An Expert Golf Tip for Golfers Over 50

The Internet is littered with so many articles promising to expose the secrets of success in golf. I’m sure at some point you have encountered titles like “Secrets to a Lower Golf Score” or “Golf Strategies Only the Pros Know”. While many programs provide some excellent content, you know as well as I that the odds of these tips changing your game overnight are slim to none…

What if there was a “secret” expert tip to a lower score, a strategy time tested that even the seasoned professionals employ every time they play? What if to use this “secret”, you didn’t have to change how you play golf at all? Here is the secret tip for playing a consistently strong game for golfers over 50:

Never Hit A Shot That You Have Not Yet Practiced

It seems so simple, and you might be thinking to yourself, “That’s it?” The truth is that following that incredibly simple piece of advice can prove pretty tricky. Think back to the last round you played and see if this scenario seems familiar:

Your shot off the first tee slices just a bit, plopping the ball down in between trees. You have the option to play it to the side and back to the fairway or launch a super-straight, low long iron shot through the trees. The second choice could put you right at the green, but there are a lot of obstacles and you aren’t very familiar both with the terrain and not very comfortable with your long iron. Because it can put you closer to the hole, you go for the second choice… and before you know it, you’ve started your round with a triple bogey or worse.

It might seem like you are adding extra strokes by playing it safe, but sticking with shots you are confident about will probably save you strokes, not to mention embarrassment, in the long run.

You wouldn’t bet your life savings on your first-ever hand in poker. You wouldn’t drop the steepest cliff on the mountain your first time skiing. In any activity you have to build up your skills comfortably through practice. You never want to introduce something brand new to your golf game in the middle of a round.

Stick to the shots you know you can execute when playing most games and especially in competition and use your practice time to expand your repertoire and try new shots. This is a sure fire way to lower your score and show dramatic improvement each and every time you play golf.

Golf Video Lessons for Senior Golfers

The Internet has completely changed the way we baby boomer golfers learn to play golf. With thousands of websites, articles and video golf lessons available at the click of a button, progression in golf has never come faster or easier. In fact, the amount of information available to golfers over 50 through the Internet is so vast it can be overwhelming. Here are some tips for how to find, interpret and utilize the video lessons found right here in the cyber-world.

The Right Lessons

If you were to type “golf lessons” into Google it would yield hundreds-of-thousands of results. Which “golf lessons” are worth your time? You want to make sure that the lessons you watch are backed by a professional golfer or better yet a professional golf instructor, and a good place to start is right here at Golf Over 50 with the featured video in the right column. We’ll feature videos that are specific to the golfer over 50, including fitness, swing technique, and golf improvement tips.

Another good place to look is the website of your favorite print golf magazine. Many magazines have taken their expertise to the worldwide web to encourage interactivity from their community of readers. Part of having these websites is the ability for magazines to take their old text-to-picture instruction sections and transfer the lessons to a much easier to understand video. Since the videos are backed by your favorite magazine, there is no question as to the quality of instruction presented. Golf Digest has an excellent resource that is worth checking out.

Sites such as YouTube are an awesome to place to find specific lessons. For example you could look for “chip shot golf” or “golf tee shots” to find videos on those specific aspects of your game. Be aware of who you take your advice from on YouTube. The best way to gauge an author’s credibility is to look at his rating, the comments presented on his videos and his overall collection of videos. Obviously, an author with two dozen five-star instructional videos is likely to know his or her stuff.

Utilizing Video Instruction

Simply watching a video, regardless of the quality of the instruction, is not going to do you much good on the course. You need to watch each video over and over again, making sure you pay attention… not just to what is being said either.

The true benefit of a video lesson lies beyond the verbal instruction. In fact, most people find such instruction to be somewhat distracting and confusing. You need to become a video analyzer with a precise eye for detail. Things such as shoulder alignment, stance width, grip position and ball placement are as important as the steps needed to execute the technique.

As you watch these videos make sure you are focusing on the demonstration more than what is being said. These video lessons are your chance to see an expert golfer execute the precise movements of golf. Each run through will put the image of the motions deeper into your psyche, and since visualization can overpower skill-level you might find the lessons stick better and you progress faster. Take the motions, all of the steps needed to put together a perfect technique, and try to describe them to yourself in your own words. The great thing about video lessons is that you can make them cater personally to you!

A final tip is to make sure you practice what you learn. If you can, download these videos and upload them to your iPod, Blackberry or other video-capable mobile device – then take them with you to your practice session. Remember, if you don’t practice any of the things you learn than you really haven’t “learned” anything.

Putt With Confidence

A good senior golfer can make any putt look simple…almost too simple, because in fact, mastering the art of putting can be very challenging. There are so many things to keep in mind when making a good putt that golfers can overlook vital steps or end up confusing themselves.

The most obvious example of this is concentrating too hard on your target. The point of putting is to get that ball in the hole and some golfers become so focused on setting up a good line that they forget to gauge the speed of their putt.

Your target line can easily hypnotize you into forgetting the little, but vital details that go into making a successful putt – especially on a green that is very contoured and a lot of break. You can simplify your putting and start putting with confidence using these two simple steps.

First You’ll Set Your Line

You first matter of business when you step up to your putt is to read the break. Taking into account the contours of the green, create an imaginary line that will be the ball’s path of travel. Now concentrate on a spot mid-distance between the ball and the hole, adjusting your aim based on this spot.

Always mark your ball and line up your putt from behind. When you’ve found your line and see the mid-point mark you’re lining up to, you can use a little trick that many good putters use. Take a line or wording on your golf ball and line them up towards your target spot. Now, when you are standing over your ball you only need to align to the line or wording on the golf ball and trust your line!

Now You Gauge Your Speed

Once you have determined your line, let it go. Clear your thoughts and focus your attention now on giving the ball enough speed to follow your line into the hole. Again, the contours of the green and where the ball breaks will play an enormous part on how much speed you will need.

Remember that target spot you created mid-distance between the ball and the hole? If you have a short putt, you can bring that point closer to you; if you are facing a longer putt that requires more power, move the spot further towards the hole. This is a great way to keep from over or under-powering your putts.

Breaking apart the putt into these two steps makes the process much easier, but you aren’t going to see those fantastic putts the pros make unless you practice, practice, practice! To become a master with your putter you are going to need to build your comfort and confidence with putting on any green from any distance, you are going to need to develop a natural sense of speed and distance which comes only from hours of practice on the putting green.

There is an excellent program to help you cut putts off your score. Most golfers putt between 33 and 40 times per round. Imagine cutting just 6-8 putts per round off of your score!

The program is called “Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed” and they offer a free report on “3 Days to Stop 3-Putting”. This is a very good program and I encourage you to check out their site and read more.

Chipping with Your 3 Wood

A chip shot is simply a way of getting the ball to roll from the fairway or light rough towards the hole. Many  golfers prefer a 7 or an 8-iron to execute their chip shots but there are times when you will want a little more power. Sometimes you want to put more power behind the ball than the blade of an iron can provide.

For such shots you might get better results from chipping with your 3 Wood.

The 3 Wood?

Sure. The 3 Wood is an ideal club for putting more power into the ball’s roll due to its loft. A standard 3 Wood will have a loft of around 15 degrees. The standard loft of a 4 iron is approximately 24 degrees; putters provide a loft of 5 to 6 degrees (and less). So, a 3 wood serves up the low flying shot of a 4 iron and a stronger, quicker hop than your putter will provide… the best of both worlds. The 3 Wood club head is also much heftier than your iron, which means less effort to send the ball further distances.

So what is the ideal chip shot to employ your 3 Wood? Here are few scenarios where chipping with a 3 Wood can achieve better results:

1. If the green is leveled above the ball (meaning you will need to chip up) a 3 Wood can provide the necessary acceleration. Any time where there is an incline or ridge present and an iron or putter shot might tempt the chip to go awry is a good time to break out your 3 Wood.

2. The 3 Wood is perfect on a nice, wide-open chip shot where you are staring right at the green. Since there is nothing in the way and it’s just a straight line to the pin, just swing away with 3 Wood for a rolling straight shot.

3. It can be dramatically harder to get an iron to behave when chipping from short cut grass or firm ground. While longer grass and softer terrain can compensate for minor discrepancies, trying to chip on hard ground with an iron means needing to make a more precise impact with the ball. Using your 3 Wood eliminates the need to be so precise and makes chipping from firmer ground that much easier.

When chipping with the 3 Wood, its important to choke down on the club and employ a putting-like stroke. Keep your wrists firm and be sure to follow through the ball instead of stabbing at it.

The chip shot is an extremely vital part of golf and one topic with a slew of various tips and techniques. To be a competitive senior golfer it pays to have an expansive repertoire of chipping methods that utilize your equipment to its full potential – and using your 3 Wood is one such method.

Smart Golf for Baby Boomers

Getting stuck at a certain point in golf can be infuriating. You try every exercise, every technique and nothing seems to work. You spend all of your time practicing to fix weak points but see almost no improvement. Sometimes the answer you are looking for lies in something very simple.

Here are small, simple tips to help baby boomers play smarter golf and overcome our sticking points:

Smart Putting: Long Range Warm-ups and Establishing A Rhythm

Many golfers make the mistake of concentrating only on the mechanics and essentially “rebuilding” their putt out on the practice green. Leave technical practice for after a round to work out inconsistencies.

Even with a proper warm-up it is likely that you will need the first few holes to get a feel for the course. This means you are likely to face long distance putts early on in the game. Take a few putts from 30 to 40 feet when you warm-up on the putting green.

When you are just practicing for the day or warming up for a round you want to focus first on setting rhythm for your putt. You want to concentrate on getting the ball to roll smoothly; this is done by making solid contact to the ball with your putter. Your goal is to get into a rhythm where your putt strikes the ball smoothly through the path of the club.

Smart Practice: Finding Your Swing

Have you ever hit a few practice shots that seemed to suffer from the same push or pull, and no matter what you did to fix it nothing seemed to alleviate the problem? The solution is as simple as just letting everything be.

Finding your swing isn’t about practicing until you hit perfectly, but understanding your tendencies for that day. If your ball is consistently hitting left, don’t approach every hole anxious and focused on making a perfect swing-that’s a good way to mess up. Rather you must be confident that your shots will go left and simply aim right. Work it out on the driving range after the round and play the shot that your body is giving you during the round.

Research the Holes

Researching the course’s holes is an important tactical strategy and one that is often overlooked. You wouldn’t make a move in chess without analyzing your opponents pieces; you can’t expect to walk blindly onto a course and par every hole.

Those course planners and yardage boards are like cheat sheets for a high school math exam. You want take into account everything from the yardage to hazards. Use this information to formulate a plan for how you want to play each hole. This way you can avoid undesirable lies or situations that could potentially cost you a stroke.

Playing smart is the only way to see unbounded success in golf. Use these strategies and tactics to analyze and overcome your weaknesses on the course as you progress to the next level of your game!

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