When addressing the ball, most PGA tour players bend forward approximately 36 degrees. The average golfer will usually set up with either too much or too little forward bend causing them to lift the upper body at the top of the swing and at impact. This almost always results in inconsistent shotmaking and bloated golf scores. Here are a few golf ball striking tips to keep those scores down.

Proper Shoulder Tilt

Proper shoulder tilt plays a huge role in golf ball striking and the overall golf swing. It’s major impact is on weight transfer during the swing. The average golfer will set up with level shoulders and no shoulder tilt. This will cause them to lean towards the target with their shoulders.

Most professional golfers will tilt their shoulders slight to the right when addressing the ball. This will help to position their body behind the ball at the right spot for an effective weight shift during the swing. Pay attention to your shoulder from the top of your swing, to ball impact. You want your spine to move farther to the right on your downswing. Ensuring your shoulders are tilted properly is one of the most important golf ball striking tips you can learn.

Increase Side Bend

When you are in the middle of your swing at your club is at the top, you want to try and increase your side bend. In order to increase your side bend, you want to tilt your upper torso slightly to the right by 10 degrees or more. It helps me to feel like I am moving the top of my spine away from the target than the bottom in the middle of your backswing.

As you start to bring your club down to strike the ball, you want to slowly move the top of your spine farther away from your target. Try and bend your spine about 20 degrees. This will position your right shoulder just under your left shoulder as you swing your club to strike the ball. This will help to ensure that your club is on the right path through your downswing, and helps to maximize clubhead speed. Practice the last two golf ball striking tips, and your golf game will really benefit.

What’s more exciting than a load of golf driving tips that are going to give you that extra length off the tee? I don’t know about you but I always love stepping up to the ball with confidence and ripping it 300 yards down the fairway, slap bank in the middle. You feel good, and you’re the last to play the next shot because you’re the closest to the green. Some would say that’s an advantage. It pays to drive it further as long as you keep it accurate!

Golf Driving Tip 1 – A nice firm base!

The driver is the biggest club in the bag and requires a more sweeping action to strike the ball off the tee. In order to give yourself a nice firm steady base to leverage your power you need to have a nice wide stance. Slightly wider than shoulder width is perfectly adequate and will allow you to really get the coil and the weight transfer going without losing your balance!

Gold Driving Tip 2 – Weight Transfer

This is key. If you get this wrong then you can kiss good bye to any chances of hitting a 300 hundred yard drive. With anything, if you want to put maximum force into a ball, you need to leverage the momentum and power of your body. That means throwing your body into the movement!

If you’re right handed, when you bring the club back, try and make sure you really feel your weight over your right leg (reverse this if you are left handed obviously) and then come through onto your front leg. Watch the swing sequences of the pro’s, you’ll see just how they use their weight to get maximum power!

Golf Driving Tip 3 – Massive Shoulder Turn

If you look at the powerhouses in modern golf, the likes of Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Jon Daly and so on, these guys all have a massive shoulder turn and coil themselves up in the backswing. This tension is key for getting as much power into and through the ball as possible. A lot of the professional golfers nowadays turn the shoulders way beyond 90 degrees. Get a full shoulder turn and make use of your power!

Golf Driving Tip 4 – Don’t rush the downswing!

I know you want to hit the ball absolutely miles so that you can carry the bunker at 250 yards down the fairway but rushing into the downswing isn’t going to help you get that extra yardage. The most important thing when trying to hit the ball a long way is technique and timing followed by club head speed. If your arms are swinging too far ahead of your body because you got carried away then you can expect a catastrophic slice, hook or duff shot that barely reaches 200 yards. Get the club to the top of the backswing, put it into the correct plane and then power through like you mean it!