Categories
Hit More Greens

Increase Clubhead Speed to Increase Distance

Many beginner golfers golfers swing slower than they are capable of in an attempt to minimize mistakes. Many high handicap golfers make mistakes and slow their swing in an attempt to improve their ball striking. The problem with swinging slower than your potential is that it robs you of valuable distance.

Why is distance so important? Wouldn’t you rather be short in the fairway than long in the rough? Not really. The ideal result is to be long in the fairway. Here’s the reason you want all the distance you’re capable of. The key to scoring in golf is hitting greens in regulation. It is much easier to hit the green with an 8 iron, 9 iron, or pitching wedge than it is with a 6 iron. Shorter approach shots into the green will result in hitting more greens in regulation, which will result in lower scores.

Every mile per hour of clubhead speed translates to 3 to 4 yards of distance. Increasing clubhead speed by 5 miles per hour will add 15 to 20 yards to your drive. Even if you think your clubhead speed is at its fullest potential, the reality is that you most likely have more available. Most beginner and high handicap golfers have the ability to increase clubhead speed.

The best way to increase clubhead speed is to measure it. A Bluetooth golf swing analyzer is a relatively low cost way to measure club head speed. Check out our review of the SkyGolf SkyPro golf swing analyzer. Another benefit of using a golf swing analyzer is that as you progress to increase clubhead speed, the golf swing analyzer will insure that your swing and clubface stay in position.

You want to swing faster and not harder. Keep the tension in your swing at the same level as it always was as you increase clubhead speed. Also keep your lead arm dominate as your pull the clubhead through the ball, not letting your trail arm become dominant.

It is not necessary to hit balls at the range to increase clubhead speed. You can also work on this at home by swinging a club with no ball. Try Hank Haney’s 100 swings a day approach. You will not be able to get measurements from your golf swing analyzer by not hitting a ball but that’s OK. Measure your speed at regular intervals at the range when you are hitting balls. Track your progress.

Distance is important. Start increasing your clubhead speed today.

Categories
Hit More Greens

Uneven Lies – Downhill Lie

Hitting the ball from a downhill slope presents a few challenges and requires a few adjustments from your normal setup. Beginner and high handicap golfers have a tendency to hit these shots either fat or thin.

The first thing to do is to line up your shoulders parallel to the slope of the ground. Your lead shoulder will be lower than your back one, how much depending on the severity of the slope. This will put the majority of your weight on your front foot. Due to the slope, your weight will stay on your front foot during the whole swing. Attempting to place too much weight on your back foot is what contributes to hitting the ground before hitting the ball.

Hitting off the downhill lie will make your ball fly lower. This is because the slope is delofting

Aim a little bit to the left because the ball will go slightly to the right as having most of your weight on your lead foot will tend to make your body get ahead of the ball and will but a slight fade on it.

Watch the Free Online Golf Tips video below where Peter Styles explains the proper shot for a downhill lie.

Categories
Hit More Greens

Uneven Lies – Uphill Lie

Hitting a ball from an uphill lie will result in a shot that is higher, shorter, and tends to go to the left. There are a few adjustments needed in your setup to hit a ball from an uphill lie.

You need to align your body with the slope. Align your shoulders so they are parallel with the slope. This will put the majority of your weight on your back foot. Aligning your shoulders parallel to the slope will allow you to use your normal swing for an uphill lie.

Swinging up the slope will add loft to your shot, forcing your ball to go higher in the air and thus a shorter distance. Take more club to make up for the increased loft. If you normally hit a 8 iron, take a 7 iron instead, or maybe even a 6 iron depending on the severity of the slope.

Since most of your weight will stay on your back foot, you won’t be able to rotate your body through the shot as well. This will cause you to pull the ball slightly so aim a bit to the right.

Watch the video below to see Hank Haney show you how it’s done.

Categories
Hit More Greens

Uneven Lies – Ball Above Your Feet

In our first post on the challenges that uneven lies present on the course, we discussed the proper setup and technique for hitting a ball below your feet. This post tackles its counterpart, an uneven lie with the ball above your feet.

With the ball above your feet, your hands are closer to the ball. You’ll need to choke down on the club a bit, as if you swing with your hands in your normal position on the club, you’ll most likely hit the ground before the ball. Choking down on the club will cause you to hit the ball a shorter distance. You may need to take one club more than you usually do for the distance you are at.

The slope of the lie with the ball above your feet will try to make you lose your balance backwards. It’s important to keep your weight in the balls of your feet to help maintain your balance.

The ball flight, to some degree, will follow the slope of the lie. So for right handed golfers, your shot will want to go left depending on the severity of the slope.

Check out the video below from PGA professional Derek Hooper as he explains how to hit a shot with the ball above your feet.

Categories
Hit More Greens

Uneven Lies – Ball Below Your Feet

You make be working hard on how to fix a slice and in turn hitting more fairways. Your second shot, the approach shot into the green, is a more difficult shot. Besides the fact that your ball isn’t on a tee, there’s a chance you are not on level ground.

Uneven lies are a big reason it is difficult for high handicap golfers to take their progress on the practice range to the course. Even the flattest of courses will present at least a few uneven lies per round. On other courses, you’ll have more uneven lies than even ones! High handicap and beginner golfers many times do not make the small changes in setup and swing necessary to hit a good shot from an uneven lie.

The first uneven lie we are going to cover is the ball below your feet. There are a few key things to remember when setting up for a shot with the ball below your feet.

First, you’re farther away from the ball. You’ll need to bend more at the hips and flex more at the knees to compensate for this and get closer to the ball.

Second, both the slope and bending more at the hips will want to put more of your weight on your toes and give you the feeling that you are going to fall down the slope. Keep your weight back on your heels to stay balanced.

Being bent more at the hips and knees will limit how much your lower body can move, so the shot will be more arms and shoulder movement. It’s important to maintain your spine angle and not come up during the shot. This is why many golfers end up topping the ball from this lie.

Lastly, the ball flight will tend to follow the slope of the lie. So your ball will go to the right (for righties) a certain amount based on the amount of slope.

Categories
Hit More Greens

Lay Up on a Par 5

You’ve just crushed a drive down the middle of the fairway on a par 5. The aggressive side of you wants to knock it on the green in two and make a 15 footer for eagle. Of course, making it on the green in two on a par 5 rarely happens for a beginner or high handicap golfer and more often puts you in a bad position, either in a hazard, bunker, or green side rough. You should be very selective in the times you go for the green in two on a par 5. If the green is surrounded by hazards, your best play is to lay up, which simply means to hit a shot shorter than you are capable of.

When laying up, instead of going for the green in two, you hit your second shot to a safe part of the fairway with a remaining distance that leaves you a full wedge shot. The advantage to laying up is that most of the time you will be closer to the hole in three shots by laying up instead of going for the green in two. Develop a layup distance that you can repeatedly shoot for. The distance I usually lay up to is 100 yards, but choose the distance that is best for you based on your wedge play.

By laying up, you are also taking dangerous shots out of play. You may not need driver off the tee if you are playing three shots to get on the green. You may be able to reach the green with a 3 wood, mid iron and wedge. Along with leaving the driver in the bag, you are also taking a higher risk second shot with a fairway wood out of play. Laying up and taking three lower risk shots gives you an excellent chance at hitting a green in regulation and having a putt for birdie.

There will be times when being aggressive, going for the green in two on a par 5, will be the best play. You may have hit a booming drive right down the middle of the fairway and have a clear second shot to a green with minimal hazards surrounding it. These are the times to be selectively aggressive, go for the green in two if you have the distance to make it, and try to score low. The rest of the times play it safe and lay up on par 5’s.

Categories
Hit More Greens

Hit More Greens in Regulation by Playing it Safe

It’s fun to watch pro golfers on television attack the pins and setup easy birdies. It would appear they are attacking the pin on every hole. Next time you watch professional golf, pay close attention to your favorite golfer as they complete their round. You will see that they are very selective in which flags they go for and those they do not. On some holes even the pros will avoid danger and hit their approach shot to the safe side of the green, two putt for their par and move on to the next hole.

High handicap golfers need to be even more selective in which pins they choose to go for. High handicappers simply do not have the required consistent accuracy to go for every pin. There’s nothing wrong with going for only some of the flags during a round. In fact, high handicap golfers need to be hitting greens in regulation to setup pars rather than firing at pins to setup birdies.

The ultimate goal of the high handicap golfer is to reach the level of playing bogey golf. Making birdies, while an awesome feeling, has very little to do with reaching this goal. Hitting greens in regulation to make pars is extremely important to offset any double bogies or worse. There is too much risk in aiming at protected pins. Many times pins will be placed on the side of a green protected by water, rough, or sand. Hit your approach shot in the water and you’re risking a blow-up hole – a round killer. Hit your approach shot in the sand or rough and you’re scrambling to make par, most likely looking at a bogey. It’s much more important to hit the safe part of the green in regulation than to shoot for protected pins.

The safest part of most greens is the middle on the side away from trouble. If’s there’s trouble on the right, shoot for the left side of the middle of the green. From here, the goal is to lag putt to avoid three putting the green. Effective lag putting is essential to improving your golf game. Taking protected pins out of play and aiming for the safe area of the green will leave some longer first putts. This is OK as it is much better than missing the green. It does however require that you become an effective lag putter.

One piece of equipment I believe every high handicap golfer should have is a golf GPS system. Knowing the distance to the front and back of every green is critical to hitting more greens. Thinking of the yardage remaining to the hole as a range instead of a single yardage makes you consider every possible club and helps you choose the correct one. Invest in a golf GPS system today if you do not have one.

Hopefully you do not think I’m taking the fun out of the game by suggesting to not go for protected pins. The truth is there will be plenty of holes where the hole is cut in a very favorable area of the green. Be aggressive and take dead aim for these flags. On the holes with protected pins, remove the risk and lower your score by hitting the safe area of the green.

Categories
Hit More Greens

Selecting the Right Club Every Time

Proper club selection is required to increase the number of greens you hit in regulation. Hitting more greens is the fast track to improving your scores. It reduces the reliance on pitching and chipping which are arguably the most difficult areas of the game to master. There are several factors that go into selecting the right club for each shot.

The most important thing is to know how far you hit each club when making a good shot. This might sound obvious but it is something you need to accurately know. It is also something that can change from time to time. New clubs, swing changes or getting stronger can all change the distance you are hitting each club. The best place to find the distance you are hitting each club is at the practice range. Many ranges laser sight distances so you know they are accurate. If you are unsure of the distances and there is no one else on the range, you can use a GPS to measure the distances to the flags or walk them off manually. Pick a day with little or no wind. Hit ten or so balls with each club throwing out any bad shots and take the average as the distance for that club. I suggest doing this every year or after any of the factors mentioned previously.

Knowing the distance of each of your clubs is crucial for selecting the right one for each shot but there is another piece that is just as important. You also need to accurately know how far you have left to the green. The best way to know this is to use a GPS system or app. It is not enough to judge the distance using yardage markers and sprinkler heads. You could be several yards away from any of those. Besides accuracy, there is another huge benefit gained from using a GPS. Almost all GPS systems will not only tell you the distance to the center of the green, but they will also tell you the distance to the front and back of the green. Start thinking of the distance left to the green as a range and not a single distance left to the center. There will be times when it will be to your advantage playing to the front or back of the green.

Here are a few more reasons to use a GPS system or app if you are not already sold on one. GPS systems are not only used to find the distance left to the green. Many of them will give you an overhead view of the hole from which you can drag the target and determine the distance to any point on the hole! This is great for knowing how many yards you have to carry water and sand hazards. Par 5’s present another area where a GPS is highly beneficial. Many of us do not have the length to reach many par 5’s in two shots. We are laying up with our second shot instead of going for the green. I would rather have 100 yards left for my third shot than 50 yards. 100 yards is a full swing gap wedge for me. A 50 yard shot would be around a three quarter sand wedge. With a GPS system, we can know exactly how far to hit our second shot to leave 100 yards for our third shot. Using a GPS system or app will improve your game.

Knowing the distance you hit each club and the distance you need to hit your next shot are big factors in determining which club to use. Wind, the slope of your lie, and change in elevation will also all affect the distance your shot will travel. Just how much your shot will be affected by each of these factors is difficult to calculate. It is a case of the more you play, the more experience you will have to better judge the affects.

The wind can affect both the length; shots will be shorter into the wind and longer with the wind, and the direction of your shot. How much your shot will be affected depends on the wind speed and the trajectory of your shot. Lower trajectory shots will be less affected by the wind than higher trajectory shots. In other words, your driver will be less affected than 9-iron. The wind could affect your distance by up to three clubs in extreme cases.

The slope of your lie also affects how far your shot travels. Generally your shot will travel less far when you have an uphill lie. This is because an uphill lie adds more trajectory to your shot. Conversely, your shot will generally travel farther when you have a downhill lie due to it giving your shot less trajectory.

Finally, a change in elevation from where you are hitting your shot to the landing area will also affect the distance. A drop in elevation will add distance to your shot. Similarly, a rise in elevation will decrease the distance of your shot. The trajectory of your shot also determines how much of a factor this is. Low trajectory shots, your driver for example, will be affected more than higher trajectory shots such as your 9-iron.

Work on taking into consideration every factor when choosing the club for each of your shots. Diligence in this area will be rewarded with hitting more greens in regulation.