Archive for November, 2013

Become a Great Short Game Player

Long Game is important in golf because if you can’t find the fairway from the tee box you are always chasing and trying to catch up on your second shot.

However short game is also very important in golf and I believe for the best part of golfers worldwide, that improving this part of your game is a must, especially if you want lower scores and handicaps!!

Short game starts from within 100 yards of the green and this is the area we are going to concentrate on in this blog.

There is a lot of misconception when watching the best players on TV, especially as the cameras concentrate on the leaders and players hitting great shots. Of course the Top 10 or so players in the field are playing exceptionally good golf; otherwise they would not be in the chase of winning the event!!

So the big question is “how close do we need to be hitting our approach wedges, bunker shots and chips?”

Firstly let’s take a look chipping from around the edge of the green.

Chip Shots from the Fringe

A top ranked PGA Tour player will on average hit his chip shots from the fringe to within 2 to 3 feet from the hole. They will then proceed to make the putt 95% – 99% of the time which keeps there scores low.

How many of you achieve this from the Fringe?

Greenside Pitching from within 20 – 30 Yards (from the rough)

When a top ranked PGA Tour player misses a green in regulation and has to play from the rough, within 20 – 30 yards of the green, they will on average get the ball up and down to save par 58 % of the time. They will roughly end up somewhere between 6ft to 8ft from the hole from this area.

Are you within this category?

10 – 20 Yard Greenside Bunker Shots

A top ranked player of the PGA Tour will hit there bunker shots from around the green to within 7ft and 9ft of the hole. This is from all types of lies and sand conditions etc. They will then go on to hole the putt 53% of the time.

How good are you from this Range?

Greenside Pitch Shots

Did you know that when a top ranked PGA Tour player misses the green and is left with a Pitch Shot of around 20 – 35 yards, they will on average get the ball up and down 60% of the time?

They will regularly pitch it in to around 8ft of the hole most times.

Wedge Shots from 50 yards to 75 yards

From a distance of 50 yards to 75 yards a top ranked PGA Tour Player will pitch it to within 7ft to 12ft of the hole. If they are pitching from out of the rough then the distance they pitch to on average is within 15ft of the hole as there is less control on the ball. They will go on to hole an average of anywhere between 30% – 50% of their putts from there.

Approach Wedge Shots 75 to 100 Yards

In this distance range a top ranked PGA tour player will hit his shot 75 to 100 yard approach wedge shots to within 12ft to 16ft of the pin consistently. They will go on to hole on average between 20% to 30% of their 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

World’s Greatest Par!

Imaging a golfer so good that Arnold, Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods all find him a personal inspiration, (see video clip)

Read, Listen or watch the amazing and inspirational story of Dennis Walters, a professional golfer struck down in his prime in a freak golf cart accident. His response to a paralyzing injury and his journey to becoming the world’s top trick shot artiest and a scratch player, without the use of his legs, is nothing short of amazing!

Listen to story here
Watch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N12G10T_XT0

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

Pitching – What Technique to Use

Professional’s and Elite Amateur golfers will all having a Pitching system that they use to pitch with great precision and accuracy. That should be no different from the rest of us!!

In this video I am showing you 3 different pitching systems that some of the world’s best short game artists use, once you have found a system that works well for you, I would like you to practise and practise it until you get to know your yardages.

You will be so much more confident in this area of the game and that only means one thing, Lower Scores!!

Go ahead and make someone’s day share this tip with a friend!

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

Gary Player Week

Player is one of the most successful golfers in the history of the sport, ranking third (behind Roberto de Vicenzo and Sam Snead) in total professional wins, with at least 166, and tied for fourth in major championship victories with nine. Along with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus he is often referred to as one of “The Big Three” golfers of his era – from the late 1950s through the late 1970s – when golf boomed in the United States and around the world, greatly encouraged by expanded television coverage. Along with Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, he is one of only five players to win golf’s “career Grand Slam“. He completed the Grand Slam in 1965 at the age of twenty-nine. Player was the second multi-time majors winner from South Africa, following Bobby Locke, then was followed by Ernie Els, and Retief Goosen.

Player played regularly on the U.S. based PGA Tour from the late 1950s. He led the money list in 1961, and went on to accumulate 24 career titles. He also played an exceptionally busy schedule all over the world, and he has been called the world’s most travelled athlete, clocking up more than 15 million miles. He has more victories than anyone else in the South African Open (13) and the Australian Open (7). He held the record for most victories in the World Match Play Championship, with five wins, from 1973 until 1991 when this feat was equalled by Seve Ballesteros, finally losing his share of the record in 2004, when Ernie Els won the event for a sixth time. Player was ever-present in the top ten of Mark McCormack’s world golf rankings from their inception in 1968 until 1981;  he was ranked second on those rankings in 1969, 1970 and 1972, each time behind Jack Nicklaus.

He was the only player in the 20th century to win the British Open in three different decades.[6] His first win, as a 23-year-old in 1959 at Muirfield, came after he double-bogeyed the last hole, and broke down in tears thinking he had lost his chance, but none of the remaining players on the course could match the clubhouse lead he had set. In 1974, he became one of the few golfers in history to win two major championships in the same season. Player last won the U.S. Masters in 1978, when he started seven strokes behind 54-hole leader Hubert Green entering the final round, and won by one shot with birdies at seven of the last 10 holes for a back nine 30 and a final round 64. One week later, Player came from seven strokes back in the final round to win the Tournament of Champions. In 1984, at the age of 48, Player nearly became the oldest ever major champion, finishing just behind Lee Trevino at the PGA Championship. And in gusty winds at the 1998 Masters, he became the oldest golfer ever to make to the cut, breaking the 25-year-old record set by Sam Snead. Player credited this feat to his dedication to the concept of diet, health, practise and golf fitness.[7]

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 Gary

Legendary South African golfer, Gary Player, was born this week in 1935, one of only a handful of players to win all four majors!

Here’s one of our favorite Player stories…

When Gary Player arrived in the United States in the late 1950s, he was already becoming known as a “world traveler.” His schedule was at first limited; nevertheless, he quickly made an impression on many of the home-grown pros, and soon developed a reputation among them as a “lucky” golfer. As is common when faced with someone who is more successful, many of the regular Tour players decided Player was winning because he was luckier than they.

Rumors of Player’s “lucky play” were circulating in the clubhouse after he had won a PGA tournament, and a less than tactful reporter asked him to comment on the matter. Throughout his career, Player has always seemed to be at his best when the odds were against him, and he summed up his feelings about luck by paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson.

“Sure I’m lucky,” he told the journalist, “and the more I practice the luckier I get.”

Make no mistake about it. The key to dramatically improving your “luck” is practice. Other pro golfers were reluctant to admit, even to themselves, that Gary Player practiced harder than they, hitting thousands more balls as he grooved and fine-tuned his swing. Or that he showed up before dawn and stayed after dusk, then went to bed early, avoiding parties and hangovers. They also ignored the fact that he compensated for his small stature with a rigorous program of exercises and muscle building, long before it became fashionable to do so! Player was almost fanatical about his diet, his body and his physical conditioning, all with the objective of playing better golf. Other pros of the day dismissed his fine performance as “lucky” because it was more comfortable than facing the cold, hard truth. He was better than most of them because he worked harder and tried harder.

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