Posts Tagged ‘Golf Lessons Kent’

IS MY GOLF SWING TO SHORT

A lot of golfers who come for lessons always ask me is my backswing too short?

“I’ve seen the guys on TV swing it into that classic parallel position at the top and I should be doing the same!”

My answer is always “how is your flexibility, let’s do a quick flexibility test to see if you have that kind of range of motion that all the top players have”.

It normally works out that most weekend golfers lack in the flexibility to make that full turn so they end up not completing the backswing and thrashing at the ball way too hard in the downswing.

Work on completing your backswing to the best of your ability by turning your body fully and then work on the rhythm of your golf swing. Keep the swing tempo smooth do not feel and even attempt to try and hit the ball too hard as this will coast you distance and accuracy, just let the swing speed build naturally. You will be amazed at the difference in your consistency, accuracy and distance you will achieve by staying in control of your golf swing.

A few key check points as you make your backswing turn are –

• Keep your arms wide in the backswing; many golfers who have short swings tend to bend their arms in the backswing in an aid to create the classic parallel position.
• Turn your shoulders fully in the backswing and let your hips turn a little more than normal as this will also help you create a bigger turn.
• Keeping the swing arc wide in the backswing is key as a short backswing with little body turn and bent arms just won’t work.
• Keep smooth and enjoy the extra distance you achieve.

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

Severiano Ballesteros was born on 9 April 1957 in Pedreña (Cantabria), , a small village on the southern shore of the Bay of Santander in the north of Spain.

Baldomero, his father, had formed part of one of the best rowing crews in history in Spanish “traineras” (fixed bench fishermen’s boat). In Pedreña there is a great tradition for this type of tough sport, although golf also formed part of the atmosphere at that time-the 50’s and 60’s. if, in all the Pedreña homes one could always find a member of the family who had caddied at the Royal Pedreña Golf Club – a prestigious club inaugurated in 1928 by de King of Spain – in the Ballesteros family this was more than a customary as Seve’s older brothers Baldomero, Manuel and Vicente were all professional golfers, as was his uncle Ramon Sota, his mother’s brother, one of the best golfers in Europe in the sixties, winner of four Spanish Professionals Championships, sixth in the 1965 U.S. Masters and a member of runners-up teams at two World Cups, in 1963 and 1965 (behind the USA and South Africa, respectively), in addition to other important victories all over the world.

With this background, plus of course, impressive natural talent and his tremendous love of the game and enthusiasm for work, Seve, with a 3-iron his brother Manuel had given him as a present, invented a huge variety of shots that bestowed his game with enormous versatility.

At the age of 10 he took part in his first caddies tournament. He recorded a score of 51 over the 9 holes, beginning with a 10 on the first hole – a par 3. The following year, he came second with 42. At the age of 12, then playing the full 18 holes, he won the tournament with a score of 79. His made progress at lightening speed – at 13 he was already finishing with 65 – and he picked up everything he saw. In 1971, when the La Manga Club was officially opened, he was able to watch the great golfers in action. The golfing star that most impressed him was Gary Player and his spirit of sacrifice on the practice ground.

Seve din not have much chance to play at the Pedreña (Golf Club and for that reason he sharpened his skills mainly on the beach and only on nights with a full moon did he tiptoe down a play the course. Of course, he was caught out more than once and punished for his misbehaviour, which made him think seriously about his future.

Despite these obstacles, on 22 March 1974 he turned professional (he was not quite 17). His first tournament was the Spanish Professionals Championship at San Cugat. He came 20th, causing his great disappointment as his objective was no less than outright victory. His first triumph came in Pedreña when he won the under -25 Championship of Spain and the following week he vas runner – up at the Santander Open, al the North of Spain Circuit. At an international level, his best performance was at the Italian Open where he came 5th.

1976 was witness to his definite launching. Not as mucho for winning the Order of Merit with victories in the Dutch Open or Lancôme Trophy, catching up on the 4 shots Arnold Palmer had over him with 9 holes to go, or his triumphant World Cup Team win in California but for his performance, which catapulted him to world fame when he came second in the British Open at Royal Birkdale, sharing the honours with Jack Nicklaus as runners up to an unsociable Johnny Miller. Seve was leader of the tournament for the first three days, surprising everybody with a chip that he shot clean as a whistle between two bunkers, rolling too little over a metre from the pin, giving him a birdie on the last hole. The intense look on his face and his courage from that day onwards mesmerise the masses.

In 1977 he again came first on the Order of Merit and in 1978, with victories in the USA, Kenya and Japan; he became a truly international golfer. The truth is he achieved six consecutive tournament victories which, in addition, were over the remaining four continents after Europe. Seve won his first British Open in 1979, becoming the youngest winner of the century

His next appearance in a major was at the US Masters where, in 1980, he gain amazed everyone. With 9 holes to go he was 10 ahead of the player in second place… Seve holed 23 birdies an eagle. Augusta already had its winner. At 23 he became the second non-American and first European to wear the green jacket. It was really an incredible success. The church bells in his home town rang out in joy, however, in the rest of Spain little interest was roused.

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

Keep it simple out on the course

It is very easy to get hung up on technique whilst out on the golf course and the ramifications can lead to poor golf!!

It is very hard to work on your technique and work on producing a good score at the same time, so please stop trying to do both.

When you are out on the course you must make it your goal to “free up your mind” on technique and theory. The best players in the world will carry only just two swing thoughts in their mind, mainly just to keep the feel and flow of the swing and those swing thoughts will be dead simple – like smooth tempo or complete the backswing!!

These types of swing thoughts will most certainly help you keep your rhythm and will help keep your mind calm, making it easier for you to focus in on the target and producing a good result.

Keep the club swinging and don’t get to positional as this will lead to a very jerky golf swing – no flow…  

Keep the main swing changes and  swing thoughts for the range as this is your “working ground” for grinding out those good changes.

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

Keep a Check on Your Alignment

A common problem amongst golfers in general!

The amount of golfers who align themselves completely wrong at the address position will have a major influence on how they swing the golf club. You will compensate for this during the golf swing. I have helped golfers tremendously to stop shanking with this just one fault alone.

Most golfers from my experience align their bodies too far to the right of their intended target, in a closed position. At some point during the golf swing you are going to compensate for this and it usually happens in the downswing. You are fully aware of where the target is but due to the closed off stance you are going to swing over plane in the downswing to get the club back to the ball.

This moves the club much further out in front of you in the downswing leading to the hosel contacting the ball first. Some golfers even lose their balance: falling forwards in the through swing.

Great ways to improve your sense of alignment is to pick a point just in front of the ball (2ft approx.) which is directly on line to your intended target.

Align the club face square to that point.

From there build your stance keeping as square as possible to that point.

Practise your alignment on the range by picking random targets and working through your pre shot routine of the above.

Another great way is to place down 3 alignment canes on the range, one aligning to a target on the left side of the range, another aligning to a target in the middle of the range and the last one aligning to a target on the right side of the range.

Practising in this manner will most certainly make you more self-aware of how you are lining up correctly. You will instantly be aware if you have aligned correctly or not.

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 Gain More Distance from the Tee

The way you set up to the golf ball is vital when you have the driver in your hands. It is so important to establish the correct spine angle so that you can create a full body turn which leads to more distance.

Many amateurs set up with the in correct spine angle which also gives them poor body alignment, this could be the main reason behind your SLICE!!

In the video below I give you a great drill to help you set up to the ball correctly for more explosive drives.

Check out the video below and try it next time your at the range.

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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

KNOW YOUR DISTANCES

One of the most important aspects of great golf is knowing how far you hit your clubs and controlling your distances with your wedges.

You can learn this while you are practising out on the range or the course, pay attention to how far each shot is going, especially the carry distance. Professionals know how far each club goes and sometimes their caddie knows even better than their player.

Knowing how far you hit each club makes life so much easier out on the course in tournament conditions, it will save you shots during a round. Most amateurs come up short of the green as they overestimate how far they can hit each club.

There are factors to consider and your distances may vary and change due to wind and temperature as well as the kind of ball you use. On average you lose about 2 yards for every 10 degrees the temperature drops, which is why you hit the ball further in the summer than the winter.

Everybody has their 150 yard club in the bag (for most it’s a 6 or 7 iron) so knowing what club you hit the magic 150 yards is a good start. Next you can work out what gap you have between clubs, it’s normally 9 to 12 yards as a rule. When you have all your yardages note them down in a course yardage book so you have all the info at hand during your round.

With your wedges find out how far you hit each wedge with a hip to hip swing length, chest to chest swing length and a shoulder to shoulder swing length. Knowing how far your wedge distances are will save you a bundle of shots during a round.

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 first step in championship problem solving is to make sure you determine the exact nature of your problem. Many a tournament has been lost by the player who attempts an impossible shot from the rough in the vain hope of making birdie where bogey will win the day. The six or seven he winds up making takes him right out of contention. Precisely defining the problem is an art in itself.

Golf teacher Tommy Armour, author of the timeless masterpiece of instruction, How to play your best golf all the time, was a master at finding a player’s problem and no one was better at accurately defining it. One day a club member approached him to schedule a lesson.

“What seems to be your problem?” questioned Armour.

“I can’t get backspin on my long-iron shots, like the pros do,” he said.

“How far do you hit your 3-iron?” asked Armour

“About 175 yards,” replied the member.

“Then why on earth would you want to put backspin on the ball?” asked Armour.

Ben Hogan had a similar laserlike approach to problem solving. He believed in breaking the problem down to its simplest form. Late in 1992 he sat down for lunch with one of his greatest admires, Nick Faldo, who had recently won
his third British Open. Both men realized they had similar attitudes to hard work, practice and determination. For his part, Faldo was fascinated by Hogan. He found himself in total agreement with everything the Hawk said. At one point during lunch, Faldo asked Hogan for any advice he might have on how to win the US Open. Hogan remained silent. As their meeting was about to end, Faldo again asked if there was one secret that could help him win that elusive US Open. “Shoot lower scores,” responded the great champion.

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

Great Advice To Improve Your Putting

Putting is a very crucial part of golf and there are also many ways to putt well. I am going to share with you the most common problems that golfers run into when they are putting badly.

1. Your Stance is too Narrow – Having a stance that is too narrow will cause your legs and body to move around too much during the putting stroke. This will cause your putter path to go off path affecting the quality of the putt.

The Fix – Widen your stance by a few inches and focus on keeping your knees rock solid through out the stroke. One tip is to get some balance pads (like I have here) and make some practise stokes whilst standing on them keeping your balance, you will soon know if your not keeping great balance. Its a great way for you to learn what good balance feels like.

2. Moving your head around during a putting stroke causes miss – hits. It is most certainly a fundamental that golfers forget especially on short putts as they are keen to peak too early at the hole. I really want you to commit to keeping your eyes quiet until the ball has long gone, I guarantee that you will be more consistent and will  hole more putts!!

3. Decelerating the putter during the stroke will normally cause you to miss putts to the left of the hole. This can sometimes be traced back to a back stoke that is too long. If it is make the back stroke a touch shorter and make it a habit to accelerate the putter into the back of the ball.

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach
Putting Tips – Helping you putt better.
The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Ernie Els – How I fixed my Posture

I was reading in a golf magazine from a few years back and found an article on the Big Easy. The article was titled “My Craziest Lesson” and how he fixed his posture with the help of US Open Champion Michael Campbell.

The 2005 US Masters was a complete wash out for Ernie as he did not feel at all comfortable in his set up and as a result hit the ball poorly all week. This is very common in golfers of this stature, feel is massively important!

Lucky for him his coach at the time, David Leadbetter, was watching the tournament a week later (the Johnnie Walker Classic) and noticed the flaw in Ernie’s set up.

Ernie’s posture had become slumped and was affecting his golf swing, so Lead put a video together of a current coaching session with Ernie of him in a better position. Lucky for Ernie, Michael Campbell was flying out to the next tournament at the BMW Asian Open where he gave Els the video tape.

Ernie quickly headed to his hotel room where he could watch the video and immediately realised how poor his posture had become. He went out to the range shortly after and started to work on the changes and immediately found that his swing clicked right away – he was flushing it!!

In round two of the tournament he shot 62 with 8 birdies, an eagle and no bogeys. He went on to win the tournament by a mere 13 shots.

The video reinforced some key pieces of advice that every golfer should follow. Work on your fundamentals as these can easily get out of position and this will have an effect on your golf swing.

Go back to the basics often – tour professionals do and tiny changes in your set up can have a huge impact on your results.

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

Article taken from Golf Digest

Power Charge the Golf Swing

One way to generate power in the golf swing is by generating momentum. A good example here is a baseball pitcher, to throw a ball with power he winds back before he releases.

The same principles apply in the golf swing.

You need to turn around your right side in the backswing with no sway.

One of the common misconceptions of amateurs is that they have to swing really hard and fast to create a lot of power, this results in an off plane and off balance golf swing. Resulting in a lack of power and distance.

The only way to create power is to build up momentum in your swing with a good body turn.

Watch the video here and see how to create the correct body turn for the golf swing.

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