Indholdsfortegnelse for Total Game Plan i Total Game Plan (3rd Edition)

Most people who have ever picked up a golf club will have experienced the glorious highs of shooting a new personal best score. That there is always the chance to achieve such a feat is one of the main reasons we golfers continue to put ourselves through the mill despite knowing that, having enjoyed relative success one day, the game will all too often bring us crashing back down to earth next time out. It’s one of the sport’s inherent traits that makes it so frustratingly irresistible! But while it can never be mastered, there are some simple things that will help if your golf game is plagued by inconsistency. The selection of easy-to-follow drills in these pages cover every aspect of the game, from set-up to putting and everything…

1 A weak grip often leads to the club opening up, but even when they strengthen the grip, some people still need a little help on the takeaway. The red ball attached to the shaft here sits square to the clubface at address. On the takeaway, it should sit on the side of the club towards the target line, rather than away from it, with the clubface mirroring your spine angle (main photo). If you open the face on the takeaway, it will point behind you. 2 Coming down, the red ball should point towards your head to stop the left wrist getting too bent and opening the clubface. This red ball drill encourages the flatter left wrist needed to close the clubface. Early rotation of the shoulders can also throw the…

1 One of the most common reasons for pushes and blocks is poor clubface control. The way the wrists move in the swing has a direct influence on the face. Take a ruler and place it under the fastener of your glove so it runs flat against the back of your hand and up the start of your forearm – as shown here. 2 Now, make a backswing. ‘Sweep’ the club away without changing the lead wrist angle. Most golfers who push and block would feel the ruler start to dig into the hand and forearm as the lead wrist tries to ‘cup’. Then, as they move down, the clubface is open. 3 The ruler flattens the wrist and gets the clubface in a more neutral position. If we can keep that feeling…

1 For full pitches, hold the club close to full-length for a fullish swing, but for the half pitch, grip down an inch or so (then even more for shorter pitches). The half-pitch swing should be roughly the same back and through – maybe shoulder-high to shoulder-high with the arms (below). Shorter pitches might then be belt-level to belt-level. The key is not to thrash your wedges. You’ll get more balance and control hitting half a pitching wedge than a full lob wedge. 2 Ball position relative to the eyes remains the same for all pitches – pretty much under the left eye. On a full pitch, the edges of the shoulders should sit above your little toes on both sides (top photo), but bring your right foot in a foot’s width…

For many golfers, watching their ball disappear into a greenside bunker sparks panic. Tour pros, however, have a totally different mindset – they understand what’s required to ‘pop’ the ball out and their technique has been perfected through hours of practice. Rather than seeing the ball come back to their feet, or slamming into the face of the bunker, they picture a far more positive outcome. So, what is it they do so well? Over the next five pages, Top 25 Coach Keith Williams explains what you can learn from the best in the business. By breaking the shot down, we’ll help you to become a more proficient bunker player. Plus, we ask the pros for their top tips and advice… 1 A perfect set-up Every great bunker player has…

1 Varying what club you chip with is one of the game’s lost arts. If you use the same club around the greens all the time, you’ll end up having to hit the ball harder to get it to the pin on longer chips. I recommend sticking to the same chipping technique but varying the club. Practise chipping with three different clubs, including a straighter-faced one than you would perhaps normally consider. This way, you’ll find it easier to chip the ball close more often. 2 Place a towel on the green a third of the way to the hole so two-thirds of your overall shot distance is between that point and the pin. Use your normal chipping technique with a 9-iron to see if you can land the ball by the…

1 If you tend to push putts right, you may want to feel a touch more right-hand release. Watch for how the butt of the grip works as you go through. If you’re a little bit right-hand dominant, the butt will point more at the belt buckle going through and that means the putter is releasing. 2 If you tend to pull putts left, you may want to feel like you lead a bit more with your left hand to keep the putter face squarer through impact. Keep your left hand a bit firmer. When this hand leads more, you’ll see the butt point more at the left hip with the face being held square. 3 A simple gate drill, as above, will show you if your ball is hitting the…

1 The reverse overlap is perhaps the most classic putting grip. It has been used by some of the game’s greatest putters, like Ben Crenshaw, Brad Faxon and Tiger Woods. See how my left forefinger travels down the knuckles of the right hand. You’ll feel like it really locks the top of the hand from the top of the thumb to the forearm (photo right) because it extends the thumb longer down the grip. 2 The left-below-right grip creates a little bit of extra strength and arch in the left wrist, which promotes a lower, stronger follow-through. If you tend to pull your putts, I would certainly recommend having a go with this grip. 3 You’ve probably seen a good number of players adopting the claw, which is a grip Tommy Fleetwood…

1 This broom handle is one of my most useful training aids. Any pole a metre or so in length will do, and you’ll also need some different coloured tapes. Mark them out like this – with the colours in symmetrical positions opposite both feet – and you have something that will help the tempo of your stroke, as well as your feel on the greens. 2 The black tape marks the width of my shoulders, which is how I set up over a putt – nicely balanced. Start by hitting ‘black to black’ and make a mental note of how far the ball rolls off that length of stroke. Gradually work your way up to the red marks (as shown). My stroke is the same distance back as it is through.…

1 Power from the ground Golf has become much more of a power game, and a few extra yards can give you shorter clubs in or bring longer par 4s or even par 5s into range. So how do you go about generating more power? Look to your main power sources first – the legs and the ground. Try to feel as though you’re pushing down more into your left side with your body as you start down from the top, then move back up again as you hit through to draw power up from the ground. The best players in the world move upwards and back a little bit through the ball, staying behind it with the sternum. Try this without a club first to get a feel for…

1 The main difference between the driver and the rest of your clubs is the length of the shaft. When it comes to the backswing, there are some common pitfalls that plague golfers as a result. The longer driver shaft means the takeaway tends to be more of a sweeping motion, which can cause some players to get the club well inside the ideal plane line right from the start. From here, they are often forced out of their posture as they lift their arms in an attempt to get the club to parallel at the top. This makes it extremely difficult to return the driver to impact with any sort of consistency. 2 Instead, feel like you sweep the club straight back, keeping it low to the ground. Maintain this feeling…

We’re often told golf is now a power game all about distance. There is much truth in that, with tour pros hitting it miles and being less concerned about accuracy than they once were. But Brandel Chamblee recently cited how Daniel Berger had changed his game to focus more on driving accuracy. In 2014/15, Berger ranked 18th for distance at 302 yards and 104th for accuracy; now he’s 164th for distance at 290 yards but 14th for accuracy. He was successful in 2014/15, but also missed the cut in 14 out of 31 events. Now, he rarely misses a weekend and has made $4+ million the last two seasons and taken up residence in the world’s top 20. At club level, distance and recovery skills fall significantly below tour level,…

Good iron play is absolutely essential when it comes to shooting lower scores. Put simply, the better you are with your approach shots, the more birdie chances you’ll have and the fewer times you’ll need to scramble to save par. Plus, a technique that produces quality irons shots will also make it much easier to hit good shots in all other areas through your bag. Here, I’ll share my favourite tips and drills to help you improve the quality and consistency of your ball-striking and make better strategic decisions, so you can take your iron play to the next level. 1 Ball position You should reference the ball position from your lead shoulder, because directly below that is where the low point of your golf swing is going to be. That…

1 Ball and weight forward You should position the ball midway between your sternum and lead armpit, so underneath where most shirts have a logo. Have your weight 70 per cent into your lead foot at address and keep it there throughout the swing. You want the club shaft to be pretty vertical, so make sure you don’t lean it forward. Bury your feet a couple of inches into the sand. 2 Everything square except clubface Make sure you set up with your heels and body square to the target, rather than having everything way open. The only thing you want open is the clubface. Bending your knees a little more than usual and dropping the butt of the club lower brings the aim of the clubface to the left…

Ashley Chesters “The best players have great tempo. I noticed this when I played with Danny Willett a couple of years ago. It helps the ball come out a lot softer.” Paul Waring “Be aggressive and trust what you’re trying to do. If you have a good set-up and the club’s open, that will allow the back of the club to work and not the leading edge.” Holly Clyburn “Finish the swing. If you don’t finish the swing or take enough of a backswing, you’re not going to get it out. I see lots of amateurs hit bunker shots like chip shots and it doesn’t work.” Andy Sullivan “Practise hitting a line in the sand. You don’t even need a ball there. Commit to hitting that line – which would…

1 Swing path is one of the keys to better chipping strikes. Maintaining width in the swing is crucial to being able to come back and trap the ball successfully at impact (main photo). A common error is for the path to be too flat and around the body, as in the inset photo. Many golfers just pick the club up with the hands and arms, meaning they’re off plane. That can then lead to all sorts of mishits. 2 Set-up issues are often the cause – people get their hands too low and too far forward, creating way too much shaft lean. This affects swing path and plane and they approach the ball too much from the inside. I prefer to teach chipping as a miniature swing – you load with…

I was always a pretty good putter from an early age. Putting was just something I practised a lot when I was at the club, whether that was as a junior spending a lot of time on the putting green or when I was working in the shop and had a break. I quickly picked up the natural feel of putting and was able to visualise putts going in, which I think is key. Putting has always been an aspect of the game I have really enjoyed and I hope my insight will help you become more effective with the flat-stick. 1 Different strokes In today’s game of golf there is no right or wrong. If you look at the strokes of some of the best putters in the world,…

1 It’s vital to rotate your hips in sequence if you want to hit the ball further, especially in the downswing. It’s useless hitting through the shot before turning your hips. While it might look pretty, it’ll be pretty inefficient. So, in order to create power, you need to create lag in the downswing and that is triggered by your hips. To do this, from the top of the backswing, you want your lead hip to move towards the target and rotate to signal the start of the downswing. 2 From here, the next thing to go will be the shoulders, which will start to unwind and drag the arms and hands through with them. Now you’re starting to store a lot of power in the club, which you want to release…

1 Two crucial elements There are two fundamental keys at the heart of good fairway wood play – ball position and posture. At address, set the ball just inside your left heel. This will allow you to create a shallow angle of attack that helps you sweep the ball off the top of the turf (many amateurs are too steep into the ball). Then, if your spine angle is set correctly at address and you maintain it through to impact, your chances of a good strike are greatly improved. So when practising, think ‘ball position’ and ‘posture’ – concentrate on these elements and you will start to hit much better shots. 2 Go low As we have already mentioned, the key to a good strike with your fairway woods is…

1 First of all, you have a decision to make: what club will get you over the lip? You can have the best set-up – as shown opposite – and it will all go to waste if you don’t take enough loft. By picking the ball off cleanly, which is the aim, there will be less compression and therefore less backspin. This will mean the ball will come out even lower. Only through experience, and practising these shots, will you get to know how you launch the ball with each club. 2 Now, the set-up. Avoid shuffling your feet into the sand, as you would with a greenside bunker shot, because you don’t want to lower your divot depth – you’re aiming to just clip the ball off. Stabilise yourself, yes –…

1 You don’t want a wide stance – keep it narrow to trap the centre of gravity and limit excessive movement. The ball position should be just back of centre. You want a slight forward lean with the shaft and then just flare your front foot out a touch, as shown here. 2 Stand a little closer to the ball and it will help to keep your left wrist nice and flat. If you stand too far away, you’ll create an angle that promotes too much wrist action. The shoulders should be level, so not tilted like they would be in your long game. 3 Put all this together and you should make a good, clean contact. Note how I just rotate around the left pivot line; really think of your weight…

1 A key part of being a good chipper is striking the ball consistently, but that’s something a lot handicap golfers struggle to do. The main mistake I see from amateurs is the low point of the swing arc being too far back, which causes the leading edge to dig into the ground. Then the reaction to that is the opposite, where you pull up and lean back through impact and skull the ball across the green. If you can improve your strike and increase your margin for error at impact, you’ll chip the ball a lot closer to the hole. 2 Turn your chest through the shot A simple and effective way to chip is to set up with the ball pretty central and your hands just a touch…

1 Let’s start with the fundamentals. Your eyes don’t need to be directly over the ball. However, it’s important they are somewhere in the region of the boundaries of the ball. Stand too far away and your eyeline will be pointing too far to the right. You’re likely to then aim right and push your putts. If you stand too far over the ball, your eyes will start to track left and you’re likely to aim left and pull your putts. Drop a ball from where your eyes are, as above; if it lands on or close to the ball on the ground, you’re in a good position. 2 In putting, you don’t want a lot of excessive hip movement during the stroke. Take a hip-width stance and imagine your lower…

1 Because we are all different heights and sizes, there really is no specific measure as to how far to stand from the ball. I prefer to base it on where the ball will be if you get your posture correct first, by simply letting your arms hang freely down from your shoulders to the ball. You must also make sure that your shoulder blades are back, rather than hunched forward, as can often be the tendency. 2 The thinking used to be to flex your knees first to achieve good posture, but now the advice has changed to bending from the pelvis first (top photo) while maintaining your spine angle. So, you create your spine angle, and therefore your distance from the ball, via the pelvis before just ‘softening’ your…

1 Practise ‘under the pump’ Practice isn’t about going through the motions – sessions such as this are fruitless. “When you’re creating practices, you have to have practices with consequence, otherwise it is irrelevant,” Alred explains. “I might not know so much about the swing, but what I do know is what makes people perform. I’m trying to create a performance model that makes people effective under the pump.” On the chipping green, Alred demonstrates a way of creating pressure. Keeping strictly within a tightly marked zone, the aim for players is to chip the ball no further than the one before. Success means executing five delicate chips in a row. It sounds easy, but there’s little room for error, and one poor shot spells the end. This is practising…