Golf Tips
Course Performance: Golf Tips
UpHill Lies
by Professional Teacher, Craig Renshaw
Difficult lies are part of the game. Hitting them not as solid as you do flat lies is part of the game also. When you look at the way you practice, we have a great lie on a perfectly flat surface most of the time. If we want to get better at the more difficult shots, then we need to practice them and know how to set up to them.
Today we will discuss the uphill shot. First you must decide how much uphill is the shot that we have in front of us. How much is it going to effect the shot at hand. Is it playing longer? How much longer? Will it make me choose a longer club? It is going up hill, so it will stop easier, how will that affect my shot? These are all questions that go into my mind before I choose my club. Here are a few more things to check when hitting this shot.
- Place your body parallel to the slope
- Aim slightly right of target (ball is pulled from uphill lies)
- Take addition club to adjust for slope
- Move ball position forward in stance
- Normal golf swing and follow through
Fundamentals of Great Putting
by Professional Teacher, Craig Renshaw
Putting is the simplest motion in golf to make. It has the least moving parts few fundamentals and the greatest impact on a golfers score. Yet, with that being said, putting is not practiced very often and therefore, very few golfers are good putters. Here are a few tips to lead you to better putting.
Lets start at the beginning. How we hold the club is very important. The putter is no different. Great putters put the club in the palm of their hands. That is why the grip to a putter is square not round like other clubs. This allows the palms to face each other taking the wrists out of the putting stroke. (Picture A)
Setting up and how to stand to the ball is easy. Make an athletic set up, bending from your hips as to put very little strain on your back and let your arms hang straight down from your shoulders, to help form the triangle of the arms and chest. Try to get the eyes over the ball. (Picture B) To make sure you stay nice and balanced, put the inside of your feet at shoulder width. Place the ball position anywhere from middle of stance to inside front heel depending on your choice of grip.
Next, make a backswing and follow through simple, with very little movement in the hands and wrists. Keeping the triangle intact. (Picture C) If the ball is near the hole, then a great putt has been made. If you make less then 36 putts in a round then good things are happening.
Fundamentals of Great Chipping
by Professional Teacher, Craig Renshaw
In the last article, I referred to putting as the simplest motion in golf. Chipping is very similar to putting in set up and motion. With that in mind, I will say that chipping is the second simplest motion that a golfer can ever learn to make.
When we set up to chip, we have to have a clear idea of what the shot should look like in our mind. Chipping is similar to putting, which is all roll, so a chip will be described as “keeping the ball low with roll.” This usually does not occur due to set up and club selection. Most people chip with one club. I will tell you to chip with clubs 7-SW. (Picture A) This makes almost any chip very simple without having to change the stroke.
Now lets look at a few of the basics. The grip in chipping will be in the palm of your hands. Chipping like putting is a stroke, and when the motion is a stroke, we place the club in our palms.
Setting up to the ball has to be done with the idea of “keeping the ball low to roll.” I would like to see the feet fairly close together to keep the legs still. Make an athletic set up, bending from your hips as to put very little strain on your back and let your arms hang straight down from your shoulders, to help form the triangle of the arms and chest. I would like to see more weight on your forward foot to encourage a descending blow onto the ball and keep the ball lower. Place the ball position back in your stance to make good contact and allow the ball to roll. (Picture B)
Finally, just like putting make the appropriate amount of backswing and follow through with little to no movement in hands or wrists. Keep the triangle intact. (Picture C) If you are chipping on the green and two putting then you are doing very well. Then you have the ability to be at least a bogey golfer and be shooting 9.
Fundamentals of Great Pitching
by Professional Teacher, Craig Renshaw
In the past few golf tips, I have been referring to the various motions in golf according to difficulty. Putting was the simplest, followed by chipping and now pitching. If you have had problems with the first 2 shots, then it will not get any easier. Pitching is the first motion that is considered a swing, which requires more movement. This shot will be quite a bit different then chipping in that this shot will have more air and less roll. Because of more loft and less roll, wedges will be our choice of clubs. I suggest that everyone have at least 3 of them. PW, GW, and SW. Having a LW or XW is great but not necessary. We will let these clubs determine how high and far these shots will go.
Being that this is a swing, you will have to place the club into a swing grip. Putting and chipping were strokes, so we placed it in our palm. With a swing grip, the club is more in our fingers resting underneath the heal pad of our hand with the line between our thumb and forefinger going towards our back shoulder. (Picture A)
Setting up and how to stand to the ball is easy. Make an athletic set up, bending from your hips as to put very little strain on your back and let your arms hang straight down from your shoulders, to help form the triangle of the arms and chest. To make sure you stay nice and balanced, put the inside of your feet at shoulder width, slightly opening and placing more weight on your forward foot. You will most likely be hitting this shot over a bunker so place ball in middle of stance to allow good contact and high loft of shot with little roll. (Picture B)
Finally ensure that you are making a swing that has a backswing and forward swing that matches in length. If you are getting on the green and 2 putting, you have the ability to be a bogey golfer and shooting 90. This is a very good score. In the next few tips we will start to get more specific with some fine tuning of short game along with full swing.
Great Bunker Fundamentals
by Professional Teacher, Craig Renshaw
Over the past few months my goal has been to give everyone a checklist for commons shots hit on the course. Today, we will look at a shot that is feared by most golfers, but in reality is the easiest shot in golf. The bunker shot.
There are 3 types of bunker players in the game:
- Get it out players
- Get it out and on players.
- Get it out, get it on and get it close players. (close means hitting it to 15 ft. or less)
Which one are you? Just like other shots, this comes down to setting up properly before you swing to increase the odds of a good shot. We will make sure you have a good set up.
First, make sure the grip is in your fingers and the clubface is slightly open. (picture above) Feet should be shoulder width apart, and ball position opposite the heel of your forward foot with an athletic set up bending from your hips. Just like all the other short game shots we have talked about, make sure you have more weight on your forward foot.
From here make a swing moving to a full finish. Make sure to hit the sand. As long as your swing hits somewhere between the middle of your stance and your forward heel, you will hit a reasonable golf shot. (Picture at left)
If you do these things at address and are making good swings, when you think you are in trouble because you are in the bunker, you should be getting out and 2 putting which should mean a bogey. Better your fundamentals and limit your mistakes out of the bunker and watch your scores come down!
Keys to Great Driving
by Professional Teacher, Craig Renshaw
Over the past few months, I have been talking about the short game and how important setting up is to lowering your scores. This month I will introduce you to the keys to driving the ball.
We must first understand that woods and irons are extremely different in their design. Irons are more upright, shorter, heavier and have more loft. With this in mind, they will be easier to hit solid and straighter and always produce a divot. Most people do not take this into account and try to swing their woods the same way they would their irons to no avail.
Woods must first start with a good grip in our fingers. Next we must make sure that ball position is off the inside of our front heel. Because the ball position is forward in our stance we must make sure to square our shoulders. (The forward ball position leads to the shoulders opening.) As we square out shoulders we will end up placing about 60% of our weight on the back foot at address. (Picture A) Make sure that you are set up athletically bending from your hips and letting your arms hang like all of the other swings we have described. Make a swing and finish balanced on your forward foot.
Finally, with these new big headed drivers, a few things to keep in mind. First you must use a long tee to get the ball airborne. Next you must tee the ball up so that it is at least halfway above the top of the club. Then tee the ball up more towards the toe of the driver to encourage a sweeping swing and contact with the sweet spot on the club. (Picture B)
If you make good contact and move the ball a fair distance down towards the hole, you will be fine. Driving is just one shot in many that will be made during a round. Place the ball in play and let the rest happen.
Driving the Ball Crooked?
by Professional Teacher, Craig Renshaw
Are you having trouble hitting your driver for distance? Pop your driver straight up in the air, losing tremendous distance when playing with your friends? Do you have marks on the top of your driver? I believe that some of this can be blamed by bad spine angle when making contact with the ball.
If not set up properly, you are making great compensations during the swing. First, make sure that you have the ball position forward in your stance opposite your left heel. Place about 60% of your weight on your right foot and shoulders square. If these basic set up rules are not followed then when swinging you will stand up during the swing and pop the ball straight up in the air. (Picture to the right) This will cause a huge power loss, shots off the top of your club and drives that go straight up in the air.
Retain you spine angle (Picture at left) and watch your drives flatten out and start to get longer and longer.
More Distance Control
by Professional Teacher, Craig Renshaw
How often do you notice that you are on the green and when the pressure starts to rise that you putting seems to leave your body? Have you looked and seen what your follow through looks like after these putts? As the pressure rises and the shirt collar gets a little tighter, do you hands and wrists start to become more and more active when you putt?
Here are a few things to check while putting. Is the grip in your fingers or palm? (Picture A) Golfers that place the putting in their fingers are golfers that tend to get very wristy during their putting stroke. (Picture B) Golfers that make wristy putting strokes have a tough time controlling their distances. If you have a habit of putts consistently leaving your putts way short, this could be the problem. When the wrists get involved in putting it tends to add loft to your putter which will cut down on the distance that the ball will roll.
Make sure that your arms are staying extended and wrists are staying very quiet. (Picture C) This will allow you to keep the loft of the putter true and allow the ball to roll the distance that you intended it. As long as putts are going the correct distance, you should start to make more 2 putts and watch your scores come down.
About Craig Renshaw
- Craig Renshaw has been teaching golf for 14 years.
- currently an instructor for Advantage Golf Schools Ariz.
- currently an instructor for Ken McDonald in Tempe, Ariz.
- PGA Member
- Certified instructor for Kathrine Roberts’ Yoga for Golfers Program.
- Chek Certified Golf Biomechanic.
- For more information about scheduling a lesson with Craig email him at golfprocraig@aol.com or www.advantagegolfschools.com
