Category: Golf Tips

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Golf Tips

Own Your Own Swing

By Scott Messner

Tiger Woods made an interesting comment at last December’s Hero World Challenge. He said he told his son Charlie “Don’t copy my swing. Copy Rory’s. I don’t move like that anymore, but Rory does. Have you ever seen Rory off balance on a shot? No.”

Sure. Charlie Wood’s and Rory McIlroy’s swings are similar, but Charlie Wood’s swing is Charlie Wood’s swing.

I watch a lot of streaming of the PGA Tour. I watch for things that almost every professional player does that may help me in my game. Many times, that boils down to positions of the club or hands at various points in the swing.

The most important clubface position is at impact with the ball. There are a multitude of different ways that professions golfers get the clubface in the correct position. While many professional golfers will have similar swings, many others will have different swings, vastly different swings.

Jim Furyk has one of the most unorthodox looking swings, with an extremely upright backswing, but Mr. Furyk’s swing is very repeatable for him. It allows him to consistently get the clubface in a great position at impact. Jim Furyk’s swing has produced the only 58 round in the history of the PGA Tour and over $70 million in career tournament earnings.

Watch any tournament today and you’ll see very different swings. Victor Hovland has a more vertical backswing and stands farther away from the ball than most other players. Jon Rahm has a short backswing and stands close to the ball. Tony Finau also has a short backswing. Matt Fitzpatrick has a longer backswing. They all repeatably put the clubface in a great position at impact. They all also, as of this writing, are ranked in the top 15 players in the world according to the Official World Golf Rankings. 

We all have different bodies. Our bodies are different ages and sizes, with different strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities. It’s not practical to watch another golfer’s swing and copy it 100% as your own.

Find ways to get your body in certain positions you see the pros in, especially properly positioning the clubface at impact on a consistent basis. This starts with having self-awareness of your own swing, knowing what causes your mishits, and being able to work on correcting them on your own. This process is made so much easier with the help of a golf teaching professional.

Own you own swing. While we can incorporate successful parts from others’ swings into our own, our unique bodies make our golf swings uniquely ours.

Isaiah 64:8 states that God molds each of us as a potter does a clay jar. Just as each clay vessel made by the potter is unique, God molds us into unique individuals according to His plan.

Isaiah 64:8
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 But now, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay and you our potter. We all are the work of your hand.

Are you moldable?

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Golf Tips

Are You Tracking the Correct Golf Stats?

By Scott Messner

Wow, over ten years ago already, I wrote about How Statistics Can Improve Your Golf Game. I used to track basic stats for all my rounds. The stats included the big three at the time – fairways hit, greens in regulation, and number of putts. One extra stat was number of penalty strokes. Eliminating penalty strokes is impossible, but greatly reducing them is the fastest way for a beginner or high-handicap golfer to lower their scores. 

Example of Scorecard Stats

I had big intentions of making a website where I could analyze my stats. I eventually hoped to share it with other golfers. The website never came to fruition, but I did learn a great deal about my game through consistently keeping stats.

Still, I felt back then when I wrote that post that these stats could be misleading.

I’m assuming we all have mishit a driver off the tee, with it barely making it to the fairway. Even though we may have only hit our driver 100 yards, we still get to check the box that we hit the fairway. 

Number of putts must be the most unreliable stat. We could have a low number of putts for the round, with it only meaning we missed every green and chipped it close. Our putting wasn’t good. Our short game was. Or, we could have large number of putts after hitting every green in regulation. Our putting may have been very good, but we started 30 feet away on many greens. 

Out of the big three stats, greens in regulation may have been the most reliable gauge for the state of your game. If you hit a green in regulation, giving yourself a birdie putt, you can read at least a few things into it. First, regardless of whether you hit the fairway or not, you put your drive in a place where you had a decent look at your second shot. From there, on a par 4, you hit a good enough shot to put your ball on the green. On a par 5, you at minimum hit a combination of your next two shots that ended up with your ball on the green.

The PGA Tour stopped using these stats a long time ago. They knew there had to be a better way. Twenty years ago, they began logging every shot for every player in almost every tournament, in a system they named ShotLink. 

Mark Broadie, a professor at Columbia Business School, developed the Strokes Gained method of stat keeping, using all this PGA Tour shot data as the benchmark. By using the millions of shots in ShotLink, the average number of shots needed by PGA Tour players to finish a hole can be calculated from any distance and position (tee, fairway, rough, sand). Using these numbers, a player’s “strokes gained” on the field can be determined for every shot. 

Here’s one quick example. Let’s say on average it takes 3.9 strokes for PGA Tour players to get the ball in the hole from 360 yards off the tee. You hit your drive 200 yards in the fairway. The average strokes to get in the hole for PGA Tour players from 160 yards in the fairway is 3.

Using the following formula: 

(Average strokes at starting point) – (Average strokes at ending point) – 1 (for your shot) = Your Strokes Gained for that shot

Strokes gained can either be positive for a good shot or negative for a bad shot.

We would find that 3.9 – 3 – 1 = -.1 Strokes Gained. You would have lost .1 strokes on your drive against the PGA Tour average. 

You can use this methodology for strokes gained off the tee, strokes gained tee to green, strokes gained around the green, and strokes gained putting. The beauty of stroked gained is that in each of these categories, the unit is strokes. This enables you to add your strokes gained on shots together, to have stats like strokes gained on the hole, strokes gained on the round, and total strokes gained.

I encourage you to read Mark Broadie’s excellent book, Every Shot Counts – Using the Revolutionary Strokes Gained Approach to Improve Your Golf Performance and Strategy, for much more information on strokes gained.

With the abundance of shot tracking products now available, amateurs can easily track their own strokes gained. Arccos Smart Caddie and the Shot Scope X5 are just two examples. With the large amount of amateur shot data these systems have collected, you can also use various handicap levels as your benchmark instead of PGA Tour golfers. 

I’d like to build my own mobile app to track my own shots gained, tracking enough of my own shot data so I can use myself as the benchmark. After all, the only golfer or person I need to be better than tomorrow than I was today, is myself.

While we should be tracking meaningful stats for our golf game, we more importantly should be careful not to compare ourselves to the world, but instead follow the perfect example that Jesus provided for us.

In his first letter, the apostle John states we are in and remain in Jesus when we walk in his ways.

1 John 2:5-6
5
 But God’s love has most certainly been perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know that we are in him: 
6
 he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.

Whether you are on the golf course, in your home, at your job, or anywhere out in the world, strive to walk in the ways of Jesus.

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Golf Tips

Controlling Your Emotions on the Course

By Scott Messner

Golf can be a hard game. It’s especially hard when you are a beginner or high-handicap golfer. At times we will make bad swings. Other times we will catch a bad break even after a good swing. Frustration can set in if we allow it to. There are many reasons to control your emotions when out on the course.

Golf can be a hard game, but it’s still just a game.

Analyze your bad shot, discover what you did wrong so you can avoid repeating the same mistake, but don’t dwell on it. We rarely make good decisions when frustrated. We are just not thinking clearly. Mistakes will be compounded, and our scores will skyrocket. Relax and make a better swing on your next shot, taking your medicine on this hole and avoiding a huge score. The next hole is a new opportunity.

Remember that we are not professionals. We are not great golfers. We are going to hit bad shots. Learn to always enjoy the game. Have fun when you are out on the course, even if you are not playing your best. Make a conscious effort to not get frustrated. Soon keeping your cool on the course will become second nature.

Throwing a tantrum, tossing clubs, or swearing out on the course isn’t a good look for anyone. It certainly isn’t Christ-like. How are we going to keep our peace when serious life situations arise if we can’t handle the game of golf?

Like the obstacles we face on the golf course, we also face obstacles in most areas of our lives. We should find peace in all areas of our lives and in all situations.

The great news is through prayer and being thankful for what we have, God will give us peace. The apostle Paul tells us so in his letter to the church in Phillippi. 

Philippians 4:5-7
5
 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.  
6
 In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 
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 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

By continually building our relationship with Jesus, our worldly problems become less significant, and we find peace.  

Find peace on the golf course, in our careers, in our family life, in all areas of our life through Christ Jesus.

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Golf Tips

Playing Golf Alone vs Playing Golf in a Group

By Scott Messner

Back in 2016, the USGA changed the rule and prohibited rounds played alone from being posted for handicap purposes. This rule change was deemed necessary so rounds could be peer reviewed to protect the integrity of the game. It’s unfortunate some would post inflated scores to increase their handicap for tournament purposes, but nothing should really surprise us nowadays. Golf is most enjoyed with others anyway, so this rule change doesn’t affect much when all is said and done. 

Even though you cannot post scores for handicap when playing alone, there are still reasons to enjoy a round by yourself.

The solitude you get alone on the course can be the perfect counterpart to the social demands of our world. Sometimes it’s just nice to spend time alone in God’s beauty, both the scenic landscapes and the abundant wildlife found on most courses. First thing in the morning with the dew still on the ground or twilight are great times to soak it all in. The cheaper twilight fees that most courses have are also a less expensive way to check out new courses.

On the course is one of the best ways to practice your game. While there are times you’ll want to know your official score while playing alone, to judge the state of you game, most times you do not have to worry about your score since you can’t use it for handicap. Do not be afraid to try different shots or take swing changes you’ve been working on at the range to the course. Drop another ball and hit a shot over if you’d like. You even can play two balls if the pace of play allows. 

As I mentioned earlier, golf is best while playing with others, for several reasons.

We humans were not created to be alone, so while a round by yourself can be recharging, a round of golf with others is more enjoyable, mostly because of the laughs. We should always remember golf is a game and is meant to be fun. As a beginner or high handicap golfer, never take golf too seriously. 

You can meet new friends. Sometimes, or many times depending where you live, the course you want to play on is so busy that you could not play alone even if you wanted to. The course will put you with others to make a larger group to maximize their revenue. Though you may not know the other players, you’ll already have something in common. You all love golf!

As a beginner or high handicap golfer, many times the others in your group will be better golfers. You can learn a lot about course management, green reading, and much more from watching golfers better than you.

Some of the same things can be said of bible study.

Whether you do a daily GRIP like I do, or some other daily devotion, reading the Bible in solitude every day is important. God will reveal things to you through the living word of scripture. Early morning is the best time. Give God the first part of your day. The wisdom you receive from reading the Bible every day will make you a better person.

There is also power in group Bible study. A group of brothers or sisters holds each other accountable. Those farther along in their faith journey pour into those new to the faith. The group supports and builds up each other. 

Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:20 that he is with us when we are gathered in his name.

Matthew 18:20
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 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.” 
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Golf Tips

Set Goals To Improve Your Golf This Off-Season

By Shooting 90

Over the last few weeks, the courses in my area have all closed for the winter. As recent as three years ago, that would have meant I would have had to find ways to work on my golf game at home during the off-season.

I did drive two hours to the nearest indoor golf simulator and indoor driving range on multiple occasions each year, but that becomes both expensive and time consuming.

Many people take golf vacations during their off-season, but those are also expensive for many other people.

I was always able to find ways to improve my golf game at home, including building a DIY Indoor Golf Net and putting.

Fortunately it has become much easier over the last few years for me to improve my golf game in the winter, mainly due to now having multiple indoor golf simulator options within fifteen minutes of my house.

You need to know the areas of your game that are costing you strokes before you can set goals to improve your golf game. There are several ways to track your stats – all the way from a system like Arccos, or an app on your phone like TheGrint, down to tracking golf stats on your scorecard.

Early on this past season, I identified a few areas for improvement in my golf game. The two most important ones were greenside chipping and putting. I worked on chipping throughout the season. Turns out my biggest issue was not having enough weight on my lead foot at setup. I’m happy to say chipping is no longer an immediate area for improvement, but putting still is and leads my list of three off-season golf improvement goals.

My Three Off-Season Golf Goals

Make 95% of My Putts Within Three Feet

Putting was a huge issue for me this past season, costing me a lot of strokes on the course. Surprisingly, I made a few putts over 25 feet. The putts three feet and under were the issue. I missed a lot of these short putts, seemingly at least two a round.

Honestly, I’d be ecstatic with 90%, 9 out of every 10 3-footers. I’m no where near that now, although I do not specifically track percentage of putts made under three feet. Next season this will be a stat I track.

Missing that many short putts obviously means I’m not getting the putt started on line. There could be multiple causes for this, including poor alignment and clubface control. Regardless, either can be addressed in your home during the off-season! A laser setup is a great way to work on your alignment and putting stroke.

Lakeland Fitness and Golf has TruGolf simulators with E6 Connect software. While putting is always lacking on simulators, Trugolf seems to do it better than most. I’m looking forward to seeing how well I can practice five foot putts on it.

I honestly feel if this is the only goal I significant move the needle towards, my handicap will still drop a few digits next season.

Eliminate my BIG MISS with the Driver

Hank Haney always suggests to eliminate your big miss. Your big miss would be the incorrect shot that costs you the most strokes. Mine is the big hook with my driver. My normal ball flight with my driver is a high draw. I love it but when I miss it’s a big hook pulled to the left.

Indoor golf simulators are ideal for working on your full swing, especially your driver. You’re always going to have the same great lie on the tee box that you have in the simulator.

Eliminate is such a strong word. I doubt I won’t hit a big hook off the tee next season. Fortunately it doesn’t happen a lot, but when it does I need to be able to correct it on the course, making it a one time occurrence during a round.

Increase my Driver Clubhead Speed to 100 MPH

My current driver clubhead speed of around 93 MPH is just about average for a man my age. Can I really add 7 MPH during the off-season? We’ll have to see but if I can it will add twenty yards to my drives. Twenty yards longer turns my 5 irons for approach shots into 7 irons and my 7 irons into 9 irons. My greens in regulation “should” increase. Pair that with my improved putting and my scores should go down.

Of course added distance at the cost of accuracy is no good and on my local courses would mean twenty yards farther in the woods. Swing speed increase needs to be gradual, working in small increments toward your speed goal. Fortunately, indoor golf simulators are great for increasing clubhead speed. Even if the clubhead speed is off a bit on your simulator, it still should be consistent. Start with taking a baseline clubhead speed and work up from there.

What are your off-season golf goals? We’d love to hear them! Follow Shooting 90 on Twitter and comment on the tweet below!

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Golf Tips

Every Golfer Needs to Know the Basics

By Shooting 90

Golf can seem highly intimidating for those just picking up the game. It is true that to become a scratch (0 handicap) golfer you need to learn and master many aspects of the game. However, you can produce a plenty good enough swing to get around the course by learning a few principles.

Stance

Ball Position

Alignment

Grip

Backswing (Turn)

Transition at the Top

Downswing (Turn) and Follow Through

The links below will give you a general idea of each principle, but what is the best, fastest, and easiest way to learn them?

Of course the best way is through lessons with a golf teaching professional, but that literally comes with a cost ($$$). Private golf lessons from a teaching professional can be expensive. Even in my rural area, lessons from the PGA teaching professional at my local municipal course cost $60 an hour. That’s a lot of money for many beginner golfers, considering you’re going to need multiple lessons.

One of the goals of Shooting 90 is to show golfers how to make golf more affordable. One way is to get lessons at a vastly reduced rate by taking group lessons. Get a couple beginner friends and a one hour group lesson is only $20 each.

Better yet, every year, a local course conducts a 5 week summer program they call Golf 101. For $135, you get a one and a half hour long group lesson each week followed by 9 holes with a cart. You can do the math. It’s an incredible deal! There are programs like this at many courses.

There are even ways you can learn these basic golf principles by spending next to nothing.

Go out for the golf team if you are in high school! Depending on how competitive your school is in golf, you may not get to go to many or any golf meets, but for a small activity fee you will get a lot of instruction and practice time on the local range and course.

Another way to learn these principles is by practicing and golfing with a good golfer. Ask a friend who is a good golfer to show you a few things on the range. After you know the basics you’ll be able to join them on the course. Watch them and learn! The key to this way is to make sure your friend is actually a good golfer who knows what they’re talking about. The last thing you want to do as a beginner golfer is learn bad habits! That’s also why you should never take unsolicited advice on the range or course from strangers.

Finally, it is possible to self learn basic golf principles at no cost by watching YouTube videos. I’ll get roasted for even suggesting this, but it is entirely possible. Just be sure to do your research and find a reputable online instructor. Watch several different YouTube instructors to begin with until you find one whose teaching style and terminology best connects with you. I’ve been able to improve my game in several areas through social media. Here’s a hint. You’re about to see a few great YouTube instructors in the links below!

I hope I’ve shown you a few viable ways to learn the basics of the golf swing, enough for you to get out and enjoy golfing!

Stance

Ball Position

Alignment

Grip

Backswing (Turn)

Transition at the Top

Downswing (Turn) and Follow Through

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Golf Tips

Have One Golf Swing Thought

By Shooting 90

One needs to put in the work on their golf swing at the practice range if they want improved scoring. You may be working on multiple concepts on the range, fitting all the pieces together to improve both your ball striking and ball flight.

I’ve always thought you should play your round with the swing you have that day and not attempt to incorporate changes while on the course. That is what the practice range is for, to give you the time and place to work on changes.

The hard part for many of us is taking our improved swing mechanics to the golf course. Many high handicap golfers become overwhelmed with everything, and begin thinking way too mechanically while on the course. You need to focus on course management while on the course, visualizing your shots and selecting the right club for each shot. For the most part, your swing should just take care of itself, with one exception, the swing thought.

A swing thought is a one single element that you are thinking about when hitting a golf shot. I’ve always thought it near impossible to be thinking and acting on a swing thought during the swing. For me, I think about my swing thought right before starting my takeaway.

The key word in the definition we stated in the previous paragraph is single. You want to have a single thought about some aspect of your swing that helps you execute the swing the way you want. Trying to have multiple swing thoughts during a single swing doesn’t work and ends up hurting your efforts a lot more than it helps.

I have a one swing thought for my driver and woods and another one for my irons and wedge. Develop your swing thoughts on the practice range, experimenting with different ones until you find one that works for you. A swing thought could be reminding you do perform a specific action and many times it is a feeling that helps you do that.

Here are a few of my swing thoughts to give you a few examples. Keep in mind these most likely will not work for you. Everyone’s situation is different, and it’s important you find your own that work for you.

I, like many high handicap and beginner golfers, had a slice that I eradicated from my driver a few years ago. My ball flight now is a high draw and my big miss with the driver, a pull hook, is a common one for a drawing ball flight. I feel one of the contributing factors to my pull hooks is bringing the driver back too far to the inside to start my back swing. My swing thought with my driver and woods is to bring the clubhead straight back on my take away.

My biggest miss with my short irons and wedges is, believe it or not, a shank. It used to creep into my rounds periodically, would take me several shots to correct, and would destroy my round. Through work on the range, I found that if I line up my clubface with the ball a bit farther out towards the toe, and have the swing thought of hitting the toe on the clubface on toe side of the middle, I get much more pure ball striking and do not shank.

Developing a simple, single swing thought we help you take your swing improvements from the range to the course.

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Golf Tips

Good Posture for a Better Golf Swing

By Shooting 90

“Stand up straight!” “Quit slouching!”

You might remember hearing these commands as a kid. There’s a good reason for that. Good posture is important! It will keep your spine and other areas of your skeletal system in proper condition as you get older. The chances of experiencing back and neck pain are diminished with good posture.

The risk of injury increases when you perform sports moves using poor posture. In golf, good posture will reduce your likelihood of many injuries, specifically in your back.

Reducing injuries is a huge benefit of good posture in sports. That alone would be enough reason to work hard on having good posture, but there is another huge benefit. Good posture increases your performance in sports. Whether it’s the ready position in baseball, a defensive stance in basketball, or running tall in a race, just to name a few, posture plays an important role in performing well in all sports. Golf is certainly no exception.

Good posture in the golf swing makes it easier to turn your shoulders and hips in the backswing, and also allows you to more easily get the golf shaft at a good angle and then uncoil through the downswing. At least for me, I would early extend (stand up) in my downswing before improving my posture.

Many golfers “slouch” as they address the ball. They bend at their waist instead of tilting at their hips, which causes their back to be curved, as seen below.

It is better to have the back as straight as possible from the hips to the head, with your shoulders pulled back, as seen below.

Follow these steps to properly address the golf ball with good posture:

  • Stand up straight and tall.
  • Tilt forward with your hips, keeping your back straight and your shoulders back.
  • Finish up by bending your knees slightly, allowing your hips and backside to move away from the ball as needed.

Incorporate good posture into your pre-shot routine as you address the ball. Work on it setting up for each shot on the course and the range.

If your posture isn’t as good as it could be in everyday life, it will be difficult to just turn on good posture at the golf course. Practice good posture every minute of every day. Walk proud and tall and sit up straight in that chair, whether that is at work, your living room, or car. The bigger the habit you can make good posture, the more second nature it will become on the golf course.

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Golf Tips

Learn Everything About the Golf Swing You Can!

By Shooting 90

We have still have bad things in the world, maybe more than ever, but we truly live in the best of times. The internet provides us information on almost every subject accessible 24 hours a day. There is a wealth of information on the golf swing.

Can you teach yourself to play golf? Can you teach yourself the golf swing? Yes, multiple PGA Tour players have taught themselves to play and are their own swing coach. While it has been proven this can be done, it is most certainly not the norm, and this article is not suggesting you should. The best way to fast track your progress in anything in life is to invest in a great coach, but great coaches are hard to find, great coaches are expensive.

Although great coaches may not be in your area, not in your budget, or both, there are still good coaches in your area. Do some research, ask other golfers about their experience, do whatever you need to do to get as much information as possible about coaches in your area.

Lessons with a coach are extremely useful for the beginner golfer to create a solid foundation to build off of. There is just so much that a beginner doesn’t know. A coach can really get you going in the right direction.

High handicap golfers can also benefit from a coach. Of course high handicap golfers bring along a certain amount of baggage. Depending on how long you have been playing and swinging the way you have, the amount of baggage can be quite large and have an affect on your lessons. Golfers many times expect too much too quickly from lessons, and when they do not see results in the time frame they think they should, become frustrated.

If you learn everything about the golf swing you can, you make lessons from a teaching professional much more effective by:

  • Understanding what your golf coach is explaining to you and the purposes of the drills you are instructed to do.
  • Practicing on your own with more confidence that you will not stray from the concepts discussed with your golf instructor.
  • Knowing how instruction you read on social media applies to both your golf swing and the concepts you have discussed with your golf instructor. Or maybe more importantly if the instruction you read should not apply to you.
  • Learning new concepts that your instructor does not teach or heavily focus on and how these new concepts relate to the concepts your instructor has focused on.
  • Realizing how to fix a slice!

Follow these golf instructors on Twitter and learn everything about the golf swing you can!

Joseph Mayo @TrackmanMaestro

Andrew Rice @AndrewRiceGolf

Mark Crossfield @4golfonline

Shauheen Nakhjavani @shkeengolf

These four instructors are world class and will help you begin to self learn everything about the golf swing. There are many other great golf instructors you will also stumble upon. Start learning!

 

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Golf Tips

Find the Center of the Club Face

By Shooting 90

Are you hitting the center of your club face on every shot? Most likely not. Most really good golfers even struggle to hit the center of the club face on many shots. It is important to have the self awareness to know when you do not hit the sweet spot, as something called gear effect changes the trajectory and shape of your shot. Drivers and woods are more effected by gear effect than irons are, due to the center of gravity of the club being farther away from the face. Martin Chuck, @tourstriker, explains gear effect in the video below.

Getting to know the feeling of when you hit the ball off the toe or heel of the club face will help you realize that your club path and club face were correct on those shots, but you just did not hit the center of the club face.

A great way to build awareness of what hitting a shot off the toe or heel, or thin is to spray Dr. Scholl’s foot spray on your clubface at the driving range. The spray does a great job of showing the dimple pattern on your driver, woods, and irons.

Soon you will have the self awareness of when you are hitting the sweet spot and when you are either hitting it off the toe or the heel.

While on the range, you can also put tees in the ground on the inside of your ball if you are hitting to much off the toe, or on the outside of your ball if you are hitting on the heel. You’ll adjust to not hit the tees, thus moving your strike more into the center of the club face.

Believe it or not, some golfers do even realize they are not consistently hitting near the center of the clubface. Train yourself to feel when you are not and you will improve your golf game.