Golf Practice Blog

The month of May is PGA Free Lesson Month. Free. Lessons. Free golf lessons!

According to PlayGolfAmerica.com, in May 2008, nearly 6,340 PGA and LPGA Professionals nationwide gave more than 106,600 FREE 10-MINUTE LESSONS. You may be asking yourself, what could I possibly learn in a 10-minute lesson?

On the same website listed above, Golf Digest put together a short list that answers exactly that question:

1. How to get your backswing in synch
2. How to improve your tempo to add distance 
3. How to know if your swing is one- or two-plane
4. How to use distance control to avoid three-putts
5. How to read breaking putts for grain and slope
6. How to align your ball to be a more accurate putter
7. How to switch your focus from line to speed before you putt
8. How to “bounce” your wedge through the sand
9. How to hit high, soft sand shots to tight pins
10. How to hit the tricky long bunker shot

As you can see, there are a lot of options for you to ask the pro about when you schedule your free lesson. Obviously you won’t see in the list above “How to Play Golf”, but you can get a quick introduction into a specific part of the game that has you baffled.

This 10-minute opportunity will give you the chance to ask your pro about a specific portion of your game.  If you haven’t visited a pro in a long time, or had a bad lesson experience in the past, visit PlayGolfAmerica.com, enter your zip code, and find someone new to visit. You may just find yourself going back again some other time for a longer lesson!

Once you’ve met with your pro, you’re going to want to work on the areas of the game you worked on. Here is a short list of golf training aids from PracticeRange.com that will help you develop in the ten areas listed above:

1. Swing Tempo: allows you to calibrate the duration of your backswing, topswing, and downswing. with 1/10th of a second digital accuracy. You can set and retain your own ideal tempo to improve consistency with every club in the bag.

2. Ernie Els Tempotimer: Small enough to fit in the side pocket of your golf bag, use the Tempotimer in pre-round warm-up, before tee off at each hole, or even at home when training your swing tempo.

3. The Plane Stick: A telescoping aluminum rod enables the golfer to instantly feel a correct swing plane. The foam covered top of the rod allows contact without risk of injury or damage to equipment. Multiple setups, drills and applications covered on instructional video.

4. Eyeline Perfect Entry System: Perfect Entry System allows you to see the perfect putt. Perfect Speed, Perfect Read, Perfect Line and Perfect Entry. The System uses the combination of the Green Reading Level, Bullseye Cup and the Putting Clock

5. Breakmaster Putting Green Reader: precision electronic devices designed to train your eye to read breaking putts and get to know the breaks on the putting greens you play.

6. Eyline Putting Plane Alignment System: Use the mirrored surface to check if eyes are over the ball, shoulders are lined up, and putter face is square. Adjustable rails enable you to practice a perfect back and through stroke that is on plane. Angled rail allows putter to come slightly inside.

7. Hank Haney’s Essentials - 4 Pack DVD: These groundbreaking DVDs will help you become a complete player by teaching you to think, act, and play like a champion. Every aspect of the game is encompassed in this set that includes the bonus DVD Strategy.

8, 9 & 10. Ken Venturi’s Stroke Savers - Sand Play and Fundamentals: In this Volume 1 of the Strokesavers Series, longtime CBS Golf Analyst Ken Venturi, who educated golfers for over 30 years with a variety of golf tips, shares the secrets to execute a variety of sand shots.

Visit PracticeRange.com for the best in golf training aids, books & videos all designed to improve every facet of your golf game.

For many fair-weather golfers, April is a time to dust the cobwebs out of the golf bag, re-grip the golf clubs, and toss out the golf balls that turned to cement over the winter.

In his post at Findalesson.com, Daniel Walker says the off season is the best time to focus on the needed improvements for your game. If you’ve waited until April (now almost May), your off season is coming to a close. So with the below advice in mind, it’s time to get to the practice range!

In his post, located here, Walker says many drills can be done with or without a club, and either inside or outside. The DVD from Jim McLean, Golf Warm-Ups and Exercises, will give you a chance to stretch and work out the golf muscles that have gone into atropy during the Winter. Jim and his team of experts provide a series of entertaining exercises that will mentally and physically prepare a golfer to tee off to a lower score. These exercises are also designed to work on muscle memory and are paced for interactive participation. Jim McLean’s Golf Warm-Ups will not only be a valuable edition to everyone’s DVD library, but it will be a wonderful asset for your overall game.

In addition to the McLean video, here are the top four golf training aids from PracticeRange.com that will help improve your flexibility and get those golf muscles back in shape:

1. 8Board Training Device - Developed by pro athletes, the 8board uses a rhythmic, double-swivel figure-8 motion, trains the body to move fluidly.

2. Dynaflex Pro Gyro Trainer - Gyros strengthen your wrists, arms, grip and range of motion. Rotor reaches speeds up to 9,000 RPM and puts out 35 lbs. of torque.

See the Dynaflex Pro Gyro Trainer in action!

3. SKLZ Power Sleeve - Ideal for warmup or stying in shape during the off-season. Increases shot distance and golf muscle strength and flexibility.

4. GolfGym Power Swing Trainer - A program of just 10 minutes a day, three times a week is all most golfers need to remain golf-ready.