Beginner Golf Tips - Key to Golf Ball Spin
May 19, 2008
Teach me how to put spin on a golf ball, please? Very new to golf and watching my friends do it over and over with ease makes me want to learn how. Many thanks!! - Jim in Trinidad, CO
Strangely enough, putting spin on a golf ball happens whenever you hit the ball. The key here is obvious, learn how to do it when you want or need to. Through practice, practice, practice and a ton of dedication you will know how to spin a golf ball at will. Having golf ball spin is highly useful, especially to keep your score down. So here are some simple steps to apply that are key to golf ball spin.
Stand with your feet closer together. Position yourself in such a way that the ball is as close to your back foot, as possible. Make sure to use a 60° wedge, also known as a flop wedge is recommended for playing such a shot. A sand wedge can be used in emergency. When you take your swing, you need to swing your club on steeper plane to where you make impact directly at the bottom of the ball.
Don’t let yourself become distracted though by watching your friends putting spin on a golf ball. They have definitely worked themselves to the point where they can make it look so easy and that is something that should be admired rather than envied. Remember to let yourself focus on what you want to achieve but don’t be too attached to the result.
Worrying about it while you are taking your swing will do nothing but frustrate you and hold you back. So follow those simple steps you and will have the key to golf ball spin whenever you need it. Also, you may want to check out my other posts on this subject to get more information and a broader perspective of how its done. Check out How to Put Spin on a Golf Ball and Making Golf Spin Happen. Happy strokes!!
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Match Play Golf
April 8, 2008
Hi, can you tell me what match play golf is please? Thanks. - David in Los Alamos, NM
Match play golf is one of the main forms of competition play. This type of game puts players against one another as golfers compete to win at individual holes. The player who wins the most holes is the one that wins the match and this differs considerably from stroke play.
Each match play score for a player is added up through out the game. With the beginning of a match, the score is “all square” or tied. Then the score is recorded in terms of one player’s lead over another. If a player is ahead by or wins more holes than what is left to play, the player is the winner. Also, remember in matchplay that the player furthermost from the hole always plays first. This is especially true on the putting green.
You are not allowed to putt if your opponent’s ball is still “live” and furthest away from the cup. However, you can pick up your ball up if you are given a conceded putt by your opponent. With all the interesting variations in playing golf, you will definitely never get bored with this sport and will always have the opportunity to learn something new. Happy strokes!!
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Golf Yips and Botox?
March 19, 2008
I came across an interesting article from the Mayo Clinic about golf yips and how botox might be used as a future treatment. Every now and again I get the yips right before I take a shot and was wondering what you thought about this? - Joan in Waterloo, IA
Yes, I’ve read the article about golf yips and have found it to be very interesting that they are considering Botox as a form of potential treatment. I’ve known many friends who suffer from this horrible jerking motion when they hold their shaft in their hands, as they want so badly to make a perfect shot only to have the opportunity slip away because their brain is having a conniption fit.
For the poor afflicted souls that do have this condition, I bet a well placed Botox injection just might help lower your golf scores. The upside being is that if the doc already has the needle out, why not only cure the golf yips but a winkle here and there too?
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Blind Bogey
March 10, 2008
What is blind bogey and how do you play it? - Ethan in Somerset, KY
The most common game of blind bogey requires a golfer to play 18 holes of stroke play. Following completion of blind bogey golf, the one overseeing the tournament selects a score at random and the player that has the closest score to the randomly selected score is the winner.
There is also another variation to the blind bogey format. This is where the players tee off and complete their rounds. After the tournament, the director randomly select six holes and each of the players scores of those 6 randomly chosen holes are tossed out. Now the 12 holes that remain on their scorecard are added up and that is the score. The lowest score wins.
Basically you give control on how well you are evaluated per each stroke up to sheer chance. Make sure you focus on each hole and hey you never know, you might beat out your buddies and come in with the best score when their holes get tossed. Doesn’t that add mystery and excitement to the game Ethan?? Doesn’t it?
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A Golf Slice Cured
March 7, 2008
I have a golf slice but I really want to get better and improve this as much as possible. Do you think this is something that I can work out on my own? - Quinn in Rapid City, SD
A golf slice requires a lot of hard work to improve and if you really are interested in making this cure stick then lets get into the meat of how and why this happens and go from there. I want to pick this apart so you can gain a much clearer understanding of what you need to improve your stroke. Now, to make it perfectly clear, this advice is for righties so you need to reverse this if you are lefty.
If you hit a golf slice to the right, it means that it’s curving in a left-right motion across the horizon and if the ball doing this, it is spinning in a clockwise direction. Right now, imagine that your ball is sitting on a peg. To spin the ball clockwise, the club has to swing more to the left with the clubface pointing slightly to the right. In a golf slice, hitting the ball with an open clubface makes the ball curve across the sky as a slice. So tell me, my virgin friend, how’s your grip in golf?
Consider this. Your grip has little to do with the direction of the swing but has absolutely everything to do with where the clubface is looking upon impact with the golf ball such as being in the opened, closed or square position. Everyone has their own unique way of holding a golf club. To keep this simple, if your hands are turned too far to the left on the club, this will more likely than not return with the face of the club looking to the right at impact.
Something else to keep in mind while preparing to swing is having a correct golf stance. In the course of playing you find yourself hitting a golf slice far to the left, you may find yourself compensating by adjusting your swing over to the right. However, in doing this basically you are not addressing the root of the problem and creating another one from the opposite direction. What do you do to fix this then?
Lay your club on the ground and make sure that it is parallel with your target line so you can check your aim. Make positive that your aim is not too far over to the left and keep in mind the alignment between your feet, knees, hips and shoulders are parallel to the club on the ground and with your target line.
By checking your stance you can determine what is really going on with your swing. Let the ball be your guide. Are you seeing it curving less over to the right? If so then you are getting close and if its curving over to the left or flying straight, then you are starting to make some headway.
Now if you are one of those rare hard to find, self-motivated go getters, then it is definitely possible that with practice and A LOT of hard work you will see an improvement in your score, not to mention your overall enjoyment of the game.
Get out there and experience for yourself if this works go over to all your buddies and tell them how the Golf Virgin helped improve your game. You never know until you try.
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How to Put Spin on a Golf Ball
February 27, 2008
I really want to learn how to get a good spin on a golf ball when I’m trying to shoot over an obstacle or get the ball to land in a position where I can make an easy putt. It’s something I’ve always been curious about but could never get a handle on and I wanted to see if you knew of the best way to make this happen. - Jimmy in Little Rock, AR
Being able to put spin on a golf ball is not an easy thing to do. However, getting the ball to stop almost where it lands can help you keep your score down and ultimately win a game. This becomes especially useful when you’re hitting onto firm greens or when the pin is placed directly behind a bunker or body of water. Listed below are some simple to follow steps towards becoming familiar with the basic technique of adding a good spin on a golf ball.
Step 1:
Stand closer in your stance for a normal golf swing which is a shoulder-width apart, so go ahead and stand about 1/3 shorter of the regular shoulder-width stance.
Step 2:
Also, stand a little closer to the ball so that its closer to your back foot.
Step 3:
Use a 60-degree wedge which is also known as a flop wedge.
Step 4:
Make sure to swing your club on a steeper plane than what you would during a regular shot. Basically hit down at a steeper angle.
Step 5:
Hit directly underneath the ball before taking a divot and do your best to take a divot that is long and shallow.
Step 6:
Follow through as you would during a normal shot.
An easy way to look at is to take an analogy from playing pool. When you put backspin on a golf ball it’s very similar in nature to putting backspin on a cue ball. To accomplish this you strike the cue ball at a steep downward angle with a great deal of force which then imparts this energy on the bottom half of the cue ball and sends it flying.
Perhaps you had the experience of being able to make the ball actually hop up into the air over other balls on the table to achieve a desired effect. Wow, all these different types of ball shots can be a bit mind boggling. But, balls are balls and the harder you hit them, the farther they shoot.
Adding spin on a golf ball allows to hit shots over obstacles such as bunkers, bodies of water, the rough or whatever it is that is in between you and the green. If you put enough backspin on the ball, it takes a couple of bounces and stops. In a perfect world, you would like to be in the position where you hit the ball about 15 to 20 feet from the pin and have the it stop a few feet from the hole and this will leave you a with short putt.
So if you like watching your balls soar through the air and land exactly where you desire then dedicated practice is key to your ability to put spin on a golf ball. But keep in mind that this is one of the hardest shots to master.
Update to Post:
Hi all, recently I’ve had readers take a lot of interest in this particular post and wanted to provide links my other posts on this topic. So go check out my other posts to get a better understanding of this technique by reading Making Golf Spin Happen and Beginner Golf Tips - Key to Golf Ball Spin
Happy stokes!!
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How to Keep Score in Golf
February 20, 2008
Dear Golf Virgin, will you tell me how to keep score in golf? - Tiffany in Richmond, VA
So you’re interested in figuring out how many strokes it took you to get your ball into a hole so you can brag to your friends about it? Keep in mind that your golf score in a way represents your honor. You don’t want to do too much bragging now or you might upset your golf buddies. Simply count the number of strokes it took to get the ball into the hole and that’s your score.
After that just add each of the scores for each hole together and this will be your overall golf score. This is why for everyone from pros to the most pure of golf virgins smaller is better, at least when it comes to a golf score card. Did I take all the mystery away? Awww…
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