Golf Game Secrets

Golf tips come from all sorts of place. That doesn’t mean they can’t help you chop strokes off your golf handicap. The advice might be from an unusual source, but if you don’t give it an honest evaluation, you might miss a good thing. The important thing is to look not at who the source is, but at the advice itself. When it comes to golf tips, the only thing that matters is, does it work .

Take, for example, Tom Lehman. A five-time PGA Tour champion, the 1996 British Open winner, and the 2006 Ryder Cup captain, Tom had stopped making big putts. Eventually, he started getting advice from fans by mail. He enjoyed reading the letters he got from fans and viewed the letters as sympathetic. After a while, he disposed of them. For some reason though, he kept one man’s letter for three years.

The letter was from a fan some might be consider a most unlikely source. The fan had been following Tom for some time and was trying to support Tom during a difficult time in his career. An amateur player of some note, the fan had been considered an excellent putter. At one point, he had qualified for the North Dakota State Amateur championship. Along the way, the fan had gained a reputation as someone who never choked on a key putt.

Book of Revelation

In addition to the letter, the fan sent a book he had written, published, and sells on his Website. The book’s topic was what the fan called hidden handicaps—those things we unknowingly do and think that handicap our performance, like thinking negative thoughts and dwelling on past failures.

The book was based on the fan’s life experiences as a quadriplegic—the unfortunate result of a car wreck at age 41. The fan had had a tough life since his accident. But despite his injuries, he no longer felt sorry for himself.

One day Lehman met the man.  Lehman was in the area anyway and he figured he would stop by and thank the man for the book. Lehman figured that if the man was so tough that he no longer felt sorry for himself, he might have something to offer Tom.

Tom came away from the meeting with a simple insight. The brain can’t process two thoughts at once. Tom had had all these thoughts running around in his head about break, speed, and stroke that it confused him But after talking with the fan, Lehman reduced to one thought and one thought only—roll the ball in the center of the cup. That one simple idea transformed the way Tom approached putting and ahs been benefiting him every day since.

When it comes to golf, we all have hidden handicaps. Tom was thinking about break, speed, and stroke when putting. The combination handicapped his putting in key situations. But Tom could also have been thinking of all the times he had missed big putts in big tournaments, like the Masters or the U.S. Open. Or, the 19 times he finished second on tour. By focusing on one simple thought, he eliminated these handicaps.

Focus on One Simple Thought The fan’s advice applied to putting. But it could easily have applied to driving or his pitching and chipping. Instead of focusing on the mechanics of your swing when you hit a drive, about where your hands should be, and what your tempo should be, think about keeping your take away low and slow.

Instead of thinking about the swing’s mechanics, like what part of the ball to hit, how to swing down on the ball, and how to create a divot after the ball, think just about hitting an on-course target. Instead of worrying about how high to hit a pitch shot and about making first ball contact all at the same time, focusing on one thing: hitting the landing spot you’ve pricked out on the green. Keeping one thought firmly in minds banishes any negativity that might interfere with your shot or putt.

Players of Tom’s notoriety frequently get advice from fans.  In Tom’s case, the fan’s golf tip worked. If he had dismissed it because of its source, he would never have learned what he considers a valuable golf lesson. Golf is difficult. There’s no two ways about it. But by remembering that the mind can only process one thought at a time, you can eliminate our hidden handicaps and put yourself in the right frame of mind.

Tom came away from the meeting with a simple insight. The brain can’t process two thoughts at once. Tom had had all these thoughts running around in his head about break, speed, and stroke that it confused him But after talking with the fan, Lehman reduced to one thought and one thought only—roll the ball in the center of the cup. That one simple idea transformed the way Tom approached putting and ahs been benefiting him every day since.

When it comes to golf, we all have hidden handicaps. Tom was thinking about break, speed, and stroke when putting. The combination handicapped his putting in key situations. But Tom could also have been thinking of all the times he had missed big putts in big tournaments, like the Masters or the U.S. Open. Or, the 19 times he finished second on tour. By focusing on one simple thought, he eliminated these handicaps.

 

Slicing is the most common fault made by golfers, especially beginners. Slicing means the ball starts to the left of the target and finished well to the right. In general, slicers use too much body action in their swing which is opposite golfers who hook, have too much hand action and not enough body.

 

A QuickTip to Prevent The Slice

 

1. Relax your mind and body, especially body. Don’t try to hit a ball hard and think that it will give you an extra distance – this is totally wrong.The proper amount of distance will come in time. Your goal here is to stop causing the ball curving from left to right – if you are right-handed golfer.

 

2. Make sure your grip is not weak which can noticed by knuckles of your lef hand (for right-handed golfer). If you can only see one knuckle, it means that your grip is weak. So try to grip your golf club so that at least two or three knuckles are visible and then place your right hand that each palm is facing one another. This will close your clubface more and reduce the chances of slicing.

 

3. Adjust your stance so that it is slightly closed, with the right feet pointing just a few degrees towards the right of your target line. This will stop you from swinging the club outside-in.

 

A Practice Drill

 

Here is one simple drill that can be used to fix your slice by Gary McCord, CBS golf analyst and PGA Champions Tour champion.

 

Step 1: Address the ball as you normally do.

 

Step 2: Turn your body until your butt is toward the target and your feet are perpendicular to the target line. You will feel a bit strange but belive me, it works.

 

Step 3: Twist your upper body to the left so that you can again place the club head behind the ball.

 

Step 4: Hit about 20 shots and switch to your normal stance and try to reproduce the feeling you had before but in the correct way.

 

 

Putting isn’t just about feel. It’s also about information processing. In other words, the better you are at reading greens, the more likely you are to sink a putt. You don’t need a golf tip to tell you that. Plumb-bobbing is an old-school technique for generating information that’s useful in putting. Some players swear by it. Others disregard it.  The question is can it help you sink a putt.

The biggest knock against plumb-bobbing is that it tells you how a putt breaks but not how much. But a computer model developed by Fredrick Haney, Ph.D., a few years ago, is changing the way golfers think about plumb-bobbing. Haney’s model suggests that there’s more to it than meets the eye and that with a little effort you can use it to help determine how much a putt breaks. Improve your putting and you’ll slice strokes off your golf handicap quickly.

The Art of Plumb-bobbing

Before we get into Haney’s findings, lets take a look at plumb-bobbing and how to do it correctly. Here are six tips on plumb-bobbing:

1. Stand behind the ball 2. Extend one arm 3. Hold the grip lightly 4. Align your dominant eye 5. Flex your knees 6. Align the shaft’s longest point

Stand behind the ball so the hole, ball, and your dominant eye are aligned. Keep your eyes parallel to whatever slope exists on the portion of the green you’re standing on. Flex your knees slightly. Let your body tilt with the green’s slope. Holding the top of the grip lightly between your thumb and forefinger, extend your arm slightly.  Let the putter hang freely in your grip.

Next, using your dominant eye, line up the putter so that the shaft’s lowest point covers the ball. Without moving your head, look up at the hole. If it appears to the right of the shaft, the hole slopes left. If it appears on the left, the hole slopes right. If it’s in line with the putter, the hole is flat.  That’s all there is to it.  You could learn all you need to know about plumb-bobbing in the first 5 minutes of a golf lesson.

Determining

Plumb-Bobbing Distance

If you plumb-bob correctly, you’ll notice that the putter makes a point either left or right of the hole on the putting surface. The distance from that spot to the center of the hole, Haney explains, is the plumb-bob distance (PBD), a measure of slope and distance at the ball. On a level putt with no right or left break, the PBD is zero. But for all other putts, plumb-bobbing produces a discrete value. That value is an indicator of how much the ball will react around the hole.

Using PBD, Haney developed a computer model on plumb-bobbing. It takes into account varying speeds of greens, the distance of a putt, and the amount of slope (both sideways and up or down). It also takes into account the effect of friction on a putt. When you first stroke a ball, it first slides and then rolls. Both are considered in the computer model. The force of friction causes the ball to slow down. Haney’s goal was to figure out if you could use plumb-bobbin to determine the true amount of the break.

Computer Model Guidelines

After examining lots of examples and producing numerous charts, Haney concludes that for typical green speeds (9 on the Stimpmeter) and level putts (no uphill or downhill slope), the amount of break varies from slightly more that the PDB for gentle slopes to about 1-1/2 times the PBD for steeper slopes.

The above guidelines assume you’re following the Dave Pelz suggestion for leaving your missed putts 17 inches past the cup. If you like to die your putts into the hole, then you need to allow for about 2 to 4 times the PBD for steeper slopes.

For similar conditions, moderate uphill putts break as little as half the PBD. Down hill putts can break anywhere from eight to 10 times the PBD. Obviously, downhill putts break much more than uphill putts. Green speed has much the same effect as uphill and downhill putts. The break is greater for faster greens than for slower ones.

Putting is about feel and information processing. The better feel you have and the more accurate your information processing, the more your chance of being the kind of putter that sports a low golf handicap and that I talk about in my golf tips. Keep in mind, however, that there’s no magic formula for determining the break on a putt. But by experimenting and using PBD as an additional bit of information, you can improve your green-reading skills.

A golf slice is when your ball curves from left to right or vice versa. It can certainly become a nuisance not having control over where your ball goes. Because of this, many golfers are seeking golf slice tips to improve their game.

There are a number of theories as to why a golf ball is sliced, but the most common reasoning is that the ball is struck from the outside to the inside of the target line. Although rather uncommon, it is possible for you to strike the ball from the inside to the outside. This can really be troubling, as it will slice the ball from the right to the left.

Another golf slice tip to help eliminate this frustrating habit is to loosen your grip. Sometimes if your grip is too tight, it makes it difficult for your hands to rotate at impact. This is a simple solution, but many times your grip is combined with another problem as well. If your shoulders aren’t turning and your weight doesn’t shift to the right at the top of the swing for right handed golfers and to the left for left handed golfers, your body will be ahead of the ball. This will cause your club to open at impact and slice the ball.

One way that many people try to compensate for their slicing difficulty is by adjusting the way they line up. For instance, if you are hooking it from left to right, some people will purposely aim further to the left with the hope of ending up in the middle of the fairway. The problem with this is that you are relying on your shot slicing every time and are adjusting to an already annoying problem. To fix a problem with another problem is setting you up for trouble.

The best golf slice tip that I can give you is to practice your stance and the way you shift your weight. The more practice you do on driving ranges and on the golf course, the better chance you will have of correcting your slice. If you can overcome the slice and begin putting the ball on the fairway more, your score will drop a drastic amount. It is frustrating because your slice won’t cure overnight, but with determination and patience you will overcome this nuisance of a problem.

So youve always wanted to play golf but your boss never asked you on a game before? Don’t worry. Everybody can and should enjoy this wonderful sport. Sure, golf can be expensive and hard to learn but if you know what you’re doing you’re up for the time of your life. When you want to play basketball all you need is’ well’ a basket, and a ball. But golf requires more equipment than just a ball. Like in any sports, golf equipment spins an entire industry and you can find anything from clubs to gloves, and they usually come with a nice price tag. So here’s Tip No.1: Don’t spend all your kids’ college money on equipment until you know how to play and if you want to play. Don’t buy a 5000 dollar manatee leather club (it’s illegal!) instead, go for mid range sports manufacturers that sell 100 dollar clubs. Even if you are a pro on the Pirate Mini Golf and you beat your children every time – it doesn’t mean you know how to golf. Tip No.2 will be: take golf lessons. You’ll find group lessons with golfers in your skill range and you might make friends to golf with. There are also individual lessons with a private instructor or your town’s pro golfer. While private lessons focus on your individual skills, they can be quite expensive and take more time than group lessons. Remember that after you get the basics – the real lessons are on the field. Tip No.3 is to continue practicing at home. No, not in your back yard. Golf has much to do with technique and watching instructional videos can help a lot. You can also go online and find many tips and clips that can improve your game. Tips No. 4, 5, 6 : Grip, posture and stance. The three essentials of golf. Grip means how you hold the club and the better you grip the better you play. Posture leads to a proper swing and maintaining balance is essential. Having a stable golf stance and footing will help you control the ball and get it where you want it to go. If you don’t want golf balls flying at your direction, you better know Golf Etiquette and that’s our Tip No.7 ! Golf Etiquette covers the basic golfer’s code that will ensure everybody is having a pleasant time whether they are pros or amateur golfers. Golf Etiquette urges you to be patient and respect your fellow golfers; speak in normal voice and don’t shout or laugh too loud; check your ball number to avoid winning (or loosing) someone else’s game; don’t stand too close to the swing zone of other players and the list goes on and on. Tip No. 8 is to simplify your golf learning process and get the reinforcement you need to sustain the positive advances you make. Work on your swing and short game, and dive deep into the mental aspect of the game, shoring up any weak links you may have found difficult to hurdle with previous instructional techniques.

The sport of golf has been with us for thousands of years. People from every corner of the world have enjoyed the tranquility of a few hours spent out on the golf course. The apparent simplicity of playing the game has fooled many people. It is easy to forget the sportsmanship that is involved in the game as you watch someone who plays the game well. Hitting the ball is not as easy as it seems, as so many people who don’t play seem to think. To become good at golf, you will have to put in a lot of hours practicing. There are no two ways about it. A good understanding of how the whole body is involved in a golf swing is important, also. If you are brand new to the game, the following tips can help your game get off to the right start.

There are lots of ways to get golf shot distance into your game. You could buy the best golf clubs, buy the best golf ball, take professional lessons or work on your flexibility. But the best way to add distance is to have a good solid swing. If you can achieve good swing mechanics then you will be striking the ball cleaner, resulting in golf shot distance. A smooth and concise swing will also increase accuracy, which is the best way to reduce your handicap.

But let’s just take a step back for a moment. Is distance the ultimate way to become a better golf player, or are we deluding ourselves because we just want to out-drive our friends. It might just be the latter, and this could be the reason why we never improve to the best of our ability.

The top two ranked drivers for distance on the PGA tour are, Bubba Watson and Robert Garrigus, with driving averages of 310yrds and 309yrds respectively. Tiger Woods averages 294yrds and is ranked overall the #1 player in the world. Bubba Watson and Robert Garrigus overall rankings are #75 and #273 respectively.

I don’t want to bore you with statistics to get the message across, but I can tell you that Tigers driving accuracy is over 10% better than the two longest drivers on the PGA tour.

Accuracy is the best way to lower your scores and you get accuracy from a repetitive, smooth swing, which feels natural to yourself.

We all need to remember as golfers, that driving is part of the game, but not all the game, and that golf shot distance doesn’t win tournaments. It’s the person that gets the lowest score that wins and feels good about his or her-self.

Moving on from golf shot distance, we all need to think about our golf shot management also. You need to know what golf shots to play at the right times. If you can manage your shot selection correctly, then your scores will reflect the decisions you make.

Example:

So I have just drove my ball into the heavy rough and the ball is sitting down with about 200yrds to the green. I need to make a decision on whether to go for the green in one so I can hit the green in regulation, or whether to play down the fairway for an easy chip onto the green, with a chance to still save par. I know which shot I would take, but how many people do I know that go for the big shot. I can tell you, it’s a lot of people. You can often get into further trouble by taking this long shot on and still not be able to hit the green.

This is just one example, and this example is made all the more real when you remember, that one time, you actually did hit a 200yrd shot, from the rough, with the ball sitting down. We just seem to forget about all the other times that we either topped the ball or took a big chunk out of the golf course.

Golf shot management also comes into play when you are within distance to hit the green. Like par 3’s or within 200yrds on the fairway. To have good golf shot management you need to know how far each of your clubs will go. You can only have consistent distances if you have a consistent swing. Keeping your swing mechanics the same for each club, will give you an indication of the distance the ball will travel. There are other factors included, such as wind and what trajectory you are hitting to, but consistent distance is a major weapon on your side.

Just remember that the game of golf can be very cruel, and sometimes having the ball on the fairway and the correct distance from the green, is better than being closer to the green, but in a world of trouble.

As you are starting to play the great game of golf, everybody and their brother will be attempting to give you beginner golf tips. Trust me I mean everyone. This includes the guys that you are playing with that cannot break 100 themselves! They will become David Leadbetter or Butch Harmon in their own mind of all places right there on the golf course.

You will quickly learn that there is a time and a place to work on your game. The golf course is where you should play and not practice. Work through all of your beginner golf tips while you are practicing on the driving range, short game area or practice putting green.

So with everyone throwing all of these free beginner golf tips at you, how do you know what to trust? Well, I can tell you that I do not ask my fellow golfers about legal or accounting advice. Through golf books, golf DVDs and local golf instruction, there are many credible and qualified sources for you to tap.

Here are two beginner golf tips from Brad Myers who teaches at The Massengale Golf Academy in Houston, Texas:

Beginner golf tips: Short Game

Opposed to popular belief and actions, if you want to learn how to play the game of golf or if you have played for a long time and want to lower your handicap, learn how to chip and putt. It may not seem as macho or as sexy to learn all of these little short shots as opposed to standing on the driving range banging out long shots. No matter what your current handicap is, if you want to lower your golf scores learn all aspects of the short game. This will drop your scores faster than standing on a driving range for a long period of time week after week.

Here is a question that may put how important the short game is and can help put it into perspective for you. Once your round is finished, do you want to give your buddy a hard time about the one drive you hit past him/her or do you want to brag about the lower score that you shot? Speaking from experience, the ribbing about how your buddy hit one past you is pretty short-lived as he is paying you for winning the bet of lowest score.

One last thought about the short game for you is to make sure you arrive early enough to spend some time on the putting green putting and chipping before your round. You do not need to spend thirty minutes there. You just need to hit enough putts and chip shots to get a good feeling going prior to your round.

Beginner golf tips: Have fun

Unfortunately, most people will tell you that they play the game for fun or to relax but their actions simply do not say the same thing. Especially while you are learning the game, you should set little goals for your rounds or practice time. Sometimes they are not even to do anything with golf. You simply cannot concentrate for four to five hours straight. Maybe it is to play with certain people to enjoy their company or maybe you try to identify different birds or wildlife. Remember it is to be fun for you!

Using these beginner golf tips will help you reach your playing goals and fun goals!

Looking to improve or maintain a respectable golf handicap, who isn’t? A low golf handicap is difficult to achieve and especially difficult to keep up if you’re not lucky enough to play on a regular basis. One proven solution is the use of golf training aids. What training aids work best? Each golfer should look at what part of their golf game needs improvement, putting, chipping, ball striking, distance, swing, or overall inconsistencies. While I love the game, overall inconsistencies is my problem.

Many average golfers want to go see how the pros do it when a professional golf tour comes to their area. Although golf seems to be a spectator sport that plays better on television, golf enthusiasts should go experience a live event at least once. Here are some tips and information that may help you. Most professional golf events have websites that can answer frequently asked questions.

Most professional events allow you to purchase tickets on a per-day basis, or sell ticket packages for the duration of the event. For most PGA Tour, LPGA and Champions Tour events, expect to pay around $30 for a single day ticket, and around $75 for a four-day pass.

If you wish to attend a Nationwide Tour Event, single-day tickets cost about $10, with week long event packages in the $30 range. Major tournaments will likely cost a little more to attend. It is important to check with the particular event you will be attending to determine what you can and cannot bring to the course with you (esp. refreshments, chairs and cameras).

Backpacks are usually allowed as long as they are carrying towels, sunscreen and clothing. Generally, you will want to travel light, since it will be a long day, and you will likely be walking several miles. Dress comfortably, protect yourself from the sun with sunglasses, a hat, and sunscreen.

Parking and Accommodations. Again, you should check with the event regarding parking. Because many country clubs and golf courses that host professional events are located in suburban neighborhoods, parking may be limited. Field or roadside parking may be available, but in many cases, spectators will need to park at a remote location and ride a shuttle to the golf course.

The tournament website should also list nearby hotels that will likely provide shuttle service to and from the course etiquette. Because golf is a gentlemans game, it should be respect as such. Silence is golden, and spectators should not talk while a golfer is preparing to swing, take pictures during a golfers swing, or talk to a golfer in between his or her shots.

Stay outside of designated boundaries, do not touch a ball that has been hit into the gallery, and although there may be a mad scramble to surround a miss hit ball, use common sense to avoid standing in an area between the golfers miss hit ball and his next target.

Failure to follow proper spectator etiquette can get you expelled from the course without a refund.