Tag: Drills

It's April and that means it's Masters time. Augusta National is known for impeccable conditioning, Amen Corner and really slick greens. In this video Rick Sessinghaus passes on three putting drills that'll help you stroke your putts with the right amount of distance.

Better putting comes from better practice. Try this drill to see what flaws may be creeping into your putting stroke.

Take a look at a simple and fun drill to put your sliced shots away once and for all.

A good backswing creates torque and is achieved by rotating the body away from the ground using the feet as an anchor. Except for unusually flexible players, the knees, hips, core, back and shoulders should all be used to create torque. Once you get the feel of creating leverage against the ground, your power will increase significantly.

One of the keys to accurate pitching is getting the clubhead moving consistently down the target line. A great way to practice this is to take a 10-foot piece of string and stretch it out directly on the target line of a pitch shot. 

If you want to become a better putter, you have to learn to stabilize the lower body as much as possible. All great putters have a rock-steady lower half and swing the putter from above the waist. Now, deciding whether you’re a hands-driven putter or a shoulder-driven putter (or both!) is a matter of personal style, but one thing is for sure: No matter how you choose to swing with the upper body, the lower body must stay as still as possible.

Keep Your Hands Low - Limiting the height of the followthrough will effectively reduce the height of your shots. The lower the hands, the lower the ballflight. Moving the ball back in your stance or choosing a stronger club and trying to swing easy are other ways to accomplish the same thing, but they’re less reliable and more difficult to execute.

The answers to your golf swing woes are all around you. Jeff Ritter shows how to feel an improved arm swing and clubface control using the simplest training aid ever: a hula-hoop! 

The three simple keys to consistently sinking short putts are: making contact with the center of the putterface, making contact with a square putterface that’s on-line to the target and accelerating the clubhead through impact. If you learn to do these three things, your short putting, and overall putting, will improve quickly and should stay solid for good.

In the last issue of Golf Tips, I showed you how to use the edge of a wall to help improve your chipping. This month, I’m going to show you how a simple household item, such as a doorjamb, can help you hit the ball farther.