As anyone who has made three swings at the driving range or won a major championship can attest to, golf is nothing if it isn’t hard.
Getting better takes tons and tons of hard work. Unlike riding a bicycle, things don’t just come back to you. Touch disappears, your swing goes away for moments of time and there’s no secret to the game.
As someone once said about improving at this game: “Golf doesn’t get easier — you get better.” These tips will help you on your path to golf enlightenment:
10. Make More Putts with Better Alignment
When it comes to amateur golfers, making more putts is absolutely paramount to getting better. You’ll never shoot the scores you want to if you can’t make the four, five and six footers you’ll inevitably have left from lagging lag putts or those wedge shots you struggle to get to tap-in range.
PGA professional Rick Sessinghaus is here to teach us how to make more putts in the clutch.
9. Get Up-and-Down From the Sand with Ease
One of the biggest differences between the pros and the amateurs is the way they can get out of bunker trouble. Amateurs hit their shots into bunkers and break into a cold sweat. Pros, often times, will hit their shots into bunkers on purpose, because they know that miss is easier to escape than the cabbage next to the green.
PGA professional Bob Knee is here to show you how to make getting up-and-down from the bunkers a walk in the park.
8. Add More Whip to Your Golf Swing
Without a perfect golf swing that most professionals have, generating the most clubhead speed you can is difficult. There’s always some energy wasted in the swings of amateurs that robs them of the clubhead speed they need for the results the want.
Alas — there is help! PGA professional Barry Clayton is here to help you add some more whip to your golf swing and more clubhead speed.
7. Add More Distance Off the Tee
It doesn’t matter what golf media outlet you look at, there’s always some type advertisement aimed at amateurs promising more distances off the tee. Whether it’s through the use of some new club or a miracle training aid, the market is there for amateurs who crave distance.
That being said, there’s always a way to make it work — naturally. PGA professional Geoff Dean is here to help us all add a little more distance off the tee and leave us shorter shots into every green.
6. Stop Standing Up in Your Swing
If there’s a miss that most amateurs are guilty of, it’s the top. The dreaded thin shot is the demise of many great amateur rounds of golf. The inability to keep in a good posture, head down, hit through the ball — all of these are the results of standing up in your golf swing.
PGA teaching professional Seiko Onoue is here with a drill that will keep you from doing just that.
5. Taking a Proper Divot
If you want to get better at golf, you have to get better at ball-striking. More important than driving distance, more important than getting better at bunker shots — pretty much more important than every facet of your game except putting, improving your ball-striking will make you better.
The key to that improvement may lie in the divots you’re taking. PGA teaching professional Karen Tucker is here to teach you how to take a proper divot and improve those ball-striking statistics.
4. The Penny Drill
Have you ever hit a putt that felt perfect, looked perfect and still wound up four feet past the hole? Of course you have! That’s why you’re reading this and watching these videos as opposed to making the videos for other people to watch. Honestly, the only reason you miss those putts consistently is because of an inaccuracy in the way you line up your putter.
Luckily, PGA professional Don Parsons is here to help you with your putting by giving you a new drill that will improve the positioning of your putter head.
3. Create a Stable Base
If you’re looking to improve your swing, one way to do it is by improving your core muscles and creating a stable base. With all the turning and twisting that comes with the golf swing, it’s impossible to consistently repeat your best swing.
Luckily for you, there are steps you can take that don’t require hitting the gym every day for the next 20 years while you try to get a six-pack (though that certainly wouldn’t hurt). PGA master professional Alison Curdt is here to show you how to get a more stable base to improve your golf swing.
2. Three Pitch Shots to Master Around the Green
If you see an amateur who looks like they’ve got everything figured out — but still manage to shoot 104 — then the odds are that this player struggles mightily around the greens. If you find yourself chunking chips or hitting skulled shots across the green, then you need to watch this video.
PGA professional Barry Clayton is back with three pitch shots to master around the greens and lower your scores — fast!
1. Getting Out of Trouble
No golfer finds themselves in trouble more often than amateurs. Without the repeating swing and consistent ball-striking, tee shots often find the trees and approaches end up left and right of the green in thick cabbage — basically high handicap golf is a smorgasbord of perilous golf shots.
Have no fear! PGA professional Don Parsons is here to help you get out of trouble, avoid the big scores that ruin your rounds and have a new perspective on being in a trouble spot.