A good driver shot will be a simple golf swing. Your feet should be slightly wider than normal when setting up for the Driver. They should actually be outside of the tips of your shoulders. Also, in the setup for a normal golf swing, the back foot should be set a straight line at right angle to the swing line. When hitting the driver, because the feet are wider, you may want to turn the back to outward slightly, to take some of the stress off the back knee. You now need to ensure that your shoulders are parallel with the ground targets and to achieve this before you address the ball, line yourself up a couple of yards behind the ball. Make a note of any pitch marks, leaves, or tuffs of grass in a direct line with your ball and the target. When you the address the ball ensure your shoulders are parallel to the ball and the point in front of the ball you have noted. Keep your eyes on the ball with your head tilted downwards. Your back should be straight but you’re your upper body your be slightly tilted towards the ball. Your arms should hang freely in front of your body.

Your back swing will now be very similar to any shot you play but beware of the speed. Do not increase the speed in an attempt to go farther. Increasing the speed of the back swing can just throw you off balance and spoil all of the other elements of the shot. In essence your back swing is a slow motion golf swing. The power of the swing should be generated by the downward swing.

It is also important to stay on or over the ball when you take back the club on your back swing. Do not allow your hips to slide backwards with the club. The hips should turn, not slide, and that front foot should stay on the ground during the back swing. The club should be taken back straight and away at to cause a wide arc, but you must stay over the ball. The weight should be shifted to the back foot without sliding the body. It cannot be said enough, “turn the hips, don’t slide them”.

When using the driver as opposed to other clubs, the set up and the back swing are the only elements that are changed. Obviously the driver length, heavier club head, and wide stance cause slight difference than with other clubs, like shoulders turn further, chin tucks into chin deeper, down swing is faster but these are naturally occurring events, and the golfer should not give thought to giving assistance for any of them. The only caveat to that statement would be to make sure that your arms and shoulders are working in conjunction, and that one is not getting ahead of the other.

Because of this, your goal isn’t always to make every putt, but to get your first putt so close that your 2nd putt is a gimme of less than three feet. Most golfers say one of their favorite things are “Tap ins for pars.” If your 30 footer goes in, then great, but you can’t count on that working for you every time. The easiest way to three putt is to mess up the distance on your first one.

So, what putting tip will give you this kind of touch? It comes down to three things, tempo, setup, and reading the speed of a green.

Tempo is literally how fast you swing the club, and how long it takes your complete stroke to finish. Nearly every golfer has a different speed, but most golfers put too quickly. You really don’t need to hit the ball hard, you need to have a nice, smooth swing, that is even and graceful. Having a relaxed tempo will give you those days when you say you “putt well today.”

Another thing to consider is that to a degree, your putter swings itself. Once you let it go, there are forces such as gravity, drag, wind, etc, that move the putter. To test it, hold your putter in one hand, take a backstroke, and just let it fall. Most putters will complete the motion for you in a second or so. Also notice when you do this how smoothly the putter swings. You want to emulate this.

This is part of your setup. Address the ball the same way every time, pull the club back the same way, and take the same stroke. This is critical to creating a consistent speed of your club, and keeping your tempo the same.

Understanding the “speed” of a green is a skill that is only gained through experience. There are some general tips to follow, though. The longer the grass the green has, the slower it will be. Wet greens are slower than dry ones, grass that stands straight up are faster than those that have bent grass, etc. There’s a rating that you can give a green to determine its speed, but that’s probably overkill. Some common sense works just as well.

Looking at pro golfers, you’ll find that within 5 feet, pros hit 97% of their shots. In fact, it’s a shocker when someone like Tiger Woods misses a 4 footer to lose a championship, though it does happen. When you are already hitting 97% of your putts, there’s very little room for improvement. In fact, hitting these putts is a lot less about technique than it is about nerves and stability.

Now, lets go a little further from the cup. Putts of 5 to 10 feet have much more variability. The top guys are still hitting 70%, but if you exclude the top 25 pros, the number drops to about 55%. Beyond 10 feet, the numbers drop wildly, with something like 20% of all puts beyond 10 feet getting sunk. Of course, this includes the 100 footers than no one was ever going to sink.

So, what can we learn from this? That depends on where you are yourself. If you are hitting about 20% of your long putts, then you are roughly on par with the pros. You can work on getting better at this, but there’s probably not a whole lot of gain to be had. For most amateur golfers, the goal of a 15 footer (or longer) is to get it close, to try to be within 3 feet, to make a simple putt to close out the hole.

Now go one range in, how are you doing from 5-10 feet? Are you hitting about half of them, like the pros do? Or are you doing worse? These kinds of putts come up in every round, and shaving a few will certainly help you score better. But if you already are hitting 5 out of 10, then you may only be able to make marginal improvement. You aren’t supposed to make all, or even most, of these, but you should start keeping track.

Finally, the very short putts, the 5 footers. Be honest, are you truly hitting 97% of them? I’m certainly not. I don’t feel that I have the yips, but maybe I lose focus, or concentration. Sometimes I get frustrated because I had a 40 footer that was right on line, and I left it four feet short. Or I don’t take the time that I should. I’m not necessarily missing one of these every hole, but 5 feet and in is not a gimme for me, either.

Okay, so, in order to score better, I think we can see that we should be focused on the shorter range putts. Get our 5 footers up to 90%, and our 10 footers up to 50%. Why, then, on the practice range, do we always try the 50 footers, and practice those? We know that those don’t have that much bearing on our scores. It’s the 8 footer that comes after the 50 footer that matters.

Putting generally consumes 50 percent of the strokes in a round which is about half of your golf score. Putting should therefore get more attention in practicing and preparing for play.  Many top golfers therefore devote much of their practicing time to golf putting practice.

Putting grips

The putter may be gripped in many ways. The golf putting grip basically stabilizes the left wrist so that it does not get bent toward the hole during the follow through of the stroke. If you are struggling on the greens then  changing putting grip could do wonders for you. Before you get started, you need to learn how to hold the putter correctly in your hands. Keep the putter flat and diagonally across the fleshy pads of the palm. You need to ensure the putter shaft runs in a straight line with your forearm almost as if it is an extension of your forearm. You can try any of these popular styles.

1. This golf putting grip is popularly known as the Traditional Overlap and is the most popular of our putting grips. Place your left hand to the putter grip and then just below rest your right hand around the putter grip. Connect both of your hands by lifting the index finger of your left hand and wrapping it over the fingers of the right.

2. The Two Fingers Down grip as the name suggest starts by covering both hands around the putter grip in a way that it rests in the palms. Then lift the index finger of the right hand and the left hand and place them so they point straight down the side of the putter grip.

3. The claw is the most unusual golf putting grip. This style of putting grip has saved many golfers trapped in putting crisis. Like the traditional way you should start by placing your left hand on the putter grip. Then place your right hand on top of your putter grip. Finally hook your hand in position by wrapping your right thumb around.

4. The left below right grip has been a popular choice in recent years. It is basically the reverse of traditional golf putting grip. This grip suggests placing your right hand at the top of the putter grip, and your left hand at the bottom. Link both hands by wrapping the index finger of the right hand across the fingers of the left hand.

5. The box grip is a very new style of golf putting grip that has come up in the last couple of years. Place both hands side by side, level with each other on the grip, so that the shoulders are level. Next place your left hand at the top of the grip with the index finger running down the side of the grip. Then put your right hand an inch below so that the hands together form a box shape.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Davenport http://EzineArticles.com/?5-Golf-Putting-Grips&id=919533

The trouble may be easy to see, such as close out-of-bounds markers, water, a fairway trap, or a line of trees.  The difficulty could also be hard to spot, such as fairway with uneven lie, or a hill that will obfuscate your view of the next shot, or even just a different cut of rough.

Whichever it is, a very simple strategy is to tee your ball off on the side of the tee box that has the trouble, and hit out of it, instead of hitting into it.

If the spot you want to avoid is on the right side, start from the right side, and aim “left,” that is, towards the middle.  This doesn’t mean you wont slice your drive, but it does mean that if you do slice, you may find yourself in a better situation than you were in — and your ball has a better shot of staying in bounds.

Another thing to consider is the evenness of the tee box itself. Often there are slight rises or depressions in the box.  If there are, be sure to put your ball in the forward edge of one.  This will give you a slight uphill lie, which many golfers consider to create an easier shot overall.  Also, tee boxes are unlike hazards, in that it’s okay to clear away anything that may affect your shot, like an anthill, big rock, or tuft of grass.  Be sure you’re hitting from a clean surface.

These tips may seem simplistic, or obvious, but it’s often the simple things that make all the difference.  Watch pro golfers on television, and you’ll see the care they take in placing their ball in the ground, both in where they place it, and what it’s like around them.  Any advantage that can be taken is valuable, to the duffer and pro alike.

What does this mean to a golfer? It is almost always said to someone on the putting green, just as they left a put about six inches short. You will be called Nancy, or Alice, or something less flattering. It is frustrating, and it hurts your score – not to mention your confidence in your putter. So, what can you do? The answer is deviously simple, “hit the ball harder.”

Okay, that was too simple, but the idea is simple, too. Many people line up putts with the front lip of the hole in mind, and slightly misjudge the speed to put on the ball with the putt. If you aim at the very front of the hole, then you have to be nearly perfect in judging how hard to hit the ball, and still make it in. This means you have to factor in break, slope, imperfections on the green, wind, and a whole bunch of other factors, just so that your ball has a chance of going in. For many players, this strategy is too hard.

It is much better, and much safer, to instead aim for a spot about six inches past the hole, and put enough of a charge on the putt to get it there. There are three advantages to doing this. First, the more power you put behind a putt, the less it will be affected by the break in the green. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “putting through the break.” This means exactly as it sounds, you put enough emphasis behind it, and the ball goes through the break, and is unaffected by it. For short putts in particular, this is a very good idea. Second, putting some speed on the ball gives the ball enough momentum to get past small imperfections, like spike marks or uneven surfaces. It will roll happily over small spots on the green, and continue on its way. If you hit the ball softer, these imperfections have a much more pronounced effect. And third, most obviously, if you are aiming six inches past the hole, you have to be less perfect. A putt that would go in if the hole were actually six inches further away will likely still drop once it gets to the hole. As we said, if you only aim for the front, you have to be a perfect judge of distance. If you aim past the hole, you do not, you can be six inches short, or maybe even six inches long, and still sink the putt. Doing this increases your margin of error.

This may seem simple, but the best way to not leave your putt short, is to hit it long. There are clear advantages to doing so, and could save you not only a few strokes on your score, but also from being made fun of by your partners.

One of the wrong decisions that many golfers make is to treat every sand shot the same. This is simply not the case. Every sand shot will have a different lie, different slope, and a different strategy for getting out. Sometimes you’ll be blasting it out with the sand wedge, other times, you be trying to pick it with a long iron. Today we are going to talk about something different, using the putter to get your ball out of the sand.

While not often recommended, there are certain scenarios where attempting to putt out of a trap is a good idea. If the bunker is firm (not with fluffy sand, like kids play with on the beach) and the ball is sitting up, you may be able to strike it fairly strongly. Of course, you need to be in a position where you don’t need a lot of loft to get it over the lip of the bunker, or some other hazard.

To play the shot, you line up as if you were putting, but you put the ball somewhat further back in your stance that you normally would if you were on the putting surface. This is to prevent you from catching any sand before you strike the ball. You want to hit the ball in the upper half, and not pick up any sand at all. Because of this, the ball will do two things. First, striking down on the ball may cause it to pop up a little, and it will hop a bit right off the club. Second, this spin will reduce the speed of the ball, and actually allow you to give it a good whack. This means you can probably line up the shot at the hole, and give it a smack like you were playing mini-golf, with not much risk involved. Just be sure to catch the ball cleanly, and your ball will run.

So, the next time you are in a greenside bunker with a good lie, and no lip or other hazard to get over, consider pulling out the putter, and putting your way out. It may just be your best choice.

Those who don’t actually play golf have trouble calling golfers athletes. They look at some of the finest players, and see that they aren’t exactly in the kind of condition that we associate with great athletic feats. In addition, they rarely have big biceps, or other outward appearances that we would expect. That’s because the golfer uses a different set of muscles.

In golf, the muscles that matter the most live in your abdomen. And not just your stomach muscles, but the muscles in your inner abdomen, once you can’t even see, or even know that you have. In particular, the muscle known a the transverse abdominal muscle, which sits just below your internal oblique muscle. Its job, in a nutshell, is to compress the ribs, and other innards, which in turn, provides stability to your pelvis and spine. A healthy and strong transverse abdominal muscle will provide support and balance to your posture and swing, which is the most critical element of good play. If you cannot trust your body to stay straight on the ball, then your swing has little hope.

Luckily, not only is it an easy muscle to strengthen, it’s also an easy muscle to use in every day life. The abdominal muscles that one normally thinks of, the so-called six-pack abs, are created through crunches, leg raises, or other normal work on the belly. The transverse is exercised simply through deep, controlled body movement called a vacuum stretch, which is very similar to just breathing in. It is a component of the Yoga position the “cat stretch” which can be done on all fours, or standing up.

To perform the stretch, you stand up straight (or on all fours for the Yoga version) and draw your belly button up and in towards the spine. You can do this while reaching overhead, or while holding onto weights. The goal is to increase how far you can draw it in, and the duration you do so. Both of these are measures to determine how strong your muscles are getting, the more you can bring it up and in, and the longer you can hold it, the better range of motion and the better stability the muscles can impart. This is the active method of stretching it. The passive way is to draw in your belly button, and simply tie a string around your abdomen with about ¾ to 1 inch of slack from this position. This will force you to keep the muscles drawn in for long periods of time.

The next time you look at golfers, notice that it’s the muscles you don’t see that are making the difference. Washboard abs, big arms and the like may add some distance to shots, but what really matters in golf is stability. And that comes from much deeper inside.

From an early age, everyone who touches a golf club learns how to putt. Children play mini-golf, or play on the carpet at home, trying to putt a ball into a glass. So why is it that so many people have trouble when they get to the course, and are faced with a simple putt they’ve handled hundreds of times before? I’m talking specifically about those putts inside of 12 feet (4 steps!) away from the hole, with very little break. The kind of putt that if you could do it in your sleep, you’d probably hit it a large percentage of the time. Sadly, we don’t play in our sleep, and our conscious mind gets in the way more often than it should.

Over the past 20 years, there have been lots of ways that golfers, professionals and amateurs alike, have used to try to combat this problem. There’s been the long putter, that comes almost up to your neck, the big headed putter, heavy weight putters, and lots of other pieces of equipment meant to make it so that you can properly focus – or properly trick your mind – into making the putt.

If you aren’t interested in buying new clubs, another strategy you can try is to putt “cross-handed.” That is, instead of having your off-hand (your left hand, if you are right-handed) on the top, you cross them, and have your right-hand on the top, and your left hand on the bottom. This grip is sometimes known as “left-hand low.” Doing this has a couple of advantages, and a couple of disadvantages.

On the plus side, by moving your left hand to the bottom, it has the affect of closing your front shoulder a little. This will prevent you from opening your shoulder too widely when you strike the ball, something that can lead to pulling off the shot, which will give you a mis-hit. Conversely, because your right hand is on the top, you can’t use it to “turn the club over” by rolling your wrists, which is a natural inclination to do, similar to a baseball swing. If you hold the club this way, you just have to concentrate on taking it back, and following through. The position of your hands will prevent you from pulling off, or turning the club, two of the main problems you face on short putts.

On the down side, it takes a lot of practice to get an understanding of how hard you are hitting the ball. Since you don’t hit other clubs this way, it can take some time to figure out speed and distance using this grip. This is why, to start, you should stick with shots of 12 feet or less – the shorter the distance to gauge, the better.

To start this grip, you should do the opposite of what you normally do. First, grip the club with your right hand at the top of the shaft, with the pinky finger either hanging off the top, or right at the top, whichever is more comfortable. With just the right hand, line up the putt keeping the putter the normal distance from your midsection. Once you have that, place your left hand on top of your right, with the left pinky overlapping the right index finger. Make certain your forearms stay in proper proportion, and stay on the shot. If you have the shot lined up, this stance will prevent you from doing anything other than hitting the ball straight. Your arms will work against each other, to keep either from getting out of alignment.

For shorter, straight, putts, this is an ideal way to strike the ball cleanly and straight. Next time out on the course, give it a try, and see what kind of results you get.

One of the pithy golf sayings is “You drive for show, and putt for dough.” That is, while your driving may look pretty, it’s the short game that makes all the difference. A professional golfer, playing a standard par-72 course will only hit 18 shots off the tee, or 25% of his shots. The remaining 75% are approach shots, chips and putts. Your average weekend duffer who shoots 100 will be even more, with over 80% of their shots taken from somewhere other than the tee. So, in order to improve your score, you must focus on the shots you hit most often.

There are lots of errors you can make while chipping, but they basically break down into two kinds, hitting the ball “fat” and hitting it “thin.” Both involve hitting the ball with in the wrong place – or not hitting the ball solidly. When you hit the ball fat, it tends not to go very far, if it goes anywhere at all. This is caused by hitting the ground before the ball, which virtually eliminates any club speed you generated in your swing, and causes you to get so far under the ball that you lose whatever aim you had. When you hit the ball thin, also known as skulling the ball, you take too much care in attempting to strike the ball cleanly, and you hit the top of the ball, causing it to lose whatever loft you intended to put on it, and go much further than you wanted.

The primary cause of these mis-hits is swinging the club you are chipping with at an uneven speed. Often, players, aware of the importance and difficulty of chipping, will take a normal backswing, and then slow down as they approach the ball in order to better guide the club. Ironically, by doing this, the shooter is actually losing the ability to better control his club, as the slowing of the velocity of the swing will throw the shot off balance. In reality, you want to do the opposite. Take a slow, shorter than normal backswing, and accelerate through the ball, just like a normal shot.

Unless you are trying to clear a hazard, like a trap or water, you want the ball to travel less than half the way to the hole in the air, and roll the rest. Your mind is telling you that you have a shot of 100 feet, but in truth, you want to focus on hitting it less than 50, and allowing the ball to do the rest of the work. Taking a normal backswing, or even a swing back to your waist, may be too far. There is little need to hit the ball hard, you just need to get it going.

Watch some of the best in the game, like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard, and see how far back they swing. Watch how the ball comes off their club and approaches the hole, you’ll see that most of it is roll. So shorten your backswing, take a normal stroke, and watch the ball run.