Quick Tips

Tension-Free Driving

Driving the golf ball consistently can lower your scores and increase your enjoyment faster than any other area of the game. Likewise, nothing is more frustrating than having your driver go sour in the middle of a round. When it comes to driving, one of the most common problems for amateurs and pros alike is too much tension. Overly tense muscles not only rob you of distance, but also make accurate driving, and long driving for that matter, extremely difficult. Plus, tension saps your body of energy, making it that much more difficult to play your best. To help get your driver back on track when you need it most, try this quick tip for greater relaxation and better swings._Ê_Ê

Grip the club as hard as possible and take a few practice swings–consider this pressure a 10. Now, grip the club and swing hard with only the thumbs and forefingers of both hands–consider this pressure a one. Then, take your normal grip and concentrate on keeping the pressure at four or less. Once you’ve determined what the correct pressure feels like, make your only goal during the swing to concentrate on maintaining that exact grip pressure from setup to finish.

By concentrating solely on maintaining the correct grip pressure throughout your driver swing, you’ll not only alleviate overall body tension, but you should find you’re more able to swing freely without being encumbered by too many swing thoughts. In addition, you’ll be more aware of what’s going on with your body and your swing due to the lack of tightness in your hands and arms.

Four-Finger Drill
Make swings with the last three fingers on both hands off the grip. Swinging the driver with just your thumb and forefinger not only will alleviate tension, but also will help ingrain a feeling of effortlessness all the way through impact. Because you don’t have enough strength with a four-finger grip to manipulate the club, it forces you to swing simply by turning back and through using only your body turn and the force of gravity. After making a number of swings in this manner, you should find that this feeling carries over into your regular swing, improving both your tempo and timing.

PGA professional Todd Yoshitake is Director of Golf at Riviera C.C. in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Connect The Rights

In the boxing world, the fighter who can connect his rights has a good shot of knocking out his opponent. In golf, the same holds true, but instead of crosses and uppercuts, you need to connect your right hip and shoulder, a move that augments your balance, puts greater power into your swing and otherwise facilitates a pure, on-plane motion.

On the backswing, it’s imperative that you turn your shoulders, but against a stable lower body. In the vernacular of golf instruction, teachers like to use the phrase turn your shoulders twice as much as your hips. This is a solid philosophy that generates tons of coil, i.e., potential energy that can be unleashed into the back of the golf ball.

On the downswing, things become a bit more complicated, but think of it this way: At the top, the shoulders are rotated farther than the hips. At mid-downswing, that gap still exists, but at the finish, both the shoulders and hips are in alignment. What that should tell you is that through the impact zone, you must continue to rotate your shoulders. I like to envision my right shoulder sliding right underneath my chin as I make contact. Don’t think for a second that you’ll pull the ball–your continuous hip rotation will guard against that.

Through impact, keep your right shoulder turning along with the rotation of your right hip. If you do, you’ll not only hit more successful golf shots, but consequently, you’ll establish greater balance and tempo. And all good swings begin with exactly that.

Instruction legend and GT Senior Instruction Editor Marshall Smith has more than 50 years of professional teaching experience. He instructs at Peoria Ridge GC and Shangri-La Resort in northeastern Oklahoma.

Toss For Distance

Here’s a drill that transforms golfers into more consistent ballstrikers and longer hitters. The most remarkable aspect of this drill is that it doesn’t involve swinging a golf club at all, but I feel strongly it best teaches the athletic movements involved with swinging a club.

Pick up a golf ball, assume an imaginary address position and then toss the ball underhanded at a specific target no more than 10 yards away. Simulate a golf swing by making a weight transfer to the right as you wind up to toss, turning your back to the target and releasing the ball as you’d release the clubface at impact.

A golfer who slices will invariably make an underhanded toss to the left of the target. I’ve seen amateurs do it time after time; they fling their right arms across the body, mimicking the outside-to-in path of their golf swings. They also allow the right foot to spin out as they make the toss, instead of transferring their weight to their left foot.

Any golfer who can make the proper motion with the underhand toss–right arm folded in an L position at the top, right palm open at release, knees touching at the finish in good balance, the ball starting slightly right of the target–can incorporate the same athletic motion into his swing.

Art Sellinger represents the Four Seasons Resort and Club in Las Colinas, Texas.

Are You A Candidate For Cross-Handed Putting?

Mirror Work
Every golfer is built differently, but in constructing a putting posture that will yield the most successful results, you have to take into account subtle, less obvious differences in build. The most important of these anatomical fingerprints is shoulder lines. When standing naturally, every golfer has shoulders that are either open (left shoulder behind right), closed (right shoulder behind left) or square. Most golfers have open shoulders, and the putting setup that best accommodates this anatomical structure is one that features a cross-handed (left-hand-low) putting grip.

The Test
There are a few ways to determine your anatomical structure. The best is to stand in any doorway with your toes set across the carpet seam. Look left, then right. If your left shoulder is farther behind the door jamb than your right, you have open shoulders. A second test is to get into your putting stance, allow your hands to hang naturally, then pull your arms together until your hands meet. If your right hand is outside your left, again you have open shoulders. To accommodate open shoulders in your setup, use a cross-handed putting grip. With the left hand below the right on the handle, your shoulders will automatically square themselves to the target line, resulting in a straighter putting stroke.

Of all the different facets of putting, the setup is the most important. Regardless of the purity of your stroke, your sense of touch or your ability to read greens, you won’t find the bottom of the cup too often if you’re not set up correctly.

Setting up correctly involves not only adopting a fundamentally sound posture, but addressing a putt based on your own anatomical structure as well. Every golfer is built differently and, if these differences aren’t taken into account when you address a putt, you may find the majority of your putts rolling to the right or left of the cup.

One of the main anatomical differences among golfers is shoulder rotation. Believe it or not, every person stands with shoulders that are open, closed or square. The majority of golfers stand with open shoulders, which means that the majority of golfers may benefit from a cross-handed putting grip. Read on to discover why.

Open Lines
If you do everything with your right hand and you swing and putt right-handed, your shoulders are very likely open to your stance line. If you putt and swing right-handed, but you do most other things left-handed, your shoulders are likely closed to your target line. If you do extensive upper-body stretching, your shoulder lines are likely square or closed to your stance line. When you use one hand to do most everything, from eating to opening doors, activity creates a continuous stretching of your dominant side. The lesser use of the non-dominant side of your body creates muscular asymmetry and resulting tension on that side that pulls your shoulders open. Your hips are subject to the same process. I played baseball in my youth and threw about 50,000 pitches in my career. When I stand with the toes of both feet on a line, my shoulders are 1 3__ã4 inches open and my hips are 2 inches open.

Your individual body lines are your anatomical structure and have a great effect on the type of putting setup you should adopt. To determine your anatomical structure, try the following.

Stand in a doorway and place the toes of both feet on a threshold divider or carpet seam. Stand tall and look straight ahead. Slowly turn your head to the right and then to the left without moving your shoulders. Which shoulder is further behind the door jamb, your left or right? If your left shoulder is farther back, then you have naturally open shoulder lines.

Here’s another test: Stand tall and relaxed as you look in a full-length mirror. Notice which of your hands turns in more than the other. If you’re right-handed and your shoulders are open, your left hand will turn in more than your right. The more open your shoulders, the more your left hand will turn in. Notice how much my left hand turns in compared to my right (see opening photo).

No matter how slightly open or closed, your natural shoulder lines have a pronounced effect on your setup and stroke. You must make adjustments for open or closed shoulders. There are two primary adjustments you can make: where in your stance you play the ball or how you position your hands on the grip. For most players, adjusting the grip will produce more comfortable, more positive results.

Setup Scenarios

Assume your current putting setup in front of a mirror. Then, lean your putter on your thigh and let your arms and hands hang relaxed. Notice the orientation of your hands. Do they hang on different lines? Slowly move your hands toward each other without changing the line on which they hang. If they meet, your hands hang neutrally and your shoulders are square to the target line. Most players have their arms and hands out of neutral at address. This out of neutral position imparts sidespin on the ball when you stroke a putt.

Now, move your ball back in your stance an inch at a time. Notice that the further back in your stance you move the ball, the squarer to the target line your shoulders become. Move the ball in your stance until you find the one that sets your shoulders square to the target line. Some golfers can square their shoulders with a forward-of-center ball position. Notice that my ball position has to be back of center in order to square my shoulders.

When you find the ball position that squares your shoulders, again, rest your putter on your thigh and let your arms and hands hang under your shoulders. Notice that your arms and hands hang in neutral and your fingertips meet when you move your hands toward each other. This square shoulders/neutral arms and hands setup will impart the best roll on the golf ball._Ê

Are You A Candidate?
One thing I’ve learned is that golfers feel more comfortable when the ball is positioned forward in the stance. If, in the drill above, you had to move the ball back in your stance in order to achieve square shoulders, you likely felt awkward in your setup and probably felt as if you would push every putt to the right. That’s a perfectly natural feeling.

Your putting setup should be a comfortable setup. That’s why I recommend that, instead of moving your ball position back to set your shoulders square to the target line, you adopt a cross-handed putting grip. Need convincing? Try the following.

Assume your current setup. Note how open your shoulders are to your target line. Now, lower your right hand two inches below your left on the putter grip. Notice how doing so opens your shoulders even more, and how it drops your right shoulder and moves your weight to your back foot.

Go back to your current setup. This time, move your right hand up the shaft so that your hands are on the putter in the same position. Notice how your shoulders begin to square themselves to the target line.

Now, assume a left-hand-low (cross-handed) grip on your putter. Your shoulders should be square to the target line and level. Furthermore, more of your weight should transfer to your front foot.

If your shoulders are closed to the target line in this position, move your ball forward in quarter-turn intervals until your shoulders are square to the target line.

If your shoulders are still a little open to the target line, move your ball position back in quarter-turn intervals until your shoulders are square. Notice how subtle changes in your ball position create large changes in your shoulder lines.

Path Perfection
From your new, cross-handed setup position, make a practice stroke. If the putter path is square to the target line, you’ve found the perfect, cross-handed setup.

If the putter path finishes inside or outside of the target line with your left-hand-low grip, fine-tune your setup by opening or closing your stance, depending on where you started. If you started with your stance square to the target line, open your stance a half-inch at a time. The majority of readers will need to move to a maximum of one inch open to find balance. This is due to the fact that in addition to your shoulders being open, your hips are open as well.

Pull your left foot straight back without flaring your toes to the target to open your stance, and be careful not to open your shoulders each time you open your stance a half-inch. As you open your stance more and more, it may appear that your ball position is moving back in your stance. This is an optical illusion. Continue to adjust your stance until the putter path moves down the target line.

Practice your setup in front of a mirror a few minutes each day so that it’s well-rehearsed and automatic when you get to the course. As you well know, thinking your way into your setup will cause missed putts regardless of how good it may be.

Cross-Handed Practice
Most students adjust quickly to cross-handed putting for short putts, but they struggle with speed control on long putts. Here’s a drill that will give you good speed control on putts of all lengths.

Set up three feet from a hole. While keeping your head as still as possible, make a practice stroke and feel the path down the target line. Find a blade of grass in the back of the hole on your line. Stare at that blade of grass and take a deep breath. As you begin to slowly exhale, bring an image of that blade of grass back to the ball. Hold that image as you stroke your putt. Notice how good your speed is after 10 or 15 putts.

As you perform this drill, make an effort to use consistent grip pressure throughout the stroke. Changes in grip pressure will alter speed, path and face position. In your practice and play, hold the same pressure.

Parting Shots
I’ve measured more than 1,000 amateurs, club professionals and Tour players through my golf schools. Only nine of theses players have both hips and shoulder lines that are totally square. These nine players reported an active stretching program, such as yoga or Pilates. Regardless, there’s no right or wrong hip or shoulder line. Just be aware of what your lines are and how they can affect your setup and stroke.
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PGA teaching professional and psychologist Dr. David F. Wright instructs at Pelican Hill Golf Club and Ocean Trails Golf Club in Southern California. His Mind Under Par golf schools (www.mindunderpar.com)•__ are recognized as one of the top 25 learning programs in America.

Putt The Percentages

There’s no quicker way to establish yourself as totally clueless on the greens–and to inspire confidence in your opponent–than to set up for a right-to-left putt, make a little pull stroke that sends the ball dead left, and watch the ball meander aimlessly on a path five or six inches below the cup, totally oblivious to the hole. Ditto the left-to-right breaker that you push well right of the hole. There’s a reason they call this missing on the amateur side–these are the putts that haven’t got a chance.

If you hit your putts to the high side of the hole, you’ll make a much higher percentage. Hit the putt too high and–if you’ve hit the putt with the correct speed–it still has a chance to trickle in over the edge. Putts never fall in over the edge on the low side.

Here’s a simple, yet extremely effective system, to hit more putts on the pro side of the hole–and to sink a higher percentage of them while you’re at it.

Regardless of whether the putt you’re faced with breaks right or left, you’ll have the greatest opportunity for success if you keep the ball above the hole–otherwise known as the pro side. The theory behind this technique is that putts that drop below the hole have little or no chance of finding the bottom of the cup. Your ability to read greens aside, the best way to ensure that your putts never drop below the pro side is to make simple adjustments to your hand and ball position. For right-to-left putts, encourage an inside-square stroke by playing the ball back and your hands forward. For putts that break in the opposite direction, set up with the ball forward and your hands back. These adjustments will make it difficult to push the ball to the low side.

Right-To-Left-Breaking Putt
On a right-to-left-breaking putt, set up with the ball slightly back (about two ball widths) in your stance and with your hands ahead of the ball so that the shaft leans forward (below). These adjustments will encourage a stroke that comes to the ball on a slightly inside-to-square path. More importantly, it minimizes the likelihood of cutting across the ball and pulling it left–the low side–of the hole.

Left-To-Right-Breaking Putt
When you’re facing a putt that breaks right, position the ball forward by one or two ball widths and keep your hands behind the ball so that the shaft tilts slightly away from the hole. From this position, it’s next to impossible to push the putt offline. Instead, your putter will travel along a square-to-square or slightly out-to-in path, keeping your putts on the hole’s high side.

Straight Putt
On a straight putt, focus on keeping the puttershaft in a perfectly vertical position at setup and impact. This will help you utilize the putter’s loft and impart a true roll on the ball.

Former Southern California PGA Metro Chapter Teacher of the Year Larry Brotherton instructs at San Juan Hills C.C. in Dana Point, Calif.

Speed Plane

One of the main reasons why recreational golfers can’t generate the power they’d like to is that they never fully get the club in their hands on-plane, especially the longer irons and, to an even greater extent, the driver. What recreational golfers need to understand is that the plane on which the club should travel changes from club to club–it’s a path dictated by the lie angle of the iron or wood you wish to swing. As the lie angle decreases from the short irons to the driver, the desired swing plane becomes flatter.

I see many beginning golfers and those who struggle with a lack of power and a chronic slice swing their woods on a plane more fitting for a high-lofted iron. That is, they swing the club on too steep a plane. When you swing above the appropriate plane, you rob your motion of width, and creating as wide an arc as possible is the key to generating extra speed with your longer clubs. In addition, if you’re too steep going back, you’ll likely be too steep coming down–fore right!

To get a better sense of the difference between driver and wedge planes, try this drill. Hold your driver with your right hand and any wedge with your left. Notice how much flatter your driver shaft lies than that of your wedge. Now, imagine a plane of glass resting on both shafts–this describes the path on which you should take back either club. Go ahead and make a mock backswing with both clubs. If you’ve kept the clubs on their respective planes, you’ll have moved your left arm above your right.

If you can move your driver on the right plane, and give your swing extra width, you’ll be set to swing with more speed and hit with greater power.

Get Some Shut-Eye

Golfers tend to get worked up about putting. They make it into a far more complex exercise than it has to be, which is why I often jokingly compare putting to performing brain surgery. No doubt about it, we put unnecessary pressure on ourselves as we stand over that little white ball and whisper a prayer before pulling the trigger.

Some players become anxious about having to look away from the target and down at the ball to make the stroke. That worry causes them to lift their heads too soon, sometimes even before impact, ruining the putt. Others focus too intently on mechanics, resulting in a tension that turns their stroke into something more like a jab.

An effective way to cure both problems is to practice putting with your eyes shut. Address the ball as you normally would, shut your eyes and make a few practice strokes. You’ll notice that your anxiety will be relieved and you’ll feel calmer right away. Additionally, your head and body won’t move as you swing. That’s because with your visual sense temporarily shut down, there’s no reason to lift up and look for the ball. You’ll also notice that with your sight blocked, your sense of feel will be enhanced, almost magically transforming your stroke into a free, relaxed motion. This heightened sense of feel will show up dramatically in your distance control.
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I’ve known players who have so perfected putting with their eyes shut that they do it in competition. If you can’t make that leap, at least try closing your eyes when you make your practice stroke, then step up and hit the ball with that same relaxed motion.

Instruction Editor Debbie Steinbach played on the LPGA Tour for 12 years. She currently teaches at The Reserve in Indian Wells, Calif.

Break The Ice

The majority of my new students fight a slice. That is, they tend to leave the clubface open at impact. An open clubface will impart left-to-right sidespin on the ball regardless of the path on which your club travels through the hitting zone. If you struggle with a slice, you know how frustrating the game can be. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way.

The following drill–actually, simply the image of it–has greatly helped my slicing students. It has taught them to square up the clubface at impact and finally lose that left-to-right arc once and for all. Here’s how it works.

Arrange a block of ice cubes two or three inches in front of the golf ball on the intended target line. Address the ball with a 6- or 7-iron. Then, have a friend kick away the ball and begin your swing.

From the top of your swing, focus on hitting past the spot where you normally play the ball and strike the ice cube block with the toe end of the club. Golfers who slice the ball will tend to simply push the clubface into the ice and lead with the heel end of the club first. This is an open clubface, and will lead to a glancing blow and most likely a slice. Rather, feel the toe digging into the ice and breaking it. This sensation will lead to a better squaring of the face at impact and a straighter shot pattern.

You don’t need the ice to gain benefit from this drill. Simply imagine the sight and sound of the toe of the club cutting into and breaking apart the block. Use this image while hitting a golf ball. It’s amazing to see the look on my students’ faces after they perform this drill and truly feel the dynamics of a square clubface at impact and the sensation of compression.

Professional golf instructor Barry Goldstein is the director of golf at Polar Shot Golf Center in Johnson City, N.Y. He also instructs at the Coral Springs Golf Range in Coral Springs, Fla.

Wiggle Your Toes

Posture and balance in golf are extremely important if you want to be a consistent ballstriker. In fact, in all sports, balance is paramount. The next time you thumb through a sports magazine, look for a baseball player awaiting a pitch at the plate or a quarterback set in the pocket and ready to throw. In every case, you’ll immediately recognize the high level of balance all professional athletes possess.

In golf, balance is critical at all areas of the swing, which means that you must be balanced at address. At address, I imagine that I’ve centered my body so that if someone tried to push me in any direction, I’d be able to hold my ground effortlessly. The next time you’re on the range, ask a friend to gently push you while you’re in your setup. If you’re not centered, you’ll fall off balance quite easily, even with just a two-finger nudge.

To prevent this from happening, establish your balance at address so that you feel as comfortable as possible–don’t let tension creep into any part of your setup. A key checkpoint is that your weight is centered over the arches of both feet. You’ll know when you’re over your arches when you can wiggle your toes in your shoes.

That’s right–wiggle your toes! If you can’t, then you’re out of balance and leaning too far forward in your posture position. Relax, get comfortable and get those toes to wiggle. Then you’ll be in balance.

Former LPGA Tour player Debbie Steinbach instructs at The Reserve in Indian Wells, Calif.

Putt With Precision

Just like it is with the full swing, it’s easy for golfers to get sloppy while executing their putting strokes. By sloppy, I mean hitting the ball all over the putterface rather than striking the ball precisely on the sweet spot.

A reason for this sloppiness is the fact that putters get more and more forgiving each year. Face balancing, perimeter weighting and other mass-distribution systems allow golfers to miss the center of the putterface and still enjoy favorable results. However, these results don’t come with necessary feedback.

The best method for learning any motor skill is trial-and-error-based practice. If you don’t receive feedback as to where on the putterface you’re striking the ball, it’s impossible to improve your stroke. Feedback is the key to lasting improvement.

I like to practice putting with the toe of my putter. When you putt with the toe of your putter, you must make perfect, centered contact or the ball will carom off in an embarrassing number of directions. Next time you spend your valuable time practicing, practice like a pro–with purpose.

Former LPGA Tour player Debbie Steinbach instructs at The Reserve in Indian Wells, Calif.