Topping the golf ball or hitting them thin - WarrenThomas

If you are topping or hitting the ball thin you are most likely hanging on to the club for dear life The other thing you are probably doing is lifting up your spine Angle before impact. To fix this stay tilted all the way to your finish and relax your grip. For a drill, you could take your back swing and make sure your chin hits your shoulder and make sure it hits the other shoulder after you hit the golf ball. Another good drill is to try to hit some low chip shots to work on your extension through the ball.

Get off to a good start - Andrew Baines

You have had a long winter and you can’t wait to get to the course. You might have even acquired a new driver during the off season, and you can’t wait to hit it. If you are like most players, you start out laying well, but after the sensation of a new season has worn off, your real game shows up. So how can you help prevent the early season blues and disappointments?

Even after a long off season, you never really forget how to swing the club. And you never really lose your swing. But you can lose your touch and feel around the greens. So once you’ve satisfied yourself with hitting your new driver, grab a few wedges and head to the chipping area to rediscover your short game feel. Then grab your putter and work on your putting. Start with some lengthy putts and then move to breaking putts. This is not the time to work on technique and I’m not going to suggest any drills here. Rather, time, is the drill. And after a long winter break, time is all you need to regain your touch. Your long game comes back much quicker than your short game. And a little more time spent around the greens will get your season off to a great start.

Take an Extra Club and Reduce your Strokes – Warren Thomas

I often play golf with members and time after time they come up short with their approach shots. I would suggest that you take enough club to get your ball to the back of the green and you will have much better luck on your approach shots. The reason being is everyone thinks they can hit it further than they can. If you take the extra club and miss hit slightly you will be in the middle of the green, if you hit it really poorly you will be at the front of the green and if you happen to hit it perfect you are just on the back of the green. Either way you are in pretty good shape. Take an extra club and reduce your score!!!!

Slick Greens – Smooth out the Stroke – Andrew Baines

It happens every summer, the superintendant double cuts and rolls the greens just before the club championship. All of a sudden, your putts are just racing by the hole. To help, place a nickel in the back cavity of your putter and make some putts. Did the nickel fall off? Most likely. We want to achieve a nice smooth tempo with the putting stroke. Now hit some putts, focusing on keeping the nickel in place. By keeping the nickel in place we have created a much smoother swing, that will help us achieve better distance control when the greens get slick.

Your divot tells a story - Andrew Baines

The shape, depth and direction of your divot can tell you a lot about your swing and the shot you just hit.
Your divot should be fairly shallow and not to deep. A deep divot is often the result of a steep swing which could cause a wrist injury. If your swing is steep, try swinging the golf club more like a baseball bat, to get a more rounded swing.
The direction of your divot can tell a story as well. For a right handed golfer, if your divot points out to the left, the ball probably went right as a result. This is because the club cut across the ball and imparted side spin on the ball – the classic “over the top” move.
A divot that is heel deep will result in a shot that went left, and a divot toe deep is a shot that went right. Being able to analyze your divot will tell you a lot about your swing.

Unique Lies – Warren Thomas

We can often encounter unique lies out on the course that we don’t see on the driving range or while practicing. Knowing how to play these lies can greatly help our game.


Sidehill Lies


When the ball is above our feet, the ball, more often than not the ball will hook. So we need to compensate for this at setup. Aim to the right of our target if we are right handed. When the ball is below our feet, it will have a tendency to slice. We will again need to compensate for that with our alignment by aiming left of our target.


Downhill lies


When facing a downhill lie, we want to get our shoulders parallel to the ground and keep them parallel to the ground throughout the swing. We also want to put the ball a little further back in our stance. This will help prevent us from hitting the ball thin. The ball will tend to fly lower and run out a bit more.


Uphill lie


Just like the downhill lie, we want to get our shoulders parallel to the slope of the ground. We will have a tendency to want to fall back onto our back foot, so we want to try to keep our weight forward. The ball will tend to fly higher, so taking an extra club is a good option.

Playing in the Wind – Warren Thomas

If you are playing golf at Cobble Beach you will find out quickly that the wind is a major factor. There are a couple of key things that will make you successful when playing in the wind;
1. Take a few extra clubs and swing ¾ quarter. Most of my students will not take enough club and swing too hard at the ball. All this does is put you off balance and it adds spin to the golf ball which in turn makes the ball go higher.
2. If you set up 1 ½ closer to the ball, the ball will fly lower. This will help your ball stay below the wind which will help you.
3. To get that long drive down wind, set up 1 ½ inches farther from the ball. This will dramatically increase the height of your shot.