 12 holes, before it all falls apart.

I hope to hear from you soon, and that you have some more fun out on the course. I imagine you have even more ideas too; please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Remember as a great coaching friend of mine, Sara, says on Twitter: #golfisfun

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Instruction

Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?

Published

2 days ago

Apr 24, 2024

Shawn Clement

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

Published

4 weeks ago

Mar 29, 2024

Terry Koehler

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.

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

Published

2 months ago

Mar 4, 2024

Shawn Clement

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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