You know that many of the basic steps of how to hit a golf ball like a pro is very easy to understand and with training you can achieve that. But keep in mind that doesn’t mean you’ll be hitting the ball like a pro when you’re in the real game under pressure because it has to come naturally. So primarily, you need to tune your natural hitting of a golf ball to pro level in your own way.
How to hit a golf ball like a pro CONSISTENTLY
If you just know how to hit a golf ball like a professional player, that won’t be enough to improve your game and help you winning. Also, if you think that applying any pro player’s tips would help you to play like a pro is a wrong thought! You need to figure how you play naturally.
At first use a low compression golf ball and if you want to know about why low compression then check out: All about golf ball compression.
You would see some days you hit the golf ball very well.
Before you hit the shot, It feels like you know where the ball will go and how to maneuver it. But some days, you would see that, even with accurate posture, stance, grip shown by the professionals, the your hitting would be worse.
That’s why you need to grab your natural playing instincts and make your shots consistent first, then need to work on improving it.
How to grab you natural good hitting?
Its good to film your self everyday when you hit a golf ball and get couple of videos of where you have a great day hitting the ball perfect and straight. Get those videos done then follow the below steps.
You need to at least practice 30 ball hits per week so that you can tune your natural hitting position and swing. Also, this will help you with your aim as it did in my experience.
1. Hitting the golf ball straight
First, choose a low spin soft golf ball and don’t choose a hard golf ball because you won’t have a high swing speed. Also, low spin ball will help you with less hooking or slicing the ball.
Learn more: High vs Low Spin Golf Balls: Which one should you pick?
Capture the videos of you hitting the ball well and straight. See when your hitting the ball straight, where are you standing. You will see that the way your standing, it would look comfortable in the videos too, also how you swing from start to beginning wouldn’t have any nervousness in it.
Generally its hard to hit golf ball straight but why is it so hard to hit a golf ball straight? Because when you’re hitting the ball, you’ll not be able to see where the club and the ball is making contact with each other.
You’re just assuming that if you swing in this way, it will hit the ball straight. But look in the videos of you hitting it straight and you’ll see most of the time your swing, stance/posture is almost the same when the ball is straight in the air.
So you need to practice your aim of where to hit the ball by seeing the video and you try each time with the same speed but make small changes.
Also choose the best golf balls and track the balls easily using high visibility color for consistent results. Then over time you’ll find the perfect aim to make contact with the ball same way.
2. Your Aim
Many people ignore the aiming part for properly hitting a golf ball. Aiming is important for you to consistently understanding how you stand and hit the golf ball without any mistakes.
So first of all you need to align your golf club’s leading edge to the direction you want to hit in a parallel 90° angle. Simply then align you body parallel to the target line as shown in the picture above. After that you can look at your stance or standing.
3. Your stance
Many people stand in many different way and have dissimilar postures. If you see Moe Norman‘s way of standing and hitting that is way different from Jim Furyk‘s posture. But both of them were very skillful hitting a golf ball because they adopted their natural posture with their hitting.
The common and basic way of standing is making your leg wide open stance where you bend your both knees a little bit, but don’t bend your knees too much and don’t bend your backbone at all.
Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and aligning your body parallel to the target line is the basics of your stance but most importantly it should feel natural and comfortable to you.
If you feel like you’re widening your feet to much to look like other professional’s stance, don’t do it, just stand how you are comfortable by watching your own practice videos of the best hits.
Second most common way of standing before positioning you self is Forward stance. Many people stand parallel to the target line but tend to bend the left knee (if you’re a righty) and then swing for aiming the ball. You can try this also if you feel more comfortable in this way.
Remember stance is the 2nd most important thing for properly hitting a golf ball, so perfecting your natural stance can make you pro hitter easily.
4. Setup & Alignment
The center line is basically the center of your two feet and align the ball a bit forward of that center line to the target side. In this way your ball position and your stance will be natural before the swing.
Its the simple way to practice your alignment with the ball and also you’ll get an instance idea of how far should you stand from the ball.
5. Gripping the Golf Club
For starting, use a light grip with your left hand and a firmer grip with your right hand. Your hands should be opposite each other on the handle, with your left hand below your right hand.
Also, it should be natural to you and you can try many types of golf grips to figure which one feels more comfortable to you.
The 3 Most Common Golf Grips
- Overlap
- Interlock
- 10-Finger Grip
We’re going to talk about Overlap only because it is most commonly used and probably in your scenario, it would be the best starting point of gripping the golf club correctly for a good hit.
The Basic Rules Of Gripping A Golf Club
1. The basic rule of gripping a golf club is basically following the Overlap Grip. You will first take your Golf club, stand straight with the golf club’s leading edge straight upwards.
2. Then grip with your fingers only, of the left hand at the bottom side of the Club. Then put right hand above it.
3. If its done correctly it will create a “V” shape in the fingers and with this grip you will be able to make straight shots.
Strength of Grip
The grip should be firm, not too tight and not too loose. But make sure you have a gloves on because the grip should not slip at all, otherwise the direction your swinging the club, the ball can hit a different spot. So practice couple of times with the overlap grip and make sure you are straight with your leading edge while gripping.
6.Your swing
If your putting the ball on the ground without tee, then Make practice swing and brush the ground with your club as if there is a ball and your hitting it. It is easy to miss the ground with your swing, that is why you must practice swing to brush the ground a little bit.
1. The Address
Addressing the ball with the club. First take all the positions, have your proper grip, then address the golf ball’s position with the club’s face. With a little Downswing, feel like making your club will hit the ball in this the position you aim to.
2. The Backswing
Backswinging the club with medium force and practicing the speed in which you can decently control the clubs direction. When taking the backswing, it can be beneficial to flex your front leg slightly, usually the left leg, just as you are about to strike the ball.
Additionally, shift your weight to your back foot as you rotate your hips slightly. Additionally, some golfers find it helpful to keep their head in line with the rest of their body.
3. The Downswing
The downswing is the next step after reaching the peak of your backswing, and it is considered the most powerful part of the swing, as it is responsible for generating speed and distance. The downswing is essentially the reverse movement of the backswing.
Practice transferring weight to front foot, rotating hips towards target and synchronize arm and shoulder movement. Check aim with two practice swings, taking backswing with decent speed and downswing with more force and speed, stopping at the ball. See if with the speed your down-swinging, is the aim alright.
With practice, you’ll be able to develop a smooth, consistent swing that will help you hit the ball straight and true.
4. Follow Through
The follow through is a crucial part of the golf swing, even after the ball has been hit. The follow through helps to ensure a clean and efficient hit. As you complete your swing and smoothing hit the ball, This means completing the swing with a balanced finish, with the body facing the target and the weight on the front foot.
Maintaining balance and control during the follow through is important, and you should aim to hold the follow through position for at least 3-6 seconds, to confirm a good shot.
If all went good and your tee is in the ground, after you hit the ball, with the hit the tee will jump and fall of, you can consider it a shot like a professional.
Different Types of Golf Swings
There are different swings that are just player for different type of shots and distance. But you don’t have to worry because with the techniques and method we’ve given above, if you follow and practice those then you’ll be able to hit a golf ball like a pro consistently regardless of the type of the shot.
- Drive: Using the driver, hit the ball as far as possible down the fairway, distance being the main goal.
- Putt: On the green, close to the hole, precision and reading of the slopes are important for good putting.
- Chip: A shortened version of the full swing used for chip shots.
- Flop: A shot used around the green, usually from rough, goes high but travels short.
- Punch: Keep the ball low to the ground to hit under overhanging trees or on windy days.
Please remember, making shots like a pro is nothing impossible but hitting a ball like a pro consistently needs a lots of practice. So, practice more and you’ll be a natural hitter in no time.
