OT: Golf Thu - Your Best Tip EVER!!!
I don't know if there is anything more universal for a golfer than that they are always trying to improve their game. There is probably higher ratio of game improvement videos to golfers on Youtube than any other sport. So, what is you very favorite golf tip that really worked for you?
Mine is stack and tilt, specifically starting and ending iron shots with your weight on the left feet (for right-handed golfer). It eliminates inconsistency around the weight shift and really promotes downward strike on the ball. My irons shots became much more consistent after I switched to this method (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w73mPEBRX2I).
Please share your tips here.
Give it up. Made me a happier person.
I've gone from a 18 to a 5 handicap in a year and a half, and I've noticed the things that have really helped me haven't had to do with swing mechanics, it's mostly mental:
1. Have a pre-shot routine and stick to it. Mine is short: one practice swing, step back, pick a line, step back up to the ball, line up, one waggle, swing.
2. Manage the course and your bad drives (they're going to happen, but don't let them turn into doubles and triples with hero recovery shots).
4. Bad holes happen. Write it down and let it go.
4. Swing thoughts and swing changes are for the range, not the course.
5. Practice putting. Easily the best way to shave strokes. I have an indoor mat and practice during calls and meetings.
I've looked at all the posts and no one has mentioned position of feet.
This will probably be useless to a seasoned golfer like the OP, but early on someone told me to hit shots at the driving range with my front foot forward / neutral / backward relative to my back foot. It was eye-opening for me. If you have a hook / slice, try moving your feet around.
Echoing what others have said here, don't waste other people's time. Hurry up FFS. When I was younger I really appreciated it when older folks on the green would wave me forward (as in, "Yeah, go ahead and launch one toward the green."). I don't play nearly as much as I used to, but I always extend the same courtesy to younger people who are right behind me and clearly ready to pass.
Very first lesson I took…
me: <hits a few (really bad) shots>
instructor: <instructing>
me: that doesn’t feel right
instructor: you don’t know what right is
me: <shuts the hell up and listens>
"Retired" from golf about 10 years ago. Sounds like the behavior of many golfers today means I made a good decision.
Stop giving and listening to the cliche swing tips.
Love the guy who insists on playing from the tips and then barely gets it past the ladies tees, and then another 4-5 shots to get on the green. Rinse, repeat.
Golf got way more enjoyable for me when I moved up to the white tees. Anything over 6500 yards for me is pushing it. You want to be hitting a good amount of irons into greens, and I don't mean 4 irons or 5 irons that you have to smash to get there. Easier swings / shorter clubs helps your rhythm too.
So I just usually look at what tees are 6000-6500 and use those, whatever color they are.
I'm pretty skeptical about stack-and-tilt. I've been playing for 35 years and have heard and read a lot about the golf swing. SNT was a fad 15 years ago that flamed out almost instantly.
I've got two key pointers:
First, the most recent advice I got was to widen my stance. Nobody had ever told me that before. The pro that offered it said almost everybody underestimates their own shoulder width and that the feet need to be spaced out at or even outside of the shoulder width. It's worked for me.
Second, is the idea of "throwing the club to the target". Obviously, you're not going to literally let go of your club and hurl it. But the thought works for me because it's something I can get the feel of in a practice swing, it "connects" me and my kinetic energy to the target. Most importantly, throwing an object as hard and with as much speed as possible at a target is something we humans have been doing for 1,000s of generations. It's how we used to catch our food!
Relax grip pressure. Try on range what grip pressure works best on scale of 1-10, most will do
best somewhere between 4 & 7. Also keep your grip V's within shoulders. Cheers !
Gambling is illegal at Bushwood sir, and I never slice.
Is this a golf tip or pet peeve thread?
Tip—-I’m a 6 hdcp but always struggled with greenside bunkers (the dreaded skull). Saw a YouTube video from a Euro Tour pro (can’t recall name of player or find video). Basically open your stance so the front foot is almost pointed at the hole, feel about 70% weight on the front foot, open club face a tad and swing away. In practice it helps to draw a line an inch or so behind the ball and practice hitting down on that line.
Peeve—-other golfers hitting your ball or picking it up. If you see a ball in the playing area that isn’t yours, just leave it. Happened to me 3x this year and I use a sharpie to mark my ball. So annoying
Learn how to control the club face first
and only then can you begin to worry about path
Sorry, but this is completely false.
I've only had 3 PGA coaches tell me this so yeah they're all full of it
Did they explain to you the role the face plays in the shot? If your path and AoA are “wrong” your face has to be offline as well. So, where’s the face need to be to hit a draw? Straight? Fade? What causes the golf ball to curve? You can control your face at robotic precision but if your path and AoA are off you’ll almost never hit the shot where you’re intending.
The point is that you can learn to adjust one after you've learned to adjust the other, otherwise you'll just get lost in the sauce
No need to turn into a pretentious golf asshole
The point is that you can learn to adjust one after you've learned to adjust the other, otherwise you'll just get lost in the sauce
The point you’re trying to make is not lost on me, but clearly my point is lost on you — and those 3 PGA Professionals who advised you. The fact that you didn’t even attempt to answer my questions regarding the ball flight laws illustrates my point exactly. How does one go about “learning to control the clubface”? That’s one of the platitudes of which I wrote in my longer post. As a life long seeker of elite golf technique, and an instructor, I can tell you that most professional say those things without any notion nor practical method to accomplish it. I explained myself clearly. Golf isn’t a face game, despite what is popularly thought.
The face, as you should have been advised, is almost entirely responsible for the initial flight path of the golf ball (technically, is 80% given centered contact with a driver, but I digress). The curvature of the ball is created by the “face to path relationship”. So, the ball starts where the face is pointing then curves AWAY from the path. “Square”’is perhaps the most oft used term when discussing the face, and learning to control the face. “You gotta learn to square it up!” they always say. But they never tell you square to what, exactly.
One can square the face to the target, the ball will start right at it, then end 30 yards OB. That’s not because they couldn’t control the face, but because they couldn’t control their path and AoA. The golf ball is on the face of the club for 1/10,000 of a second, and is “square” to the target for a equally brief moment in time. While no doubt well meaning, instructors who focus their student’s on the face are asking them to do the impossible and setting them down a path of inconsistency because, as you pointed out, they leave the path (and AoA — which are the actual drivers of the laws of ball flight) for last. The problem is, if one violates the laws of path and AoA, you must then violate the law of face as well. Hence, the average player’s wild inconsistency.
Having lived it as a player, caddie and instructor, I can assure you that focusing on path and AoA make controlling the face easy and intuitive as opposed to random and confusing.
No need to turn into a pretentious golf asshole
Oh the irony!
I think most everyone here is not an aspiring tour pro so tips that help, or are under, you are most likely completely different from most of us plebs. I do agree with much of what you said in regard to angle of attack, club path, but probably a bit much for your weekend golfer to grasp, learn and implement.
A lot of the tips you disregard posted here will help the AVERAGE golfer.
Keep your head down ?
As a former aspiring tour professional, professional caddie, and current golf instructor, I can unequivocally say that “golf tips” are useless, at best, and downright detrimental at worst. Well meaning and oft repeated platitudes like, “shift your weight” and “keep your head still” or “don’t grip the club too tight” are actually completely the opposite of what elite ball strikers actually do.
Golf is a strange game in that the athletic mind, which is hardwired for efficiency of movement , looks down at the ball and then tries to make the most efficient movement possible to throw the head of the club down to the ball. It’s not wrong, it’s just wrong ... when it comes to producing the impact conditions necessary for a pure shot. To make matters even worse, irons have one set of conditions while the driver is different. This why most people slice, and then why even better players learn to simply flip the face over and hope to find something reasonably square but, no matter how much they practice can’t seem become masters.
The problem is this flip/roll action is almost impossible to do consistently because the physics and geometry are just too exacting. Golfers basically list back and forth wildly and have a hodgepodge of “tips” they’ve absorbed through the years that they apply randomly to try to “find it” but it’s almost always fleeting.
The number one thing that I try to impart to all students I work with is that golf is a path and angle of attack (AoA) game, NOT a face of the club game, i.e., how the club is moving in relation to the imaginary target line and the ground is infinitely more important than whether the club face is open, square or closed. When someone hits a big slice, the golf buddies always say, “your club face was open”, but where’d the ball start? Often the bad slicer’s ball starts well left (for a right handed player) then it curves wildly. So, all that being said, my “tip” is learn the ball flight laws from someone who thoroughly understands them, and learn how to observe them in your own shots.
Then, and only then, can one begin to take the necessary steps to solve their problems. Elite ball striking, while not easy, is actually simple to learn once one understands what is actually going on and what actually makes a golf ball do what it does. Once one learns how to use leverage and compression rather than lateral motion and rotation, the club’s path and AoA can be controlled at an astoundingly repetitive level. We can’t throw the club away and expect to be anything but inconsistent.
My $.02
Go Blue!
cool
I’d recommend using the arrow on the ball for putting. There are conflicting studies on how much it helps but IMO it works. Aim the arrow (or line) where you want to hit the ball. When you are over the top of a putt it takes away the issue of the line so you only have to worry about speed.
It may not be for everyone but there is a reason most tour players use it. I’m about a 6 handicap and it makes a meaningful difference for me. Just my two cents.
Be the ball Danny.
I made it a goal of mine to get better at golf this year. That started with taking some lessons, which have been helpful, but did not solve everything. What has worked for me so far has been:
- Proper grip can be a big difference maker.
- Practice - I have seen a drastic improvement simply because I spend more time at the range.
- I start with my 50 degree because this helps get my swing path correct. I then hit through my irons, then driver, then wedges. Driver is usually only 10 or so balls and that is just to make sure I am not falling into bad habits and slicing the ball. I end with wedges because I am working on distance control.
- Don't neglect your 100 yard and closer shots. I can't remember the percentage but a player will use wedges way more in a round of golf that almost any other club.
- I have tried to find a golf ball I like and play with only that. It is supposed to give more confidence because the player will know how the ball will react. I don't think I am good enough for this to matter and I really like the TaylorMade TP5 which is an expensive ball to lose.
- Relaxed and slow backswing. The only thing I tell myself on the backswing is to go slow. When I rush the backswing my shot is terrible.
I’ve never had any desire to golf and after perusing this thread it’s clear why.
My tip: When I get the shanks, take penicil....wait, no...the right tip is this: Rather than fight it through the round, eliminate the width in my stance. Addressing the ball with my feet closer together reduces the impact the hips make in my swing, reducing or eliminating completely, my slice. Sacrifices distance, so I then add a club to compensate, then hit the range later to work it out.
I’ve found that having a $3,000 putter and $2,000 golf bag really helps me. $1,200 in headcovers really sets it off as well.