Play Aggressive Golf Like A Shark
Greg Norman is a fantastic and exciting golfer who was known for playing aggressively. In this article he shares some great tips on aggressive putting, aggressive second shots, and aggressive bunker shots.
Online, March 2, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Greg Norman needs no introduction. He's one of the best golfers there has ever been.
He's also famous for being one of the richest golfers in the world due to his excellent business acumen. He's got his fingers in more pies than a baker!
What he is less well known for is golf tuition, but he is a great teacher. The 'play aggressive golf' articles below were written by him, and they are as straight-forward and to the point as the great man himself.
Attack Every Putt:
Amateur golfers should putt more boldly than the pros. In fact, I think you should never lag a putt - you should try to sink every putt you face.
There are several reasons for this. There are only four ways to miss a putt - long, short, left and right. If you always get the ball to the hole, you eliminate one way. Besides, research has proven that the putt that has the best chance of going in is the one that is struck with sufficient force to carry it 18 inches past the hole.
Along with this goes the psychological side. Think about the last time you missed several putts in a round by hitting them dead in the jaws of the hole but just short. Pretty frustrating, isn't it? Such chronic shortness can get to you, but hitting the ball consistently past the cup is rarely as unsettling.
And remember that if you hit the ball a bit too hard, you can watch the way it rolls as it passes the hole and get an immediate read on the return putt. If you leave it short, however, you deprive yourself of that information. On short putts a bold, firm stroke is best, as it tends to take the guesswork out of the break of the putt.
Furthermore, a bold stoke is a confident stroke, one with built-in acceleration through impact. That type of stroke works on any putting surface, fast or slow, bent or Bermuda. Aggressiveness on the green is also an asset in match play. On Tour, if we sink a long putt it means saving one stroke out of 72 holes. In your weekend nassau, however, a long putt will invariably win you one of those 18 holes, while having a jarring effect on your opponent.
Finally, and perhaps most important, amateur players can recover from a short drive with a good approach, or from a short approach with a good pitch. But there is no recovery on the putting green. A putt left short is a stroke lost. So don't cheat yourself in an area where you have every capability to be proficient and every reason to be aggressive. Putt boldly.
Hit Off The Deck:
There are a few par 5s that only a long hitter can reach in two, and even then that long hitter has to crush two shots back to back. In such situations, I love to hit my driver off the deck - or off the turf - for my second shot.
It's not as tough a shot as it seems, particularly with today's generation of low-profile metal woods. But before you consider this shot, take a hard look at your lie. The ball doesn't have to be in the fairway. In fact, if you have a tight lie, you might not want to pull out the driver. What you want is for the ball to be sitting up, in either the fairway or in light rough, so that at least part of it is higher than the top of your clubface. If so, you have an opportunity to go for it.
Control is extra-important on this shot since there isn't a lot of margin for error. Grip down just a bit to help ensure against a fat shot. On the other hand, you don't want to swing above the ball and top it, so put a bit of extra flex in your knees.
The most important element of this swing is a smooth, long takeaway in which you keep the clubhead close to the ground. If you can take the club back this way, you'll have a good chance of returning it smack into the back of the ball for a clean, strong hit.
To help do this, widen your stance a bit by moving your right foot back but leaving the ball in its usual position in your stance. As you widen your stance in this way, you'll tend to add a bit more weight to your right side so that instead of 50-50 distribution it will be 60-40 in favor of the right. This adjustment will set you up for that long, low takeaway.
Don't worry about any other adjustments. Simply trust your swing, trust your lie and trust your driver to do the work. Remember that you have a powerful club in your hands, and clean contact is all you want - you don't need to try to kill the ball. Quite the contrary, on the downswing you should feel as if your upper body is hanging back as your legs drive through impact. If you can stay behind the ball you'll have the best chance of pushing it forward.
Spin It Out Of Sand:
Here's a shot that will stun your friends and opponents. It's also a great alternative when you're faced with one of the game's toughest assignments - the long bunker shot.
When most golfers are called upon to hit a greenside sand shot of 30 yards or more, they resort to sort of a power blast, taking a huge swing while also trying to minimize the distance they hit behind the ball. For obvious reasons, this is a tricky shot. To pull it off, you need a lot of talent and a lot of guts.
As an alternative, I've developed a sort of secret weapon - the slicing 8-iron. You can't hit this shot when you have a high lip to clear, but in all other situations I think it's a better shot than the big explosion.
Basically, the idea is to make a big shallow cut across the ball and slice it to the green, where it will spin to the right. You begin by setting up an extremely open stance, while also allowing for the slice by aiming a bit left. As a result, your body will be aligned further to the left than for any other shot in the game.
The 8-iron will be wide open and laid back, with the ball positioned off your left instep. Figure on opening the leading edge of the clubface about 45 degrees from square.
Grip the club at its full length and don't be afraid to make a full swing at the ball. Just be sure that you strike the sand about an inch behind the ball. Don't worry about digging too deeply into the sand - your ball position and open clubface will prevent that.
If you hit this shot properly the ball will take off well left of the target and fade slightly before it hits the green. Then watch what happens. It will take one bounce, after which the sandpaper sidespin you've applied to the ball will take effect. The ball will spin to the right faster than any other shot.
The first time you pull this off you'll amaze yourself. After that you'll amaze everyone else.
Share:
Tags: aggressive putting, Greg Norman, play aggressive golf
