• The overlapping grip is the most common golf grip used. It is used mostly
by male golfers and those with strong wrists and forearms. The little finger
of the right hand lies on top of or overlaps the index finger on the left hand.
• The baseball grip is most commonly used by younger golfers, females,
seniors, and those with weaker wrists and arms. The index finger of the left
hand and the little finger of the right hand meet but do not overlap or
interlock.
• An interlocking grip will be used by golfers with shorter hands and fingers,
those with thicker or chunkier palms, and golfers who have difficulty with the
overlapping grip. The index finger of the left hand and the little finger of the
right hand overlap each other and interlock.
If your golf grip pressure is right, the club could almost be pulled out of your
hands, but not quite. A correct golf grip will make you feel as if you are holding
the club mostly in the palm and last three fingers of your left hand. Regardless,
both hands should hold the club with equal pressure. A correct golf grip doesn’t
guarantee a successful golf swing; however, a defective golf grip will almost always
result in a failed golf swing.

One of the most effective changes that a golfer can bring into his or her game
is called step-breathing. The benefits of using step-breathing are many. You give
yourself a solid, focused mental and physical place from which to hit your shots or
make even the longer putts, you have a time to find the best level of mental
arousal, and you gain more control over your playing tempo.
Another advantage of taking the time and centering yourself with stepbreathing
is that it places a nice dividing line between the thinking part of your
golf swing and the hitting part. The old saying is; “The thinking must stop before
the hitting begins.”
You begin to learn step-breathing at home. You simply sit in a comfortable
chair and imagine a side view of a set of stairs. When each stair drops down, this
is your exhale. When the stair is flat, and horizontal to the ground, this is your
inhale.
In normal breathing your breath in and out and really never move lower in
your body. If you were to graph a normal breath it would be a “U” shaped curve. It
would go down on your exhale and back up on you inhale. Your breathing would be
one long line of “U” shaped curves. This is fine for taking in oxygen, but not very
effective for centering your mind and body to maximize your golf.
You continue your training by practicing lowering your center of breathing
from high in your chest, near your throat, down to your lowest point in your
stomach. Following your six or seven steps down into your body, remember the
exhales are when you drop a little further down and the inhales are the flat part of
the step. On the inhale you do not go down, but you also do not go up, as in a
normal breath.
Once the breathing is very low in your body practice keeping it there for four
or five breaths. Then let it gradually come back up. If you practice this exercise
one hundred to one hundred and fifty times you will begin to find that the
breathing begins to anticipate your lowered center of breathing and your breathing
will automatically drop on the second or third breath.
When this happens you have learned the ability of using the short form of
step-breathing. The short form of step-breathing utilizes this learned reaction and
allows you to become fully centered using only two or three breaths. On the
course, or even in practice, you will need to use this short form of step-breathing
so that you can quickly get centered and ready to take the swing or the putt.
After you have learned the short form of step-breathing you are ready to
make it part of your pre-shot routine. After you have planned your shot, addressed
the ball, recalled a successful shot like the one you are about to make, you can
use the step-breathing to end your thinking, relax your body, lock your
expectation on the exact target and be externally focused on the ball. No thinking,

Once you have driven off the tee box, you will probably be faced with a
second shot, hopefully from the fairway. Of course, we hope that you’ve been able
to make it to the green, but on longer par 5 holes, that’s just not realistic for most
golfers.
The lie of the ball in a fairway shot will dictate how you hit your next shot.
In some friendly games, your opponents may allow you to put the ball up on some
grass. This will emulate, in a way, a tee since you cannot use a tee with a fairway
shot. In tournaments or serious money games, you will probably have to play the
ball as it lies, so it’s a good idea to know how to hit an effective fairway shot.
Many inexperienced golfers are intimidated by the fairway shot. They will
often baby their swing and not hit the ball fully. This is a huge mistake. Golf clubs
are designed to work with a full golf swing and do a specific job, so choose a club
that matches your distance from the hole and then take a full swing. Don’t be
afraid that you’ll overshoot the hole. If you’ve picked the right club, you’ll get to
the green.
Aim your left shoulder (the right one if you’re a southpaw) at your target –
the flag. Your hands should be in front of the ball at impact. Keep the same swing
motions as if you are driving the ball. To help square your clubface, try to touch
your left forearm with your right forearm at impact.
If you are in deep grass, the main idea is to get the ball up in the air. That
means you will want a club that has a lot of loft. That means an 8 or 9 iron
ideally. However, remember that you will most likely not get a lot of distance with
these smaller clubs.
When you swing, be sure and follow through after impact. The laws of
physics dictate that when you strike the ball, it will be carried through and into the
air as your arms bring the club back up.
Your technique on deep grass shots should be geared toward minimizing the
intervention of the grass. In other words, you want to hit the ball as cleanly as
possible. To do that, you need to move the ball back in your stance.
If, for instance, on a 5-iron shot from the fairway you position the ball off
your left heel, move it back to a spot an inch to the right of your heel for a shot
from the rough. This ball position should leave your hands slightly ahead of the
clubface at address. From that setup you’ll tend to swing the club up a bit more
vertically on the backswing and return it a bit more steeply to the ball. With this
steeper attack the clubface will come down on the ball rather than brush through
the grass.

You can ruin a good round by trying to pull off that one in a million shot and
making a triple bogey. After hitting a shot into trouble you are almost always
better off to take a safe route out and play for a bogey.
What exactly is course management? Essentially, it means adapting your
game to the specific nuances of the course and playing the course in the best way
you can to achieve a good score.
When does course management start? Some players will tell you it starts
after they have to make a decision on the course. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Course management starts before you tee off on the first hole. You
should always have a plan for the round you are playing and more importantly you
should always have a plan and a target for each and every shot.
One particular area that most all golfers should concentrate on is hitting the
ball from 125-150 yards out to the green. By improving your game in this area
you’ll give yourself many more chances for birdie and par putts.
The key to this aspect of your game is being able to “know” that you can hit
the ball onto any green from 150 yards out. You want to get to the point where
you can consistently knock on 8 or 9 iron onto the green every time!
It may sound difficult if you’re a higher handicap golfer, but it’s really not.
125 -150 yards is very manageable, and most greens are large in size. In addition,
hitting 8 and 9 irons are much easier to control than your longer irons.
If you have a tough time swinging these clubs then this is an area where you
need to spend some quality practice time on. Once you do get this down, the only
part left is distance management.
That’s the first key. The next point is working your game around the 150
yard shot.
If you’re on a 550 yard par 5, you know if you hit a decent drive and even if
you hit your second shot poorly, leaving you with 135 yards to the green, you
know you can now get it on the green with your third shot.
So, even though you didn’t hit a great second shot, because you have the
150 yard shot in your bag you’re still putting for birdie. This is what good course
management is all about.
It’s amazing what focusing on this part of your game can do for you. You’ll
see your golf game differently. Now you’ll know that no matter what kind of
trouble you get into off the tee box, all you need to do is get your ball 135-150
yards out and you’ll be fine.
Practice until you can master this shot. Then build your golf game with that
thought in place. By doing so, you won’t be worrying as much on how to hit
bunker shots, chips shots and other tough greenside shots.
Instead of being completely frustrated, you’ll find yourself having more fun.
Once you have this shot in your bag, then you can focus on putting, driving,
or hitting your long irons. Until then, put all your efforts into mastering the
125-150 yard shot. If you will take this advice I can honestly tell you that you will
dramatically lower your golf scores.
You have to know what your strengths and weaknesses are on the golf
course. This is essential to the principles of course management. You must know
how far you can hit the ball with specific clubs in order to navigate the course in as
few shots as possible.
When you are managing the course, you are taking into account the
problems and strengths of your game and applying them to the way the course is
laid out. Let’s look at two examples:
1. You are on a par 5 hole with light rough on the left side of the fairway and a
lateral water hazard up the right. You’re pretty confident you can hit the
green in regulation, but you have a propensity for hitting a “banana ball” or
a hard slice. How should you hit this shot taking into consideration the way
you play?
Most players would just hit it up the middle trying to hit the ball straight
hoping to keep the water out of play. However, that water hazard is the
hole’s strength and your slice is your weakness. It’s foolish to pit the two
against each other because you will probably be the loser.
Aim your teen shot to land in the rough on the left side of the fairway. In
this case, your normal slice will result in a second shot from the fairway
while a straight ball will result in a second shot from the rough. However,
you will probably still be able to reach the green in regulation from the
rough.
Most fairways are at least 40 yards wide. If you aim 10 yards to the left of
the fairway, it would take a 50 yard slice to get the ball to the water. A shot
with that much curve is rare, so this is definitely the best way to play this
hole.
2. You are 150 yards from the green with the pin placed at the front of the
green, but the pin is tucked behind a menacing sand trap. You’ve spent a lot
of time practicing getting out of the sand and on the green in one shot, but
you’re not confident enough in your ability to do it just yet. Your 150-yard
club is an 8 iron. What do you do to try and avoid landing in the bunker?
Most golfers would automatically reach for their 8 iron, and “take dead aim”.
However if you were to play with sound course strategy, you would take a 7
iron and aim for the middle back of the green leaving a straight forward two
putt for par.
Most people would be afraid of going over the green, but you know that your
7 iron goes a maximum of 165 yards. Even if you hits your best shot you will
still have a 45 foot putt for birdie. You also know that if you miss hit the 7
iron it will wind up pin high and in almost no circumstance will the dreaded
bunker be in play.
On the other hand if you choose the 8 iron, it will require a near perfect
strike to get the ball to the flag. The slightest miss hit results in your ball
landing in the sand trap. Here, the 7-iron is the right club based on the
layout of the hole.
Putting course management into play with your golf game requires a good
working knowledge of the way you play and what you are capable of doing. That
means you need to track your progress and really pay attention to how your game
is coming along.
Course management skills can really help shave strokes off of your score.
So can knowing what the most common mistakes and problems golfers have along
with ways to combat them.

In order to eliminate bad habits that you have formed in your game try this 3
step process:
1. First confront your fears in your game and admit them by writing them
down on a piece of paper.
2. Replace it-it’s time to trade in bad habits and negative behavior for good
ones.
3. Stick with it-by being persistent, diligent and remaining disciplined your
game plan you’ll be soon forming a new habit.
We can’t change our circumstances about how the ball bounces so to speak,
but we can alter our response to them. It’s all about choice so choose wisely.
Having a brighter outlook about playing and excepting occasional bad breaks that
are inevitable will help you start getting over being “Teed off” about yourself and
your golf game
However, sometimes losing your cool can be good because it can help you let
off some steam and help you refocus on the task at hand. Often, as all golfers
know we keep it bottled up which can impair our performances for the rest of the
round.
The key is to allow yourself to completely vent, then refocus again
immediately. By venting I don’t mean throwing or breaking clubs, or cursing. The
skill of refocusing lies in knowing what the most important element to master is.
How does a person learn to regain composure after losing it?
Just remember that losing your cool is nothing more than focusing on what
went wrong, and allowing yourself to get frustrated, angry, ticked off, etc. Think
about how you respond when you’re angry – you breathe faster, your body
tightens up, your heart rate increases and so on.
These stress messages you’re sending to your brain only make your body
tighten up more sabotaging your abilities to perform properly. This unfortunate
cycle will continue until you learn to break this broken record set on self-destruct.
In a tense situation the best way to regain your composure is to work in the
opposite direction, to get your body to calm down, this in turn will allow your mind
to calm down by taking several deep breathes, and by pushing away any negative
thoughts.

“Boxing out” means that you mentally put up a fence around what you need
to do, so that you are not distracted by the things and thoughts that have no real
bearing on the shot or putt. By not “boxing out” you allow your mind to wander to
distractions.
Remember: even pleasant thoughts of success are not relevant to making the
shot. Sometimes this lack of limiting your thoughts is called “outcome thinking”. In
other words, you spend time and energy thinking of what the outcome could be
and how that would feel. This is truly an unwise way of spending the time and
energy needed to make the shot.
Think of a piece of paper with words and pictures covering it. All of these
words and pictures are in some way related to the next shot, but only a few of
them are helpful in making the shot. Now group the needed and useful elements
together on the page. Now draw a box around these few things.
Some of the things in the box would be: a solid plan to make the shot, a solid
pre-shot routine, feeling the swing or putt in your mind, seeing the ball go to
where you want it, and ending up looking at the back of the ball as you swing or
putt.
Things left out of the box are: past mistakes, thoughts of how bad it would be
to miss the target, thoughts of how good it would be to make the shot, or just
about anything else you could think of. All of these are left out of the box because
they do not help you make the shot.
It is important to really understand what should be in the box. Make a list of
what is important to making the shot. You may even what to consider the
sequence or order of the included thoughts. Any other thought or picture is out of
the box and not allowed. If you find anything in the box that does not belong in
there, simply pick it up by its tail and drop it outside the box. Practice limiting your
thinking to only what is in the box.
Begin by practicing at home. Practice “boxing out” fifty times at home before
you begin to practice it in physical practice. After two or three weeks of practice
you will be ready to begin to use this in competition. Remember, you must first
practice mental training at home and then in physical practice before you can
expect to use it in competition.

First, you need to be aware of situations when negative thoughts can occur.
Here’s a simple method to get you started on the right track: The next time
you head out to play a round of golf, put a handful of pennies in your right pants
pocket. Not too many to weigh you down, though.
Every time – and I mean every time – you become aware of negative images
or internal dialog where you’re speaking poorly to yourself, transfer one penny
from your right pocket to your left pocket. By learning to monitor your thoughts,
you’re on the right path to correcting your inner demons.
When you’re finished playing, count out the number of pennies that made the
journey from one pants pocket to the other. Then write down the total. Try to
remember what words you used, and what situations prompted them.
Then, start setting some new, clearer goals. In this case, the goal is to
attempt to cut down on the number of negative self-talk speeches. Just like you
have goals to shoot certain scores, you need to apply this same attitude with
correcting this debilitating self-talk.
Once you have been able to calmly re-examine your round and your
outbursts of negativity, imagine yourself reacting to those circumstances in a
different way and replacing those negative statements with positive thoughts.
Learn to laugh with yourself and say, “I can do this shot,” and other such positive
feedback to reinforce your self-worth.
With each round, make a conscious choice to reduce the negativity and try to
remain positive – remember it’s only a game. With some diligent practice and
commitment, you’re on your way to erasing bad thoughts about your golf game.

Self-talk can be encouraging or it can be detrimental, according to how you
present it to yourself. Remember: Your mind doesn’t have a sense of humor. If you
program it to do something and the message is negative, it will respond
accordingly.
This is why it’s important to monitor your inner dialog; what you say to
yourself after a poor shot can be self-destructive. Even the best players in the
world are guilty of this mistake, and if they don’t make corrections immediately,
the round or tournament is lost.
We’ve all beaten ourselves up after a bad day on the links, or when things
don’t go our way. If you watch a tournament on television, periodically you’ll see a
player bad-mouthing themselves. They might be saying things such as, “I’m the
worst golfer in the world,” or “Why can’t I hit that simple putt? I stink.” These
statements or other expletives will bring the golfer down.

Mark Twain once said, “You can’t depend on your eyes when your
imagination is out of focus.” There is a multitude of reasons why we bury our
games into submission and none of them are good. It’s time for you to start
believing and seeing yourself pulling off the shots you dreamed about instead of
worrying about where disaster is lurking ready to strike you down on the course
and ruin your round.
Many players say that even when they’re playing good they are anticipating
the proverbial wheels to come off at any moment. I read a statistic somewhere
that 92% of what we worry about or fear never comes to fruition: meaning that
you’re wasting your time on meaningless things distracting you from your goals.
Stop concerning yourself with past events or things in your game that you
have no control. “You can’t water yesterday’s crops with today’s tears.” Let it go
and move onward!
It’s a good practice to mentally play a round in your mind where you control
the ball and place it where you want it to go avoiding all the problems such as
water, out of bounds, sand, etc. Try it sometime and let your imagination run wild.
Take notice of this mental exercise to see if you allow bad thoughts to enter
your mind even in your pretend round. Bad habits die hard and the first place to
attack them is in your conscious mind.In order to eliminate bad habits that you have

The medium golfer could quickly make up 10 strokes a round by putting properly. This one point makes consistent putting perhaps the most important part of each player’s game. And seeing that most of us are not proficient to get onto the links anyway because of the winter weather, putting is something you may practice at home.

There’s an ancient adage that the game of golf should be learned from the green back to the tee. That means putting, chipping, fairway shots, and then drives. Remember, most shots in a round of golf are from around the green or on the green itself. It’s not unusual for more than a few players to take as many (and often more) shots while on the green as they did to get to the green. Putting is paramount to a solid game.

The average golfer’s tendency, when putting, is to use way too much of their wrists and arms, thus breaking down their wrists through the putt. This is wrong and is the main culprit for unsatisfactory putting. Do not break your wrists when putting! Why? Because as soon as you do, you don’t have any control. That wobbly wrist operation is transmitted down to the putter face and the ball will go just about anywhere when contact is made. Anywhere except where you longing to go, that is.

To become an excellent putter, the ideal blend of shoulders and arms should be implemented throughout the whole putt. Any wrist action involved is through the motion of the gravity of the putter. In other words, it’s a natural motion, not a break.

During your putt, concentrate on your shoulders. On the backswing, your left shoulder ordinarily moves down and your right shoulder naturally moves up, like a pendulum. When you focus on your shoulders as if they were a clock works, your backswing becomes liquid. Your left wrist should stay nice and stationary throughout this motion.

In order to set up the putting grip, first place the grip in the palm of your left hand, and your complete hand around the grip. Place your right hand underneath your left, in a similar palm grip. Now, overlap your right hand with your left index finger. Your palms should be opposite to one another, for a nice locked-in feeling. When setting up to address the ball, make sure your eyes are over the ball, expressly your left eye (if you are a right hand golfer).

Bend your knees slightly, and hang your arms over the ball.

Shift your gravity a little forward on your left foot, favoring the left side of your body. Your hands should also be slightly forward in your stance.

Before making your stroke, make sure your arms, shoulders, knees and feet are all parallel with your target line. Acknowledge I said target line. This doesn’t mean the hole but rather the path that the ball needs to travel in order to get to the hole.

Keep all these elements intact, and you should see improved putting in no time.

There is a satisfactory rule of thumb for putting that typically works, but depends on the terrain, so adjust accordingly. For a five foot putt, bring your putter back five inches, and then follow through five inches.

Why do most putts miss? Because the stance and the putter head are NOT square to the target line.

With putting, this problem of being square cannot be overstated. It’s critical that you get comfortable with being squared up on putts. Keep your wrists tight and don’t let them break and you should see a great improvement in your putting . Shaving strokes through more desirable putting is something everyone may overcome.