How to play consistent golf: Golf Digest Magazine

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Tips from our staff of 35 top players and teachers: From power to putting, make this your best year ever

Picture a flat spot at impact for a sweeping strike.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM
Sweep your woods: Photo By J.D. Cuban; Amateurs tend to hit their fairway woods thin, even top them, because they stay back and swing up on the ball. On these shots, I focus on getting to my front side and extending my arms through impact, which creates a long "flat spot" at the bottom of the swing. That lets me put a sweeping hit on the ball.

A good image for me with fairway woods is making a U-shape swing. To do that, you have to keep the club low to the ground for a couple of feet on both sides of the ball. A lot of golfers get the backswing right, but then they flip the club upward through impact. To keep the clubhead low through the shot, you have to be moving forward and straightening your right arm. Don't worry about loft: If you sweep the ball off the grass, the club's loft will send the ball nice and high.

Be careful: Here's the same swing at different angles.

TOM NESS
Take target practice with half swings: Photos By Jensen Larson; You can't always believe what you see -- even on video. Take a look at the photos above: It might look like my club is pointing more to the inside in the left photo, but believe it or not, these two pictures are of the same swing. If a laser were shooting out of the butt end of each club, it would hit the same spot on the target line (which is the definition of "on plane.") We used two cameras at this shoot, sitting 18 inches apart, to take pictures at the same moment. The camera that shot the left photo was on the target line, and the other was set up on the same plane as the shaft.

What does all this mean for you? If you videotape your swing, you need to be very careful about where you place the camera, and put it in the same spot every time. If you're careless, you'll get a distorted view of your swing plane. For example, if you saw your swing only from the angle in the left photo, you might think your swing plane was too vertical, and you might go work on the wrong things.

DAVID TOMS
Pitch with your body: Photo By J.D. Cuban; The best pitchers in the game use a lot of body rotation; the worst use almost none. If you freeze your body and throw your hands at the ball, you'll make a steep swing and tend to hit it fat. Good touch around the green isn't about having good hands; it's turning your body through, which keeps the club shallow and lets it get under the ball.

Dave Stockton once told me, if you're having trouble making solid contact on greenside shots, try setting up with your feet or belly button pointed more toward the target. This pre-sets the body in a through-swing position. From there, the club will stay shallow and slide through impact. Always turn your body to the target, with the club staying in front of your chest (above). With the focus off your hands, your touch will improve.

JOSH ZANDER
Key on grip: Photo By Joey Terrill; Most instruction about the chipping stroke focuses on the backswing, but the through-swing is very important for making consistently solid contact. Simply put, you never want the clubshaft to pass your left arm as you swing through. To achieve this, keep the grip end of the club moving at all times as your body pivots around your left leg. You can see here as I'm holding my follow-through that the shaft and my left arm are still in line.

Writers: Matthew Rudy, Ron Kaspriske, Pete Mcdaniel, Guy Yocom, Alan Pittman, Topsy Siderowf, Roger Schiffman, Dave Allen And Peter Morrice.

More consistency tips from our players and teachers >>: Many of the 35 teachers and players who contributed to this article also contribute instructional material to golfdigest.com/instruction. Our online teaching area is updated regularly and contains exclusive tips and lessons from the game's best thinkers and biggest stars.