Not a sign we were hoping for.
Photo by Ryan Retherford
Level 4, no matter where we live in Aotearoa, means our beloved courses are closed. But there is still plenty we can do to sharpen our game at home.
Below are some basics that we’re practising, and you might want to try them too. If you have a full-length mirror, bring it out into the living room and have a look at the following fundamentals of our game.
Swing - We can use the mirror for our set up position, our rotation and to see where our club is at the top of our swing. By seeing our body in these different positions, it helps us to understand where we may be going wrong.
Posture - The mirror also allows us to have a good look at our stance. Have a look at the angle of our spine, the length between our feet and how much we bend our knees. Grip, posture, stance and ball position are the cornerstone ingredients that determine how our swing will work, how it looks and where our shots will go. The experts tell us good golf posture has the same spine angle we have while standing up straight, so no droopy shoulders and neck. All this can be checked in the mirror.
Putting - If you have some room along your skirting or if you can lay some form of tape down on the floor (ensuring it is straight) then a great exercise is to practice our putting stroke ensuring our backstroke doesn’t go over the line of the rug or tape, and doesn’t hit the skirting. This helps ensure that we build a solid, straight and repeatable putting stroke.
And when we’ve done all that, we can settle into the couch and watch more golf. If there’s none on TV, YouTube has a plethora of golf videos to hone our game.
So stay safe and keep the practise up.
Happy (lockdown) Golfing.