Top 5 PGA tour shots of the week!

A message to all the kids in the McGolf junior camp!

Great job at the golf camp today!

All the kids in the clinic showed amazing talent and proper etiquette. I really enjoyed working with each one of you and look forward to tomorrow too.
Here’s a few things to remember from today:

1. Stretch before you hit golf balls or play a round of golf.
2. Always go through our pre shot routine before you hit each shot

* below is a basic routine

-start behind the ball and pick out your spot on line with your target
-walk into the ball with your grip all ready on the club
-set the club aimed at the spot you picked and put your feet together
-step with your left foot first and then your right foot ( feet should be shoulder width apart)
-waggle the club and look at the target two or three times
-then hit the ball and hold your finish

Watch this video of Tiger Woods. He talks about a pre shot routine….

Tomorrow we’ll continue to work on a routine and your swing!

Here’s a fun video of great Tiger shots!

Hogan’s Grip…

The Grip and Grip Pressure….How tight should you grip the club?

This article describes the grip for a righty golfer. If you’re a lefty, reverse each hand.

I’ve been teaching golf for 13 years and playing since I was 4 years old. My dad would always try to get me to hold the club light in my hands, but I remember how hard that was. I still practice gripping the club with light grip pressure in my right hand and always have to be aware of it. It tends to tighten in a meaningful situation, but if you keep reminding yourself and waggle the club before each shot, you’ll feel the difference. The last three fingers of your left hand can be a little tighter, but your right thumb and index finger should be loose. The pinkie of your right hand should overlap or interlock between your left index finger and middle finger. ( I prefer the overlap because you have a less chance of palming it in your right hand) The middle 2 fingers or your right hand should wrap around the grip in the fingers. When you look down at your hands from the address position, you should see 2 to 3 knuckles of your left hand or the v formed by your left thumb and index finger should point to your right shoulder.

If you’re doing this correct, your hands should be close together and the tip of your right thumb and index finger should lightly touch. When you practice hitting balls, take your right thumb and index finger off the club and you’ll develop a great feel! Ben Hogan would practice this way all the time, and he was known to be one of the greatest ball strikers ever to play. When you watch the pros on T.V., you’ll see them waggle the club before each shot and the move the right thumb and index finger on and off to feel the weight of the club head. It’s so important to do this, but takes practice! It will make you a much better player!
by Eric McInerney

Always repeat your routine!

Tiger Tips: Turn your chest

Don’t swing all-arms on greenside shots

KEY MOVE: TURN YOUR CHEST BACK AND THEN THROUGH ON PITCH SHOTS. PLAYERS WHO STOP TURNING THROUGH MAKE POOR CONTACT.
By Tiger Woods
Edited By Pete McDaniel and Mark Soltau
Photos By J.D. Cuban
July 2007
So many times I see my amateur partners butcher a simple pitch shot because of poor technique, anxiety or both. The biggest reason for their failure is that the upper body stops moving through impact, causing a slight mis-hit at best–at worst, they lay the sod over it or blade it.
One of the keys to consistently good pitching is keeping your chest turning toward the target on the through-swing. Your arms and shoulders follow your chest, not vice versa. Look at it this way: If your chest moves away from the ball on the backswing, your shoulders and arms also move. Therefore, if your chest moves back toward the target, your shoulders and arms will follow.
That positive momentum, not the hands and arms moving by themselves, is what propels the ball. Try to “hit with your chest” on pitch shots. I promise you’ll make better contact with the ball and hit it closer to the hole, giving yourself more par-save opportunities.

Tiger Tips: How to spin it from the sand

Lay the face open and swing it fast with the right hand

SHORT ‘N’ SOFT: TO PLAY A SPINNER THAT STOPS WHERE IT LANDS, GRIP IT MORE IN THE FINGERS AND FIRE YOUR RIGHT HAND.
By Tiger Woods
Edited By Pete McDaniel and Mark Soltau
Photos By Dom Furore
August 2007
Because of the way I learned to release the club during my recent swing change, two of my favorite shots–the spinner from the sand and the flop shot–suffered for a while. I?ve always played both shots with a lot of hand action, and the hands are restricted in my new swing. Over the past six months, though, I?ve regained the touch, especially on the bunker shot to a close pin, where you have to get it up quickly and stop it fast.
Here?s how I play it. I grip the club a little more in my fingers to get more flip in my release. This is one time when I think the flip is good. Then, I open my stance, play the ball well forward and lay the clubface wide open but square to the target line. I make a vertical backswing, which sets up a steeper angle of descent into the sand. The key is increased clubhead speed through impact, so I really fire the club through with my right hand. The ball comes out high and soft and settles fast after landing.

TOUR PLAYERS’ PRACTICE SECRETS

By Hank Haney
Photo By J.D. Cuban

Players on tour spend a tremendous amount of time practicing, both at a tournament and during off-weeks at home. For example, a normal practice-round day for Tiger at the Buick Invitational back in January was a 5 a.m. wake-up call, 30 minutes of warm-up at the range, a practice round with anybody ambitious enough to get up that early, and then an hour or two back at the range. That doesn’t count the time he spends working out and running every day. None of that practice time is just mindless ball-beating. The best players give full focus to every practice shot — as if it were a shot during a real round — picking a specific target and distance. Most amateurs look for the ball to go straight, but they don’t pick a target or pay attention to whether the shot goes the correct distance.
There’s nothing wrong with getting out after work and hitting a bucket of balls to enjoy the fresh air. But if you’re not at least tracking your target and the distance each shot flies, any game improvement that comes from your range session will come by accident.

Fix your pre-shot routine

Approach from behind, not the side
By Hank Haney
Photo By J.D. Cuban
April 2008

One of the biggest differences between a tour player and an average golfer doesn’t involve the actual swing.
Watch a tour player go through his pre-shot routine, and you’ll almost never see him walk in from the side and make a practice swing right next to the ball. He faces the target from behind the ball, to visualize his shot, and makes a couple of gentle practice swings with his eyes on the target before stepping in.
When you approach from the side, it distorts your view of the target and screws up your aim. Some players also tend to keep their feet in place after a practice swing and then reach for the ball to hit it. That’s another good reason to start your routine from behind.