Being a Perfect Golf Player

Golf is a game that has been there for a very long time. This particular game is actually very simple to play because it needs little effort to play. Understanding how to play golf is very easy because it has very few requirements. All you need to do is go for training on how to play better golf. This way, you will be a perfect golf player. The golf game actually needs people who have interest in the game. Without the interest and the passion, you can never be able to be a perfect golf player. The best thing about golf is that it requires less vigor. A game has the nature of gentleness and tenderness.

There are certain tips that can be made use of in order for a golf player to play good golf. Learners normally take a short time in learning how to play this game. In order for you to play good golf, you need to ensure that you have obtained the best training from the best and most recognized golf institutions. This way, your golf foundation will be strongly established.

The first step of ensuring that you play better golf is considering the golf club. You need to ensure that in order for you to play well; you need to have a good golf club that is comfortable to your hands as you play the game. When moving close to your golf ball you need to ensure that you have looked out for any stone, leaf or broken tree that might be obstructing your path towards the flag that you and your golf ball are aiming at. This way, your move will be accurate and indestructible. When this is ensured, you are now free to make your perfect golf swing. The second step in ensuring that you play better golf is by putting your hands in the correct order. What you are required to do is make a perfect and correct grip on your left hand. Make sure the club is naturally positioned on the ground right behind the ball and ensure that you have placed it in the left hand. This way, the shaft will lie across the forefingers top. With this technique of playing, stability will be maintained while making a swing.

The other thing you need to consider is the position of your right hand. What you need to do is ensure that the right hand grip is correctly set. The way in which you make a grip really matters. Some individuals are known to have naturally shaky hands. Such a person needs to go through training session on how to grip the golf club. The right hand grip is specially used by people who have naturally small hands and children. The mechanism is similar to the left hand mechanism only that it is vice versa. Finally, you are required to develop or have a correct stance. A perfect stance will enable the player to acquire a good balance as you make a swing. In fact, the stance is what matters most as you play the golf game. Playing better golf is very easy.
TaylorMade R9 Fairway Wood
TaylorMade R7 Irons
Callaway Big Bertha Diablo Driver

Golf Tips:Keep on Tee and Fairway

1.Keep on Tee and Fairway

One of the worst things you can do to your golf game is to tighten up or get too tense when teeing off, or when you're on the fairway or green. Instructors have a cure for this; it's a drill called “the hip blocker.”

First fix your knees as if ready to swing at the ball. This will force the body to turn more correctly and increase flexibility. If you're right-handed, while swinging, turn your shoulders back until the left shoulder is under your chin. You should be able to feel a greater stretch along your left side. Do the same thing on your follow-through, but this time with your right shoulder under your chin. With this exercise, in time you will increase your ability to fully coil without using your hips. You'll achieve a new flexibility and at the same time increase the power in your swing.

2.Are you hitting the ball using only one side

Are you one of those golfers who unconsciously is using only one side when hitting the ball? After all, it is probably your strongest side and so depending on it for most of your strength comes naturally enough, right? It's important to use both sides fully in your shots to play well and score well. Too many players, even those who have been playing for a while and should know better, allow their swings to be dominated by their right side. The left arm and side, consequently, remain weak and do not contribute as they should to every shot you make. Right-side dominance causes poor extension and leads to a lot of other flaws in your swing. If you're right-handed, one way to correct this is to practice swinging with your left arm only. Do this a few times and then add your right arm for a full swing. You should begin to feel the difference in your swing and in the power you can now generate.

MIZUNO JPX E600 Driver

Scotland's Pebble Beach

The Turnberry Ailsa course (ranked #17 in the world) is worthy of its world ranking. Located on Scotland's Ayrshire coast, Turnberry is one of the most scenic places in the world to play golf. On a clear day you can see the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland across the sea to where Royal Portrush is located.

Parts of the Ailsa course were destroyed during both the First and Second World Wars to make landing fields for the Royal Air Service. There are remains of the air fields still there today if you climb some of the hills around the 12th and 13th holes. Mackenzie Ross was tasked with rebuilding the course after the Second World War. In a combination of both luck and no doubt foresight most of the holes along the water were spared destruction. The original course was built c1906, by Willie Fernie, the professional at Troon, although apparently, the Marquis of Ailsa had a private course on the land prior to 1906.

Turnberry, like many early British resort courses, was initially built by the railway companies to generate traffic; in this instance, with the building of the Glasgow and South Western Railway link and Turnberry station. By 1925, the L.M.S. (London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company) owned the hotel. In Dell Leigh's 1925 book of golf courses of the British Isles, you can really see how the pre-war Ailsa course was quite different than today's redesigned course. He mentions that there were 8 holes where you had to hit blind shots. Ross's redesign eliminated virtually all of these.

While not as highly regarded as many other courses in Britain at the time, it was ranked #97 in the world in 1937.

Each hole on the Ailsa Course has a Scottish name, many of which, artfully, plant just that slightest bit of doubt in your mind before playing them:

1. Ailsa Craig (named for the rock in the Firth of Clyde that you look out on)
2. Mak Siccar (Make Sure)
3. Blaw Wearie (Out of Breath)
4. Wo-Be-Tide (Watch Out)
5. Fin Me Oot (Find Me Out)
6. Tappie Toorie (Hit to the Top)
7. Roon the Ben
8. Goat Fell (named for the tallest peak on Arran across the firth)
9. Bruce's Castle (remains of Robert the Bruce's castle are nearby)

10. Dinna Fouter (Don't Mess About)
11. Maidens (The village north of the course)
12. Monument (to the airman lost that were stationed at Turnberry)
13. Tickly Tap (Tricky Little Stroke)
14. Risk-an-Hope
15. Ca' Canny (Take Care)
16. Wee Burn (the little burn that runs in front of the green)
17. Lang Whang (Good Whack)
18. Duel in the Sun (Nicklaus vs. Watson 1977)


As proof that the R & A does add courses in to the Open rota, Turnberry was added in 1977 and has hosted Opens a total of three times: 1977, 1986 and 1994, with another scheduled in 2009. In case the R and A are readers of my blog (since they won't take my calls, this is my only channel of communication), my hope is that one day Kingsbarns will also be added to the rota.

Holes 1-6 are basically back and forth parallel holes which is a good thing because if the wind is blowing it allows you multiple changes in direction to provide some relief. The course really beings at the 5th hole where the next seven are along the ocean, ala Pebble Beach. I especially like the 6th, Tappie Toorie, an uphill par three that plays 231 yards. If the wind is up during the 2009 Open Championship, this is going to make the 240 yard par three 4th at Augusta look like a wee little hole. The hole is well protected on the left side by three small bunkers and from the tee the entire right side of the hole drops away, in shades of the Postage Stamp at Troon.

The blue tee on the 9th hole is arguably the best tee box in the world (Pebble Beach 18th being the 2nd best). You are hanging on the edge of a cliff with the white lighthouse nearby, the craggy rocks below and one of the most scenic views in golf with the course all around you and the majestic hotel on the top of the hill. To once again quote one of my favorite golf writers, Henry Longhurst, "You find yourself lingering on the tee, gazing down on the waves as they break on the rocks and reflecting how good it is to be alive".

The 16th Hole, Wee Burn, is one of the best on the course. A 409 yard par four that calls for a straight and long tee shot. The drama comes on your second shot. You will typically be hitting from a slight downhill lie to an oval shaped green that is difficult to hold. If you are a little bit short the green is shaped so your ball will roll down into the burn. The same situation on the right side of the green. The left side is protected by a bunker and being long leaves you in the tall and hilly rough. As an added element of danger the green also has portions sloping that can cause your ball to ricochet in various directions. Also, the drop from the green to the burn is probably close to fifteen feet. Unlike the Swilken Burn at the Old Course which is just a couple of feet below you, you are basically hitting from atop a hill, downhill over a chasm to an elevated green. It is something! The net-net of it is that the effective landing area you have to hit to hold a ball is probably no more than 20 feet by 10 feet. I have yet to find a better side (left or right) to approach the green from, probably because there is none.




Without the drama and grandstands of the Open Championship the 17th and 18th are anti-climactic, average holes. None-the-less, the overall experience at Turnberry is one of excitement. The end of the round at Turnberry is enhanced by the thought of sitting happily at the hotel after a round listening to a bag-piper as you recount the day's shots at the 19th hole. Touristy? Maybe, but bring it on.

The inevitable question that arises, "is it better than Pebble Beach?" is a tough call. It depends on the importance you give to different factors. Pebble Beach probably has better golf holes in all (except holes 13, 14 and 15), but I think Turnberry beats it on the scenic beauty front. Turnberry also wins on the speed of play, the caddie experience and overall value for the money.

As golf writer and architect Donald Steel says describing Turnberry - "there is no where lovelier!"

How to hit down on golf ball

The hardest concept for beginner golfers is to learn how to hit down on golf ball. This is the only way to compress the ball solidly and get a consistent ball fall with maximum distance. Any other technique of hitting the golf ball will result in a very inconsistent golf swing, with swing faults like topped, thin, chunked and even shanked golf balls happening often.

Here’s a picture of Tiger Woods. It’s not the clearest picture, but I want you to notice a few things, and apply these golf tips to your iron golf swing next time you go out and hit balls. Do not try this on the course without doing it in practice first.



Tip #1 Your hands and butt of the club MUST be ahead of the golf ball at impact.

Tip#2 Forward shaft lean. This is where most beginner golfers mess it up. The get no shaft lean at impact, meaning they are throwing (flipping) the clubhead at the ball in a scooping fashion. This is death to the golf swing.

Tip #3 Move ball back in stance slightly with mid to short irons. Don’t be drastic with this, but many beginner golfers have the ball too far forward making it nearly impossible to keep your hands and butt of club ahead of the ball with an improper ball position.

Tip #4 Preset Impact Position. Before you hit every shot on the range with your wedges I want you to get into your impact position. Hands ahead of ball, hips rotated towards target. Get into this position, set it, then take your backswing and hit ball. I took a an overhead shot of what this preset impact should look like. I think it will be an eye-opener for you.



It may look like the ball is way back in my stance, but that is an illusion. In the proper impact position, you’ve rotated your hips, and put 90% of your weight on your left side, so a lot of motion and momentum is now ahead of the ball…ACCEPT…my head, upper body, and my spine tilt is still away from the target.

Also, look at the lines I’ve drawn. The thin white line is a square clubface at impact. Most beginner golfers have it wide open and that’s why they slice the golf ball. The solid white line is showing proper angle of the shaft from looking above. Notice the angle. The yellow line is where most amateur golfers are at impact. Straight which results in a flipping of the club at impact, adding loft, possibly causing a thin or bladed shot, and definitely a loss of distance.

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How to get power in your golf swing

Learning how to get power in your golf swing is easy. Kenny Perry is not the fittest guy around, but he bangs it LONG! He’s a perfect example of creating lots of power, and with an unorthodox golf swing to boot!

He averaged 293 yards off the tee on the PGA Tour last year. Not bad for a 49 year old who’s carrying an extra 30 pounds! What’s his secret to hitting 300 yard drives? I can tell you he has a very late release of the club, which is another term for lag in the golf swing. To improve driving distance, wrist lag is a very effective way to do it.
Focus On Your Right Wrist

To get lag in your golf swing, focus on retaining your right wrist angle at impact. One of the biggest “power leaks” is casting the club from the top. You come into impact with a straight right wrist, with no clubhead speed; and actually this is now what we call a flipped club at impact. There is no retention of power, because the clubhead will no “slow down” going through impact, causing a massive loss of speed and power.

Make A Full Shoulder Turn On Backswing

One important key to power and distance is learning how to make a full shoulder turn in your golf swing. This is not as hard as you think, even if you’ve lost flexibility. Remember… it’s not how high you get your hands or club at the top of your swing, it’s getting your shoulders to turn at least 90 degrees, with 45 degrees of hip turn. That’s all you need. This is not that difficult.

I’ll give you a little “secret” on how to easily make a full shoulder turn. Focus on your right shoulder rotating back and around immediately upon takeaway. This will release all the tension in the lead shoulder, which is what 99% of all golfers focus on when they try to make a big turn.

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INDIO, Calif. – I just played an 18-hole round of golf on a fabulous golf course, but I can’t post the score.

Why? Because on every green I aimed at an enlarged cup – a large, eye-catching, rubber target called the Big Cup.

So what’s up here? The Big Cup is placed on top of a regulation cup and essentially doubles the size of the hole. It conclusively demonstrates the influence of putting on the final score, and it also serves as a wonderful practice aid for lag putting.

I played at The Plantation Golf Club here in Indio with Rob O’Loughlin, inventor of the Big Cup. Also joining us was my good friend Chuck Carroll, who works at PGA Tour events for the Darrell Survey as a golf equipment surveyor.

O’Loughlin flew to the desert after a winter in Madison, Wisc., so he couldn’t hit the side of a barn with a 20-foot putt. Meanwhile, Carroll plays right-

handed and hits 300-yard drives, but he putts left-handed and can’t make a six-foot putt.

So I emerged as the champion putter of the day. Where was the R & A’s Peter Dawson with my Claret Jug, anyway?

At the PGA Merchandise Show in late January, O’Loughlin tried to give one of the Big Cups to Dawson, who regards O’Loughlin with the same suspicion he would direct at, say, a venomous snake.

O’Loughlin is the man who almost singlehandedly convinced the USGA and R & A to approve the use of distance measuring devices in amateur golf. In the

process, O’Loughlin, the modernist, got to know Dawson, the traditionalist, quite well.

As founder of Laser Link, a rangefinder manufacturer, O’Loughlin is always looking ahead to new technological developments in golf. In the case of the Big Cup, though, he took a step backward.

Enlarged cups have been tried before. They have even been used in professional tournaments. They never caught on.

For O’Loughlin, the Big Cup is a practice device. Yes, it can easily be used on the course, but its greatest value probably comes on the practice putting green.

Lagging a long putt to a regulation cup can be an imprecise exercise. Using the Big Cup, the target looks immense. It provides a much improved sense of distance.

The Big Cup is circular with a pronounced rubber ridge all the way around. It has a hole in the middle and is placed right on top of a standard cup.

A ball must have enough speed to climb over the ridge, but not so much speed that it rolls over the ridge on the opposite side. O’Loughlin says he designed the cup to accept what is known as Dave Pelz optimal speed – the speed at whcih a missed putt would go 15 to 18 inches past the cup.

Pelz, the noted putting instructor, has been spreading this speed message for years. The Big Cup, according to O’Loughlin, helps reinforce the theory.

Playing an 18-hole round with the Big Cup changes the game dramatically. I holed a 16-foot birdie putt on the first green and a 45-foot birdie putt on the third green. Suddenly I was 2-under-par, and in real life I am never 2-under-par.

We found ourselves trying to sink every long putt and every chip shot. It was fun.

The Big Cup is widely available in golf shops and retail outlets. Its suggested retail price is $27.95, although it can be purchased for $19.95.

As a change of pace and as a putting aid, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

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Kristy McPherson took two lessons this offseason (both after Golfweek joined her for a photo shoot in Tampa, Fla., in December). That’s more than she has taken in her seven years as a pro.

McPherson went to Mike Wright, who helped turn McPherson’s good friend Angela Stanford into one of the top players in the world. McPherson’s swing was mostly built on guidance from her father, David, a former plus-4 handicapper, and through old-fashioned trial and error.“I think most of it is being athletic and just figuring it out,"she said. “Whether you put me bowling or whatever, I’m going to sit there and try it untilI figure out how to do it. It’s a hard-headedness and a stubbornness.

“I don’t like failing.”

Kristi Coggins, McPherson’s coach at South Carolina, videotaped McPherson’s swing once while McPherson was in college.

It “kind of messed her up for a week or so,” Coggins said. “Her swing is so natural. She’s the definition of – like coaches always say – ‘get a swing and own it.’ She was always aware of her tendencies and had the gift to correct them.”

Said McPherson: “I just want to get the ball from here to there. I don’t care how it does it.”

During the season, McPherson’s preparations are limited not only by her simple approach but because of the physical limitations of rheumatoid arthritis.

“I played one 18-hole practice round all year,” she said. McPherson said she warms up for 40 minutes – 15 minutes hitting balls, 15 minutes putting, and is at the tee 10 minutes early. “It took (Thane Aalyson, her caddie) a while to get used to that. We don’t practice when we’re done, either.”

The player: Kristy McPherson

Age: 28
In the bag:Callaway FT-iQ Driver (9.5degree);Callaway Big Bertha Diablo Fairway Wood (15 degree);Sonartec HB 001 hybrid (21 degree and 23 degree);Ping G15 Irons (5-PW); Ping Tour wedges (52, 56 and 60 degree); Odyssey White Hot XG Putter; Titleist ProV1 ball.

Top results: T-2, 2009 Kraft Nabisco and ’09 Wegmans LPGA; 16th on ’09 LPGA money list; No. 19 in Golfweek/SagarinPerformance Index; member, ’09 U.S. Solheim Cup team; seven-time winner at South Carolina, including two SEC titles (2001, ’02); three-time first-team All-American.

The hook: Left hand in control

McPherson grew up playing a draw in an attempt to get more distance. That draw soon grew into a hook, a shot that almost drove McPherson out of pro golf. Her draw was too low and lacked the spin for her to contend consistently in professional golf.

McPherson used to roll her hands in the takeaway (left), pulling the club inside. Now she tries to keep the club on the target line (right).

McPherson is now one of the LPGA’s best ballstrikers (ninth in driving accuracy, 16th in GIR last year), all because of switching from what she described as a “right-hand-dominated” swing to one in which her left hand has control.

“My biggest tendency was flipping the right hand (in the release),” McPherson said. “Now I feel like I’m swinging the back of my left hand toward my target, and keeping the clubface square longer.”

McPherson’s swing improvement starts with the takeaway. She used to roll her hands and get the club inside quickly. The club would fall under the proper plane on the downswing, which would force her to flip the club at the release.

Leg drive: Release the hips

McPherson’s competitive nature did some damage to her swing. In college, she had reconstructive surgery on her left knee. Though the doctor recommended six months off, she returned to golf two months later, When she returned, McPherson found it difficult to shift her weight into her left knee on the downswing.

Instead, she would fall back and leave her weight on her right side (pictured, left).

McPherson is working on a more active lower body on the downswing, but not in the way many amateurs might think.

Many amateurs, in an attempt to shift weight to their lead leg and create power on the downswing, try to “drive” through the ball. Instead, they often slide too far in front of it, leading to weak shots to the right.

McPherson likes to feel her right hip “releasing” (i.e., turning). This move gets her weight off her right side and allows her to have a passive, lesshandsy release. When she would stay on her right side in the downswing, she had to flip at the ball with her hands.

Now, she wants to feel the clubhead swing back on the target line while her hands stay close to her body, and she wants the same sensation on the downswing.

Better bunker play: Let the club do the work

McPherson’s bunker game – especially on short, soft shots – has improved thanks to some of the changes to her full swing.


McPherson used to take the club too far inside, which would cause her to hit too far behind the ball and not create much spin. McPherson described her old bunker shots as “chunk-and-runs.”

Now, McPherson takes the club more to the outside and steeper and “lets the clubhead fall underneath (the ball).”

“I keep the clubface open, don’t let it pass my hands and let the clubhead do the work,” she said.

McPherson’s follow-through is shorter now because she is letting gravity accelerate the club, instead of swinging through the ball.

Belly putter: From aid to savior

Pride or principle might preclude use of a belly putter on the course, but the midlength flatstick can be a valuable training aid. McPherson started using a

belly putter in practice, to feel the proper release. Shortly after, the putter made its way into her bag permanently.

“With the short putter, I aimed left and pushed the putter down the line,” McPherson said. “With the belly putter, if you push (the putter) down the line,

it’s coming out of your belly.”

Because the belly putter is anchored to the body, it helps sync her stroke with her body turn.

Short putts: See the line

McPherson uses a common drill to help with short putts. She puts balls in a 6-foot circle around the hole to hit putts with different breaks. The important thing for her is seeing how the ball enters the hole. On slower greens, the ball usually will enter toward the front of the hole; on faster greens, it

usually enters on the side. Paying attention to the ball’s entrance point helps her better visualize her putting line on the course.

Chips: Reading the lie

McPherson’s short game has improved because she is better at anticipating how the ball will react out of certain lies. This has come from better preparation in practice rounds.

“I try to work myself into different lies so I’m not caught off-guard when I get in the tournament,” she said.

“I just learned to read the lie more, to see how it’s going to land, how it will release.”

It’s a simple task – mixing up the lies during practice – but one that players often neglect.

McPherson also has tweaked her chipping action. She used to play the ball forward in her stance and take the club outside the target line, which caused her to scoop shots.

Now her chipping stroke closely mirrors her putting stroke. The shaft is more upright at address, and the ball is farther back in her stance. “I just turn my shoulders, which causes the club to work inside,” McPherson said. “Then I just turn through it.”

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