Whist we are fascinated by the Professional of the various PGA tour eventa as they weave their magic, drawing the ball or creating a fantastic hook shots as Tiger did in a game recently – to the amazement of his fellow players, the novice to the game should start with the basics.
Many a beginner at the game and most of the high handicap golfers have felt frustrated at not being able to “shape” the ball and have put in poor cards because they are desperately trying to emulate the shots they see on television.
For anyone just starting to get into this wonderful game and who are just beginning to feel these pangs of frustration with their shot making, let’s put these “shape” shots into perspective.
What is the object of golf? I think most would agree it is to get the ball from tee to cup with the minimum of number of shots.
OK – let’s analyse that statement – how many hits with the driver – 12 on most courses. How many long fairway shots are there with wood, iron or hybrid – 12-15; depending on how many par five holes on the course.
How many pitch shots, chip shots, bunker shots (if you are unlucky enough to get into them) and finally puts?
The math works out that we need that long shape shot probably 24 times in a game – give or take one or two, which leaves 48 shots on a par 72 course for the short game. Twice as many as the long shots, so where should the learning experience be concentrated.
A low handicapper or novice golf player will start off completing a round in 100-110 shots after some basic coaching, and it would be reasonably sure to include a quite a few miss hit drives and fairway strokes trying to emulate the greats of golf.
I recently played with a 70 year old golfer who comfortably went round a 72 hole course with me scoring a creditable 86 and he never used a driver of the tee, mostly he used a mid iron but he was a master at the short game and do not have any three puts on any green.
He put it in perspective for me that the game is won on the short game around the green and the way to start people off playing golf should be with the shots that matter most – around the green.
What can be done whilst you are starting golf to minimize the frustrations most people experience – often for years on end because of the emphasis on shaping shots.
Any professional coach will start the novice off with the basics of stance, grip, body rotation and so on.
Once you have that base understanding of the swing mechanics burned into your muscle memory then resist the urge to go for the shape shots until you have a handicap of 20 – yes 20.
To get to 20 – you only have to hit the ball straight down the fairway and be very good at the short game.
OK – how do you hit the ball straight? Well “straight” comes from everything you do to prepare for the shot being aligned straight. The feet lined up to the point you are aiming at and simultaneously the shoulders fixed along the same line before you commence a backswing.
Most players who slice the ball have one or both of these alignments slightly off to the left – and when they have done that for years it becomes a built in deception to them. If you stop them as they address the ball and put a club down touching each of their toes – it is a sure bet they will be off to the left of their target. What is worse they will thank you and at the very next hole be just as bad aligning to the left because it “feels” wrong for them after years of doing it their way.
At the practice range you will see golfers put down a club and bring their toes up to it before taking a shot. They are aligning themselves up because our eyes and our engrained memory tend not to be accurate enough to do it at times and we need to re-enforce the experience by lining up the toes along a straight line .
Learn to align the feet and the shoulders and resist the tendency to pull the right foot back to get that draw which happens sometimes – but not others and there you are in the rough again.
Hit straight down the fairway with a lesser club and you will be surprised how often you complete a round under your opponent who wastes shots because his long curling drive ends up in trouble – again.
It looks good to draw a ball – but is does not necessarily win games.
At the practice range use and erasable ball impact marker like CaddyPatch to ensure you are hitting the nice straight shot in the centre of the club – the “sweet shot” where you will get the maximum distance – straight down the fairway.