Hilton Head Island Golf School Blog

When working on your short game, it helps to focus in on a spot where you want the ball to land.  Find a unique blade of grass or discolored spot to look at while you take some practice swings.  Do not focus on mechanics.  Instead pay attention to the weight of the clubhead moving back and through, developing a feel for the proper length swing.  If you can consistently land the ball on your spot, you will have great distance control and find your shots finishing closer to the hole.

The Island Golf School, located on Hilton Head Island, SC, offers short-game golf schools daily to help you improve your touch aroung the greens.  If you want to lower your scores, our golf school is where you need to be!

Many of us have a home course on which we play most of our golf.  We play the same tees, hit the same clubs, and shoot relatively similar scores.  After a while, the course can grow stale, unless we do something to make it interesting.

A simple way to mix up your next round is to play from different tees on every hole.  You can simply start from the back tees on #1, middle tees on #2, forward tees on #3, and so on.  If your course has more than three sets of tees, add them into the rotation as well.  You will be surprised as to how the same golf course you know like the back of your hand changes right before your eyes.

At The Island Golf School, located on Hilton Head Island, SC, we provide golf instruction through golf schools and private lessons that asks you to challenge the way you approach the game and rediscover why golf is so much fun to play! 

Some golfers have the mentality that once they reach a certain age, they cannot learn anything new, especially when it comes to their golf swings.  This idea couldn’t be further from the truth.  Just because you are used to swinging the club a certain way or your body does not have the strength or flexibility it once had, it does not mean that your golf game cannot improve.

At The Island Golf School, located on Hilton Head Island, SC, our instructors provide personalized golf instruction to all types of students that attend our golf schools.  We understand that the swings of a 26-year-old and a 62-year-old will not be the same and must be addressed from multiple perspectives.  No matter what your age, it’s not too late to start playing the best golf of your life!

In order to putt well, you must have good mechanics and feel.  Proper mechanics are best achieved through a good setup.  While putting can be very individualistic in style and effectiveness, there are some common elements to all great putters. 

One element, for example, is having your eyes over the ball at adress.  Making sure that you are looking directly down your target line is essential to putting the ball on your desired path.  If the ball is inside or outside of your eyeline, the path of the putter will be too far inside or outside.  

You can check to see that your eyes are directly over the ball with a mirror.  Place a small mirror on the ground, facing the sky, and place a golf ball in the center of the mirror.  Adjust your posture and/or distance from the ball until you can see your face in the mirror. 

If you don’t have access to a mirror, try this.  Set up to a golf ball and take your normal putting stance and posture.  Then hold a golf ball up to your left eye and drop it straight down to the ground.  If the dropped ball lands on the ball resting on the ground, your eyes are over the ball.

If you need help with your putting, come visit The Island Golf School, Hilton Head Island, SC.  Our teaching professionals provide both excellent full-swing and short game golf school instruction to get your game in shape!

Good fitness is an essential component to maintaining your golf game, not to mention your overall health.  Loss of muscular strength and flexibility can hinder your ability to play the game at the level you desire.  Therefore, it is critical that you work now on maintaining flexibility in the muscles and joints used in the golf swing (e.g., shoulders, hips, wrists, triceps, back, core, and legs).  Stretching before and after each practice session and/or round of golf can do wonders for your response/recovery time.  Working out in the gym is also a great idea to build muscular endurance.  Be sure to speak with a fitness professional before beginning any workout regimen.

Come see us at The Island Golf School on Hilton Head Island, SC.  We offer quality golf instruction through a variety of golf school programs.  We take into consideration everyone’s physical limitations and create a comfortable and enjoyable learning experience!

The next time you are at the golf course, take a look inside some of the golf bags hanging around the clubhouse.  You will notice how many people still carry 2,3, and 4-irons.  What are these people thinking?  The majority of Tour players don’t even carry a 2-iron anymore.

With the advent of the hybrid/utility club a few years ago, long irons have gone the way of the Dodo.  Their design resembles a cross between an iron and a fairway wood, and offers the accuracy and forgiveness from each category, respectively.  Don’t continue to struggle with clubs that you hit well maybe 10% of the time when there is a much better choice out there.  Throw a few hybrids in your bag and see how much fun you will have when you knock it on the green from 190 yds out of the rough!

At The Island Golf School, located on Hilton Head Island, SC, our instructors will help you select the right style and number of hybrids for you.  Sign up for a full-day golf school and see how much improvement you can make!

With the latest driver technology, the head size on most drivers is just shy of a satellite dish.  With the high face comes a sweetspot located closer to the top of the face instead of in the middle like your irons.  Therefore, to maximize the distance of your tee shots, it is imperative that you use the proper tee height for your driver.

As a general rule of thumb, 1/2 to 3/4 of the ball should rest above the top of the clubhead when place on a tee.  If you have one of these mammoth-sized drivers, you may need to purchase extra-long tees.

If you need help with your tee shots, The Island Golf School is here to help.  Sign up for one of our Multi-Day Schools and receive in-depth video analysis of your swing that will offer an insightful, fast approach to maximizing your potential off the tee!

If you are truly serious about lowering your handicap, you must get it done on the greens.  The best players in the world recognize that it is their ability to roll the flatstick that wins tournaments.  Imagine that you just shot 72, with two putts on every hole.  That’s 36 putts in your round.  That’s half of your shots!  Yet, you probably spend no more than a quarter of your time practicing your putting.  What gives?!

To start shooting lower scores, you need to develop a practice regimen that gives your putting the time it deserves.  If you are not routinely putting less than 30 putts per round, you need to spend at least half of your practice time on the putting green.  Focus on your speed for lengthy putts and your aligment for shorter putts.  This helps you develop the proper blend of feel and mechanics you need to make more putts.

 At The Island Golf School, we offer a Short Game School that will have you putting like the pros!  Let one of our experienced instructors fine-tune your putting skills and help lower your scores.

Have you ever wondered how the Tour Pros are able to generate so much spin with their wedges, even from the most difficult lies?  The answer is grooves.  The grooves on their wedges are cleaner, deeper, and sharper than the rusty old wedge you have had in your bag for over five years!  The Tour Pros play with grooves that barely meet the legal limitations.  Some go as far as replacing their wedges monthly or before every tournament!

You may not have the cash to spend on a new wedge every month, but by simply cleaning the grooves before every shot and all of your clubs after every round, you will increase the lifespan of your wedges.  You will be pleasantly surprised how much more control you will have with your wedges. 

At The Island Golf School, we will help you develop the skills you need to get up and down from anywhere.  Sign up for our Short Game Golf School and receive quality instruction that will help you lower your scores.

Many of the poor shots we hit are a result of focusing too much on the golf ball and not enough on the target.  Golfers who are more target-oriented will spend most of their time visualizing the shot the want to hit and seeing the ball land near their target.  The resulting shots are usually closer to the shots they envisioned in their mind prior to standing over the ball.

A few keys to remember:

1. With the ball between you and the target, visualize the shot you would like to hit.  Imagine it flying through the air and landing next to your target.
2. Draw an imaginary line from the target to the golf ball to help with your alignment.  Poor alignment greatly limits your chances of hitting the shot you want.
3. After addressing the ball, look at your target a few times to maintain your sense of awareness to the target.  Those who focus only on the golf ball and then pull the trigger will not consistently see as good of results.

If you are not as target-oriented as you would like, visit The Island Golf School and work with one of our accomplished teaching professionals.  During our Full-Day Golf Schools, we will help you build a routine that will improve your awareness of the target.  You will be pleasantly surprised with how close you will start hitting the ball to your target.