A few tips in chipping

Improving chip shots requires a few basic adjustments to your body and stance, and with the help of a golf instructor and a little practice, you can perfect your chipping.

• Put your hands lower on the grip and your feet closer to the ball.
• Your ball position is best two inches behind the middle of your stance. Stand close enough to the ball so that when you raise the heel of your club, the toe is down.
• Use an accelerating swing by making a follow-through about 20 percent longer than your back swing and using a rhythmic, smooth and steady swing.
• Keep your wrists firm.
• Put more weight on your front foot (left for right handed golfers) and keep your hands in front of the club face.
• At the end of your swing you should be able to hold a glass of wine on your clubface.

Don’t be overwhelmed – chipping takes practice and if you hit the greens on a regular basis you should see improvements over time. If not, you may want to set up a lesson to find out how you can improve your stance and swing.

Hélène Delisle, PGA of Canada Professional
Fairwinds Golf Club

Are you for real?

If we are talking about whether to practice your golf off of real, living turf or mats, then you have to go with real.

Grass tees at Fairwinds Learning Centre

Evidently, it makes sense because that is what most golf courses are made out of and what you will eventually be golfing on. What might not be obvious is the benefits it has to your ability to hit the golf ball properly and the rate that you learn to hit the ball accurately.

Mats are forgiving; they grab the club just before it hits the ball and aligns it so that you make better than average contact. You can hit behind the ball and it bounces the club into the ball for perfect contact. Grass won’t do that for you.

Mats can also injure you. There is much more vibration and strain on your wrists when you hit off of a mat and, therefore, a lot of us scoop the ball off of the mat to avoid that risk of injury which is not the best way to hit a golf ball consistently. Mats can also alter the lofts on your clubs – in most cases making them stronger or delofted. This makes it difficult to hit the ball the distances that we might want.

Grass tees for practicing are ideal but they aren’t common at golf courses. At Fairwinds Learning Centre, we are lucky to have grass tees seven days of the week for a good part of the golfing season. This costs more to maintain but we think it’s worth it. It promotes a good impact to follow through position and teaches you to hit the golf ball solidly. It’s exactly what you will be hitting off of when you get out on our beautiful golf course…. For real.

Why the sod face?

You may have noticed our grounds crew redesigning part of the practice bunker. If the thought of how to get out of this practice bunker crossed your mind, well, the answer is in the question – practice.

The Fairwinds’ grounds crew redesigning the sod face bunker

There is no need to worry about future sod walls being installed on the golf course. That won’t likely happen, but the uniqueness of a sod face bunker provides an interesting challenge. It requires a full swing with a very lofted sand iron. This will build confidence in your sand game and produce high, soft bunker shots that can be used in any situation.

Why the sod face? It was necessary to narrow the bunker for safer access from the back of the bunker. We also wanted to help prevent line drives caused by thin bunker shots that often fly across the green which could injure another practicing golfer. This formation will also keep more sand in the bunker which is usually a challenge for the maintenance crew on bunkers that get a lot of use.

We hope you enjoy this new feature to our practice facility. By the way, if you are finding the wall too challenging we have some fine instructors who can get you over it.

Keep it fun!

Happy New Year

It is a new year (and a new moon) and while everyone is setting goals, why don’t you take this opportunity to create a new you in terms of your golf game? Here is a poem that was presented to our top D.O.G. by the author after he shot ten under par for the first time.

So you want to be the pilot
Of the tiny white moon

And you haven’t lost your mind yet,
Well, you will soon.

When they throw you that little egg
And say “crack this”.

You’ll head for a field and practice.
When you come back,

Your mind will be blank.
That’s the start of another golf goon,

Always on the tee by noon,
That’s the pilot of the tiny white moon.

The point is that we have all become pilots in our own way and we should honour and be proud of the way we play golf. The new you may very well be you. Play your game or play your swing… either one is a great way to enjoy golf. Happy New Year.

Fall brings new strategies to old games

Once again, we are gearing up to start the irrigation project, this time on the front nine. We started installing the irrigation system last October and closed the back nine while grounds crew installed the new piping. The improved irrigation system was completed by the end of April and the course was opened in time for the golf season.  Golfers are already able to notice the improvements on the back nine, including reduced wet spots.

As of October 1, the front nine will be closed for improvement through the fall and winter season, which gives golfers the opportunity to become familiar with the back nine and practice some of the challenges such as getting a par on hole 13. The uphill slope makes it the second hardest hole on the course with a number two handicap. At 546 yards from the blue tees, the par five hole is a great way to test your patience. If you can get a par, you deserve a beer!

Another challenge on the back nine is the tee shot on hole 18. Looks can be deceiving on this par five hole, but most people try to avoid the water on the right and going out of bounds to the left. The secret – aim at the bunker.

Playing the same nine holes allows you to focus on your weaknesses and improve in areas you consistently have trouble with. It lets you get to know the course better and discover ways to overcome the challenging, yet forgiving barriers that you may not notice when you aren’t playing the same holes as often.