10 Pro Tips to Get Better at Golf Without Lessons

10 Pro Tips to Get Better at Golf Without Lessons

10 Pro Tips to Get Better at Golf Without Lessons 


All golfers from tour professionals to beginners have one thing in common: They all want to know how to get better at golf. The problem they face is that getting better at the sport is not easy. Many golfers believe that spending hours hitting balls at a driving range will lead to lower scores, but practicing bad technique does more harm than good. 

If you really want to improve your golf game, you must go back to basics and sort out problems with your grip and swing. Once you have taken care of the fundamentals, practice really will make perfect.

How to Hold and Swing Your Golf Club

If you watch a professional golf tournament on TV, you will quickly notice that not all tour professionals have the same swing. There are graceful swings that seem to sweep the ball down the fairway, and there are more compact swings that strike the ball with an explosion of power. All these golfers get great results, which tells us that there is no such thing as a perfect swing. 

Professional golfers spend years practicing and developing swings that work for them, but they start by mastering the basics. If you want more birdies than bogeys in your game, you will have to do the same. Here are 10 things that could help you to develop your perfect swing when you’re learning how to golf.

  1. Get a Grip

The first thing that you need to “come to grips” with is your grip. After all, you can’t build a stable building on a poor foundation, and you won’t be able to strike a golf ball well if you are holding the club wrong. 

The overlapping grip feels awkward at first, which is why many novice golfers abandon it and grip their clubs as if they were holding a baseball bat. This feels more comfortable, but it provides a poor foundation. If the way a high school teacher or golf club pro taught you how to hold a golf club feels all wrong, you should experiment with other golf grips to see if an alternative approach feels more natural. 

There are three basic styles:

  • The overlapping grip: This is the grip that most of us learned the first time we picked up a club. Placing the pinky finger of the lower hand over the index and middle fingers of the upper hand brings the hands closer together, but only golfers with large and strong hands get the most out of this grip.
  • The interlocking grip: With this grip, the pinky finger of the lower hand is intertwined with the index and middle fingers of the upper hand. It feels very unnatural at first, but it provides much better control and works really well for golfers with small hands. This is the grip Tiger Woods uses.
  • The 10-finger grip: This is sometimes called the baseball grip because it resembles how a hitter holds a bat. There is a key difference, however. The club is gripped like a baseball bat, but then the palm of the lower hand is turned until it covers the thumb of the upper hand. 
    1. Stand up and Be Counted

    Once you have mastered how to hold a golf club, it will be time to figure out how to swing a golf club. This all starts with the way you address the ball. You should stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart your lead foot pointing slightly toward the hole. 

    Use your hips to lower your club to the ball instead of bending your waist, and make sure that your weight is balanced between your heels and toes. Stand close to the ball so you don’t have to stretch out your arms to reach it, and keep your back straight.

    1. Down Means Up

    Learning golf is so hard because so many aspects of the game defy logic. We all want our iron shots to soar into the air, but to achieve this we have to strike down on the ball.

    If your iron shots are fat or thin, it is probably because you are trying to lift the ball. When you strike down with an iron, you let the club do the lifting. This is how irons are designed to be used, but it seems counterintuitive at first.

    To hit down on a golf ball, keep your center of gravity over or slightly ahead of the ball on your downswing, and make sure that your hands stay out in front of the club head. If you try to lift the ball by keeping your hands behind the club head, your shot won't go very far. 

    1. Give Your Swing a Hand

    When you strike a golf ball, the back of your upper hand determines where it will go. If you want that place to be the green, you should make sure that the back of your upper hand is facing the target when you make contact. 

    This action closes the face of the club and draws it to the ball. Keeping the back of your upper hand facing the green after you make contact also improves accuracy, which is why so many great golfers do it. This is the tip you are looking for if you want to know how to fix a slice in golf.

    1. Let Your Clubs Do the Work

    The most important part of a golf swing is the moment when the club face strikes the ball. If you really want to shave strokes off your game, this is what you should be focusing on. The angle of attack, swing speed and hip movement all play a role, but nothing is as important as striking the ball with the center of the club face. 

    Modern golf clubs have been refined by decades of research and development, and they produce tremendous results when they are used properly. Hitting the ball with the middle of the club face is the part of your swing that you should work on the most because this is the golf technique that will eliminate the worst shots.

    1. Ditch the Cart

    Mark Twain once called golf a good walk ruined, and he was right. 

    Playing 18 holes can provide an excellent walk, but most golfers ruin it by using a cart to get around. Carts may make a round of golf a little less taxing, but they take far more than they give. They rob us of an opportunity to improve our fitness, and they don't give us time to reflect on our shots. When you walk from shot to shot and tee to tee, you will have time to compose yourself after a bad shot and think about the mistakes you made. You will also have a chance to consider your next shot and weigh up your options. 

    1. Putt for Dough

    Just about every golf teacher tells their students that they drive a golf ball for show and putt it for dough, but then those students go on to spend hours at driving ranges and very little time on putting greens. Putting is something you can practice at home, and all you need is a glass or cup to aim at. If you really want to make your putting practice pay off, add a little pressure. 

    Even the pros miss easy putts when the pressure is on, so learning how to deal with stress is as important as developing a fluid putting stroke. You can simulate pressure by playing loud and jarring music, setting up a countdown timer, letting your pets interfere with your practice or thinking about your most pressing problems. 

    1. Finish Strong

    If you watch top golfers play, you will notice that they always pause for a few moments after completing a swing. They do this because it gives them an opportunity to reflect on their technique. When proper golf technique is followed, the swing ends with the belt buckle facing the target and the back heel off the ground. The body should feel loose, balanced and relaxed at the end of a golf swing, and the elbows and hands should be above the shoulders. 

    1. Bad Balls are Good

    Many golfers say the bad ball drill transformed their games. You will have to master difficult shots if you want to shave strokes off your handicap, which is what this drill is designed to do. When you play your next practice round, hit two balls from every tee instead of one. After you have done this, play two shots from the position of the worst ball. If you continue to play two shots from your worst position for the entire round, you will have squeezed a month’s worth of difficult shots into just 18 holes. 

    1. Gear Up

    The right clubs and balls can make a big difference on a golf course, and so can the clothes you wear. The best golf shoes have arch stabilizers that prevent the feet from moving as body weight shifts during a swing, and the best golf socks provide mild compression to improve blood flow and prevent discomfort and swelling. 

    If you want to get better at golf, you should add a pair of quality golf shoes and several pairs of compression socks to your next shopping list.

    Get Better at Golf Without Lessons

    With some strategic research, you can get better at golf without lessons. To start you out, here are some video resources for working on some of the most common areas of your game:

    Give Yourself a Competitive Advantage

    If you want to break out of the rut that is holding your golf game back, you will need every advantage you can get. TRUEENERGY® compression socks use infrared technology first developed by NASA to improve circulation, shorten recuperation times and prevent injuries, and they are available in a wide range of colors and styles for men and women. If you would like to know more about the ways TRUEENERGY® compression socks could improve your golf game, you can ask us a question by using our online form, or you can call us at (800) 395-4290.
    Back to Blogs