Scott Luebke - Golf Lessons
Teaching since 1995, Scott has taught 1,000+ golf lessons (private, semi-private, group). Scott has served as the PGA Head Professional at MetroWest Golf Club and the PGA Director of Golf at Hunter’s Creek Golf Club prior to his role as President of www.GolfOrlandoFlorida.com.
Scott’s philosophy on the golf swing is to keep it simple and focus on the fundamentals of grip, alignment, posture, balance and swing plane. The proper setup is essential to execute a balanced, athletic, efficient swing. There is not "one swing type" for all golfers. Create the motion, shape the motion, and repeat the swinging motion. Efficiency of motion is the overall goal. With a focus on the full swing, short game, and mental game, Scott’s goal is to teach people to play better golf.
The golf grip is a point of confusion for many beginning, novice and high handicap golfers. How to grip a golf club is a question students have asked me many times on the lesson tee.
A proper grip is essential to playing good golf consistently. The hands are the only part of your body that touch the golf club to provide a "connection". Your golf grip will influence the clubface angle at impact and how fast you are able to swing the club.
A good grip helps return the clubhead square to the ball at impact without hindering the natural centrifugal force generated by the swinging of the golf club. As the late Tommy Armour stated, “The basic factor in all good golf is the grip. Get it right and all other progress follows”.
Throughout my years of golf instruction, I have taken a fundamental, simplistic approach to the golf swing. For a proper golf grip, I stress the importance of the three P's. Placement, pressure and precision.
The key to consistent ball striking is balance. Balance, whether good or bad, affects your golf swing in numerous ways. If you improve your balance, you will hit a higher percentage of straighter and longer golf shots. Proper balance is a skill that can be developed and should be practiced on a continual basis.
One of the best balance drills is not golf specific, but can have a dramatic impact on your golf swing. Practice standing on one foot for as long as you can. Start by standing with your weight on your right foot. Then, stand with your weight on your left foot. You might be surprised with the difficulty of this seemingly simple exercise. Begin with a short goal of 20-25 seconds on each foot and try to improve your times daily.
In previous golf lessons I discussed how to hit a golf ball from an uphill lie and how to hit a golf ball from a sidehill lie with the ball below your feet. Here is a golf lesson on how to hit a golf ball from a downhill lie.
When you face a downhill lie, the ball lies below your feet. The address position relating to the ball and clubhead positions should be the same as a level lie. Ball position should be in the center of your stance. Because of the downhill lie, your body will need to bend more at the hips to reach the ball.
Because the excessive bending is uncomfortable when finishing your backswing, golfers have a tendency to straighten their posture similar to a level lie. The straightening of the posture results in thin shots and in some cases…topping the ball. To alleviate this problem, widen your stance slightly. The wider stance will make it easier to reach the ball.
