Down with Golf scores

By Gary Balliet

Gary Balliet

PGA Golf Professional-Quarter Century Member

Certified Club Builder

Loco4Golf Resident Golf Guru

Are you the golf pro in your group?

Did you know there is a golfer who thinks he/she is a golf instructor in most every foursome played on courses around the country today? For example, let’s say the group is comprised of a 15 handicap golfer, 18 handicap, 20 handicap and a 24 handicapper. The best player becomes the “tip giver”; in this case it’s the 15 handicapper. He will often give little golf tips to his fellow competitors merely because he is the best player with added experience and that is how he swings.

Here is the problem, 90% of all swing changes are do mainly to errors in the set-up via way of needing to improve Grips, Alignment, Posture and Ball position. Golf swings cannot be changed, in a positive way, without first improving the set-up. The golf swing is taught second. Changing the golf swing first is like a horse pushing the cart rather than pulling the cart. Here are a couple of examples.

How to Grip a Golf Club

Proper Alignment

• Golfers that slice normally misalign and have a weak grip (set up problem)
  
• Golfers that tend to pull shots left and are unable to finish in balance have a posture problem (clubs may be too short or too long),another set up problem
  
  
•  Ball flights that go too low could be due to the lack of loft; I see 8 degree lofted drivers in the bag of 20 handicappers driving the ball less than 200 yards, they need a 12 degree and even a 14 degree lofted 1-wood, or ball position is too far back toward the trailing foot causing low ball flights.(another set up challenge)

In each case the cure to the swing fault is the way a golfer gets ready or sets-up properly in the area of grip, alignment, posture, and ball position. Are you pretending to be a golf instructor? Contact me if you want to make a significant swing change based on the basic fundamental principle in the set-up.

Gary Balliet

Quarter Century

PGA Golf Professional

602-931-0653

(40,000+ golf lessons given since 1980)