Golf Swing Tips & Aids

Taking strokes off your score might require a concentrated effort to remake your swing or learn a completely new technique. However, you can often make a significant improvement to the swing you already have by making a simple adjustment with an easy cue or visualization aid.

Chip Like You Putt

Change your thought process on chip shots. Thinking of a chip shot as a putt rather than a swing can help you control your short shots better.
The first adjustment you'll make is your starting stance. Rather than starting with your weight back, start with the body balanced over the ball, with your weight slightly on your front foot. Because you are using a more gentle, abbreviated swing on a chip, you will not need to sway to generate power with your legs or hips.
The second adjustment you'll make is on your club take-back. Because the club will not be leaving the ground as much as on other swings, you can take your club back just like you take your putter back, straight from the target, low to the ground.
Finally, bring your club forward, parallel to the ground, just like a putt, and finish low on the ground toward your target. Because the club you use to chip has a more open face, the ball will naturally pop up without you having to come from under the ball to lift it.

Three-Part Swing

The analogy of a pendulum used to describe the backswing and forward swing of a golf shot has deprived many golfers of the power that can be generated during a golf swing. The pendulum analogy has helped eliminate the important slow-down phase of the swing. The striking skill is used in baseball, tennis, hockey and golf, and the exercise physiology is the same for all.
The backswing uses eccentric muscle contractions (you extend your muscles), while the forward swing uses concentric muscle contraction (you contract your muscles). In order to effectively transfer the power generated during a backswing to your forward swing, you'll need to slow the backswing down as you are finishing it, almost to a stop, prior to beginning the forward swing.
A pendulum swing keeps the speed of the backswing and forward swing the same, with no pause between either. A simple cure for a two-part, pendulum-style golf swing is to consider the golf swing as a three-part motion: backswing, pause and forward swing.

Putt Three Balls

Many golfers lose control of their putts because they focus so much on the contact point that it prevents them from following through. Focusing on the contact point results in slowing the club down before contact, and often results in hitting the ground before hitting the ball, or pulling up too early.
A simple fix to prevent these problems is to hit through the ball by imagining that you are not looking at one ball, but three balls in row, with two directly in front of your ball. If you make your goal hitting the third, imaginary ball, you will not stop at the first, real ball.