Instruction
Play out of your comfort zone: get creative
Have you ever found that sometimes your game completely changes when you leave your home course?
Sometimes getting too comfortable with a golf course can actually hurt our game. Playing the same course over and over often requires that you hit similar shots over and over. I say similar because we will never play the course the exact same between two rounds but you will often have similar distances to greens — on par 3s for example. Now certainly if you are playing a tournament or an important round that is the time where you want to be as comfortable as possible with the golf course, but if you really want to improve your game you need to take yourself out of your comfort zone.
Usually I am going to say that entertainment (non-instructional) golf movies are not the best source of good advice but every now and then a real gem does stand out. In this particular case I am going to use the scenes from Tin Cup where Roy plays a round with garden tools and also when he shoots even par with only a 7-iron.
Now, I am not telling you to go to your local course with a bag full of garden tools but what we can learn from this is creativity. With most amateur golfers (high and low handicaps alike), I see they have only one way in their mind to hit each club — a 7-iron goes 160 yards, an 8-iron 150 yards, and so on. The problem is that these same people would never think to hit 7-iron if they were 140 yards from the green. Being locked into a set mindset will not benefit you in golf. In this game there is no right or wrong — it is instead about options. How many ways can you get the ball in the hole? Options are what make Phil Mickelson’s short game as good as it is. For any shot he comes up to I can assure you he is thinking of several different ways to get the result he wants.
One of the best ways to take yourself out of any comfort zone is to play a round with only a few clubs. Limit yourself to three or four clubs and see how you can get around the golf course. Another benefit of this drill is after doing it several times you will realize which clubs really make a difference in your actual score.
Club selection when you are only allowed a few clubs can make a world of difference. Another way is to play from different tees. I don’t recommend going back to a longer tee box than normal but certainly don’t be afraid to move up. Play a few rounds from the front tees just to change things up. It may hurt the ego walking up to the short tee boxes every time, but it will help in seeing the course from a different angle and having to hit different shots than normal. One of my favorite drills, from Jim Flick, is to hit every club in your bag 100 yards (Use the 14-Club Rule.) Again the purpose of this drill is to show that there are many ways to get the ball in the hole. The best thing for you is to give yourself options.
Click here for more discussion in the “Instruction & Academy” forum.
By Matt Newby
Matt Newby is a PGA Member and Certified Personal Coach at GolfTEC in Irvine, Calif. He has more than 10 years of experience as a teacher and other facets of the golf business. In the past he was mentored by three PGA Master Professionals and has worked with the instructors of Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer, Justin Rose, Padraig Harrington, Jerry Kelly and Inbee Park.</em>
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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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Instruction
How a towel can fix your golf swing
This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.
For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.
Setup
You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.
While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.
Get a Better Shoulder Turn
Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.
In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.
Stay Better Connected in the Backswing
When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.
Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.
Conclusion
I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.
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James Lythgoe
Aug 28, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Depth perception is very important to golfer. Playing the same golf course over and over again really doesn’t test your depth perception because you know the golf course so well. Before you even reach your golf ball, you know what golf club you will use because you have played the same course so many times before.
If you go to a golf course that you haven’t played and you haven’t walked off the distances, you can get an idea about how good your depth perception is. If you find that you are not too comfortable with your distance, you may not have the best depth perception. If, on the other hand, you do feel comfortable with the distance and your shots are ending pin high, then you may very well have very good depth perception.
Matt Newby, PGA
Jul 31, 2012 at 4:23 pm
Troy,
You are 100% correct, Playing with just a few clubs will do exactly that…help you learn new shots. The more options you have at your disposal the more likely you are going to execute. If you typically only play on the weekends I would suggest giving this a shot late during the week before dark. Usually at this time the courses have a lower rate so you are not spending a whole weekend green fee to just go out with a few clubs. Thanks for the feedback!
Troy Vayanos
Jul 31, 2012 at 3:28 pm
I can definitely relate to us. Having played my local course most weekends for the past 20 years you tend to get used to hitting the same clubs into the same holes.
I actually enjoy playing around there in winding conditions last weekend because it enabled me to play a lot of long clubs with a lower ball flight.
I have heard playing a round with just a few clubs is a great way to develop skills and learn new shots.
Matt Newby, PGA
Jul 31, 2012 at 10:52 am
Here is the link to the Jim Flick drill (Use the 14-Club Rule)
http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/mental-game/flick_gd0808