What Are Some Of The Ways To Reducing The Pressure In Your Golf Swing?

The Masters is one of the most exciting golf tournaments to watch on television. Besides all of the beauty and pageantry of this historical golf course, and the massive galleries it brings out.  Just the drama and suspense of the golfers themselves in trying to tame the beast of Augusta National Golf Club.  This year was NO Exception.  As many as 10 golfers had a chance to win the golf tournament, as they tried brilliantly to navigate through Amen Corner on the final day.  Congratulations to Charl Schwartzel (South African), as he’s the winner of the 75′th Masters.

I feel sorry however for the 21 year old, Rory McIllroy (Ireland). This young golfer played brilliantly for 3 1/2 rounds.  At one point he had a 5 stroke lead,  and looked invincible sinking pressure putts all over the place. Unfortunately, major golf tournaments don’t start until the 10′th hole of the back nine on the final day on Sunday.  So what happened, that he would shoot himself out of the golf tournament with a 43 on the back nine,  for a round of 81?

It’s called PRESSURE.  It’s a golfing mindset that requires untold amount of attention to every detail of your golf swing, course management and planning out the strategy necessary before the round ever begins.  By visualizing in your mind, every shot placement on the fairways and greens. Experience has a way of balancing out the stress and reducing the pressure when faced with the circumstances that surrounds being in competition. Even though Rory didn’t win this time,  he must have taken away from this a lot of knowledge for next time when he’s faced with being in this same kind of pressure cooker situation.

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Do You Want To Hit The Irons With Better Accuracy And Consistency?

Designs of golf courses can be found to have many different variations. They can be wide open for most beginners to championship level layouts with tight fairways, elevation changes, forced water carries and treacherous bunkering around the greens.  Of course the more challenging a golf course is designed, the more it will require of your shot making skills. A unique perspective to the game of golf is that there is always a different strategy for every golfer on any given hole.

One of the major elements that golf course architects use to make the game more interesting , challenging or difficult, is to create uneven surfaces in the fairways and adjacent areas.  Think back on your own last few rounds, and try to count how many times you were required to play a shot from an uneven lie. It could have been either uphill, downhill or sidehill. If you have been playing some of the tougher courses in your local area, the answer probably is way too many to count.  Each type of lie will produce a different ball flight, and it will require alterations to your address position and golf swing.

My biggest weakness to my own golf game has always been trying to hit the mid to long iron shots. I don’t feel comfortable enough like I do in hitting fairway woods. I tend to find when I’m playing with others in my group, that I’m always using one to two clubs more with my iron play.

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Pilates vs Yoga. Which Golf Stretching Exercise Program Is Best For Golfers?

Golfers of all ages are now finding out the benefits of getting involved into some type of fitness program that’s specifically geared towards golfers.  With age comes a decline in both flexibility and strength. When the body declines, the golf swing goes right along with it. The end result is a big loss in yardage, more mishits, and ballooning scores. Your golf mindset also changes in both attitude and frustration. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from older golfers who I’m playing with, that they are just about ready to quit the game for good.  However, there is hope for all golfers who are ready to change and improve upon their golf game and lifestyle.

Do you want to discover the secret to creating more power and consistency in your golf swing? By participating in workouts that’s geared towards a specific golf program that focuses on balance, endurance, flexibility and strength. You don’t have to accept that with age, your body does decline. No way! The golfers who are working out, are the same ones who are enjoying the game again in later life, and taking all of the money in their clubs birdie pool.  It’s amazing to see golfers in this age bracket dramatically improve their driving distance, accuracy and scores.

What is a golf workout? The golf swing is an awkward movement that puts a tremendous amount of stress on the body. To prevent injuries and improve upon your golf swing speed and distance, it will require your body to be both strong and flexible.  The golf swing is a rotational movement, with your body being in different sequential golf positions.  Since the golf swing is primarily an axial rotational movement, wouldn’t it make sense to focus on rotational strength and flexibility?  That is improving your turning ability related to range of motion and  speed. Therefore, anything involving twisting with resistance such as a medicine ball, a dumbbell, or even a weighted club would work. You need to have  resistance in order to take your body beyond where it normally moves.

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Improve Your Golf Mindset In Order To Break 90.

As my 2010 golfing season is coming to a fast close,  I can reflect back on this year as not being a good year scoring wise.  I have to admit it has been a very long time that I have averaged in the low 90′s for anyone golfing season.  Sure I have my excuses of not playing more than once a week, or committed no time to practicing my golf swing mechanics. The very things I write about in my posts,  and have the audacity to not do what I’m trying to get my readers to understand and implement in their own improvement to changes in their golf swing mechanics. For that I’m Sorry!

Most golfers who struggle to break ninety are relatively experienced and have been playing for quite a while. Any golfer who has been playing for some time will have developed certain swing characteristics that will shape the flight of their golf shots. In most cases, those trying to break 90, it will mean you’ll have developed a cut spin or slice. Most golfers who cut the ball will dislike the flight of their shots and do everything possible to change their golf swing to hit a draw. One of the most important things to consider when trying to break 90,  is learn to live with your golf swing mechanics and not fight it.

How Do You Break 90? In order to break 90,  any flight of the golf ball is acceptable as long as it remains consistent.  What is required is a good short game, and golf course management.  Learning to place your shots on each hole for optimal results.  Knowing when to gamble and take risks, and knowing when to play smart conservative golf shots. The key to breaking 90 is to make sure you don’t take more than bogey on any given hole.  Eliminate the double and triple bogeys, because they are golf score killers. However, mistakes do happen that will ruin your chances of shooting less than 90. You do need to find a way of eliminating those 3-4 wasted strokes from your golf round immediately.  This is known as your wheels coming off,  because it hits you, when your not expecting those mishits from happening.  If your target is to break 90,  you do have the ability to do so.  What you need to do is learn how to make the most out of your golf game.  This does take time and patience.  The best way to speed up your developing or learning curve is by putting in the time too practice.

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Be Prepared! Change Your Golf Swing Mechanics In Order To Combat The Cold!

With October fast approaching at the end of this week,we are now heading into cooler air, and away from the summertime heat. You need to become more prepared for the inclement weather conditions ahead. Cold air is much heavier, therefore it creates more resistance to the flight of the golf ball. Colder, heavier winds and rains naturally will encourage golfers to swing harder, which will create more mishit errors. The first thing to go in your golf swing mechanics is your timing, as you try to speed up or overswing in order to compensate for the lack of distance. The second thing that disappears is your feelings in your hands, especially around the greens. That’s why you have more blading or thin shots.

I’m personally not a good cold air golfer, nor do I like playing in the bone chilling rain. I know a few golfers who can play in these awful weather conditions, and most of the time they do quite well in winning the club’s pot money for the day. Tom Watson loved playing in adverse conditions. He knew that half the field was virtually eliminated before they even started playing. It’s no fun being wet and trying to beat the dreaded cold. It’s psychological warfare, and if your a good mudder it’s to your advantage. Most golfers don’t want to be there, and more likely their going to be rattled by the adverse conditions.

Being cold it will automatically cause you to be swinging out of position through impact. A very common error is that the right shoulder is way too high through the hitting area. This action allows your right side to dominate at the most inappropriate time. This will force the club head to approach the golf ball into a steep undesirable angle. This result in golf is known as coming over the top.

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Do You Know How To Hit Quality Pitch Shots In Golf?

I consider myself a good short game player. However, this year due to lack of playing time and not practicing the way I’m used to. I’ve really struggled on the golf course in trying to break 90. I’m not comfortable or use to playing this kind of erratic golf, where for the last few years my golf scores were in the low to mid 80′s. A lot of my troubles have been around the greens. I could score low, because the majority of times I could get up and down in two. This year I’ve seen more two and three putt greens, because my pitches have left me on the greens with longer putts. Chipping and Pitching well is paramount to how well your going to play. Most of it’s in your head. Confidence is built on having a good solid golfing  mindset in knowing that you can trust your ability to hit quality pitch shots around the green.

For most amateur  golfers hitting the golf ball a certain distance isn’t the problem.  Where most golfers experience trouble is around the greens. That would include chipping, pitching and putting. A lot of mistakes from tee to green can be made up for in improving your golf scores by getting down in two from 40 yards in. The pitch shots is that little shot golfers use to make birdies possible and salvage pars. This shot does get a lot of use during a round of golf, because our accuracy beyond 150 yards will diminish when trying to hit to a specific target on the green.

You do need to learn too become a consistently good short game player, because no one can consistently hit every green in regulation.  It requires you to have finesse, or a touch of feeling in your hands, wrists and head (brain). It requires a correct golf mindset when trying to place the golf ball close to the hole. Practicing your short game with the wedge should take almost equal amount of time spent,  as you would with your driver or any other club in your bag. When mastering the standard wedge shot there are other variations such as the bump and run, punch, cut and lob wedges to practice.

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Golf Tips On Chipping!

Chipping may not be the most glamorous part of the golf game, but the short game is so important. It’s the key component to shooting lower scores. It’s amazing how a good chip shot can quickly turn a possible disaster into a respectable hole. Chipping close to the hole and tapping in a putt can also maintain a positive attitude towards your round and keep you in a good frame of mind for the next hole.

My golf tips to chipping is keep it as simple as possible. Find one good club that you can believe in every time you use it. Confidence is as important as technique when approaching a golf shot, especially when it comes to the short game. I personally prefer the bump and run shot, and will use my putter off the green as often as I can. (Texas Wedge.) The room for error is diminished greatly, because there is no air time. It’s the easiest club to control. You need to know your stroke and distance to the hole when making this golf shot. There are other various situations on the golf course that you need to know when it comes to the short game. When practicing focus on different shot making skills that you will encounter on the golf course Such as, chipping, flopping, knockdown, lobbing, pitching, punch, putting, sand, trouble and utility shots.

Chipping covers the shots you will play where the ball carries no more than about 10-15 yards around the green. It is a shot that has a short amount of air time and spends most of the time on the ground running towards the golf hole. According to U.S.G.A. statistics, 80 percent of the strokes golfers lose to par are determined by their play within 100 yards of the green. So, why is it the least amount of time practicing, not devoted to improving around the green?

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Does Having The Correct Golf Swing Mechanics In Place Make It Easier For Strategizing On The Golf Course?

Have you ever played on a golf course that you knew nothing about? I’m sure you have during one golf round or another. That happened to me yesterday. We were playing on a very difficult tightly laid out golf course. It commanded several different shot variations.  It had elevated greens,  many combinations of sidehill and downhill lies.  All kinds of obstacles to carry or shoot over. You can tell by my descriptions,  I didn’t have a very good day playing.  I shot at least 10 strokes higher then I should have.  Most of my troubles wasn’t knowing the golf course, and yanking my driver out of the golf bag on every hole. (Dumb!)

My focus or golf mindset was to get the ball out there on the fairway far enough to eliminate the pressure on my second shot. This is the wrong way to strategize when trying to play within yourself.  You do need  a game plan to know when to attack or be conservative when approaching each hole.  Golf course management is gained through knowledge of each hole and what to expect.  Not knowing the golf course.  What I should have done was visualize in a pre-shot routine before addressing the golf ball,  the intended target of where to place the golf ball on the fairway. This can be done by standing behind the golf ball and looking for the safest places to hit to. By looking at your scorecard, the layout of the golf course is usually pictured there, or at the  hole sign next to the tee block.

Your aiming  for the fairway,  because landing a golf ball there eliminates the chances of a bad lie, and it gives you the best angle to approach the green. When you reach your drive you need to study your lie for a minute, and analysis what you want to do with your next shot.  If you don’t think that you can reach the green with your next shot, it’s often a safer play to lay up. This means playing a controlled shot that’s deliberately aimed short of the green, rather than hitting the golf ball as hard as you can and hoping for the best.

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Keep Your Golf Mindset Focused Away From Three Putting!

What will you be doing? In the upcoming months it will be winter time in N.Y. state region again, and many snow birds will be traveling down south to get out of the cold miserable snow.  So, enjoy the weather now by playing as much as you can.  It’s never to early to start making plans for your next golf vacation trip. That is why you need to be prepared for anything unusual that might happen.

The way the economy is today,  you can find many favorable golf packages.   Resort areas are hungry for visitors and they’re  willing to make deals that combines staying arrangements with tee time packages.  Many golf courses are reporting open tee times on their daily starting sheets.

Personally I’ve been to Hilton Head once and want to get back there. The entire southeast coast is the golfing  mecca for any challenges to your golf  game that you want to test.  Warning!  Bring plenty of golf balls with you because there is nothing but water and sand.

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Do You Have The Correct Golf Mindset For Putting? Part 2

Many golfers don’t realize that almost 50% of your golf scores occurs from your putting. Almost 70% if you include pitching and chipping around the greens. Yet this is the least practiced!

Everyone is focused on having the latest in driver technology. They feel if they can pound their drives around 240 yards or more that everything else will fall into place in shooting par golf. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Your best golfers have that magic around the greens, its what separates themselves from the high handicappers.

Let me ask you, “how is your putting?” If your leaving a lot of putts around the hole, but their not falling in. It means that there is one additional stroke you have to add onto your score. Over 18 holes it can mean the difference between breaking your low score or having a frustrating round.

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Do You Fear Making Mistakes When Your Golf Mindset Isn’t Correct When Putting?

If you fear making big mistakes in playing golf then your not alone. Tiger Woods and other great superstars who stand to win big paychecks from making or losing on short putts have this same fear as a weekend golfer.  Taking the safe route has its own costs and rewards.

I had just made a great third shot to within 2ft of the hole on the 15′th hole, it was a par 5 on my home golf course.  I made the no brainer putt to put me two under par for the round. It dawned on me waiting on the 16′th tee that I must be leading the club championship,  and I had the greatest opportunity of my lifetime to break 70,  which I’ve never done before.  It was a realization moment that woke me up out of my dream state that I was in.

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How Can You Improve Your Golf Swing With Workout Programs?

Senior golfers of all ages are now into yoga and golf fitness programs. With age comes a decline in both flexibility and strength. When the body declines, the golf swing goes right along with it. The end result is a big loss in yardage, more mishits, and ballooning scores. Your golf mindset also changes in both attitude and frustration. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from older golfers who I’m playing with, that are just about ready to quit the game. However, there is hope for all golfers who are ready to change and improve your golf swing.

Do you want to discover the secret to creating more power and consistency in your golf swing? By participating in workouts that’s  geared towards a specific golf program that focuses on strength and flexibility. You don’t have to accept that with age, your body does decline. No way! The golfers who are working out, are the same ones who are enjoying the game again in later life, and taking all of the money in the birdie pool.  It’s amazing to see golfers in this age bracket dramatically improve their driving distance, accuracy and scores.

What is a golf workout? The golf swing is an awkward movement that puts a tremendous amount of stress on the body. To prevent injuries and improve your golf swing speed and distance requires your body to be both strong and flexible. The golf swing is a rotational movement, with your body being in different sequential golf positions.  Since the golf swing is primarily an axial rotational movement, wouldn’t it make sense to focus on rotational strength and flexibility? That is improving your turning ability related to range of motion and  speed. Therefore, anything involving twisting with resistance such as a medicine ball, a dumbbell, or even a weighted club would work. You need to have a  resistance to take your body beyond where it normally goes.

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Are You Aware That You Need To Change Your Golf Swing Mechanics As You Get Older?

The hot weather has hit our area in New York, and yesterday I found myself having trouble hitting a quality golf shot from about the 14′th hole on. At one point I started feeling light headed, and in need of water. What should you carry in your golf bag to help compensate for the heat? You should carry a bottle of water, a light sandwich, peanut butter crackers or candy bar. Anything that can give you a quick burst of sugar energy. You should stay away from drinking beer or any type of alcohol, because this will dehydrate you faster.

For the first ten holes, I was hitting solid golf shots  and my golf swing mechanics was where they should be. However, as the golf round continued on, I noticed there was a loss of power in my golf swing. Which meant the golf course started playing longer, and my golf scores were getting worse by at least a stroke or two per hole. So, what causes this to happen?

Golf is a mindset game vs. being physical.  Your golfing mind  needs to be sharpened periodically.  It’s very easy to lose focus when your golfing round isn’t going the way you believe it should.  That’s why you start feeling drained mentally, because your self-confidence is shakened. At the end of 18 holes, you feel like you just played 36 holes instead. That’s how I felt yesterday.

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Do You Have The Correct Golf Mindset When Putting? Part I

If you fear making big mistakes in playing then your not alone. Tiger Woods and other great superstars who stand to win big paychecks from making or losing on short putts have this same fear as a weekend golfer.  Taking the safe route has its own costs to bear. Even the best golfers will miss the opportunity to make birdies by taking the safer shot to put themselves in best position to not make bogeys. This is done out of fear, because the agony of having to lose a stroke to par outweighs the thrill of a birdie.

Researchers who keeps statistics calculates this type of decision making can cost the average professional golfer about one stroke during a 72 hole tournament. For the top 20 golfers this can be as much as $1.2 million in prize money lost for the year. The analysis shows that all golfers will avoid the possibility of loss by playing conservatively when they have the opportunity to score big by taking the gamble or risk.

Jack Nicklaus was the best when making short putts when the pressure is on. For myself,  I had just made a great third shot to within 3ft of the hole on the 15′th hole, on my  home golf course.  I made the no brainer putt to put me two under par for the round. It dawned on me waiting on the 16′th tee that I must be leading the club championship and I had the greatest opportunity of my lifetime to break 70 which I’ve never done before.  It was a realization moment that woke me up out of my dream state that I was in.

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Golf Instructions For The Short Game.

Most of us golfers will struggle mightily with trying to lower our golf scores, and our handicaps to the point of frustration. What most golfers don’t stop to realize is that your short game is at least 50% of your golf scores. Without a good short game which includes anything within 100 yards of the pin placement on the green, chipping, pitching and putting, your ability to score well will diminish significantly. For most average to high handicappers the ability to scramble is paramount to what you do on each and every golf hole.  You can expect to miss the green during a golf round more than two-thirds of the time.

We will spend endless hours on the driving range hitting drivers, to the point of exhaustion. We’ll  work diligently on our golf game to prove to ourselves that those new hybrids really are much easier to hit than our long irons. We hit golf ball after balls trying to gain some much needed confidence in our fairway metals, and we are quick to buy that new set of irons that is guaranteed to be much more forgiving and deadly accurate.

I have been fortunate over the years to watch, learn and implement the same golf instructions and tips from some of the best short game artist on the tour and amateurs alike.  I’ve played on my home golf course where the greens were very narrow width wise and had a lot of different kinds of mounds around them. In order to score you had to learn how to chip, and putting played a huge part in the scrambling of getting up and down. Hitting a long ball off the tee and in the fairway does make playing the golf hole a lot easier.   No Question! However, in order to improve your golf scores it’s a lot more than just being able to hit good quality golf shots.

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The Proper Way To Swing A Golf Club Starts With Having Good Tempo!

Last weekend was  great for me!  I got to do what I love best, and that is playing a round of golf with my friends. Being for most of us in our foursome it was the first time playing after the winter break.  Most of us weren’t very good. We hit a lot of bad errant shots mixed in with some good ones. We kept score but, we were all higher than our normal scores.

What I noticed the most however, because the golf course was playing long due to standing water and some wind. That we were all overcompensating by swinging harder than normal to make up for the extra yardage, and because of it bad swing flaws were quite evident.  Instead of swinging natural and with good rhythm.

Instead we were all  rushing our golf swings, and the timing or tempo of our golf swings were totally out of sync.  The erratic tempo we were exhibiting was due to hitting solely with our arms and trying to blast every shot as hard as you possibly can.

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Buiding The Proper Way To Swing A Golf Club Through Trial and Error!

What is the difference between a one plane or two plane golf swing? Moe Norman was one of the greatest ball strikers and teachers on the Canadian P.G.A. tour.  His philosophy was to keep the golf swing as natural and simple with no overtaxing swing motion. The one plane golf swing is a pure rotary motion, with a body release as you continue to rotate left, after impact.  The one plane is viewed as being easier to understand and implement when trying to improve your golf swing mechanics.  It requires less timing or tempo,  and it isn’t entirely dependent upon what your lower body is doing with regards to being coordinated with the rest of your golf swing mechanics.  Such as your hip, shoulder and spine rotation, and because of this it reduces the amount of stress that’s placed upon your lower back muscles and joints.  Therefore for older golfers it can help to eliminate golfing injuries.

What is the %%%proper way to swing a golf club%%%? A golf swing is an unnatural motion that can only be perfected through practicing.  The two plane swing or traditional  golf swing,  is a continuous flowing pendulum motion. The two plane swing  is the golf swing we are all taught. When your first learning,  you need to develop faster hip motion and the timing of the lower body with the rest of your golf swing mechanics.  Different golf swing elements do make up a golf swing.  Everything from your grip to your balance, hip and shoulder rotation,  proper stance, to external factors like wind and pin placements. It all makes up how you approach your golf swing.  It is a repetitive motion that places stress on the same muscles over and over again.  As a result, those joints and muscles will get tired, and can lead to different injuries.  A proper way to swing a golf club can be learned and worked on individually. Unlike a baseball swing or a jump shot,  hitting a golf ball is not a natural movement and you must acquire muscle memory only through practicing and training.

Building a  golf swing is like that of building a house.  You need to have blueprint plans on what foundation needs to be built first. Then it’s followed by the actual structures of four walls and a roof.  When you look at the professional golfers you will notice that each of them have  a distinct technique with their golf swing.  Many of the pros have unique golf swings and each of them are able to at some point  win a major event or tournament.  This means that the golf swing is not about a certain way of swinging,  but more about individual techniques that best suits them.  For amateurs many elements will factor into your own specific golf swing.  Your height, weight, the type of golf clubs being used, and whether you are right or left handed, etc,  this does come into play for every golfer.

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The Only Way To Perfect Your Golf Swing Mechanics Is By Investing Into Your Own Time and Energy At A Driving Range!

When your working on your golf game at the driving range, you first start with doing some stretching exercises.  Then begin slowly by hitting a short iron that doesn’t  take a lot of energy to swing a golf club.  Continue taking your time hitting golf balls, and make sure to breath in the fresh air by relaxing. You don’t have to keep pounding golf balls to the point your exhausted, and your hurting from swelling in your fingers, hands, legs or lower back joint muscles.

It’s good to work on your golf swing but, it doesn’t have to be a workout like you would get at the local gym. If you would only take your time,  you can learn a lot by just watching other golfers swinging and mishitting their golf balls all over the driving range area.  I will watch for the different methods golfers will use when they swing their golf clubs, and some of the golf swings are fairly good but, others need a whole lot of work. I usually think to myself that if only they could change the way they practiced they would become so much better golfers.

What do you need to do in order to practice the correct golf swing mechanics? If you’re going to work on your golf swing then every golf club in your bag needs to be used practicing. That is the number one problem,  that I see with the vast majority of all golfers on the driving range hitting golf balls today.   Their only focus is about using their drivers,  and trying to hit the golf ball out of the driving range.  Their there to hit the snot out of the golf ball, so that they can brag how far they hit it to their golfing buddies.  If this is what your doing,  then I have some bad news for you. You’ll never improve your golf swing mechanics.

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