Many amateur golfers think that putting backspin on a golf ball is something only professionals can do. However, if you are interested in learning how to get some spin on your shots, you certainly can.

Even high handicap golfers can spin the ball. When I was younger, all of my golf shots had a forward spin. I prepared for it and expected it, but it still made accuracy more difficult.

Eventually, I learned how to put backspin on the ball, and it made all the difference from an accuracy standpoint. Here is how I did it…

Why Putting Backspin on The Ball Is an Important Skill to Learn in Golf

When you put backspin on a ball, it can help control the direction as well as the distance of the golf shots you hit. When backspin can be added to your shots, you can truly plan where the ball is going to end up.

Without backspin, all of your shorts will have a forward roll. With the forward roll, there is very little way to ensure your ball finishes next to the hole.

When I started getting backspin on my shots, I noticed that I had shorter putts for birdie and par. In addition, I made quite a few more par saves because I was good at getting myself up and down.

Lastly, from 100 to 200 yards in with iron approach shots, I could not pick areas on the green where I wanted to land the ball and benefit from the slope. In the past, the ball would roll through, but now I could land the shot on the high side of the green and have it roll down toward the pin.

Backspin helps you score.

How to Put Backspin on a Golf Ball: 6 Tips

Some of getting backspin on your shots are controlled by you, and some are from outside influences. Here are six tips to help put backspin on a golf ball.

1. Choose The Correct Lie

As great as backspin is, it cannot be used anywhere on the golf course. The first step in this process is to analyze the lie you have and make sure it is correct for attempting to get backspin. The way I like to think about this is whether or not the golf ball and the clubface will have a clean interaction.

If the face of the club and the golf ball can connect with each other with nothing in between, backspin is a possibility.

When the face of the club and the golf ball has grass or even water that will impact their connection, the chances of backing the ball up can be smaller. When you are trying to get backspin on shots around the green, make sure that the ball is in a lie with shorter grass.

In addition, lies where there is a major slope involved, your ball is in a divot, or you are hitting out of thicker grass, don’t expect much spin.

2. Steepen The Angle of Attack

When your angle of attack is steep, it is much easier to get spin on the ball.

Shallow golf swings are great for long distances, penetrating ball flight, and even a bit of a draw on your golf shots. However, most draw spin is a forward roll, and it doesn’t back up.

To get a golf ball to spin back, you must steepen the angle of attack. I don’t like to think about this too much with my short irons because I feel it changes the swing more than I would like. However, around the greens, I often think about being steeper with my angle of attack and allowing that to stop the ball on the green.

With the wedges on shorter shots where I want a little spin, I feel like the club comes up a little on the takeaway. Instead of it getting wrapped around, I feel a little more upright, and it leads to a steep angle of attack and more spin.

3. Play with a High Spin Golf Ball

A high spin golf ball can help improve the chance of creating backspin in your shots. Something like a Titleist Pro V1 has a much higher chance of spinning than a Callaway Supersoft. The higher-spinning golf balls have a cover that is more reactive, and the grooves on the face combine with the cover on the ball to increase overall spin.

When I switch out the golf ball in my game to try something new, the first thing I will look at is how well it spins around the green. If the golf ball does not spin well, I won’t keep it in play.

If I switch from a four or even five-piece ball down to a two or three-piece ball, the most significant difference I see in performance is the spin.

4. Increase Clubhead Speed a Bit

You have to have enough clubhead speed to get a higher spin rate. Golfers often try to think about having a smooth and easy swing but sometimes, to get the right amount of spin, you will need speed.

Don’t be afraid to get aggressive with your approach shots and your shots around the green. A downward angle of attack combined with some speed will get your golf ball spinning backward.

I never like to think too much about speeding up as it throws off other things in the game at times. However, I can have the thought of being more aggressive to create high spin. I work on getting my weight towards my front foot and ensuring I hit down and through the ball with some extra speed. This helps improve the accuracy and the overall spin on the golf shot.

5. Improve Friction Between Clubface and The Ball

To improve friction between the clubface and the ball, you need to ensure nothing is blocking the ball from interacting on the grooves of your club head.

Simply put: clean your golf clubs!

Playing with dirty clubs makes no sense. There are plenty of cleaning tools on the market to help you get the face of the club clean and the groove clear. Golf grooves need to interact with the dimples if you are going to get backspin.

I see many amateurs make this mistake with their wedges. They think because there are no clumps of dirt on the wedge that it’s good to go. Take a tee and clean the grooves out to ensure that they are clear.

6. Check The Grooves on The Clubhead

Lastly, ensure that the grooves on your golf club are still in good shape. In addition, some golf wedges are better at producing backspin (especially from the rough) than others.

Every year golf manufacturers make improvements to their equipment that help increase overall spin rates. If you are not taking advantage of this and are still hitting wedge shots with a 13-year-old wedge, it may be time to change things up.

Some golf clubs can be regrooved if they are old and need some help to get the grooves back to their original condition. However, for others, it’s just time to make a change.

Best Situations to Use Backspin

Backspin is very often a great help in your game. However, there are times when it is unnecessary. For instance, I would not want my driver to back up. I’m doing all I can to get that one to spin forwards! Here are some times when backspin can help, and you should focus on trying to get more of it in your game.

Short Chips

Hitting short chips around the greens usually means that you don’t have much green to work with. If you need a ball to land on the surface of the putting green and then stop, then you need some backspin.

On longer chips, less backspin is fine because the ball can roll partly to the hole. Ensure that with your short chips, you are being aggressive, you trap the ball a little and hit down and through.

Approach Shots to Fast Greens

Personally, I like having backspin on all of my approach shots to the greens. However, when you are playing faster greens, a higher spin rate is beneficial. With fast greens, its hard to get the ball to stop, as it just continues to roll when it makes contact with the turf.

Hitting a shot with a higher spin rate and fresh grooves certainly increases your chance of being more accurate. Professional golfers would be in a world of trouble without backspin on their iron shots, and wedge shots, the fast greens on the PGA Tour are very difficult to hold without spin.

Sand Trap Shots

Finally, it’s important to have spin on sand shots around the greens. The most important thing when hitting out of a bunker is the ability to be aggressive. If you can hit sand trap shots out of a bunker and be aggressive, you will get the ball to stop on the green and never worry about having to hit out of the bunker a second time.

The great thing about developing backspin out of a bunker is that if you have a clean lie, you can generate spin even easier than you can out of the grass.

Brittany Olizarowicz

Britt O has been playing golf since the age of 7. Almost 30 years later, she still loves the game, has played competitively on every level, and spent a good portion of her life as a Class A PGA Professional. Britt currently resides in Savannah, GA, with her husband and two young children.

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Slices suck. 

They cause you to lose distance, accuracy, and your temper… yet most golfers don’t know how to fix a slice.

It doesn’t matter how many chipping or putting drills you do… if you can’t hit the fairway, it’s tough to play great golf.

What causes a slice?

The most common cause of a slice is an outside-in swing path. This means that through the initial part of your downswing, your club is outside the line of the ball (or further away from you than it should be).

In order to make contact with the ball, you compensate by swinging the club from outside the line of the ball, to inside this line.

Combine this with an open club face, which comes from a natural instinct to counteract your outside-in swing path, and you’ll have your ball spinning through the air like a ping-pong ball (and probably going OB).

How to fix a slice?

If this sounds like you, you probably watch players hit long, controlled draws and wonder how in the hell they do it. Fortunately, there are simple solutions that you can use to fix your slice.

These 7 simple steps will show you how to fix your slice and start hitting straighter golf shots.

The steps are ranked in order: 1 being the easiest to implement, 7 taking the most practice to perfect.

For the purpose of this article, we’ll assume you’re a right hander. If you’re a lefty, just flip the directions and use the same steps.

Step 1: Don’t Aim Left!

The Problem

We all know the feeling: you crush one off the tee and see it flying down the middle of the fairway.

Gradually, it starts to fade right. This fade becomes a slice, and before you know it the ball is sailing off into the thickest group of trees on the course.

A common response for golfers who regularly slice their drives is to aim left.

Of course, this makes sense: if you’re confident your ball will move significantly left to right, aim left.

Unfortunately, this only makes the problem worse, as the player is then forced to continually make the same mistake in order to keep the ball in play. This reinforces a bad habit, something we don’t want to do.

The Solution

Aim straight!

Play as though you’re going to hit your good shot. Maybe your best shots still fade a little – so be it.

Many PGA Tour professionals prefer to hit fades. If this is the case, sure, aim left.

Make sure when you aim left, though, that we’re talking left side of the fairway – not 50 yards into the rough.

If your best shots go dead straight, aim that way, and if you sometimes hit a little fade, play for it. You don’t want to encourage bad habits.

You might be surprised how often you play the shot you set up for.

Step 2: Position Your Golf Ball Properly in Your Setup

The Problem

Of all the causes of a slice, this is perhaps the most simple one to notice.

Many players have the ball too far forward in their stance (meaning too far toward the target).

This will inevitably result in an outside-in swing path, as the golfer will be reaching for the ball, and won’t be able to properly release the club (see Step 7) prior to impact.

The Solution

Move the ball further back in your stance.

This is an simple solution to fixing a golf slice, and one that can have an immediate impact.

Slide the ball a little further back in your stance, and you’ll find you can swing much more naturally. How do you know where in your stance to position the ball? If you’re hitting a driver, the club which is most likely to cause a devastating slice, the ball should be slightly inside your left heel.

Step 3: Take Note of your Divots

The Problem

As has been covered, when you hit a slice, generally your club has travelled on an outside-in swing path through your downswing.

A great way to know check your swing path after hitting an iron shot from the fairway is to check your divot, it will be pointing to the left of your target, reflective of the right to left path of your club.

The Solution

This step is not so much a tip to fix your slice as a great way to recognize why you hit one.

Take note of your divots.

They can provide you with vital information about why you just hit a slice, and more importantly, how severe your outside-in swing path was.

As you begin following these steps, and move closer to consistently crushing shots straight down the middle, use these divots as a performance marker.

Gradually, your divot will begin to point closer and closer to the target, and you can take this as a sure sign that you’re improving your swing habits.

Step 4: Fix your grip

The Problem

The 4th step to eliminating your slice comes before you swing.

A proper golf grip is a guaranteed way to get more control over your golf shots.

Many slicers will find that their left hand (assuming a right handed golfer) is too far underneath the club at the point of set up. This inevitably opens the club face, and contributes to your slice.

The Solution

To combat this issue, rotate your left hand clockwise until you can see three of its knuckles.

This stronger grip will enable you to keep the club face in the correct position through the point of impact, and contribute to eliminating your slice.

If you’re not 100% confident in your hand positioning, don’t panic. There are special molded grip trainers that can assist. They are molded to instruct you where your hands, fingers and thumbs need to be positioned.

Some even combine a grip trainer with a tempo trainer like this one:

It’s the perfect tool to keep next to your desk or anywhere you want to get some extra practice swings in.

Step 5: Keep Your Elbow Tucked in During Your Backswing

The Problem

Now let’s focus on your swing.

What we want to do is to avoid starting your downswing from outside the ideal swing path.

So how do you fix a slice swing?

Fix your back swing.

The simplest way to do this is to focus on your right elbow (again, assuming a right handed golfer).

If you are a chronic slicer, you will likely find that your right elbow flares out, away from your body during your backswing.

This forces the club high and away from you, and causes you to pull it back across the ideal swing path during your downswing.

This movement will impart left to right spin on the ball, while the excessively steep downswing will send the ball much higher than you want it, resulting in a loss of both control and distance.

The Solution

During your backswing, try to keep your right elbow as close to your body as possible.

Though it may initially feel uncomfortable, it will force you to keep your club on a better swing path throughout the backswing, allowing you to swing straight through the line of the ball on your downswing and follow through.

Golf Slice Towel Drill: Hold a towel between your right elbow and body throughout your swing.  This will force you to keep your elbow in throughout your swing.

Another way to make sure your swing path is straight is with a swing path trainer, like this one:

It’s great for practice swings at home and the perfect tool at the range to get instant feedback on your swing path.

Combine it with the towel drill mentioned above and you’ll be shocked at how straight you can hit the ball.

Step 6: Transfer Your Weight

The Problem

Transferring your weight during a golf swing is a relatively simple concept, yet many players are not doing it correctly.

On the most basic level, your weight should move more towards your back foot as you swing back, then return towards your front foot as you begin your downswing and hit the ball.

A common mistake amateur golfers make is to transfer their weight onto their back foot during the backswing, and leave it there through the downswing and follow-through.

Leaving your weight on your back foot causes you to open your club face, and swing outside the line of the ball.

This often occurs with players who are also not properly releasing the club (see Step 7).

The perfect recipe for a big slice.

The Solution

Learn how to properly transfer your weight during your golf swing.

A simple way to practice this is to place something next to your front foot, and touching your left thigh during your set up. This can be a golf bag, or any object which will stand up straight and reach your thigh.

As you swing back, your thigh will move away from this object slightly, indicating the transfer of weight towards your back foot.

As you begin your downswing, if you properly transfer your weight your thigh will again come into contact with the object.

If you leave your weight on your back foot, your thigh will stay separated from the object, and you will likely see your ball swinging out to the right with a big slice.

Step 7: Release the Club Prior to Impact

The Problem

Releasing your club is often the final step in fixing your slice.

“Releasing” refers to rotating your forearms through impact with the ball.

You might not be aware of it, but at some point during your swing you will rotate your right hand, wrist, and arm over your left – it’s impossible to complete a follow-through without doing it.

The problem many slicers have is that they don’t do it until far too late, meaning the club face is far too open when you strike the ball.

This can not only cause the ball to spray out to the right, but also contributes to the left to right spin which creates a slice.

The Solution

There is only a split second between timely forearm release – and a straight drive – and a forearm release which comes too late, which means developing a proper release can take some practice.

A proper release is one of the most important to get right because  while incorporating 7 of these simple slice fixes will help you get rid of the dreaded slice, if you continually release the club too late your results will remain inconsistent.

A great drill to practice releasing the club happens to be a pretty enjoyable one:

Take an old club to a wide open space, preferably with no people around.

Imitate your normal swing, however as you feel your right hand and forearm rotate over the left, let go of the club completely.

Send it flying (told you it’d be fun)!

Most likely, you will end up releasing it way up in the air and to the left, maybe even over your left shoulder.

This is because your release occurred too late.

The idea is to throw the club in the direction of your target, while maintaining an actual golf swing.

When you can do this, do it again. Then do it again, and again, and again, until it feels natural.

Follow these simple steps to fix your slice and start hitting straighter golf shots!

For most chronic slicers, a number of these problems will be applicable.

Fortunately, many of them are interrelated, meaning if you focus on solving one, others will naturally follow.

For example: if you position the ball correctly in your stance, you will automatically find it easier to release the club at the right time, and likewise if you properly transfer your weight.

Another important thing to remember is that, in attempting to fix your slice, you don’t need to develop a draw.

Many professionals often play a fade.

As the great Lee Trevino once said, “you can talk to a fade but a hook won’t listen”.

You simply need to reduce the amount of movement on your ball enough that you can justify calling your shot a fade, rather than a slice.

From there, you can work on developing a draw.

These changes may feel strange at first… stick with them!

You’ll be smashing drives down the middle of the fairway in no time.

August Noble

August Noble was first introduced to golf at 7 years old. In 2013 he started seriously working on his game and was able to reduce his handicap from 19 to 3.4 in less than two years. He’s been helping other golfers do the same ever since.

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I remember being confused by all the talk about launch angles when I first started playing golf. Though it’s important to understand launch angles, it can be quite overwhelming.

Which golf club launches the ball the highest? And does loft really matter? We answer these questions and more here.

Which Golf Club Has The Highest Launch Angle?

Out of all the golf clubs in your golf bag, the one with the highest launch angle is the lob wedge. A standard lob wedge has anywhere from 58 to 64 degrees of loft, depending on the golf club manufacturer. 

Though lots of amateur golfers only carry a pitching wedge and a sand wedge in their bags, every golfer on the PGA Tour uses a lob wedge regularly during tournaments. Pros usually hit their lob wedges between 75 and 95 yards.

Golfers use a lob wedge when they are fairly close to the green and want to hit a high shot that lands softly near the pin. Another optimal time to hit a lob wedge is when you are trying to get your golf ball over a tall tree.

The Importance of Launch Angle

Why all the talk in golf about launch angle? Because it strongly affects how far the golf ball will travel, especially when hitting your driver off the tee.

Still confused? Think about it this way. Have you ever really crushed a drive off the tee but had the golf ball teed up too high? It is so frustrating!

Though the ball may have felt great coming off the sweet spot of the clubface, the extremely high launch angle caused your shot to go high up in the air but not far enough down the fairway. Needless to say, you probably wished you would have teed the ball just a tad bit lower.

The reverse can also be true. You don’t want a launch angle that is too low because the golf ball will fall to the ground too quickly. This also causes a loss of distance.

Causes of a High Launch Angle

Lots of things can cause a golfer to hit the ball with too high of a launch angle. Thankfully, with lots of practice, any of these common flaws can be corrected rather easily.

1. Poor Balance / Footwork

One of the main causes of a launch angle that is too high is poor balance and footwork during the swing. For example, if a golfer keeps too much weight on their back foot during the swing, the result will usually be a ball flight that is too high. 

A good way to remedy this problem is to practice hitting shots with all of your weight on your front leg. This will help you get used to hitting the ball with most of your weight pressing toward your front foot. The best way to improve your shot trajectory is to improve your balance and footwork during your swing.

2. Hitting Behind the Golf Ball

If you are constantly launching your shots at a steep angle, you may be hitting slightly behind the golf ball. This will cause a high launch angle and a loss of precious clubhead speed. Less swing speed means less ball speed and a loss of distance.

If you suffer from this common problem, work on keeping your hands ahead of the golf ball through impact. This will help lower your launch angle and allow you to hit the ball a bit further.

3. Using a Shaft that is Too Flexible

The type of shaft on your golf clubs can have a profound impact on your launch angle. Most off-the-shelf shafts have a lot of flex in them to help high handicappers get the ball into the air more easily. 

As a general rule, shafts that have more flex in them promote a higher launch angle. If your launch angle is too high, experiment with using a staff that is stiffer. This could help lower your launch angle tremendously and will add more mph to your swing speed.

Wedges With The Highest Loft

We already mentioned that the lob wedge has the highest loft of any club in your bag. Here is a list of the wedges with the highest loft (from highest to lowest).

Sand Wedge

The club with the second-highest amount of loft is the ever so lovable sand wedge. The sand wedge has slightly less loft than the lob wedge. Most amateur golfers will hit their sand wedge about 80 yards.

As its name suggests, the sand wedge is mainly used to get the ball out of a sand trap. Most sand wedges have a loft between 54 and 58 degrees.

Gap Wedge

A gap wedge is often called the A-wedge or approach wedge by some golfers. It has a loft of 51 to 53 degrees. When hit correctly, the majority of golfers will hit their gap wedge about 100 yards.

Pitching Wedge

The pitching wedge is the lowest lofted wedge in the bag. It’s a popular choice for approach shots that are 110 to 120 yards away from the green. 

A pitching wedge is a crucial tool for chipping and pitching. Most pitching wedges have a loft of 46 to 48 degrees.

Irons With The Highest Loft

Now that we covered the lofts of all the wedges, are you curious about the loft in your set of irons? Here is a handy list that includes each iron, its degrees of loft, and how far the average golfer can hit each club.

As you can see from the list, there is a direct relationship between the degrees of loft and the total yardage. More loft means higher trajectories but less yardage.

How to Raise or Lower Your Launch Angle

Want to raise or lower your launch angle? Here are the variables that you can change to do either.

1. Pay Attention to Shoulder Tilt

The angle of your shoulders while addressing the golf ball has a big impact on your launch angle. To raise your launch angle, lower your right shoulder slightly. To lower your launch angle, keep your right shoulder a little bit higher.

2. Check How High You Tee The Ball

Remember our story about teeing up the ball too high? It affects your launch angle. To increase your launch angle, tee the ball up higher. To decrease your launch angle, tee the ball up lower.

3. Experiment with Your Ball Position

Want to raise your launch angle? Play the ball more toward the heel of your front foot. This will help you help hit up on the ball when hitting your driver.

Want to lower your launch angle? Play the ball a little bit further back in your stance. This will decrease your angle of attack.

4. Get a New Driver

All of the new drivers on the market allow you to adjust the degrees of loft. This makes it easier than ever to raise or lower your launch angle.

Most driver brands offer an adjustable range of 9 to 12 degrees. Just be sure to not lose the little tool that allows you to make these adjustments.

Mike Noblin

Mike has been involved with sports for over 30 years. He’s been an avid golfer for more than 10 years and is obsessed with watching the Golf Channel and taking notes on a daily basis. He also holds a degree in Sports Psychology.

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If you are new to the game of golf, you may be curious to know why each golf ball you buy has a number on it.

In this article, we’ll help shed some light on this and go into some further detail about the numbers on golf balls.

What The Number on a Golf Ball Means

The main reason that manufacturers put numbers on golf balls is to help golfers properly identify their ball while on the golf course. It’s not uncommon for two or more players in a group to play the same brand of golf ball. 

69 of the Top 100 professional golfers on the PGA Tour play a Titleist Pro V1 or Pro V1x. That stat alone shows the importance of having a different identification number on each golf ball if at all possible. 

Golfers never want to hit the wrong golf ball during a round. If this happens, it results in a costly two-stroke penalty for the golfer who struck the wrong ball. That can ruin a golfer’s scorecard just as easily as a double bogey!

When buying brand new golf balls, you may see a number on them that is anywhere from 1 to 3 digits. Here is some insight as to what those digits mean.

One-Digit Number

Most golf balls have a single-digit number on them that is placed right underneath the brand name. This is put on the golf ball purely for identification purposes. The number is put there to help golfers avoid careless penalties during their rounds.

Here’s how having a single-digit number on a golf ball can come in handy. Let’s assume that you and one of your playing partners both play yellow Bridgestone E6 golf balls since this type of golf ball helps limit slicing.

It would be nearly impossible to tell the difference between your playing partner’s ball and your ball. This is where having different numbers on the golf balls helps. You and your partner will simply let each other know on the first tee what the number is on the ball that you are hitting.

Most golf ball manufacturers put either a 1, 2, 3 or 4 on their golf balls. In rare instances, some companies will put a number from 0 to 9 on their golf balls. 

Most brands use colors that are red or black for the numbers. Most companies will even let you customize the number that is on your golf balls for a small fee.

Two-Digit Number

Golf balls with a double-digit number show their respective compression rating. What does compression rating mean? It’s simply a way to measure the hardness level of a golf ball.

A golf ball with a lower compression rating of 60 to 80 is usually best for a beginner golfer or folks with a slower swing speed. Golf balls with a higher compression rating are better suited for male golfers or people with a fast swing speed. A simple way to remember this is that higher numbers mean a higher amount of hardness.

Not many brands print compression ratings on golf balls anymore. That was a popular trend back in the 1990s, but it’s no longer relevant in the game of golf today.

Three-Digit Number

Have you ever seen a golf ball with a triple-digit number on it? The three digits are letting you know the number of dimples on the golf ball. Most golf balls that use this feature have a dimple pattern of between 300 and 400 dimples.

It should be noted that if you see a golf ball with 100 on it, it’s not referring to the number of dimples but the compression rating. 

A golf ball with more dimples isn’t necessarily better than a golf ball with fewer dimples. For the most part, this is just a marketing tactic used by golf ball manufacturers. 

What to Do if You Have The Same Brand and Number Golf Ball as Your Golf Partner

Every once in a while, you and one of your playing partners may opt to use the same brand of golf ball with the same number on it. When this happens, you simply need to find a way to make a clear differentiation between the two golf balls. How would you go about doing this?

The best way to do this is with a permanent marker. Many golfers take a Sharpie and draw a smiley face or their favorite symbol on their golf ball for good luck. Other golfers prefer to mark out whatever number is on the ball and write their favorite number on it instead.

Another simple fix is to keep the same brand of golf ball but try a different sleeve from the dozen. With most brands, they assign a different number to each of the four sleeves in the box. You could also ask your playing partner to pull a golf ball from a different sleeve if they have any extra.

Mike Noblin

Mike has been involved with sports for over 30 years. He’s been an avid golfer for more than 10 years and is obsessed with watching the Golf Channel and taking notes on a daily basis. He also holds a degree in Sports Psychology.

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Did you know that putting is the most important part of the game of golf?

Think about it. Most strokes are spent on the putting green than anywhere else on the golf course.

Putting form is an important part of the putting equation. How you position your body to the ball can lead to more efficiency and consistency. Here are a few tips for finding the proper ball position during putting.

Where to Position The Ball When Putting

There are several schools of thought when it comes to finding the ideal place to position the golf ball when putting. Some PGA professionals teach their proteges to always place the ball in the middle of the putting stance. They argue that for maximum putting accuracy, you need to make contact with the golf ball at the bottom arc of your putting stroke.

The other common place of alignment during putting is a little bit forward of the center of your stance. Some teachers claim that catching the ball on the upstroke of the swing path will result in a higher amount of precision and consistency.

Not a lot of golfers believe in placing the golf ball behind the middle of the stance while putting. Choosing to place the ball in this position means that you’ll make contact with the ball before your swing has bottomed out. This will usually result in a descending blow and the wrong amount of ball speed.

What Happens if You Stand Too Far Away From The Golf Ball

One of the fundamentals of putting is to make sure you are standing the proper distance away from the golf ball. For most golfers, it is best to position the golf ball right under your eyes. An easy way to do this is to use your putter’s shaft as a measuring tool.

Standing too far away from the golf ball will often cause you to use an in-to-out swing path. This almost always results in putts that are pushed out to the right of the hole.

Standing too close to the golf ball also causes inaccurate putts. When a golfer stands too close to the ball, it can cause lots of misses to the left of the hole. This is because this type of stance promotes an out-to-in swing path.

When to Change You’re Ball Position in Your Putting Stance

Most amateurs prefer to keep the position of the ball the same in their putting stance regardless of the situation. There is nothing wrong with this line of thinking because it keeps things simple on the greens. 

However, some golfers like to change their ball position based on a variety of factors. During the following circumstances, a golfer may want to experiment with a different ball position. 

No matter what ball position you choose, remember to always spread your feet out until they are shoulder-width apart. You can change a lot of variables in your putting stroke, but the width of your stance shouldn’t be one of them.

Close to Hole vs. Further Away

Lots of golfers like to change their ball position based on the length of the putt. For short putts, they’ll elect to play the ball a little forward of center. 

A lot of folks feel that this strategy keeps them from hitting the ball too hard on short putts. There is nothing more annoying than blasting your ball past the hole on a short five-foot putt! Since this ball placement causes contact on the upstroke, there should be a little less ball speed.

To that same point, some golfers prefer to play the ball from the center of their stance when faced with longer putts. This helps make sure they strike the ball at the low point of their swing plane. This should result in more ball speed than playing the ball a little past the center of the stance.

Incline vs. Decline

Another common situation that may warrant a change in ball position is whether the putt is uphill or downhill. Uphill putts call for an aggressive stroke. After all, when facing an incline you have to make sure that you use enough ball speed to get the ball to the hole.

When looking at an uphill putt, opt to play the ball in the center of your stance. This will ensure that you get enough oomph on the putt.

Downhill putts are an entirely different animal. These types of putts with a severe decline slope are incredibly difficult, even for golfers on the PGA Tour.

The best ball position to choose for downhill putts is one that is slightly past the center of your stance. You may even want to go an inch or two more toward your front foot for these types of putts. This will help you strike the golf ball with just enough tempo.

The goal with downhill putts is to not smack the ball way past the hole. Try your best to avoid a three-putt at all costs because nothing will wreck a scorecard faster.

A Couple of Putting Tips To Help You Improve on the Greens

1. Pay Attention to Your Grip Pressure

All golfers have to experiment to find the right amount of grip pressure. You never want to choke the putter by gripping it too tightly. This will cause you to have a jabbing type of putting stroke that is wild and inaccurate.

On the other hand, you don’t want to grip the putter too loosely either. Grip the shaft tight enough so that you feel in control of your swing. On a grip pressure scale of 1 to 10, you want to be at about a 4 with both the right hand and the left hand.

2. Practice a Pendulum Stroke When Putting

To make sure you are using the correct amount of tempo while putting, keep your knees bent while practicing a pendulum stroke. To do this, focus on taking the putter’s face straight back during the backswing and straight through on the downswing.

The pendulum stroke will help you keep most of your putts on your target line. When this happens, you’ll start making more birdie putts! 

Mike Noblin

Mike has been involved with sports for over 30 years. He’s been an avid golfer for more than 10 years and is obsessed with watching the Golf Channel and taking notes on a daily basis. He also holds a degree in Sports Psychology.

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The other day I got an email from a reader asking where to focus their eyes when hitting a golf ball. I thought about it for a while because I focus my attention on the impact zone at address. I go into autopilot, and follow my pre-shot routine, then induce my golf swing.

The reality is that your eyes should follow your clubhead from impact through to the top of your upswing. That helps you get your body in a position that launches the ball high along your target line.

In this post, I will explain where you can focus to maximize your power, distance, and accuracy.

Does Eye Focus Impact Your Shot?

Where you focus your attention does not necessarily determine the outcome of your shot. Of course, that is prompted by the position of your clubface relative to the target line through impact. However, it does help you focus on achieving the desired shot shape and flight.

Look at it as a golfer’s meditation. You clear your mind of every thought and envision the shot you intend to play. This eliminates negative thoughts of poor shot execution and landing in the drink or bunker. Instead, it offers clear vision and puts you into the zone.

My vision work focuses directly behind the equator of the golf ball. This aligns my eyes with the impact zone, precisely where I wish to see the sweet spot of the clubface before contact. From there, I follow the clubhead to the top of my upswing. This motion produces optimal launch, and I find it is easier to clear my hips through impact.

Should I Keep My Head Down?

My late father always preached to keep my head down and follow-through, which confused me. When I kept my head down and followed through I consistently hooked the ball. That is because it felt awkward clearing my hips through impact.

As I gained more experience, I realized it helped to keep my head still on my backswing and downswing. However, when the clubhead reached the impact zone, I turned my high visual acuity to the clubhead. I would watch the clubface strike the ball and follow it in the air. This requires optimal timing of your body movement to keep every element synchronized.

Not only did this improve my consistency, but it also made it easier to find my ball. Especially when I generated a slice into the left-hand rough.

Therefore, I suggest keeping your head down until your clubhead reaches the impact zone. Then follow the clubhead through to the top of your upswing.

Where to Focus Your Eyes For a Draw

If you want to learn how to hit a draw, you should follow our step-by-step guide. This tip is to help you get into the zone before hitting a right to left shape if you are a right-hand golfer.

Golf coach Clay Ballard suggests employing eye dominance to the back right side of the golf ball. This is to help you envision swinging along an inside-out line with a closed clubface. Swinging your club along this line will start the ball to the right and curve it left towards your target:

Where to Focus Your Eyes For a Fade

You should set your eyes on the back left side of the golf ball to compose yourself to strike a fade. Opposite to a draw. You must swing the club from outside to inside and connect the ball with an open clubface.

Turning your attention to this part of the ball makes it easier to visualize bringing the club in from the outside inwards. Your swing path and the angle of the clubface at contact start the ball left and fade it right towards the flag.

Where to Focus Your Eyes For a Straight Shot

You watch the left side of the ball to induce a draw and the right for a fade. That leaves the center of the golf ball. This is where Ballard suggests focusing your attention on producing straight shots.

Focusing on this spot encourages you to deliver a square path and clubface through impact, leading to straighter shots and more time on the fairway.

Where to Focus Your Eyes For a Bunker Shot

When I am in the bunker, my focus shifts slightly. Instead of paying attention to an area of the ball, I focus on the sand. The aim in that scenario is to strike the sand before my ball. That helps me get under it and impart spin on the dimples. A common fault by amateurs is not committing to your bunker shot and being afraid to take sand.

If you strike your golf ball cleanly out of the sand trap, you lose control and generally fly the ball well past the cup. The quantity of sand that you take before your ball depends on the type of shot you wish to play and how far you are from your target.

When there is limited green to work with, you want to take at least 2-inches of sand. Conversely, on longer bunker shots, an inch or less is sufficient to generate sufficient ball speed for the given distance.

Where to Focus Your Eyes When Putting

The difference between a good player and a high handicap golfer is their putting skills. Superior golfers roll more putts in and possess a killer up and down record. Besides their ability to read greens and produce magical touches with a wedge and putter, they visualize each shot.

Golf Coach Todd Kolb recommends that his students always start their putting setup with their lead eye on the back center of the golf ball. In other words, if you are left-handed, that would be your right eye:

I recommend this tip is to set your eyes up for a straighter stroke with limited face twisting. As a result, it helps you strike the ball with a square putter face at impact to start your golf ball on its intended line.

That is not to say other techniques do not work. I, for one, prefer looking directly down onto my golf ball. I find that this position keeps everything aligned. However, you may find that focusing inside or outside the line works.

I suggest following Kolb’s advice for starters and seeing how you get on. If that doesn’t work, you can try the other setups to identify the most comfortable option.

Once you have determined the ideal eye position, I recommend marking the relevant points on an alignment stick to help you consistently practice this setup.

What Do The Pros Do

Focus On The Whole Ball – Jack Nicklaus

The player with more major titles than any other in history explained that he didn’t waste time with a part of the ball. Word is that he was interested in seeing the entire thing. That was enough to visualize his shot, execute, and lift trophy after trophy.

This is different from Clay Ballard’s advice for amateurs, who need to scale down their target for improved results.

Look Ahead Of The Ball – Annika Sorenstam

Annika does not tell others how to swing a golf club, but maybe we should listen to her. The highest-earning LPGA Tour player clearly knows how to operate. She found that looking ahead of the ball through impact produced the most consistent results.

Focusing a few inches ahead of your golf ball encourages you to take a divot after impact. This promotes a cleaner striker for consistent distance and accuracy.

Look At The Logo Of The Ball – Tiger Woods

Golf Magazine explains that Tiger fixates on the logo of his golf ball to ensure maximum concentration. They note that when the big cat is on the driving range, he alters the setup of the golf ball to reflect the logo in varying positions. This enables him to zero in on the spot where he wants to connect the golf ball.

The idea behind this method is to reduce the size of the target. This helps you to reduce the severity of your misses. That is why it helps to pick a spot, focus on it, and visualize executing the ideal strike.

Matt Stevens

Matt Callcott-Stevens started playing golf at the age of 4 when Rory Sabattini’s father put a 7-iron and putter in his hand. He has experienced all the highs and lows the game can throw at you and has now settled down as a professional golf writer. He holds a Postgraduate in Sports Marketing and has played golf for 28 years.

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Shaking Up a Serious Game

Golf is serious. We get that. But if you’re taking stress and tension to the course because you think you have to play perfectly to be a good person, you’re doing it wrong. Instead, remind yourself that golf, in the end, is a game and should be enjoyed—not simply endured. Go on and show your personality or appreciate the humor of the whole thing! We’ve got the definitive list of funky equipment and quirky but entertaining golf clothing, and you might just find something useful that you can add to your own golf bag (or outfit) that will make you smile or show off your awesome personality.

What Does Traditional Golf Equipment Look Like?

The most basic set of equipment includes a bag, a driver, an iron, a putter, some balls, some tees, and some club covers. You’ll do well to have some gloves, good shoes, sunglasses, and a hat, as well. Over time, avid golfers add more clubs to their bag and develop a taste for certain gadgets or gizmos that may (or may not) improve their game. This is where you can truly express yourself as an individual. Let this be a rough guide to how you, too, can express yourself on the golf course.

Strange Golf Clothing

Hats

In the old days, it was perfectly acceptable to don a tweed newsboy cap or set a tartan beret at a jaunty angle without any embarrassment at all. And, okay, you can still get away with it if you have the charisma to pull it off and the rest of your outfit is 100% on point—or if you make at least one joke about ironic clothing. But hey, isn’t it kind of fun to shake things up a bit or elicit a laugh from your work-stressed golfing buddies by making your hat an amusing focal point?

Novelty hats—like the hole-in-one green astroturf beret with a flag-bearing pin and golf ball attached—are one way to go here. Don’t forget the flair hat that includes fake hair for the balding man. You can find all kinds of novelty hats with printed messages that range from dad-joke-groan to downright-inappropriate-for-children. Just be ready to take some good-natured ribbing about even having spent money on such a clothing item.

With most things, the intersection between questionable and acceptable is often found at functionality. Umbrella hats fit this description. Extremely practical for rainy rounds, they are often manufactured in annoyingly bright rainbow colors, probably as an antidote to gloomy overcast days. For sunny, hot days, why not choose a cap with a built-in fan? In one style, a solar panel at the crown provides continual power to the fan so that you never get overheated, even when you’ve taken one too many three-putts.

Heads up, y’all! The next gen of golf trucker hats are showing up on courses all over the country. Want a trendy lid with the comfort of a mesh cap and a designer front? That’s a big 10-4, buddy.

Shirts

Not everyone is a fan of the quietly-colored polo. Woody Austin, for instance, has never met a bright tropical landscape shirt he didn’t like. What’s considered strange in golf shirt offerings may just be a matter of personal taste, but it’s fairly simple to state that the crazier the color or pattern, the more attention you’ll draw. If you’re going for the vavoom factor, stores like Bunker Mentality could become your new favorite place to shop.

The snazzy functionality aspect shows up in products like the Golf Swing Shirt, an innovative invention that teaches you how to swing with a sense of connection while also allowing you to layer your clothing. Sure, you’re gonna look a little unusual with that loose flap of cloth on your chest swinging freely in the breeze between holes, but if it really helps your game, who cares what jokes your buddies come up with? The sure bet is they’ll be asking to borrow your shirt.

Slacks

Those baggy knee-high golf pants of yesteryear may have seen their heyday (more’s the pity!), but that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. Those who admire John Daly’s eye-crossing trouser choices can still show off their quirky sense of style when browsing through Bedlam Golf’s psychedelically colored golf pants and shorts. Even Ralph Loren has seen the writing on the wall and is putting out a series of bold floral golf shorts in their RLX line that will have older golfers muttering about the eccentric fashion choices of the younger generation. Paired with a solid polo, your Daly-esque outfits could land you on your club’s Best Dressed List.

Shoes

Dress-type shoes are still fine, but they’re certainly not strange or outlandish. FootJoy, Nike, and Adidas pretty much have the golf shoe market cornered, with the trend veering toward lighter, more flexible, and very breathable. But if you’re going for non-traditional, Biion’s got something for you. Their saddles and wingtips are not only built specifically for playing golf without socks, if that’s your bliss, but you can choose anything from grown-up conservative to wildly funky colors and patterns. Or follow Ricky Fowler’s lead and copy his daring Puma golf high-tops choice at last year’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii—if you can get Puma to design you a pair, of course. Oh wait. They already did.

If you’re into barefoot golfing or near-barefoot golfing, Vibram’s got your shoe: the V-Classic LR. While they are called “five fingered,” it actually means that each toe has its own little sock so that toes can move independently, and because the soles are thin and very flexible, you don’t feel like you’re wearing much on your feet. Strange looking? Yes. Do they let you feel the course like you’ve never felt it before? Absolutely (read a review of golfing in Vibram’s KSOTrek Shoes here). While they haven’t taken off like gangbusters, the curious can currently get a 50% discount on what may end up being your favorite pair of golf shoes ever.

Some of the most unique golf shoes in history were designed by Mansfield & Sons Ltd. around the turn of the 20th century: the Golf MT. 856. Sure, you were playing in heels, but that just allowed golfers to show off their elegant calves. Available in brown or black.

Spice Up Your Golf Clubs and Golf Equipment

Drivers

Some of you may remember Jim Flood’s original Power Pod drivers from the 1980s. With a face barely larger than the golf ball it was supposed to hit, it made a distinct noise on impact—but the reaction from golfers was still pretty encouraging. You couldn’t slice with the original Power Pod because of the balance, and the company sold nearly two million before folding. The problem was that the face of the Power Pod was made of fragile polyurethane, which would eventually crack or shatter. While it had some avid fans, the Power Pod just wasn’t endurable enough to justify the expense.

Fast-forward to the 2000s and the rise of the Power Pod II. Darin Dingman, owner of Tiger Shark and big fan of the original Power Pod, urged Flood to design a new Power Pod. Flood complied, and now golfers can enjoy the no-slice performance of the new and improved, titanium-shafted driver. The Power Pod II has a large, deep face, with 99% of the weight placed directly behind the impact zone. Head design also raises the center of gravity and reduces ball spin for straighter, longer drives. And yes, the look of it is still a conversation starter.

When talking about odd-looking drivers, you can’t neglect to mention The Hammer.

Irons

Not all innovations in club design are welcomed with open arms. Consider the L’il David Slingers, another invention of Jim Flood’s (the Power Pod inventor mentioned above). Released in the 1970s, the singular look of these irons (upside-down heads! Rounded heel and toe!) spawned many a guffaw. Detractors aside, those who played with them found it nearly impossible to shank. Got a set? There’s definitely someone looking to buy them, though you won’t get much money.

Usually listed in the top three strangest and ugliest clubs are the Cleveland VAS irons. Sure they look terrible on approach, but there are some who claim that their Cleveland VAS irons helped them play the best games they’ve ever played. Could it be peer pressure that forces a golfer to replace these in his or her bag? Fans rave about the laser straight ball flight with a ton of bite that these clubs deliver.

Woods

Could you take your golf bag into the past and blow away your typical 18th or 19th century competition? Maybe, maybe not. Conditions weren’t the same way back then, and the first clubs were crafted to deal with the rather unkempt nature of your average ancient golf course. During that era, woods were the king clubs of the game, frequently carved and assembled by the players themselves from beech, fruit wood, ash, or thorn wood for the heads, and hickory for the shaft. Throughout the 1800s, a wood head was long—five or six inches—and greatly resembled the head of a walking stick.

Back then, it was mostly woods that populated the golf bags of the time. You’d have a “play club” that you used from the tee-box, and three “spoons” for the fairway. One wood was your putter, or “putting cleek.” Up until the late 1800s, irons were to get you out of rough spots, and you probably only had one (and it was made of bronze or cast iron), and you had to be gentle so that you didn’t split the feather-stuffed golf ball in half before the rubbery gutta-percha ball was invented.

Putters

Putters are probably the most tinkered-with clubs in history. For that reason, there are dozens of incredibly interesting—and sometimes downright odd-looking—varieties of putters designed to send your ball short distances into the cup.

Perhaps one of the most out-there putter designs is the Chase Glen putter, an alien-looking carved block of anodized aluminum with a rounded front edge and a counter-balance ball weight at the back. The manufacturer states on their website that you can forget any weird angles you’ve taught yourself because the rounded front edge strikes the ball equally well from any angle.

Another futuristic high-tech-looking putter is the Fussell XciTour, perhaps inspired by the 2-ball design that sank a 90-foot putt on national television. Or perhaps you will find putting success with the Japanese Penta Putter, a pentagon-shaped head made of cypress and based on the golden ratio.

For a great rundown of some of the strangest putters you’ve ever seen, visit mygolfspy.com’s list of 23 such oddities with enlightening images.

Golf Balls

The original golf balls were made of wood, followed quickly by leather sacks tightly stuffed with goose feathers, called featheries. In 1848, cheaper gutta-percha balls made with rubbery tree sap allowed players to knock the balls around a bit without splitting them quite so easily. These days, golf balls are generally made with a rubber or liquid core surrounded by strategically dimpled resin.

The vast majority of golf balls are white, but there are plenty of colored balls that add a pop of color to the green. Collectible balls include the Ping Eye 2 balls, made by the Karsten Manufacturing Company starting in the mid-1980s. Karsten later stopped production of all golf balls to focus on their innovative club designs, but because Karsten made two-colored balls in combinations that other companies didn’t make, the balls have become collectible. While a common yellow/orange combination isn’t worth much, the treasured metallic + another color combo can run over $1000 per ball.

Head Covers

Even if you’re shy about mixing it up with your clothing or clubs, you can get a laugh with head covers. After all, they’re just there to protect your clubs from weather and damage. They’re easily replaced, and they can bring a smile to your face even when you’re at your most stressed. Here’s your big chance to throw off the shackles of boring convention and get in touch with your hidden but kooky inner self.

Traditionally-shaped head covers come in a vast array of colors and patterns. For the more daring, choose head character covers, from the iconic sock monkey to stuffed mock-ups of your favorite golf celebrities. You can find animals, cartoon characters, or television characters as head covers. Even vintage designs make a statement. Looking for ideas? PGAToursSuperstore.com is a good place to start.

Why Your Golf Equipment Could Use a Crazy Addition

While there are terribly serious things happening in this world, golf shouldn’t be one of them. It’s a game. It’s there to help you relax a bit, let yourself enjoy nature and the company of friends, to challenge yourself, and to provide an outlet for your competitive nature. Adding one or two crazy things to your repertoire will remind you to lighten up what is a very traditional sport. You can still be a purist even when you’re having a good laugh. Encourage your friends to do the same.

We hope this definitive guide will spark some ideas about ways you can show your fun-loving personality or drum up the courage to try a new club. And, as always, happy golfing!

What’s in Your Golf Bag?

We’d love to hear about some of the more outlandish equipment and clothing you might have in your bag. Does it work for you? Is it just for laughs? Drop us a line or two at info@shipsticks.com, and we might just feature your bag in a future blog post.

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One of my favorite ways to get better at golf is to practice with drills.

Drills narrow down one or two skills and give you a way to focus your practice. If you are a golfer that struggles with hitting down on a golf ball, there are some great drills to help make this considerably easier on you.

I’ve not only tried each of these drills but have also tweaked them a bit to work much better.

Why Hitting Down on The Ball is Important

Hitting down on the golf ball will allow for the full loft, power, and spin of the golf shots you are trying to hit. The golf ball must be struck first, with the divot coming after the ball. In order to do this, you must hit down on the golf ball.

Of course, there are swings with fairway woods and your driver where the ball will be hit more on the upswing. However, for excellent iron play, amateur golfers need to hit down and through their golf shots to get the best possible results.

4 Best Drills to Hit Down on a Golf Ball

1. Hit The Line

The hit the line drill is simple but helps players visualize exactly what impact looks like and how to make your golf swing more efficient. When working on hitting the line, the best way to do this drill is to purchase a can of white spray paint and make sure you have the permission of the driving range to complete the drill.

Step 1: Draw A Line On The Ground 

Set up to hit a golf shot and make a small mark with a tee where the golf ball would be. Once you have this mark, take the paint and draw a straight line of paint on the ground extending out a foot or two to the target. Make sure the line is straight.

Step 2: Set Ball Up

Next, you will set a ball up at the start of the line. When you hit the ball, you are going to attempt to hit the ball first and then clip part of the line.

Step 3: Keep Working down the line 

As you work through your entire practice session, set the ball up this way each time, and have your visualization be that you need to clip a piece of the line each time. When you get really good at this, you won’t need the line there anymore.

Many golfers will hit golf balls on the range like this because it’s good for the turf to grow back as well.

2. Left Hand Dominance Drill

One of the major reasons that golfers have trouble hitting down on the ball are those that try and get their right hand a bit too involved in the swing. The right hand is not the hand that develops the most consistency through the golf ball.

If you want to hit solid shots with tremendous power, the left hand dominant swing is the way to go. Here are the ways to do it.

Step 1: Grip The Club with Your Left Hand Only 

First, you will want to grip the club with just the left hand. Some players will try to take an entire backswing and downswing using the left hand only, but this will take some strength. Most golfers do the best working on this golf swing drill and then make a transition into a full regular swing.

Step 2: Take a Partial Backswing

This drill is all about getting the feeling down. Take about a half to ¾ backswing with your iron in your left hand. Leave the right hand off the club.

Step 3: Create Resistance with Right Hand 

On the downswing, you will want to create an angle of attack that feels like the left hand is pulling the club down through impact. Hold the center of the shaft with your right hand to create a bit of resistance, and the left hand should feel as though it’s pulling down through impact.

Step 4: Try a Full Swing 

Try this a few times, then switch to taking a regular golf shot. Make sure that you are still focusing on rotation in your swing. Your weight should transfer as you never want the upper body to take full control of the swing.

Here’s a video breakdown of this drill:

3. Two Ball Takeaway Drill

The takeaway drill is my favorite drill to fix quite a bit of problems that you can come across in your golf swing. One of those issues is lifting the club too far off the ground on the takeaway. If you lift the club up and alter your spine angle, returning the golf ball to the proper impact position is very hard.

This two ball takeaway drill works well for beginners as well as experienced golfers that need a little pick-me-up and refresher in their golf game.

Step 1: Take Your Typical Stance

The first part of this drill is to take your traditional golf setup. Since this is a drill in which you hit a real golf ball with a full swing, make sure that both your left foot, right foot, hips, and spine angle are correct before you start.

Step 2: Keep The Club Low and Take It Back Slow

I like to do this drill with something like an 8 iron or 9 irons; they are typically forgiving and make the learning curve just a little easier. I put one golf ball in front of the clubface and one golf ball about six inches behind the back of the club head.

The goal is to take the golf club back very low and slow so that it knocks this other golf ball out of the way. When you keep the club low and slow, it makes it much easier to return it to the ground at impact.

So many amateur golfers pick the club fight up at the start of their swing, which creates some performance issues.

Step 3: Ensure a Proper Weight Shift

To make a proper weight shift, you must feel as though weight is moving back to your right foot at the start of your swing, and on the downswing, the weight needs to transfer back to the left foot. This efficient weight transfer creates a ton of power and impressive trajectory.

Step 4: Transfer to a Full Finish

One of the things that I always found most impressive about this drill is that I’m able to compress the golf ball considerably better. I actually get more distance with this drill, even though I’m tapping another golf ball on the back swing.

In addition, when I struggle with poor tempo or feel like my timing is off, I like to use this two ball drill.

4. Golf Alignment Stick Drill

Golf alignment sticks are some of the most effective practice aids that we have to work with. Alignment sticks can be used to work on backswing angles, alignment, angle of attack, coming over the top, and more.

Essentially if you know how to use them, they are one of the most effective training aids golfers have to work with. To have more luck hitting down on a golf ball, I like to use this chipping drill with a golf alignment stick.

P.S. If you don’t yet own a set of alignment sticks, here’s our favorite:

Step 1: Grip Club and Alignment Stick

The first part of this drill feels a little awkward, but you can get used to it rather quickly. Simply grip your golf club and an alignment stick at the same time. The golf club head will be on the ground as it always is, The alignment stick will run in the opposite direction, and it will come up high enough that you have to tuck it under your left armpit.

Step 2: Use a Pitching Wedge or Sand Wedge

I highly recommend using a pitching wedge or a sand wedge here. We are only going to take little swings with this drill to try and learn how hitting down on a golf ball around the green can help you create more spin.

Step 3: Small Swings, Don’t Let Shaft Hit You

The backswing of this shot will feel pretty standard to you. However, for golfers that don’t hit down the ball, the alignment stick’s shaft will likely hit you on the left rib. Do this at a slow pace so you can feel it. The idea is to rotate and turn through the ball so the alignment stick never hits your side.

You may have to make some adjustments to your mindset here as well. I like to start focusing on hitting the back of the ball on the downswing. The alignment stick gets in the way for players that try to lift or flip the golf ball by scooping it.

Step 4: Let Go of the Alignment Stick, Try Full Swing

Once you have done this a few times and you get the concept down, go ahead and put the alignment stick down. At this point, you can start taking full swings and getting that same feeling of hitting down and through the ball as opposed to trying to lift it up out of the grass.

You will notice that your chip shots fly higher, and they stop on the green considerably closer.

Brittany Olizarowicz

Britt O has been playing golf since the age of 7. Almost 30 years later, she still loves the game, has played competitively on every level, and spent a good portion of her life as a Class A PGA Professional. Britt currently resides in Savannah, GA, with her husband and two young children.

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Srixon has unveiled the fourth generation of its popular UltiSoft ball, the model with the lowest compression in the company’s current line up.

Designed for golfers with slower swing speeds, the new UltiSoft lives up to its name as the ultimate ball for softness and feel.  The latest model features all-new FastLayer Core technology,  which sees the ball’s inner material get progressively firmer from core to cover to offer added distance while maintaining soft feel.

It also features a 338 Speed Dimple pattern to help reduce drag, increase lift and enhance stability in the wind. The Speed Dimples improve overall aerodynamics for better performance with drivers, woods and irons.

A soft, thin cover provides more greenside spin and softer feel on all pitches, chips and putts.

Priced at £28 per dozen, and offered in Pure White, the new Srixon UltiSoft goes on sale in pro shops and specialist golf retailers from August 17.

For more details, visit www.srixon.co.uk. 

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