Tips for how to improve your golf swing

Stance & Posture

Every well-built structure starts with a good foundation. And
that’s what you need to develop a good golf swing. Your stance and  posture set the
stage for everything else that follows. To develop  a good stance, line your feet
apart about the same width as the  outside of your shoulders and keep your body
relaxed.

Your weight  should be evenly distributed on both feet, and planted firmly
on  the balls of your feet to the heels. This will give you the proper  balance while
swinging. Next, you need a relaxed posture so there’s  no tension in the back and
shoulder areas.

Make sure you stand  tall, with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend
at your waist and  slightly flex your knees. A proper bend will put your spine at the
correct angle for a good swing plane. When you address the ball,  your shoulder on
the side facing the target should be higher than  the other shoulder.

Once you find
the correct posture, practice it  over and over until it becomes second nature. And
if you do, you’ll  have a solid foundation for a solid golf swing.

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Here’s a great article submitted by one our readers on how to improve your golf swing

My theory of golf is that to score low you have to do two things: Keep out of trouble
on the tee shot and make putts. I now use a stripe on the ball to line up putts and
that really helps. I have also, finally, figured out a way to keep my drives in the
fairway. Maybe this will work for you.

Choke up.  Shorten your club length by an inch and stand closer to the ball. You
won’t lose distance because the added control will give you more solid hits.
Slow back. I have trained myself at the ball range to take the club back slowly as a
prelude to a relaxed easy swing. Never mind your “natural rhythm.” Do what I did: Go
to the range and focus only on swinging 80 percent of your strength until it becomes
habit. Start with slow back.

Vertical back, flat forward. To get the inside-out swing plane, I have learned to
take the club back with a fairly vertical swing and then to downswing with as flat a
swing as I can manage. To get from one plane to the other, I make a loop at the top
of the swing to bring the club head inside. I need to drop the club down at the
beginning of the forward swing to get the flatness. I can’t do the perfect circular
or same-plane swing, and I don’t try. The slow backswing helps to control the loop
and drop.

Slow forward. This is the hardest part, staying at 80 percent on the part of the
downswing after the drop. In the moment that I am slowly dropping the club, I
consciously remind myself to swing easy. It works.

Left shoulder at target. When I first started hitting most drives with control, I
would still occasionally pull hook one. A local pro, Chuck Lonabough, pointed out my
mistake. On the bad shots, I was setting up with my left shoulder turned left of the
target. My efforts to swing inside-out from this twisted position resulted in a
closed club face. Setting that shoulder straight was the last thing I learned, and
now it’s the first thing I do in my set up routine.

William Murdick

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And here’s another one: