hr: Golfing

How to Lower Your Handicap

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.

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Making Your Pre-Shot Routine Work for You

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.

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Putting Under Windy Conditions

Photo credit: bvj07

What can a golfer do to keep your ball on course as you putt even when there’s a howling wind? Taking a normal putting stance with a taller posture and your feet close together make it easy for the wind to shove you out of position.

Under this condition, you have to brace yourself against the wind is the thing to do:

1. Position your feet further apart than usual. This effectively lowers the center of your gravity, increasing your balance. Play the ball in the center

of your stance.

2. Grip down on the shaft, with your right hand near the end of the handle.

3. Flex your knees and bend more from your hips.

This is a compact stance that is less affected by wind, helping you keep your stroke on line.

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How Dry-Swing Improves Your Game

There are three primary developmental steps that you must transform to turn your golf swing into a correct and repeatable motor task. 

You must first know why…
             then feel how…
                      and then do it correct over and over.

There are three primary developmental steps that you must transform to turn your golf swing into a correct and repeatable motor task. 

Learning the complex skill of swinging a golf club correctly is done the same way you learned to write.  First, you must begin with an understanding of the correct movement patterns of swinging a golf club.  This is followed by training the brain and body to recognize and “feel” the correct motion of the swing.  And thirdly, and very importantly, one must execute this new high-speed motor skill with a high number and percentage of correct repetitions until it becomes almost automatic…like writing. Faulty sensor information creates a faulty motor activity and inconsistent movement patterns. Another important factor to remember is that high skilled activity can only be developed if the neuromuscular system is working properly.

The Process:

• Step one: The understanding or cognitive stage can be characterized by the awareness of all the movements you are trying to coordinate. 

• Step two: The important feeling or kinesthetic awareness stage is the part of the swing development where one can take the cognitive information, and with accurate and immediate feedback, allow the brain and body to “feel” the proper movement. 

• Step Three: The over trained or automatic stage is achieved when the mind and body are able to perform the desired movement with a high level of consistency and accuracy.  This is accomplished after successfully performing high numbers of correct swing movements were the desired action becomes subconscious and consistent making it almost… automatic. 

Proper supervision and feedback from the golf instructor to the student is critical for motor learning development yet more often that not the information is inaccurate or used improperly. Computer aided real-time motion capture and real-time biofeedback training provides accurate and consistent feedback for the golfer and makes the instructor more effective.

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Golfing Biography: Annika Sorenstam

Annika was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 9, 1970.

In 1987, Annika joined the Swedish National Golf Team. She credits fellow Swede Liselotte Neumann’s win at the 1988 Women’s Open for heightening her interest in golf. She played in the World Amateur Golf Team Championships in 1990 and in 1992, when she won the Championship.

Annika also won the 1991 National Co-Player of the Year, 1992 Pac-10 Champion and was named to the 1991-1992 All-American team. In 1992, she was a runner-up for the National Player of the Year Award and also finished second to Vicki Goetze at the United States Women’s Amateur Golf Championship. The following year, Annika was invited to play in three LPGA events, finishing in the Top Ten in two events and earning over $47,000.

 In 1996, Annika again won three events, including the U.S. Women’s Open. She passed the $1 million mark in LPGA career earnings and won her second straight Vare Trophy for lowest season scoring average. 1997 brought six more LPGA victories, a homecoming win in a WPGET event in Sweden and a second Rolex Player of the Year Award. In 1998, Annika won four events, as well as her third Vare Trophy and third Rolex Player of the Year Award. She also became the first player in LPGA history to finish a season with a sub-70 scoring average (69.99).

That year she became the second player in LPGA history to win 11 tournaments in a season, and she set or tied 20 LPGA records. Her 11-stroke victory at the Kellogg-Keebler Classic tied an LPGA record for largest margin of victory in a 54-hole event. Including her victories on the Ladies European Tour, Annika won 13 events in only 25 starts.

Annika became the sixth player in LPGA history to complete the LPGA Career Grand Slam in 2003, after winning the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and the Weetabix Women’s British Open. She won five other events worldwide that year, set or tied 22 LPGA records, and received her sixth Rolex Player of the Year Award.

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4 Steps: The Perfect Putt

My uncle used to tell me that the scores are not made on the tee-off but on the putting green. I have lived to tell you that this statement is indeed true in all forms and putting, requires a great amount of practice like any of your clubs. These 4 steps I have came up is my personal tried and tested regimen to remove “putter’s block” as what my uncle used to describe my dilemma at the green.

1.       Visualize

Visualize where you want your ball to be heading. Ignore the brakes while visualizing. Visualize a straight path from the ball to the pin. Align your putter to the appropriate intended direction.  

2.       Calculate

Now is the time to kneel down at the green, remove your gloves, and caress the grass to see how soft or coarse it is. Check to see where the breaks are. Adjust the backswing and follow-through accordingly.

3.       Dry-Stroke

Never underestimate the power of your dry-stroke. Your dry-swing would usually be much more ideal than your actual stroke or it may be much mire undesired. The goal of the dry-stroke is to incorporate all your visualization and calculations into a stroke well-coordinated and adjust it accordingly to any sudden change of external factors.

4.       Approach

If you did your dry-stroke right, approaching the ball, is already half the victory. With the dry-stroke, your ball approach could already hold a subconscious outcome. If your stroke did not go as what was planned, note that any frustration could harm your game. Never try to bail your score out by trying desperate strokes on the green. Be on the safe side and enjoy the game.

The green could be intimidating for some and be a time to make scores for a very few others. “Putter’s block” is natural, and the most natural thing to do to solve this dilemma is to embrace your fear and be optimistic about the outcome.

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4 Steps: Making the Perfect Swing

1.       Check Your Grip

Choking your club would definitely not help you in giving you more momentum in hitting the ball. Make your grip never too light or too tight. Try a drill using a toothpaste tube opened and try swinging with it. If the toothpaste comes out of the tube, you could tell that your grip is too tight. If you see the tube itself flying, tighten a little bit your grip.

2.       Observe Your Posture

Your posture affects the place in your club that hits your ball dramatically. Leaning too forward would have your club dig the green and therefore loss momentum in hitting the ball. Leaning too back would let you hit the ball only partially which would also not transfer the most momentum to the ball.

3.       Adjust Your Stance

Make sure you are pointing to the right direction as you may be performing the correct swing but aiming for the wrong thing. Make sure both of your feet are levelled with each other. Please also do make sure that both your feet are pointing to your intended target. Sometimes, these little refinements do count in your game.

4.       Hit the Ball, As Naturally as Possible

Remove the outside noise you are hearing by focusing on the ball. Forget analyzing your back swing while you perform it, instead, analyze your swing after you have performed it. You will always find mistakes at your swing so, swing as naturally as possible as your current swing would most likely yield you the best accuracy and range you could get as of that moment.

Playing good golf is easier said than done. The right habits and the right attitude would set you ahead of the others. Follow these four steps and see your game improve in no time.

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Player Etiquette

Very often neglected for some, and for others unaware of, player etiquette on the green is as important as the game itself. It allows you to successfully play the round while letting others to enjoy the experience too. Here are some things you need to know about golfing etiquette.

1.       Let them Hole Out First

Even though how slow they play, let them hole out. Never, under any circumstances, allow yourself to take “overtake” the other group.

2.       Speed Your Game

Perform a dry swing only once and grab your next club while approaching your ball are two of some of the simple steps you could make in speeding up your game and letting others enjoy the golfing experience too.

3.       Avoid Course Damage

Step on the grass after you performed your swing to let the grass grow again. Rake the bunker after you made the shot. This not only shows how a gentleman should treat the course.

4.        Avoid Causing Distractions

Howling is completely rude and unacceptable. The only time you shout is the only time you have to say “Fore” in order to ensure the safety of other players. As much as possible, put your  cellular phones in vibrate mode or switch them off. Some courses enforce the “No Cellphone” rule in some of their greens in order to maintain tranquillity. Please do follow them.

Golf is not only about it’s game but It also became important to let every player learn that golf is also considered a gentleman’s sport. So the next time you go to the green, please put in mind these 5 points.

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