Posts Tagged ‘practice techniques’

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Golf Lessons – Good Lie / Bad Lie

March 21st, 2010

This Golf Lessons post will talk about good lies and bad lies.  What they are and how they affect shot selection around the green will also be discussed.  To accurately determine what shot to play, the first thing you have to do is determine what options you have available to you.  This begins with an assessment of the lie.  Here is an example of a good lie

Good Lie

Good Lie

and here’s an example of a bad lie

Bad Lie

Bad Lie

For me, I define a good lie as any lie where I know for sure that the club and ball will actually contact each other and a bad lie is when there is a good chance that some grass will get between the clubface and the ball.

A good lie allows for many more options is terms of club and shot selection and a good lie will also tend to be more predictable when it hits the ground. With good lies, you can use various shaft and face positions from a delofted front edge chip to an open faced flop shot.

A bad lie can make all the choices for you.  It can tell you what type of shot you have to do and what club you should use.  Granted, you can choose many options but you’ll learn from experience which ones work and which ones don’t.  Generally speaking, the worse the lie the more loft you should use.  Typically, you will also be restricted to an open clubface and vertical to lay back shaft positions.  Because the ball won’t spin as much(because of grass getting between the face and the ball), we use loft to try and gain control over how much the ball will roll after it lands.

Stay tuned for future posts where I talk about how to create these types of shots.

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Golf Lesson – Flipping

March 3rd, 2010

I define flipping as an instance when players really stall the pivot and accelerate the unbending of the right wrist.  For some people, that will get the clubhead passing the hands and for others it complicates contact.  As many of you know, I coach college golf at Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY.  I also give golf lessons at Webster Golf Club as its Director of Instruction.  The most common plateau causing element of the swing I see is flipping.  This year I have 11 players on my golf team and 7 of them flip it.  They have decent swing but have such a hard time creating consistent impact alignments because of the flipping.  This condition also caused me to plateau at a certain level and once I got rid of it, my level of ball striking immediately became more consistent.

Here are some video and pictures to show you what I mean:

Hands Even or Behind ball

Hands Even or Behind ball

Hands in Front of ball

Hands in Front of ball

This player is a very good player that can shoot par or better at times than all of a sudden shoots 80.  This part of impact is an imperative, to quote The Golf Machine.  Being able to keep your left wrist flat and right wrist bend as you pivot through impact will greatly help your ability to control your angle of attack into the ball, your spin rate and your low point control.  It’s these things that drive the good player crazy because they do it one shot but not the next or one day but not the next.  Without reasonable repeatability is these areas, it is impossible to control spin, trajectory and distance.

I’ll go into drills to help with removing the flip in a future post but for now practice chipping while keeping your left wrist flat and right wrist bent while using your pivot to hit the ball.

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Posted in Golf Lesson, Practicing, Teaching Techniques

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The Power of Par

January 26th, 2010

There was a lengthy discussion today on Twitter about this question: “Does the par of the hole have any influence over your decision making?”  This was basically a teaser question intended to start a discussion about how players value par vs. how they value a single stroke.  For years, I have preached to my players that the each shot has a value of one and that a 4 on a par three has the same value as a 4 on a par 5.  In both cases, it is 4 strokes out of your total.  Yes, one is a birdie and one is a bogey and the internal belief system we place on those words will effect us mentally.

I urge you to try and break out of that belief system.  A 235 yard shot to a green surrounded by trouble is the same shot if it’s a par 5 or a par 4.  Each of us has to decide what should I do to give me the best chance to shoot the lowest score possible.  If you think you should lay up on the par 5 than you should lay up on the par 4.  The only reason you would lay up is because you believe it provides you the best opportunity to shoot the lowest score on that hole.  If you lay up on the par 5 and go for it on the par 4, you are not valuing your shots equally.  You are valuing your shots based on the par of the hole you are playing which I don’t believe is a good idea.

Would the situation change if there was no such thing as par and at the end of the day you turned in your scorecard with just the total on it.  Looking back on that shot from 235, does it look different now?  In both cases, it is a shot from 235 yards with trouble all around.  The par of the hole does not change that.  Your attitude toward that shot does change because of the par.

I am not an advocate for always going for the par 5 in two even though going for it is a leading indicator of lower scores on the PGA Tour.  All I am saying is don’t let par make your decision for you.  Look at the bigger picture and see how this situation fits into the round as a whole.

Here’s a little skills test (made up by me @golfdonaldson and @jasonhelmanpga)to see if your skills are good enough to go for it.  Take 10 shots from 100 yards from a green.  Measure the distance each shot is from the pin and total the distances to get one number.  Next take 10 more shots to the same green from 235 yards away.  Go to where each of those shots landed and hit it again.  Could be a putt, chip or pitch.  Determine your distance away from the hole for each set of 2 shots and total the distances from all sets of 2 to get one number.

Compare the numbers.  Which one gets you closer to the hole?  Make sure you do it to greens with different severities of difficulty so you have more confidence in whichever decision you make on the course when the situation arises.  I think it is a great skills test and be sure to include different starting distances from the hole to see how they compare.

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Posted in Mental Game, Practicing, Teaching Techniques

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Putting Myths – What exactly is ‘fast’ about a downhill putt?

January 22nd, 2010

“What exactly is ‘fast’ about a downhill putt?”  This question was posed today by James Ridyard during a twitter discussion.  You can find me (@johngrahamgolf and James @golfswingrebel) on twitter most days.  I would encourage you to follow us plus a host of other people I have made lists for.  The conversation started after I posted this:

Speed and Time

Speed and Time

http://twitpic.com/z7j3o – Some serious putting information right here. #aimpointgolf.

The above comment was made by Mark Sweeney on his AimPoint Golf Forum.  He is talking about ways to practice distance control.  Bascially, what he is talking about is that the slope of green and the ‘speed’ of the green effect the amount of time the putt takes.

The above question that James asked was to bring to light the fact that nothing happens faster on a downhill putt.  In fact, it is exactly the opposite and you need to picture it that way.

Check out this video James Ridyard made that makes it clear as day: The Great Putting Race(currently this version is more clear but I’m working on it)

Downhill putts roll slower and take more time to cross the same distance as uphill putts.

We have to hit uphill putts harder.  This means the ball is rolling faster and takes less time to travel the distance.

When you are approaching downhill putts don’t think faster.

Think slower.

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Posted in Putting, Teaching Techniques

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The Best Putting Drill from 6 to 12 Feet

December 17th, 2009
You’ll need 4 coins and one golf ball for this drill. Choose a location on the green that is fairly flat. Place a coin on the ground as a starting point. Use you putter to measure out 2 full putter lengths away from the first coin. This will be approx 6 feet. Place another coin and repeat the procedure of measuring out two more putter lengths and place the third coin there.

Go back to the first coin and place your ball next to it. So you should have in front of you two 6 foot zones indicated by the boundaries of the three coins. Your goal is to see how many putts you can fit in the second zone with each putt being longer than the last.

For example, you hit your first putt into the second zone a little bit. Let’s say 1 foot passed the second coin or 7 feet away from where you started. Mark the balls location. Now your next putt must be past the coin at 7 feet but inside the coin at 12 feet.

Your goal is to get 12 putts that fit in that zone before you run out of room. Anytime you leave one short or run out of room, start over and ties got to the putter. The 6 to 12 foot zone is one in which we think we should make some. Because speed has such a direct link to break, it is vital that when you are in that range, you hit the putt the exact distance you want so it will break the way you expect it to.

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Posted in Practicing, Putting

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