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:

When you’ve given as many golf lessons as I have, it doesn’t take much thought to figure out that slicing is golf’s most common swing error. In fact, many weekend players who attend my golf instructions sessions for the first time slice, with both men and women slicing about the same amount. And they all want to know one thing when they first come to me: How do I cure my slice?

Curing your slice isn’t easy, especially if you’ve had it for a long time. You’ve ingrained the swing fault in your muscle memory and making changes to it will feel uncomfortable and strange. But the benefits of slicing less far outweigh the costs. Hitting straighter shots more consistently not only keeps you on the fairway, it also cuts strokes from your golf handicap because it produces better approach shots.

Causes Of A Slice The causes for a slice are well documented in magazines and often discussed in golf lessons. Four things trigger a slice:

1. Upper body turns too soon

2. Hands are too high at impact

3. Upper body outraces the club on the downswing

4. Grip end gets too far in front of the clubhead at impact.

These errors leave the clubface open at impact-a major swing error. How major? Recent research by one club manufacturer indicates that a club with an S flex shaft with 9.3 degrees of loft and the face open at impact about 2 degrees results in a shot that finishes 16 degrees off the target line. Obviously, you must get the clubface square at impact to hit the ball straight.

Slices and Cures Let’s look at the four most common types of slice and consider four drills you can practice to help cure your slice. Your divots will tell you what kind of slice you have.

1. Opening Up Too Soon (The Pull Slice) This is perhaps the second most common slice type. Its generated by your right shoulder moving out and over on the downswing, causing the clubface to come into the ball on an outside-in swing path. Your hands sensing that the club is coming from the outside hold the clubface open to the path, resulting in a pull slice. With iron shots your divot points left of target.

Drill: Hit practice balls with your back foot moved back a few inches from the target line and your heel down. Swing the club back making a full shoulder turn. The idea is to feel as if you’re swinging the club primarily with your arms and shoulders through impact. Let your body respond to the swinging of the arms and the releasing of the clubhead.

2. Handle Too High At Impact If your hands are too high at impact just before and through the ball, you’ll cause the clubhead to get stuck behind you. Often this happens because the golfer tries to clear the hips too fast or doesn’t trust the loft of the club to get the ball airborne. Whatever the cause, you end up with a slice. There’s little or not divot with irons.

Drill: Take your normal address position. Have a friend hold a club so the grip hovers just above your hands. As you swing back and through your friend should keep his club’s grip end steady. Concentrate on letting your hand pass just under his club.

3. Body Outraces Club (The Push Slice) With the push slice your ball starts to the right of your target, then goes even farther right. Usually this means that your body outraces the clubhead. Some people call this a lunge. To compensate some people try flipping the club through the ball with their hands in an effort to square the clubface to the ball.

Drill: Use your driver or fairway wood. Tee the ball up. Take your address as you normally would but with your left leg positioned slightly inside the ball. Now stand only on your front foot. Swing the club back and through and try hitting the ball. Alternate hitting five balls on one leg, then with your normal swing. 4. Handle Too Far Ahead Of Ball Getting the handle too far ahead of the clubhead is probably the most common cause of a slice. The primary problem is back of forearms rotation. If you make a strong strike of the ball and it starts straight down the target line before curving to the right. With your irons the divot would be square to the target line.

Starting with knockdown pitches, rotate your left forearm (right-handers) during the swing so your left hand knuckles face the ground just after impact, with the clubface turning down. Let your right hand come off the club. Once you get the hang of this, use other clubs. This drill increases clubhead speed and squares the clubface for a straighter shot.

Keep in mind as you practice these drills that you may not want to turn your slice into a draw. Hitting a fade has its advantages, too. The key, regardless of the type of shot you develop, is hitting a dependable, more consistent shot that keeps you out of trouble and gives you control of the where the ball lands. The type of shot will cut strokes from both your scores and your golf handicap.

By: Jack Moorehouse

About the Author:

There are a number of theories as to why a golf ball is sliced, but the most common reasoning is that the ball is struck from the outside to the inside of the target line. Although rather uncommon, it is possible for you to strike the ball from the inside to the outside. This can really be troubling, as it will slice the ball from the right to the left.

Another golf slice tip to help eliminate this frustrating habit is to loosen your grip. Sometimes if your grip is too tight, it makes it difficult for your hands to rotate at impact. This is a simple solution, but many times your grip is combined with another problem as well. If your shoulders aren’t turning and your weight doesn’t shift to the right at the top of the swing for right handed golfers and to the left for left handed golfers, your body will be ahead of the ball. This will cause your club to open at impact and slice the ball.

One way that many people try to compensate for their slicing difficulty is by adjusting the way they line up. For instance, if you are hooking it from left to right, some people will purposely aim further to the left with the hope of ending up in the middle of the fairway. The problem with this is that you are relying on your shot slicing every time and are adjusting to an already annoying problem. To fix a problem with another problem is setting you up for trouble.

The best golf slice tip that I can give you is to practice your stance and the way you shift your weight. The more practice you do on driving ranges and on the golf course, the better chance you will have of correcting your slice. If you can overcome the slice and begin putting the ball on the fairway more, your score will drop a drastic amount. It is frustrating because your slice won’t cure overnight, but with determination and patience you will overcome this nuisance of a problem.

By: Josh Spaulding

About the Author:

Pulls are a common occurrence for most golfers. We occasionally reach back for a little extra and find our ball headed left toward who knows what rather than the intended target. If this is a frequent experience for you then you must either struggle to score well or you’re an expert at getting out of trouble.

Did you know that a pull and slice are related? That is to say that they are the result of the same fundamental golf swing flaw. With so many of us suffering with this issue the golf industry continues to develop technologies and techniques for its cure. The often cited “over the top” or an “outside to inside” swing path.

So the solution is very similar to that which fixes a slice. The golfer needs to develop an inside approach to the golf ball. While there are several suggestions and techniques to make this happen, I’ve found that they only serve to confuse most of us even more so than we might already be.

Our hope here is to simply to clear up the confusion and provide you with the easiest (for most) way to correct a pull swing fault.

To correct the flaw it helps to understand the cause. While there are a few different causes the most common is that the club head approaches the ball from outside the intended target line with the club face closed to that same line.

The cure will seem counter intuitive to keeping the ball from going left but I promise it will work to create an inside to outside swing path. And that swing path will prevent the pull. Give it a try sometime on the range if you doubt it will work just to test my point.

How to cure a pull

Set up with your body aligned slightly closed to the target line. That means dropping your back foot away from the target line an inch or two.

Close the club face a bit. Rotate the club face a bit toward the inside of the line.

Strengthen your grip. Rotate the hands away from the target just a bit.

Make a full shoulder turn. Turn the shoulders as close to 90 degrees as possible.

Drop the hands from the top. Once you’ve completed the backswing your next move should be to bump you hips forward slightly and drop the hands straight down toward the ground.

As the swing continues to flow smoothly the upper body turn will bring the club back from the inside to meet the ball on a square swing path.

There you have it. Practice this until it becomes a normal part of your golf swing. Whether you are dealing with a slice or a pull these swing tips will work to help correct it in no time.

By: Wayne Hudler

About the Author:

I recently worked with one of my readers who asked me for a second opinion on a video swing analysis that he had just received that brought up an interesting point about adjusting swing plane which I thought I would share with you.

He went for the lessons with the goal of increasing his driving distance by 10-15%. He was also experiencing pushed shots to the right.

The video analysis revealed that his swing plane on the back swing was very flat. Being a large-chested man who lacked a little flexibility in his upper body, he had developed a tendency to “wrap” the golf club around his body on the backswing. The net result of which was a shallow downswing that came into the ball from a sharp inside-out club head swing path that often caused the pushed shot to the right.

What he needed to do to help correct the push problem and also improve his distance potential was to adjust his swing plane to a more upright plane.

This would cause the club head swing path to move more down the target line giving him more margin for error at impact, and it would create more potential energy of the back swing from a higher top swing position that would result in increased swing speed at impact.

His instructor correctly picked this observation up. However, the way he presented the fix for the problem was a little misleading.

His advice was to “raise the hands” more on the backswing which essentially was the end result that he was looking for that would come with a more upright swing.

The reason why I thought I would focus on this is that I often read and hear about “raising the hands” as a means of creating a more upright swing. This is also a technique used by some instructors to encourage more trunk rotation on the backswing to increase backswing torque and swing speed.

Why I say this is a little misleading is that the student is presented with an instruction that can create other problems with their swing. As it turned out, that was what happened with our reader.

His instructor was encouraging him to get his hands up above his head and shoulders which encouraged more trunk rotation and raised his swing plane which is what his instructor was looking for, but due to his lack of flexibility, it created a lot of muscle tension in his left side and also created a severe break of his left elbow…

Swing plane is not governed by your hand movement – it is governed by shoulder movement. The higher hand position is the “result” of a more up right swing, not the means to get there.

In order to adjust your swing plane, your focus has to be at the start of the swing – not at the end of the swing trying to achieve a result that many golfers have no hope of reaching due to their lack of flexibility.

Swing plane is affected by how you rotate your left shoulder – the more you rotate the shoulders “horizontally” around your spine the flatter the swing plane, as was the case with our reader.

To increase the swing plane angle, rotate your shoulders more “vertically” by driving the left shoulder down instead of around at the start of the swing.

Initiating the backswing turn with a vertical shoulder movement instead of “lifting the hands”, helps you to remain relaxed in your left arm and maintain a stable left side with no elbow break – incidentally, this also results in less risk of an early hand release from the top of the swing.

We all know that increasing backswing torque increases swing speed.

Rotating your shoulders more achieves this end. However, you will not generate any more shoulder torque by breaking the left elbow just to get your hands into a higher position – you end up loosing torque.

The reason why you have to break the elbow in the first place is because your shoulders will not turn any further. If they have reached their limit of flexibility that’s the maximum torque you will achieve from the trunk turn.

The left elbow breaks because the arm muscle are unable to match the tension that has been built up in the trunk turn. Once the break occurs you release the torque contribution from your arm muscles which essentially “opt” out of the total torque build up in the turn.

The net effect is that you loose backswing torque after the break occurs.

Breaking the left elbow also creates another moving part in the swing that has to be coordinated back to the straight position at impact making the timing of the swing more difficult.

Be very careful about what you hear and read about a “high hand position”. Yes, it is the ideal position for power and consistency in the swing that we see in every professional swing, but you have to have the flexibility to achieve it.

If you lack the flexibility, do not attempt this as you will create more problems with your swing than you solve.

Recommendations:

1. Never try to swing beyond your “natural” swing range which is what this instructor was advising our reader. Always swing within your natural range of flexibility.
2. A move to a higher swing plane angle is good for both swing consistency and swing speed – you get there by more vertical rotation of the shoulder that comes from driving the left shoulder downwards at the start of the swing – not by trying the raise your hands above your head.
3. Do not break the left elbow. Even though your hands may not be able to go beyond shoulder height, maintain a firm left side to retain backswing torque and simplify the timing of the swing.
4. In order to achieve more shoulder turn, you have no other choice but to improve the flexibility of your back muscles. – Go through simple lower back stretching routines every day for 2-3 weeks and you will increase your turn angle by as much as 10.


Good luck!

Regards,
Les

By: Les Ross

About the Author:

Like many weight-loss diets, many people think golf training aids and golf books are too good to be true. Many of the ads for golf training aids come along with hefty claims such as being able to knock ten strokes off of your game or by cutting you handicap in half. You have learned that if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. So which training aids or golf books will help you improve your game? Below is a training aid and a golf book that you can use in unison to improve your putting indoors or out.

1. The Putting Arc Deluxe

The Putting Arc Deluxe works because this putting aid is based upon natural body movement. This body movement can be quickly learned and repeated. With regular use, the results can be seen in a short period of time. The putter head travels in a perfect circle (radius R). The projection of this circle on the ground is an ellipse in the shape of The Putting Arc Deluxe. The putter is always on plane and the intersection of this plane with the ground is a straight line, the ball/target line. With the Putting Arc Deluxe, the club face is always square to the above plane. In addition, it is only square to the ball target line at the center line of the Putting Arc. You are learning an inside to square to inside putting stroke. In this perfect putting stroke, there is only one moving part. The hands, arms and shoulders rotate as one unit and no manipulation of the hands or arms are required to follow the correct path with a correct clubface.

2. The Art of Putting by Stan Utley

In The Art of Putting, Stan Utley’s golf book outlines his putting fundamentals for players of all levels, from beginners to very skilled. Stan Utley’s easy to understand method will allow you to develop a repeatable stroke. Utley introduces you to the fundamentals of the proper grip, posture, alignment, and stroke. The Art of Putting will give you guidelines for finding the correct putter for you and the type of stroke you have. In addition, how a putt should sound and how to read greens properly. No matter what your current skill level is, Stan Utley keeps his theories easy to read and to implement for all players from beginners to skilled players. Everyone can enjoy this easy read.

By: Brad Myers

About the Author:

There are several ways that a player can link their hands together on the club. Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus favor the interlocking grip, but most other top players use the Vardon or overlapping grip, and many coaches recommend that juniors start off using the baseball grip.

The decision is really one of the personal choice, so try out all the main types of grip before settling on the method that you find most comfortable.

Three steps to a correct grip

1. Allow the grip of the club to run along the base of the fingers on your left hand. The index finger is used to form a slight trigger.

2. When you have closed your left hand round the club your left thumb should be pointing straight down at the ground, slightly to the right of center on the grip. You should be able to see two or three knuckles of the left hand. As you position your right hand on the club, the grip of the club is again at the base of the fingers.

3. The grip is completed when you close your right hand on the club, so that the lifeline of the right palm rests on top of the left thumb, covering it completely. If the grip is made correctly, you should be able to see two knuckles on the right hand.

Grip Options

Neutral Grip – A neutral grip, where neither left nor right hand dominated, gives the player the best possible chance of returning the clubface squarely to the target line at the point of impact.

Strong grip – If you can see more than three knuckles on the left hand and fewer than two on your right, the grip is too strong. You will be likely to hook or top many shots.

Weak grip – If you can see fewer than two knuckles on the left hand and more than two on your right, the grip is too weak. You will be likely to slice or block shots out to the right.

By: Paul Kramer

About the Author:

The Slice…

The dreaded how far to the right will it go fear. Or how far to the left can you hit it and still have it stay in the fairway to your right.

There is no talking to a slice. It has a mind of its own. And it will make you crazy if you don’t get rid of it. We all have lived the life of a slicer. In the beginning it was fun to just get the ball in the air. Then we had higher expectations.

We would like to be able to hit it again.

And so we took Golf Instruction. A golf lesson a week. Just to get rid of the slice. But, as we all know, nothing worked. The more we tried the worse it got.

So what do you say that we attack this issue here and now? Why don’t we just, once and for all, understand why we do it and then understand what it takes to fix it.

So let’s just do it.

The slice is a result of an open clubface swiping the ball from an outside the target line to inside the target line. The same exact swing can and often does create another result that is totally different than the slice.

The slice goes from the left to the right. The other goes directly left. Both have the exact same root cause.

Outside the target line to inside the target line. Or what is commonly called “over the top” It is not caused by a weak grip. I can hit a big hook with a very weak grip. But not if I make an ” over the top” downswing.

So the cause of a slice is a very poor swing path. Which can be caused by a poor swing plane. Or a reverse weight shift, or no weight shift. However, that said, one causes the other in each of these cause and affect cases.

What the heck does that mean?

Well, if I have a good swing plane, it will reduce the chances of hitting over the top or outside in. If I have a really good swing path there is no way I can hit from the top.

So you see, fix one and you fix the other.

So let’s just fix the swing path, which will automatically fix the swing plane and that will cure the slice. As a matter of fact, it will create a slight right to left movement of the ball. More solid contact, and you will hit the ball straighter and longer.

Good Idea?

Ok… here we go, first let’s at least have a grip that is neutral. Both hands are facing each other, and they are more to the right of the club than they are to the left of the club.

Our stance is neutral and very square to the target line. Except I want the right foot to be back a bit, like 6 inches, and your shoulders will be lined up with you feet.

Just for this drill… which is the only thing you will need to do to get rid of the slice.

Now take a 9 iron, tee the ball up so it is just off the ground. Put the ball dead center in your stance. I call this drill the up back and out drill.

“Up, back and out”

I want you to actually say these words as you do this drill.

Now, pick the club up so that it is going up exactly 45 degrees to the target line, then with no further hand movement, turn your shoulders fully.

That’s the up part.

The “back” is a bending of the right wrist straight back toward your right forearm. It is the famous “strayed position” This is the “back” part. Caution… this is in no way a full swing, the up part is not a huge move, its just “up”

The “back” part is hardly any move at all. Just a bending of the right wrist “back”… nothing big.

If you have done the up and back parts you will note that you have “looped” the club kinda like Jim Furyk does. Except this is not a full swing.

It is a very small move. It is a move, however, so don’t get stuck like a statue. Move. Up and back.

Now the “out” part.

Now push the clubhead out toward the inside of the ball out past the target line. Again, this is a drill and it is no way a big move . It is a full shoulder turn but the hands and clubhead have really not done much at all.

You have created a loop. Where you have taken the club up at 45 degrees to the target line. Then you have bent you right wrist “back,” turned your shoulders fully, and then you have pushed the clubhead “out” toward the ball and past the target line.

Note… not one word has been spoken about weight shift.

Another note of caution, try to keep your shoulders from spinning out. You will know it if you do it because you will not be able to make solid contact with the ball. This drill requires a rather passive body.

Up, Back and out… the magic that will make the slice go away.

If you do this correctly you will be able to actually hit the ball quite well and you will get a right to left spin.

Slice gone.

By: Paul Macleod

About the Author:

It is true that most PGA Tour players will tell you that the most important golf fundamental is the golf swing alignment. But I don’t know why, when it comes to most amateurs, they just look over the golf swing alignment. Maybe no one told them, but here it is. Now you no longer have that excuse because I am going to tell you about it.

Golf swing alignment is considered the main fundamental for each and every golf shot. Sure you can hit the golf ball far but what good is it if its 30 yards away from where it’s suppose to be? This is where your swing alignment comes into play. Even if you think that you have mastered every aspect of golf like grip, stance, and swing and you don’t see your score going down anymore. Ah ha! You have found your problem. Here are some simple things you can follow to overcome this hurdle and to see if your golf swing alignment is correct.

The first thing you want to do is setup your golf shot like you always do. Then place a tee right behind each of your heels then push both of the tees all the way in. Now that you have that setup, move away from your setup and place a club shaft over both of the tees so that you make a straight line. Once you have that, go behind your golf ball and look down your target line to see if it matches what you thought.

By doing this exercise you will know exactly where you are aligning your feet. If they align, then good job you were doing it the right way. If it doesn’t, then here is a way to fix this. You can move the tees so that the alignment is straight and then the next time you setup you will have to make sure that your tees are touching the back of your heels. Another way you can check to see if your golf swing alignment is correct is by assuming your address position. Then remove your left hand, if you’re a right-handed golfer, from your golf club and point to a spot that’s 10 yards to the left of your target. Keep track of where your fingers and arm is pointing and compare it with your hips and shoulders. If you’re aligned, then it should feel like they are creating a straight line. However, if you think that they are pointing to the left, then you will end up hitting a hook or a push and if you’re pointing to the right then you are going to hit a slice or a pull.

If you noticed that your golf swing alignment was off, then your new position will feel odd to you. You may feel like your pointing in the wrong direction, but trust me, your not. It will only take a mater of time for you to get used to your new position and you will see the difference in your score. In order to continue to improve your game you have to regularly check your alignment since it’s very easy to misalign yourself without knowing it. And now since you know how to check it, you have no excuse for not checking it. Your golf swing will improve dramatically and you will hit near your target, which will help you lower, your score. For more tips and steps to improve your golf swing and for free stuff please visit Sean Matthews’s blog.

By: Sean Matthews

About the Author:

Golf Tips

Range Tips

Grip tips: Your hands should work together as one unit with your palms facing each other as if you are praying, which you probably will be at times. To check this, take your address position and lift the clubhead straight up just by bending your wrists. If you grip allows you to swing the shaft straight up to the middle of your head, without the club-face angle changing, then your grip is good. While doing this, does the face of your clubhead still look straight? If so, that means the pressure from each hand is equal.

Alignment: A good way to check or correct your alignment is to use a couple of old shafts or any like thing and place 1 on the ground aimed down your target line a few inches on the other side of the ball. Take your stance and check with another shaft or club to see if your shoulders, hips, and feet are set up parallel to the target line.

I take a second shaft and stick it the ground about 2-3 feet behind my back foot at an angle comparable to my shaft angle at address. Experiment with the exact position until it is in a place that you miss it by a few inches on the way back and through. If you take it back slow and look at the gap between the two you can get it at just the right angle so that it gives you a good indicator as to your swing plane. IE: you can see if you are coming back too far inside or outside. Be careful the first few times as you don’t want to hit the shaft during your swing. You can use one of those “pool noodles” or a pipe insulator on the shaft so you don’t get killed or give someone next to you a stroke if you hit it.

Now when you are ready to hit some, you stand behind the ball and pick a spot on the ground or another tee 2-3 feet ahead of the ball and in your target line. It and the ball should form a line parallel with the shaft on the ground.

All you have to do now, is to swing down that line through the ball.

Balance: I like to hit balls at times with no shoes on. It may sound silly, but you will be surprised how much you will feel with your feet. You will feel all aspects of your weight moving during the swing. You should feel the push as you come down and through the impact area, and the weight shift onto your front foot.

Good Practice: A good way to improve your ball striking with irons is to pick a torn up part of the teeing ground at the range and use it to hit balls from. If you can train your self to do this, when you do play from the fairway the ball will almost seem as if it is teed up. On some courses where the ground isn’t the best, your swing will be immune to bad lies.

Visualize Your Shots: A lot of teaching pros tell you to pick a spot to land your tee shot on to help your visualization, but what I like to do is to use two or three flags, trees, or whatever is out on the range to form the boundries of an imaginary fairway, although narrower than a real one. If you can hit shots within the “boundaries”, it greatly increases your confidence. If you get to the point where you can shape your shots inside the boundaries, when combined with a solid repeatable routine, you really have something to work with when the pressure is on.

Slice Correction: A good way to combat a slice is to put a small mark on the back of the ball,(opposite the target). When you go to swing, focus all your attenetion on that mark until after impact. It’s very difficult to come “over the top” while doing this. Try it!

Hook Correction: One main reason people hook, myself especially, is because their weight stays on the back foot or even moves backward in the down swing. One way to fight this, is to make a conscious effort to “stamp” your front foot down at impact. I don’t mean to actually lift and drop your foot, but feel as if you are stamping your foot down just at the moment of impact. To do this, you must shift your weight. Watch the hooks disappear.

Puttig Tips: Get the speed right and you won’t three putt. The correct speed ideally is that if you miss, the ball stops 12-18 inches beyond the hole,(except for lag putts).

Lag putts when you don’t feel confident or over 30 feet. Pretend you are putting into a 4 foot barrel and anything you leave inside that 4 feet is good. Seeing as it will be 2 feet or less, it probably is.

Never use your wrists in a putting stroke, just arm and shoulder muscles and you will control the distance much easier.

Don’t look up until your ball has rolled at least 6 feet.

Go with your first thought/feeling when seeing the line, it is right more often then not.

Spend time practicing 6 footers. If you can make 3 out of 4 of them, you will putt better than 80% of all golfers.

If you play at the same course a lot, look at the greens in a hard rain sometime and notice the way the water sits on the green to see all the nuances/breaks in it.

Chipping Tips: For short chips, all you need to do is use a putting stroke. As with putting It is much easier to control distance when you don’t involve your wrists.

A good rule of thumb in club selection for chipping is to get the ball rolling on the green as soon as possible, and run it up or down to the hole.

If you have 3 chips, one a flat 40 footer from just off the green, one an uphill 40 footer, and one a downhill 40 footer, instead of varying your swing, consider using the same swing for all three. For the uphill, an 8 iron, for the flat, a 9 iron, and for the downhiller, a wedge. The change in loft will make up for the difference in slope.

By: Paul Nichols

About the Author: