Golf, a Great Sport
by David Nebbia , President, PerfectGolfers™
“ Golf” what a great sport to all of us who love the game. It is a game that will bring tears to your eyes, put a smile on your face or bring you to your knees and walk away shaking your head in bitter frustration. Where else can you go with three great friends to a beautiful place outdoors, with the sweet smell of fresh cut grass, with the sound of the sprinklers watering the fairways and greens, and your foursome being called to the first tee. This is what you have waited for all week, to go out and play the best round of your life. You stand up on the first tee, your adrenalin rushing through your veins, hoping to hit that long drive down the middle of the fairway. You address the ball, take the club back and slice the ball into the woods. You say a few choice words and go look for your ball. Golf is such a humbling game. Just when you think you have it figured out, it brings you back to reality showing you that you really don’t have a clue on how you will ever break 70 or 80 or what ever that score is you are trying to shoot.
There is a way to achieve what you are trying to accomplish and it is called practice, that’s right practice. To be successful in golf, or what ever you are trying to do, you must practice it over and over again until you can repeat what you are working on. All your best players in golf have a repeatable swing. This pertains to their driver, fairway woods, irons, wedges and their putter. This is what makes them great .What I am going to teach you today it is the art of chipping and putting. This is where the best players excel. Tournaments are won or lost around the green or on the putting surface. They always have the ability to get up and down to save par or to make a birdie. They have a technique that they have developed over the years and they can repeat it over and over again with precision ability.
In chipping all of us can get close to the green on a par fore in two strokes and the same goes for a par three and on the par fives we are some where close in three strokes. This is where you want to have the ability to chip the ball close so you can make that par or have the ability to chip it in for a birdie. I know that most of us have faced that short chip and have stuck your wedge in the ground and sent the ball forward about two feet from where it was or have bladed the ball across the green and walked away with a double or a triple bogie. You keep asking your self am I ever going to get better. You keep saying to yourself I should know how to hit that shot but you really don’t or you would have executed it with precision ability. Don’t get frustrated because help is on the way. I am about to tell you how you can walk away from those shots with a smile on your face and it is all about technique.
This is a technique that I have learned from my many years with some of the greatest players on the PGA Tour. Pros that I have been associated with have made me a better player with my wedge and have given me the ability to get up and down and save par and or chip in for a birdie. This is what I want you to do. Assume an open stand with your left foot flared slightly open and your right foot square to the target line. Your feet should have no more than one foot separation between them. Now put most of your weight on your left foot and slightly open the face of the club. One of the main reasons for the weight on the left foot is as you start you’re down swing your club head will hit the ball first and than the ground. When you keep your weight on your right side you have the tendency to hit the ground first than the ball and that is what causes a fat hit. A simple test to see that you have your weight on your left side is to pick up your right foot and you should be able to stand on your left foot. Yourtakeaway must match your follow through. The distance you take the club back will determine how far you will hit the ball. This is something you will have to practice. . For example, if you take the club back about one foot the follow through must be one foot. The follow through is what will carry the ball to the target. So to recap what I have said, stance slightly flared open, weight on your left foot, club slightly open, keep your head down through the shot and as far as you take the club back make sure that you follow through the same distance. If you follow these steps and practice and practice and practice you will become a great chipper. When you play your next round of golf and you are faced with a chipping situation think a minute about this lesson, because you will always go back to what you have done in the past. Become a great chipper and be the envy of your fellow competitors. Remember you will never get better if you do not practice. Always get to the golf course early to practice your game but spend most of your time on the short game this is where you will score.
The next part of your game that I want to focus on is putting. One of the most important parts of your game. This is where all tournaments and competitive matches are won or lost. How many times have we seen the pros miss a three foot put to lose a major tournament? Think back to your last round of golf of all the putts you should have made and what a differences your score would have been. It could have been your chance to break 80. I am going to give you a few tips that will change you’re putting stroke forever and make you master that perfect pendulum swing you have always dreamed about.
There is one tool that I would like you to have and that is that little device that puts a line on your ball. You can get one at any golf store for about $5.00. So what I would like you to do is draw a line on your ball perfectly in the middle. The purpose of the line is to line your ball up to the hole. You can find the line by plum bobbing or your eye. Once you have figured out the line go ahead and set up behind the ball. The set up for any shot in golf is very easy to due, to the fact that there are no moving parts. I have watched thousands of golfers putt and everyone has their own style and I have seen why so many putts are missed. The head moves back and forth. The body moves with their stroke. They pick their head up. They flick the wrist and there are so many more errors that golfers make.
Do you know what most of the problem is, the ball. We get hypnotized looking at the ball and we forget all that we have learned. This is what I want you to do. Once you are set up to make the putt and you are all lined up and ready to go, take your eye off the ball and look directly at the hole. You may look back and forth from the ball to the hole but when you are ready to make that putt look at the hole do not look back at the ball. Then while concentrating looking at the hole take the club back and make your stroke. You will not see your stroke but you will have made a perfect pendulum swing. This will keep you from lifting or looking up to see where the ball is going. Picking your head up is the single most error we make not only in putting but in all of our shots that we make. When you pick your head up the putter will move and come up out of the shot causing you to go off line and miss the putt.
I came up with this method due to the fact that I would freeze over the ball and could not take the putter back so in concentrating on the hole I now make a perfect stroke and don’t have to worry about freezing up over the ball. I now make putts from all over the green. It is amazing how this method works. I have developed what I always wanted, a perfect pendulum swing and I feel like I am going to make everything and that is a great feeling.
So in summarizing, mark your ball with that ball marking tool, determine the line that the ball will take, set up behind the ball and when you are ready to make that putt look directly at the hole through the whole swing and do not take you eyes off the hole until you see it go in the hole. Master this and I promise you that three puts will be a thing of the past. I will leave you with one thought- practice, practice, practice. It is the only way to get better not only in golf but in what ever we try to do in life.
