Nuggets from the Pros

Now that The Masters and The Players have whipped up your passion for golf, I’ve found a number of golf tip nuggets from the pros. These are all just handy tips that you should take with you to the range or for your early Spring rounds.

1/ Slow Motion Practice: Ben Hogan said “”Whenever I am working on something I always do it in slow motion.” He did this to link each position of his swing to the next position. He did this like a muscle memory exercise by taking a minute to complete a full swing and repeating it 3 or 4 times daily. This muscle training exercise locked each position in his mind.

2/ Sequence of the Swing: Martin Hall on the Golf Channel said that the best advice he ever received was to learn the SWING SEQUENCE: swing, turn, shift and shift, turn, swing. It’s a great idea to practice this with Ben Hogan’s slow motion practice.
•BACKSWING: SWING your arms and wrists back, TURN your hips and shoulders as you SHIFT your weight to your back foot. Then reverse the process.
• DOWNSWING: SHIFT your weight to your forward foot as you TURN your hips and your shoulders and finally SWING your arms & wrists through the ball.

Pressure increases exponentially when a green is surrounded by water and thousands of blood thirsty fans are watching in silence.

3/ Stick the Finish: Martin Hall called it “tying the knot”. Focus on finishing the swing in a controlled balanced position with the butt of your club facing the target as you admire your shot. Your down swing is a split second so focus on your deliberate back swing and  focused finish for more control .

4/ Tempo and Direction: Blair O’Neil (Golf Channel winner in one of the Big Break Series and eye candy replacement for Holly Sommers) said: “Speed of the swing is the glue for a successful swing.” You need good tempo to accelerate through the ball with a good finish. She suggests placing a tee 3 feet up your target line. Then swing through the ball pointing up the line made by your target tee as you finish your swing.

5/ Practice by Building up Your Speed: Jeff Ritter, a PGA Pro advised that you should start every practice by swinging slowly to learn direction control and to build confidence. Then build up your tempo. Use each club to hit a ball at 10%, then 30%, then 50% and 80% to understand that you can control your swing and ball direction.

6/ Tricks for more Back Spin: Andrew Rice (PGA Pro on Revolution Golf) offered these tricks to hit wedge shots with one hop and stop. Don’t clean the club face if you have sand on it. That grit will help grab and spin the ball backwards. Morning dew and water on the club face will do the opposite so keep your club dry or play in the hot afternoon sun when the fairways are dry.

7/ Play with a Happy State of Mind: Jason Day was asked how he started to win tournaments. He recalled the day that he shot an 80 on the final day of a tournament after he broke up with a girlfriend on the night before. “Your mind has to be in a good and happy state.”  Bad thoughts outside of the game will not help your game.

Practice with these tips for a great summer of golf. GOLFSTR+ is also a great training aid to keep you focused on 6 swing solutions for 6 swing problems. So learn to swing like a pro and buy your GOLFSTR+ today at www.golfstr.com