This morning I watched a short golf instruction video of David Leadbetter on The Golf Channel explaining how to hit a tee shot into the wind, a tip that will certainly come in useful here in the UK in January!

Whether you are playing directly into the wind or you are battling a vicious cross wind, Leadbetter’s golf tip is the same.

Drop your grip two or three inches down the shaft.  This will restrict the arch of your swing and keep the loft down through impact.  By doing so the ball will travel at a much lower trajectory and therefore not get caught up in the wind.

Improve Your Putting

I have read, for an accurate putt you need to swing your putter one-third in the backswing and two-thirds forward.  This will give your stroke a smooth, positive swing motion.  But to make sure you are not pulling the puuter too far back, or losing the line, place a 5p coin on the back of the putter blade.  Unfortunately this putting exercise doesn’t work as well with two-ball putters.

To gauge the right distance and smoothness when pulling the putter back, the 5p coin should remain on the back of the putter, and only slip off as the the putter connects with the ball or in the follow through.

Try it, it’s not as simple as it sounds.  Furthermore, I saw a real improvement in my putting when I was able to manage the length and steadiness of  my backswing and follow-thorugh.

Improve Your Putting

To improve your putting, try pushing the ball with the putter with no backswing.  Line your putter up against the back of the ball and simply push the ball forward to the hole.  This exercise taught me to follow through, resulting in a more confident, positive swing motion.

So I am going to share with you some of the tips I have been given over the past few months or so; and it would be great if you had other tips to share with me.

It’s an old cliche in golf, but its true to say – putting is a game within a game!

Improve Your Putting

This tip might sound odd, but believe me it works. It will help you gauge the power of your stroke and also gain confidence in your ability to judge how hard to hit the ball.

I read that when Tiger Woods was very young, his father used to tell him to pick the ball up and roll it towards the hole.  If you are throwing a ball to someone else to catch you don’t fill your head with complicated sums trying to workout the distance, you simply look at your target and gauge the amount of power you need to apply to send the ball to the recipient.

By rolling the ball to the hole you are using those same instincts.  Try it, if it works then attempt to hit the ball with equal power using your putter.

Trust me, it works; and by doing this exercise you will gain confidence in your own ability to judge the distance and power required to send the ball to the hole without worrying too much about techniques.

The most common occurance after playing through those dark damp days of winter is simply gripping the putter too tight, resulting in hitting the ball too far. If this is happening to you try this simple tip.

Adopting your usual putting stance and grip, release your grip just enough so that you can slide your hands up and down the putter grip. Then tighten your grip just enough to stop you from being able to slide your hands up and down – you should find this looser than your normal grip. You are now applying just enough pressure to control the putter and to give you considerably more control over the distance that you hit your putts.

Hope these tips help and for more help get in contact with me and book yourself a one to one lesson, we can even put your swing on the camera and you can see exactly where you are going wrong!

When playing into the wind its really easy for the ball to balloon straight up and to lose loads of distance. So here is my advice for avoiding that – it is a bit complicated but it really does work.

To keep the ball flight down, simply move the ball position back in your stance but keep your hands forward just inside your front leg.

Then place a little more weight on your front foot than you would usually (say 60%) and grip down on the club slightly. From here you make a slightly shorter backswing than normal, then really try to hit down on the ball squeezing it into the turf.

You should keep your follow through short with low hands and this will result in a beautiful low penetrating ball flight piercing through the wind (or snow)!!

For more help get in contact with me and book yourself a one to one lesson, we can even put your swing on the camera and you can see exactly where you are going wrong!

The Greg Diddams Golf Academy is based at Upchurch River Valley Golf Course in Kent.

A quick set-up check for all those slicers.

Firstly, check your grip and make sure you can see somewhere between two and three knuckles on your top hand. If you can only see one knuckle then your grip is too weak and you will tend to open the club face during the swing, resulting in the ball leaking to the right of target.

Secondly, check your ball position. If using your driver then the ball should be towards the front of your stance, just inside your front foot – too far forward and you’re going to see that ball slicing again.

For more help get in contact with me and book yourself a one to one lesson, we can even put your swing on the camera and you can see exactly where you are going wrong!

The Greg Diddams Golf Academy is based at Upchurch River Valley Golf Course in Kent.

Greg will be adding a weekly coaching tip, among other posts on Buzzin’ Golf.

The Greg Diddams Golf Academy has recently launched a new website.