By David Clay Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

Over the period of years I have been involved in golf, I have analyzed golf swings and their parts. Many of my questions came from my time on the European and World Golf Tour. The two British Open Champions who mentored me during my career as a professional golfer answered my questions. This information remained useful when I came off the tour and began teaching. However, some questions I had were still a mystery.

I recently contacted three major golf companies to find an answer to the following questions:

As most people slice, I would find many students getting upset when they hit a modern driver of 10° about 225 yards dead straight, and then make a hard move to the right of about 25 yards. While this is not the worst shot, it is very common. The plane of the swing must have been accurate; otherwise, the ball wouldn’t have gone straight for 225 yards.

By David Clay Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

Golf equipment has changed dramatically. Technology has sharpened the accuracy of the tools. The rules have been honed over centuries. A golfer’s expectations for his or her skills are at its peak. Is your game ready?

According to the United States Golf Association, there are approximately 24 million golfers in America today. Only five million have registered handicaps. Additionally, the USGA reports 20 years ago the average male handicap was 27 while a female’s was 40. Today, even though there have been tremendous improvements in equipment, the average handicaps have remained the same.

With this in mind, let’s sort out some fundamental ideas. Are you aware of the type of skill you are going to perform?

By David Clay Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

As I have mentioned before, the ball doesn’t have a brain. It reacts to what your club does when it makes contact. Without question, part of your golf training should focus on learning about what the ball does.

During a student’s first lesson with me, I spend a lot of time listening to what he or she has to say about what the ball does after the shot. The ball flight can give you a picture of what happened in the swing that caused it to go on its path.

Most of my first time student’s tell me that they slice. The tee shot can go straight down the middle of the fairway, and then take a nasty turn to the right (1). Another slice would be that the ball went left of the target line, and then took a very nasty turn to the right (2). The student is most likely to tell me that they have no slice with their short irons. Is this you?

By David Clay Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

Many people tell me, “I had three holes to play and needed pars to make my best score ever. I have been in this situation before and always blow it.”

Quite often your best score ever comes from an average front nine holes, and on the back nine you finish in a blaze of glory. What usually happens is that you are putting yourself under unnecessary pressure. The only thing you can control is now, and the shot at hand.

The tour player focuses on the shot at hand, and certainly isn’t thinking of holes coming up or holes gone. Only when he arrives at the shot he has to play, does he focus on that shot.

By David Clay Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

Unless I have seen a student before for a lesson, I normally have to ask that they do some stretching. Both of the exercises I am giving you here are similar; one with a golf club and one without.

Start without the golf club for the first exercise. A golfer has to be able to turn the left shoulder past the ball on the backswing. At the same time, I want the right knee to remain bent. In front of a mirror, stand at your address position. Put your left hand on your right shoulder, and right hand on your left shoulder. Then with your right knee bent (hands still on shoulders), turn your upper body so that your back is facing the target. Make sure your right knee remains bent. This will help you stretch the tendons in your left shoulder. Now, reverse the drill.

By David Clay Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

I would like you to write down several lines on your score card when you play. On the first line is your score. On line 2, write “Fairways Hit.” Indicate in this section the direction the ball went if it didn’t finish on the fairway by using an arrow. As an example, if you hit a tee shot to the right of the fairway, your arrow points to the right. If the ball went to the left of the fairway, the arrow points left. If you hit the fairway, the arrow goes straight up. At the end of your round, count how many fairways you hit and put the total at the end of the count.

On line 3, track your G.I.R. or Greens in Regulation by putting an arrow pointing up on each green you hit in regulation.

By David Clay Director of Instruction,Houston National Golf Academy

Let’s say you learned to play the piano without learning the proper fundamentals. You would only be able to get so far. Arnold Palmer said, “If you learn the fundamentals of golf properly, there wouldn’t be anybody shooting above 90.” Did you know the average handicap is 27, and for a lady is 40? I agree with him. Most people have been taught to play golf by their Dad, Granddad, uncle, etc, and expect to hit it like a pro. These well-meaning players have taught what they learned and passed it on. The main problem, though, is...did they work on getting the fundamentals right?

By David Clay
Director of Instruction,
Houston National Golf Academy

Have you ever hit a shank? This is when the ball hits the hozel (the part of the clubhead that the shaft goes into). The ball can go off at right angles for the right-hander and the opposite for the left-hander. It isn’t that rare of a shot, I’m afraid.

The real bad news is that it can happen to very good players, as well as the longer handicap person. If you aren’t sure what I mean, imagine you have hit one of your best tee shots and you are in the middle of the fairway with nothing between you and the pin except about 60 yards of green grass. You feel very confident and then hit it off the shank. The ball goes off at right angles and disappears into the trees. What looked like a certain par or better may now become a 6 or 7.

By David Clay
Director of Instruction,
Houston National Golf Academy

Are you shooting in the 90s, and yet you seem to be playing better? Now your putting is gone. It always seems to be something.

Start to count the number of greens you are hitting in regulation. You will probably find you are playing better and are hitting more greens than you used to hit, but it seems as though your putting isn’t going as well.

What is most likely happening is when you hit more greens at first; you don’t hit the ball all that close to the pin and so you find yourself in three-putt distance.

By David Clay - Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

Most golf courses will test you with a ball lying on a slope of some sort. If you are lying on an upslope, the ball will travel higher in the air than normal. The opposite is true on a downslope. Because the ball is traveling higher on the upslope, you will lose some distance so take at least another club. The reverse is true on the downslope. The loft of the club will be less as you hit down and through, so hit less club.

On the upslope, try to get your weight inclined to the right side of your body and, if possible, your shoulders should be at the same angle as the slope. Make sure to swing easy. The key to both of these shots is balance. What I mean is that on the upslope, keep your right knee bent and straighten your left leg as much as you can despite the slope to the extent that you are as level as you can be.

On the downslope, you will need to follow the slope down and through with the club head.

By David Clay - Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

One of my favorite drills is making sure the knees don’t do to much work on the backswing. By this, I mean the legs must unwind on the downswing before the shoulders do. If the legs overwork on the backswing by straightening the right knee, the legs will not carry through with the correct sequence of moves.

To work on this, take a beach ball and place it between your knees and hold it there. (Make sure the ball is taut so that it has only a little give in it.) As you start your backswing go straight back with the club head in front of your chest as you make your turn. Ideally, you should only hold this position for about 3 – 5 seconds before you start the downswing. If you can hold the position easily, you don’t have enough torque in your backswing. This drill will stretch muscles that you may not have a used for a while so don’t push too hard at the start.

By David Clay Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

Do you practice well, or do you get bored after hitting a bucket of balls? I have mentioned before that at least half your practice should be short game. And half of that should be putting.

What about practicing how to play? Let’s say you are playing in a tournament next weekend, and you have played the course many times. I would like you to do the following. When you are out practicing on the driving range prior to the tournament, you loosen up. Then you will get ready to play the tournament course even though you are standing on the driving range at your home course. You know the holes of the golf course you will be playing.

By David Clay - Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

Finishing off fundamental #1 from last week, make sure you have the index finger and thumb of each hand forming an inverted “V” with the point of the “V” near your wrist pointing at the right shoulder. Any variances on the grip will cause you a problem. Make sure the club is in your fingers, not in the palms of your hands.

Fundamental #2: The Address Position
The correct address position is very important. I find a lot of people stand with their feet to the right of the target with their shoulders to the left of the target. To make this successful, work on this drill.

If you are a right-handed golfer, put the golf club in your left hand (opposite for left-handers). Holding onto the grip, with the head of the club pointing at the ground bring the grip of the club just under your nose. Let your knees bend slightly. Keeping your head up, bend over from the waist. Put the head of the club on the ground, and hold the grip as explained in Fundamental #1.

By David Clay
Director of Instruction,
Houston National Golf Academy

As I have mentioned to you before, I was fortunate to be taught by two gentlemen; one who had won The Open once, and the other who had won The Open three times. They both had many more wins and were always very interesting to be around.

One of the many things I learned from these two gentlemen was to visualize the shot you wanted to have. After all, you will have practiced it many times so just picture your shot in your mind and let it happen. The last thing in your mind at the address is a picture of the ball flight you want to happen.

Teaching the amateur golfer is a little different than teaching the professional. An amateur most likely has many things going on in his mind when he hits the ball, especially someone who is an engineer, doctor, architect, accountant, and similar professions. Most of the time, he is thinking about a specific part of the golf swing.

By David Clay,Director of Instruction, Houston National Golf Academy

This particular gentleman had come down from Dallas for a golf lesson. I asked him quite a few questions before I asked him to hit some golf balls. Each time he hit the ball, he spent forever over the ball before he hit it. When he got to the nineteenth thing, I asked him to stop. He had a checklist of what he wanted to happen just before and during his swing.

Keep in mind, your brain can normally only do two things at once. I did have a professional drummer come to me not too long ago who said he sometimes had to do four things at once, but it took him over a year of continuous work to achieve it. The real problem for the golfer is once he gets past two things, other thoughts generally disappear. When you get to the third thing, the first is lost.

The golf swing takes approximately 1.75 seconds to hit a golf ball. For easy calculations, let’s say 2 seconds. Your round of golf may take you five hours. Say you shoot 90. That means 90 times 2 seconds equals 180 seconds, or 3 minutes. What are you thinking about for the other 4 hours and 57 minutes? You are probably talking with the other guys you are playing with, looking for golf balls, etc., etc. Let’s say that these and other things take up a couple of hours of your golfing time. So you are thinking about something else for another two hours during your game.

When I talk with students about what they are thinking, I mostly hear back…”about golf mechanics, work, home life, the kids,” etc., etc. What I’d like you to think about is relaxing…smell the flowers, enjoy the weather, what a great golf course you’re playing…something pleasant.