Think about it.  How may times have you had a pretty long first putt on the green?  15, 20, 45 feet or maybe more.  And rather than lagging the putt up close and leaving a 2-5 footer or less for our score, we try for that birdie or long par.  And then we watch as we misread the break or the speed and our putt ends up 12 feet on the other side of the hole.

Here’s a suggestion.  Your next three golf rounds, record the number of putts you take on each hole.   I think you will be surprised at the numbers.  And then if you think about why you had those extra putts, you will probably recognize where lag putting could have shaved 3-4 strokes or more off a round.  So here is a lag putting drill that I have written about before and it’s good enough to share it again.

Go to the putting green at your club with your putter, some golf tees, your golf balls, and a hula hoop.

This is a simple but effective  golf drill. Take the hula hoop and lay it around the hole you are going to putt to.  Center the hole in the middle of the hoop. Take 4 tees and put them around the hula hoop at the twelve o’clock, three o’clock, six o’clock, and 9 o’clock positions  Then take the hoop away and put it off  to the side somewhere.

Now practice putting from all sides and several different distances.  Focus on just getting the golf ball somewhere inside the circle of tees. Line your putt up normally as far as the line to the cup, but for distance just try to get inside the circle.  I normally use 6-8 golf balls each round in doing this.

You can do this any number of ways and even compete with yourself.  But one way to progress in the drill is to stay at one distance until you put at least half of your putts inside the circle from that distance. Move yourself back on distance until you have practiced from similar distances where you will most often encounter long putts on your golf course.

Simple, doesn’t take much time, but a huge help in lag putting.  Try it and see if you don’t cut some strokes from your golf game.

To execute this drill, grab your driver or 3 wood.  i would suggest the 3 wood until you have started to make some progress, then switch to the driver.  Get to an open area with no one immediately next to you.

Now hold the club straight out from your body, parallel to the ground at about belly height, likek you might hold a baseball bat.  Use your normal grip for this drill.

To start the drill take the golf club back in a backswing like you were going to hit a baseball, keeping the club on the same plane.  Do not take it up and over your shoulder.

When you have completed a comfortable back swing, swing the club forward, again like a baseball swing with the golf club staying parallel to the ground on the same plane.  Focus on bringing your right elbow (if you are right handed, opposite if a lefty) tucked in close to your right side as you swing the club forward.  Complete the follow through normally, but remember to keep the club on the same plane.

The tempo I recommend for this drill is to try and swing at what you think is 50-60% of your normal swing speed.  Just a really smooth easy tempo.

Now go back to the starting position again.  This time hold the club at a height about halfway between your belly and the ground.  Do the exact same swing motion as before, again focusing on bringing your right elbow in close to your right side as you begin the swing. Complete the swing as before.

In this drill, if you are bringing that right elbow in close to the body, you should start to get the feel of swinging the club from the inside at the golf ball.  Now do this one more time, but lower the club at the starting position until it will sweep the grass lightly as you go through the swing.

I tell my students to do this drill several times before they practice on the range or before they start a round.  You can also do it briefly during your practice session as you change clubs or during a round as you are waiting your turn (as long as it won’t distract your playing partner).

Using this drill to help develop an inside to outside swing path can really help with a slice. As always, good luck golf nuts!

Here is a recent email comment I received that reinforces this point.  A reader writes ” Golf Nut,  I did it again today.  I let my brother in law ruin my score by letting me ego get the best of me.  On a par 5 and a really long par 4, I went for shots into the green that I really can’t hit and ended up with a double bogey on one hole and a triple on the other”.

I am not amazed by this because I have fallen into that trap many times myself,  often with no help from anyone in my foursome.  Why does “laying up” and playing smart seem so wimpy to us?   Yes we have that brand new Calllaway or Taylor Made 3 wood in the bag that we just bought.  But can most of us consistently hit it 200 to 235 into a small green surrounded by trouble and hit the green, much less hold it?

That is one of the things that I love about the game of golf and that also frustrates me about my game.  It’s that personal challenge to play good golf in spite of myself.

But the teaching point is this.  If you track your scores  (and I encourage you to do this), take note of where the wheels come off on particular holes and you can cut a number of strokes off your game immediately through playing good mental golf.

Good golfing all you golf nuts.

I have talked and written for years about tempo and being relaxed to really strike the golf ball well.  And, as I’ve said before here on this blog, when we haven’t played much or if it’s been a while since we played last, we tend to play pretty well.  I believe it’s because we are more relaxed than normal because our expectations are so low.  We don’t expect to play well, we don’t over think or over swing and, guess what?  We strike the ball solidly and in what appears to be an effortless manner.

Until we get to about the 11th or 12th hole and look at our scorecard and realize  “Wow, I’m having a career day!”  Then we start thinking, we start trying to do too much, and typically the wheels come off of our golf swing.

The same thing occurs sometimes when we are getting killed in a competition golf match.  When it appears to be over and we quit pushing so hard, all of a sudden we are making shots and cutting the lead down again.

So, this all just reinforces the title to this post…..The Key To Golf Is To Relax.  Easy to say, hard to do.  But here is one pointer I have given out before that may come in handy.   Set a different goal for par.  In other words, if you are a golfer who shots above 90, than use bogey as your target. Don’t try to par each hole.  Set bogey as par and you will be surprised at how many “birdies”  (actual pars) you pick up!

Relax and enjoy the game….and play better as well.

Another reason that miss this is that we just don’t check it periodically.  I mean, we really should remember that we are just amateur golfers.  And that means that we don’t do things consistently.  So over the course of a round of golf our feet or our shoulders or both will get lined up one way or the other and eventually our alignment is off on a number of shots.

A third reason that I have found for this problem is golfers trying to make shots that they just aren’t capable of.  So their feet are in abnormal positions or their upper body may be leaning one way or the other.  You have probably all been in this kind of position at least once before.   And so a difficult shot from the beginning is compounded by a bad stance and bad alignment.

Here is some simple advice on alignment.  First, every time you hit some golf balls at the range, check your alignment.  It’s easy to do by laying a golf club on the ground in the direction you want to aim just beyond your ball.  Then take your stance.  Once you have your stance, hold your golf club in front of you with the shaft touching each the front of each shoulder.  Does the club point in the same direction as the club on the ground?

Then, without moving your feet or your body, lay your club on the ground with the shaft just touching the front of each golf shoe.  Ask yourself the same question.  This will help your focus on setting up correctly on a consistent basis.

Another little tip is just to have a friend check your alignment.  During a round of golf, have someone check your alignment 4-5 times randomly during the round.  Give them permission to correct your stance or alignment when it gets out of whack.

Just being a little more focused on it will help a ton on the results.  Give it a shot and see what happens.

Here is my current 3 step routine for a short but effective practice session at the golf range:

Step 1:  Take my favorite two clubs and hit about a five to six balls with each club to loosen up.  This is, of course, after some good stretching exercises before I pick up a golf club.  For me, the 7 iron and the pitching wedge are the two clubs that I am the most comfortable with, so they are my favorites.  Hitting with these clubs first gives me confidence and keeps me relaxed.

Step 2: Next, I will practice playing 3 golf holes, a par 4, a par 3, and a par 5.  This allows me to hit a variet of clubs during this short session.  I pick actual holes that I know pretty well and work on hitting the actual shots required to play these holes.  I use my normal pre shot routine and take the normal amount of time between shots.  I have found that this keeps me from rushing from one practice shot to the next.  When I used to hit a lot of practice balls, I would find that I keep speeding up and speeding up.  This affected both my swing tempo and that I was hitting too many shots too quickly.  There is no value to that kind of practice.

Step 3: The last part of my practice routine is to pick one or two clubs that I felt that I didn’t hit very well when I “played” those three practice holes.  Then I hit about seven to ten shots with each to work on what might have been wrong.

That’s it.  Now the hard part is fighting the temptation to keep hitting more golf balls to fix one more thing.  My experience is that once I start using this routine, after the first couple of times, it has become a very effective routine and I generally play better the next time I am on the course.

Of course, if you love to hit buckets and buckets of golf balls, this may not be for you.  But I encourage you to try it.

Until next time!

I might have held the club and didn’t finish my swing because I really didn’t trust the shot I was trying to hit.  Or I would try to steer the ball unconsciously and realize that I had stiffened up which really affected my mechanics.

But the key to me became to make sure that once I committed to a shot, to then totally relax and just swing a smooth, easy swing.  Not to think, not to try and do anything but swing the club.  Not that this is an easy thing to do, especially for us amateur golfers, but the more I do this, the better the result.

Where is it really hard to trust your swing and do this?  On a shot where hazards are in play.  Or on a shot to a really difficult green.  Or a shot where I am trying to help my partner and I to win a particular hole.   It’s why the younger pros struggle when they are first contending for a win or for a win at their first major.  It’s when the pressure is on that this becomes the hardest.

And that’s if we have learned to do this at all.  I still don’t have it down all the time. But when I can relax and not think about my swing or the shot while I swing, the results are so much better.  And to me that is trusting your swing.

Hope that helps some of you golf nuts out there.

Now here is a similar point about our approach shots to greens.  So often I see amateurs worrying about the yardage to the pin.  And then trying to hit their golf shot right at the pin, regardless of the placement.  I don’t know about the rest of you golfers, but I’m not good enough to land it on the pin on purpose a majority of the time.

So why don’t we do the smart thing and aim for the middle of the green.  On most greens, if you hit the middle and can two putt a majority of the time, you are going to score pretty well.  But no, we go for the pin in front and end up short in the bunker.  Or we go for the pin tucked in the far back corner and overshoot the green and end up in marsh on the back side.

So much of golf is mental and a big part of that is playing smart.  I encourage all of you golfers to go for it…. that is the middle of the green.  And watch your scores go down.

Good golfing.

Second thing that I am big on is to use your favorite golf clubs.  All of us have some clubs that we are really comfortable with and, thus, hit well.  For me, my favorite irons are my 7, 8, and sand wedge.  I just normally hit them very well.  So, based on where I am sitting after my tee shot, I am looking to typically do one of two things.  First to see if I can hit a 7 or 8 iron into a distance that I can then hit my sand wedge in for my third shot.  I usually get a decent chance at birdie if I can hit my sand wedge.

The other scenario that I look for is to hit my three wood for my second shot.  The 3 is my favorite wood.  If the green is unprotected and/or relatively flat and wide, I like to go for the green in two if a mistake won’t cost me too badly.

The third thing for scoring on Par 5′s is to get good at the bump and run or chipping.  If you can do a little practice with you 7 through pitching wedge, you can a lot of times save par or set up birdies with an excellent chip or bump an run.  (You can read more about this type of approach in this golf tip)

So, Golf Nuts, put those three thoughts into your game and you will find yourself doing pretty well on the Par 5′s and helping get some strokes off your golf score.

Have fun out there!

But if you don’t find them impossible, if maybe you just have some inconsistency or you want to make a little better contact with these golf clubs, then read on.

My first tip is swing really easy and smooth.  Although this is a constant theme in my golf tips, for the long irons I really encourage you to swing easier than you do with any other clubs in your golf bag.  Think of swinging at about 50% of your normal swing speed.

Second, really concentrate on the golf ball.  The longer the iron, the more a small mishit affects you.  Make a distinct effort to concentrate on watching your golf club make contact with the back of the ball.  Don’t stiffen up your neck, but make sure to see the club though impact. Stay with the shot!

Last,  make sure to finish your follow through.  I see a lot of golfers who finish their long iron shots very much like they might a pitching wedge.  Finish the swing with the full follow through just like a driver or 3 wood. Otherwise you open yourself up more to hitting a fade or slice.

If you are going to keep trying those long irons, these tips may help you hit them a little better.

Good golfing!

That is getting rid of movement in your head during your golf swing.  Now I’m not talking about keeping your head down.   This is something a little more subtle.  But I see a lot of golfers that move their head up or down or side to side during their swing and it can cause mishits and pushes or pulls.  And most average golfers never notice it.

So the first thing to do if possible is take a short video of your swing.  If you don’t have a camera, then get a friend or even you spouse to take a few minutes to watch your swing.  That is if your spouse will spend any time feeding your addiction to golf!

If you or they see side to side or up and down movement of your head, this may be your problem.  Now you just need to work on doing what the pros call “maintaining a quiet head”.   So let’s talk about how to help this.

You don’t want to stiffen up your shoulders or neck or you will cause other problems.  The key is really to just focus on not having major movement of your head during your golf swing.  One thing that I have used to do this is focusing on the golf ball a little more intently during my swing.  And this sounds a little crazy, but even picking a spot on the golf ball and not letting my vision move from that spot.  Then I also try to make sure that I see the clubhead swing through the golf ball at impact.

By focusing on this, without trying to “keep my head still” with the muscles of my neck, I have been able to keep my head quiet and improve my contact on the golf ball.  So, the next time you are hitting some balls at the range, try this approach.  Then video yourself again or have that same person watch you again to look for improvement.

I hope this helps and great golfing to you.

There are several things that can cause a slice, but I am going to talk about the two most common causes that I have seen on the golf course.  And those come down to the swing path and the clubface.  Now if you are an experienced golfer, I would suggest you stop right here.  My advice on this is really for higher handicappers and is pretty unorthodox.  But I know that it works and I’ve helped a number of golfers with it.

A lot of amateur golfers with slices have an outside to in swing path.   And this is commonly caused by a move known as “over the top”.  This results when, in your downswing, the golf club and your right elbow get way too far away from the body.  Rather than just repeat the advice from my previous article on this, I’m going to give you a link to it.  Read this article and then come back here for the second part.

Now the second most common problem is that your clubface is open.  This can be a little tricky to cure if you start messing around with the grip  or your wrists and other things that your golf pro might try.  I’m going to give you a very simple, but unorthodox correction for this problem.   Read this post that I wrote and then come back here for a little more explanation.

Now in this case, you aren’t trying to create a draw or fade, but to fix a slice.  So the amount that you close the club face at address will vary.  Just try different amounts until your shot straightens out or even develops a slight draw.

Now one last thought.  You may have shots that start off going left and then end up with a big slice.  In that case you may have both of these problems and you may have to work on both.   Unusual advice I know, but that’s why they call me  ‘The Golf Nut’.

Good golfing!

Well I don’t have any magic tips, but I can talk about something that I’ve found that really helps me during a round.  It’s a real simple thing called walking.  One of the things that I have found over the years is that riding in a golf cart actually tends to hurt my game to some degree.  But it’s sort of like swinging easy.  I seem to keep forgetting it.

When I walk on my rounds of golf rather than riding in a cart, I seem to stay much more focused and relaxed.  As I walk towards my golf ball, I get a chance to look at my next shot from several angles rather than just jumping out of my cart and getting ready to swing.  I tend to be relaxed and stay relaxed through my pre shot routine.

Another aspect of walking is when I make a bad shot I get some time and physical activity to shake off that bad golf shot. By the time I get to my golf ball, most of the time the shot that got me there is forgotten.  This really helps me to avoid putting several bad shots together and totally killing the hole.

Another aspsect of mental golf is playing smart and playing what the golf course gives you.  Walking helps me take the time to think about this.  Usually when I’m riding, I’m talking with my cart partner and not focusing on what I should be doing next.  Walking allows me to talk as well, but then if I need to focus I can slow down a bit/speed up a bit or just separate myself slightly from the group and gather myself.

This may not have been what you were expecting as an answer to your question, but I encourage you to consider walking more often when you play golf and using the time between shots to strengthen your mental game. It can make a world of difference.

Good golfing out there!

This is a good example of how the mental side of golf really affects our game.  I do have a suggestion that a golf buddy of mine shared with me years ago and it really helped me with this issue. And it’s probably something you all know, but maybe don’t practice.

For this golf tip, you have to play the hole based on what you have.  But let’s say you have one of your typical distance par 4′s.  Say it’s anywhere from 350 yards up to 400.  One of the keys here it to leave your ego in the bag.  Let me give you an example.

Most of the time golfers pull out the driver, or maybe even a 3 wood because it’s a par 4.  So many times we want to hit that tee shot as far as possible so that we only have 100 yards or less  for our approach shot.  But if you check the ego, you can hit an iron off the tee and have a much higher chance of being in the middle of the fairway.

Maybe you tee of with a 4 or 5 iron.  On a 385 yard hole, that might leave you with 190 yards or so if you hit a decent 4 iron off the tee.  Now I’m not saying that you ought to count on hitting the green consistently with a long iron.  But let’s compare the alternatives and you tell me which gives you the best chance of scoring better.

Hit a driver or 3 wood and many times you end up in the rough or bigger trouble.  Now you have to chip out or just try to move the golf ball up the fairway while you come out of trouble.  So you are hitting 3 into the green from maybe 140 to 170 yards or so.

Or, as I suggested above, you hit two 4 or 5 irons and even if you miss the green on your second shot, you end up just off the green, chipping from maybe 15 yards or so.  See the difference?  Now I know many of you may be saying, Hey Golf Nut, that’s just common sense.  But the question is whether it’s common practice.

As I said earlier, you have to play the hole based on what you have.  So bunkers, water hazards, and other trouble affect what you do.

But the key golf tip here is play smart when you have a tight fairway.  Don’t let the ego talk you into pulling out the big sticks when a smart approach can save you strokes!  Good golfing out there.

Thank you for the question.  I have written about this before, but it is something that a lot of golfers struggle with so it is worth talking about again.  I will talk about three things that can help with this golf shot.

First,  if you are just off the green and have a great lie in just the first cut off the green, consider putting.  Most of us golfers are much more accurate with the putter than with a wedge of any sort.  You need to allow for the golf ball moving slower until it hits the green, but with a little practice, you can get very consistent with this.

Second, you should look at using more of a “bump and run” golf shot for this.  And depending on your comfort with woods versus irons, you may want to use a 5, 7, or 9 wood to do this.  Sometimes for these short chips just off the green you can sweep the ball smoothly with your fairway woods.

Now the third option involves your irons.  Instead of using a sand or pitching wedge for this golf shot and then trying to control the distance with back swing and club head speed, you can use different irons from your 6 iron all the way down to your wedge.  You use the same backswing and just control the distance with which club you use.  You can see more about this in a previous article I wrote at:  http://www.the-golf-nut.com/help_with_chipping_consistency.html.

Try these and see if you don’t cut some strokes right away from your scores.

Two things that I have seen help amateur golfers improve their GIR numbers, which, of course leads to lower scores.  These are really simple steps that just about any golfer can implement right away.

But before we start, think about your results.  Now, you may be different from most amateurs, but most of the golfers that I have seen, worked with, or played with come up short more often when they miss than anything else.  And I believe that this is due in no small part to a key mental mistake.  They get in their head that they should hit a certain iron a specific distance.   Why?  Well because their regular golfing partner hits it that far.  Or they hit it that far one time out of a thousand on the range.  Or that’s the average distance for that club that they read about in an article….etc.  You get the idea.

But the key question is what is the real distance for you for that golf club?  I suggest you take a little time on the range with your 7 iron through your wedge.  Hit about 20 shots with each club.  After you hit the shots with a particular iron, eliminate the 5 longest shots.  Why?  Well on the range you are relaxed and have no pressure on the shots. So I believe that to get a real measure of your average distance for that golf club, you should eliminate the longest 5 shots.   Do this with each club and you get a better feel for your realistic consistent distance.

This first step will help you become more realistic and accurate about your distances. Now for step 2.  When you are in the middle of a round and you have a pressure shot where you really need to get the golf ball on the green, take one longer club than you need and shorten your back swing just a little, say about 10 percent.  My experience is that when you are in this kind of situation, you will tense up and will lose a little distance because you don’t relax and trust your swing.  By taking a little extra club and just shortening your backswing slightly, you increase the odds of getting even a slight mishit on the green.

Two simple steps that I’ve seen work for a lot of golfers.  Give em a try!

First of all, this is not something that everyone will be able to do. It took me a while to be able to do this. Second, this is probably not the way most golf teaching pros would suggest that you do it. I just can’t do it the way that that a lot of them say, which is to change your grip. And lastly, this is easier to do if you typically hit the ball fairly straight and consistent. If you are all over the place, I wouldn’t suggest trying it.

For me, what has worked is to use the club face as the way to manufacture a fade or draw when I want it. It is very simple in theory, but can be challenging to execute. Let’s say I am playing a par 5 with a dog leg right on the second shot. I can hit it a little shorter towards the middle of the fairway and leave a longer approach shot. Or I can hit a slight fade and be able to move the golf ball farther down the fairway to leave myself a short approach shot

The first key point is to not change anything about your grip, swing, or the shot. All you to do is slightly rotate the club face. In this case, we will open it just slightly for a fade. By “just slightly” what do I mean? Well you have to practice this a little to gauge how much for your swing, but in general for a slight fade I open the club face about a quarter of an inch or maybe just over that. For a slight draw, you just do the opposite.

Then you aim slightly to the left (again we’re back to the fade) of your target line and swing like you want to hit it straight. This is what I’ve found to be the tricky part. It is like when you are hitting a breaking putt. Rather than reading the green, hitting it on your line, and letting the break take the golf ball to the hold, we have a tendency to try and steer the putt.

The same with this fade shot. Instead of letting the club face do the work and just hit it straight, we almost sub consciously try to adjust our swing. Don’t do that! Just pick your straight line to the left of where you are trying to fade the ball and hit it normal and straight. If you let the club face do all the work you will love what happens.

One thing that you can do to test and practice this a little and learn to trust the club face is to do the following on the range:

Choke down on a 6 or 7 iron. Adjust the club face as I described above. Now take only a half to three quarter swing and follow through like you are trying to punch out of the woods or from behind an obstruction. You should hit a low shot that will fade or draw based on what you did with the club face. Do this until you are comfortable how much to adjust the club face and with not changing your swing.

Then practice the full swing. As I said earlier, this is a simple way to manufacture a shot in concept, but it can be a challenge to execute. Give it try and let me know how it goes.

Well, I think all golfers have found themselves in this situation at one time or another. And, with just the little bit that you have told me I don’t have a specific drill or set of drills, but I can tell you what I have done myself in the past when I hit this kind of problem.

What I always recommend is first, never try and fix your golf swing during a round of golf. And sometimes it may take a little time on the practice range to figure out what is going on with your swing. But if you are anything like me, you don’t want to give up playing completely while you figure it out. So here is what I do. It’s simple and, for the most part, it allows you to keep enjoying a round or two of golf while you figure out what is going on with your swing.

First thing is I choke down a little on all clubs except maybe the wedge and the sand wedge. How much you ask? Well, everyone is different, so I recommend you try several distances to see what is comfortable for you. For me, I choke down about two to two and a half fingers in length. This is what works for me after experimenting a little.

The other thing that I do is I only take about a half of a back swing. I will usually take the golf club back until my left arm (I am right handed) is parallel with the ground. I do complete a full follow through after I make contact with the golf ball.

What this seems to do for me is three things. First, it slows me down so my mechanics immediately are better. Second, I seem to make much more solid contact with the golf ball. And third, the shorter swing combined with choking down on the club seems to relax all of my big muscles. Why? Well I don’t really know but I suspect that sub-consciously I believe that I can’t hit it as far so I don’t try.

This may or may not address your particular issue, but I encourage you to give it a try. It has always helped me during a round when I just can’t seem to do anything right. And if you have some more specifics that you’d like help with, email me at thegolfnut@the-golf-nut.com

This is a really simple drill but it goes to the heart of the problem on short putts. On all putts, really catching the ball square in the middle of the putter head is important. But it’s absolutely crucial on the short strokes and will help you make more putts on the green.
Here is a way to see how you are making contact with the golf ball and to practice getting it right quickly and simply. First you need a piece of contact tape. You can get this from any golf pro or a golfing supply store. Put a piece of the tape on the face of your putter.
Now hit 10 putts and check the impact tape and see where you are making contact. There should be some type of pattern on the putter face. Look at how spread out the pattern is. If the impact pattern is pretty spread out from the dead center of the putter face, you aren’t stroking your putts consistently in the center or sweet spot of the putter face.
Now work on 10 putts without impact tape focusing on making contact in the center of the putter face with a smooth stroke. Then take 10 more putts with impact tape again on the face of the club again. Check your pattern again.
Do this for a few days and you should see a definite improvement in your short putts!
Good golfing out there golf nuts!

Well, let’s start with what all of you golf nuts out there said. Here are your answers to the question:
Putting: 24%
Chipping: 16%
Driving: 16%
Middle and long irons 16%
Mental game 12%
Short Irons 12%
Tempo 4%
Now what is interesting (or maybe not) is that my choice is the 4% answer: Tempo. What I have found with my golf swing and see with a lot of amateur golfers is that they swing way too fast. And the faster you swing, the harder it is to get solid contact on the golf ball with the club face in the correct position.
I have been fortunate to attend several PGA golf tournaments including The Masters more than once. I remember the first time that I saw the pros up close. It was at a practice round at The Masters in Augusta. The thing that amazed me was how smoothly and slowly the pros golf swing seemed compared to what I saw on the golf course when I played (including my own swing).
And these guys are good as the commercial says. They are professional athletes with tremendous hand to eye coordination. But they aren’t swinging hard compared to what I see a lot of us amatuer golfers do.
And the main point is this. If you think about how complicated the golf swing can be, how much harder is it to get it right when we are going faster and faster? Now thank goodness we don’t have to pick just one thing to practice. But if we did, I would pick tempo because it affects everything else.
And for me, I try not to over practice. But when I work on things, I start and end with tempo. And it always helps!
Thanks to all the golfers who participated in the poll! And I was glad to see that over half of the respondents answered with something related to their short game! Good luck with your practice and good golfing.

So here is a short poll for all you about where you believe the focus on improving your golf game should be. Please complete the poll and we will publish the final results later this week.


Thank you to all of our readers and faithful golf nuts and followers on Twitter as well!

Being relaxed helps so much to make sure that you have a smooth, easy tempo in your golf swing. If you are tensed up, especially in your big muscles, it can throw everything out of whack. And one thing that can really help keep you from tensing up is your grip.
I see many golfers at the range who are gripping their golf clubs as if they are about to snatch 250 pounds off a bench and press it over their head. Their grip is so tight I wonder if they are going to be able to let go of the club to put it back in the bag. I don’t know if “grip it and rip it” has fueled this, but I see a lot more of this than I used to.
When I first started playing golf I read a book by Tommy Armour that my dad had. It was called “How To Play Your Best Golf All The Time”. It was a very good book and he had one thing in there about the grip that has stayed with me to this day.
He talked about not holding the golf club too tightly or too loosely. His golf grip tip was that the perfect grip on the golf club would be to grip the club as if you were holding a bird in your hands. You should hold it tight enough that the bird can’t get away, but not so tight as to hurt the bird.
One of the things this helps me with to this day (and will help you also) is that it allows me to grip the golf club but stay relaxed. Anytime I feel myself speeding up my swing or gripping the club too tight, I think about that tip from Mr. Armour and it seems like my whole body just relaxes. And then I start hitting the golf ball better again.
Boy if I only wouldn’t keep forgetting that from time to time! Hope this helps your game.
Good golfing to all you golf nuts.

The two most basic problems that cause slices with higher handicappers are the swing path and the clubface being open at contact. Without going into too much technical jargon about why this is, let’s keep it simple and talk about how to correct these faults.
The single biggest problem that amateurs have in regards to a slice is what is called the “over the top” move. This causes the outside to inside swing path and a resulting slice. This is probably the reason for a slice in your golf swing.
The real culprit is your right arm (if you are right handed). In this over the top move, the right arm ends up farther away from the body in the downswing and the swing path of the club is then “outside” the golf ball.
The correct swing path to avoid a slice (and encourage a draw) is inside to out. This means that the club approaches the golf ball from a point that is right next to your body rather than away from the body. If your ball starts out to the left and then slices strong back to the right, you most likely have this problem.
There is a very simple way to correct this. The easiest way to correct this is to get your right arm and elbow (if you are right handed) coming down close to your side during your downswing. This gets the club approaching the golf ball on the right path.
I don’t recommend many swing trainers, but there is one that is very close to “magic” for correcting this problem. It is the Kallassy Swing Magic Training Aid. I am not saying to buy this to cure your slice; I don’t want you to feel compelled to have to spend any more money. But many of my readers have asked if there is a tool that would help.
But you can cure the slice without it. So here is a simple drill that will help you get rid of this annoying habit: Practice this initially with a 7 iron and no golf ball.
When you start your downswing, imagine that you are pulling a rope with your right hand all the way to your right side. Visualize your hand and the rope coming completely down to the right side of your body.
Swing the 7 iron while “pulling the rope” to your side. Do this repeatedly without a golf ball until you feel the shaft almost brush your right side. Remember to use a slow, smooth tempo
Now add a golf ball and hit the ball. If you are doing this correctly with a 7 iron you can look at your divot and tell if it is working. The direction of the divot should be straight or maybe even slightly right to left. If it is right to left, you need to practice again without the golf ball.
This one drill can straighten out your shots. Now you may end up with a slight fade to your shot, but that isn’t all bad. But the ball should start out straight and fade just a little, but no more slice.
Now for the second problem with slicing, the open club face. If after doing the above drill, your ball starts out straight, but still fades a little too strongly to the right, then your club face is probably open.
To get the club face square or even slightly closed at impact rather than open, you have to have the correct rotation of your hands and forearms. Not real difficult but it takes just a little practice
Here is a quick little drill that will give you a feel for how this should work. Take your golf club and make practice swings with your right arm only. Take a full swing and finish it completely. The momentum and weight of the golf club will almost force your right hand and forearm to rotate over as you come through and finish the swing. This is the rotation you want.
Do this several times until your feel the rotation and it feels natural. Now swing the club with two hands and make sure that your swing all the way through and finish the follow through to finish high over your left shoulder. You should feel the same rotation with your right hand and forearm as before.
One quick note on this. If you feel the rotation on the one armed swing, but not as much on the two armed, think as if you were “throwing” the club down the target line as your swing through the golf ball. Then go back and practice the one armed swing a few times before coming back to the two armed swing with this mental focus.
These two elements are two of the major enemies that cause a slice. These two steps will help end that slice, make your shots fly straighter and, by default, go farther.

First let’s start with putting. A recent article in Golf Magazine talked about putts under 10 feet. It looked at some touring pro statistics for last year for percentage of putts made inside ten feet. The top two were at 89.43% and 89.36%. And it doesn’t matter to me who these golfers were; the key is that these guys are the on the tour and a big part of the reason is because they are making almost 90% of their putts inside of ten feet.
To add to this argument, in a recent conversation with a golfer who was a collegiate national champion, he talked about a drill that had to do: They had to make 100 putts in a row from five feet before they were finished for the day. And that was after a regular practice. So there is no doubt that golf’s best focus on putting and, in particular, short putts.
Now if you have followed my tips and recommendations, you know that I am not one for hours and hours of practice, but then again we are amateurs. So a little work on putting inside ten feet could probably make a big difference in your game. If you want to practice until you make 100 in a row, it won’t hurt your game, but at least work SOME on the putting part of your golf game.
Now let’s look at other aspects of the short game. An article in Golf Digest quoted some numbers from Golf Research Associates. They looked at the difference between 20 handicap golfers and 10 handicap golfers and the numbers were telling. For example: 20 handicappers made sand saves (one putt) 12% of the time compared to 23% of the time for 10 handicappers. The numbers on one putt chip/pitch saves were 18% of the time for 20 handicappers and 31% for 10 handicappers.
There were more numbers but you get the point. Just a timely reminder that a little bit of work on the short game compared to just pounding the driver and long irons can really save some strokes.
Good golfing all you golf nuts!

Well here is one thing to look at with your putting stroke. A lot of golfers have this problem because they feel like they are taking the putter back straight, but they are actually taking it back outside the of the target line. This can cause you to then come back through the golf ball on a straight line but to the left of the target, thus
creating this pull effect.
Here is something to try to check out if this is your problem and to possibly correct. Have a golfing buddy stand behind you while you putt and have them check out how you bring the putter back and through the golf ball. See if they can determine that you are bringing the putter back outside the target line.
Even if they cannot determine if this is the case, here is an easy golf drill that you can practice with no help needed. Take a long iron and lay it on the putting green. Then take several practice strokes focusing on taking the putter head slightly to the inside of the shaft of the iron on the back stroke. Then on the forward stroke, concentrate on taking the putter straight down the shaft of the iron.
For the drill, take 5-8 practice strokes, then step away from the iron and putt a real golf ball toward the hole. Then take 5-8 more practice strokes over the iron, then step away and putt a ball towards the hole. Do this a total of 3 times, then take 5 golf balls and putt them towards the same hole from the same distance. See if your putts don’t start rolling more true!
Thanks for the question and good golfing!