"Approach Shots: What it takes to master them".

Basically, your approach shot is your shot onto the green. One of the things I like to say is this, "You know your game is improving when you start fixing more ball marks on the green" - most likely meaning that you hit it on your approach, which is your objective.

Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind, and then we'll get to the heart of this article.

* Aim for the middle of the green, not the flag. Pin placements and greens are getting tougher to stick all the time. Don't be a sucker and go for a pin that you'll most likely miss, which will leave you in a bunker or some other position which will add strokes to your round.
* Focus on alignment, not distance.

As you know, it's not an easy task to master the approach shot, but there are some ways in which you can drastically improve the accuracy of the shot. Alignment is the key to improving your approach shots. Most golfers don't practice their alignment too much on the practice range, but they should.


Think about this for a minute. Generally, when you miss the green it is due to alignment, not distance. Chances are, you have your 160 yard club, 150, 140, 130, etc...

And if you hit a less than perfect shot, the ball may go a little further or a little shorter. But even if that happens, most greens are deep enough that you should be on the putting surface if you have selected the club that would leave you in the center of the green.

But...alignment is another story. If you pull the ball, more times than most you really pull the ball, correct?

When your alignment is off, it's usually off by much more than 5-10 yards!

And if you push the ball, you generally are pushing it for much of the round, correct? Bunkers, water, and uneven lies are the obstacles you face.

How are you supposed to compete? The answer is simple. Practice your alignment.

Take your home course for example. I would be willing to bet there's somewhere in the ball park of a 160-yard par 3 on the course. Now picture that hole. What happens if you're 5-10 yards deep or shallow? You're probably still okay, right?

But what happens if you go right or left? That shot, more than likely, has trouble written all over it.

Summary:
Go to the range, and practice your alignment. Always hit to a target. The Simple Golf Swing makes staying down the middle easy, and in a few weeks, I'll be releasing a new tool that will make it much easier on you to work on your alignment. It's a pretty simple device really, but the package is really geared towards improving the alignment for every type of shot. Putting, approach shots, and drives.

Diablo Edge Irons The longest stainless steel irons we’ve ever created. The Diablo Edge irons provide increased distance without compromising feel or performance. The lower, deeper center of gravity (CG) makes the sweet spot more accessible and is in line with where amateurs most commonly hit the ball on the clubface, generating longer, consistent distance and improved accuracy. Maximized Distance: A lower, deeper CG is designed to make the sweet spot more accessible at lower impact locations. This generates longer, more consistent distance and improves accuracy for more greens in regulation. Set Options: Get more distance through the entire bag by opting for matched hybrids in the set where you begin to struggle with your irons. Solid Impact Sole: Delivering smooth turf interaction, the sole is designed to mitigate the effects of heavy and thin shots and improve the impact location on the face for greater distance. Enhanced Feel and Performance: Callaway Golf core technologies like VFT, S2H2, a 360-Degree Undercut Channel and Modified Tru-Bore work together to maximize distance, feel and playability.

Thanks for visiting...


Bill St. Onge
"The NAFTA Refugee"

The Pros And Cons Of Cavity Back Irons, for your Golf Swing

Whenever I talk about irons in my golf lessons, students invariably ask which style is best—cavity back or blade. The cavity back has its advantages and its disadvantages. It also has its fans.

Golfers, however, shouldn’t choose an iron style because it’s popular in the clubhouse, since the style many not fit their game. The key to iron styles, as I’ve said in my golf tips, is finding what’s right for you.

Cavity backs are popular these days—and for good reason. A cavity back has a small amount of metal removed from the back of its club face, producing a small hole. Removing the metal re-distributes the club head’s weight around the edges of the club face, father away from the center of gravity (COG).

Re-positioning the COG creates a much more forgiving iron, with a larger sweet spot along the blade. Thus, a mis-hit with a cavity back is more likely to stay on target than a similar shot with a blade. Why? Because the cavity back twists less in a player’s hand when the ball is mis-hit. A mis-hit with a cavity back is also more likely to travel farther than with a blade.

Cavity backs are “game improvement’’ clubs, offering special features that help golfers play better, like an oversize head. I’ve talked about these clubs in my golf tips. Players with high and mid golf handicaps prefer cavity backs, although some low handicappers and touring pros use them.

Blade irons are not as popular as cavity backs. A blade iron features a solid clubface back, distributing the weight more evenly across the clubface, closer to the clubhead’s COG. Thus, a blade has a much smaller sweet spot than a cavity back. A blade is also much less forgiving than a cavity back because it twists more in a player’s hands on mis-hits.

Distributing the weight evenly across the clubface, however, creates an iron with better control and more feel. These irons need to be hit nearly perfectly, though, to avoid a bad shot. Thus, it takes a lot of practice and experience to hit these irons well, something I work on in my golf lessons with low handicappers.

The blade iron is known as a more traditional iron because it lacks the cavity back’s special game improvement features. Players with low golf handicaps and touring pros prefer the blade style iron because the added control and feel enables them to shape their shots better—a necessity when playing on challenging courses.

Manufacturers make cavity backs and blades in cast and forged versions. The terms “cast” and “forged” refer to the manufacturing process used to form the iron head’s shape.

Casting turns the metal from which the iron head is made into a molten liquid, which is then poured into a mold to form the iron head. It’s then left to cool.

Forging involves pounding or compressing the metal, in it’s solid form, from which the iron head is made into the desired shape. Other machining and drilling steps complete production.

The manufacturing process has no impact on the iron’s capabilities, as I’ve explained in previous golf tips. If you have two irons, one forged and one cast, of exactly the same shape, with the same center of gravity, same loft, same grip, hitting the same ball, and so on, the shots will travel the same distances 99 percent of the time. And the players won’t know which iron head is cast and which forged.

You need to find the iron style that best fits your game, as I point out in my golf instruction. If you’re a less experienced golfer, the cavity back is probably a wiser choice, since you’re more likely to mis-hit a ball. If you’re a more experienced player, then a blade is probably your best choice, since it provides more control and better feel for shaping shots.

The best way of choosing a style that fits your needs is to test it out. Hit a few balls with each style. If one style feels better than another does, and you have confidence in it, that’s the style that’s right for you.

Diablo Edge Irons The longest stainless steel irons we’ve ever created. The Diablo Edge irons provide increased distance without compromising feel or performance. The lower, deeper center of gravity (CG) makes the sweet spot more accessible and is in line with where amateurs most commonly hit the ball on the clubface, generating longer, consistent distance and improved accuracy. Maximized Distance: A lower, deeper CG is designed to make the sweet spot more accessible at lower impact locations. This generates longer, more consistent distance and improves accuracy for more greens in regulation. Set Options: Get more distance through the entire bag by opting for matched hybrids in the set where you begin to struggle with your irons. Solid Impact Sole: Delivering smooth turf interaction, the sole is designed to mitigate the effects of heavy and thin shots and improve the impact location on the face for greater distance. Enhanced Feel and Performance: Callaway Golf core technologies like VFT, S2H2, a 360-Degree Undercut Channel and Modified Tru-Bore work together to maximize distance, feel and playability.

Thanks for visiting,


Bill Ong
"The NAFTA Refugee"

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