Golf is a game of ups and downs – one minute you are playing the game of your life and the next you can’t do a thing right. So how do you get consistency into your game of golf? The obvious answer is through practice, because most of us if we are being honest do not practice our golf game anywhere near enough.

OK I will help you out a little here; we all lead busy lives and find it difficult to spare the time for practice right? So if you can’t find the time to get to the golf range or practice ground at your local golf club, then you need to be better prepared when you do go to play your weekly game of golf.

I see it all the time, screeching tires into the car park grab the clubs and dash to the first tee and before you know where you are your handicap has been used after 6 holes. Ask yourself how many times you have played the back nine better than the front nine. The majority of golfers will say the back nine, and the simple reason being, they have warmed up by then and are playing at their normal pace and in control.

Here are a few tips to help your golf, without having to spend hours at the range.

1. Get to the golf course earlier than you would normally; give yourself an extra 20 minutes before you tee off. This will allow you to relax and organize yourself for the game ahead.

2. Use the extra time to stretch those golf muscles, use 2 clubs together and gently practice the movements in your golf swing, slowly building up to a full swing.

3. The few minutes you then have left should be spent on the practice putting green getting used to the speed of the greens for the day. If you can hit a few practice chips around the putting green all the better although a lot if not all golf clubs don’t allow it.

4. Make sure you arrive at the first tee 5 minutes before you are due to tee off, this will give you time to exchange cards with your partners, arrange terms of your game for the day etc and it will allow you to organize yourself and prepare for the first shot of the day.

Giving yourself the extra time to do this will get your round off to a good start and not the usual frantic dash to the first tee with stiff muscles trying to make a decent swing, then finding yourself off to the usual bad tee shot and resulting poor golf until you warm up and start to relax.

DON’T DO IT!

Do yourself and your golf game a huge favor by following this simple guide, giving yourself the best chance to enjoy those precious few hours on the golf course. You owe it to yourself to get the best out of your game of golf.

When you set up to hit your golf shot it is very important to go through a proper routine that allows us to set up to the ball properly. There are many movements that take place during a swing, and therefore harder to consistently repeat without a ton of practice. The set up position is something that is much easier to maintain because it is simply putting our body in the correct positions. They are static positions and therefore we should be able to repeat them almost every time. However, it is also imperative that we continuously review these positions so that we don’t form bad habits.

I intend to show you a strong pre-shot routine that will help you with your alignment and also give you the secret about the shoulders. I would recommend grabbing your favorite club so that you a follow along with the article.

The most common misconception that I have seen with regards to alignment is that most people are so concerned about setting up their body that they forget all about the club. A lot of people will set their body first and their club second, in relation to their body position. As you can see in the picture that usually leads to the body pointing to the target and club facing 30 yards to the right. If I make a good swing from here I am going to hit way right of my target…which I did. Therefore this is not the proper alignment for hitting to our target.

Often the best way to improve or golf game is to change the way we think. We are going to change the concept in which we set ourselves up to hit our shots. First and most importantly, place the club behind the ball wit the face pointing to the target. After all it is the ball that we want to go close to the flag, and it is the club that it is going to hit it there. So it is our club that we want pointing to the target. Not our body.

Once you have accomplished step one, it is now time to place your feet. If we think of a line that our club makes with the target then we want to place our feet parallel to that. This however is not an absolute. Some of the greatest players in history have played with stances that are not exactly parallel. Some have their feet open a little, pointing to the left, and some even have played a little closed, feet pointing to the right. However, we should never stray too far away from the parallel line.

The next piece is the secret…it is the shoulders. It is very important that the shoulders are parallel to the target line. A vast majority of sliced shots could be fixed with proper shoulder alignment. The most common fault is pointing the shoulders way left of the target line. The club will always follow the shoulders on the takeaway and backswing. Therefore, the club does not come straight back along the target line but instead goes way to the outside (the side away from the body). Unless we do some major manipulation on the way back to the golf ball (which is very difficult to do), we are going to hit a monster slice.

The easiest way to correct this is to check your shoulder alignment after you are set up. Stand up and take your left hand off the club. Extend that arm in line with your shoulders and see where they are pointing. If they are pointing way off to the left then turn your shoulders so that your hand and arm are parallel to your target line. See how my shoulders are now even with the target line, and now I can take the club back on the proper path.

It is very important that we do two things when we set up for a shot.

1. Put the club behind the ball pointing at your target before you put your body in place.

2. Check your shoulder alignment before you swing to give yourself the best opportunity to hit a great shot.