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 Whether you’re playing a round with your buddies, hanging out at the office water cooler or eavesdropping at the driving range, golf tips always seem to pop up. “Keep your left arm straight.” “Keep your head down.” “If you don’t think about the water hazard, you won’t hit it in the water.” Maybe there’s no such thing as bad advice, but not every nugget will make a difference when it comes to saving a few shots. In golf, there are different strokes for different folks. And hopefully, after reading the best bits of advice from these 25 players and teachers, you’ll have enough fodder to take your game to the next level.  "When you lose your stroke with your putter, focus on posture. Set up with your putter the way you would set up to a 7-iron. I was told this many years ago by Patrick Burke, who learned it from his father, Mike Burke." — Dr. David Wright, PGA instructor at Mission Viejo’s Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club and founder of Wright Balance "One that’s stuck with me that I try to teach to better players is you don’t ever want to see the shaft rotate when you swing. If you have a good square grip and take the club back, the clubface will be square throughout your swing and you won’t need to compensate." — George Pinnell, PGA instructor and founder of the George Pinnell Golf Academy at Rowland Heights Golf Center  "It’s all about getting the most out of every round. Some days you have it and some days you don’t. Those are the days you’ve got to know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em. It’s about economizing your scorecard, because the score is the only thing they judge you on at the end of the day." —Paul Goydos, a Coto de Caza resident and two-time PGA Tour winner "In my swing, I try to make sure the first foot away from the golf ball is as smooth as possible. That sets up a smooth rhythm and puts it completely together for me." —John Merrick, a Long Beach native, UCLA graduate and PGA Tour player "I learned this from sports psychologist Dick Coop, and it’s something I try to impart to all of my tour players. If you were in a pool and you felt like you were starting to drown, you’d be fine if you floated on your back a little bit. The best players are those who learn to relax and not panic when the chips aren’t going their way, and they don’t end up having disaster rounds. I’m always telling my players to inject the calm and resist being aggravated." — Jamie Mulligan, PGA instructor and chief operating officer at Long Beach’s Virginia Country Club  "The faster you know who you are, the better you can achieve what you’re trying to achieve. The biggest problem I see in golf today with young players and even elite players is they’re busy trying to be somebody they’re not. Just because Vijay Singh hits balls for 12 hours or Tiger Woods has his workout routine, players think they’re not going to be any good if they don’t do the same thing. It’s not bad to be inquisitive, but you need to learn how to filter the information. It gets back to knowing who you are." — Dave Phillips, PGA instructor and co-founder of the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside  "I met [former PGA Tour player] Jimmy Powell when I was 17, right before I turned pro. He told me it’s not what card or what status you have, it’s how good you are that’s important. If you’re good enough, you can work your way onto any tour." — Kevin Na, a Diamond Bar resident and PGA Tour player "Find an instructor that you trust, especially someone that teaches good players, and form a relationship with that person and stay with them for the long term. That way you have somebody that knows your tendencies and you’ll be able to play your best for a long time." —Tim Hogarth, 1997 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion from Northridge "My coaches at Oklahoma State always tell me you can really only learn from your mistakes. If you think you can pull off a shot, then go for it. Go out and do your own thing, don’t worry about what other people think — and try to make a lot of birdies." — Rickie Fowler, a Murrieta native and Oklahoma State sophomore "I found as I toured around the world that the winners were not those that hit a 5-iron close to the pin every time. Those that got the ball up and down in two from inside 125 yards were the consistent winners. I had the pleasure of asking Gary Player once what he thought the best way to practice is, and he told me to spend 75 percent of my practice time on the short game." —John Ray Leary, PGA instructor at Angeles National Golf Club in Los Angeles  "Whatever decision you come up with in regard to your swing or the shot at hand, go about executing it as positively as you can. It’s your choice whether you do it negatively, tentatively, or positively. And who wants to do it negatively or tentatively when you can do it positively." — Eddie Merrins, former UCLA men’s golf coach and head professional emeritus at Bel-Air Country Club "The best advice I ever got is when I bought into believing the old cliché, “One shot at a time.” Most golfers have heard this at one time or another, but truly buying into its meaning is what has helped me the most. I have reached a point in my career where I don’t let a previous shot affect my thought process on my current shot, and I try to slow my thinking down to the point where I’m not thinking about an upcoming shot. All I’m focusing on is the current shot." — Nicole Castrale, LPGA Tour player who lives in Palm Desert "The way that you use your legs in the swing is often misunderstood. I try to use my legs as a support system in my swing. The quieter my legs are, the more my body can torque on top of them and create an optimal differential. When I’ve played my best, my legs are just a little bit quieter." —Pete Tomasulo, a Long Beach native and Nationwide Tour player "Speed kills. If you can’t hit it 200 yards and play, you have no business trying to hit it 300 yards and play. I learned that from one of my old instructors, A.J. Bonar." — Doug Mertz, instructor at Fullerton’s Coyote Hills Golf Course "Winning can be a very scary thing. It can be scary to have all your dreams and wishes right there, available for you to accomplish. There are a lot of people that can do it, but the ones that do it at the right time are the ones in the record books. Bob William, a member at Riviera Country Club, once told me to fight out fear and timidity with anger. You have to get mad at something. At the 1976 LPGA Classic, the tournament was right there for me to win, and I had to close the deal on the last hole. It was up to me. My legs were shaking in the moment, and I just got angry and said to myself, ‘I’m going to put this ball right next to the cup.’ I hit a perfect 6-iron five feet from the hole and found a way to make the putt, and that was for my second tournament win. It was a shot I had to have. That was part of my process of learning how to win. I was 20 years old, and I had to figure it out for myself." — Amy Alcott, a 29-time LPGA Tour winner and World Golf Hall of Fame member who lives in Los Angeles "A great mental tip I received from my instructor, George Pinnell, is that to fail to prepare is preparing to fail. When he first told me that I didn’t really believe him. How can what you did yesterday help today? But this way, you can be ready for any type of situation on the course." — Jay Choi, a touring professional who lives in Wildomar "I was taught by Byron Nelson, who took me under his wing in 1952. He said two things you’re always going to have to check on are alignment and ball position. Good players don’t get out of swing, they get out of position. You put them in good position, and they get their swing back." — Ken Venturi, 1964 U.S. Open champion and former CBS Sports commentator who lives in Rancho Mirage "In golf, you get such a variety of situations: downwind, into the wind, flier lies, fairway bunkers, wet, cold, ball in a divot, etc. On all those types of shots, I try to hit a three-quarter shot with one more club. I learned this from Ken Venturi, who basically learned it from Ben Hogan, who called it a ‘fit shot.’ You’d watch Hogan play a tight par-4 into the wind where he’d hit a 3-wood in between two bunkers; then, with a 9-iron yardage into the green, he’d hit an 8-iron to control the spin." — John Cook, an 11-time PGA Tour winner who grew up in Palos Verdes "Some great putting advice is squaring your eyes over the putting line. So much of putting is using your eyes to see the land, trusting what you see and letting the putter go. If your eyes are square, your stroke gets smoother." — John Mallinger, an Escondido native, Long Beach State graduate and PGA Tour player "I’ve been working with Jim Hardy — who created ‘The Plane Truth’ — for eight years, and those have probably been my best eight years on the PGA Tour. He dissected the swing into either a one- or two-plane swing, and he’s put me on the right line." — Murrieta resident and two-time PGA Tour winner Tom Pernice Jr. "I was fortunate as a young, aspiring tournament player to have met and spent time with Ben Hogan. One day we were discussing how to play your best and I asked him how to get the most out of your game. What he told me was that course management was what won championships, not the best swing or the longest driver but rather the man who played with intelligence. In my opinion, all golfers can play better if they think their way around the golf course. When I design golf courses, I purposely create obstacles that will tempt players and punish bad decision-making." — John Fought, 1977 U.S. Amateur champion and architect of the Players Course at Indian Wells Golf Resort and Cathedral City’s Cimarron Golf Resort "In 1968, I played in the Masters and had to go to the PGA Tour’s spring Qualifying School after that. I finished sixth to keep my card and flew back to London. Mark Wilson, a golf correspondent for The Daily Express, told me I was going to win my next event, the Agfa-Gavaert Tournament, because I was going to be the only player there with a PGA Tour card. He said I was two shots up on the field based solely on that fact. It just triggered positive mental golf, and I won by two shots. I don’t think I necessarily would have won if his words hadn’t been in my mind." — Clive Clark, a Palm Desert-based golf course architect and 1973 Ryder Cup competitor "After I started playing on the PGA Tour, Paul Runyan was the pro at La Jolla Country Club. He gave me some great chipping advice. The grip was a little different than you would have for a normal swing. He had me turn my left hand well to the left so it would lock up. This way, there wouldn’t be as much wrist movement, and there’s also better distance control." —Gene Littler, a San Diego native and 1961 U.S. Open champion "When I’m under pressure, I just try to slow down my tempo a little bit so it’s smoother. When I get a little quick, I tend to hook the ball. I try to maintain an even grip pressure to help stay smooth." — Rory Hie, a Lakewood native and USC junior "A lot of times, when people are trying to work on their golf games, they’re worried about one fundamental. I’m a feel player and at the really critical times in tournaments, I try to use more touch and feel and depend on rhythm. It makes the game a lot more about athleticism." — Craig Barlow, a PGA Tour member and student of Jamie Mulligan at Virginia Country Club in Long Beach |
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RSS SubscribeReaders Feedback:
Real good info, please print more info like this in maybe issues once a month.
| Comment at 9/13/2008 |
Great info/tips!!
| Comment at 11/16/2010 |
