Finding the best way to play golf requires not only patience and time, but also a good strategy and a solid knowledge of yourself. If you want to improve, I recommend that you recognize your personal habits. When you learn to know yourself better, you develop in a sensible, logical and rational manner. 

Take a look at your ball flight

When you are observing the trajectory of your ball, your gaze will naturally be drawn to the path it takes. Your ball reaches a height, takes a direction and travels a distance. Because it’s fairly rare to see a perfect flight, focus on the element that’s the poorest or most lacking and on why your ball follows this trajectory. For example, if your ball doesn’t lift from the ground, take a look at the bottom of the arc of your swing, on the ground. 

Watch the club move

Take a practice swing, making sure that you graze the ground, and observe where the mark is. If you tend to top a ball, you’ll notice a mark on the ground on the wrong side of the ball, namely, on the right side if you’re right-handed, which means that you are making a low arc behind the ball. You want to hit the small ball before the big ball – the ball before the planet – in order to rub the ball against the ground. It’s this action that creates a backwards effect which in turn propels the ball upwards.

Feel your body

Take a swing without a ball and pay attention to the pressure under your feet. Under which foot do you feel the most pressure at the moment of impact? The majority of golfers have a tendency to transfer their body’s centre of gravity and so they feel the pressure under the right foot at the top of the backswing (right-handed golfers). Most have the annoying tendency to maintain this pressure during the downswing and to find themselves in a reversed pivot at the moment of impact.

Be aware of your mental game

Be aware of your intentions. If you’re planning on getting the club underneath the ball, don’t be surprised to find yourself with your weight on the wrong leg at the moment of impact, to see a mark on the ground behind the ball and to topspin most of your shots.

When we coordinate our intentions and the way we do things, golf becomes a game and we speak of creativity. In this way we reinvent ourselves with every swing, every shot, and we make progress.

By the same author: The rule of three (Click the image below)