Bunker Tip

Bunker Tip

Dec 26, 2017

Are you one of the million golfers who struggle to get out of the sand? Golf Life headed out to Rancho Santa Fe, California, for a bunker tip with top teacher Dean Reinmuth.

My name is Dean Reinmuth, and we’re here in a fairway bunker. Now, fairway bunkers are a little bit difficult for the average player because they don’t tend to catch the ball solid. But you can make them a lot easier if you do a couple things.

One of the things you’ll notice in your fairway bunkers is most people tend to hit — when they hit the ball, they hit behind it. So they hit the sand first. So that’s why the ball doesn’t go anywhere. There’s some reason for that, but there’s a way to practice that.

Bunker TipFirst, you set your feet a little bit so you have a secure base. Then for a thing to practice, draw a line.

When you take your practice swing, what you’re trying to do is to make sure that you can touch just right on the line or slightly in front of the line. If you do what most people do — they hit behind the line, which is back here — then you’re weight isn’t shifting enough. So, you have to get used to the fact that, although your feet are in the sand, you should shift just like you do on the grass. Most people won’t hit six to eight inches behind the ball on the grass, but they come to the fairway bunker, and that’s what they’ll tend to do because they stop moving their weight in the feet.

So, once you’re able to take practice swings and touch that line or slightly in front of the line, then you’re doing the same thing over the ball. Just get set up, set your feet, and when you swing, make sure that you shift enough so that you try to catch the ball first, which is like the line, and then finish your shot.  And if you do that, you’ll catch the ball solid. The ball will get out of the bunker. It might even get on the green.

If you liked this bunker tip and would like to see more golf tips, head over to our Club Golf Life page and watch a variety of golf tips from top teachers across the country.

5 Minute Golf Drill

5 Minute Golf Drill

Dec 20, 2017

Golf Life brings you a great Golf Drill from Top Teacher Glenn Deck.  Let’s hear from him as he shows what we can do to improve our golf game.

Today we’ve got a great drill to improve your golf game. What I like about this drill here — you don’t have to go to the range. If you’re not that guy, that’s okay. All it takes is three to five minutes at home a day, and you can have a really much improved golf game. It’s very simple, guys. It requires an alignment stick here. Lay that down as your target line. Take your setup here. Now simply pull the shaft up until your hands are about 12 inches from the clubhead.

That’s your setup position. Now, we’ve got three steps to work on here today. First step is what? Turn about a 3/4 backswing. We want to see the shaft here, guys, either in line with our target line here or possibly pulling a little bit inside. What we do not want to see is the shaft starting to what? Point outside that line. That’s going to create all kind of issues and trouble for our downswing and impact position. So, remember, first step, turn and get this shaft here so it’s pointing where?

Toward the target line or slightly inside. Yes, I know it’s not a full backswing, but it kind of gets us on the correct path. Step two — start your downswing. Go ahead and brace your front foot, let your arms drop. The shaft should be lined up toward our target line now. That’s very critical, so now I can deliver the club down to the golf ball on the correct path. If we see the shaft start to go outside here or too much inside here, guys, you’re gonna have a hard time putting the golf club on the correct path to the golf ball. And number three, once we’ve got number one and number two, go ahead and work to your impact position here. I want to see the shaft now in line with my left arm, hips are opening, and the clubface is nice and square here.

When I’ve got that, guys, I’ll hit a lot of great shots. Straight. What we don’t want to see is holding on to it with the shaft out here or try to flip too much here, hitting our side. That doesn’t work. Remember, bring the arms down and the clubhead down let the hips opening up. You’ll be in great position right here. If you can do that drill right there, guys, so it becomes one motion… When you can achieve that, guys, you’re gonna improve your golf game. If you need more help, go see your local PGA pro. Come see me at Pelican Hill. Or go to geneticgolf.com.

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Golf Tip : Driver Setup

Golf Tip : Driver Setup

Dec 2, 2017

Golf Life heads to the Kingdom at TaylorMade’s headquarters in Carlsbad, California, for a golf lesson with teaching pro Devan Bonebrake.

The driver, one of the most important clubs in the bag — in fact, Ben Hogan himself said if you can’t drive the golf ball, you can’t play good golf. Great driving puts you into an offensive position out on the golf course where you’re poised in the middle of the fairway, calm, ready to hit the green in regulation.

Now, one of the major issues I see when my amateur students come in to take a lesson with their drivers is that they tend to have a poor setup. From that position, they’re already off to a bad start in a state of recovery the rest of the swing. So let’s talk about the setup and how it can really make a big difference with your driver, optimize distance as well as direction. When I go ahead and set up to the driver, it’s important to play the ball forward in the stance.

This is going to help with a slightly ascending blow — high launch, low spin. Now, at the same time, I see a lot of players when they set up with their driver, get the ball forward in the stance and then get to the ball via their shoulders. What this does is it puts their head too far in front of the ball. Also changes the direction that they’re aimed and usually causes kind of a steep slice with very little distance. So an old drill that you can do is you can set up with your left hand on the club, your right hand behind your back, and go ahead and place the driver down.

Make sure your shoulders are square. Now, keeping your right shoulder back, slide your right arm in underneath, ensuring that your shoulders are square and that your upper center, or your shirt buttons, are behind your belt buckle. The number-one fundamental with the driver is that we start behind it and stay behind it in the golf swing. In fact, if you look at most PGA Tour players, as they come down, their head, if anything, goes backwards as they’re hitting the driver to optimize those launching distance — high launch, low spin, maximum carry. So, let me demonstrate. Take a look. Right hand behind the back, left hand on the club. Hips forward, head back. Slide the right hand in. A little wag, a look at the target. And go ahead and swing.

So, to recap, proper setup with the driver — upper center behind the lower. Shoulders square. And in the golf swing, head stays behind the ball. It’s going to give you high launch, low spin, and maximum distance. I want to say thank you to TaylorMade, letting us have the beautiful Kingdom location in Carlsbad, California. Go see your local professional. Get fit. They’re going to fit you for the best driver you’ve ever hit in your golf life. Thanks for tuning in.

If you liked this Golf Tip from Devan Bonebrake, please check out his tip How to Make Solid Contact!

How to Develop a Pre-Shot Routine

How to Develop a Pre-Shot Routine

Aug 18, 2017

We caught up with Shawn Cox, Director of Golf at the Grand Golf Club at Fairmont Grand Del Mar, near San Diego, California for some advice.  Shawn talks with us about his pre-shot routine and how gaining a proper sequence before hitting your shot can help you play better golf.

Check out the video above to learn more about how you can create a routine to play better. If you liked this golf tip, check out how to pick a teaching pro

Balance Golf Tip from Glenn Deck

Balance Golf Tip from Glenn Deck

Jul 20, 2017

Today we’re here to improve your golf game. We’ve got a very simple golf tip that’s gonna improve both your length and accuracy. Yes, both, length and accuracy. It’s learning how to use your hips correct in the golf swing, learning how to use them as a counterbalance to provide more power in your golf game.

Now, what we want to do here is first, this is our balance line right here. Stand nice and tall on it so we’re nice and balanced. The upper body’s gonna tilt down. Sternum goes down, hips go out to counterbalance, knees flex. Now we’re in balance here. Remember, guys, the hips are moving out to counterbalance the upper body tilting forward here. In your golf swing, we’ll simply make a nice turn back. Let your right shoulder and right hip turn back. Again, make that transition. We want to feel like our right hip stays back, our left knee, left hip’s kind of sitting a little bit here. Again, we’re in balance here. If I can do that, guys, I can have the force now moving down and out to the golf ball and a counterbalance out behind me here. That promotes a nice turn through the golf ball. What we see most amateurs do is they get here and they get in a hurry and they turn first and it throws them up on their toes.

The club goes either across, we pull it left, or I stand up and I block it right. Remember, guys, it’s a very simple process. Go back, leave your right hip alone until you get your left leg to kind of set. Feel like you’re sitting a little bit here. Now, the best way to create a feel for that… is to grab a couple of weights. For ladies, 3 pounds is great. For men, 4 pounds. And for juniors, even go like 2 pounds apiece here. Take your setup. Feel your balance here. Simply turn back and swing the weights back.

The key in the downswing is let the right hip stay quiet here. Let the left one move so we feel like we’re kind of sitting. That creates a counterbalance ’cause the weights go down and out to the target here. I’m gonna maintain my balance all the way through the swing now. What we tend to see most amateurs do is they get here, they get in a hurry. They want to turn first so it throws them up on their toes. Then they come across it and pull it left, or I stand up and block it right. Remember, guys, learn how to make that little bit of a sit here. Keep that right hip back. Set the left hip and finish in balance. When you can do that, you’ll hit a ball much farther, much straighter.

If you need more help, just go see your local PGA pro, or go see Glenn Deck at Pelican Hill!

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Golf Tip: How to make Solid Contact

Golf Tip: How to make Solid Contact

Jun 30, 2017

“Solid contact, it’s probably the most desired feeling of impact  for any golfer.” Devan BoneBrake isn’t wrong in this video where he gives his best tips on how to get the most solid contact on a golf shot. In this golf tip Devan goes over an iron drill to help with solid contact, maximum compression and ideal and consistent distance. He will go over what to do in your golf swing to assure that your swing gives the most solid contact on a ball that you can get.

Most amature golfers struggle to hit the ball solid consistently, and it’s an important essential to an amateur’s golf game. Hitting the ball with a solid strike will assure a hard hitting shot down the middle of the fairway. Not only is solid contact synonymous with a great golfer and a great golf swing, but it is also very satisfying when on the course and can eliminate stress causing for a better mental game as well.

Devan will go over how the setup stance and the impact stance are two different things. He talks about the importance of maintaining the impact alignments through the ball and how these factors will help make your shots more consistent and make the club face more stable. In this in depth tip on how to make solid contact devan will walk you through his iron drill step by step to help get the satisfying feeling of solid contact.

Devan explains that this tip will help you hit the ball first and the ground second, which is an important fundamental in golf. If you utilize this drill Devan promises solid contact, more distance, and even better compression for your golf shots. If you want to get more tips from Devon, or want to find out more about him you can visit southerncalgolfacademy.com

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