Golf Tips: The Low Shot

Feeling a bit rusty after the off-season? I hope these tips will help you through the early part of the season.

How many times have you watched a golf tournament to find a pro under the trees after a wayward tee shot?

The trouble golfers have with this particular low trajectory shot is that they try too much to hit the golf ball into the air when they should focus their attention on getting the shot safely out of danger.

Remember these few suggestions when attempting this shot and you will get back into the fairway and save strokes too!

1. Choose the right golf club: With a clean lie, use a 5 or 6 iron. If the ball sinks down into the rough, use a 7 or 8 iron as the higher loft will help get the ball out of the rough. It is important, however, to use a club that will keep your shot from hitting the obstruction.

2. Set Up: Ball back in your stance,, hands ahead of the ball and weight on your left side (for righties - opposite for a lefty)

3. Slow Down: The low shot is hit most effectively with a slower swing speed. This provides less backspin and a lower trajectory.

4. Finish: Keep your hands low at finish to keep the flight of the ball low.

Mental Note: You might not be able to reach the green. If you don't think you can, DON'T TRY! Instead, attempt to get the ball out of trouble first, aiming for the fairway. Once in the fairway, it will be easier to get the ball up and down to possibly save the hole.

Golf For Beginners Podcast 01-08-06

In Golf for beginners 01-08-06 episode nine we blog about the best way to practice at the driving range, talk a little about Lucas Glovers' hole-in-one at the 2006 Mercedes Championships and ask a couple of poll questions from our listeners.

For example, please respond to the following for our next GFB podcast:

Have you ever gotten a hole-in-one? If so, please either post it here and tell us the details or send it to our golfforbeginners@aol.com email address. We will put your name and club on the internet for all of our listeners to hear!

Our second poll question is:

What is the lowest temperature you will go out and play golf?
Contact us at golfforbeginners@aol.com.

Since we also played a round of golf before the end of 2005, we give our synopses of our rounds.

Happy New Year and play lots of golf! Yeah!

Review: Titleist 904F Fairway Woods

"My new Titleist 904F Fairway Woods are tee-rific!"

Their official name is the Pro Trajectory Titleist 904F Fairway Woods. I got mine with the YS-6 graphite shafts which are stock shafts. You can also select the Dynamic Gold S300 and the Titleist Speeder Fairway which are also stock or the several other custom shafts but the Y-6 is nice because of it's balance of stiffness with just the right amount of "give". I seem to always hit them directly on their sweet spot. It's almost like getting an unfair advantage when using these golf clubs on the course.

I visited Titleist's website to view the specifications on the Titleist 904F Fairway Woods. What really intrigued me was that professional golfers have used Titleist for years so how could an average golfer, a golf beginner like myself, do these clubs justice? Would they be too advanced for my swing? Would I be able to feel comfortable playing with an advanced set of woods that I thought were meant for lower handicappers? Note: Ernie Els used the Titleist 904F Pro Trajectory 3-Wood to win at the 2005 Dunhill Championship and Mark O'Meara's game also benefits from the 904F 15 and 17 degree clubs.

Right down to the packaging, I could see that these new woods were special. Even the headcovers, a new design (but typically Titleist), were intriguing. I knew I was in for a treat!

The first thing I noticed was a difference in the balance of these fairway woods compared with the old extremely bendable women's woods I was used to carrying in my bag. The YS-6 shaft didn't feel whippy and the head was small yet substantial, pear-shaped…and definitely Titleist.

Built from 355 Carpenter steel, these can also be called "fairway metals". A hot forgiving face with just the right sound when you hit it sweet makes the club exciting to use.

The C.G. was moved to the center of the club and you can feel the balance even when you just grasp the golf club in your fingers. It has true proper weight distribution. You get a high launch with a flatter trajectory. The golf ball just SOARS! I noticed that all my shots were centered on the face and the ball travelled AT LEAST as far as my old woods without effort!
Okay, perhaps I should stop gushing now.

I also noticed that the clubs I had selected, the 904F 15 degree and 19 degree (3 wood and 5 wood respectively) were VERY forgiving when I DID hit them a bit off-center. That encouraged me to keep using them on the range and, as I hit them a few more times, they felt better and better until I rarely hit one off-line or off-center. My 3-wood was travelling about 190 yards when I decided to put my two new 904F's away and try out my new driver (the Titleist 905T, of course…). I'll get to the driver in another article.

In conclusion, I give the Titleist Pro Trajectory 904F Fairway woods two thumbs up! They are beautiful to look at, delightful to hold, very forgiving and make you feel like a professional golfer when you use them. The newly designed headcovers (with the silver theme along the sides) add to the beauty of the set in my golf bag. They will be with me for a long time to come.

Thanks again to Titleist!

Photo Credit: © Titleist.com.