Instruction
3 simple rules to avoid big trouble off the tee
One of the hardest things for average golfers to do is avoid trouble off the tee. In fact, if they could eliminate these penalty shots, they may no longer be average golfers in the first place! Usually golf course designers place trouble that you must avoid on one side or the other, but provides you ample room to “miss it” on the other side. Think 18 at Doral, or 18 at The Players; both have water all down the left side that begs you to challenge it in order to get the shorter shot into the green, but you do have room to bail out if needed.
Holes such as those cause the weekend golfers fits, because they tend to miss the ball in the ONLY place they cannot… the water. In this article, I want to give you my three rules as to how you can avoid problems like this off the tee.
Rule No. 1
Tee the ball up on the side of the tee with the trouble and aim away from it.
We have that same type of shot as Sawgrass or Doral at one of our courses here at Punta Mita. The water is all down the left, yet we have ample fairway right to hit the ball. I have placed the ball on the left side of the tee box and from here I will aim right…well right to take advantage of the angle away from the water.
Rule No. 2
Pick a spot in front of the ball so you begin the ball on the correct line
In this photo, you can see the extra piece of grass just to the right of my driver; this is directly on the line I have selected (from behind the ball), which is the one I want to take in order to hit the right portion of the fairway. This simple spot-aiming technique gives you a great way to visualize the line you want to take when you are aiming cross-line or away from the natural angles of the tee box.
Rule No. 3
Make your LAST look before you take it back where you want the ball to go, NOT where you don’t want it to go!
The last look is very important as it programs your body as to what you want the ball to do, and it’s just as impactful as the visualization players do from behind the ball beforehand. Your last look can either program you mind and body with positive information, or you can give yourself negative thoughts to fight while in the early stages of your backswing.
I have always preferred to focus on the positive rather than the negative while aiming. I might not pull it off every time, but at least I have done all I can to promote a good swing. They say the mind can talk you out of a good shot if you let it, but this is the best way I have found to make sure that does not happen to you!
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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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unoho
Aug 6, 2018 at 2:09 pm
Stinkney plagiarizing Nicklaus… hohum
...Patrick Loughran
Aug 4, 2018 at 1:56 pm
Jack Nicklaus advised this technique many years ago and IT Still Works….
...Patrick Loughran
Aug 4, 2018 at 1:54 pm
When I first started playing golf over 50 years ago I read “Play Better Golf” by Jack Nicklaus he advised doing this on every shot Enough said…Still works today…
Bolt
Aug 3, 2018 at 5:15 pm
Keep in mind that placing an object in your aiming line is against the rules. So only pick something that is already there.
Mizzle Fizzle
Aug 3, 2018 at 6:20 pm
Beat me to it…
Joe
Aug 4, 2018 at 10:50 pm
I use the line on the golf ball to aim (like putting, but off the tee) it’s helped a lot and I don’t think is illegal …
LD
Aug 3, 2018 at 12:30 pm
Good advice. Thanks
millennial82
Aug 3, 2018 at 11:09 am
100%
juststeve
Aug 3, 2018 at 11:03 am
Good stuff Tom.