Archive for May, 2010

Do you want to know a common trademark of golfers who have the knack for sending the ball flying with phenomenal distance? It’s the turning of the hips to the left during the downswing, while at the same time extending the right arm through the swing.

Here is a quick drill that can help you accomplish this:

1. Start by teeing up the drive in your normal stance.

2. Now set the ball down off of your left heel (and/or opposite of the left armpit).

3. Without moving your stance, reach down and slide the ball towards your target at approximately the same distance of the grip.

4. Tee up your ball at that very spot, which should be 10 to 12 inches closer to the hole. Your address for the ball should be back where your normal position was at.

5. Now to finally hit the ball you will have to move the hips to the left so your arms will be able to “reach” the ball. This will invariably cause your right arm to extend.

This drill should be practiced at least 30 times before hitting the ball in its normal position. By that time you should have made significant improvement in your distance.

Tiger Woods missed the cut at Quail Hollow. The reason he has given is a poor short game. Understandable. Those golfers reading this will know the impact of taking time out from the game. A couple of weeks off no problem but a few months and the short game is the first to suffer. A good short game relies on “feel”. In the case of Woods though, something else needs to be considered. Wood’s would have being doing practice over the past few months. Sure, he has not had tournament golf but he would still have maintained that “feel” so important to a good short game. No, what is to blame here is mind games – being mentally strong.

Throughout his career to date, Woods has been way ahead of his competitors in his ability to remain mentally strong. It can deliver so much more to a golfer. Being mentally strong will often make the difference between win or lose.  What Woods has put himself through over the past few months will no doubt have made what was once a strong mental game into mush. It has to be playing on Woods mind and will only resolve itself when he has made the decision on where his priorities lie – golf or family. Now I don’t now the current situation and I was surprised when Woods came back to play the Masters, but if the priority is family I would suggest Woods forgets about playing tournament golf and focuses on family life. Golf can take a back seat and when resolved he will be much better placed mentally to win those 4 majors and overtake Nicklaus’s record.  He has the game to make it happen the question now is is his mental game, always so strong, up to it? Either way an enormous amount of personnel change is required and one should not underestimate the impact this has mentally.

And by the way congratulations to Rory McIlroy in winning at Quail Hollow – a new kid starting to deliver.