Month: October 2020

Tips For Driving a Golf Ball… learn to adjust to playing conditions and reduce your score.

Here are some good tips for driving a golf ball in tough conditions by Bobby Eldridge, head pro at PurePoint Golf.

Have you ever gone to play a round of golf and the first hole the wind is straight into you, the next two holes it’s blowing out of the right, the next two holes it’s from the left, then four holes in a row straight back into the wind, and then it gets worse?

The next three holes it’s blowing harder from the left. Then you get the shortest hole in the golf course downwind. And then, of course, you know the rest of the story, the next three holes, the longest holes in the golf course, dead into the teeth of it.

Well, those are tough driving days and you have to be prepared to react to it, because the wind isn’t going to stop just for you.

And when you’re playing well, I know you’re going to laugh, but it seems like every hole’s downwind. And when you’re playing difficult, it seems like every one of them is into a gale.

Remember this about tough driving days, this driver is not always the answer. How many times have you driven the golf ball 50 yards left of the fairway and only wished that you would have hit 6 iron off of the tee to get a better golf swing?

I’m not advocating that into the wind. However, the flatter the face on the golf club, the more the golf ball’s going to curve and the better your golf swing will be. And the windier it is, it exaggerates the curve if it’s going in the direction of the wind. So, this isn’t always the answer.

I have a 1 iron that I love, and I have driven with it many times on windy days, even into the wind, because it was important to find the golf ball in the fairway and not out of bounds.

So, don’t forget this is not the answer on rugged days. This is the answer when you’re driving the ball well.

When you’re not, it might be a 3 wood. Don’t give into the driver.

Here`s a quick golf tip on the timing in golf swing from Bobby Eldridge, head pro at Purepoint Golf.

PurePoint Golf – Timing – Golf Instruction Lesson

I want to review something with you that I consider to be one of the, I don’t know, I think it’s one of the most misunderstood verbiage’s or terminology’s in all of golf.

It’s called timing. And it’s used a lot on television and in all the magazines, but they don’t explain to you what timing is and what it means.

So, let me give you a little golf instruction lesson, and then, that way you’ll start to understand the value of the word timing. Okay, here it goes.

Whenever you watch a good player hit a golf ball and or when you hit a good shot, this is what timing means. It was your ability to swing the arms down as your left hip moved out of the way, and gets out of the way for you.

Now, there are a couple of mistakes you can make. First of all, some people swing the arms down, and this never moves and you stay still. If you do that, you would be one that would come down and the club face closes quickly at the bottom of the hit.

If your timing is off because you didn’t move the bottom out of the way, the arms will cross over real quick.

On the other hand, most of the golfing public, when they swing down, their body moves out of the way and leaves the club behind them and open.

So, a little golf instruction lesson, if your timing is off and your body’s too quick, you’ll go to the right. If your timing’s off and your body’s a little too slow, you might hook it.

If your timing is on, all that’s saying is that you have the combination of the body, the bottom part of the body moving out of the way, as the arms swing down.

Again, the body moves, arms swing down. It’s just a combination of getting the arms and the hands to match up with the bottom part of the golf swing.

Thanks, and have a great day. I hope that golf instruction lesson helped.

Bobby Eldridge is the Head Instructor for the PurePoint Golf Academy where he teaches “The Simple Golf Swing” theory.

Solid Iron Shots… Four Tips To Hit Quality Iron ShotsThe topic for my post today is golf iron shots. You have hit a good drive and now it`s time to hit a quality iron shot. There are many factors that come into play but, for today, we are going to review four (4) tips that will help us to hit quality iron shot and, in turn, lower our golf scores.

These iron shot tips will help you to go through the thought process that will produce quality golf shots. You will be amazed how quickly your golf scores will come down.

Just using some common sense can dramatically effect how we play and our golf scores, plus, did I mention, your enjoyment of the game!

Four Golf Iron Shot Tips

1. Stay within yourself.

Don`t try to hit your seven (7) iron one hundred and seventy (170) yards when your best seveniron shot only goes one hundred and fifty (150) yards. Hit the iron that will get to the target with a comfortable swing, no over swinging! Also, when you are determining the yardage for your iron shot, be sure to take into account the position of the pin on the green. By this I mean, even though you are standing at the one fifty (150) marker, you might be one hundred and sixty five (165) yards to the pin if the pin is at the back of a large green, or one hundred and thirty five (135) yards if the pin is in the front.

You don`t want to back off of your golf swing but you also don`t want to be grunting!

2. Know how far you hit each iron.

I know you have seen this and it really slows down play. What I am talking about is watching someone pacing of their yardage to the pin and you know, full well, that they have no clue how far they hit each iron shot. So, my point is, that we need to spend some time at the driving/practice range, to find out how far we hit each iron shot.

Now, we probably are not going to know how far each iron shot goes, to the yard, like the tour pros do but we can find out within a five (5) yard range.

There is nothing more frustrating than hitting a good drive and following that up with a well hit iron shot and the golf ball ends up ten yards short or long. If we expect to hit the correct iron shot, we need to know how far we hit each iron.

3. Play the shot that your lie will allow.

We need to survey our lie and determine how the lie is going to effect our iron shot. By this I mean, if we a playing summer rules, no preferred lies, the lie will dictate what kind of shot we have to play. If the lie is less than perfect, we need to adjust where we play the golf ball in our stance. With a poor lie, we need to move the ball back in our stance so that we will be able to make solid contact. You also need to adjust for downhill, uphill and sidehill lies.

In general, we need to adjust our stance to follow the contour of the fairway for uneven lies, keeping in mind that uphill lies will add loft to your iron shots (hit more club) and downhill will take loft off of our iron shots (hit less club).

4. Play the percentages.

Here`s a question. If the best players in the world aim away from some pins then should not we do the same? If the pin is on the side of the green near a bunker, water hazard or out of bounds, it may make sense not to try to hit directly at the pin but hit your iron shot to the safer part of the green. We have to measure, the percentages, our chances of pulling off a shot. The best in the world do it! So, next time you are getting ready to hit your iron shot, stop to think of what is your best percentage play. This alone will shave numerous strokes of your golf score.

Also, remember there is a right and wrong side of the green to miss on. You would prefer to miss the green on the side away from where the pin is placed on the green. This gives you the best chance to get up and down for your par, if you miss the green.