Phase 2: Getting Ready to Practice at the Course

Phase 2 will discuss how to get ready to practice at the course and how you can learn some fundamentals at home. You don’t always have to be at the golf course to be able to practice your swing. There are many different ways you can practice your swing or putting at home.

Our goal is to educate you before you go out to the golf course so you will feel confident to go out there and know what you are doing!

Full Swing

Full Swing (For Practice at Home)
For practicing the full swing at home, there are many different ways to go about it. First, would be to make sure that you have plenty of room to swing. If you have a mirror, simply setting up and checking ball position and posture would be a great way to see exactly what it looks like.
Grip
Placing the handle with your right hand, grab the shaft where it meets the grip and hold the club out in front of you at a 45-degree angle. Turn your left palm toward you and then set the grip in the area between your first knuckles and the top of your palm.
ii. Slide in your right hand toward your left.
iii. Wrap your right pinkie into the fold.
iv. Place the lifeline on your right palm.
*We have included some pictures that make it easier to learn

2 Drills for full swing at home
Drill 1, Relaxed Arms

1.Set up properly
2. Imagine a golf ball is there
3. 10 swings focused on relaxed arms and turning in posture
4. Do 3 sets of 10 swings

Drill 2, Turn in posture

1.Place a golf club in your elbows
2. Get set up in golf posture
3. Do 10 back and through swings as described in video
4. Do 3 sets

Full Swing (For the Driving Range)
The most important thing to practice when you are on the range is the setup and alignment. When on the range, put a club or alignment stick down aimed a little left of your target (for right handers) or to the right of your target (for left handers). Poor alignment can lead to many falls in the swing.
Another thing to check on is that you are hitting the ground when you are hitting balls. You don’t want to be scoopy and trying to help get the ball into the air. There is loft on the club for a reason and the ball will still get in the air if you strike down on it. Hit down for the ball to go up!

Club is in fingers

Choose the neutral grip!

Choose whatever is comfortable!

Rules for Practicing on the Range

When you get the golf course, you want to check in at the pro shop and ask where you can purchase range balls and where the range is. If the range is far away from the clubhouse, ask if you can take a shuttle or a golf cart to get there.
Once you get to the driving range, you have to make sure you are hitting in designated areas. Most driving ranges will have rope where you have to stay behind it. Sometimes there will be blocks of wood that you need to stay in-between. If there are mats, look for signs if you should be hitting off the mats or if you are able to hit off the grass for the day.
The last thing you should check while on the driving range is to make sure that you have enough room to swing. If you are too close to the person next to you, try to find another area of the range where you can make full swings.

Here are a couple videos to get you familiar with how the golf swing should look and how to practice “turning in posture”. Visualizing what you SHOULD do is extremely important to learning the correct technique. 

1.Take time to watch these videos a few times before going out for your first practice session at the golf course
2.Notice the swings are smooth and finish the swing in balance. Hold the pose!

Short Game

Short Game Practice At Home – if you buy the soft practice balls, you can work on a solid impact position before you get to the course. You will see in phase 3, that a solid full shot is created by being able to execute a proper pitch shot

Drill 1 – Indoor pitch shots

1. 20 pitch shots, 10 -20 yards distance (buy the soft balls for at home practice)
Amateurs often do not spend enough time hitting basic pitch shots when practicing. If you can establish the core fundamentals a pitch shot requires to hit it solid, you will improve your distance and accuracy in the full swing.

Why do pitch shots improve impact over full swing practice?

It is slower and smaller, which allows you better feel and to ensure you are doing the proper technique. When you speed up the swing and make a longer backswing, players tend to do different things that put them in bad positions. They then have to manipulate the downswing and their impact position suffers as a result.

*Creates proper impact position

*You will compress the golf ball

 

Putting

Putting Practice (Home)

Putting is simple, keep it that way!
Get familiar with the putting stroke before you go to the course for the real thing. The main goal for your putting practice is to get familiar with setting up for a putt. Golf is the most awkward and unconventional sport you will play. If it feels wrong, its probably right!

The main goal is to get your familiar and comfortable with golf before going to the course. It may sound odd, but I advise most of my advanced players to work on their technique at home, so when they get to the golf course they can focus on hitting shots and not worrying about their technique. The technique work is already done

Drill 1 – Set up
Pay attention to the small details! Set up perfectly every time. There are very few things in golf that you can control, but everyone can set up perfectly!

Grab a putter (men average length putter is 35 inches, women is 32 inches) This is the length of the total club when laying the putter head flat on the ground

Use a proper grip – we recommend using the fundamental grip for beginners, place the right hand on the grip below the left hand (for right handed players), with your thumbs going down the flat side of the putter grip.
*You will notice the putter has a different grip from the rest of your clubs. The putter grip (how we hold the club) and the putter grip equipment (the putter grip that comes on your putter) are the only grip that is different from the other 13 clubs in your bag. Don’t get confused!

Set up – place 2 golf clubs or sticks down for feet and putter club face alignment

Make a fake hole – Place an old cup or object 10 feet away from where your golf ball is

Set up proper to alignment sticks with good grip and practice hitting putts on the carpet and have it stop in or near the cup with good speed

Hit 25 putts – Your main focus is to set up perfectly every time you hit a putt. Take your time and pay attention to detail. You may not make a lot of putts but at least you are doing everything in you control!

Set Up

 

Alignment/ Putting Arc

 

Putting Grip

 

Rules for the Putting Green

The first thing you want to do is find your own hole to putt too. One where other people are not practicing.
Start with small putts from 4-8 ft. and then move onto longer ones. This will give some sort of feel of how fast or slow the greens are. Remember to make small-small strokes.
Another rule is to not step on the holes. This will damage the cups and show poor etiquette.
The last rule to remember is not to drag your feet. If you are wearing golf shoes with spikes, dragging your feet will tear up the grass.