The Official 2007 Post Your Best Tip Thread

[QueenCityGolfer]

This is a thread for members to post their best tips. Ideally, you should pick a tip based on the strongest aspect of your game. If you are a good driver of the ball, share your best driving tip. If you are a great putter, share your best putting tip, and so on and so forth.

Alright then. I will start off by talking about getting the ball to spin around the greens.

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First of all, forget everything you ever heard about how you get the ball to spin. You don't need to hit down on the back of the ball, you don't need to generate tons of clubhead speed, and you don't need to keep all of your weight on your front foot. Where you play the ball in your stance is irrelevant to the rate of spin. Ball position only dictates the trajectory and distance. Length of swing and contact are the two primary factors that relate to spin in this application.

Before you ever think of getting a ball to spin, you have to have 4 things going for you. 1. You need a good Tour-level ball, like a Pro V1, HX Tour, One Platinum, etc etc. A cheap 2 piece ball is not going to spin much. 2. You need a wedge with clean grooves, that aren't worn down. 3. You need a wedge that doesn't have a lot of bounce. Too much bounce will not allow the clubhead to slide under the ball clean enough to induce the spin. My wedge has 8 degrees of bounce, I really need 4 degrees. I wouldn't go any higher than 8. 4. You need a green that is fairly soft. A green that's too dry will not be receptive to the shot.

Now on to the technique.

This shot can be played with many different lofted wedges, but I think it's easiest with a 60 degree, so this is what I'll base the information on.

Ok. The first thing you need to make sure of is that your grip pressure is very light. The second thing you need to make sure of, is that your grip pressure is really light. Did I mention that your grip pressure needs to be really light? Lag is crucial to this shot, and you can't get it with too tight of a grip on the club. You want to literally feel like the club almost comes loose from your hands when you complete the swing. It should be flimsy in your hands when you are in your finish position. You want just enough pressure to keep it in your hands.

The second thing you need to do, is almost completely take your hands out of the through-swing. If you get flippy with your wrists, or get too handsy, all you are going to do is pop the ball up into the air with very little spin on the ball. If you have very little grip pressure, this will help to take your hands out of the shot. The whole key to this shot is swinging with your big muscles. I mentioned lag. The feeling is going to be that of the clubhead getting well behind you, while your front side begins turning through the ball. The sooner you get your hips moving, and the cleaner you pick the ball, the more spin you will achieve. The clubhead is the last thing you want moving towards the ball. A good way to set yourself up for this motion, is to keep the club very low on the takeaway. Low and slow.

The trajectory of the shot, when played back in your stance with a square clubface, should be very low, even with a 60 degree. The ball should bounce a few times, and then check up. That said, this shot can be played all kinds of ways. You can play it up in your stance a bit more, you can open the blade, open your stance more....the spin is not dictated by ball position, it is totally predicated on the swing technique itself. You can even spin the ball out of the rough a little bit. All you need to do is open the blade, take the club back to the inside (preferably), and again, get your hips moving, and hit the ball with your big muscles. Very little hand action, very little grip pressure. The ball should pop out, bounce a little, and stop dead.

When you hit the shot properly (from the short grass), you should know it the moment the ball leaves the clubhead. You should feel a little tug, in addition to the feeling you get when you take a practice swing and just graze the top of the grass. The feeling you should get out of the rough is that it's twice as thick as it really is. It should feel extremely thick in fact. All that really is, is you utilizing the entire face of the club, and it passing underneath the ball fairly cleanly.

Very little speed is required to generate enough spin to stop the ball from the short grass. You'll need to put a bit more on it out of the rough. Now obviously, the farther away from the green you are, the bigger swing you can take, and the more spin you can generate, and controlling the spin gets more difficult the farther away you are from the green. This is not an easy shot. You have to be somewhat proficient with a lob wedge going in. If not, you won't have a basic understanding of what you are doing. If hitting a high loft wedge from a tight lie intimidates you, then you have some ways to go before you can really impliment this shot to your game.

This is how I play the shot. I hope it helps.

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Who's next to share????

[ironman]

"Take two weeks off from playing golf...then don't go back."


seriously,
"Relax, look at your target, and the intended ball path. Really relax your body, so your mind can direct your body. Don't think, keep it simple. Just breath and visualize the ball going to the target and let the mind guide the body" Something to that effect by "Count" Yogi, in his book.

[LyleG]

My tip is to avoid any tips you get on golf review.

[pingman360]

My tip is to avoid any tips you get on golf review.

that actually is a great one... mine is pretty simple too... find an instructor you gt along with (one who you like his teaching methods) and only take advice from him...

[SwingHarder]

Swing harder!

[DENNIS7180GOLF]

Swing as hard as you can,just in case you hit it perfect.

[pagolf92]

Have a good pre-shot routine. If you have a routine that you do every time you step up to hit a shot, it makes you more comfortable, even undr pressure.

[Not a hacker]

My tip is to avoid any tips you get on golf review.

Couldn't agree more Lyle. Especially ignore tips and advice from high handicappers.

[ironman]

My tip is to avoid any tips you get on golf review.

do everthing LyleG says, particularly this tip...

[dwboston]

Hover the putter (don't ground it) on short putts inside 5 or 6 feet. Really promotes a smooth stroke and takes your hands/wrists completely out of it. It's helped me a lot on holing short putts.

[Not a hacker]

I think Dirty Harry says it best when it comes to this, except he used 'opinion' instead of 'tip'

'Opinions are like arseholes. Everybody's got one, and they're usually full of s#*t'.

[QueenCityGolfer]

I'm not of the opinion that the average player can only communicate worthless information, so anybody else willing to contribute something worth reading, please do.

[Omen2]

KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN.

TAKE LESSONS...

....NEVER DO ANYTHING GIMMICKY TO FIX THE BALL FLIGHT: i.e. stronger grip, play with ball position.... learn to swing the club correctly.

VIDEOTAPE YOUR SWING AND THEN LOOK AT IT TO SEE IF IT CLOSELY RESEMBLES THE PROS.

SHORTEN YOUR BACKSWING....

..... BUT THE BIGGEST PIECE OF ADVICE I CAN GIVE ANYONE IS......



NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER TRY AND BUMP AND RUN A 60* WEDGE.....it's the equivelant of trying to hit a sand shot with a 2 iron.

[Rainkingjr]

One of the best tips that applied to my game and is actually featured in July's Golf Digest, page 122 for those who are interested. It concerns speed through impact. It also relates to the proper release point as well. I struggled for a long time with releasing the club way too early. I was actually releasing the club at the back of the ball rather than through the impact area. I hit tons of thin, weak shots. My direction never really suffered, but I was wearing out the bottom two grooves on my irons. There are three drills in the article in Golf Digest, my favorite being the one where you swing the club over the ball making sure the woosh sound occurs at the bottom of the swing arc. I make sure it happens just after passing the ball. This drill has done wonders for my contact and really helps me keep the angle of my right wrist without thinking about it too much. It feels great to be back to hitting soild irons shots again.

[gowfer]

greenside bunkers - you can take as much sand as you want. the harder you hit it the more sand, you can take a full and aggressive swing for only a 10 yard shot if you really splash it, or just a wee bit if you swing soft and easy, I prefer to take loads of sand and be very aggressive, ensures the ball rises steeply and stops very quickly. just don't make the mistake of a big swing and little sand, or lot's of sand and a wee swing, the former will result in you carrying the green by 40 yards the latter a duff into the face of the bunker.

[Gary Bell]

Great Post Queen City Golfer. Used this technique this evening and it worked really well from any distance shorter than 50yrds. One bounce and stop instantly on the second. the one thing I noticed that it was easier to play from light rough compared to the fairway, probably because it was easier to slide the club under the ball. Light grip and get the feeling that your hands & arms were soft or dead like. Fantastic results. I suppose it helps when I play with the Titleist Vokey SM 60 (04).

You have given me two quality tips, the other being the 5-20 yrd flop shot. Open the club face and your stance, play it off the toe. Ball flies high and short.

Ignore the rest, you are providing people with top notch techniques, keep them coming!

I play off 8, long game is below average, my irons are below average and my chipping is below average (hopefully now after these two tips I'll see an improvement as I did today!) I hit approx 5/14 fairways, 6 or 7 GIR so I guess it means I'm a good putter, I very rarely 3-putt, average per round is between 24-30.Obviously missing a lot greens helps this stat.

My tip on long putts is to walk them, pace is the most important aspect of this shot. I see too many high handicappers not bother to go up to see what the slopes are like around the hole. Look for up slopes and down slopes along the way. Clean contact is critical. A shorter than you think back swing while accelerating through the ball on contact will ensure the clean contact.

My tip on shorter putts inside 6 feet. Make sure you are confident of the line! Do not begin to putt if you have not made up your mind. Once decided, use your alignment aid on the putter to pin-point, even if this means minute adjustments while hovering over the ball. This will give you confidence that you have the exact line required. Finally, short back, accelerate through, try it! It keeps the putter on the line you chose. I promise you will make more putts!

[QueenCityGolfer]

Great Post Queen City Golfer. Used this technique this evening and it worked really well from any distance shorter than 50yrds. One bounce and stop instantly on the second. the one thing I noticed that it was easier to play from light rough compared to the fairway, probably because it was easier to slide the club under the ball.

That's exactly why.

You have given me two quality tips, the other being the 5-20 yrd flop shot. Open the club face and your stance, play it off the toe. Ball flies high and short.

Ignore the rest, you are providing people with top notch techniques, keep them coming!

Glad I could be of some assistance.

[xxHighSchoolGolfxx]

My best tip, one which has really helped me from around 100-130 yards, is to swing L to L......Meaning Swing about 3/4 of the way back, and 3/4 of the way to a high follow through....Your arms should produce an "L"....swing smooth and you will be happy with the results.