Dear Good Golfing Members,
I hope you have all had a good start to the golfing year now the long cold spell has finally gone.
Here are some simple tips to get your golf season off to a good start.
Check your equipment:
This may sound just common sense but two easily avoided mistakes for the new golf year is to check the grips on your clubs and spikes on your shoes!
I see a lot of golfers playing with worn out or shiny grips wondering why they grip the club so hard. You need to keep your grips in good condition with regular washing to keep them tacky. This mistake will make you grip the club too tight just to keep hold of it, making you unable to keep your wrist and forearms soft enough to allow your arms to swing and forearms rotate. This will cause a serious loss in club-head speed and distance the ball will travel. If washing the grips doesn't bring them back to life then it's time to change them. I normally change my grips for the whole set once a year, but change a few clubs twice that I use more for practice.
Worn out soft spikes on your golf shoes from last years play will give an unstable base to the swing. As all the power in your golf swing is generated from a steady base to the ground it's vital that your shoes do not slip, in order to perform a powerful action.
Check your swing:
Once you have made these minor checks to your equipment. Let's make some major checks to the foundation of your swing! When I say this I mean you have to and a good setup and the main foundation is the posture. If you have the right good posture, it's easier to do a proper check on your grip and alignment.
I make a conscious effort at least once a month to check my whole golf swing set-up. I feel this is needed for me to maintain consistent play. Making these checks is something you cannot really do on your own; or at least you will need a video to see what you look like. Remember what you feel in this game is very rarely what you are actually doing. The body angles you create in your posture will not only help you into the right swing but believe it or not will even help lead you into a better grip.
Just watch how one example of a bad posture tends to make a grip too much into the palm of the hand whilst the other helps put the club down into the fingers. Gripping the club through the fingers allows the wrists to hinge and the forearms to rotate (A Major Power Source) gripping too much in the palm of the hand will not allow correct hinge of the wrists, and without hinge you cannot make good forearm rotation losing you power.
This is a bad posture. I have my hips too much under my shoulders and I am bending from my waist causing my back to look rounded. This type of posture will naturally push the grip of the club too much up into the palm of the hand. Plus it will be impossible to turn properly.
Picture 2 is a good posture. Here I am bending forward from my hips keeping my back straight which is demonstrated by club I am dropping down my spine. From this posture it is easier for the club to stay down into the fingers. I will certainly be able to hinge the wrists from this position!
Good golf posture doesn't just mean a straight back! We also need the right spine tilt to suit the club we are using. This will also lead us to correct ball position and stance width. See what I mean about spine tilt and how it affects your swing for different clubs
Here I am setting up with my driver. Notice how the spine is tilted more to the right and the ball position is opposite my left armpit. This type of setup will encourage a shallow ascending strike to the ball which is how the driver should be used.
Notice how this tilted spine will be maintained throughout the swing until impact to ensure the right angle of attack to the ball. Which is roughly 5 degrees ascending. The difference of an ascending strike as opposed to a descending strike with a driver traveling at 100 mph can be as much a 30yrds longer. Something that is certainly worth looking at in your action to see if it's correct.
For the medium iron like this 6 iron I am using you can notice how my weight is not so much into my right leg and my spine is not quite as tilted to the right as it was for the driver. The ball position is also back a little in the stance, just to my left of the sternum. This position will help me to achieve a slightly descending approach to the ball which will take a shallow divot after impact.
Into the backswing with the 6 iron and you can notice how my spine is still slightly tilted to my right. My tummy is still angled to the ground which is a very powerful position and something I insist upon for my student's that are physically able to do it! Without this position, you are not really storing power efficiently into your backswing neither will you be able to hold the power in the transition to the downswing.
With the wedge setup it's the virtual opposite of the driver. Now my weight is more favoring my left side and my spine tilt is slightly favoring the left side too. Ball position is more in the centre of my stance under my sternum. This is an ideal position to strike a wedge shot as it will help me to achieve a steeper angle of attack into the ball giving a slightly deeper divot after impact compared to the 6 iron.
Into the backswing of the wedge you can see my weight looks more even but I still have some pressure into the right leg. My head is more directly on top of the ball. This will help me to achieve a good clean contact into the back of the ball with a steeper angle giving more backspin and control when the ball lands. However if I was in this position trying to hit my driver it could spell disaster for the outcome. Like a slice or a popup shot of the roof of the club.
As you can see from this article a changing angle of attack for different clubs is vital to consistent golf. It is built into the swing right from the beginning through posture, ball position and weight distribution proving there is no band aid approach to playing this game. Consistent results will come from correct fundamentals and reviewing your method at various times through the year.
My Latest Tour News: The Omega China Tour
I recently played in my first competition of the year on the Omega China Tour (www.omegachinatour.com). This year, the China Tour has allowed 10 international players to join. A Qualifier was staged to determine the 10 internationals and fortunately I qualified earlier in the year. The 1st event of 2008 of the tour was held in Guangzhou at Dragon Lake Golf Club (www.dragonlake.com.cn). The course was a tough a layout that required precise shot-making with tricky greens to match.
My main goal was to make the cut as my 1st round of the tournament was only my 5th round of the year. Fortunately, I achieved my goal and went on to finish 16th on the tour Order of Merit after the first event from more than 120 players, and was the leading finisher from of all the professionals that went from Hong Kong. It was truly great to play a full four round tour event again and I am looking forward to playing a few more during the year.
There will be another 9 events throughout the year and I will probably play in 2 or 3 more unless I can find a sponsor which will enable me to play more.
I enclose the results of the tournament.
Order Or Merit: http://www.omegachinatour.com/english/newslist/viewnews.asp?id=386
Andrew Good
Final result: http://www.omegachinatour.com/english/newslist/viewnews.asp?id=384
Result after 2 rounds: http://www.omegachinatour.com/english/newslist/viewnews.asp?id=375
British PGA - Class AA
Mobile: 93800050
Email: hkgoodandrew@yahoo.com
Website: www.goodgolfing.com.hk
