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(276).."CHIPPING & PUTTING DRILLS"

Chipping a golf ball is one of the easiest golf actions there is (or at least it should be) apart from putting. But the biggest problem I see when most golfers chip is that they use their wrists way too much. When you setup for a chip shot your arms should form a triangle.

From this setup position you simply have to keep this triangle intact throughout the stroke, and here's a great drill that practically forces you to do this.

Simply setup to a chip shot as normal, but get anything, a ruler, piece of dowl rod, etc, and hold it under your hands so it extends out the top. From this position simply swing back and through attempting to keep the triangle intact.

Now, while you're doing this drill and, the ruler, rod, etc, hits your body on the follow-through then this indicates that your wrists have collapsed. If you keep the triangle intact and you don't have any wrist action then this won't happen.

Do this drill consistently and you will learn the art of good consistent chipping. Another important point to note when chipping is that you should always follow-through further than you take the club back. If you don't accelerate through the ball you'll get some terrible results.

Why? Because by following through further than you take the club back ensures you accelerate through the ball.

Another great place to apply this feeling of accelerating through the ball is putting.

Now the reason most golfers decelerate on their short putts is because they have a backstroke that is too long and then on the downswing the brain says, "You're going to hit it too far, slow down, slow down." So they do, and we all know the result.

To stop this from happening, here is a simple drill you can and should do if you have this problem. First, find a straightforward 4-foot putt on a practice green and place a ball down at this distance. Now straight back from your ball place a tee in the green 3 inches directly behind on a line going towards the hole. Once you've got this setup just putt as normal but obviously if you take your putter back past 3 inches you'll hit the tee.

When doing this drill simply concentrate on making a shorter backswing and a longer follow-through, which is what you want. So just keep hitting putts to ingrain this feel. Also to further enhance the feeling of accelerating your putter head through the ball simply move the tee closer to your ball so you have to follow-through even more.

Remember, on all putts and chips your backswing should be shorter than your follow-through, ALWAYS!

(277).."BETTER PUTTING"

There are lots of golf putting tips, but, unlike the full-swing, there is very little fact based help available to show people exactly what they should be practicing.
In my opinion, two of the most important requirements for good putting are, "Face Loft at Impact" and "Point of Impact".

Face Loft - this is the angle of the putter face as it contacts the golf ball. Obviously, it is best if the face is exactly perpindicular to the ball at impact. Every fraction of a degree that it is away from perpindicular increases the chances of pinching the ball or knocking it off the green and not acheiving true roll.

DRILL

Put a piece of 3/4" masking tape on the face of your putter. Now, set up for a normal putt...Can you see the masking tape? If you can then the ball is being lifted of the green when hit with the putter and distance control is non existent. Try setting up and then push the grip end (top of the putter) forward until the masking tape "JUST" disappears, then make your putting stroke. Ever wonder why those good putters pushed the top of their putters ahead just before they putt ? Facts...the putter face must be straight up and down to achieve true roll...all putters have loft-3 to 7 degrees. If you don't believe me set a square on a table, put the putter face against the square and see were the shaft is pointing. That is how far you must tilt the shaft forward to assure the face is perfectly straight up and down and that's were it must be when it contacts the ball to get that sweet roll every time. Try it, you'll like it....Practice this before you play, because you'll find the ball rolls a lot farther with a lot less stroke and feels sooooo much better. One thing, be sure you do not push the shaft to far ahead, because then you will be pinching the ball into the green.

Impact Point - this is the point on the putter face that the golf ball makes contact with during the stroke. The ideal contact point is referred to as the "sweetspot". Usually it is were the mark is on the top-center of the putter. In research done by putting expert Dave Pelz, he concluded that the most important aspect of these is making sure that you strike the ball with, or as close as possible to, the "sweetspot" on your putter.

If the ball is struck off-center then it has two major effects on the putt. Firstly, the putter face is twisted open or closed causing the ball to go off-line.

Secondly, some of the energy that was meant to be transferred to the ball is lost, causing putts to come up short. The most common cause of three-putting is a badly struck first putt finishing well short of the hole.

DRILL

Get a small container of baby powder. Now, just put a little powder on the ball and make a putt. You will see were the ball struck the face of the putter and if some adjustments are required.

(278).."TURN or SWAY"

It is amazing how many golfers have not mastered the turn of the hips and shoulders during the swing and more importantly, the transfer of weight from the back to front foot on the follow through. If a player simply sways their weight back and forth without a turn, the club head ends up at any number of positions at impact, consistency becomes a real problem and you definitely restrict the power you can deliver to the ball.

Turn Drill:

Try taking a 7-iron, put your feet right together. Keep your feet hips and shoulders parallel to your target. Keep your weight back behind the balls of your feet. Now try to swing at the ball. If you have difficulty swinging without falling over, then your turn definitely needs some attention. You will find that you must turn your hips and shoulders together to hit the ball with out falling down. Initially, this is hard to do. Once you master this coordinated move, you will find you can hit the 7-iron almost as far with your feet together as you can with them apart. This is the rotation and weight transfer that you are looking for in all swings. The feet together drill only works with a 7-iron. Longer clubs are too hard to balance with. This will however give you the proper sensation to feel with all your clubs and improve your consistency and power.

(279).."BUNKER SHOT HELP"

Here is a bunker shot tip that will develop two very important factors of your bunker play. If you are past the beginner stage i.e. you can get the golf ball out of a bunker, but are now wanting to achieve more consistency from the sand, here are two important factors to work on and a practice drill:

1. Keep the clubhead moving at a smooth and rhythmic pace. Many amateurs, who normally have a decent flowing swing, as soon as are faced with a bunker shot, revert to a short and quick swing. There is probably a psychological based reason for this, as the golfer's mind set is "let's get this ball out of here quick!".

2. Secondly, the angle of attack . Most golfers quickly learn that to get out of a green side bunker the sand should be contacted before the ball. This knowledge in itself causes problems, as the average amateur player swings on way too steep a swing plane and digs too deeply into the sand. For consistency the club head should enter the sand on a shallow angle of attack.

The Drill:
Take up a correct green side bunker stance i.e. open to the target, and open up the club face (make sure you open the club face and THEN take your grip - opening the face while already gripping the club achieves nothing). Now take your left hand off the club and put it by your side, in your pocket or behind your back. Make relaxed, smooth right hand only swings. Use a very light grip pressure hardly holding on to the club at all.

The Result:
With this bunker shot tip you will notice straight away how the club head glides easily and effortlessly through the sand. The club face will not dig into the sand but will take just the right amount of sand each time for a controlled shot. You are in effect letting the design of the more heavily flanged sand wedge work as its designer intended. The weight and design of the club head and momentum of a free swing give the two desired factors - a shallow angle of attack and a smooth accelerating stroke. Add the left hand and reproduce this swing for far greater bunker shot consistency.

(280).."READING GREENS"

Judging Speed and Break

This is one of the toughest parts of the golf game to improve...and usually it takes practice and experience to make any significant change. However, there are some things you can do to help you improve your consistency on the greens and help you to sink more putts.

First, keep the following in your mind when judging your putts or chips.

1. Examine the "Grain:" The term 'grain' is simply the direction is which the grass grows. This can be determined by looking for the 'shine' or 'sheen' of the putting surface. When the green reflects the sun and appears brighter, you are looking down grain.

Putts down grain, or with the grain, will run faster.

2. Read the Contour: When waking to the green, study the general slope of the land.

Remember, most greens are built higher at the back and lower toward the front. This will definitely impact how you play a shot on the green...or even as you approach the green.

When you are putting from the front of the green (assuming that it slopes downward from back to front), the putt will be uphill. When you are putting from the back, downhill.

Any putt across such a green will usually break toward the front lower portion of the surface.
These are simply good "general" rules to keep in mind as you approach the green.

Now, think about these 2 elements (Contour and Grain) together.

- Putts running with the grain will tend to "run" faster.

- When you are putting cross-slope and your putts are running with the grain they will break more.

- And likewise, if you are putting cross-slope against the grain, your putt with break less.

- When you putt against the grain...give it a little "more." Your putts will tend to run slower so you may leave it short more often if you aren't careful.

- When you putt downhill, with the grain, you putts will not only run faster but they will break more.

- And the opposite is also true. If you are putting uphill, against the grain, expect your putts to run slower and break less.

Plumb Bobbing!

The rule of thumb when judging a break, and the size of the break, is to use plumb bobbing. Not to be confused with apple boobing.

First, you need to find your dominant eye. Make a circle with your thumb and forefinger, and with both eyes open, place an object in the middle (i.e. a lamp, a flag, a picture, etc). Now alternately close the left eye, and the right. Whichever eye "keeps" the object in the middle is your dominant eye.

Now, take this to the golf course. Line up your putter, hanging freely between your thumb and index finger, behind your ball so that it matches up with the flag pin. With your dominant eye open, you will see that the ball is to the left, right, or straight on. Straight on, no break. If to the left, the putt will generally break right to left. Conversely, it will break left to right if the pin is to the right. The distance between the ball and pin/hole is GENERALLY the amount of break.

This is not an exact science, but it will help you immensely if you can't read greens at all (like me).

By keeping these very simple "rules" in mind and reading the greens as you approach you should be able to improve your consistency on the greens and sink more putts.

(281).."CHIPPING"

A chip shot is designed to be a low-flying, long-rolling shot that is usually hit from close to the green. The goal is to attempt to land the ball just on the green and get it immediately to start rolling toward the hole.

The most difficult part of any chip shot is the club selection.

Your choice of clubs will be dictated by how your ball is lying on the ground and by how far you must hit it in the air in order for it to land on the green.

If you watch as the Pro's setup for a chip shot you will notice that many of them use their putting grip for their chip shots. I recommend, for any golfer, that when you line up for a chip shot you follow these basic fundamentals:

1. Use a palm grip while choking down on the club (for anyone playing Natural Golf, simply use your regular grip and be sure to assume the simplified straight line setup)

2. Narrow the stance of your feet so that they are close together and align yourself slightly open to, or left of, the target line.

3. Position the ball toward the back of your stance and make sure that your hands are in front of the ball. This should put your right wrist (for right handed players) in an extended, or cocked, position, eliminating the need to further cock the wrist on the backswing.

4. Distribute your weight toward your front side.

5. Now, adjust your shoulders so that they are tilted in such a way that you can take a more upright backswing and a steeper angle into the ball on the downswing (this will help get the ball in the air faster).

6. Keep your hands "passive." Focus on your forearms coming through the ball.

7. Maintain a firm left wrist through the impact zone. Do not "slap" at the ball.

8. Keep the palm of your right hand going toward the target. As if you were tossing a ball underhand.

By following these steps and learning the proper distance for each club, you will improve your consistency around the green and you should be able to shave 3 - 4 strokes off your score.

Give Yourself an Arsenal of Clubs!!

Generally speaking, good players-those with excellent short games, want to get the ball on the green and rolling toward the flag or target as quickly as possible. Poorer players tend to throw the ball up in the air and take a chance on where it might stop. With minimum air time and maximum ground time, your chip will behave more like a putt and you'll know-with precision-where the ball will stop (well, you will after awhile!). When you add a stiff breeze to the scenario, the decision to fly the ball closer to the hole becomes even more questionable.

Using a complete chipping arsenal-from at least the 7-iron through your lob wedge-has another benefit. If you use one favorite chipping club-say, your pitching wedge-for all of your shots around the green, you're going to have to make somewhat dramatic changes to your technique for shots of various lengths. For example, the swing you'd make for a 50-foot shot will be much longer than the one for the 15-footer. But if you choose a 6- or 7-iron for the longer shot, now you can make approximately the same motion-with the same rhythm-for the longer shot as you would for a shorter shot; you let the longer club do the work for you rather than making a significant adjustment to your swing.

So experiment using a variety of clubs around the green. Use your wedges on faster shots, shorter shots, and those where you have to carry the ball over trouble. Use longer clubs for longer shots when you have no trouble to carry and plenty of green with which to work

(282).."THE GRIP"

Almost nothing in golf is more satisfying than hitting a ball that travels on a dead-straight path toward the green. Unfortunately, hitting shots that fly straight is more difficult than hitting shots that curve, because in order to hit straight, the club face must be square to the path through impact. The good news is that you can learn the setup, body motion and sequence of motion to hit the ball like a laser beam. Although there are a few things are necessary to allow this to happen, two of the most overlooked are the GRIP and TENSION.

First, your grip needs to be positioned to allow your hands to return the club face back to a square impact. In order for this to happen, you need a neutral grip. A simple drill to make sure your grip is neutral is to place your hands on the club and then lift and hold the club parallel to the ground, with your arms in front of your body.

Now extend your arms out as much as you can. If the club face rotates, then your grip is incorrect. If it turns to the left, your grip is too strong. If it turns to the right, your grip is too weak. Now, simply adjust your hands until the club face does not rotate.

Second, you must keep tension out of your swing. While you have the club stretched out in front of you take turns squeezing one hand and then the other. Notice the club face rotating. You should hold the club tight enough to control, but not so tight you energize your fore-arm muscles.

A good drill to see if you are getting tense during the swing is to HUM. Yeh, I know, people will probably think your nuts if you are at the range, but try it anyway. Just before you start your back swing start an even consistent pitched hum and maintain that HUM to the finish of your swing.. A tension free swing will result in the pitch of the hum remaining the same through out the swing. Most of you, however will be in for a shock. That nice easy relaxed swing you thought you had does not exist and goes up a couple octaves when you start your down swing. Give it a try...Hum your self to a better, tension free swing.

These two things will bring the face back to impact square and result in straighter shots.

(283).."GRIP EFFECT"

One of the hardest things many golfers have getting a grip on how hard to grip a club and why it has an effect on ball flight and consistency. When a golfer grips the club to tightly getting the face of the club square at impact becomes very difficult to achieve and is usually accomplished by some kind of compensation..ie, pushing the top of the club forward, hooding the club, aiming to the left or right a little, and so on.

So how hard should you grip the club? The real question is how EASY should you grip it!! It must NEVER be tight. Think of your grip this way: You have a fragile bird egg in your hand. How hard can you squeeze before the egg breaks. Well, you DON'T want the egg to break. We have all heard this, but how effective is that thought concept to get your head around. Let's see if we can give you a better idea about grip pressure and how to know if you are gripping to tightly.

Here's the secret...hold the club tight enough that it will not come out of your hands during the swing, yet loose enough that you do not energize the forearm muscles. The next trick and the hardest to do, is to maintain this light grip through out the entire swing.

Here are a couple drills to help you keep the light grip during the swing.

Hum...Yeh that's correct, just start a steady pitched hum at the start of your swing and maintain that pitch through out the entire swing. If the pitch goes up, like some one kicked you in the butt, (usually at the start of the down swing) that was the point you tightened your grip and decreased the chance of the club face arriving square at impact.

Another one is to take a small bag of potato chips with you to the range. Now hold a chip between your teeth when you start your swing and don't bight it in half during the swing.

When you can swing the club with out tightening the fore arm muscles and there is no tension , three things are going to happen.
1. You will hit the ball farther.
2. You will hit more consistent shots.
3. You will have to correct the compensating move you have been using.