February 2013: Golf Digest Woman: Golf Digest

Tips For Her: Making consistent contact

Monday, February 25, 2013

Editor's note: Each week, Megan Padua, a teaching professional at Maidstone Club (East Hampton, N.Y.) and Belfair Plantation (Bluffton, S.C.), and one of Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers, offers tips and advice for women golfers.

By Megan Padua

All good golfers consistently return the club to the correct location at impact. To find the low point of the golf swing, try the "line drill." Draw a line in the bunker and take your stance with your feet equal distance on either side. Using a pitching wedge, take a swing and see whether your club makes contact before the line, directly on the line, or after the line. The club should contact the sand directly on the line and the divot should follow, leaving the area before the line untouched.

The line in the sand represents your golf ball during a full swing. The objective of a full swing is to contact the ball and then the turf, i.e. contact the line and then the sand. This is not a greenside bunker drill; this is a drill to test how well you can consistently deliver the club back to the impact position.

Having trouble controlling your contact? Check these two factors to move your low point:

1. Make sure you shift your weight. Keeping your weight on your back foot will cause you to hit behind the line.

2. Releasing the club (or flipping your wrists) too early will also cause you to hit behind the line. Don't let the clubhead pass your hands until after impact.

Tips For Her: Three keys for better bunker play

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Editor's note: Each week, Megan Padua, a teaching professional at Maidstone Club (East Hampton, N.Y.) and Belfair Plantation (Bluffton, S.C.), and one of Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers, offers tips and advice for women golfers.

By Megan Padua

Most tour players would rather be in a greenside bunker than in the rough. Unlike the high-handicap golfer, they understand the key factors of bunker play and don't have a fear of taking a trip to the beach.

Here are my three keys to better bunker shots:

Key No. 1: Never hear the click of the ball contacting the club. To control shots out of the sand, understand that you never actually make contact with the ball.

Key No. 2: Take a full swing. During a bunker shot, you're moving a large amount of sand, and it's this movement of sand that moves the ball. Your ball is being placed onto the green by a third party. Commit to taking a full swing--as long as you don't hear the ball at all, you will not hit it too far.

Key No. 3: Understand that your club is a tool. An open face will glide through the sand while a square or closed face will dig. When there is wet sand or very little sand, for example, an open face will most likely glide and end up hitting the ball. Try using a square face to dig whatever sand you can, resulting in the sand moving the ball.

Bonus Etiquette Tip: Once you've taken the time to rake the trap, tap the bottom of your shoes with your club to knock the sand off. This prevents you from tracking sand across the green.

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Tips For Her: Simple steps for better alignment

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Editor's note: Each week, Megan Padua, a teaching professional at Maidstone Club (East Hampton, N.Y.) and Belfair Plantation (Bluffton, S.C.), and one of Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers, offers tips and advice for women golfers.

By Megan Padua

Most people make the mistake of aiming their body directly at the target. But correct alignment means getting your body to aim parallel to the target, not at it. Here's a simple tip to help you take dead aim with precise alignment: Lay a club or alignment stick down along the line of your heels. Take a step back and look at where the stick is pointed. Now, take another alignment stick and lay it parallel to the first stick and place it directly behind the ball. (See images, below.) This will show the true alignment. If your body is aimed directly at the target, your actual alignment will be extremely far right (if you're a right-handed golfer). Work on getting to aim your body parallel, but left of the target so that your target line (that stick behind the ball) aims at the intended target.

This is the WRONG way to line up.

This is the RIGHT way to line up.

Initially, you might hit shots to the left even though you're aimed perfectly. Don't confuse this with poor alignment; this will happen only because you had previously been aiming to the right and compensating by pulling your ball left. After you hit a couple shots left, you'll start to adjust and hit it straight.

Accurate alignment will help improve your distance, direction and contact.

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Player bitten by Black Widow spider in LPGA qualifier

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

By Stina Sternberg

Before teeing it up in the pre-qualifier for this week's season-opening LPGA event, the ISPS Handa Australian Open in Yarralumla, Australia, the only Black Widows that LET rookie Daniela Holmqvist of Sweden had ever heard of were the eponymous golf spikes.

But after punching out of the rough on the fourth hole of the Royal Canberra Golf Club in Tuesday's competition, she felt a sharp stab in her ankle. When she looked down, she saw a large, black creature with a red spot on its back just above her sock line. After quickly swatting it away, she doubled over in pain.

Related: Golf's most damaging injuries

"When I told the local caddies in my group what had happened, they got very upset and said it was a Black Widow, and immediately started looking for their phones to call the medics," Holmqvist told Karin Klarstrom of Svensk Golf.

As Holmqvist's leg started to swell and the pain became intense, she made the quick decision to take matters into her own hands (she'd just been informed that a Black Widow bite can kill a child in as little as 30 minutes). She pulled a tee out of her pocket ("it was the only thing I had handy," she told Svensk Golf) and used it to cut open the wound so she could squeeze out the venom and keep it from spreading inside her body.

"A clear fluid came out," she said. "It wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever done, but I had to get as much of it out of me as possible."

It appears the do-it-yourself surgery was effective. An official was called and after weighing her options, Holmqvist decided to play on, despite severe pain and some anxiety about her well-being. Medics followed her the remaining 14 holes to make sure she didn't pass out, and monitored her behavior and swelling. She finished the round without incident but shot 74, which left her out of the tournament.

"It still hurts," she told Svensk Golf later in the evening. "I don't recommend getting bitten by a Black Widow."

Follow @StinaSternberg

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Tips For Her: Creating the perfect divot

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Editor's note: Each week, Megan Padua, a teaching professional at Maidstone Club (East Hampton, N.Y.) and Belfair Plantation (Bluffton, S.C.), and one of Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers, offers tips and advice for women golfers.

By Megan Padua

Too many women have a fear of "messing up the grass," and they're consequently afraid to take a divot. Stop holding back. The very first secret in golf is to make the club hit the ground. When done correctly, it won't hurt your body and it is perfectly within the means of golf course etiquette to take a little bit of turf when you hit your ball. The trick is to give the grass a "hair cut." Place two alignment rods on the ground to create a track to swing your club through (see images, below). Using a short iron, swing the club back and through the tracks without hitting the rods. If you see blades of grass flying up in the air you're doing the drill correctly. The goal is to give the grass a quality hair cut, not a buzz cut, just take a little off of the top and you'll be in business. The rule of thumb here is, if you don't hit the grass you won't make solid contact with your golf ball.