How Can I improve My Feel Focus on target not ball? (Video) - by Pete Styles
How Can I improve My Feel Focus on target not ball? (Video) - by Pete Styles

Question I got asked an awful lot particularly from golfers who have decent technique is how do I improve my feel? It’s like this invisible thing, we can’t see it. Some people can grasp it. They’ve got decent technique but then they get on the golf course and putt or chip and the ball just didn’t seem to be responding to the right length of shot they’re trying to hit. And that’s because they might lack feel.

Now how can we improve feel? One way is just practicing, just practicing out there plenty of shots, gaining plenty of experience. But another way, bit of a more a mental way, visualization way is to actually think about where you want the ball to land when you’re chipping rather than where you want the ball to finish. So, if I had a 25-yard chip shot out here, I obviously want the ball to finish 25 yards away. But if I’m playing with a lob wedge, I want the ball to fly about 20 yards and roll five. If I’m playing with a seven iron, I probably want the ball to fly five and roll 20. So, those two shots require completely different visualization, completely different feel. I can’t just look at the flag 25 yards away and play exactly the same shot. The seven iron wouldn’t go too far, possibly the lob wedge would go too short. So, I think the best way for you to improve your feel is to imagine that when you are by the side of the green and you’re looking at the chip shot, you take the ball in your hand and you’ll understand how you would throw it onto the green. You imagine pitching the ball on to the green and how it reacts and how it roll down to the hole. So, if I had a lob wedge for example, I’d be throwing the ball up in the air, carrying it 20 of the 25 yards rolling the last five. If I had a seven iron, I’d be much lower roll landing it much closer to me and then running it to 20 yards up onto the green. So depending on the sort of shot you want to play it really depends where you want to look. And then as you’re looking at that spot have a couple of practice strokes, just to gain the feel for the shot you’re going to play. There’s no point making a swing like this for a 25-yard shot, likewise, no point doing this for a 25-yard shot. I want to be able to almost load in the correct shot that I’m going to try and hit. So my practice swing for this 25-yarder is about hip height back and through and as I execute the shot, it’s about hip height back and through and that ball goes about 25 yards. That’s me judging it nicely my practice stroke then repeating it in my real stroke. And I think that is the best way you can improve your touch and your feel. 2014-05-06

Question I got asked an awful lot particularly from golfers who have decent technique is how do I improve my feel? It’s like this invisible thing, we can’t see it. Some people can grasp it. They’ve got decent technique but then they get on the golf course and putt or chip and the ball just didn’t seem to be responding to the right length of shot they’re trying to hit. And that’s because they might lack feel.

Now how can we improve feel? One way is just practicing, just practicing out there plenty of shots, gaining plenty of experience. But another way, bit of a more a mental way, visualization way is to actually think about where you want the ball to land when you’re chipping rather than where you want the ball to finish.

So, if I had a 25-yard chip shot out here, I obviously want the ball to finish 25 yards away. But if I’m playing with a lob wedge, I want the ball to fly about 20 yards and roll five. If I’m playing with a seven iron, I probably want the ball to fly five and roll 20. So, those two shots require completely different visualization, completely different feel. I can’t just look at the flag 25 yards away and play exactly the same shot. The seven iron wouldn’t go too far, possibly the lob wedge would go too short. So, I think the best way for you to improve your feel is to imagine that when you are by the side of the green and you’re looking at the chip shot, you take the ball in your hand and you’ll understand how you would throw it onto the green. You imagine pitching the ball on to the green and how it reacts and how it roll down to the hole. So, if I had a lob wedge for example, I’d be throwing the ball up in the air, carrying it 20 of the 25 yards rolling the last five. If I had a seven iron, I’d be much lower roll landing it much closer to me and then running it to 20 yards up onto the green.

So depending on the sort of shot you want to play it really depends where you want to look. And then as you’re looking at that spot have a couple of practice strokes, just to gain the feel for the shot you’re going to play. There’s no point making a swing like this for a 25-yard shot, likewise, no point doing this for a 25-yard shot. I want to be able to almost load in the correct shot that I’m going to try and hit. So my practice swing for this 25-yarder is about hip height back and through and as I execute the shot, it’s about hip height back and through and that ball goes about 25 yards. That’s me judging it nicely my practice stroke then repeating it in my real stroke. And I think that is the best way you can improve your touch and your feel.