Sheffield Transport Dept 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?

We are one of the UK's leading Universities. We've produced five Nobel Prize winners, and many of our alumni have gone on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence around the world.

Now here's the scary part. My measurements show that golfers who plumb-bob don't read the break any better or worse than golfers who don't (they still see only about 29 percent; pros see 33 percent of the true break). That should tell you something about the state of green-reading in the world today.

Let's give the plumb bob some credit. It can do one thing that's productive if you use it properly. Find a putter that truly hangs vertically (so the shaft forms a true vertical plumb line). Then get your eyes close enough to the ground so the round hole looks more like a slit (or line as shown in Figure 7.11.6). To do that you'll have to crouch way down or lie flat on the green. closer and closer to the green surface (from A to B to C) the hole will look less like a circle and more like a line.

Now when you hang a truly vertical shaft over the hole you can see the slope of the line of the hole relative to vertical (if the green around the hole is sloped as in Figure 7.11.7). Do this from behind the ball on the ball-hole line and you'll see which way your putt will turn downhill as it dies around the cup. This won't tell you how much the putt will break along the way just the direction it will turn as it dies near the hole.

Please note: This slope is valid only if your putter shaft is truly vertical and applies only to the slope of the green immediately around the cup. Don't depend on this read to tell you how the ball will break on its way to the hole. Only the slope of the green along the ball track determines that.

But there's yet another problem with forearm rotation: it feels natural. Even Tour professionals don't realize they're doing it and when I tell them to stop they usually say "What do you mean I'm not rotating my arms! " But of course they are. And like the pros most golfers don' t mean to do it and if you ask them don't think they are. But they are and you probably are too. Which is too bad because forearm rotation makes putting more difficult more inconsistent and less effective.

You'll have to wait until Chapter 13 to learn how to stop rotating your forearms. For now however make a mental note that you will stop making this destructive motion. It will be one of your challenges in improving your putting and a crucial one.

In the previous chapter I talked about body putting something rarely seen among the pros because it's a bad thing to do. Your body is large and the big muscles of the chest back and legs are strong particularly when compared to the small amounts of power needed to roll a ball on the fast surface of a putting green. Still many golfers put too much of their body into the stroke rotating the lower body sliding the lower body toward the hole or moving the upper body away from the hole (Figure 4.5.2). All these motions are unintentional (at least I hope so) but they still produce unwanted power and directional instability.

For example I estimate that for every inch the body moves toward the target during the putting stroke the ball moves an additional foot on the green. And rotating the lower body not only adds power it also causes the putterface to rotate from open to closed.

Putting is a game in which delicate feel and touch create exactly the right speed and break of your putts. When you're trying to be precise body power causes nothing but trouble.

School students turn (top) slide (middle) and reverse (bottom) their bodies during their putting stroke motions.

Golf Swing Tips

Focus on using your spine as your axis now. Turn both shoulders and sides directly around your spine. Keep your left arm locked, and your left wrist locked. Although difficult to see from this camera-angle, the triangle is still perfectly in tact.

Golf Lessons

Golf Lessons at Sheffield Transport Dept Golf Club

Sheffield Transport Dept 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"