playing the game

One Way to Break 80

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1. Play from the right set of tees. Don’t give yourself a problem you can’t solve.

2. Hit fairways with your driver. If you spray it, learn how to hit it straight. It’s not that hard to do. This, use your 3-wood instead, stuff is nonsense.

3. Know, I mean really know, how far you carry each iron. By that I mean your average distance, not your maximum.

4. Given the distance to the pin, all things being equal, pick the iron that will pass it, not just get to it.

5. Short game, short game, short game.

6. Did I mention the short game? Your long game that gets you up to or on the green quickly makes good scores possible. The short game makes the score. From greenside, down in two must be an expectation.

7. Putting. Get very good at approach putting and putts from four feet and under. That’s all you need to practice.

8. You’re a handicap golfer. Some holes out there are too hard for you. Get your bogey on them and get your pars elsewhere.

9. Play only shots you can hit. If you don’t have absolute confidence in what you’re about to do, then do something else.

10. If there is a shot or a club that is working really well, ride it as hard as you can all day.

grip

What Light Grip Pressure Does For You

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A few months ago I wrote a post about light grip pressure, which I renamed soft grip pressure. I titled this post “light grip pressure” for SEO reasons, but I still mean “soft.”

But why have soft grip pressure? Because it gives you the clubhead speed you have coming to you.

If you hold the handle too tightly, you tense up your arms, shoulders, torso, and actually slow down the clubhead.

Try gripping a baseball tightly and throwing it as far as you can. Then grip it lightly and see. It goes a lot farther with number two.

Same thing with a golf club, especially your driver. The clubhead doesn’t have to hit the ball hard, but fast.

A soft grip sends the clubhead into the ball unrestrained. Free distance.

fundamentals

The Four Essentials of Golf

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Do these four things every time you hit the ball, and you’ll have a game.

1. Check your grip visually before every shot.

2. Check your aim before every shot.

3. On every shot, the butt end of the club needs to be moving foward as the clubhead comes into the ball. Even when you putt. Especially when you putt.

4. Swing with rhythm in mind, nothing else.

driver

Aligning Your Drive

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Most of us know to align our setup on the tee by picking out something on the ground a few feet in front of your ball that is on the ball-to-target line.

You find a nice place to stand, put the ball and tee in the ground, then step back and find that spot.

Wrong.

Find the spot first. Then put the tee in the ground on the target-to-spot line extended. If you try this, I’ll think you will get a surer feeling of being aligned when you take your stance.

playing the game

The Great Is the Enemy of the Good

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There are two kinds of working shots in golf. There are the ones that go straight and get the job done. The others look like they belong in a highight reel, and get the job done.

The first kind are much easier to hit, and as recreational golfers, are the ones we should aspire to.

The second kind pop out every now and then, and they are the memories we take home. But they are not the ones we should chase when we practice.

Good enough is good enough. Once you have that, leave it alone.

Seniors

A Senior Golf Swing

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Those of us whose age leads off with a 7 might be finding that the swing we used even into our 60’s doesn’t work too well anymore.

We’re not as flexible as we used to be, and our body is not responsive to the demands of the swing we had when we were younger.

We have lost distance, and maybe we don’t hit the ball that well. Never fear. The Recreational Golfer has a solution for you. It’s in the form of a shorter backswing.

If you take the club back no farther than where your leading forearm is parallel to the ground, and rotate everything back through the ball, it will be much easier to meet the ball with the center of the clubface, where distance is born, and to hit the ball straight.

To see what I mean, look at this swing of mine from 2010, which is pretty close to what I’m recommending now. This swing gave me 230 yards off the tee and 142 yards with my 7-iron.

Trust that this is all you need to do. It could be easy to think that with such a short backswing you will have to swing harder and power into the ball. That, of course will ruin everything.

Swing with the same tempo and rhythm you have always used. We’re just giving your body something it can do now, and do well.

putting

Square and In Line Putting

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Everybody knows that the major influence in hitting a putt along a selected line is the orientation of the clubface. The clubface is square the starting line at address (if you are aimed correctly), and we want to get it back to square when the putter meets the ball during the stroke.

It would also be nice if the putter was travelling along the starting line at contact, and not to the right or left of it.

An easy way to solve both problems is to rest your upper arms lightly against your torso. When you swing the putter, in either direction, let your arms stay in contact, sliding back and forth on your torso.

If your hands do nothing but hold the putter, that is, add nothing of their own to the stroke, the putter has to perform as desired.

Don’t worry, the Rules of Golf allow this. It is your forearms that may not be anchored.

golf swing

The Key Move in the Takeaway

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What you do with the club in the first two feet of your backswing makes all the difference between your best shot and your worst.

That is the interval where your clubface can get out of alignment without your noticing it. Open or closed, this is where it happens, and you can’t do a thing about it because you won’t feel it.

Practice this a lot: Take the club away using your normal swing and stop after the clubhead is about two feet away from the ball. Using your arms only, bring the clubhead back to the ball.

If it’s not square, you have something to work on, and it’s simple. Practice taking the club back those two feet so the clubface stays square. Learn what it feels like to do that.

When you play, do this takeaway drill before very shot. Remind yourself of the feeling, because the difference between right and wrong is hard to detect.

With that, and a soft grip pressure, you’re good to go.

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