Frequently Asked Question's
How do I become a golf
professional?
(teaching or playing)
What golf clubs should I get?
(irons, woods, shaft, etc.)
How can I stop slicing the
ball? (curing a slice)
How can I stop hooking the
ball?
How do I stop hitting the ball
fat? (hitting the
ground behind the ball)
How do I stop shanking?
(hitting the ball on the hosel or neck)
How
do I get backspin?
(stopping the ball on the green)
How far should each club go?
(club distances)
What is the ruling? (golf rules
questions)
Question: How do I
become a golf professional?
Answer:
To
become a tour player you'll need to qualify in a
series of local - regional - national
tournaments, called "Q School" (unless you can
somehow manage to make it into the top 125
players on the money list or get sponsor
exemptions). Contact the PGA Tour office at
(904) 285-3700 for the latest entry information.
You can also start with many smaller tours and
events. See also this website for serious
aspiring golfers!
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Question: What golf clubs should I get?
(irons, woods, shaft, etc.)
Answer: There is a very short answer to
this question: If you're going to take the game
at all seriously and spend good money on golf
clubs it is important that
-
You are properly
fitted in person by a reputable golf
professional or clubmaker with fitting
expertise
-
You
like the look and
feel of your equipment
Here's a longer
discussion. I get a huge number of people asking
such things as, "Should I get the new Brand X 'Slasher'
or the new Brand Z 'Pounder'?", "Which clubs do
you recommend?" or "What shaft or swing weight
should I get?" The brand name doesn't matter and
you do not need to spend a tremendous amount of
money. Ask around to find a skilled fitting
professional near you. If you can't find one,
try
PGAPros.com. There are many factors that go into
fitting a set of clubs to each person uniquely
(shaft flex, club length, swing weight, lie
angle, grip size, and the list goes on). This
must all be done in person, as there is a huge
amount of trial and error necessary and personal
preferences vary widely between individuals. It
is unwise to buy clubs "off the shelf" or to buy
used clubs, unless you are going to have them
adjusted to fit you -- and that is assuming that
the appropriate adjustments
can be made. After having said all this
there's nothing that can substitute for
confidence born of an affinity for your clubs.
Golf clubs are personal items (especially the
putter, wedges and driver). Make sure you find
some clubs you like. I don't have any opinions
on what the "best" clubs are or what clubs
you should get, nor do
I rate or recommend clubs -- there are too many
good ones. Also, unfortunately I cannot tell you
what your club specifications should be based on
things like your height or how far you hit a
seven iron, etc. Again, fitting for specs must
be done in person, and once you are fitted
appropriately it's all personal preference.
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Question: How can I stop slicing the
ball? Curing the slice.
Answer:
Slicing the ball is
a very common problem. Here's an extremely
general, but nonetheless valuable, tip that
applies to learning any
part of the game:
If you have a
recurring problem that you are trying to correct
exaggerate in the
opposite direction to get results more quickly.
A simple example: You have a slice. You keep
trying to hit it straight; it keeps slicing.
Advice: Stop trying to hit it straight; that is
making it slice. Instead try making it hook
viciously (that is the opposite). Note: Do
not try to
accomplish this by closing the club face at
address. The position of the face at address is
not what is influencing the ball's flight; it is
the position of the face and the path of the
club through impact. In your attempt to make it
hook it is likely that you will not actually
hook it (but even if you do it's good news,
because at least you will be getting some
different feedback). You will learn something
from exaggerating like this.
More detail:
(right-handed player)
A slice is the
result of the clubface looking to the right of
the path the club is travelling on at the moment
of impact. This imparts clockwise spin to the
ball making it curve to the right. Typically the
club is also traveling to the left increasing
the angle of oblique or glancing contact even
more. Q: What is the
opposite here? A: A
hook, which is the result of the club face
looking to the left of the path the club is
traveling on at the moment of impact. Therefore,
exaggerating in the opposite direction in
this case would be
trying to swing more out to the right while
making the club face look more to the left at
the moment of impact. If you actually do
accomplish this the result will be a hook. But
it's also possible that your attempt will never
quite succeed and you'll just start hitting it
straight.
Finally, what you
need is some "feel" for squaring the club - try
this:
Hit a 5 or 6 iron
real,
real softly (no more
than 30 yards at first). Make sure you square
the face and the ball goes straight (or even a
bit left would be OK initially). Then move up to
about 100 yards or so with the same iron. Keep
making sure the clubface squares up. The problem
is that you are probably trying to hit the ball
too hard and have ABSOLUTELY
0 FEEL for what the clubface is doing.
Eventually you can move up to your driver and do
the same thing (start with about 50 yards,
etc.). Every now and then come back to the
impact position in extreme
slow motion and actually slow down and
stop right behind the
ball, seeing and feeling
the position of the clubface there. Make sure
you know the feeling of bringing it back square.
These soft and slow motion drills will help your
nervous system learn the feel of squaring the
club and eventually it will translate into your
golf swing.
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Question: How can I stop hooking the
ball?
Answer: First of all, understand that
the problem is that the clubface is contacting
the ball in an extremely closed position
relative to the path on which the club is
travelling. The most common cause of this is
that the body's rotation slows down (braces for
impact?) while the hands flip the toe over. The
club contacts the ball with the toe of the club
coming through before the heel and hook spin is
imparted on the ball (in the most severe cases
the club is radically delofted as well, creating
a low duck hook). The basic remedy is for the
body to continue its rotation through impact and
beyond, keeping the arms and hands more passive
(the torso and the arms turn more or less
together). This way the toe of the club will not
progress to such a closed position at impact. It
also helps, many times, to make sure that the
club has swung into an upright enough position
at the top of the backswing (above the shoulder,
not behind or level with it), as a flat plane
can many times be associated with the hook.
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Question: How do I stop hitting the ball
fat? (hitting the ground behind the ball)
Answer: Well, there are basically two
ways to hit it fat:
-
Your spine
angle/posture changes (lowers toward the
ground)
-
Your arms apply
pressure independently of your torso (i.e.,
hacking with the arms more than allowing
your arms to swing in response to your body
turning)
It is also possible
to hit it fat by dipping the knees, but I
don't recall ever actually having seen this
happen, so let's ignore it.
Experiment based on
the information above and you'll probably be
able to determine what's going on. The most
common thing I've seen is that people try to hit
the ball too hard and therefore the arms and the
club reach the bottom of the swing too soon,
before the body has turned out of the way and
moved onto the forward foot.
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Question:
How do I stop shanking? (hitting the ball on
the hosel, or neck, of the club) See also my
answer on
Curing
a slice above, as these two problems are
often related.
Answer: A shank is usually associated
with the path of the club rather than the angle
of the blade, though an open blade through
impact will increase the chances of it
happening. The most common reason for a shank is
an outside-in swing path caused by excessive arm
and hand pressure on the club (also called
hacking, as opposed to swinging -- trying to hit
it too hard? -- you wouldn't be the first). The
body weight moving forward toward the toes
(unstable balance) is another common
contributing factor. Anyway, these things cause
the club to approach the ball from outside the
target line, or on a path that is too far away
from the body, exposing the hosel to the ball
and ... ouch, shank.
Wanna fix it pronto
or hurt yourself trying?
Here's a quick cure, but you have to be a bit
careful (wear protective lenses, like when
you're chopping wood). Actually it's not that
big a deal, but I have to be sure to include a
disclaimer. You'll see why in a minute.
Warning/Disclaimer: If
you have reservations about the safety of this
or if you think you might hurt yourself don't do
it.
That said, I have never seen, nor have I ever
heard of, any injury resulting from this drill.
Set a 2 X 4 on the
ground on its narrow edge, running parallel to
the target line and just on the far side of the
target line from you. Place the ball near enough
to the board so that when you address it with
the center of the club there is about 1/2" (1"
if you're really apprehensive) clearance between
the toe of the club and the board. That is
plenty of room to
swing and still miss the board easily,
IF your swing is
actually going down the target line through
impact.
Get used to hitting balls like this. This will
train you (quickly) to swing down the target
line, or more inside out than you are currently,
and should fix the problem. (B.F. Skinner, of
operant conditioning fame, is grinning.) You may
find yourself striking the board. If so, you
will probably find that your club strikes the
board BEFORE, or BEHIND, the ball (you'll be
able to see where the club has hit the board by
examining the board afterward). If this sounds
too dangerous to you try a cardboard box with a
very straight edge instead (like the boxes
individual golf clubs come in for instance,
they're about the right size).
Once
you know the feeling of the correct path the
shanks should go bye-bye. See also my answer on
Curing a slice
above, as these
two problems are often related.
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Question: How do I
get backspin?
Answer: The effect of
backspin on a golf shot is a function of
-
The quality
of contact (ball before
ground
)
The
consistency (softness or hardness) of the
ball and/or its cover
The
condition of the green being approached
Actually, all shots
that achieve and maintain a reasonably airborne
state off the club's face have some backspin.
Whether the amount of backspin is sufficient to
cause the ball to hold the green or stay near
where it lands is another question. If you make
good contact with the ball, use a ball with a
reasonably soft cover and are approaching a
green in relatively good condition (i.e., not
extraordinarily dry or hard) you should have no
problem getting the ball to hold or even back
up, depending on your club head speed. To get
the ball to really
pull back a significant distance (this is almost
always undesirable)
you need extremes (i.e., more clubhead speed
along with good
quality contact, a very soft-covered ball, very
soft greens or all of these).
Other influencing factors are
-
The length
of the grass you are playing from (e.g.,
shots played from the fairway or shorter
grass will typically spin much more than
shots hit from longer grass, as contact can
be made more cleanly)
-
Wind
direction (e.g., downwind shots do not hold
as well as shots hit into the wind)
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Question: How far
should each club go? (club distances)
Answer: Well, that
depends on so many
factors it's impossible to answer directly. How
far should which club go for whom, and in
precisely what conditions? There is so much
variation between people, equipment and
conditions that each situation is unique.
By
way of offering some
idea for purposes of comparison (assuming level
ground and calm conditions at sea level): for
most men the difference between irons will be
10-12 yards and for most women 5-7 yards (this
also assumes a fairly consistent swing and a
well-struck shot). Also, in my more than 20
years of teaching golf the shortest well-struck
7 iron I've seen by a female adult was around 80
yards and the longest by an adult male was
around 225 yards. My ballpark guess is that the
average 7 iron for an adult male golfer is
somewhere in the vicinity of 150 yards, for an
average PGA Tour player around 160-170 (though
the distances for professionals are increasing
pretty quickly these days), for an average adult
female around 100 yards, and for an average LPGA
player 140-160. Without addressing specific
cases this is about as much as I can offer.
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Question: What is the
ruling? (golf rules questions)
Answer:
I get a huge number of rules questions ending
with, "What is the correct ruling or procedure
in that case?" or something similar. We should
all know the answers
to the straight forward questions, and for that
I recommend that each golfer have his own
personal
Rules of Golf to refer to. The really
unusual situations, however, I would have to
look up just like anyone else, as even
my huge brain couldn't
contain the vast amount of information contained
in the "Decisions" Book.
Golfers with these questions would love to have
their own personal
Decisions on the Rules of Golf Book so that
they could look things up instantly, on their
own, rather than waiting for me to get back to
them. If you're into golf both of these books
are something you should have, and they will
provide lots of
satisfaction and entertainment. Or for even
more enjoyment try
this great book by Arnold Palmer,
Playing by the Rules: All
the Rules of the Game, Complete with Memorable
Rulings From Golf's Rich History
