By the time you’re an advanced golfer, you can start letting go of some of the club features that helped control the subtler aspects of your shots as a beginner and intermediate player. Where before it was important for you to have some perimeter weighting on your Game Improvement irons, you are now ready to swap these for some Player irons, which will give you some real control over the ball. Although you will sacrifice some forgiveness, you should be hitting consistently already, so this shouldn’t matter.
You can also start reducing the loft on your drivers; do so gradually, however, to make sure you don’t dump yourself in at the deep end with a club that you struggle to use well. At this stage, golf becomes more and more about the feel of the clubs, the feel of the swing and the feel of the shots. Less-advanced clubs protect you when you make mistakes, but they don’t allow for the fine-tuning that makes a good player into a great player.
A huge difference in the club set of an advanced player is that it must cover the whole range of shot-distances, as well as trajectories. Try to get a set of clubs that allow for no more than 15 yards between one club and another and alternative clubs for situations where the course or weathers is against you.
The key difference between beginner and intermediate golf players is the consistency with which they make good contact with the ball, the speed of the club head and the well-centred contact between club and ball. All these things contribute to an increase in shot length and accuracy, which changes the type of club they are best-suited to using.
So, when it comes to choosing the right clubs, keep all this in mind; although you’ll still need a degree of forgiveness, you can sacrifice some of that for an increase in club control. Don’t be too tempted to drop the amount of loft in your clubs just yet, or even to down-size your club heads. You may feel a little foolish playing with your bigger heads when others have down-sized but, chances are, you’ll outplay everybody else of a similar standard if you stick at it! What’s more, your game may well go downhill if you change before you are ready, which can be crippling for your morale. The most important thing to do is take a good look at your shots and choose the clubs that will best support your strengths and weakness; watch your ball flight and choose clubs that will help you develop as a golfer as well as making support technique problems. If your shots have started moving left to right, consider a shot with more of a draw bias on it, for example.
If you are looking to expand your choices, consider adding in a lob or gap wedge to your clubs. You should, however, probably stick with a set of game improvement irons; you’ve still got a lot to learn, so don’t go compensating too much for bad technique!
Choosing beginner golf clubs is similar to Christianity; forgiveness is central to the whole operation. Given the high frequency of mistakes, swing problems and fluctuating hits, you should make sure you choose a set of clubs that won’t punish you too severely for your golfing sins.
For one thing, consider oversized club-heads; they might not look cool, but they’ll help you connect better with the ball, resulting in fewer miss-hits and momentum-related injuries! To further help these contact issues, a set of slightly shorter clubs will also help your accuracy when it comes to actually hitting the ball. Of course, you’re still likely to malfunction a few times, so choose club features that will help reduce the negative impact your beginner swing will have on the flight path of the ball; perimeter weighting on the irons will keep flight as straight as possible, offset club-heads will help you hit the ball squarely and additional loft will increase the length of your shots, as well as keeping them on the straight and narrow.
In case that’s confusing; lofted clubs created extra backspin, which will help reduce the sidespin most beginners get on their shots.
When it comes to putting; practise makes perfect. There’s not a lot a club can do for your putting accuracy, just keep playing!
Golf, on the hole (hilarious), seems fairly straight forwards to your average player or spectator. Compared to other popular sports, there don’t seem to be that many rules; all you have to do is hit the ball into the hole in as few shots as possible. Sometimes you get penalty shots added, but even that is quite rare. Compare this to football, rugby or (heaven forbid) cricket, where you practically need a rule book next to you at times, and you’ll see what I mean.
However, there is actually far more to the rules of golf than people seem to realise; there are rules and regulations that govern everything down to the grooves on golf clubs! The reason I’m bringing this to your attention is to warn you that these regulations (about grooves) has changed and, sooner or later, you’re going to have to do something about it.
In short, the new rules mean the limit on groove volume is going to decrease, meaning all grooves will have to be shallower and narrower. The idea is that shallow grooves will make it harder to get spin on the ball out of the rough; encouraging players to aim for the fairway more than they otherwise might do.
It's time for another golfing technique tip! From the responses we've been receiving, it seems that one shot many readers aren't comfortable with is wedge shots at around 50 yards - so that's what we're going to talk about today.
On a 400 yard hole, you'd think you're home free once you're within 50 yards - but golf doesn't work like that. In fact, the first 300 yards are the easiest part, once you've learnt how to drive! The tricky bit it getting the ball that final little distace; without hitting a hazard, ending up in the rough or over-hitting the green. It's times like this that a nice, short wedge shot can save you a lot of time and bother! Wedge shots lift the ball high and, with extra back spin, drop it down in a specific place - so you don't have to worry about the ball rolling on. As long as you place your shot well, you're home free!
Ket things to remember when playing a short wedge shot including keeping your weight on your front foot throughout the shot, placing the ball slightly forwards in your stance and making sure the backswing is slightly shorter than the followthrough. All this will help you lift the ball high, but drop it accurately. Follow our old post about adding spin to your ball for even better results!
Putting spin on a golf ball is one of the techniques that seperates good players from great players. It allows you to hit long shots, without risking a huge amount of bounce and roll, which could put your golf ball in the rough, a bunker or way off the green. It doens't matter how accurately you hit your shots; if your ball rolls on, you're never going to be in the best position.
The key to putting spin on a golf ball has nothing to do with slicing it, or using any kind of trick shot. The idea is to take a normal, smooth stroke, but create the divet AFTER you hit the ball - not before. This means the club face drops as you hit the ball, letting the ball run over the groove in the face of the club, putting backspin on the ball. Do it right and you can stop your ball exactly where you want it.
For more help and information about putting spin on your golf ball, check this out:
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