Your goal when you begin playing a round of golf is to focus on making par. Think about that.

If you are trying to make up for a previous bad hole or simply trying to bring down your score, you are going to tend to press and over swing when trying to birdie a hole. Chances are you will end up hitting an erratic shot and end up with no chance of hitting par.

Play each hole with the goal of making par. Ironically it may give you a better chance of a birdie.

A Simple by-Step Balance Drill To Help Beginner Golfer’s Perfect Their Swing Balance

A common problem that beginner golfers have on their downswing is properly transferring their body weight from the back foot to the front.

New golfers tend to be slightly tentative with their swing, so they end up hanging back a bit. The result from this bad habit creates scooped shots that veer off to the right with very little power.

To get your balance in order, here is a simple drill that is designed to help you feel the proper weight shift over to the front foot. The beauty of this drill is that there are only two results you can get;     A) You properly shift your weight, or B) You topple over.

1. Set up with your normal stance, but before taking your backswing, slide your back foot behind your right foot, leaving only the toe touching the ground for support. This will leave you unbalanced when you take your back swing, but that is part of the design of this drill.

2. When you have reached the top portion of the backswing, swing through the golf ball like you would on any normal shot. With your feet positioned as instructed in step 1 above, your body should automatically make the proper weight transfer to your front side.

Bad or difficult weather can make any shot more difficult. When the wind is blowing, it is important to keep your feet closer together. It is natural to think that you just need to hit the ball harder, but the wind makes it even more important to hit the ball correctly.

If the wind is coming at you, you want your shots to be lower. Of course, if it’s behind you and you need a long shot, put it up in the air and let the wind carry it.

Cross winds will present the most difficult situation. The way you hit the ball will depend a great deal on whether you normally hit a straight shot, a hook or a slice. You need to try to use the wind to your advantage and hit your shot more to the right or the left, depending on your shots tendency.

Then you hope you don’t hit a hook when you are playing the wind for a slice. That’s why golf is a fun sport.

Your Golf Swing – The Back Leg

One way to check the position of the back leg is to look at the back knee. The back knee needs to be cocked in. The knee also should be bent (forward towards the extended target line) with the back knee cap at least as close to the target line as a line drawn between your big toes, and maybe even a bit closer.

Moving the back knee toward the target line takes the weight off the back heel just like the “Back Heel Up Drill” does, which you will learn about at Simple Swing. Moving the back knee towards the target line also lowers the back hip a bit, which in turn puts the front hip a tad higher than the back hip, giving the hips a little upward tilt which is a good power position.

Make sure the back knee is cocked in a bit so the back thigh is almost vertical. Most of the weight on your back foot should be on the inside of your foot and mostly toward the front of the back foot.

All of this is designed to reduce the body rotation effect (i.e, spinning like a top) that tends close the shoulders at impact thereby closing the club face causing the hooks. Reducing the body rotation also makes it much easier to begin the downswing with your shoulders increasing your power.

Golf Fatigue on the 2nd 9?

Many times the second nine holes can result in a poorer performance for various reasons.

Fatigue or a lack of hydration can definitely figure in.

You need to make sure you get a regular intake of water throughout your golf round and some foods containing some carbohydrate content to keep the energy levels up can help as well.

Tension can also play a factor. Work on relaxing. When you feel your grip tightening on the clubs, you are definitely too tense.  Learning relaxation techniques can do more for many golfer’s game than all the advice in the world and it might be just what you need to take your game to the next level.