Hitting in the right direction

Start by making sure you feel comfortable over the ball — that means feeling balanced. So take up your stance and then swing your arms around. Are your feet in control of your body? Now the golden rule (though there are no golden rules in golf as you’ll find out!) is that the face of the club should be pointed at the target unless you’re trying to play a hook or slice the ball.

Watch a pro when he’s about to take a shot. Pros tend to place the club on the ground before taking their stance.
Try it yourself. Now the club should be square to your body — wherever you are in your backswing. Try stopping your club at a variety of positions in your swing to see where the head of the club is in relation to your body. For the greatest chance of playing an accurate shot the club head should be square to your body at all times.
You can practice this at the driving range with a ball but also in your back garden (without a ball) — just halt your swing and check the club head position.

Feeling confident

Many amateurs make the mistake of simply turning up and teeing off and then wonder why they start off so badly. So plan your round properly and youll benefit accordingly. Your aim is to be relaxed and warmed up by the time you get to the first tee so whenever possible follow this routine. Get to the course as early as you can. Begin on the putting green as this will help you get an idea of the speed of the greens on the course and also warm you up in a low impact manner. For the first five or so minutes putt to a coin or a tee peg from 20—40 feet.

Why not putt into a hole?

By getting the feel of the green and putting to a small object it will psychologically make the hole seem much bigger when you hit the course. This will build your confidence and half the battle in successful putting is feeling confident. Finish off by hitting 20 or so six inch up hill putts. This again will imprint on your mind the image of the ball going in to the hole consistently.

Be aggressive from sand

Don’t give up when you short-side yourself in a bunker, or miss the green on the same side as the flagstick.
To pop the ball up quickly and stop it fast, open the face of your sand wedge, lower your right shoulder slightly and swing the club on an out-to-in path with plenty of force.
Use your most lofted wedge, make a V-shape swing, and be sure to keep the clubhead moving aggressively through the sand.

The ball should come out high and soft.

Tip of the week

To generate more clubhead speed with your driver, eliminate the tension in your swing.

If you’re loose, you’ll be able to release the clubhead more effectively, adding clubhead speed, and hence, more distance to your drives

The feel of a good swing

The hula-hoop drill is a great way to learn to swing on the proper plane. Hold the hoop with your regular grip and your arms parallel with the ground in a backswing position, the hoop orbiting your shoulders. Now swing to the top, making sure the hoop stays on the same plane. Then bring your hands down as you would on the downswing, keeping the hoop on that plane.

Recreate the feeling of an on-plane swing when you hit shots.

Forget the hole on breakers

If you can’t get your breaking putts started on line, you’re probably focusing on the hole, not the apex of the break, during the setup.
This forces you to steer your stroke to start the ball on the correct line. Once you’ve picked the apex point, go through your pre-putt routine from behind the ball — facing the apex, not the hole — then align yourself square to that point. Finally, trust your read and stroke to the apex.

The Chip Shot

Chipping is an essential part of the golf game. This online golf lesson has been designed not only to help you get the right golf setup when it comes to playing the chip shot, but also to help you understand which club you should be using and what you should be trying to do with the ball.

Many of us are unsure about what club to use and even if we know which club to use, what are we trying to do with the ball? Should it land close to the hole and stop like the pros do or be the more traditional chip and run style shot.

Using the Sandwedge, the ball will travel around 2/3rds in the air and roll for 1/3rd. The SW is the most difficult to control and really should only be used if you have an obstacle, perhaps a bunker or a mound between you and the green. Its the most risky choice of club when it comes to chipping.

The PW is a great in between club for chipping. It will travel about 1/2 the distance in the air and should roll for 1/2 the distance. Once again, if you have an obstacle between you and the hole, perhaps a small ridge or you have lots of green to work with behind a bunker.

The 8 iron is the choice for many golfers when playing the chip shot but any iron can be used. With an 8 iron the ball will fly for 1/3rd and roll for 2/3rds. When using the 8 iron, or any longer club, the goal is to get the ball landing at the beginning of the green and let it run to the hole. It removes all the risk of thinking it with the SW or PW and its the high percentage shot. A bad chip shot with an 8 iron will be much better than a bad chip shot with a SW or even a PW.

How to Drive a golf ball

Driver ball

The Driver is the longest club in the golf bag and its also the club with the least amount of loft. By making very slight changes to the setup, we can get the driver working.

When teeing up for the driver, making sure the ball is at the right height for the driver is important. A 3rd of the ball should be above the driver and you should strike the ball in the top half of the club.

The spine angle should be slightly tilted away from the ball. The feet should be slightly wider apart than with other clubs, around a shoulder width apart. By tilting the spine, it will help to contact the ball on the rise, giving loft to the shot.

The ball position should be in line with the left hand heal (or right if you are left handed). With the Spine slightly angled and the ball towards the front of the stance, this will give you the optimal angle for launching the ball off the tee.

How to get the ball up and high and land softly

To approach this shot, you need to keep a nice long swing, with the ball forward in the stance and the way to stop the ball is not through spin, which is impossible from the rough, but by getting the ball up nice and high so that it comes down vertically landing softly.

Matchplay

How does Matchplay work and how to score.

Matchplay is perhaps one of the most exciting and under used formats in golf. Rarely do you find regular matchplay competitions being held at clubs and there are just a few matchplay tournaments on the professional tours.

However, the Ryder Cup, perhaps the best golf competition in the world, is entirely matchplay, which is perhaps why it is so exciting an event.

Is man against man or two-man team against two-man team (or pairing) and the score is kept by recording the number of holes won or lost.

It is usually played over 18 holes. If a competitor takes fewer strokes on a hole than his opponent, he wins the hole, and goes one up. If he wins the next, he goes two up; if he loses it he is back to all-square. A match is completed when a player is more holes ahead than there are holes left to play – as when, for example, he goes four up with only three holes remaining. In this instance, he has won 4&3. In the event of the opponent being all-square after 18 holes, the match is halved, or shared, with each player collecting half a point.

A player is regarded as ‘dormie’ when he is ahead by the number of holes remaining to be played. So if, for example, he should win the 16th to be two up with two to play, he cannot be beaten. His opponent may still, however, win the final two holes to halve the match.

Because they are playing each other, putts may be conceded, or given, so if a player putted his ball to within a few inches of the hole, his opponent would probably ‘give’ him the remaining stroke to save time. Equally, if player A has difficulty on a hole and eventually gets to the green in four strokes and at best can score five, while his opponent is six feet away from the flagstick in two, he may well concede the hole, certain that his opponent will do no worse than two-putt. Because of this, scores in match play are often estimated.

 

The Terms	Matchplay Explanation
All-square	Match is equal
2 Up	2 hole ahead
3 down	3 holes behind
5&3	5 holes ahead with only 3 holes left to play. Wins on the 15th Hole

 

The benefits of matchplay

One of the major benefits of matchplay is that one or two bad holes do not necessarily ruin your round, as they can do in strokeplay. You are simply trying to beat your opponent. Another benefit of matchplay is that it introduces tactics as an essential part of the game.