Proper Setup position

Golf Setup – Ball Position

I have a great tip for you that’s going to end all the doubt you had in your mind about golf setup and where the golf ball goes in your stance. It’s called ball position.

A lot of amateurs, unfortunately, address the golf ball, what I call, backwards. They come in and they put their feet down and try to aim where they're going, either down the fairway or towards the pin, and then they just stand to the golf club that they're holding onto. Sometimes their golf setup is too far back and sometimes it’s too far forward.

Other amateurs do this. They like to play all of their shots off their front foot. Some like to play all their shots off the middle of their stance. But let me tell you something, and I think this is really going to help you.

This weekend if you're sitting around watching TV, watch the tour players and watch how they come up and they grip the golf club first, they take a look at where they're going, and then they stand to the golf club that they're using.

For instance, put the butt of the pitching wedge across from your belt buckle, and stand to the golf club with the face square and your shoulders going where you want them to go.

What that does is put the golf ball in the middle of your stance for your pitching wedge. Now, keep that stance with your 7 iron.

Now, the 7 iron is three inches longer than the pitching wedge. If you just stand there and grip it with your shoulders square, look how the golf ball is just starting to move forward in your stance over towards your left heel, and it’s about three inches apart.

Now, pick up your long iron and do the same thing. Keep your shoulders square, don’t move your stance, and grip the golf club. And all of a sudden, the long iron starts to move even further forward.

Lastly, watch this. During golf setup, when you hold your driver in your hand. If you just put the butt of the club across your belt buckle, put the club on the ground the way it was built in the factory and stand across from it with your shoulders square, that puts the golf ball across from your left foot.

It’s not complicated, but remember this: During golf setup, stand to the handle of the golf club. Don’t address the golf ball first, but address the golf club to the ball and then take your stance.

Fairway Bunkers

If you had to rate golf shots on degree of difficulty, personally, I would think fairway bunkers is a top five. There’s no question about it. I’m going to share with you a golf swing technique to help you with this shot.

One of the main reasons some of you struggle with fairway bunkers is when you have a long fairway shot, a Par 5, you’ve hit the fairway bunker in 1 shot and now you want to reach the green in 2, so, you pull out your trusty fairway wood.

There’s a problem with that. The sole on the bottom of a fairway wood, a metal wood, is a lot wider than that of an iron; let’s say the 8 iron. The sole on the 8 iron is about, maybe a fifth or a fourth as wide as a 3 wood. This is what happens if you try to hit a fairway wood from a fairway bunker shot.

What you do is, as you start to swing down, the sole of the golf club catches the ground and makes the wood skid. A lot of times you’ll take a little too much sand and hit it 10 feet, or you’ll top it.

Fairway woods, metal woods, were not designed to be hit out of fairway bunkers. The reason is, if you take a normal golf swing and if you catch a little sand you won’t go far, or you’ll top it. That’s what your golf swing is designed to do is to run level with the ground.

Let me share with you a great golf swing technique that will help you in the future when you're in the fairway bunker.

Using an 8 iron, if you play this golf ball in the middle of your stance and put a little weight on your left leg and put the handle of the golf club over towards your left side and swing your arms up and down, the ball will go near 125 yards.

The next time you're in the fairway bunker, if you're looking for 125 yards, try this golf swing technique and use a lofted club, a 7, 8, 6 iron. Put the ball in the middle of your stance, put a little weight to your left leg, swing your arms up and down, and feel the chop down on it for a 125-yard golf shot out of the bunker.

Try that tip.

Golf tips for better Driving

PurePoint Golf Tips for Driving Better

I was getting ready to tee off in Scottsdale, Arizona at Starfire Golf Club, and I came up with a couple great golf tips for driving better that I think will help a lot of you out.

Some of you tee the golf ball low, thinking that that will be able to drive the golf ball through the air at a different trajectory. And those of you that tee it high think that that will make it soar through the air.

Now here are the golf tips for driving better. The lower you tee a golf ball, the more your chance will be that you slice the ball to the right. The higher you tee the golf ball, the more your chance will be for you to hook the golf ball to the left.

So, here’s a great tip.

If you're hooking the golf ball, tee it down a little lower. If you're slicing the golf ball, tee it up a little higher. And here’s why.

When the golf ball sits on the ground and it’s a little lower than it should be, the golf club has to come in on a steep angle and that will cause it to slice. On the other hand, if you tee it up a little higher, it will come in and enable the club face to close a little quicker.

Try these golf tips for driving better the next time you're out.

Thanks and have a great day.

Short Game

I recently played a round of golf with a friend of mine. Every time he had a chip shot, he used a sand wedge. It didn’t matter if he had a short chip shot or long chip shot. Every single time he chipped the ball, he chipped it with a sand wedge.

Let me tell you what the problem with that is. If you use a lofted golf club to chip a golf ball, you might be okay on the smaller chip shots, the short ones, where you don’t have to make too big of a golf swing. But to make a golf ball go further when you're chipping, you have to make a bigger golf swing.

If I had a small chip shot, the backswing would go maybe a foot or a foot and a half long. If I had a longer chip shot, I would have to make a longer backswing. You have to be very talented to do that.

Here’s something that will really help you. If you have a short chip shot, try chipping with a 9 iron. Ball in the middle of your stance, a little weight on your left leg, the handle over towards your left leg, and make an arm swing out of it.

If you have a medium length chip shot, the very same golf swing: ball in the middle of your stance, weight over to your left leg with the handle over on your left leg, and make another little arm swing. Because the loft is flatter, the golf ball will go further.

I’ll take it a step further for you. Let’s say you had a chip shot and you had to go all the way to the back of the green. Instead of making this long golf swing with a sand wedge, why not try a 5 iron? Ball in the middle of your stance, a little weight on your left leg, handle over towards your left leg, and make the same golf swing that you made with a 9 iron and the same golf swing you made with the 7 iron. I guarantee you this will help you.

Get a picture of what you're trying to do. You're trying to make the golf ball go a short distance in the air and a long distance on the ground for a long chip shot: a short distance in the air and a medium length distance on the ground for a medium chip shot; short chip, short distance in the air, and a little bit on the ground.

To do that, try to change the golf club. Control the distance you want the chip shots to go by your club selection, not by the length of your backswing.

Try that and have a great day.

Chipping Backswing

Let me tell you something that will play a major, major role in whether you can make solid contact with your chip shots. I’m going to tell you how to use the correct golf swing when chipping and it has to do with the backswing.

There are two ways that you could swing the golf club back when you're chipping that are incorrect, and there’s one correct golf swing.

There are the two ways that you possibly could be doing it wrong after you’ve gotten all ready and all set up.

If the golf club travels too much inside, away from the golf ball, that means the golf club didn’t go up in the air.

When it goes inside, it stays too low to the ground. If you do that, you’ll hit tops to the right, or you’ll hit the ground behind it.

Those of you that are hitting the ground behind it or thin tops to the right, it has to do with the club going too much inside.

Now, here’s a mistake that few people make, but you could be one of them. If the golf club goes outside, you’ll go up in the air too much, and if you do that, you’ll pull to the left and hit it low and flat to the left.

If you stand correctly, with the ball in the middle and a little weight left, and use the correct golf swing, the golf club travels straight back. Okay, so it goes just a hair inside, but mostly straight back with just a little, tiny curve inside on the way back.

And then you’ll be able to make solid contact. Not too much inside in the backswing and not on the outside, but straighter back with just a slight curve to the inside.

That’s your backswing when you're chipping.