How much can individual lessons help my game?
Thursday, July 1st, 2010Before you take the dive and start with one-on-one golf instruction, you should go over the advantages and disadvantages of this sort of approach. Can individual lessons truly make me better or am I wasting my time? Some people think that once you reach a certain level, one-on-one golf instruction is unnecessary. This is just not true, as even the best players in the world still use a swing coach.
The growth that you can make as an individual has everything to do with how much time you put into the game. Some players will just take lessons and leave it at that. Other players will leave the instruction period and practice the things they have learned. No matter what your handicap is, application of principles will bring it down a few notches.
A Better Short Game Means a Lower Handicap
Monday, June 7th, 2010The easiest way to take a few strokes off your handicap is to improve your short game. Generally, a short game refers to shots made within 100 yards of the pin. Most high handicap golfers struggle with their short game. They may hit the ball 250 yards off the tee on a 350 yard par four and then take 5 more shots to get in the hole.
To lower your handicap, take a bucket of balls and grab your pitching wedge. Pick a target about 100 yards away and swing away. If you can get your ball within 20 feet of your target, you’ll be making a lot more pars and maybe a few birdies. As Harvey Penick said, “take dead aim.”
Lower Your Handicap With New Habits
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010Like many intermediate golfers, I am out there trying to find the magic formula that will lower mine and lower your handicap. Unfortunately, I haven’t found it yet. I have been able to lower my handicap by developing a series of habits. You can use these habits to lower your handicap as well. Habit number one was practice. Practice? Yes, practice. It took a bit of coordination and convincing the wife but putting myself on a regular practice schedule helped me make substantial strides in my handicap. Habit number two was stop wasting time with friends. In other words, when I am out on the course during my practice schedule I stay focused on doing exactly that. The third habit I formed is maintaining a journal. You’d be amazed how much you learn from yourself.
A perfect gift for the golfer in your life
Friday, April 2nd, 2010So you are looking for the right gift for the golf lover in your life, but you can’t quite figure out what it is. You have bought them a new putter and just last year, you bought them a nice book of the world’s most awesome courses. This is when buying solid golf instruction books comes in handy. You might think that this is a little bit boring, but know that golfers live for this sort of thing.
Golfers want to get better and golf instruction books provide that. They might provide the little tip here or there that can turn that golfer from an average player to a good player. One little thing can shave stokes off of a handicap, which is an exciting idea for hardcore golf players.
Shaving strokes off of your score the right way
Thursday, January 7th, 2010For most golfers, the big, ultimate goal is to knock many shots off of your handicap. This can’t be done by magic and it has to be done with hard work and the right kind of training. With that being said, many people are using a golf swing lesson to achieve their long term goals in this regard. You don’t have to be a genius to see that golf is a game of repetition and muscle memory. If you are going to get better, you have to know which things to practice.
A golf swing lesson from a good teaching pro is a relatively inexpensive way to get the basics down before you start practicing on your own. From there, the hard work will result in better scores, which is what all golfers are shooting for.
Golf Handicap
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009Although the golf handicap is the preferred method of determination as to which level of golfer is playing, the handicapping methods don’t always provide the most honest results. A golf handicap is taken from numbers over a period of recorded scores, and is used as a basis for groupings at many amateur tournaments and scrambles. A player cam accumulate numbers for a handicap at a course they play particularly well which does not translate to other courses which might be more difficult or different terrain. It’s not always accurate to predict a player’s actual scoring ability based on their golf handicap. A better gauge would simply be to group the golfers into categories that encompass a number of handicaps, such as 0-5 index, 5-10, 10 and above. Golfers within a certain range of a handicap should be at least comparable in their abilities.
How many strokes can a PGA golf lesson knock off of my score?
Monday, October 19th, 2009When people think about golf and improving their game, they often want to know about the bottom line. At the end of the day, your score is all that matters. With that in mind, training resources should provide a direct benefit to that bottom line, as well. If you are considering a PGA golf lesson, then you probably want to know just how many strokes you can hope to knock off of your handicap.
If you are a new golfer or someone with a high handicap, then a PGA golf lesson can knock many more strokes off of your score. Better players have less room for improvement, but they can still benefit from a PGA golf lesson just the same. It is reasonable to believe that you can shave as many as five strokes off of your score if you are taking lessons from the right professional.