Figure out how to square the club face at impact!
Then figure out how to make the club face do what you want it to do at impact.
This has a direct relationship to what your golf shots will look like.
Practice your swing in slow motion. Feel and understand in your muscles what works best for you.
Hit balls! Practice! There are no magic cures or swing aids.
“Dig it out of the dirt”
If you want some advice or even if you do not, get yourself into the GHIN system and get a valid USGA/World Handicap System handicap.
To cut through all the mystery and jargon, you do not have a handicap, per say.
In a valid handicap system, what you are provided with is a handicap index. Your index is a decimal number, like 11.8. This is the basis and foundation for a handicap that you receive in any competition you may enter.
Remember, your index is not your handicap.
A handicap index is the measure of a player’s demonstrated ability calculated against the Slope Rating of a golf course of standard playing difficulty (that is, a course with a Slope Rating of 113) (see Rule 5.2 Calculation of a Handicap Index).
A provided handicap is computed by entering your index (decimal number) into a course handicap table (which is based on course rating, slope rating, and par of the course and tee you are going to play.)
Since most courses and tees are rated and sloped differently, your handicap will be different from most tees and on different courses.
For example, if you play the Championship Tees on Course A in Paramus NJ, your handicap (with an 11.8 index), might be 15. If you choose to play the regular White Tees on the same course, your provided handicap might be a 12. If you decide to play the Gold Tees, your handicap might be a 9.
Remember, it is all based on your individual handicap index. And ultimately the handicap tables from different tees are figured using different course ratings, slope ratings, and par.
A valid handicap system uses an average of the lowest 8 of your most recent 20 Score Differentials. It does not matter what year they are posted in, it is the last 8 of the most recent 20 scores.
If you carry an 11.8 index and have a bad day and shoot a 95, do not expect your handicap to go up 5 strokes at the next revision. The 95 you just shot will count only if and when it figures in the lowest 8 of the most recent 20 scores.
This is why it is very important to post all your scores, not just the high scores. So you can get a true and valid measure of your golfing ability.
In a nutshell, this is pretty much all you need to know. It is not all that complicated if you understand the concept and the “Big Picture.”
If you want some advice or even if you do not, get yourself into the GHIN system and get a valid USGA/World Handicap System handicap.
It will give you a real measure of your playing ability, and give you a fair chance in any competitions you choose to enter.
It is good to be out playing again. Mid March 2020. Wind blowing, cool fresh air, golf course in beautiful shape.
I live for these moments.
Moments or stretches during a round when all my practice, hard work, and grinding come together and my muscles work the way they are supposed to work and my golf shots do what they are supposed to do.
The proof is always in the ball flight.
Get out and play golf! It’s good for your health, mind, body and soul.
I decided to play the ball as it lies and got two holes in before the heavy rain came.
As spring is a busy time for a golf pro in the northeast, I was out on the golf course placing penalty area stakes the other day, and decided to play a few holes when the task was finished for the day.
I loaded up my clubs and teed up from hole #1. Hit a real good drive down the left center. I was pleasantly surprised. I had a good lie for my second shot so I pulled out my 5 wood. Something didn’t feel right as the club didn’t fit the shot. But since rain was coming I went ahead and hit it anyway. hit a low liner left but still got with wedge range for shot number three on a par 5.
What ever happened after that with my score really does not matter. The important thing is that I have been playing the ball as it lies since I first took up the game. It is really hard for me to set the ball up all the time.
As I played more this day, I thought about what a great game this is if you play the ball down. Every shot and every lie is different. The game, when played this way, demands that you learn to put the club face on the ball in many different situations and many different ways. As a matter of fact, the possibilities are endless.
Every shot is different and every day is different. There is no better life trainer than that.
Try to play it down for a few rounds. Play the ball as it lies and experience the true meaning of the game. I don’t mean to say that your should do it all the time, but when you play the ball as it lies for a few rounds here and there, you discover the true spirit of ball striking and the true spirit of what makes, and what has made the game of golf the great game that it is.
New golfer alert!
New to the game of golf?
Want to learn and improve?
Golf is the best exercise regimen ever invented. Golf keeps you mentally keen, mentally focused, physically strong, and mentally and physically balanced and in tune. You have to be balanced in order to play well.
Golf is an emotional roller coaster. You experience every up and down possible during the course of a lifetime of golf.
Take some lessons from a competent teacher of the golf swing and the golf game to learn the fundamentals of the swing as they apply to your own unique set of requirements. I say competent because not all teachers are created equally. Invest your money wisely.
Then go out and play on a course as often as you can to apply what you have learned. Playing the game of golf is just as important as learning the fundamentals. Play play play! Once you learn how to swing and get the ball moving, playing as much as you can is the surest way to improving.
Playing Real Golf
Played Shore Gate Golf Course down near Cape May New Jersey today, 11/12/2017. Played the white tees at about 6700 yards, 45 degrees, cart paths only, course was wet and played long.
What I shot is not important. What is important is that I was playing real golf. I played one ball, and tried to grind it out as if I was playing in a championship. Counted every shot, penalties, no take overs, putted everything into the hole.
The numbers themselves are not important; they are what they are. What is important is that I write down on the scorecard every score for every hole. This brings the reality of what you shoot into focus. It brings the abstraction into the what is in the here and now.
Playing golf this way may not be a championship, but the mindset becomes the same. I put my head into a tournament situation and played every shot as if it meant something. I played the ball down, played like I had to shoot a score. I felt as if I was playing tournament golf, playing real golf.
We as PGA professionals make so many concessions on an everyday basis, as regards rules and trying to get patrons to enjoy the game, that is is becoming vitally important to me personally to revisit the true roots of the game, the true spirit of the game, and to play golf the way it was meant to be played.
I need this experience of playing golf the way it was meant to be played to replenish my sense of duty to the golfers who I meet on an everyday basis, whether members, guests, tournament players, or green fees. Playing real golf, no matter where it is, can only enhance my experience as a golf professional, and can only make me better as a player and a better professional.
It was a struggle today, but it felt good. I may not have a US Open game anymore, but calling myself out and putting that pressure on myself every time I go out on the course to play is worth the effort. Since golf is 99 percent in your head anyway, why not play in my own reality. Make the entire picture a tournament picture. I am playing real golf.
Every round I play from here on in will be a tournament round. Every shot I hit on the course will be a tournament shot. I have to learn to play real golf again. It is very important to me to do this. I have to revisit that sense of goodness, well-being, and continuity that comes from playing one ball into the hole.
No more practice for me. Just grinding it out as if every shot I play is in the US Open. No one else has to know what I am trying to accomplish. All that matters is that I am pitted against myself as I experience a round of golf and as I experience the golf course.
Golf Teacher Goals
My goal here is to relate the information and experience I have gained in the golf business over the past thirty years to help make those who visit golfteacher.com better golfers, better shot-makers, and to enhance their enjoyment of the game. Golf truly is the “game of a lifetime.”
I use both high tech teaching equipment and observation. Watching your golf ball flight in regards to what you are doing in your golf swing is the key to any good golf lesson.
By watching and listening to great golfers, and sitting behind the counter watching countless thousands of golfers tee off on the first tee and hit balls on the range, I have developed a great eye and ear for technique or lack of technique in any golf swing. Being able to see and decipher each individual golf swing as it relates to itself is the key component to any great teacher of the game.
High tech equipment is great, but only for the student who requires it. Most of us just want some simple, common sense help with our golf games.
I started using video in my lessons as an instructional tool back in the early 1990’s. I have used many video systems that have evolved into taking video with an iPhone using the V1 system. I take and analyze video seamlessly in real time with no interruptions, right at the site of the lesson. It is a quick accurate system that gives, you the student, instantaneous feedback before you have a chance to forget the feel and results of the shots that we have on video. Video training has also helped me as a player, as it is always a new experience seeing yourself in real time on the screen. Pictures do not lie.
I just this week (4/23/2017) purchased a SkyTrak Golf Launch Monitor Unit. Its a great piece of equipment. I will probably only use it for myself but I view it as a very worthwhile investment in my career as a golf teacher and a golf professional; and as a proficient player. The SkyTrak has much the same interface as the old GolfAchiever, only much more refined.
Over the years I have also used the GolfAchiever golf swing analyzer and launch monitor, the Ernest Golf ES12 monitor, as well as my iPhone video camera and iPhone swing analyzing devices and software. I have hit countless thousands of golf balls using this swing analyzers. But one thing I have found is that most golfers want to get better, but do not necessarily have a need for high tech teaching tools or high priced swing aids that just add to the confusion.
If somebody, a golf teacher for example, would have offered lessons and told me 40 years ago when I first started to golf seriously, (and it is ok to take it seriously because I figure everyone’s goal is to play better, to do this you have to have a little interest) that there is one golf swing move to practice that will incorporate and nurture all other moves into a cohesive pattern that would produce good to great consistent golf shots, I would probably have been skeptical at best and figured there was no easy way to make this move called the golf swing. That is why I spent the last 30 to 35 years as a teacher, player, and observer while playing and giving lessons, trying to figure out how to hit consistent golf shots. And again, I never ran across anybody or any body of work as far as golf swing instruction that would lead me down the path to what I call good golf and good to great golf shots, consistently. Anything that is understandable, coherent, and to the point.
I took my first golf lesson and only golf lesson from Mike Pedersen, a world renowned teacher at PGA National in Florida. I learned about my golf swing, and I learned how great golf teachers teach.
I have heard it said that “you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.” Taking a golf lesson or two from a qualified golf teacher that speaks to you in common sense language can improve your game and the quality of your shot-making, thereby improving your scores.
Why People Are NOT PLAYING Golf:
TOP REASONS
Among the reasons cited for not playing or giving up the game include golf being too expensive, too hard to learn and enjoy, too long to play.
Why People SHOULD BE Playing Golf:
My Take:
Golf is game. Golf is a mindset. Not everyone is going to play on a Top-Level Tour. Golf is lifelong exercise, mental and physical. Golf can keep you healthy. Golf can make you happy. The simple act of swinging a golf club, no matter what the outcome, is a positive investment in your future and your overall well-being. The dividends you collect will far outweigh any bad shots or negative experiences. Golf really is the “game of a lifetime. It is what you make it, and what you want it to be!
Core Golf
Definition of “Core”: The central or most important part of something. When I think of the word “Core” as it relates to the golf swing, a huge amount of information floods my brain, recalled from both memory and experience. Like the floodgates open and the dam overflows.
A core golf swing is the pathway, the connection to successful easier to repeat golf swing fundamentals.
Core golf is not just swinging with your core muscles. If you think about it for a second or two, the fundamentals of any golf swing are the core values that drive the swing to begin with. Coupled with the action of the physical act of swinging the club with your core muscles, you then gain a new perspective on the golf swing as a whole.
I have been teaching a Ladies Golf Academy for the better part of 30 years, and have believed and still believe that teaching the fundamentals of the golf swing first and foremost is the best way to start with anyone new to the game. As a matter of fact, fundamentals are a great way enter any lesson.
This year, 2017 on May 3 I decided to take a new tactical approach to my ladies instruction. I decided to jump right into the explanation of how to use the core muscles while swinging a golf club; for the first time in 30 years.
The results were astoundingly positive.
Just the one simple point of trying to get them to keep the golf club and their arms in front of them throughout their swing gave them a radically different starting point on their journey toward becoming accomplished golfers. I talked fleetingly about the grip and setup, and promised them we would fine tune their basic move as the weeks progressed.
But the key point was to keep a functioning core muscle golf swing in the forefront of our lesson plan.
I was able to illustrate before their actual practice session by hitting 4 perfect driver shots long and straight. My driver had been in the bag for the better part of three weeks. I pulled it out and let it fly, using the very explanation and information that I just revealed to my lady golfer/students.
I could not hit a bad shot. I tried to show them what happens when the arms get away from the body but I kept catching up and hitting it with the same trajectory in the same direction. Even better than hitting it bad I guess.
The girls did great. Raw beginners were swinging like they had been playing for years. the basic premise was a success.
It can work for anybody!
