A pull with the driver can be incredibly frustrating.

What I have always hated about a pulled shot is that, at first, it feels really solid. But then, when you see the ball heading down the left, you know you are in trouble.

With all the hype that slicing a driver gets, you may be surprised that pulling a driver is almost as common of a miss. I have a few ways in which you can help straighten out your driver and stop hitting a pull.

You may need a combination of more than one fix to get the driver straightened out.

1. Your Lower Body Stops Rotating

One of the top reasons that golfers pull the ball is that their lower body stops rotating as they come through the golf ball. In order to create power in the golf swing, you must rotate your body back. However, that rotation must also continue back through the golf ball.

If at any point during the swing, your lower body stops rotating, you will likely notice the golf ball is pulled. Pulling a shot with the driver very often deals with overactivity in the arms.

How to Fix It

There are plenty of drills to work on, continuing to rotate your lower body through the impact zone. However, I find that the majority of players that struggle with this mistake tend to be standing too close to the ball.

As you are setting up to hit your driver, make sure that you are not crowding yourself. When you do this, it’s hard to get the club to pass through impact and continue your rotation.

Another important thing to focus on is transferring your weight; as you move towards the finish position, all of your weight should be on the left foot; this ensures your rotation is considerably better.

2. You’re Coming Over The Top

If you swing over the top and your clubface is slightly closed, the chance of hitting a pull is quite high. An over-the-top swing is one where the golf club is not on a proper plane as it approaches the ball.

Most of the time, the club is above the plane and swinging across the body. This over-the-top motion will, at times, cause a slice.

How to Fix It

An over the top golf swing is common. If the individual parts of your golf swing are not working all that well together, expect to come over the top.

The one thing that I have always found to help players that come over the top is to try to create a slight pause at the top of the golf swing. When you create this pause, it can help you feel the space necessary to drop the club down on the proper plane.

In addition, if you start your backswing with a turn, you should have an easier time keeping the hands and the body working together.

3. Your Hands Are Too Active In The Swing

The hands play a really important role in the golf swing, but many amateur golfers get their hands overly involved in their swing. If you are working on trying to hit the ball straight, it’s best to have less activity in the hands and more arms and body working together.

You can sometimes use your hands to square up a face and hit a straight shot, but it’s certainly not consistent.

How to Fix It

One of the best ways I have found to keep the hands out of the swing is to stay more connected. Take a headcover and put it under each of your arms, near the armpit. Now take some swings without letting this headcover fall out.

You don’t need to take actual shots, instead, use it as a drill and then step up to hit a shot. You should notice that the body stays more connected and the chance of your hands taking over and pulling the ball are a bit lower.

4. You’re Holding Weight Back

The fact that you transferred weight back to your right side (for a right handed player) is a great thing. However, to play great golf with lots of power, the weight also needs to transfer back to the left side as you move through impact.

Golfers that hold weight back on the right side will send the club flying through impact, and it most often has a closed clubface.

How to Fix It

The key to learning how to fix holding your weight back is to learn how to effectively transfer weight in the golf swing. This will take a lot of work without hitting shots and trying to create muscle memory of what it feels like to swing the club back while simultaneously getting that weight to transfer.

Once your weight is loaded up the way it should be, you can go after the ball and explode with power.

This video teaches some of the basics of a great weight transfer and how it can improve your golf game.

5. Your Clubface is Closed

Another one of the more common reasons for pulling a golf shot is the fact that the clubface is closed. To give yourself the best shot at a long driver, you need a square clubface and a proper club path as well.

Sometimes at setup, a golfer will close the clubface to help prevent a slice. The problem, of course, is when the clubface is closed to the target line, it can also create a pulled shot.

While you are checking on the angle of your clubhead, make sure that you are also looking at the ball’s position. The ball position for a driver should be off the inside of your left heel. If you are playing it further back than that, it could result in a pull.

How to Fix It

This is one of the simple fixes in the game of golf. Learn what a square clubface looks like by using a straight edge of some sort. Setup with the club on the straight edge to see what a 90-degree clubface looks like.

On the takeaway, make sure you don’t adjust the shot and start closing the clubface down. A slice is a bad miss, but if you overcorrect too much, you end up with a pull.

6. You Have Poor Alignment

Amateur golfers sometimes take a stance that will set them up to the left of their target line. The pulled shot is not always caused by mistake in the golf swing and is instead caused right at setup.

If you are working on your golf game at the driving range, use alignment sticks to work on your tee shot alignment.

How to Fix It

Always pick a line for your clubhead, and then make sure that your feet, shoulders, and hips are square to this line. If your legs are open and your clubface is square, you could be setting yourself up to hit a slice.

If those feet are closed, and your clubface is square, there is a good chance you are going to pull your tee shot.

Take the time you need in your setup. It’s one of the most important areas of the golf swing. The setup is a way to ensure you get to the perfect impact position. I like to incorporate my aiming routine into my pre-shot routine so that it is done the same way every time.

7. Your Grip Is Too Strong

Our only connection with the golf club is the grip. Golfers with strong grip have their left hand turned more to the right than they should. This extra turn of the hand allows the right hand to fit more under the club.

With one hand rotated more on the bottom of the club, it takes a more active role and makes it easier for a golfer to release the clubhead at impact.

For players that slice the ball, this has always been a great quick fix. However, most amateur players tend to overcorrect. If you overcorrect and your grip starts to get too strong, it will create a pulled shot. Many times these pulls turn into hooks.

How to Fix It

Finding the perfect grip on your golf club is an art. There are grip trainers out there that make it easy to see exactly where your hands should be on the club. However, it’s best to invest time in this process and learn how to grip the club in a neutral position.

Start by ensuring your left thumb is not wrapped too far to the right of the center of the grip. Instead, keep the left thumb a bit more straight down the shaft.

When your left hand is in this potion, the right hand should fit more on top of the club than under it. This positioning takes the right hand out of it a little and allows you to get your golf shot on the proper path.

I would work on keeping this same grip in place for all clubs, aside from the driver.

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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Mid handicappers make up the largest group of golfers in the game; however, this range can feel wide and leave you questioning whether or not you are a mid handicapper.

Low handicappers and high handicappers know who they are. Let’s find out if a mid handicapper describes your game or if you identify as high or low.

What Is a Mid Handicap Golfer?

A mid handicap golfer is anyone who has a handicap from around a 10 to a 20. The mid handicappers are not single-digit handicap golfers. Instead, they often shoot in the 80s and 90s.

Most of the time, the mid handicapper golf score will be anywhere from 85 to 93.

A mid handicapper that breaks 90 consistently is generally quite happy with the way they are playing. Most mid handicappers will make a couple of pars and bogeys, but they often have one or two holes where they pick up extra strokes.

This may be from a golf shot out of bounds or the inability to get up and down from a tough spot around the green. However, those extra shots are what keep the mid handicap golfers from becoming low handicappers.

Understanding The Different Levels of Handicap

Although we would like to be polite and say that your handicap doesn’t define you as a golfer, it most certainly does. Scratch golfers work hard to get to that point and aren’t afraid to announce that they are scratch golfers.

High handicappers know they struggle to break 100, and until they do so consistently, that mid-handicap range seems almost out of reach.

The different handicap levels are the same for men and women. Women golfers that shoot in the mid to high 80s are considered mid handicap golfers as well. There are fewer mid and low handicap women golfers than there are men, but the range is still considered to be the same numbers.

Remember that everyone’s idea of what defines a “good” golfer can be very different. You may talk to a scratch golfer that thinks his friend who shoots 82 is not a great player. However, the higher handicapper who has that same friend likely thinks of them as professional!

Tips on What it Takes to Go From a Mid Handicapper to a Low Handicapper

All golfers have different goals in the game. Just getting out to the golf course and enjoying it is enough for some. For others, breaking 80 is a lifelong goal that they must achieve. When you start breaking 80 consistently, you will move from the mid handicap group to the low handicap group; here are some tips to help this happen faster.

Accuracy Over Distance

It’s fun to hit the ball far. Regardless of your handicap, hitting a shot with tons of ball speed that heads down the center of the fairway feels great. However, at some point, distance is not the only thing that matters.

In fact, when you are ready to really start scoring well, accuracy is much more important than distance. Golfers must be highly accurate to break 80.

Even hitting a shot in the rough can lead to a bogey, and scratch golfers will tell you there is a huge difference between hitting an approach shot from the rough and one from the fairway. Accuracy is essential when trying to shoot the lowest scores.

Putting Practice from 10-15 Feet

Golfers that want to be low handicappers need to be able to drain birdie putts. Unfortunately, pars are not enough.

When you go low out on the course, you will still make some mistakes. There are times when you get a bad lie or a bad kick and end up looking at a bogey shot. It’s going to happen.

However, if you can make a few birdies along the way, it becomes much easier to stay under 80. The key to making birdies is to be able to start draining those 10 to 15 foot putts.

An approach shot that puts you 10 to 15 feet from the pin is a good one; you must be able to capitalize on this to shoot lower scores.

Start some putting practice drills that allow you to get the ball in the hole a bit more consistently from the 10-15 foot range.

Getting Up and Down

Lower handicap golfers are much more confident with their wedges than mid handicap golfers. It is no longer enough to get your wedge shot on the green; it must be close to the pin.

In addition, lower handicap golfers have to pay close attention to where they land the ball on the green.

Don’t leave yourself with a 5 foot putt straight downhill to the pin if you are trying to make a par. Instead, a solid four footer up a hill will have a much higher percentage of you making it.

Be smart about what club you choose, where you land the ball, and the putt you are leaving yourself if you plan on becoming a lower handicapper.

Fairway Wood Approaches

The fairway wood is a club you can use off the tee if you struggle with the driver. However, the fairway wood should also be used on longer approach shots on a par 5.

If you can get the ball even remotely close to the hole on a par 5, giving yourself a chance for an easy birdie or even an eagle, it can make a huge difference.

Try to have a fairway wood that you are confident with when it comes to accuracy. Hitting the ball straight down the center of the fairway is essential. Even if you don’t have the distance to make it to the green, you can get close and then get the ball up and down for an easy birdie.

Mental Strategies

If you want to be a lower handicapper, start thinking like one!

Stop trying to hit shots to stay out of trouble or avoid things. Instead, go right after the target. If you want to make, a birdie think about making a birdie.

If you have a good round going, don’t start thinking about how it will go bad. If you are smart about how you are playing, it doesn’t have to go bad.

I highly recommend reading books by authors like Dave Pelz and Bob Rotella, as they will help you learn how to control your thoughts on the course and be a more consistent golfer.

Adding More Practice Time

Practice time should be increased when you are moving from mid handicapper to low handicapper range.

Even if your golf is limited to weekends, try to add in an extra half hour on a Wednesday afternoon. Think about getting an at-home putting or chipping mat so that you can at least work on short game during the week or on a busy day.

Tracking Stats and Data

Last but certainly not least lower handicap golfers start to track their stats and data to ensure their handicap is trending in the right direction. In addition, if you know you three putt often or miss greens in regulation, you know which golf clubs you need to work on the most.

Having some kind of direction for practice and ensuring that you are effective in the work you put in on the range will only help you lower your scores.

There are plenty of devices out there that will track the majority of this without you having to do anything.

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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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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A common question I am asked by expecting mothers is “can you play golf while pregnant?”

Technically, you can do anything you want. The more pertinent question is should you swing a club while pregnant. In this article, I explain whether you should play and until what stage of pregnancy.

In addition, I provide tips and precautions to help keep you and your baby healthy.

Can You Play Golf While You’re Pregnant?

For most women playing golf while pregnant is not a problem, it is actually beneficial. However, that depends on your specific case. While the workout is encouraged, hip and shoulder rotation can put your back out at a time when you need to look after yourself and your precious cargo.

Besides the risk of back, hip, and shoulder injuries, heat poses a threat to a pregnant golfer. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggest that pregnant women drink eight to twelve glasses of water a day. If you drink plenty of water religiously, you won’t find it challenging to keep yourself hydrated.

Sufficient water is only one part of keeping yourself safe in the heat, I suggest you avoid teeing off on sweltering days. Firstly, if you catch heatstroke, you put yourself and your baby at risk, and secondly, it causes serious fatigue.

However, if you avoid this advice, it is worth taking a golf cart in warm conditions. The reduced stress lowers the risk of swelling feet and ankles, keeping you comfortable and free of pain.

Ultimately, you can play golf while you are pregnant. You just need to be extra cautious to avoid injuring yourself or risking your baby’s health. Before you pick up your clubs and head out with the girls, consult your doctor to ensure you are cleared to tee off.

To demonstrate that it is possible to play golf while pregnant, we only need to look at Catriona Matthew. In 2009, while five months pregnant with her second child, she stormed to a five-shot victory at the HSBC LPGA Brazil Cup.

Does The Trimester Matter?

Trillium Rose is the Director of Instruction at Woodmont Country Club. In 2018, she wrote an article detailing her experience as a pregnant golfer. Rose explained that besides the physical changes of her body, it was her energy that hampered her ability to play.

She explains that in her first trimester, she had minimal energy and wanted to sleep most of the time. As you can imagine, that impacted her motivation, and she did not have the will to play golf like before.

When she did play, she was cautious not to grip it and rip it, like days gone by. She felt like she needed to slow down her golf swing for low impact to protect her young one. But Rose says that it did not affect her mechanics and required no swing adjustments.

Trillium found she had more energy in her second trimester but could notice the changes to her body. As time progressed in that trimester, she felt her center of mass lower, and the additional weight worked to keep her posture through the swing.

Furthermore, her joints began to loosen at this point, and she was hesitant to over-extend her swing for fear of injuring herself.

Rose further states that the third trimester is where you realize you need to slow down with any intense exercise.

The excessive weight gain around the belly reduced her ability to optimize hip rotation. As a result, she decided to stand more upright and bend from her knees to increase power on the downswing.

Furthermore, Trillium found that bending down became unbearable to place her tee in the ground and pick up her ball from the cup.

Tips and Precautions to Keep You and Your Baby Safe

Pack Liquids

I have already touched on the importance of keeping hydrated during your round. As ACOG suggests, pregnant women should drink eight to twelve glasses of water per day.

On days that you play, you will likely need more than usual. Blair O’Neal found optimal hydration boosted her energy and limited fatigue while playing:

Pack Snacks

Nine holes only takes two and a half hours, but you are now eating for two. Blair O’Neal found that keeping her favorite snacks in the bag during her round maximized her energy to avoid fatigue and perform to the best of her ability.

Easy Warm-Up

Before you tee off, you definitely need to warm up. However, O’Neal suggests only hitting a couple of balls to loosen the muscles and then making your way to the first tee. A long warm-up is generally encouraged, but it will tire you out and hamper your ability to play a full round.

Putter Suction Cup

A putter suction cup is typically associated with older men with pot bellies. However, it is handy for those going through pregnancies. The instructions are simple. Attach the cup to the top of your putter grip, and press onto the ball to suck it up. All you do is lift the cup to your hand and grab the ball.

Eliminating the need to bend over and collect the ball is one movement less that could impact your health and that of your baby.

Golf Cart

Although walking improves your heart rate and is one of the safe exercises, it is not suggested on super warm days. Exposure to the sun for several hours increases your risk of heatstroke, sunburn, and dehydration. If you already struggle with fatigue, I advise that you take a golf cart instead.

Consult Your Doctor

Golf is certainly not a dangerous sport like downhill skiing, gymnastics, or horseback riding. However, there are still risks associated with the game. That is why, before you pack your bag for the golf course, you must visit your doctor.

While they will likely welcome your enthusiasm to exercise, golf may not suit your condition during pregnancy. However, plenty of women have played golf while pregnant and suffered no complications.

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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Many golfers think that hitting a wedge shot high is a great benefit. However, there are problems with getting too much ball flight on your shots.

I have been paying close attention to professionals and their equipment, and you can see that they are now working on keeping the ball a bit lower but still including plenty of spin in their shots. For instance, the new Titleist SM9 wedges have a lower launch than previous models to help with this added control.

Here are 5 reasons why you’re hitting your wedges too high and how to fix it.

1. Bigger Swing Than Necessary

One of the first things that golfers should look at when trying to get their ball flight down is the size of the golf swing they are taking. If you are taking a big swing instead of a shorter, more compact motion, you may notice the ball getting up a little higher than necessary.

It’s easier to get a higher trajectory on the golf ball when you have more speed and a larger swing. To fix this issue, you can simply choose a different club and make a more compact motion.

How To Fix This Issue

Take a look at the distance you have to the hole.

Do you need to be using a 60 degree lob wedge to get you to the pin? Could you use something like a pitching wedge, take a more compact motion and keep the ball down just a bit?

The smaller swing is going to help make it easier on you when it comes to controlling the flight of the ball and the angle of your clubface.

2. Opening The Face

When you set up to take your backswing, ensure you are not opening the face of your club too much. For pitch shots and most chip shots, you can let the club sit as it lies and then uses this angle when you make contact with the ball.

Opening the face is really only necessary on full wedge shots where you are trying to go over a bunker or something. You will see some players do this with a sand wedge in the bunkers, but it’s not necessary around the greens.

How To Fix This Issue

Learn what a square club face looks like. Setup with the clubface at a square angle, and then work on maintaining that in your takeaway.

If you have a tendency to open the clubface on the backswing, make sure you have a swing thought of keeping the club square.

3. Ball Too Far Forward

The ball position could be the reason you are hitting your wedges too high.

When you want to hit approach shots to the green from a shorter distance, you will probably want the ball back in your stance. This, of course, does not mean behind your right foot (for right-handed players). Instead, it will just be back of the middle.

Some golfers have a hard time with ball flight being too high when they have the ball in the middle of the stance. Pushing it back just a little allows you to hit the ball on the way down and create a more penetrating ball flight.

How To Fix This Issue

When you are practicing on the driving range, use a golf alignment stick to see where your ball position is. Adjust accordingly and play around with different angles to find something that works for your needs.

Be careful not to get the ball too far back in your stance – this will result in poor shots.

4. Stance Too Wide

Keeping your stance too wide is not just a problem for ball flight, but it is a significant reason that golfers struggle with wedge shots as a whole. Regardless of your skill level, it is much easier to control a golf ball when your stance is more narrow. In addition, keeping that clubhead speed constant and accelerating is also much easier with a narrower stance.

The narrow stance can help players that are struggling with backspin on their golf chip and pitch shots as well. Again, that larger stance opens up the door to inconsistent turf interaction and more movement in the body and the hands.

I have always chipped with a narrow stance that is also slightly open. The open stance encourages a bit more rotation towards the target and a softer overall feel to the golf shot.

How To Fix This Issue

Learning how to get your feet closer together when you chip is one of the easiest adjustments you can make to your game. The average distance your feet are apart is about equal shoulder width. However, on these types of shots, I like to get my feet even more narrow than shoulder width.

It’s important to remember that the further you get away from the hole, the further your feet may need to come apart. Sometimes when you need that extra distance, your feet will have to go back to shoulder width.

5. Incorrect Angle of Attack

An incorrect angle of attack can cause a golfer to hit the ball too high. Many players try to hit the ball up in the air by lifting it.

These golfers often lean back on their right side and try to lift the ball up in the air. It’s so important for golfers to remember that this is not how the ball gets up in the air, and it certainly won’t help you get the spin and ball flight you need to approach a shot in this way.

The proper angle of attack for a chip or pitch shot is to hit down and through the ball. Golfers should hit the ball first and then take a divot after the ball. When you approach from this angle, the ball stays lower, but no spin is lost.

How To Fix This Issue

There are plenty of drills to help you learn to hit down on the golf ball. However, one of my favorites is the line drill. All you need for this is a bit of spray paint, where you can draw a line to use for practice on the driving range.

Spray the line and then set your golf ball up at the beginning of the line. As you hit shots, you are going to want to hit the ball and then take a piece of the line with you. You can keep practicing along this line with the concept of hitting down and through the ball.

The shot will have a cleaner feel, and it will actually even sound crisper. This drill will not only help you from hitting your wedges too high, but you will also have a better time making solid contact with other clubs in your bag. If you can’t spray a line on your green, you can always put a loose tee in front of the ball and focus on hitting this as well.

6. Wrong Equipment

Although playing with the wrong equipment may seem like an excuse for poor golf, sometimes it really does apply. If you have a wedge that is high lofted but also tries to increase loft because of a low center of gravity, you may notice that the combination creates a launch angle that you can no longer control.

As I mentioned, this year, golf manufacturers are starting to put out options to the market that actually help players control the ball flight and keep it down a bit on their wedges. We saw this with the new Vokey line and the Milled Grind options from TaylorMade.

If you watch the pros in person, you can see that their wedges have a much more penetrating ball flight, and the shots have quite a bit of spin as well. The shaft and clubhead combination you choose could encourage you to hit your wedges too high.

How To Fix This Issue

The best way to fix an issue where you are playing with the wrong equipment is to go for a golf club fitting. Launch angle, spin, direction, and total distance are just a few key parameters that a club fitting can teach you about the clubs you have in play.

If you don’t want to pay for a fitting just yet, try a friend’s wedge and see if you hit the ball the same height. If you do, then the equipment may not be the issue.

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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