Learn From Watching Women

In this age of power golf and high tech equipment, we sometimes forget to swing the club. I mean truly SWING and let the high tech golf club do more of the work for us. Some Men have big egos and some Men have big muscles. Some Men have both! For most, cranking the ball out there a country mile is the most important thing. Believe me! I love to hit the ball far, but I am much happier shooting a 72 than an 82.

We can all learn from watching others, using what we think is useful and discarding what we don’t like. Men! Leave your egos at the club drop long enough to realize we can learn a great deal from Woman watching. That is, watching Women on the LPGA Tour.

They are not as big as us and some are not as strong as us but they are more flexible than us and a lot of them can hit the ball as far and some farther than us. How do they do it? They swing the club and let it do more of the work.

I have studied Women on the LPGA tour and I can tell you that the majority of them have impeccable fundamentals. Starting with the grip, posture, stance, ball position and alignment. They also have great balance, partly because the don’t swing out of their shoes but also because of a sound, balanced set up at address. All these factors contribute to them making solid contact on the ball with the sweet spot of the club face. That right away, is going to make the ball go further and more importantly straighter!

Their swings are so smooth with great tempo and timing that it helps them to generate their maximum club head speed where it is needed the most, at impact. They do not try to muscle it from the top of their swing.

Their short games and course management are great as well! They will not let their egos make them try to go for that long second shot to reach a par five in two if they have to swing out of their comfort zone to do it. They will play to their strengths and lay up to a yardage that they can stick a wedge in there close and still make their birdie.

So the next time you are channel surfing hoping to catch The Long Drive Championship, stop on the channel showing an LPGA event long enough to learn from these great women that are hitting the ball straighter than you and as far if not farther than you.

Practice Your Short Game: Lower Your Score

The quickest way to lower your score is to practice and improve your short game. The short game consists of four areas: pitching, chipping, putting, and sand play. The short game makes up about 43% of an average game of golf. The weaker your short game, the higher percentage. With the proper fundamentals, you will make solid contact on the ball more consistently. You will have better feedback from your shots to help you control the distance of each shot and your touch will start to improve with each practice session.

Distance control is very important in the short game. For example, with a chip or a putt of 30 to 50 feet, the direction of the shot may only waiver from the target a few feet to the left or right. Good distance control coupled with good direction will put you a few feet from the hole, giving you a better chance of making the putt. On the other hand, if your distance control is poor and your shot ends up well short or past the hole, your accuracy will not help.

A three foot putt counts as one stroke as does a 300 – yard drive. You can recover from a bad shot from a wood or iron by having a strong short game. However, you can’t recover from a missed short putt.

You should spend as much time around the green practicing your short game as you do on the range practicing your full swing. Observe how the ball reacts on and around the green, experiment, and use your imagination to achieve the desired results. Regular practice will go a long way toward mastering the many different shots in the short game.