Some Golf Swing Tips

If you consider yourself a high handicapper, you have great potential, but need to solve some basic problems.

Swing the club, don't throw it.

In order to give yourself the best chance at hitting the green in regulation, you must increase your power off the tee without sacrificing control.

Your swing is capable of exerting a powerful natural force on the clubhead. Try to work with this fore in order to help you swing the club rather than throw it at the golf ball, which can easily result in a lot of bad shots. Even the best golfers tend to throw the clubhead on occasion, but here's how to avoid it.

Take your normal stance over the ball and look closely at your grip. Discover the joint on the grip where the first knuckle joint of the first figure of your right hand makes contact with the club. That pad is the precise spot where you can sense the weight of the club throughout your swing. Your goal is to develop the sensation of clubhead weight against this pressure point all the way through your swing. On the down swing, if you throw the clubhead at all, you'll have lost that sense of clubhead weight and the club will feel very light. In order to prevent this, turn your attention on feeling the sensation of the shaft lying against your first finger pad all the way through impact. As you practice this technique, you'll swing the clubhead through impact with more consistency and power.

How to nail short approaches.

You obviously need good aim to knock down the flag, but for most players, getting it close is more a product of distance control. This is especially true as you get closer to the green. Make use of the following golf swing drills in order to sharpen your distance control.

Full swings from 80 to 130 yards. Hit shots to a green on your range that is within this distance. Pick a club that lets you easily get your ball to the back of the green. Identify the back, middle and front of the green as your targets. If distance control is not your strength, try hitting several shots to the same target. As soon as you get good, start rotating targets. Hit one ball to each target and move on.

Partial swings from 30 to 80 yards. Select five targets within these distances. Look for things like bare spots, leaves, tire marks, dark spots, bumps or gullys on the range.

The same rules apply here. The difference is that there are now five targets covering a lot more distance. You can never be too good at distance control, and the rewards for the work you do will be immediate and substantial in the form of lower scores.