fbpx

Golf Tips

Being In Control

by

Having now worked with thousands of golfers, their universal desire is to be in control of their golf ball. They want the ball to go exactly where they want it to go. The single reason these golfers attend our school is to learn what to do with the golf club to make the ball go exactly where they want.

While they will have game-improving instruction and lots of time for skill acquisition, there is another dimension to playing well. It’s sometimes referred to as the mental side of golf and has to do with the thoughts swirling in our heads as we approach a shot. Here are three aspects of the mental side that I know will improve your game immediately.

  • Self Talk. Consider your response to a caddy that would criticize your shot, remind you that you are not good out of the sand, or draw your attention to all the places you don’t want to hit your ball. While that’s obviously objectionable, what’s not obvious is how we say many of these same things to ourselves during the round. Here is improvement No. 1—No Complaining about a shot you made or the recovery shot you have to make. Those thoughts and words are more injurious than a downhill braking putt or a buried lie in the bunker.
  • Competing. Unlike in almost any other sport, your competitor cannot physically affect your performance. They cannot put your ball in a divot or deep rough nor can they interfere with your golf swing. Here is improvement No. 2—Your competitor is the golf course. The winner, the champion is the player who competes the best against par.
  • Process. Know the difference between “process” and “product”. Your ball fight is the product. Your setup and swing is the process. We can’t control the ball flight. We can control the process. A highly defined process (grip, alignment, posture, and swing) is the single common denominator of every consistent golfer. Here is improvement No. 3—Establish a process. Make your goal to religiously perform the process for each shot—especially the difficult ones.

Bottom Line: With no change in your swing or your equipment, your game will improve with these three initiatives: No Complaining, Compete Against the Course, and Establish a Process.

At the Core of COR (Coefficient of Restitution)

by

The former land speed world record holder Bobby Thompson once said, “Too much speed is never enough.” For golfers this could translate as “too much distance is never enough.” Golfers are always attentive when it comes to driving the ball further. And so it was of no surprise that the design of “hot drivers” gets a lot of press coverage.

These drivers are deemed hot because of their “coefficient of restitution” (COR) numbers. Put simply this is a measure of the speed of a ball departing the club face relative to the speed of the club. When a club arrives at the ball at 100 mph and the ball leaves the club face at 83 mph, the club measures a COR of .83. The USGA has now raised the allowable COR to .86.

Before you rush out to lay down a few Ben Franklins on a new high COR driver, give a moment to consider the following:

  • If your driver swing speed is less than 100 mph and you have an .83 COR driver, moving to a .86 you gain three to five yards

  • If your driver is several years old its COR could be in the .76-.80 range. Stepping up to a .86 could mean 10 yards or more. Now we’re talking one less club for your second shot and a tighter landing pattern.

  • However, if you don’t hit the “hot spot” (that portion of the club face with the high COR) the gain will be less.

  • Driving the ball further demands better accuracy.       Adding ten yards to a drive that would have stopped five paces short of the rough now means a drive that carries the rough. If you don’t hit it straight, you definitely don’t want to hit it far.

Bottom Line: Higher COR can mean longer drives. Before you buy a high COR driver, buy some “impact tape” ($2). With a strip of it on your driver, you’ll be able to see how often you are hitting the ball with the center of the club face. Improve center contacts and all of your present clubs will send your shots further and straighter.

 

Enjoy the thrill of hitting better shots!

Heartland Golf Schools

St. Louis

A Margin for Success

by

The Problem.

Why do many good players not hit a driver off every par 4 and par 5? Surely they aren't worried about overshooting the green. Why not aim at every pin? Isn't that where we want the ball to end up? We need to have a strategy that tells us when the most obvious shot is the wrong shot. We need to have a strategy to take on the course that builds in a "margin for success".

The Solution.

Here's a simple way do this. The next time you are at the practice tee, pick out a target for full swings with a wedge. Hit a dozen golf balls and note how far each of them land from the target (only count good swings). What was the average distance they landed from the target? For a typical golfer (16 handicap and above), they will find that their margin for success is about 8% of the distance to the target. So for a 100-yard shot their margin is 8 yards. Practically speaking, when they hit a wedge to a flag their good swings will land the ball within an 8 yard circle (24 feet) around the cup. For a 150 yard shot the circle grows to 36 feet.

Take Away.

So when we are getting ready to pick our target, draw the appropriate circle around it. If the flag is tucked against one side of the green and the 24-foot circle encompasses a green-side bunker, that would not be a flag we would shoot at. The same reasoning goes for your tee shot.

If your not sure of the percentage of margin your game deserves, start with 8% and adjust after a round or two. Always go for the best target unless trouble lies within your "margin for success".

Enjoy the thrill of hitting better shots!
Heartland Golf Schools
St. Louis