Best home golf practice tips

Published: 02 November 2020 Last updated: 27 May 2021

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How to fix early extension in the golf swing

Fixing early extension in the golf swing

Gardening gloves can help you quieten your hands during chipping

Use this drill to learn how to create separation in your golf swing

As we find ourselves in another coronavirus lockdown across England, we bring you the best tips to help you practise your golf in the comfort of your own home.

We’ve gathered leading coaches to provide golf tips that can be done in your house, covering the golf swing, the body and the mind.

Improve your line and length when putting

From Adrian Fryer, a PGA Fellow Professional and inventor with more than 35 years’ experience coaching all skill levels. He is based at Liverpool Golf Centre www.solidgolf.co.uk

Grab a dinner plate – or, if you are feeling ambitious, a side plate – from the kitchen cupboard. Take it into a carpeted area of the house, and set it face down on the carpet. You have just created one of the simplest and best putting training aids.

Your goal for this exercise is to see how many putts it takes you to get the ball to stay on the flat, central area FIVE times. The slopes off the side of the plate obviously repel the ball, meaning only a putt hit at the perfect pace, on the perfect line, will stay on.

If the plate you have chosen is too hard – or too easy – switch it for a more appropriate one.

Train a better impact move

Here is a great drill to help you feel the correct trunk and body rotation coming into impact. All you need is a mid-iron and a chair. Place the chair off your lead foot and hold the handle of the club across your hips, as shown.

home-golf

From here we are simply going to shift and rotate through the trunk to turn the shaft and
head of the club into the chair. You are using this motion to bring the club – and square face – back to impact.

golf-chair

Repeat the drill 10 times before gripping the club normally and trying the same move in slow motion.

Improve your golf club path, in the garden

Many amateurs fail to appreciate there is a difference between the ball-to-target line and what we’ll term the “delivery” line. In fact the club only swings down the target line briefly through impact, but many golfers swing down the target line prematurely – causing an over-the-top, slicing swing shape.

Edging shear angles can help you here. Position them so the outer handle represents your ball-to-target line as shown. Set up square to the line of this outer handle.

Now the inner, angled handle offers a great indication of the path from which you want the club to attack the ball. Simply swing over the shears to feel the correct delivery path.

If you want to hit a garden-safe ball, place it safely ahead of the blades.

garden-golf

Use a hanger to fix your takeaway, downswing and wrist angles

PGA professional Sam Carr shows you how to fix your golf takeaway, golf downswing and golf wrist angles using the humble clothes hanger.

Visit www.Golfin.club for bespoke online coaching

Learn how to shape shots, with a cushion

Here is a straightforward exercise that helps you get the feel for moving shots right-to-left or left-to-right. All you need is a cushion – probably best to make it an older, tattier one! – and some space to make a half-swing.

All you have to do with this exercise is get the cushion to spin – anti-clockwise for a draw, and clockwise for the fade (right-handers). So for the draw, set up with the club against the outside edge of the cushion and work on a release that gets it to spin as much as possible. You’ll quickly feel how increasing forearm rotation through ‘impact’ increases the rate of rotation.

Then, set up against the inside of the cushion and try to spin it clockwise. This time, see how limiting that forearm rotation – holding the face square – helps you achieve your goal.

golf-swing-home

Use a broom to rehearse a powerful impact

Most of us have a brush or broom around the house – some of us will even know where it is! But not many of us realise it makes an excellent prop to train a powerful impact.

Many club golfers throw the clubhead at the ball through impact – a weak release that relies on the small wrist and arm muscles for power and adds loft to the clubface.

To change this, hold the broom like a golf club and set the bristles on the ground, a foot or so outside your trail foot.

golf-broom

From here drag the broom along the floor, through to “impact”.

golf-impact

This move forces you to use different muscles – those in your chest, hips and core – to drag the broom forward. This wakes up your really powerful delivery muscles.

Repeat the broom drag until this movement starts to feel natural.

Use a wall to identify your golf swing faults

PGA professional Sam Carr shows you how to fix your golf swing using a wall as a reference point.

Visit www.Golfin.club for bespoke online coaching

Check your golf grip with credit cards

Today you are going to learn an easy way of checking your grip is in good shape. All you need is two cards from your wallet.

Take the first card and pinch it in the “webbing” between the thumb and first finger of your lead hand. Now do the same with the second card and your trail hand. This forces you to keep some pressure between the thumbs and forefingers of both hands – a key trait of a good grip, and one that helps you put your hands on the club in the correct position.

Now grip the club with the cards in place. Check they are parallel to each other and pointing up towards your trail shoulder.

Finally, check your lead thumb is pushed securely against the handle by your trail palm. This will give you a united and correctly oriented hold of the club.

golf-grip

Improve your putting pace control

From Karl Morris, author of several best-selling books on the mind game, having worked with multiple major winners on the performance elements of golf. Themindfactor.net

Here is a putting drill for you to try, called 5-5-5. It will improve your ability to control pace simply by changing where you are placing your attention, and you can do it on the carpet.

golf-putter

So many people are so focused on how the body is moving when they putt that they anaesthetise themselves to the feel of the strike. And yet your ability to find the centre of the clubface is vital to energy transfer and distance control.

So for this drill, focus only on strike. Hit your first five putts deliberately off the toe, the next five intentionally off the heel. Then trap the feeling by finding the middle ground. Really tune into the feeling of that sweet strike.

Note how evenly the balls roll out when the strike is consistently centred.

RELATED: Best Putters 2020

Use a towel to build a simple pitching technique

PGA professional and short game specialist Andy Gorman shows you how to build a simple pitching action using a towel.

Visit www.Golfin.club for bespoke online coaching

Stop early extension in your golf swing

If we can maintain address body angles through the swing, we are better able to swing the club on a good, neutral path through the ball.

The biggest problem for club golfers here is straightening up during the downswing, otherwise known as early extension.

To work on this, find a chair. Set up so there is just a hand’s depth between your backside and the chair. Now make a half-backswing before swinging slowly back to “impact”.

Fixing early extension in the golf swing

As you swing down, feel your left glute push gently back against the back of the chair.

Training this contact will help you retain your spine angle and deliver the club on a better path.

How to fix early extension in the golf swing

Improve your chipping feel and accuracy with a garden hose

Arrange your hose into a series of even turns, as shown. This serpent shape creates zones which will become your landing areas for this drill. Now collect a group of balls – gardens permitting, I’d use real ones here because this is a feel drill.

Improve your golf chipping

Now simply chip into each loop zone, moving up the serpent and then back down. The accuracy element comes with the necessity to chip straight down the loops; but the very small differences in landing areas will help you dial into an awareness of the finite adjustments needed to control distance – we’re only talking a yard difference from one target to the next.

Ultimately, aim to lock into a constant tempo and simply change the length of swing to control distance. That allows you to increase power without any extra effort.

RELATED: Best Wedges 2020

Quiet hands to improve your chipping

Many golfers struggle to chip consistently because they overwork their hands and wrists through the ball – often in an effort to help the ball up. It leads to a flicky rising impact that creates all kinds of striking problems.

To improve this, find your gardening gloves. Because they’re so thick, garden gloves stop you using those destructive small muscles in your hands and wrists. This allows the pacified hands to lead the clubhead through the ball, the forward-leaning shaft creating a crisp and clean descending blow.

Improve your core flexibility to improve your golf swing

Watch the best golfers in the world as they start the downswing and you’ll see a definite sequence to their movement – in a nutshell, the lower body begins to rotate while the upper body briefly remains turned – a separating of the upper and lower halves. If you are physically unable to do this, chances are you will come over the top and slice the ball. Here is a drill to help you improve.

Place you driver in front of you, grip-down. Rest your palms on the clubhead, arms outstretched. Bend your trail knee across your lead leg and hook the foot behind it as shown. Using the driver as support, twist gently back and through. Switch legs to work on both sides of your pelvis.

Use this drill to learn how to create separation in your golf swing