5 Step Drill To Increase Your Distance.

Hello All,

Bit Of a gaffe yesterday, when I said that Sky Sports were covering the 4 days of the PGA Championship from Wentworth. Turns out they are only covering the first 2 days, with the BBC showing full coverage over the weekend. My apologies.

Now, have you signed up for your FREE email tips yet. Just fill in your name and your email in the box on the top right and your tips will be delivered straight to your inbox. And if you sign up now you will also get the FREE bonus eBook Understanding and Enjoying Golf, containing 63 pages of selected tips. So go ahead and sign up today, you've nothing to lose.

And just as a taster, here is a drill you can use to get you more distance.

Swing Tips: A Five Step Drill.

Do you want to know a common trademark of golfers who have the knack for sending the ball flying with phenomenal distance? It's the turning of the hips to the left during the downswing, while at the same time extending the right arm through the swing.

Here is a quick drill that can help you accomplish this:

1. Start by teeing up the drive in your normal stance.

2. Now set the ball down off of your left heel (and/or opposite of the left armpit).

3. Without moving your stance, reach down and slide the ball towards your target by approximately the length of the grip on your driver.

4. Tee up your ball at that very spot, which should be 10 to 12 inches closer to the hole. Your address for the ball should be back where your normal position was at.

5. Now to finally hit the ball you will have to move the hips to the left so your arms will be able to “reach” the ball. This will invariably cause your right arm to extend.

This drill should be practiced at least 30 times before hitting the ball in its normal position. By that time you should have made significant improvement in your distance.

Enjoy and Happy Golfing,

Talk Soon,

Gordon.

PGA Championship At Wentworth.

Today is the start of the PGA Championship at Wentworth, the flagship event of the European Tour. Always a great event to watch, if you are in the vicinity, get yourself down there and watch some of the world's best golfer's in action. You never know what tips you can pick up.

Or if you can't make it in person, there is always TV coverage of the four days. This event has always been covered by the BBC, but this year, for reasons best known to them, they are only broadcasting the final two days!!!

But fear not, Sky Sports have come to the rescue and are covering all four days. And one of Sky's team is Denis Pugh, so he might just pop up with a lesson for us. If not, here is his latest short game lesson, just for readers of the blog.

Enjoy and Happy Golfing.

Talk Soon,

Gordon.

A Brief History of The Ryder Cup.

The Ryder Cup is a contest that is held every 2 years between the PGA tours of Europe and the United States. Samuel Ryder was an English entrepreneur and also a keen golfer who funded an international golf competition in 1926.

While watching this competition he thought it would be a good idea to make the match a regular event. So he donated a gold trophy, and in 1927, after the trophy was named after him, the first official Ryder Cup competition was played in Massachusetts between teams from the USA and the UK.

After a long period of US domination in the Ryder Cup, in 1979 the UK team was extended to include Europe and since then the competition has been a lot closer.

Both Ryder Cup teams are made up of 12 players and are captained by an experienced golfer from their respective countries. The majority of both teams are made up from the top players on each tour's order of merit, the exception being that the captain's are allowed a number of picks. At present, the US captain has 4 picks while his European counterpart has 2.

Currently, the format of the Ryder Cup is played over 3 days. On days 1 and 2 there are 4 foursome matches and 4 fourball matches. The team playing at home gets to choose whether they play foursomes or fourballs in the morning or afternoon. A foursome match has 2 players from each team and the players play alternate shots. Player 1 on each team tees off, and player 2 takes the second shot and continues like this until the hole is completed. In the fourballs, there are still 2 players on each team but they play their own balls this time until the hole is completed.

On day 3 there are 12 singles matches. With 1 point available for a win and ½ point available if the match is drawn the magic number to reach is 14 ½ points to win the trophy outright. The present holders of the trophy will retain it with 14 points. All matches are played as matchplay as opposed to stroke play

A lot of changes have been made to the Ryder Cup over the years, but it is still one of the most exciting and hard fought competitions in the golfing world. The USA team are the current holders of the trophy, but the European team will be bidding to win it back when the next event takes place at Celtic Manor golf club in Wales in 2010.

Now Bob Wins A String Of Titles.

Padraig Harrington's coach, Scotland's king of swing Bob Torrance, is threatening to upstage the Irishman after picking up a string of coaching awards for himself.
After Harrington's back to back wins in The Open and USPGA, the Scot has been showered with titles of his own.
These include PGA of Europe Professional of the Year, PGA of Europe Five Star Professional of the Year and the National Coaching Foundation High Performance Coach of the Year.
Torrance, a remarkably fit 77 said "These awards mean a lot to me and I feel honoured to have been recognised by bodies operating at the very highest level."