Posts Tagged ‘Golf Lessons Kent’

USA’s new Ryder Cup Task Force

I have just been reading an Article by Rob Lee of Sky Sports, with regard to USA’s new Ryder Cup Task Force. He has quite strong views with regards to the process the PGA of America follow and suggest that us Europeans have it sussed when it comes to the make- up of the Ryder Cup ‘The European Tour seems to have it spot on for me – its committee selects the next captain, while players regularly make the transition from vice-captain to the top job later down the line.’

So who you may ask is on the Task force?Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker ,Tom Lehmann and lastly and most controversially is Tiger Woods, a man in Rob Lees and my opinion has never seemed that invested in the Ryder Cup and certainly does not have the best public standing to keep the Americans glued to their TV screens.

Another glaring omission from the Task Force is the last winning captain (2008) Paul Azinger, who’s ‘pod system’ proved highly successful in winning that years Ryder Cup. You would be expecting the PGA of America to be falling over themselves to get him to join the Task Force and help them develop the winning formula.

What are your thoughts on the new American Ryder Cup Task Force, do you agree they may have made a faux pas when it comes to including Tiger in the mix?

Mark Wood Golf Academy is based at Dale Hill and provides the best lessons in sussex.

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

Golf Lessons Sussex Key Tip – Down and Through

Hit Down ad Through

A lot of golfers who sometimes struggle with good ball striking fall into this category, they merely hit at the ball and not through it. Remember the impact area is a place where the clubhead is travelling through at full velocity. Try not to end your swing abruptly after the ball is struck  as this will lead to big inconsistency in the quality of your strike. The main trends in ball striking when a golfer hits at the ball rather than through the ball could result in heavy struck shots or hitting thin shots that fly just flat and low. Lack of distance will also be an issue here as the weight is not transferring through fully and the ball is not hit out of the sweet spot of the club.

To fix this problem try and get the feeling that you are freely swinging the clubhead down the target line and turn on through to a nice full balanced finish. Hold the finish at the end of your swing and check that you have completed the swing, weight fully on the left side, up on the toe of the right foot (for right handed golfers) and the hips and chest turned fully and facing the target.

When you watch some of the best golfers in the world you will notice how they fully commit in hitting through the ball and they finish in a world class finish position, choose your favorite golfer and emulate there finish position.

Mark Wood Golf Academy is based at Dale Hill and provides the best lessons in sussex.

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

Release Tension by a Waggle

When you watch the best players in the world and also the good players your club you will notice they waggle the club at the address position.

Why do they do this………

I think you will agree that the most famous waggle is that of the great Raymond Floyd, it is his signature and you would never mistake for anyone else,s.

The main purpose of a waggle of the club is to get the tension out of your arms, hands and wrists, you will instantly feel the clubhead in motion as you waggle.

Try it for yourself I think you will find it hard to waggle and feel tensed up at the same time.

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

Putt With Your Ears to Hole More Putts

When you and your golfing friends play together, you give each other far to many short putts. The normal agreement is if its within half a putter length then you can pick it up, its a gimme!!  Gimmes might feel great, but the only problem with that is that when you get in a round of golf that really matters and you have to putt everything out, you’re probably scared to death.

That fearful feeling normally results in a early peek at the hole—an attempt to Go in! Please go in! It causes the eyes to twitch and the head to move, the shoulders to open—and now the putterface and path could be pointing anywhere. You’re lucky to hit the hole.

Here is what you need to do to hole more of those short little putts:

• Keep your eyes quiet and looking down
• Give the ball a nice, firm strike.
• The putt’s probably not going to break, so aim the face straight at the hole and make sure you see it hit the ball.
• If you get in a habit of staying down and listening for the ball to drop, you’ll be automatic on these little putts.

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

Getting back to the fairway should be your priority

If you are in the thick deep rough think about just advancing your ball down the fairwary. Choose a club with decent loft, pitching wedge or 9 iron would be great, and set up with the face pointing slightly right of your target. The reason for doing this is there is a strong tendency for the face of the club to close when grass wraps around the hosel at impact. Also gripping the club a little tighter with your left hand will reduce the amount of clubhead twist.

Pick the club up steeply in the backswing, and swing down with your wrists staying firm—no scooping to try to help dig the ball out. These adjustments will help you power through the thick grass.

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

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

Distance Control with your Irons

One thing that Professionals and very good established amateurs do very well is the ability to control the distances that they hit their irons. They know to the exact yardage that they hit each club as this is what hitting greens in regulation is all about.

As an example it is no good hitting a 6 iron 153 yards and then the next one 174 yards as this will lead to confusion and inconsistency in hitting greens.

As a rule their is a 10 yard gap in between each iron.

Here is a video tip with Mark on distance control –

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 Far Should I Stand From the Ball”

I get asked this question a lot and there is a real simple guide to this, I am going to show you my 3 favourite ways in dealing with this problem.

But first you need to bear in mind that your body shape and degree of flexibility will have an impact on this. As an example, if you are tall and thin you can stand quite upright. If you have a big chest and belly you need to stand further away from the ball with more forward tilt from the hips as this will give you room to swing your arms past your body.

Here’s one tip to help you determine the correct distance from the ball:

1. Grip your 6 iron as normal.
2. Hold the club out in front of you as seen in the photo below.
3. Stand up tall with your upper arms connected to your chest and your feet shoulder width apart.
4. Tilt forward from the pelvis, about 30 degrees is good.
5. Let your arms hang vertically down until your club head touches the ground.
6. Flex your knees just a little, just like your normal athletic posture.

Here’s two more ways to help you determine how far to stand from the ball.

Take your normal posture and set up position then take your right hand off the club. Now span out the four fingers of your right hand and that should fill the gap between your left thigh and the top of the grip.

Another way is to take your normal posture and set up position then take your right hand off the club and let your arm/hand hang down naturally. From there you should be able to swing it back across so it fits back onto the grip from where it came off.   

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

Happy Birthday Rory

Rory McIlroy MBE (born 4 May 1989) is a Northern Irish professional golfer from Holywood in County Down who is a member of both the Eu ropean and PGA Tours.[2] He is the current World Number One and a two-time major champion. He won the 2011 U.S. Open, setting a record score of 16-under-par on his way to an eight-shot victory. The following year he won the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island by a record eight shots for his second major championship victory. He has been cited as the most exciting young prospect in golf and having the potential to become one of the highest earners in sports in terms of endorsements.

McIlroy has represented Europe, Great Britain & Ireland, and Ireland as both an amateur and a professional. He had a successful amateur career, topping the World Amateur Golf Ranking for one week as a 17-year-old in 2007. Later that year he turned professional and soon established himself on the European Tour. He had his first win on the European Tour in 2009, and on the PGA Tour in 2010. He represented Europe in the 2010 and 2012 Ryder Cup. In 2011 at the age of 22, he became the youngest player ever to reach €10 million in career earnings on the European Tour. In 2012 he became the youngest player to reach $10 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour.

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

Hit Your Irons with more Consistency

It amazes me how many golfers don’t know how far they hit there clubs, when asked they normally respond “7 iron 150 yards”
This leads to inconsistency when hitting shots into the greens – mainly coming up short!!

I have put together a cracking video tip on how to control your distances with your irons.

It only takes a minute to watch so please watch it and leave me your comments below.

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