Have Fun!

               Lots of people get super frustrated while golfing and I do not blame them. I know I get super frustrated whenever I golf. Golf is a 50% skill and 50% mental. That is not a true stat but it is something that I believe is true because I have learned many skills in the game of golf, but when it comes to actually playing, I cannot seem to perform the way I want. I can go to the driving range and hit a regular drive straight 10 times in a row, but when I get out onto the course, I might mess up once and that throws me off for the rest of the game.

               A problem that many golfers have is that they let one mistake get to their head. Like I said earlier, I might mess up on one thing and then for the rest of the round I cannot seem to play, as I know I can. This happens to lots of golfers, for example they will hit a bad drive on the 4^th hole and for the rest of the holes they will be trying to over correct and fix their mistake. Let’s say someone slices and hits the ball to the right on one hole. The next hole they are going to try to rotate their hands and end up pulling the ball. This means that they will hit the ball to the left of them, this usually happens because they are afraid to make the same mistake they made on the last hole.

 

               In the picture above there is a picture of a man that is calm and having fun. That is the main point in golf, even if you are making mistakes you have to be able to let it go and refocus on the next hole. As I have been saying repeatedly, the biggest mistake golfers make is overcorrection. Therefore, this golfer up top is a good example of someone who is having fun while the play.

               Question: How much money do you think people pay to play a round of golf?

Trick Shots

               Trick shots in golf have always been something that only few people can master. As I talked about in my sand bunker blog, Phil Mickelson is someone who has almost perfected trick shots. I say almost because no one is perfect at trick shots. Of all the people, I have heard of, Phil Mickelson is the best at trick shots that I know of.

               There are tons of different trick shots that someone can learn to use in golf. Some of these tricks include Driver off the Deck and the Left-Handed Punch-Out.

               Driver off the deck is a shot where you use your driver when you are in the fairway. The only spot that drivers are usually supposed to be used is off the tee box, always off a tee. You are supposed to hit off a tee because of how big the driver is. It is the biggest club in the bag, and you are usually not able to get a clean shot unless you hit off a tee. According to my book How to Hit Every Shot, it says that the driver off the deck is a difficulty 5 out of 5. “In addition to needing turbocharged swing speed, you also need perfect touch to just brush the grass with your club” (Golf Mag. 170). This pretty much just tells us that you need to swing faster than usual and you have to be able to perfectly brush over the grass.

              

In the picture above, it is a professional golfer names Rickie Fowler. In this picture, you can see him hitting the driver off the deck. As I talked about before, this show is unbelievably hard to perfect but if you can execute it correctly, you can hit the ball very far.

The other trick shot I talked about earlier is the left-handed punch-shot. The left-handed punch-shot is a shot that all right handed golfers should learn because it can help in the long run. The spot that the left-handed punch shot usually comes in handy is when your ball is stuck to the side or behind a tree. When the ball is on the side of a tree and you cannot get into your stance this is when the shot comes in handy.

In the picture above, there is a golfer using the left-handed punch shot. The ball is on the side of a tree so as you can see, he tilts his club so that he can still make good contact with the ball and also not hit the tree. Another way you can hit the ball this way is by using the backside of the club. Using the backside of the club usually is not as efficient because it is much harder to make contact with the back of the club. Like the driver off the deck, this is rated 5 out of 5 on the difficulty meter.

Question: How far do you think pros can hit a driver off the deck if they hit it perfectly? (Side note: Most pros can usually drive 300+ yards)

Sand Bunkers

                Hitting out of the sand has always been one of the hardest things for anyone who has ever played golf. Not only because it is hard to get a clean shot, but also because you cannot get much distance, or accuracy. According to the book, How to Hit Every Shot (The Ultimate Guide to Shot Making and Scoring) there are two main types of sand bunkers. The first type is the fairway bunker, which a bunker in the middle of the fairway, usually about 100-200 yards away from the green. The second is a greenside bunker, which is a bunker that is usually 10 yards away from the green, 20 yards away at the most. Below, I will talk about the most efficient ways that you can hit out of the sand.

               There is the full swing, which is where you can place the ball in the front, middle or back of your stance. Either stance works, but usually it is best to line the ball closer to your back foot. It is most efficient to line up in the back of your stance because most bunkers have large lips that you have to hit high to get out of, so placing the ball in the back of your stance adds loft to your shot. No matter where you line the ball up, you take a full swing almost every time. You can take a full swing whether you are in a fairway bunker or a greenside bunker. From experience, I have learned that when you are in a fairway bunker it is best to hit the ball cleanly, trying not to hit a lot of sand. If you do not hit a lot of sand then you are able to hit the ball farther, which is important, especially in a fairway bunker. When you are hitting out of a greenside bunker, it is good to hit a lot of sand. The reason you want to hit a lot of sand is because then you can pop the ball up very high and not that far. This is good because you can land the ball on the green instead of hitting it far past the green.

               Another type of way to hit out is the flop shot out of the sand. The flop shot is placed in the front of your stance. The reason you place it in the front of your stance is to get a ton of loft on the ball. The best place to use this shot is when you are hitting out of a bunker with a very high lip. A high lip means you have to hit the ball higher than normal to hit it clearly out of the sand. The flop shot pops the ball up high and pretty short. “You usually want to use this shot when you are at a greenside bunker and the pin is close to you. This shot is never smart to use when you are in a fairway bunker because that means you will not hit very close to the green” (Golf Mag. 105).

               Above you can see a picture of a famous golfer names Phil Mickelson demonstrating the flop shot out of the bunker. In the “golfing world”, Phil Mickelson is known as one of the bests at hitting out of the sand and one of the bests and the flop shot. He chose to use the flop shot because as you can tell there is a big lip right in front of him that he has to hit over. Hitting out of the sand bunker is one of the hardest things to perfect as a golfer, so that is why most golfers just try there hardest to just stay out of the bunkers ;)

The Magic Stance

I have always been intrigued by the sport of Golf, but I never really took action until the 8^th grade when I took golf lessons. I love the fact that you have to do everything almost completely perfect in order to come out with a solid score in Golf. I love this because it pushes me to be the best golfer I can be if I want the good results. While reading the book How to Hit Every Shot (The Ultimate Guide to Shot Making and Scoring) I plan to learn every shot that I am capable of hitting. One thing that I have learned from this book is that the most important thing about golf is learning the Basics.

“You don’t need a magic want to make the ball bend to your will. The secret to hitting every shot is hidden in your setup” (Golf Mag. 11). This is telling us that no matter what you learn about golf, nothing works unless you have a good setup within your stance.

The first picture shows a middle stance; this is where you put the ball in between your back and front foot, but I still usually line in up a little bit closer to my back foot. This is a good stance to hit a normal shot. This stance does not add any loft to the club which will create a normal shot depending on the club you use. The second picture shows a front stance; this is where you put the ball lined up with the inside of your front foot. This is a stance that adds a ton of loft to the club. This means that the ball will fly much higher than a normal shot will. The third picture shows a back stance; this is where you place the ball line up with the inside of your back foot. This is a good stance to keep the ball low and hit farther than usual. All of these stances work great but need to be used in certain situations. For example, a front stance will not work when you are hitting out from under a tree, this is because you must keep the ball low so you would need to use a back stance.

Throughout the rest of the book I look forward to learning the different types of shots that I am able to hit while playing golf, things like hitting out of sand, hitting with certain clubs, and hitting out of trouble spots with a good outcome.  

Question: What stance do you guys think would work best when you need to hit the ball over a large tree?