golfMaster

One of the most enjoyable aspects of being a golf teacher is when the opportunity arises to help a golfer prepare for competition. Competitive golf and leisure golf are two completely different animals. Whether it's a 12 year old preparing for his first ever junior tournament, a business man preparing for the club championship or a fellow pro preparing for the PGA tour school, the atmosphere always get a little more intense when we have the goal of competition in our sight.

What is the one thing I would do to prepare for an important upcoming event? My answer! 100 three-foot putts a day for a week. That's right! Forget hitting bucket after bucket of drivers and head to the putting green. And don't just head to the putting green, but head three feet from the hole. This is the one area in golf that if we are extremely confident about, works into every other aspect of our game.

The drill is this. Pick a straight, three foot putt on the practice green and camp there for 100 putts per day for the week leading up to the big event. How does this drill work? Well as we start to hit the 100 putts, our eye begins to see the ball fall in the hole. It begins to see it fall in the hole again and again and again. This gives us some confidence. This added confidence begins to seep into our stroke. It becomes more solid and more confident. We begin to see more putts fall. It is a positive cycle that feeds off one another. On day one of this 7 day exercise, we may only make 75 or 80 putts out of the hundred. But by day 7, that number will be well into the 90s. Maybe even 100 out of 100. Now you are ready for competition.

Why is this short putt so important in preparing for competition? Because it effects every other part of our game. When we are extremely confident on our short putts, we can be more aggressive on our approach putts, because we have no fear of the come backer. We can be more aggressive with our chips because our short putts are falling. We can attack tight pins because we know we can get up and down if we miss the green. We can move with more confidence to the next tee to blast our drive after we've holed a nice three foot par save. And most importantly, making short putts keeps the momentum of the round moving forward. Nothing kills momentum more than missing a three foot putt.

So if you have an important tournament coming up, try the 100 three foot putts per day for a week exercise. I promise you, it's is the best was to calm the nerves and build confidence for that tournament. Good luck in that tournament and bring home that trophy.

"If you control the clubface-you control the ball"

As you maight have known, one of the most important things that you must do to better your golf game is better your putting skills. While it may seem unachievable, just practicing and working to improve a few minor things will greatly better your skills. Once you have determined what you must do, practice the skills until you have them perfect. Remember, a good putting skill will surely translate into a much better long shot as well so taking the time to improve on your putting is really essential.

You are of course going to take the time to practice to make yourself better, but the exact skills that you need to practice tend to vary from player to player. As a standard rule of thumb, there are three things that you need to specifically focus on in order to get the greatest golf game attainable. The best skill is insuring that your swing is correct so that you will contact the ball precisely in the middle of the club head. If you are not hitting directly on the center you will never be able to conquer the skill of putting. You simply cannot hit the ball from the side of the club head and expect it to go perfectly. No matter how long you practice, this is not possible and will result in plenty of frustration over what you are doing incorrect.

Once you have worked to get better at striking the ball from the very heart of the club head you need to advance to seeing to it that you always hit the ball in a straight line to the target. This means if the ball needs to go 2 feet away from you towards the pond, you would not want to aim the ball towards the tree standing next to it. You may think this sounds a tad bit unusual, but some people do not squarely approach the ball to the object. They then stand around and wonder why they are missing their putt. Even if you are off by just a tiny bit, this can seriously change your putting skills because the ball is not going to go exactly where you want it to go.

You will definitely need to practice this point a great deal, most people do not realize when they are just some what off center from the target. Nevertheless even the smallest difference away from the target will ultimately be a missed shot and an raised handicap. Work on this by seeing to it that you take enough of time to practice. This is even a skill that you could practice in your office, or bedroom at home using a smaller at home putting kit. However, going to the driving range is not going to assist you here so avert them if viable while you are shaping this skill.

Your very lastskill that you need to work on to better your putting accomplishments is working to insure that you are accelerating the club head when you are actually coming into contact with the ball. Many players make the mistake of slowing the club down right before they really strike the ball. This will make you to drop off the momentum that you require in order for the ball to make it to your target. Working to make a conscious attempt not to slow the club down will usually be sufficient in order to improve this skill and give you some better results.