5 Tips to Becoming A Better Golfer

In golf, you won’t be great overnight, but time, practice, and a good attitude will help speed up the process. You can practice at the driving range, the golf course, at home, or if you’re lucky at the office. Adopting an all-around approach to the improvement of your golf game by working on your short game, long drives, as well as your mental focus will help you to become a better golfer. Whether you’re new to golf or have been playing for years, improve your golf game with the tips below.

1. Check Your Position: The way that you set up your basics of grip, posture, stance, and aim will have an influence on the action and its result. So, it is of no surprise that the one thing all great players have in common is an excellent position when addressing the ball. Make this a priority, whether working on it alone or with a coach.
2. Find Your Balance: Be sure that you keep a steady center of gravity while remaining relaxed enough to comfortably move your body through each phase of your swing. Start by putting your weight on the balls of your feet, then add a slight bend to your knees. Next, point your clubface at your target, align your shoulders and feet behind it. Make sure that you shift your weight throughout your swing. Your stance should be fluid and not rigid.

To work on your balance, place an alignment stick parallel to your ball-target target line and stand on it, make sure it runs under the center of both of your feet as this will tell you if you are too much on your toes or heels. Check your balance and address the ball with a mid/short iron. Now, hit 10 balls once again focusing on your balance and checking the alignment stick as it will reveal any toe/heel tendencies, highlighting where your balance should be. Now hit 10 normal shots without the stick and you should begin to feel an improvement in your balance.

3. Hit Straighter, Not Further: You will often hear TV commentators marvel at the distance professional golfers hit the ball. What if we told you that you could reduce your handicap without hitting it another yard farther? Having a good understanding of the relationship between the clubface to the swing path and creating a more centered strike will result in more ball control. Plus, once you improve your swing path, you will hit the ball further as a side effect.
4. Use Your Wedge: While hitting greens with a wedge is easily within scope for most players, often too many greens will get missed due to wrong distance, which will have a big impact on your score. To avoid this and improve your distance control, practice hitting wedge shots various distances only changing the length of swing only. The key is to focus on keeping a consistent pace and constant acceleration to your swing, instead of a sudden rush at the ball.
5. Master Reading Your Shots: Make it a point to work with a coach on your knowledge of ball flight laws because the effect of a combination of face angle, club path and attack angle on collision will have an impact on every ball flight. Once you have mastered which combination produces which flight, then you can start applying that knowledge to your shots.

Don’t forget to watch golf anytime you can! Watching how the players size up the shot and their strategies will help your game, especially when you try to apply some of those strategies to your game. With a lot of practice and by utilizing the tips above, you’ll quickly see an improvement in your game.

Stay tee’d up with Big Country Golf!