Photo credit Graemebird

I thought I’d offer a little introduction about how golfing in general and the golf stance in particular, but I decided to skip it and come right to the point.

Okay so here’s the basic golf stance:

1. Start by standing straight with feet together and your club up in the air.
2. The proper involves proper angles throughout your body. Make an angle in your hips by bending just a bit forward and letting your hands to hang down.
3. Bend your knees slightly and maintain balance in your feet with half your weight on your heels and the other, on the balls of your feet.
4. Maintain this posture and move forward or backward until the clubface is directly behind the golf ball. The golf ball should be at the center of the clubface without changing your stance.
5. Next, place your feet about shoulder width apart.
6. With short irons, the golf ball should be positioned in line with the middle of your feet.
7. With long irons and a 5-wood, move so that the golf ball is positioned just in front of the center of your feet.
8. With drivers or a 3-wood, move so that the golf ball is positioned just inside of your front foot.
9. If you are an advanced golfer, you may tweak your initial stance so that you tilt a little behind the ball. Maintain your balance between your front and back feet, and bend your spine from center just a nudge towards your back foot. This will help you make a better shoulder turn and allow the coil to tighten easily in your backswing. You will also be able to keep your head behind the ball through impact.

Now that you know how to make the proper golf stance, keep practicing.

Photo credit golflearningcentre

One of the most important things to do when trying to get out of greenside bunkers is to keep the face of your golf club open.

Closing the face of your golf club will result in lower trajectory and your golf club will tend to dig in the sand as opposed to slicing a thin layer of sand up and towards the green, which is the right thing to do.

Photo credit Richard Carter

When making a golf shot from the bunker, you need to focus on sliding a thin “divot” of sand from beneath the ball and onto the green.

Again, keep that clubface open a few degrees as you line up slightly to the left (to the right if you’re left handed). “Splash” the sand towards the green and the ball will follow.

Good luck and happy golfing!

Photo credit jakeswain

Need to improve your golf game? Then the first thing you need to do is improve your posture.

Proper posture is vital to your golf game. It helps give you a good balance resulting in your making solid contact with the golf ball.

You need to begin your swing in the correct posture, so that you can maintain the appropriate angles you have created in your stance throughout your swing.

If you stand bent down too low, then you will be inclined to raise your body up straight during the swing, which will cause you to hit the top of the ball.

If you stand too straight, then you will swing the golf club flat, and also hit the top of the golf ball.

You need to have good balance on your feet, so you can create a full powerful swing that hits the center of the ball squarely with the center of the clubface. This gives you a lot of control of your shot.

If your balance is too much toward your toes, then the coil of your backswing will be restricted, which will cause a short, quick swing. This type of swing will not harness all the power required to make a good solid golf shot.

Photo credit klavr

According to Ben Hogan, the legendary golfer, “A player with a bad golf grip doesn’t want a good swing.”

So, in order for you to have a good swing, you must have the correct golf grip. Here are a few tips to help you improve your golf game:

1. Hold the top of the golf club with your right hand. Allow your left hand hang naturally from the shoulder with your hand down the side of the golf club grip. The left hand will actually turn slightly inwards, towards the body.

Photo credit livsafe

2. Bring the left hand forward from its natural hanging position and place it against the golf club grip. The shaft should run from the fleshy pad in your palm down diagonally downwards. It should run approximately a quarter of an inch from the base of your pinky down through the middle joint of your index finger.

3. Now close the fingers of your left hand to form the golf grip. Do not grip the club too tightly. The perfect grip pressure is like holding a tube of toothpaste. It should be tight enough to hold it without squeezing out the paste.

Photo credit digitalbook

4. Your thumb should be on top of the grip, just a little to the right of center as you look down on it. Do not push the left thumb too far down the grip of the club. It may give the feeling of a more solid hold on the club, but in fact has the opposite effect, as it prevents the thumb from supporting the golf club properly at the top of the backswing.

5. Now bring your right hand from its natural position, and lay the club into the fingers. Your right thumb and index finger should form a kind of trigger around the grip. Rest the little finger of your right hand into the groove formed by the first and second fingers of the left hand.

Have the feeling that the palm of your right hand mirrors the angle of the golf club face. Now that you know how to properly grip a golf club, keep practising as there is really no short cut to becomming an excellent golfer.

Need to lower your handicap? Here are a few tips that will teach you how:

1. Move Up

If you Have trouble finding a mental breakthrough, play from the forward tees. This will alter your comfort zone and lower your scores. A shorter course will instill a “go-for-par” or birdie mindset that will remain with you when you go back to your accustomed tees. If you can’t score any better from the forward tees, then you might need extra work on your short game!

2. Practice Daily

You get out what you put into the game — the reason why regular practice is a must if you want your game to improve. If you think you’re time pressed, just take a club out in the backyard and swing it for 15 minutes a day and you’re done.

3. When You Play Golf, Play Golf

If you’re going to take the time to play, do it seriously and focus on each shot. Never make a careless swing during a serious round! Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t have fun—it just means you should turn up the focus a notch. Use the driving range for working on technical skills, and the golf course for focusing on the real target: lowering your score.

4. Get Better Gear

This doesn’t mean spending thousands of dollars on equipment. However, tweaking an old set that’s not fitted properly can make a difference in the consistency and distance of your shot. Get your old gear custom fitted and see your shots improve.

5. Don’t Shortchange Your Short Game

More than half the strokes in a typical golfer’s game involve chipping and putting. Devote most of your practice to your short game. Just like football, advancing to the two-yard line means nothing if you can’t make it to the end zone.

6. Write it Down

Documenting your hits and misses can help you improve your game. Where do you hit good shots, and where do you hit poor ones? Did you hit right, left, or on top? How many putts of less than five feet do you miss? Keep a journal and consult it periodically and concentrate on areas that need work.

Most, if not all, good golfers have some kind of a pre-shot routine before finally making the shot. These are simply rituals that include practically everything ranging from the way these players approach the ball to how they waggle.

So, what’s the purpose of these routines? When your shots are approached the same way every time, you reduce the risk of being affected by outside factors that can hamper your game. These can be pressure, wind, spectators or even jibes from your foursome.

Now here are some guidelines to help you develop a sound personal pre-shot routine:

1. Do it if it works for you.

Do whatever works best for you. How you arrive at your grip and stance that includes lining up the target and even waggling the club are all personal preferences. What is important here is not the exact details of how you execute them. What matters is that you turn this series of motions into a routine that you execute the same way each time in preparation for a shot. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Just go through your routine, think positive and make your shot. Once you’ve completed the routine, relax, let go, and just do it!

2. Lining up routine

Try placing a golf club on the ground next to the ball and aim it toward the target. Look from behind the club and see if it’s positioned just right. Lay down a second club parallel to the first at just where your feet would be. This foot line should be slightly left of the target. Check that Your knees, hips, and shoulders are all in the same line. Do this a few times, and then perform the same routine without the clubs on the ground. While alignment can be one of the easiest mistakes to correct, a bad alignment can be one of the most devastating, because you must compensate for it in your swing.

3. See it happen

A lot of good players “feel” the shot before it occurs. You too can develop this skill by visualizing a positive image of the ball’s flight before you make your shot. Your visualization should include imagining the ball going straight toward the target and landing on the green softly. If you’re a beginners, you can make a realistic goal by just “seeing” the ball getting up in the air. The mind has enormous control over the body; use it to see what you want — not what you don’t want!

4. Reflect on your successes

When you hit a good shot, hold your finish and reinforce mentally what the swing felt like. This gives you a positive feedback that makes it much easier to recall these images and feelings during your pre-shot routine. When poor shots occur, don’t dwell on them. Use your mental energy to producing good shots!

These are time proven tips guaranteed to help you improve your golf game.