October 17, 2026

Faults And Fixes

Play Ugly, Score Beautifully

When it comes to playing golf, one thing is for sure: Rarely are two days ever the same. Some days, your swing is grooving nicely and you can’t miss. Other days, the club feels foreign and uncomfortable, and hitting decent shots is really tough! If I knew the secret for playing your best every time you play, I’d be the first to let everybody know. Instead, what I do know is that when things aren’t going exactly how you want and you sometimes feel uncomfortable, there are steps you can take to help protect your score and make it through the round.

Let’s take a look at a handful of scenarios where you can stop the bleeding and get back on track. These fixes, drills and even swing thoughts aren’t always the prettiest, and some aren’t designed to be long-term fixes, but they’ll definitely help you stop making the same mistakes and get through 18 holes.

FEEL A DRAW TO CURE A SLICE!
Sometimes what you need to feel and what should actually happen in the golf swing are two different things. For instance, if you’re hitting a lot of ugly slices off the tee, it’s likely because you aren’t squaring up the clubface through impact. On the opposite page, that’s exactly what’s happening. From the position you see just before impact, I have very little chance of hitting a straight shot with that open face.


This isn’t a “real” position you want to have. It’s an exaggerated sensation you want to feel.
If you don’t activate the hands and square the face at impact, you’ll slice every time!

If this sounds like you, and you can’t shake the slice, here’s what I want you to do. Feel as though you’re rotating your wrists or forearms way before you get to the golf ball. This feels really ugly, but the upper-left photo shows you what I want you to feel as you swing the club down and through. So rehearse it a few times, feeling like you’re forcing the clubhead to shut and close prematurely, even though it’s really squaring up in real time.

Once you do that a few times, make your normal swing, but visualize the “ugly” position you just rehearsed. You’ll feel the difference.


The release requires the turn of the body, extension of the arms and roll of the wrists.

RELEASE!
 Don’t forget what happens after you make contact! If you’re holding the face open after contact, you can bet the ball will go to the right either as a push or a push-slice. To further rid the slice from your game, practice getting into this position you see here, too. Then, as you make a real swing over the ball, think of this position, as well.

You’ll soon see that how you think about your shot and how the body performs actually can have an effect on helping you make better swings and hit more consistent shots. Also, rehearsing ugly positions like the one above will help you feel more comfortable with your natural golf swing.

_È_STOP SHANKING
Hitting shanks off the hosel is as ugly as it gets! If you’re plagued with this ill, here’s a quick drill to try to hopefully banish your shanks for good.

First, grab two golf balls and position them as I have here, with one where you normally position the ball (white ball) and another an inch or two closer to you (yellow ball). Next, set up over your first ball (white ball), take the club back, and try to hit the inside (yellow) ball. You’ll quickly feel what it means to pull that hosel away from the intended ball you’re trying to hit, helping you make contact more on the center of the clubface. Now, this drill may not be a lasting swing fix, but it can help you put your shanks at bay, at least until you have time on the practice tee with an instructor.

What about on the course? Well, you can’t legally play two balls, but you can certainly pretend while you practice. So if the shanks suddenly appear, imagine the yellow ball inside the intended ball you’re set up to and try to hit. This will quickly force you not to fall or lean into the ball through the downswing; instead, it will force you to stay away from the ball and make solid contact.

This drill/technique may seem extreme and pretty ugly, but it just may be the fear-inducing formula you need to stop leaning into the ball as you swing, which, folks, is the number-one reason why people shank. They shift their weight toward the ball, not toward the target. And, by the way, even if you don’t shank very often, this is a great drill to practice for helping you avoid coming over the top and hitting from outside-in.


Left: See the L formed by my clubshaft and left arm? That’s all the backswing you need for a knockdown shot. Right: The L returns! Concentrate on this L during your whole swing and be sure to rotate your body.

SWING WITH MORE CONTROL
Sometimes it seems no matter how you try, you just can’t hit the green. And, often, when I see golfers who are struggling with accuracy from the fairway, they do the opposite of what you should do to try and rein in their shot dispersion. What do they do? Well, many golfers tend to ramp up their swings in hopes that a bigger, more powerful swing will help sync up their swings so they can hit straighter shots. And, in some cases, that may be true! But with a faster, bigger swing, it becomes more likely that a swing flaw you once had will only get worse.

Here’s what I suggest you do when you just can’t hit an iron straight. Switch to the knockdown shot, and start swinging from L to backward L, that means, cutting your backswing and followthrough almost in half and concentrating more on making solid contact than hitting the ball a long way.

By the way, you can still make an aggressive swing hitting knockdowns. I’m not suggesting you should swing easy. Instead, consider shortening your swing and limiting the amount of mistakes that can occur as you take the club back and on the way down. Your shots may not fly as far with this type of swing, but I’ll bet they fly a lot straighter.

STOP THE BLADED PITCH
You can’t see it, but I just bladed this chip across the green. Why? Simple, I didn’t use my legs in the stroke and I attempted to get the ball airborne using my hands and arms. Notice the left-elbow chicken wing? That proves what I did here was stop rotating my body and pull up with my hands. The result was an ugly shot, to say the least.


When you try to artificially lift the ball with the arms, the left elbow rises, causing the chicken wing.
See how straight my left arm is? That’s what you want. Also, notice how my knees are rotating toward the target.

Hitting a solid pitch shots requires more body motion than people think. In fact, I like to think of my legs as more of a driving force than my arms and hands, which generally stay pretty passive through the stroke. As you can see in the photo to the left, I’ve maintained a good extension of the arms through the hit, and I’ve also activated my knees in the stroke as they turn toward the target. If you’re struggling with hitting bladed shots, consider hitting some pitches with little to no hinge in the wrists. It may feel a little funky and look a little ugly, but it may be just what you need to stop the chicken wing and start hitting some solid shots around the green.

These photos show how subtle golf can be. The top two photos are of a good pitch and the lower two are of a pitch that I’m about to blade across the green. At a glance, they look very similar, right? But upon further inspection, you can actually see several differences in the two shots.

First, my good setup has the shaft more vertical, my head is a little higher, and the ball is slightly further forward in my stance. Next, in my bad swing, you can clearly see as I come into impact that there’s already some separation showing between my body and my soon-to-be chicken wing left arm.

The right move is to keep the knees close together and allow them to turn toward the target as the club passes through impact. That’s what you want.


Trying to finesse your chip shots is difficult, especially when you’re having an off day.

Rock the club back and forth like a putter, and expect a softer impact, that is, it’s okay to be a little more aggressive with this shot.

STOP UNCONTROLLABLE CHIPS
If you’re mis-hitting some chips and rocketing others past the hole, try and miss all your chips. Yes, you heard that right. The “Chang Chip,” as some of my colleagues call it, is a shot I love come time to hit consistent shots from off the green. It’s not the prettiest shot, but it’s rock-steady. Set up as you would with a putter, only use your 7-, 8- or 9-iron. Play the ball in the front-center of your stance and align the shaft so it’s vertical (a slight lean to the target is okay). This raises up the heel, making it easier to mimic a putting stroke in the long grass. Use your putting stroke and play the ball on the fat part of the clubface. It’s likely you’ll feel as though you’re missing the sweet spot, but that’s what you want. With some practice, you’ll see that the Chang Chip is a great option that allows you to be aggressive without hitting the ball too far past the hole. The toe-sided hit will be a deadened shot, so swing the club aggressively for better results.

DOWNHILL PUTTS
Most people assume direction is most important when it comes to putting. The reality is, the speed of your putt is more important. On putts that curve, there are many different lines you can choose to roll the ball, as long as you have the correct speed for that putting line.

Where I see mistakes often made is on downhill putts. They’re usually the toughest to gauge in terms of break and speed. Usually, my students hit downhill putts too hard and don’t play for enough break. When that happens, their putts roll past the hole a long way and they’re left with a lengthy comebacker. No fun!

The quick, ugly solution to help prevent hitting downhill putts too far is to consider playing downhill putts off the toe of the putterface. This immediately deadens the putt and puts a much slower roll on the ball. When you do this, play for some extra break; the ball will be rolling slower and definitely will break more. Give it a try, and watch downhill putts roll a lot slower toward the hole.

BACK TO NORMAL
Remember, hitting you putts off the toe side of the putter is only recommended for touchy, downhill putts. If you’re struggling with your speed and distance control for all your putts, hone in on the sweet spot of your putter and try to hit your putts as solidly as you can. Usually, bad distance control means you’re ignoring the center of the putterface and hitting putts away from the putter’s center of percussion. Make it a priority to hit your putts in the center of the face first, then work on getting your line and speed down.

Randy Chang, PGA, is the Director of Instruction at Journey Golf Club at Pechanga in Temecula, Calif., and has golf schools at Talega Golf Club in San Clemente, Calif., and Back Bay GC in Newport Beach, Calif. For information, visit randychangpga.com.

7 Deadly Swing Sins

When it comes to making critical swing flaws that wreak havoc on your ability to score, there are a handful of swing sins that you must avoid. The consequences of the following mistakes usually result in hellish results, so pay attention to the quick fixes I’ve outlined for each swing flaw. Lucky for you, no matter how deadly these swing sins may be, the quick fix is easy to accomplish. Read on, confess, and say goodbye to making the same swing mistakes.

SLICED DRIVES
A slice occurs usually because your clubface is open and you probably have an outside-to-in swingpath into the ball, thus creating slice spin. Odds are, you’re getting your arms and club too far behind your shoulders on the backswing, too. When this happens, you get too much forearm roll on the backswing, your clubface opens, and often your head drifts too far back. To recover, you have to use the upper body instead of the lower body to start the forwardswing, and you end up throwing your hands and club outside the target line on your downswing. Yuck! The goal is the opposite. You want a swing with a driver that’s more inside-to-out, not outside-to-in.

FIX #1
Take a stance with both feet flared open. Make a three-quarter practice swing with a split grip, and swing L to reverse L, keeping both your arms and elbows in front of your shoulders. Then, put your hands together, set up to the ball, and hit it with the same feel. The split-grip drill will improve your path and create a nice release to square up the face.

FIX #2
The second reason most people slice their driver is because the face is open at impact due to a weak grip that no doubt promotes an open face at impact. To strengthen your grip, get your left thumb aimed right of the clubhead so you see at least two knuckles. We don’t want the left thumb pointing down at the clubface. Now, place your right hand on the grip so that lifeline fits right against the left thumb. It will feel different if we changed your grip, but this should help square up the clubface much more effectively.

CHUNKED IRON SHOTS
Most fat shots occur because your weight has stayed on the back foot instead of moving toward your front foot. The key is to not try to help the ball up, but let the club’s loft do its job for you! You want to get to your left side in the downswing and focus on the bottom of your swing arc being past the ball on all iron shots. In other words, the bottom of the swing arc is under your left shoulder, not the ball, folks.

THE FIX
The first step is to understand that impact position is different than setup position. At impact, you’re dynamic: You’re getting into your left side, the hips are turning open, there’s forward shaft lean, and the clubface is squaring up. The most important factor, again, is knowing that the bottom of the swing arc is under the left shoulder. Meaning, you should be hitting slightly down instead of trying to help the ball up. You want cut the grass and take a divot past your ball, not before it.

Also, you need to understand what it means to shift to your left side. Set up with the club across the shoulders and make a backswing. To start the downswing, feel as though you shift into the ball, with the left shoulder staying lower than the right. When you swing, just shift to the left, let the arms drop, and then you can rotate to your target. Don’t lean back to help the ball up! It may feel like you’re sliding left at first, but as long as you continue with a solid “bump” and rotation through the downswing, it’s not a slide. It’s how the downswing should look and feel!

FLUBBED PITCHES
It seems I see the same mistakes with pitch shots over and over again. Maybe it’s because a pitch shot is a “tweener” shot, meaning it’s not quite a full swing and it’s not a short swing like a chip. So, invariably, most golfers mess up by taking a huge backswing and try to finesse the ball with their hands. Talk about a deadly combo! To hit a pitch successfully, go with your normal setup and just play ball in middle of your stance. Remember, the loft of the club gets the ball up in the air; you don’t need to help it up with the hands. Second, as you swing, hit down on the ball and allow the hands to extend through the shot. Don’t get handsy! Note in the correct photo below the separation of the hands and body after making contact. That’s what you want. And it’s easy to do as long as you take a more modest backswing and you rotate the body through the shot, not flip the hands through it.

THE FIX

Set up in normal position with the ball in the middle of your stance or favor the weight on the left side with the hands slightly forward. This setup promotes a downward path into the ball. When you take your normal setup in this short swing, you have to create some hinge to flatten out the left wrist in the backswing and rotate the hips open at impact, which increases your speed, thus hitting the ball farther than anticipated with little effort.

I also want your backswing to be smaller than your followthrough so that you accelerate into the ball to create consistent impact with spin. Simply swing to a 1, 2, 3 count: 1) Turn back; 2) Add a little hinge and start the forwardswing, and by the time you finish counting; 3) You’ve already hit the ball and cut the grass in front of the ball. You’ll want to follow through with the arms, clubshaft, chest, hips and right knee facing the target. This helps eliminate the flip and promotes acceleration in the impact zone.

EPIC BUNKER FAILS
If you don’t like greenside bunkers and you’re trying to help the ball get up over the bunker lip, here’s a fix for you. The first step is to simplify your bunker setup and eliminate being too open in your stance or having the clubface too open. I want you to use your normal pitch shot except you’ll use the bounce in your clubhead and swing like your ball is in greenside deep rough.

FIX #1

Set up so you’re aiming directly at the target and open the face so the bottom scoring lines aim at your left ankle to create a little bounce. Work your feet into the sand a half-inch so you have a shallow divot in the sand. Line up at your target and swing the club at your target to throw the sand on the green and forget about the open face! If you open your body and the clubface too much, you’ll tend to swing the club back too far to the inside, creating a lot of problems. Instead, keep your focus on hitting a spot of sand two inches behind the ball and swing down and through. Too often, I see players open up their body too much to the left and open the face too much to the right, which makes the shot much more difficult. Instead, hit a “heavy pitch” and swing aggressively right at the target!

FIX #2
Change your distance thought; if you have a 15-yard bunker shot, you need a 45-yard swing. Yes, multiply the distance you need to hit by three to offset the cushion of sand between the clubface and ball. If you’re playing in a firm or wet bunker, double the distance; if you’re in soft powder sand, multiply the distance by four. Learn to make a practice swing outside the bunker before you walk into the bunker, so on most 20-yard bunker shots, make a 60-yard practice swing, then walk into the bunker, take your setup and go with the same feel.

WILD CHIPS
Let’s face it, folks, there’s really no excuse for bad chipping. It’s one of the easiest strokes to learn and should be one of the easiest to repeat. Again, like the pitch shots, often I see mistakes made because golfers feel they need to lift the ball up into the air with their hands. In reality, better chippers tend to keep the ball lower to the ground and have more roll with their chips.

THE FIX

Unique to chipping, go ahead and set up into a posed impact position. This means setting up with the left foot back and the hips open, and your weight is on the left side. The shaft should be in line with the left arm and the clubface pointing at the target. From there, swing the club back and through with minimal wrist hinge. If you take your normal setup in this short swing, you have to create some hinge to flatten out the left wrist and increase your rotation speed to get the hips open at impact, which increases your speed, thus hitting the ball farther than we need for a short bump-and-run shot. Also, once you set up with the desired impact position, simply swing the club and try to keep the “Y” look as the wrists stay fairly quiet. Focus on your finish position, with the hands extended out, hips open and right heel off the ground. You want the ball to release and roll
.

AGGRAVATING 3-PUTTS
In order to eliminate 3-putts, you have to focus on your speed control. If you misread the putt by two feet and you have the speed correct, you can walk away with a two-foot putt, but most 3-putts occur because you were seven feet long or six feet short. To improve your speed control on the course, you need to learn how to use your eyes better and incorporate more feel into the stroke.

FIX #1

Make your practice strokes one foot behind the ball with your body facing the target. Your eyes are at the target and you want to feel the putterhead in your practice stroke. This allows your eyes and brain to match up the feel of the putterhead and coordinate the desired amount of energy needed for that putt. If your eyes are on the putter or on the ball, your mind is more into your stroke instead of feel and distance control. The reason you’re not parallel to the target line in the practice stroke is that if you’re right eye-dominant, you have to turn your head and shoulders to see the target, which affects your putting stroke, and this creates confusion in your mind and stroke.

FIX #2
Make your practice strokes one foot behind the ball with your body facing the target. Your eyes are at the target and you want to feel the putterhead in your practice stroke. This allows your eyes and brain to match up the feel of the putterhead and coordinate the desired amount of energy needed for that putt. If your eyes are on the putter or on the ball, your mind is more into your stroke instead of feel and distance control. The reason you’re not parallel to the target line in the practice stroke is that if you’re right eye-dominant, you have to turn your head and shoulders to see the target, which affects your putting stroke, and this creates confusion in your mind and stroke.

CHOKED SHORT PUTTS
In order to make more short putts, you have to focus on the putterface. Odds are, you miss most short putts because the putterface simply isn’t aimed at your target when it impacts the ball. So let’s find a few ways to make more short putts.

FIX #1
Don’t set up your body first and aim the putter last. Learn to aim the putter first, the upper body second and the feet last. The ball only cares about where the face is aimed upon impact and how much energy is applied to the ball. If your putterface is misaligned, the ball always will start offline, and this greatly decreases the odds of making short putts.

FIX #2
Accelerate the putterface into the ball. If you decelerate the putter into the ball, the clubface alignments usually change. I like to get my students to hit their putts with a one-two beat. Say “one” as you start the backswing and “two” at impact. This will force you to accelerate the putter more effectively and prevent a nasty, yippy stroke into the golf ball.

Top-25 Instructor Glenn Deck, PGA, teaches at the Pelican Hill Golf Academy in Newport Beach, Calif. For information, visit pelicanhill.com.

Myth Busted!

MYTH #1: KEEP YOUR LEFT ARM STRAIGHT

THE FAULT: Many players are told that they have to keep their left arm straight. However if they take this literally, it can lead to unwanted tension in their body and locking up in the back and shoulders. And this excessive arm tension leads to chunking, topping and a major lack of clubhead speed.

THE FIX: While standing in a safe area, simply practice throwing your club toward a specific target. (Warning: Be careful, as clubs tend to fly left and backwards if you’ve never done this before!)

After about 10 club tosses, take notice of where you naturally set your backswing position and the amount of tension in your left arm. This will yield the true sensation of keeping your left arm straight. The club is naturally extended away from the target, but the arm doesn’t lock up, and the shoulders stay relatively relaxed.

MYTH #2: KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL


THE FIX: KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE TARGET


THE FAULT: Keeping your eye on the ball is not that important, otherwise how could blind people play golf?
In fact, trying to keep your eye on the ball leads to many bad habits. The act of hitting at the ball leads to fat shots, thin shots, loss of power and the dreaded over-the-top move. Remember, the ball is not the target; the target is the target!

THE FIX: Make some practice chipping swings with your eyes on the target, not the ball. Then make actual chips with your eyes on the target, not the ball. Did you notice a difference when the ball is there? If you felt like you swung “at” the ball, then you’re making the ball the target. If your swing felt smooth and continuous toward the target and you allowed the ball to be in the way, then you’re making the target the target. The goal in golf is to allow the ball to get in the way of your swing.


THE FIX 2: CHIP WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED

THE FIX 2: Chip with your eyes closed. Again, make practice swings with your eyes closed. Then hit a series of chips with your eyes closed. Pay attention to if you’re searching for the ball or if you’re simply allowing it to be in the way of your swing.

MYTH #3: KEEP YOUR HEAD STILL

THE FAULT: Many players are told to keep their head still during their swing, which ends up leading to a poor backswing position. It’s true that the head shouldn’t move up and down a lot, but it must move a bit side to side, especially in the backswing. Most players who try to keep their head exactly still end up swaying their hips and getting their club in a position that makes it very difficult to strike the ball solid. The result? Usually a slice.

THE FIX: Try the natural backswing drill. Assume your setup position and fold your arms across your chest. Then simply turn your head back over your right shoulder until you can see an object that’s directly behind you. Do this five times. On the fifth time, without changing your body position, simply turn your head back to see the ball. This is your natural backswing turn. Note that your head has to move a bit sideways to get you into a great position. Once you understand this, getting your arms and club in position is much easier and more comfortable.

MYTH #4: THERE’S ONLY ONE GOOD GOLF GRIP

THE FAULT: Many people believe that there’s only one way to grip a golf club, and that the process of gripping the club is unnatural. While it’s definitely true that your golf grip will influence your long-term success, there are several styles that are effective in gripping the club–the overlap, the interlock and the 10-finger.

THE FIX: Try this natural grip exercise. Simply get yourself into an athletic position and allow your arms to hang in front of you with zero tension. Notice how your palms face inward. Your golf grip is based off this position. From there, move your hands closer to one another so they hold the club naturally. In the black-and-white picture above, I’m demonstrating what most people do when gripping the club. They’re trying to force the proper grip, when they should just let it work naturally. The natural position works with any grip style, be it interlocking, overlapping or baseball.

MYTH #5: FOR SOLID CHIPS, LEAN THE HANDLE FORWARD


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THE FAULT: Many people believe that the more you press the handle forward in your chipping setup, the less chance you have of hitting the ball fat. While a bit of forward shaft lean is a good thing in chipping, overdoing it can lead to regularly hitting the ball fat. When you lean the shaft too far forward, your right shoulder will drop, and your center will move backwards. This leads to the club bottoming out behind the ball.

THE FIX: Know where your center is. Your center has the biggest influence on how solidly you’ll hit your chips. If your center is even or ahead of the ball, then you have a much better chance of catching the ball solid.

Shoulder tilt–if your left shoulder is a lot higher than your right shoulder, then you’ll chunk. Try some chip shots with your shoulders more even with the ground. This promotes a more descending blow and solid contact.

MYTH #6: KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN

THE FAULT: Trying to keep your head down creates all kinds of problems, such as an incomplete backswing and poor sequence of motion. It also creates big problems in your posture. To hit a ball well, you have to have an athletic posture. If your head is down, it’ll be in the way of your shoulders, and your thoracic spine will be curved. This completely inhibits your motion on the way back and through.

THE FIX: After you get in your pos-ture, take a clubshaft and hold it behind your back. Ideally, the back of your head, upper back and lower back will all be lined up when you get into your setup position.

MYTH #7: IMPACT IS THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

THE FAULT: Impact is not the moment of truth in the golf swing–it’s the culmination of everything before it. Many people think if they fix their impact position, they’ll fix their swing. The reality is that impact is the result, and the rest of the swing is the process. Golfers who focus on impact miss out on the real moment of truth–truly experiencing the completion of the backswing and the transition into the downswing. Until those change, impact will never get better.

THE FIX: Super-slow-motion swings. Take two super-slow-motion swings (taking more than 30 seconds each) and really pay attention to your swing all the way–especially in the transition area. Usually, unwanted tension in the hands, shoulders and arms shows up in this area, which ends up ruining your swing sequence and destroys impact. After your two slow swings, hit five balls and see if you can keep your attention strong through the swing prior to impact. Until you start feeling what’s messing up your swing, you can’t change it!

MYTH #8: HIT DOWN ON THE BALL

THE FAULT: Golfers are always told to hit down on the ball, but this typically leads to a chopping motion at the ball where the arms outrace the body and the club gets to the ground too quickly. This also leads to the dreaded over-the-top motion.

THE FIX: Make practice swings with your eyes on the target, not the ball. The club should strike the ground naturally on its way toward the target. It should never be forced to the ground. Pay attention to the feel of simply “allowing” the club to find the ground as you swing with your attention on the target.

Dan Martin, PGA, is the head instructor at Rustic Canyon Golf Course in Moorpark, Calif. For more information, visit rusticcanyongolfcourse.com.

Goal Time

If you want your game to reach the next level, you need to set strong goals. Setting goals does many things, including clarifying specifically what you want to accomplish and the type of actions you need to take to reach your goal.
At the beginning of each season, I encourage my students to create a goal that has a very specific end result, like lowering one’s handicap. Such so-called “outcome goals” need to be created with the following steps in mind:

• They need to be specific and measurable:
How will you know when you accomplished it?
• They should be time-sensitive:
When will you accomplish this goal by?
• They should be challenging:
It should be a goal that’s outside your current comfort zone.
• They should excite you:
It’s a goal that will make you want to practice.

When setting goals, remember to push yourself. They should be hard to accomplish and will therefore help you raise your standard of performance. Weak goals on the other hand only produce weak results.

Once you’ve set your goal (for example, “to be a scratch golfer”), the next step is to set a time frame in which you can accomplish it. Divide your goals into three ranges: long-term (three years or more) middle (one to three years) and short-term (under a year).

Start with your ultimate long-term goal, then break it down into a couple short-term goals. Once you’ve done that, you’ll know what steps you need to take to arrive at your end goal. Setting short-term goals will boost your confidence because you’ve formulated a realistic plan of action.

Consider this imaginary situation: A junior’s ultimate goal is to play on one of the pro Tours. From there, she must move backwards on a timeline, to take her ultimate goal and break it down into bite-sized pieces. Here’s an example.

Ultimate Goal: to win a major championship
Granted, that’s a very high goal. But that’s okay. Remember, we want to set challenging goals. The next thing you should chart is your current level. Be honest. In my scenario, the golfer is a junior who’s a 5 handicap. She’s good, but not eliteyet.

From a 5-handicap golfer to a major winner
If your only goal as a 5-handicapper is to win a major championship, you’ll easily get frustrated and disillusioned. In fact, you’d be so far away from accomplishing it, that you’d soon lose motivation. The purpose of this timeline exercise is to know what you need to do now in order to reach your long-term goal. Filling in the timeline creates smaller, more realistic goals as you advance toward your ultimate goal. The rest of the timeline exercise is to fill in the measurable goals that will lead to the highest outcome goal. These are progressively more difficult accomplishments in the order that they would happen. I’ve filled in the rest of the timeline below to illustrate.

Timeline Exercise

5 handicap
Scratch handicap
College player
Top amateur
Win a professional mini-Tour event
Qualify for the PGA Tour
Contend in a PGA Tour event
Win a PGA Tour event
Contend in a major championship
And finally…win a major championship

A golfer could win a major without accomplishing all the other steps, but it’s highly unlikely. Sure, young players have skipped college to turn pro, but there are only a few who have accomplished the previous steps and are ready for the next level of professional golf. Even top amateurs have found the transition to the next level more challenging than they thought it would be. It’s easy to get ahead of ourselves and think we’re ready for the next level, so my advice is this:
Identify your ultimate goal and work backwards. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Accomplish your smaller goals and improve one step at a time.

There are two more steps to the goal setting process. Look for them in my book, Golf: The Ultimate Mind Game.

Rick Sessinghaus, PGA, teaches at Chevy Chase Country Club in Glendale, Calif., and is the author of Golf: The Ultimate Mind Game. For more information, visit ricksessinghaus.com.

In Case Of Emergency Break Glass

When things start going sour out on the golf course, it’s critical you get to the root of your problems and get back on track as fast as possible. In many cases, it’s not so much a swing component that’s run awry; instead, how you approach your shots, your routines and your basic fundamentals are the culprit.

Let’s take a look at a handful of immediate fixes to use in case you need a quick remedy. I’ll bet these are just what you need to alleviate your swing woes and start shooting lower scores.


BREATHE

Getting Nervous?

HOLD YOUR FINISH AND DON’T FORGET TO BREATHE
When you’re on the golf course, whether just before, during or at the tail end of your round, getting nervous can wreak havoc on your ability to play your best golf. When you get nervous, your thoughts can get the best of you, often leading to trying to steer or control your shots, which prevents you from making your natural golf swing.

To help relax, take your mind off the golf swing and get in a tranquil state of mind, concentrate on taking long, deep breaths. Deep breathing is a great exercise for helping the body and mind calm down. As you’re doing this, rehearse a few practice swings, and hold your finish position. Feel what it’s like to finish the golf swing in a relaxed, balanced and comfortable finish position. Come time to hit a golf ball, having the finish position fresh in your memory will help you make a fuller, more natural swing without any contrived motions or manipulations.

Tee Shots Getting Wild?

TEE IT LOWER
If your tee shots are getting a little wild, consider teeing the ball a little lower. This will do two things. First, it’ll force you to stay down and over the ball at impact, preventing you from lifting up and trying to murder the golf ball. Second, a lower tee ball will likely put more backspin on your tee shots. And in this case, backspin actually helps you by negating sidespin and helping you hit straighter shots. You might lose some distance, but at this point, reigning in your wild hit is more important than hitting big bombing tee shots.

Lost Your Rhythm?

WAGGLE MORE
I love the waggle. It’s a great way to keep the body in motion before you make a golf swing. It’s almost as though the waggle is part of the actual golf swing. The other cool thing about it is the waggle is something you can dial in yourself. There’s really no wrong way to do it. Some players like to waggle their arms and do mini-rehearsals of their takeaway. Other players, like the Tour’s Jason Dufner, keep their waggle confined to their wrists, and yet others do a combination of both. The key with your waggle is to have it match the rhythm, tempo and feel of your overall golf swing. If you’re a long, smooth swinger, your waggle should also be long and smooth. Stick with a waggle that matches your swing and you’ll find it easier to stay in rhythm throughout the round.

Frozen Setup?

KICK-START YOUR SWING
Once you stop waggling, how do you start your swing? You need a swing trigger. My favorite one is to activate the knees, and gently kick your right knee in toward the ball just before you start your backswing. This “kick-starts” your swing and helps ease the transition from a static position to a dynamic motion.

If that doesn’t feel right for you, try some other triggers like swiveling the head (a la Jack Nicklaus), pressing the club down into the ground, or even pulling your right elbow into your side. These types of triggers can eliminate the frozen feeling you sometimes have at the setup and help you make a smooth, free-flowing golf swing.

Losing Control??


RELAX

CHECK YOUR GRIP
If you’re struggling with controlling your shots, sometimes it’s not so much your swing but how you hold the club in your hands. If the club is slipping, or if you’re readjusting at any point during your stroke, you’ll never have consistency out on the golf course.

Also, pay attention to not only your grip position, but your grip pressure, as well. If you have too little pressure, that too can cause control issues, and if you grip the club too firmly, you may be restricting the release and rotation of the hands. The key, as always, is to have a fundamentally sound grip that’s out of the palm and in the fingers. And also a grip that retains a firm but comfortable pressure on the handle throughout the entire swing.

Make sure the club is out of the palm of the left hand and laying more toward the base of the fingers. This promotes proper face rotation on the takeaway, also called a one piece takeaway. A good grip and smooth start will make a big difference in your consistency. Try holding the club as I’m doing here. You’ll get the proper feeling right away.

Hitting Short Chips & Pitches Fat & Thin?

GET LEFT!
One of the common faults from my students on greenside shots is improper weight position. It’s an easy thing to forget on the golf course, as well. So, here’s what you need to know. If you’re struggling with fat or thin shots, stop feeling the need to lift the ball into the air and get behind the golf ball. Keep your weight on your left side, and trust the loft of the club! By staying left and hitting down into the ball, you’ll find it easier to make ball-first contact and, in the end, hit better, more consistent shots.

Trouble With The Shanks?

LOOP IT LINK FURYK
While I’ve suggested that swing changes aren’t a good idea midround, if you have the shanks, something has got to be done to stop it. And since shanking the ball (where you make contact with the hosel and the golf ball) has such a scary connotation to it, I like to take it to the extreme to stop shanking right away.

This means, swinging the club like Jim Furyk! If you’re shanking the ball, likely you’re cutting across the ball from too much outside to inside the target line. So, to fix this, consider routing the club on the backswing way outside your target line, and then drop it under the target line on the downswing. This creates a swing path that lassoes out and back inside the target line, ensuring you swing more from inside to outside the target

Distance Control Issues?

REHEARSE LOOKING AT THE HOLE
There are two major factors in putting: pace and line–pace being the more important of the two. Reason being, the line changes depending on how fast or slow the ball is rolling, and how far away from the hole you are. It’s possible to make a putt from the same spot using different lines, as long as each line chosen has the right pace to go along with it.

So how do you determine the right pace? The length of arm swing dictates the distance the ball will roll. Try looking at the hole while making your practice stroke and feel the amount of arm swing required. Set up and aim, then just try to mimic your rehearsal stroke and hold the finish. This simple drill helps you get a visual picture of the pace and the stroke needed to get the ball close.

Missing Short Putts?

FIRM UP YOUR LEFT HAND
Missing short putts can be mental and physical. On the mental side, try to keep the self-talk positive and choose to trust your stroke. On the physical side, keep the face of the putter moving down the target line. This prevents a jab stroke that’s never reliable on short putts.

My favorite trick for helping to get the putter moving down the line and not releasing too soon is to remember to firm up my left hand. This helps keep my arms active in the putting stroke. If I get flippy, (see opposite photo), I’ll have a tough time making short putts! Instead, keep that left hand firm and swing the putter with your shoulders, not with your wrists. Do that and I bet you’ll start making a lot more short putts.

Bobby Hinds, PGA, teaches at Woodley Lakes GC in Van Nuys, Calif. For more information, visit bobbyhinds.com.

Common Practice



Golf is a game of minimizing your mistakes. It’s not about hitting it perfect every time; even the best players in the world are prone to an errant shot every now and then. The secret is in making as few unforced errors as you can, and fix the swing flaws that cause them to happen. The following pages will help you fix a few common swing flaws (that novice and advanced players both make) and get your game back on track to start shooting lower scores. Pay close attention to the swing flaws that look and sound familiar to your game, and heed the advice we have for you. With the right guidance, and a little elbow grease out on the practice tee, you’ll see lower scores in no time.


WEAK GRIP/WEAK SHOTS
One of the most common mistakes golfers make resides in the palms of their hands. The more you grip in the palm, the slower the hands will work through the release. This leads to a lot of sliced shots that also don’t travel very far. It also creates a lot of consistency problems. 		STEADY GRIP/MORE POWER
With a grip more in the fingers, and both Vs formed by the thumbs and index fingers, the hands can move faster through the release, resulting in greater clubhead speed and more power. Notice the difference in thumb positions here. A short thumb is what you want.

GRIP IN THE FINGERS!

GRIP IN THE FINGERS/HIT IT FARTHER
For a great drill to get the hands more active and to grip more in the fingers, simply flip the club upside down and make a few swings gripping the skinniest part of the clubshaft. As you whip the grip end around, you’ll find that a grip more in the fingers is a lot more effective than one with the club more in the palms.


NO SHOULDER TILT/NARROW BACKSWING
Many golfers wrongfully set up over a driver with their head directly above the driver head and the ball. This reduces the needed shoulder tilt away from the target to promote a wide arc and weight shift to the back foot on the backswing. 		GOOD TILT/BETTER BACKSWING
With a grip more in the fingers, and both Vs formed by the thumbs and index fingers, the hands can move faster through the release, resulting in greater clubhead speed and more power. Notice the difference in thumb positions here. A short thumb is what you want.

LEAVE SOME ROOM/A BETTER SWING
A great way to get the body positioned correctly before you make a swing is to practice hitting a few drives with the clubhead situated a few inches behind the ball at address. This not only magnifies your shoulder tilt at address and promotes a more rounded golf swing, but also helps with your forwardswing, as well. As you swing down and through, because the ball is ahead of the clubhead at address, you’ll need to fully rotate and extend to make solid contact.

Try this drill a few times out on the practice tee. If it works for you, don’t hesitate to try it out on the golf course while you play.

TOO INSIDE/REVERSE PIVOT
If you take the club too far back to the inside, you run the risk of having a position at the top of your swing that leans too much over the ball. This means you’ll shift your weight to your right side on the downswing (opposite the proper direction) and hit all sorts of ugly golf shots.

EXTEND AND ROTATE/SUCCESS!
Here’s the right way to do it! Notice how my head is behind the ball, my hips have turned about 45 degrees and my shoulders have rotated about 90 degrees. Also, my weight is predominantly situated over my right leg. From here, all I have to do is uncoil as the club whips through the impact zone. To copy this position, practice getting your head above your right knee at the top of your backswing as I’m doing here. That will prevent you from leaning toward the ball at the top and help you make a bigger, shallower, more powerful arc into the golf ball.

TOO MUCH SWAY/LOSS OF CONTROL!
Telling you to extend, take the club back low and slow and make a full backswing make up only part of a successful backswing equation. The secret in doing all those things is to allow the weight to shift naturally to your right side. Don’t force it! In the golf swing, there really isn’t a weight shift, as some mistakenly say there is. As you rotate back and to your right side on the backswing, the majority of your weight will move by itself.

I’ve seen some students artifically create a weight shift by sliding to the right–a move predicated by little to no body turn!

So to ensure you’re rotating and not shifting, try this drill. With a golf bag next to you, if you can make a full backswing without bumping the bag, you’re on the right track. If you hit the bag, or knock it over by shifting your weight and popping your hip out, then practice making a bigger rotation without forcing your weight to your right side. With a few swings, you’ll gain a better feeling for what it means to rotate back and not sway or slide.

CHICKEN WING/NO POWER!
Impact! When you get here, the body should be rotating, the left arm should be in line with the shaft and your left leg, and the club should make solid contact with the golf ball. But what you can’t see so well from the photo is that my hands are actually rotating, as well. If they don’t, I won’t be able to release the club through impact, causing my arms to fold, and hence, you end up with the chicken wing. And mind you, chicken wings may taste great, but they have no place on the golf course!

Instead, allow the arms and hands to rotate through the shot, keeping the extension of your arms through the hit. The ungloved hand will eventually cross over the gloved hand, which is what you want. And by the way, the easiest way to ensure a good extension of the arms through the shot, is to remember that the arms extend most effectively when they’re placed in front of your chest. That means keep your body rotating through the shot and keep your arms in front of your sternum. Do that, and you’ll find it easier to make a full extension and avoid the chicken wing altogether.

Ken Green, teaches at Kip Puterbaugh’s Aviara Golf Academy in Carlsbad, Calif. For info, visit aviaragolfacademy.com.

My Favorite Tips & Drills

Sometimes, even the best players in the world need to refresh their fundamentals. In fact, for some, the fundamentals are the only things they work on come time to keep their swings in check. In the following pages, I want to share with you 10 of my favorite tips and drills to help you not only keep your fundamentals in check, but shoot lower scores right away.

1. THROW THE CONES

One of the common swing mistakes I see from my students is an overactive upper body combined with a stalled lower body. This tends to happen because many golfers feel as though they need to hit at the ball, instead of swing through it. This type of motion creates all sorts of bad shots because the body is usually out of sync and out of position at impact.

The fix for golfers who struggle with “hitting at” the ball is to try the cone-toss drill. Now, it’s not as though the road cone serves a distinct purpose, other than being a nice weight and a lot of fun to throw. You could use playground balls, basketballs, or medicine balls to achieve the same thing. To do the drill, situate a target about 10-15 yards away (in my case it’s a Hula-Hoop) and then toss your cones in an underhand fashion and try to land them at your target.

This drill helps you get the feeling of both swinging and throwing through to a target–a feeling you should mimic in the golf swing. The goal with every toss is to finish with the hips and shoulders in line–a good indicator that the hips and shoulders have worked together to swing the object through to a target. After a few tries with your cones, hit five golf balls right away to transfer this motion directly into your golf swing.

2. MAKE YOUR PRACTICE SWING YOUR REAL SWING

I’ve seen this one many times! Many amateurs set up near their golf ball, make a great, smooth practice swing with no ball, then set up to the ball without fully adjusting their body to the golf ball. This means they’re usually standing a little farther away than they naturally should be, making it darn near impossible to make the same swing as your practice swing.

The key is to let go of the fear that comes from standing too close to the golf ball. What I like to do is, on the practice tee, make a practice swing aside a golf ball, and do so until you make a nice small divot. Then, without moving your feet, roll a golf ball over and put it just behind the divot. This will help you feel the exact position your ball should be, and don’t be surprised if, at first, it feels a little close–it’s not. Do this and get a feel for what it’s like to get the golf ball in the way of your practice swing, and you’ll start hitting more solid golf shots.

Related Video

Throw The Cones

3. 5-BALL DRILLS: TEMPO TIMER

Here’s a little secret the pros know, that you probably don’t. The tempo for your swing, whether it’s a short-iron shot from the fairway or a tee shot with a driver, should always stay the same. The common problem I see is that with longer irons and with woods, many golfers feel as though they need to swing harder from the top of the backswing, which as you’d guess, causes all kinds of dismal shots.

A great drill for working on improving your tempo, with your irons in particular, is to do the short-to-long drill. Line up five balls in a row. Begin with a smooth chip swing and increase the length of each swing until the final ball, which will be your full swing. Keep doing this until your tempo feels exactly the same for each ball or until the full swing seems to take longer than the short swing. It will take some practice, and a lot of patience, but this drill will work wonders for improving your tempo. And to take it a step further, try counting “1, 2, 3” as you swing at various lengths, timing yourself so each swing starts at 1 and ends on 3.

4. 5-BALL DRILLS: BACK! HITT! STOP!

When a typical golfer tries to hit the ball farther, he generally tries harder, swings quicker from the top, and completely loses his “sense” of where the club is. The result is a mis-hit shot, which never travels very far.

A great fix for this problem is the “Back! Hit! Stop!” drill.

Start with making five practice swings, verbally saying “Back!” at the top of your swing, “Hit!” at impact and “Stop!” at the end of the finish. Do this until your vocalizations are right on time with the key points. Then, do the same exercise with five balls lined up. Keep practicing until you can get your voice to do the “Back! Hit! Stop!” at the key moments of the swing. As you hit balls, the key is to pay special attention to when your voice comes out. If it’s earlier than it should be, this means you aren’t focusing on the club, you’re anticipating something else and/or trying to muscle or force your shots. This is what’s killing your power! Once you can be with the club all the way through, then your swing will be in sync and you’ll get much more out of your shots. It’s amazing what a little vocalization can do.

5. SPEED UP YOUR FOLLOWTHROUGH

Again, when golfers go for more distance, they try to swing harder at the very beginning of the forwardswing. This leads to overacceleration of the club too early, and maximum clubhead speed isn’t attained at the right spot, which is through impact. Even if you manage to square the face to the ball, and get your body in the right position, if your max speed is before the ball and not after, you’re not getting the maximum power out of your swing.

If you watch the best swings in the world, the followthrough, especially with a longer club, takes much less time than the downswing. Learn how to wait on the club until it’s about halfway down on the downswing before really trying to let it loose. You should get the feeling that the clubhead is travelling the fastest AFTER the impact point. You can also practice with a driver, holding the clubhead end. Then, swing the shaft until you start hearing the whoosh of the shaft later in the downswing.

6. HULA-HOOP DRILL

Many golfers make chipping and pitching much more difficult because they worry too much about what the ball might do as it rolls to the hole. This becomes a distraction that clutters the mind and results in poor contact and a general lack of distance control.

Instead, the most important thing to focus on is the landing area on a chip and/or pitch since that’s really the only thing you have total control over. Select a chipping location, visualize the shot and where you would need to land the ball, then go place your hoop where the landing area is. Then give yourself 10 balls to accomplish the following tasks: Get one ball to land in the hoop and get one ball to come to rest within three (advanced) to 10 (beginner) feet of the hole, depending on your skill level. The goal would be to finish the task in as few balls as possible, while learning how your chips and pitches roll or check up. Some golfers put a little more backspin on their shots, and some hit it lower and play for more roll. The key in using the hoop is to not only get in the habit of not aiming directly at the hole, but also see how your shots react once they do hit the ground. Do this, and your distance and direction will improve tremendously with your chips and pitch shots.

7. CHIPPING CLUB TOSS

Too much tension in hands and arms leads to flipping at the ball instead of creating a solid chipping stroke. When this happens, you see a lot of flubbed, fat and thin chips.

A great way to loosen the tension in the hands is to try the club-toss drill. Grab a couple wedges and make room to toss each wedge a few yards ahead of you. As you make a chipping motion, allow the club to come loose through impact. Do this about 10 to 15 times. Then, add a ball to the motion. If your club gets tossed dramatically to the left, then you’re using too much tension and trying to hit at the ball or scoop it. If the club starts to go fairly straight, then you’re starting to feel what it’s like to have Tour professional hands and control around the greens.

8. EYES ON THE TARGET

If you struggle with hitting chips the right distance, it’s probably because your eyes and your golf swing don’t see and feel the same thing. Also, you’re likely hitting at the ball again, instead of letting your body and club swing through the ball and toward the target.

To alleviate this problem, practice chipping with your eyes on the target instead of the ball. Before trying with the ball, do about 10 to 15 practice strokes with your eyes on your target and allow the club to naturally brush the grass. See if you notice that your legs and torso begin to shift weight and rotate with the motion of the club. Then set up to a ball and practice without your eyes on the ball–keep them on the target. In a short time, you’ll get a better feeling and visual for not only making the right swing length, but also hitting through the ball, not at it.

9. PUTTING GUESSING GAME

Ask any great putter, and he’ll tell you that speed is the most critical variable when it comes to putting. Your speed can change the way the ball breaks, so if you don’t have the right speed, your directional control will suffer, too. So, here’s what I like to do to help improve my students’ speed control.

In this exercise, simply find a fairly flat and straight putt on the putting green. Start at about 10 feet from the hole and put a towel or glove in the cup. Putt with your eyes closed and, before you open your eyes to see where the ball went, see how accurately you can guess where the ball ended up relative to the hole–or even if you made it! As you practice this and get more accurate at your guesses, you’ll be developing the essential skills for great distance control–a better sense of the target and feel for your stroke. Once you head out onto the course, use this exercise during your round to make more putts!

10. BACK! HITT! STOP! PUTTING DRILL

It’s not uncommon to want to look up and see what happens to the ball after you stroke a putt. Even the best players in the world sometimes do this. Only thing is, when you think too much about where the ball goes after you stroke it, you’ll probably come out of position and make an awkward, off-line stroke.

If this sounds like you, do the “Back! Hit! Stop!” drill in putting. Challenge yourself to get your voice right on the points of the transition, impact and all the way to when the putter stops. If you can keep your focus until the putter stops moving, then the ball will already be in the hole. And even if it doesn’t go in, it won’t be because you distracted yourself.

Dan Martin, PGA, is the head instructor at Rustic Canyon Golf Course in Moorpark, California. For more information, visit rusticcanyongolfcourse.com.

Give Your Swing A Tune Up



It’s already the middle of the golf season, and I’m sure some of you are finding yourselves stuck in a rut. Don’t worry, it happens. Golf is a fickle game. One day you have it; the next day you don’t.

Knowing that every golfer–even Tour pros–suffer from common faults, I’ve come up with 10 common ones, and the fixes that will best address them.

I’ve structured this article so that it moves fluidly from tee to green, from fundamentals to feel. If you want to completely overhaul your game, try each tip in the order I’ve written them. If you find one tip that speaks directly to your current needs, then practice that one. Everything here was meant to address common faults, and hopefully after reading it, you’ll be able to fix whatever ails you.


SETUP
IMPACT

1. START FROM IMPACT!
I always tell my students to play with “educated hands.” And by “educated hands,” I mean hands that hold the club properly so they can optimize how the clubface makes contact with the ball.

So how do you do that? It’s simple: Go to a correct impact position and then grip the club in a way that it squares up the clubface. Consider what the clubshaft looks like at impact. The golf shaft has a forward lean and is in line with your lead arm. While that’s happening, the clubface is aimed at your target and delofted. At that moment, your hips have rotated and your weight favors the forward foot, all while your hands are in the best position to make solid contact. Educate your hands so that your grip promotes a forward wrist that’s flat/unhinged, and your rear wrist is bent.

My rear wrist is bent, and my forward wrist is flat.

In the photos at left and above right, notice that I’ve secured door hinges to my wrists to help illustrate this point. When you grip your club at the impact position, it allows your hands to lead and control the swing so you return the club to impact and “smash” it into the back of the ball.

To begin ingraining the feeling of a proper hand position, hit some short chip shots so your forward hand controls your shot’s direction, and the rear hand controls the club’s loft. Once you’ve successfully hit a number of shots in a row, increase the size and speed of your swing until you’re making full swings and producing noticeable ballflight control. Educated hands are critical to playing great golf!

2. VISUALIZE THE CORRECT SWING PATH
To eliminate over-the-top swings, you need to picture hitting the inside third of the golf ball. To do this, simply keep your back to the target longer so that your hands can drop the club into a correct downswing slot when you start the downswing transition. Remember to start the transition with your lower body first.

Check out the three colors on the ball just like your traffic lights: red, yellow and green. You always want to swing your clubhead on the path that will deliver it to the green “light.” If you’re on a yellow-light path, be cautious; and if you’re on a red light, you’ll slice the heck out of it or have to yell, “Fore left!” Either way, it’s time for a lesson! Avoid those red lights. Work on getting your clubhead on the green-light path and go, go, go!

Related Video

One-Foot Swing

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The club has outraced my body.

3. DRIVE ACCURATELY
Not all tee shots need to end up in the fairway, but they definitely have to be in play if you want to score well.

To ensure this, it’s important that your backswing matches your followthrough. When that happens, you can be sure your swing is on the same path. And that will help you produce a lot of great shots. Therefore a flat backswing should result in a flat followthrough, and an upright backswing should produce an upright followthrough.


My body has unwound too quickly. This causes a slice.

To start hitting more consistent drives, practice this simple drill: Choke down on your driver so that your hands are at the bottom of the shaft and make a swing. As you do this, keep the butt of the grip on the same plane in your downswing and followthrough. If your body unwinds too quickly and your hands are too slow, the club will lag behind you and produce a high right slice (the butt of the grip doesn’t return to the same plane). If your hands outrace your body and the club crosses over, you’ll hit a low left hook (the butt of the grip rolls over too quickly).

Remember the key to consistent tee shots is a swing that looks the same on the downswing and forwardswing. Once you’ve grooved that for a while in a 3__ã4 swing, extend it to a full swing and start striping it down the fairway.

4.FEEL THE CORRECT SWING PATH
If your swing path tends to move all over the place, there’s an easy way to fix this, especially if you’re a feel player. Just hold onto two irons and give them a swing at 1__ã2 to 2__ã3 speed. If you feel any jerks in your back- or forwardswing or a lack of balance or tempo, then you’re on the wrong swing path. Continue to swing the two clubs and, as you’re doing so, focus on creating a smooth swing. Try to match the backswing to the forwardswing so both are on the same path and you finish in balance.

Notice in the photos at left how my right shoulder mirrors my left in the backswing and followthrough? On the backswing, my left shoulder is in the same spot as my right one after I’ve swung. My swing doesn’t jerk or sway–it’s a compact, precise movement that moves around a fixed point. With two clubs (and twice the weight) you’ll swing slower and create a more precise path. After feeling the right path, take that feeling and apply it to your normal swing.


TOO FAST!
I turned my body first rather than starting with a lateral hip shift.

5. START THE DOWNSWING WITH A LATERAL HIP SHIFT
A proper golf swing is one that stores up a lot of power in the backswing and then releases it in the downswing. Unfortunately a lot of golfers tend to get off path in the downswing and lose power. This happens when the shoulders turn too quick in the start of the downswing, often causing the clubshaft to go outside the ideal downswing path, which often leads to an open clubface producing a high, weak sliced shot–not a winning combination.

Turning the body first in the transition before bracing the left foot will cause a loss of clubhead force. To hit with power, start your downswing with a lateral hip shift instead, keeping your back to the target until your left foot is braced. As you do this, feel a slight increase in your knee flex. This creates a slight downswing squat that all great players have. It also stabilizes the upper body in the transition and allows your hands, arms and shoulders to follow in the proper downswing sequence. As a result, you’ll have a firm left side and deliver the clubhead into the ball from inside of the target line and create a down and out swing path with maximum clubhead force. So shift first, then turn–just like throwing a ball!

6. BALANCE IS KEY FOR RHYTM AND TEMPO
Anytime you make a swing that’s out of balance, your rhythm and tempo get disrupted. And when that happens, it’s very hard to make solid contact.

To remedy this, you must first set up properly so that you’re in balance. To do this, tilt from your sternum as you see me doing in the top two color photos. This places your head, shoulders and arms in front of the balls of your feet while your hips, thighs and lower back tilt behind your ankles. When you’re in this position, you’re counterbalanced. A good way to check your balance is to lift up either the heels or balls of your feet without changing your knee flex. If you can do that, you’re in good shape.

For a visual check, use a mirror or a sliding glass door and picture two vertical lines, one that runs up from your ankle, and the other from the balls of your feet. What’s in front of your forward vertical line is counterbalanced by what’s behind the back vertical line. Once you’re balanced, hit some ½ to ¾ wedge shots. Swing the club, turn the hips and finish in balance facing the target. The correct blending of hands and hips while in balance will establish the correct rhythm and tempo. Remember that feeling when you transition to full swings–just stay in balance until the ball lands!

7. BE YOUR OWN CADDY –AIM AWAY FROM TROUBLE
As you can see here, I’ve hit two different shots. The pin was tucked over a bunker, and in one instance, I took dead aim and ended up in the kitty litter. From there, it’s pretty hard for the average player to get up and down. During golf schools and playing lessons, I see students shooting for pins like this all the time. And they often end up short-sided, as you see here. Difficult shots like this are almost impossible for the average golfer to hit consistently near the hole.

The next time you’re confronted with a tucked pin, aim for the middle of the green, as you see by my shot at left. I might have a long putt, but at least I’m on and I have a much better chance of two-putting than getting up and down from the bunker.


When you sweep a broom, your “backswing” is short.

The last factor to consider when hitting approach shots to tough pins is what kind of putt you want to leave yourself. While it’s hard to control those shots from 150-200 yards away, you still want to position yourself for an easy putt. If you miss the green, make sure your upcoming chip or pitch shot leaves you in a position where you’ll have an uphill par-saving putt for your next shot. You can always make a run at a putt from under the hole, but get above it on a fast green, and look out–you’ll be lucky to walk away with two putts!

8. HIT DOWN ON YOUR GREENSIDE SHOTS


At “impact,” the broom has a forward shaft lean.

Why am I swinging with a broom? Well, I hope that it’ll illustrate a few things. First, you should be making a sweeping motion that “brushes” down to the ground, not up. Second, the swing I make with the broom has a longer followthrough than backswing. On chip, pitch and bunker shots, I often see students do the exact opposite. They want to help the ball in the air, so they swing up on it. They also tend to make a long backswing with an abbreviated followthrough. Neither one of these faults produces good shots. Hitting up on the ball leads to thin shots, short finishes, and stubs and chunks.


And its “followthrough” is longer than its backswing. Copy this movement when you chip.

The broom also should illustrate the importance of a third key point–forward shaft lean. By making impact with a forward shaft lean, you’ll let the club do the work for you. And finally, notice that my broom is sweeping down until it passes my left shoulder. This is the low point of your golf swing. Once you decelerate, the club races ahead of your hands, which creates all kinds of problems.

Remember, make solid, crisp contact to accelerate and let the club’s loft get the ball up in the air and onto the green. If you keep your hands forward and sweep down as if you’re using a broom, your short game will become more consistent.

9. AIM, AIM, AIM
All too often, I watch my students walk up to a putt without taking a true look at how the putt breaks. When you consider that the game’s best players are usually the game’s best putters, you know that the greens are the best place to lower your scores. That means averaging 30 or less putts per round.


Pick your aim point–the line you’re going to aim at.

Choose an intermediate target 2-12 inches in front of your ball.

Alignment time! My putter alignment aid matches the line on my ball. That aims at my intermediate target and the stick. With the right speed, I’m draining this one!


Draw a line on your ball for better alignment.

Improving your putting doesn’t take a lot of time, but there are three aim steps you need to keep in mind. First, it’s important to consider how the green breaks. Are there any slopes or ridges that the putt will break away from? Are there bodies of water, drains or valleys that the putt will break toward? Are there nearby bunkers that the architect doesn’t want water to drain into? (Hint: Your putt won’t break toward it.) Once you’ve assessed the lay of the land, it’s time for Step #1: Pick your peak aim point. This is the aim line you’re going to aim at!

To give you the best chance at starting your putt on line, you need to learn how to aim your ball correctly. Check out what I’m doing here. I used an alignment aid to draw a straight line (you can also use the manufacturer’s name on the side) down the side of my ball. Step #2: Aim that line where you want the ball to start, (your peak aim point). I’m using a directional stick to indicate the line I want my ball to start on. This putt will break to the left, and it’s a little downhill, so it’s vital that I start the putt on the peak aim point. Step #3, create an intermediate aim target two to 12 inches in front of the ball, so when you set up to the ball, your putter, ball and intermediate target are all on same line. When all three aim points line up, you can trust your aim and putt with feel. Now you’ll make a lot more putts inside 10 feet.

10. FEEL THE GREEN SPEED
It’s important, when you play golf, to not get too technical. Leave all the tweaking and swing analysis for the driving range, because on the course, it’ll just lead to overthinking and tension, and your athletic skills will start to diminish. When playing, you want to have simple images and play by feel so you can be an athlete, not a technician. In putting, speed determines the line, so it’s critical that you develop speed/distance control with your putter.

To help get a feel for a green’s speed, stroke some long putts, as I’m doing here, when you warm up for your round. Place three balls about 30 feet from the cup and putt them. Try to make all three, but more importantly, get a sense of how fast or slow the greens are that day. A great way to improve your feel for speed/distance control is to practice putting with your eyes looking at the hole. Feel the putterhead as you stroke your ball. Once the feel of the putter converges with your eyes’ target, you’ll improve your control. Once you develop a feel for control, you’ll get connected to the greens and you’ll start to literally develop a sensation for playing with feel. And once you can control your speed, you’ll eliminate most three-putts.

PGA professional and Senior Instruction Editor Glenn Deck is regarded as one of the country’s top-100 teachers. He’s director of instruction at The Pelican Hill Golf Academy at The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast, Calif. For more info, visit pelicanhill.com.

Quick Tips To Play Better



SWING WITH YOUR BODY, NOT YOUR ARMS
If you want to dial in your chips and pitch shots, you have to learn to swing with the bigger muscles, not the smaller ones. This means making more of a body rotation through the shot, as opposed to a handsy, flippy style that can lead to all sorts of inaccuracies such as thin, fat or even shanked shots. Also, don’t be afraid to use more of the surface area between you and the hole. Hit the shot that’s right for your distance, lie and situation from off the green.

GET A GOOD GRIP
A great grip is critical to hitting better shots, especially with your gloved hand. And it’s also one of the parts of the swing that’s easy to get right. Try this: Hold the club as I’m doing in Photo 1. Then, allow the club to fall behind you and catch it in your fingers, as seen in Photo 2. From there, grasp the club, as seen in Photo 3. This simple sequence will automatically get your gloved hand in the proper position. As for the right hand, cradle it around the grip in a similar fashion with the V formed by the finger and thumb, pointing at your right shoulder.

SET UP RIGHT
You’ve probably heard of “spine tilt” by now, meaning the spine tilts forward at address. But there’s actually a second angle that many amateurs forget. In a proper address position, the spine tilts forward, and also slightly away from the target. This helps you not only swing more from the inside of the target line, but also make a more effective rotation away from the ball. So remember, when you set up, first bend the knees, tilt the upper body forward and tilt the shoulders slightly away from the target. This will make a huge difference in your ability to hit solid shots.

BACKSWING DRILL
A quick and easy way to get your backswing back on track is to use this simple drill. Grab a middle iron, and instead of gripping the handle, choke all the way down until the grip is pressing up against your stomach. From here, make a backswing, only keep the grip touching your stomach for as long as possible. This will help in two ways: First, you’ll be forced to make a bigger, fuller rotation with the arms in front of your chest. Second, this will prevent you from making a backswing that’s too steep, which, coincidentally is a problem for many folks who slice and hit a lot of pop-ups.

DOWNSWING DRILL
A quick and easy way to get your backswing back on track is to use this simple drill. Grab a middle iron, and instead of gripping the handle, choke all the way down until the grip is pressing up against your stomach. From here, make a backswing, only keep the grip touching your stomach for as long as possible. This will help in two ways: First, you’ll be forced to make a bigger, fuller rotation with the arms in front of your chest. Second, this will prevent you from making a backswing that’s too steep, which, coincidentally is a problem for many folks who slice and hit a lot of pop-ups.

WORK THAT KNEE CORRECTLY
How your legs work during the swing can affect the path you swing on. In particular, let’s look at how the right knee works. In the case of some of my higher-handicap students, I see a lot of straight, or nearly straight, knees at the top of the swing. When this happens, I see a lot of clubs laid off and in a position like the one you see here.

NO
How your legs work during the swing can affect the path you swing on. In particular, let’s look at how the right knee works. In the case of some of my higher-handicap students, I see a lot of straight, or nearly straight, knees at the top of the swing. When this happens, I see a lot of clubs laid off and in a position like the one you see here.

Midway through the downswing, check out my right knee. It’s actually protruding out toward the golf ball. When this happens, I’m in real danger of swinging over the top of the golf ball. Not to mention it makes me swing really steep.

Oh no! As a result of my knee bending and protruding out toward the golf ball, I’ve created a vicious, outside-in swing path. In addition, the hosel of the iron is closer to the ball, and I’m in real danger of shanking the golf ball. Why? All because my knee didn’t do what it’s supposed to do.

YES
Here we are at the top of a good golf swing. My right knee has retained some flex, and I’m poised to make a swing without coming over the top. The key, shown in the next couple photos, is in how the right knee moves in the downswing.

As I transition my weight from my right side to my left side, I begin the necessary move of the right knee toward my left knee. You can see that happening here as I drop the club on the downswing and rotate my hips open. As the right knee gets closer to the left knee, the left knee straightens out.

Here we go. At impact, you can clearly see that my knee didn’t protrude toward the target. Instead, it bent toward the left knee. This is indicative of a solid rotation of the body, and a weight shift to my forward (left) side. Practice this sequence here and get your right knee moving correctly. You’ll see more consistent shots right away.

WATCH YOUR EAR
This article is meant to be quick and easy, right? Here’s another tip that’s a real no-brainer for better, longer tee shots with the driver. Instead of focusing on hitting up on the ball (the driver is the only club where that’s okay), think of something else. In this case, make sure you keep your left ear behind the ball through the hit. By doing that, you’ll not only swivel your body around your head better, but also retain the needed ascending angle into the back of the golf ball. It’s a simple tip to learn, and a valuable thing to remember while out on the course.

NO

STAY ABOVE THE BALL
A quick and easy way to get your backswing back on track is to use this simple drill. Grab a middle iron, and instead of gripping the handle, choke all the way down until the grip is pressing up against your stomach. From here, make a backswing, only keep the grip touching your stomach for as long as possible. This will help in two ways: First, you’ll be forced to make a bigger, fuller rotation with the arms in front of your chest. Second, this will prevent you from making a backswing that’s too steep, which, coincidentally is a problem for many folks who slice and hit a lot of pop-ups.

Let’s get one thing straight. Hitting out of a bunker should not be as difficult as many amateurs make it out to be. The biggest fault I see when it comes to bunker play is that they try to lift the ball out of the sand by hanging back and hitting up on the ball. Or, I see golfers try to scoop the ball upward by flipping the hands upward. In both cases, it’s unlikely anyone will see good, consistent results from the bunker. In the photos above, check out how my head starts and finishes well behind the golf ball. It’s no wonder I flubbed this shot!

YES

Now I’m on the ball. Literally. Hitting good bunker shots requires you to hit down into the sand behind the ball. In doing so, sand will accumulate under the ball and lift it out of the sand. There’s no lifting or scooping necessary, instead let the club and sand do their work. To do this right, set up with your eyes directly over the golf ball. As you swing, keep your weight on your forward leg and strike down behind the ball with a steep swing. By staying “above the ball,” you’ll be able to swing more aggressively, hit the sand with authority and watch the ball escape the bunker with ease.

PUTTING ALLEY DRILL
I love this quick drill. Simply use two alignment sticks, (you can use two irons, too) and make an alley toward a hole on a flat putt. Make sure you don’t make it too long of a putt; keep the sticks along the whole length of the putt and up to the hole (as you see here). Now, as you putt, I want you to concentrate on those two lines. This can be used not so much as a guide for your stroke, but to build some visual memory cues as you putt.

When you practice this, not only will you start making more short putts, but you’ll ingrain a better idea of where the cup is relative to your stance and eyes. Again, don’t worry about matching your path to the lines (even though it’s okay to go straight-back and straight-through on short putts); rather use the lines as a confidence builder to help you remember that short putts can be easy as long as you set up and align correctly.


NO

KEEP YOUR HEAD STATIONED
Finally, becoming a better putter is really about finding a style that suits you best. Even so, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few basic mechanics that you should ignore. Of those, holding your head in a stationed position as you putt is critical. By being stationed (not necessarily rigid), you both see the line better and swing the putter on the intended line more effectively. To practice this, try what I’m doing here. Grab a basketball and place it between your knees. It may seem as though your lower-body stability isn’t related to whether or not your head moves, but in reality, it is! A firm and steady lower body helps the upper body to rock the putter back without having to sway or slide away from the golf ball. So, give this great drill a try and work on keeping that head stationed. I bet you’ll start making a lot more putts.

YES

Tips For Sticks

Good golfers often struggle with very different problems than average golfers. They often hit the ball too far with their short irons and overdraw or block shots to the right because they get stuck on their downswings. Sometimes their hands are too overactive through release. It’s kind of ironic that the very things that make golfers more powerful players also give them consistency problems. If this sounds like you, and you want to fix your game, read on.

ANTI-STUCK DRILL
A lot of good players tend to blow their hips out to start the downswing, which leaves their arms lagging too far behind them. This leads to either blocked shots or “rescuing” the shot by flipping their hands to square up the club. Either way, there’s too much emphasis placed on timing, and unfortunately you can’t always time your swings perfectly.

To remedy this, slip an alignment stick through a couple of your front belt loops so that it’s parallel to your target line. Then start to hit some balls. This instant-feedback drill will teach you how your hips should move throughout the swing. Feel the synchronization between your arms and hips and recognize that while your hips may lead the downswing, it’s only slightly. If you blow them out too much, as you see in the black-and-white photos above, your hands will get caught behind the stick. On the other hand, a well-synchronized swing will leave your hands in front of the stick so that you can make a swing that’s free of impediments.

RELEASE THE PUTTER
Under intense tournament pressure, it’s easy for good players to tighten their grip. Their larger muscles (shoulders, arms) tighten, and their short muscles (wrists, hands) take over. With so much pressure in the grip, the clubhead feels lighter. This leads to a putterface that opens up and blocks short putts to the right. To remedy this, it’s important to keep your body relaxed so you can feel the weight of your putterhead and use it so it releases naturally.

Try this simple drill to ingrain a light grip pressure: Grip the butt end of your club with your left forefinger and thumb while placing your right hand normally. Keep your grip pressure soft and swing back and forth, letting the head’s weight naturally release to the finish. Don’t “hit” the ball, just let it get in the way.

Once you’ve stroked a number of putts this way and developed a good feeling, return to a normal grip and make some putts. Recall that feeling of soft grip pressure and use your large muscles to control the stroke.

CROSSBOW DRILL
Because good players sometimes have too many moving parts in their backswing–moving their swing centers off the ball and loading too much into their right side–it’s tough to consistently make solid contact. To combat this, I suggest they try something I call the “Crossbow Drill.”

First extend your left arm in front of you while you move only your right side back. As you rotate back, take note of the resistance in your left side and head. This will help you stay more on top of the ball throughout your swing and lead to consistent strikes.

While taking some regular swings with a short club, feel as if your entire lead side and head are resisting, as your trail side turns away from the target. This will help minimize the moving parts in your backswing while still providing ample power through coil and torque.

SQUAT INTO THE GROUND FOR MORE POWER
Good players often fire their hips right from the top of their downswing and bypass what I call the “sit down position.” As a result, they stand up too quickly and have to rely on their hands and arms to square up the clubface.

If you struggle with this, try the squat drill that I’m demonstrating here. It’ll help you use the ground for more leverage, while also slowing down your overactive hips.

After you initiate your downswing, you should feel as if you’re actually sitting down or squatting. (If you’ve ever seen a slow-motion video of Tiger Woods from a down-the-line view, you’ve seen what I’m talking about.) This move will help stabilize your swing because your arms are allowed to move back in front of you.

CHIP FROM THE PUTTING GREEN
Good players need to find lots of opportunities to shave strokes, and this drill will help do that. First, I should note that you should be a confident, better player to pull off this drill. Chipping golf balls off a putting green can damage your golf course and anger everyone, from the greenskeeper to regular foursomes.

The key point with this drill is to help you understand how to use your sand wedge’s bounce so it can slide through impact. And for that to happen, the shaft has to be in the proper position at impact. If it’s too far forward, the leading edge will dig–and damage–the green. If it’s too far back, the leading edge will strike the ball first and blade it off the green.

The ideal position for a clean strike is with the shaft leaning slightly forward. This will give you a clean clip and proper trajectory. This impact position also will give you more margin for error when your contact with the ball is less than ideal.

Once you’ve mastered the feeling of correctly using bounce, concentrate on trying to sink your chips. Aiming at a hole and chipping it like a putt helps you develop “make” mentality. You’re a better player, so remember you don’t want to get it close; you want to hole it. And if you’re a good player who wants to get even better, you’ve got to train your mind to always try to make it when you’re around the green. If you don’t, I guarantee you that one of your opponents will.

THE NEW LAWS OF BALLFIGHT
How do you hit a draw–with a closed clubface or an open one? You’ll likely answer, “With a closed clubface.” But unfortunately that’s not correct. You actually hit a draw with an open face. Allow me to explain.

At impact, the clubface determines the ball’s initial start direction, but it’s the swing path that determines the resulting curve. Because the laws of ballflight have been misunderstood for years, a lot of better players get this wrong. However, with the advent of technologically sophisticated launch monitors like the TrackMan, we’re now able to better understand impact.

Impact for a draw is made with a slightly open clubface, and a swing path that moves from the inside to out. On the other hand, a proper fade starts with a closed clubface and a path that travels from outside to in.

The better you know these laws, the better golfers of all abilities will be able to control their ballflight and shot shape. Knowing the laws of ballflight will help you work the ball into more pin locations and doglegs, without hitting any double-crosses overdraws or push-fades. The laws of ballflight also will help you self-diagnose your swing when it’s not behaving properly.

Zach Allen, PGA, teaches at DeBell Golf Course in Burbank, Calif. A former Mini-Tour player, Allen has won 20 worldwide titles. Visit zachallengolf.com.

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