aim

Aim Your Golf Swing

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I’ve written a few times in the past about aiming your shot when you take your stance. What I want to talk about in this post is aiming your swing, and that’s different.

You’ve likely heard about swing plane and all that. What I’m going to get at here is where that plane is aimed. Your swing traces an arc going back and another one going through the ball. That second arc is relevant to aim, and to hit the ball at your target, that arc must be aimed at the target.

In one meaning of the word “swing,” the golf swing is the totality of movement away from the ball and back through, all the way to the finish. Another meaning is that something literally swings. What swings in the golf swing are the arms and golf club. The body doesn’t swing. It turns.

From the shoulders on down to the clubhead is the part of your body (consider the club to be an extension of your arms for this argument) that swings. What you want is for the swinging of this unit to be headed toward the target at impact. It will not do to imagine a line on the ground and have the clubhead travel along that line. That quickly turns into steering the clubhead, which interrupts the smooth, connected flow of your swing, in both sense of the word.

You must instead think of the entire swinging portion of your body headed for the target, and you must be thinking that long before the arms and club actually arrive at the ball. It is true that they will only be lined up for the briefest moment, but you must start thinking that they are lined up that way just after the club starts down from the top of your backswing. At that point, your hip will be sliding toward the target. Then, when the hips turn, your mind continues to lead toward the target what is coming next, which is your arms and the club. That unit, because of your mind’s direction, swings through the ball straight toward the target. If your grip is one that keeps the clubface square to the club path throughout the swing, the result is a straight shot.*

Now all that has been a complicated description of a rather simple move. But I believe you will find it is true. You will correct a lot of swing problems by aiming your swing in this way. You can learn this movement by making half swings, and gradually moving up to full swings.

* There is also the part about your hands leading the clubhead. If your hands follow the clubhead into the ball, which they do if you persist in trying to hit the ball rather than swinging through it, none of the above is of any use.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

golf stories

Golfing for Cats

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A number of years ago, and enterprising British author published a book titled, Golfing for Cats. I’m not sure what the book is about, but the author was taking advantage of research that showed the most popular books sold in the UK were about golf, cats, and the Third Reich.

Our family took in a cat recently. The renters next door moved out at midnight one weekend, abandoning their two cats. We took in one, and a neighbor across the street took in the other.

We don’t know how old our new cat, Buddy, is, but he can’t be more than two. That puts him at the height of his playfulness and curiosity. I found out by accident that he loves golf clubs.

I was watching TV one night, with a 7-iron in my hand practicing my grip, and put the clubhead on the ground. Buddy came over and stared at it. Just stared. I rolled the club a bit so the clubhead turned and he jumped a mile, but came back to stare at it again.

That was a few weeks ago. Ever since then, whenever I get out a golf club, he is right there, staring at it. Maybe because it’s shiny. I don’t know.

My wife got him a catnip mouse, which he loves. Goes bonkers nuts with it. She said, You can’t complete with that mouse. I said, Oh, yes I can. A few mornings ago he was playing with the mouse and I put a 5-iron on the ground in front of him. Mouse here, golf club there. And the golf club won!

Maybe I can teach him to caddy for me.

playing the game

Play golf light and fast

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There are many reasons for playing golf. If your number one reason is to have fun, try this playing style. Use a limited set of clubs, and play fast. I’ll explain what I mean.

The rules of golf allow you to carry fourteen clubs. You don’t need that many, though. You can get by just fine with only seven. In fact, Francis Ouimet won the 1913 U.S. Open with that many clubs in his bag.

With a smaller set of clubs, two things happen. You stop getting stressed over getting just the right club in your hands, because except for on the tee and on the green, you hardly ever do. Instead, you take out the club that is close enough and create your own shot. Without too much practice, you will surprise yourself at how good your instincts are, and have a lot more fun because you figured it out on your own. You’re that much more of a golfer.

My set of seven is: driver, 19-degree hybrid, 24-degree hybrid, 7-iron, 9-iron, 56-degree wedge, and putter. With those clubs, I can manufacture almost any shot I need. I shot an 81 one day on a course I had never seen before using this seven-club set. It was easy, and it was fun.

Here’s another benefit. Seven clubs don’t weigh very much. This is a really light bag to carry. Carrying is more fun than carting, believe me.

Now what do I mean by play fast? I don’t mean that you race around the course. I mean you play efficiently, and without delay. On the tee, your driver is ready, you tee up the ball, aim yourself, address the ball, and hit it, just about that fast. If you’re the last player to hit, you pick up your bag and clubhead cover and start down the fairway. You can put the cover on your driver and put the club in the bag as you walk.

From the fairway, you do the same thing. Quickly assess the situation, distance, lie, wind, choose your shot, take your club out of the bag, address the ball, take one look, and swing, again, just about that fast.

On the green, you read the putt, quickly, relying on your first impression, since it’s almost always correct, step up to the ball, take a look, and putt. That fast.

All this sounds like you’re in a big rush. You’re not. You’re just not taking time doing things that have nothing to with hitting your shot. It takes you about five seconds to figure out your shot. Why take 15 or 20? Once you address the ball, why stand there? Get into your stance and hit!

You will find, too, that hitting quickly doesn’t give you enough time to start getting worried about the things you worry about. You do your thinking, hit your shot and it’s over before you had a chance to get nervous. Have you ever played an entire round without getting nervous or caught up in the shots you hit, and instead, just hit them? If you want golf to be relaxing, this is how to do it.

What about your score? It will take a few rounds to get used to playing with fewer clubs, creating shots and playing with distances. When you do, you will probably wonder why you carried so many clubs before.

As for playing fast, I guarantee you will improve, especially on the green. This style makes you play more intuitively. That means not second-guessing yourself all the time and going with what you know is the right thing to do. That calms your mind, which leads to your body hitting your best shots more often, which means lower scores.

Play light, play fast. Give it a try yourself. You might never go back.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

stance and posture

Posture in Golf

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When you bend over to address the ball, you must not lower your hips at the same time. Keep them where they are to create a level swing and maintain your balance.

Try this. Stand upright and put a 5-iron on the ground right against your leg. It doesn’t matter which one. Notice where the top of the grip hits your hip. Now lower yourself into your stance like you usually do. If that spot on your hip is now lower than the top of the grip, you’ve made the mistake I’m warning you against.

Try again, this time taking your stance while keeping your hip where it is. It might help to think that you raise your hip up and back as you bend over. Actually, it will stay in the same place. Don’t forget to bend your knees if you have to.

Do this over and over until you get used to it, then take that 5-iron into your hands and swing it. I believe you will find your swing to be a lot smoother than it was before, and you will finish with very good balance.

This is one of those little things that you don’t read about in the instruction books. All the good golfers do it, though, just watch on TV. You can do it, too.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

setup

Swing the club already!

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You probably know that the success of a shot is largely determined in your setup, before you even start the club back. One of the worst habits you can fall into is freezing after you address the ball.

Have you played with the golfer who goes through a pre-shot routine, sets up to the ball, and just stands there? And stands there? And stands there? I’ll bet you’ve never seen a really good player do that.

Here’s what to do about it. Please!

mental game

Confidence is the key to good golf

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The longer I play golf, the more I become convinced that the key to playing well is not any technique you might have learned, but confidence.

A few weeks ago, I hit into a green about thirty feet to the right of the pin. To go right at it meant playing over a bunker, so this was exactly where I wanted to be — easy approach putt and a tap-in. Except I left my approach putt twelve feet short. The greens had been sanded the week before and were a lot slower than I felt comfortable with.

So! I was not going to three-putt. I read the green, looked at the putt, and said to myself, “This is going in,” as if there were no choice in the matter. And it went in. That’s confidence: not in knowing we’re good enough to sink the putt, but knowing as if doubt didn’t exist and the only possible outcome is for the ball to go in. Big difference.

We can’t gin up that kind of motivation for every shot, though. Fortunately, we don’t need to. If we’ve felt it once, or twice, or more, that feeling in in us. All we have to do is pull it out. Get comfortable with the shot you are about to hit and that feeling of confidence will be there.

If that sounds too easy, it’s because you are used to making golf hard. You have trained your mind to see the possible mistakes surrounding the one success that’s in there somewhere. Retrain your mind. See only the success, just like in those golden moments, and hit the ball.

Now here’s the key. File away successes and throw away failures. Every time you visualize the fairway on the eighteenth tee and hit it, file that away. Every time you hit into the pond on the right instead, throw that shot away. Never happened.

Acquire the mental strength to not let setbacks change your mood or your belief in the power of your mind to lead you to your best golf. This takes practice, lots of it. Remember how long it took to learn how to hit the ball reasonably straight, though, and you put in that time.

For a detailed program on how to accomplish this, see my latest book, The Golfing Self, at www.therecreationalgolfer.com.

putting

A few putting tips

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The following are recent putting tips from my Facebook page:

There comes a point in your putting when your stroke is good enough, and the reads you make are good enough, that you should be sinking putts. If you are not, check to see whether it’s because you don’t feel the ball falling into the hole before you start the stroke. I don’t mean visualizing the ball falling in, but feeling in your body the impact of the ball on the bottom of the cup liner.

To avoid getting a sore back when you practice putting, use just one ball. That way, you have to get out of your crouch after every putt, to stand up and go get your ball.

If you’re just missing makable putts, I’ll bet it has more to do with speed than line. If you can hit your putts from twenty feet in so they all roll at the same speed when they get to the hole, you have that much more clarity about how to pick the right line, and confidence that that line is the right one.

I found my blade opened on the backswing, but wasn’t always closing. This made me miss putts to the right. I started hooding the putter, just a bit, on the way back to keep the blade square. It works.

One of the questions surrounding putting is whether to charge to putt or let it die into the hole. The pros can die the putt at the hole because they play on greens that are flawless and true. Our greens aren’t that good, so we have to hit the ball a bit harder.

A 40-handicapper and a scratch golfer have the same number of two-putt greens in a round of golf. Records bear this out. The scratch golfer, though, will have three fewer three-putt greens and three more one-putt greens. A word to the wise: It is much easier to learn how to putt like a scratch golfer than to swing like one.

I would much rather leave a 20-foot putt dead on line and two inches short than burn the edge of the hole and leave it four feet past. Ben Crenshaw once said that for him, any putt outside eight feet is a speed putt.

I think it’s important on the green that once you have found the starting line and feel the speed, you stand over the ball and forget about the hole completely. Just hit a straight putt the same as you do on your living room carpet. Thinking that there is more to do than that this point is a major reason why you miss putts you should be making.

The reason you rarely miss a three-foot putt on the practice green is that you don’t care if it goes in or not. The reason you miss them when you play is that you do.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

playing the game

How to get a single-digit handicap

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There is a definite order of skills to develop to be able to break 80 on a semi-regular basis.   The most important one is getting the ball up to the green in a hurry.   Learn to hit fairways and get the ball on the green or close to it with your irons.   Short game and putting are no help if you waste strokes getting to the green.

It should take you no more than 38 strokes per round to get the ball hole-high in regulation.

Next, learn to chip.   I know, you might think putting should be next.   But if your average leave with your chip shots is about six feet, you won’t get many up-and-downs.   There need to be a few stone cold tap-ins every round, and a chip-in every other round or so.

Still no putting, not yet.   It’s pitching.   Learn to get the ball on the green in one shot from under 100 yards.   You might be surprised, if you keep track, at how often you don’t do this if you’re a 15 or higher.   

Finally, putting, specifically approach putting.   Three-putt greens are caused most often by leaving your approach putt short.   So practice approach putting a lot.   From forty feet in should be two-putt territory.

[See my post on Triangulated Approach Putting.]

The other critical putts are the 3- and 4-footers.   Inside that, you’re 90 percent.   Outside that to six feet, you’re fifty percent.   But those mid-range shorties are the key to closing the deal on the green.   

Here’s a short way of saying all that.   In order:

– Drive 235 yards, in the fairway.
– Down in three from 150 yards in.
– Pitch on, always.
– Chip to under three feet.
– Approach putts to under two feet.
– Ninety percent within four feet.

In terms of scoring, look at it this way:

– Par all the par 5s.
– Par two of the par 3s.
– Par five of the par 4s.

That gives you a 79.   You still have to do some playing, but if you look at it that way, it isn’t so hard.

mental game

In golf, let well enough alone

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Get this: you’re playing great. Your swing is clicking, the putts are dropping, you’re chipping it close. Good golf is automatic. Then you get an idea that you think will help you play even better. You try it out, and presto! There goes that good patch of golf.

When something is working in your golf game, working real well, leave it alone. Do not try a little thing that will make it even better. You’re on top of the mountain. A change will only take you downhill. LEAVE IT A-L-O-N-E.

Remember Padraig Harrington? Three major championships in two years? What is there for him to do next but start tinkering with his swing to get even better. That third major, in 2008, is the last time he has won. Zip for five years since then.

Or consider Ian Baker-Finch. The Australian with a working-man’s swing won a few times, then struck gold on the weekend of the 1991 Open Championship and won. Thinking he should be able to contend in every major he entered, instead of merely enjoying his moment, he tried for more distance and ruined his sweet swing. He was off the Tour in a few years and now a single-digit handicapper could give him a run for his money.

Remember that the goal of golf is to get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible. If you’re doing that, keep doing what you’re doing to do that. Work it for all it’s worth until it stops rewarding you. Then you might try something new.

But as long as you’re finding fairways and greens, putting it close or in, you’ve arrived at the goal you have been seeking. Let development go. Play with what you have learned how to do. Hit the same shots over and over again. Enjoy your success.

I think the reason why so many of us keep changing is that is what we’ve always done. Golf is a process of looking for a better way. That’s what we expect from the game. Now you have got to where you wanted to go, you can’t keep looking at golf as a process of change. Look at it now as a process of performance. Your goal is not to seek, but to repeat.

Really now, isn’t that what you do in other things of your life that you are accomplished at? You use the same skills over and over again. There’s enjoyment in that. Make your enjoyment in golf hitting one good shot after another, with the same skills.

If you’re in that place, it’s because you have sown, and sown, and sown. Now it’s time to reap, reap, reap.

Visit www.therecreationalgolfer.com

Little Differences That Make a Big Difference in How Well You Play