Top 10 Tips for Struggling Golfers

Culchie

Help required from you golfing gurus.

What are the Top Ten Faults (and suggested solutions) ... a high handicapper has ?

mag

Im no guru but imho -

- trying to hit the ball as far as possible and hence swinging too fast
- thinking they can hit their irons unrealsitic distances
- not thinking of tempo
- not thinking of alignment/setup
- pointless practicing - hitting 100 drivers instead of working through the bag
- not working on their short game
- too worried about equipment rather than setup
- not 'taking their medicine' when in trouble

landser

the main fault is

-trying to get better at golf without taking lessons. try at your local driving range to sign up to a beginners class. i was playing badly for a couple of years and went back and did this. class had 6 people and cost c. €150 for 8 classes. it was worth every penny. it cut out many stupid errors. when you've done this, then get lessons on your own.

if you're in dublin, the fingal golf centre on the swords road do these classes from time to time, on a saturday morning

threebeards

mag wrote:

- trying to hit the ball as far as possible and hence swinging too fast

Never was anything so true. I was the prime example of someone trying to burst the ball off the tee until a friend of mine (a low handicapper) spent an hour one day working on it with me. I now swing much slower and even though I'm not hitting it quite as far, at least I'm playing off the short grass .

Beats

Regular practice.

Lessons to get some professional advice.

Short game, short game, short game........ I could go on, but this is the key to lowering your handicap. Pitching,bunker shots and putting.

I think we often believe we can play miraculous shots from the rough and choose a six iron and lose control or end up in a worse situation. Play the percentages. Examine your lie carefully. If it's a competition, aim to score on each hole. Get the ball back on the fairway for a clean next shot.

Something I've noticed myself doing recently is under clubing. Seem to be over judging as a result of distances being struck at the golf range. Consider iron choice carefully.

Develop confidence with your driver. Nothing worse than being afraid to use it. It's taken me a long time to come to terms with tee shoots. Tended in the past to use the driver for half of round, and resort to 3 iron when things were going badly. Whilst I'm not allways straight, I'm now cleanly striking the ball and it makes such a difference.

Happy golfing.

okden

all realy good stuff

out of extreme bordem, im going to have a go at 10

.....ok.....1) aligning directly at target instead of parallel-left, then swinging or worse hitting at target, which is actualy left of where they are aligned, with so much tension in arms that it leaves clubface open - the slice

trying to fix it by changing nothing else but aiming left to allow for slice and repeating same swing felling but not quite repeating it because your hands realy know the target is to right of where your now aimed - normaly results in bigger slice

all caused by the optical illusion of standing sideways, kinda like trying to aim a rifle sideways at arms length


2) not transfering weight to right foot in backswing, (or worse transfering it to the left foot in back swing - reverse pivot )

caused by the "you moved your head" comment some idiot high handicaper says when you hit it wrong,

tigers head moves about a foot and a half to right in backswing and returns it to where it was at impact only about 4 inches lower, this is a realy aggressive move but if you halfed the numbers it'd be a better visual to have than moving head to the left in the backswing and then backwards and up at impact


3) right wrist straight or bowed forward and left wrist cupped backwards and both hands behind the ball at impact, instead of the complete oppisite

caused by trying to help the ball into the air


4) double the last problem for pitching and add a scooping upwards swing - normaly results in fat or thin shots

caused by not knowing if you want the ball to go upwards you should hit down on the ball with hands ahead of it

5) wrists flipping while putting - the old left hand watch with a comb behind the face, can stop any left wrist cupping or flipping at the ball

6) decelerating putting stroke - caused by swinging back too far for length of put
best way to accelerate is to always let clubhead go further forward than it went back, its easier to learn the stroke first then stick a ball in the way and see how far it goes
i know some decelerating flippers whos backswing is so big if they put a pro stroke on the ball it would go 100 feet every time

7) everything moving that shouldnt while putting, especialy head, hips and knees

8) getting p*ssed off on the course, or forgetting its only a game - caused by 1 great shot making you think you have it licked

9) not getting lessons off a pro

10) listening to me

.....made it, and i didnt even mention bunkers