PRE-SWING Fundamentals- Grip, Aim, and Setup/Posture 
Keys to a good swing are sound pre-swing fundamentals: 

These fundamentals are important to allow the club to swing and your body to move properly. Incorrect placement of your hands, grip pressure, poor alignment, or not proper posture will lead to swing faults. These areas will always need your attention to ensure positions are correct. It's easy to get off track! Using a mirror at home is a great way to check your posture, on the range use alignment rods on the ground to verify your alignment is correct.
Practice- Do 15 minutes daily grip placement and tension awareness holding the club, aim, and setup position.
Grip- Make sure placement of grip is more in fingers vs. palms, pressure a 4 on a scale of 1-10 (tightest 10). Light tension in your hands and arms, so the clubhead weights a ton feeling. Left thumb placed lightly down the grip, right hand center of palm fits thumb in palm, covers left thumb.
Practice- 5 minutes daily, be aware of light tension- hands, arms, and shoulders.

Video: Grip - 

Aim- Feet, Knees, Hips, and Shoulders are parallel to the target line (clubface square pointing down target line) Leading edge of clubface square and aimed down an imaginary line at target. Use alignment rods when practicing to check your aim. Tour pros always practice their alignment. Practice- 5 minutes each day.

Video: Aim -

Setup/Posture- Tilt hip bones downward to point toward ground, feet shoulder width apart, athletic balance, slight knee flex, arms hang down soft not firm. Your weight should be over balls of feet. Balance check - If too much weight on toes - they will be gripping ground, if too much weight on heels, toes will be off ground. Be relaxed, firmly pressing down thru thighs into feet. Practice- 5 minutes each day.

Video: Setup -

PHOTOS - Grip - Aim - Setup/Posture

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SETUP- Balance Discs

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Balance Discs assist in body awareness. Arms hang down from shoulders, pelvic tilt neutral, slight flex with knees, weight even over both feet in an athletic ready position. 
Practice- 5 minutes daily.

SETUP FAULTS 

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Setup faults can be caused by tight hamstrings, hip flexors, or calfs. Your body will always choose the path of least resistance. If certain muscles are tight you won't be able to setup naturally.  NOTE: 1. Some rounding in the shoulders is fine for certain golfers.
​2. The Arch in the lower back can be fixed by using your abs. It feels like you are pulling your belly button in and up. 
Golf Clubs:
  • The rules of golf allow a golfer to have up to 14 clubs in their bag. Which clubs they put in their bag is up to them.  
  • The length and loft on each club differs depending on the club. 
  • The lower numbered clubs have less loft and increase in length. (Typically each club differs by 4 degrees in loft and 1/2" in length.)
  • 10 yard difference between each club. 
  • You can loose 10% of max distance if you miss hit the clubface.
  • Centeredness of contact (sweetspot) on clubface creates more distance.
Not all manufacturers (Titliest, Callaway, Ping, Taylormade, Adams, Cleveland -  use the same name when identifying a club.
Here are some various labels you will see on your clubs depending on the company.

Wedges: You do not need to have all 4 wedges. See what you like and works for you.
  • Lob Wedge / LW / L / 60 - This club has a high loft of 60 degrees. Ball goes least distance, with more height.
  • Sand Wedge / SW / S / 56 - This club has 56 degrees of loft and can be used on grass as well as out of the sand.
  • Gap Wedge / GW / G / A (Approach) / D (Dual) /  52 - This club has a loft between 51-54 degrees depending on the manufacture. 
  • Pitching Wedge / PW / W / P / 48 - This club has a loft between 47-50 degrees.
Irons: Simply numbered 9,8,7,6,5,4,3 - as the number gets lower the loft decreases.
  • Each manufacture may use a different loft.
  • You can search online for the brand, model of club and the loft specs for that set. 
Here are loft comparisons for the Callaway Mavrik, Ping G410, Titleist 300, and Titleist 100 iron:                
Callaway Mavrik                   Ping G410
9 iron- 36 degrees               39.5                                                
8 iron - 31.5 degrees           34.5                                                                           
7 iron - 27 degrees              30                                                                  
6 iron - 24 degrees              26.5                                                                        
5 iron - 21 degrees ​              23.5                                                                               
4 iron - 18 degrees                 20.5                               
                                 
Titleist T300               Titleist T100
9 iron - 38                       42
8 iron - 33                       38
7 iron - 29                       34
6 iron - 26                       30
5 iron - 23                       27
4 iron - 20                       24
Rescue/Hybrid:
  • 3H, 4H, 5H or called Rescue. Hybrid and Rescue are the same thing, just named different.
  • These clubs are used in place of having a 3, 4, or 5 iron.  Also known as Long Iron Replacements.
  • Some manufacturers call them Hybrids while others label them Rescue.


Fairway Woods:
  • ​Specialty Fairway Woods (metal): 11, 9, 7 (these replace a 5, 4, or 3 iron or hybrid/rescue)
  • Standard Fairway Woods (metal): 5 wood - 19/20 degrees, 3 wood - 15 degrees.

Driver: (metal): 1 wood - loft ranges from 8-12 degrees. HL - is a high loft driver 13-15 degrees.
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Putter: Used on the putting green