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• 4 Steps to Successful Putting

   

  4 Steps to Successful Putting

  By: Tim Mahoney

   

  If you were to watch the good putters on any of the tours, they all have the same type of routine, a routine for success.  As you approach putting, your mind must be on your hands, assisting you with controlling distance.  Consistent players utilize fact not fiction.  Develop this routine, and you will become a great putter.

  
  Step 1- Walk into the golf ball with your right hand only on the club.  During this motion you have three goals:  establish an angle in the back of your right wrist (this angle must be maintained during the entire motion.)  Aim your clubface at your target.  Align your right forearm on the same plane as the shaft.

   

  Step 2- Position your body (all shots in golf, you must align club than body.)  Position your eyes over the target line, weight even, golf ball forward in your stance with boxed feet.

  
  Step 3- Position your left hand onto the club.  As you slide your hand onto the club, position both thumbs on the flat part of the club with your palms facing each other.  Flatten your left wrist and maintain the bend in your right wrist.

  
  Step 4- Swing the putter with the arms.  Quiet torso motion as you maintain the hand position.  Hold the follow thru until the ball comes to a rest.  Your mind must be on controlling distance.  Perfect distance is the effect of maintaining the hand position.

  
  All good putters develop a routine.  I believe great putters develop an angle in the back of their right wrist at address and they maintain this angle throughout the stroke.  As a result, pre-set this angle at address and maintain this angle during the entire motion.  Consistent performers utilize fact not fiction.

  
  

   

   

• How to make a swing change

  How to Make a Swing Change
  
  By: Tim Mahoney
  
  Every week millions of golfer’s watch Jordan Speith, Lydia Ko and others compete in Professional events, and the amateurs use these individuals as standards for their own golf games.  What the golfing public doesn’t see is the other 60 or so golfer’s who are competing each week making pars and bogeys, the 70 other golfers’ who missed the cut and the amount of time these professionals spend perfecting their skills.  If you measure your own game against the top professionals, you have unrealistic expectations and will be forever frustrated with your game.
  
  The first objective when making a swing change is to understand that cause and effect of your motion.  Is the over the top motion the effect of an open clubface or the cause.  Is the in-correct pivot a mis-concept or a flexibility issue?  Once you and/or your coach determines the cause than a game plan for success must be developed.
  
  Swing change game plans typically include a perfect set-up, practice swing routine, playing strategies, how to stretch and how to make a change.  This game plan must be adjusted during the swing change in order to address the cause and effects of the swinging motion.
  
  1.       Changing motor skills takes a minimum of 2-3 weeks of practice.
  2.       Practicing while playing on the course results in higher scores.
  3.       Ben Hogan would only hit 5-6 perfect shots per round.
  4.       Don’t compare yourself to Jordan Spieth.
  
  A golf swing is a constantly changing and evolving motion.  Flexibility, fitness level, practice commitment and playing time will adjust and change the shape of a golfer’s motion.  As a result, the golf swing must be adjusted and changed.  Understanding the cause and effect of your swing with realistic expectations will allow you swing and golf enjoyment during your golf careers.
  

• Playing the Game

  Playing the Game
  By: Tim Mahoney
  
  
  Playing the Game
  
  The final goal in golf is the end product: the score. Hitting perfect shots does not equate to a low score. Good “bad” shots, a consistent short game, and controlled tee shots allow golfers to achieve the ultimate goal – a low score.  To this end, golfers must learn how to play the game – including understanding tee-shot placement, reading bad lies, and selecting a club. Practice the following theories and you will begin to understand how to “play the game”.
  
  The Friendly Theory
  
  Cobra Advisory Staff member Hank Johnson recommends that golfers follow the “friendly” theory when playing golf. Golfers should use friendly clubs, make friendly swings, and choose friendly targets.
  
  1.       Friendly clubs are ones that golfers have practiced with and spent some time with on and off the course. Keep in mind that to get the ball up in the air, you must get the center of the club beneath the center of the ball at impact. Your fairway woods are designed to lift the ball, and are much easier to hit than your longer irons. Choose the friendliest club dictated by your lie and the shot you wish to execute.
  2.       Friendly swings are swings that you have practiced and have the ability to finish in balance. A balanced finish indicates that your swing is non-hurried and flowing. All golfers should hold their follow through until the ball lands. The inability to hold your follow through indicates a hurried and non-friendly swing.
  3.       Friendly targets are forgiving targets with generous landing areas. A pin tacked behind a bunker may not be a friendly target. Choose open areas which will not so severely penalize a bad shot.
  
  **Conservative off the Tee – Aggressive around the Greens
  
  Matches can not be won off the tee. Your mindset should be one of being conservative off the tee and aggressive around the greens. You must get your “first serve in”, position your tee-ball in the fairway with a conservative mindset. If you are having difficulty with drawing the ball with your driver, use your 3 wood. Cutting doglegs may not be the prudent move – instead, get your ball in the fairway. As you get closer to the hole, become more aggressive. Whenever you find yourself with a short game shot (pitching, chipping, bunker or putting), your mindset should always be to try to hole the shot. 
  
  So, to play the game well, and lowering your scores, remember to incorporate the friendly theory, and the conservative to aggressive theory, into your game plan.
  
  Good luck.

• Ben Hogan’s Plane of Glass

  Ben Hogan’s Plane of Glass

  By Tim Mahoney

   

  The legendary golfer and technician Ben Hogan in 1946 developed the swing concept of an angle the club needs to swing:  Swing plane or simply the shape of the swing.  Throughout the years a debate has developed regarding the angle or plane of the swing:  1 or a 2 plane motion.  Within the Mahoney and Troon Golf Academy we believe that it is not a 1 or a 2 plane motion, simply an on-plane swing that is determined by the club and your posture.  The angle or plane that you swing the club on determines the centerness of the strike, the ability to square your club face at impact and the amount of divot.  Swing plane is not a ball flight law, but simply, a golf swing preference.

   

  The backswing plane can be viewed as an inclined angle taken at address running up the shoulders from the ball.  The left arm controls the shape of the backswing, the shoulders, arms, hands and club should rotate and swing on this angle and not deviate from the intended angle.  Swinging on this determined angle will allow the upper and lower body the ability to turn freely on both sides of the swing.  Once golfers understand how to swing to the top of the backswing they will solve consistency problems.

   

  During the downswing motion, the golf club MUST swing under and below the back swing plane.  The shallowing of the club on the downswing is a significant power boost at impact.  The slight lateral shift of the hips towards the target as the upper body is turning back, allows for a “flattening” of the downswing plane.  As the hips are sliding laterally, the right elbow connects to the side as the left hips turns behind.  Hands or shoulders starting the downswing establishes an over the top or steep angle.  Steepness in the downswing causes toe hits, open club face and a decrease in club head speed.  Create a flatter downswing as compared to the backswing results in greater power and consistency.

   

  Drills that will assist in creating this angle:  baseball swings above the ball and chip shots where the club stays below your hands on both sides.  These drills will allow you to focus primarily on the shape of the swing and the intended plane.

   

  Club face, angle of attack, centeredness of hit, club head speed and swing path are the ball flight laws that effect every shot from a putt to a chip, to a full drive.  Ben Hogan’s plane of glass or swing plane is every gofer preference to golf excellence.  Swinging the club on the intended angle, determined by the club and your posture will provide longer, straighter and more solid strikes.

  
  

   

   

• Fundamentals key to success

  Fundamentals key to success. 
  By Tim Mahoney
  
  Even the beginner golfer recognizes that no two players set up to the ball in exactly the same manner. The mistake is made in fastening on to these differences and assuming that every player must, therefore, have his or her own way of preparing for the shot, and that it is all a matter of preference.
  
  Perhaps the tiny details are a matter of preference. Despite preferences, however, there are pre-swing fundamentals that enough great players keep in common so that they are regarded as sound.
  
  Grip
  The first fundamental involves getting the hands on the club in a suitable manner. A good grip starts with the glove hand.
  
  Ideally, the glove hand should be placed on the grip so that the finger tips are not visible to the golfer looking down at address. To achieve this position, the left thumb must be placed right of center (for the right-handed player), and the club as a whole should be held in the fingers. The golfer whose glove wears out in the palm could use some work in these particulars.
  
  As for the non-glove hand, provided the palm faces the general direction of the target the two hands should work nicely together.
  
  Posture
  Working into a proper posture, the golfer should tilt so that the club can get down to the ball. The proper tilt is from the hip sockets. If a golfer pushes his belt buckle back away from his hands at address, he’ll be on his way to a proper tilt.
  
  The trouble to avoid here is bending too much at the knees. In a proper, athletic posture the knees should merely unlock so that they remain directly above the shoestrings.
  
  You may have noticed that great players appear centered throughout the swing. This is easily achieved because the expert golfer addresses the ball with a straight spine. With the spine providing a straight axis around which the body can rotate, the golfer can turn away, and re-turn through the ball free of excess left, right, or up-and-down movement.
  
  
  
  
  Aim
  A good sense of aim, if here today, can disappear before tomorrow. It must, therefore, be conditioned constantly.
  
  The way to know for sure that one is properly aimed is to place clubs on the ground during every practice session. Knowing the clubs are aimed directly at the target, the only thing left to do is align the feet, knees, hips, and shoulders parallel to the clubs. From this perfected aimed set-up, looking back and forth between the ball and target will condition a sense of what correct aim looks and feels like.
  
  It’s good to keep in mind that aim is not only a matter of accuracy. In fact, even with poor aim a golfer may, over time, learn to hit the ball to the hole. To do so, however, he must adopt inefficient redirecting movements, and in doing so further widen the gap between his actual and potential skill with a golf club.
  
  Ball Position
  It is no secret to most that a consistently powerful golf swing involves a weight shift to the forward foot in the early stages of the downswing.
  
  It can be reasoned then that one weight shift with little variation would be easiest to learn. In other words, a golfer should learn to shift the weight to the same degree when swinging a 7-iron as a 3-wood. This being the case, it is wise to adopt one ball position that works for all clubs when hit from level lies off the fairway.
  
  For most, I suggest the ball be positioned two inches inside the left heel (again, for the right-handed player). Keeping the ball in the same place relative to the left leg will allow the golfer to learn one shift that works for every club. Granted, the stance for a 3-wood is a bit wider than for a 7-iron, so the casual observer may point out that the ball appears more forward when using the longer club. Still, the ball remains in the same place relative to the forward foot for all shots hit from the grass from level lies.
  
  Keep in mind that in-swing fundamentals only have meaning if preceded by correct pre-swing fundamentals. The good news is that after adhering to a proper set-up –grip, posture, aim and ball position—what follows becomes easier to achieve.
  
  
  
  

• Find your distance potential

  “Find your distance potential”

  By Tim Mahoney

   

  One of the keys to playing golf in this era is to hit the ball long.  As golf courses continue to be designed longer and more difficult, hitting the ball with power allows players the best chance to score.  Although Tiger Woods has possibly the greatest short game in the history of the game, it is also a huge advantage the he has been consistently ranked among the longest hitters during his career.  How can you hit it longer?

   

  Quite simply, there are two keys to hitting it long:  solid contact and speed.  Hitting the ball in the center of the face with maximum speed will allow you to hit it as far as you can.  This combined with the latest in club and ball technology can help you find your true distance potential.

   

  The first thing you should determine is if you hit the ball solidly with your current swing.  The easiest test is to use face tape that can be found at most golf shops.  Place a piece of tape on your club and hit a shot.  The ball will make a mark on the tape which will show you your contact point.  Hopefully you will find you are consistently finding the center of the clubface.  Make sure you test both woods and irons as you want solid contact with all clubs.

   

  If you find that your contact is not as solid as you would like, look at two things to improve your swing.  Make sure your posture at set up and throughout your swing is in an athletic position that you maintain during your swing.  Good posture will help you swing the club around your body consistently “on plane” which leads to center hits.

   

  Once you are satisfied with your contact point, the next key to distance is trying to increase your swing speed.  In the golf swing there are three power sources that will help you swing the club faster.  The combination of proper wrist action, an arm swing that puts the club in position throughout the swing and a powerful body pivot that supports the swinging action of the club will allow the club to swing consistently and produce power.

   

  Finally, if you feel you are making solid contact and are using your power sources, make sure your equipment fits your swing.  Clubs and balls that are fitted specifically for your swing will probably give you an extra few yards as well.

   

  Learning to hit the ball longer is a very fun part of the improvement process. Examine your current swing and determine your needs.  With a little practice, hopefully you will find a few more yards.

   

  Remember if you do hit the ball farther, you will have shorter approach shots to the hole.  It is important to work hard on short game distance control so you can take advantage of your distance and hit it closer.  This should take pressure off your putting game and allow you to improve your scoring average.