18holeclub.com

Golf tips are dime a dozen, but occasionally I run across a fundamentally sound help.  This one is from Golf.com.

Turn Your Slice into a Draw
Imagine a baseball diamond to hit drives out of the park

By Steve Bosdosh
GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teacher
Published: November 01, 2007

This story is for you if…

• You’re a chronic slicer
• You cut across the ball (check your divots—do they point left of the target?)
• You want to hit the ball straight every time

THE SITUATION

You’ve given up trying to fix your slice and just aim more to the left now.

WHY IT’S BAD

Over time, aiming to the left makes your swing even more outside-in. You know this is happening to you if your slices are mostly high and short, and your divots point left of the target.

THE SILVER LINING

Although opening your stance has intensified your slice, you can use it to hit powerful draws with one simple adjustment. At address, imagine that you’re standing at home plate on a baseball diamond. Keep your feet aimed to the left as before, like you’re lining up to hit a hot shot at the shortstop. But instead of swinging to short, try to hit the ball at the second baseman. To do this, you’ll have to swing in the opposite direction of your toe line from the top. That’s what swinging from the inside-out feels like. Do it correctly and your shots should fly with a draw and send the centerfielder back, back, back…

In an effort to create even better content on our site we want to hear from our viewers.  League info, recent great holes or rounds, tips or tricks, golf jokes, comments on articles, great golf sites to add to our blog roll, local tournament info, local phenoms on their way to the pros, you name it we want it.  We will be adding pages in the upcoming months with all kinds of great golf information!

Mike Weir finally wins again after 3 1/2 years!  One of the nicest guys on tour who seemed to lose his game for a long time has climbed back in to contention again.  Riding a victory over Tiger Woods at the Prez Cup his confidence again shown in a victory this week at Fry’s Electronics Open.  With a closing 2 under 68 he passed Mark Hensby on the 15th hole to win $900,000.00.  In the win he doubled his earnings for the year and hopefully can continue his success into 2008.

Lorena Ochoa clinched another player of the year yesterday with a convincing victory at the Samsung World Championship.  That makes two in a row and probably the next five.  Ochoa has become the player to beat on the LPGA taking over for Annika.  She had another break through season as she finally captured a major and won 7 times this year.  I don’t see why she can’t win 10 next year with at least a couple majors as she seems to be in contention in just about every tournament she plays.  Forget Michelle Wie this is the next great player.  Even though small in stature she is long off the tee, hits fantastic irons and wedges.  The only weakness I see is her putting which this year seems to be getting better.  Even though the womens game has its best players ever in my opinion she still seems to take out the best consistently.  Morgan Pressel, Paula Creamer, Suzann Petterson, Christie Kerr, Mi Hyun Kim, none have the staying power of Lorena.  I believe she will go on a Tiger Woods like run with majors over the next ten years only giving a few away to her compadres so they don’t feel dejected and quit the tour!

Summer golf in Florida is great.  Prices are way down, days stay nice and long, and you get to play deep into fall.  Be weary though as prices will be going up sooner than you think as our winter friends head south, course rates head north.  Our F.O.B. summer league at Rolling Green Golf Club was player light this year.  In years past we had 20 to 25 players a week show up to play a modified Stableford style with handicaps golf league.  We had 3 weekly money winners and played in foursomes and it was based on 9 holes of play on Monday late afternoon.  Most of the time you paired up with new people every week so everyone got to meet everyone.  This year was quite different as we had 5 regulars.  We even got bumped from preferred tee status this year as two other leagues brought in many players.  In discussions with my fellow golfers we believe it was a combination of having a league at the same course for the fifth or sixth year in a row and a hit to the construction industry.  Our league director Kenny is considering moving to another course next year but it is hard to pass up the price, $13 and change to play as many holes as you want (we usually end up playing 18).  In years past we have played at Bent Tree Country Club, University Country Club, and Forest Lakes Country Club so I guess we’ll have to see.  I am going to post info about many leagues in the upcoming months so don’t forget to come back!

One of the harder shots in golf is hitting out of the deep rough from 150 to 250 yards from the pin.  The trick is getting the club to hit as much ball and as little grass as possible.  The first thought to go through your mind should be a steeper swing, because your regular swing will most likely get caught up in the grass.  I would not recommend trying to it your 3 wood in this situation or even a 3 or 4 iron unless they are hybrids (they have the extra weight needed to stay on course in the thick stuff).  Usually the 5, 6, 7, or 8 iron is best due to the length of the club being shorter which makes a steeper swing path easier.  Next set up with a couple of adjustments in your swing.  First move a little closer to the ball than you might normally set up and put the ball closer to your back foot than normal.  Next set up for a fade (open stance with your back foot closer to the ball than your front) and open your clubface slightly (toward your back foot).  Your grip should be a little tighter than normal but do not choke it to death.  Next put more weight on your front foot than your back.  Try to swing more up and down than normal and a little harder than you would normally swing (say 85% instead of 70%) but don’t overswing!  If you feel you can, try to keep your hands ahead of the club head in your downswing, this promotes better contact.  What you will find is that the ball usually comes out lower than normal so you will get more role out than your standard shot.  Remember this is one of the harder shots in golf so if you don’t get it the first time keep trying, eventually it will help you bring your scores down and you’ll impress your golf buds with your shot making ability.

This past Saturday I was fully expecting to get my pants whipped by Tara at the Preserve when I was informed by my golf buddy that we were not playing there.   We played Tara Golf and Country Club instead which was a welcome change.  It was a busy day so we started in a scramble playing a tough par 3 first.  The course was in perfect condition with greens rolling quite fast but true.  The rough was very playable but most of the course was thin fairways with trees or water lurking at every corner.  Most holes turned left or right so course management was necessary for a good score.  Being that it was my first time on the course I did not play so well loosing many balls out of bounds.  I wasn’t the only one though as my three playing partners also shot much higher than their averages with one shooting his worst round in many years.  Play was fast enough, we finished in 4 hours and 15 minutes.  In the end we still all had a great time and we liked the course, tough but fair.

Once again the Americans dominated the President’s Cup even without the help of Tiger Woods on sunday.  For some reason they just rise to the occasion in this event and not in the Ryder Cup.   It does not make much sense why except that Europeans play better as a team then the Internationals.   The Internationals did however win the singles competition for the first time which is something they can surely build on.  It did not seem the matches were as passionate though knowing that the Americans only needed 3 wins to clinch.  Never the less it seems to be a fun competition that everyone likes to play in since they play team ball just once a year.