Author Archive: Brian Fitzgerald

The Right Heel Up Pitching Drill

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Hello I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.

Today I’m going to teach you how to improve your pitching.

It’s a little bit of a strange drill, but you are used to me using strange drills now.

Today is one of my better ones. I hope you enjoy it.

[MUSIC]

Okay, we are going to do some pitching today.And when I play with amateurs, most people go wrong when they try to hit pitch shots because they are trying to help get the ball in the air and they are lifting up. They are not necessarily lifting their head, that’s what their playing partners are actually telling them.

But it’s lifting the whole body so they are hitting it on the up and I’ve got a 56 degree sand wedge here. There is enough loft on that 56 sand wedge to get the ball in the air. What I have to do is get the club down underneath the golf ball. So provided my golf club can get down underneath the golf ball, I have a chance at getting the ball in the air so I am looking for a downward strike. I am not looking at hitting it on the up. So the drill that I use to teach people how to hit with a downward strike.

Is to take a normal setup and then get their right foot back here with their toe on the ground and their heel up.

That forces your weight to go on to the left foot, it moves my upper body slightly to the left and that encourages me hitting the ground. So you can see there I’m easily hitting down under the golf ball.

And that’s the type of swing we want to use when we play this shot.
So we take our setup and then I just hit down and the ball went up in the air quite nicely.

It’s a simple drill, it’s effective. If you use that on a regular basis I think you’ll find your pitching will improve.

Thank you for letting me help you with your golf.

I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.

If you like these videos why don’t’ you share them with a friend. You can also find further information on my Facebook page or my twitter page.

The Secret To Hitting A High Soft Pitch Shot

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Hello, I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.

Today we are going to be doing the high soft pitch.

I did try and do this video several months ago. But my video camera was pretty poor and I’m going to have a go at re-filming it today. I hope you enjoy it.

[MUSIC]

So here we have a shot of about 20 to 25 meters. It’s going to be over the bunker and not many people like this shot.

It’s bad enough when your ball is in the bunker, but when you have to hit it over the bunker people really don’t like that one.

So the way to play it is to keep your club low to the ground.I have my 60 degree sand wedge here. A sixty degree sand wedge has a lot of loft. I want to use that loft as much as I can.

I don’t want to try and manipulate the club to make something special happen.

If I just swing the club back keeping the club low to the ground. keeping a shallow angle of attack, the loft of the club should get the ball in the air and that will stop the ball.

When I do that, I’m going to be inclined to stop on it. We don’t want to do that. Stop on it and you might hit a good shot but in all probability you won’t.

As much as you possibly can you really want to try and make sure that you keep that club head moving and I try and get my follow through to about shoulder height.

So I swing it slowly, that stops the ball from traveling too far and I’m gripping the club very light. It took me a long time to actually get the confidence to grip the club light when I play this shot. I kept wanting to grip it tight, the ball went a bit lower and when it landed the ball ran on a bit too much.

So I really want to keep it light. I want to keep my swing slow and I just want to get the club sliding underneath the ball.

I’ll see how I go.

[HIT]

So you can see the ball went up nice and high, it landed quite softly and it ran just a little bit past the flag stick.

For the lack of practice that I do lately I’m pretty happy with that shot.

But the ball did go high, I didn’t take a massive divot and the ball did land soft. So first and foremost you want to make sure you get it over the bunker. You don’t want to leave it short.

I’m pretty happy with that, I can get a putter out with my next shot.

So give that one a try at home. Grip it light, have a full swing but a slow swing and keep your angle of attack shallow.

I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor. Thanks for letting me help you with your golf.

If you like my videos, you can get further information from my website which is www.thegolfdoctor.com.au that can be found here.

We also have my Facebook page which you can click on just there.

Or there is my Twitter page which you can click on there.

If you want to leave a comment ah at the end of the video. Just go down to the bottom of the video on the YouTube and you can add comments. I am happy to answer any of them.

[MUSIC]

How Throwing A Bucket Can Improve Your Golf Swing

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Hello there.

I’m Brian Fitzgerald “The Golf Doctor”.
And today we are going to use a drill that is going to help you to combine how you use your hands and how you use your body.
I call it the “Throwing The Bucket Drill.”

I hope you enjoy it.

[MUSIC]

Alright, today we are doing the throwing the bucket drill.

And all we do is use a simple bucket. You can substitute the bucket for a basketball. You can throw a cushion inside the house, as long as you don’t break the light  that’s in the lounge room.

You can use anything that’s available to you.

But all we do is we get ourselves in our normal set up position, making sure we have the right posture, spine tilted forward and I’ve actually said in another video how to actually achieve the correct posture.

So I’ll put a link to that video just on that video there. Link to Correct Posture Golf Tip.

So we grab the bucket. Get into our posture. All we have to do here, is try and throw the bucket in a straight line.

You wouldn’t really throw the bucket by doing that. I would call that the discus method. And what is the shape of the field that you throw a discus to? It starts narrow and gets wider.

I don’t know too many fairways that have fairways shaped like that. They are more like corridors. So we want to get the hands traveling away and upwards and away and upwards.

So it looks something like this. By doing that it actually teaches you how to combine your hand movement with your body movement and it gets you swinging on the right swing plane.

Okay, so that’s how we do it. If we do a correct swing. Watch what happens if I do it the wrong way. If my shoulders start pulling my hands down, I’m going to release the bucket that way. So my hands are around the back of me, and you can see my swing is traveling to the left. That could produce a slice but it can also produce a hook. It just depends on where my club face is at the time of impact.

So now I’ve got a club in my hands.I will do the same sort of things. I get into my posture and I try and swing the club back as if I’m trying to throw the golf club down the range. We don’t want to pull the club down. It’s called a golf swing and we swing the club head. So we swing the club through as if my right hand is throwing the golf club.

If you can do that you’ll hit much better shots and you will get more consistent.

So if you like my videos, why don’t you share it with a friend. You can share it by clicking the share button at the bottom of YouTube, or you can email a friend or you can also find further information on my Facebook page or my Twitter page. If you really like them you can also subscribe and that way you get informed when I’ve got a new video up.

Thank you for letting me help you with your golf.

I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.

[MUSIC]

3 Things You Need To Do To Improve Your Golf

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There are three simple things golfers of all standards can do to improve their golf.

1. Make your bad shot better,

If your bad shot is a 30 meter slice with your driver and you can turn it into a 20 meter slice your score will definitely improve.

2. When you have a wedge of any description in your hands, get it on the green.

How many times have you found your self hitting a wedge into the green. You have the hole at your mercy and instead of getting the ball on to the green you leave it short in the bunker or blade it over the green. This is quite often compounded by a followup bad shot as you are steaming from missing the green the first time. You may even three putt for good good measure.

3. Stop 3 putting

Nothing ruins your golf score faster than 3 putting.

Look at my putting playlist and try to do the Distance Control Drill.

If you imagine a hula hoop around the hole on long putts. Try to get your ball to finish inside the hula hoop rather than trying to get the ball into the hole.

Alternatively place a club 1 club length behind the hole and try to get four balls between the hole and the club from different distances. Say 4 meters 8 meters and 12 meters. If you get your first putt close to the hole you will 3 putt less.

Titleist Pro V1 & Pro V1X Product Launch

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Last week I was invited to the launch of the Titleist Pro V1 & Pro V1X golf balls.

Mike Mahoney The Director of Golf Ball Product Management for Titleist shared with me some amazing facts.

Titleist are responsible for every piece of the manufacturing process of the golf ball. They don’t outsource anything. The do their own research and development, they make their own components including the urethane cover (every other ball manufacturer purchases their  urethane from a company like DuPont).

A Pro V1 golf ball has to pass 91 quality control checks before it makes it into the box and is good enough to be sold.

A Pro V1 X has to pass 124 checks.

Golf balls made using the exact same formula at different times of the year eg. summer and winter perform very differently. If they are not careful this would lead to a golf ball being made that exceeds the speed limit and would get Titleist struck off the approved ball register. A very bad outcome.

Titleist can change the recipe slightly for the different times of the year so that no matter when the ball is made it will perform identically. Titleist are right on the legal speed testing limit and this process allows them to stay there.

Last year Titleist made close to 1.35 million Pro V1 & Pro V1X golf balls.

The total number of golf balls returned world wide were 15 golf balls.

What this means is they have great quality control and we the consumer get the best ball on the market. It made me think “I would be crazy to use another brand of golf ball”.

Just a footnote. I am not contracted with Titleist and other than the odd sample here and there I actually buy my own golf balls from Titleist. I have been doing this since 1985.

Worlds Top 20 Golf Courses

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Interesting to see Golf Digest (USA) has released the worlds top 20 Golf Courses.

The good news is Australia have 3 courses in the Top 20. Kingston Heath Golf Club Melbourne is ranked Number 20.

Barnbougle Dunes Golf Course Bridport, Tasmania (The Original) is ranked Number 11.

Royal Melbourne West Course Melbourne is ranked Number Number 9.

The composite course at Royal Melbourne which is made up of 12 holes from the West course and 6 holes from the East course is not considered to be a golf course as it is only played in Tournaments such as the Australian Masters, Australian Open, Presidents Cup etc.

When it is considered (for rating criteria) as a complete course it is usually in the top 3 courses in the world.

I find it very interesting that courses like Royal Melbourne East, Royal Adelaide and Metropolitan are not featured on the list. I feel that all of these courses are better golf courses as a whole than Barnbougle Dunes.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Barnbougle and am a huge fan. It is a wonderful golf course and a great place to visit. I do and have done almost every year for the past 10 years.

Its just that when we are talking about the WORLD TOP 20 Golf Courses…..Barnbougle has too many ordinary holes to make that list. I think people get carried away with the beauty and majesty of the holes among the dunes, mostly on the front 9.

if I had the chance to play a round at Royal Melbourne East, Royal Adelaide or Metropolitan or Barnbougle Dunes I would choose the first 3 courses every day.

I often ask myself after playing a new course. “Could I play this course all of the time?” If my answer is yes I give it a big tick. When I ask myself this question after playing Barnbougle Dunes my answer is no. A handful of rounds per year would see me out.

Ranking golf courses is always full of conjecture. There is no right or wrong. Everyone has a different opinion and that is a great thing.

It is a great way to stimulate conversation at the 19th hole after your round.

I would be interested to know what you think.

Lengthening The Golf Doctors Swing

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I recently experienced a first. I went to see Golf Physiotherapist.

This came about as I have noticed (and you will have too no doubt) that my golf swing is very much on the short side these days.

I first noticed this when I started filming some of my golf videos. I felt I was using my normal swing (normal to me in my playing day was hands above my shoulders and the club to parallel). I couldn’t believe how short it was. I went out and hit balls every day for a week working on lengthening my swing. At the end of the week there was no change in length of swing. I felt as if I was over swinging and it was no longer than before.

I figured the answer is in one or a bit of all of the following reasons:

  1. I have just turned 50 and my body can’t do what it used to do in my 20’s and 30’s.
  2. I have averaged 8 to 12 games a year for the past 4 years. If you don’t use it you lose it.
  3. There are physical reasons why I can’t swing the club to my desired length.

I didn’t know the answer so I thought I would seek some professional.

While I was thinking of doing this I got a phone call from Physiotherapist  Jeremy Cross at Physio Health.

Jeremy had just had a visit from a client of mine and wanted to talk about what we could both do to help out this client.

In 30 years of coaching I have referred many people to physiotherapists and this is the only time I have ever received a phone call  back from them wanting to talk about a client.

I subsequently met Jeremey and was very impressed with his background. He went to college in the US on a golf scholarship and then went on to become a physio after deciding not to pursue a career in Professional Golf.

Jeremy is the first to point out he is not a golf coach but works hand in hand with golf coaches to get the best  performance for golfers of all standards, allowing them to achieve their potential both in terms of improved performance and in reduced pain and injury prevention.

I underwent a screening session with Jeremy at PhysioHealth Kew a few weeks ago. This took about an hour. I performed a series of movements and tests. Nothing too physical but just too see what my ranges of movement was.

A week later I went back to see Jeremy and he gave me a laminated report detailing my issues and the exercises I needed to perform daily to improve.

I must admit I have not been as studious (daily) with my exercises but I have been pretty regular with them. They take about 20 minutes a day to do and I am already seeing results. My swing has already lengthened noticeably and I know I am hitting the ball further.

I used FlightScope to gather data (Driver & 7 iron) before I underwent the screening. I will also do it on several occasions over the next few months.

Stay tuned for an upcoming video series of my experience.

The first can be found here Lengthening The Golf Doctors Golf Swing Part 1

Jeremy works at PhysioHealth Kew (03) 9853 2224 and Williamstown (03) 9397 4977

Use your Putter Instead of Chipping To Lower Your Score

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One of the best ways of lowering your golf score is to get your putter in your hands more often from off the green instead of chipping (if the conditions allow it).

You will find that your worst putt will finish much better than your worst chip.

When you see Tiger Woods with all of his skill mess up chip shots from a perfect lie what chance do normal every day golfers have?

Get the putter in your hands.

What Should You Think Of Over The Ball

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What should you think of over the ball.

That is a very common question.

When you are on the golf course (playing in a competition) where score matters (as opposed to a few holes after dinner in the evening) you should think of as little as possible.

The golf course is for scoring and as my golf coach Alec Mercer often said to me “The box on the scorecard is not big enough to paint a picture. Just put a number in it. Make it the lowest one you can”.

Improving your Inner Game is one of the keys to lowering your handicap or score. It’s what gives you consistency.

Let me paint a scenario for you.

A tour player Joe Schmo is playing the 72nd hole of a tournament and is 1 stroke behind. The 72nd is a par 5 and he has a 235 yard carry over water to the flag. Joe hits his 3 wood to 10 feet, cans the putt and wins by 1 shot.

At the Press Conference a journalist asks Joe “What were you thinking standing over the 3 wood on the 72nd Joe”?

Joe smiles and answers “I just pictured the shot and I hit it”.

On another occasion Joe might have had the following inner conversation ” Gee I have 235 over water. I hit my 3 wood 230. I better take the club back slow, stop at the top of my back swing, have a slight pause, rip my right hand through impact.” This results in a miss timed 3 wood that fails to carry the water, resulting in a bogey.

To help improve this part of your game I suggest you try the following:

  1. Stand behind your golf ball (about 3 meters back).
  2. Picture the shot you are trying to hit and have an inner conversation describing exactly the shot. Where it starts, how high it flies, which way it spins etc.
  3. Move into the ball and keep the picture fresh in your mind.
  4. Hit the shot.

This takes a bit of practice but is well worth it. If you still have trouble try saying the word “Back” in your mind as you take the club back and then say “Hit” when your club makes contact with the ball.

Try it on the range in practice and then put it in to play on the course socially (maybe 2 or 3 holes) and see how it goes. When you have confidence in it put it into play on the course.

Regards

Brian
Brian Fitzgerald – The Golf Doctor

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How far do you hit the ball?

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So do you know how far you hit the ball?

I am not talking about your driver. Although it is handy to know how far you can carry the driver so you can determine whether you can comfortably carry that lurking fairway bunker or not.

You really need to know how far you hit the ball with each club on average. Most people think they know but they totally overestimate how far they hit the ball. The result is less greens in regulation. Either because they are coming up short of the green or they are trying to hit it too hard.

I use a Flightscope Launch Monitor at Morack to measure the distances of each club in what I call a Gapping Session. I then make up a little card with the distances written on them so you take the guesswork out of choosing the right club. Many people to go to the trouble of using a GPS device to measure the distance they have to the flag but they are letting themselves down by not knowing how far they hit the ball.

If you only hit 3 more greens in regulation in your next round (by hitting the right club) that is going to at least save you 3 strokes a round (probably more) for little effort.

 

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