Backspin....... how do you get it?

It's a sexy shot. The way the ball hits the green, takes two hops, then spins back as though it is hooked up to a remote control device the player has.

Luke Donald at the weekend for example. A tough pitch shot on the 54th hole on Saturday evening, not much green to work with, downhill when it hits the green, what does he do? Pitches just on the green, 2 hops, almost stops with the amount of spin and trickles into the hole. Textbook! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFzUE2Y5SR0

Its elusive to a number of golfers, but fear not, I am here to help you in the right direction to controlling your wedges and looking great in front of your friends.

First of all, we need to define backspin. Every shot we hit has backspin. Even with a driver. It's one of the reasons the ball gets airborne. There are different rates of backspin per club, with a full wedge shot generally generating more spin than any other club.

I hear a lot of people say when they see their ball hitting the ground and then watch it trundle on another 50 yards that its top spin. It's not at all, its purely the balls momentum when it hits the ground depending on ground conditions. There is only top spin when you top the ball!

Lets take wedges for example in this scenario. That 25 yard pitch to a tight flag position. There's a crowd around the green waiting for your match. You need to get up and down to win but you also want to impress the crowd with the spin control you have.

So how do you do it? 

Here's my checklist of points you need to create that ultra sexy shot:

- Fresh grooves on your clubs. No point if the grooves on your clubs have worn flat because it wont create as much.........

- Friction. One of the most important factors. Friction is created by having fullamount of ball on club, meaning that if anything gets in the way of it like moisture or grass, spin decreases due to less friction.

- Contact. To create most spin, the ball must be struck out of the centre of the club.

- Correct angle of approach. You don't want to hit too much down on the ball, but you definitely don't want to hit up on the ball. Let the bounce of the club do its work through the turf.

- Launch angle. Optimally, for a pitch shot, you need to launch the ball at around 30 degrees. Too much and the ball simply pops up in the air, too little and the ball shoots through with little spin as though you've thinned it.

 Now you know what to do, here's a checklist of what NOT to do to create spin:

- Take a huge divot. Not one of the requisites for generating spin contrary to popular belief.  Check out this video of Justin Rose, hardly any divot, maximum spin and control:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnv6edof-h4   

- Scoop the ball up in the air. Let the loft and bounce of the club do the work.     

- Hit way down on the ball.  The opposite of a scoop also doesn't work. More chance of hitting a ton of earth rather than generate spin.

If you still really struggle to get spin after this, don't worry about it. Play to your strengths. If your playing partners get more spin than you, land it shorter then them and let your natural shot take over.

If you desperately want spin? Practice it!

Bring me the Major of Sergio Garcia!

I am sure you have all seen it now......... Sergio finally breaking the hoodoo of one of the players to be classed as 'Best players never to have won a Major'. It haunted Colin Montgomerie, it's haunting Lee Westwood, it continues to haunt the likes of Luke Donald and Ian Poulter, players who have won multiple times, won millions of Dollars on Tour but never quite captured one of the 4 tournaments that matter the most to the elite of the game.

Step into the limelight Sergio Garcia. Last Sunday was his day at arguably the finest major of all.... The Masters.

In my opinion, a very well deserved victory to a guy who has given us that Spanish passion in Ryder Cups, multiple wins in all corners of the world and the aggressive play that has won the hearts of so many golfers.

However, is this major victory a turn for the worse for Sergio and his future on the course?

No doubt about it. Winning a major is a huge stepping stone. The riches, acknowledgements and publicity a player gets for the rest of their life after winning one of the big 4 is non-negotiable. No one can take that away from you. Whether you win one or 18, you are classed upon as being a part of the upper echelons of the game and the honour is bestowed upon you.

But what about a first time major winners future prospects on the course? Will they go on to win more (as a lot are predicting for Sergio) because of that 'major hoodoo' that's been well and truly broken or is he going to be a 'one major wonder'?

“FEAR FOR SERGIO”

Surely he can go on to win more.........can he?

Well possibly not. My fear for Sergio is this.

He has waited so long (73 events to be exact) and has been a 'nearly' man on a number of occasions. Finishing second 4 times, third twice and fourth twice, he has never quite crossed the line until last Sunday.

In those years since his first Major as a professional, The US PGA Championship in 1999 and that famous duel against a certain Mr T.Woods at his peak, he has worked year upon year to attempt to break his duck to claim that elusive major.

After a lot of blood, sweat and plenty of tears, he has finally done it. But now what???

He has achieved his goal with the victory against Rose in the play off. He slipped on the green jacket and will go down in golfing folklore forever.

But once you have achieved a goal you have worked nearly all your life for, what happens next? 

For some, once they have achieved that major victory, it's the end of the road. They give up doing what got them to that place. They give up on the hard work and intense effort that got them there because they have finally reached the top rung of the ladder. 

Look at Leicester City in the English Premier League. A team that were 5000/1 shots to win arguably the biggest football league in Europe. Bookies said there was more chance of Elvis being seen alive! You know what, they went and won it. But look at them this season. They have kept pretty much the same team but this year has seen them flirt with relegation and the sacking of the manager who produced the unthinkable. Why this sudden and dramatic drop in form? They have failed to do the things and gain the motivation they had last season. Their egos got the better of them with the thought they were top of the pile so they don't have to try anymore!

Take the case of Ian Baker Finch, who famously won the 1991 Open at Royal Birkdale. A great player at the time but an outsider to win. He achieved his dream of winning a major and followed it up the year after with a respectable tied 19th position. However, he will also be remembered as the player who missed the widest fairway in golf........ first tee shot at St Andrews, 1995, hooked out of bounds. The fairway is 129 yards wide! In 1995/96, in the 29 events that he played on the PGA Tour, he withdrew after one round or was disqualified. His game had deserted him!

But why was this? Did he just give up?

Well, I guess in a way he did. He stopped doing the things that got him that major victory, the hard work and practice and, with the gaze of the golfing public on him after his win, the sense of pressure got too great which rendered him unable to hit a golf ball sweet and straight.

There are a few other (less extreme) examples to:

Keegan Bradley......... Won the US PGA in 2011 and was deemed one of the upcoming stars to win multiple majors. Never really shown the form since.

Shaun Micheel.......... US PGA Champion from 2003. It was his only PGA Tour win.

Rich Beem............US PGA Champion in 2002, beating Tiger by one and then made just 9 cuts in his next 30 major championships.

Lucas Glover........... Won the US Open in 2009. Been seen on the PGA Tour lately after an injury lay off.

The list goes on.

I'm not trying to create this article to be negative, far from it. I am simply pointing out what makes a golfer tick and what demotivates a golfer from working hard to be the best they can be and what you can do to learn from it.

And that has happened for so many major champions. They have reached their goal, one of the big 4! But then that motivation starts to wane as they have nowhere else to go. Nothing beats that feeling, apart from being World Number one of course but even then the greats who reached number one in the world who don't have a major, Lee Westwood for example, will tell you they would easily swap that number one tag to hold one of the 4 trophies that matter so much.

I really hope that Sergio doesn't enter the undergrowth of the golfing wilderness and lose the motivation that got him to where he is now he has received the holy grail.

Don't let it happen Sergio. Don't let a large ego get the better of you and keep that fire blazing for more majors please. The golf world needs a Sergio Garcia!

The Lexi 'Scandal'

I hope you know me by now and my style of writing....... sometimes I insert sarcasm in my posts, and this one is no exception.

The title which has the word 'scandal' in!

Let me fill you in with what it's about.

This past Sunday, the LPGA'S first major of the year with the top lady golfers of the world putting on a cracking performance, especially Lexi Thompson, at just aged 22 (it seems like she's been around forever) at the thick of it with one of the performances of her life at a tough Mission Hills in California.

Going into the last 6 holes, she was 2 ahead of her nearest challenger and then was told by officials that a TV viewer had emailed in who had noticed a rules infringement from her the day before. Lexi had, upon replays, marked her ball on one green and then clearly replaced it back in a different position to where it originally lay, deeming her gaining an advantage and thus a 2 shot penalty and then another 2 shot penalty on top of that because she signed for a wrong score on the Saturday night (she should've added the 2 shot penalty but obviously didn't know she had incurred it).

As you've guessed , social media was a frenzy of activity with various opinions generated from all golfing circles. You know when its a big news story when Tiger Woods tweets his opinion about it!

The general consensus was, as human life naturally tends to be, fairly negative. Negative towards the guy who emailed in, negative towards the LPGA for enforcing the ruling but, slightly surprisingly, not towards Lexi. It was pretty obvious it was not replaced in it's original position and she's been a tad silly.

But, what I wholeheartedly disagree with is the negative comments towards the game of Golf!

It is ridiculous in a time when a vast amount of influencers in the game are trying to grow participation by introducing a new generation of players are saying this incident involving Lexi has damaged the reputation of the game!

What a load of BS!

It's a silly thing she's done and she will be the first to admit that. Was the guy who emailed in a bit of an anorak? Potentially, but that's not the point.

The game of golf did not lose out at the weekend. It did not damage it's reputation. The only thing that damaged it were these influencers crying out that it is a reason people are put off from the game through rulings like this.

Everyone is gutted for Lexi. That guy who emailed in might not be the most popular man on the planet. But come on...... it didn't damage the game of Golf!

The Mark Crossfield Effect

Love him or loathe him, PGA Professional, YouTube star, Coach, mentor and the internets most searched for Golf coach, Mark Crossfield, is here to stay.

With over 200,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel and tens of thousands of viewers per video and piece of content he puts out there, he is without doubt the most popular Golf coach in the world.

His collaborations with good friend Coach Lockey and beginning with vlogs of him and his friends playing various courses and having a lot of fun have generated him a huge audience when you think of the amount of content that is already out there regarding the game. Numerous magazines, books and 35,000 YouTube ways to 'cure your slice', he has stood out from the crowd.

Due to this popularity of the 'Golf Guru', as you'd expect, this has generated some negative reviews as well with the general public (most of them hiding behind keyboards) 'trolling' him and criticising potential ego, incorrect information or just purely disliking what he does in his day to day life.

It's a sad world. It's a shame there isn't more Mark Crossfield's.

In my opinion, he has brought a new generation to the game and helped existing golfers love it that little bit more with his personality, sense of humour and overall passion for the game. He cant get enough of it, and this is picked up on pretty much every video he has done and gratefully passed over to the viewer.

Laughter is infectious and the difference between Crossfield and anyone out there is he puts content out there with a smile on his face. The golfing public (even non golfing public) warm to this and it makes you more motivated to get out there and play the game because you see other people enjoying it.

Take the Winter Olympics for example. Who on earth wanted to try to travel down a tunnel made of ice on top of a tea tray head first? That's exactly what a lot of people in the UK wanted to do when they witnessed Amy Williams win Gold in the Skeleton event at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and she did it with a smile on her face. That's what Crossfield does, he makes you want to go out and play Golf with his infectious personality and overall sense of fun that he is having whilst playing and teaching!

“‘MARK WHO????”

He has not always had his fans however. Nick Bradley, another coach (life coach I think he describes himself as now), him of Leadbetter fame (he taught at a Leadbetter Academy) and author of 2 books, said on Twitter a few weeks back 'Mark who?; inciting he was unaware of Crossfield's success online and slyly mocking him as though he has sprung from the bottom of the cup. Was this jealousy on behalf of Bradleys side as he hasn't generated the audience the size of Crossfield's, hurting Bradleys fairly substantial ego? Only Nick will know the answer here.

Love him or loathe him, Mark has done a lot to raise the profile of the game of Golf through his interaction and entertainment levels of content featuring his take on the Golf industry.

And Golf coaches........ learn from him. Don't loathe him for his successes!

Video killed the Golfer Star!

The introduction of YouTube in 2005 brought a whole new era to gaining information and enabling golf coaches to display their talents in improving golfers. Golfers worldwide can learn off the best. And best of all……….it’s free!

However, golf is an individual game. We are all physically different, we all have different stages of knowledge………… we are all individuals, so one person’s way of getting rid of a slice might be completely different to another golfer’s ability to eradicate the dreaded left to right curve ball.

So why do I pick on YouTube when it has so much quality information out there?

Don’t get me wrong, YouTube is a great tool and massively useful. As a coach, I can spend hours upon hours trawling through the countless videos of lessons and tips distributed to us by the world’s best and most knowledgeable coaches. However, as an amateur golfer, I would avoid such videos. Why? Purely on the basis that they can add conscious thought into the mind that very often doesn’t need to be there.

For example, I remember teaching a gentleman. Good player, played to about 16-17 handicap so could hold his own around a course. Our first lesson was great, simple set up fix to get him striking the ball better and cleaner. He had a case of the heavy/fat shots when he came and when he left that was all but gone. (He was too crouched over the ball to begin with if you were wondering). All was well, he walked away happy and I was a happy coach knowing that he felt he was a better player because of how well he struck the ball. We ended the session booking the next one in 3 weeks later, to get used to the feelings and plan the way forward next for his golf.

3 weeks later, I was looking forward to seeing said player as I had the sneaky suspicion the results were going to be good on the basis he had changed something but got used to it straight away, a great confidence boost. A simple fix with instant results SHOULD mean a good consistent time on the course and range……. Or so I thought! I eagerly said how have you got on this past few weeks, expecting a positive reply. ‘Terrible, worse I’ve ever played’ came the reply. Shocked and gutted were the first two words to spring to mind from my perspective. Eager to find out what had happened, I questioned further. Was it a bad feeling about the set up? Was it swing mechanics broken down due to set up changes? Was it confidence in the new set up? None of the above……………… ‘I watched some videos on YouTube’ came the reply. Now the penny had dropped. Because he was in search of perfection, he scanned the video sharing site for extra bites of information to help hit the flag everytime. It led to a lot of conscious thoughts in his mind that didn’t need to be in there and, ultimately, led to worse results. All because he watched a few videos and tried to implement the changes they were recommending.

In golf, more often than not, less is more. Less information over the most crucial areas of technique will help. Not feeding ourselves full of apparent words of wisdom that we feel will propel us to elite stardom in the matter of a few swings.

YouTube is great for a coach but not always great for a player. If you are to consume YouTube or any other swing analysis magazine out there on the market, I advise you watch the pros swing the golf club. Just watch how they do it and spot habits in their swings. Don’t try and copy positions they achieve in their swing, just watch how they do it, their movement pattern, the impact area they get into. If this sort of imagery is available to you in your mind then that will be far more beneficial to you as opposed to endless theory about the biomechanics of the swing and splitting it into 30 different segments.

To think or not to think........... that is the question!

How much is too much thinking when you get on the course? Do you think enough? Do you think too much? Do you not think at all when you get onto the course?

There’s no doubt that there is a lot to think about in the game of golf. Golfers on the endless search for the perfect swing, trying to ‘find’ their putting stroke for the day, trying to get a sense of where the predicted ball flight of the round is to be, whether it be right to left or left to right.

I have had many many people say to me they go from one extreme to the other on the course……. From thinking too much to thinking very little. But how much are we actually allowed to think on the course which will bring us better golf and improved scores?

The answer? One.

One swing thought. A thought about the feel around the green. A thought about the shot. A thought about what you want to do with the shot.

As long as it purely one thought. The human brain can only take one thought when trying to perform a task and, especially if it’s something fast and complex like the golf swing, one thought is crucial.

Swing thoughts are often classed as a bad thing whilst on the course and, whereas I agree mostly to this statement, there is no harm in having one thought/feeling when trying to swing the club. It’s when golfers have 2/3/4 swing thoughts per shot and, usually, very different swing thoughts around the course.

Think of it like this. Say I had 90 shots in a round of golf and I had 2 completely different thoughts per shot, that’s 180 different elements that could be influencing our brain which sends our muscles into ‘human mayhem’!

 ‘Shall I tuck my elbow in?’, ‘Are my toes splayed out’?, ‘Am I overswinging’?, ‘Am I swinging too much inside’? These are just a few examples of swing thoughts that golfers can have and, unfortunately, can happen in just one swing.

You are far better off having one solid thought for the day. If you have lessons I am hoping the Pro will give you no more than one thing to work on so concentrate on that. Don’t concentrate on anything you hear on YouTube or have read about online………… the information might be completely irrelevant to what you need to do as a golfer to improve. We live in an age where there is copious amounts of information at our fingertips which is great, but our brains can only take so much information.

Focus on one swing thought….. AND ONE ONLY!

'I can hit it great on the range....... why does it go so wrong on the course'?

I hear this a lot, mainly from low handicappers but all club golfers tend to be prone to this ‘disease’. The ability to swing with pure freedom and ease on the driving range, a mountain of pristine golf balls just waiting to be dispensed from the bucket and struck down an area of vast grassland and no hazards whatsoever bring very little consequence to the shot. We can hit the worst shot possible, but the worst thing that can happen to us is the embarrassment of a poor shot if someone on the range is watching.

There is no real consequence to our shots on the range. We won’t get punished a shot if it goes out of bounds, we won’t lose our shiny brand new Callaway ball in the water on the range, we won’t look like a fool if we’re searching through endless rough and strike a tree on what feels like every hole on the range. There just isn’t the same atmosphere and mindset on the range that’s needed for the golf course due to the fact there is simply a lot less pressure on the range than compared with out on the golf course, far less consequences.

For all you hard-core practisers out there (come on, admit it!) who go the range or practise area everyday……… I salute you! Although you need to improve your routine if you are prone to this very common disease of super range play but not demonstrating this on course.

I told this story to a 14 handicapper. Good player, but couldn’t quite get down to that elusive single figure handicap he’d been working towards his almost 20 years of playing the game. It wasn’t his technique that was the issue……. It wasn’t his short game that was the issue…… it was how he practised that was the issue. He just aimlessly hit balls, not even picking a target on the range to aim at. He was purely practising his swing, not hitting shots.

Now some of you will say that’s fine and I agree, sometimes you have to work on your swing on the range, especially when you’re working on changes with your coach. But, when you’re technique is good (and this guys was) you need to start thinking of the shot rather than the swing. MAKE YOUR PRACTISE TOUGHER THAN YOUR PLAY. Set challenges, pick targets, curve the ball, challenge your friends, make it hard and put yourself under pressure on the range. You’ll have fun in doing so and, when it comes to the course, you will relish those tough shots over water or tight pins hugging the deep rough as you’ll have practised the mindset you need for these on the range.

And the 14 handicapper? He got down to single figures within 8 months of practising better habits and thinking about the golf shot rather than his swing.

An interview with......... Adam Young

In the first of a new series, I am interviewing the influencers of the game of golf. Whether they play for a living or coach for a living, I go out to pick the brains of the games best to see how they can help you and your game.

This week is the turn of the bestselling author of 'The Practice Manual', Adam Young, who shares his expertise in years of research in lowering scores of all levels of player:

‘What would be your ideal practice routine you share with golfers’?

Concept….are they aware of what’s happening.

1, Ground strike – Ability to strike a divot in the correct place with an iron and controlling height with the driver

2, Face strike – Whether it is off the toe, heel, centre, bottom, top, very important to recognise where the ball is struck.

3, Controlling clubface aim at impact

We can all recognise when we’ve hit a poor shot but rarely can a higher handicap golfer recognise exactly where it’s come out from.  I’ve had golfers shank the ball during sessions and I’ve asked them what they think they did with the shot and they believed they’ve topped it as it didn’t get airbourne.

A lower handicap golfer needs to focus on face and path relationship.

I recently had a good player who was pulling it but I noticed the path was anywhere between 5 and 10 degrees right as he was shutting the face down substantially. His answer to the ball going left was to swing even more to the right. This is an example of concept where his correction was to swing to the right but made the ball curve more left and also affected the low point of the club and fatted and thinned more. Identifying what has happened can help fix them without even making a change.

 

‘Skill v Technique – Whats the difference and why are they important to distinguish between’?

Throwing a ball into bucket. The skill is throwing.

Technique would be bending arm, when did you release the ball

A skilled person can get the ball in the hoop with numerous technique.

Too much stock is put in swing motion and not enough in the skill. Very commonly when I ask an amateur what they are doing to hit the ball better they mention things such as turning shoulders to 90 degrees or following through. They can still miss the ball with gross motor patterns (big movements) which look pro-like. Working on skills, such as ground contact, centeredness of strike and clubface control will always improve results

I change technique when it correlates to inhibiting skills. For example, if someone is moving their head around all over the place and struggling to strike the ground correctly, we may look at changing this directly - although a better head movement can often be reverse engineered from improvements in the skill of ground contact

When working on face I would tend to favour more external factors in helping achieve better face position at impact such as constraints such as a gateway which shows the starting direction of the golf ball

Higher handicaps and beginners need coordination. Take the example of a beginner who tops it all the time. Something as simple as identifying if they are able to strike the tee and watch that fly in the air, that will enable the ball to also fly in the air. Guiding their concepts is massive.

Better players know this. But now lets develop skills or awareness. Good players don’t always known they are

To the coaches out there…..never over estimate what a pupil knows. Always test them to gain insight into where they are striking. Always question to gauge their thoughts.

 

‘What 2 or 3 things do you feel are the magic formula to break 80’?

Completely depends on the individual. I've seen some great swings but their strategy is terrible. Often not knowing how far they hit the ball when

Play as safe as you can. Doesn’t mean not using driver, aim to different parts of fairway, aim away from trouble. Miss in the right place. Play to the heart of the green.

For example, hit a shot into green away from hole, possible 3 putt 20% of the time, that will cost you 0.2 of a shot. Whereas if you hit into water, drop, average player will get up and down 20% of the time that will cost you 1.8 shots everytime they go in the water, therefore costing you 9 times the value going in the water compared to going for the heart of the green with the risk of a 3 putt. Even if I hit it close to the hole, say 10 foot away, the average amateur is holing 10% of those.

Let your mistakes work for you and not cost you. Avoid the bad, don’t necessarily go for the hero shot.

 

‘If someone said to you what level could I get to what would you say’?

I would look at coordination.

The ‘Dan plan’ is a good example (http://thedanplan.com/about/), if you develop technique, skills etc to be a pro there are still many ingredients to get to an elite level.

My Trackman scores are as good as Poulter’s and Rose but I would crumble on the course as I wouldn’t deal with pressure very well.

Golf - Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden???

I was talking to someone the other day of 'senior citizen' age and we were discussing how things have changed in modern day life. The way we communicate and the way life has changed in general, with men playing a predominant role in the upbringing of children at the home for example. Almost gone are the days of men being out of the house throughout the working week then meeting up with mates on the golf course in the middle of both weekend afternoons then out on the beers and a game of poker. The role of men now is far more hands on and far more family orientated. 

However, the role of the female has also changed. The dreaded term 'second class citizen' is long a distant memory as females, after years of battles and struggles to simply have a democratic vote, have gained equality in almost every area of human life and rightfully so (although there will still always be battles in the workplace and top 500 companies as I write this blog).

However, golf has taken a while to catch up. Muirfield golf club being the classic example. As of the current day, Muirfield are going through a SECOND vote (yes, a second vote as the first was bizarrely rejected) to determine whether ladies should be included as members of this prestigious club on the East Coast of Scotland. The first vote from the members decided that women could not be members of the club. The R and A then, with tails between their legs, held Muirfield accountable and therefore took the Open Championship away from them for the foreseeable future because of this vote.

What a short sighted approach from the members to reject it first of all. With the history of the club, it's popularity and it's prestige in the golfing world, it is a major influencer of the industry and should therefore be setting standards to enable the game to flourish. Instead, they took the opinion that 'it has always been this way' and change is negative.

My goal of coaching the game of golf and as a PGA member is to grow the game of golf, help people improve and bring it to the masses to show them how good it is. To do that we need to be assured that the red tape and boundaries that still exist in some areas are loosened so that every man, woman and child can take part in the game and have a chance to love it like I do.

The short sightedness of the Muirfield membership do not see it like this and, with this second round of voting, I hope they now see sense and enable females to become members, thus opening more doors to welcome people into the game.

Do custom fit clubs really help and what are 'the rules'?

Having been custom fitting clubs now for over 15 years, I have seen vast differences in the way people play golf and how their game improves purely down to new technology and clubs that have been suited to the way they swing. From lighter shafts to the right gapping for your wedges, there is always something you can gain from custom fitting.

And even if the clubs you try don't improve on your 30 year old 'Pinseeker' irons..........? Well, at least you know you have the right clubs in your bag already and can go away confident!

There are a few very common questions when it comes to custom fitting clubs. One that tends to crop up more often than not is 'Am I good enough to have custom fit irons'?

My answer is always 'as long as you can simply make contact with the ball then absolutely'!

Even if you have just begun playing this great game, it is still vital you have at least the shafts that suit your swing, whether you swing slow or fast, high tempo or low tempo, feeling comfortable and having the correct weight and length of shaft is crucial in helping you play better golf.

If you are looking into some new 'sticks' for this coming golfing season, I have compiled some bullet points to help you when you are approaching the custom fit process:

- Ensure, during the fitting, you are simply swing the club with no swing thoughts. This game has plenty of variables anyway, we don't need to add to that list of what you're working on in your swing during the fitting

- Ensure you are being fitted by someone PGA qualified. It is usually the case but every so often I have heard stories of some issues with the fitter. You can usually tell this straight away as they try and sell you something rather than explaining the benefits of a certain club or specification that has been suggested.

- Again, will seem obvious, but ensure you go to somewhere with a launch monitor. As long as the numbers are explained simply and concisely to the golfer the fitter will just be guessing if a new club is really working for you or not.

- Take with you your current clubs to the fitting. Otherwise how will you know what is better and outperforms your clubs you have in your possession at the moment? Believe it or not, I have had a few turn up without their old clubs despite me mentioning this when they book.

Richard is a qualified Callaway fitter at Whittlebury Park GCin Northamptonshire specialising in Iron and driver fittings.

Is the Tiger finished?

How many times have we been here before this past few years? The question that hangs above the head of one of the greatest athletes, indeed one of the greatest golfers, this planet has had the pleasure of witnessing. Not many players and participants in the history of any sport can say that their chosen sport owes them something but Tiger is one of those that can say Golf owes him.

And this is why he creates such talking points and is on the forefront of any golfers mind, the name that crops up everytime you ask a junior golfer who is your favourite golfer.

This is also the reason why it is sad to write that I believe he will be retiring from the game very soon.

The majors, the fist pumps, the excitement he has brought every time he tees it up is a sight to behold. But with injuries and poor performances on the course there is only so much he will be able to take and the feeling of being un-competitive after so many years of on-course success must be a hard to take in the mind of a former champion.

But what I don't understand is so many people have argued that his swing is letting him down and, more worryingly, HE himself thinks his swing is letting him down! Article upon article and forum upon forum of 'what is wrong with Tigers swing'. 'He's getting too stuck behind' says one. 'He's swaying off the ball and dipping' says another. The blame is being firmly pressed towards his action and how different it is since his incredible US Open win in 2000, winning by 15!!!

Truth is it's not massively different. He still dipped back in those days. He still go the club working behind him occasionally so could block or hook the ball. He has sought solace in trying to fix his swing but with no luck.

So what's at play here and why the dramatic fall from grace?

STAGE FRIGHT!

Have you ever felt great on the range, swing feels fluid and you feel confident. Then you step onto the tee, see the hazards in front and freeze! You cannot take the hazards out of your mind! That's what is happening with Tiger. You look at footage of him on the range. He makes it look easy. Swing looks as good as it ever has done. Ball is being striped every single time. On the golf course is a very different Tiger. He is fearing the bad shot. Fearing a high score. Once with the will to win from any position (US Open 2008 when he pretty much played on one leg and won), now simply looking like he is trying to make the cut. The search for the perfect swing has caused him to lose any sense of predictability he had in his game and ball flight. The feeling of getting up to the ball and thinking 'where is this going' is a potential reality for the former world number one.

Don't get me wrong. His back has played a huge part and is extremely unfortunate to have suffered so badly towards the later stages of his career with injury and numerous attempts to 'fix' it.

But he has stage fright. You don't just lose a golf swing that badly. He would do well to go and see Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott. Two professionals who have vast experience in this area and have helped players such as Annika Sorenstam think clearer about the game, enabling confidence rather than doubt to spread.

Here's hoping he makes a return to winning ways again but something tells me it's not going to happen.

Please prove me wrong Mr Woods.

A Flawless swing........ is there such a thing?

I've just got back from an annual golfing trip to Portugal. 4 days out in (near) sunny conditions and 15 degrees celcius better off than the British Isles, a fantastic retreat for any golfing junky during the harsh winter. Even better when taking 12 golfers who I teach out there to enjoy the finest that Portugal has to offer.

During these few days I do some individual tuition and I had a conversation with one of the guys on the final day of the stableford tournament that I organise. He was having a little trouble with lining up and, in his perception, his off-line shots were caused by poor alignment. So convinced he was his alignment was 'wonky' that everytime he got up to the ball he was adjusting his set up to the point that he was so unsure about where he was setting up, each swing was very different to the previous one because he was adjusting his swing to help counteract the effect (as he thought it) of his set up.

Now you might be thinking 'why didn't you just fix his set up and get him aligned properly?'

The fact is he WAS aligned properly, he just didn't realise it and blamed the errant shots on mis-alignment when it was the swing that was making the ball go where it was. In this case he swings the club a little left, meaning he's prone to pulls and over-fades.

The perceived poor set up was making him question and even searching for flaws in his set up, never committing 100% to the set up and therefore the swing. Every shot was a battle to overcome the set up.

My point here in this blog and to this player was to try and make sure that on the course you are not searching for flaws in your set up before you've even taken the club back. You need to be 100% committed to the set up and alignment before you take the club back, not second guessing yourself or, even worse, trying to correct the perceived poor set up during the swing itself.

Dave Alred, the ex-England Rugby kicking coach puts it brilliantly...... 'Trust the swing and set up on the golf course, repair the swing and set up on the range'. In other words, don't try and correct the action when out on the golf course, go out there and trust your alignment. If there are faults in the set up or swing, fix them when you're on the practice area or driving range.

Stop finding flaws and find positives when out on the course and scores will inevitably come down, the mind will be quieter and confidence will take over!

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL JOB IN THE WORLD!

Seasons greetings to you all and hope you have had a great Christmas and looking forward to the new year, quickly gathering thoughts about new years resolutions and how you can make 2017 a year to remember for all the right reasons.

As it is the season of goodwill I'd just like to share a story with you. Unfortunately it's not a swing tip to help your golf or a mindset technique to lower your scores on course.

As it's the time of year to be thankful for what we all have in life. Thankful for our families. Thankful for our friends. Thankful to all the people who help us throughout the year, whether it be doctors making us feel better or shop assistants who put a smile on our face that we remember.

I am thankful for a lot of things, but one element of my life I am very thankful for.......................................My career as a Golf Instructor. To teach golf for a living was always what I was destined to do ever since my dad took me to the local golf course at the age of 6. I got to a decent standard as a amateur but never excelled and won local tournaments as opposed to regional and national which was the stepping stone to the elite in the game. It was by the time I was 18 I had to make a choice. My dad passed away when I just turned 15 and, not wanting to let him down, took A levels as he wanted me to from 16 to 18. Unfortunately, to not much success due to the lack of effort I put into them, my fault completely but the motivation was never there to succeed in getting good grades. So my 18th year came and a job at the local course shop came up where I'd learned to play and I was up for it, it ticked all the boxes. Working in an environment that I had experience, knowledge and a bit of skill in. Working under a great coach, Neil McEwan, I learnt a lot about the swing and fed off Neil and his teaching. It fascinated me reading his folder of swings that he compiled and occasionally sneaking a look when he took his pupils into the video room to analyse their swings. I was hooked!

But the thing that hooked me the most........ he was helping people. He was helping put a smile on golfers faces when they hit the ball better. It was why they called on his services, to help them get over their own frustrations in this great game and he 'fixed' them, bringing a sense of relief in the knowledge that they weren't going mad and they can hit the ball as good as they once did or had the ability to give their friends a run for their money on the golf course. And this was mostly due to the influence of the coach, guiding them in the right direction, helping them learn about what worked and what didn't.

This was the clincher for me. I wanted a piece of the action. I wanted to be the one to help golfers of all levels and abilities play better as I knew myself how frustrating this game could be. I got as many golf books and dvd's as I could about the swing and the game (still do) and went about teaching the game I love to other people and share my knowledge to enable them to love the game.

There is no more satisfying sensation. Receiving a text or email saying 'thank you, I played my best ever round today'. Of course, I only help a small percentage of the way. It is up to the player themselves when they step onto the tee to put what we have done into action and trust it. It doesn't always happen, that's the nature of the game of golf, but when it does happen it creates a huge buzz for player and coach.

I'm thankful for my career, a life of teaching the game of golf to anyone who wants to learn. It certainly beats the 9 to 5 pressure packed grind.

And my new years resolution? To continue to learn and progress to maintain high standards to bring even more smiles to golfers at the end of every session.

DROWNING IN INFORMATION

As I sit here and write this blogpost, I am reviewing my year of coaching which has been overall a fantastic one. Things like what I did well and what do I need to improve to make me a better coach in 2017 are going through my mind.

I am extremely lucky in doing what I do and wake up everyday ecstatic in the fact that I am doing something that I absolutely love...... teaching people the game of golf and coaching them to enjoy the game more. The smile and satisfaction on a golfers face when they hit the sweet spot and see the ball heading high and straight is a sight to behold.

However, when a golfer hits a bad shot, as any human would do in whatever walk of life, they get upset. Information overload is what a player seeks in Golf to try and rectify a barren phase in their game, whether it be on the course or on the driving range.

With readily available information in our fingertips, YouTube and other such sites are places to go to rectify these bad habits and golf shots that make a scratch handicapper look as though they've just taken up the game.

However, BE WARNED ABOUT THE INFORMATION ON THERE!!!

It goes back to that adage...... don't believe everything you read (or see).

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Even Facebook are now realising the fact that there is so much useless and false information out there in their new drive to clamp out untrue news items.

Let me give you an example. You play a game of golf on Saturday. The previous week your game was tip top, couldn't put a foot wrong. You were hyped up for the monthly medal the next Saturday, confidence was brimming. Until the first tee! Bosh....... out of bounds! Bosh........ second in the same place, high right and slicing. And it continues throughout the game leading to an inevitable handicap rise.

That night you go home and type into YouTube search 'cure my slice' and 30,500 videos come on under that search subject. You choose the top one. You go through the 5 minute video, understand it, get excited for Sundays game to put it right....................but the same thing happens!!!

What happened? You were certain you found the answer, certain you performed the swing as you had to so why did it still go wrong?

Has this happened to you?

This is information overload. And information overload that is irrelevant for us!

The video might have been bang on correct but it might not have been the exact fix you needed to cure the rare slice you have. All it did was add conscious thought into your brain and the brain tried to process a lot in a short space of time during the swing...... never a good thing when you are trying to perform a consistent and fluid movement pattern that the golf swing is.

I have just finished reading a book called 'Content Inc' by Joe Pullizzi and in it he talks about the relevant content that experts in their field must put out there and it got me thinking there is a heck of a lot of content out there but not all relevant to you and your needs.

Don't get me wrong. I think there is a huge demand and need for items such as YouTube videos and blogs to help us get better. But please don't desperately search for the absolute fix of all fixes when you're golf is not going so well. Choose your content wisely and spread it out over time so you develop knowledge over years as opposed to cramming the entire physiology of the golf swing in one night before the monthly medal and expect to go out and play your best.

Below is a list of Golf pro's I believe have the best content out there currently. Seek them out, learn from them, question them even:

- Mark Crossfield. He hasn't got 200,000+ subscribers on YouTube for nothing.

- Andrew Rice. Fantastic coach who keeps all aspects of the game very simple

- Adam Young. Superb young coach who has written the best selling golf book (The Practice Manual) this past couple of years. Seek out his blogs and read his book (and then re-read it).

- Michael Hebron. A veteran coach who has committed his time to the process of the brain and the way humans learn new skills. Written numerous books that need to be read by any golfer of any ability.

In my mind, there are many more out there, too many to list, but these are the most relevant for you, the club golfer out there wanting to get better.

Learn from them as they are the experts in their field. Don't take everything as gospel, especially when it comes to your own game. But this is what is so good about their content....... it's relevant to the majority of golfers. Not just a 'one size fixes all' mentality, a true learning curve about how to get better at this game we love.

HOW TO LOVE GOLF IN THE WINTER!

Let's face it, how many of you play golf in the winter and how many of you relegate your clubs to the garage for 6 months? Golf is deemed a summer game, and rightfully so in many respects. The smell of fresh cut grass, bone dry fairways and greens that run true are more possible during favourable summer conditions where there is little need for a skin tight layer with large mittens ensuring your hands don't get drenched or gain frost bite.

But I am here to tell you that you will get a HUGE amount of benefit from continuing to play during the winter months which will help you kick start your golfing season in 2017 as opposed to waiting until July to find your golf swing again after a hefty lay off only to realise half the season has already gone and passed you by.

If you ensure you are wearing the correct clothing, the benefits you will gain from continuing to hit balls during the winter period is substantial.

It was Nick Faldo who once said he practises on Christmas Day because he can gain an advantage over his competition by doing so as no one else will be hitting balls on December the 25th! I'm not suggesting you put down your beers and leave the Turkey in the oven to do that but feel free to do so.

Here are my top tips to get you out and motivated to want to practise during the winter season:

- GO TO THE RANGE WITH FRIENDS. This is a fairly obvious point but one I feel is the most important. We need that motivation to want to get out and practise when the weathers cold. We get home from work after a long and cold day, feel the warmth of the heating and decide it's a better option than hitting balls alone which feels like a chore. It definitely wont feel like a chore when you are having fun and competing with your mates on the driving range. Hit balls to a target, closest to the pin/target, who can hit it further, who hits the lowest shot, who hits the highest shot and so on. Compete with each other, offer advice and, most of all, have fun with the interaction. You will soon get warmed up with the interaction and fun you will have by testing each others skills.

- TEST YOURSELF. No, this is not a self examination as such, this is competing with yourself. If your friends can't make it to the range then challenge yourself........... hit it low with a short iron, high with a long iron, curve the ball, test the contact using foot spray on the club to see where you make contact. Plenty of ways to enhance your motivation and increase skill set as opposed to aimlessly hitting balls to the wide area the driving range is situated.

- TAKE A LESSON OR TWO AND WORK ON YOUR SWING. Admit it, you've had a good season and you were too scared to take a lesson because you felt it would make you a worse golfer and therefore break your pattern of good Golf? Don't panic, you aren't the only one to think like that, and that's why taking a lesson or two during the winter period is a good thing. There is a powerful theory out there that you have to get worse before you get better. This is not strictly true. Yes, sometimes it does happen, as soon as we make a swing change the results can become massively variable owing to the differing demands put on the club and body positions and therefore the sequencing of the swing can be lost......... but only for a matter of a few shots. This is why I ALWAYS say to players, whenever they make a change to NOT WORRY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BALL. The result of the golf shot should not be the issue to begin with when making a change. The main focal point should be the process of making that change and what we have been told to do to try and improve the ball flight. And that is why changing an element of the swing during the winter time is the best period to do so. Why? Because we have less of a care about the results during the winter. There are far fewer (if any) competitions and golf on the course is rare, so we are less concerned about the results and therefore more likely to be able to embed the changes to our swing. WE ARE FAR LESS LIKELY TO COMMIT TO A SWING CHANGE IF WE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE INITIAL RESULTING BALL FLIGHT.

A good pro will ensure it takes no more than a dozen balls to enable that ball flight to be better but your role of a golfer to help implement these changes must be to accept the initial ball flight, because if you try and correct that flight, all hell will break loose and the shots can then go anywhere!

Try these tips when winter golfing. As long as you have all the layers on you need you will have a lot of fun out there.

WHO WANTS TO SEE THEIR GOLF SWING?

The sheer beauty of any movement, whether it be swinging a golf club, running, throwing or any other physical movement pattern, is that we can't see what we're doing or how we are doing it. If we did try and see what we were doing in our everyday movement you would see a lot of people walking down the street with their heads down bumping into people (that happens anyway when we are looking at our phones but that's a slightly different point).

We have been told numerous times that to hit the perfect golf shot we need to get into the perfect positions. The Golf Machine, the golf coaches 'bible', breaks the swing down into 10 different segments. Granted, these are important for a coach and player to know, but to be aware of them during the swing is an extremely difficult skill and almost impossible when we consider the speed from the start of the downswing to impact.

In my experience in the game of golf I have even seen players look at the top of the backswing during their full swinging motion to see where they are in regards to the right or wrong position! It doesn't come highly recommended but they could still strike the golf ball very well despite this slight idiosyncrasy.

To enable players, whatever level they may be, to learn about their own swing is crucial, and that's why in 99% of the lessons I do I use the GASP video analysis with a high speed Casio exilim camera from down the line and the front to gain access to all areas to see why bad shots are caused. and, importantly, help the golfer understand reasons for errant shots to help them self diagnose.

JB Holmes demonstrating the 'not-so straight' left arm.

But I do always ask the question to the golfer, especially if it's a player who has never seen their swing on video before, what good things do they see in their swing! This is an alien concept to a lot of people as golfers tend to have a perception that a coach will rip them apart and completely overhaul their swing which is absolutely not true........ and if it was you need to go and find yourself another coach!

Yes, there are always going to be elements of the swing that are going to need improving to help the player get better, but if you can hit the ball and not miss it there are always going to be some very good parts to the action.

My point of this article?

With a mountain of access to video recorders in this day and age, take the time when you're next on the driving range to film your swing. But here's the catch!!!!

You are only allowed to watch it back if you point out the GOOD things that occur in your swing and not the BAD things! It might be your set up you find good, take-away, grip, top of swing, follow through............ anything you can see that makes you say 'wow, I didn't know I did that'. You don't even need to know much about the swing itself, it is your perception and the purpose of this drill is to give you a more positive perception of your action.

The human mind is designed to think negatively, thus golfers when they are about to see their swing for the first time have an element of trepidation. They think it's going to be shocking with a mass of positions that are incorrect. In over 15 years of teaching I think I have heard five players say they don't like their own swing or can see a lot wrong when they do actually see it.

Take some time to focus on the good things and not the bad. Yes, we all want to improve but improvement in the game of golf is not going to take place if we are constantly FIXING every swing that we make. Trust me, there are going to be plenty of things to appreciate in your swing, make the time and effort to see these positives.

Contact is Crucial!

Golf is a tad frustrating at times. One minute we can be playing the best golf of our lives, the next minute it goes completely wrong and we hit a shot of disastrous proportions that costs us our place at the top of the podium in the monthly medal and fail to reduce our handicap when we were all set up for a huge reduction.

Ever wondered why this is?

Of course you have, we wouldn't be human otherwise. Our curious brain tries to define and focus as to why we might have hit that shank/thin/fat (delete as appropriate). The mind gets clouded up with the potential areas of our swing that were the prime cause of the shot that costs us golfing glory and stains our near perfect scorecard. The problem with this is though there are hundreds upon hundreds of reasons in the swing that a certain bad shot could have happened. On the course though, we only have one chance to put it right which limits our options of correction and, usually, our hunches turn out to be either wrong or we just don't fully commit to the shot in hand, leading to more disasters as opposed to fixing the issue.

'How do we avoid such disasters though'? I hear you scream into your browser!

If I had one definitive answer I would be the golfing oracle. Unfortunately there isn't one specific answer as we are all different. Some swing thoughts that work well with one person will work the opposite with another golfer.

There is, however, something we can do to help, and this goes out to a large majority of you who don't practice (yes you, I see you out there just on the course and not hitting any shots on your local driving range).

The majority of poor shots are caused by ONE issue(yes, just one). And it is the simplest of all elements to correct as we don't have to think to much about it to correct and is fairly obvious when we've done it well or not performed it as well as we could.

Its called CONTACT. In my definition, it's simply where the ball has contacted the face of the club. It's either toe of the club, heel (hosel), top, bottom (leading edge) or centre and these have a HUGE influence on the distance and the direction that the golf balls travels. But it is also the simplest way of improving your golf if you get it right!

The first step, however, is to discover WHERE on the face you are striking the ball. For example, I have seen many a golfer hit the ball very low to the right consistently, disaster shots which are otherwise known as a shank, a shot where the ball is striking the hosel of the golf club. But when I ask the player where they feel they contacted the ball, more often than not they are not 100% sure and it's a guess.

Have some fun with some contact stickers or..........................................

So why will it help a golfer to know and understand where the ball is coming out of the face to help improve these bad shots?

You imagine trying to hammer a nail into a piece of wood but you keep hitting your thumb! Do you, to avoid hitting your thumb, think about how your hammer arm is moving (direction, angle etc) or do you focus your mind on the hammer head hitting the nail head? I hope for the sake of your thumb it is the latter and you'll focus on your tools as opposed to what movements your body is making.

It's the same in Golf. If we focus on our tools (the club and ball which are external factors) as opposed to our body positions (internal factors) it makes it a lot easier to correct poor shots.

Back to contact and the relevance of it in Golf. We are looking to make an already complicated game easier. Why would we want to make a difficult and already complicated sport more complicated?

To improve in the game of golf, this is by far the most important point. We are not looking for consistency as consistency is unachievable. If it was achievable the best in the world would shoot 54 every time they go out. The goal to improve in the game is to MAKE OUR BAD SHOTS BETTER!

Read that again please.

The best in the world hit less disastrous shots. Yes, they hit shots that many of us could only dream of but their bad shots are barely in the rough or, when they miss a green, they still have a chance of getting the ball up and down.

I would estimate that 85% of bad shots are caused by poor contact, whether it be a loss of distance or greater dispersion of accuracy.

Yes, poor contact can be caused by a swing fault, but as stated before, there are hundreds of swing faults it could be. By recognising where we are hitting the ball out of the face we can use our instinctive movement patterns to get back to as centred an impact and efficient impact as we can. As I like to say............ subconscious competence.........understanding the task without thinking about it.

Fat or thin, too high or too low?........ Change the low point!

We've all felt it....... the realisation at impact when we either thin the ball or catch a farms worth of turf behind the ball. The instant feedback we get sends shivers up our spines in just the thought of this happening because the sensation is awful. The vibration we get through the shaft of the golf club when we thin it that travels at the speed of light into our hands is horrific (especially on a cold winters day....... the fingers tingle for a while after). And when we catch the turf before the ball, we look up knowing the golf ball has travelled half the distance it should've done.

Both awful shots that happen to even the best of players. But why does it happen?

Quite simply, the club does not meet it's LOW POINT at the correct area.

What do I mean by low point?

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A lot of golfers would describe the lowest point of the golf club (iron) would come into contact with the ground about 2-3 inches ahead of the golf ball to compress the ball as well as they could, thus avoiding fat and thin shots. Not necessarily. The low point differs for alllevels of golfers. For some, the low point might need to be before the ball with an iron hitting upwards!

As a general rule of thumb, a slower swing speed should be hitting more upwards (low point on the ball or just before) and a higher swing speed should be just in front of the ball. It is dependent on where maximum compression occurs in your golf swing.

One of my favourite drills to discover this is to grab a tin of marker paint (or similar), spray a line 90 degrees to your target (see below). Place the golf balls on that line and see where your club is striking the ground is relation to that line and the ball. In the many times I have done this drill there has been a lot of shocked golfers discover where their club is coming into contact with the ground.

                             <<<<<<     TARGET THIS WAY    <<<<<<<<<<< 

The idea is to strike a few golf balls from that line, take a note of YOUR ideal ball flight and check where your club struck the ground to produce your ideal and satisfactory ball flight. It might be your better off with barely scraping the surface of the line to produce your best shots. It could be that you take fairly hefty divots just in front of the line to produce your best shots.

This is a great game of self discovery which leads to tremendous satisfaction, knowing the reasons you have hit either good shots or bad shots due to where the club is reaching it's low point in the arc of the swing. A crucial element in helping you contact the ball better and aiding the predictability of your ball flight.

There's no such word as can't!

‘I can’t make the change’. ‘I can’t hole a putt for love nor money’. ‘I can’t hit the ball like I used to’. There are very good reasons for using the word ‘can’t’ and the majority of them initiate from the brain!

Our brain rules our body. Whatever our brain tells our body to do, it does it. The problems come when our brain doesn’t like something we’ve been asked to do. For example, grip changes are always difficult. If I thought a player had a weak grip which was causing the club face to open, I would try and manoeuvre the hands over to the right of the handle to make a stronger position, squaring or even closing the face slightly. However, our brain could reject the idea of changing the position of the hands. The brain can sense the hands have changed position and therefore we tell ourselves it’s uncomfortable because it is out of the ordinary, we’re out of our comfort zone as it’s a feeling we’re not used to. As a result, the hands and wrists stiffen and the brain rejects the idea of the new grip, forcing the hands back to their original position because the brain has said ‘I can’t get into this new position’!

I can bet your bottom dollar that if you stood up straight, let your arms hang down and I asked you to turn your hands to the right you could easily do it. So why doesn’t the same happen when you’re holding a golf club in your hands? It feels like we’re squeezing the living daylights out of the club!

Purely because it feels out of the ordinary and we convince ourselves that this isn’t the correct way because it doesn’t ‘feel’ right. It doesn’t matter if you’re paying £500 for a lesson with one of the worlds best instructors to tell us this information, we won’t do it if we don’t feel it’s right. The only way to convince yourself is to hit balls and hit balls well. And then still even taking it onto the course we find tricky and keep saying to ourselves we can’t do this because we want the safety net of comfort behind us which means going back to the old way of doing things and getting the same old results.

Trust is a key word. Trust the new action learned on the range and trust the new action when you take it onto the course. You CAN do it!

Why Golf is the greatest sport on Earth!

This is a blog I've been wanting to compile for a while now. With the Olympics behind us it was certainly one to remember for a number of reasons, especially for Team GB. It was a also a very memorable one for Golf and 'our man' Justin Rose, the first Olympic Gold medallist in Golf since Canada's George Lyon in the 1904 games. Without doubt, this has put golf more on the map with a wider audience, bringing the game to more people who have never even held a club before.

The purpose of this blog is to give my opinion to those who play and those who don't play as to why they should either continue to play for the rest of their lives or to take up the game they once thought would never be on their radar to even contemplate trying:

- You can make golf as expensive or as cheap as you like with regards to equipment and places you play.

- You burn around 1200 calories for 18 holes

- It's a great chance to socialise and meet new people and/or spend time with the people you know and love

- Every golf course you play is different and brings a whole new challenge....... variety is the spice of life

-  You can play at any age and improve at any age

- It is a constant challenge which tests all of our abilities both physically and mentally

- It is the only sport where our playing partners and opponents give us advice to help us play better (doesn't always work but its the thought that counts)

- You can't hit a ball further in any other sport

- The satisfaction you get when you find the sweet spot of the club is like nothing else

- You can get very close up to the elite players of the game when you visit a tournament

- The conduct of golfers is exemplary with a shake of the hand after every round. whether you win or lose

- You can make it as simple as you want or as complicated as you want

- It's an individual game, you can't blame anyone else but yourself

- The scenery on a golf course is stunning. Even if the round isn't going well you can always take in your surroundings

- You can do a lot of business on the course

- You can walk the same fairways as the elite players

- the Ryder Cup is the most exciting event on the sporting calendar

- Purchasing a set of new clubs give you that 'fuzzy, warm' feeling

- Beating your previous personal best score is a remarkable accomplishment that makes us smile on our way home from the course

- Anyone can beat 'old man par' thanks to the handicap system

- Anyone can putt as well as the pro's

- No matter what level of player or coach, you will never stop learning more about the game that you didn't know

If you play, continue to play and try to improve, whatever age you are. If you have never picked up a club, I urge you to try it. You won't look back and you will be hooked on the greatest sport on Planet Earth!