Tips From The Pros

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Gord Holder, Ottawa Citizen

1. Preparation: Scott Mikkelsen says people frequently see players race into the parklng lot, put on their golf shoes and head straight to the first tee. "And then they expect to perform to their potential" says Mikkelsen, the head pro at Camelot Golf and Country Club,(1-613-833-0799) "instead of maybe showing up a half an hour early and going through their routine. "For people to even have a chance of playing to their potential, they need to be more prepared when they go to the first tee, and it doesn't mean spending an hour on the range and working out like Tiger Woods."

The fix: Go to the range, loosen up your body a bit, hit a few shots, then try a couple of putts on the practice green.

2. Posture: Adam Holden, assistant pro at Kevin Haime Golf Centre, says poor posture prohibits a good upper-body turn, and a golfer who fails to pivot properly won't keep the club on the correct swing plane. Most people lean too much forward, putting too much weight on the toes. To make a turn during the swing, they must raise up their upper bodies too much.

The fix: Maintain an athletic, ready starting position with knees slightly flexed, posterior sticking out past the heels and arms hanging loosely, away from the body.

3. Back Swing: Colin Orr, director of golf at the Ottawa Athletic Club, says another common problem is locking (straightening) the rear knee on the backswing, hampering weight shift. "Locking that back knee," Orr says, "causes three possible outcomes: a) If the knee remains locked, you swing 'over the top', creating an outside-in-path; b) you bend (readjust) the knee too much during the swing and hit the ground behind the ball; c) you bend it just right and catch the ball perfectly. 'Out of those three, two are bad, and one is just lucky."

The fix: During the backswing, try to feel as if you are rotating onto the back leg while maintaining the knee's flex.

4. Alignment: An unsuccessful shot is often the byproduct of poor aim, according to Dave Kalil, Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club teaching pro (1-613-736-1134). "Most people think they have to line their body up to the target, but it's their ball to the target and their body parallel to that line. That's what I taught Wayne Gretsky," Kalil says, referring to a tip he gave the Great One when he was in town with Team Canada a few years back. "The fact is, your body is two feet or so away from the ball, and that space, multipled by the distance to the landing spot, makes for off-line shots."

The fix: Practice with one club on the ground along the intended target line and another parallel to the first club, just in front of your shoe tips. That will get you accustomed to the viewpoint from lining up properly.

5. The Triangle: Too many golfers lose the triangle formed by the shoulders, arms and hands between address and the time the clubhead returns to the ball during the downswing, says Warren Grant, a teaching pro based at Manderly on the Green (1-613-489-2066) and Greensmere Golf Club (1-613-839-7772). "Turning the upper body too early gets its various parts out of sequence. The golfer's arms swing around the core horizontally instead of vertically. that makes the swing too flat."

The fix: Instead of forcing the upper body to turn, let it follow naturally from the motion of the arms on the backswing and downswing. This, Grant says, will promote the vertical swing path required.

6. Grip: Rideau View Country Club (1-613-692-4112) head pro Paul Sherratt distinguishes between outcome and process errors. A slice is an outcome error. To fix that, take 1,000 balls to the practice range and stay there until you can hit a hook. A bad grip is a process error that can lead to a slice, and Sherratt maintains that how a golfer holds the club will influence how they're set-up over the ball.

The fix: Go to a qualified coach and have them place your hands on the club properly. "Then the player needs to make a commitment that, with that new grip and set up, they will commit to hitting the ball with that new grip and setup until such time as they find the target."

7. Overswinging: "Far too many golfers overswing, taking the club too far on the backswing," Cedarhill Golf and Country Club head pro Greg White says, "from the short game to the long game, from the driver to the wedge. In the short game, overswinging leads to deceleration, and that's never good. On full-swing shots, it can cause excess body movement, which itself produces inconsistent contact between clubhead and ball." (1-613-825-2186)

The fix: Shorten the backswing, keeping the lead arm straighter. Most excess bending of the lead arm actually results from excess bending of the rear arm. Don't lift the arms, turn the shoulders. White suggests a practice drill in which you hold a heavy book while pretending to swing. At the peak of the 'backswing,' your back arm should be at a 90-degree angle, allowing you to balance that book on your hand just as you would a tray of food.

8. Pre-Shot Routine: Roseline Menard, general manager at Larrimac Golf Club (1-819-827-1506), says "too many players become overanxious while waiting to hit the ball. Golfers who pull the trigger too quickly aren't allowing their bodies to relax enough to execute the swing with good rhythm. However, even more wait too long, past the point when their bodies are ready to react" and extending into what Menard calls the 'dormant' stage.

The fix: Establish a consistent pre-shot routine. Menard says the average time needed to get set, ready and go is about seven seconds, but she agrees it might be better for an individual golfer to use, for example, 10. If you take 10 seconds, then it has to be 10 seconds always.

9. The Short Cut To Success: Guy Beaulieu says too many golfers display far too much ignorance of the importance of the short game. Golf and spa director at Chateau Cartier Resort (1-819-777-8870), Beaulieu cites two statistics produced by short-game guru Dave Pelz: 65 percent of golf shots are played within 100 yards of the hole; and 80 percent of shots lost to par come from shots of less than 100 yards.

The fix: "If they have an hour to spend practising, at least one of it, maybe more, should be spent on the short game, and it's usually the opposite," Beaulieu says.

10. A Firm Hand: It's the wrist actually. Anne Chouinard, the director of golf at Prince Edward Island's Canadian Golf Academy and a coach who has worked with LPGA Tour player Lorie Kane, says too many recreational golfers don't understand the concept of getting the ball airborne. "Too often they try to help the ball into the air by scooping it," Chouinard says, "and it can cause problems all the way from putts and chips to full swings. Scooping comes from breakdowns of the lead wrist. The club bottoms out before reaching the ball, or it hits the ball on the upswing, causing "chunked" or topped shots."

The fix: "You have to move the hands ahead of the ball at impact so that the club hits the ball first and then hits the grass," Chouinard says. During practice, she'll put a tee in the ground just ahead of the ball and tell a student to hit the ball and clip the tee on the follow-through. If they succeed, they get the feeling of hitting the ball on a downward arc, which, combined with a loft on the clubface, is what launches a ball in the air.

Bonus tip: A divot begins at the position of your hands relative to the ball at impact, Chouinard says.

More Golf Courses in Eastern Ontario to check out
Arnprior Golf Club 1-613-623-3314
Calabogie Highlands Resort and Golf Club 1-613-752-2171
Dragonfly Golf Links 1-613-432-3838 or 1-800-275-3838
Pakenham Highlands Golf Club 1-613-624-5550
Pembroke Golf Club 1-613-732-1665
Renfrew Golf Club 1-613-432-2485
Whitetail Golf Club 1-613-628-3774 or 1-800-280-2179

Happy golfing!

Frsn
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P.S. Check this out:

How To Break 80 Golf Instruction Program
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