hitting fairways off the tee

[rorpan]

Been playing golf for a long time. Played alot when I was a kid . Best part of my game was off the tee. However, it is now my most inconsistant part. I'm just not hitting enough fairways to score. I hit the ball long enough. I have been hitting 3 and 5 woods and still not enough accuracy. I do well on the range but there is something wrong on the course
I want to develop a shorter compact repeatable swing. Looking for acouple of swing keys to get me on track.
Any tips appreciated.

[Big Johnny69]

My only tip to make your swing more compact is this. I used to have a very long backswing, but I have engrained the sensation of stopping my backswing when it feels like my hands have reached my right ear. I have asked playing partners and they say I am stopping short of parrallel which is what I want. I generate enough club head speed that I don't need a long backswing. Hope this helps.

[kewarken]

If you go to http://lpga.com/player_stats.aspx?y=...1?mid=4&pid=10 and look at the stats for driving accuracy, you'll see that Annika is ranked at 34, by far her worst stat. Not to say that you shouldn't work on your accuracy off the tee, only that hit fairways is not necessarily the most important stat.

cheers,

Kris

[rorpan]

True, But I think if you get the ball in good position off the tee your going to score better. Hitting the ball OB is hard on the score card;( Some of these courses are getting very narrow and pin point tee play is necessary to take your game to the next level.
I tried something different at the range today. With a good result. I tried to hit the ball in the bottom left quadrant seem to square up the club for me at impact. I have a nasty habit of closing the face every once and awhile. We all know what happens then!
Thanks for your interest and input

[Golfpeasant]

If you go to http://lpga.com/player_stats.aspx?y=...1?mid=4&pid=10 and look at the stats for driving accuracy, you'll see that Annika is ranked at 34, by far her worst stat. Not to say that you shouldn't work on your accuracy off the tee, only that hit fairways is not necessarily the most important stat.

The difference is if they don't hit the fairway, they're on the rough. If most of us "regular" golfers are not on the fairway, were OB or in a hazard.

[davevandyk]

If you go to http://lpga.com/player_stats.aspx?y=...1?mid=4&pid=10 and look at the stats for driving accuracy, you'll see that Annika is ranked at 34, by far her worst stat. Not to say that you shouldn't work on your accuracy off the tee, only that hit fairways is not necessarily the most important stat.

cheers,

Kris

I agree but the fact is, if Annika is 34th in the driving accuracy category, she is still hitting 75% or 10-11/14 fairways a round. That's probably all people are looking for. Also, when Annika misses fairways, she is likely 5 yards off the fairway, with the odd ball in the woods. When most amateurs miss fairways they are likely most in the woods. Stats can be deceiving, they never tell you the whole story.

To hit more fairways i really try hard to narrow my focal point. In the past i was just looking to hit "the fairway". Now i am aiming at a tree on the left-center of the fairway, this way it makes you pay more attention and stay focused.

Hope this helps!

[BC MIST]

I do well on the range but there is something wrong on the course

I stand to be corrected but I would wager that the majority of golfers hit the ball better in practice than on the range, as you state that you do. This obviously means you have developed a sound swing motion and what you think about on the range allows you to hit the ball to your acceptable standard.

Now, you walk to the first tee and beyond, and you hit substandard shots. Therefore, logic says that either your body has changed or your thinking has changed, in that short trip from the range to the tee. It's not the former, so it is obviously the latter. Your challenge then, knowing that you have a sound swing, is to determine what to think about: (a) before you swing, and (b) while you are swinging, that will draw out of your subconscious mind, the fine swing that you have developed. If you do both correctly, you will find yourself in that glorious ZONE, where the game seems so easy.

The MANUAL part of a golf shot is all the pre-planning that is necessary before you put your hands on the club, setup and swing. This is your true PRESHOT routine. We have been taught by a gazillion experts that the PRESHOT routine is putting your hands on the club, setting one foot then the other, waggle "x" times and swing. If you do this the same way every time, you will hit better shots. I don't believe this.

Suggestion: Consider your PRESHOT routine everything you do before you put your hands on the club, setup and swing.

You now have to switch from MANUAL thinking to AUTOMATIC thinking, where your subconscious mind, the place where your good swing is stored, is allowed to swing for you. Call this the TRANSITION. For me it is putting my hands on the club which I do quite meticulously. After this is done I go on AUTOMATIC, but I am not going to explain what this is, but consider these questions: 1. Do you think about how you are swinging, while you are swinging/playing? 2. Do you think "target?" 3. Do you say something like, "I am going to hit the ball right in the middle of the fairway?" 4. Do you say, "Don't hit it in the bush?" If you answer "Yes!" to any of the above, you have found the problem. This is not the thinking that will allow you to consistently hit good shots, whether playing casually or especially under any kind of pressure. Can you come up with some other thought process that will allow good shots to happen?

On Friday I played with a lifelong friend, who, when we played a lot together literally 35 years ago, had the best golf swing I had ever seen, IMO. Since we started playing again, he scores in the upper 80's, hits mostly poor shots, chilli dips most wedge shots and putts poorly. By asking him to change what he was thinking while swinging, from what it was to something different, he began hitting mouth watering drives, crisp wedges and his putting stroke became silky smooth again. He finished the round by birdieing 16, 17 and missed 18 by a whisker. Simply, by thinking differently, his superb golf swing of the late 60's and early 70's came out. It was just awesome to watch.

I would explain what I do to swing on AUTOMATIC, however, I must admit that most of the time that I have explained this to others, it is met with laughter, so I hesitate to elabortate further and be dismissed as a lunatic. However, it works wonderfully now, even though I initially had difficulty with the process. What I learned I did so from someone else, so it is not original, and I take no credit for it, but it works for me, many Tour golf professionals and other world class athletes.

If anyone is interested, then offer suggestions. If not, then my perceived sanity is still intact.

[spidey]

I agree but the fact is, if Annika is 34th in the driving accuracy category, she is still hitting 75% or 10-11/14 fairways a round.

....well, that and the fact that at 34th she's 34th in the world. There are millions of women golfers that are worse than she is.

....similarly, Tiger Woods may be 167th in driving accuracy, but that puts him ahead of hundreds of millions of other people.

Driving accuracy is important. The more fairways you hit, the simpler your shots to the green will be. Why complicate your game by always having to play tricky approaches from the rough?

[Andru]

If you go to http://lpga.com/player_stats.aspx?y=...1?mid=4&pid=10 and look at the stats for driving accuracy, you'll see that Annika is ranked at 34, by far her worst stat. Not to say that you shouldn't work on your accuracy off the tee, only that hit fairways is not necessarily the most important stat.

cheers,

Kris

Yeah When you talk about annika missing fairways it's off in the rough byu 10 feet not in the trees and the OB. It's a misleading statistic.

[RoyalQ]

>>>If anyone is interested, then offer suggestions. If not, then my perceived sanity is still intact<<<

BC Mist,

Could you please elaborate? Automatic thinking seems to be a nice concept to work with when you're in a groove, but what happens in hard times when you have no idea where the ball will be going? Just happened recently to a poor chap I know well...

[BC MIST]

Could you please elaborate? Automatic thinking seems to be a nice concept to work with when you're in a groove, but what happens in hard times when you have no idea where the ball will be going? Just happened recently to a poor chap I know well...

We perfrom virtually all of our daily tasks and other athletic activities on automatic, except for golf. When was the last time you missed your mouth with a fork when eating, thought about how you were going to brush your teeth or tie your shoe laces. Are you a runner? Do you consciously think about putting one foot in front of the other when you run. All of these examples of things that you do are now HABITS, that you can perfrom well while thinking about something else.

Your current golf swing, whether good, bad or mediocre, is now a habit, and you simply must find a way of bringing out that swing while you actually play. Most golfers hit the ball worse on the course than they do in practice or warming up. The truth is that golfers go to the range to fix/improve their swings AND when they play they take that same line of thinking to the course, they continue to think about their swings in the fix mode. They consciously think about swing keys on the course. These are conscious thoughts and another truth is that if you think consciously on the course while swinging, it interferes with the electrical programming already established(habits) and with the added anxiety(results) that exists when you play on the course, performance is diminshed.

Your comment above, Automatic thinking seems to be a nice concept to work with when you're in a groove is interesting in that you imply that being in the groove comes first and then doing it automatically comes second. But, unless you play the game on automatic, you will NOT be able to play, "in the groove" for any extended period of time. So the key is to find something to think about while swinging that will allow your current swing habit, to be perfromed automatically. It MUST be non-golf swing thought related. Something that will last from the time you take your grip until your swing is finished. It can be anything, a song, a poem, a phrase, a sentence, anything, as long as it is not related to the shot or the results of the shot. If your mind is free of anxiety, or "target," or "keep the left arm straight," or "if I don't make a par I will score in the 90's," your performance will be enhanced.

Having been a conscious player for too many years, I had great difficulty giving up conscious control of my swing. Now, it's easy and frankly, I just don't sense any pressure while swinging. There is a way of learning how to do this while practicing that is incredibly simple, but I will save that for another post.

If interested, you can read a few comments that I made about this appraoch here-
http://www.clearkeygolf.com/Under/Oct04.htm, and you can get scads of free information at www.clearkeygolf.com.

[flagolfnut]

I stand to be corrected but I would wager that the majority of golfers hit the ball better in practice than on the range, as you state that you do. This obviously means you have developed a sound swing motion and what you think about on the range allows you to hit the ball to your acceptable standard.

Now, you walk to the first tee and beyond, and you hit substandard shots. Therefore, logic says that either your body has changed or your thinking has changed, in that short trip from the range to the tee. It's not the former, so it is obviously the latter. Your challenge then, knowing that you have a sound swing, is to determine what to think about: (a) before you swing, and (b) while you are swinging, that will draw out of your subconscious mind, the fine swing that you have developed. If you do both correctly, you will find yourself in that glorious ZONE, where the game seems so easy.

The MANUAL part of a golf shot is all the pre-planning that is necessary before you put your hands on the club, setup and swing. This is your true PRESHOT routine. We have been taught by a gazillion experts that the PRESHOT routine is putting your hands on the club, setting one foot then the other, waggle "x" times and swing. If you do this the same way every time, you will hit better shots. I don't believe this.

Suggestion: Consider your PRESHOT routine everything you do before you put your hands on the club, setup and swing.

You now have to switch from MANUAL thinking to AUTOMATIC thinking, where your subconscious mind, the place where your good swing is stored, is allowed to swing for you. Call this the TRANSITION. For me it is putting my hands on the club which I do quite meticulously. After this is done I go on AUTOMATIC, but I am not going to explain what this is, but consider these questions: 1. Do you think about how you are swinging, while you are swinging/playing? 2. Do you think "target?" 3. Do you say something like, "I am going to hit the ball right in the middle of the fairway?" 4. Do you say, "Don't hit it in the bush?" If you answer "Yes!" to any of the above, you have found the problem. This is not the thinking that will allow you to consistently hit good shots, whether playing casually or especially under any kind of pressure. Can you come up with some other thought process that will allow good shots to happen?

On Friday I played with a lifelong friend, who, when we played a lot together literally 35 years ago, had the best golf swing I had ever seen, IMO. Since we started playing again, he scores in the upper 80's, hits mostly poor shots, chilli dips most wedge shots and putts poorly. By asking him to change what he was thinking while swinging, from what it was to something different, he began hitting mouth watering drives, crisp wedges and his putting stroke became silky smooth again. He finished the round by birdieing 16, 17 and missed 18 by a whisker. Simply, by thinking differently, his superb golf swing of the late 60's and early 70's came out. It was just awesome to watch.

I would explain what I do to swing on AUTOMATIC, however, I must admit that most of the time that I have explained this to others, it is met with laughter, so I hesitate to elabortate further and be dismissed as a lunatic. However, it works wonderfully now, even though I initially had difficulty with the process. What I learned I did so from someone else, so it is not original, and I take no credit for it, but it works for me, many Tour golf professionals and other world class athletes.

If anyone is interested, then offer suggestions. If not, then my perceived sanity is still intact.

Very well put! I completely agree with you. My best rounds have been when I am thinking of totally something else while I'm playing, but it is hard to do throughout a whole round especially if your swing isen't there. I have got caught up in this trap of thinking about my swing WAY too many times while I'm playing and it's not a good thing to be doing. When you start doing this it seems to get worse and not better and then you start getting angry or frustrated and it becomes a vicious cycle that is hard to stop. Anyway I just wanted to mention that your post is well put and hopefully can be useful to someone (i.e ME) out there.

[RoyalQ]

>>practicing that is incredibly simple, but I will save that for another post<<

Great read, Mr. Mist. Thanks for your time. I'm ready for more!

[oldmaninblack]

www.swinglikemoe.com

My story is exactly like rorpan's ... I found salvation with the Moe Norman swing.

Moe could still hit the ball long, straight down the middle, well into his 60's

[mberube]

Having been a conscious player for too many years, I had great difficulty giving up conscious control of my swing. Now, it's easy and frankly, I just don't sense any pressure while swinging. There is a way of learning how to do this while practicing that is incredibly simple, but I will save that for another post.

If interested, you can read a few comments that I made about this appraoch here-
http://www.clearkeygolf.com/Under/Oct04.htm, and you can get scads of free information at www.clearkeygolf.com.

I am going to try that out. It’s very interesting. I think it fits well with the Bertholy drills. Learn the skills, then think of nothing on the course.

Is Clear Key a book or everything on the web site is you need to know?

Thanks Lyle

[dbleber]

Finally broke 80 this year last night and now that I think about it, the only thing really different in my game was how relaxed I was over the ball. I remember while playing thinking of how I could beat the thunder storm that was a few km's away and if my grass was going to be to wet to cut when I got home. Of course I thought about where a wanted my ball to land and the strategy of the hole, but I was not worrying about my results. Something I did notice while playing, was that while being relaxed over the ball my hands were nice and loose and my body was not tense. Another trick I have found works well is to not add up your score after 9 holes save it until your done the entire round. You will obviously have an idea of how you are doing but there is something about seeing a good or bad score at the turn around that gets you think about, "Man, I ahve to get some strokes back" or "This is the best round I have ever had". Those thoughts just scream blow up holes.
Denny

[BC MIST]

Finally broke 80 this year last night and now that I think about it, the only thing really different in my game was how relaxed I was over the ball. I remember while playing thinking of how I could beat the thunder storm that was a few km's away and if my grass was going to be to wet to cut when I got home. Of course I thought about where a wanted my ball to land and the strategy of the hole, but I was not worrying about my results. Something I did notice while playing, was that while being relaxed over the ball my hands were nice and loose and my body was not tense. Another trick I have found works well is to not add up your score after 9 holes save it until your done the entire round. You will obviously have an idea of how you are doing but there is something about seeing a good or bad score at the turn around that gets you think about, "Man, I ahve to get some strokes back" or "This is the best round I have ever had". Those thoughts just scream blow up holes.
Denny

This is a good idea. Not knowing where you stand and more importantly, not caring where you stand, decreases anxiety, and increases the likelihood of the good play continuing. I realize that it very often cannot be helped, but I would prefer that no-one talk to me about my score at anytime, as I just focus on hitting the ball where I need to hit. The truth is that 99% of the time, I do know where I stand but I don't want that mentioned. When playing in OVGA, GC and RCGA tournaments you are given a card on which you are to mark solely the hole by hole score, and by the rules, only the hole by hole score needs to be correct, because the committee is responsible for the addition. The focus is off the total so there should be less anxiety

What is incredibly worse is this example. A friend invited me to play Madawaska one time and after 5 holes I was 3 under par. "Gee, if you keep this up, you are going to break the course record," came out of his mouth and after saying that the course record became very, very safe. As one learns to play the game, one learns that not talking about the score is actually being considerate of the other player(s) and may afford him the best chance of continuing the good play. Sadly, there are still a few guys around who think that gamesmanship is cute, and will take the opportunity to mess up your head if they can.

[BC MIST]

I am going to try that out. It’s very interesting. I think it fits well with the Bertholy drills. Learn the skills, then think of nothing on the course.

Is Clear Key a book or everything on the web site is you need to know?

Thanks Lyle

Mike,

While there is a lot of information on the clear key website, the book, “Double Connexion” is an e-book, available at a cost of course. There is an extensive questionnaire that is to be filled in which will provide some sort of psychological profile, which I found very interesting. Pay your dollars, download the ebook and read away. It certainly changed in a positive way, my approach to playing on the course, and hopefully it may help others, too. I agree that there is a high correlation between the Bertholy regime and Clear Keys. It may sound wacky to some, but it just frees up the mind so much that good shots are easier to make.

[dbleber]

This is a good idea. Not knowing where you stand and more importantly, not caring where you stand, decreases anxiety, and increases the likelihood of the good play continuing. I realize that it very often cannot be helped, but I would prefer that no-one talk to me about my score at anytime, as I just focus on hitting the ball where I need to hit. The truth is that 99% of the time, I do know where I stand but I don't want that mentioned. When playing in OVGA, GC and RCGA tournaments you are given a card on which you are to mark solely the hole by hole score, and by the rules, only the hole by hole score needs to be correct, because the committee is responsible for the addition. The focus is off the total so there should be less anxiety

What is incredibly worse is this example. A friend invited me to play Madawaska one time and after 5 holes I was 3 under par. "Gee, if you keep this up, you are going to break the course record," came out of his mouth and after saying that the course record became very, very safe. As one learns to play the game, one learns that not talking about the score is actually being considerate of the other player(s) and may afford him the best chance of continuing the good play. Sadly, there are still a few guys around who think that gamesmanship is cute, and will take the opportunity to mess up your head if they can.

That is very true. Today I was on fire after starting Par, bogey, Birdie. I sunk a 50' chip for eagle,birdie, par,par, then the group I joined with started talking about how well I was playing and that type of stuff. Well I finished bogey,bogey to finish 1 under par.( I only played 9 holes, teed off at 6:45 pm). This was the first time I have ever finished under par and I was pretty excited but at the same time being the greedy golfer that I am, I was left with what could have been. to all who read this: If you are playing with someone who is playing well...SHUT UP!!! They know they are playing well.
Denny