Grab Bag Golf Blog

      Once you understand the mechanics behind hitting the ball, it is time to choose a club. This in part depends on your terrain, but in general the choice is an easy one. The club will help determine your shot's distance, height, and direction, and these three things together let you know exactly which club to pull out of your bag. As an added benefit, knowing how to choose your club properly can help you narrow down which clubs are strictly necessary to take in the first place, which can help reduce your practice time and speed up your improvement in the game. Drivers     The driver is a classic golf club. It appears in every "grand slam" type of golf image, it shows up in logos and cartoons, it creates excitement in the golfer and in onlookers, and it has the most raw power. Often, the driver is the first thing people practice with on the range, and the one they practice with the most. Unfortunately, this doesn't make much sense, because the driver is only ...

     We've seen how important spin becomes during the long game, but how does it come into play when the shots are shorter and more controlled? When approaching the green, accuracy and precision become more important than gaining distance. Approach shots don't curve in the air, but it suddenly starts to matter whether the ball rolls forward, backward, or stops after landing. In the short game satisfaction no longer comes from taking long, straight, powerful shots, but rather from taking gentle, high, arcing lobs that dance forward or backward after landing. So how does spin help in the short game, and how can you use it to make decisions about your swing?     Note: this is part 4 of a series on hitting the ball just right. Read part 1 here , or read about why this matters here . Spin in the Short Game     Unlike in the long game, short game shots do not stay in the air long enough or move fast enough for spin to have an aerodynamic effect. There just ...

      Now that we know how a ball behaves in flight and what happens the moment it is struck by the club, how do we use this information to make decisions on the course? The shots taken on a particular hole are divided into two main types: the long game and the short game. The long game is characterized by powerful hits that are more focused on distance than accuracy. On the other hand, accuracy and precision are vital to the short game, but distance is no longer the objective. Each type of shot also has its own emphasis on the principles we learned earlier. In the long game, where accuracy is less important and the ball flies for a larger distance, left and right spin are the main tools to control the ball throughout its flight.     Note: This is part 3 of a series. Click here  for part 1 or click here to read about why this information is important to your game. Spin in the Long Game     The long game is primarily played from two locations...

     While hitting the golf ball just right is extremely important, the actual moment of hitting the golf ball often gets overlooked. Instead, most of the focus is placed on the club and swing, rather than taking a look at the ball itself. Now in all fairness, this is because any adjustments you make as a golfer are made to the club or swing, as you can't exactly adjust the ball directly. However, understanding a little about what the golf ball goes through can help make the right decisions, especially when you need to make situational adjustments to your normal swing. Note: this is Pt2 of a series. Click Here to go to Pt1, or Read This to see why all this information matters in the first place. What happens to the club at impact?     When a golf club and golf ball meet at impact there are two different parties involved, namely the club and the ball. Let's start with the club. What does it go through specifically during its brief meeting with the golf ball? We...

     Hitting the golf ball just right is the #1 key to the entire game of golf ( click here to read why ). The key isn't the swing, although your swing plays a huge role in hitting the golf ball correctly. The key isn't lining up your stance, although lining up your stance plays a huge role in swinging effectively. The key is putting the ball exactly where you want it to go. However, you only directly control the ball for as long as it touches the clubface (usually less than half of a millisecond); the rest of the time belongs to the air. Let me repeat that. After hitting the ball, the vast majority of its flight is determined by aerodynamics. This means that we must first understand how the air affects the ball, so that we can choose the best way to contact it for the few microseconds that we have. What happens as the ball moves through the air?     When any object moves through the air, it moves the air too. Whole branches of physics are based on the movement ...

     It's the big question. You've heard it asked. You've asked it yourself. You've gotten many different answers from as many different people. It's the #1 key to the entire game of golf. It's even asked in different ways: "How to swing a golf club?" "How to improve my swing?" "What is the best golf swing?" "Who has the best golf swing?"     Unfortunately, nobody seems to be able to give the end-all-be-all answer. None of the professionals swing the same, so how can any of them know the perfect golf swing? Books and magazines have whole pages attempting to lay out how to line up your shot, how to turn, and how to follow through, but this advice lands you in the water as often as not. How can you improve your game and lower your score if nobody can tell you the best way to swing a golf club? The Big Secret     I've played golf for many years. My grandfather taught me in his garage at just 5 years old. Throughout the ye...