Golf Swing Tip – How to Best Learn This Great Game of Golf – Take a Tip From the Past!

There is a golf swing tip for every department of the game. From driving to putting and everywhere in between, a “reliable” golf swing tip you are sure to find.

Most likely, a golf swing tip you’ve heard is either a watered down or distorted version of the original, past on from generation to generation. But no matter, this “oral tradition” is truly great, helping to advance both the player and the game.

The fact that golfers are willing to entertain a golf swing tip is a testament to the respect and admiration they have for the previous generation’s knowledge and experience.

In the book, “The Winning Touch in Golf, A Psychological Approach” author Peter G. Cranford, Ph.D. offers a worthy golf swing tip of his own. Cranford discusses the value of leveraging the wisdom of golfers past to help accelerate your mastering of the game.

Cranford writes;

“A great deal of time can be saved if we absorb what is already ‘pretty well known about the game. Each generation of golfers is better than the preceding one because use is made of the experiences of those who have come before us. Hence the individual can speed up their mastery of the game by sticking close to present orthodox form. A description of this form is the stock in trade of the professionals, and should be acquired from them. It is true that there are good golfers who profess never to have taken a lesson, but most of these have been good imitators. Further, there are hundreds of thousands who have not taken lessons who are still duffers, and thus are not in a position to boast. There is no greater frustration in golf than to find out, ten years too late, that a golfing flaw could have easily been corrected by a competent professional. All would be well advised to seek the services of one, and to stick to them until what they had to teach had been absorbed. This does not mean that many lessons should be taken ad infinitum. Fewer lessons, spaced so that ample time is allowed for the learning to sink in, is the better way.

In addition, it is an excellent idea to obtain all the visual instruction one can. This can come from a study of still pictures, or films, or from observing professional golfers, particularly when they are practicing. Written instruction from golf books and magazines is also valuable, provided it is followed by the objective observation of your professional. Otherwise, a misconception of what the author intended will bring about a confusion in your golf learning. It has taken golf 500 years to develop the modern grip, stance, and swing. It is the height of folly not to take advantage of these discoveries.

In the early stages of lesson taking, it is advisable to spread the instruction time over many parts of the game. If, for instance, you had the good fortune to be able to take a series of lessons from someone of the calibre of Arnold Palmer, it would be best to obtain instruction in all broad aspects of the game, such as might be obtained from a playing lesson. Generally speaking, it has been found that learning is tied together much better if one goes through the whole process than if they learn it piece by piece. This should be followed up with considerable practice before the next lesson. By “considerable,” we would mean at least a thousand shots each for woods, irons, chips, and putts“.

A golf swing tip is a product of all the experiments, fortune and misfortunes of golfers past. Leverage the previous generation’s wisdom to help accelerate your golfing success.

Remember to keep Cranford’s advice in mind next time you’re approached with a golf swing tip!

Check back soon for more golf swing tip articles and posts!

Golf Swing Tip – WARNING: When Used Incorrectly, a Golf Swing Tip Can Be Harmful to Your Game!

Think about a recent golf swing tip you received. Did it contribute to, or detract from your overall swing performance?

A golf swing tip can be tremendously helpful to a golfer if it is employed correctly. Many times a golf swing tip is wrongly placed in the golfers swing ritual DURING game play.

Golfers need to understand a golf swing tip should NEVER be used to guide the muscles during swing execution in course play.

In the book, “The Winning Touch in Golf, A Psychological Approach” author Peter G. Cranford Ph.D. explains the best method with which to successfully incorporate a golf swing tip into your game.

Cranford writes;

“We have emphasized the need for conscious thinking, but a great deal of golf is played subconsciously. The upper levels of thought do not have a great deal to do with the actual execution of the shot. The chief functions of upper-level thought should be used prior to hitting. Brains make themselves felt more in learning the most effective methods of practice than in guiding an infinity of muscles through a detailed conscious maneuver of final execution.

To use an illustration from music, the greatness of pianist Vladimir Horowitz is not a brilliant interpretation rendered before thousands in Carnegie Hall. Horowitz achieved greatness by first intelligently riding herd on muscles and tendons hour after hour. When performance night came, the muscles and tendons did the work. Of course, Horowitz’ conscious mind focused on what he was doing. His thoughts were ahead of the music his fingers were playing for him. Yet even this thinking was not as conscious as one would suppose, for it had been practiced and, having been practiced, it took care of itself.

You cannot do too much thinking prior to the shot but you can do too much during its execution. Thinking that hasn’t been practiced out can very well introduce a variable and thus spoil the shot. What we have here is really “experimental” thinking, which has the same type of “bugs” as the experimental shot.

Ralph Guldahl’s decline as a golfer has been attributed to too much thinking. When he was at the peak of his golfing powers, he was asked to write a book about the technique of the game. In his hotel room, he would write awhile, then pick up a club, check his grip, stance, and elbow position, and write some more. By the time he finished his book, he confessed that he had developed such an acute consciousness of the process of hitting the ball that he had lost his touch. We are reminded of the old story as to how Santa Claus developed insomnia. Someone asked him if he slept with his beard under or over the blanket.

Snead has advocated avoiding thinking. Betsy Rawls, who has a degree in physics, states that she leaves tournament shots to be taken care of by the subconscious. Bob Jones seems to have summed it up best, years ago, when he said that he limited his concentration to the very last improvement he had incorporated into his swing.

The question of thinking or not thinking has intrigued me for some years, and when I was trying to solve the problem, I tried an experiment worth reporting. I had concluded that I was not leaving enough of the execution of the shot to the subconscious. I thought, “Well, I’ll crowd out golf thinking with extraneous thinking.” I finally hit on the idea of singing during the execution of the shot. Late one afternoon, I went to the Northside course in Austin, Texas, and during each shot I sang “Home on the Range.” My caddy laughed, until I started to play! I came in with 32—my best nine-hole score to that time!

I could not wait to get back to the course the following afternoon after work. Score—42. The trouble, I decided, was that I had learned the song so well I could sing it and worry about the execution of the shot at the same time!

To sum up: thinking that involves the actual execution of the shot should be done in practice. The actual golf management and thinking that goes on in the planning of shots cannot be overdone during play“.

Now golfers can better understand how to successfully incorporate a golf swing tip into their game!

Try applying Cranford’s advice to the next golf swing tip you receive!

Check back soon for more golf swing tip articles and posts!

Golf Swing Tip – “Show Me Your Golfing Friends and I’ll Show You Your…Golf Swing?!”

The value of a golf swing tip is only as good as the source who supplies it.

Chances are a golf swing tip your currently employing came from someone with whom you play. So the old wise saying holds true, “show me your golfing friends and I’ll show you…your golf swing?!”

Simply put, who you choose to play golf with will heavily influence the attitude, interest, and development of your golf game!

Golfing authority Peter G. Cranford Ph.D. believes in order to play your best golf it “is not wise to leave golfing friends to chance”.

In his book, “The Winning Touch in Golf, A Psychological Approach” Cranford provides a valuable golf swing tip – how to get the “maximum satisfaction” and performance out of your golf game by carefully selecting the group with which you play.

Cranford writes;

“An enduring method of obtaining maximum satisfaction out of golfing, which in turn creates maximum interest, is to have your own golf crowd. Some people are emotionally unable to “get up a game,” and very often their interest dies out because of false ideas of rejection—a sort of self-pity that develops because they are not always invited to play.

It is not wise to leave golfing friends to chance. They should be deliberately sought. The pleasures of golf, like happiness, are not created merely because we wish them to appear. Then once the crowd is organized, or you become part of one, the persons in it should become more important than the game. They will be quick to sense such an attitude, and the mutual respect that develops is one of the more rewarding aspects of golf. This respect has a tendency to turn into friendships which seem to be much closer and longer-lasting than those in other fields. It is not unusual for foursomes to maintain their ties for more than a quarter of a century. One golfing crowd at the Augusta Country Club known as the “Big Crowd” has a history older than the golfing span of its oldest members—and is still going strong. Their knowledge of each other is so intimate that golf occurrences of apparently slight significance produce banter comparable to well-liquored family reunions.

A further advantage of having one’s own crowd is the opportunity it affords for stimulating competition. Interest is developed most when the competition is greatest and the odds are fairest. By betting on the outcome, you will enjoy winning and hate losing. This will help to goad you into a desire for improvement. There is no moral problem involved in reasonable betting, since over a period of time the amount won and lost will be about the same.
It is advantageous to belong to more than one group and, if possible, to a group on another course. This lends variety to play, and variety will prevent your interest from dying out. The maintenance of this interest is necessary not only for your golf, but also to satisfy your requirements for varied recreation.

People of approximately equal ability will tend to gravitate toward each other, so that the problem of whom to play presents no great difficulties. As a golfer becomes better, their circle of golfing friends tends to become limited to good players. This has some dangers, since the pressure is to play with them more than with good companions. If one plays with only those in their class they will find that the game loses much of its pleasures, which can lead to a loss of interest. Personally, I prefer good personalities to good golfers, and many of my most enjoyable rounds have been played with relative “dubs.” The ideal is to find the best combination available but, when in doubt, settle for companionship. You can always spot the opposition enough to make an even match.

However, regular playing with good golfers is advantageous for the development of good form. We have seen this occur as an outcome of play on the modern golf circuit. Professional golf has added a great deal to our knowledge of the game because of the rapid exchange of information between experts. It is a similar condition which produces the quickest advances in the scientific field. Without scientific journals and scientific conventions, progress is very slow and difficult. We now have a condition in which golf experts are in a permanent “convention,” and the successful secrets of one soon become the open property of all. To a more limited degree this occurs in smaller amateur groups such as the “steady” foursomes, and play is thereby improved. In addition, obvious deviations of form can be spotted by other members of the group more easily than one can spot them in themselves.”

Learning to carefully design a golfing group that takes your game to its next level is one golf swing tip worth taking!

Before committing to a tee time, make sure the group you’re playing with meets all of Cranford’s criteria!

Check back for more golf swing tip articles and posts!

Beginner Golf Swing Instruction – Are Your Golf Clubs the Best Fit for Both You and Your Golf Game?

Beginner golf swing instruction programs understand having the right tools makes learning and playing golf much more enjoyable.

It is a fact that student golfers can get more out of their beginner golf swing instruction if they are taught using correctly fitted clubs.

Beginner golf swing instruction programs offer their students some general advice and direction on purchasing a proper set of clubs. However, to learn what golf clubs provide the best personal choice and fit, student golfers need to perform further research.

Although an entire how to book could be written on proper club selection, fitting and purchase, a little information from an expert can go a long way in guiding you through your next golf club investment.

In the book, “How to Master the Irons, An Illustrated Guide to Better Golf”, authors Gene Littler and Don Collett offer valuable advice on how to go about choosing a proper set of golf clubs.

They write;

“Selecting the proper equipment is a big step toward playing better golf. This phase of golf is so often overlooked that I feel impelled to discuss it here at length, not only to clear up certain misconceptions concerning golf clubs, but to point out how important it is to have clubs that fit you and your swing.

There Is A Difference In Clubs

To the layperson, a golf club is a golf club. They all look alike. This is true to a point, but don’t let this similarity of appearance fool you. As any experienced golfer will tell you, there is a difference in golf clubs, just as there is a physical difference in the individuals who swing them.

Since no two golfers swing alike, it might seem that almost all players would require clubs made to order, to compensate for these individual differences. This, of course, is not true. What is necessary is a good, balanced set of clubs that have been selected by the golfer with the help and counsel of an experienced professional.

Always remember, it is entirely possible to have good equipment and still not have a correct, fitting set of clubs. You must fit the golf clubs to you and your swing, not yourself to the clubs.

So many golfers in their haste to get out and play make a hasty purchase and then, upon learning more about the game and the importance of having properly fitted clubs, find they must buy another set.

Find A Set To Fit You

MEASURING UP. The golf clubs of today are far different from what they were some 30 years ago. Improved club design, which have given clubs better balance and feel, are among the major reasons for the improved play of all golfers, particularly the professsionals.

Factory-made clubs are now fairly standardized and are designed to fit almost every golfer. Unless you are extremely tall or short, a factory set should suit your needs, for clubs don’t vary too much from standard specifications. In any case, don’t purchase a new set of clubs haphazardly.

SHAFT FLEXIBILITY AND SWING WEIGHT. The speed of your swing will determine the flexibility of your shaft and the swing weight of the clubhead.

If you are rather strong, the shaft should be on the stiff side with the swing weight a little heavier than medium. Conversely, if you are not so strong, it would be best to use a more flexible shaft with a lighter swing weight. Shafts come in several different flexes and different weights.

Generally, the dividing point for swing weight is D-3. Anything under that is getting on the light side, and anything over D-3 becomes correspondingly heavier as the number increases. In other words, a driver that has a swing weight of D-7 would be too heavy for the average golfer. It would be better for them to use a medium-stiff shaft with a swing weight between DO and D-4.

Women’s clubs are usually swing-weighted from C-5 to D-0. The shafts in their clubs are more flexible than men’s, and they are also lighter. The medium swing weight for them would be C-7 to C-8.

The swing weight is not as important as the shaft and the over-all dead weight of the club. To prove this, all you have to do is perform the following test: Take two one-dollar bills (or any other denomination), and, after putting your club on the swing-weight instrument in your pro shop, fold the bills over the shaft near the clubhead. The weight of these two paper bills will change the swing weight approximately one point!

If the weight of two paper bills can change the swing weight of a club, you shouldn’t concern yourself too much about swing weights. Instead, make sure you have the right shaft in your clubs. A good, matched set of clubs, according to manufacturers, can vary up to three or four points and still be a good set.

LENGTH AND LIE OF CLUBS. Golf clubs are usually made up in three different lies: flat, medium, and upright. The standard-length driver is 43 inches, and the two-iron, the longest iron club, is 382 inches long. The length and lie of clubs are determined by the distance the hands are from the ground. This hands-to-ground measurement will usually not vary more than 2 or 3 inches from a tall to a short person. Thus, it is not uncommon to have a golfer of medium height using the same length and lie as a taller player because their hands-to-ground measurements are the same.

Generally speaking, the great majority of golfers can use standard-length clubs with a medium lie. If you are a rather short or tall person, you may require a special set. Here again, it would be wise to consult an experienced professional. You will find it to be time well spent in the long run.”

Beginner golf swing instruction programs should teach their students how to go about finding and purchasing a correctly fitted set of golf clubs.

Although volumes of information on purchasing golf clubs can be found in books and on-line, following the expert advice of Littler and Collett could make your next golf club investment your best yet!

Check back soon for more beginner golf swing instruction tips and posts!

Could The Pro Golfer Tiger Woods Eliminated This Year?

Tiger Woods’s dominance in the world of professional golf in the past five years could be evicted this year. This belief is expressed British golfers. They see the points that have been collected will be increasingly eroded due to Tiger rarely appear on the golf course this season. Tiger was ranked first for 258 weeks. But lately he has not played a long time due to the sex scandal case uncovered last year.

After returning to the golf course, now there is new issue on his neck injury. This season series Tiger only appearing in three PGA Tour. Last April he began his comeback in major U.S. Masters tournament. The results quite satisfying because he was in the group of golfers who are ranked fourth and reached 330 thousand dollar prize. After performing at the U.S. Masters, Tiger back to playing at Quail Hollow Championship earlier this month. The result is very disappointing because he did not pass the cut off and could only survive in the second round.

His last appearance was at the Players Championship. Tiger resigned in the last round with a neck injury reasons. Tiger is still leading in the first world ranking with 431,52 points total, . Compatriot Phil Mickelson is second with 409,95 points total, and British golfers, Lee Westwood, in third place with 392.99 points total.

Affiliate Policy: Due to recent laws www.golfswingstip.com is considered an advertisement. www.golfswingstip.com has an affiliate relationship with all the products and services discussed/displayed on this site and accepts/receives compensation and/or commissions on all sales, leads and traffic made when visitors click an affiliate link. If you have any questions regarding our earning disclaimer please contact us: golfpro@golfswingstip.com