I need accuracy!

[mariner]

This is my main problem with the game at the moment, not enough GIR due to inaccuracy with short and mid irons and I'm wasting good tee shots by missing greens from 100-150 yards.
It seems I either pull straight left or block slightly right, and am having the most joy by thinking of swinging with my left arm, but have also tried Dave Pelz's "dead hands" swing with various degrees of success (although it's a short game thing really)
I'm 14hc and average 4-6 GIR a round but feel as if it should be double that.

[BrianW]

Re: I need accuracy!

Hi Mariner,

If your swing is OK you should look at your alignment and in particular your shoulders. You may be aligning your feet parallel left but not your shoulders.

[bill reed]

Re: I need accuracy!

hi
try taking a club more and swinging at 80% and not 100% it works for me, swinging to hard kills many a good swing.
best of luck
bill

[Martin Levac]

Re: I need accuracy!

Perhaps it's your tools that are out of adjustment? Check your clubs for lie and loft to make sure they are still right for you. If the lie if too flat or too upright, you may be tempted to adjust your swing to match the club's lie.

Perhaps you need more practice than what you do now? If you don't practice but only play, you will improve but very slowly. As you practice, your skill improves at a greater rate than if you only played.

You have problems with 100 to 150 yards shots? Practice using only those clubs for a while until you are confident that you can make those shots at will. I practice my 8i-7i more than any other club because those are the clubs I most frequently use on the course. I've become exceptionally accurate with my 8i for instance. For chipping, I practice with only one club so that when I'm faced with a difficult chip shot, I'm confident in my ability to use the club.

Here I make the distinction between practice and warm up, the two are not the same and serve different purposes. I warm up before I play a round of golf, I practice for hours on end. Practice is intended to improve skill while warming up is intended to reassure yourself of the skill you have. When I practice, I don't go out and play a round because I'm out of energy. Instead, I dedicate a whole day to practice when I do.

A drill to help you with practice.

Do half swing. Focus on the ball throughout even after it's gone down the range. More specifically, focus on the spot where the ball is/was as you strike it. Even more specifically, focus on the spot on the ball where you want to strike it. Resist looking up when you strike the ball. Focus on making proper contact with the ball, forget about everything else. If there's anything you do that hinders your efforts in making proper contact, don't do it. Repeat.

When you're done with the drill, aim for a target and send the ball to it. Repeat.

[msklar92]

Re: I need accuracy!

you can try this, half swing - on the follow through have everything facing the target - belly button, hands, club and face. you don't need to finish high.

[Sumosid]

Re: I need accuracy!

I have the same problem. I have practiced heaps and at the end of the day I seem to hit the ball the best when my grip is light and my swing is relaxed---getting this on every shot---hmmm still working on it. I am plagued with grip it and rip it....

[Martin Levac]

Re: I need accuracy!

I have the same problem. I have practiced heaps and at the end of the day I seem to hit the ball the best when my grip is light and my swing is relaxed---getting this on every shot---hmmm still working on it. I am plagued with grip it and rip it....

I get best results when my grip is tight and my swing is short. I can make a good shot every time after a while at the range. I go through a process of elimination of things that can go wrong when I practice. I can make the shot with the 8i every time on the course when I remember to do it as I practiced it. Do you mean that you are tempted to give it all you got? If so, read below.

There's production of speed and transmission of speed. Production of speed is the swing, transmission of speed is the stroke. The most important between the two is the stroke. For it serves nothing to produce great speed only to transmit half of it to the ball and crooked too. Once you realise how little power it requires to send the ball a great distance, you then focus on transmitting that power as precisely as you can.

As you practice making precise contact, you realise how much power you can transmit to the ball and conversely how much power you can lose by making poor contact. Any power used to twist the clubhead is power lost that could have been used to propel the ball otherwise. I realised that I was losing control of the club when I swung too long, too hard and as a result of that I made poor contact with obvious results. So, I shortened my swing to the greatest length without losing control. I got rid of any move I made that could reduce the potential precision such as turning too much so that my chin got caught on my shoulder. I appear very relaxed but in fact I'm tight and under control throughout.

To sum it up, maintain as much control over the club as you can throughout. Eliminate any move that can reduce potential precision. Keep only what allows you to make proper contact with the ball and subsequently send it to your target. With practice, you'll learn to trust that swing and eventually you'll become stronger with it as well.

[golfisquality2007]

Re: I need accuracy!

what i did was changing my grip. i moved my left hand round to the right a bit and same with the left!

try it, it worked for me

golfisquality2007

[Mcdougle]

Re: I need accuracy!

That was the same with me, i had some graphite shafted irons and then i decided to get new clubs as mine were not good enough any more. Now i have steel shafted mizuno blades and in my first 4 rounds i have doubled the number of greens i hit and now i hit about 10 or 11 a round, and i aint really used to them yet!

Its an expensive choice but it will help immensely as long as you get custom fit.