Step 4

Finally, once on tour you have to maintain your "tour card". To remain a proffessional golfer you must be the top 120 golfers or else you have your "tour card" taken away and you are sent back down to "Q-School". Although becoming a proffessional golfer is a long process, it's not a peice of cake once on tour. All proffessionals each year constantly battle to remain a proffessional golfer. Unfortunately, this is a long and exhausting process. There is a lot of pressure to qualify at Q-School, only 1% of registered PGA Tour players qualify for the PGA Tour. Thats means 99% of registered PGA Tour players have their dreams shattered every year. Becoming a Proffessional Golfer sounds like a lot of stress to me.

Step 3

When you compete at the US Open, you are competing as an amateur so you won't get payed. But, depending on how well you do at the US Open you can become a proffessional. However, there are other ways to become a proffessional such as "Q-School". The "Q" stands for qualifying. "Q-School" isn't actually a school, but its another long process. You have to register for the PGA Tour which involves you to pay a registering fee. Then you must play in several events finishing at the top everytime over the course of many months. Once you winning tournaments on "Q-School" then you become a proffessional golfer.

Step 2

Amatur tournaments cost at least $100. You should play in amateur tournaments to gain confidence and against to compare yourself to other players. Once you are dominating amateur tournaments, winning consistently, you should try to qualify for the US Amateur. Each section of America has qualifiers and at the qualifier, the top two or three players will advance to the US Amatuer tournament. There, all the best amateur players in America compete. The winner of the the US Amatuer will be exempt the play in the US Open, which is a proffessional tournament.

Step 1

To become a proffessional golfer you must practice a lot, typically on a daily basis. Most proffessional golfers come out of the south because they can play year around. There are only a few golfers that come out of northern states. Being a proffessional golfer is a full-time job, therefor to become one you most be devoted to practice everyday. However, Golf is a very expensive sport. A complete set of golf clubs can cost up to $2,000. Once you have the clubs it costs $20-100 to play a single round of golf. Practicing at a driving range costs $8. Private lessons cost $50-100 . And if you live north then you should move south, if you want to have a good opportunity to become a proffessional, which will cost a fortune. Once, youre in the south you should play in some amateur tournaments to see how you are compared to other amateur players.

i-Search

My i-Search project is about the process of becoming a proffessional golfer. I will go into the detail of how long the process is. There are many different ways of becoming a proffessional golfer, but I will tell the most comman process. Like any other sport, it takes a lot of practice to become great. Unlike most sports golf is a sport played individually not on team, so you are 100% on your own to become great.

Club Selection on Short Game

Deciding which club to use for short game shots can be difficult. Selected which club to use is personal opinion, however there are some basics that make selected a club easier. There are different situations where you should selected one club than another, but again selecting a club is personal opinion.

For instance, hitting over a bunker you need to the ball to go over the bunker, and stay on the green. So you would need the trajectory of the ball flight to be high so that it lands at a steep enough angle that the ball won't role off the green. So the club that would do this job the best would be a lob wedge. A lob wedge is the highest lofted club (typically 60 degrees)
.

However, some shots you don't need a lot of loft such as bump and run shots. Bump and run shots are used when there isn't anything in the way of you and the hole, but you're too far away to putt. These shots are typically used with an 8 iron because it doesn't have a lot of loft so it will role more than a lob wedge.

Wind

Along with sidehill lies, many factors can affect your game such as wind. Just like sidehill lies and breaks in the green you must aim the opposite direction of which the ball will tend to go to equal out for the wind/break/slope of hill.

On the putting green the ball isn't affected that much by the wind because it is low to the ground, but with tee shots, iron shots, and pitch shots the ball can really move left, right, far, and short due to the wind. As I said earlier, you must factor in the wind as you would with sidehill lies and reading the break in the greens.

Ways to feel the wind:
-Look at the flag on the pin to see which direction it is going
-most proffesional golfers pick up a few blades of grass and toss it into the air to determine the direction of the wind
                                     -and then you could always just feel the wind and judge which direction its going

Sidehill lies in Golf

Golf is a difficult game as it is, unfortunately you have to factor in other components such as side hill lies. Sidehills seem like very difficult shots to hit, however once you understand the basic, like any other shot, then you can easily master hitting them.

Just like reading the break in a green, you have to determine which way the hill is slanted. If you are standing above the ball (and you are a righty) then the ball will go to the right. If above the ball and you are a lefty, then the ball will go to the left. However, if you are under the ball, the ball will tend to go the opposite direction of your hand  (righty goes left, lefty goes right). These are the basics of hitting a side hill lie. Also if the hill has a small slope then you do not have to factor in the conditions of left to right/right to left as much. And if the hill has a great slope than you must factor these conditions in a lot more than you would with a small sloped hill.

So, putting the sidehill lie conditions into affect you must aim the opposite direction of which the ball will tend to go towards, so it ends up at your target.

Good Luck!

"The Step"

If you watch golf 20 or 30 years ago you will see the players lift there heal slightly off the ground in the backswing and then step down as they swing through the hit. "The step" is for power just like baseball players when hitting step forwards and for more power. This "Step"" is very essential for getting "power" and hitting the ball far. Most players on tour currently do not do "the step" anymore, but they do something similar. All players that don't do "the step" just transfer their weight onto their front foot as they swing through the hit, but do not picking up their heal and step down on it. However, there are some players that still do it, such as the world's fourth best player Phil Mickelson. So "the step" might be an old move but it is still affective. 

Over the summer my golf coach and I were working on having a better weight transfer (for more power) and I just couldn't do it, so I began to do "the step" and every since I've being playing the greatest golf I've every played in my life. 

Try "the step" and you'll see an increase in your distance.

Teeing up the Ball

The tee markers are on either side of the player.

How/What//When/Where/Why to tee up the golf ball.


A player is only allowed to tee up the golf ball at the beginning shot of the hole. There is a specific area for a player to tee up the ball called "the tee box" and inside that tee box a play must tee the ball up inside "the tee markers". The advantage of teeing up the ball, is the ball is higher up and it makes for a cleaner hit because it is less friction because your club isn't hitting the ground. The ball should be teed up with half of the ball above the club face, and half under. Teeing up the ball is a big advantage that some people do not take advantage of. Tiger Woods said that players should tee up the ball every single time they're on the tee box. Teeing up just leads to a better hit.

If you weren't teeing it up before, try it out. Good Luck!

How to Hit from the Bunkers

  Hitting from a sand trap isn't that hard once you understand the basics. Sand Traps a.k.a Bunkers are thought to be very hard to hit out of. However, they can become very easy to hit out of. In the US Open at Beth Page Black in 2009 the rough was so thick that players would rather be in the bunker than the rough. Players would purposely aim for bunkers instead of the rough, when they knew they couldn't hit the green. Professional Golfers are very good out of bunkers and it's easy to become good out of bunkers too.




How to hit from the Bunkers

Step 1:  Dig your feet into the sand for balance, also to test the thickness of the sand. The softer the sand the easier it will be to swing your club through and the less sand you should scoop underneath the ball. The thicker the sand the more sand you should scoop under to help lift the ball up in the air.
Step 2: Open up your stance. If you're a righty aim your feet left of the target, lefty right of the target. Opening up your stance allows your hands to come in and get underneath the ball more. Also to equal out for opening your hands, which leads to step 3.
Step 3: Open up your hands. Where ever your feet are aiming, aim your hands the other way to even out for your open stance. An open close face also adds loft which  helps shoot the ball out of the bunker.
Step 4: Lean all your weight onto the front side. I don't know why it works, it just does. All pros do it and so do I.

Next time your in a bunker try this out. Good Luck!

Reading Greens

Reading greens are pretty easy, once you understand the concept of it. Putting greens are not perfectly flat, therefore the ball will move according to the slope of the green. If the green is tilted left, the ball is going to tend to go left, so by aiming right the ball will go left, and end up at your target. Reading greens is as simple as that. knowing which direction the green is slanted. The more slanted the green is the more break it will have and the same goes for less slanted hill, less break.

When I am walking up the fairway approaching the green I look for the lowest part on the green, and Then I know generally which direction the ball is going to want to move towards. Then I go behind the ball and look even closer to see how severe the break is and approximately how much break I should play it. The break of the green varies from each course do to the speed of the greens. The faster the greens are the more break there will be, the slower the less break.

I along with many other golfers go into a squatting position behind the ball, to determine the break of the green, the only reason why people do this is because the lower to the ground the easier it is to determine the break. Reading greens takes some practice, but the basics are the slant of the green determines where the ball will tend to go.

Distance vs. Accuracy 2

I found this a magazine I am subscribed to called 'Golf Digest' which is a monthly magazine that publishes the newest equipment, and also tips to improve ones golf game, kind of like my blog. So I am writing my paper about Accuracy being more important than distance, and it just so happens that I found an article on the comparison of distance vs. accuracy. PLEASE READ THIS TO THE RIGHT!

Although statistically in the pros distance and accuracy produce similar results, distance can cause off target shot, as the article said "cause you misses to veer farther off line". Obviously, long and straight is ideal, and debatably long and a little off target is better than straight and on target. Being in the rough is OK, in the fairway is better and longer is better than shorter. However, when your drives get to a point where they aren't even hitting the rough, and they are going into the woods/out of bounds/water hazards, then that should be a signal to stop aiming for distance and hit it short and accurate.

Visualizing Your Shot

As you see, most professional golfers stand behind there ball with their club in their hand right before the address the ball and hit it. This is part of their pre-shot routine. As I discussed already, the pre-shot routine is very important. When the golfer is behind the ball, what they're doing is visualizing their shot before they hit it. Visualizing your shot helps get you in "the zone", think about where you want to hit it and most of the time that second of focus helps, believe it or not.

Sometimes, even from behind the ball I see stuff I didn't see before. From behind the ball, you might see extra sand trap, or water hazard, or out of bounds that you now put into consideration that you wouldn't have seen before. Try this, and you might see some improvements.

Pre-Shot Routine 2

A pre-shot routine can be for luck, just like basketball players do, or baseball players before they hit. Baseball hitters, swing the bat back and forth, back and forth, a few times, for luck or to get ready for the incoming pitch. Well, as I said before It is very similar to the golf pre-shot routine. A golf pre-shot routine can be a luck based action but most golfers do it, to prepare for the upcoming shot. Preparing also falls under the category of getting into a rhythm. Most professional golfers do there pre-shot routine to get there mind off the fundamentals of the swing, but focussed on where they want their shot to go. It is almost like a habit. My swing coach always advises me to keep practicing my pre-shot routine because on a bad day, my mind is usually on the fundamentals of the swing, instead of where I want the ball to go. On a good day I am in that rhythm of finding the yardage to the hole, selecting a club, and doing my pre-shot routine. However, It is very easy to forget to do your pre-shot routine. On a bad day Im storming up to the ball, pulling out a club, and hacking at it, needless to say, the ball doesn't go where I planned it to go because I didn't have time to think of where I wanted it to go.

Pre-shot Routine

Anybody a basketball fan? You know how before a player takes a free-throw they do their own routine, two dribbles, spinning the ball off their hand, take a deep breath, bend their knees, and off they go. They do their routine every time, and its the same every time. Well, a pre-shot routine in basketball is the same in golf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF-LITV1iRA check out this video to learn how to help make your own pre-shot routine. 

A pre-shot routine helps get your mind off of hitting bad shots, and helps focus you into the moment. A routine also gets your mind off of the fundamentals of the swing, and letting your body to all the work instead of your mind taking over. Check out this video and try it out soon, good luck!

Accuracy opposed to Distance

Accuracy is more important than distance


Better golfers hit more fairways; from the fairway it is more likely to hit the green than the rough. On the green in Regulation, apposed to over regulation, you have a greater chance of paring of even birding. More pars and birdies lead to a better round-playing better golf all ties back to hitting the fairway. Instead of swinging as fast as you possibly can at a driver, why not swing slow at a 3-wood or even an iron (easier to hit clubs but don’t go as far as the driver). Drivers are typically the most inaccurate club in the bag, so hitting a 3-wood or iron would increase the probability of hitting it straighter and hitting the fairway.

Harder/Faster swing=Longer drive?

The biggest misconception Amateurs make are a faster swing equals longer drives. To be able to hit the ball far one does need to have a decently high club speed. However, swinging faster makes it very hard to square your hands/club face in time. Usually, swinging fast will cause a "slice" or "push" (third position in image to the left). When people learn that fast swings can cause a slice, they usually try and flip their wrists to hopefully square their club face, which ends up with a "pull" or "hook"(first position in the image to the left). Instead of trying to flip your wrists why don't you just swing a little bit slower with a more square/solid contact, resulting in a straighter and long drive. Try that the next time you're on the driving range.

Match Backswing and Follow Through

For better balance and better ball striking, match your back-swing with your follow through.

Example: Pro golfer, Paul Casey, positions his hands and club parallel to the ground at waist height in position 2 in his back-swing. Notice on the follow through, Paul Casey's hands and club are also parallel to the ground in position 5.

Obviously you aren't supposed to completely mirror the back-swing with the follow through. But look at Paul Casey's shoulder turn in position 3 in comparison to position 6. The club and hands aren't similar, but his back is clearly visible do to shoulder and hip turn.

The small things the average golfer can focus on such as, replicating the back-swing with the follow through, will definitely improve the game, and they will see huge drops in the score.

Try this the next time your at the driving range, or just grab a club and examine your swing in the mirror for a quick minute. GOOD LUCK!