No matter how much athletic ability or natural talent you have, you still have to practice to become good. Practicing fine-tunes your skills, develops consistency, and builds confidence. It also improves your balance, rhythm, and timing. Look at VJ Singh. One of the world’s best golfers, he practices tirelessly. Many on the tour consider him its iron- man. If you’re serious about reducing your golf handicap, you’ll practice hard, too.

But practicing has its challenges. Time is one. Productivity is another. Boredom is a third. Then there’s the challenge of taking what you practice to the course. It’s not uncommon to hear students taking golf lessons complain of being unable to transfer what they do in practice to the course. That’s a major challenge. You must overcome its challenges to make practice pay off. Below are some golf tips on how to do that.

Planning Is A Key

Most of us are extremely busy. Between our jobs and our families, there’s not much time to practice. To make practice pay off big time, we must get the most from each session. The best way of doing that is to plan your practices. Planning focuses your efforts and directs your activities. Both are key when time is a factor. Your plan doesn’t have to be elaborate. In fact, it can be quite simple. Just make sure you have one.

Also, make sure plan should include objectives for each session. Quantifiable objectives work best. Try to make them course related as well, like cutting down putts per round. And make sure your plan addresses your weaknesses. We all like hitting bombs in practice. But if you hit your irons poorly, you must spend time practicing them, too. Finally, balance your sessions as much as you can, but plan to spend more time on your short game than anything else. Improving it drives down golf handicaps quickly.

Make Practice Fun

Overcoming boredom is among the biggest challenges in practice. It’s a drag doing the same drills over and over again, no matter how effective they are. Vary your practice sessions as much as you possible. Have three or four drills to improve putting and switch off between them every couple of sessions. Also, try working on different aspects of your game at different sessions. Work one session on your short game. Work the next session on your iron play. Change it up. Keep your mind engaged.

Another way to alleviate boredom is by playing games with yourself or with someone else. Use your imagination to invent games. Challenge your foursome your foursome for a drink or just for bragging rights to a putting contest. Better yet, challenge yourself to beat yourself. Tell yourself you’re going to hit five shots to the red flag. Then see how many you hit. Keep track of how many times you do it. Do this over a few months, and then see what your average is.

Work on Realistic Situations

One of the biggest challenges in practicing is translating what you work on to the course. Many golfers complain that they do well in practice, but when it comes to real-life, they fail to make the transition. One way to do that is to practice on grass whenever you can. It’s nice to hit off the mats at the practice range, but it’s not the same as hitting on grass. Hitting on grass also lets you check your divots, which can tell you a lot about how you’re hitting the ball. And practice the way you play. Practice a wedge shot, and then follow it up with a putt, just like you’d do on the course.

Also, work in some realistic game situations in practice sessions. Try chipping over a wading pool in your bag to practice hitting over an obstacle on the course. Vijay Singh hits half his practice shots under game conditions. First, he hits a couple of balls with each club. Then he places himself in a key situation and practices executing the right shot. The more of “realistic” drills you program into your practice sessions, the easier it is to make the transition to the course.

You have to practice to improve your game and develop consistency. But practicing has its challenges—like boredom and time limitations. Learn to dispel these challenges and you’ll make your practice sessions really pay off. That in turn will help you cut your golf handicap down to single digits.

Jack Moorehouse
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/making-practice-pay-off-1017537.html

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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

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Sometimes you have to play when the weather is bad. Unfortunately, the USGA makes no specific provisions for “winter play,” as it’s called. There’s also nothing in the rules about the lift, clean, and place practice used on the PGA tour when it’s wet. Meanwhile, playing in bad weather adds strokes to scores and golf handicap, if you’re not careful. But you can save the strokes, if you know when and how to take appropriate relief.

The USGA prefers players play the ball as it lies. What’s more, most golf lessons or golf instruction sessions don’t cover winter play—leaving many players guessing what to do when they play in bad weather. Sometimes players make up their own rules to cover certain situations. That’s not appropriate. If you’re brave enough to play in bad weather, you should follow the rules as closely as possible. Here are some golf tips that may help you do that.

Check Out Local Rules

Appendix I of the USGA rulebook provides for local rules when playing in bad weather. Check them out. In fact, check out the local rules of any course you’re not familiar with. It’s good information to know before teeing off. Other than that, the key USGA rule concerning bad weather is Rule 25, which covers abnormal ground conditions.

You also need to read up on the procedures covering casual water—defined as an “accumulation of water on the course visible before or after a player takes his stance.” Simply put, if your ball lies in casual water or you must stand in casual water to play the ball, you get relief. The rule doesn’t apply to water hazards or later water hazards. But water that overflows beyond the hazard’s margin is considered casual water.

To take relief, determine the nearest point to your lie that allows for complete relief from the water, but not nearer the hole. Then drop the ball one club length from this spot. The club you use to measure should be the club you intend to use to play the next shot. Your drop may not be on the putting green or in a hazard. Also, you can clean your ball.

Abnormal Ground Conditions

Relief from abnormal ground conditions in a hazard or on the green is slightly different from that above. In a hazard you must take your drop within the hazard. You can drop outside the hazard, but it costs you a stroke. If a bunker is filled with water and the ball rolls into the water no matter where you drop it, you have two choices. After two drops, you can place it in the bunker outside the collected water, or you can take the penalty.

If there’s water on the green you may place the ball at the nearest relief point, even if it is off the putting surface. You can get relief from casual water that’s in the intended line of your putt, but you can’t mop up dew or water on the intended line of your putt. If you’re off the green and there’s casual water on your intended line, that’s tough luck. You can’t mop it up.

Rule on Embedded Balls

 Another important rule to know is the embedded ball provision of Rule 25. It says that if the ball plugs in your own pitch mark, you can lift, clean, and drop it, but not if you’re in the rough. Also, you can’t have someone else protect your head while taking a shot. But you can hold an umbrella over your head and hit.

If you serious about cutting strokes from your golf handicap, you’ll keep these golf tips in mind next time you play in bad weather. They provide relief and can save strokes. Also, check the local rules. They can also provide relief as well.

Jack Moorehouse
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/stop-bad-weather-from-boosting-your-golf-handicap-1009396.html

So youve always wanted to play golf but your boss never asked you on a game before? Don’t worry. Everybody can and should enjoy this wonderful sport. Sure, golf can be expensive and hard to learn but if you know what you’re doing you’re up for the time of your life.

When you want to play basketball all you need is’ well’ a basket, and a ball. But golf requires more equipment than just a ball. Like in any sports, golf equipment spins an entire industry and you can find anything from clubs to gloves, and they usually come with a nice price tag.

So here’s Tip No.1: Don’t spend all your kids’ college money on equipment until you know how to play and if you want to play. Don’t buy a 5000 dollar manatee leather club (it’s illegal!) instead, go for mid range sports manufacturers that sell 100 dollar clubs.

Even if you are a pro on the Pirate Mini Golf and you beat your children every time – it doesn’t mean you know how to golf. Tip No.2 will be: take golf lessons. You’ll find group lessons with golfers in your skill range and you might make friends to golf with. There are also individual lessons with a private instructor or your town’s pro golfer. While private lessons focus on your individual skills, they can be quite expensive and take more time than group lessons. Remember that after you get the basics – the real lessons are on the field.

Tip No.3 is to continue practicing at home. No, not in your back yard. Golf has much to do with technique and watching instructional videos can help a lot. You can also go online and find many tips and clips that can improve your game.

Tips No. 4, 5, 6 : Grip, posture and stance. The three essentials of golf. Grip means how you hold the club and the better you grip the better you play. Posture leads to a proper swing and maintaining balance is essential. Having a stable golf stance and footing will help you control the ball and get it where you want it to go.

If you don’t want golf balls flying at your direction, you better know Golf Etiquette and that’s our Tip No.7 ! Golf Etiquette covers the basic golfer’s code that will ensure everybody is having a pleasant time whether they are pros or amateur golfers. Golf Etiquette urges you to be patient and respect your fellow golfers; speak in normal voice and don’t shout or laugh too loud; check your ball number to avoid winning (or loosing) someone else’s game; don’t stand too close to the swing zone of other players and the list goes on and on.

Tip No. 8 is to simplify your golf learning process and get the reinforcement you need to sustain the positive advances you make. Work on your swing and short game, and dive deep into the mental aspect of the game, shoring up any weak links you may have found difficult to hurdle with previous instructional techniques.

Mark Etinger
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/how-to-start-playing-golf-8-winning-tips-for-amateur-golfers-1170243.html

Golf has become one of the most popular hobbies to really stand the test of time. There are people in all countries and from every different walk of life who enjoy a good game of golf and who are always looking for ways to improve their game. Golf instruction video programs are a really terrific way for people to gain the training and instruction that they need to become better golfers.

While having golfing lessons under the tutelage of a professional golf instructor can be very beneficial, as well as discussing golf improvement tips with fellow golfers, many feel there is something especially helpful about using instruction video tapes as learning aids. Because of their effectiveness, golfing lessons on video or DVDs nowadays, have become more and more popular since they were first introduced.

Even professional golf instructors who teach golfing lessons for a living acknowledge that there are several advantages to golf instruction video programs that other types of golf instruction cannot match. There are four primary advantages to the golf training videos that stand out and are often the biggest selling points of these types of golf training aids.

Instructional video programs provide visual learning and this is very important to many people. There is a great deal of research that proves when people engage their senses of both sight and sound, they tend to learn better and faster and they retain the information much better. Also, most beginning golfers, and even those who are experienced, tend to prefer to see golf swing improvement techniques demonstrated, as opposed to simply reading about the method being taught.

The second reason why golf training videos are popular, as well as advantageous, is because they are more accessible to more people. They can save people a lot of money as compared to hiring a golf pro for a series of golf lessons, which typically will cost somewhere in the range of $50 to $150 per lesson. Instead, a DVD golf instruction program can deliver the same information but at a small fraction of the price. As a bonus, you can always go back and review any lesson at any time without having to dig into your wallet again to pay for a brush-up lesson.

The third advantage of buying instructional videos is that you can make the most of technology and stop and rewind the video at any point, which is not something that is possible in the presence of a live instructor, especially if you are taking group golfing lessons, as opposed to individual instruction. Being able to rewind and review any part of a particular lesson, or the entire lesson, helps to improve learning and retention through repetition.

The fourth major benefit to using instructional video programs is being able to take advantage of the unique technologies of video production that can be applied to instruction. Golf training videos can utilize many helpful presentation techniques to enhance explanations and present the information more effectively. It is common to see golf videos that use inserts, split screens, close up views, and 3D, computer generated graphics to teach the fundamentals of golf.

While these are the four biggest advantages to using golf instruction video programs, if you surveyed people who have used them, then you would probably find several other benefits that they have enjoyed from this approach as well. Because the teaching style is different from one instructor to another, you might want to see if there is a pro shop or a website that allows you to view sample lessons before purchasing an entire program.

MIKE SELVON
http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/the-benefits-of-golf-instruction-video-programs-590581.html

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