Peter Jones

Head Professional

GRIP CHECK

The grip is one of the basics in the golf swing but very important as it plays a big part in controlling the club face and the direction of your shots.

The idea of your grips is having your 2 hands working together as one on the club by joining the hands with an overlap or interlocking of little finger of the right hand. The club needs to be placed in the fingers of both hands with these key areas to be considered.

? Top thumb should be slightly right of centre of the grip(not straight down)

? You should be able to see the first 2 knuckles of the left hand when looking down at your grip

? The right hand is very much in the fingers, both hands fit neatly together

? As per the picture both V?s made by the thumb and forefingers point towards the right cheek and shoulder(no gaps)

? Grip pressure is very important so waggle the club until feel the weight in the head of the club

? When you have taken your grip you should be able hinge your wrists upward towards your face or nose

So check some of these simple keys and maybe this will help you straighten out some of your shots or even help to increase your distance.

Playing low or punching out of the trees at Muirfield

To keep the ball low under branches and get the ball back into play.

Take your 4 or 5 iron play the ball back of centre in your stance which will have the effect of getting your weight toward your front foot and your hands in front of the ball at address. This will reduce the loft on your club and help to get the ball down to keep it low.

The length of backswing will depend on the distance required for the shot but most importantly keep the hands in front of the clubface at and past impact with the club head finishing low to the ground. Remember low shot low finish.

BACKSWING

For consistent ball striking and greater accuracy get your backswing on the correct path or plane

In pic 1 the bottom yellow line represents the shaft plane and the top yellow line shows you the shoulder plane.

As you take the club away, the head of the club should work along the bottom line until the shaft reaches parallel to the ground. From here the shoulder plane will take over and at the top of your backswing the shoulders & left arm should be parallel to the shaft plane (pic 2).

So next time you have a chance to see your swing on video, in a mirror or window pane check out these positions for better ball striking and a more consistent shot shape.

Any questions come and see us the pro-shop or book a lesson for your individual swing analysis (video inclusive with all lessons)

Anne Rollo

Teaching Professional

On the backswing, should I break my wrists?

I am often asked when, on the backswing, should I break my wrists??? The answer is very simple: STRAIGHT AWAY.

Your wrist break starts to happen immediately but gradually as you take the club back. You should have the full right angle between the left arm and club by the time the left arm is parallel to the ground on the backswing.

This is crucial because if you fail to break your wrists early in the backswing you will bend at the ELBOW instead which can cause you to hit the ground behind, top the ball and generally connect inconsistently.

There was a trend in the 80's for the big sweeping take away usually attributed to Greg Norman and sometimes called the 'one piece take away' but it is very easy to over do this and sway on the backswing.

The other thing that causes the left elbow to break is a lack of rotation or shoulder turn on the back swing so make sure your left shoulder is under your chin at the top of the backswing to achieve a full shoulder turn.

Quick tip:

Wrist break adds power and height to your shots, so if you hit the ball too low and lack distance, check you have sufficient wrist break, early on, in your backswing.

Putt like The Pros

Wouldn't you love to know how the pros putt so consistently well.

The bottom line is of course they spend so much time practicing but they have a few tricks that can help you improve your own putting, particularly the short ones.

Most problems with short putts come from poor alignment. Poor alignment causes you to compensate by swinging across the line of the putt to get the ball into the hole, This drill fixes both the problem and the compensation because it gets your clubface aligned well and if you cut across the line you will hit the clubs, instant feedback

This putting drill is one the pro???s use in their hotel rooms each night,

If your putter face is square to the target and your putter moves back and through there???s not much else you need to do to putt well especially on the short ones.

This is a short putt drill so set your target (an upturned cup is a good one) about one metre away.

Put two of your longer irons (say a 3iron and 4 iron) on the ground parallel slightly wider than your putter so that the putter can move freely back and forth, about one cm leeway on either side.

Line the clubs up straight at your target and place your golf ball in between the clubs.

Practise using this drill for 10 minutes a day and in a couple of weeks your putting will have improved out of sight.

Luke Carel

Assistant Professional

Play The Sand

BUNKERS / Standard Bunker Shot / 9.07.11

Make sure your ball is to the front of your stance.

Have feet wide apart (2-3ft apart depending on your height).

Shimmy your feet into the sand to stabilise your balance.

Lean your body to the left (to help create a steeper angle into the sand).

Have feet aiming left of target (this causes you to swing down and across the ball creating a cut through the sand).

Open club face with a 60 degree wedge.

Look approx 2 inches behind the ball - this is where you want to make initial contact (sand before ball).

Shorten your back-swing and accelerate through the sand on your down-swing.

Keep club face open on follow-through.

Splash the sand!