The slice, in golfing terms, refers to the flight of the ball veering to the right or left, depending on the players’ dominant hand.

Ideally, you want to hit the ball straight down the course and not have it fly to the left or right. After all, a straight line is the shortest distance between 2 points, basic geometry.

However, if you are gripping the handle of the club too tight, this will result in an uneven swing and may cause the club face to hit the ball at an ‘open angle’. This open angled hit, no matter how minute, will drastically alter the balls trajectory in flight. Thus causing the ball to veer either to your right or your left.

A quick fix for this open clubface hit will be, turning your left hand towards the right and check if you can view the upper portion of your hand from this position. Also ensure that your palms are aligned before you swing.

Once this grip is mastered, it should drastically reduce your slices.

Another possible cure is by making sure that your feet and knees are aligned and touching each other when you swing.

This may feel awkward at first but with enough practice and time on the green, you should be comfortable swinging from this position and with this grip. You should then see a marked improvement in your swing and accuracy, as well as cure your slicing.

Just give these simple tips a try and see what happens. If anything, you will most likely enjoy that additional time on the green, so this is a win-win situation for you!

By: Tim Lee

About the Author:

If you’ve never played it golf looks like a pretty simple game. It does have two fundamental problems however – the ball is very small and the hole is very far away. This can make starting out and playing your first few rounds for beginners in golf a pretty tough task. It can be a bit confusing at times. There are rules to learn, customs to follow and a pace of play to maintain. No need to worry, I have good news for you – you’re a beginner, you have to give yourself time to learn all these thing and master your skills. You can make your first year as a golfer difficult, or you can make it easy.

Heres a few ideas to make it easy for beginners in golf.:

1) Before your first rounds be sure to watch a few rounds of golf on the TV. Now your swing won’t look like the guys on television, but observe how they move around the course. Listening to the commentary is also a great guide to how the top players think. At the very least try and have a few sessions at the practice range.

2) Try and play your first few rounds with an experienced player. Now obviously you won’t play as well as them don’t worry about that – you’re a beginner, right. It gives you someone to answer your questions and help you find your way around the course.

3) The first tee – oh my God For beginners in golf It can be a very daunting place, often in full view of the clubhouse and other golfers with lots of eyes on you. The tendency is to stiffen up and rush the shot, try and relax, slow down and go through your normal routine.

4) In your early rounds there’s nothing wrong with moving your ball out of very difficult lies. Someone may tell you that you’re breaking the rules – they’re right you are. Just explain you’re not playing for a score you’re just practising the easy shots before you try the hard ones.

The important thing for beginners in golf is this – golf is a complex game, you can’t learn it all at once. If you practice and constantly add to your golfing knowledge, trust me, you will evolve into a good player.

By: Peter Ward

About the Author:

A golf slice can often be cured by some simple, basic corrections in
set-up.

For instance, while a golfer can occasionally compensate for a poor
swing, you cant play well with a poor grip. It is important, if you
want to fix your slice permanently, that you take the time to check
your grip using this simple drill:

Take a blade of grass and trap it between the fleshy pad on the
underside of your right thumb and the top of your left thumb. Now,
complete your grip and swing the club to the top of the backswing. If
the blade of grass has remained in position then your grip is secure and
firm, but if the grass has fallen out, this is a sign that your hands are
separating, which causes the club to move about at the top of the
backswing.

Having the clubface in the correct position at the top of your
backswing is fundamental to correcting a golf slice. Unfortunately,
thats not an easy position to check when the club is out of sight and
behind you. The way to check the clubface position is to look up and
check the direction in which the knuckles on your left hand are
pointing.

If they are well to the right, the clubface will be closed to the target
line, which in the downswing normally produces a right-to-left hook
flight. If your knuckles point to the right, the clubface will be open and
the result will be a sliced golf shot. If the knuckles point straight up to
the sky the clubface is square to the target line.

In fact, grip faults can often be the main reason for slicing in golf, and
the problem with grip faults is that they can get into your game
without you really being aware of them. To prevent this slow decline
in technique perform the following check:

Grip the club and make sure that you can see around two and a half
knuckles on your left hand. Then take a pen and draw a small dot on
your golf glove on the last knuckle showing. To ensure your grip is
correct on every shot, all you have to do is to look down at your glove
after taking up your grip. If you cant see the dot then your grip has
probably become too weak. Likewise if you can see a knuckle beyond
the mark, then your grip is probably becoming too strong.

Many players have a golf slice by allowing their left side to slide too far to the left in the
downswing, making it difficult to square up the clubface correctly at
impact. This can be a difficult habit to correct but there is a mental
drill that could help you keep those hips from sliding.

When you address the golf ball, imagine you are next to an open door
with your left side positioned against the wall. When you swing the
club back down to the ball, imagine the wall stopping your legs from
sliding to the left, while your arms and hands remain free to swing the
clubhead on through the open door. This will prevent your legs from
sliding to the left. It will also encourage you to adopt the correct
active hand action in your downswing.

By: Dave Powell

About the Author:

Many people approach golf the same way they approach other sports that have sticks like hockey, baseball or tennis. They view the club as an extension of their arm, and therefore, hang on to it as if it were their arm. They squeeze it so hard that their knuckles turn white, and the blood runs out of it. In some sports, this may be correct. In golf, it most certainly isnt. The easy thing to say is that you should grip the club tight enough to maintain control over it but no tighter. Easy to say, but hard to explain.

For normal shots, you want to have a medium grip on the club with your top hand, strong enough to maintain full control over the club throughout the entire swing. With your bottom hand, you want to hold on a little bit looser, but not so loose that you risk having the club turn over in your hand during your swing, or worse, that you find yourself re-gripping the club mid-flight. If you hold it too loosely, you may lose your control of the face of the club, causing you not to hit the ball where you intended. However, if you grip it too hard, youll lose speed and power on your swing.

Another thing to keep in mind is the effect the tightness of your grip will have on your arms. If you are holding onto the club extra-tightly, then your forearms and shoulders are also clenching more than they should. This is going to lead you to have a swing thats less fluid and less flexible than you need to hit a quality shot. As long as you can maintain control of the club and the face throughout impact, you are probably holding the club tightly enough.

As with everything in golf, there are exceptions. If you have a shot where you need to bear down, say you are in heavy rough, or in a deep sand trap, then gripping harder might be called for though it comes at the expense of club speed. If you are in a position where you need to let the ball fly, or you have a wide opening ahead of you, and a small miss is okay, then gripping looser may serve you well, youll get better speed, just less control.

As tightly as you need to, but no tighter is an easy thing to say, hard thing to do. Out on the course, though, remember you want to maintain a loose enough grip to speed the club through the striking zone, while not losing it on the way through. Unless called for, dont squeeze too hard.

By: Boston Reynolds

About the Author:

Would you rather hear what you need to learn from someone who is already an accomplished golfer? Would a few hours with Jack Nicholas REALLY help your game? “Just do what I do, it’s easy!” Or would you rather learn from a beginner, who understands the struggles, the small improvements and remembers those early changes that lead to greater success?

It almost makes sense, doesn’t it? The best coaches are often mediocre players, and the worst coaches were stars, who had everything come easy to them. Natural ability is hard to teach to others! As a beginning golfer, I have noticed some dramatic improvements, though, and wanted to pass them along to other beginning golfers.

First, the drive. To many of us starting out, it seems to be all-important. I have had instructors tell me that if you can hit the ball 150 yards, that you can work your way down any length of hole in about 3 shots, chip on and putt in, and play bogie golf without ever hitting a John Daly type 300 yard plus drive. As beginners, all we see is the big drives, the pressure, people watching us tee off, and understandably we want to be able to pound the ball!

What I’ve learned is that you can cut back on the swing to almost a half swing, hockey slapshot type thing, and increase the accuracy, with a small reduction in distance, until you are more comfortable with the swing. Also, a friend helped me with the description of coming “inside-out” with the swing. While that sounds complicated, imagine holding your back hand (I’m a left handed golfer) tight to your body and swinging through the ball and outwards after contact – straightened out my ball flight and increased distance.

Lessons seemed to boil down to getting into the same position, and swinging smoothly and evenly making sure the club is flat at contact – try swinging at the driving range – not to hammer the ball, but try swinging with virtually NO effort, then 20% 40% 60% etc. Get comfortable with a straight line of whatever distance, and KNOW how far each club will take you. If you need 100 yards, say, it doesn’t matter if you get that with a pitching wedge or a 5-wood, as long as you can get it accurately there!

Pitching (from under 100 yards) and putting are the majority of the strokes, the easiest area to improve your game, and if you’ve ever played with a senior, they can be outdriven from the tee, but play so solidly from there onwards, with straight, accurate shots – you can’t beat them!

Makes you rethink the wisdom of working on that booming drive, huh? The majority of time should be spent practicing the 100 yard and shorter shots – which inadvertently improves the overall stroke and technique, and makes the drives better over time!

Practice shooting 10, 20, 30 etc yards, and have the short chip down pat. Then work on putting – NOT trying to sink the putt, just to get the ball to within a club length of the hole – from ANYWHERE on the green. When you have mastered the ability to get the ball close like that, then work on the short 2 footers – almost from the start you’ll find that you can get the majority in.

THAT’s the secret – the drive doesn’t matter, the next shot is OK, but the one that gets the ball TO the green is crucial! Then if you can putt to withing a very close area of the pin, and make THOSE easy putts – you’re a bogie golfer – TA DAAA!

Wait, there’s one more thing – the mental part of golf. If you have a certain ability, how come you see flashes fo greatness on some days, and flashes of needing to break your clubs on others? Same guy, same equipment, different results? THAT is the mental part of golf – and it becomes more and moe important as you master the basic strokes and techniques.

At the beginning stages of golf, you are thrown off by worrying about what others think – it feels like people are watching your drive, partners are evaluating your game, people are seeing if you can play golf well, etc. The answer to this is that everyone started off as a beginner, and VERY few people can play below 90s golf. Basically, we all suck! Take the pressure off of yourself for the first 20-50 games, and you will have the routine ingrained, the swing will be solid, all will work fairly well – under pressure or not.

Relaxation, and realizing that golf is a game against YOURSELF, are the keys. You can’t play a real tournament against another golfer until you shoot in the 70s – so don’t let that enter your head – try playing alone – you can – very early or very late – or with total strangers as a walk on.

Over time, you WILL get better – visibly, noticeably. Try playing a few days in a row, or a series of days either playing golf or practicing. Practice makes perfect – especially the short game that is ignored by the majority pounding shots into the darkness at driving ranges – work on the touch, the feel, the magic ability to get 25%, 50% or 75% shots, to control the distance.

Most of all, relax and enjoy the walk, the scenery, remember the things that went WELL – and move on from the ones that were duffed, hooked into the trees, or when you putted back and forth across the green like a madman – they all happen – to ALL of us – even Tiger Woods (every now and then). The trick is to concentrate on making the NEXT shot, the NEXT hole, the NEXT practice or game – be your very best. There’s no going back and reshooting that shot that went into the water! Forget about it and calmly, confidently move on.

Your best games, your best shots will occur when you have a calm, confident feeling, feeling that you are just repeating what you’ve practiced, and easily accomplished in the past. Look at the grin on Tiger’s face as he sinks a putt and pumps his fist – this game can be FUN!!

By: Andrew Larder

About the Author:

The goal of every golfer at every level is to improve. This is usually defined as a lower score. At first you want to break 100, then 90, then 80 and so on. If you get to the PGA tour you want to win an event, then a major, then more majors. Even Tiger Woods talks about changing his swing and working on shots to keep getting better. Everyone has a different place where they get stuck trying to improve. Here we will talk about strategies to help you shoot lower scores at any level.

Short Game

Shooting lower scores is very much based on your short game proficiency. This includes chipping and putting. Your chipping needs to be good enough that you give yourself tap-ins once or twice a round. The other chips or shots around the green need to leave you within reasonable one putt distance. Whenever, you are faced with a shot around the green make certain that your next shot is a putt.If you are buried in a bunker just get it on the green and give yourself a putt. You don’t need to hit the hero shot. Playing shots that you know you can hit are the surest way to shoot lower scores. Groove your putting stroke so that you know where the ball is going to start. One of the best putting drills is to use 6 balls. Find a flat straight putt on your practice green. Place the first ball right on the lip of the cup, the next one is a foot behind that and so on so that the last ball is about 6 feet from the cup. Then start stroking each ball into the cup. The first few putts should be easy because the balls are so close to the hole. This will breed the confidence that the ball is going to go in the cup. Also, as you move back you realize that the next putt is just one foot longer. All you have to do is roll the ball straight for 12 inches. By the time you get to 6 feet this will seem like a simple putt. A solid repeating putting stroke is the surest way to shoot lower scores. The goal is to average less than 30 putts per round. This will absolutely help you shoot lower scores.

Long Game

Thinking about swing mechanics never leads to lower scores. When you are really trying to play for a best score you have to focus on scoring and not mechanics. This is where the expression “paralysis by analysis” comes from. So trust yourself and your swing.Don’t go chasing a bunch of different swing theories and methods. Stick with what you’ve got. Hopefully, you have a certain shot that you play most of the time. You may always hit the ball left to right or right to left. Play your bread and butter shot as often as you can. This will make the game easier and is another sure fire way to shoot lower scores. If you can play a fade on a dogleg left, then do it. Work on your tempo and rhythm. Watch the pros. They always seem to swing the same way. Some swing fast and hard others are smoother and slow. Whatever your tendency is make sure you stay with it. Try to play all tee -to- green shots with the same rhythm. This will keep you from thinking about mechanics and focus more on getting the ball from point A to point B which is what shooting lower scores is all about. Finally if you want to have lower scores then play more golf! This is going to be counter to what many instructors tell you. They want you to practice, practice, and practice. While practice certainly has its place it does not necessarily lead to shooting lower scores. You have to get out and play more because on the course is where you really learn to shoot lower scores. Just make certain you keep track of your rounds and what you are doing. It’s important that you know what you need to do to post lower scores.

Many golfers get stuck and frustrated at a certain scoring level. They can’t seem to break through to the next level.

By: Bob Charles

About the Author:

Isn’t the slice one of the most maddening aspects of the game of golf?

How in the hell are we ever supposed to lower our scores if the ball is always rolling sideways across the fairway? There’s nothing more disheartening to really make solid contact, only to see that sudden, mid-air curve grab hold of your golf ball.

Obviously, since slicing the ball is so common, there are lots of aids and instruction on how to prevent it. There are special tees, and special clubs…instructional videos and books.

The list is large for sure. But each and every one of these methods is attempting to accomplish the same thing, which is change the spin that you put on the ball when you hit it. Vicious, sideways spin equals a slice…forward spin or ‘overspin’ equals a nice straight shot down the middle.

As we’ve discovered, there are many ways to try and accomplish this, all with varying degrees of success. The anti-slice technique I like to use is a nice short backswing, followed by a bottom hand wrist roll through impact.

To simplify…I make sure my backswing isn’t wrapping around my head in some huge, arcing motion. Consciously keep it shorter and you’ll have much better control of your clubs.

Then, just as I’m making contact with the ball, I roll my bottom hand over the top, so that the palm of the bottom hand is facing the ground.

You’ll have to mess around with the timing to get it right, but it will put overspin on the ball and will stop you from slicing the ball all over the golf course. Good Luck!

By: Richard Styles

About the Author:

Each set of clubs in the bag is different, yet with similar uses. It’s vital that golfers get a clear understanding of the purpose of each club. After all, it would take you a bit of effort and time to get round just using a putter now, wouldn’t it.

Driving Down The Fairway (The Long Bit!)

First, you have to know that there are the woods. These are called the driver, the two wood, three wood, four wood, and the five wood. There is a six wood and seven wood but they are rare.

The number describes the angle of the face of the head, with driver being the most upright and the lower numbers angled more, to give loft to the ball when it is hit.

Woods are used for getting the golf ball the farthest distance possible and do so by the weight they have behind the head. It’s shape is bulky and weighty, so that when you swing you have all the meat of that weight built into the momentum of the swing, then POW – down the fairway you go!

If you want to hit the golf ball over two hundred yards off the tee then you may well use a wood. Incidentally and confusingly, they are nowadays made of metal!

Distance With Control

Second, you have to understand that there are the irons. These clubs are meant for greater accuracy and are most commonly, though not exclusively, used for short distance shots.

You see, you can use irons for distance too and especially with a tricky hole, or when the weather is a bit challenging, you will see pros using irons

There are several types of irons. These are numbered one to nine, with an increasing loft, which also reduces the distance possible. These standard iron golf clubs are essential in getting the golf ball as close as possible to the pin, using loft and flight as the main tools.

Special Golf Clubs

Third, there are the special golf clubs, most of which are very specific in nature.

The first of the special golf clubs that you have to understand is the wedge. The wedge is used to get the golf ball as high as possible. If you want to go over a tree, or if you want the ball to drop like a stone with little forward bounce, like on the green, then this may be the golf club of choice.

The second of the special golf clubs is the sand wedge. Do you see the sand bunkers all over the golf course? When you get stuck in these sand bunkers, you need to use the sand wedge to get out of them.

Due to the loft this club will, when used with the right technique, slice through the sand beneath the ball and lift it onto the grass.

The fourth of the special golf clubs is the pitching wedge. This pitching wedge is used so that you can get an accurate shot to the green. The pitching wedge is the second most accurate golf club in your golf bag.

The last of the special golf clubs is the putter. The putter is the most accurate of the golf clubs because this is what you use in order to get the golf ball into the hole. It’s a very specialized club that you use nowhere else on the course.

What Golf Clubs To Buy?

Now that you are familiar with all these types of golf club in your bag, you have to understand that aside from the types of golf clubs, there are also many, many brands out there. This is where your headaches really begin!

From used golf clubs to new ones, from clones to personalized fit clubs, you have the world of a choice to make. Whilst it’s true to say that your performance should only be about your swing and skill, most manufacturers will say that their clubs make the difference.

It’s for you to decide which golf clubs you buy and use. The fun begins!

By: Martin Haworth

About the Author:

If you’ve been battling a hook for a while you understand how frustrating they can be. Everyone else is, more than likely, slicing the ball, and you are playing from the opposite side of the fairway.

But… the hook really is pretty easy to cure. Try this sequence of corrections, and most likely the hook will be fixed in no time. Your goal in correcting a hook is to swing from outside to in.

1) Weaken your Grip – You could be playing with a grip that is too strong. You’ll want to simply rotate both hands around the grip and towards the target. This will make it much harder for the clubface to naturally close through the impact zone. Don’t over do it, and like everything else, testing is crucial. Make sure to test this, before moving on, unless you are positive that you already play with a weak grip.

2) Move the ball forward in your stance – It is common of players that slice the ball to play the ball forward in their stance. So copy them. If you hook, the result should be a relatively straight ball. (Side Note: Whether you hook or slice, your first goal should be to learn to do the opposite.) Moving the ball forward in your stance should get some things back on track.

3) Aim to the left (to the right if left handed) of the target – Start out with an open stance to the target. This will put that clockwise rotation on the ball that you are looking for. Just open your stance a little bit, and swing along the line of your shoulders.

4) Make sure that you are finishing with your weight on your forward foot – This is the single best solution for the hook. If you hook the ball, chances are that you finish with some of your weight still on your back foot. This causes you to come around the ball with a closed clubface. This is the number one cause of the deadly snap-hook. Finish with all of your weight forward, and you’ll never experience it.

By: David Nevogt

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The golf slice is a massive impediment to any golfer who wishes to be the best player that they can be. Because in every round with every club you are losing massive amounts of distance and you are only scratching the surface of how good you can be.

To put the problem in context, lets say that you are capable of hitting a 5 wood 200 yards if you hit a straight shot. If you slice with the same club, all things being equal, your ball will only travel around 180 yards.

But if you draw the ball, and all other conditions are equal, the ball will travel around 220 yards because of the topspin that you will impart on the ball which will result in serious yardage when your ball hits the ground.

So you can see from this example that if you can turn a slice into a draw, you will gain 40 yards with your 5 wood.

And this effect will translate into every club you hit in your bag. Could you play golf with those extra yards?

You bet you could.

To cure a slice you will need to first ascertain precisely what is causing your slice..is it an open clubface through impact? Is it a cutting across action as a result of an out to in swing? Is it because your backswing is too steep?

Or is it a combination of these things?

To cure a slice you will need to study some decent teaching sources either in books or DVDs. You could visit your local golf professional but the danger here is a placebo effect which has you back in your old groove after leaving your pro..without any real reference for you to ‘self correct’ with a thorough understanding of what your major fault is which causes you to slice.

By: Terry Gorry

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