by Howard Platt

Learning how to drive a golf ball straight down the fairway is probably the toughest challenge for the novice golfer as well as a veteran. Golf is a game of patience and skill and I would like to share with you some of the tips that helped improve my game.

When a person decides they are going to take up the game of golf they usually just head out to the course with a couple of buddies and just wing it from there. This is probably one of the biggest mistakes a beginner can make. The hardest place to learn how to play golf is on the golf course. Most beginners have watched golf being played on TV and they assume the game is not that difficult because the pros make it look so easy.

The best place for a first time golfer to go would be the practice range. When someone tries to golf for the first time on the actual golf course it does not take long for them to see that they do not know how to drive a golf ball straight. When you start out at the practice range you don’t feel all the pressure that goes along with being on the course with a foursome standing right behind you.

Any golfer, a novice or a veteran that needs to learn how to drive a golf ball straight really has to start with the basics. Sometimes this is hard for a veteran golfer to do mostly due to their ego. When someone has been playing golf for many years the chances are good that they have picked up some bad habits and the only way they will ever be able to improve their game is if they go right back to the basics. The first thing that should be looked at is the golfers stance. If the stance is not proper and consistent they will never know how to drive a golf ball straight down the fairway. You really need to find your comfortable stance that allows you to take a complete and proper swing. There are some basic principles to follow for getting into the right stance but beyond that a golfers stance is unique to the actual golfer.

Players have a hard time making changes to how they stand or their back swing or how hard they come down through the ball because they have built up all these techniques throughout the years. The facts are the facts and if you are not consistently and yes that would be “consistently” driving the ball straight down the fairway then you need to first correct your stance. I have seen it time and time again where a veteran golfer refuses to make any changes to his golfing stance. However, having worked at a driving range for a few seasons I have witnessed more veteran golfers learn how to drive a golf ball straight down the fairway just by correcting their stance and nothing else.

Think about how many times you have taken a shot while on the course and you hear your buddy standing behind you say “you came up out of your stance” or “you didn’t keep your head down or you failed to turn your hips,” everyone of those actions involves your stance. I am telling you if you want to know how to drive a golf ball straight every time then the first thing you should do is get to the practice range and hit the ball over and over completely focusing on your body’s stance 100% of the time. This is the biggest problem for any golfer who doesn’t know how to drive a golf ball straight down the fairway every time.

I know you were probably expecting a whole bunch of other tips but the truth is when it comes to playing golf sometimes too much help will do more harm then good. Just give this article some thought the next time you are on the course and you find yourself having a difficult time hitting the golf ball straight. I know if you perfect your stance you will know how to drive a golf ball straight down the fairway with every hit.

About the Author, Howard Platt:

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By Greg Hanson

Learning how to correctly read greens is a skill that can be learned easily and can be one of the single most important factors to shooting lower scores. Want to break 90, 80, or 70 for the first time? Then these 3 secrets to reading greens are vitally important.

Secret to Reading Greens #1: What is the Lay of the Land?

Whenever you go to a new course, the first thing you should be asking a caddy, an employee (assistant or head pro) is, where do most of the putts break on the course? Is there a secret to these greens? Is there a certain landmark that all putts will tend to roll to?

Locals love to give their knowledge of the course, and it’s invaluable to us, especially on the greens!

I work on a course that has land that actually breaks towards the mountains. THAT is something no one expects when they show up to the course, and I’m shocked at how few people care to hear that knowledge.

A straight looking putt will most likely break towards the mountains. A putt that is uphill and towards the mountains will be especially slow. A putt that looks downhill and happens to be going towards the mountains- Look out! It’s going to be FAST.

Secret to Reading Greens #2:Look from BOTH Sides of the Hole

This is such a basic move that can dramatically increase your chances of making a putt. Some people don’t want to do this because they feel self-conscious about the time it takes to do it. But there is an art to doing it fast. If you are walking onto the green, take a look from the opposite side of the hole before you even mark your ball. Or maybe take a look if you have to wait for someone else to putt. If you are first to putt, who cares? Take that extra few seconds to glance from the other side of the hole.

Secret to Reading Greens #3: Watch the Roll Out Of Your Approach Shot

Often times we’ll be so caught up in our disgust that we hit chipped the ball too far past the hole that we won’t even watch the break as it is coming to rest. Being observant at all times is extremely important to getting all the necessary information.

Take these 3 secrets to reading greens to heart and you’ll make more putts, leave yourself tap ins for saves, and drop your score by sometimes more than 5 to 10 shots per round.

Greg Hanson is a professional golfer and a content creator for an internet marketing firm. You can check out his latest project about all types of small coffee tables like slate and square coffee tables at http://CheapCoffeeTables.org

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By Lisa A Mason

Playing bad golf isn’t always a bad thing. Many people are or know someone that’s a bad golfer. Just because you don’t hit the ball straight or on target each time doesn’t mean you can’t learn to play good golf. Learning to play golf your way is one of the best ways to go from bad golf to good golf. Bad golfers need to practice on making their game better but in the meantime can play their game well.

One of the most common problems that bad golfers have is they don’t set up to the ball properly. Grip, alignment and posture are the three most important things you need to remember when you approach the ball. This is where bad shots are made. As a bad golfer, you need to work on making these three things the priority for your golf game.

Until you learn to fix these problems however you can take your bad game and use it to play good golf. This only works however if you’re consistent with hitting bad shots. If you hit the ball to the right every time then you aim left of your target. You’ll want to avoid aiming so far left that you’ll end up in the trees, water or sand. Aim the ball well enough that if you do hit a straight shot, you can still play it.

Knowing the course and how far you hit each club is a great way to play good golf. You might not be able to beat good golfers that hit solid shots but you can keep yourself from scoring in the 100′s. If you consistently bogey every hole that’s a good thing even if it’s considered bad by most golfers. Consistency in golf is a good thing even if it’s consistently bad. Bad golfers can play golf just as well as others if they have consistency.

Another thing to avoid when you’re actually playing is to not try to correct your golf swing or anything else when you’re playing a round. Many bad golfers and even good golfers try to correct their game in the middle of a round. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. If you’re a professional golfer with years of training under your belt then you can fix your game on the fly. Everyone else needs to work on their game on the driving range and practice greens.

Remember that consistency will keep you playing better golf even if it’s bad. Remember that planning ahead and keeping a positive attitude will also help you perform better. Play golf your way and learn to play it well. Just because you think someone has a good golf game doesn’t mean that trying to copy it will make you a better golfer.

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By Roy Palmer

Have you ever had the experience that you putted before you were ready? You were in the middle of thinking about playing it and then all of a sudden, oops, there it goes. What you thought was going to be a carefully thought out putt just turned into a bit of a howler. You get the feeling it wasn’t you who just played the shot but some mischievous outside force that had taken over your actions.

Let’s take this away from the course for a moment and look at the same phenomena in a different situation; getting out of bed. In his book, Principles of Psychology (1890), William James wrote

“We know what it is to get out of bed on a freezing morning in a room without a fire, and how the very vital principle within us protests against the idea… We think how late we shall be, how the duties of the day will suffer; we say, “I must get up, this is ignominious,” and so on. But still the warm couch feels too delicious, and the cold outside too cruel, and resolution faints away and postpones itself again and again just as it seemed on the verge of the decisive act.

Now how do we ever get up under such circumstances? If I may generalize from my own experience, we more often than not get up without any struggle or decision at all. We suddenly find that we have got up. A fortunate lapse of consciousness occurs, we forget both the warmth and the cold; we fall into some reverie connected with the day’s life, in the course of which the idea flashes across us, “Hello! I must lie here no longer” – an idea which at that lucky instant awakes no contradictory or paralyzing suggestions, and consequently produces immediately its appropriate motor effects. It was our acute consciousness of both the warmth and the cold during the period of struggle which paralyzed our activity. This case seems to me to contain in miniature form the data for an entire psychology of volition.”

This experience is put down to what scientists call ideomotor movement, an unconscious or involuntary bodily movement made in response to a thought or an idea rather than to a sensory stimulus.
It’s also often referred to as “mischief-making” and has a role in dowsing, playing with an Ouija board and, I believe, in those crucial moments before a putt.

The feeling that the process has just run away from us and taken control out of our hands is because we’re thinking too far ahead. By focusing on how we’re going to do the activity before we actually need to perform that activity sets everything in place long before the muscles are needed – a bit like revving your engine at the lights.

The actions that will carry out the movement are ready, waiting and gaining momentum as you think of taking your putt. A threshold is reached and suddenly the activity happens. Unfortunately, you weren’t able to consciously decide when you were going to do it for yourself. So how can you prevent this mischief-making activity at the very moment you really don’t need it? You have to be in the moment and focused on the here and now. In this state of mind you’re not racing ahead of yourself and queuing up those movements that will kick in unexpectedly.

When you’re over the ball, be aware of your breathing, the movement of your ribs and the toes in your socks. If you’ve measured up your shot you no longer need to think about it; it’s taken care of. This way you can stay in the moment and focus only on the task in immediate hand and consciously decide when you’re ready to putt.

You can practice this before you even get out of bed in the morning! When you wake up tomorrow see if you can consciously choose the moment you get out of bed. Note how you can achieve this and apply the same technique on the green. See if it doesn’t help.

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