Common mistakes made by golfers and the solutions.
Golf is a tricky game and small mistakes can have big consequences. Tjeerd Staal explains the common mistakes made by golfers and offers solutions. You will notice that in your score. Promise.
Courtesy of Golfers Magazine
Written by Foeke Collet and photography by Ronald Speijer
Wrong base
If the foundation is not right, it becomes very difficult to get the clubface to the ball consistently. Conversely, the same applies: if the fundamentals are good, there is much less that can go wrong during the swing. So before every swing, pay attention to grip, set-up, ball position and alignment. Even the best golfers in the world check the "fundamentals" every time.
Grip: Place the grip in the fingers (and not the palm) of your gloved hand, making sure you see three knuckles when the clubface is perpendicular to the target. Let your other hand connect neatly, with the V between thumb and index finger pointing toward your back shoulder.
Set-up: Make sure you stand dynamically, with knees slightly bent and slightly tilted forward from the hips. There is tension on your legs and you are ready for the swing.
Ball position: With the driver, the ball is just inside your front heel and you have a wide stance. Then, with shorter clubs, you start standing slightly narrower, causing the ball position to creep backwards: around the middle of your stance with an iron 7 and just behind it with a wedge.
Align: Put the clubface perpendicular to the target behind the ball and then take your address position. Both lower and upper body should be perpendicular to the target line. So not only your feet and knees, but also your hips and shoulders. Train on the driving range with line-up sticks or sticks on the ground for consistent set-up
Helping the ball into the air
Trying to help the ball into the air is never a good idea, but when pitching - when you have a club with loft in your hands - the result is often disastrous. Either you hit the ball thin, causing it to fly across the green at high speed, or you hit it fat, causing it to barely advance. It doesn't get more frustrating. How do you learn to rely on the loft of a wedge to get the ball into the air?
Golfers who want to help the ball up have their weight on their back foot. Take that out of play and it becomes a lot harder to 'spoon'. Address the ball normally, but put your back foot back on the toe - you're only using it for balance. Make a few practice swings and you'll notice you can't lean to the side without falling. Hit a few chips and try to stay balanced on your front foot. You will almost automatically get the slightly downward angle of attack you want, with the loft of the club sending the ball up. Better ball contact makes the ball flight more predictable and results more consistent.
Taking too little club
You often see this problem with club golfers. They have hit 150 yards with their iron 7 once and then think that they will always succeed. Amateurs are too short with their approaches in about three-quarters of the cases. Of course, this is also due to inconsistent ball contact, but often the club choice is too ambitious. And then most bunkers are on the front side of the green. Not convenient. The good news is that this problem is easy to solve. Pick up an extra club more often and try to swing quietly, at a good pace. That will make the chances of good ball contact considerably better than if you try to get "everything" out of a club. And let's agree that if you're between clubs, always pick the longest one anyway. How often do you see a professional go full out on his approach? Rarely. Irons are all about control and consistency, and that's easier to achieve with a swing at 80 percent. Try it for a few rounds and see how many more greens you will hit.
Club magazine not open enough
In a normal bunker stroke, you have to open the clubface of your sand wedge. This brings the bounce of the sole into play (which prevents the club head from digging in) and the clubface has more loft to get the ball up quickly. Open the clubface first and then grip the club, rather than just opening your hands. Don't be stingy: the clubface may be open quite a bit. Play the ball in front of your stance, just inside your front heel. You want to hit the sand a few inches behind the ball and slide the clubhead under the ball with a shallow divot. To get a good feel for this flat swing, you can throw a handful of sand from the bunker onto the grass. Place the ball on top of this and hit it toward the green. This will show you how much sand you want to hit and help you practice the desired flat angle of attack.
Wanting to hit too hard
Speed is fine, but it has to be smooth speed. A common mistake is that the club reaches its maximum speed too early in the downswing and is already slowing down at impact. This often also compromises the swing sequence, to the detriment of control. In addition, amateurs often tend to hit against the ball instead of swinging freely through the impact zone, with the ball merely "getting in the way. Start the swing by gently taking the club away and make sure the transition - the transition from back swing to down swing - is also smooth. Don't rush; you want to build the speed in the downswing slowly. This gives you time to rotate your lower body back toward the target (weight to your front foot), followed by your upper body, arms and hands. Only with this correct swing sequence can you combine speed with control. If you get off balance, your tempo is not right. to improve this, you can count to three in your head: 1 and 2 for the backswing and 3 for the downswing. Always look for a balanced finishing position, with your weight completely on your front foot and your back foot up on the toe. If you manage to finish in balance, you are not swinging too hard.
Not enough practice on the green
Of course it's nice to hit your driver, but the easiest way to improve your score is to putt better. Remember: about 40 percent of your strokes during a round consist of a putt, so your practice work on the green should actually cover the same percentage. Focus on putts between 1.5 and 5 feet, because they offer the best of three worlds: greens reading, distance control and the ability to launch the ball on line. With the longer putts, you have more break and it is essential to make the line correspond to speed. As the putts get shorter, the focus becomes more on the starting line. Can you manage to consistently start the ball on the chosen line? Keep track of your scores and try to improve them next time. How long can you keep 3-putts off the card? How many two-foot putts can you make in a row? Make up games to add an element of pressure to practice.
No commitment
The dictionary defines commitment as: obligation, promise, conviction, commitment and involvement. Translate this to golf and it means making a decision and not doubting it anymore. Make a decision about the club and stroke you want to play and stick to it. If you hesitate on a stroke, or don't even have a plan at all, there is little chance that the ball will do what you have in mind. Commitment goes hand in hand with focus. When you're playing well, everything often goes naturally: you know exactly where the ball should go, get behind it with conviction and swing freely. But when things are not going so well, doubt sets in and your game can get derailed. This mental side of golf can be trained. Get behind the ball only when you know exactly what you are going to do, and visualize the ball flight of that light fade, low punch or high draw. Can you see it in front of you? Then waste no more time and hit the ball. With each stroke, note on your scorecard how good your focus was. You'll soon see a trend. Perhaps you focus only moderately on strokes off the tee, or you lose focus and concentration around the green. This helps make the mental side of the game more consistent, guaranteed to result in lower scores in the long run.