Finish off a Good Round

This tip comes from watching many of my students play in club tournaments which are important to them all too often they get off to a great start well on their way to a personal best only to collapse and feel dejected when they shoot a less than ideal round.
Have you ever gotten off to a great start during a round of golf? Have you ever gotten off to such a great start that you immediately started to think, "I have a chance to shoot my all time low round!" Then unfortunately a poor swing arises and mistakes are compounded and all of the good you had done with your fast start has gone away and you are left feeling frustrated and upset over a wasted chance to shoot a great score. All too often people get off to a good start and they become too aggressive and try to force the action. Players tend to start trying to force birdie putts in the hole rather than just playing golf. The lesson to learn here is to try and practice more patience on the golf course and stay in the routine and with the game plan that you have set for yourself. Just as we do not want to beat ourselves up over poor shots we also do not want to allow quick starts and good shots to cause us to abandon our strategy and force us to make poor decisions which erase the the good we have done.
So if you want to set your personal best... the next time you get off to a quick start don't get overconfident and try and force the action rather stay the course and continue along with the same strategy that had gotten you off to the quick start. If you follow this strategy I can promise that you will finish off good starts better and set more personal bests.
And that is the Cleveland golf tip of the week.

Tilters vs Turners

One thing I learned early in my teaching profession was to take tilters which is the majority of golfers who are struggling and learn how to make them turners.
If you slice the the ball and/or end up on your back foot and never seem to be able to get onto your front foot at finish most likely you are tilting during your back swing. By tilting what I mean is that your front shoulder (left if you are right handed) goes down towards the ball. What is happening is that your shoulders are working in too much of an up and down movement rather than staying level and turning across and behind the ball.
The fix: Try and turn your shoulders more level and make your left shoulder feel as if it is turning straight across your body to a position that is even with or behind the ball. Try this back swing tip out and see if it doesn't help you make better back swings and hit better shots!!
Do pivot drills in front of the mirror
Place a club across your chest
Get in your posture put club across chest
Arms crossed
Turn shoulders level and over your left foot
That is the feeling of what your pivot should feel like
Practice these away from the course and see if your pivot doesn’t improve on the course and you don’t hit better furhter tee shots

Dont let your arms take over on the course

Dewsweeper writes in that they are having trouble on the golf course with their turn or pivot stalling and their arms taking over the swing and hitting errant tee shots. Can I give them a tip to use on the golf course which will help.
What is happening on the course is that your pivot is stalling and your arms are coming disconnected from your body. Here are two things you can do to keep it together to hit it better on the course.
1 make practice swings with a glove under your left or lead shoulder. Don’t let the glove fall out this will give you a feeling of what it feels like to stay connected.
Second and this is one that many tour players will use tuck your sleeve up under your arm pit and swing keeping it there during your swing.
This is completely legal and will help you keep the feeling of keeping your pivot going and staying connected

Hit one club better than your others?

Many times a player will feel like they hit their irons good but struggle with their driver.All too often they tell me that they make a different swing with their driver and something must be drastically wrong.If that sounds like If this sounds like you let's check your setup..
Hardly ever do you have completely different swings for different clubs in your bag. Make sure that your setup and ball position is correct for the club you are hitting.If you hit your irons good but struggle with the driver make sure that you have the ball place far enough forward in your stance. A ball that gets out of position at address can cause compensations to occur during the swing which result in poor shots. These compensations can also cause the swing to feel completely different form others you hit.You fix this by setting up a practice station which includes a rod on the ground for aim as well as one running perpendicular to the aim line to monitor ball position.So next time you are struggling with one club and not the others go to the range and double check your setup.

Here is a quick and general setup guide for alignment and ball position.

Alignment: Feet run parallel to the target line. The common error I often see is that golfers will align their feet at the target. The club face should be aimed at the desired target and the feet will be set on a line that runs parallel to that target line. Imagine railroad tracks. The ball sits on one rail your feet on another.

Ball position: For irons place the ball even with the logo on your golf shirt or about 1 1/2 inches inside your front heel. For your driver place the ball even with your front heel.

Set Your Personal Best

This tip comes from watching many of my students play in club tournaments which are improtant to them all too often they get off to a great start well on their way to a personal best only to collapse and feel dejected when they shoot a less than ideal round.
Have you ever gotten off to a great start during a round of golf? Have you ever gotten off to such a great start that you immediately started to think, "I have a chance to shoot my all time low round!" Then unfortunately a poor swing arises and mistakes are compounded and all of the good you had done with your fast start has gone away and you are left feeling frustrated and upset over a wasted chance to shoot a great score. All too often people get off to a good start and they become too aggressive and try to force the action. Players tend to start trying to force birdie putts in the hole rather than just playing golf. The lesson to learn here is to try and practice more patience on the golf course and stay in the routine and with the game plan that you have set for yourself. Just as we do not want to beat ourselves up over poor shots we also do not want to allow quick starts and good shots to cause us to abandon our strategy and force us to make poor decisions which erase the the good we have done.
So if you want to set your personal best... the next time you get off to a quick start dont get overconfident and try and force the action rather stay the course and continue along with the smae strategy that had gotten you off to the quick start. If you follow this strategy I can promise that you will finish off good starts better and set more personal bests.