Uphall Golf Club

To improve your golf game, it's vital that you take golf lessons. Golf is a sport that is almost impossible to learn without some sort of guidance. Luckily, there are golf experts around the country whose job it is to teach golf. By taking golf lessons, you can drastically improve your game in a relatively short amount of time.

Taking golf lessons can be an expensive, time-consuming effort. And like any good or service that will cost money and require time, you should be careful before you buy. Golf can be a really costly game to play and it is reasonable to assume that you have invested a fair amount of money in your equipment - golf clubs, golf bag, golf balls, golf clothing, golf cart etc; - therefore doesn’t it make common sense for you to learn how to use them to their advantage and improve your skills and capabilities?

Uphall Golf Club

The club was formed in 1895 with the course being built on land leased from Sheriff Shairp of the adjacent Houston Estate. The course is situated 7 miles to the west of Edinburgh Airport on the outskirts of Uphall Village 1 mile from junction 3 of the M8 motorway. The 18 hole Parkland course surrounded by mature trees is relatively flat and compact offering a testing challenge to all levels of golfer. The 5588yd, par 69, well kept course is owned by the members but visitors are welcome and catered for well in a fine modern clubhouse.

For the moment forget about acceleration and concentrate on stability. First off what does stability mean in putting? Stability relates to the relative success a putter has in retaining its orientation and motion upon encountering outside forces and influences. A little more simply? If your putter is more stable when mis-hit it will stay more nearly on its path twist less feel a little more solid and direct your putts a little closer in the proper direction. Conversely an unstable putter will twist and wobble more when it is mis-hit and will be less effective in starting your putts in the direction or at the speed you want them to go.

Flow can you achieve stability in your stroke? A simple suggestion is to try pulling the putter through impact leading it with your left hand and arm (for right-handed golfers). Be warned however that if you do this with your hand and arm muscles you will become susceptible to adrenaline and this is not good. The better way is to imagine the stroke as a pure pendulum motion devoid of any hand or wrist action with a slightly longer follow-through than backswing. If you think of your forearm and shoulder triangle (Figure 6.2.1) swinging back and through like a pendulum you will instinctively perform a dead-hands stroke and be completely immune to the pressure effects of adrenaline. Once you can make a smoothly swinging pendulum stroke simply position it so your backswing is slightly shorter (10 to 20 percent) than your follow-through (Figure 6.2.2) and you have created an accelerating and stable putter without any hands or wrist muscle control. If you keep this stroke smooth and rhythmic its maximum velocity will occur in the middle between the two extremes (top of backswing and end of follow-through) and your putterhead will be stable through impact (details in section 12.2).

Near the end of the preceding paragraph I mentioned rhythm. It's crucial that you understand the importance of rhythm to your putting game. Back in Chapter 4 I discussed how Perfy my putting robot can make a pure-in-line stroke and always keep the putterface square to the Aimline. In Chapter 3

You will see many balls and test results from balls rolled from the True Roller in this book. Remember that the True Roller is simply starting each ball in a given direction at the given speed. And that is what putting is all about.

Look next at the top of Figure 2.6.5 which shows how far the same five balls will roll on an uphill putt (released from the True Roller each with the same energy as before). The uphill putts stop closer together (the distance between the longest and shortest balls is 7.5 feet) indicating that on uphill putts balls tend to roll closer to the same distance. This means the roll of an uphill putt is less sensitive to the length of the stroke than putts on a level surface. The lesson is that even if you don't hit all of your uphill putts the right speed be sure to get them past the hole.

That gives them a chance to go in and the longest ones will probably stop near enough to the hole to leave no-brainers coming back.

Now look at the bottom of Figure 2.6.5 to see how far these same putts roll given the same amount of starting energy on a straight downhill putt. There 's a big difference from the level and uphill putts. Of course each downhill putt rolls farther but more important the spread of distances between balls has increased meaning the roll distance is more sensitive to energy input. Now the distance between the longest and shortest balls is 18 feet. So your downhill stroke has to be about three times more precise than your uphill stroke to stop a putt at the right distance. When putting downhill make a stroke of the wrong speed and you'll have trouble making your next putt.

I'm not saying that understanding putting like this will make you a great putter. But I am saying that understanding nature's rules and where the dangers lie in putting can help you be a better putter. And not understanding what putting is all about will make it even more difficult for you to learn to putt well.

So if you don't know that downhill putts break more than uphill putts on the same slope (covered in Chapter 7) then you won't be making many downhill-breaking putts. Or if you believe that Bobby Locke and Ben Crenshaw struck their putts with overspin to make them dive into the hole then it's unlikely that you'll work on those aspects of your putting that actually can help you putt better (see section 4.9).

Golf Swing Tips

Imagine the line that has been drawn is your spine (axis). When the backswing is made, just rotate everything around that axis. If you do this properly, you will be on the correct plane. This correct swing plane will help your power, accuracy, and consistency. Keep the left arm locked as shown.

Golf Lessons

Golf Lessons at Uphall Golf Club

Uphall Golf Club

Dave Pelz's Putting Bible - golf's least understood skill.

The Long Drive Bible: How You Can Hit the Ball Longer, Straighter, and More Consistently

Golf Swing Tips

The "Simple Golf" Swing: "Golf for the Rest of Us"