Driving Range ? Why You Might Be Wasting Your Time At The Driving Range

The best place to practice your swing and learn how to make contact with the ball is at the local driving range. You can hit as many balls as you want, for as long as you want, most any day of the week.

Your local driving range is the ideal place to fix any problems you are having with your swing, whether the issue is slicing the ball too much, creating a hook shot, or any other common problem that most beginner golfers face.

Make Every Shot Count

In order to play decent on the golf course it is necessary to take full advantage of the driving range. But taking advantage has a different meaning to each person.

Countless times at the driving range I see both men and women knocking every ball into the air at the speed of machine gun. They hit one after another without pausing to focus their mind, or work on technique. It's better to go for quality instead of quantity.

Pretend you're actually on the course and playing a real game of golf. Take your time and use your mind to focus and think about each part of your swing. When the ball is airborne, watch where it goes and how far travels. This will tell you much-needed information on the mechanics of your swing, and how to fix any problems.

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Golf Clubs ? Is It Time To Upgrade To A New Set Of Golf Clubs?

Once beginner golfers have spent plenty of time learning the fundamentals of the game and sticking to the basics for a least one year or more, getting their short game skills down pat, and seeing their scores start to dip down into the 80s, the next step is to consider changing up your golf clubs.

Up until this point you should have been playing with the same set of golf clubs since the beginning stages of your game. The reason behind this advice is so that your time has been spent figuring out your personal and unique style, of which would be hard to learn by changing golf clubs too often.

Investing In A New Driver

Now that you are a bit more advanced, you should be moving on to new clubs so as not to hold back your progress. Investing into a new driver should be your first consideration. In fact, if you have only been playing for the last 12 months or so, you may not even have a driver. Many new golfers do just fine by teeing off with a fairway wood because the wood tends to be easier and provide the best accuracy for the beginner.

Whether or not you have gone this entire time without a driver, or are simply upgrading from your old one, expect to pay a good chunk of change. Drivers are not cheap. In fact, reliable brand-name drivers can cost you $500 or more!

Titanium Clubs

Spending over $500 for a driver may sound ridiculous at this point in time, especially since most of us consider that all our clubs combined should cost $500 or less, however, a good driver is worth the price tag because it is made out of high quality, first-rate material. Most top-dollar drivers, and other clubs, have heads that are made almost totally from titanium.

Titanium is an amazing metal that is actually stronger than steel, but weighs far less. Titanium is extremely expensive and so is the technology needed to break it down and build it as the head of a driver.

These types of clubs are used by professionals all over the world. Titanium club heads are not only lighter to handle than wood or steel, they are also built larger, which offers a bigger sweet spot on the club face, which as you know gives you a better chance for the ball to make contact as efficiently as possible.

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Flagstick ? When Is The Best Time Remove The Flagstick From A Hole?

The official rules of golf state that when playing your shots from the green, you have to make an important decision regarding the flagstick. You have to decide whether you would like to remove the pin from a hole or leave it in and have your golf partner or caddie watch over it.

This may not seem like a hard decision, but what happens when you have to play a very short shot, what should you do? There is no right or wrong answer to this question, however there are definitely pros and cons to making each choice. Here are a few scenarios to help you make an informed decision about whether or not to remove the flagstick when the time comes:

Pulling The Flagstick

Pros: The benefit of removing the flagstick is that you totally clear the pathway of the hole so that the ball can make it inside without any obstructions getting in the way. When the pin is removed, there is no worry about the ball bouncing against the flagstick and back out of the hole, which can be very upsetting to watch.

Cons: If you just made a shot and the ball is heading directly for the hole, but is moving too fast, it now has an opportunity to roll right over, skipping the hole entirely.

Keeping The Flagstick Inside

Pros: If you decide to keep the flagstick in the hole, it can serve a good purpose by blocking a ball which is traveling at high speeds. Also, you may even sink the ball into the hole as a result of the pin remaining inside, due to it stopping the ball from passing over so fast.

Cons: If you do not remove the flagstick, it may prevent the ball from falling into the hole. It may bounce right off of the pin and depending upon the terrain of the green, especially if it is downhill from the hole, the ball may roll far away from the intended target.

Last Minute Tip: As we stated earlier, there is no hard and fast rule to making the decision of whether or not to remove the flagstick. We have given you some sensible pros and cons when it comes to the flagstick, but you must also keep stock of other variables on the course you are playing on. Take note of the green. You may want to leave the flagstick in the hole when hitting the ball on a downhill slope, or leave the pin in if you are making a shot up hill towards the hole.

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