Winter Golf Tips: First Tee Shot

In this video Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Keith Woods offers some winter golf tips on how to approach your first tee shot by making a full and committed swing

Winter Golf Tips: First Tee Shot

Keeping the ball in play by hitting drives that carry further through the air is the perfect winter combination. But to do that you need to be  warmed up and ready to go from the start. Here's my guide to understanding how winter conditions can affect your driving game.

Make a full turn

It’s cold and I suspect you probably haven’t warmed up on the range before arriving at the first tee - that's not surprising given that it's winter! The problem here is that, if you haven’t stretched at all before your opening tee shot, you’ll struggle to complete your backswing. The result is likely to be a big block right – we’ve all been there. This comes because the club is left behind as the body rotates through impact.

I want you to become conscious of this. Understand that if you don’t at least make a few simple stretches, a big block right or slice, is on the cards. So, perform a few simple stretches by placing a club behind your back and slowly rotate your upper body. Hold the top of backswing position and feel the resistance between your core muscles and your lower body. Then slowly rotate through to your finish and again, hold the finish for a couple of seconds. This might not seem like much but it is preparing you for an athletic move and relieving some of the tension in your core muscles. Finally, as you stand over the ball, have this one single swing thought in mind. That is, to rotate back until your left shoulder hits your chin - your back will be pointing towards the target.  This will give you much more time to strike the ball accurately down the fairway. If you can follow this simple process, you’ll be one up on the field by the time you