Joe,
I enjoy your newsletter and was wondering if you can help. For some reason I keep topping the ball with the fairway metals on the fairway, never when I am hitting them off the tee or with the irons or driver and the annoying thing is that it only happens on the course. I can always hit the ball properly on the driving range and even draw and fade at will. The miss hits are costing me a lot of shots in our competitions.
Look forward to reading the solution in your newsletter.
Best regards Tom Boyd
Hello Tom,
There are a number of possibilities for this, without watching you swing I can only offer a few suggestions. Perhaps your fairway metals are not well matched to the rest of your set. Perhaps at the driving range you are hitting off synthetic mats, which are more forgiving than grass. If neither of these are the case, then other possibilities are the lack of tension on the range allowing you to make more relaxed swings while on the course tension causes a slight change. Some instructors say to swing fairway woods differently than irons, in other words sweep the ball without taking a divot, but I say if this is causing you to top the ball, then by all means swing the same way you do with the irons and hit down at the ball and make sure you complete the follow thru with all your weight on your front foot, or else you might be doing a reverse pivot with some of your weight on the back foot, which can also cause topping. I hope this helps.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Joe,
Sometimes I read about good golfers being able to will the ball into the hole with positive thinking. I have tried this with no good results. I do not believe that can work, after all we are not magicians. Is this a bunch of baloney or not? How can the average golfer make this work?
Marvin
Hello Marvin,
Positive thinking cannot guarantee anything, but it will give everything a better chance for success than negative thinking will. This is why the better players visualize a successful shot beforehand, because that thought process leads to proper execution. You cannot execute properly if you are not sure the shot is going to work. This is most evident with putting. Those who commit to the read will usually make a better and more confident stroke than those who are not sure of the read and make a tentative stroke. The average golfer, or any other golfer, can make this work simply by convincing oneself to avoid making tentative strokes by focusing on proper execution and follow thru.
Joe
Sometimes I read about good golfers being able to will the ball into the hole with positive thinking. I have tried this with no good results. I do not believe that can work, after all we are not magicians. Is this a bunch of baloney or not? How can the average golfer make this work?
Marvin
Hello Marvin,
Positive thinking cannot guarantee anything, but it will give everything a better chance for success than negative thinking will. This is why the better players visualize a successful shot beforehand, because that thought process leads to proper execution. You cannot execute properly if you are not sure the shot is going to work. This is most evident with putting. Those who commit to the read will usually make a better and more confident stroke than those who are not sure of the read and make a tentative stroke. The average golfer, or any other golfer, can make this work simply by convincing oneself to avoid making tentative strokes by focusing on proper execution and follow thru.
Joe
