It has been my observation that most amatuers spend their practice time working on their golf swing, typically hitting a combination of woods and irons.  And while it is important to develop consistent ball-striking with these clubs, very little time is typically devoted to the short game.

If you haven’t already figured this out, the quickest way to drop 10+ strokes from your golf score is to work on the short game.  And today we’ll focus on pitching tips.

You’ll learn 3 pitching tips that will immediately improve your consistency around the green. Following these 3 simple golf tips will eliminate the days of topping the ball, shanking it or blading the ball over the green.

1. Ball Position - You’ll want to position the golf ball in the middle of your stance.

2. Weight distribution - Place 75% of your weight on your front foot.  This is critical as many golfers thinking that placing their weight on the back foot will help get the ball up in the air. Not so!

3. Hand position - Once you follow the first 2 steps, you’ll want to place your hands (and the shaft of the club) ahead of the ball.  So, you want the club to lean slightly towards the target. On visual cue that might help is to think about having the end of your grip point to the middle of you front leg.

The last two tips seem counter-intuitive to a lot of golfer. But, you’ll find that this will help you hit down on the ball letting the club angle do the work for you.

Take these golf short game tips to the practice range the next time you go out you’ll start to see a difference in your pitching immediately. Good luck!

If you’re like most golfers, you’re always looking for ways to improve the consistency of your ball-striking.   And while there are several factors that contribute to a good golf swing, I’m going to focus in on just one critical component of your backswing - your chin position.

Have you ever paid attention to the position of your chin as you prepare to swing your golf club? Most golfers who struggle with their backswing keep their chin too far down. Okay, so why does this matter?

Keeping your chin too far down during your backswing prohibits your shoulders from making the proper shoulder turn. Instead of the back shoulder turning around the body, a golfer who has their chin down swings up because their head is blocking their shoulders from turning.

While it is not impossible to hit the ball this way, I can guarantee that you’ll always struggle with consistency.

3 Step Drill - Keep Your Chin Up

The next time you go out to the range, give this drill a try to see if this is one of the reasons you have been struggling with your ball striking.

1. At address before you hit the ball, pick up you chin 1 or 2 inches.

2. Remember that your back shoulder should turn around your body.

3. Take your normal swing and experiment with your chin position to find the position that works best for you.

Good luck and let me know how it works for you!

If you watched the PGA tour this weekend in New Orleans you know that there were a lot of weather delays. And while this causes us to miss the action, I was intrigued by one of the things that Johnny Miller pointed out during the weather delay.

They showed Woody Austin warming up on the practice range with a golf ball under his right foot. So why would he do this? As it turns out, it relates to my recent posts on how to shift your weight properly in the golf swing.

You see, placing a ball under your right foot (left if your left-handed like me) helps keep your weight from shifting back on your swing. And it’s heartening that even the pros have to work on this aspect of your game!

If you can hit from the grass at your local range, simply press a golf ball into the ground so that roughly 50% of it is sticking out of the ground. As you get into your stance make sure that the ball sits underneath your back heel.

If your local practice range uses mats, you can substitute a golf ball with your golf towel. Follow the same principles making sure that your towel is folded so that it is roughly 1 inch off the ground.

With our golf ball or towel in place, simply take your normal swing.

Give it a try the next time you hit the range and you’ll be surprised at how helpful this simple drill can be to developing more accurate ball striking.

A few weeks ago I put up a post to share that David Nevogt, the author of the best selling golf e-book The Simple Golf Swing Method, was offering a free sneak peak of his book.

Following is an exceprt from his free chapter which details his revolutionary golf set-up…

An excerpt from The Simple Golf Swing Method by David Nevogt

The Setup Routine

“The way you set up to hit a golf ball may be the most important factor in determining your score. We don’t take that statement lightly. This section will likely be the most important in the entire book. Do not underestimate the importance of the setup! Luckily, the setup is the easiest part of the golf “swing” to change. It’s the easiest of all the bad habits related to your golf swing to break because it occurs before the swing. If you set up to the ball in the manner described, your golf swing will change for the better.

You may believe that the way you currently set up to the ball assures a consistent and reliable striking of the golf ball. But, if you have a nagging (or worse yet, unpredictable) slice or hook, hit behind the ball, or even top the ball, the problem may originate in your current setup. If you experience one or more of these problems, there is a high probability that:

1. Your setup puts you in a position to allow for these frustrating results, or
2. You have, at some point, adjusted your set-up or swing to compensate for the problem, which has done nothing but facilitate a complicated golf swing. A complicated golf swing is the last thing a bogey (or higher) golfer needs.

The process for “setting up” a simple golf swing puts you in a position to go through the five steps of the golf swing, and come back to the starting position with power and control. The combination of power and control is what every golfer strives for, and it all starts with a sound and repeatable set-up.”

In the beginning, it will take an open mind and some work to get used to this new set up. For some of you, it will be close to the set-up you are currently using. For the rest of you, it will require that you drastically change your set-up. The description will be fairly technical, and it may be difficult to get used to this new set-up routine. However, if you want to succeed, the first thing that you have to do is to be willing to accept change. As stated earlier, the set-up will be one of the most valuable parts of “The Simple Golf Swing” system, so please focus on it.

Check out the rest of this free chapter from The Simple Golf Swing Method today to see the complete set-up.

Have you already tried the Simple Golf Swing Method? Maybe another golf method that has worked well for you? Don’t be shy!

If you’ve been to my website recently, you’ve probably taken a look at the line of golf instructional videos I am promoting from PurePoint Golf. There are so many golf gurus out there promising the world but very few deliver the goods the way PurePoint Golf’s Bobby Eldridge does.

If you’re not familiar with Bobby or his teaching you should be. Bobby has spent over 30 years of his life teaching average golfers just like me how to dramatically lower their golf scores. The key to his teaching is that he has simplified the golf swing to a point where golfers of all ability levels can hit the ball straighter with more consistency and distance than ever before.

Enter his new Pitching DVD…

Read the rest of this entry →

If you struggle with a golf slice, you are likely opening your leading shoulder through impact. This is a very common mistake made by golfers who are learning how to play golf.Opening your shoulder through the impact zone makes it very difficult for your club face to come through the ball in a square position. The most common result is contacting the ball before your clubface can get square causing the ball to be sliced.

Take a series of swings with your knees and feet held together is an effective free golf swing tip that will promote a more consistent clubface position at impact. Keep everything else the same making a normal golf swing.

Keeping your knees and feet together causes a few things to happen:

• It promotes a more even distribution of weight in your swing minimizing your ability to shift your weight backwards and allowing for your weight to turn around your body through impact.
• It gives you the opportunity to focus in on the relationship between your arms and your body during the golf swing.

Read the rest of this entry →

Most golfers spend countless hours trying to reproduce a highly technical swing that only a handful of professionals can replicate on a consistent basis. So it’s no wonder that the United States Golf Association recently reported that only 10% of all golfers break 100 on a consistent basis.

Many golfers learning to play golf shift their weight back on the backswing because this is what they see countless pros do on TV over and over again. What they don’t realize is that you don’t need to swing like a pro to lower your golf handicap. In fact, simplifying your swing will dramatically improve your golf swing increasing consistency and distance.

How to minimize weight shift back and away from the target

Improve your golf swing by minimizing your weight shift back and away from the target. Reducing your weight shift back is the first step to gaining more consistency in your golf swing.

If you are used to shifting a lot of your weight back during the golf swing it may take several practice sessions to get used to this new concept. Breaking your backswing into several smaller pieces is one of the free golf swing tips that will make a real difference for you.

Read the rest of this entry →

If you’ve spent some time on my blog or have taken part in one of our courses, you’ve probably heard me say that I am not a professional golfer. While I have spent a lot of time and money improving my golf game, this embarrassing footage from a few years ago will give you an idea where I started from.

I always had a hunch that I lowered my upper body on the downswing but this is ridiculous.

Comment away. I can take it!

Check out the simple golf swing today!