Thirsk & Northallerton 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?

Nestled in the Stunning North Yorkshire countryside and with a splendid backdrop of the rolling hills on one side and lush vales on the other, Thirsk & Northallerton Golf Club is one of those parkland courses that is simply a pleasure to play. It is set in a richly agricultural area, and offers superb views of the Hambleton Hills to the east and Wensleydale to the west.

In reading the green you use your touch to imagine what kind of ball track it is going to take to get your ball into the hole. Once the break and line are firmly in mind and you are committed to that read you are ready to get into your routine to see and feel which stroke your mind 's eye tells you will produce that perfect roll into the cup.

The routine I suggest (detailed in section 11.2) is a five-step procedure that usually takes somewhere between 20 and 40 seconds at the end of which you should be absolutely prepared to execute your ritual and the stroke you have just seen and felt and believe will hole your putt.

A putting ritual consists of a few motions the last few you make before initiating the backswing of your real stroke. Besides being a consistent set of motions they are all made in a constant rhythm and timing sequence. It should never change. Your ritual sets the tone and timing for the rhythm of your stroke. It is this pattern and timing of motions that provides the trigger - the "one-two-three-go " - for your stroke. Your ritual must take less than eight seconds to execute so the feel and vision of your perfect preview stroke is still mostly there fresh in your brain and body.

Five Nonphysical Building Blocks: Touch Feel Attitude Routine and Ritual 129 tracted by something that you must abort the stroke altogether. And once your ritual has begun there is no thinking other than what it takes to execute the ritual and repeat the preview stroke.

Next down the easiness scale comes the "pop stroke " which was used quite successfully by both Gary Player and Johnny Miller early in their careers. The backstroke is shorter than normal and there's virtually no follow-through after impact so the ball is "popped " or jabbed forward (Figure 3.5.4). Neither Miller nor Player stuck with the pop stroke through his career because they said it lacked consistency; when I've asked them about this method neither would recommend it. However both won many tournaments popping their putts so it may not be as bad as they recall.

The pop stroke does have one advantage and that is it keeps the putterface angle essentially square at all times which is a good thing. However it uses the muscles of the hands and arms for power and is therefore a difficult method to use if you want to develop really good touch.

One of the more interesting putting techniques in golf history is the so-called "hook stroke" of the great South African Bobby Locke who won more than 80 tournaments worldwide between the 1930s and '50s including four British Opens. Many golfers have told me that Locke put hook spin on his putts which made them dive into the hole. That may have been what both they and Locke thought but I'm sure it was not the case.

I've seen photographs of Locke from which 1 can imagine that his stroke traveled on an in-to-out path with the putterface slightly closed through impact (Fig

Methods of Putting 45 ure 3.5.5). Such a stroke motion would make one think he was trying to hook puns and he may have actually put a very small amount of initial hook spin on his longer putts (his stroke proved both very consistent and very successful - Locke's putting prowess was legendary). But I'm sure his putts were not spinning to the left or downward when they found the hole. They rolled in just like other golfers' putts except they may have done so more consistently than any other player of his time. (In section 4.9 you'll learn that the surface of the green takes all the spin off a putt within the first 20 percent of its roll.)

Bobby Locke was a great putter but his putts did not hook into the hole. preparing to roll a putt.

Golf Swing Tips

This is the final setup position. The back is still straight. All you need to do is bend at the waist until the club touches the ground. As you can see, the arms are still stretched out, and the hands are hanging straight down from the shoulders. They seem lower than waist-level, but the relationship between the arms and chest has not changed. Your legs remain in a fixed position, while you move the arms and chest together to the ball. This is the key to a good, simple setup.

Golf Lessons

Golf Lessons at Thirsk & Northallerton Golf Club

Thirsk & Northallerton 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

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