It is so exciting to see more and more women taking up golf, and working in the golf industry, then ever before.
Here are our top golf tips for women to help improve your game faster, work on frustrating problems, and most importantly enjoy the game more.
Focus On Bending at your Hips Instead of Bending Your Knees
Bending at your knees can ruin proper posture, and it depletes the power of your swing.
Bending at the hips creates a more athletic stance that pushes your butt and shoulder blades back, creating more room for a good swing and increased balance.
Bending at the knees on the other hand, tends to force the club an up-and-down action rather than a circular motion.
And don't confuse bending at the hips as bending at the waist. It is important to focus on bending at the point of your hip joints. Don't be hunched over at your waist either. Bending at the waist will give you an overly-rounded and bent over back angle, creating a weak foundation making it difficult to build a solid, repeatable swing.
Make Sure You Have A Correct Grip
A solid golf swing is built around a good grip like the one featured in this YouTube Video Instruction with golf professional Aimee Cho who shares her secret to perfect grip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoBreHc7Jmc. Since it is the only contact you have with the club, if your grip is incorrect, your swing will and club face will start out in a bad position.
A correct grip starts with standing with your hands and arms hanging loosely and naturally. For right handed golfers, in the left hand your most important finger is your pinky. In your right hand are the index finger and your thumb.
Without changing the angle or position of your hands, place the golf club in your left hand, making sure the golf club face is square to your target.
The golf club will run in a diagonal line across the fingers, and the butt will end up on the bottom portion of your heel pad of your hand. One of the most common errors is to hold the club in the palm of your hand.
Think about the golf club being held by more of your fingers.
Looking downward you should be able to see the knuckles of your left middle and index fingers.
If you see four knuckles, your hand is turned too far to the right, and if you only see one knuckle, it is turned too far to the left.
There are a ton of tutorial videos that you can watch to get more of a visual around this. In addition to your grip you will also want to ensure you have a good golf glove to help give you a solid grip on your club so that you don't have to grip too hard, yet your club won't be sliding around in your hands as you swing through.
Swing Through Your Ball
While hitting the golf ball clean, crisp and with power is your ultimate goal, it should not be how you think about your swing.
Keep your head down, looking at the ball the entire time, try to remain relaxed and fluid through your swing and don't focus too much on hitting the ball itself.
Think about the idea of hitting your ball with your practice swing. It may take some practice to make this mental shift but it will be worth the practice.
Longer clubs such as the driver, 3-metal, 5-metal and 7-metal are best hit by sweeping the club head along the ground, collecting the ball in the process.
With mid and long irons, you “hit down,” making contact with the ball slightly before the club.
However, with the driver and longer clubs, place the ball slightly forward in the stance, and think about sweeping the ball.
Once you can hit through the ball using the same relaxed approach you use in your practice swing, your ball will take care of itself and jump off the club with velocity and accuracy.
Make Room for Power
Accuracy and strategy may be the most important thing when attempting to shoot low scores and improve your handicap, however, power plays a big role in hitting a golf ball and let’s face it, putting might be the top way to lower your score, but there is nothing more rewarding than driving a little white ball with powerful swing.
You will need to set up properly to hit the ball far. Create room for your body to torque properly, and unwind through the ball with authority.
With your driver, for example, you will need to create a wide stance with the ball positioned slightly forward. Then place 60-65% of your weight on your rear foot, with your head and upper torso tilted slightly back.
With this relaxed stance, hold the driver and allow approximately the space of one open hand between your body and the butt of the club handle.
You can gain a ton of yardage, just by increasing the resistance in your hips. The higher the degree of angle between your shoulders and hips, the more stored-up power you create with your swing.
Renowned golf trainer Jim McLean dubbed this angle “The X Factor.”
Just think about how a baseball player holds the bat and almost turns their back towards the pitcher.
As the ball comes across the plate, their hips begin to unwind well before the shoulders, and the bat comes around last with power like a slingshot.
Also you can gain power using this hammer method. To understand how your wrist unleashes power, grab a hammer and hold it as if you were about to hit a nail. If you try to raise and lower the hammer with your arm only, it's difficult to make any progress.
On the other hand, if you let your wrist hinge and use the leverage, it won't take as much effort to pound the nail square into a piece of wood.
Like swinging a hammer, the uncoiling of your wrists and elbows in golf releases the power you stored in your backswing, helping you hit the ball farther and more accurately.
Shift Weight To Your Forward Foot
Your golf swing should allow a fluid, natural movement that flows from backswing to forward swing naturally and fully.
A common error that golf pros often see, is people locking their heels to the ground to the point where their body can't turn through the ball into a nice follow through — often called “hanging back.”
At the end of your swing, your thighs should finish very close to each other. There should not be a significant gap between your knees at the end of the swing, and your weight should shift to your forward foot, allowing your back foot to rise on the toe.
Stretch Before Your Game and Be Loose and Powerful
The American Council on Exercise suggests that you work on two areas of exercise before setting foot on the golf course.
1. Focus on flexibility by stretching your muscles ~ by doing trunk rotation and leg extensions.
2. Do strength exercises focusing on your shoulders, hips, legs and core.
Flexibility and strength training will allow you to play longer and reduce the potential for injury.
Golf is an amazing game for improving your physical and mental health. It increasing your focus and mental strength, plus you get to have fun getting outside with friends and family.