Just because you love golf doesn’t mean you have the luxury of being able to get a lesson from a top PGA professional whenever you’d like — but you can always get better.
How? The free and easiest way is to scroll through YouTube. There are hundreds of great teachers out there offering tips on things that nearly all amateur golfers do incorrectly.
In fact, a number of those great teachers and tips can be found right on the SCGA YouTube page. As our motto says, “Your passion, our purpose.”
Here are 10 quick tips to fix the most common faults of amateur golfers:
10. Practice Makes Perfect
Most amateurs go to the range and beat balls and wonder why they’re not getting better. The fact of the matter is practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. With this in mind, it’s important that when you go to the range, you practice with some purposed.
PGA teaching professional and “golf’s mental coach” Rick Sessinghaus is here to help you get the most out of your pre-round practice routine.
9. How to Beat Down-Hill Lies
It doesn’t matter how great a drive you hit, there’s always a good chance you’ll end up with an unsavory lie. Down hill, up hill, side hill — there’s always something out there waiting to test the unwitting amateurs. Luckily, there are ways to avoid getting beat by these pesky lies.
Shadow Mountain golf instructor Sharon Fletcher is here to help you learn how to play from the dreaded down-hill lie.
8. Make More Short Putts
The saying goes “a 3-foot putt is worth just as much as a 350-yard drive” so make sure you’re good at the short ones. That it probably the best advice you’ll ever get. Making three and four-footers is essential to shooting good scores. While you might be frightened of these littler testers, you shouldn’t be.
PGA master professional Alison Curdt is here to show you how to make more short putts and eliminate the need for “gimmies.”
7. Master Bunker Shots
Another shot that nearly all amateurs struggle with is the bunker shot. Doesn’t matter what kind of bunker shot, as even the straight-forward ones can give amateurs nightmares. In the end, it’s all about technique!
PGA master professional Alison Curdt is here to help you learn how to get out of those pesky bunkers and to cut potentially dozens of strokes off your game.
6. How to Correct C-Posture
Good posture is a must for a good golf swing, but when you’re walking 18 holes with a heavy bag on your back, tired or maybe even a bit out of shape, it’s easy to lose your good posture over the course of the round. It’s good to keep stretching throughout the round to make sure your body doesn’t quit before you.
Jentry Fields is here to give you a couple stretches that will keep you from falling into the dreaded c-posture next time you hit the links.
5. Eliminate Thin Shots
Few things frustrate amateurs more than the green-side-skull shot. That thin, screaming line-drive that is created by pulling off the ball too early and making contact with the bottom of your wedge. Everyone has done it and knows just how terrifying and helpless the feeling of watching your skulled shot skim just above the greens surface is.
Fret no more! PGA teaching professional Paul Bucy is here to help you eliminate those pesky, score-killing thin shots around the green.
4. Swap Your Wedge for a Hybrid Bump-n-Run
If you’ve tried to improve your game around the green with your wedges but still struggle, perhaps you should try being a little more creative. One of the more popular plays in the game today is to hit a hybrid out of greenside rough. We saw it work for Justin Rose at the 2013 U.S. Open — and it could definitely work for you.
PGA teaching professional Bob Madsen is here to show you exactly how to pull off this shot and show you how it could shave strokes off your game.
3. Make Better Contact
One thing all amateurs could stand to improve on is their ball-striking. Most of us struggle mightily with making the crisp ball-then-ground contact that all pros make and lead to those high, impressive shots and prodigious divots. Luckily, ball-striking is something we can all get better at.
PGA teaching professional Scott Mahlberg is here to help you make the ball-before-ground contact necessary to become a great ball-striker.
2. Have No Fear on the Course
One of the more crippling things an amateur can encounter on the course is their own fear. Fear of hitting particular shots leads to a lack of confidence, which leads to a lack of commitment, which leads to bad shots. You must not fear the shot you’re about to hit or it won’t be successful.
Golf’s mental coach Rick Sessinghaus is back to help you through some of golf’s most terrifying shots and help you lower your scores.
1. Stop Swinging Over-the-Top
Ahh, the dreaded slice! The No. 1 shot-shape or amateur golfers the world over. It’s almost a sure-thing that a beginner will find themselves fighting a slice in the first rounds of their careers. While there are a few things that can lead to a slice, one of the more obvious ones is the over-the-top swing path.
PGA teaching professional from the Hideaway, Mike Mitchell, is here to help you fix the dreaded over-the-top move and cure that painful slice.