Improve your golf performance. Is that always on your mind? When you go out to golf you’re hoping for a good round. I know I do.

How often does your outcome match what you hoped for? Do you usually shoot the scores you had envisioned before you teed off? If not, do you ever evaluate where and how you could have saved strokes and avoided those blow up holes?

I’ve got 5 easy tips for you to implement immediately that will improve your golf performance by shaving 4-6 or even more strokes off your score the next time you play. Give them a try and see what happens. Here they are:

1. First off you’ve got to put the proper fuel in your body before you leave home. Most golfers don’t give it a second thought. They either don’t eat at all before they leave home or they eat something that is not going to give them the long-term energy they’re hoping for.

So whether it’s lunch or breakfast before you leave you need to consume a complex carbohydrate and a good protein source. This combination will warrant the best use of your energy for the long haul.

An example for breakfast would be a bowl of oatmeal and a couple of egss with a piece of fruit or a juice. For lunch you could have a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with a piece of fruit. Lot’s of lettuce on the sandwich and try to avoid mayonnaise or butter.

2. The second tip is to properly warm up your body before you even hit your first ball. I see so many golfers show up 5 minutes before tee time, hack a few balls and head to the first tee. Those golfers are headed for a double bogey right off the bat – but hey they’re just getting “warmed up” right?

A better approach is to give yourself at least 30 minutes before your tee time. First do some dynamic (movement oriented) stretches to prepare your body to perform.

Things like arm circles, partial squats, toe touches, etc. Then take some half swings with a 7 iron. Now after that you’re ready to hit some wedges. You’ll find with this approach your hits on the range will be much better, which will build your confidence.

3. Drink lots of water even before you leave your house. Try to consume up to a gallon of Water before you get to the course. This will help you absorb and digest your pre-game meal and hydrate your muscles for optimal performance.

Don’t take this lightly.

Dehydration causes energy loss, lack of focus and concentration and fatigue later in the round. And remember, that’s before you even come to the course. Once you get their you should be drinking water every hole.

4. Don’t wait ‘til you get tight to stretch on the course. You should be constantly moving your body and stretching your joints while you play. I see and hear too many golfers complaining of tight lower backs or shoulders during the round, What amazes me is that with all that complaining they do nothing about it.

Why?

Think of your body as a machine. If the machine starts to break down – fix it. I mean stretch those areas while you’re playing. You’ll see a big difference in your swing mechanics late in the round.

5. Snack while you play. No I don’t mean the full meal at the turn with a beer. I mean bringing fruit and nutrition bars to eat every 4-6 holes. When you supply your body with the proper nutrients your energy levels stay balanced and you will avoid those mental lapses late in the round.

How many times have you had a good score only to blow up late in the round? I’ll bet more than a couple of times. I know I have. Treat your body like a Ferrari not a Ford Pinto.

These tips if applied, will definitely improve your golf performance!

In my game I have adopted the simplest possible swing and have insisted that as many shots as possible should be played with fundamentally the same movements. Now that I have outlined the idea of teaching by feel you will better understand why I attach such importance to this point.

Now these four points together make up the top of the swing, and I was talking about the waggle—which is the bottom of an imaginary swing! But do not think I was digressing. I was not, the two are linked together. And why? Because unless you feel the whole of the swing in your waggle, your waggle is failing in its purpose.

This controlling feel is built up through the constant repetition of the correct movements. We do not know just where in the system it resides, but whether it is muscular memory, or the wearing of certain grooves or channels in the mind, or—as is probable—a combination of the two, it is obvious that the more often the same succession of movements can be repeated the clearer the memory will be. Also, and this is most important, it is highly desirable that the memory should not be confused by the frequent or even occasional introduction of other and different movements—as happens when the swing is fundamentally changed for certain shots.

It is mainly for this reason that I teach and preach and practice that every shot from the full drive to the putt should be played with the same movement. Of course in the drive the movement is both more extensive and bolder than for the shorter shots, but fundamentally it is the same. The result must be a feeling of “in-to-out” stroking across the face of the ball—played not at the ball, but through it. The “in-to-out” refers to the relation of the feel of the path of the club head to the desired line of flight of the ball.

The only shots in golf which I have been unable to play or to teach as sections of the fundamental “in-to-out” swing are certain shots which call for cut pulled under and across the ball.

But for ninety-nine out of every hundred shots a golfer must play, the swing is the movement necessary. So to clear the ground I will list what I consider to be the essentials of the swing:

1. It is essential to turn the body round to the right and then back and round to the left, without moving either way. In other words this turning movement must be from a fixed pivot.

2. It is essential to keep the arms at full stretch throughout the swing—through the back swing, the down swing, and the follow through.

3. It is essential to allow the wrists to break fully back at the top of the swing.

4. It is essential to delay the actual hitting of the ball until as late in the swing as possible.

5. It is essential not to tighten any muscle concerned in the reactive part of the swing (movement above the waist).

6. It is essential to feel and control the swing as a whole and not to concentrate upon any part of it.

In a sense this last point is the most vital. The swing must be considered and felt as a single unity, not as a succession of positions or even a succession of movements. The swing is one and indivisible.

Now I consider that our golf is liable to go wrong if we lose sight of any of these essentials. There are of course innumerable incidentals that could be added that are important enough to have a considerable influence on one’s game, but I will go so far as to say that if you have these six essentials well embedded in your system and if you have developed some conscious control of your swing by getting the feel of the right movements—your game will rarely or never desert you.

Of course the comfortable, reliable, right feel is not a thing that comes all at once. For instance, it takes years—though not if your teacher teaches by feel—to

feel nicely set and comfortable before the ball; weight between the feet, perfectly free and active and yet firmly planted.

Then the waggle. About the waggle a whole book could be written. Every movement we make when we waggle is a miniature of the swing we intend to make. The club head moves in response to the body and the body opposes the club head. It is a flow and counter flow of forces with no static period, no check.

There is no check anywhere in a good swing. There is no such thing as the “dead top” of a swing—there are four points each one of which might be so considered if it were not for the other three! They are: (1) When the pivot (feet to shoulders) has reached its top, the arms are still going up. (2) When the arms have reached their top, the body is on its day down. (3) When the arms begin to come down, the wrists have still to break back, and (4) When the wrists break

To put the lesson of the concept of control by feel as briefly as possible, we must give up thinking about our shots. In place of thinking there must be conscious control, obtained by building up (by constant repetition of the correct action) a comfortable and reliable feel, a feel that will tell you infallibly through appeal to your muscular memory, what is the right movement —and which will remain with you and control your shots whatever your mental state may be. Not being a matter of thought, this control stands outside the mental state.

Practice makes a man perfect, but practice of improper form gets you into bad habits hard to break. Therefore, golf swing instruction is absolutely imperative. Even the pros have had professional golf swing instructors to be as good as they are today.

If you want to start swinging like a pro, you have to put in dedicated practice with the proper form. Only then you will be able to increase your accuracy. Practice really means to do the same thing again and again. It can be very monotonous but soon you find your rhythm, and then it begins to pay off.

In other words, it is a slow process and unproductive at first. But, after you’ve ‘learned the ropes’ or learned the rhythm, you will be able to do the job with your eyes closed.

In the game of golf practicing with the proper repetitive motion will allow you to train your brain and feel the proper rhythm. Later on, you will be able to identify the problem areas in your swing.

Here are three simple golf instruction tips:

First of all, try to learn proper swing mechanics from golf swing instruction books or on the internet. It doesn’t take much time to read about the perfect golf swing and realize the flaws in your swing. This is the first step.

Secondly, you need to have the proper mental attitude to play a round of golf. Make up your own trigger; you need it before each shot to get into ‘the zone’. For instance, you may take a deep breath or tap your club on the ground to feel completely relaxed as you prepare for the shot. All this is important to block out any distractions and concentrate on your shot.

Thirdly, it pays to take a few professional lessons after you have learnt the proper swing mechanics from a book or the internet, and incorporated a trigger into you shots. You will get help from the golf pros with the problem areas in your swing. You will find them different in the beginning, but after some time, you will get used to the changes, and will start to see the benefits in your future shots. Take some notes during and after your lesson, and keep them handy for future reference.

If you are serious about becoming a better golfer, you will need proper golf swing instruction to start hitting better golf shots. You will need professional assistance if you have formed some bad habits and cannot improve your game. Remember, it is not easy to break bad habits. But it is the first step to your success.

Learning the golf swing instruction tips and putting them into practice will help you immensely. You can learn from a professional or even the local ‘ace’ at you country club. These tips are easy to learn and very gratifying in terms of improving your game.