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.

As a new golfer a lot of emphasis is placed on your swing and making contact with the ball. That’s fine but as your game improves and your time on the golf course increases you need to begin paying more and more attention to your grip on the golf club.

Everyone has their own style and way to grip a golf club that they develop over the course of time. The really important part of the grip is that it gives you enough control over your golf club. A lot of people talk about the feel in your hands and whatnot but I’m more about the end result.

The “feel” folks want you to have one solid presence between your hands, the shaft of the club and down to the clubhead. They’re concerned with making sure you’ve got the right tension and that you aren’t gripping too tight (or not tight enough).

I say practice makes perfect and that you won’t find what feels right until you start seeing results that satisfy you. Once you start making shots you’re happy with analyze your grip and stick with it. There’s no perfect solution for everyone.

New golfers have a hard time knowing what clubs to have in their bags each time they go out on the course. I think a lot of the time it’s less about what clubs are actually in the bag and more about what clubs a new golfer is most comfortable with using.

High irons are probably the beginning golfers best bet to start with. These clubs are shorter and have a tendency to be easier to consistently hit well which is important for your confidence.

I’d recommend staying away from the low irons (1 through 3) and instead them with fairway woods. The head of a fairway wood is so much larger than the head on an iron that hitting a distance shot becomes a much easier affair.

New golfers tend to have some confusion over whose turn it is or who should go first off the tee.

The general rule is the golfer with the lowest score on the previous hole is the first to tee off. If there’s a tie, then the golfer with the lowest score from two holes ago gets to hit first.

After everyone has teed off, the next player to hit is whomever’s ball landed farthest away from the hole. This rule also applies to putting when everyone has reached the green.

A lot of casual golfers, or people who are hardcore about the game but like to keep things moving along, have a “ready golf” policy. When you’re playing “ready golf” whenever someone is at their ball and ready to hit they swing away. It doesn’t matter if they’re closest to the hole, farthest away or whatever. If they’re ready, they hit and move on.

This is the way my friends and I usually play especially when we’re in a hurry because of a shortness of time or incoming bad weather.

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.