Archive for August, 2010

Playing from Sloping Lies

Here are a couple of important things we need to do when playing from sloping lies.

Ball Above Your Feet

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  1. It is important to grip an inch or so further down the shaft then you would normally do, this will shorten the club and will help you make solid contact.
  2. With the way the slope is, your weight is naturally is trying to be pushed back onto your heels so you need to make a conscious effort in keeping your weight more towards your toes.
  3. The ball will fly right – to –left so allowances need to be made. We can aim slightly right with are body alignment or we can offset the clubface a little to the right to allow for the draw spin.
  4. Maintain your height and keep your legs nice and quiet during your golf swing as this will help you to keep your balance and avoid any kind of miss – hits.

Ball below your feet

Arkward-lies-1.png

  1. Hold the club right at the very top of the grip so you are using the full length of the golf club.
  2. Bend your knees and bend from the waste a little more than normal, as this will help you to get to the ball. Your body weight should be and feel towards your toes and you need to keep completely balanced throughout the entire golf swing.
  3. The ball will fly with left – to – right spin on it so we need to aim our body a little more left of our target and we can also offset the club to a slightly closed position to reduce the amount of fade spin created.

I hope you enjoyed the article, any comments or Questions then please leave a comment below..

Until next time I wish you all the golfing success

Mark

Mark Wood Golf Academy
Dale Hill hotel & golf club
East Sussex

 

BE POSITIVE ON SHORT PUTTS

A tee peg practice drill to help you hole more of those pressure putts

There’s an old adage that says, “You drive for show and putt for dough”. We all get more target focussed when faced with putts we feel that we should hole and therefore feel more pressure. The hole some how looks smaller and we feel uncomfortable when standing over the ball, this leads to tense hands, forearms and shoulders all of which has a profound effect on how we swing the putter. So here is a practice putting drill to help you feel more confident over short putts.

  • Find a hole that gives you a nice straight flat putt.
  • Push a tee peg into the back of the cup and focus on that as this will make the hole seem a lot bigger
  • Draw a line on your ball to help you line the putt up, directly at the tee peg.
  • This will really help in taking the technical thoughts out of your stroke and you will feel that you swing the putter head more freely.
  • Feel how soft your hands and your elbows are as you swing the putter, rolling the ball straight towards the tee peg and into the hole.

I hope you enjoyed the article, any comments or Questions then please leave a comment below..

Until next time I wish you all the golfing success

Mark

Mark Wood Golf Academy
Dale Hill hotel & golf club
East Sussex

 

Hello. Here is the news.

Hi and welcome. This is where I’ll pass on snippets of info I think you’ll find interesting and useful; about golf, golf players, golf coaching…all of it.

And to start off:

Harry Shearing has successfully defended his Title in the Mens Club Championship at Tenterden golf club last week end with rounds of 72 and 68. Harry has been working with me since February 2007 and has reduced his handicap from 9 to 4 in these 3 years.

Laird Shephard has been picked to play for Sussex under 13’s and has also been selected for a County coaching squad day with David Leadbetter. I have been working with Laird for the last 5 years.

Rosie Hockey who has been working with Mark for the last 7 years is playing the best golf of her life, Rosie won the Sussex Veterans Championship last year and she has once again secured her place in the Sussex County squad. When Rosie started working with Mark her handicap was 11 and now Rosie plays off 5.