Had a client of mine pop in for a lesson today and we made some tremendous upgrades to her swing. The key thing we focused on was improving her body turn/pivot.

As you can see in the above image (left picture) the swing before we made any changes. The hip turn was poor and as a result the swing had got long with a cupped left wrist which caused a very open clubface.

The main focus was incredibly simple; we focused on letting the right leg straighten a little in the backswing (right picture above). This in turn naturally shortened the golf swing as the core was more engaged.  This also made it easier to get the left wrist in a much flatter position at the top of the backswing. Having the left wrist set better in the backswing ensured a square clubface which made it so much easier through impact which resulted in soft baby draws!!

The left picture above shows that the club was over plane in the downswing, this was a direct result all stemming from a poor body pivot which lead to a long swing with an open clubface. This makes it hard to control the accuracy of the golf shots and also lacks power and distance was being lost.

The right picture above shows the swing being on plane and in balance with a square clubface. Once again the swing thought was very simple, just let your right leg straighten a little in the backswing and hay presto we upgraded the left wrist position, clubface position and downswing plane which all lead to much greater accuracy and powerful iron shots.

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

IMPROVE YOUR TOUCH AROUND THE GREEN

A lot of golfers struggle when it comes to the close shots around the greens, this is an area that will improve your scores significantly if you become very good at chipping.

In this video tip PGA Golf Coach Mark Wood talks about the importance of distance control when chipping and how you can go about improving it.

If you practise this you will become a better chipper of the golf ball.

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

HOW TO STOP THINNING YOUR WEDGES

It is so frustrating after you have hit a couple of reasonable shots on a par 4 or par 5 and are left with a nice 70 yard pitch into the green and then it happens, you skull it right across the back of the green!!

On minute you are looking to finish the hole off in a tour pro like fashion and the next minute you are searching for your ball in the long grass….

Lets stop this pain and watch the video as PGA Golf Coach Mark Wood explains the main common reasons as to why you might be thinning your wedge shots and how to fix it instantly.

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

HOW DANNY WILLETT DOES IT

This is it, the final tournament of 2015 on the European Tour. Danny Willett is just 1613 points behind current leader Rory McIIroy and a good finish from either player this week will more than likely be crowned European Number 1. They do need a good finish though as there are a handful of players that could do the business if they both missed the cut.

The thing I like about Willett is his ability to work around his limitations given his physical condition. Willett has a long term injury that affects the amount of hip rotation he can produce. The team that surrounds Danny Willett have worked hard to help him develop a technique to work to so that the injury does not affect how he plays and scores around the golf course.

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Common Shanking Fault

This is a common thing I see when golfers come to me for help with the shank.

In the backswing they take the club too much on the inside, this is sometimes down to an over active shoulder turn in the early part of the take – away or just a miss use of the wrists in the early start back of the swing. Both of which get the hands and club too far behind them by the time their hands have reached just about hip high in the backswing.

As they make the move into the forward swing the tendency is for the club to move too far out in front of them because of the poor move in the backswing. This leads to a steep out to in swing path and more often than not aligns the hosel of the club to the ball resulting in a shank.

THE CURE

As you make your take – away make a conscious effort to keep your shoulders quiet and have the feeling that you stand the club up much more vertically. This will lead to the butt of the club pointing at the target line and the golf club will be in balance and on plane.

The thought I would like you to have as you make your forward swing is to have a feeling of holding your right shoulder back as this will keep the club on plane. This will lead to a great swing path through the ball leading to a much more solid strike from the center of the clubface.

Mark Wood is the worlds leading expert in curing a shank.

This is another drill that is used worldwide amongst the elite touring professionals and one of my favourites’.  You need 18 tee pegs and at least 6 balls, I always recommend that you practise short game and putting with the balls that you play with on the course so you know exactly how that ball feels and reacts on certain shots etc.

1. Start by placing the first ring of tee pegs 2 feet away from the hole going around in a clockwise fashion. Then place a ring of tee pegs 3 feet away in the same fashion followed by another ring of tee pegs 4 feet away from the hole (see picture above).
2. Then place one ball by each tee peg 2 feet away from the hole.
3. The drill then starts where you need to hole each ball from the first set of tee pegs before you move back to the 3ft set of tee pegs. Once you have holed from the 3ft set of tees move back to the 4ft set of tee pegs and hole all of the putts.
4. Try and do this drill at least 3 times from all the pegs without missing any putts, if you miss then start over from the first set of pegs 2ft away.

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

 Create Room to Swing

A great check point reference to see if you are the correct distance from the golf ball is to be able to have a hand span between your grip and the inside of the left thigh. You can do this whilst out playing on the golf course as it only takes a few seconds. Ensuring that you have created the necessary room for your arms to swing freely past your body during the hitting zone will get you hitting the ball much more solid from off the clubface.

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Explosive Distance from the Tee

One way of creating energy in the golf swing is to increase the pressure point between your feet and ground in a backswing. Many golfers as they swing back pull the force up away from the ground and this creates a negative effect on creating power. Think of jumping up into the air if you kept your pressure of your feet very light on the ground and then jumped you will not get very high. If you increase your pressure down into the ground before you jumped you would jump much higher as it gives you more energy from a solid base.

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Mark’s 5 Top Tips for Great Golf

1. Know your iron distances. Just by knowing how far you actually hit each club in the bag can save you up to 5 shots in a round of golf. Make it a priory to know exactly how far each club carries, use launch monitors and range finders as this will quickly and easily identify your yardages for you.
2. Love your wedges. Carry 3 wedges in your golf bag, an example of lofts might be 47 degree, 53 degree and 58 degrees. This will give you more variety on playing your short game shots. Learn 3 distances with each wedge for pitching. Hip to Hip, Chest to Chest and full swing as this will really sharpen up the pitching game. Have different lofts also helps in the bunkers and a lot of the time you can you your 58 for short greenside bunker shots and your 53 degree for longer greenside bunker shots.
3. Get your driver fitted. Most of the time golfers will just buy the driver from off the pro shop shelf. This will cost you distance as you will most likely end up with the wrong shaft and loft combination. Spend some time with a PGA Professional and get them to fit you on a launch monitor. This way you will get a driver fitted and suited to you and your golf swing helping you maximise your distance and accuracy.
4. Good Rhythm is Key. “My swing just does not feel good”. This is a lot of comments I sometimes get from very good golfers. Quite often they have just lost the rhythm of their golf swing. The recipe for finding that silky rhythm is to hit lots of short irons making half swings, then three-quarter length swings and really slowing things down. It is amazing how the swing mechanics then take care of themselves and all of a sudden they comfortable again. The best quick tip in golf is to focus on your rhythm and balance.
5. Think before Teeing Off. One key strategy in playing any golf hole is to focus on where you would like to be playing the next shot from. If that means on a tight treeline par 4 that a hybrid off the tee would work better than trying to steer a driver up the fairway then play the hybrid. If your second shot is a tough one over water and you are not sure if you can carry it then lay up to a distance that you like for your third shot into the green. The key here is to play within you and have a strategy (game plan) in playing each and every hole. It is what the Pro’s do!!

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent

Shell Houston Open 2015 – A look at J B Holmes and Johnson Wagner’s golf swing

What a great finish to the Shell Houston Open, it was unlucky for Jordan Speith but what a great performance by both Wagner and Holmes.

At one point I thought that J B Holmes was on for a 59 especially after a superb front nine of 29!!

Wagner so great determination with holing that 20ft putt on the last to get into the play off.

Lets take a look at what we can learn from both players.

Winners golf swing – J B Holmes

At set up both players set up well but quite different in their posture. Holmes (right) sets up with a very straight back and arms extended away from the body and his weight looks set more into the center of his feet. Wagner (left) has a slightly rounded back and his arms hang straight down from his shoulders, his weight most certainly looks more settled into the balls of his feet.

Both players swing the club away very differently from the ball, Wagner (left) has a great one piece take away and keeps the clubhead out in front of him. Holmes swings back with the club moving very much behind him, alot more on the inside. He also stands up a little just before he swings back, you can see the difference in his knee flex between the 2 photos above.

A key check point is when the club reaches this position in the backswing, the club should ideally be parallel to the ground and parallel to the target line.

As both players reach the top of the backswing they are both in very good strong positions, but once again very different. Wagner has his left arm more across the his shoulder plane and Holmes is much more upright. It would be fair to say that Wagner is much more of a rounded, flatter rotary player and Holmes has a much more upright action. Both players have a good full shoulder turn which is something that a lot of golfers should take on board, complete your shoulder turn in the back swing.

As both players swing down into the “delivery position” they get into a great position to deliver the club into the ball. One thing that we could all learn here is by the time the club gets back parallel to the ground it should also be parallel to the target line with the clubhead just sat in behind your hands. Both players demonstrate this beautifully. The hips should be slightly open with a good proportion of your weight on the left side, your weight moves in the direction your swinging the golf club.  Another key thing here is that both players are still holding their original posture as they turn towards impact.

Both players in a great impact position, hips fully rotating, right heel slightly up, shoulders parallel to the target line with the right arm slightly underneath the left arm.

Both players finish in a great balanced position, fully rotated through and holding that finish.

www.markwoodgolfacademy.co.uk

Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
UK’s No1 Golf Coach

The Best Golf Lessons in Sussex and Kent