Improving Your Short Game, Secrets To Playing Better Golf

How many times have you had an excellent drive followed by an equally excellent approach shot only to be disappointed by your chip/pitch/sand shot and/or 3-putt effort? The short game (putting, chipping, pitching and sand play) accounts for about 80 percent of your total score. These skills are too important to be ignored.

You don’t believe us? The next time you’re out on the golf course, count the number of shots it takes you to get from the edge of the green to the hole. If you’re an average golfer like us, you will be surprised at the number of strokes you use on your short game, and it doesn’t necessarily depending on what golf equipment you are using.

If you want to lower your score and improve your golf game, your best chance to do so would be to work on your short game. With a little time and effort spent practicing with your wedges and putter, you will improve your game and shave strokes off your score. The great thing is that improving your short game does not require any special strength, coordination, conditioning or special golf clubs. These are skills that everybody who plays can master…and have fun improving! The key is to spend just as much time, if not more time, practicing your short game as you do your long game.

Putting Rule: When putting, try not to think too hard. This is when mistakes are usually made. Am I taking the putter too far back? Am I aligned correctly? If you continually ask yourself these questions on the green, you are already thinking of ways to miss the putt. Just look at the hole and go straight at it. Why do you think new golfers and kids sometimes do so well at putting? Is it because they have a special gift for putting? No, of course it isn’t. It’s because they are not thinking about their approach and are only wanting for the ball to go in the hole. We know that this sounds overly simplistic, but if you do your thinking on the practice green and get your timing and alignment set on a consistent basis, the next time you’re on the course it will all become instinctive and you can then concentrate on distance and the undulations on the green and not focus attention on your putting stroke.

Putting Practice: Before you tee off on the first hole if you’re in a hurry. This exercise will help you make good contact with the ball and create momentum on your putts. Place the ball about three feet away from the hole on a flat part of the green. Without using a backstroke, push the ball into the hole using your putter. In other words, don’t use a backstroke during this part of the exercise. Hit the ball immediately from address, do this 5 times and get a good feel for your follow-through. After doing this, use your normal putting stroke and hit the ball another 5 times from the same distance. You should notice a difference in your putting stroke. This simple and quick exercise creates a smoother stroke and follow-through when putting.

Pitch Shot Rule: Set your hips, knees and feet open to the target and accelerate through your swing. Yes, there are other things that your could work on when hitting a wedge, but the most common mistakes that amateurs make are standing square to the ball at address and slowing down on the backswing. Correcting these two flaws will enable you to hit more consistent and accurate shots. Keeping your shoulders square and slightly opening up your hips, knees and feet towards the target will allow you to get through the shot and get air under the ball. Your follow through should be as long as, if not longer, than your backswing just to make sure you accelerate through it. This will allow you to make good contact with the ball and you will make consistently straight and accurate shots.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out to the golf course and start shaving strokes off your score!

Copyright 2007 David Lester

David Lester is the owner of http://www.shop4clubs.com a golf content website. David has worked in the golf industry for over 10 years in various capacities such as product management and international sales.

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How Senior Golf Equipment Will Keep You Playing Great At Any Age

Who wants to hear that word of golf reality - senior golf equipment? Most of us don’t want to face the fact that we are or will be eventually getting older. As life takes us through the path of wonder, we as golfers will all have to move into what is sometimes known as the golden years. That’s life, don’t fight it enjoy it with the proper golf equipment designed for seniors.

The nice thing about golf is the manufactures are on your side and want to help you maximize your game. A lot of the bigger manufacturers are starting to construct (if they don’t have already) clubs and equipment strictly for the older generation.

The other nice thing is that senior golf is becoming hugely popular partially due to the Champions Tour. All the great players form the past and today that are competing on a regular basis for some big dollars on T.V. If you haven’t seen them tube or live in your area you should watch. These guys play some great golf along with being some of the best characters personality wise you’ll find anywhere. It’s very entertaining to watch.

How does that help with golf equipment you ask? Very simply, the players are promoting more equipment to make the game easier for seniors. This forces the manufacturers to step up their game and make some high quality gear they can use to score low that works just as well if not better with their aging bodies. Because of this the demand for this type of equipment is huge.

You may also be wondering what exactly constitutes a senior golfer. In the outside world a becoming a senior starts usually when you’re 65. Not in golf, they jumped the gun and started classifying seniors starting at 50 to play on the senior tours. Some players may not want to be considered a senior that early. But it can only help you as the equipment will become easier to use. Heck some don’t even wait until 50 if the senior golf equipment will help their game sooner.

You can get all sorts of equipment for the senior level. There’s drivers, iron set, putters, fairway woods, balls, bags, shoes, and the most popular hybrid clubs all designed for the older generation. All this type of equipment can be custom fit for you just like the regular equipment. There are a number of different things done to the senior line of equipment to help you keep up and even hit it better and further than the young guns.

The bottom line here is, don’t be afraid of getting older on the golf course. If you embrace it as it comes and get the senior golf equipment that fits your game those glory years can end up being some of the best ones of your golfing career. Go out and get yourself some senior golf equipment today.

Article courtesy of Golfequipmentsource.com, where you get the answers you need about golf equipment, apparel, tips and more. Check out senior golf equipment…for more on this and other great golf equipment ideas.

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Golf schools may be a thing of the past.

I’ve just come across something every golfer is going to want to know about. It’s an online golf school. And it’s the first, fully featured, personalized golf school online.

Some of the benefits are:

You don’t have to travel.
You can practice when and where you want.
You can practice what you want to make the biggest improvement in your golf game instead of being told what to practice.
It’s A LOT cheaper than a regular off-line golf school.
And best of all….you’ll only pay if you improve.

So before you pay thousands of dollars for a golf school or pay any other money hoping to improve….make sure you go here and check out this online golf school now.

Reduce Your Golf Training And Lower Your Score

Mental golf training can be 5-6 times more efficient than practising on the driving range. The new AmazingGolfMind subliminal mental audios focus on improving the subconscious mind. By listening 3-4 times a week you’ll improve your game much faster than hitting hundreds of balls on the driving range.

Here’s the free video what explains how subliminal mental golf audios work:

Mental golf audios

Is this a new concept? It is a new concept for regular golfers. Tiger and the top tour pros use subliminal mental training for a long time. Tiger is said using subliminal messages since he was 13.

You can watch the free video here and get a free short game audio directly after watching the video:

Mental golf audios

To Your Success,

Daryl Abell