The Golf Slice

A lot of new golfers forget one of the basic principles of golf: you have to swing down in order to make the ball go up. This applies to every golf club you have in your golf bag except for the putter and your driver.

Beginners sometimes think they have to lift up during their swing to get lift on the ball and that’s just not true. When you hit the golf ball on a downward swing the ball gets lift based on the clubhead alone.

You don’t need to “lift” up to get the ball in the air during your swing. When you do try and force that lift you end up missing the ball completely or hitting an awfully weak shot.

As always, if you’re unsure turn on the television and watch the professionals swing to get a better idea of what you should and shouldn’t be doing.

An old school golfer, who wants to rant and rave about hitting irons, will tell you that as the loft of the club increases you should have a different stance. So, in other words, as the position of the ball shifted to the right as the loft changed you would take a more open stance.

Today’s golfers, especially the professionals, use a much simpler system. In this simplified approached, the right foot moves closer to the left as the loft increases and the golf ball is positioned closer to the golfer (because the shaft on the club is going to be shorter).

So the moral here is that regardless of what club you’re playing make sure your stance is square to the line and your golf ball is always played off the heel.

Shanks are the worst. There’s nothing more embarrassing than having your golf ball rocket away from you at a right angle.

You greatly increase your chance of hitting a shank shot if you stand to close to the golf ball or shift your weight to your left foot before impact. Either of those situations will cause the hosel of the club to hit your ball and produce a shank.

The easy way to avoid these is to setup evenly and make sure there’s about a fist length of space between your grip and your body when you’re holding your golf club.

A lot of people will recommend practice drills with shafts and body placement to cure a shank but I think you’re better off concentrating on how close you are to the ball when you swing. That’s probably the root of the problem the majority of the time.

When my friends and I first started to pick up the lovely game of golf we had a really bad problem with hitting topped shots. A topped shot, as the name implies, is when the head of your club doesn’t get under the ball and instead grazes the top of the ball. The result is less than spectacular.

It turns out fixing this problem is relatively easy. All you need to do is keep your head level throughout your swing. When you move your head or lift it up during your swing you have a tendency to top the golf ball.

An easy way to work on this is to have your playing partner watch you while you swing. In our group, everyone yells out in unison “Keep your head down!” whenever someone lifts their head and hits a topped shot.

This may come as a surprise to many people but your right foot might be the reason many of your golf shots are going off course. It’s not very often that you hear someone talk about their foot when they swing but it is sometime a reasonable excuse for a bad shot.

For right-handed golfers, the toe of your right foot should be square to your line or maybe turned out to the right. By doing this you can help the head of your club come away low from the ball, make a nice turn and start downwards correctly.

What if you want to hit your golf ball farther or higher than normal? In that case, the toe of your right foot should be aiming farther to the right. This will give you a larger and more powerful turn away from your golf ball without ruining your balance or rhythm. In addition, your hips will stay behind the ball through impact which leads to a cleaner motion and greater distance and speed.

If you’re looking to hit a low shot try turning your right foot slightly to the left. This will cut down on your backswing and give you more of a punch shot to keep the golf ball low.

I know this is just one more thing to worry about during your swing but with some practice you might find these subtle adjustments helpful.

Nine times out of ten when you’re stuck hitting out of a bunker you’re looking to hit the ball just high enough to get it over the lip of the pit and on to the green. In other words, it’s less about the distance and more about the air.

If you don’t have a sand wedge in your golf bag you should use the next shortest club with the most loft available.

The best way to hit a good bunker shot is to be aware of what your clubface is doing. When you’re using a like your sand wedge it’s important to keep the face lofted so that it brushes across the sand and sends the golf ball upward.

Be careful not to do anything during your swing that will ruin the loft of the ball. It’s really easy to try and “help” the ball get into the air by moving your wrists or changing your angle. Trying moves like that will lead directly a bad shot.

A flop shot is basically a high flying shot that doesn’t go very far and lands with very little extra movement. It’s great for those times when you need pinpoint placement and you are a short distance from the green.

You’re going to need a golf club with a lot of loft to hit a good flop shot. I’m talking about using either a wedge or maybe, if you need some extra distance, a nine iron at most.

Here are some swing tips for hitting a good flop shot:

1. Your stance should be similar to what you use for any regular pitch shot. Try and target the area slightly to the left of where you want the ball to eventually land.
2. You’ll want to open up a bit more clubface for this shot than you normally would. Make sure your hands are a bit ahead of the ball as you strike to make sure maintain the open clubface.
3. As you swing keep the club at a steep angle to make sure you get under the ball.

As they say, practice makes perfect so you might want to give these steps some trial runs at the driving range sometime.

There are days when I could put on an absolute clinic on how to hit the ball fat. I have had rounds where I left nothing in my wake but fairway ditches. It’s embarrassing.

The worst part is that I know exactly what causes a fat shot. If you’re hitting the ball fat you are probably moving your head during your swing. It’s just that simple. All you need to do is keep your head steady. Most people hit fat shots when they either dip their head down or their head sways to the right during their swing.

The easy way to stop the head dip is just through concentration. There’s no need to do it so quit it. A neat tip for stopping the sway is to push down hard on the inside of your right foot while you’re in the middle of your backswing. Try that out once and see if it helps.

If you aren’t sure what your head is doing during your swing ask someone to watch you take some practice swings. They should be able to spot right away what’s going on.