Hot Tips to Effortlessly Improve Your Golf Swing

Most golfers will admit that golf is 90% mental, yet most spend all their time and efforts on the mechanical aspect of the game. The golfing industry hasn't helped the trend by breaking down the swing and analyzing each of its components. Although, the average handicap for club players is still the same as it was 20 years ago. Even with all the new technology in equipment and video analysis.

Everyone seems to be teaching or learning the perfect swing, but little do people realize that almost no one has a perfect swing, not even the pros. Each of us has a certain way of swinging the club, even if we are taught the correct way in the beginning. Negative feelings have a lot to do with our swing. If you have a good swing, and negative thoughts, you still will not play good golf.

Most players are distracted and not totally concentrating on their shot at one time or another. Each time this happens, you can lose a stroke or two. If this happens only 4-5 times a round, it could add a lot of strokes to your score.

The main principles behind good golf are simple. You must be able to focus on the task at hand and stay in the present, then pick a small target and empty all unwanted thoughts from your mind.

The mental aspect of executing a shot is crucial to our success. Think about all the good shots you hit when you are practicing, when not on the course. Why do you play bad one day and not the next, why do you play well on the front nine but terrible on the back nine? Your physical ability is the same. The fact is your mind and body are connected and work in symbiosis, so how you think will affect how you perform.

Evidently, the mind is a critical determinant in shot making. Hypnosis, specifically self-hypnosis in this case, can assist in achieving the right mind set for a golf shot.

All of us use hypnosis in our everyday lives all of the time. If you are overweight and overeat, you can become satisfied with smaller portions of food. If you smoke, you can become an ex-smoker. If you're a phobic, your fears can disappear completely.

So you see, in an open state of mind, you can make strong, positive suggestions to change your life dramatically. Hypnosis can also help you improve your golf game. It can help you lower your score and feel proud of your accomplishment and your game.

Your inner mind is lazy: It needs repetition for change to occur. The more detailed your picture, the more accurate your outcome. If you expect a positive outcome, you will often receive it.

To create self-hypnosis on command and through suggestion, you need to product strong mental images of what you want to accomplish, you can lower your golf score. You can achieve that score you always dream about. No more being embarrassed of your score in front of your friends.

In the movie, 'Caddyshack,' before they swung, golfers repeated the mantra, 'Be the Ball.' This is OK for a funny movie or if you're a beginning golfer who's likely to miss the ball if you don't pay supreme attention to it. But for anyone else it's ridiculous.

Because you're better than that. You don't want to just hit the ball. You want the ball to go someplace. Like...a Target. It would be much better for you to 'Be the Target.' Focus intensely on the Target. Picture your ball going to it. Have it so burned into your mind that you can still see it in your mind's eye when you're addressing the ball. That's self-hypnosis.

Watch the pre-shot routine of any good golf professional. What do you think they're doing when they stand in back of the ball, in line with the target? They're picturing the ball flying to the Target.

Want to improve your golf score? Before every shot, make the Target your image.

Get the picture?

By Richard C Myers

Want to break through to the next level of golf? Then visit Think and Reach Par for more great free golf swing tips, gifts, secrets and advice, or Golf for Leftys golf tips to improve your stance, grip and left handed golf swing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_C_Myers

Read More..

Forget Golf Cart Accessories - A Real Golfer Needs More Than One Golf Course!

There you are, the newest member of the golf retirement community, putting to engineer that innocent looking little white ball into the black hole at last. The soft sea breeze stroking your aching back after that one wild swipe at the dodgy little Callaway golf ball when you thought no one was watching. And something else is bothering you. You know what it is, but you don't want to acknowledge it, because you don't know what to do about it. You don't yearn for the latest golf swing trainer, golf cart accessory or other related retirement gift. It is something entirely different that is tap-tap-tapping away at your thoughts.

Too many greens to play, too many beautiful community golf courses whispering their names to you in that salty wind coming in from the sea. And there is only one you. With a wife that is adamant to have her say in the unfolding need for more than just the one golf course in one lifetime.

As that wise old German psychologist mentioned in quiet desperation, women are different. They are most likely aliens from a far off galaxy where there are no open green, gated golf course communities that are synonymous with heavenly pleasures. In that galaxy the rule has been laid down that a specimen from the female species will always have the need to have an own home where the specimen can indulge in home making. A serious golfer, in his advanced cosmic state, knows that it is not about the house, it is all about the green course. She will not let go. She will not understand. She will want her own home to beautify. She will want a verandah where she and her friends from that far off galaxy can sit down and drink tea while watching whales in the sea, or buffalos grazing, or soft green hills against pure blue heavens. That is what she wants, and you can just as well go and drown yourself with your beloved golf bag in that water hole at the 16th. She will not budge.

But then, to your relief, you remember that phrase of the great Chinese writer, or it could be an Australian, and you know that it is likely that you are making a mistake about this great man's background, but what he said was something like 'it is in the play that I'll catch the conscience of the queen'...

Careful planning, my golfing mate, is what will save the day. Those were the words of those great and advanced guys that roamed the great plains of ancient courses long long ago. Give the specimen a house overlooking the greens. There she can buy curtains to her liking, plant flowers in clay pots, read JM Coetzee or Ian McEwan whilst listening to Mozart. And the little wifey with her specimen friends can sit on the verandah, laughing and spilling tea while they watch your approach to do something to that little white ball that once again moved for only a few inches (the English), or centimeters (the rest of the world).

The plain truth is that this ancient wisdom of golfers now swinging clubs in the pinkish clouds at days end, only provides a partial answer to the greater issue. You know that if you can't get the swing right on this open green, there are surely so many other beautiful retirement community golf courses. Courses that will appreciate your next swing, which will be the one that Ernie Els aspires to.

The thing is, your specimen has now settled into her golf course community house overlooking the 18th hole. Since buying that piece of golf real estate for her, she happily opens the front door at your disheveled return from the game, and she always displays those bright twinkling eyes, shining with mischievousness. Now you know that she found something so great or amusing in that house overlooking the 18th hole that she will not even consider moving to a different, more lenient course.

Now, this is the moment that I will come to your rescue. I have given that game up because I do not yet want to play it in the day end pinkish clouds before it really is time to do so, on account of heart attacking golfing seizures. So I would rather sell you and your specimen a house at a gated, retirement golf community estate of her liking. At the same time I would suggest that you get your specimen's best friend to maneuver her golfing husband to one of the other beautiful courses. Doing so, you can explain, they can visit each other, go to art galleries, coffee shops, mesmerizing shopping centers and they can even sit on the verandah overlooking the very first hole, laughing their buds and their butts off, ...so long as you and your golfing friend can have another go at another course where nobody can possibly know your real handicap.

Just don't turn your eyes towards all the verandahs of all the other houses in the gated golf community, with all the other specimens rolling and reeling in laughter over their little cups of tea.

It will only prolong that fight of dwarfing inches towards the shrinking little black hole of redemption.

By Wim Van Der Walt

Wim van der Walt is the owner of Byron-YeatsProperties.com where you can find out about prime Golf Community Real Estate such as The Clarens Golf and Trout Estate, South Africa.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wim_Van_Der_Walt

Read More..

How to Play Sand Traps

Everybody wants to know the best way how to play sand traps. Traps, or bunkers are the called in Europe, can be easy or very difficult to play, depending on their severity.

You know the thing. You think you are playing great, and have a couple of towering (for you) 325 yard shots on the first four or five holes, so try it again on the next. You know there is a big deep trap out there just on the right of the fairway about 300 yards out. You would normally play short but you are playing so well today that you go for it. You should clear it, but if not all you have to do is to aim slightly left and you will miss it in any case.

What happens? You are so concentrating on missing by playing your shot a bit left, and also trying to clear it, that you rush into the drive. You throw your shoulders and arms into a bit quicker than usual so don't quite close the club face before striking the ball. We all know what happens then, don't we? You slice the ball out right, and because you are aiming to the left and don't get the usual power behind the shot because you are a bit nervous about it, it slices right into that sand trap. Stuck in the trap still with 200 yards to go.

That's one shot down - or is it? Not if you have practiced your sand shots! The shot you play now is different to that if the trap was green side. You first have to assess the condition of the sand. Is it wet or dry? Is it smooth, and what is the lie? Even the grain of the sand can have a bearing, but that is probably not your concern at the moment. The main thing is the dryness of the sand and the lie.

If your ball is right at the edge of the bank, and you can only chip out, then that is all you can do. However, the odds are that your ball is somewhere in the middle since they normally run into fairway traps rather than land straight there. If the sand is wet, then you cannot afford to dig into it with the club, or basically take a 'divot'. You have to hit it cleanly because wet sand is extremely difficult to drive through - with a car or a golf club! You can practice that by placing a tee into the sand so that the cup of the tee is at sand level, and then hitting the ball. Once you are able to hit the ball regularly without hitting the tee, then you will be able to play these sands shots with ease.

What that means is that even from 200 yards out you will be able to play a full powered shot with the club of your choice to reach the green. If your club digs into the sand even slightly, then it will lose a lot of power and you will have no chance of reaching the green. Practice with the tee in the sand and it will reap benefits.

If the sand is dry and fine grained, then it should not be so much of problem, but even there if you can strike the balls without digging into the sand, then you should be able to drive it out of that trap to the green 200 yards away. Many amateur golfers think that you have to take a lot of sand with when you play a sand shot, but that is not necessarily true. It might be for shots from close to the green, and with pin placements close to the traps, but it is not always necessary.

To play a sand shot in soft sand where your footing is not secure, you will have to dig your feet into the sand until you have a steady stance. You will then have to hold the club a bit lower on the shaft to allow for your feet being below the normal level. If you feet are sunk three inches into the sand, then hold your club three inches farther down that normal. If you are playing a green bunker, you will want a lofted club and likely to take a sand 'divot'. In that case, decide where in the sand you are going to strike, and concentrate on that point and not the ball.

Play the shot with a smooth stroke and a full follow through so that the loft of the club comes into play. The club face should always be fully closed so that it can slice through the sand. Any angle on it will tend to hold it back and you will underplay the shot with regard to both distance and loft. Always practice your green sand trap shots by playing at the same speed with all shots. Your distance should be varied by the length of your swing. If you practice properly, you will find that you can play each shot at the same speed and change distance at will by changing your swing length.

Another useful tip is that if you have to stop the ball quickly, as you often have to do with some bunker shots, then hit the sand close to the ball. A normal dry sand shot should have a long shallow 'divot', but if the pin is close to the trap then make it very short, because then you will get maximum spin.

The way to learn how to play sand traps consistently well is to practice them: from 200 yards out or 5 yards from the pin makes no difference. Like any other skill, practice makes perfect.

By Andre Sanchez

How to Play Sand Traps was originally published at http://www.golfplayernow.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andre_Sanchez

Read More..

The Importance of Knowing the Golf Course

The importance of knowing the golf course to a professional is inestimable. The tour pros make sure that they know the course inside out, from first tee to last hole, and also that their caddies have all the distances worked out.

When you go on vacation and try a strange course, you enjoy the experience, but might find that your game is not up to its usual standard. You might put it down to one too many beers last night, or too much wine with your dinner, but we both know the real reason. You didn't know the course. It is a strange course and you know neither the distances nor the greens.

That is one reason why not too many rookies win the USA PGA or the Masters. Because they don't know the course well enough. Oh, don't get me wrong! Some rookies do win now and again, but the players are getting so fit these days and so close to each other in ability that knowing the course counts for a lot more than it used to. Some rookies win because they have the right caddy - a good caddy that knows the game and the course is worth his weight in gold.

That is why Scots caddies are so popular when the British Open is played at St. Andrews, or Muirfield, or any of the other famous Scottish golf courses. American pros don't get the time to play Scottish courses as much as they would like to - and believe me, they would like to because they are among the best in the world. But they just can't spare the time due to pressure of work. However, they make sure they get a good Scots caddy - and they don't come cheap!

Why should you benefit from knowing the course? Well, to start with, the first tee. You have to know exactly how far down the fairway these bunkers are, or that road or stream that cuts across the fairway. It looks like 300 yards, but might be 320, and that makes a difference. As an average player you have to decide whether to go for it with your driver or to play safe with a one iron. Sometimes it makes little difference since the second is not much more difficult from a 350 yard drive as from a 320 yard drive. In fact, on some courses the 320 yarder gives you the easier shot to the green.

You need to know the first hole for that, and the same could be true of every hole. You must know the optimum driving distances. Then you have the second shots. You might not have the flag in sight. You may have to walk up the course to see what is coming next. That small rise might be hiding a multitude of problems for you, but you won't know till you look. Prior knowledge is a big help, especially if the nasties are something at which you could practice.

Many courses, the Scots ones in particular, ask for a good ability at the chip and run rather than the high shot with back-spin. Each type of shot has its advantages in particular situations, and a lot depends on the cut of the green. A very fast green might not take the back-spin if it is running away from the hole. You can't tell that unless you have played the course a few times.

Winds too. What are the prevailing winds, and how will they affect your drive in each direction? On some courses, the prevailing winds are across the course, and affect your shot from opposite directions on the front and back nine. With others, they are with you and against you over the two halves.

The most important aspects of local knowledge are the greens. Conditions can make a massive difference. A green can be well drained or covered in moss that absorbs water and slows right down after a short shower of rain. You can't tell that until you have played a course under all conditions - wet, dry, damp and misty, you name it, the greens will be of different speed and run differently under each condition.

Different greens are constructed using different grass types, and each affect the run of your putt. Not just that, but in what direction does the grass lie: across your line, with it or against it? That makes a big difference to better players, especially on longer puts. The position of the hole is frequently significant, and it could be on a mound, in a gully or on a slope. If you play the course regularly, you will know how to handle each situation.

The importance of knowing the golf course you are playing cannot be overestimated. Most players are playing the course, not opponents, and in order to beat your enemy you must first know him. Of two players of equal ability, he or she who knows the course the better will win.

By Andre Sanchez

The Importance of Knowing the Golf Course was originally published at http://www.golfplayernow.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andre_Sanchez

Read More..

Easy Golf Exercises to Improve Your Golf Game

There are many easy golf exercises you can use to improve your golf game that involve little or no equipment. First, though, what is the purpose of using them? There is little point in carrying out exercises unless you are sure of what you are trying to achieve.

A professional golfer is fit and supple, with lots of flexibility in his or her muscles, but also a lot of strength and rotational capability. You are not expected to be as fit as a top pro since they have their own fitness trainers in additional to golf coaches, and many of the other pros that make up the circuit have to resort to fitness DVDs that they watch at night.

However, even though you don't have their resources, if you are serious about improving your game you can copy them to an extent by carrying out regular exercises to keep you fit for golf. Before discussing the exercises, let's have a look at the reasons for them; what you are actually exercising and why.

There are three aspects of golf fitness that you should work on, and none of them include practicing on the driving ranges or practice greens. These are not about the actual golf mechanics, but about your ability to carry them out. The three are your flexibility and suppleness, your rotational strength and your general stamina. A quick look at all three before looking at them individually:

Flexibility is necessary for your limbs to withstand the rotational movements of the golf swing and to allow you to wind up your body like a spring with loads of potential energy ready to be unleashed in a powerful swing and follow right through so that you are able to end up with your hands just about where they started the swing off. Rotational strength is needed so that you can whip your body round in the swing and impart as much kinetic energy as possible through the club and club face into the ball. The more energy the ball has, the farther it will go. The stamina is needed to allow you to do that from between one and two (hopefully) times every hole for eighteen holes, possibly twice a day (we shan't count the short game and putts here).

That's the why, so now the how. Perhaps you can't afford all the training equipment the pros have, and even that your neighbor has, and you don't need it. There are lots of possibilities around your home that you can use as training equipment - even a can of beans! Let's look at each of these. First the flexibility.

You can become more flexible by twisting your body around from the waist. That is the part that twists most during your drive, and if you get that right then the rest should follow. Sit in a chair and hold your arms out in front of you. You can hold a can of beans in each hand if you don't have a medicine ball to hold. Slowly twist to the right as far as you can go with your arms out straight holding your weights, hold it for four seconds, and then back. Do the same the other side, and carry out six to eight repetitions. If you do that once or twice a day you will soon notice the difference.

Another one is to hold a club round your shoulders and do the same twists. The idea is practice twisting your body round as far as you can do, holding it and repeating again and again. Now for the strength part. The idea here is to build up your rotational strength, so that when the time comes you can hammer the golf ball down the fairway so far you can't see where it landed.

A good tool is a weighted golf club, but if your finances are tight you can use a heavy iron bar or something similar. What you do is swing as if your were swinging your golf club, and the added weight will soon build up strength in the muscles you are using in your swing. Do that several times a day, and you will soon notice the difference on the course. You will find your swing easier, and that your ball will be traveling farther. You will also suffer fewer niggly pains after your round, because your body will be fitter and better tuned for the stresses that golf puts on it.

Finally your stamina. This is where you can use that gym treadmill! That is about the only use for it to a golfer - in allowing you to walk the course a bit easier. You can achieve the same thing jogging, or even by making a conscious effort to walk faster between shots. Especially your drive: if you power walk that 300 or 400 yards (you wish!) you will find your stamina improving rapidly.

All of these are easy exercises to improve your golf game without needing any specialized equipment. Try them out - they do work, believe me. If they don't you are not doing them right!

By Andre Sanchez

Easy Golf Exercises to Improve Your Golf Game was originally published at http://www.golfplayernow.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andre_Sanchez

Read More..