Ever been to a PGA or LPGA championship? Watching the world’s best players in person is fun—especially if you go with friends—but it can also be instructive. If you watch the pros closely, you can pick up golf tips that can save you a ton of strokes when playing.
Of course, you can learn something from just about every pro out there. But following one group around and focusing on how they play has always worked for us. Using this strategy, we’ve picked up 5 golf tips that will save you strokes and that we’ve passed on to students in golf lessons—all with good results. Check them out below:
1. Tee The Ball Lower
We usually encourage students in golf lessons to use higher lofted drivers and to tee the ball higher. Teeing it higher helps players with high golf handicaps hit more fairways. But it can cost yardage. If you’re a better player, tee the ball lower and use a lower lofted club, like many pros do. Doing so produces a more penetrating trajectory that rolls when it hits, adding yards to your drives.
2. Compress The Ball More
Boo Weekley, who won this year’s Crowne Plaza Invitational at the Colonial in Forth Worth, Texas, amazes watchers with his ballstriking ability when hitting irons. Like most pros, he can hit some really awesome shots with his irons. That’s because he really compresses the ball against the clubface and the ground, driving it forward. It’s no surprise he averages around 3 to 4 birdies per round.
3. Stack Impact Position On Left
Vijay Singh remains among the best pros out there. That’s because he positions his body perfectly at the moment of impact. He stacks more than 75 percent of his body over his left leg at the point of contact—all while keeping his spine tilted upward slightly, his head behind the ball at impact, and the logo on his glove pointing at the target. These things ensure a square clubface at impact and a straight shot.
4. Retain Forward Lean
Anthony Kim is one of the best young stars. He really knows what it means to maintain a forward tilting spine angle when he hits his irons. When you create an upper body lean like Kim does, your arms and hands have ample room to store lag—the key to hitting powerful shots. When you don’t create lean, like some golfers with high golf handicaps, you generate inconsistency and lousy ground impact.
Kim also keeps his head facing the ball, allowing him to rotate around his spine more effectively, with his back slightly bent as he swings. Having a slightly bent back is okay. It’s better having some bend than being too stiff.
5. More Width Means More Power
Camilo Villegas is only 5 feet 9 inches tall. Yet he powers the ball better than many bigger pros. In fact, he averages 291 yards off the tee. That’s not bad. What golf tips can you glean from watching him play? Keep an eye on his full swing. He gets the most out of it by keeping his hands away from his body. This widens his swing’s arc and generates faster clubhead speed.
A good drill to develop a super-wide arc like Villegas is to lay a short 2 x 4 on the ground where your ball would be. Set up to it with a club and push the block of wood as far as you can toward your target. Then, turn your body to the left and extend your arms. Practice this drill as often as you can and you’ll add at least 10 yards to your drives.
Watching the pros play in person is fun. But it can also be instructive—if you know what you’re about. Follow one group around the course and watch them play. You’re bound to pick golf tips you can incorporate in your swing—tips that will help you cut strokes off your golf handicap.
“A good drill to develop a super-wide arc like Villegas is to lay a short 2 x 4 on the ground where your ball would be. Set up to it with a club and push the block of wood as far as you can toward your target. Then, turn your body to the left and extend your arms.”
When you say “toward the target” you mean push the block towards the green like you had just finished a stroke? But then you say “turn your body to the left”. And that’s the direction of the target for a right hander. And in the same direction as “toward the target”.
Are you actually saying to set up and, on the backswing, try to push the block of wood as far as you can in order to drill for extension on the backswing? Then rotate to the left and toward the target?