Posts Tagged ‘Golf Lesson Sussex’

Mirroring

Alternatively, we can find another golfer whose swing or method we can attempt to emulate in the hope of achieving similar results. Greg Norman is an excellent example of this technique. He modeled his swing and many of his mannerisms after Jack Nicklaus, and it has paid off handsomely for him.

Ben Hogan, who dropped out of school prior to graduation, made up for his lack of education by being a voracious reader and a keen observer. He studied the golf swing as no one had done before. He viewed newsreel films of the best players to modify his hip action. He picked up his club head waggle from US Open winner, Johnny Revolta, and worked with his swing plane night after night in the bathroom mirrors of his hotel room. Other players hated to room next to him because of the incessant thump of golf balls hitting the baseboard as he practiced his putting stroke at all hours of the day and night.

When mirroring a golfer, it pays to find a player of similar age, height and build, making it easier to copy his swing.

Never underestimate the power of the written word to improve your putting, your swing or your life. Although it isn’t a good idea to be constantly tinkering and fiddling with your basic game, don’t be afraid of looking for valuable knowledge in the pages of a book.

Improve you game book a lesson with one of our PGA pros call now 07796 271661

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From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

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Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

“When I was a little kid, I would pretend I had a shot to win the Masters or the Open, to make me try my best.”

                                    Hale Irwin

 The practice range is the only place you can find your faults and work at correcting them without it costing you strokes or money. The same is basically true of public speaking, selling, or almost anything you can think of. Practice allows you to record, film, examine and critique your own performance, in a positive way, to bring about change for the better. That’s why role-playing is such an important part of learning. A delightful TV ad depicts a teenager, playing alone among the evening sprinklers. He addresses his ball, takes a last glance at the green, and says something like, “He needs a birdie on this one to beat Freddie.” Then he hits a shot that comes to rest a few feet from the flag. Picking up his bag he adds, “It looks like we have a new PGA Champion!”

I’m sure you’ve played similar mind games, especially if you’ve been playing golf since childhood. Perhaps you’ve played two balls in practice rounds — one for you and one for Nicklaus. You may even have played tournament rounds in your head. Tom Watson said, after winning the 1977 British Open at Turnberry in an historic battle with Jack Nicklaus, that he played so well because he had done it some many times before. When reporters questioned this, he went on to explain that he had, on many occasions during practice rounds, role-played a one-on-one confrontation with Nicklaus. As a result he was not intimidated by the situation when it finally arose in real life.

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

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at 

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Colin Stuart Montgomerie, OBE (born 23 June 1963) is a Scottish professional golfer. He has won a record eight European Tour Order of Merit titles, including a streak of seven consecutively from 1993 to 1999. He has won 31 European Tour events, the most of any British player, placing him fourth on the all time list of golfers with most European Tour victories. He won three consecutive Volvo PGA Championship‘s at Wentworth Club between 1998 to 2000. He has finished runner-up on five occasions in major championship‘s.

although Scottish by birth and ancestry, he was raised in Yorkshire, England, where his father, James Montgomerie, was Managing Director of Fox’s Biscuits.[2] He spent a number of years with the Ilkley Golf Club, where he was tutored by the past professional Bill Ferguson. He was educated at both Leeds Grammar School and Strathallan School, Perthshire. During his time in Leeds, he became a supporter of Leeds United,[3] but was a loyal supporter of Glasgow Rangers. His father later became the secretary of Royal Troon Golf Club, one of Scotland’s most famous clubs.

Montgomerie became one of the first British golfers to go to a United States college, attending Houston Baptist University, where he played on the golf team and became its top player. He won three important Scottish amateur tournaments – the 1983 Scottish Youths Championship, the 1985 Scottish Stroke Play Championship, and the 1987 Scottish Amateur Championship. He also played for Scotland twice in the Eisenhower Trophy (1984 and 1986) and for Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup twice (1985 and 1987). Between 1988–91, Montgomerie completed a degree in Accountancy at the University of Stirling.

Montgomerie turned professional in 1988, and was named the Rookie of the Year on the European Tour that season. He quickly developed into one of Europe’s top pros, winning his first event at the 1989 Portuguese Open by eight shots, and making his Ryder Cup debut in 1991. He finished first on the European Tour Order of Merit every year from 1993 to 1999 (a record for most consecutive Orders of Merit), and has 31 victories on the tour, including the 1998, 1999, and 2000 Volvo PGA Championships at Wentworth, England. He first reached the top-10 in the Official World Golf Rankings in 1994, and spent almost 400 weeks in the top-10.[4] His highest ranking was number two. In his prime Montgomerie was considered one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the world and became a very precise iron player, often able to judge the distance he hit the ball exactly from long range.

His form fell away gradually in the new millennium, partly due to marriage problems, and his ranking slumped to 82nd in the world, but he came back strongly in 2005, winning a record eighth European Tour Order of Merit and returning to the top ten in the World Rankings.[5] Late in 2005 he became the first man to win 20 million Euros on the European Tour—topping the European Tour’s all-time highest earners list. He remained the leader in career earnings on the European Tour until 2010, when he was surpassed by Ernie Els.

Despite the drop in form, his influence remained strong. In 2012, Montgomerie was named by the Golf Club Managers’ Association‘s Golf Club Management magazine as the seventh most powerful person in British golf.[6]

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

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at 

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Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Instant replay

“I always achieve my most productive practice right after a round. Then, the mistakes are fresh in my mind, and I can go to the practice tee and work specifically on those mistakes.”

Jack Nicklaus

It is a trait of champions to employ the “instant reply mode” after every round.

What shots were executed well and what shots were executed badly?

What were the physical errors and the mental errors?

How and where could improvements be made?

Spend five minutes each and every day reflecting on your performance. Pat yourself on the back for your accomplishments but don’t fail to clearly analyze your mistakes and mentally rectify them before you start the next day. Decide what strategies you can use tomorrow that will be more effective. Commit to more preparation.

Tony Lema

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

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at 

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Flightscope Lessons

Well it’s roughly been one month since I purchased a flightscope to use in lessons and I must say the feedback that I have had from client’s improvements has been fantastic.

How can flightscope help my golf?

FlightScope’s 3D motion tracking devices are not just about ball measurement; they can also help with your golf swing analysis by measuring variables related to your golf club, such as:

• club head speed
• club attack angle
• club path
• club face angle
• dynamic loft

The ball’s trajectory after it has been launched is also tracked, which means you have exceptionally comprehensive ball measurement information instantly available, aiding you in your ongoing quest to improve your golf swing. It is also printable for later analysis.

The FlightScope 3D Doppler Tracking Golf Radar was the official 3D motion tracking device at the 2008 PGA Fall Expo, which just goes to show that this ball tracking monitor is a master of its game. By using it, you could be a master of yours by accurately developing that perfect golf swing.

Recently a new client came to me after having had a few lessons with other various professionals and was really not making any progress in improving his dreaded SLICE!!

After we had talked about his game we videoed his swing and also used the flightscope to get some data on what the club was actually doing through the impact area. This client was under the impression that his swing was massively “over the top” on an out to in swing path and that is what was causing his SLICE!!

After we viewed the video, in which I must add his golf swing looked very nice and functional, we looked at the flightscope data. This showed that his swing path was on a slight in to out path, a complete opposite to what he thought but the clubface was 10 degrees open to the target line at impact. The clubface position at impact was the main reason for his rightward shot!!

After a small grip change and a feeling of a very soft forearm rotation we had him hitting beautiful soft draws, which also increased his distance by 15 yards!!

Since our lesson just over 2 weeks ago he sent me an email yesterday saying thanks very much I have just won my last 2 club competitions and reduced my handicap by 2!!

Not a bad result after just a 1 hour’s golf lesson!!

That is why the flightscope is very good as it gives us the 3D real time function of the club through the hitting area.

Flightscope is also very accurate and very good in calibrating how far you hit each club, both on carry and total distance.

If you would like the same kind of results and want to see an improvement in your own golf then please contact me [email protected] or 07796 271661 to book a lesson now!!

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

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

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at 

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

The Strange Tale of Hinkle’s Pine!

With the US Open on this week we got to thinking about some of our favorite moments from this great event. The one I choose to share always brings a smile to my face, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

At the 1979 US Open an unusual thing happened on the 8th hole. A 30-foot black spruce tree grew overnight, just off the front of the 8th tee! Now before you check the cover of this book to make sure you didn’t pick up an omnibus edition of the National Enquirer by mistake, allow me to explain.

Lon Hinkle, one of the Tour’s longest hitters, may not have made as indelible a mark as some of the more famous champions, but he certainly possessed some of the necessary traits. His game featured very powerful tee shots and an enviable degree of creativity. During a practice round Hinkle realized the 8th hole, a 528 yard par five, could be made much shorter and easier by playing his tee shot down the adjacent 17th fairway. During the first round Hinkle did just that by firing a 1-iron through a gap in the trees, ahead and to the left of the 8th tee, straight down the 17th fairway. From there he played an unobstructed iron shot onto the 8th green for an easy birdie. This lead to a solid round that placed him atop the first round leader board. Word quickly spread through the field about Hinkle’s creative approach to the hole but, in the best tradition of Britain’s Queen Victoria, the USGA was “not amused.”

That night, while the unsuspecting players slept, the “powers that be” drove onto the course under cover of darkness. Armed with a back hoe, a tractor and an army of men, they dug a huge hole not far from the 8th tee. In it they placed the aforementioned 30 foot black spruce tree, effectively plugging the gap in the tree line between the adjacent fairways and preventing the players from making a mockery of the 8th hole by taking the short cut. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only occasion in US Open history where the course was altered in the middle of a championship. Hinkle may have had the last laugh. He still smashed his tee shot on the 8th down the 17th fairway by the simple expedient of hitting it over the tree. Although he finished 20 shots behind the eventual winner, Hale Irwin, the 1979 championship will be remembered by many as, “The Hinkle’s Pine Open.”

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

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

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at 

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Bunker Shot Swing Technique

Once you have established a good solid set up for this bunker shot your focus now turns to executing the swing.

Firstly I want to briefly describe the bounce of the club and what it does. The bounce of the wedge is there to help you and it will guide through the sand if used correctly.

As the bunkers have become better over the last few years, with the quality of the sand and drainage, manufactures have improved there wedges with varying degrees of loft’s and bounce angles. With this in mind you have all the correct tools to be playing this shot well. The only thing that is still “old school” is the way golfers set up to these shots, so I am going to explain the modern way of escaping the sand with ease.

“If the leading edge digs in, poor bunker shots will be the result. Remember the bounce of the wedge is your friend, so please use it”

Hinging the wrists to much in a good greenside bunker lie creates a steep angle of attack and this can lead to the leading edge to dig in. Remember we are using the bounce of the wedge in this situation.

Swing back to a position where the left reaches parallel to the ground (a 9 o’clock position) and keep your wrist set to a minimum. The backswing should be on a slightly flatter swing arc than normal. I want you to feel that you keep your weight forward as you swing your arms around your body.

The weight should have stayed on the left side during the backswing, as keeping in this fixed weight position helps you to strike the sand in a consistent point (an inch or two before the ball).

As you turn your body back to the ball I want you to release your right arm angle and wrist angles very early on so by the time impact occurs the club head will have overtaken your hands. This really gets you using the bounce of the wedge and adds loft as well so your bunker shots will come out high and soft with spin control.

Continue to turn and release your body through to the target so the right heel release out of the sand.

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

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at 

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Limitations

When it comes to your golf do you have any personal limitations that stop you from achieving your goals of becoming a better player?

Many golfers put limits on how good they can become just by thinking in a negative way, for example “I knew I was going to miss that putt”, “I always play this hole badly” or “every time I have a good front 9 I always blow up on the back 9”

Sound familiar to you ???

Here is a young Ian Poulter just starting out his career on Tour. Did you know he turned professional off a 4 handicap and did his PGA training, working in a pro shop, doing a few club repairs etc….

If Ian Poulter had self-limitations, do you think he would be where he is now?

He is in the Top 20 in the world, Ryder Cup player, won on most major tours and has carved a great career so far. Ian had no self-limitations and he just followed the process of improving his golf every day. He knew where he wanted to be and he keep his mind strong, even today he is still improving and following his process…..

So when it comes to your golf, please don’t put limitations on how good you can be, how low you can get your handicap or put a bracket on your score. If you want to push your limitations and become a much better golfer you need to start lifting them away from your mind.

Book a lesson now and let’s start to lift your personal limitations away.

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at 

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Best Ryder Cup Story of All Time!

Considering the fierce competition of recent Ryder Cup matches, it is easy to forget that the bi-annual event was, until quite recently, a one-sided romp won by the American team time after time. You had to go back to 1957 to find a defeated US team. Between that occasion and the European victory in 1985, the closest the US came to losing was a historic battle played in September of 1969, on the seaside links at Royal Birkdale in Lancashire, England. That year, an Englishman had won their Open Championship for the first time in almost twenty years, and the British had high hopes for victory. More than 10,000 people crammed every sand dune and vantage point they could find around Birkdale’s 18th hole. The evening was gray and damp and the light was fading as the final twosome reached the tee. The result of the Ryder Cup was in the balance and rested squarely on the shoulders of these two men. One of them was the world’s greatest player, playing in his first Ryder Cup — the other was the reigning British Open Champion and his team’s leader. The entire competition had reached its dramatic focal point. The winner of this ultimate hole would secure victory for his country.

With the destination of the Ryder cup in question for the first time in many years, Tony Jacklin drove first. He had just holed a birdie putt on the 17th that he later described as, “One of the most important putts of my life.” It had enabled him to pull even with the great Jack Nicklaus. Both hit good tee shots down the short par five hole and strode down the red stone path toward the fairway. Jacklin was walking several yards ahead when Nicklaus called to him. Jacklin paused and allowed Nicklaus to catch up with him.

“How do you feel, Tony?” asked Nicklaus.

“Bloody awful!” replied Jacklin.

“I thought you might,” said Nicklaus, “but if it’s any consolation to you, so do I!”

Their eyes met briefly in mutual understanding of the pressure of the moment and the expectations of their respective countrymen. Then they walked to their balls. Nicklaus played first, his ball coming to rest in the heart of the green, some 30 feet from the flag. Jacklin responded with a bold shot over the left sandtrap but his ball bounded to the back of the green, some 40 feet away from the hole. After delivering standing ovations for both men as they approached their balls, the crowd fell into deathly silence. Supporters of both sides rubbed their eyes, gnawed on their knuckles and held their collective breath.

Jacklin’s putt for eagle was on line but came to rest some two feet short of the hole on the damp turf. Now Nicklaus putted boldly for the win, barely missing the hole but running some three or four feet by. The pressure was intense but Nicklaus, taking his time as usual, hunched over the ball in his familiar way and stroked it dead center into the cup. Jacklin was now faced with the longest two-foot putt of his life. If he made it, the Ryder cup was tied. If he missed it, he would be the scapegoat for the loss and would no doubt be crucified by the British sporting press, ever ready to turn on yesterday’s hero. Jacklin stepped towards his ball marker but, before he could replace his ball, Nicklaus bent down and picked up Jacklin’s marker, conceding the tying putt. As he extended his hand he said, “Tony, I’m sure you would have made it…but I wasn’t prepared to see you miss it.”

Their match was halved, the Ryder Cup was tied, and the US would retain the trophy. This fine gesture was typical of Nicklaus, demonstrating the highest qualities of sportsmanship and class we expect of all TRULY great champions.

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at 

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

How to easily and effectively play a greenside plugged lie bunker shot 

This shot is really simple to execute as long as you follow some early principals in the set up and swing movement.

In a normal greenside bunker shot we are using the bounce of the club (the back edge if you will) to play these particular shots from a normal sand lie. In a plugged lie situation we need to use the leading edge of the club a lot more to cut down deeper into the sand, creating a deeper divot. Using the bounce of the wedge will create a nice shallow divot.

So knowing we need to produce a deeper divot by using the leading edge of the wedge, we are going to use the most lofted wedge say 60 degree that has 8 degree of bounce. The trick here is to close the face slightly so that the leading edge becomes lower than the back edge. This now ensures that the leading edge digs into the sand first, not the bounce.
Hold the club in front of you with the leading edge facing up towards 12oclock and turn the face to 11.30oclock and then form your grip.

The stance is going to be slightly wider than normal for a regular bunker shot and you are going to keep the ball in the centre of the stance. The weight is still going to favour the left side (target side) as normal of at least 65%.

The trick in the swing is to get the wrists setting as quickly as possible in the backswing as we want to use this steep energy in the downward blow into the sand which is going to pop the ball up and out onto the green. We want to hit 1 – 2 inches behind the ball and allow for some run on the ball once it lands onto the green.

The swing is going to be very short in the follow through as a lot of the energy has be forced down into the sand to pop the ball up and out.

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

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Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent