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10 Best Tips

(You’ve Never Heard)

By A.J. Bonar With Ryan Noll, Photos By David Johnston

If you’ve ever received a lesson, or better yet, a series of lessons, it’s likely you’ve been told to do the same thing more than once. Golf instruction is often plagued with repetition, which, if you’re an astute student of the game, you’d know is a necessary directive for helping you improve. But it also can be a bit tedious to be told the same thing over and over. So instead of doing that, I’ve put together 10 of my favorite, lesser-known swing tips that will break you free from the monotony of typical golf instruction and help you not only lower you scores, but also have a whole lot more fun in the process. Turn the page and get started on improving your game, the atypical way.

1. HIT THE DRIVER FROM THE BUNKER
It’s not uncommon to see PGA Tour players occasionally hitting the driver off the fairway, but what would you say if I said it was possible to hit the driver from the bunker? You can!

Hitting a driver from the sand is actually doable, so long as you follow a few simple guidelines. First, the ball needs to be sitting up on a clean lie. Second, the sand should be on the firmer side. Third, it helps to have a slight uphill lie. And fourth, make sure there isn’t a big lip between the ball and the target.

If your shot passes those four variables, here’s what else you need to know. Play the ball as you normally would, with the ball positioned forward in your stance. As for your swing, try not to swing at 100 percent; instead swing as hard as you can without your feet sliding around. Finally, unlike your normal driver swing, which requires you to shift your weight forward, it’s okay to hang back a little and let the club swing out in front of you. Hitting it fat isn’t likely, mainly because the driver has such a flat, wide sole, making it easier to slide across and bounce off the sand instead of digging down into it.

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My Favorite Tips And Drills

Quick tips and easy drills to finish the year with your best golf

By Zachary Allen, PGA, Photography Ryan Noll

Just because the golf season is near a close, there’s still plenty of work to do if you want to keep your swing fresh and up to par for the next golf season. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to grind out in the cold all winter (Arizona and Palm Springs are great places to be in January, by the way), but with a handful of quick tips and drills that I show here, staying in top form this off-season ought to be a lot easier and more fun. And for those of you blessed with the time and resources to play golf all year long, let these next few pages serve as a blueprint for playing your best golf now, and into the next playing season.

CLAP YOUR HANDS
One of my favorite drills for perfecting the impact position is to do what I call the “clap your hands” drill. What this drill does is help you get a sense of what it means to stack your left side at impact and make solid contact into the golf ball.

To get started, address the ball as you normally would, only don’t use a club this time. From here, go ahead and simulate a big backswing, but when you do it, keep your left arm in the same position from start to finish, which ought to be pointing at the golf ball.

Finish the simulated backswing, then on the forwardswing, let your right arm come down and through and actually clap your left hand. When this happens, your body should be situated just as mine is in the photo, with your left arm stacked over your left leg, the hips open and the shoulders square to the target.

If you practice this drill often enough, you’ll not only ingrain the proper impact sensation, but also prevent your shoulders from spinning out of position and taking your eyes off the strike with the ball.

PUSH IT AWAY
Hitting solid golf shots requires you to make sure you do two things correctly: Swing with a full extension of the arms and make a fluid, steady rotation of the body through impact. If you can master those two key fundamentals, all the other fundamentals such as grip, posture and path will become a lot easier to master. Among my favorite drills to do just that is the “push drill.”

Simple as can be, the push drill can do wonders for your ballstriking. To accomplish this, set up over a golf ball in your impact position, with the hips open and the shoulders square to the target. Then, fling the ball toward the target with a smooth release of your right side, and make sure your arms are extending through to a full finish.

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Trivia Answer

Where is the highest golf course in the world which sits 14,335 feet above sea level at its lowest point? 

Tactu Golf Club in Morococha, Peru

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Trivia Question

Where is the highest golf course in the world which sits 14,335 feet above sea level at its lowest point? 

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Top-seeded Giorgi To Meet No. 2 Glatch In Carson Challenger Final

By Steve Pratt, special to USTA.com

CARSON, Calif. – It’ll be No. 1 vs. No. 2 on Sunday for the Carson USTA Women’s $50,000 Challenger singles title, as top-seeded Camila Giorgi and No. 2 Alexa Glatch recorded straight-set wins on Saturday at The Home Depot Center.

Glatch ended the run of 15-year-old amateur Taylor Townsend of Stockbridge, Ga., 7-6 (1), 6-2, while Giorgi has no problems brushing aside 21-year-old and No. 3-seeded Ashley Weinhold of Austin, Texas, 6-0, 6-0, in just 42 minutes.

Count Glatch as another impressed with the big lefty game of Townsend, who came all the way through qualifying and was playing for the seventh consecutive day.

“She’s a good player,” said Glatch, who gave up just nine games in her previous three matches coming into the day. “She’s young and has a lot of potential. She has some things to work on, as well. She’s got great hands, and the lefty advantage always helps.”

Glatch, hanging right around No. 200 in the world rankings and a Carson finalist in 2008, said she didn’t play her best tennis but will need to amp up her game if she is going to have a chance against Italy’s Giorgi, who just couldn’t seem to miss against Weinhold, who has had a solid 2011 so far winning the Rancho Mirage $25,000 Challenger in February and one month later beating Melanie Oudin in the first round of the $25,000 event in Pelham, Ala.

After Sunday’s match, Glatch will prepare to leave for Europe, where she is playing an indoor hardcourt event in Copenhagen, Denmark, before trying to qualify at Wimbledon in mid-June.

Townsend will take a much-needed day off on Sunday and then head back home to Georgia for a few days before more training at USTA Headquarters in Boca Raton.

“I really had a great week,” Townsend said. “To me, it was really just a learning experience. Alexa is such a great player, and I’ve heard so many great things about her. She played a really solid second set and didn’t miss as much. The points that I did get she really made me work for them.”

Townsend said she did feel tired in the second set but it was not a factor in the match.

“I did feel a little fatigued out there,” she said. “But it’s no excuse. I train every day with the USTA, so I should be able to play a match like this every day.”

In the doubles final, the No. 4-seeded team of Alexandra Mueller and Asia Muhammad beat the No. 2 team of Christina Fusano and Yasmin Schnack, 6-2, 6-3.

For more information go to:  www.usta.com/carsonchallenger.

Saturday’s Singles Semifinals
Q: Qualifier
Alexa Glatch, U.S. [2], def. Taylor Townsend, U.S. [q], 7-6 (1), 6-2
Camila Giorgi, Italy, [1], def. Ashley Weinhold, U.S. [3], 6-0, 6-0

Satuday’s Doubles Final
Alexandra Mueller, U.S., / Asia Muhammad. U.S. [4] def. Christina Fusano, U.S. [2] / Yasmin Schnack U.S., 6-2, 6-3

Sunday’s Singles Final
Court 4 starting at 10 a.m.
Camila Giorgi, Italy, [1] vs. Alexa Glatch U.S. [2]

ABOUT THE USTA PRO CIRCUIT:
With more than 90 tournaments throughout the country and prize money ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, the USTA Pro Circuit is the pathway to the US Open and tour-level competition for aspiring tennis players and a frequent battleground for established professionals. Last year, more than 1,000 men and women from more than 70 countries competed on the USTA Pro Circuit for approximately $3.2 million in prize money and valuable ATP World Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour ranking points. Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Andy Murray, Jelena Jankovic, Melanie Oudin and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are among today’s top stars that began their careers on the USTA Pro Circuit. The USTA Pro Circuit is world class tennis administered on the local level and played on local tennis courts as part of the fabric of communities nationwide — an opportunity for current and new fans to experience the excitement and intensity of the professional game in their neighborhood.

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Body Parts & Eyes Need to be Aligned On Target

Swing improvement by utilizing proper alignment

Al Geiberger

Once you have the club face properly aimed, align your body squarely with it. That means you set your feet, knees, hips and shoulders on a line that is perpendicular to the club face or parallel to your line of play. You can use clubs, boards or lines in practice to develop a sense of square body alignment.

Set up properly, otherwise, your swing will be going in a different direction. But I think the most important part of your body to get properly aligned is your eyes. Unless your eyes are parallel to the line of play, it’s almost impossible to aim or align correctly.

Bud Palmer, the former basketball player and sportscaster, asked me for a lesson one time. I could see right away that for a big guy and a good athlete, he had a very weak swing. It didn’t have any zip, because he took the club so far inside the target line on his back swing that he was just struggling to get it on line coming through. He would come over the top (spinning to the outside or toward the target line with the right shoulder) and he didn’t have any power left by the time he got to the ball.

I realized Bud had his head turned to the right, which tilted his eyes and aimed them to the right. It was interesting to see that his club face aligned every time with the side of his face aiming to the right. Because of the way his eyes were setting, that looked square to him. His right arm was taking over, overpowering and breaking down the extension of his left side. That entire chain reaction of unfortunate events was caused by improper alignment of the eyes. I tell you this lengthy story to impress on you the importance of aligning them correctly.

Again, work in practice to get the feeling of your eyes being set parallel to your target line. Use a mirror at home to make sure your head and eyes are straight; then just bend over and look at an imaginary target line to get the feeling of keeping them parallel.

When you look at your target while addressing the ball, do so by rotating your head, not lifting it. And if you cock your head to the right as you start your swing so you can look at the ball with your left eye, as you should, make sure you rotate it so your chin stays in line with your forehead.
By keeping your eyes in the correct position, that chain reaction of events in your swing can be productive instead of disastrous.

Excerpted from Al Geiberger’s best selling book TEMPO, available at your favorite bookstore. Geiberger, with 22 combined wins on the PGA and Champions Tour including his historic 59, is professional emeritus at Stone Eagle.

For more information go to: http://www.golfnewsmag.com/online/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=197

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Golf was being banned in Scotland in what year?

1457 to 1502

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Golf was being banned in Scotland in what year?

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By Jaime Diaz

There have already been nine sudden-death playoffs on the PGA Tour this year, on pace to break the record of 16, set in 1988 and 1991. Randomness is the most likely reason, though it’s plausible that we are seeing more parity in the wake of Tiger Woods’ decline. Providing some of the most exciting moments in golf, sudden death is more memorable when it isn’t quite so sudden, particularly when two elite players keep answering each other with clutch shots. Such was the case in the five chosen here.

For more information go to:  http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/2011-05/my-five-best-sudden-death-playoffs#ixzz1OPMm0xL4

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