Vijay Singh works harder than anyone on the Tour. He spends hours and hours every day working on his game, practicing every facet of it—from putting to chipping to driving—so that he can be the best he can be. In fact, his practice sessions are legendary among the world’s best players. Needless to say, his determination has paid off. He’s earned millions and millions of dollars in prize money.

While you’d probably like to spend more time practicing and playing golf, you can’t always do it. You have too many responsibilities. But hitting balls at the range or taking golf lessons from a pro isn’t the only way to cut strokes from your golf handicap. You can also do it by working on key pre-swing fundamentals—fundamentals that many a weekend player overlooks. By ingraining them, you’ll trim strokes from your golf handicap without ever picking up a club.

Below are six pre-swing fundamentals that help you cut strokes from your scores without going to the driving range:

1. Acquire The Right Mind Set

Having the right mind-set before swinging the club is crucial. It’s even more crucial when driving. Hitting a good opening shot gets you started on the right foot. So work on having a positive attitude before hitting the ball. Don’t think, “Don’t hit it in the water.” Think, “I’m going to hit it right down the middle.” That way, you’ll create positive images of successful shots in your mind. That develops self-confidence.

2. Perfect Your Grip

Many golfers—especially beginners—overlook the importance of having the right grip. These players don’t fully understand how the grip affects your swing. Since your hands are the only part of your body touching the club, how you grip it is critical. It determines clubface position. If your grip is incorrect, your clubface will mirror it and be either open or shut. The perfect grip has both hands rotated 45 degrees to the right for right-handed golfers.

3. Develop Good Posture

Posture is another pre-swing fundamental weekend golfers overlook. Golf is an athletic activity. You must be in the optimum starting position to be able to “explode” when you need to. If you’re slouched over or too straight at address, you can’t generate the kind of swing discussed in golf lessons and golf tips. In short, good posture lets you make a good pivot. Use a full-length mirror to examine your posture. Make sure you’re in the right position at address.

4. Apply Proper Grip Pressure

Work on holding the club with the right grip pressure. If you grip the club too hard, you’ll “strangle it,” preventing you from swinging fluidly. If you hold the club too loosely, you’ll lose it during your swing. You must apply the right grip pressure to strike the ball well. Good swings come from good, free-flowing pressure, not death grips. More importantly, applying the right grip pressure produces the right tempo during your swing.

5. Align Your Body Properly

If you’ve ever shot a gun, you know there’s no point in pulling the trigger if you don’t aim the gun properly. The same thing is true in golf. If you don’t aim yourself properly, you won’t hit your target. When your bodylines cross, your chances of making a free flowing swing greatly diminish. That means anything can happen. Work on aligning your body to the target line and let your swing flow. Good alignment produces a good swing path.

6. Find The Right Ball Position

All good swings start with the club descending into the ball—even when you hit driver off the tee. But playing the ball too far back or too far forward in your stance when driving throws your swing off. You’ll pop the ball up, dribble it off the tee, or hit some other type of ugly, embarrassing shot. Good ball position results in good contact. Lay a club down so the toe is against the heel of your front foot. The shaft will stick out two inches from your heel. That’s where your want to position the ball on a drive.

These six pre-swing fundamentals are as critical as any swing fundamentals you work on in golf instruction sessions or read about in technical articles offering golf tips. They are timeless. Work on them in your home or at the office as often as you can and make then an integral part of your pre-shot routine. Ingraining them will impact your golf handicap more than your think.

Jack Moorehouse
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/preswing-fundamentals-reduce-golf-handicaps-1018719.html

Now at 3 yrs and 3 months and with a new Nike driver, hybrid and 7 iron.

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What are the most important considerations when a builder is setting up a golf course driving range?

Ideally a driving range should be a golf learning center. This can include a putting green, some practice bunkers, possibly a place for some indoor lessons.

The nicer your practice facility, the better positioned you will be at attracting new members, especially if you are a private club. It really is a benefit and an asset. If we can do something more than just a driving range, it will serve the golf course well.

What are the kinds of things you look at when setting up an exceptional driving range?

In this day and age, with the developments of technology, we often have to set up the range to be about 330 yards long because people are simply driving the ball that much farther these days.

So we start with a driving range, then we like to set up an area at the back of the tee where we can set up mats. This is helpful because sometimes you may need to work on the driving area and you might want the turf to be able to recuperate.

We also like to see a good putting area that is about 10,000 – 15,000 square feet.

We also encourage some sort of short game facility. That could be another practice green that would have some chipping areas, some practice bunkers, something that you could hit something 20 – 60 yards.

We generally try to provide some sort of a facility that would allow you to practice all aspects of the game, including: Driving, chipping, putting and sand shots.

I’m sure safety has to be an important consideration when you are setting these up?

Orientation is obviously important and you have to be able to have the space to set it up right. We generally would not want to have a driving range that would have a golf hole or the clubhouse or houses on the right side of the range, the slice side of the hole. So we always try to separate that a little bit.

What about driving range nets?

When ever possible, we try to put the practice facility where we don’t have to put nets. It’s a little more expensive so if we can set up a range by just using the land, it’s much better.

What about how the range stalls are set up and the design of actual facility?

There’s some common sense issues like circulation on and around the teeing area, things that we do about radiusing the tee (pointing the tee a little left of center), looking at the overall orientation, the prevailing winds, the rising or the setting sun. Ideally we would like to set the range up to the northeast – we don’t like it pointing directly to the east or the west.

We also like to set up some target greens down the range so that there is something interesting for people to aim for.

What about considerations for the actual landing area? There can be problems with the golf balls getting beat up if the surface of the driving range is not in good condition. Problems like rocky surfaces, poor drainage, etc.

This is really a function of turf quality and maintenance and proper construction. You want to make sure that rocks and debris are removed before you put the seed in the ground. You need to also make sure that you have a quality stand of grass out there. Irrigation, fertilizer, maintenance and drainage are all important to make sure you have good healthy turf.

Any other considerations that a developer should consider when they are developing a driving range?

I think if people are thinking about a practice facility they should find themselves an architect, someone who can work them through the process of developing more than just a driving range, something that includes a practice facility. I would encourage them to get detailed plans and work out all the details of drainage and safety issues.

You can see the complete golf course design article as well as the mP3 audio interview at Golf Course Designers Herfort Norby

Colin Goehring
http://www.articlesbase.com/ask-an-expert-articles/golf-course-driving-range-design-127547.html

Most golfers don’t know that eighty percent of the world’s golfers have a handicap of 18 or more. Finding ways to improve your golf game, then applying what you’ve learned and practicing, is the number one way to get ahead of the game. Even the guys who play golf for a living and get the best golf instruction in the world still struggle to improve their golf; and they practice each and every day!

Visualize where you would like the ball to land, as you swing. Always be aware the mental aspect of the game contributes one way or another to the difficulty of the golf swing. If you’ve hit with your golf driver perfectly once, you can do it every time; the subconscious mind knows the correct number and sequence of muscle contractions and nerve impulses needed, called muscle memory.

As the body matures, the ability to rotate the upper torso is affected by age, and the hand action can also slow down requiring a slightly stronger grip. It’s difficult for a golfer to practice hitting shots longer than short pitch shots unless one pays to play golf or pays to practice at a driving range or indoor golf training facility. After the ball is hit, the follow-through stage consists of a continued rotation to the left.

One of the problems that most inexperienced golfers share is they think too much about their swing. Putting can become a nightmare and a condition called the ‘yips’ has affected not only amateurs but professionals as well; get expert advice and consider a golf swing aid. Try not to grip the club too tightly.

Accomplished golfers purposely use sidespin to steer their ball around obstacles or towards the safe side of fairways and greens. Make sure to use the proper technique. Many golfers who are strongly left-handed in their daily life prefer the right-handed golf swing.

Swing slowly and steadily using a nice rhythm. The most important thing about the golf swing is the angle and not the strength that’s applied to it.

Using some simple tips, techniques and stretches, you can increase your drives by up to 20 yards– practically overnight. Conditioning your golf muscles will reward you with straighter swings. Hold a medicine ball and turn back and forth; it must be rotational to improve your driving distance.

Sporting goods stores have golf aids to improve your game. If you’re a golfing novice just starting out, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Golf swing aids come in all shapes and sizes including apparel type accessories to correct alignment or a golf club add-on accessory to monitor your swing.

Be careful about the claims on TV commercials and magazine ads; seek expert advice before you buy because they may not live up to their claims. Aids can be found online and are often cheaper. Look for aids at your local golf course.

Overall, investing in golf swing aids will greatly improve your golf swing and your golf game. Keep in mind that with some aids, you may still need advice or help from an expert. Ask an expert, who is not associated with the shop you would buy your golf swing aid from, for advice on the right aid for you. There are a number of good golf swing aids on the market today. There are aids that will help you with swing alignment.

Try to concentrate on one golf swing weakness at a time. There are hundreds of useful golf tips to seek out in golf magazines, consumer magazines, sports magazines, in books, ebooks, DVDs, online and offline. Take as many private lessons as you can afford with a good golf pro.

Helen Hecker
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/super-golf-swing-improvement-made-easy-119417.html

If you’re like most golfers, you want to improve, not just hack around the golf course. The biggest concerns of golfers today are inconsistency first of all, followed by slicing and distance. You need great hand-eye coordination, balance, athletic ability and creativity to play golf.

Approach the game with a positive attitude and repeat affirmations if you can, such as “I play great golf all the time.” Don’t worry about what others think or may say about your swing; work to improve it at your own speed. Overall, you generally want to play golf with confidence.

After the ball is hit, the follow-through stage consists of a continued rotation to the left. Swing slowly and steadily using a nice rhythm. The backswing is a rotation to the right, consisting of a shifting of the player’s body weight to the right side, a turning of the pelvis and shoulders, lifting of the arms and flexing of the elbows and wrists.

When you swing if you have problems with your left knee buckling, imagine you’re holding a soccer ball between your knees. Ask your golf pro to evaluate your posture while swinging. Trust your golf club to do the job it was intended to do.

The most important thing about the golf swing is the angle and not the strength that’s applied to it. One of the problems that most inexperienced golfers share is they think too much about their swing. Many golfers who are strongly left-handed in their daily life prefer the right-handed golf swing.

It’s difficult for a golfer to practice hitting shots longer than short pitch shots unless one pays to play golf or pays to practice at a driving range or indoor golf training facility. Putts and short chips are ideally played without much movement of the body, but most other golf shots are played using variants of the full golf swing.

Turn to golf exercise and techniques if you want strength and power. Using a weighted club, make rotational golf swings to improve your power. Using some simple tips, techniques and stretches, you can increase your drives by up to 20 yards– practically overnight.

Sporting goods stores have golf aids to improve your game. Look for golf swing aids at your local golf course. Most of all don’t waste your money on an aid you don’t need or will never use.

You can find aids that will help you with your wrist and arm position. Be careful about the claims on TV commercials and magazine ads; seek expert advice before you buy because they may not live up to their claims. Golf swing aids come in all shapes and sizes including apparel type accessories to correct alignment or a golf club add-on accessory to monitor your swing.

Overall, investing in golf swing aids will greatly improve your golf swing and your golf game. There are a wide range of aids on the market today to help the beginning and advanced golfer. There are aids that will help you with swing alignment. Aids are often for sale at your pro shop or local golf shop. Aids can be found online and are often cheaper.

Take as many private lessons as you can afford with a good golf pro. Find and use golf aids and golf swing aids that help improve your game. Get some golf DVDs and commit yourself to a time to practice what you learn.

Helen Hecker
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/take-your-golf-swing-to-another-level-now-119402.html

A new golf season is just starting. Here are a few tips to improve your golf score and your enjoyment of playing.

Set goals for the new season. Take a few minutes a decide how much you would like to improve your golf score. Be realistic if you’ve never broken 100 it probably will be too much of a stretch to become a scratch golfer in just one season. You could however set a goal of consistently playing in the low 90′s. Practice really does make perfect. If you can’t get out to the course to play an entire round, at least go to the driving range a couple of times a week.

Make sure your golf equipment is ready. Inventory your equipment and make any repairs or additions that are necessary. You may have forgotten that unfortunate incident last September when you heaved your 5-iron into the lake after a nasty shank. Sometimes we forget how long we have been using the same clubs. The grips might be worn or the grooves damaged. Check out the latest advancements in club technologies. If your clubs are marked “cleek” or “mashie niblick” you might consider an upgrade to the 21st century, or at least take your clubs to Antiques Roadshow for a quick appraisal. You might get a pleasant surprise.

A change in attitude. Golfers often talk themselves into playing badly, right from the first drive of the new year. If all you can think about is how you always slice the ball on a particular hole, then that’s exactly what you’ll do. Forget about all the bad golf you played last year. Start fresh, with a clean mental slate. Golf pros train themselves to visualize the perfect outcome for each shot. We can all do that, on a modest basis. For most of us, thinking we’ll shoot 65 at Pebble Beach isn’t visualization, it’s hallucination.

Be realistic in what you can expect from yourself. Recognize that your short game is a challenge for you and then practice to change it.

A change in golf buddies. Consider expanding your sphere of friends this year. If you belong to a club, invite one of the members you’ve never played with before to join your foursome. Meeting new friends on the course can make the conversation during the round more stimulating, and may even have benefits down the line in the form of new business contacts. Another benefit is that new golf buddies won’t expect you to make the same old mistakes you always make.

A change in golf venues. Most of us aren’t aware of all the great courses within easy driving distance of our homes. We tend to play the same familiar layouts all the time. Do an online search for courses in your region that offer discount greens fees. You’ll save money and also be able to enjoy a fresh challenge and new scenery.

A fresh outlook, revamped clubs, new golfing buddies, and challenges new courses can make this the most enjoyable and best golf season you’ve ever had.

Brian Hill
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/improve-your-golf-score-5-tips-747585.html

Most golfers don’t know that eighty percent of the world’s golfers have a handicap of 18 or more. The biggest concerns of golfers today are inconsistency first of all, followed by slicing and distance. Golf is a difficult game to master and most golfers don’t have the time it takes to practice, practice, and practice to significantly improve.

Keep the good energy flowing and don’t give in to any negative thoughts. Approach the game with a positive attitude and repeat affirmations if you can, such as “I play great golf all the time.” Visualize where you would like the ball to land, as you swing.

Use the muscles in your legs and trunk when you swing. Make sure to use the proper technique. Accomplished golfers purposely use sidespin to steer their ball around obstacles or towards the safe side of fairways and greens.

Use the basic ‘hitchhiker’ position when you’re working on your backswing. As the body matures, the ability to rotate the upper torso is affected by age, and the hand action can also slow down requiring a slightly stronger grip. The most important thing about the golf swing is the angle and not the strength that’s applied to it.

Trust your golf club to do the job it was intended to do. It’s difficult for a golfer to practice hitting shots longer than short pitch shots unless one pays to play golf or pays to practice at a driving range or indoor golf training facility. Try not to grip the club too tightly.

Putting can become a nightmare and a condition called the ‘yips’ has affected not only amateurs but professionals as well; get expert advice and consider a golf swing aid. Many golfers who are strongly left-handed in their daily life prefer the right-handed swing.

To prevent injury and improve swing speed and distance requires your body to be both strong and flexible. It’s no secret; most of the professional players actively participate in workouts. The state of the physical condition is very often overlooked as a possible cause of golf swing problems.

Golf swing aids come in all shapes and sizes including apparel type accessories to correct alignment or a club add-on accessory to monitor your swing. Aids can be found online and are often cheaper. There are aids that will help you with swing alignment.

Be careful about the claims on TV commercials and magazine ads; seek expert advice before you buy because they may not live up to their claims. Golf swing aids will improve your game. Golf magazines often review the newest golf swing aids and are reviewed by golfers, making it easy to choose the right one for you.

If you’re looking for an aid to improve your stance they’re not hard to find. Keep in mind that with some golf swing aids, you may still need advice or help from an expert. If you’re a golfing novice just starting out, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.

Whether you’re a seasoned golfer or just starting out, pick just one aid and go to work on your swing. You can find golf swing aids that will help you with your wrist and arm position.

With plenty of practice, a better golf swing will be the end result. Practice, practice, practice! When you play a round of golf, concentrate on improving your golf swing, putting or something specific that day; have a plan in mind.

Helen Hecker
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/sweet-and-easy-golf-swing-tips-115229.html

No matter what area of your game needs improving, whether it’s balance and alignment or power and speed, there’s a solution waiting for you. Many golfers play golf just to hack around and have some fun; more avid players are always looking for ways to improve their swing and their overall game. Hard to believe but there are roughly 27 million golfers in the world today.

If you’ve hit with your golf driver perfectly once, you can do it every time; the subconscious mind knows the correct number and sequence of muscle contractions and nerve impulses needed, called muscle memory. The positive energy you send out will influence your game, just as negative thinking and therefore negative energy will affect it also. Visualize where you would like the ball to land, as you swing.

Accomplished golfers purposely use sidespin to steer their ball around obstacles or towards the safe side of fairways and greens. Before you swing, make sure you’re relaxed; contract all your muscles tightly for a moment and then relax them. Trust your golf club to do the job it was intended to do.

Use the basic ‘hitchhiker’ position when you’re working on your backswing. One of the problems that most inexperienced golfers share is they think too much about their swing. After the ball is hit, the follow-through stage consists of a continued rotation to the left.

Putts and short chips are ideally played without much movement of the body, but most other shots are played using variants of the full golf swing. Many golfers who are strongly left-handed in their daily life prefer the right-handed swing. Sidespin occurs when the clubface is not aligned perpendicularly to the plane of swing.

It’s difficult for a golfer to practice hitting shots longer than short pitch shots unless one pays to play golf or pays to practice at a driving range or indoor golf training facility.

Use the muscles in your legs and trunk when you swing. Conditioning your golf muscles will reward you with straighter swings. To prevent injury and improve swing speed and distance requires your body to be both strong and flexible. Don’t underestimate the value of fitness when it comes to your golf swing and your overall game.

Golf swing aids will improve your game. Most of all don’t waste your money on a golf swing aid you don’t need or will never use. Overall, investing in golf swing aids will greatly improve your swing and your game.

If you’re a golfing novice just starting out, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Look for golf swing aids at your local golf course. Golf swing aids come in all shapes and sizes including apparel type accessories to correct alignment or a golf club add-on accessory to monitor your swing.

Sporting goods stores have aids to improve your game. Whether you’re a seasoned golfer or just starting out, pick just one golf swing aid and go to work on your swing. There are aids that will help you with swing alignment.

If you’re looking for an aid to improve your stance they’re not hard to find. Golf magazines often review the newest golf swing aids and are reviewed by golfers, making it easy to choose the right one for you.

Practice, practice, practice! When you play a round of golf, concentrate on improving your golf swing, putting or something specific that day; have a plan in mind. Try to concentrate on one golf swing weakness at time.

Helen Hecker
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/cure-that-sick-golf-swing-the-easy-way-115096.html

Have you ever thought that choosing right kind of golf balls can work wonders for your golfing skills? Yes! It is true.There are various kind of golf balls available in the market depending on your requirement.You may want to hit the ball for longer distance with little effort on your tee or iron shots or you may choose to have better control on the greens.There are various type of balls to suit your requirement.Of course you will have to practice a lot with patience but you can speed up the improvement in the game if you learn more about golf balls. Here are some of the varieties of golf balls which you may consider worth using.

1.Practice balls
These balls are usually cheap.They can be made of plastic or some soft material so that you do not hurt some body while practicing.Even if you lose them there is no cause to worry. So they should be bought in large quantity.You may practice in your garden or park depending on your convenience.It also eliminates the need to go to the driving range or golf course while you want to practice your swing.Choose good quality practice balls only.

2.Balls for better control
If you have the power but lack accuracy these are just for you.They cut out back spin and make sure that the ball stops at the greens rather than running away from the hole. They will help you hit straighter.No doubt your confidence in the game will improve.They are worth trying.

3. Distance balls
Those who can swing quickly and are struggling with those par five holes will find this type of ball useful.You will be able to hit the distance you have never imagined before.They fly in the air with incredible speed and are usually hi-tech.
Go for it if you want to improve your confidence with distance.

4.Novelty balls
If you are bored with the game and want to break the monotony then go for novelty balls.They come in various colors.Some light up and flash when hit, some are shaped like American footballs.They bring newness to the game and you often enjoy more.So to break the seriousness of the game and to have some fun lets play with novelty balls.

Today the game of golf has become very competitive and any extra edge is always welcome.Investing in golf balls provides good returns in terms of improvement in your game.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/4-types-of-golf-balls-for-your-golfing-needs-231741.html

If there is one aspect of your game that you can improve for very little money, it is choosing the right golf balls. Whilst you cannot improve your game massively without practice, patience and skill, getting the right golf balls can help speed up the process of improvement can give you an edge over your opponents. There are balls for every type of golfer, from those who require better control on the greens to golfers who want that extra bit of distance on their tee and iron shots. Whatever sort of game you have, here are some examples of the best golf balls around that will add something extra to your golf game.

Balls for practice

Getting better at golf is all about practice, and so it is important to have a good stock of practice golf balls to use. These balls still need to be of a good quality, but ones that perhaps you don’t mind losing if shots go wrong. Practice balls are usually cheaper, and so it is advisable to buy them in larger amounts. You can also get softer or basic plastic balls to use in your garden on park to practice shots without damaging property or hurting people around you. These balls are great if you just want to practice your swing without going to the driving range or golf course. Make sure you have a variety of practice balls to help you improve your game.

Balls for added control

There are some golf balls on the market at the moment that are great for those players who need to add control to their game. If you have the power but lack accuracy, choose a golf ball that will help you hit straighter and keep those shots on the fairway. Many balls have the ability to cut out backspin, meaning you can be sure your balls will stop on the greens where you place them rather than running away from the hole.

Balls for distance

Many of the golf balls on the market today are designed to give players more distance than ever before. These balls are hi-tech and can fly through the air at incredible speed. Particularly good for those players who can swing quickly, distance balls will allow you to hit the ball further than you have imagined doing before. If you are struggling with those par 5 holes and need the extra power, then a distance ball is a good choice.

Novelty balls

Not all golf balls are about serious technology and features though. There are plenty of interesting novelty balls on the market as well. From balls that flash and light up when they are hit to balls shaped like American footballs, there is something for everyone in the novelty ball market. If you want to have a little fun with your golf game, then novelty balls are a great item to purchase.

Ronald Piper
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/choose-the-right-golf-balls-for-your-game-114219.html