As an amateur golfer you'll get plenty of advice on improving your golf swing; some of it good and some of it not so good. It never fails to amaze me the number of times a golfer will seek advice on a particular area but not practice the new technique. Practice is the key to improving your golf swing. Let's explore some areas of your game that could need some tuning up.

The Thumb Theory

Maintaining a correct grip on the club during the back swing is vital. It's not just the initial grip on the club that's important; keeping your thumb pointing towards the heavens at the half way mark of the swing is essential. Imagine this in your mind before playing the shot and memorize it. As the club comes back at the midway point of the swing, the thumb, which initially points towards the ground, should be pointing towards the sky before you come down and follow through with the swing.

Easy Does It!

Never be in a rush when playing your shot. Improving your golf swing is all about controlling the movement of the club. Sure you can hit the ball with plenty of power but this doesn't mean you need to swing as hard and fast as you can. Getting the rhythm right takes a little practice and an effective method for keeping this rhythm in check is to pause slightly at the completion of the upswing before completing the downswing motion. Many golfers will actually do a short count in their minds for no more than a second. This method has the effect of tempering the urge to swing to quickly.

Getting The Rhythm Right

Completing a smooth swing comes naturally to some golfers but for most of us, practicing is the only way we can get this part of the game right. Have you ever felt off balance when going through with the swing motion. I know I have. The left knee leans towards the right, the shoulders seem to be out of alignment and the hip sways in an unnatural fashion. What do you do to correct it? Golf can produce some unconventional remedies for bad posture and one method taught to me was to place a large ball in between the knees during my back swing practice. It looked ungainly but it got the desired result I was after!

Respect Your Golf Club

The golf club is an amazing piece of equipment. The thought and planning that goes into producing a club, whether an iron or a driver, is quite staggering. What many golfers fail to realise is that clubs are designed a particular way for a reason. Letting the club do what it was designed for is just so important. Basically all you need to do is provide the club with the correct swinging procedure and it will do the rest. I know it sounds easier said than done but one thing to stress is "don't try and re-invent the wheel." Become one with the club and you should see a steady improvent in your game.

Improving your golf swing is about practicing the correct technique. Not just once or twice and forget it but until you have it committed to natural memory so it becomes simple instinct every time you step out to the tee.

By: Dean Caporella
Dean Caporella is a professional broadcaster. Shave strokes off your game with tips on improving your golf swing plus the latest news and reviews in golf techniques at: http://www.golfinfoline.com.

Featured by the Golf information section at Resources For Attorneys, a legal and lifestyle directory.

Golf is a target game. That's why golfers pick targets before hitting the ball. Maybe it's a distant tree, a telephone pole, or a church steeple, whatever it is, we all have some idea of where we want to hit the ball. These targets are directional goals and we need them to minimize scores.

Then, of course, there are distance goals. We need them just as much as we need directional goals. Maybe it's a brown patch just to the left of a bunker, a yardage marker in the center of the fairway, or the center of the green. Regardless, distance goals are just as important as directional goals.

The key to playing target golf is consistent contact. If you don't hit the ball well time after time after time, as I stress in my golf lessons and golf tips, you don't know where your shot will land. Maybe it will be too short or maybe too long, but you'll never know for sure where it. If you want to play good target golf, you must have control of your shot.

If you don't make consistent contact and you're serious about reducing your golf handicap, work on it until you do. While there's no magic wand to help you make consistent contact, you may want to commit yourself to holding the club gently and making your hands soft and supple when you play. You'll be surprised at how much better you'll hit the ball.

Putting

Poor distance control is a major reason for three-putting a hole. At least 85 percent of the time, your putt will miss farther short or long than it misses to either side. That's on straight putts. On breaking putts, distance control is also a key to putting well. Short putts require distance control as well. You need to hit the putt fast enough to hold the line, but slow enough to go in the hole.

Here are 4 tips to improving distance control when putting:

• Read putts from side to side as well as from behind

• Calculate direction and distance separately

• Control distance by the length of your backswing

• Practice breaking putts as much as you can

Keep these tips in mind when you're playing and you'll have better control of your distance when putting. And practice distance control putting as much as you can.

Approach Shots

The key to full shots to the green is solid contact. To achieve it, try the following: First, let the ball's lie determine where you hit the shot. Generally speaking the worse your lie, the more downward a blow you'll need. On short approach shots (100 yards and in) choose your club based on the trajectory you want for your shot. If you have a poor lie and you're playing the ball back in your stance, you have to subtract loft.

On long approach shot, choose enough club so there's no chance of you overswinging. In other words, choose a club that allows you to swing easily and still reach the green. Finally, stress distance control in practice, just as you do when working on your putting. Hit shots to greens on the practice range. If there's none, pick out a spot or a marker on the range and pretend it's the green. Hit to it.

Advancement Shots

Advancement shots, as I've explained in my golf tips, are tee shots and shots from the fairway or the green when you don't expect to hit the green. Unfortunately, players tend to disregard distance control on these shots and shoot entirely for a directional goal. Instead, try this: Choose a direction for the shot. Create an imaginary path for it. Select a spot on that "line" that you know you can reach with a smooth swing. And erect a "mind's eye" flagpole on that spot. Then aim for it. This visualization technique transforms advancement shots into approach shots.

Trouble Areas

Is this an all too familiar spot for you? The need for a specific distance target is seldom greater than when playing from trouble spots where direction seems ultra important. Again, separate distance and direction. Pick a distance target along your direction line, just as you would off the tee. Remember, when you're in trouble, every shot is a distance shot, just as it is with every other shot.

Playing target golf, as I teach in my golf instruction sessions, is one of the fastest ways to shave strokes off your golf handicap. But whether it's a putt, an approach shot, an advancement shot, or a shot from the rough, directional AND distance control are equally important. The key to achieving both is consistent contact.

Copyright (c) 2006 Jack Moorehouse

By: Jack Moorehouse
Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

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So you're approach shot to the green has landed in a bunker? This need not result and yet another bogey on your card. In fact, ask any professional golfer and they will tell you that it most cases they would prefer to be in the bunker than the greenside rough. Unless, of course that bunker is at the Road Hole at St. Andrews but there are always exceptions.

How, then can you ensure you get out of the bunker first time, every time and not only that but give yourself a good chance of achieving par? Assuming you have a decent lie there are some simple rules of bunker play which if you follow should ensure consistent and accurate results. I've listed the key points of successful bunker play below:

1. You must have a decent sand-wedge club. By this I mean the underside of the club, or flange, should be smooth and well-sloped to allow the club head to slide under the ball and lift it out nicely from the trap.

2. The first thing you should do is to open the club face a little and then take your grip. It is important to do this the right way around. If you grip the club as normal and then try to open the face it will feel a bit awkward and uncomfortable and will lead to less accurate results.

3. Now you take your stance and address the ball. Your feet should be about shoulder-width apart and pointing slightly left of the target. Also you should try working your shoes into the sand to allow for better stability. Ball position is forward in the stance.

4. We now come to the swing. Take a full and confident backswing, along the line of the feet and then a full follow through. People often wonder how far behind the ball to hit the sand. Around 1 to 4 inches is fine but the important thing is to make a confident follow through rather than trying to stab the ball out.

So, keep in mind to open the face, place the ball forward and then make a full and confident swing along the line of the feet and getting down in 2 from the bunker should be within your reach.

By: Andrew McNaught
Andrew McNaught is a successful webmaster and keen golfer. His website Golf World Online helps golfers with bunker shots and all other aspects of the game.

Featured by the Golf directory in the lifestyle section at Resources For Attorneys, a law resource and lifestyle directory for attorneys, lawyers and the internet public.

Keep your eye firmly on the ball for every shot and watch your handicap drop like a stone.

Mystery writers know they must grab the readers attention right off and hold it until the very end. You must do the same with the ball - keep your attention focused on it through the entire shot, until the natural movement of body and shoulders pulls your head away.

You think you already do, right? Try this little exercise:

Drop six balls in the rough very close to the edge of a bunker, within one shot of the green. Chip the ball over the bunker and on to the green without watching the flight or run of the ball. Look at the ball, make your shot and do not lift your head to watch it. The first few shots will be easy, the next few almost impossible.

It's actually quite funny how difficult it is for a golfer to keep their eye on the ball.

Your attention comes in two flavors - spontaneous and voluntary. Spontaneous attention is the kind of attention given without thought, very effortlessly. For example, when boarding a bus or subway you will pay attention long enough to put coins or card in the slot. You do this without thinking, probably even talking at the same time.

The second type is voluntary attention. You willfully focus on something and give it all of your mental concentration. This is hard to do for more than a few seconds. But it is this kind of concentration you must give to the ball during your shot.

The way to do this is to first decide what kind of shot you are going to make - distance, wind, club type and so on. But once decided move directly to the ball, give it your full attention - that is, eyes on the ball - and make your shot. Do not take your eyes, and hence your concentration, off the ball until the movement of your body naturally pulls your head away.

Don't believe it? Try this little experiment. The next time you're at a vending machine take a quarter out of your pocket. Stand right in front of the machine, quarter in hand, ready to put it in the coin slot. Close your eyes. Now put the quarter in the slot directly, on the first try, the same as you would do with your eyes open. You can't do it. You come close, sure. But you hit to the side of the slot, or just above it, but not exactly dead center right into the slot.

Your mind controls your actions based on what is directly in your field of vision.

Now try it again. This time leave your eyes open until the coin is about two inches away from the slot - almost in. Close them at the last second. You still can't do it.

Apply this to the golf ball. What happens if you take your eyes off the ball just a fraction of a second early. The club is still a few inches away. How much of a difference in your shot will a quarter of an inch make when the club hits the ball? A huge difference. Very huge difference. But you know you can't control your hands and arms precisely without looking directly at what you are doing. So keep looking.

It takes practice, for sure, but now that you know you should keep your eye on the ball, and exactly how to do that, practicing it becomes much easier.

Combine this simple tip of keeping your eye on the ball with a halfway decent swing and your handicap will fall to scratch in no time.

By: James Vincent
Improve your game! Get great golf tips, golf lessons and more from the Online Golf School. Complete lessons on the science of every golf shot, the psychology of the game and your opponent and match play from world champions.

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