Length Becomes a Premium

Without a doubt, when a golf course is wet, it plays longer, sometimes significantly. Just about all shots will roll less after landing, if they even roll at all.

On a wet course, club selection is critical. Depending on how much water the course is holding, it may make club selection very easy. If it’s wet enough where you’re seeing little or no roll on shots, then you simply play to the full shot distance. In other words, if you normally account for some roll after a shot lands, you’re going to want to play the shot to land where you would normally expect it to finish rolling.

Adjust Your Course Management Plan

You really need to consider the makeup of your course and how it handles water when you’re trying to come up with a course management plan for the round.

Consider my course, for instance. When it’s holding a lot of water, the fairways and rough get very saturated. So much so, that you can hear the turf squishing as you walk. On the other hand, the greens were very well made and drain well. Most times, the greens dry out much faster than the rest of the course.

This adds a wrinkle to my course management plan on wet days. I have to account for shorter shots off the tee and less distance on lay-ups. When it comes to approach shots, though, unless the rain was very recent, the greens will react much like they would on a normal day (at least until they get hard during the hottest stretches of summer).

It’s a minor point, but something worthy of consideration. You have to adjust your plan to your course and to the way it plays during wet conditions.

Tend to Your Hardware

Water and mud can have a serious effect on the quality of the shots you’re able to hit. The big thing to be aware of is the presence of mud on the ball. See below for some of the rule implications, but in general, if the Rules allow you to clean the ball, then do so. Mud stuck on the ball will affect its flight.

On the putting green, a little mud on the ball will have a more profound effect. It will tend to pull a putt off line, and with such a small target, it can mean the difference between missing a putt or making it. In Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible, he describes his experiments where he moved a ball’s center of gravity (from mud being applied to the surface). He showed that, depending on how drastic the center of gravity moves (how much mud is on the ball), a putt of 9 feet can be guided several inches off line. That is more than sufficient to miss a putt.

Another thing to consider when playing in wet conditions is that you’re keeping the grooves on your clubs clean. The grooves will tend to fill with water and mud, reducing the amount of spin that they impart on the ball. Make it a habit to clean your club’s grooves after each shot, making sure to towel off excess water. One gotcha to avoid – picking up water, mud, and grass on practice swings. Be sure that you clean off anything picked up during a practice swing before attempting the real shot.

Rules Implications

When the course is wet, there are a few rules implications to keep in mind.

One situation you’re much more likely to encounter on a wet golf course is an embedded ball. Luckily, Rule 26-2 addresses this. When a ball is embedded in its own pitch mark in any closely mown area through the green (basically anything mowed to fairway height or less, except for the tee or green), you can lift, clean, and drop the ball.

You may have noticed sometimes when watching golf on television, that they play “lift, clean, and place” when the course is wet. The Rules of Golf provide for the ability for the Committee to create a local rule to handle this situation. It is covered in Appendix I, Section 4b. Remember that in the absence of a local rule, you must play the ball as it lies.

Another provision in the Rules that you definitely want to be aware of is the allowance for relief from casual water. Casual water is temporary water on a golf course that is not within a hazard. Casual water may be visible either before or after you take your stance. Just to confuse things a little, snow and natural ice are either casual water or loose impediments, artificial ice is an obstruction, and dew and frost are ??????not considered casual water.

If you find yourself affected by casual water, refer to Rule 25-1 for the proper relief procedures. Depending on the extent of the casual water, you may prefer to play the ball as it lies. For instance, if the nearest point of relief puts you at a disadvantage, you might just choose to not take relief.

Knowing is Half the Battle

Playing golf in wet conditions holds the possibility for bad scores, but nothing is written in stone. Understand the situation and adapt. Adjust your course management plan, tend to your equipment, and let the Rules work for you and you’ll be able to overcome the little twist that the weather has thrown at you and shoot a good score.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Playing Golf in Wet Conditions

That doesn’t mean that your golf game has to go dormant. Sure, getting to play or hit balls at the range might not be possible, but there are many things you can do to keep your game in shape and emerge from your cocoon in spring with a running start.

Here are seven things you can do to improve yourself over the winter:

Start working out more

Time is no excuse. If you’re not playing golf, then fill the time void with some workout sessions. Concentrate on cardiovascular endurance and strength training. Check out my blogroll and links section for some great golf fitness resources to help you with ideas for off season workouts.

Start a golf-specific stretching program

This goes along with general workouts, but doing several stretching sessions per week at the gym, at home, or at your desk at work will help to defeat the off-season rust that keeps you off your game in early spring. Focus on your back, hips, legs, and shoulders.

Increasing your flexibility and range of motion will improve your game any time, but for those of us with desk jobs, the fall and winter are particularly bad because we’re not doing the activities like golf that help keep us somewhat flexible. When we don’t tend to it for a while, we lose it.

Drop those extra pounds

Gaining weight in the winter is often blamed on the various holidays. But if you think about it, a few “naughty” days in the fall/winter aren’t going to put 20 pounds on you.

What happens in many cases is, throughout the summer you’re essentially bailing water out of a sinking boat. You’re not eating right, but you play enough golf and go other activities that keep you from slipping behind. Then, cold weather hits, and you start losing ground because the activity stops.

By the way, I’m guilty.

Resolve to start eating better and that coupled with increased workouts will melt the pounds.

Mike Pedersen did a post covering weight loss tips for golfers recently.

Bring Your Putter into the House

Get your putter out of your trunk, garage, or closet and spend ten minutes per day working on grooving your stroke. If you have a floor that’s suitable for putting balls, then go for it. If not, work without a ball.

Try working on your pure in line square (pils) technique. Set up right in front of a wall and use it to ensure that you take the putter back and through with a square face. Remember that your hands should be directly underneath your shoulders (or technically under the midpoint between them).

Make Use of That Mirror

If you have a full length mirror, it’s an invaluable tool. Use it to check your posture, alignment, stance, etc. Make a backswing and inspect your technique. See if you’re getting to a proper position. Practice chipping and pitching strokes in front of it.

Using a mirror really helps to tell the difference between feel and real.

Catch Up On Some Reading

Obviously, you’ll be here, reading Life in the Rough many, many times each day. Well, I will, anyway. Refer to my blogroll for some other good online golf resources.

Sometimes, nothing fills the void like a paper book. Use some winter down time to learn more about how to play better golf. Anything that says “Pelz” and “Bible” on the cover will help your game, but there are tons of great golf books out there.

Have a look at my book reviews category for some ideas.

A few suggestions for winter reading:

• Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible
• Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible
• Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book
• Golf is Not a Game of Perfect

Work On Your Grip

Are you planning on sitting on the couch watching football all weekend? Have a club sitting there and work on your grip every once in a while.

There are some articles over at About.com to help you learn proper grip technique.

Once you learn the proper fundamentals, you can work on them all winter long. While watching television!

Another thing about the grip that I’d suggest working on: at the top of the backswing, sometimes there is a tendency for the hands to not stay together and work as a single unit. If you have trouble in this area, take some time to get into your backswing position and work on that issue.

And, because I like you guys so much, here’s a bonus tip. That’s right! Eight tips for the price of seven!

Go on a Golf Getaway

If you can manage it, get out of the cold and take a golf vacation. For people in the United States, there are a ton of places you can go and play golf in the winter, and probably for less money than you think.

There’s no better way to combat off season rust than by escaping the off season!

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Further Reading:

Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible (Life in the Rough)
Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible (Life in the Rough)
Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book (Life in the Rough)
Golf is Not a Game of Perfect (Life in the Rough)
Articles on Proper Grip Technique (About.com)
Pure in Line Square (pils) Putting Stroke (Life in the Rough)
Weight Loss Tips for Golfers (Mike Pedersen Golf)

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

7 Ways to Improve Over the Winter

On each of the previous five days, I posted a series of tips, drills, and information designed to address every aspect of your (and my own) golf game.

It was an awful lot of material so I wanted to create a summary post to kind of capture everything that was included. Use the links below if you missed any of the days and want to catch up, or if you want to use this an index of the week, for future reference.

Total Golf Game Improvement Week: Day 1

• Putting: spice up putting practice with the “Around the Green” game.
• Short Game: try the “second ball” drill to encourage more crisp chipping.
• Recovery: hitting from thick rough.
• Course Management: stop under-clubbing.
• Driving: setting your hands behind the ball at address to encourage a slightly ascending blow.
• Sand Play: the “point of entry” sand bunker drill.
• Mental Game: creating a pre-shot routine.
• Fitness: do the “side plank” exercise to increase core strength.
• Iron Play: stop hanging on your right side for too long. Get over to the left sooner for better ball striking.

Total Golf Game Improvement Week: Day 2

• Putting: what is the optimal speed for putts?
• Short Game: splashing the ball from greenside rough.
• Recovery: hitting from hardpan lies.
• Course Management: using the teeing area to your advantage.
• Driving: right knee stability to increase the “X-Factor” and gain distance and consistency.
• Sand Play: dealing with buried lies in sand bunkers.
• Mental Game: end your pre-round warm-up on a good note.
• Fitness: the importance of nutrition in golf and in life.
• Iron Play: cure your shanks.

Total Golf Game Improvement Week: Day 3

• Putting: gain putting consistency and confidence through repetition: The 100-putt drill.
• Short Game: for chipping consistency, try the “swinging over a shaft” drill.
• Recovery: ball landed in shallow water? Think about playing it!
• Course Management: using your natural shot type for a hole, even if it was designed with another type in mind.
• Driving: increase your lag and increase your distance.
• Sand Play: hitting from fairway bunkers.
• Mental Game: visualize each shot.
• Fitness: improve your cardio workouts with High Intensity Interval Training – HIIT.
• Iron Play: put a ball under the outside edge of your right foot during practice to help you stop swaying too much during the backswing.

Total Golf Game Improvement Week: Day 4

• Putting: groove the pure in line square (pils) putting stroke with the help of a training aid.
• Short Game: do the “towel drill” to feel synchronization in your upper and lower body during finesse wedge shots.
• Recovery: hitting the ball when your backswing is restricted.
• Course Management: don’t be tempted by sucker pins.
• Driving / Iron Play: kill your slice – once and for all.
• Sand Play: the basic sand shot.
• Mental Game: around the practice green, use a single ball.
• Fitness: target golf-specific strength and flexibility by swinging a weighted club.

Total Golf Game Improvement Week: Day 5

• Putting: you don’t read enough break on putts – even if you think you do.
• Short Game: use two old club shafts to help fix your swing plane on wedge shots, for more consistency.
• Recovery: use a punch shot to keep the ball under tree limbs.
• Course Management: don’t be fooled by “false fronts” on greens.
• Driving: a simple but effective swing thought to use when driving: “clip the tee”.
• Sand Play: if the conditions are right, consider chipping the ball from greenside bunkers.
• Mental Game: the art of gamesmanship.
• Fitness: for better on-course performance, and better health in general, don’t let yourself get dehydrated.
• Iron Play: keep you weight from hanging on the right side too long with a simple thought: try to get the feeling of your right knee passing the ball at the same time as your hands.

I hope you found Total Game Improvement Week useful. For me, it was like cramming for a test, so I got a lot out of it. I hope you’re able to get over whatever golf plateau you’re stuck at right now. Keep plugging away and it will come with time and hard work.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Total Game Improvement Week: Recap

This is day five of total game improvement week. Each day for the past week (OK, five days), I posted a series of tips, drills, advice, and information designed to help every aspect of your game.

I haven’t gotten much response on the request for reader submitted tips, so tomorrow I’m just going to wrap it up with a recap of the week.

But first, we have one more day’s worth of tips, drills, and info.

Putting

One of the fascinating things that Dave Pelz shares in his Putting Bible is the fact that his research shows that golfers rarely read enough break on putts.

In fact, he tested 1,500 golfers, including 50 tour pros, and not one was reading enough break on their putts. Not even the tour pros!

When we talk break, we’re talking about the line where you start the ball, if it were extended past the hole. If a putt requires three feet of break, we’d say that the apex (high point) of the arc was three feet to either side of the hole. He found that most players, when asked to relate how much break they were playing, in fact only accounted for about 30% of the true break.

Even more staggering is that after his test subjects stated the amount of break they were playing, he measured their body and putter face alignment and found that they were still playing too little break, but that they were actually allowing for 65-75% of the true break, or more than double what they “thought” they were.

So how do golfers make any putts? Subconscious stroke corrections. During the stroke, they actually make subconscious corrections that then push them to 85-95% of the true break.

The question remains: how do golfers make any putts? By getting lucky bounces through footprints, or by stroking putts too hard.

Don’t believe it? Next time you play, write down how many putts you miss to the low side of the hole. Unfortunately, most players chalk that up to improper speed. Certainly that’s the case sometimes. But if you’re not missing some to the high side too, then there’s another problem. You can’t be hitting them all too softly, right?

The way to overcome the problem is by grooving a simple, repeatable pure inline square (pils) putting stroke that’s free from subconscious corrections. Then, you should start seeing how much you really under-read the break.

Short Game

Striking wedge shots crisply is critical for scoring. As we know, scoring happens within 100 yards. The closer you hit that wedge, the better the chances that you’ll make a birdie on a hole.

One fault that can creep in during finesse wedge swings is taking the club too far inside on the back swing. By that, I mean instead of taking it back and up in a nice arc, you roll your hands open and get the club head and hands moving way inside behind the body.

Since you’re standing closer to the ball and wedges are more upright, you should be taking the club back and through in a more upright plane.

I found a good drill to work on this in David Leadbetter’s Faults and Fixes book.

To do it, get two old club shafts (or anything of similar nature with a pointy end that can be stuck in the ground, like an umbrella).

Take your normal wedge stance and stick one of the shafts in the ground about two feet outside your right foot, in line with your right heel. Take the other shaft and put it two feet outside your left foot, in line with your left heel.

Take some swings with your wedge, concentrating on not hitting either shaft. You’ll need to take the club up a little more upright than you might be used to. After you feel comfortable, hit some shots like that. Getting that plane right will help you hit crisp wedges.

Recovery

Too often, we hit shots off the mark and end up in the trees. There might be a lane, but low-hanging limbs make it impossible to hit a regular shot. This is where a good punch shot proves its worth.

The first key to remember is that to keep the ball down, the most important factor is spin. That means you have to take more club and swing easier. The hard your swing, the more spin you’ll put on the ball, and the higher it will go.

If you’re an 8-iron away from the green, then take two more clubs. Play the ball in the center of your stance (or even slightly behind center), choke down on the club, set your hands a little ahead of the ball, and take a nice, easy swing. Your backswing should be about 3/4 of your normal length, and the follow through should be shorter as well. The hands should finish fairly low in the follow through.

The decreased loft and reduced spin will keep the ball down and get it under the branches. Try some punches on the driving range to get the feel of how low you can keep the ball as well as how far you can carry a punch with each club.

Course Management

One of the trickiest features that golf course designers like to use is the “false front” on elevated greens.

When you’re standing down the hill looking up, you might see the top of the flag and it will appear that the green starts right at the crest of the hill. Unfortunately, sometimes the green actually starts many yards beyond the top of the hill. The front may be guarded by bunkers or rough.

The only defense against the false front is trust in your yardage. When you look at the shot, your mind tells you that the yardage is way too long because the top of the hill looks much closer. That’s because it is.

Uphill shots already require more club to get there, then when you start doubting the yardage you give yourself little chance of getting on the green.

It helps to know in advance that a green has a false front, but if it’s you’re first time at a course you might not. If you can do so without delaying play, walk or ride up and have a look. Then trust and absolutely commit to your yardage. Don’t forget to allow for the uphill shot with a little more club.

Driving

A simple but effective driving tip I try to use in my own driving is the thought of “clip the tee”. I believe that’s another gem from Harvey Penick’s writings, but I can’t recall for certain.

Instead of trying to think of planes and hitting the ball, just try and clip the tee. That will release your mind from worrying about the act of hitting the ball and let you simply swing through it.

Normally when I strike the ball, I instantly know if I caught it thinly. Before I even look down, I know the tee is still sitting in the ground, totally undisturbed. When I concentrate on clipping the tee out of the ground, I tend to strike the ball much better.

Sand Play

If you have a tough time with typical greenside sand play technique, there may be an alternative. If you’re close enough to the green, have a good lie, and the bunker has little or no lip, then you can try and chip the ball, as if it were on the short grass.

There is little margin for error on this shot, but if you really struggle with the blast shot, then it might work.

Take some practice swings and get the feel of where your head and left arm are during the swing. They must be kept at a constant height (in other words, no dipping down or lifting up during the stroke).

Play the ball back half and inch from the center of your stance and use your normal chipping swing. Practice it first to get a feel for it. Under the right circumstances, the shot may come in handy.

Mental Game

One of my favorite topics is gamesmanship. When you’re playing a match, it’s not about just hitting shots, posting a score, and hoping it’s good enough to win. You’re playing against someone.

Gamesmanship is all about gaining the mental advantage over your opponent. It’s not about cheating or breaches in etiquette, it’s about getting in your opponent’s head and throwing him off his game.

Back in April, I covered gamesmanship, and followed it up with gamesmanship revisited.

Fitness

Summer time is peak golf season. I know I don’t mind playing when it’s really hot out. Heat leads to sweat, and sweat leads to dehydration.

There are studies that show that in general, we don’t drink enough water. Tack on physical exertion and we’re really in a deficit. A 4+ hour round in the heat of summer can lead to serious dehydration.

Not only will you feel terrible after your round, but dehydration can lead to headaches, cramping, fatigue, and other things that can degrade your on-course performance and even cause more serious problems.

I try to drink at least half a gallon of water a day on days when I’m not doing anything, and on days when I’m working out and/or playing golf, it’s much, much more.

If you know you’re going to be playing, exercising, or anything else that will dehydrate you, drink water well before the activity and continue drinking during and after. Once you start to feel parched, it’s too late. You’re already dehydrated at that point.

Stay hydrated and you’ll feel (and perform) better.

Iron Play

One of my major swing faults is that I tend to hang back on my right side too long. I get my weight to the left too late in the swing, causing a loss in power and some other issues.

One swing thought my pro gave me that helps me to correct that is trying to have my right knee and hands pass the ball together on the down swing. When I’m having trouble, my hands pass the ball at impact and my weight is still on my right leg.

When I get the feeling of getting off that leg and driving my right knee to the target along with my hands, I’m able to get my weight on my left side and start striking the ball much more solidly. It means that my weight has transferred and my hips are opened up, allowing for a much more consistent, powerful strike.
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Further Reading:

Gamesmanship (Life in the Rough)
Gamesmanship Revisited (Life in the Rough)

Previous Installments:

Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 1 (Life in the Rough)
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 2 (Life in the Rough)
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 3 (Life in the Rough)
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 4 (Life in the Rough)

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Total Game Improvement Week: Day 5

Don’t forget to e-mail me your favorite tips and drills from any of the different categories for inclusion in the post on day-six.

Putting

Recently, I’ve touted the pure in line square (pils) putting stroke which is one of the core fundamentals of Dave Pelz’s teaching. The basic idea is that creating a perfectly vertical pendulum motion with your hands directly below your shoulders will help keep the putter face square, eliminating inconsistency coming from trying to square the face at just the right time.

So how do you work on grooving the pils putting stroke? A good training aid is your best option. There are a few alternatives:

• Dave Pelz has designed a training aid called the Putting Track, to help groove the pils stroke. I’ve considered trying it, but unfortunately it’s a bit pricey at $99.95.

The other possibilities will require you to get a little creative:

• One option is to use a wall. Set up with the end up your putter right next to a wall and practice your stroke there. Make sure the putter doesn’t get any closer or further from the wall during the stroke.
• Another option is to use a couple of straight pieces of wood to make a “track” of your own to putt in. Put them just far enough apart so your putter can move freely during the stroke. Make sure they have uniform edges and that they are perfectly parallel to each other. When you practice your stroke, ensure that neither the heel nor toe of the putter touches the wood any time during the stroke.

Short Game

In general, when you make finesse wedge shots (from within 100 yards), you want to make sure your upper and lower body are synchronized. That is, they turn back and through together. There is no firing the hips or unwinding of anything. Those are power moves. You want finesse, not power.

A good drill to help feel the connection during your finesse swing is to place a towel across your chest, under each armpit. Take some half-wedge swings (9:00 swings on the Pelz clock, or left arm parallel to the ground and club shaft vertical for non-Pelz followers). As you turn back and through, keep the arms by the body to make sure the towel stays in place. Take note of the feeling of connectedness of your legs, hips, torso, and shoulders.

This will help you make more crisp, consistent wedge shots.

Recovery

Have you ever ended up in a spot on the course where your backswing is restricted? Where if you take a normal practice swing, you’ll hit a tree or bush or some other kind of non-obstruction?

In his Short Game Bible, Dave Pelz shares a technique he calls “cock-it-first” to handle these situations.

From a normal setup, without moving any other part of your body, just cock your wrists. That should bring the club up in front of you. From there, just turn like you normally would for the swing and the hands will move around in their normal backswing position. Then, simply hit the shot.

This works because a normal backswing requires a wider arc. Cocking the wrists first eliminates that. On the downswing, your wrists stay cocked until right around the strike, so you can clear the obstacle.

You’ll want to practice it a few times first and it’s not something you’re going to use every round, but when you need it, you’ll be glad it’s in your arsenal.

Course Management

As someone who worked in golf course maintenance for four seasons, I can tell you that the term “sucker pin” is no exaggeration. Pins tucked in corners on greens close to bunkers or hazards or even just near the edge of the green are just that: for suckers.

During tournaments, they’re placed there to make players take unnecessary risks and to expose players with poor course management skills. During normal play, they’re mostly for the amusement of the maintenance staff (at least in the crew I was on).

I can tell you from personal experience that I would actually place sucker pins and go out when I was done for the day and observe people playing to them. Maybe a little twisted, but man it was a riot.

Unless you absolutely, positively need to make up ground in a tournament, then leave those sucker pins alone. Hit for the fat part of the green and get down in two putts and get out of there. It’s the only way to beat the devious maintenance crew.

Driving/Iron Play

I wanted to put driving and iron play together today to address probably the biggest problem in golf: the slice.

I forget the exact number, but I read somewhere once that something like 80% of amateurs slice the ball. Maybe it was counting high handicappers, but either way, that’s still a lot of people.

Back in July, I spent several days covering the slice and how to beat it. If you have trouble slicing, have a look at the series. It’ll take a while to get through, but if you can stop slicing, it will be well worth it. There are some external resources in there as well, so there should be plenty of information to help you understand what causes slices and what can cure them.

The “cure your slice” week posts:

• Banish Your Slice
• Causes For the “Over the Top” Move
• Other Factors That Lead to Slicing
• Combat Your Slice

Sand Play

I see people who have way to much tension and anxiety when playing from the sand. I think part of the problem is that playing the shot like you’d play it from the fairway isn’t going to work and the shot you should use might not be well understood.

On the PGA Tour, the top sand save percentages for 2007 so far are a little over 60%, with most of the players coming in over 50%. That means that an average PGA Tour player gets up and down from the sand 50% of the time, or better. Another way to look at it is, on the whole, sand is a little over half a stroke penalty assuming it doesn’t take them more than two putts to get down (certainly it does occasionally, but probably not enough to skew the basic point).

That includes all sorts of lies and stances in bunkers. I’m willing to bet that for a good lie in the bunker, when a good stance is possible, and the pin is reasonably accessible, that percentage is much higher.

The bottom line is, don’t be afraid of the sand. Learn the technique, practice it some, and you’ll realize that it’s easier than you think. Also understand that if Tour players are losing half a stroke from the sand, we can’t beat up on ourselves for not elevating our play to that level. Understand the shot and lose the tension and fear.

The basic sand shot requires some minor setup adjustments. Once you’re in a proper setup, the technique is simple. Back in May, I covered the basic sand shot as part of “Beach Week”, a series of sand-centric posts.

Mental Game

One of my favorite mental game tips comes from Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book. This is a practice tip, not so much an on-course thing but its real purpose is mental development.

He would have his students practice around the greens with a single ball. I’ve been doing this for years, and I recommend it. I rarely use more than one ball. Only for special drills like the 100-putt drill and others where reusing the same ball would take a long time.

The reasoning is that on the course, you play a single ball that you’re tasked with getting down from where ever you hit it last. You’re not going to have the opportunity to duff a chip and rake over another ball and try again. You’re not going to be able to lag up a putt ten feet short and drop another one.

You’ll be training your mind to take each one seriously and to make each one count. I guarantee that I can make a 12-foot putt after a few tries in a row. On the course, I get exactly one try.

Another component of this idea is to make sure to get that single ball in the hole every time. If you chip on, then make the putt. On the course, you’re not going to pick up and go to the next hole. You’re going to have to make a one footer, or three footer, or even a ten footer.

This idea might seem like a waste of time, but realize that the point of practice is to prepare you to play. The closer you can mentally match the conditions you’ll face on the course, the better prepared you’ll be. Sure, maybe you can hit 500 rapid-fire chips in a practice session, but hitting 50 and making every single one count might provide more benefit.

Fitness

There are so many aspects to proper fitness: cardio health, nutrition, strength, etc. All these are important for golf and for life.

Targeting the golf swing specifically can get complex with standard strength training and flexibility workouts. This tip also comes from Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book: swing a weighted club to build golf strength and flexibility. It’s not a replacement for standard fitness programs, but it’s the best way to target the golf swing.

This is a great way to add length to your swing and to strengthen the arms and core muscles that control the club during the swing. There are many commercial variants of the weighted club out there to choose from.

Here are some variations of the Momentus swing trainer at TGW.com, and here are a couple of weighted clubs from Golf-Trainer.com.

Take smooth, controlled swings with the weighted club and you’ll start building up the strength and length needed to help your golf swing.

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Further Reading:

Pure in Line Square (pils) Putting Stroke (Life in the Rough)

Series on curing your slice: (Life in the Rough)

• Banish Your Slice
• Causes For the “Over the Top” Move
• Other Factors That Lead to Slicing
• Combat Your Slice

The Basic Sand Shot (Life in the Rough)
Momentus Swing Trainers (TGW.com)
Weighted Clubs (Golf-Trainer.com)
Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible Review (Life in the Rough)

Previous Installments:

Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 1 (Life in the Rough)
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 2 (Life in the Rough)
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 3 (Life in the Rough)

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Total Game Improvement Week: Day 4

Each day for a week, I’ll be posting a series of tips, drills, advice, and information designed to help every aspect of your game. I want us all to make one final push to get over whatever humps are in the way before the year is out.

Don’t forget to e-mail me your favorite tips and drills from any of the different categories for inclusion in the post on day-six.

Putting

How many times have you missed a three or four foot putt? Probably too many.

One of my favorite drills to groove a confident, consistent stroke is the 100-putt drill. This is the one that Phil Mickelson was shown by Jackie Burke Jr.

Check back to my earlier post on repetition to read more on the 100-putt drill. Basically, you find a hole on the practice green and ring five or ten balls around it, three feet out. Then start sinking them until you miss. When you miss, start over again from one. The goal is to make 100 in a row.

That drill will absolutely help you groove your stroke and build confidence to help you make more short putts.

Short Game

When you set up to chip, the ideal position to be in is with your feet relatively close together and turned slightly toward the target (not perpendicular to the target line). You should have at least 65% of your weight on your forward foot. Your hands should be set up ahead of the ball at address. The ball should be opposite your left ankle.

To check your setup, David Leadbetter has a great drill in his Faults and Fixes book that you can do. Lay a club just outside your back foot so that the shaft is laying across (perpendicular to) the target line. From there, you should be able to make your chipping swing and clear the shaft on the back swing and down swing.

This will help groove a more consistent chipping swing.

Recovery

It’s no fun hitting into a water hazard. But what about if your ball is only partially submerged? Think about playing it!

The shot plays very similar to a bunker shot.

In his Short Game Bible, Dave Pelz recommends the following:

• If the ball is less than 1/3 submerged, open the face all the way and play the ball forward. Expect it to fly out like a bunker shot with less spin.
• If the ball is 2/3 submerged, open the face about 45 degrees and play it a little further back
• If the ball is completely under water, square the face, play it back even more, and swing hard.

Course Management

When architects design courses, each hole is designed to play a certain way (maybe with more than one option). When you look at a hole that isn’t straight, naturally you’ll think about trying to shape the ball to meet the demands of the hole.

However, if you can’t reliably turn the ball both ways, then consider just playing to your strong suit and going from there.

If your natural shot is a fade and you can’t draw the ball with confidence, then just go with the fade, even if the hole was designed for a draw. You might not be in an optimal position off the tee, but you’ll have less chance of getting into real trouble.

Stick with the shot that gives you confidence, even if it doesn’t seem to be suited for the hole.

Driving

Casting, or “hitting from the top” is a major power drain for some players.

At the top of the back swing, your wrists should be fully cocked. As you start down, this wrist cock should stay the same or even increase. Sometimes there is a tendency to uncock the wrists too early, causing a huge drain in power.

Maintain that wrist cock, or lag, for as long as possible in the down swing. If you watch video (or photos) of long hitters, they maintain that lag until the last possible second.

Here’s a video of Sergio Garcia’s swing with the driver. Note as he approaches impact how his hands are starting to pass the ball yet his driver shaft is still almost parallel with the ground.

As you start down from the backswing, the hips start to shift and open but the hands start to drop almost simultaneously. The hips open and the torso should follow with the shoulders unwinding right up to (and through) the hit. Your chest should stay ahead of your hands through impact. Your hands should be following behind with all that lag saved up, ready for an explosive uncocking of the wrists at impact.

Watch that video a couple of hundred times if you want to see how power is generated in the golf swing.

Sand Play

I’m not a fan of fairway bunkers. They’re much more punishing than green-side bunkers, in my opinion, mostly because the margin for error is smaller. The fact that it’s typically a much longer shot means that small errors are more magnified.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter much what we think of them. Sooner or later they’re going to be there to try and ruin the day.

Luckily, the adjustments required for a shot out of a fairway bunker are minor. The keys to remember are a stable lower body and a controlled swing. We’re not looking to drive with the legs. Play the ball a little further back than normal and take a smooth swing.

I covered the technique for hitting out of fairway bunkers in more detail back in early June. Check it out for the whole run down.

Mental Game

One of the biggest keys to good shot making is visualization of every shot.

Before stepping up the ball, you should have a plan for the shot. What club are you going to hit? How far do you want it to go? What trajectory do you want the ball to follow?

See the shot in your mind, exactly how you expect it to happen. The more detail, the better.

Not only will this help you to make more precise shots, but it will help you evaluate your misses better. If your only goal is to hit the fairway, then how can you judge whether the shot was perfect or whether it was just marginally acceptable?

Fitness

This year, I got smart about my cardio workouts. I started doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). It’s more effective for fat burning and shows better results for less time investment.

Instead of doing moderate cardio for a long period, the idea is to do short bursts of very intense activity.

I covered my introduction to HIIT back in June. With a couple of nagging injuries, I haven’t had a good workout in a while. If all goes well, by the time you read this, I should have resumed my HIIT workouts and be back on my way to proper weight loss and cardio health.

Iron Play

For crisp, consistent iron shots, it’s important to not let your weight shift to the outside of your trailing foot on the back swing (really this applies to any shot). If you have too much sway going back (if your right hip gets out past your right foot), it means that you have to have a bigger lateral shift in the opposite direction to get over to the left side (for a right hander). This creates inconsistency.

A good drill to get the feel for the correct action is to place a ball under the outside edge of your right foot at address. This will keep your from swaying too much to the right and getting your weight onto the outside edge of your foot.

Hit some practice shots like that to get the feeling of a proper weight transfer that is restricted a bit and keeps your weight on the inside of your right foot on the backswing. That should give you an easier time transitioning over to the left without so much sway and lateral shifting.

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Further Reading:

Repetition – the 100-putt drill (Life in the Rough)
Fairway Bunker Technique (Life in the Rough)
High Intensity Interval Training – HIIT (Life in the Rough)
Review of Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible (Life in the Rough)

Previous Installments:

Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 1 (Life in the Rough)
Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 2 (Life in the Rough)

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Total Game Improvement Week: Day 3

Each day for a week, I’ll be posting a series of tips, drills, advice, and information designed to help every aspect of your game. I want us all to make one final push to get over whatever humps are in the way before the year is out.

Don’t forget to e-mail me your favorite tips and drills from any of the different categories for inclusion in the post on day-six.

Putting

There are many points of view about how much speed a putt should have when it approaches the hole. Some prefer to be firm, and others prefer to have the putt die at the hole and just turn over and fall in.

But what’s really optimal?

Dave Pelz has determined through testing that you should give a putt enough pace so that if the hole were covered and the ball couldn’t fall in the cup, that the ball would continue on 17 inches past.

Through extensive experimentation, he has found that this speed is optimal for countering the “lumpy donut” effect (the area of high footprint traffic damage around the cup). Putting with enough speed to get 17 inches past will give the best chance of staying on line through the lumpy donut but still have the best chance of falling if the ball hits the hole.

As the saying goes, “never up, never in”. Well, just shoot for 17 inches past to have the best chance of being up and in.

Short Game

It’s pretty easy to miss the green by a couple of yards and end up in some thick, well-manicured rough. It may not be the nasty 6-inch stuff, but the ball can still sit down, leaving a delicate pitch or chip to the hole.

One alternative from the Life in the Rough archives that you can use to get the ball on the putting surface is to splash it out of the rough, similar to a shot from the sand.

Recovery

Every once in a while, we end up with hardpan lies on the golf course. These are spots where there is little or no grass and the dirt is packed down, making a fairly hard surface.

Fortunately, these shots aren’t too difficult to handle.

Simply play the ball back in your stance a couple of inches and try and make contact with the ball and the ground at the same time.

If you hit the ground too early, and you’re using a club with a lot of bounce, chances are that the bounce will skip the club off the ground and you’ll end up skulling the ball. Or, if you don’t have much bounce, you could dig in a bit, causing a chili dip.

You should expect a shot that flies a little lower and has a decent amount of spin.

Here’s an article by Dave Pelz that gives some more information about hitting from hardpan, including impenetrable hardpan (i.e. asphalt). He suggests using an almost wrist-free wedge swing to lessen the chances of hitting the ground too soon.

Course Management

How much thought do you give to which side of the tee you play from on each hole?

If it’s not part of your course management strategy, then you may not be leaving yourself in optimal position off the tee on every hole.

This article from the Life in the Rough archives will help you understand why it’s important to use the tee to your advantage.

Driving

Logically, it might seem like generating more power and thus longer drives is a result of more turn. However, Jim McLean has discovered that it’s not the amount of turn you can muster, but it’s the amount your shoulders turn in relation to your hips.

He dubbed that “The X Factor”.

The key is creating more resistance in your body’s coil during the swing that allows a more powerful swing to develop. So, while you want a nice full shoulder turn, a power-adding move is to restrict the hip turn some, to create more resistance.

“Restricting” the hip turn might not be the best way to think about it. A better thought is that you’re trying to not “overturn” the hips on the backswing.

In my case, I was able to accomplish that by concentrating on more stability in my right knee, that kept me from getting my hips turned too much in relation to my shoulders and also kept me from getting my weight on the outside of my right foot on the back swing. For me, it wasn’t just a power move, but a consistency move as well.

Sand Play

Sand play is enough to make a lot of players sick to their stomachs. Throw in a less than perfect lie and they sweat bullets. When the ball gets partially or completely buried, it’s intimidating, but don’t worry too much.

Back in June, I shared a tip from Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible to help cope with buried lies in the bunkers.

Mental Game

Getting in the right frame of mind is critical for success on the golf course.

One way to get yourself in that good mental state is by ending your pre-round warm-up with some confidence in the club you intend to hit on the first tee.

If the first hole is a driver hole, then finish your warm up by hitting some drives, and don’t end on a bad one. The last swing memory you should have before heading to the tee is from a positive shot.

What do you do if you’re hitting the driver poorly? Put it in the bag and don’t get it out again. If you can’t hit it on the range, you can’t hit it on the course. Drop down to your 3-wood, 2-iron, 3-iron or whatever club you can hit well at the time.

If you don’t have confidence in a particular club, don’t get it out of your bag. Even if that means you have to play with a 7-iron and putter.

Fitness

How much do you pay attention to nutrition in golf? If your idea of nutrition on the golf course is a hot dog at the turn, then you’re not putting your body in the state it needs to be in for maximum performance.

Even taking a golf cart, you can get a weary as you get further into a round, especially if you’re not in good shape. To play well, you need to fuel your body properly.

Recently, Better Golf With Fitness ran a series on nutrition. Check out Improve Your Nutrition and Your Game, Part 1. Also check out Part 2 and Part 3 of that series.

It’s a great look at how nutrition and golf tie together, but in reality good nutritional habits will improve life in general, not just golf.

Iron Play

Well, it’s the end of the season (or the beginning if you live in the southern hemisphere), and you contracted a case of the shanks. You can’t let the year end like that. Don’t be afraid. It’s not a disease and is 100% curable.

The cause is very basic and so is the cure. I discussed the shanks and how to cure them back in May.

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Further Reading:

Splash It Out of the Rough (Life in the Rough)
Hitting From Hardpan – Dave Pelz (GolfOnline.com)
Use the Tee to Your Advantage (Life in the Rough)
Consistency and Distance with a Stable Right Knee (Life in the Rough)
Buried Lies in the Bunkers (Life in the Rough)
The Shanks (Life in the Rough)

Series on improving your nutrition and your game at Better Golf With Fitness:
Improve Your Nutrition, Part 1
Improve Your Nutrition, Part 2
Improve Your Nutrition, Part 3

Previous Installments:

Total Golf Game Improvement Week, Day 1 (Life in the Rough)

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Total Game Improvement Week: Day 2

Each day for the next week, I’ll be posting a series of tips, drills, advice, and information designed to help every aspect of your game. I want us all to make one final push to get over whatever humps are in the way before the year is out.

Don’t forget to e-mail me your favorite tips and drills from any of the different categories for inclusion in the post on day-six.

Let’s get to it.

Putting

A fun way to work on all sorts of putts in a single session is by playing the “Around the Green” game. It works best on a large practice green with several hole locations.

To play, put a ball down next to one of the hole locations and putt to another. From there, putt to another location, then another, as if it were a putting “course”, until you arrive back where you started. Keep track of the total number of strokes for the “course” and be sure to hole every putt – no gimmes.

To mix it up, change up the order, go backward, and do anything else you can think of to challenge yourself. If your green has too few hole locations, then you can use the same one and just start from different locations (mark them will ball marks or tees if you like).

This game works great as a friendly competition, but individually it really gives you a wide variety of putting situations because you’re forced to deal with putts of every length and you’ll get plenty of practice trying to drop putts within six feet (which is where too many strokes are lost).

It’s important to hole every putt so that you get to work on the short ones and build the confidence that comes with holing them repeatedly in a low-pressure situation.

Short Game

One of the problems in chipping comes from trying to strike the ball with a descending blow but getting too steep and stuffing the club in the turf. You want a nice smooth arc where the bottom is more shallow and flat that lets you hit down gently on the ball, but allows the club to follow through while just brushing the grass.

To get the feel of a more shallow arc, set up to a ball in your normal chipping stance. Then, place a second ball in front of the one you’re addressing a few inches closer to the target.

Take your normal chipping stroke, keeping your hands ahead of the ball, but after striking the first ball, continue on and strike the second one.

This will give you the feeling of keeping your arc more shallow and flat at the bottom, enabling you to brush the grass and make a good follow through. It also encourages you to keep your hands ahead of the ball and not let the club head pass them during the stroke.

Recovery

When you get into the thick rough, the tendency is for shots to go left. As the hosel of the club passes through the rough, the grass “grabs” it. That resistance makes the club face want to close more than normal, creating a hook.

To try and limit that, especially on longer shots, grip the club a little more tightly with the left hand. This will resist the tendency for the rough to grab the hosel and turn the club face closed. Try not to get too tense in your hands and forearms. Just grip tightly enough to resist the turning of the club face in the rough.

Course Management

Most high-handicappers have a serious problem with under-clubbing. There are several reasons for this, but three big ones come to mind.

For one, some have trouble being honest with themselves about their real ability.

Secondly, many players plan for the best, when the best outcome is relatively rare. Unfortunately, hitting a shot perfectly is rare, even for a tour pro. It’s just that their misses are better than ours. But even a small miss equates to a loss in distance.

Finally, high handicap players often under-judge the effects of wind, lie, elevation, and other factors that can lead to a shot that travels a less than optimal distance.

Some of these things come from experience, but being honest about ability and planning for the likely outcome instead of the best possible outcome will help you improve your scores.

Driving

To get maximum distance with the driver, striking the ball with a level or slightly ascending blow is critical. What that means is that your club head reaches the lowest point of its arc during the swing, and has just begun to come back up toward the follow through just before striking the ball.

To help ensure that you do that, at address, set your hands a little behind the ball. That will help ensure contact with an ascending blow, getting the ball up higher in the air with less back spin, to maximize distance.

Sand Play

Remember that when hitting the ball from a green-side bunker, your club never actually makes contact with the ball. The ball rides out on a cushion of sand.

To keep from skulling the ball or hitting it fat and leaving it in the bunker, it’s imperative to make contact with the sand a couple of inches behind the ball.

The point of entry drill will help you with that.

Mental Game

Creating a repeatable pre-shot routine is a must for any serious player. To properly execute golf shots during a round, a player has to be in a good frame of mind. This is true for casual rounds or pressure-filled tournaments.

There are so many mental distractions that a player needs to find a way to overcome. The pre-shot routine helps with this.

It signals the mind and body that it’s time for business. It helps quiet the distractions. It also helps tell the body that it’s time to call upon muscle memory to do the thing that it’s been trained to do. This is especially true during stressful shots where adrenaline is a factor.

The pre-shot routine can be unique to each individual, but it should be brief and it should be completely consistent for every shot. Practice with it over and over and over, so that it becomes second nature and not conscious action. Always use it during practice, not just on the course.

Fitness

To get the most out of golf (and life, really) a good fitness routine is important.

In golf, it’s the major muscle groups that are the most important, especially the core. A great way to build some core strength is through an exercise called the “side plank“.

It’s done by laying on the right side, with the right elbow directly under the shoulder, feet together, and the body in a nice straight line. From there, slowly lift up the hips so that spine makes a straight line (as if you were standing straight up) with your weight supported by your forearm.

Hold for a few seconds, and then slowly return to the starting position. Try to hold for a few seconds at first, and slowly work up to about a minute.

Be sure to repeat on your left side.

Better Golf With Fitness has a photo of the side plank, some other variations, and lots of other great core exercises.

Iron Play

For good contact with short and middle irons, you need to make a descending blow. One tendency is to try and get (or stay) too much behind the ball during the swing. By that, I mean that there’s a tendency to let the weight hang back on the right side (for a right hander) and not transition properly to the left.

If you hit your driver reasonably well (and high) but hit your irons with thin contact too often, then this could be your trouble. You could be getting too far behind the ball and staying there.

On the down swing, get the hips turning to the left and the weight transitioning quickly on to the left leg. At the finish, almost all your weight should be on your left leg, with just the toe of your right shoe on the ground.

Resist the urge to stay on the right leg so much during the hit. At impact, your right foot should already be coming off the ground.

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Further Reading:

Point of Entry Sand Drill (Life in the Rough)
The Side Plank (Better Golf With Fitness)

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Total Game Improvement Week: Day 1

Golf is no different than anything else. There is always some degree of misinformation out there that spreads through foursomes, grill rooms, across the web and even through printed material like books and magazines.

These myths start for a variety of reasons and perpetuate because we don’t always bother to take the time to find out the truth (or don’t realize that there’s a “truth” to bother to find out).

I’m going to try and kill some of these right here.

Myth: Keep the Left Arm Straight

This is the one that was listed in my club newsletter and it’s a big one. I think mostly because there’s a little truth in it, but it’s often misunderstood.

Creating maximum width in the swing is crucial for power. That means keeping the butt end of the club as far out as possible when swinging. Obviously a straight left arm is the way to do that. Keeping the elbow locked is not the answer, though. As the newsletter points out, the left arm rotates during the backswing, and keeping it tense will inhibit that movement.

The more extension you can get, the better, but not at the expense of tension in the arms and shoulders. If the arm flexes a bit at the top of the backswing, that’s fine.

Myth: There is a “Correct” Swing

There is a misconception that if you don’t imitate a certain set of fundamentals then you’re doing something “wrong”. Watching the PGA Tour should dispel that myth, but it doesn’t seem to. Part of the problem is the number of younger players like Tiger Woods and Adam Scott with “text book” swings.

At the same time, there are excellent players like Jim Furyk who do it differently. And look at some of the great players of all time: many of them had swings that are so distinct that you could identify them without being able to see their faces.

What most, if not all, great players share is a similar impact position, but there’s some room for individuality in the rest of the swing. That individuality comes from things like body type, habits that developed early, and instruction.

Some of the best players ever learned to hit the ball with a tree branch and rocks or with a single club in the back yard. Getting wrapped up in trying to develop the “perfect” swing is probably a futile effort without an enormous amount of work. Find the swing that works for you, work to remove obvious flaws, and embrace your own uniqueness.

Myth: Golf Ball Compression is a Primary Factor in Distance

When a club strikes a golf ball, the ball squishes and wobbles a bit. A golf ball’s compression rating is the measure of how much the ball deforms, or to put it another way, how hard or soft it is.

There is a misconception that this is a factor in distance. The actual primary factor in distance is club head speed.

In general, a faster swing will do better with a high-compression ball because the ball will deform less, and thus wobble less. But compression is of so little importance anymore that many manufacturers have stopped publicizing it.

Myth: Hitting “Up” on Drives Produces Top Spin and Increases Distance

In general, when hitting a driver, it is optimal to strike the ball with a level or slightly ascending blow. However, this does not produce top spin on the ball. In fact, it simply produces less backspin which is what leads to more distance.

The only way to produce actual top spin is by striking the ball above its equator. That’s why we call it “topping” the ball. Those shots are no fun and hit the dirt almost immediately after impact.

Myth: Players in a Group All Play on to the Green Before Anyone Putts

Rule 10 tells us that the order of play is determined by distance from the hole. The player furthest from the hole plays first. That means if your opponent is in a green side bunker 5 yards from the pin and you’re on the far side of the green facing a 100-foot putt, you play first.

In stroke play, there’s no penalty for playing out of order unless The Committee deems that it was done to gain an advantage, so it’s not really a violation of the rules if all the players play up to the green. However, in match play, if someone plays out of turn, his opponent may require him to cancel and replay the stroke.

Myth: Expensive Equipment is “Better”

The “best” equipment is that which is the closest match to your game. Spending $500 for a driver or buying tour-quality forged irons won’t iron out your swing flaws.

I once hit a 340 yard drive with a $50 driver. Certainly quality equipment often costs more, but sometimes I wonder if a low-end driver would sell if they put it in a nice display and slapped a $400 price tag on it. We golfers are too often guilty of trying to solve the problem by just throwing money at it. That plan won’t normally work unless you accidentally buy expensive equipment that happens to fit your game better than what you currently have.

Look for quality. If it costs more, fine, but don’t turn a blind eye to it because it seems too inexpensive.

Myth: The Head Stays Still During the Swing

This one gets a lot of people. Consciously trying to keep the head “still” is not good. The head is attached to the spine and can’t do anything on its own.

It’s normal for there to be a slight amount of lateral movement in the swing, so the head has no choice but to move a bit. Also, it’s not uncommon for there to be some movement of the head up and down. Check out this video of Tiger Woods swinging. Look at the amount of lateral and vertical head movement he has.

The key is that there should be no conscious head movement. But trying to restrict it is not a good idea.

One other important point is that while lateral and vertical head movement happens, movement toward or away from the ball should not happen during the swing. That leads to a problem that is the subject of the final myth:

Myth: The Shanks Come From an Extremely Open Club Face

I covered this previously in a post dedicated to the shanks. The shanks are caused when the ball is struck on the hosel of the club. This happens when your weight gets out on your toes during the swing, changing your swing plane.

Too often, when a player starts shanking, the reaction is to try and do a better job of squaring the club face at impact. Unfortunately for that player, that has nothing to do with the problem. Not only will the shanks continue, but who knows what kind of problems will be introduced by overemphasizing the action of squaring the club face.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Dispelling Some Golf Myths

We golfers are a unique breed in that we’ll do almost anything to improve our games. Whether it’s new equipment or the latest swing trainer fad, we follow like lemmings.

Unfortunately, to see real improvement in golf, elbow grease is what ultimately gets the job done.

Not enough time to spend practicing? Don’t worry too much, because there are lots of simple things you can do to improve your game right away. Here are my top ten.

1. Get a lesson. Yeah, I know, that’s obvious. But it’s going to be the single most important long-term improvement you can make.
2. Get a club fitting. If you buy off the rack, you could be hurting your game. A good club fitter will match length, flex, lie, loft, etc., on your clubs to be able to milk the maximum performance out of your swing.
3. Spend at least one hour per week working on putting, not counting pre-round warm-up (do that too). A par round assumes 36 putts. This is 50% of the total strokes for the round. How many times do you hit driver in a round? Probably 12-15 at most and maybe less on a tight course. But I bet you beat your driver to death on the practice tee.
4. Drop the long irons and look to woods and hybrids to fill your medium to long range needs. These clubs are typically easier to hit with their lower centers of gravity. Plus, they can help on long shots from the rough.
5. Drop one of your medium or long irons and add a third or fourth wedge. Scoring happens within 100 yards. Getting within eight to ten feet gives you the best chance to sink your next putt, whether you’re a weekend duffer or a tour pro. Give yourself the tools to do the job.
6. Give some thought to the mental game. It’s not all about physical swing technique. Confidence and focus are bigger than you think. Pick up a good book on the mental game and read a little each night before bed.
7. If you do put in range practice, then practice with a purpose. When you’re at the range, DO NOT simply beat balls without a purpose in mind. Keep yourself focused on specific techniques and targets. Every shot must have a specific purpose.
8. When you hit the course, make sure you’re properly hydrated and fueled up in the food department. Snack on something like fruit or trail mix during the round and drink plenty of water. Ignoring these things can cause excess fatigue that will make you sloppy on the course. You don’t want to eat a huge meal right before playing, but not eating at all will likely cause you to get a little (or a lot) drained.
9. Give up the cart and walk. It’ll be hard at first, but there are lots of benefits. Not the least of which are the increased stamina and health and the mental clarity you’ll gain by having time to think between shots to plan your attack or to wash away negative feelings from bad shots.
10. If you don’t have time to do a serious workout regimen (optimal solution), then at least set aside several short stretching sessions throughout the week. Doing 20-30 minutes every day is great, but if you can’t free up that much time, then try for 3-5 days per week. Working on hip rotational flexibility is a big one, as well as flexibility in the back, shoulders, and legs.

If you don’t have the time or motivation to put in serious work, then hopefully you’ll find at least some of these tips useful for dropping some strokes.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Ten Ways to Improve Your Golf Game – RIGHT NOW!