Oftentimes, amateurs are (overly) anxious to hit the golf Ball. Walking the range, I’ll rarely witness players expressing patience by taking practice swings in between shots. Along similar lines, players hit too many balls during their practice sessions. Instead of wasting more money on another bucket of range balls, try adding structure to your practice routines by electing to make more practice swings.
While I know that taking practice swings isn’t nearly as fun as making swings where we hit the little white ball, there isn’t much to be gained by hitting balls in a fashion where there’s little conscious thought being expended on a per-shot basis. Unless you’re either performing a specific drill or have a specific goal in mind over each golf ball that you strike, chances are you’re not improving.
If you’re quickly warming up before your weekend round during the 15 minutes prior to your tee time by pounding a few balls on the range without practice swings, this behavior is more excusable. On those days at the club/range where you’re not playing, try hitting twenty or twenty-five balls rather than the typical fifty.
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Whatever your typical number of range balls stands at, try cutting that number in half the next time you practice. In allowing yourself that prolonged pause, you’ll be better equipped to focus on each individual shot. Upon implementing this slower pace into your typical practice routines, odds are you’ll naturally want to occupy your body/mind during that same time frame you used to dedicate towards hitting another range ball.
Rather than mindlessly standing there as you count down the seconds until you’re ready for your next golf ball, take a couple practice swings. Often, I’ll watch players who either fail to make practice swings altogether or they’ll take the kind of half-hearted practice swings that rarely serve a profound purpose.
On each practice swing, pick a spot on the ground and make sure you hit that spot with the sole or bounce of your club head. Making practice swings is only a useful exercise if you’re making them with a specific goal in mind. For instance, failing to brush the turf/ground with your club head thru “giving the grass/ground a haircut” during one of your practice swings strikes me as a useless exercise.
Except for the driver or when we’re standing in a bunker on the course itself, the bottom of the club should make contact with the ground’s surface during both your real/practice swings. Often, I’ll see players who are reluctant to hit the ground. In order to hit a crisp golf shot, our club has to make contact with the ground after we’ve struck our ball. When we tee up the driver, we do not want to feel the ground.
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With our teed-up iron shots on par 3’s and the like, we want to feel the ground with our club-head after we’ve contacted the ball. A simple way to contact the ground more effectively exists thru making practice swings. The more often we hit our spot on practice swings, the more often we’ll consistently deliver the club head into the back of the ball on our real swings. In other words, making purposeful practice swings goes a long way to ensure you contact the ball more towards the center of the club face.
To clarify, we should be trying to hit the center of the club face on every shot we hit.
Every now and again, advanced players will attempt to strike severely downhill chip shots and very-fast, downhill mid-range/short putts by opting to make contact towards the toe of the club face. Striking the ball out towards the toe “deadens” the contact that occurs between the club face and the ball at impact.
Essentially, hitting the toe on these chips/putts allows you to make a more aggressive stroke/chipping motion. On these shots, deadening the impact by striking the ball toward the toe can make it easier to control one’s speed or pace. Having said that, I do not suggest trying to hit this shot unless the course’s conditions demand it. Furthermore, do not try the toe strike unless you’ve practiced it.
Golf is hard enough as it is. In my opinion, hitting the center of the face is the way to go. When you hit the toe, the ball will often wobble off the club face whilst traveling off-line more easily. Instead of contacting the toe on these tricky short putts/chips, lighten your grip pressure and use the sweet spot that’s located in the center of the club/putter face more to your advantage.
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On chips, pros will often place their wedge’s club head on the ground (and behind) the ball so that the golf ball appears to be located more towards the toe as opposed to the center of the club face. But, be mindful that pros are not typically addressing the ball in this manner in order to strike the ball more off the toe. Often, placing the ball off the toe for chip shots can create a more appealing visual.
Upon seeing the ball off-the-toe on chips, it gives players the confidence they need in order to deliver an out-to-in, descending blow on the center of the club face at the moment of impact. When we chip, we need to create a descending blow. Sometimes, placing too much emphasis on the descending blow can result in poor chip shots that are struck more toward the heel of the club face than what’s necessary/optimal.
If you play golf on the same side of the ball as your dominant hand, you’re more prone to hitting the heel on a green-side chip shot. Striking the ball too close to the heel of the club face or on the heel itself results in the dreaded shank. At the end of the day, contacting the ball in the center of the club-face results in more consistent, better golf shots.
If you’re like Vijay Singh, hitting the ball in the center of the face more often is an exercise that’s optimized by lining up your ball more toward the heel of your club head. In an opposite fashion to Vijay’s preferred method of addressing the golf ball, Brooks Koepka putts better when he addresses the ball more off-the-toe of his putter head.
In the modern age of Trackman swing mechanics and the like, swinging the golf club is often made more difficult than it otherwise should be. Instead of overthinking your next range shot or shot on the course, focus on your intention and add practice swings to your pre-shot routine. As Tiger Woods often alludes to while referencing the state of his own golf game/swing, he plays better when he’s able to “find the bottom” of his swing.
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Find the bottom of your swing more effectively by focusing on one point, any point, that’s located on the ground before you make your practice swings. If you can hit that little spot you’ve picked out, you can contact the ball in the center of the club face.
Sometimes, the YouTube golf instruction world leads to a vicious cycle of endless change in players’ games. Recently, there was a clip of Tiger talking to Scottie Scheffler during a TaylorMade pro-staff range session where Scottie asked Tiger why he didn’t (use to) take divots with his irons. Although Tiger flushed his irons by not taking divots during his playing days under the tutelage of Butch Harmon, don’t try to mimic the Big Cat on this one. Tiger has better hands than all of us do.
As such, Tiger possesses the incredible talent that’s required in order to use a lot of hand-action at/near impact. Using it, he can “flip” his hands at the ball in a fashion that allows him to pound the center of the club face every single time without using much of a descending blow. Believe me, you’re gonna wanna hit down on the ball with a short or mid iron. Again, try to avoid these kinds of “fake news” videos/clips, which are merely designed in order to accrue as many views/reads as possible (at the expense of your golf game!).
You’re better off using your own instincts than trusting most of the hacks that post this stuff. Although I teach for a living, I’m just another guy who played a lot of golf and figured a lot of stuff out using trial and error. Believe in yourself, and you’ll get the ball in the hole in the number of shots you want to (more often). There’s no (quality) replacement for belief.
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