BY MIKE GELHAUS

Baaack and thru. Baaack and thru. Baaack and thru. Feel the rhythm, feel the tempo. Bring the club back and let it go.

If you want to find The Zone, that elusive state of mind and body convergence where you are one with the golf ball and can do no wrong, then you need to develop a tempo in your swing. With the right tempo, your muscles will work in unison to produce a smooth, powerful motion. Choose the wrong tempo, however, and your muscles will fight each other, causing your swing to fall out of synch, which causes hit-or-miss erratic results.

Everybody’s swing is different, so how do you find the right groove for your swing? Practice and experimentation is the only answer. You have to search for the true essence of your own swing, grasshopper-san. Fortunately, a variety of golf training aids exist for training tempo, from small metronomes that you can clip to your shirt collar, to magnetic balls that click as you swing. Here are some tips for using these training aids to groove your tempo:

1. Check out various pros’ swings on TV to get a few tempos you’d like to try out. For example, 2005 US Open champion Michael Campbell has a fast tempo, while Ernie Els has a slower, gliding tempo. Vijay Singh has a medium tempo that’s right in between. Once you have a few tempos to try out, then make sure that whatever training aid you buy is variable so you can try them out. If the training aid is locked to a single tempo, don’t buy it. There is no “one size fits all” for this.

2. Use your swing metronome or other training aid to try out different tempos until you find one that’s right for you. This could take several practice sessions. How will you know when it’s right? It will feel smooth and good and you will hit better, more consistent shots.

3. Practice your tempo as much as possible. Try to groove the tempo for five minutes before each round, and practice the tempo for a few swings before each shot. Practice it until you feel it in your bones. This should give you a good, repeatable base tempo to use as an anchor for your swing. Then, if you face adversity or a pressure situation during your round, you will always have a solid base tempo that you can go back to. This will allow you to relax more easily and focus on the shot at hand.

Good luck and feel the rhythm!

Mike Gelhaus, once a racquetball professional and published author for Racquetball Magazine, has turned his attention back to his first love, the game of golf. He recently achieved a handicap of 3 only weeks before having to go in for back surgery. Hoping for a quick recovery and a possible professional career, Mike’s been working on The Best Golf Training Aids site to help you improve your game and seriously knock strokes off your score through the use of golf training aids.

BY JEFFREY RYALL

The moment I get a golf club in my hand I just want to see how far I can smack that sucker. There is something about golf with me, I can not help myself. Unfortunately hitting the ball as hard as you can does not mean the ball will actually go where you want it to, in a straight line. If all you want to do is let out some pent up frustration, that’s fine but if you want to play a good game of golf then you must resist the urge.

You need to be able to swing freely and easily, not hard and violently. If you brace yourself you could well use too much effort, and if your feet are too close together you will not be able to get any decent power into the shot. If you keep your feet in roughly the same position each time you play a shot and your head still, your center of gravity will be the same.

Move one of your legs suddenly and your head will move causing your position to move, thus changing the pivotal center in relation to the ball to change. Keep both your feet firmly on the ground so that weight is supported on the flat part of your feet when you strike the ball.

When you do strike the ball correctly everything will feel right, it feels smooth and with not that much effort. Now try and do the same thing again; this is where the problem lies, trying to repeat the correct shot exactly the same way. You need to relax, try not to stiffen up or brace yourself ready for the shot. If you stiffen up at all it will destroy your balance.

Concentrate on connecting with the ball to make it go in a straight line, while making sure you hit the ball in the middle of the club. Remember, you only want to use the power you are able to control when hitting the ball. You need to get your accuracy right before you increase your power. Your swing should be under control all the time with no sudden movement, keep your head still and strike through the ball.

Your longest drives will probably come when you are just trying for accuracy, not distance. This will come with practice. You should concentrate getting your swing right as often as you can and only when you are satisfied with the accuracy of your stroke should you proceed with increasing your power. Just remember, anyone can pick up a golf club and hit the ball a long way… it’s controlling the power in the shot that’s the hard part. Good luck and happy golfing.

Jeff Ryall runs golfinfo4u, a golf website that focuses on information about golf and golf related products and where you can find more golf tips, tricks and techniques.

BY JACK MOOREHOUSE

Golf is a target game. That’s why golfers pick targets before hitting the ball. Maybe it’s a distant tree, a telephone pole, or a church steeple, whatever it is, we all have some idea of where we want to hit the ball. These targets are directional goals and we need them to minimize scores.

Then, of course, there are distance goals. We need them just as much as we need directional goals. Maybe it’s a brown patch just to the left of a bunker, a yardage marker in the center of the fairway, or the center of the green. Regardless, distance goals are just as important as directional goals.

The key to playing target golf is consistent contact. If you don’t hit the ball well time after time after time, as I stress in my golf lessons and golf tips, you don’t know where your shot will land. Maybe it will be too short or maybe too long, but you’ll never know for sure. If you want to play good target golf, you must have control of your shot.

If you don’t make consistent contact and you’re serious about reducing your golf handicap, work on it until you do. While there’s no magic wand to help you make consistent contact, you may want to commit yourself to holding the club gently and making your hands soft and supple when you play. You’ll be surprised at how much better you’ll hit the ball.

Putting

Poor distance control is a major reason for three-putting a hole. At least 85 percent of the time, your putt will miss short or long than it misses to either side. That’s on straight putts. On breaking putts, distance control is also a key to putting well. Short putts require distance control as well. You need to hit the putt fast enough to hold the line, but slow enough to go in the hole.

Here are 4 tips to improving distance control when putting:

• Read putts from side to side as well as from behind
• Calculate direction and distance separately
• Control distance by the length of your backswing
• Practice breaking putts as much as you can

Keep these tips in mind when you’re playing and you’ll have better control of your distance when putting. And practice distance control putting as much as you can.

Approach Shots

The key to full shots to the green is solid contact. To achieve it, try the following: First, let the ball’s lie determine where you hit the shot. Generally speaking the worse your lie, the more downward a blow you’ll need. On short approach shots (100 yards and in) choose your club based on the trajectory you want for your shot. If you have a poor lie and you’re playing the ball back in your stance, you have to subtract loft.

On long approach shots, choose enough club so there’s no chance of you overswinging. In other words, choose a club that allows you to swing easily and still reach the green. Finally, stress distance control in practice, just as you do when working on your putting. Hit shots to greens on the practice range. If there’s none, pick out a spot or a marker on the range and pretend it’s the green. Hit to it.

Advancement Shots

Advancement shots, as I’ve explained in my golf tips, are tee shots and shots from the fairway or the green when you don’t expect to hit the green. Unfortunately, players tend to disregard distance control on these shots and shoot entirely for a directional goal. Instead, try this: Choose a direction for the shot. Create an imaginary path for it. Select a spot on that “line” that you know you can reach with a smooth swing. And erect a “mind’s eye” flagpole on that spot. Then aim for it. This visualization technique transforms advancement shots into approach shots.

Trouble Areas

Is this an all too familiar spot for you? The need for a specific distance target is seldom greater than when playing from trouble spots where direction seems ultra important. Again, separate distance and direction. Pick a distance target along your direction line, just as you would off the tee. Remember, when you’re in trouble, every shot is a distance shot, just as it is with every other shot.

Playing target golf, as I teach in my golf instruction sessions, is one of the fastest ways to shave strokes off your golf handicap. But whether it’s a putt, an approach shot, an advancement shot, or a shot from the rough, directional AND distance control are equally important. The key to achieving both is consistent contact.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book How to Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps immediately.

BY JACK MOOREHOUSE

Like many of golf’s great players, Sam Snead relied on swing keys to help him achieve consistency. As his membership in golf’s hall of fame attests, these swing keys served him well during his career. What’s interesting is that many of them are still used by today’s pros to do the same thing.

Below are several time-tested swing keys that can help you achieve consistency and knock that golf handicap down a few notches.

1. Relax Your Hands

Your hands are one of the keys to your swing. If your hands are tight and tense, your body will be tight and tense, and you won’t be able to swing freely. If your hands are loose, you’ll not only hit the ball farther but you’ll even swing smoother as well.

Snead used to think of gripping the club with the same amount of pressure you’d use to hold a bird just firm enough to not let it fly away but not firm enough to hurt it. Others think of holding a tube of toothpaste in their hands, just firm enough to squeeze a little toothpaste out of the tube but not hard enough to push out too much.

2. First Move Down

Different golfers key on different things to begin their swings. Some focus on pulling downward with the left arm (for right-handers). Others concentrate on turning the front hip in slightly. Still others key on lowering the left heel slightly. For Snead, it was all these things. Since you can’t think of all them at once while you swing, choose whichever move reminds you to make your first move down.

3. Hit the Dimple

A lot of my students ask during golf lessons what to look at when putting the ball. Apparently, a lot of people also asked Sam the same question when he was playing on the Tour. He had a simple answer. Pick out a dimple on the ball and try to hit it.

The idea is to make the club strike the farthest back part of the ball every time. Zero in on that particular dimple, then putt away. If you hit that dimple squarely your putter is probably moving and facing in the right direction. You’ll get solid contact unless you’re chopping at the ball or swing up to it. Aiming for the dimple will improve consistency.

4. Cure the Slice

The slice is probably the biggest swing fault among recreational golfers. To cure a slice, check to see that:

• The club starts back inside the line.
• Your left side is completing the turn.
• The left arm/hand dominates the backswing/downswing.
• The stance is not the same for the intentional slice, hindering a complete pivot.

For a quick cure, try hitting the ball to the right of the fairway. This approach aids in bringing the club into the ball more from the inside than the outside.

5. Lobbing to the Green

Snead always relished a challenge. And trying to hit a lob shot over a hazard to the green is a challenge. Snead’s advice when pitching over a hazard with little green between him and the hole was simple: You want the shot to fly high and land soft — one that will settle in its tracks. To execute this shot, you first need to address the ball with the clubface laid back more than usual, increasing the loft.

Once you’ve done that, take the club straight back and break your wrists early in the swing. Strike down through the ball with the hands leading through the clubhead, and with the wrists snapping into the ball. This produces a high lob that lands softly. The whole swing should be leisurely and rhythmical.

6. Swing in “Waltz” Time

Everyone has his or her own pace. Some golfers play at a fast pace. Others play at a more leisurely pace. If you had seen Sam play, you would have noticed that he always swung the club slowly and smoothly. He called it swinging in waltz time and that was his swing key for keeping his swing under control.

Sam liked to tell the story of the time he gave a lesson to a player who played like he was going to a fire. He couldn’t get at the ball quick enough in an effort to try and hit the ball 400 yards. The divots were flying farther than the balls. Afraid the guy might hurt himself, Sam stepped in and told the guy to slow his swing down. Next time Sam saw the man, he was amazed. The man had slowed his swing down to waltz time.

Sam Snead was one of the game’s best players and teachers. Like many golfers he used specific keys to trigger his golf swing and achieve consistency. The six I explained above were just a sample. By incorporating them into your swing, you’ll be well on your way to reaching that single-digit golf handicap you’ve always wanted.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book How to Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps immediately.

BY KRIS RUITER

When you set up to hit your golf shot it is very important to go through a proper routine that allows us to set up to the ball properly. There are many movements that take place during a swing, and therefore harder to consistently repeat without a ton of practice. The set up position is something that is much easier to maintain because it is simply putting our body in the correct positions. They are static positions and therefore we should be able to repeat them almost every time. However, it is also imperative that we continuously review these positions so that we don’t form bad habits.

I intend to show you a strong pre-shot routine that will help you with your alignment and also give you the secret about the shoulders. I would recommend grabbing your favorite club so that you a follow along with the article.

The most common misconception that I have seen with regards to alignment is that most people are so concerned about setting up their body that they forget all about the club. A lot of people will set their body first and their club second, in relation to their body position. Many usually set up with the body pointing to the target and the club facing 30 yards to the right. If I make a good swing from that alignment I am going to hit way right of my target. Therefore this is not the proper alignment for hitting to our target.

Often the best way to improve our golf game is to change the way we think. We are going to change the concept in which we set ourselves up to hit our shots. First and most important, place the club behind the ball with the face pointing to the target. After all it is the ball that we want to go close to the flag, and it is the club that it is going to hit it there. So it is our club that we want pointing to the target. Not our body.

Once you have accomplished step one, it is now time to place your feet. If we think of a line that our club makes with the target then we want to place our feet parallel to that. This however is not an absolute. Some of the greatest players in history have played with stances that are not exactly parallel. Some have their feet open a little, pointing to the left, and some even have played a little closed, feet pointing to the right. However, we should never stray too far away from the parallel line.

The next piece is the secret… it is the shoulders. It is very important that the shoulders are parallel to the target line. A vast majority of sliced shots could be fixed with proper shoulder alignment. The most common fault is pointing the shoulders way left of the target line. The club will always follow the shoulders on the takeaway and backswing. Therefore, with the shoulders pointing left, the club does not come straight back along the target line but instead goes way to the outside (the side away from the body). Unless we do some major manipulation on the way back to the golf ball (which is very difficult to do), we are going to hit a monster slice.

The easiest way to correct this is to check your shoulder alignment after you are set up. Stand up and take your left hand off the club. Extend that arm in line with your shoulders and see where they are pointing. If they are pointing way off to the left then turn your shoulders so that your hand and arm are parallel to your target line.

It is very important that we do two things when we set up for a shot.

1. Put the club behind the ball pointing at your target before you put your body in place.
2. Check your shoulder alignment before you swing to give yourself the best opportunity to hit a great shot.

Try this trick on the range before you go to the golf course to get a feel for how it looks and feels. Remember, proper alignment can lead to straighter, longer shots that can help lower your scores.

Kris Ruiter is the editor of free-golf-lessons.com and a contributor to the Punta Cana Information Guide, a travel guide offering pertinent information ranging from tips and contacts to golf reviews. Kris offers incredibly helpful and easy to follow golf tips that will definitely improve your game.

BY CHUCK EVANS

In golf we have a target line and an alternate target line. Every player knows what the first one is, but there are only a handful of players and teachers that know about the second.

You see, the clubhead is only on the target line at two points during the golf shot:

1. At Address
2. At Low Point

Other than that the club should be traveling along the Alternate Line. This line comes from inside the base of the plane line and goes from in to out until it meets the target line at Low Point where the two combine.

This concept it very difficult to describe in a medium like this but once you’ve seen it in person it becomes crystal clear and you’ll wonder why you weren’t taught this before. Very few teachers know about, or even understand, this concept but it is basic geometry. If you are swinging down the target you are steering the golf club and the golf ball and if the ball goes to your target it’s sheer luck! You MUST learn to dismiss the target line, except for your set-up, and learn to visualize the Alternate Target Line.

Players are getting amazing results when their thought process is changed and they can see the Alternate Target Line.

Chuck Evans is one of only 31 teachers in the world to hold the designation Doctorate in Golf Stroke Engineering. He is highly sought after by both players and other teachers and is known as the Teacher of Teachers! He has appeared on golf talk shows, written and published instructional articles in local, regional, and national golf publications, and his DVD, 60 Days to Game Improvement, has sold in excess of 10,000 copies and his eBook, How to Build YOUR Golf Swing, is in the library of amateurs and teaching professionals alike.

BY MICHAEL RUSSELL

The number one problem the average golfer encounters with their golf game is slicing the golf ball. We’ve all been through it. Some players will even aim their drive to the extreme left side of the fairway to try and compensate for it going way over to the right side. By simply correcting your golf slice you will cut several strokes off your scorecard.

Many golfers will spend years living in frustration with their golf game because they never take the time to learn why they slice the golf ball, or how to fix the problem. If you ever expect to become a better golfer, you must learn how to correct your slice. Listed below are some tips that will help anyone cure a slicing problem.

A Good Stance

The right stance should put your feet about as wide as your shoulders. Be sure your shoulders are aligned to the target you’re aiming for. If you are questioning whether or not you’re lined up to the target, lay a golf club down on the ground against your toes. See if it is aiming at your target. If not, simply adjust your stance so that you’re lined up correctly. Your right foot should be straight ahead and your left foot should be pointing a little to the left.

Be sure your elbows are natural and comfortable. Keep in mind that even minor adjustments or changes can make big differences to where your golf ball will end up. Be sure to spend time at the driving range practicing your stance. Make the changes you need to make to align yourself properly. This time will be well spent. You’ll be amazed at the results.

Grip the Golf Club Correctly

By adjusting your golf grip correctly, you can help cure a slice quickly. The proper grip will have your left hand and your thumb along the shaft. It should line up pointing toward your right eye. Next, wrap your right hand over your left and be sure your right palm is sitting over your left thumb.

Another common problem is gripping the golf club tightly with your right hand. This will cause you to hook the ball. On the flipside, a weak grip will keep the clubface open and cause you to slice.

To correct your golf slice that is caused by a weak grip, roll your hands back so that your weaker back hand faces the target and your stronger back hand faces in the opposite direction. This grip will eliminate your slice.

By going to the driving range and practicing this new golf grip you will know immediately if this is what has been causing you to slice the golf ball. Be sure to take your time and make small adjustments to your grip. This may sound too simple, but an improper golf grip is the cause to most slicing problems. By changing your grip you may be able to correct your slice in a quick amount of time.

Good Swing Mechanics

Correcting your golf swing mechanics is yet another good cure to fixing a golf slice. A correct backswing begins with your hands, followed by your arms and then your shoulders, all in one fluid motion.

The right downswing starts by turning your hips, keeping your eyes focused on the golf ball and your head should be behind the ball as you go into your follow through.

Once you begin practicing using these tips on the driving range, you’ll quickly overcome any slicing problem you may have. Getting good at golf is simply a matter of practice and developing good habits. Tiny changes have a way of producing big results. In a short amount of time you will see yourself saying goodbye banana ball and hello green!

Michael Russell writes for the Your Golf Guide website.

BY JACK MOOREHOUSE

How you finish often reveals what’s happening during your swing. In fact, I often key on a player’s finish in my golf lessons to determine exactly how to help him or her improve. You can do the same for yourself — if you know what to look for.

Below I describe four of the more common finishes I see when giving golf lessons, possible causes of the finish, and ideas on how to eliminate, the swing faults that cause them.

High Finish

The high finish position is among the most common. Hands held high and a flying left elbow (for right handers) characterize the position, associated with pushes, thin shots, and shots struck toward the clubface’s heel. High finishers tend to swing on an in to out path that’s extreme, with the club traveling to the right of the target, minimizing control.

If you read my golf tips, you’ll find that the in-to-out swing is my preferred approach; however, in this case, it’s extreme. When the inside-out move becomes severe, you push the shot. When the club comes too far inside with a closed clubface, you pull the shot. Also, swinging too far inside delivers the club below the swing plane, preventing the club from striking the ball on a descending path. The key is not to exaggerate the move too much.

Low Finish

The low finish stems from an overly out-to-in swing path, caused by a downswing motion initiated by the arms instead of the body. Players developing this finish come over the top of the plane, as I’ve explained in my golf tips, causing the clubhead to cut across the ball through the impact zone. The position is associated with pull slices, pull hooks, and shots off the toe. Since the club is moving steeply and across the ball, none of the shots are well struck. Nor do they fly toward the intended target.

If you freeze this finish, you’ll notice that the player’s hands and arms seem to be all jammed up. That’s because the arms have moved earlier than the body, impeding the arm’s movement and limiting their extension. To fix this problem, you obviously need to work on the body/arm synchronization, so your arms don’t out race your body on the downswing.

Lunge Finish

I don’t know how popular this finish is statistically, but I often see it in my golf lessons. With this type of finish, the player’s head is in front of his or her left leg, or the golfer feels himself or herself falling forward. It stems from a poor rotation of the lower body through the hitting zone, causing the upper body to get ahead of the ball. The end result: the player fails to stay behind the ball during the swing.

To correct this fault, you need to work on your hip rotation. Try leading the down swing with your hips instead of your body. Try placing a chair to your front side, with the back of the chair just touching your hips. Take a few practice swings being careful to stay in contact with the chair’s back as you turn through impact. Also, try finishing with your head over your left leg.

Reverse C Finish

The Reverse C Finish, in many golf instruction courses, was thought of as the perfect finish — that is, up until a few years ago. Now, it’s not as highly regarded. With the reverse C, the golfer slides his legs and body laterally to the left (for right-handers) and fast through impact. The weight, however, remains on the back foot. A reverse pivot — which occurs when you fail to transfer your weight from the front foot to the back foot — also produces a Reverse C finish configuration.

To correct this fault, you need more hip rotation and less slide. To cure the reverse pivot, you need more weight transfer. If your problem is the reverse pivot, try making your ordinary swing while lifting your front foot of the ground on your back swing, then replant it on the downswing. This helps transfer the weight from the front foot to the back foot, as it should. If you want to build more hip rotation in the swing, try taking practice swings with a shaft placed on the right side of your hips. Your hips should rotate so that they never touch the shaft. If they touched, you slid.

The reverse C finish is one of the more prominent finishes. But like the lunge, low, or high finishes, it can indicate hidden swing faults that need correcting. The sooner you start working on correcting the swing faults discussed here, the sooner you’ll start lowering your golf handicap.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book How to Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps immediately.

BY JACK MOOREHOUSE

Whatever your golf handicap is, you’ve probably experienced days when everything on the course seemed to fall into place. You’re golfing with a fun-loving foursome. You’re playing a great course on a great day. And you’re driving, chipping, and putting well. In fact, you’re doing everything well. It all seems so easy.

And, then, for no apparent reason, you lose it. You can’t do anything right. Your drives miss the fairways. Your approach shots fall way short. And your chip shots run by the hole and off the green. Good shots are far and few between. And when you finally hit a good shot, you shank the next, turning pars into double and triple bogeys. Everything feels confused, as if you’ve never hit a ball before.

One reason why we sometimes “lose it” is timing. In golf instruction timing means synchronizing your turning body and your swinging arms, resulting in a smooth release of the clubhead through impact and beyond. Timing helps generate control, accuracy, and distance. More importantly, it helps generate swing consistency, regardless of your golf handicap.

How do you know when your timing is right? When your timing is on, your swing is fluid and effortless. It feels like you’re hitting the ball on the sweet spot every time. And the ball is taking off. When your timing is off, your swing feels out of whack. You struggle to hit the ball, never mind generating distance or driving it straight. Your swing feels confused. In fact, everything feels confused.

Your confusion often begins with a loss of timing. In golf, loss of timing occurs when the upper parts of your arms separate from your rotating chest halfway through your back swing and follow-through. If you could see yourself in slow-motion, you’d see your left arm separate and lift from your chest in the backswing and your right arm separate and lift from your chest in the follow-through.

Recapturing your timing is essential to regaining that “everything is easy” feeling. It’s why we take golf lessons and read golf tips. The sensation you want to feel is that of the pressure being maintained between your upper arms and chest. The left arm should stretch diagonally across your chest on the backswing and the right arm in a similar position in the follow-through. This is called linkage. When it’s broken, timing strays and confusion reigns.

Another reason why we sometimes “lose it” is tempo. Tempo is the time it takes you to complete your full swing, from start to finish. When you’re playing well, you feel like you’re hitting the ball long, solid, and accurately. You find your tempo is pretty much the same on every full shot. But when your game is off, your tempo is off as well.

Generally, a player’s tempo reflects his personality. If you’re a fast moving, quick talking type of person, your swing will be fast and quick. If you’re a laid back, easy-going type of person, your swing will be unhurried, easy by nature.

When combined, timing and tempo help determine swing consistency. But neither is easy to develop. By working on both, you’ll develop the kind of swing even players with low golf handicaps will envy.

Here’s an exercise I use in my golf lessons to develop a player’s appreciation for his/her swing tempo:

Address a ball. Raise the clubhead off the ground slightly. Move it forward to a position a foot or so into the follow-through, and start swinging from there. Guide the clubhead back over the ball, complete your backswing, and swing through the ball all in one motion. Repeat this exercise a number of times. Eventually, you will start developing an appreciation of your swing tempo.

Here’s an exercise to develop your swing’s linkage:

This exercise is designed to train no more than a three quarter length swing.

1. Place a ball on the ground.
2. Take a 9-iron and assume a normal address position.
3. Next, place a head cover underneath each armpit,
4. Take three-quarter length swings with the 9-iron.
5. Repeat the exercise

You want to focus on making the swing without losing the head cover; this forces you, in turn, to concentrate on rotating your arms and swinging your body together. Synchronizing your arms and body maintains that all-important linkage between these key parts. Repeat the exercise until you feel comfortable.

Naturally, if you take a full-length swing, the head covers will fall out. So take only three-quarter length swings. Once you feel comfortable doing this, dispense with the head covers, but remember the feeling. Try to maintain it as you hit balls without the covers. Soon, you’ll feel your timing returning.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book How to Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps immediately.

BY ROBERT PARTAIN

No one likes to hit a slicing ball, unless, of course, it is a part of your shot plan. Generally, though, we don’t like them. A slice is usually a weak shot that ends up right of your target, which is all too common among amateur golfers, and many old pros too. Some of the more common causes for a slice are:

A Weak Grip — A weak grip is when your hands are turned to the left (if you are a right-handed golfer) so that the “V’s” formed by the thumb and forefinger point at, or to, the left of your chin. When this happens, the club is too much “in” your palms, so to speak, which makes it very hard to square the clubface at impact.

So, how do you fix that?

You should start by strengthening your grip. You can do this by turning your hands so the “V’s” point to the right of your chin. If you are new to golf, this may feel a bit awkward, but it’s important that you do it and get comfortable with the feel. You can confirm the right position simply by holding the club while looking in a mirror.

Another reason for a slice could be your grip is too tight. Having too tight of a grip will restrict your movement when you swing. It makes it harder to release the club through impact (right arm over left arm for the right-handed golfers), which usually leaves the clubface open and the ball ending up way right of your target.

Fixing it: A good way to judge if your grip is too tight is to take your normal stance, and using your “normal” grip, hold your club straight out in front of you, and have someone try to pull the club out of your hands. They should almost be able to pull it away from you. If they can’t, you’re holding the club too tight.

The last of the more common reasons for a slice is a cupped left wrist. With too much of a cupped left wrist (right-handed golfers) you leave yourself open for trouble. Normally, what you will end up doing is trying to correct this flaw with an over-the-top swing as you try square the clubface just before impact. On the backswing, the ideal left wrist position is slightly cupped at the top, but not majorly cupped.

One way to fix this is to stick a pencil in your golf glove (on the back of your hand where the glove logo would be) and swing slowly like this; it’s nearly impossible to have a cupped wrist or else the pencil will dig into your arm. If you feel it digging in, then “loosen” the wrist until it doesn’t anymore. Then try to remember how this new position feels to you. You’ll want to repeat (mimic) this from now on.

Try these if you have a slice problem, and you’ll be on your way to straighter shots and more enjoyable golf.

Robert Partain has been an avid golfer for over 40 years. He publishes a golf blog that is updated 4 times a week with golf tips, techniques, and information.