Golf Practice Blog

This guy’s wife asks, “honey if I died would you remarry?”  The husband replies, “well after a considerable period of grieving, we all need companionship… I guess I would.”

She says, “if I died and you remarried, would she live in this house?”  He replies, “we’ve just spent a lot of time and money getting this house just the way we want it.  I’m not going to get rid of my house, so I guess she would.”

His wife then asks, “if I died and you remarried, and she lived in this house, would she sleep in our bed?”  The husband thinks it over and says, “that bed is brand new, we just paid two thousand dollars for it and it’s going to last a long time, so I guess she would.”

So the wife asks, “if I died and you remarried and she lived in this house AND slept in our bed… would she use my golf clubs?”

The husband replies…”oh, no… she’s left handed.”

There’s a lot of great ways to improve your game in 2007, but planning on a new, left-handed wife, isn’t at the top of the list.  There are many very simple ways that you and your spouse can work together to improve your golf game.

The V1 Golf Swing Analysis Software allows you to capture video of your golf swing and play the clip back at full speed, slow motion and even stop-motion to determine exactly where your golf swing is “breaking down.”  It is doubly helpful, and a great activitiy to do together, to have your spouse operate the camera and computer while the other takes swings.

Also, if your New Year’s Resolution includes correcting the slice for you and your spouse, the Right Link is the way to go.  Despite the product’s name, the Right Link is suitable for right (or left-handed) men and women golfers.

Finally, in making those top three New Year’s Resolutions to improve both your family golf game, spend more family time together, and learn to multi-task, you can accomplish all three at once with Find-A-Lesson Golf Lesson Gift Certificates, providing lessons for you and all memebers of your family to grow closer by learning and playing golf together. Simply log-on to Find-A-Lesson.com to find a Gold Pro in your area!

I am a male about 5′7″ to 5′8″ in height, and I want to know if it is ok for me to use a ladies golf set, or a set of clubs cut for women’s length, because I feel that the men’s length golf sets are a bit longer and more uncomfortable for my height.

I am a 5-8″ LPGA golfer and I use men’s length clubs. I use a regular shaft in my irons, but a softer or sometimes called “senior” shaft in my driver. The problem you may encounter with women’s clubs is the shaft. It will be very flexible and may be hard to control if you have any power. Most high-level women use men’s clubs for that reason. Alternately you may consider using a men’s club, with a softer shaft, then cut it down a bit. Women’s clubs sometime have higher lofts which may create a loss of distance for you.

My final suggestion is to stay with men’s-length clubs but choke down if they feel a little long.

Hope this helps, and thanks for visiting PracticeRange.com!

Elaine Crosby is a 19-year veteran of the LPGA Tour and a member of the Women’s Senior Golf Tour.

I am about a 8 handicap golfer, but I have a terrible problem with pitch and chip shots. 90% of the time the shot is fine, I can hit high and low pitch with fair accuracy. The other 10% is just a diaster. All will be going well and suddenly I hit the straight right. I mean almost a 90 degree angle from where I am aiming and then I just can’t stop. I look like I have never played the game before. To complete the round I will put away my wedges and use a longer iron with a putting motion and hope for the best.

I know that I leave the club face wide open and my hands are ahead of my body. I can go back home and practice the shot in my backyard and correct the problem by turning over my right wrist but this I know is wrong and pull the ball right. Is there any thing I can do?? I can go for weeks without this happening but when it does I can’t stop.

Please help.

My first thought when someone hits a pitch or chip right is that your weight is moving toward your toes as you hit the shot. This will bring the hosel into play. You also may be moving your legs too much. Most of the time you get away with it through timing, but if it gets a little off you get way ahead of the shot. One remedy is to put more weight on your left foot at address ( given that you are right handed) and try not to have much leg movement. Obviously if you are hitting a 50 or 60 yard shot you will have some. But on a chip or pitch you can leave weight on your left.

The only other thing I can think of is that you might be taking the club back on too flat a plane, then it might be getting even flatter when you come into the ball leaving the club wide open. I agree you don’t want to hit the shot feeling like you are turning the club over. When I’m teaching someone to hit a pitch I try to have them imagine tossing the ball underhand and what position would your right hand be in relation to where you want to throw the ball at impact. Hope that makes sense.

I hope some of this will help. I know it’s a hopeless feeling when you can’t make it work right. But don’t give up. You might try taking a lesson from a qualified instructor. Check out FINDaLESSON.com for a PGA/LPGA teacher in your area.

Elaine Crosby is a 19-year veteran of the LPGA Tour and a member of the Women’s Senior Golf Tour.

When the average club player goes to his PGA pro for a golf lesson, the last thing he usually wants to hear is that they are going to be working on the fundamentals.  He feels “ripped off” if the lesson revolves around the golf grip, the stance and posture.  The typical reaction is: “I know all that, let’s get on to the interesting stuff.”  But, invariably, while he may well have heard it all before, he almost certainly doesn’t put that knowledge into practice and repeat those good golf habits that essentially ingrain good technique and determine the success of the golf swing that follows.

Read the rest of the Golf International Magazine article by Justin Rose, and see how even the pros use golf training aids, such as the Eyeline Practice-T, to ingrain the fundamentals of golf.

Golf Training Aids represent a much larger segment of the golf products market that one would ever think possible.  The question is, why would a golfer choose to purchase a bona-fide “golf training aid” when they could simply buy a range-card at the local golf practice facility or, like my dad made me do ad nauseum…go into the backyard and chip balls into a good ol’ 5-gallon paint bucket? 

The answer is simple, the bona fide golf training aid is designed to help the golfer build the fundamentals needed to make the consistent and correct movments every time… once the muscle memory is built, then the range card (or much-dreaded paint bucket) becomes exponentially more beneficial and enjoyable.  Fortunately for the more thrifty-minded golfer, there are golf training tools on the market today that have transcended their single-use, range-only stygma and are either approved by the USGA and R&A Rules of Golf, or are designed to be used on the golf course during practice-rounds.

The Momentus Short Game Wizard is the first of such multi-use clubs that comes to mind.  In its Short Game Wizard, Momentus has integrated the technology it developed in its weighted swing trainers and “pioneered and developed a revolutionary new concept in wedge design called Variable Shaft Weighting. Variable Shaft Weighting increases the shaft weight as the loft of the club head increases. This concept has proven to create a uniform accelerating motion through the ball, ensuring crisp and solid contact, and producing more consistent and accurate shots. The Momentus Short Game Wizard Wedge Series conforms to the USGA Rules of Golf and Short Game Wizards are designed to replace your existing wedges to give you more control, touch and feel around the green and from out in the fairway.”

Gary Player, long known as one of the most prolific promoters of physical fitness related to golf, lends his name to the Gary Player Heavy Hitter line of training clubs.  His driver is designed to take out on the range and actually hit balls, and when fitted with a standard grip is approved by the USGA.  Each club is precision balanced with a perimeter weighted clubhead, matched to a balanced weighted shaft. It flexes perfectly for a natural ball flight trajectory. On a busy Saturday morning when the only tee-times available are in four- and five-somes, a trip to the driving range isn’t always feasable.  Because the Heavy Hitter with a standard grip is USGA approved, you can use it on the first few tees to get warmed-up while you play.  After a few holes, you can pull your standard woods from the bag and comfortably and confidently knock the ball straight down the fairway.

Of course, no commentary related to USGA approved training tools would be complete without mentioning the laser rangefinder or golf GPS. The USGA New Decision 14-3/0.5 allows a Committee to permit the use of distance-measuring devices by Local Rule. This applies to devices that measure distance only, not any other conditions that might affect a player’s play (e.g., wind or gradient). The SkyCaddie GPS and the Bushnell Pinseeker Tournament Edition (without slope-reading function) give the golfer the ability to accurately know the distance between the ball and the pin without having to search around the fairway for the yardage marker, or imagine how many times the pin has been moved since the yardage sign was erected at the tee-box.  The SkyCaddie gives the golfer satellite-accurate readings of points on many courses, while the Bushnell Pin Seeker, with a push of a button, gives immediate feedback on the range to any target on any course. 

It’s hard to watch The Golf Channel nowadays without seeing a 30-minute infomercial for various products which promise to improve your swing, help you hit the ball farther and lower your scores. Langston Wertz Jr. from the Charlotte Observer put a few products to the test with everyday golfers.

Check out his review of the I Gotcha Ready, The Golf Gym, and Momentus Power Hitter Driver