Golf - How To Make Your Long Game Shorter


by Donald Saunders - Date: 2006-12-30 - Word Count: 660 Share This!

Although many rounds of golf are either won or lost on the putting green, you can certainly improve your score considerably if you can reduce the number of shots it takes to get to the green in the first place.

Shortening your long game in is a matter of getting good posture, the right grip and a powerful swing that impacts the ball at the right point and the right angle.

When it comes to distance remember that the key lies in how fast your club head moves and just how it hits the ball rather than how tightly or strongly you grip the club. Your grip therefore should be firm but also relaxed. You should also ensure that the club is held more in your fingers than in your palm and, to do this, position your left thumb to the right of the middle of the grip and ensure that the "V" formed between your thumb and forefinger points toward your right shoulder.

Your posture is also extremely important and you need to adopt a posture which allows you to swing your arms and turn your body freely both to the left and the right throughout your swing. If you've got your posture right then with your back straight, your knees bent slightly and your arms relaxed, your arms should be positioned just a few inches away from the front of your thighs.

For maximum distance, widen your stance a little and position your feet just outside your shoulders. This will help to create a wider back-swing and also tend to restrict your hip movement, helping you to build a spring-like coil into your down-swing. You'll also find it easier to shift your weight to the left during the down-swing.

Finally, if you flare out your right foot slightly you will find that this assists in making a more powerful turn away from the ball.

The real power in your shot comes from the spring-like coil which you create in your back-swing. To create this coil, keep your knees in the position they assume when you address the ball and turn your hips through 45° and your shoulders through 90°. This will twist and compress the muscles in your shoulder and back and it is these muscles which provide to the coil.

You may have been told that you should keep your heads down when hitting the ball but, with your head down, you cannot turn your leading shoulder on the back-swing. As a result, your weight stays on the same side as your front foot and, if you hit the ball while moving away from the target, your swing will lose some of its power. To get the maximum force therefore you should allow your head to move with the swing, giving you full shoulder movement and allowing your weight to shift.

One good example of a powerful swing is the new style adopted by Tiger Woods. You will notice that during his back-swing as his upper body turns he allows his left shoulder to move across towards the right. This moves his left shoulder above his right foot at the top of the back-swing. At the end of his swing he finishes with his right shoulder above the left foot.

The final element when it comes to swinging for distance is the point at which you impact the ball and the angle of the club head on impact. Remember that as the club face contacts the ball whether the club face is open or closed and whether it hits the ball at the top or the bottom will affect the trajectory of the ball and that, if you don't get this element right, then all the force in the world is not going to have the ball going where you want it to go.

This final element in the equation is simply a matter of practice so that, over time, you are hitting the ball consistently at the proper point of impact and at the correct angle.


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