Golf tip of the week
Women golfers need to focus on the short game One reader suggested that I do a column for female golfers; therefore I will spend this week’s column talking about a group of the most dedicated golfers in our area, women. It seems to me that there are several things that women can work on to make their golf game better. These suggestions can be helpful to everybody, but especially to women.
The first thing I would like to mention is the short game. Since most women do not hit the ball as far as they would like (neither do the men), the short game is incredibly important. I strongly suggest that women spend eighty percent of their practice time on the short game. Most women players I know are fairly consistent with their long shots, but their short games are lacking.
What women should do is to practice their short game with one ball and three clubs, the sand wedge, the seven iron and the putter. Put the ball around the practice green in different positions that you are likely to find yourself in during a round of golf. Pick whether you would chip with a seven iron or pitch with your sand iron. Hit the shot to your target and try to make the putt.
By using the one ball and holing out your practice ball, you are practicing exactly the way that you play golf. This will allow you to be comfortable to go ahead and hit the shots in practice that you will need to lower your scores in a round of golf. Another thing that one ball practicing gives you is increased confidence. By continually practicing in this fashion, you start to see rapid improvement in your skill and you will see decreasing scores.
A second thing that I would mention that would be beneficial to women golfers is charting your rounds of golf. What I mean by this is that you chart how many fairways you hit from the tee, how many greens you hit in regulation, how many times your short game lets you get up and down in two shots from close to the green and how many putts you took on each hole.
By writing this information down after your round of golf, you have hard data that lets you see what deficiencies are in your game. This gives you instantaneous feedback as to what areas of the game you need to spend the most amount of time practicing. Keep track of your statistics; the information you gain will be priceless.
One other thing I would mention for the ladies and that is to play as much as possible. No one person’s swing is perfect; so do not try to make it perfect. Take what you have, try to improve it, play with it. Have fun, keep track of your positives and negatives and fix the negatives. You will see that by paying attention to how you play will show you what to practice, and help you improve.
Rich Conwell is the PGA Head Golf Professional at Uniontown Country Club. Rich is an avid teacher of the game of golf and has developed numerous scholarship winners, one state champion and two regional/national event winners. Rich is also extremely proud of his work with beginning players and junior players. Rich Conwell’s column appears in Sunday editions of the Herald-Standard. Conwell may be contacted at richconwell@atlanticbb.net