The post 10 tips to hit more greens on tricky par 3s appeared first on Golf.

The post 10 tips to hit more greens on tricky par 3s appeared first on Golf.

For amateur golfers, especially beginners, par 3s always bring with them the possibility of a good score. All it takes is one good shot to have a putt. It’s why so many golfers often have their first pars on par 3 holes.

But no matter how good you get at golf, hitting the green on your tee shot always remains the most important goal of par 3 holes. Here are some suggestions that could help you do that.

1. Starts with solid contact

Hitting the green on par 3s becomes so much more likely with good, solid contact. And good contact comes with good fundamentals: Hold the grip in your fingers, not your palms, make sure that your arms hang below your shoulders, and that you’re bending properly from your hips so you have good posture.

2. Break the tee

Many golfers will try to lift the ball off the tee to get the ball into the air with an iron, which will cause them to hit the ball thin. My advice is to think about the opposite: Hitting down on the tee so that you break the tee. Thinking about breaking the tee will help you make a descending blow onto the ball, for better contact.

3. Know your numbers

Being effective hitting the green on a par 3 requires knowing how far you hit your club distances in the air – your carry distances. You can do this on the range by finding the distances to different targets on the range, or better yet, with a golf professional and launch monitor.

4. Find the best angle on the tee

When you go to place your tee into the ground on a par 3, don’t just set it randomly anywhere on the tee. Look for the best angle to approach the green without having to go over any trouble like a hazard or a bunker. You can learn to do this by walking to the far sides of the tee box and see which side gives you the best angle to your target. Often walking to an extreme side may make the green look much larger or open or help to avoid hazards that could get in your way.

5. Work the wind

Once again, where you place your tee into the ground on a par 3 can help to manage the wind and covert birdie putts. It can be very helpful to try to angle into the wind to minimize the curve of your golf ball. If the wind is coming from left to right, tee off on the right side of the tee box so that your will have to angle into the wind. When you aim directly into the wind, the ball will tend to curve less making the flight more predictable.

6. Aim for the safest part of the green

I believe some pins to be incidental. On smaller greens in particular it may just be smarter to aim for the largest part of the green. Aiming to a larger part of the green can allow you to miss the shot slightly and still be on the green.

7. Avoid extreme short game shots

When you don’t hit the green, where you miss the golf ball is extremely important so allow you to have the most reliable short game option. If leaving the ball a little short of the green might allow you to putt or chip, rather than having to pitch over a bunker, then when choosing your club, obviously the shorter club would be the correct choice. As you get to know your course, you will know where the best place to miss your golf ball as to being able to hit easier short game shots to different pin locations.

8. Tailor the clubs in your bag

Different courses and conditions can lead to some particular clubs being helpful. On several occasions, I have added a particular club to a student’s bag for a particular par 3 that they play often on their home course. There are shorter par 3s that may be very difficult for lower club head speed golfers to carry the bunkers and hold the green. Adding an extremely lofted hybrid like may help you hold the green, even if you don’t use it many other places.

9. Hit more knockdowns

Some days the ball goes straighter compared to others, so what could you do, on those crooked days? I think the ability to hit a knockdown shot is a great option for to hit the ball straighter.

A traditional knockdown shot would have the golf ball positioned slightly back in your stance, with your weight starting and staying on your forward foot, which will lean the shaft slightly producing less loft and a lower ball flight. A slightly shorter swing on both sides where the arms and the body work together in perfect sync turning back and through often leads to straighter and lower ball flight that may be more reliable.

10. Practice your aim

The ability to aim your clubface and align your body is an earned skill that requires attention and practice. I suggest you spend part of your practice time on the range with an alignment aid to help to train your eye what it looks like when you aim and align properly.

I know when I aim correctly, it often looks a bit too left to me, but I know that’s my tendency and have gotten comfortable with it. You can train your eye what it looks like to aim properly. You could also practice this on the course if you were out when the course isn’t busy. Take your alignment aid and set it down and learn what it looks like when you do aim correctly.

Need help unriddling the greens at your home course? Pick up a custom Green Book from 8AM Golf affiliate GolfLogix.

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The post 3 drills that will help simplify your swing for a more consistent strike appeared first on Golf.

The post 3 drills that will help simplify your swing for a more consistent strike appeared first on Golf.

The golf swing does not have to be complicated. In fact, with knowledge of a few concepts, changing your swing can be quite easy. The following drills show how you can easily get your body and arms in an efficient position. All these positions are similar to a throwing position. Humans have been throwing objects since the beginning of mankind. It’s a natural motion, and with a little work, you can use the same concepts in your golf swing.

1. Driver off your knees

This drill forces your upper body to coil in the proper direction and retain your original body shape from address. For a player that has a lot of left side bend or tilt in their golf swing, they will often hit too far back behind the ball. This drill also eliminates the lower body from bailing you out in the golf swing, which is matchup move most players need as product of their body being out of position.

Swinging from your knees is also a great drill to produce arm speed, too. Being down in this position will stabilize your body, getting rid of excess motion generating arm speed. Anytime recreational golfers can limit extra moving body parts in the golf swing, they will have a greater chance to produce consistency.

2. Trail foot back

A great drill to get the feeling of direction of turn is to simply hit balls with your trail foot back.

After you address the ball with a solid set-up, place your trail foot toe parallel to your lead heel. Make sure your trail toe is slightly open as well.

From here simply swing your arms to the top and hit the ball. This will give you the feeling of your lead side moving out and your trailside moving back. This drill will eliminate sliding off the ball and will ensure you are covering the ball with your body at impact.

This makes your turn more centered, leading to a more consistent strike.

3. Lateral hitting

The swing can be difficult for players because our head is down looking at the ball and we are positioned to the side of the golf ball, yet trying to hit the ball forward. This is why most players bodies will often move inefficiently. A simple change in awareness can clean this up. If the swing is practiced horizontally, with an awareness towards the target, the sequence of the swing would change. More importantly, the direction the body moves would change.

To practice this drill, first take your golf position setting up to an imaginary ball. While keeping the bend from your hips, simply lift up your arms in front of you into a horizontal position. Make sure your arms are slightly bent and soft and you are not lifting up from the hips. Place a bag on a stool and simply swing your arms around your body and back into the bag. If you do not have a bag you can do this into the air.

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The post 10 common problems of everyday golfers (and tips to fix them) appeared first on Golf.

The post 10 common problems of everyday golfers (and tips to fix them) appeared first on Golf.

A few months ago, I dropped a question into our How To Hit Every Shot facebook group (which you can join for free for yourself right here): What are some of the most common problems in your game?

The responses came pouring in — turns out, everyday golfers have lots of problems with their game. And a few months after that initial response, they kept coming, so let’s take a look at some more common problems golfers have.

1. ‘Overthinking my swing’

How do you stop thinking about thinking? You don’t. Instead, you have to think about something else. Specifically, you need to think about your process, and your routine. Something that’s authentic to you, says Hall of Fame Teacher Butch Harmon, and gives you a cue that helps get you into the zone. Trying not to think about your golf swing isn’t going to do it.

2. ‘Swaying off the ball’

One of the most common problems down the ranks of recreational golfers, the key is feeling like you’re turning around your body, deep into your trail hip, rather than a big side-to-side movement. Here’s a drill from GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jason Baile that can help you with this.

3. ‘Chunking and fat shots’

Swaying is one of the most common causes of chunked shots, so if you find yourself hitting lots of chunks you should probably start there. But it’s not the only reason. Regardless of what the issue is, a difficult drill can help you fix it: Place two coins back to back, and try only hitting the front coin.

4. ‘3 putts’

The fastest way to fix your three-putting is focus on the most important part of putting: Speed control, says DECADE Golf founder Scott Fawcett. Next time you’re on the putting green, spend a few extra minutes doing speed drills. You won’t be sorry.

5. ‘Not committing to the shot’

If you’re not committing to the shot, you may be standing over the ball too long. According to a study GOLF.com helped produce last year, we found the best results often come when golfers are given a countdown, so try giving yourself your own shot clock-style countdown.

6. ‘Looking up too soon’

Almost all teachers agree that keeping your head down is really bad advice for most golfers. All it does is stop you from turning, which will create more problems in the long run. When it comes to putting, though, keeping your head down is important. Either keep it down until you hear the ball drop, or try not looking down in the first place.

7. ‘Hurrying’

Playing quickly isn’t the same as rushing, or hurrying, through the shot. Developing a good pre-shot routine, and practicing it on the range, is the key to playing quickly, without rushing.

8. ‘Hanging on my back leg through the shot’

Usually a symptom of swaying, the key is making sure you initiate the downswing by shifting your pressure into your lead foot at the start of the downswing, says GOLF Top 100 Teacher Shaun Webb.

9. ‘Blading my wedge shots’

Here’s a handy tip from GOLF Top 100 Teacher Joe Hallett: Color the bottom groove of your wedge, and focus on sliding that under the ball. It’s a small visual cue that actually works!

10. ‘Hitting from slopes’

GOLF Top 100 Teacher Gary Weir has a complete guide for you right here, but in a nutshell: When hitting from uphill or downhill, make sure to tilt your shoulders in the same direction of the slope you’re hitting off.

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The post This at-home swing thought will improve your golf swing pivot appeared first on Golf.

The post This at-home swing thought will improve your golf swing pivot appeared first on Golf.

There are only a handful of things that every golfer, no matter their ability or skill level, does when they swing a golf club. They grip the club, they take a stance, and they turn — both back and through.

Turning is what most of us call it, but teachers will also often call it a “pivot.” Think of it as the engine of your golf swing: If your golf swing’s pivot is too slow, or not operating correctly, you’re going to struggle hitting the ball well.

But don’t fret, because GOLF Top 100 Teacher Tony Ruggiero, alongside his student and former U.S. Amateur champion Andy Ogletree, has a swing thought to help.

Place an alignment stick in your belt loops, like you see Andy demonstrating below, on the back of your trousers and take your setup. If you don’t have an alignment stick, use a mental image of one.

Make a backswing…

…and then, as you turn through, you want to make sure your hips are facing the target — which means the stick in the back of your belt loops is pointing at or past the golf ball.

That’ll give you the feeling of swinging through, which will keep your golf swing pivot in good shape.

You can watch the full video below.

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The post 5 quick tips every golfer should know from a Hall of Fame golf coach appeared first on Golf.

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Mike Adams’ esteemed career in teaching has propelled him into our World GOLF Teachers Hall of Fame, and more recently, onto Instagram (you can follow him right here).

At the core of Adams’ teaching is the idea of customization: That no two golfers are the same, so they shouldn’t be taught to swing the club the same way. The best swing for you is like a suit: tailored to your unique body.

Which brings us to a recent Q&A Adams did with his followers on Instagram. It was packed with interesting tidbits the rest of us can use, so let’s highlight a few of them.

1. Look closely at your grip

The golf grip is the only connection you have to the golf club, and it was interesting to hear Adams say that almost 100 percent of golfers need to adjust their grip when they arrive for their first lesson. For the rest of us, that means taking a good hard look at your grip before diving deep into anything else.

2. Don’t fret about ‘staying in posture’

A lot of golfers worry about staying in posture — and that losing it is the root of all their problems. But Adams has a unique on view on the matter: That the idea of “staying in posture” isn’t as important as you might think. For many golfers, it’s more important to use the ground to launch up, which will give you extra speed.

3. Drills for solid contact

All you need is one towel, strategically placed, in order to improve your contact, Adams says. Put it behind the ball if you’re catching it chunky; outside the ball for heel contact, and inside to correct toe contact. Simply by missing the towel, you’ll be reorienting your swing in a way that improves the quality of your strike.

4. How to get shallow

If you’re coming over the top, and hitting a big slice, it’s probably because you’re too steep. How do you go about shallowing-out your golf swing? One way is to simply close your stance (AKA, aiming your feet more to the right of your target), which will encourage a in-to-out swing path relative to your target.

5. How to get steeper

And the opposite of getting shallow? Getting steeper, which is great for golfers who hit blocks and get stuck. By aiming your feet more to the left, you’ll swing more out-to-in relative to your target, which will get you more steed.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2021? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf.

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The post Why one top coach says the driving range is a ‘dangerous’ place for golfers appeared first on Golf.

The post Why one top coach says the driving range is a ‘dangerous’ place for golfers appeared first on Golf.

Golf is a confusing, complicated game. And when things go wrong, it’s only natural to do what most of us do in confusing, complicated situations: Try to figure them out.

For many golfers, that means heading to the driving range. Working through a big bucket of golf balls as a way of troubleshooting the cause of what went wrong, and how to fix it. Except, at least according to one coach, that might be exactly the opposite of what you should be doing.

Justin Parsons is one of the best coaches around. After years studying under Butch Harmon, he now works out of Sea Island and coaches Harris English and Louis Oosthuzen, among others. He’s also the most recent guest on Claude Harmon’s GOLF.com podcast “Off Course” (which you can subscribe to on iTunes right here).

Instruction

Why Paul Casey 'banned' himself from a driving range after his first round

By: Luke Kerr-Dineen

And Parsons says golfers should be wary — very wary — of spending hours on the driving range.

“I think think the driving range is one of the most dangerous places for golfers to live.” he says. “I’ve probably spent far too many hours of my own time trying to perfect things.”

Why you should fear the driving range

Parsons says the reason why is because of a lack of consequences. When you hit a bad shot on a driving range, it doesn’t matter. On a golf course, it obviously does. When golfers put themselves in an environment where the bad shots don’t matter, their games won’t necessarily improve.

“It’s one of the least accountable places there is as a golfer,” he says. “At least on the putting green, you can ‘I holed this many putts from six feet’, or you can do chipping games; it’s very, very hard to quantify your behavior on the driving range. We fall down this trap of trying to be absolutely perfect on the driving range, forgetting that the driving range has absolutely nothing to do with the golf course.”

The range can, of course, serve a purpose. It’s good for ironing out your technique, and for warming up. The problem comes when you treat it as a solution to all your golf problems. It’s not; when you have an issue in your game, you’re often better off figuring it out on the golf course.

Listen to the full episode below.

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The post The difference between a block and a slice — and the cause of both appeared first on Golf.

The post The difference between a block and a slice — and the cause of both appeared first on Golf.

One of the best ways to improve is — believe it or not — accurately explain what’s going wrong. If you can do that, your coach will be able to help you play better golf quicker.

One way golfers can often get confused is understanding the difference between a block and a slice. Not every shot that goes to the right is a slice. The differenxe has to do with your clubface angle.

What is a ‘block’?

A block is generally the miss of lower handicaps and professionals. People typically block a shot when they are concerned about the ball going left. Because they don’t want their clubface to close, they will ‘hold onto a square clubface’ through impact. With the club path moving from in-to-out slightly, and the clubface square to that path, the ball will start out more to the right that expected. Almost all blocks lose distance in the process.

What is a ‘slice’?

Very simply, the slice is a shot wherein the clubface angle at impact was aimed further to the right of your swing path. That combination of face and path make the ball spin left to right on its tilted axis. The shape of the resulting ball flight looks similar to a left to right curve found in a ‘banana’. Hit enough banana’s into the right woods and your friends will start calling you Tarzan.

Understanding why both happen

The original problem for both a block and a slice likely lies in your clubface, which is more open than you think it is.

Instruction

10 reasons why you keep slicing the golf ball

By: Kellie Stenzel, Top 100 Teacher

Work with a PGA-certified golf coach to help you understand the root cause of your open clubface issue: Often, the open-face position can be caused by your lead-hand grip.

One thing you should NOT do, if you are experiencing a slice, is to try to start swinging your club more to the left to make sure it doesn’t go right. It’s a natural solution for most golfers; likely you will start monkeying around with your setup and alignment in this self-discovered solution. You might even think you have found the answer because now you will be slicing the ball into the playing area vs. the woods, but that is not a long-term solution. As your clubhead swings left, your angle of attack is getting steeper and soon you will discover the misery of a two-way miss when your clubface wasn’t open enough to create the slice spin you were counting on.

Which is why it’s best to find a coach to help get your ball back into the fairway.

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The post This incredibly difficult at-home drill will fix your chunks and tops appeared first on Golf.

The post This incredibly difficult at-home drill will fix your chunks and tops appeared first on Golf.

If the headline on this article caught your eye, so much that you decided to click on the post, you’re probably someone who’s up for a challenge. I respect that, and also have some good news for you: This drill is really difficult. (You should probably take my word for it, because I write about golf drills a lot.)

This one comes to us via Australian professional golfer Brett Rumford, who you can follow on Instagram right here. Do it correctly, and enough, and it will help fix your pesky chunks and tops.

Here’s how Brett does it. First, you put two coins next to each other, one before the other. In this case, Brett’s done three batches of two; six coins total.

Then place your club (a wedge or short iron, ideally) on the back coin.

Now comes the fun part: Your goal is to hit the front coin without moving the back coin.

Spoiler alert: Unless you’re really good at golf, like Brett, you probably won’t be able to do it. But keep trying and you will eventually. If you get to the point where you’re hitting that front coin consistently, you’ll have grooved a pretty impressive level of low-point control in your golf swing. That can help all sorts of things in your swing. If you hit chunked shots, it’s because the low point of your swing is too far behind the ball. Tops or thins? That’s because the low point of your golf swing is too far forward.

If you’re hitting the ground in the same spot every time, you’ll avoid some of those ugly contact errors and probably shave some shots off your score in the process.

But be warned, it’s difficult! Watch Brett’s full video below:

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The post Nicklaus, Norman, Faldo and Bryson all do this — so why don’t more regular golfers? appeared first on Golf.

The post Nicklaus, Norman, Faldo and Bryson all do this — so why don’t more regular golfers? appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Play Smart, a game-improvement column that drops every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from Director of Game Improvement content Luke Kerr-Dineen to help you play smarter, better golf.

I find it funny that for as much as golfers collectively talk, think, and stress about their own golf games, there’s always something that can still fall through the cracks. And by that I mean things great golfers do that regular golfers don’t (a pet project of mine which I wrote about here). They’re often small, unglamorous things — which is probably why they’re able to fall through the gaps. Here’s one of them: hovering, rather than grounding, your club at address.

Some seriously good players throughout golf’s history have used this: from Jack Nicklaus to Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and now to Bryson DeChambeau. Those four players alone account for 27 majors, and three have sat atop the Official World Golf Ranking. They’re all club-hoverers, and yet, the majority of regular golfers aren’t.

Should we reconsider?

To be clear, what I mean by “club-hoverer” is holding your clubhead slightly off the ground anytime it’s on a tee. All the players above did it for slightly different reasons.

Jack Nicklaus, as he told Golf Digest here, explains that he was always afraid the ball would drop off the tee, especially on windy days. He avoided grounding the club completely to avoid any chance of a penalty.

Nick Faldo and Greg Norman both adopted the technique because of Jack, but found that it promoted a smoother, tension-free takeaway.

I actually asked Bryson DeChambeau once why he does it, and in his never-ending quest to reduce variables, he wants to set up at the same level as he impacts the golf ball, rather than setting the club on the ground and adjusting an extra inch during his swing.

Why hovering the club can improve your backswing turn

GOLF Top 100 Teacher Kevin Sprecher did a video recently (which you can watch below) validating all of the above. He says that setting the club on the ground promotes a hands and arms takeaway. Hovering the club, he said, engages your core from before you even hit the golf ball, which promotes a more powerful turn behind the ball.

So if you’re struggling with your driver contact this weekend, give it a try and rest with the knowledge that you’re in elite club-hoverer company.

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The post How one piece of duct tape can give your backswing a power boost appeared first on Golf.

The post How one piece of duct tape can give your backswing a power boost appeared first on Golf.

As they say, duct tape fixes everything — even your golf swing. And the best part of this swing tip is that nobody can accuse it of being a Band-Aid solution.

Alright, enough of the bad jokes, because this actually is a handy (handyman, even) swing tip I came across the other day via our friends and partners at GOLFTEC. It’ll help your backswing, (and before we get going, you can follow the link right here to book your own swing evaluation, clubfitting and/or tune-up before the season swings into primetime.)

Let’s get to the tip. The problem is that lots of higher-handicappers tend to make a backswing like you see below. They sway off the ball — two inches more, according to GOLFTEC’s SwingTru study, — and pair that move with about seven degrees less of shoulder tilt. Both those swing killers combine for an open clubface and more often than not, consistency issues.

Which is where the piece of tape comes in. Pull a piece about two feet long and attach it from the center of your chest to your lead thigh (for right-handed golfers, that means their left thigh). Once you do that, your goal is to make your backswing and separate the tape from yourself so it’s no longer attached at the top of your backswing. This’ll improve your backswing in two ways.

And all with a piece of tape! You can check out the full video below, and book your own trip to a GOLFTEC right here.

The post How one piece of duct tape can give your backswing a power boost appeared first on Golf.