One of the most important fundamentals when trying to become a consistent ball striker is maintaining your spine angle throughout the golf swing. Many golfers, especially beginners, struggle with this without even realising it. When the spine angle changes during the swing, it becomes very difficult to return the club back to the ball consistently, which leads to poor contact and inconsistent shots. The main cause of losing your spine angle is what we call “early extension.”

Many golfers would have been on the edge of their seat watching Rory McIlroy’s final hole in a major championship, wondering whether he could finish the round successfully and secure another major victory. On the last hole, Rory’s tee shot drifted well to the right, forcing him to make an important decision for his second shot. From a coaching perspective — and something we regularly teach in golf lessons on the Gold Coast — this is a perfect example of course management unde

When you first play golf, it might feel overwhelming trying to understand which clubs to use in what scenario. If you have a full set and you head to the first tee, you may also feel pressure using clubs that seem intimidating to swing. This is definitely the case particularly if you're playing with someone who is quite experienced. One of the most important things to remember when you are beginning to play, is only uses clubs that you feel confident with swinging. Theref

Once you understand that you need to turn in the swing, the next question is 'how do you turn'? Most golfers do in fact turn in their swing, however most beginner and intermediate golfers find it hard to turn correctly. This is for two reasons: firstly a misunderstanding of what makes a good turn and secondly once you understand how to turn, being able to have your body make the movement seamlessly. Now the first aspect to understand when trying to turn correctly is that th

Bunker shots can appear to be one of the hardest shots in golf as a beginner. However, once you understand the set-up differences, it becomes like any other shot. I would though, before placing a lot of practice time in the bunkers, ensure your basic swing is reasonably competent. This is why when receiving lessons, the coach will tend to save hitting bunker shots after the student has had a few lessons. The reason being is that when adding the sand element, you want to m

When beginning golf, it can be sometimes hard to know what clubs to use when the ball is close to the green. What most people do if not given professional advice, is grab the PW. This of course is fine if you have plenty of green to work with or you're particularly confident with this club. However, most people use the PW far too often (particularly when they're just off the green) where if they chose a simpler club such as a Putter, they would yield better results. One of

If you ask any elite golfer what kind of shot shape they hit, very rarely will they say straight. Nearly every golfer will always say they play a little fade or a little draw. The reason for this, is that hitting it straight is the hardest shot in golf. Most beginner golfers will struggle with the slice and therefore will have the goal of playing a draw whereas the advanced player typically wants to play a fade in fear of becoming 'stuck' (too inside on the downswing). Whe

When first commencing golf, it can be quite overwhelming when trying to learn the fundamentals. One of the big keys is learning how far to stand from the ball. Standing at the correct distance from the ball is one of the most understated components of the set-up as it can have a great influence over your ball striking. Once you learn the correct distance along with the ideal spine tilt, you will find that your ball striking will dramatically improve. One of the biggest iss

When a student first learns how to play golf, I will often have them pause at the end of their swing. I do this as I want them to analyse where they are at the completion of the swing so they can learn whether they've finished correctly. Installing the correct finish position is an important first step when learning golf as how you finish will often tell the story of the shot. The correct finish position is defined as having 100% of weight on the front as well having the b

When you do go on your journey of improving your technique, one of the best ways is to use a mirror to ensure what you're feeling is actually what's occurring. We've all been there where we think we're practicing the right swing motions however once the swing is placed on camera, it can look vastly different. The reality also with golf is that it doesn't necessarily reward constant practice for improvement, it relies on doing the right things suited for your game. Therefor

When you're first commencing golf, there can be a lot of overwhelming information to navigate through which can make it confusing when deciding what technical aspect to work on first. The first part of becoming a better golf is obviously learning the basic fundamentals. This comprises of the set-up, alignment, ball position, grip and posture. The next element, which will dramatically improve your game, is how the clubface rotates through the swing. When you don't have any

'Topping' is a certain shot that can definitely debilitate your game, particularly when using a fairway wood. The cause of this shot is from three main areas: head stability, weight transfer and wrist angles. If you find that the cause is a combination of all three areas and you have a game just around the corner, trying to fix all three, is nearly impossible. Therefore, I would focus on the two that's most prevalent which is typically head stability and weight transfer.

One of the most common ways to start your swing, particularly as advanced golfers, is pre-setting your first position. You will see the likes of Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler all pre-setting their first position as a trigger to starting their swing. Starting your swing without any movement of the body or arms is in fact quite rare at the top level. This is because golf, unlike other sports, starts at a stationary position, meaning you need to exert force

The mental side of golf can often be a forgotten aspect when trying to improve your golf game. It is true that the most important element of being a better golfer when first commencing, is the technical side. However, once you start being somewhat competent in your golf game, the mental side will become more prevalent. The mental side, I like to describe, is the 'icing' on top. Meaning perfecting your technique will only take you so far, improving your mental side will m

After getting a lesson, it may be hard to know whether you should apply these swing changes straight away on the course. This really does come down to how much practice you intend to do before the game. If you are someone who finds it hard to find the time to practice and the game is just around the corner, I would include a single element of the change. If you are someone who is able to practice two to three times before the game, I would adopt more of the swing changes w

Now once you've learnt the basics of swinging the club, you'll soon learn how to shape shots. It's actually a lot easier than you would think. The two shots that are available to you when shaping shots are draws and fades. To be honest these shots once learnt, are actually easier than hitting straight shots. There are two methods used commonly when executing these shots with one being dependant on body position and the other on clubface. The traditional method is where yo

The biggest reason people come in for lessons is to stop the slice. This is because the majority of people who come in for lessons are beginner to intermediate level. The reason why most people slice when developing their game is simply because we grip the club with our hands, therefore activating muscles in the upper half before we swing. This in turn leads to most people being too upper half dominant through the swing and hence throwing the club away from the body on the

Once you've developed your game up to an intermediate standard, you might be asking yourself what you can do to move to the elite level. First of all if you're not seeing a coach, I would recommend doing this as a starter to ensure you're applying the correct swing drills suited for your game. Secondly and critically, you must be excellent in being able to control your low point on a consistent basis. The first step in controlling low point is understanding how the body mov

To chip well consistently off any lie, the first step is understanding how to execute the basic chip. Once you understand the basic chip, you can then apply the same technique with some small additions (change of set-up, ball position or wrist angles) when confronted with different lies, The keys to be able to chip consistently can be broken into four key areas: set-up, swing path, arm and body connection and lastly tempo. Now the first step to get right is the set-up. We w

Being 'stuck' is quite the buzz word at the moment. It simply means that the club stays behind the body for too long leading into impact resulting in 'push' shots to the right or 'hook' shots to the left (Opposite for a left hander). This issue mainly affects more advanced players as they will tend to consciously flatten their downswing so they can strike more from the inside of the ball. To overcome being 'stuck', it will come from mastering two areas. These being sequenc