Womens Golf: Putting

Improving your putting skills… of course it sounds easy enough to do every time my husband, who is my current instructor, says it to me, but it is one of the things that is completely driving me nuts!!

Being new to the game of golf, I decided early on that the quickest way for me to make a difference in my game and to lower my score was to improve my short game, specifically to learn to putt.

Being successful at women’s golf is a constant challenge, but I am convinced if I can only learn to putt then I can have the biggest and quickest impact on my game.

I realize that it will take me years to become really comfortable with golf, and so my initial goal is to do one thing and to do that really well while I continue to learn the game. So for me improving my putting skills is the answer.

As a student of the game of golf, I found a fair amount of resources available to help me learn to putt. One of my favorite putting tips and the one that keeps me on the practice green is the fact that putting makes up almost 40% of the strokes in every round…so it only makes sense to incorporate putting practice into every outing to the golf course.

My husband taught me to work on the tempo of my swing when I was first learning to putt. He would say over and over, tick-tock, tick-tock… swing the putter like the pendulum on the clock. The more I repeated this mantra in my head, the smoother my golf swing became. So I would take my putter to the green and for hours I would work on my putting. At first I didn’t even concentrate on “reading the green” I just concentrated on the mechanics of the swing.

When putting between 8 and 10 feet, I stand with my feet about shoulder length apart. Then I start my tick-tock routine, keeping my hands quiet and moving my putter, hands, elbows and shoulders in one movement… moving them all together.

I swing my putter as far back as my back foot and as far forward as my front foot always being certain to follow through. For me, the key is to keep my club moving in the same smooth fashion with the same back speed as forward speed.

I can definitely tend to rush my forward putting swing and we all know how ugly that can be. When I am working on those longer putts, I simply widen my stance and keep up the same routine. For me being consistent with every putting setup and follow through has been a challenge. I am still a bit nervous on the golf course and can get in a hurry and rush my putts.

Women’s golf is fascinating and all the golf instruction books make it seem so simple. If you have a short little putt, then use a short little swing. A little bit longer putt, then use a little bit longer swing. Seems so simple doesn’t it! But it’s when you have to put the speed of the swing, the length of the back swing and forward swing, the tempo of the swing… and of course don’t forget to read the green and keep your head down…oh how I love this game!

Improving your putting is critical to your success in the game of golf. So remember, if almost 40% of your game is going to be spent taking shots on the putting green, then make sure you pay your dues and spend practice time on the green. You’ll be glad you did!

Womens Golf: Your Short Game

Improving your short game… it was the mantra I heard over and over from my golfer husband. It was the one thing he really tried to get me to focus on as I searched for opportunities to lower my scores.

Since I am a beginning golfer, I found that I couldn’t concentrate on improving every thing at once, so I decided to focus on the basics, more specifically, the basics of my short game.

Putting is the first area I decided to focus on.

I was confident that if I could improve my putting, I would improve my short game and if I improved my short game my scorecard would show the results. I was committed to practicing my putting and reaping the benefits on the greens.

Being a beginning golfer, I take all the help I can get to improve my golf game. My husband, an avid golfer, and my teaching professional shared some excellent putting tips with me.

The first golf drill I learned was to lay two clubs on the ground parallel to each other, keeping the width a little more that the head of the putter. My goal was to practice putting my shot through the clubs and into the hole. This golf drill really helped me to see the line to the hole and to understand more of the relationship between my stroke and the end result.

The second golf drill I learned that helped me with my putting was a distance drill. My instructor laid a club about three feet behind the hole on the practice green. Then on the opposite side of the hole, we marked off 3 feet, 6 feet and 9 feet.

My goal was to make three putts from each of the designated distances. If I made all three putts, I would move on to the next farthest distance. If I didn’t make all three putts, I would start over and keep going until I made three putts in a row. The club behind the hole was my visual clue.

Even if I missed the putt, my second goal was to make sure the putt stopped before it got to the club. I never wanted to just keep hitting the putt from one side of the hole to the other. Because of my commitment to the game of golf, I repeated this drill for at least half of my practice time.

It wasn’t long before I began to develop better control of my putter and as a result I began to see a difference in my golf scores. Improving your short game takes practice, yes, but it is definitely worth it.

Womens Golf: Setting Up The Swing

Setting up the golf swing… correctly… is the name of the newest golf lesson I recently took from my husband and my most recent plan for improving my golf game.

My thoughts were that if only I could pick up one tip on the basics of golf the perhaps I could shave a few strokes off my total.

As you know by now my husband is my golf teacher. I have to wonder if he is getting just a bit tired of my struggles with learning to golf… not really… he loves to teach.

Besides, we have such a blast on the golf course that it makes me want to keep on trying to improve my game.

So off to the golf course I go and there I met up with my husband where along with several other women we began the class on correctly setting up the golf swing.

Of course, there were lots of laughs but then we finally got down to the business of learning to golf all with the hope of improving on the greens.

I learned very early that I will never be able to hit the ball as far as my husband. His golf swing is so much more powerful than mine.

However, I learned in golf school that there are some small things that I could do to develop a more powerful golf swing and that would definitely improve my game.

Jeff is diligent about teaching us to develop the correct golf setup.

I learned quickly that my power improved significantly when I set up my golf swing correctly.

I learned that my arms, my hands and the shaft of the golf club should form the letter “y”.

When I can manage to keep my left arm in a straight line and when the club becomes an extension of that straight arm, then I definitely have more power at impact. This was quite an impressive thing for me to see!

I had learned at a previous golf lesson that my grip should be relaxed and I should not try to grip it so firmly.

That is easier said than done…for me. Jeff used the analogy that I should grip my club like I was holding a baby bird… firm enough that the baby bird can’t fly away… yet so tight as to injure the bird.

Ok, I think I can picture that, but again executing that maneuver is easier said than done.

Womens Golf: The Bionic Glove

The Bionic Golf Glove is my newest golf accessory and one that I can’t quit talking about. Sorry, I’ve gotten ahead of myself… let me start at the beginning.

I am a beginning golfer and have found out that, well there’s just nothing like the game of golf in my mind. Because of my husband.

And in my quest to become a decent golfer, I have found that I really love golf accessories!

I love to check out the next latest and greatest thing on the market as well as the tried and true accessories. Most golf accessories are well designed and definitely add to the golf game.

As a Christmas gift last year, my family gave me a subscription to Golf for Women. I read it cover to cover and then I save each edition and find myself referring back to them re-reading articles, or checking out the pictures of the pros and the analysis of their shots.

Since I am always on the lookout for anything that could help to improve my game, I found myself taking a second look at an advertisement in Golf for Women for the Bionic Golf Glove. It didn’t take long to convince me after reading the advertisement that I knew that I needed to try to this golf. So, I jumped online and found the glove at Austad’s Golf store and bought a Bionic Golf Glove for myself and found myself eagerly planning my next round of golf.

With this luxurious golf glove tucked into my golf bag, I headed off to the club for a round of golf with my friend.

It only took that initial round of golf before I was totally hooked on this glove.

Funny how quickly it happened but that golf glove jumped up to the top of the list of “must-haves” in my golf bag. When I was done with the round of 18 holes, it was incredible because my hand hardly felt like I had even played a round of golf. My hand which previously was always so tired after every round of golf now felt ready to go another 18!

The Bionic Golf Glove was designed by a nationally recognized orthopedic hand surgeon to mimic the movements of the hand itself. This golf glove moves so easily with you and replicates the hand’s natural movements so precisely that you hardly realize that you even have the glove on your hand.

The best part of the design of this fabulous golf glove is the relief pad. In the advertisement I read in Golf for Women it talked about the relief pad which “evens out the surface of the hand…causing you to instinctively adopt a lighter grip”. This was one thing that I was sure hoping I would find to be true when I purchased the glove and guess what…I wasn’t disappointed!

I think it may have something to do with the fact that I am a beginning golfer and still a bit nervous on the golf course, but I have a real tendency to tightly grip the club with each swing. Of course this not only causes fatigue, but it also causes me to have poorer swing control. Both of these issues cause a challenge on the golf course and like I’ve said before I need all the help I can get on the golf course!

Because of the anatomically correct design of the glove, it moves so easily with each movement you make. Seriously, it seems like a custom-fitted golf glove. Part of the design was even created to allow your hand to close naturally not stiffly like so many of the golf gloves I’ve tried.

My new golf glove was dirty and a pretty sweaty after several rounds of golf …so I tossed in the washer on the delicate cycle, laid it out to dry on my kitchen counter and a couple of days later off I was back on the driving range for some more practice.

I told you I was a beginner and I try to get in at least a couple of hours of practice on the range each week. After I washed my newest golf accessories and let it dry, I found the glove to be incredibly soft and supple… something that I really didn’t expect. If I haven’t told you recently… I love this golf glove!

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