Top Professional golfers who play golf on tour are unique individuals who passionately pursue their dream of achieving success on the PGA and LPGA tour’s with drive, energy and determination. They allow us to see what lies within; the potential to be a lot better than we currently are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To improve your golf you need a strong passion to constantly fuel your motivation. Passion comes from your desire to be excellent at what you do, and golf is one game where you have to work very hard over a long period of time to gain a high measure of control over your golf shots and ultimately your golf scores.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By removing the “quick fix” mentality from your thinking and working hard on your weakest, most important skills you can make progress with your golf. Your passion to improve will keep you focused on the task, and in the weeks and months from now you will reap the rewards of your dedication with better golf shots and lower golf scores.

 

“Consistency in golf depends directly upon form, an unsound swing may work well enough on occasion, but soundness of method is the only key to reliable performance.” – Bobby Jones

In this article I will explain exactly what you need to do to dramatically improve your golf confidence by improving how you go about improving your golf swing. Remember that it doesn’t matter whether you desire to build a simple golf swing or a pro golf swing you will have to understand the following important relationship:

The success of your golf shot is directly proportional to the situation you’re confronted with, and your confidence you have to achieve that result using your existing skills. Which simply means, the higher your skill levels with a particular club in a particular situation, the higher your confidence level in that particular situation. So, when you think about it playing golf is about playing different types of golf shots over many different types of terrain in differing weather conditions, and to develop skills that effectively match those conditions on a consistent basis.

So here’s what you have to do to really improve your golf swing. The more mentally adaptable you are, the higher the probability of you matching your golf shot to the demands of the situation. Golfer’s who get overly anxious are more than likely reacting to a situation that is perceived to be more challenging than their perceived ability to play the shot confidently. Notice I said perceived? That’s exactly what it is, a perception. To alter your perception of an event you need to know how to think and feel about it another way. Hitting balls off a nicely manicured piece of laser levelled grass on your practice fairway is not very helpful if the golf course you play has terrain that is undulating in nature, which is to say the way every golf course is constructed.

Here’s a really effective practice routine for developing an adaptable golf swing and an adaptable mind-set which will definitely boost your golf confidence. The next time you practice at your golf range use the following routine and practice it at least once every fortnight.

Warm up                                   20 balls
Side-hill Lies                           20 balls
Uphill/Downhill Lies           20 balls
Rough/Tight Lies                  20 balls
Straight Shots                         20 balls
Total                                         100 balls

This practice routine will teach you how to adjust your golf swing to suit variable terrain and conditions on your golf course and others and one you’ve completed the routine at least five times you will start to notice a significant difference in your golf confidence, your golf shot-making and your golf scores. 

Until next time

Lawrie Montague

“A good mental game won’t overcome poor impact physics”

Developing consistency and confidence in your golf game begins by firstly developing a better understanding of how the golf club’s design influences your golf balls behaviour. Each golf club is engineered to very fine tolerances and has been built to help you to gain a level of control over trajectory, curvature and ball speed. Your job is to use the golf club correctly, which is to say use it in such a way that you strike consistent golf shots that you’re satisfied with…most of the time. But this as you already know is definately a challenge given the amount of conflicting information you have to sift through to find the best way for you to use the golf club correctly.

In my last post I described the three success factors of the pro golf swing (PGS).  As a reminder they are;

• A Pro Golf Swing produces a high degree of control over the golf balls trajectory
• A Pro Golf Swing produces a high degree of control over the golf balls curvature
• A Pro Golf Swing produces a high degree of speed as the golf ball departs from the club face

We all want to hit the ball better and learning how to apply the principles of the pro golf swing will definately help you to develop consistency and confidence. Following are the pro golf swing principles that I believe will help you to strike the golf ball more solidly and consistently leading to more confidence on the golf course.

Principle # 1 - Control the angle of the golf shaft as it strikes the golf ball.
Controlling trajectory begins by understanding the relationship between the head or striking end of the golf club and the handle or holding end as the golf club strikes the golf ball. There are three conditions that the golf shaft can be in as it strikes the ball. The shaft can lean forwards towards the target, it can have no lean, or it can lean backwards away from the target. When using an iron or a wood we ideally want the golf shaft leaning slightly forwards as the golf ball departs from the clubface.

How do you do it?
Practice punching your golf shots by trying to hit your golf shots as low as possible using a seven iron without moving your upper body towards the target until the golf ball has left the clubface. Practice hitting golf shots under low tree branches and bushes and focus on hitting the ball before the ground. You might have noticed that PGA tour professionals use the punch shot quite often when they hit their approach shots into the green.

Principle # 2 - Control the clubface angle as the clubhead strikes the golf ball.
The clubface can be in one of three conditions as the golf ball is struck. It can be open to the target line, square to the target line or closed to the target line. It is helpful to know that the golf club should not be square at impact but actually slightly open. The reason for this is that there is a very important distinction that you should be aware of. Rather than thinking of impact as the time when the club comes into contact with the golf ball, think of it as two distinct times in your golf swing – impact or collision and separation. When the golf club makes contact with the ball the clubface should be slightly open not square, and during the time that the golf ball is in contact with the clubface it “squares up” and the ball departs or separates from the clubface.

How do you do it?
The key to achieving this is to make sure that your hands when applied to the handle are positioned so that the pressure is behind the handle rather than on top. The best example I can give you is to imagine that you are pushing a shopping cart or lawn mower and think about where your hands are positioned on the handle. The strongest position for your hands is behind the handle when applying pressure to move the object forward. This is no different on a golf club where the objective is to apply pressure to the rear of the golf ball. If you want to hit stronger and longer shots, make sure that both hands are rotated slightly behind the handle of the golf club.

Principle # 3 - The accelerating golf club should decelerate as late as possible.
A golf club at the start of the downswing accelerates, achieves peak acceleration and then decelerates until it stops. Every golf club swung by a human being does this. You may have heard commentators describe how pro’s “accelerate through the ball” which is a nice thought but actually it doesn’t happen quite like that. In fact the golf club is slowing down as it comes into contact with the golf ball and for some golfers it’s slowing down quite rapidly. The key is to reduce the deceleration so that it happens as late as possible.

How do you do it?
Make short backswings with a full and complete wrist cock. Swing your arms back to about 9 o’clock with the clubhead pointing directly upwards. From this position swing the club to the finish position and create a loud whoosh sound on the target side of the golf ball. As you whoosh your golf club swing into a perfectly balanced finish position. The key to this practice method is to only focus on developing the whoosh in front of the golf ball rather than at the golf ball. Now transfer the feeling into your golf swing by still focusing on creating the whoosh in front of the golf ball.

Practice developing the pro golf swing principles and incorporate them into your golf swing. With some consistent practice you will start to notice improved results leading to more consistency and golf confidence.

Until next time.

Lawrie Montague