Ask the PGA Professional

This is your opportunity to have questions about golf in general or your golf game in particular answered by a PGA Professional.

Having swing trouble? Still fighting that slice? Missing short putts? Ask the PGA Pro!

Approximately once a week, your questions will be answered here by one of the participating PGA Professionals from Golf in the SouthWest.

This week, Kim Brown, PGA Master Professional at Keeton Park in Dallas, Texas will be answering your questions. Brown is also President of the Northern Texas PGA.

Simply go to this form, to ask the PGA Pro your question.
Thanks for your participation!

Q & A

Last Updated: Jan 11th

Kim Brown: Sounds like you may take the club back more upright with the wedge. That is a natural tendency with the shorter clubs . That is ok unless you are using too much "hands" to achieve this upright path. If you are using your hands to break the club straight up more, then you will also tend to "break down" on the down swing. You may be feeling that you need to "dig" the ball up into the air, which will cause us to overuse the hands and the resulting left arm break down.

Kim Brown: Your height may not necessarily require longer clubs, it depends on how far your fingertips are from the ground (in other words, it is the length of your arms compared to the length of your torso). However, if the club does not appear to be flat on the ground, they may be too flat for you. The longer grips and having the lie you need measured is more important than what type of club you play, to be frank. The fact that your clubs are too flat may indicate that you hit a lot of "toe deep" type iron shots which would result in a lot of shots going off line and shorter than possible. I would have yourself measured immediately. Not sure how available "dynamic fitting" is in London, but that involves not only measuring your lie while you are at your address position, but also taking into account your lie at impact when swinging the club through the use of a "lie board". I would highly recommend the process.

Kim Brown: If you are a 12 handicap, for example, you would apply one stroke of handicap for the holes marked 1-12 on the scorecard. In a net tournament, you would get a "dot" on each of those holes. A dot means that if you actually made a 6 on the hole, you would receive a net score of 5 on that hole. You get no strokes of handicap on the holes labeled 13-18. Handicap hole #1 is the hardest hole and #18 is the easiest. Your handicap itself is figured by taking the low 10 scores from your last 20 posted, averaging, deducting the course rating, and then multiplying times . (point) 96.

Kim Brown: Me too. No secret to it other than doing some good stretching exercises, the hitting some balls, either walk when you play or ride in an enclosed cart. Wear "layers" instead of bulky clothes. Wear a sweater vest, as that provides an extra layer without restricting the arms and shoulders. Eat right, exercise, and all that stuff and that is about the best you can do. good luck!

Kim Brown: WE should always strike the ball first but we should "FEEL" more like we are sweeping those irons.

Kim Brown: I will provide you one main goal to work towards achieving. Develop a "vanilla shot". This is the shot you can always go to when in doubt. Either it will tend to be a natural draw or fade. Whenever you play, decide on a given day whether you are going to fade or draw off the tee and stick to it no matter what. We want every tee shot to either go straight OR in that other particular shot pattern of fade or draw. Most of us get in trouble because we don't know what to expect. Having that "go to" shot will take some work on your part, but you yourself know right now which it is. We get in trouble trying to accomplish more than our swing will naturally provide. You would be suprised how well you can score hitting an "ugly heeler" off the tee all day, for example. Good luck. If you hit your irons better, practice by alternating shots between a 3 iron, then a driver, a 3 iron then a driver, etc. to build more positive swing traits.

Kim Brown: Buy a good set. You can be custom fitted with good clubs just as easily as you can with clones.

Kim Brown: I want you to go to the range, line up 25 balls, and line the ball up on the hosel of the club. I want you to intentionally shank all 25 of them. By the time you get to the last ball, I would bet you "can't " shank it. After that, do practice drills where you do practice swings and "hold" the finish position for 3 seconds. Eventually, work the ball into the equation and continue to hold the finish.

Kim Brown: Sounds like your hands are doing most of the work on the downswing. Try taking a bigger shoulder turn, uncoiling the body first on the downswing. Feel like your left arm stays the same length until after impact. and swing to a full finish.

Kim Brown: Backswing - the order should be : clubhead, arms, shoulders, hips
Downswing -the order should be : hips, shoulders, arms , clubhead

Kim Brown: Full shoulder turn, keep elbows close together throughout the swing, but in particular at impact. Make sure your shoulders are not "open" or pointed to the left at address.

Kim Brown: PGA does not make rules about clubs. You might look in the USGA web site. I don't believe thereis a limit on the weight of a clubhead.

Thanks to Kim Brown, PGA Master Professional for answering these questions.

Simply go to this form, to ask Kim your question.

Northern Texas PGA

Golf in the SouthWest