Improve your Game at your Home Course with these 11 Steps!

Written by Mel Sole on July 29, 2016. Posted in Golf Instruction

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Good course management is worth 5 to 10 shots for the average golfer. I have often said that if I could caddy for one of my 18 handicap golfers and not give them any swing advice but helped them manage their games, they would take at least 4 to 6 shots off their handicap. Even having the correct selection of clubs in your bag can make a huge difference, as Peter Morrice and Todd Anderson for Golf Digest make very clear in this article!

Improve your Game at your Home Course with these 11 Steps!

1. Most of us play the majority of our rounds on one course.

In fact, the USGA says golfers posting for handicaps in 2015 marked their scores as “home” 74.4 percent of the time. You probably don’t think much about that, except maybe to wonder why you keep messing up the same holes. The good news is, with a little analysis, you can tailor your game to your course or fill a gap that’s killing your scores—three-quarters of the time!

For example, if your course is lined by trees, you might need to drive the ball straighter. If you feel like you have a mile into every green, it’s smart to work on your fairway woods and hybrids. If your greens have crazy slopes, you’d better know how to read break. This magazine offers a ton of great instruction, but it’s usually up to you to decide if the tips apply to your game. Here we’ll help you pick and choose based on where you play.

Work your way through this article, and you’ll start to understand what your course is asking of you—and start answering the call more often. This is why teaching pros give playing lessons: They want to help students improve on their home course. So consider this your first playing lesson. —with Peter Morrice

2. If you struggle to reach the green in two shots on most par 4’s, you need … Driving Distance.

Power comes from hitting from the inside out. To do that, your lower body has to start the downswing—that’s what keeps the club to the inside. Your hips shift toward the target and start to unwind, pulling your upper body and then your arms and club through the ball.As the lower body rotates, it creates an outward force on the arms. This is the slinging action you see in long hitters. To get it, you have to let your arms simply drop from the top of the swing. We call that “dropping in the slot.” Then you can take advantage of the energy created by your body turn. The rotation throws your arms and club out to the ball (left).

A good feeling is that your right arm goes from short as it drops down, to long as it extends through impact.

DON’T MAKE THIS MISTAKE: A lot of golfers make an aggressive upper-body move to start down. That throws the club to the outside prematurely. Think, shift, turn, then sling.

3. If you have to hit a recovery shot after your drive three or more times a round, you need … Driving Accuracy.

Understand that the position of the clubface at impact has the biggest influence on where the ball goes. That’s most evident on tee shots.First, check your grip. When you look down at address, you should see at least two knuckles of your left hand (for righties). The Vs formed by your thumb and forefinger of both hands should point just inside your right shoulder.

With a good grip, think of the back of your left hand as a mirror of the clubface. Wherever that hand is facing, that’s where the clubface is pointing. This image works great because face position is a tough thing to feel. For straighter tee shots, imagine that the logo on the back of your glove at impact is pointing on a line parallel to your target line (left).

DON’T MAKE THIS MISTAKE: If your logo is pointing up at impact, your right hand is scooping, and your left wrist cupping. Focus on keeping that left wrist flat—and that logo facing out.

Driving Accuracy.

4. If most of your shots into the greens are outside of iron distance, you need … Woods/Hybrids.

Making thin contact with the longer clubs from the fairway produces low shots that don’t reach the green. The design of fairway woods and hybrids puts more loft toward the top of the clubface, so you need to get the bottom edge of the club below the bottom of the ball to make contact higher on the face.The feeling you want is, you shift to your front side and then extend your arms and swing the clubhead low through the shot. Keep it low after the strike, with your arms staying long. Try to maintain through impact the triangle formed by your arms (left).

DON’T MAKE THIS MISTAKE: Falling back on your right foot and trying to help the ball up creates those thin hits. Make sure you shift left and extend those arms.

5. If most of your shots from the fairway are from uneven ground, you need … Sidehill Lies.

Here’s the key concept for sidehill lies: The ball will go in the direction of the slope. So when the ball is below your feet, it’ll tend to go right; when it’s above your feet, it’ll go left. The main thing is setting up correctly and adjusting your aim.At address, make sure the clubhead is flat on the turf—with the toe and heel, front edge and back edge all touching the ground. With the ball above you, grip down, aim right, and swing more around your body. With the ball below you, bend over more, aim left, and swing more up and down. It’s also a good idea to shorten your swing for control (pictured).

DON’T MAKE THIS MISTAKE: Never fight the slope. Sole the clubhead flush to the ground, and stay in your posture as you swing.

To see the other 6 shots to improve your strategy on your home course, go here!

Source: Todd Anderson Peter Morrice Golf Digest

Pictures: J.D. Cuban

Thanks for reading – Improve your Game at your Home Course with these 11 Steps!

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Improve your Game at your Home Course with these 11 Steps!

1. Most of us play the majority of our rounds on one course.

2. If you struggle to reach the green in two shots on most par 4’s, you need … Driving Distance.

3. If you have to hit a recovery shot after your drive three or more times a round, you need … Driving Accuracy.

4. If most of your shots into the greens are outside of iron distance, you need … Woods/Hybrids.

5. If most of your shots from the fairway are from uneven ground, you need … Sidehill Lies.

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