Welcome to the golf season

The first official day of spring is just three weeks away, so there’s no better time for Finding the Tips to return to its weekly format.

In my neck of the woods, we experienced real winter during the last couple of weeks. Nearly half a meter of snow fell, followed by cold, and then more snow. Then we got even more cold.

The last few days, though, have delivered above freezing temperatures. Snow is melting. I even caught a fleeting glimpse of someone’s lawn today.

All of that started me thinking about how we can all improve our golf games.

Throughout this winter, I’ve visited simulators regularly. That scratches my golf itch, but never really satisfies it. But when I decided to go back to the weekly schedule for Finding the Tips, I stopped feeling the itch and started getting excited about discovering great YouTube golf instruction.

I want you, the readers of Finding the Tips, to know that I want to find video instruction that will help your particular goals. Just reply to this email and let me know which part of your game you want to improve first. I’ll do my best to find tips that will work for you.

In this issue

• Getting through the ball

• Is your hook the new slice?

• Save strokes with this strategy

• Finding the Tips shorts

  • Dial in your putting

  • After a great drive

• This week’s playlist

Getting through the ball

Many of us have a hard time shifting our weight to the lead side in the downswing and keeping it there. Alistair Davies Golf gives us drills and instruction to help with that problem.

Get good at completing the forward weight shift and you’ll hit the ball farther and more on-target.

Is your hook the new slice?

When most of us started playing golf, we were plagued by a slice with our long clubs, particularly the driver.

We would see people who could draw the ball with swings smooth as silk. We wanted to be able to do that. Maybe we messed around with more in-to-out swing paths; with stronger grips; and with stances that were closed to the target line.

Maybe it even worked. Life was great. We’d figured out the game. Until the pretty little draw turned into a pull hook or a duck hook. Then we wished for the good old days when all we did was slice.

The folks at Athletic Motion Golf explain why you’re hooking and what you can do to fix it. While It’s nice to understand why you’re hitting the hook, it’s better to have drills that will solve it for you. That’s what this video delivers!

Save strokes with this strategy

Alex Elliott gets a lesson in how to score better from Europe’s leading golf performance coach, Karl Morris. He offers a simple, three-pronged approach to playing the game that will lower our scores.

Karl’s advice is simple and relatively easy to put in place.

First, identify a tee shot strategy that will allow you to hit more fairways. This may mean giving up some distance on some holes. But the game is much easier if you stay in the fairway.

Second, when you are selecting the club for your approach shot, use your GPS or rangefinder to get the distance to the back of the green. Select a club for that distance and aim at the middle of the green. If you hit it well, you’ll be on the green at the back. If you mishit it — as we are all wont to do — you may still be on the green.

Third, learn how to putt the ball with the right pace from distance. As you take practice strokes, focus your attention on the hole and less on the putting mechanics.

Put these strategies in play and watch your scores go down.

Finding the Tips shorts

Dial in your putting

Here’s a quick tip from Swing Quest Golf’s Peter Finch that will help you make more putts from six feet.

After a great drive

How often do you hit a great drive, leaving you just a short shot into the green. This video from the Professional Golf Advisor channel will help you hit a better approach.

Well, that last video may require a specialty club and a “special” relationship with the rules.

This week’s playlist

When I put together each issue of Finding the Tips, I create a playlist of YouTube videos from which I select what I think are the best three or four of the week.

Starting with this edition, I’m going to share that playlist with you. See if you agree with my selections.

Remember, Finding the Tips is here to find golf instruction videos that will help you play better golf. If you want to know how to hit a particular shot or solve a swing issue, reply to this email, tell me what you’re looking for and I’ll search YouTube to find something that will help.

And by the way, since I started drafting this newsletter, my neighbourhood received three inches of fresh snow with four inches forecast for this evening.

Listen closely to hear my heavy sigh.

The next edition of Finding the Tips will be hit your email on Friday, March 7.