Alignment - The Most Important Lesson in Golf
 by: Paul Wilson

When I watch inexperienced golfers players hit the ball I find that they are usually mis-alinged to their target. Typically, they aim way too far out to the right. The reason they aim to the right is because the inexperienced player has the tendency to hit the ball with their arms which causes the ball to pull to the left. This means that they are compensating for a flaw in their swing by just aiming their body out to the right instead of fixing the actual flaw.

What this boils down to, is that the inexperienced players' bad swings make the ball go on target and their perfect swings make the ball end up in the trees, or bunker on the right of the target. So, they are seeing their good shots as bad shots and bad shots as good shots. If this is the case, the inexperienced player will never want to fix their swing flaws. If they don’t fix their flaws they will never reach their golfing potential. This is why I call alignment the most important lesson in golf.

Check Your Alignment

In order to find out if you are a player that has swing flaws, you must check your alignment. To do this, all you have to do is pick out a target and do your normal set up. Once you feel like you are ready, lay a club down at your heels or toes. Then, step back about 10 paces behind the ball to see where you are actually aimed. If the club you placed at your toes or heels is parallel left of your actual target, you have properly aligned yourself. If the club on the ground points to the right of your target you are mis-aligned.

If you find that you are mis-aligned, you must learn to square up your stance. To do this, simply find a target in the distance that you want to hit the ball to. Take out 2 golf clubs that you rarely hit (ie. 3 iron and 4 iron). Take the first club and lay it down directly at the target (you will have to step back a few paces to check this). Place the second club parallel to the first club on the ground. Now, take away the first club that is pointing at the target. You should have one club on the ground that is parallel to the left of your target.

Once you have the club on the ground parallel to your target line you have a guide to help you align your feet, knees, hips and shoulders squarely. If you aim your body squarely to the club on the ground and you hit the ball to the left of your target you have just found out that you are pulling the golf ball which means you are trying to hit the ball too hard with only your arms. If you hit the ball to the right of the target from this square alignment you are sliding your body too much laterally through impact which is causing the ball to fly to the right.

Learning that you are mis-aligned can be quite shocking at first but don't think of it as a bad thing, think of it as a good thing. It's a good thing because you now know that you have a swing flaw and you can get on the road to fixing it so that you can play even better golf in the future.

Paul Wilson
Director of Instruction
Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate
http://www.paulwilsongolf.com

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Beginner or Novice Golfers: Start with a "Pre-Owned" set of Golf Clubs
 by: Ernie Horning

As a beginner or novice golfer, you want to avoid the expense of purchasing a "New" set of golf clubs, and concentrate your efforts on finding a good set of "Used" golf clubs (also know as "Pre-Owned".)

Major golf club manufacturers introduce new lines of clubs almost every year. With the yearly advances in golf club technology, many golfers regularly upgrade their existing golf sets in pursuit of improving their game and lowering their handicap. This leaves the golf club market flooded with high quality, bargain sets of golf clubs. The trade-in market has become so huge, that a few major golf club manufacturers have launched their own sites to meet the demand, like "Callaway Golf" (www.callawaygolfpreowned.com.) The question is where, and how, do you find the best set of clubs for you?

Online is a great place to start. You want to get a feel for the market by comparing the prices of the "Pre-Owned" clubs offered by the thousands of sites advertising the sale of used clubs (Searching "Google" alone will bring up about 700,000 sites.) Surf a few sites and compare the quality and prices of numerous club sets. While you are on the internet, E-bay may also prove to be beneficial in searching for your set of used golf clubs. The selection and variety of clubs available changes daily, so you will have to keep a close watch to find the best deal for your golf clubs.

Also, you may want to look for a "Beginner" golf set, which usually consist of the #3, #5, #7, and #9 irons. Beginner sets of clubs normally include a "Wood" or two, and a "Putter" as well. At this point in your golf career, you really don't need to purchase a "full" set of clubs. Mainly, because you may not be playing golf very long or very often. The best choice may even be a "Pre-Owned" beginner set of clubs. Don't confuse a set of "Beginner" golf clubs with "Kids" golf clubs, which come in smaller sizes and/or lengths for kids. If you feel like you are bending over too far to swing the clubs, they are probably too short. You should be able to stand fairly straight, with your knees slightly bent, and your arms should hang freely as you grasp the club.

Your local newspaper is also a great place to look for a set of clubs. All year-round you will find bargains on some quality sets of golf clubs. This also gives you the opportunity to see and swing the clubs. It helps to get a feel for the clubs before you buy the set. Check out the condition of the grips, shafts (steel or graphite), and the club heads. Compare them to other clubs you have seen for the same price. Many people are selling some very nice clubs because they have either updated their own set of clubs, or have given up the game of golf.

Local golf stores and sporting goods stores are a good place to shop for a "Pre-Owned" set of golf clubs. Many are now accepting trade-ins, toward the purchase of a new sets of clubs, and re-sale the use golf clubs at good prices. Many have an in-store practice tee or net for you to try the clubs before you buy them. Your nearest driving range or pro shop may also carry "Pre-Owned" sets. They might even give you a free bucket of balls while you try the clubs. They can also advise you on how the clubs fit your body type and swing.

Last, but not least, check with friends, relatives, co-workers, or any contact of yours (and your spouse if you have one.) Golf popularity is at an all time high, you might be surprised who you know that plays golf. Odds are, if they have been playing for awhile, they have an extra set or two in the garage that they might be willing to sale. They might even let you try them out for free, to see if you like the game. And wouldn't that be the best bargain of all!

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Golf For Beginners – What Makes A Good Golfer?
 by: Declan Tobin

A good golfer is a golfer who is happy with their own game and willing to listen to advice from experience. A good temperament is needed to play golf, expect bad days it happens everyone from low handicappers to full professionals. Having a hot head will only cause you more problems.

It can be daunting when starting as there is so much to remember but take time to practice and go to the driving range to help improve teeing off. Looking around the golf course you will see some players and think “Will I ever get to that level”? Remember everybody is different and we are not all made to be professionals, you should go out to do your best and bring in the best possible score and most of all, take home the enjoyment of the day.

Teeing Off:

How many times have we seen the big hitters hit the ball out of sight, if you are thinking that way starting, think again. You should be thinking of placement and keeping the ball in play. Hitting the ball a long way is one think, keeping it in play and well placed for the next shot is the way to think. The driver can be a difficult club to use of the tee when starting but practice will make it easier. If you are using the oversized drivers like most are remember to tee the ball up higher than normal to avoid knocking the ball down. If you find the 3 or 5 wood easier to hit then hit that until your game improves. On a par 4 or 5 many people hit a low iron from the tee. Whatever you are comfortable with, use.

A good swing:

In golf timing is everything. By swinging faster and harder you will not hit the ball any further, and most possibly will end up hitting a horrible shot anyway. A slow backswing and a good steady hit will make all the difference, rushing in golf gets you nowhere. Keep a steady head and do not raise it too quickly to see where the ball has gone, if you do you may find yourself going hard right if you are using right hand clubs and vice versa if using left handed clubs. Feet position is important; align your feet correctly to avoid an unwanted right to left or left to right shot.

Clubbing from the fairway:

If you find that you are looking from the fairway to the green you need to choose your next club carefully, under clubbing will leave you short and possible in the bunker or water hazard, over clubbing will leave you long and possibly in similar danger. Overtime you will become aware of all the clubs in your bag and the distance you can hit each one comfortably. You find yourself between clubs, meaning the next shot for example is neither an 8 or 9 iron. In a case like this do not hit the 9iron and try to force the shot, hit the 8 and go slightly down the shaft allowing you total control over the shot.

Good Golf Gear and Clubs:

Like in most cases it depends on the budget you have. Golf clubs can range from a couple of hundred dollars to thousands. Are you brand orientated? As a keen golfer myself and off a handicap of four I play most of my golf in Ireland and in the US and from my travels I have seen beginners in both countries spending obscene money starting. We all want the best but the clubs will not do the work for you. You are not going to notice exceptional back spin or side spin starting so start with a sensible budget and build from there. It’s you who needs the practice to improve the overall play. Clubs worth $3,000 dollars will not help you starting anymore than clubs worth $400. If you have extra cash to spend put it into golf shoes or waterproof clothing or spend it on travelling to other golf courses to gain experience.

Reducing handicaps:

There is no magic stick here, practice is the only way to improve and by improving you will automatically reduce your handicap either by observation from the golfing committee you belong to or by winning a prise or two. Listen to others and learn, you need to have an open mind playing golf and be willing to try new shots, different stances and even new equipment as time goes by.

Like all you will reach your peak and the best you will get out of golf is the enjoyment of getting out but for the elite few that next level could be pro.

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How to Practice
 by: Paul Wilson

In a normal day of teaching golf I walk back and forth to the range numerous times. On this journey, I usually watch the different variations people have when they swing the golf club. Some of the swings are quite good and others need a lot of work. I usually think to myself that if only they could change the way they practiced they would become so much better so much faster. What do I mean exactly? Well ... 99.9% of all golfers I see on the range are just whacking golf balls out there. If this is you, I've got some bad news ... you will never improve. So what should you be doing? If you are working on your swing, you have to work on your swing. This means you should forget about trying to hit every shot perfectly on the range. No pro can do this or even attempts to do this. It is called a practice range because you are there to practice what you have learned so you can take it to the course without having to think about it. If you have just been whacking balls on the range and not improving you should follow the outline below.

Find a Teaching Method That You Can Relate To

If you think you can figure out the golf swing on your own without lessons, books or videos you're kidding yourself. What you think you're doing is never what you are actually doing. Just when you think you have it, it's gone. Wouldn't it make sense to follow a step by step method that takes you through the various parts of the swing and explains them in a manner you can understand. There are many different teachers out there with many different thoughts on how to swing the club properly. I myself, teach the golf swing based on the 3 elements of the Iron Byron swing machine that was modeled after the swing of Byron Nelson. In my many years of trying to figure out the swing, I didn't see it clearly until I say Iron Byron hit a golf ball. Once I understood the simplicity of the machine and I related it to my own swing, the pieces started to fit together. If this sounds appealing to you then following my method would be a great idea. If not, lessons from your local pro or a quick search at a bookstore or on the internet will give you many other choices.

Create a Neutral Grip

Your grip is your connection to the club. If your hands are not placed on the club in a neutral position you're really making the game much more difficult. I say this because if you have a faulty grip your shots will spin one way or the other. If this is the case, how do expect to consistently hit the fairways or greens? Once you learn the proper grip, you will not only be copying the pros but you will also narrow down the possible cause of your inconsistent shots. If the grip is not the problem, it must be something else that is causing your wayward shots. So now you can move on to fixing the other parts of your swing.

Square Alignment is Critical

In my last tip I explained the importance of proper alignment. To sum it up, it's vital that you align squarely to your target. I say this because if you are aimed way out to the right or left and you hit a perfect shot it would go in the trees, water, bunkers or out of bounds. This means you need another flaw in your swing to get the ball on target with a faulty alignment. To make sure you are aligned squarely to your target, lay one club down on the ground pointing directly at your target, then place another club parallel to the first club about 1 foot away. Finally, pick up the first club you placed on the ground and hit balls from that spot with your feet parallel to the second club. This is known as being aligned parallel left of your target.

Do Tons of Practice Swings

Once you have chosen a teacher and a method it is time to practice what you have learned. Again, it's not as simple as just whacking balls out there. You have been shown certain positions that you need to incorporate into your swing. The best way to do this is by doing tons of practice swings in a mirror or at the range. By doing plenty practice swings, you will re-enforce your new swing positions so you can do them consistently when you hit actual shots. The whole point of making a change is to make the change. By just whacking balls out there you will continue to do your old swing that's full of flaws.

Hit Different Shots

Once you have made the necessary changes to your swing it's time to hit various shots. Golf is not a just a game of hitting the ball 300 yards down the middle with your driver. The game also requires good fairway woods, long, mid and short irons as well as a great short game. Try to practice all parts of your game with all of the clubs in your bag especially the clubs you dislike the most. If you keep ignoring certain clubs you will continue to hit them poorly.

Take Your Time

Building a great golf swing takes time. If it could be achieved in a week everyone would be pros. If your changes are minor a few weeks or a month of consistent practice and practice swings should ingrain these new positions. If you are totally re-building your swing it may take you a couple of months or longer. This is because your new swing will present new problems like hitting the ball over the green or through the fairway because you are not used to your new distances. Once you have hit enough better shots you will be able to choose the appropriate club for the situation and you score will finally come down.

If you want to become a good golfer it's time to change how you are currently practicing, understand what it takes to get better and create a game plan that you will follow religiously. If you start to make these changes now, you are on your way ... if you start next week, you are week behind.

Paul Wilson
Director of Instruction
Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate
http://www.paulwilsongolf.com

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So You’re Thinking of Playing Golf

BY Thomas Wailgum

Golf isn’t easy. It takes practice, time and lots of patience. Before you play a round, though, it’s critical to take a golf lesson or two from a Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) professional, who can teach you the proper fundamentals before you ever step foot on the course. “I still see salespeople that come to corporate golf outings, with no [golf] shoes and no clubs,” says Bill Storer, president of Business Golf Strategies, who has worked with clients from Chubb Insurance and Verizon. “Why in God’s name would you ever think that would be OK?”

Suzanne Woo, founder of BizGolf Dynamics, works with many beginners and businesswomen who are interested in learning the game. Her clients include Merrill Lynch, Bank of America and National Car Rental. Woo believes in first setting realistic golfing expectations for her clients. “If [CIOs] are unrealistic about their abilities, they might also be unrealistic about the business relationship,” Woo says, which can be a red flag to others—if a CIO overstate his golf abilities, then how do the others know that he isn’t overstating his commitment to the relationship?

The biggest concern for beginners should be keeping up with the other players in the group, or the pace of play in golfspeak. Woo says one effective tactic for a beginner is to let everyone know that she is a beginner on the first tee but also to tell them that she will keep up the pace of play. “Using some golf buzzwords will set them at ease,” Woo says. If the beginner also knows what his United States Golf Association handicap index (indicates a golfer’s skill, based on previous rounds) is, or says that he’ll practice the 10-shot rule (stopping play on that hole once he has reached 10 shots), that can also clue the others in on his seriousness of the outing.

David Guzman, a former CIO who’s now chief research officer of The Yankee Group, doesn’t mind playing with beginners so long as they keep up the pace and don’t get too down on themselves. “If you are lousy, don’t fret about it,” he says. “We were all there at one point, and there is a fraternity of patience. So do not continually apologize, it gets tiresome.”

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The Swing Plane
 by: Paul Wilson

Throughout the years, the swing plane has always been one of the most difficult things to understand. Hopefully, I can simplify this difficult subject so you can achieve the proper swing plane in your golf swing.

I like to use the image of a weight swinging on a piece of string to illustrate the swing plane. What would happen if you picked up a weight on a piece of string and started to twirl it? Assuming your hand was on a 45 degree angle in front of you and not tilted left or right, the weight would make a circular arc around your hand causing the weight to swing down the line. If the weight was allowed to swing freely, it would do the same thing on one side as it does on the other. That means it would be swinging on a perfect plane around your hand.

Now that you have an understanding of what the swing plane is, you have to also understand that there are 3 different planes you could have. To imagine the different planes, think again about the weight swinging on the string. We already discussed the down the line plane (hand not tilted) but what would happen if you tilted your hand to the left? If you tilted your hand to the left the weight would swing to the left. Now what if you tilted your hand to the right? If you tilted your hand to the right the weight would swing to the right. So here are the 3 different planes you can have:

• Swinging straight down the target line.
• Swinging down to the left (over the top).
• Swinging out to the right (inside out).

It's important that we keep these things in mind when we think about our swing plane with a golf club. Like the weight swinging on a piece of string, we also have a weight (your golf club) swinging around our body (axis). Your swing plane may also swing left or right depending on the tilt of your body as you hit the shot. So what would cause the club to swing to the left or right of the target line (assuming you were in a stance that was square)? There are a couple of things that will stop the clubhead from swinging down the line:

1. Hitting with your upper body causing it to tilt to left on the way down.

2. The lower body sliding too much laterally on the way down.

Starting Down with Your Arms

If you start you downswing by trying to hit the golf ball you will get ahead of the ball which means that your body will be tilted to the left. This means that the ball will start to the left of the target causing pulls, pull hooks, skyed shots and slices.

Poorer golfers tend to try to hit at the ball with their arms because they have not yet learned how to hit the ball with their legs and body. To eliminate this problem of hitting with your arms, I want you to concentrate on the moment you are about to swing the golf club down. At this precise moment, you must start down by turning your hips not by pulling your arms down. This means you have to go against human nature. At the moment you are about to start down, human nature is telling you to try to hit the ball and hit it hard. This activates your arms which gets your shoulder rotation ahead of your hips and making the club swing down and to the left.

DRILL

A great way to feel the lower body swinging the club is to hold your club off the ground at knee high and do some practice swings. If you hold the club in the air, you take the ball and any hitting sensation with your arms out of the picture. If you no longer have the feeling of hitting with your arms, you can clearly feel your body making the club swing around your body thus creating the perfect plane (like the weight on the piece of string). Remember this feeling of not using your arms to hit your shots then apply it to your shots.

The Lower Body Slide

If you slide your lower body laterally through your shot you will cause the upper body to tilt to the right too much which, in turn, will make you ball start out to the right causing pushes, push fades and duck hooks.

DRILL

If you are someone who starts the ball out to the right of your target, you have to learn to turn your hips and body more as opposed to moving laterally. At the moment you are about to start your downswing, don't think about shifting your weight to the left. If you shift too much, you will move too much laterally which will cause your body to tilt to the right too much on the way down. Instead, start your downswing by turning. To get the proper feeling of turning, simply place and object such as a broken shaft, golf bag, chair waist high approx. 3 inches off of your left hip. When you do your swing, try to turn and miss the object. If you hit it, you are moving too much laterally. Once you do a few practice swings training your body to miss the object off of your left hip, add the ball and hit a few shots.

Hopefully you have a new and better understanding of the swing plane and how if can greatly effect the direction of your shots. The next time you go to the practice range you may want to try an experiment to see how your upper body tilt affects the direction of your shots. All you have to do is simply tilt your upper body to the left and see where the ball goes. Then, tilt your upper body to the right so you can see the opposite result. Once you see this relationship between the direction and your body work on the proper uncoiling of your lower body until your shots start straight down the target line.

Paul Wilson
Director of Instruction
Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate
http://www.paulwilsongolf.com

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