Tag: lessons

Let’s talk about the full golf swing and 4 things you need to keep in mind to improve your scores.

We want to give you the fundamentals that we find to be the most helpful for players when they are looking to better their game, so let’s dive right in!

1.) Come Into The Ball From Inside The Target Line

Number one is the swing path. Most players with higher handicaps are swinging from outside the target line, which is going to give them a big slice and not very much distance.

Instead, we want the club coming into the ball from inside the target line.

If you have the clubface square and you’re coming from inside the target line you’re going to get a bit of a drop, giving you more distance as well as help you keep the face of your club lined up.

2.) Slight Descending Blow

The second thing that we want is the club coming down and to bottom the club out around two to four inches beyond the golf ball so that we’re hitting the ball with a slightly descending blow.

When you hit a shot, you want to brush the ground for about three or four inches after impact.

What a lot of players are doing is they’re trying to get the club under the ball and lift it and they’re hitting way behind the ball and instead we want to hit the ball with a downward blow to make good contact.

Tour players call this forward shaft lean where the shaft is leaning towards the target at impact which helps you keep your shot on target and is caused as a result of hitting that ball with a descending blow.

3.) Square Clubface

Next thing is we want is to get the clubface squared up when we make contact with the ball so that it goes straight in the direction we want it to go.

The clubface won’t be square to the target during your entire swing, however, as you bring it around it needs to become square at the point of impact, similar to the way a tennis swing works.

If you have an open face the ball will curve the direction of your dominant hand and if it’s closed it will go the opposite direction which is what we don’t want. We want that clubface square so that the ball will go the direction that you want it.

4.) Completely Balanced Finish

Lastly, the fourth thing is getting to a completely balanced finish. Too many times we see golfers finishing with the weight on the back foot. What you want to do is have all of your weight on your front foot when you have completed your swing.

A good way to test this is to try and lift up your back leg after you sing and you should be able to balance on your front foot without having to shift your weight.

If we put all of that together, swinging on the correct path, hitting the ball with a downward blow, getting the clubface squared up, and a complete balanced finish we can hit some good shots!

One of the most common issues that golfers have is creating a hook or slice as a result of an open or closed clubface, so in this video, we teach you a simple drill that you can do with a tee to train yourself to keep that clubface square.

For this drill, all you need is a golf club, a glove, and a tee.

What you do is put your golf glove on, stick the tee right in the little spot where the velcro meets at the top, and it should hold the tee in place face straight out away from your hand.

Now when you set up with the clubface nice and square this tee should be pointed right at your target.

The biggest misses happen when you are swinging and this club comes through and it’s open or closed, however, having the tee like this will actually show you if you are closing or opening the face by facing away from your target.

If the tee goes toward you (right if you are left-handed, left if you are right-handed) then you are closing the clubface and if it goes the opposite direction then you are opening the clubface.

To make this drill even more effective, try laying down some alignment sticks like railroad tracks, nice and square to the target line, that way you have a visual of lining up your clubface as well.

Now, when I make a swing I can really visually see that tee has a direct connection to my clubface so if you can get the tee back to the target at impact you will have a square clubface.

That is the tee in the glove drill that will help keep that clubface square at impact. All you need is your glove, a tee, and then just start swinging that golf club and really trying to get that tee back to square at impact.

We hope this helps from you keeping it open! If you would like to schedule a lesson with Calvin, just call the golf concierge at 916-808-2531!