Tag Archives: learn golf

Golf Tip – Rotate Eyes to Target for More Golf Swing Speed

Posted on by
1

This drill comes to you from PGA Golf Pro John Darling. This tip is all about allowing your body to make a complete golf swing with full shoulder and core rotation.

Often time the biggest obstacle preventing a full swing is fixating on the ball. Sure you’re going to need to look at the ball during address, in the back-swing, and before impact, but looking at the ball any longer than that can freeze your upper body.

This fixation can prevent full shoulder and torso rotation which is necessary if you want to increase your swing speed. Even more important it can cause deceleration at impact and a whole host of other nasty golf swing problems.

The best way to fix this problem is to hit the range and use the drill in the video above. By making an exaggerated effort to transition your eyes to the target line earlier in your swing, even before impact, you’ll force your body to make a full rotation.

Take your time at first, focus on the rotation. You may also want to make it easy on yourself by teeing the ball up to get a perfect lie. Don’t let a chewed up range get you frustrated. Tees are cheep. By teeing the ball up for a perfect lie the only things you have to focus on are the rotation in your swing and transitioning your eyes to the target line.

Once you get this drill down you’ll be surprised at how smooth and fluid your swing gets.

For more instruction from John Darling check out his Swing Speed Accelerator DVD.

For better golf,
Doc O’Leary
Head Golf Nut, OHP Direct

Falling Victim To The Putting Illusion?

Posted on by
2


As Bobby said in the video the importance of proper putting cannot be ignored if you want to shoot low scores. I’ll admit putting isn’t the most fun thing to talk about, but let’s face it consistently dropping 6 footers will take a serious bite out of your score (plus it will drive your golf buddies nuts).

Golf is a mental game and putting relies even more heavily on your mental state and confidence level. That’s why overcoming the illusion Bobby talked about is so important if you want to become a consistent putter.

Focusing on keeping the putter face perpendicular to the target line through your whole stroke will drive you nuts, force you to do some funny things, and cause you to lose confidence on the green.

To eliminate many of those problems all you need to do is understand that the putter face will open and close naturally through your putter stroke.

Some guys intuitively understand this or simply go with what work, and through chance and luck they figure it out. Others guys (like me) need to understand this phenomenon conceptually before our brains will let us trust the putter stroke.

This video and the inclined plane tool should prove to you that taking the putter straight back on the inclined plane results in the putter face opening up. The same rules of geometry that caused it to open up will cause it to be square when it hits the ball. So as long as you take the putter straight back you don’t need to worry about getting or keeping the putter face square at impact.

All it really comes down to is accepting that this is fact of golf. It will allow you to focus on much more important things while putting, such as your speed, follow-through, break, and the speed of the greens that day.

You probably don’t have an inclined plane at home so use a score card like Bobby showed in the video if you need to prove it to yourself. The score card will also help you ensure that you are bringing the putter straight back.

For more putting tips and tricks from Bobby Schaeffer check out his Hot Touch DVD Package. This stuff will shave some serous strokes off your score.

For Better Golf,
Doc O’Leary
Head Golf Nut, OHP

Perfect Your Ball Striking With This Simple Drill

Posted on by
3


Just so there is no confusion, this golf drill it is not meant for practicing bunker shots. This drill is geared toward improving your ball striking for golf shots off of grass.

This golf drill will teach you to strike the ball more cleanly. By practicing in the sand you are able to see exactly where your club first touches the ground in relation to the golf ball. This will really help you dial in your swing.

During normal practice off of grass it is difficult to tell whether or not you are striking the ball cleanly, because after you swing the ball is long gone and you have no reference point to compare your divot to.

As you saw in the video when you practice this drill in the sand you can draw a line, place the ball just ahead of it, make your shot and get instant feedback from your swing. After you take a few shots you will know right away if you were are a little ahead or behind the ball.

Ideally you want to strike the golf ball first then the ground, so your divot should start right after the line you drew in the sand. Your divot should never start in front of the line (that would be a fat shot). If your divot starts before the line you know you need to adjust your swing.

The length of your divot is also important. This is where the sand really helps out. Since grass is resilient it will only take a divot where you make hard contact. Soft contact simply scuffs the grass.

Sand on the other hand will tell you exactly how long you were contacting the ground. A long divot means that you have a good follow through and are maintaining proper wrist conditions through impact.

If your divot is short you need to work on staying down through all your shots. Try focusing on having a flat left wrist through impact, and carry that wrist position as long as you can into your follow through.

If you really want to dial in your golf swing this drill is a must, so go out there and try this out.

For more great golf instruction from PGA Pro Bill McKinney Click Here.

For Better Golf,
Doc O’Leary
Head Golf Nut, OHP

Secret To Low Powerful Golf Punch Shots

Posted on by
4



As you saw in the video the secret to a low power shot is to have a large amount forward shaft lean. This takes some of the loft off of the golf club keeping the ball flight low.

This type of shot can be used in many different ways. It’s pretty common to use a 4 iron for this kind of shot but other clubs work in different situations.

You can use a half swing and get a small 50 to 75 yard golf shot with a low short flight and a really long roll, or you can use a full swing and like Bill said in the video get up to 200 yards out of it (which will also be low and have a long roll).

The bottom line is that this is a very versatile golf shot, one every golfer should know. It can really save you if you wind up in the trees or on the edge of the fairway where you need to keep the ball low to clear overhanging branches.

Aside from being able to use this shot to get out of trouble it will also help you train your hands to stay in front of the ball at impact.

This kind of low power shot simply exaggerates the forward shaft lean to keep the golf ball low. If you have trouble getting your hands to stay in front of the ball or can’t seem to keep your left wrist flat at impact this is a great shot to practice.

By exaggerating forward shaft lean with this golf shot you will get the feel for where you hands should be during impact on a normal shot (sometimes exaggerating something is the best way to get a feel for it).

If you play around with this technique you will also find that you can start controlling the height of all your golf shots by simply changing the amount of forward shaft lean.

To learn more great golfing tips and tricks from Bill McKinney Click Here.

That’s it. Now I’m going to go out and try that umbrella trick myself (at night while nobody’s watching). You should try it too (but it’s not my fault if you break your umbrella). Leave me a comment if you can hit the umbrella, or just leave a comment for any other reason, I love to hear feedback from other golf nuts.

For better Golf,
Doc O’Leary
Head Golf Nut, OHP