October 24, 2015 Posted by Matt

If you are a right handed golfer, cut your irons when you need to come into a hole from the left to right.  Hitting a cut is one of the best shots to get to the pin and eliminate such trouble as bunkers or water in front of the green, or to get to a pin on the right side of the green.  To hit this shot, open your stance and feel as if you are taking the club a bit outside of your normal line in your takeaway.  Aim left and hold your follow-through about shoulder high without rolling our forearms over.  The ball will fly high and fade nicely toward your target.  Take one more club than you would normally need, as a fade will not go as far as a normal shot.  Have your pro help you learn this shot and you will become a better player.

October 23, 2015 Posted by Matt

One of the more difficult shots in golf occurs when you find your ball in a downhill lie in a bunker.  You need to get the ball into the air, and the lie naturally makes this difficult.  To hit this shot, play the ball a little back of center in your stance.  Tilt your shoulders so their angle matches the slope of the ground in the sand trap.  Take the club back low to the ground, and then try to skim the ball out by taking just a sliver of sand under the ball.  The ball will come out of the sand and will usually run a good deal on the green.  Play the shot accordingly, and settle for getting the ball onto the green.

October 19, 2015 Posted by Matt

What if you are between clubs?  Often, you will have a shot where you cannot decide if you should hit a longer or shorter club.  If there is not trouble over the green, it is almost always a better idea to choose the longer club.  If you chose a seven iron, for example, rather than a six iron, you will tend to swing harder and become out of balance as you try to get more distance.  Take the longer club and swing smoothly, concentrating on solid contact.    As a result, you will hit more greens.

When you go to the driving range, try swinging easy with the longer club.  Also choke down on the club slightly which will cut the distance a little bit.  For example, if you hit your pitching wedge 120 yards and you hit your 9-iron 130 yards, if you choke down slightly on your 9-iron you should hit the ball 125 yards….which will provide a perfect solution for your shot that is between clubs.

October 18, 2015 Posted by Matt

Putt with a clear mind.  If you have ever tried a new putter, chances are that you will putt better immediately.  The reason for this is that your attention is on the feel of the new putter and not on the mechanics of your stroke.  If you are focusing on your stroke and how you move your hands and arms, you are not making a natural move.  It would be like thinking about your hands while you are driving your car.  Put all of your attention on your target and visualize the ball rolling along your line and dropping in the hole.  Once over the ball, repeat the visualization as if it were a little video for you to follow.  Think of the target and not the mechanics of how to get the ball there.

October 17, 2015 Posted by Matt

Before you head to the golf course, check your spikes.  Almost all golf courses now require soft spikes to help keep putting surfaces smooth.  Soft spikes, however, will wear down rather easily, and you can lose traction, especially when the ground is wet with dew or rain.  Check your spikes periodically, and change them several times during the season if you play fairly often.  Good traction is important for maintaining good balance and making a weight shift.  You may not notice that you are losing your balance from worn spikes, as it happens gradually.  Keep all of your equipment in working shape in order to play your best.

October 16, 2015 Posted by Matt

You hit a great drive and you get to your ball and find it smack dab in the middle of a divot.  What rotten luck.  Now what?  When your nice drive ends up in a divot in the middle of the fairway, do not fret.  You can get a solid strike on the ball with the right technique.  The shot requires a steep, descending strike that catches the ball first and then explodes through the divot hole.  To learn this swing, place your ball in a divot hole on the range.  Roll up a towel and place it about eighteen inches behind  your ball.  Swing back then down and through to strike the ball while missing the towel.  This will force your club to make an upright back and down sing that will blast the ball out and up from this bad lie.

October 15, 2015 Posted by Matt

Five bucks the golf ball is going to end up in the sand trap?  Yeah…  I’m not taking that bet…

October 15, 2015 Posted by Matt

A good way to help you remain still and make solid contact when you are playing chip and pitch shots is to lean to your front side.  Play the ball just back of your front foot with 90 percent of your weight on your front foot.  Lean a little forward so that your shaft leans backward and your hands are near your front thigh.  Keep this position while you swing the club back and through, with no movement back or forward or up and down.  This will help eliminate fat shots, where the club hits the ground behind the ball.

Bottom Line:

To make solid contact, you want the feeling the club is going to brush the ground instead of chopping down on the ball.

If you are interested in improving your golf game, there are several Golf Communities in Naples FL with excellent PGA Teaching professionals.  I’d be happy to provide some suggestions.  If you are considering buying a home in Naples or Bonita Springs in a golf community, let me be your guide.  There are more than 100 golf communities to chose from.

Matt Klinowski – Golf Community Real Estate Expert – 239-370-0892

October 14, 2015 Posted by Matt

Grain is the direction in which the blades of grass flow on the green.  It can cause your ball to turn in the direction of the flow.  Stand just off the green and behind your ball.  If the grass is dark, the grain is flowing against you.  If it is shiny, it is flowing with the direction of the putt.  Move to the side, and see if there is any cross or mixed grain (where part of our putt is against the grain and part is with the grain).  Also, look at the hole.  If one side of the rim of the cup is brown and rough, that indicates the direction the grain is flowing near the hole.  It may flow in any direction depending on many factors that cause the blades to point in a certain direction including the sun, water and slope.

October 13, 2015 Posted by Matt

Sliding is a common problem for higher handicappers.  The average PGA Tour pro will only move his head about an inch from side to side during a golf swing.  Higher handicappers, on the other hand, will move their heads back and forward quite dramatically, because they feel it generates power.  Actually, just the opposite is true.  A slide back on the backswing and then forward on the through swing creates the effect of hitting a moving target as your club approaches the ball.  This is often the cause of poorly hit golf sots.  Get in the habit of swinging around your spine as if it were the hub of a wheel.  This will keep you centered over the ball, and you will make solid contact more often.

To stop sliding, try this drill.  Put a ball under the outside of your back foot and hit balls on the range.  You will find you will not be able to keep your balance and complete a swing if you slide.