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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Golf scrambles are fun. They give you a way to play golf with friends and enjoy your time on the course without the same stress as you would find when playing your own ball the entire way.

As great as the golf scramble can be from the perspective of fun and games, there is also a bit of strategy involved.

If you want to win your next scramble tournament, here are the tips I have used to bring home quite a few golf scramble trophies through the years!

Background: The Rules of a Golf Scramble Tournament

The basic scramble is most commonly played; however, there are times when you may have a shamble, Texas Scramble, or even a Florida Scramble as your format of choice during a tournament. Here is what you need to know about the rules of a golf scramble tournament.

Traditional Scramble

In a traditional scramble, every player tees off. After the tee shots, the best is selected, and all players hit their shots from this location. This process is continued until you get the ball in the hole. The great thing about a traditional scramble is that you won’t need to play your ball if you hit a bad shot.

Texas Scramble or Shamble

The Texas Scramble or Shamble is where all golfers tee off, and the best shot is selected. From this point, all players will then play their own ball all the way into the hole. With this format, you play a bit more of your golf ball than you do with the Traditional Scramble format.

Florida Scramble

With a Florida Scramble, all golfers tee off, the best shot is selected, and then only three players hit their second shots. After these three shots are hit, the better one is chosen, and the player who hits that shot has to sit out. The process is then continued until the ball is in the hole.

7 Tips for a Winning Golf Scramble Strategy

Winning a golf scramble is a lot of fun. It’s a great way to play with a group of people that all have different handicaps but still get to be competitive together. When you play in a scramble, it’s all about being a great team player.

Don’t get overly worried about your own game; see what you can do to help out your team. Even the highest handicap players often have a chance in the scramble format to save the day and make their score count for the team.

1. Determine an Order

The first thing I recommend doing is establishing an order of play. You must decide who is going to go first on every hole. I like to keep the order the same throughout the entire round of golf.

Most of the time, the best way to do the order is to have the highest handicapped golfers tee off first. When high handicappers tee off and have a good shot, it eases some pressure from the lower handicap golfers.

These lower handicap golfers can now swing freely and get as much power as they can. Once a drive is in the fairway, you will have no trouble working to get some extra distance. If that doesn’t go well and the drive ends up in a bunker or the rough, you still have a straight shot to choose from.

2. Best Putter Putts Last

In addition to making sure that the best hitter goes last off the tee, make sure that the best putter goes last. When you are the best putter, your chance of making the putt is the highest.

If everyone else misses, the last player to go will have watched those three putts and can determine which way they want to play the break. When the best putter goes, there should also be one putt that is a tap-in so that they can go to the hole at full speed and really try to make it.

When playing in a scramble, you can go low, but golfers need to make some fairly long putts, and the good news is that even higher handicappers can do that from time to time.

3. Don’t Always Choose The Shortest Shot

The ball that is closest to the hole is not always the best shot. Take a look at where the pin is on the green and decide which one makes the most sense to play. If the pin is on the left side of the green, you will want to choose an approach shot from the right.

In addition, if one shot is in the rough, play the one from the fairway. Be smart about the shot you are choosing; making up for five or ten yards is not a big deal. Distance is not always the most critical thing in a scramble.

4. Don’t Always Choose The Closest Putt

When your group makes it to the putting green, you have to choose a putt that is most makeable. If you have a 10 foot putt down the hill or a 12 foot putt up the hill, the 12 foot putt is often the better choice.

Be really smart about which putts you decide to use, and make sure that it is a shot that several players in the group feel confident about making. Look at the slope, angles, and grain to determine your most significant percentage of making the putt.

The putting green is where you can earn the most strokes back after a bad hole. Take your time and be selective about your angles.

5. Alternate The Club Hit Off The Tee

One of the biggest mistakes that I have seen players make through the years is trying to have all golfers on the scramble team hit a driver off the par 4’s and par 5s. As long as you have some players in the group that can generate good clubhead speed, you can hit a 3 wood or even a utility iron at times to get a great shot in play.

This is especially important to consider when golfers are playing from different tees. If one of the golfers in the group plays from a shorter tee, let them get a shot in the fairway for you.

On par 3 holes, you will also want to have players alternate the clubs that they are hitting. Pay close attention to the yardage that your playing partners can hit their shots. If somebody can hit the ball 150 with their 7 iron, make sure you base your club selection off of that.

6. Check for The Minimum Number of Drives

Although some four-person scrambles have no extra rules or regulations, there are times when you will find a minimum number of drives is required. This minimum number of drives from each player can become a real issue if you ignore it early on in the game.

It’s usually easy to get two drives from the lowest handicap player, but from the highest handicap player, it can be a bit of a problem.

Make sure that you are working on this process right from the start of your round. Lets’ say the first hole results in a shot by the highest handicap golfer that is in the middle of the fairway but about three yards back from the lowest handicap golfer.

This is the time to check one off the list for the high handicapper.

If you wait until the end of the round, you will get stuck with these requirements and be forced to use a shot from a specific player. I have seen groups come down to the 18th hole, and the only shot they can even take from the tee box is the one outstanding player who has not fulfilled their drive quote.

This is a mistake.

Get those drives crossed off early, and then play the rest of the round, focusing on locking in those birdies and eagles.

7. The Pace of Play Can Be Different

The pace of play during a scramble can be a little different. You may feel like there is a lot of running around and motion, picking up golf balls and getting them to the best spot. Then once you get to that spot, it feels like a lot of waiting.

Prepare yourself for the scramble to be a slightly different pace of play.

Most of the time, things should move faster than they do when everyone plays their own ball, but plenty of beginner golfers play in scrambles and slow things down. Just be mindful that this will be different than a standard round, and you will have a lot more fun and a much better chance of winning your scramble event.

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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One of the steps to becoming a better golfer is learning to identify the lie you have. Not every lie is the same, and the way the ball is sitting on the turf has a tremendous impact on overall playability and ball flight. 

A flyer is something that comes up at least once or twice during an average round of golf. Knowing how to play this shot can save you quite a few strokes and help ensure that your golf ball ends up much closer to the pin. 

What Is a Flyer in Golf?

A flyer is a golf ball that travels considerably further than a golfer expects because of the lie that it has. The flyer lie sits just above the rough, and it seems as though it is sitting up and will be easier to make contact. 

This may be the case because the club has to travel through less turf to make solid contact. However, the flyer lie also involves the problem with moisture and debris between the clubface (the grooves) and the golf ball (the dimples). 

With very little friction between these two surfaces, the golf ball will travel up the face of the club, with no spin being imparted on the ball. The result is a shot that flies considerably further than usual and takes a big jump forward once it hits the green. 

Chances are you have seen these happen with your short irons, as that is where flyers often have the most significant impact. You may have a stock 9 iron to the green but hit out of a flyer lie you hit the ball over the back of the green and leave yourself with a long chip to come back up. 

Sometimes there is not much to do about flyers, but there are a few steps to help you avoid hitting these frustrating shots. 

4 Tips to Avoid Hitting Flyers

Professional golfers will tell you that sometimes hitting a flyer is unavoidable. This is a shot that comes up that you may or may not be able to do much about. However, when you can learn how to identify and then make a few tweaks to your swing, you may have more success. 

1. Learn How to Identify Your Lie 

The biggest thing I have learned about adjusting for a flyer lie is to learn how to correctly identify what I am working with. There is a big difference between a flyer and a golf ball sitting deep or buried in the rough. 

Look at the shot and realize that the ball is sitting up, almost as if it is teed up. Many players walk up to this shot and are pleasantly surprised to see that the ball isn’t buried. YOu just need to be aware of how it is going to fly. 

I find that the flyer lie happens from the shorter rough more often than it does from the deep rough. 

2. Take Less Club

When I have short iron shots into the green, I notice that taking one less club makes a big difference. For instance, if I have an 8 iron distance with a flyer lie, I will often just take the 9 iron to see where it leaves me. 

Of course, you have to be smart about this and ensure that there is nothing between you and the green. Landing the golf ball short is fine but landing it in a water hazard is an issue. 

3. Use a Three-Quarter Golf Swing 

Taking a little bit off of your swing can also encourage you to have more control over the shot and lose a bit of the total distance that you would have gotten. The three-quarter golf swing is helpful regardless of what type of shot you have in front of you, and an unprepared player will pick up on this quite quickly. 

When you practice on the range, always work on these types of less-than-full swings to be able to get the distances you need. In addition, some professionals recommend golfers take a slightly steeper angle of attack than they would from a standard lie. 

The steeper angle increases the chance of more spin on the ball and less jump forward when the ball lands on the putting surface. 

4. Choose The Right Clubs 

We know that the flier is happening because of dirt and debris creating a lack of spin. Golf manufacturers are making golf wedges and short irons that have channels to filter out the debris and ensure there is still some friction between the golf ball and the clubface. 

Look for groove technology on your next set of golf clubs to help increase the overall spin and traction you can get from a tough lie. 

This is especially important when you have a flyer close to the green and requires a chip shot. 

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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Have you ever had someone tell you that your golf swing was too long? Chances are they were right!

So many amateur golfers take the club back much further than needed. This ends up causing issues with accuracy and balance that doesn’t need to be a problem.

Since taking the golf club back this far is not necessary, here are some tips to help shorten your swing and get everything under control.

Who Should Shorten Their Golf Swing?

Golfers should shorter their golf swing if they are swinging past parallel, losing accuracy, or feeling like they are unable to be consistent in their golf shots. Taking the club back too far does not help you play better.

In fact, if you want to increase swing speed and hit more consistent golf shots, a shorter swing is typically the better choice.

It does not matter if you are a low or high handicap player; golf swing length should never go past parallel. Of course, you have seen golfers like John Daly make a career out of swinging the club too long; this takes a lot of athletic ability.

My favorite way to think about this is to consider the clubface of the golf club. Think about taking the golf club back about five inches; wouldn’t it be pretty easy to keep the clubface square?

Now consider taking it back to waist-high. Still not that difficult to keep the clubface square.

You can probably tell where I’m going with this. The further you take the club back away from the ball, the harder it is to return it to square. You may be able to do it several times but to do it over and over again and get consistent results is much harder than it needs to be.

Keeping the golf club in control is the key to seeing more consistent scores on the golf course.

How to Tell If Your Backswing is Too Long

The best way to tell if your backswing is too long is to take a video of it. There are so many great ways to record a golf swing, and this can be as simple as using your phone and the help of a friend.

When you take the video, the easiest way to do this is to do a forward facing video. This means that the person recording stands face to face with you as you set up to hit.

Once you have the video, play it in slow motion until you reach the top of your golf swing. Just when you start to make the transition to the downswing, take a look at where the golf club is.

If the club is past parallel to the ground, you have taken it back too far.

4 Tips to Shorten Your Golf Swing

Now that you can identify how far back a golf swing should go and why it’s important not to overdo this motion, it’s time to shorter your golf swing. Here are some of my favorite ways to go about this process. You will be glad you decided to shorten your swing; it should make the game of golf considerably easier.

1. Start With a Chip Shot

One of the best ways to start taking shorter golf swings is to start by taking a chip shot. The chip shot is really just a shorter version of the full swing. When you take a short chip shot, you can focus on keeping the swing a bit more in check.

Once you have the chip shot down, start by increasing the length of your backswing. Maybe take the club to about ¾ distance as you would normally do to hit a pitch shot.

After you have increased to that ¾ distance, then extend it just a bit more to get to the top of your golf swing. Essentially you will find that this shorter swing feels almost like a pitch shot for quite some time.

However, when you see that your clubhead speed is increasing and your tendency to lose balance is decreasing, you may see the benefit of this pitch shot type swing and start to incorporate it into your golf game.

2. Use a Mirror

Using a mirror to practice is a great way to shorten your golf swing. You can use a number of drills that help you look up and see where the club is.

Sometimes when I practice something like this, I will use a dry-erase marker on the mirror to create the line that I want to swing back to. The tendency for many golfers when taking too big of a swing is to lose their spine angle as well.

It makes sense to make a mark on the mirror where you will want to ensure your head stays. This way, when you look up at the top of the swing, you can see if you are actually in a good position.

Keep practicing this so that you are able to repeat it without looking at the mirror. Many golf practice facilities have a mirror like this for you to use, but you can do it at home as well if you can create the setup indoors.

3. Stop and Look Drill

The Stop and Look drill is not always the most effective from a feedback standpoint, but it’s certainly what I have used to get through almost all swing flaws in my golf career. When we swing a golf club back, we can’t see how far it went.

Therefore it sometimes makes sense to take a peak and see where everything is.

When I’m working on something, I will step away from the golf ball, take my swing and then look and see the position of the club. I can check for things like clubface angle, the rotation of my shoulders, and especially the length of my golf swing.

The stop and look drill is made even better when you have a mirror to work with, but it certainly works without.

When the turn is efficient, and you are not taking the club back too far, you can then step up to the ball and try to repeat the motion you just made. I know this is not the most high-tech way to learn the game of golf, but it has always worked quite well.

This process works with any club. If you don’t have the money for training aids and devices to create a shorter swing, this drill will create muscle memory and start to train your brain to what a perfect length golf swing is.

4. Find a Stopping Point

As much as I like these other 3 tips to help you shorten your golf swing, many golfers complain that they still have no idea where the golf club is. For beginner golfers and some amateurs, the concept of where the golf club is at any given time can be a bit foreign.

Luckily, there are ways around this.

If you can find a stopping point on your backswing, chances are you can stop the swing at the correct point. For me, this stopping point is when my shoulder has rotated under my chin. Once I feel that shoulder gets into place, I know my golf swing is done.

From a feel standpoint, this still does feel like the club has not even reached the top of the swing. However, we know from momentum and the way the golf swing tricks us that the club has very much reached the parallel position.

Years ago, I had the misconception that a long backswing would help me get more power. After years of practicing and working on this concept, I have finally learned that a shorter swing leads to better results all around.

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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Many golfers call it a day when
the sun sets early, and the grass gets a touch of frost. However, little do
they know (perhaps) playing golf in winter can be the most enjoyable of all the
seasons.

The fresh, clear winter mornings,
quieter courses and fabulous deals can really make it feel like you’ve hit the
jackpot.

That aside, if you’re keen on
improving your golf game, giving up completely during winter is not the way to
go about it—you really don’t want to lose your momentum.

To ensure you hit the ground running when the new season starts, check out our 9 top tips for keeping your game up to scratch when playing golf in winter.

Keep playing

Yes, it might sound obvious, but
keeping up the momentum is vital at this time of year. Everything else aside,
you’ll improve your skill by testing yourself when playing conditions are at
their most trying.

You’ll learn to perfect a wide range of shots when you’re braving the elements, whether it’s the low punch into the January wind or the runner that scampers across a frozen fairway to find an icy winter green.  

After all, these shots will stand you in good stead when the milder weather returns. While you’re here, reading Bernard Gallacher’s top tips for playing golf in the rain might also be useful.

Wear the right winter golf clothes

Playing your best golf requires
feeling comfortable in what you’re wearing. Here are some of the most essential
garments to help you brave the adverse weather and keep your winter golf game the
best it can be.

• Wet weather gloves – keeping your hands warm and dry is essential when playing golf in winter. These gloves are a great purchase because the wetter they get, the firmer the grip, making holding your clubs a lot easier
• Efficient base layer – wearing layers upon layers is likely to limit your movement, particularly your swing. But at the same time, you don’t want your body to stiffen up in the cold. That’s why a thin base layer is the way forward
• Thermal socks – wearing more than one pair of socks, or a thick pair of winter socks, is likely to make all the difference to your body temperature

Related: What to wear to golf in cold weather

Have the correct equipment

Playing golf in winter comes with
unpredictability, so having the necessary equipment to tackle a range of
climates—from wind and rain to frost—is essential.

Here are a few things that will
make your golf more enjoyable this winter…

• Purchase some winter wheels – winter wheels pick up less mud, making them easier to move, and they’ll also cause less damage to the ground. However, ditch the golf buggy and carry your bag instead if you can. The course will thank you for it, and you’ll be a lot warmer
• Use a high-vis yellow ball – they’re a lot easier to spot on icy courses
• Add loft to your driver – your ball simply won’t roll as much when the ground is boggy and soft. Adding loft to your driver will add more carry and distance
• Umbrella – come rain, sleet or snow, a good-sized umbrella will ensure you stay dry and protect your bag when you’re taking a shot

Keep your golf balls warm

Sounds daft, right? However, it’s
believed that for every ten degrees the temperature drops, a golf ball will
carry two yards shorter. If this is indeed the case, you’ll want to keep your
golf balls toasty on the course. Keep them in your pocket as much as possible, and
even throw a hand warmer in there for extra measure.

Having said that, the construction of certain balls makes them ideal for cold weather. Check out this article to find out which golf balls hold up best in winter and why.

Make the most of the driving range

We’re all guilty of making
excuses for not going outside much in the cold winter months. It’s definitely
easier to head down to a covered (and sometimes heated) driving range for your
golf, too.

Visit the driving range as often
as possible during winter and work out a practice routine that works for you—don’t
just bludgeon balls wildly without an objective in mind. Pick a flag or other
spot to aim at and work your way through the clubs, hitting different types of
shots.

Related: 7 driving range tips to improve shot consistency

Take lessons

Whether at the driving range,
down at your club’s practice area, or on a deserted winter course (AKA the
dream), a series of lessons throughout the off-season could make all the
difference to your golfing fortunes come spring.

Winter is the perfect time to
make changes to your game—you don’t want to make major alterations when
competitions are just around the corner.

If you’re unsure where to turn, a simple Google search like “golf lessons near me” will do the trick.

Use a golf simulator

Golf simulators are a great way
to help your game if you prefer practising indoors when it’s cold out. Although
indoor simulators aren’t great for putting, they’re fantastic for driving and
iron shots.

Related: The top 7 golf simulators on the market

Buy a net

If you have enough
space, it might also be an option to buy your own golf net so you can practise
in the comfort of your own home.

Some of the best nets on the market include The Net Return Golf Practice Net, which automatically returns the ball to you, and the IZZO Golf Tri-Daddy Golf Hitting Net—check them out!

Read and watch

It’s amazing how
much you can learn about golf without actually swinging a club or hitting a
ball. Winter and the Christmas holidays, in particular, are a perfect time to
swot up, and many instructional books might strike a chord or spark a thought
that could change your game.

Why not add one
to your Christmas list?

If not,
re-watching golf tournaments and YouTube videos are also good ways of picking
up on bits and bobs during the off-season.

Related: 14 books every self-respecting golfer should read

Specialist golf insurance with Golf Care

Not letting the weather put pay to your golf? You might also want to consider protecting yourself with specialist golf insurance before heading out for a spot of winter golf.

With Golf Care, policies include Equipment cover up to £7,500, Public Liability up to £10m and much more. Cover is also underpinned by the ‘Ripe Guarantee’, which guarantees great cover and service to match at an affordable price.

Click on the
banner below to learn more about specialist golf insurance with Golf Care.

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The chicken wing golf swing has never really been a great look.

To be honest, when you see golfers chicken winging, it’s really difficult to even say “nice shot” or “looks great.”

Although this common flaw does not keep all players from hitting a good shot, it’s important to start to get rid of the chicken wing, as it generally means there are other problems in the swing.

To fix the chicken wing, we have to rewind a little and look at what is causing it.

What Is a Chicken Wing Golf Swing?

The chicken wing golf swing (for a right-handed player) is when you swing through the golf ball, and your left arm creates a chicken wing type motion. The arm does not rotate as it should, and it certainly falls out of position compared to the right arm.

What Causes a Chicken Wing in a Golf Swing?

Many golfers think the chicken wing in a golf swing is created after impact. Of course, this is where it is visible, but it is not necessarily what caused the issue to come up.

Instead, problems like hips swaying on the backswing, poor movement toward the target, and arms losing their extension through impact are significant causes.

Arms Losing Their Angle

You know the old tip to keep your left arm straight? It’s never explained correctly, and most professionals will shake their heads when a beginner comes to them with this left arm that will barely even move.

However, there is something to be said for keeping the left arm straight through the impact position. If your arms start to bend and get a little too loose, the chicken wing is the mistake you will see come up.

Arms through impact should stay strong and extended.

Swaying on The Backswing

Swaying in golf is never good.

To get the proper performance, you need to make a pivot, not sway. Golfers that have trouble rotating and shifting their weight will often find themselves in a position where they need to catch up or manipulate the clubhead so that it is square.

The last thing you want to think about as you get towards impact is the angle of the clubface. Make sure that you pivot correctly and that there is much less thinking that needs to be done.

Lack of Weight Shift and Hip Rotation at Impact

Great players can turn their hips toward the target at impact. The weight shifting is crucial as it will create power in not only the swing but also consistency in how the club is delivered.

Great players have their hips shifted more toward the target at impact. This move allows golfers to rotate their arms more effectively. The hips start to rotate, creating room in the swing for the arms to rotate through as they should.

Without this weight shift and hip rotation, players can feel stuck. Of course, the stuck motion only makes it more challenging to get your arms into that final position, and the dreaded chicken wing shows up.

It’s a good idea to narrow down what is causing your chicken wing golf swing before you attempt to start fixing it. The fix that you choose should be something that is directly related to the cause.

3 Tips to Get Rid of Your Chicken Wing Golf Swing

Now that you have the reasoning behind your chicken wing, it’s time to eliminate it. This is not a swing fix that can happen with just one shot. I would highly recommend heading to the range with the ability to video your golf swing.

Sometimes the visualization of what the chicken wing golf swing looks like prior and what it looks like after you make your changes will help you ensure these fixes stay in place the next time you hit the golf course.

1. Improve Arm Connection

One of our favorite drills that will help fix quite a few swing flaws is one that allows your left arm to stay a bit more connected. You can use this drill if you are also struggling with an over-the-top motion on the downswing.

The first part of this process is to just take your typical setup. Then you will put a golf glove or even a golf towel under your left armpit (for a right-handed player). This will need to stay in place as you do this drill.

Next, you can start taking some half swings where you don’t even hit the ball. Just make a move back and through that ensures that the glove or towel does not fall out.

I would then try to hit a few shots like this. Stick with something like the 8 iron or pitching wedge, so you don’t have to worry about forgiveness or launch in the club. The shots are not intended to go far. Instead, they just teach the importance of connection and what that feels like.

2. Follow Through Only Drill

Another great drill for getting rid of the chicken wing golf swing is one that works on the follow through only. Instead of taking a backswing, you will start at your setup position and then just go to a full follow through.

To do this, you must push your body a bit and almost force it to get into the proper position. The follow through only drill ensures that you don’t take a chicken wing golf swing, as you will feel the arms rotate correctly up to the top of the swing.

With the follow through only drill, you want to make sure that you are also transferring all of your weight to the left side.

I would do this about 4 to 5 times, then take a full swing and hit a shot. You should feel the muscle memory start to develop and push your body into the proper position.

3. Alignment Sticks to Help

We talked about the bigger problems related to the chicken wing golf swing. Things like swaying on the backswing and not rotating your arms. However, there are also issues with the basic setup and stance that can cause problems in the swing.

When practicing at the range, make sure to bring some alignment sticks with you.

To fix this problem, in particular, make sure that your stance is not closed. Set up alignment sticks for both stance and ball position.

In addition, if you are comfortable with your alignment sticks, you can also set one up behind your right hip. The hip needs to rotate, not slide or bump into the alignment stick that is secured into the ground.

Alignment sticks are very versatile, and they help with a variety of swing issues. If you have a chicken wing golf swing and are tired of hitting shots with an open clubface, or those that lack distance, take some time to learn different drills with an alignment stick, and you will likely find it easier to perform on the course.

Some players are finding that an alignment stick holder is easier for them to use when practicing on mats. For the hip rotation drill, this is undoubtedly the case. You will need to be able to place the alignment stick in the ground for it to be effective and create that wall of support.

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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Dreaded fat shots are some of the most frustrating shots in golf.

Sometimes you will hit a great drive setting yourself up for an easy 100-yard shot into the pin. In your mind, this ball is going to land about ten feet from the hole setting you up for an easy birdie.

However, if you hit the ball fat, chances are your shot ends up about fifteen yards ahead of you.

Hitting fat shots can be stopped. A few tweaks to ball position, address position, and even spine angle can have you hitting the ball clean and crisp once again. Here are my 5 best tips to finally stop hitting the ball fat.

What Causes a Fat Shot in Golf?

A fat shot is caused by taking a divot behind the ball as opposed to in front of the ball. This can happen for various reasons, including improper weight transfer, too much head movement, and even the wrong mental picture of what it takes to hit a golf ball up in the air.

Hitting fat shots is a very common mistake in the game of golf. Many players would rather hit the ball thin than fat.

How Does This Compare to Hitting a Thin Shot?

When you hit a fat shot, the golf club hits behind the ball before it makes contact with the ball. Hitting a thin shot means you strike the golf ball only, or even partially up towards the middle of the ball. Fat shots are often hit as the club is still moving downward, and thin shots are hit as the club moves up.

5 Tips to Stop Hitting Your Golf Balls Fat

If you have a tendency to hit the ball fat, here are some things you can do to prevent that from happening. The common causes of hitting the ball fat can usually be fixed with a few sessions at the range.

Keep Your Head Stationary

One of the most common causes for hitting behind the ball is that your head moves up and down or side to side in your golf swing. If you look at videos of great players, you can see that there is, in fact, a bit of head movement.

However, most of the time, the head stays level, and it can return to the same exact position when it’s time to strike the ball. For many players, this head movement becomes a significant issue. As they turn back, the head dips down, and then it needs to move up at impact.

As you might have guessed, this movement up never happens. Therefore the club strikes into the ground too far.

If you can learn to keep your head stationary and focus on it, staying right over the golf ball, you will be less likely to hit the chunk.

Check Ball Position

Ball position is so often overlooked by amateur golfers. It’s kind of boring to work on ball position in your golf swing; we get that. However, it’s incredible how one tiny golf ball positioning can make or break your ability to have the clubhead strike in the proper position.

Ball position that is pushed too far forward towards the left foot (for right-handed players) can become a problem. Instead, it makes sense to have the ball just a bit closer to the center.

As we talked about, a fat shot can come from hitting the ground before the ball, and if the ball is too far up in the stance, you will strike grass first. Use a series of alignment sticks to help you

map out the proper feet position and ball position.

Move Weight Towards Left Foot

The goal of every golf swing is to finish with your weight forward on your left foot, standing square to the target with a full rotation. However, most players get stuck on their back leg. This leaves them feeling like they can’t get full distance, and it often results in hitting fat shots.

Sometimes golfers get lazy and have a bad swing habit that keeps their weight back. Others have a tendency to overswing, and it becomes too much effort to get the weight forward.

One of my best tips here is to start with a little bit of weight on the left foot. Don’t load up so that 90% of the weight is on the right foot at setup. Take a few swings like this and see if you can feel that weight making its way to the left side a little easier.

Play with this balance and transfer until you can find a happy medium that allows for a cleaner and crisper transfer of weight.

Mental Perception Changes

Are you one of the golfers that believe you need to lift the ball up in the air? If you are, you need to get that thought out of your mind. One of the reasons golfers hit a fat shot is because they think they need to lift the shot up in the air with their hands.

Don’t do this!

If you hit the golf ball at the bottom of the swing arc and take a divot directly after the ball, the launch, ball flight, and distance will be perfect. Start to get a mental picture in your head of what the proper impact position looks like.

Golf clubs and golf balls are designed in such a way that you can quickly get the ball up in the air by striking down and through it. Don’t overcomplicate the process by trying to lift the ball yourself.

This concept is really easy to learn when you practice chipping. Start taking some more compact chipping type golf swings and notice how much easier it is to hit a clean and crisp golf shot if you can keep your hands forward as opposed to flipping them to get the ball up in the air.

Narrow Stance with Room to Swing

We talked about ball position, but there are some things about the stance and setup that are also important for golfers to understand and implement. Hitting fat shots is not always caused by the swing. Sometimes the way you address the ball has you set up for hitting a fat shot.

The first step here is to take a narrow stance. If your stance is really wide, you may have a tough time transferring the weight. There are not too many downsides to a more narrow stance as long as you have some balance and stability.

In fact, many golfers that are struggling with their swing will take a narrow stance to see if they can control things and get it back to the standard position.

Next, make sure that you have enough room to swing the club. If you stand too close to the golf ball, you will hit behind it. As your hands come through the impact position, they get too close to your leg, and it causes you to hit behind the ball.

Play around with different distances to the golf ball. The longer the club, the further you will stand from the ball. In addition, make sure that you can fully transfer your weight and get to the forward position with all of your weight on the left side.

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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One of the best things about playing golf with a group of buddies is the fun betting games you can play against each other. One of the most entertaining golf games is Wolf, which can be a refreshing break from standard stroke play.

If you’ve never played Wolf before, you’re in for a treat! Let’s go over the rules and basic strategies of this incredible game.

How to Play The Wolf Golf Game

Wolf is a type of match play where each hole is worth a set amount of points or dollars. Because of this type of scorekeeping, no person or team is ever really out of the match. There are many variations of Wolf, but let’s cover the basic rules first.

1. Decide The Wolf Rotation

Line up your crew on the first tee box and toss a tee into the air. Whichever golfer it points to gets to be the wolf on the first hole. Continue throwing the tee until the rotation is set. This will remain the same until the end of the round.

2. The Wolf Tees Off

After hitting his tee shot, the first player gets to decide if he wants to play as the lone wolf or with a wolf partner. If he chooses the partner route, he’ll then watch the second golfer tee off.

After that shot is completed, the wolf must decide whether to partner with that person or to pass and watch the third player hit. If the wolf doesn’t like the tee shot of the third player, he’s automatically paired with the fourth player.

3. If Partner Format is Chosen, Each Team Plays Their Best Ball

You know what Best Ball means if you’ve ever played in a golf scramble. If not, it simply means that you and your teammate will hit your shots and play whichever ball is the best.

4. The Team or Player With the Lowest Score Wins the Hole

So, if Team 1 scores a 3 on the hole and Team 2 scores a 4, Team 1 is declared the winner, and each player will receive 1 point. No points are awarded if there is a tie, whether in team format or lone wolf format.

5. Lone Wolf Holes Are Worth Triple

Now, before you get cocky and choose to go lone wolf each time you can, remember that each lone wolf hole is worth triple the points. This means that if the lone wolf wins, he’ll receive 3 points while his other non-wolf partners will get 0.

However, the inverse is also true. If the lone wolf doesn’t win the hole, the other three golfers get 3 points while the wolf gets 0. In other words, going the lone wolf route is a huge gamble.

How Many Players Do You Need to Play Wolf?

The Wolf golf game is typically played with four golfers, but some variations allow for three golfers to play. All that’s needed is a few modifications to the rules. With three golfers, there’s no predetermined order for who’s going to be the wolf.

After all golfers hit their tee shots, the one with the second longest drive automatically becomes the wolf. The other non-wolf partners become the wolf hunters. The rules are slightly different for par 3 holes, however, as the wolf is awarded to the player that is the second closest to the hole.

The scoring system for a threesome is also a bit different. After all three golfers have finished the hole, the wolf’s score is doubled and then compared to the combined score of the wolf hunters.

The team with the lowest net score wins. If the wolf wins, he gets two points, but if the non-wolf golfers win, they get one point each.

Players can also decide if they want the points to carry over in the case of a tie. For example, let’s say the wolf and the wolf hunters tie on the second hole. Those points will carry over to the third hole and make it worth double the amount.

3 Tips to Help You Win at Wolf

Now that you know how to play Wolf, the next step is to learn how to win! We’ve compiled this list of 3 tips to help you win more often at Wolf. If you take these tips to heart, you’ll win more bets on the golf course.

1. Play with Confidence

Playing wolf on the golf course is a lot like playing poker at the casino. The golfer who isn’t afraid to take big risks exudes lots of confidence. This can psych out the other golfers in the crew and make them even more nervous.

One way to show confidence is to announce yourself as the blind lone wolf before you even hit your tee shot. This is known by many in the golfing world as the wolf hammer, and it carries a 4x multiplier of points instead of just 3x! This will shake your buddies up and let them know that you aren’t messing around.

2. Team Up with a High Handicapper

This tip only applies if you are playing Wolf with full handicaps involved. When that rule is instilled, it makes a lot of sense to team up with a high handicapper because they’re given at least one stroke per hole.

That means if the high handicapper scores a 5 on a hole, their score is actually recorded as a 4. This can make it easier for you to rack up points, especially if you happen to hit a poor tee shot as the wolf.

3. Don’t Take The Game Too Seriously

This may be the most important tip of all. While there’s nothing wrong with being competitive, remember that Wolf is supposed to be much more fun than regular stroke play. You aren’t playing for millions of dollars like on the PGA Tour, so just lighten up and have a good time out there!

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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Chipping is my favorite area of the game to practice. When you can get good at chipping, you can save almost any hole.

However, chipping is a real problem for a ton of golfers.

In reality, most golfers overcomplicate the chipping process, and it’s entirely unnecessary.

I gathered some of the best chipping advice around; of course, there is no perfect way to chip. Take a look at some of these options and see if any of them could change the way you approach chipping the next time you play.

Right Hand and Left Hand Only Drill (Sean Foley)

Sean Foley is a highly accomplished instructor capable of helping all levels of golfers with their short game and long game. This particular tip is one of our favorites because it talks about the importance of the body in chipping.

So many golfers make the mistake of using their hands and wrists as opposed to the rotation of their bodies. When you take one hand out of the equation and take one handed golf swings, it becomes much easier to get consistent chipping results.

You will notice that when you do the right hand only chipping, your right arm needs to stay stable and maintain its angle. The same goes for the left hand only drill. This video also demonstrates that there is no perfect way to accomplish a chip shot.

Learning various methods will help you improve your performance and become a much better player.

Don’t stick with a one handed drill for too long. It’s best to go back and forth between the one handed drills and your regular shots. In the end, both hands need to work together to hit golf shots, and you won’t want just one to dominate.

Watch The Height Of Your Lead Shoulder (Adam Bazelgette)

One of the biggest mistakes that golfers make is they tilt their body in a way that their front shoulder is pointed high. This makes it difficult for golfers to get through the golf ball; instead, they hit a chunk shot or even blade it a bit.

It’s best to have your shoulder set up a little more square to ensure that you can make the proper approach to the golf ball.

The way that Adam says it is best to do this is to set up as if you are about to hit a chip shot, then hold the club cross handed and then, with little movement in your shoulders or head, put your clubs back on the club correctly.

What this will do is keep your left shoulder a little lower and promote a more solid shot with less flipping or skulling of the chips around the green.

The great thing about this concept of lowering the lead shoulder is that it improves turf interaction and encourages several of the other mistakes in the chipping area to go away. An expert tip here, you may find that this concept even helps with the full swing.

Keep Momentum In The Swing (Clay Ballard)

Since many golfers struggle with chipping, they often freeze up and hit poor shots. The first thing that tends to go is any natural movement that they may have in their swings. Therefore it makes sense to listen to this great tip by Clay Ballard to keep momentum in the chipping stroke.

The first step here is to use something like a sand wedge and keep the club face slightly open. Then swing the club so that there is some tempo involved and it is not as rigid of a motion. If you have the ball position and swing path correct, the ball should get up in the air without any issues.

As you watch Clay Ballard hit his chip shots, he shows you that even these shorter chips need to keep this momentum through impact if you are going to make great contact with each of your chips and pitches.

There is More Than One Way To Get This Done (Tiger Woods)

When you watch videos of Tiger Woods hitting some of the best shots around the green, he always looks as though he has a different type of technique or club in his hand. That’s because he does!

Tiger never thought about a chip shot as a singular chip shot. Instead, he looked at this process as being a decision. He had to choose which golf club would make the most sense for his short game and then combine that with the proper stroke.

With most golfers carrying four wedges in their bag, your opportunities to create a variety of golf shots have expanded greatly. You can hit shots with less loft and higher backspin or shots that have a very little spin and roll from the front to the back of the green.

The concept here is that the more prepared you are for the different types of shots you need to hit, the easier it is to be successful on the course.

Weight and Hands Forward (Phil Mickelson)

Another master short game excerpt is Phil Mickelson. Phil does a tremendous job on the flop shots that he hits around the greens, but Phil has more to his game than just these flops. In fact, some of his chipping technique is considered the best in the game because of his consistency.

You can look at some players and notice that they are very methodical and by the book in their chipping. However, when you look at Phil’s short game, there is an artistic element mixed in. He is a bit of an artist around the greens, and the best way to see this is the way he can get himself out of trouble when he’s in a bad spot.

Whether it’s bunker shots, flop shots, or a standard run of the mill chip, Phil Mickelson knows how to get it done.

The two best tips that we get from Phil Mickelson is to keep your weight forward and to push your hands forward.

There is a bit of mixed advice out there about what the hands should be doing. Something that it’s best to keep them in the middle of your stance, but he feels that for more control, your hands should be pushed forward.

We like this technique quite a bit for the golfer that struggles to hit the ground on their chip shots; the forward press will help ensure that this happens for you.

Open Clubface and Use The Body (Mr.Short Game)

The Mr.Short Game videos do a great job of simplifying the importance of an open clubface. Tips in this video initially stemmed from the advice of Bob Vokey, the creator of the Vokey wedge. Certainly, the man knows a thing or two about hitting a great wedge shot.

The key here is to keep your elbows connected more toward your body if you want to ensure consistency. Essentially if you are hitting shorter chips or longer chips, you must ensure that your body stays more connected. When the club gets away from you, that’s when you see the chunk or the shank shots that you must try to avoid.

Opening the clubface also allows for the use of the bounce on the wedge. Bounce is there to be forgiving and can really help when you want to get the full loft out of your shot as well.

Don’t close the clubface down thinking that it will actually be more forgiving; it won’t be! The most forgiving shots you will hit are the ones with the more open clubface, where you take full advantage of the bounce.

I recommend working on this concept on the chipping practice green first and then bringing it out to the course. The open clubface concept takes a few swings to get used to.

Think Small (Britt Olizarowicz)

Maybe this concept or technique is easy for me because I’m short, but the one thing I’ve always told golfers who struggle with their chipping is that they must think small. You can’t expect to hit a short little shot that lands softly on the green while setting up to hit a large full-swing approach into a hole.

Think small, to hit it small.

The idea here is that your stance, setup, and swing all need to be simplified. Some of the best chips I’ve ever taken in my life are with my feet entirely next to each other. The full stance with your feet shoulder-width apart does not help when chipping.

Essentially you must ensure that you have set your brain up to adjust to this shorter distance shot. The easiest way to do this is by thinking of everything as being a miniature version of the big swing.

Small stance, small swing, choke up on the grip to make the club smaller, and see how this works for your short game. It has always worked for me.

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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When you want to get full distance from your golf shots, you need to be able to swing through the ball with power. The swing should feel free and unobstructed.

However, there are times when players feel as though they are getting stuck on the downswing. This feeling is frustrating. It makes you lose power, and sometimes it will even increase dispersion rates in your golf shots.

If you are getting stuck in your golf swing, try these four steps to start swinging freely again.

What Does Getting Stuck in Your Golf Swing Mean?

Getting stuck in your golf swing is a common swing flaw in which you feel as though the club can’t get through the ball. It feels almost as if on the way down, there is nowhere for the club to go, and your arm does not fall into place the way it should.

You may hear golfers talking about dropping the golf ball into the slot on the downswing. This is something that helps to get the downswing on track.

Getting stuck may be something you feel when taking practice swings or when hitting full length shots. The results of getting stuck could end up with shanks, chunks, blocked shots, and more. It’s best to get rid of this issue as soon as possible.

3 Common Reasons You Could Be Getting Stuck in Your Golf Swing

There are 3 common reasons you could be getting stuck in your golf swing. They include standing too close to the ball, poor transfer of weight, and a swing plane that is too upright.

Standing Too Close

Standing too close to the ball is a very common reason for feeling stuck in your golf swing. When you are close to the ball, there is nowhere for your club to go, and you may struggle to release the club.

Many golfers make the mistake of standing too far from their golf shots but standing too close can be just as much of a problem for some.

Remember that as a golf club gets longer, there are times that you will have to stand further from the ball. If you are standing the same distance from the golf ball with your pitching wedge as your driver, that is a problem.

Always adjust based on the length of the club you have in your hand and find a spot that is more comfortable.

Poor Weight Transfer

One of the causes that I have seen the most often in golfers getting stuck in their golf swing is they don’t correctly transfer their weight. If the weight does not make its way back onto the right leg, it will have a hard time getting to the left leg as you go through impact.

The result is a player feeling as though they are loaded up on their right side with nowhere to go. Players struggle to get that push forward, and then the club and the weight feel as though they are lagging behind.

Ask yourself where you should be when you finish a swing. The answer is finished with your weight forward on the left side. However, most golfers are leaning backward, barely trying to maintain balance.

Too Upright of a Swing Plane

Another common cause and something that you don’t see too many pro golfers doing is an upright golf swing that creates an issue with the club being stuck behind. When the club is more upright, sometimes there is no room for a golfer’s elbow to fit in to release the club.

These feelings of getting stuck typically release in a slice-type golf shot.

4 Tips to Help You Stop Getting Stuck in Your Swing

Now that we have identified why you get stuck in your golf swing let’s look at a few of the ways you can ensure that you stop getting stuck. The good news is that these tips can make this process considerably easier than you might think, and you shouldn’t have a hard time getting it done.

Stand Further from The Ball

The first way to ensure that you are not getting stuck in your swing is to make sure you have enough room for your arms to swing. Sometimes you get stuck simply because there is a lack of space to swing through the golf ball.

Of course, there is a fine line between standing too far from the ball and standing too close. Try to make sure your arms are hanging freely down your sides. Don’t feel as though your hands are too close to your thigh, and don’t reach out to extend your arms too far.

Standing further from the ball means that you will be able to cast the club out just a bit more too. If you have had a hard time with the swing inside out, this can certainly help.

If you start to lose balance and feel as though you have to bend over to reach the golf ball, chances are you are standing much too far from the golf ball, and you need to move up.

Start The Swing With a Weight Transfer

So many of golfers’ swing flaws are because of how they start their golf swing. If your swing does not get started the right way, it’s very hard to recover and start swinging correctly. Therefore you must ensure that you start your back with a weight transfer back to the right foot.

This is not difficult to accomplish if you take a low and slow takeaway. The club moving back low and slowly helps the weight transfer onto the right foot, making it considerably easier to get the weight onto the left side.

When you swing properly with the correct position of the weight to start, you have a much lower chance of getting stuck on the right side (for right-handed golfers).

One of my favorite drills to help focus on weight transfer and ensure that it is more efficient is to swing with my legs completely together. Standing with the legs together teaches you how to get more balanced and simplified in your swing; in the end, this will translate into the regular swing when you are ready.

Shallow Things Out a Bit

A shallow golf swing can undoubtedly lead to some issues.

However, for the most part, shallow golf swings are really good for a draw style ball flight and a much easier time getting distance. In addition, when you swing more shallow, you help to get that space in your downswing for the club to fit.

One of the best ways to determine if your golf swing is too shallow is to take a video of the swing with a camera. When you take a video, ensure it is a down the line view. Ensure your alignment is correct and your spin angle is good.

Once these are in place, take a look at the actual swing plane.

The swing plane that is too upright could cause you to get stuck. The shallower swing plane involves a more rounded move around your body. Play around with this to see how it impacts your ball flight and whether or not you have done too much, and it causes you to start hooking the ball.

Don’t Close The Stance Down

Another great tip to ensure that you will not get stuck in your golf swing is to open up your stance and setup a little bit. So many players make the mistake of closing things down. Their shoulders, hips, and even their feet will be closed off to the target.

When this happens, players will notice that the club can swing back just fine, but once it is back there, the room to swing through is significantly impacted.

The best way to do this is to start by opening up your lower body a bit. Take your feet and your hips, and just turn them slightly left of the target.

Remember that a slight move to the left is all it will take in golf. There is no need to exaggerate this movement; it won’t help you!

If you find this creates some space in the swing for you to swing down the target line, you may want to check your shoulder position as well to ensure that it is properly aligned. Take some practice swings with this more open stance first and see if it is easier to get the club face angle you are looking for.

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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