Tag: golfer

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Hit More Fairways

How to Fix a Slice – Ball Flight Laws

By Shooting 90

Understanding the ball flight laws which govern why your ball is hooking and slicing is necessary to be able to build awareness of your own clubhead path and clubface angle. Knowing your own clubhead path and clubface angle enables you to easier make swing changes.

Our swing is determining how the clubhead path and clubface angle and the relationship between the two, at impact, create the ball flight pattern. What exactly is the relationship between clubhead path and clubface angle? Depending on the club, your clubface angle is 65 to 85 percent responsible for the direction your ball starts in. The clubhead path, specifically the relationship between the clubhead path and the clubface angle, is primarily responsible for the direction and amount of curvature in your ball flight.

In the video below, Andrew Rice explains the ball flight laws and the “Royal” relationship between path and face.

If you didn’t already, you now know that a slice is caused by the clubface angle being open relative to the clubhead path. The slice we’re all use to seeing is the one that starts on or left of the target line, curves way right landing well right of the target, usually so far right that you’re in trouble. The path moves from outside of the target line across to the inside of the target line. The clubface angle is pointing to the right of the path to some degree.

Many golfers try to compensate their slice by aiming more left, which doesn’t help. This move can increase the difference between your path and face, worsening your slice. Even if you can aim more left and not worsen you slice, there are just too many holes that you might not have the room to start that far left.

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Hit More Greens

Uneven Lies – Downhill Lie

By Shooting 90

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.

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Hit More Greens

Uneven Lies – Uphill Lie

By Shooting 90

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.

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Hit More Greens

Uneven Lies – Ball Above Your Feet

By Shooting 90

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.

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Hit More Greens

Uneven Lies – Ball Below Your Feet

By Shooting 90

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.

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Hit More Fairways

How to Fix a Slice – Stop Casting the Club on Your Downswing

By Shooting 90

We’ve previously discussed the key for a golfer looking for how to fix a slice is to create an in to out swing path. Many high handicap and beginner golfers have the opposite, an out to in swing path, which is the main reason for their slice. Many golfers with an out to in swing path also “cast” the club during their downswing. Casting refers to straightening your wrists and losing the angle between your left forearm (for righties) and the club shaft very early in your downswing which makes consistent ball striking very difficult.

One reason for casting is the tendency to lift the club up with your arms and hands to start the backswing. This sets up what is referred to as a narrow to wide to narrow swing. Golfers with this swing lift the club during the back swing (narrow), extend their arms and cast the club to begin the downswing (wide), and finally collapse their arms through impact with the ball (narrow).

Creating a wide to narrow to wide swing is a great way to stop casting the club.

If you watch any professional golf, you’ll notice that a professional’s swing is much different. In fact it’s very much the opposite, a wide to narrow to wide swing. A professional brings the club back wide with their arms extended, keeps a narrow downswing with their wrists still hinged, finally releasing the club by extending their arms and going wide.

The following video by Simon Weston is a great explanation of a wide to narrow to wide swing.

 

There are big benefits to a wide to narrow to wide swing.

The first is a more consistent in to out swing, helping you to fix a slice. Rotating your body with hip and shoulder turn minimizes you using your arms and hands to swing the club. It is difficult to build consistency in a swing with a lot of hand and arm movement.

Secondly, you lose club head speed and shot distance when you cast the club. By keeping your wrists hinged until later in the downswing, you create lag in your swing. Lag refers to keeping your hands in front of the club shaft and releasing the club right before impact with the ball. A wide to narrow to wide swing promotes more lag and gives you a higher club head speed at impact.

One of the keys to a wide to narrow to wide swing is getting your weight moving forward towards the target to start your downswing. This helps to drop your hands down inside to start your downswing. If you start your downswing by dropping your hands before moving forward towards your target, you are more likely to come over the top with an outside to in swing path.

Here’s a great drill from Karen Palacios-Jansen to help you start your downswing by getting your weight moving towards the target.

 

By not casting the club on your downswing, you’ll help eliminate your slice, create more consistent ball striking, and gain distance through increased club head speed.

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Golf Tips

Fall is a Great Time for Golf!

By Shooting 90

It’s fall here in the northern hemisphere, and depending on exactly where you are, this may mean nothing to your golf or it may mean you have a week left of your golf season. Some of you live in places which allow you to golf year round. Some of us, myself included, live in a place where we have a significant winter. I thoroughly enjoy four distinct seasons, so while it does not bother me, the approaching winter means no more local outdoor golf for me.

So while fall means your local course may soon be closing, it shouldn’t mean you should not golf as much as possible up until then. In fact, with the exception of dealing with aerated greens and possibly making a new local rule to handle lost balls in leaves on the ground, fall golf has many things going for it.

  • Fall golf is inexpensive. Let’s face it. Golf is an expensive sport. Two local municipal courses I golf on, St. Germain Golf Club and Northwood Golf Club, cost $45 for 18 holes in the summer. Granted, even though these are town-owned, they are 4.5 star courses. Still, I don’t know about you, but $45 to golf is a significant cost for me. Today I teed off at 3 o’clock in the afternoon at St. Germain Golf Club, took advantage of their twilight all you can golf rate for $14, and squeezed in 18 holes in the 3 and a half hours of daylight I had. Every course has deals like this. They’re still open and want golfers.
  • On many days, it is more comfortable to golf in the fall than in the summer. For me, many days in the summer are just plain too hot for golf. I’d rather put on a layer of clothes and golf in the fall than to sweat it out in the summer heat. The weather for my round today was 52 F, sunny, and very little wind. The temperature was not too cold for my hands to get cold and I was very comfortable with a sweatshirt and light jacket.
  • There are little to no bugs in the fall! The mosquitos and biting flies of spring and summer are gone or nearly gone in fall.
  • The chance for severe weather in the fall is very minimal. If fact, in general, there is much less rain in the fall. There were several times this summer that my round was shortened due to severe weather. Watching the radar and not going out if there is a chance of storms is just not realistic. Too many times you don’t go golfing and no severe weather turns up. So you end up taking your chances and being forced off the course by severe weather. Never golf with lightning in the area. Golf is never as important as your safety.
  • The fall colors are spectacular. If you are lucky enough to have a local course with woods, the course is an excellent place to see the changing colors. Being out in nature is one of the great perks of golf and the outdoors are many times most beautiful in the fall.

While many of us are sad that another golf season is coming to an end, don’t stop golfing just yet. Take advantage of all the things that fall golf has going for it and golf up until your course closes.