Monthly Archives: October 2016

PUTTING, PUTTING and more PUTTING

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PUTTING – You might get tired of that word, but don’t ever get tired of doing it.  Get the ball in the hole is  the name of the game.  This is where your score goes lower the better you can roll it in.  I tell my students that if you spend 2 hours hitting balls on the range then you want 2 hours of short game practice; chipping/pitching/sand bunker.  AND THEN you want 2 hours of just putting.  This will make an outstanding golfer out of all of you.  I practiced this way.

If you’re not near to a practice green you can do it at home?  I always owned a 300 baht piece of carpet i bought at home pro 2 meters/2 meters.  Draw a straight marker line on it and simply use a small object like a shot glass for your target.   Start at 1′ then slowly move further away till you can hole everything from 2 meters.

This helps in many ways:

  1. Every putt on a golf course is straight, reading greens is another topic.
  2. Putting on a line helps you push the putter back straight and push it thru straight.
  3. You will start seeing the putt line on the greens more easily when you play.
  4. Big confidence will come with repeated practice.

Try it with just the left hand and then the right and see if you can keep the putter blade on the line.  I did this so many countless hours and i found where in my hands i had the tendency to push/pull or tweak the putter and then could correct it.

It’s such an easy and effective practice and you can listen to music or the TV or the nagging wife at the same time as you get your putting practice in.  Or complaining husband i should add.

Green Valley Golf Course

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Green Valley G.C. on Bangna Trad Hgwy south of the city has an awesome practice ground.  It is only about 30 mins from anywhere in Bkk.   Make a U turn at klm marker 16 and go back about 2 klm’s on the left.  It is on the same soi as ‘American School of Bangkok’ and well sign posted.

Here we have a range facing northish so no sun on the mats or in your eyes.  Hitting from grass is available and the practice balls are inexpensive.  There is a good putting/chipping/lob pitching green at the range and also a sand bunker to work both greenside and fairway bunker shots.

Friendly staff, cheap range balls, facility to work every golf shot and not far from the city makes this range excellent for a 1/2 or full days golf training.   It is also an excellent golf course and has a good restaurant.

Tee Off 42

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‘Tee Off 42’ is a good range inner city where I’ll work with a students swing since it is so easily accessible with the BTS between the Pra Khanong and Ekkami stations on the right side.   It is hitting from mats only but fine for working the mechanics of the swing, good ball striking or for a beginner learning the swing.

Friendly staff and good food.  The highlight of this range is it’s good location for everyone.

A professionals practice round!

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If you ever watch a playing pro in a practice round you will learn a lot.  We tend to look back from the green at the fairway and decide where is the best place to be for our approach shot into the green.  What will be the best angle with less trouble and where is the fairway the widest.

I carried an orange highlighter to mark my yardage book of places i don’t want to be.  We’ll check both sides of the fairway – sometimes from fertilizing the grass and then cutting the fairways smaller for the event one side is left with the deepest, nastiest rough that you would not want to be in.  Many times around the greens there are places that have impossible deep grass for a par conversion if you miss the green.

You will see us hitting bunker shots from likely bunkers we may be in during the week.  We’ll chip and putt around the whole green to check breaks and grain of the greens.

Also we will putt to areas of the green where we believe the holes will be cut for difficult pin positions during the event.

On par 3’s we will hit a number of balls to different places on the green in anticipation of the tough pin placements during the week.

When you hit a good tee shot with your driver on a par 4 or 5 ” Do Not hit another on”.   I’ve seen it happen with myself and other pros where we hit too many tee shots in a practice round and then in the first round on that hole we can’t help remembering that horrible hook from the day before and sure enough…..  Keep your pictures/images good and positive.