Nick's tip of the week  

Common winter shots

- Alter your driver set-up in the wind 

You can produce a lower ball flight with less spin by teeing the ball slightly lower than normal, moving it an inch or two further back in your stance and ensuring you turn your body weight through the shot to stay on top of the ball at impact. 

- Limit ground contact with irons 

The wetter ground reduces your margin for error with your irons. So take an extra club to account for less carry and roll and lean your spine angle slightly away from the target at address to encourage a more sweeping blow that picks the ball off the turf. 

- Pay attention to your lie in wet rough 

'Soggy' wet rough will grab your club more, so don't be over-ambitious with your club selections for recovery shots. 

- Favour a simple chip and run 

Wet fairways and softer and slower greens can cause fat and short chip shots. Play more chip and runs with straighter-faced clubs like a 9-iron or pitching wedge. 

- Allow for less break on slower greens 

There will be more friction with the ball as the grass gets longer and wetter, so putts will slow quicker and not take as much break.

Sam's tip of the week  

See it, Feel it, Trust it 

This is great drill for improving your chipping quickly and works on using a variety of clubs from the same distance, so you can see the benefit of using less lofted clubs from around the green. 

1. From the edge of the green, pick a hole on the practice green that's about 20-25 ft away. 

2. Take your 6-iron and go through your pre-shot routine 

3. Your pre-shot should have 3 main steps: Visualisation, Feel and Trust. When you're visualising your shot ask yourself, where the ball will land and how it will roll out to the hole and where on the hole it will go in. When you've seen the shot in your mind's eye, feel the swing you need to produce that shot. When you're standing over the ball, say to yourself "trust it" and do exactly that. 

4. When you've holed your 6-iron, repeat the process your 7-iron and move all the way through to your PW. That's a minimum of 5 shots, so see how close you can get to a score of 5 each time. 

Par 18 game for the Short Game 

This game was devised by Mind coach, Karl Morris. 

1. From around the green, you're going to pick 9 locations to play from, 3 easy, 3 medium and 3 difficult. 
2. Each mini hole is a par 2 and by playing all 9 holes your make the total "Par 18" 
3. Play all 9 holes and keep your score and make 18 your target. 

Although I don't ever recommend trying to beat your score during a round, in practice it's different. You want to create the same pressure as if you were on the golf course, whereas on the golf course we want to reduce pressure. By thinking about your score while practicing (and trying to beat it), you get closer to the pressure you feel on the course.

If you have any questions about practicing correctly or alternatively if you would like to book a lesson please click here to get in touch.  

 

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