Golf Instruction
Master the most difficult shots and learn long drive secrets with our golf instruction articles. Our online golf lessons will help you transform your game.
Pitch Right!How to improve your chipping in two minutes' time If you want to control your shots more effectively around the greens, the best thing you can do is set up with a narrow stance and always remember to keep the shaft leaning toward the target. Since it’s a chip shot, you don’t have to worry about releasing the club; instead, you want to hold the face square to ensure optimal directional control. This setup position also helps to avoid flubbed chipped shots—one of the most embarrassing and avoidable shots in golf. |
Tips From The TourImprove your game by learning from the pros The best players in the world are as proficient as they are for very good reasons. Not only do they possess an incredibly high level of talent and athletic ability, but they also have sound fundamentals and outstanding overall technique. If you’re going to learn from anyone, these are the guys you want to study. |
Oomph ShotsFaced with a tough shot? Here's what to do. By now, you’ve probably seen footage of Tiger Woods snapping his 4-iron against a tree in the 2007 Masters. If you haven’t, it happened on the 11th hole when he found his ball at the base of a tree. Tiger had three choices: hit it backward or backhanded (two choices that would have probably led to a bogey) or advance it down the fairway. Of course, Tiger chose the latter, but to pull it off, he had to sacrifice his 4-iron. |
True Lies and Divots 6/30/08Ball land in a divot? Don?t worry, Kevin Scheller will help you get it out and on the green. |
Stay Stacked 6/23/08Keeping your upper body relatively balanced over your lower body is critical for creating power |
Face Off 6/16/08To keep your putterface square, your hands must complement one another |
Adjust the Back Foot 6/9/08To find the right ball position don?t move the ball, move your back foot |
Total DrivingSean O'Hair's coach helps you hit it long (and down the middle) every time In early March, one of my students, Sean O’Hair, put on a master class in Total Driving at the PODS Championship. (The Tour computes Total Driving by “totaling a player’s rank in both driving distance and driving accuracy.”) For the week, Sean finished T15 in driving accuracy and 8th in driving distance, averaging 282.6 yards. Sean won that week—his second Tour victory—and earned a trip to the Masters. I couldn’t have been more proud. |
Sweetspot: Luke DonaldGet your irons in check by observing one of the best ballstrikers in golf Since his early days playing for England on two Walker Cup teams and making noise as an NCAA star at Northwestern, Luke Donald has had PGA Tour success in his sights. Having already cracked the top-60 in career earnings with more than $12 million to his credit, you’d have to say he’s right on track. |
Pitching MechanicsBetter pitching is a matter of perfecting your address positions Playing well from within 100 yards is a must if you want to score well. Just look at the best players in the world. They all miss the fairway sometimes, but from within 100 yards, there isn’t a player out there who doesn’t expect to knock it close from “a hundie” and in. This is golf’s scoring zone, where the difference between a long birdie putt and a short tap-in can be made up by hitting the right kinds of shots. |
Through The GatesPutting really shouldn't be any more complicated than this In my many years of teaching, I’ve read, heard, seen and been told a number of putting tips that, I feel, only serve to overcomplicate what should be a simple motion. I think putting is just rolling the ball, so I like to keep things simple. Here, I’m practicing a drill that helps me keep the ball on the right path. All I do is place two golf balls about six inches apart, and a foot in front of my ball, and then make a stroke. |
