Tag: golf tips

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GOLF

Off Season Golf Simulator Goals

SIMULATOR SEASON EXPECTATIONS

As the 2020 Golf Season in Ontario comes to an end, the Simulator Season begins. The last three off seasons I have utilized Golf Simulators to work on specific aspects of my game. Understanding the limitations of a Golf Simulator is the first thing you should be aware of when planning your Simulator practice. Some of the limitations are obvious. You can’t work on your bunker game, or recovery shots from awkward lies in a Simulator. There are a few limitations that aren’t so obvious. Having a perfectly balanced platform to hit off of is a limitation. Having to aim your shot previous to setup is a limitation. Even the technology of the Simulator can make certain shots impossible. For instance I use a Chipper out on the course but most Simulators read them improperly.

Most people would assume that hitting off perfectly flat ground is an advantage, but it isn’t. I used to wear my most comfortable shoes in a Golf Simulator. I found out the hard way that weight transfer is quite different if I am wearing something other than golf shoes. You can’t dig in or rely on your cleats to help you remain steady during an aggressive swing. In fact I used that understanding to focus on swinging with more precision to gain distance instead of faster. Aiming is quite different in a Simulator. You can’t just adjust your stance and play for a Push Draw or Pull Fade. You first need to adjust the aim point with the software to account for a Push or Pull. Then let your swing dictate how far the ball Draws or Fades. If you make the adjustment at Setup instead of with the software that can cause many Simulators to read it far too extreme, and guarantee a terrible result.

Last Off season I focused on improving my consistency with the Driver. The work I did in Golf Simulators definitely helped. Driving is actually one of the best skills you can practice in a Simulator. It takes the mat out of play, and in most cases the even ground in a Simulator is similar to what you have on a Tee box. It’s about as close to the real thing as you can get. I was able to work on my Setup, Takeaway, Club Face control, and Finish position in the Simulator. The practice worked and my consistency has improved. This Off season I will continue to work on my Driving. Only this time my focus will be on improving my Launch Angle.

Something I have really focused on lately is improving my quality of contact with my Irons. Unfortunately it is quite difficult to work on your Iron striking in a Simulator. First of all most hitting mats are quite forgiving. Bad strikes can read as good strikes depending on the surface. Secondly you can’t take a divot hitting off a mat. So there isn’t a visual indicator of where your club bottomed out. Lastly Irons are more likely to be hit off uneven surfaces in real life. A Simulator can provide you with a false sense of security in your Iron swing because every shot is perfectly level.

Now fortunately I have come up with a way to practice my Iron striking that provides me with a way to measure my quality of strike. Here are the numbers from a perfectly struck 7 Iron.

7 Iron perfection

For a full explanation of how I improved my Ball striking. CHECK OUT THE FULL VIDEO ON IGTV.

So if your Golf Off season is about to begin, and you are serious about improving. Find something that you can effectively work on in a Simulator, and stick to it.

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GOLF

PRIORITIZE YOUR GOLF PRACTICE

Rate your Golf Game

An idea I came up with this Season because practice time wasn’t easy to come by was to rate my golf game. In order to be as brutally honest as possible I decided to divide the aspects of an individuals golf game into 5 categories. Then assign a score from 1 to 5 for each category, but no two categories can have the same score. This will force you to rank your abilities from best to worst.

Here is how I ranked each category for myself.

Driving
-4

Putting
-1

Irons
-5

Woods\Hybrids
-3

Wedges
-2

What is particularly great about this system is that it doesn’t matter how good your overall game is. A 1 in putting doesn’t mean I can putt like a tour pro. It just means that it’s the most reliable part of my game. The next thing I did was make a quick note of one thing I would most like to improve in each category.

These were the primary goals I chose for each category.

Driving
-4
-increase average distance by 15 yards

Putting
-1
-improve proximity to hole on downhill putts

Irons
-5
-lower launch angle to increase distance

Woods\Hybrids
-3
-be more consistent with the distance

Wedges
-2
-improve bunker accuracy

So now what am I supposed to do with that information. This is where having an understanding of where you are able to effectively cut strokes really helps. I use a Shot Scope V2 to track my golf game. I also use the 18birdies app to take notes, and get a quick analysis of my game at the end of each Round while it’s fresh in my mind. This combination has enabled me to really understand what I need to improve in order to quickly lower my scores.

The goals that would have the least affect are adding 15 yards to my Driving distance, and improving bunker accuracy. An extra 15 yards off the Tee would allow me to take 1 less club into Greens. Unfortunately my Irons are the worst category in my game so 1 less club makes little to know difference. On average I only hit 1 or 2 bunkers per Round so having improved accuracy on those shots would improve my scores minimally.

The goals that could significantly lower my scores dramatically are a lower launch angle with my Irons to increase distance, and better distance control with my Hybrids. First of all distance, and distance control are key to scoring with the majority of your clubs. Hitting it short off the Tee with my Driver won’t punish me as much if I’m accurate, and relatively long with my Irons and Hybrids. Instead of hitting pop ups with my Irons that are difficult to control, and heavily affected by the wind. I could hit a shorter Iron delofted with more control, and lower so the wind doesn’t affect it as much. On long approaches into Greens I could take hazards out of play if my distance control with my hybrids was predictable.

Now that I have identified which improvements will have the greatest impact. It is easy to optimize my practice sessions to get the absolute most out of them. If I go out to the Range I know exactly which clubs to bring with me. I know exactly what to work on. I can bring along the correct devices in order to measure my results, and determine if the swing changes are working. For these particular goals I would only need my Swing Caddie SC200 at the Range, or I could get the exact numbers by booking time in a Simulator. I wouldn’t have to spend any time on a Putting Green, or Short Game Practice area. Not a second of my time spent practicing would be wasted.

If it wasn’t for the time constraints Covid-19 has caused I would have never developed this system. Having actually put it to use, and seeing the results first hand. I will be prioritizing my practice sessions this way for the foreseeable future. I would strongly suggest that if you are serious about improving your golf game you try it as well.

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GOLF

GOLF SWING THOUGHTS MADE SIMPLE

Finding the proper Swing Thoughts

The less you have to think about before, and during the Swing the better. I wish I could just select a club, get in position and swing away with no thought at all but that’s never going to happen. The best Players in the world still have one or more Swing thoughts in order to execute their golf swing. Your goal is to find the fewest number of Swing thoughts you require to execute your most consistent golf swing. Most people begin with many more than necessary, and have a very difficult time reducing it. The reason it’s so difficult to whittle down is because we don’t pay close enough attention to which thoughts actually make a considerable difference. In the beginning you will get Swing thought advice from everyone, including total strangers. I’m sure some of you have heard some or all of these.

Top 8 Swing Thought advice

1- Keep your head in the same position during the swing

2- Keep your eyes on the ball and don’t look to see where it’s going until your Follow through naturally lifts your head

3- Keep your forward arm straight

4- Swing with your body, not your arms

5- Transfer your weight into your back foot during the back swing, then shift your weight on to your front foot during the forward swing

6- Hit down on to the ball and take a divot just after ball first contact

7- Allow your hands to turn over through impact to close the face

8- Begin the forward swing by rotating your hips first to create lag

There are many more, and at some point I’ve tried them all. In the end my Swing Thoughts have been reduced to (a) maintaining a slow controlled back swing utilizing my two anchor points, and (b) completing a full swing through to a proper finish position. Some of you are probably surprised by that, and maybe even doubting it’s all I require. I’ll explain why this works for me. First of all a Slow Back swing prevents me from swaying. It keeps me balanced, and prevents my head from moving. The Anchor points keep my forward arm from bending to far, promote a proper rotation, and keep my Swing Path under control. Everything that happens through impact is determined at set up before I actually swing. As long as I’m set up correctly my strike will be decent. Something I learned to accept a while back is that a golf swing is far too fast to correct a poor set up during the swing. Better to take a little longer during set up, and then just trust you got it right. That way I’m able to just swing freely, and focus on getting to my second Swing thought, that perfect end position. Chances are if I finish the swing smoothly my shot will be what I expected. If things go wrong it can only be a problem at set up, bad Tempo, or poor balance. The icing on the cake is figuring out which thing went wrong is relatively easy. If I end up off balance it’s obvious. If my swing gets out of synch it’s a Tempo issue. If the Strike was really poor then the problem was at the set up. It usually only takes me a maximum of 3 Holes to get things fixed during a Round now. I can remember Rounds of golf where something would go wrong with my Swing, and it could take 6 Holes to figure out what. Sometimes I wouldn’t figure out what was wrong the entire Round. The reason I had no idea was because I had too many Swing Thoughts to work through. Was my head steady? Was I transferring my weight too soon, or too late? Had I gotten too armsy? Were my hands forward at impact? If just one thing was wrong I could potentially figure it out. But what if two or more things weren’t quite right? Good luck finding the right combination to fix things in time.

Just because these two Swing thoughts work for me doesn’t necessarily mean they will work for you. My Swing thoughts include a front and rear arm anchoring against my abdomen. Unless you do that as well it won’t make sense for you. I rarely take much of a divot, and don’t compress the ball all that much. As a result of that I don’t hit the ball particularly long. Right now distance isn’t all that important to me. I hit long enough to get around a shorter course, and shoot my target score provided I’m accurate. At some point in order to improve my Handicap I’ll have to learn to hit the ball a bit longer. At that time my Swing thoughts might change, or I might require one more in order to account for compressing the ball at impact.

WHAT SWING THOUGHTS HAVE WORKED FOR YOU?

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GOLF

QUICK START GUIDE FOR BEGINNER GOLFERS

First things first

I’m not going to get into choosing the right equipment, or how much time you should spend at the Range. I’m not going to tell you what part of your game you should focus on in the beginning, or how to develop a repeatable swing. I’m not going to tell you these things because I have written previous articles, and have a whole series of videos dedicated to those things already on my Cobe Life YouTube channel. What I’m actually going to do is provide you with a flowchart of sorts. A step by step guide that should help you progress as a Golfer, and minimize the number of setbacks most Beginner Golfers experience. So lets assume that you have purchased your first set of clubs, have a halfway decent swing, and can get through 18 holes on a course without losing your mind and a case of balls. Now what… 

Time to get Fit? NOPE!

Practice Putting until sinking 5 footers becomes so easy that it’s boring

Notice the emphasis on short putts. Trust me, there’s nothing worse when you start golfing at actual courses, and feel like you are 3 putting every hole. Putting is like Running. First you need to know how to crawl, then learn to walk, before you can run. It won’t help you to hit a long lag putt to within 5 feet, or chip it close from off the green, If it then takes you two putts to sink it. Lag putting will become easier over time. It takes a lot of actual playing time to become decent at reading greens and getting a feel for the speed required to cover assorted distances. Once you have learned to control your putts. Knowing that you can drain anything that gets remotely close really helps your confidence, and frees you up to try and sink long putts more often.

Fall in love with your Hybrid

If you have read my previous posts on assembling your first golf set, or seen my YouTube videos on buying golf clubs. You will already know that I’m a huge fan of Hybrid clubs. Recently popular YouTuber Rick Shiels posted a video on 5 different ways to use your Hybrid clubs. That alone should tell you how versatile they are. The versatility isn’t why I believe you should quickly make your Hybrid clubs your favourites. What makes Hybrid clubs so important for the majority of Beginner Golfers is the ability to hit them a relatively long distance out of any lie. It doesn’t matter if it’s off a Tee, from the fairway, in a bunker, or out of the rough. Hybrid clubs seem to have no problem hitting a golf ball from anywhere. Once you’ve realized this, you’ll have the confidence to take a full swing off the Tee, or attack greens from a distance. If you happen to miss the Fairway or Green so be it. The Hybrid club is there to help get you out of trouble.

Pick your Favourite Wedge

As a Beginner Golfer you are going to miss a lot of Greens. If you want to continue to lower your scores you will have to get good at Chipping. The first step is finding a Wedge you feel confident with. Any Wedge will do. Actually it doesn’t even have to be a Wedge. It could be your 9 Iron if that’s what suits you. What’s most important is that you choose one club and stick to it! Sure PGA professionals have around four different Wedges in their bag, and they use all of them. The thing is, and I’m sorry to be the one telling you this but. You are not a PGA professional. Practice chipping out of trouble with one club from around 30 yards and in. Get in the habit of using the same exact stroke for every chip. Just control the distance by limiting your backswing. If you stick to it, then eventually chipping will feel as natural as putting. Once you’ve reached that level of confidence you will take dead aim at greens with very little worry. If you end up 5 to 10 yards off the green. Your goal will be to get up and down for Par, not to hopefully make Bogey.

Now it’s time to get Fit right? NOPE!

Let the Big Dog eat

Now that you can putt like Jason Day, hit your Hybrids from anywhere like Jordan Spieth, and chip to within inches of the hole like Phil Mickelson. It’s time to learn how to bomb it down the Fairway like Dustin Johnson. If you can’t achieve both distance and accuracy, well at least develop accuracy. Not everyone is going to be able to hit their Driver 250 yards or more, but we can all learn to develop some accuracy. As a Beginner Golfer 2 out of every 3 Fairways hit is a pretty good average. The Driver can be the most difficult club to control for a lot of new golfers. If you are really struggling then it may be time to enlist some outside help.

So this is when we get Fit! NOPE!

Find a Coach and get some lessons

Coaches come in many forms. Could be your local Course Pro, the Golf Trainer at your local golf store, or a friend who has been playing a lot longer than you have. Whoever it may be you might find yourself pleasantly surprised what a couple of golf lessons can do for your game. Golf is a game of minor adjustments, but it can be difficult to assess what adjustments you require. A good coach should be able to recognize simple setup or swing faults rather quickly. For some Beginners it only takes one or two lessons to see a major improvement. Once you’ve spent enough time with your coach to eliminate your bad habits, and get everything in order. There’s just one last thing to do.

GET FIT!

Finally it’s time to get properly fit. This doesn’t mean that you need to go out, and buy a whole new set of clubs. Getting fit can simply be about getting your current set adjusted for Length, Lie Angle, and Loft. When it comes to your Driver, and Fairway Woods you might opt for a Shaft Change. Whatever you decide that fits your budget will help at this point. Some of you are probably wondering why getting Fit was left till last? These steps aren’t meant to be taken until you begin playing Golf Courses and actually keeping score. For most Beginners that’s around the six month mark. At this point your swing is far from polished, and quite honestly will probably change drastically over the next six months to a year. Getting Fit too early will in some cases benefit you for a short amount of time, and then become a hindrance to your progress. If I had gotten Fit after six months the Lie Angle on my Irons would have been way off the mark they are at now. It is my opinion that most Beginner Golfers shouldn’t add a Driver to their bag until they have played a full Season. It is also been my experience that the Driver is the most important club in the bag to get Fit. There are benefits to being Fit for every club in your bag, but some are negligible. Putter and Wedge fittings can help improve your game but most true Beginners won’t see a difference. The Lie Angle on a Hybrid isn’t nearly as important as the Lie Angle on an Iron so getting used to one off the rack is far easier. That’s why I suggest mastering those clubs first. By the time you feel confident in those areas of your game. The benefits of a Fitting will be far greater.

Good Luck, and hopefully you won’t be Beginner Golfers much longer!