hitting greens

Ive noticed lately that my scores go down alot because ofmy not hitting greens.Does anyone know any accuracy drills or anything to help this problem?

Well, you can try to hit 500 balls in a row to the same target using the same club. That's what I do when I practice, I hit 500 balls, I use the same club, I aim for the same target. I do that for every practice session on the range.

Maybe try taking a shorter backswing. Your distance will decrease a little, but you will have a lot more accuracy, and will achieve better contact. This is one of Butch Harmon's philosophies which is that accuracy is more important than distance. At first you may have trouble finding the right club, but stick with it and you should hit more greens.

Hope this helps.

Try hitting balls with your feet together. This is agood discipline for allaspects of the swing and also for hitting it straight

1) Shorter Backswing - However, you still have to turn your shoulders. Don't use all arms.
2) For irons, make sure you hit down through the ball - Not behind it. You want to hit the ball with a decending blow and then hit the grass/turf.

As for a drill. I like the 4 clubs or Railroad drill to work on my accuracy. You need 4 clubs. Set them up like my little doodle below.....

!TARGET!................../--------- o ---------\ (target line)


....................../--------- O <-feet-> O ---------\ (stance line)

I needed the "."s for spacing, they mean nothing.

2 clubs for the target line and 2 for your stance line. Leave yourself about a foot between the butt end of each club and the ball. If you need to leave more, do so. If I do this with my driver I need more because I take the driver back low and slow. Do the same for your stance line.(those "O"s are susposed to be feet ).

This will have you set up parallel to your target line. It will also help you align the clubface square to the target. If you don't set up correctly, you will never hit accurate shots. Most people are SHOCKED when they 1st try to set up. Most have a closed clubface and open shoulders. Remember, your feet, knees, hips and shoulders need to be parallel to the target. Not just 1 or 2 of the above).

I use this alot when I start hitting the ball LEFT of my target. I tend to setup with the clubface closed on my short irons. Not sure why, but it makes the target path VERY clear. Also, with scoring irons, it helps me establish a more upright backswing (I tend to be too flat). I just take the club back along the club laying on the ground behind the ball.

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What's in my bag....
Cleveland VP 2 Blade Putter
Ping Tour Wedges, 54 & 60
TaylorMade rac LT2, 4i thru PW
Tour Edge Exotics Iron-Wood 21* 3i - Aldila NV 90 Stiff Shaft
Ping G5 18* 5 Wood - ProLaunch Blue 75 Stiff Shaft
Ping G5 15* 3 Wood - Aldila NV 75 Stiff Shaft
Cleveland HiBore XL 9.5* - Fujikura Fit-On Red Stiff Shaft

Best advise is to LEARN what your tendancies are, fade or draw, hook or slice and play to it. The vast majority of high handicapper have no idea what their bad shot or misses are likely to do, I know of no low handicapper or pro that does not know this....this also goes to course management, if your bad shot is a fade, then why try to draw if you can only pull it off 2 out 10 times, would it not make more sense to play the shot you do 8 out 10 times. Golf is a game of misses, what the pro has learned is to plan for his weakness, not his strenght, because he knows he is not going to hit perfect shots, so they always plan for where his bad shot will put him.

Example - if my tendency is to fade, I would never ever try to draw the ball into a hole with water on the right and I won't try to fade it in either, because I might over do it and slice, same results. Just setup for draw left, if you pull it off, your on the left side of the green, hitting straight (slight bad shot) your on the pin, bad shot with the fade, your on the right side of the green. You have covered all your bases to finish on the green or very near it. Trying for the perfect shot leaves you with only one way to be on the green, everything else gets you in trouble, not good course strategy, you have to think about what your doing out there, work with what you have, not what you want.

For the exception of Tiger, who hits that stinger draw a lot, there are quite a few pros who have their "go-to-shot" as the power fade. So many golfers out there work so hard to hit that draw.

Can't agree with GoNavy more....work with what you have, not what you want. If you want to draw the ball, WORK on it. Don't step up to the tee and try to hit a draw if you haven't practiced it!!!

So, if I understand you guys correctly, I should not set up to hit it straight on the off chance that I might....

Despite that when I set up to allow for my pull hook, 80% of the time I hit it straight right....

Interesting............



Cheers...

Yes play with what you do most often, the practice range is where you work on stuff. Don't take it to the course until you can play a given shot at least 8 out 10 times at will on the range. Otherwise your just playing a hope I hit straight game and not playing golf.

Has to hitting straight, even the pros don't do that,,,here is WHY, if you play a straight shot, it is unlikely you will do it, so when it fades or draws, hooks or slices, you will alway be moving away from your target. If you play for your tendencies, say a fade, you aim left, now you are working towards your target, since it is unlikely you would hook or draw, even if you overdo it you will still end up closer to the target. Once you become a better player and can work the ball, the basic principle still applies, you want the ball moving towards the target not away from it. The straight except for that one perfect shot, will aways be moving away from the target. That is the best I can explain it.

Just an addon: Not saying don't try to fix your bad shot, just don't do it on the course, work on that at the practice range, and while you are practicing, pay attention to what your shots are doing and apply it on the course, what ever it is doing, it may change from day to day, what you have that day, is what you have, use it.

I would check your alignment, first and foremost. For me, that causes a lot of problems (hook). In the past, I have been guilty of wasting time with pretty significant swing changes to later find out that all along I was aligned incorrectly.

As well, someone made this practice suggestions in this forum which i thought was a really good. Mind you it's time consuming but it simulates the real thing...

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Re: Practice Structure
One thing that has really helped me is to practice like I play. This means picking a target and hitting that club ONE time, if it is a horrible shot then deal with it and move on to the next club because in a real round you dont get 10 chances to hit your driver off of the tee, you only get one. This method has really helped me to get it right the first time and be mentally prepared to deal with the consequences of my previous shot, hope this helps you.

1) If you want to hit it straight, set up perfectly square and hit DOWN through the ball. I have played with many golfers who hit a straight ball.

2) If you hitting your "pull hook" straight right, you must be coming on a flat, inside swing path but you are not closing the face. The face is square to the path at impact, producing a shot that goes straight right. If you released the club and closed the face, you would hit a hard draw/hook.

For me to draw my driver, I do feel a flat, inside path. However, I do feel that I really need to keep my hands and wrists relaxed in order to get that proper release to shut the face.

__________________
What's in my bag....
Cleveland VP 2 Blade Putter
Ping Tour Wedges, 54 & 60
TaylorMade rac LT2, 4i thru PW
Tour Edge Exotics Iron-Wood 21* 3i - Aldila NV 90 Stiff Shaft
Ping G5 18* 5 Wood - ProLaunch Blue 75 Stiff Shaft
Ping G5 15* 3 Wood - Aldila NV 75 Stiff Shaft
Cleveland HiBore XL 9.5* - Fujikura Fit-On Red Stiff Shaft

Hi Player,

One needs to know how far the club goes on the fly. The shots that you are missing, are they, left, right or short or long.

If the latter two apply I say that it is poor club selection. The former, an alignment issue.

If you are in trouble from the tee, don't be greedy, get the ball within the 150m mark if you can't get to the green safely.

Be goal orientated with your practice. An example, hit ten balls from 100 m to your target. I would have a club on the ground pararell to the target to assist with alignment.

Always walk away from your practice in a positive frame of mind.


Good luck.

__________________
VP

There are lots of things you can do to hit more greens:

1. Don't aim at the edges of the greens or try to pull off over-optimistic shots over bunkers or water for example. Take a reasonably conservative option.

2. You need to take all the environmental factors into account. Look at the lie, the thickness of the grass, the wind at ground level and aloft, the temperature - they are all factors to consider before you decide where to aim your shot.

3. Your have to know the REAL distance to the green, the flag and your target. Don't trust the 150 yarders - they lie!! Just becuase it says 150yds from the middle 20 feet left or right and it's not 150 yards anymore because of the angle of approach!

You need to know 150yards to where - the front, middle or back ... So just becuase it says 150 yards, is it 150 yards to the flag - probably not. You need to add distance if the flag is back from the measurement or substract if it's forward of the 150 yard point.

So, you may have 150 yards or whatever to the pin but where do you want to land the ball. With a long-iron you want to take off a fair bit for bounce and roll. With a lob wedge, ignore it you won't get much bounce. You need to know where the TARGET is and the distance to the TARGET - bugger the distance to the green or the flag, it's not important anymore.

4. Club distances - abolsutely critical to know how far you FLY your clubs. How far you hit them is pointless - you know your TARGET distance now match the club FLYING DISTANCE to the TARGET DISTANCE.

Don't work out the club distances based on a good crack out of the middle - work them out on a "average" shot.

5. Ball and other equipment is important too. Trust me if you play those concrete TopFlites or Pinnacles or something - take off a club for roll! :-) If you play V1's or HX56 add on distance with your shorter clubs to account for backspin.

6. Ball flight tendancies - work out your target from the 5 computations above. If you draw the ball with that club, you need to aim a little right of the target ... if you cut the hell of that 3-iron, then aim way left ... You have to play to your tendencies.

This, believe it or not why the pros take 5 hours to play 18 holes in 3 balls - they each go through this computation after thier caddies have done it a few times ... Honestly, this is what they do and how precise they are.

You need to do the same, think about the REAL distance, think about the target and then match the club. Follow that detailed process and you WILL hit more greens. Guaranteed.

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Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
www.kelrosagolf.com
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