BBC SPORT | Golf | Oliver Wilson's guide to chipping

This year in the 2010 Accenture World Match Play Championships it came as a suprise to some people that Oliver Wilson beat Miguel Jimenez in the 1st Round, Rory McIlroy in the 2nd Round, and Luke Donald in the 3rd Round before finally losing to Sergio Garcia 4 & 3 in the Quarter Finals. Many people are also suprised to hear that Oliver Wilson was a member of the 2008 European Ryder Cup Team.

Well, with Oliver simply laying back and enjoying his relaxed profile, it's no shock that he brings a nice relaxed style to this lesson about hitting high soft pitch shots. Perfecting the shot he shows you here is a matter of 3 ingredients in my opinion.

Ingredient #1. Proper Method
Ingredient #2. Trust To Open The ClubFace and Take A Bigger Swing
Ingredient #3. Practice That Involves The Proper Method, and Gaining Confidence and Trust In The Shot

BBC SPORT Golf Oliver Wilson's guide to chipping

5 Secrets to Holing More Putts - full - Instruction - Golf.com

This is a really nice instruction article by Dave Stockton about better putting.

They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Well I guess I am flattering Dave by putting this link to his article in my blog and in his article he flattered the late Ernest Jones.

Ernest Jones for those of you who do not know is revered by many Golf Professionals as the God Father of Modern Golf Instruction. In 1937, in his book Swinging Into Golf, Jones introduced the example that if you wrote your name without conciously thinking about it too much in a nice, easy, free flowing manner, your signature would look better and the process would be smoother than if you tried copying your name on to paper from a signature that you had previously written. Dave mentions this almost verbatim in the 5th point of his article.

The bottom line is, even though I believe that Dave got some of his material from a 73 year old book (that may be the finest golf book ever written), this information original and otherwise is still very much valid today. I think that your mental approach and physical/overall putting will be better after reading this article.

Dave's topics of discussion in this article are:
1.  Get A Better Read
2.  Get A Routine
3.  See The Line
4.  Stroke, Don't Hit
5.  Don't Try To Make It ... you have to read the article for this statement to make sense.
Click on the Link, Good Golfing to You, Good Putting to You, Good Luck, and God Bless!

5 Secrets to Holing More Putts - full - Instruction - Golf.com

How to Fix a Bad Driving Day - Instruction - Golf.com

If your driving goes south on you and you start getting too hung up on worrying if the ball will go left or right to the point that you are no longer swinging the club freely. Try this drill.

Thinking like this will give you the confidence to swing aggressively again, worry less, and stop hesitating.  IF you are not worried, and it is not in your head, but actually just simply in your swing.  Refer yourself to the post below as I explain what makes a driver swing ... A Good Driver Swing.  

Check out the link below if it is in your head, check out my previous posting if it is in your swing.

Thanks Golf Magazine for more great golf instruction ...

How to Fix a Bad Driving Day - Instruction - Golf.com

Brian Soczka, Driver Swing, 3-23-10

What makes my Driver Swing Work.

#1.  Set Up - My feet, hips, and shoulders are aligned to the target.  At address with the driver, I would like to see most any golfer's hands hanging comfortably somewhere close to under their chin.  At address my hands and arms are far enough away from my body to create a clear passage for them to swing but not too far away from my body to make me unbalanced.

#2.  Takeaway - typically when the club shaft gets to parallel to the ground you want the club shaft aligned to your target.  The club face angle at this point in the swing should match your spine angle and I am glad that mine does because if you take the club away so the club face is too closed (club face pointing at the ground) or too open, just this far into the backswing, it will throw off the entire swing and end results.

#3.  It's all about the angles.  In this point in the backswing, for consistency sake, there are two important things happening here.  First, I have retained the bend in my right leg, Second I have retained my posture position and have resisted standing up in the backswing.

#4.  A couple of great things are happening here at the top of my backswing.  The club shaft points down the line at my target, and my left arm is at about a 45 degree angle which shows a nice combination of "up" and "around" swinging of the club.  Folks who swing the club up too much and have their hands too high at the top of their backswing often have trouble getting the club face closed at impact and hit weak slices.  When people  get too much "around" in their swing (too flat) they'll often have a problem hooking the ball.

#5.  In the downswing there is too great things happening.  First, my club shaft is perfectly on plane pointing right towards the ball from this view.  Also, you can see my right heel rising which shows my weight starting to shift towards the target and into the ball as the club comes into impact.

#6.  Impact - You can see a lot of nice power here from my lower body and good balance.  A good indicator of a good powerful shot.  I did hit this one a long way right down the middle.

#7.  You can see here that even through impact I stayed down on the ball maintaining my posture position.  With a nice release of the club in a good mix of up and around on the other side of the swing, I've hit a long straight drive.

#8.  Finally in frame 8 and 9, you see me swing through all the way to a nice complete balanced finish.

Try to incorporate these good aspects of my driver swing into your driver swing for longer straighter drives.  Good Luck and Have Fun!

Harold Ramis talks Caddyshack - Flyers

Here is a great interview from Harold Ramis about Caddyshack The Movie and it's 30th Anniversary.

"You know I've often thought of becoming a golf club."

Harold Ramis talks Caddyshack - Flyers

Camilo having Fun and Ernie full of Hope.

Last week Camilo Villegas won Honda Classic and then credited his new positive outlook, having more fun, and being fully commited to his game as the reason for his victory.

Camilo said, "After some analysis, I believe I was being too hard on myself. I wasn't treating myself like I treat people. One day, I said, 'If somebody treats me like I treat myself, I would just have a problem with that.' That's when I realized, just take it easy man, have fun. There's a lot of people wanting to play this game for a living. It's harder than a lot of people think. But I love it, so I've got to enjoy it."

Two weeks ago the April 2010 issue of Golf Digest came out with an article titled Every Body Loves Ernie.  This week at Doral in The World Golf Championship Ernie won by four shots. 

This victory makes everything he said in the Golf Digest Article ring a little louder.  In the article, Ernie said "I wasn't very easy going for a couple of years, but I'm really starting to enjoy myself again."  "I do still love golf ... Even more so now that my family's getting legs."  To paraphrase Ernie, His son is touched quite severely by autism, but with the help his son is getting now, Ernie believes that his son is going to improve, improve on the things that are not easy for people with autism like fitting in, relating to others, things of this nature, and more.  The things that every parent wants for their child. 

The whole article really feels like it is drenched with Hope, Calm, and Peace.  With Ernie's Athletic Posture, Fluid Swing, and revitalized outlook on Family, Life, and Golf, this win makes perfect sense.

These last two victories by Camilo and Ernie show me that indeed, in life and golf, it is as much Attitude as it is Aptitude. 

Congratulations Camilo and Ernie on your Positive Examples and your Great Golf!

Start out in Mid Year form with your Driver

This April, you may have trouble hitting the ball straight and long with your driver from the winter dust that accumulated on your swing.  Or even if you had a chance to play this winter you may still have some trouble with your driver. 


Here are some things to check for better contact, straighter flight, and more distance.


1.  Don't let your backswing get too long.  If you are out of practice or merely struggling a bit with your driver this is one of the first things I would look at.  If your backswing gets too long, even by a little bit, it may cause you to get off balance at the top of your backswing or cause an improper weight shift which can takeaway clubhead speed at impact and decrease solid contact.
2.  Check your ball position, your ball needs to be played off of the inside of your left foot.  If that does not feel comfortable and you are reluctant to have the ball teed up on the proper position of your stance, do it anyway!  Eventually after a few or more times it will feel comfortable and you will see the great results to match your new found comfort.
3.  Alignment and Set-UP, make sure that not only are your feet and shoulders positioned so they line up at the target but also make sure that your hips are level (getting the back hip bone to settle downward a little is actually preferable) and make sure that they too are aligned at the target with your feet and shoulders.  All too often golfers balance into their forward foot (the left foot, leg, and hip for a right handed golfer) when it would actually be beneficial for driving the ball especially to get a tad more weight and tilt into the right side at address.
4.  Release The Golf Club.  Try this drill ... Turn your driver around so that your holding your driver just below the clubhead on the shaft, only with your right hand (for a right handed golfer) and using your normal right hand golf grip.  Now make some nice swings at 6" to 12" above the ground and make a nice whooshing sound letting the grip end of the club whistle through the air.  Notice it takes your legs, hips, and upper body to swing the club, but the snap of the club and the most clubhead speed, or in this case grip speed, comes from the faster muscles and joints of your elbow, forearm, wrist, hand, and fingers.  Now after doing that a little bit, turn the club around, hold on to it properly by the grip with the clubhead at the ground and feel that same release that you just felt.  Keep working on a great release of the clubhead to see great results.


Use these tips for more fun and better golfing!