Month: June 2012

Categories
Golf Equipment

Choosing the Right Golf Ball

By Shooting 90

Some amateurs use golf balls they may have found on the course or whatever might have been on sale at their local sporting goods store. Others use the same balls of they see professionals use on TV. These balls are known as tour balls and the Titleist Pro V1 is an example. While using professional equipment can improve an amateur’s performance in many sports, including golf, it can also have little impact or even hurt your performance if your skills do not match the equipment.

Golf ball manufacturers utilize today’s technology to create a wide variety of balls. Golf balls vary from one piece construction to five piece construction. Different materials can be used for each layer depending on the manufacturer. The different combinations of construction and materials allow manufacturers to produce golf balls targeted to many different skill levels and swing speeds.

It is important to match up your golf game with a golf ball that matches your skill level and play that ball exclusively. While professionals can detect the most subtle differences in the performance and feel between different balls, even high handicap golfers will notice differences on some level. Playing the same ball is an easy way to provide more consistency to your game. I’ll grant you it may be a small thing in the grand scheme of your golf game, but knowing your ball will perform consistently will improve your game. Though playing a tour ball may seem like the best thing, they provide a large amount of spin. The spin is partially achieved with the soft cover of these balls which also provides a great deal of feel around the green. This spin is crucial for a professional’s or low handicap golfer’s short game but can adversely affect the high handicap golfer by exaggerating slices off the tee. This is one reason it is important to match up your skills with the ball that is right for you.

Let’s break down the main types of golf balls to find the best one for you.

Two Piece Construction Golf Balls

Most amateurs use a two piece golf ball and it should be the ball every beginner uses. These balls usually have a solid core covered with a hard, durable cover. With a low compression and hard cover, the two piece ball delivers more distance and less spin than other balls. Many high handicap golfers have lower swing speeds that will benefit from the added distance. High handicap golfers also have the tendency to slice the ball off the tee. The lower spin of the two piece ball will help minimize the severity of slices.

Another advantage of two piece golf balls is that they are less expensive than other types of balls. You will feel less pain in the pocketbook when they go into the woods or water.

Some two piece golf balls are:


Titleist DT TruSoft

Callaway Supersoft

Bridgestone Extra Soft Golf Balls

Tour Golf Balls

Tour balls are just that, balls that are used by professional golfers on tour. Unlike two piece balls, they have three, four or even five layers of construction. The multi-layer construction along with a very soft cover give tour balls a large amount of spin and feel around the green. The high amount of spin allows professionals and low handicap golfers to more easily draw or fade their shots along with stopping the ball quickly on the green. Both require golf skills that almost all high handicap golfers do not possess. For this reason, high handicap golfers will not see a return on their investment of the high price tag of tour balls. Some examples of tour balls are the Titleist Pro V1, the Callaway HEX Black Tour and the Bridgestone Tour B330.

Advanced Two Piece / Three Piece Balls

Somewhere between basic two piece balls and tour balls, there are advanced two piece balls and three piece balls designed for the mid handicap golfer. An advanced two piece ball’s core still has low compression for distance off the tee but it usually has a softer material for the cover than ionomer to give more spin and feel around the green. Three piece balls in this category utilize the middle, or mantle layer, to increase spin and feel around the green while the core material still gives the ball low spin off the tee for added distance. Depending on the construction, these three piece balls can either have a harder ionomer cover or a softer cover made from urethane or other materials. As a high handicap golfer builds more consistency and speed into their swing, approaching bogey golf, they should begin playing an advanced two piece or three piece ball to take advantage of the added spin and feel around the green.

An advanced two piece golf ball is:

Titleist Tour Soft Golf Balls

Some three piece golf balls are:

Wilson DUO Spin


Bridgestone e6 Soft Golf Balls

Whether you are a high handicap or beginner golfer, or an improving golfer closing in on consistent bogey golf, it is important to match your game with the correct type of ball. What brand and model ball you choose from the correct type comes down to personal preference. I suggest you try several side-by-side and choose the ball you like best.

Categories
Hit More Fairways

Create a Proper Pre-Shot Routine

By Shooting 90

You may be like me and enjoy watching professional golf on television. At the very least many of you watch at least part of the majors. Professionals spend an incredible amount of time working on their game. There are not many things you can watch pros doing on TV that can be directly applied to your game. There are a few however, and the pre-shot routine is one of them.

Take an hour or two to watch a professional event on TV. Watch the players’ pre-shot routines. You’ll notice they differ from the pre-shot routines of many amateurs. Many amateurs take a few practice swings along side the ball and then address the ball. Unless they need to test the lie by the ball, professionals do very little along side the ball besides addressing and hitting it. Most of the professional player’s pre-shot routine is spent behind the ball facing the hole. They are visualizing their perfect shot and aligning their target.

After selecting the right club, stand a few yards behind the ball facing your target and visualize the shot. Visualization is imagining the ball flight of the shot you have planned. Professionals know their confidence grows with the positive affirmation of visualization. With so much of the game of golf being mental, visualizing every shot is important to your success.

After visualizing your shot, take a practice swing. One practice swing, a few yards behind the ball, is plenty if you have a good lie. The only time you need to take a practice swing next to the ball is when you have an unsure lie, which includes sidehill, uphill and downhill lies.

Next, you need to line up your shot with a target in the distance. Depending on the lie and the wind, the target may be the flag, a tree, a sand trap or just about anything. Standing a few yards behind the ball, draw an imaginary line through the ball to your target. Pick a spot on the imaginary line three to five feet in front of the ball. Address the ball by placing your club face behind the ball in line with the spot you just picked three to five feet in front of the ball. Line up your feet perpendicular to the imaginary line. Keep a relaxed grip and take the shot.

Developing a repeatable pre-shot routine is an important step in consistently hitting quality shots. A consistent pre-shot routine will improve your scores.

Categories
Hit More Greens

Selecting the Right Club Every Time

By Shooting 90

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.

Categories
Golf Tips

Consistency

By Shooting 90

Bucket of ballsConsistency is the main factor separating amateur golfers from professionals. I know what you’re thinking. Professional golfers can hit some amazing golf shots that I could never pull off. That is absolutely true but their success stems more from consistently good, not amazing, shots in every area of their game.

Better consistency in your golf swing is a big part of an improving your game. From your grip to your follow through, a consistent swing will allow you to hit good shots with every club in your bag. Sometimes you can feel inconsistencies in your own swing. However, it is much easier to see the problems in your swing. Today’s technology makes it both easy and affordable to record video of your swing. Most digital still cameras have a video mode while standalone video cameras can be purchased for under $100. These devices allow you to easily record and playback your swing to finds areas for improvement. Playing partners are also an excellent source for finding inconsistencies in your swing. Hopefully you have the opportunity to regularly play with golfers who are better than you. Not only will golfing with better golfers naturally improve your game, they are in a better position to analyze your swing. While video recording and playing partners can identify areas to improve, some high handicap golfers have difficulty implementing swing fixes on their own. I recommend these golfers inquire about lessons from a golf professional in their area. Most golf courses have a golf professional on staff. Both single lessons or multiple lesson packages are available for a reasonable price. It may only take only a lesson or two to enable you to implement swing fixes on your own.

Many amateurs do not have enough consistency in their pre-shot routine. This is also true for pre-putt routines. The pre-shot routine is where you visualize and align the shot. Get in the habit of following the same routine before each shot. It will allow you to more consistently hit your intended targets.

Course management is how you work your way around the course. Knowing what club to hit off of the tee, knowing when to lay up or go for the green, and knowing how to get out of trouble quickly and back into play are all important parts of your game. Choosing the right club for the situation will improve your scoring. Properly getting out of trouble will help you to minimize blowup holes. I define blowup holes as holes with a score of triple bogey or worse. We can recover from a double bogey by picking up a par on a later hole. Triple bogeys or worse are much harder to recover from and will lead to a high score for the round.

Consistency will be an underlying theme of many if not all of the posts here on Shooting 90. More consistency in our golf game is what will drive us to become bogey golfers and beyond.