Two of the more challenging situations you’ll face on the greens include the long downhill putt and the short downhill putt. In this video, Indian Wells Golf Resort PGA Lead Teaching Professional Eric Solander explains how playing the ball off the toe and heel of the putter can lead to more success on the greens. 

Most longtime golfers know that there’s no end to great (and some not-so-great) golf tips. A quick mention of golf in casual conversation more often than not leads to a discussion about the best way to do this, or the worst way to do that. ​

After surveying some local PGA professionals – all of whom have heard and shared plenty of golf tips over the years – we came up with these three tried-and-true tips to help get your game in tip-top shape.

Let’s face it, golf can be a challenging game, where birdie holes can easily transform into double bogeys if things happen to go south with your game.
 
While golfers of all abilities can experience great rounds, every once in a while you’re sure to have one of those days when the bounces don’t to go your way and you’d rather not hold onto your scorecard. 

We surveyed a few SoCal teaching pros for some helpful hints on how to bounce back from a bad round…

Classic Club in Palm Desert is upping its game this fall with a full slate of new golf instruction programs.

Developed by PGA teaching professional David Curtis, the programs (listed at end of post) kicked off in November and include golf schools, clinics, course management instruction and private lessons.

Curtis, who began working at Classic Club in March, is originally from Beaumont and has lived in the Coachella Valley since 2001. He’s an accomplished player who has won multiple Desert Chapter PGA section tournaments as well as the 2016 PGA Desert Chapter Player of the Year award.
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He also led his college team to a California State Championship in 2004, and has taught with some of the finest golf instructors in the country throughout his career. We spoke to him about the new programs and his passion for the game.

It's often said that practice makes perfect. But that's not always necessarily the case. As the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi put it: "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect."

With that in mind, we reached out to Wade Wilson, a PGA professional at El Niguel Country Club in south Orange County, for his thoughts on what it means to practice perfectly. ​

“When I talk to golfers, they often say they are going to practice on the range or they are going to work on their putting,” he told us. “But the first question I ask them is, ‘What are you going to go practice?’ or ‘What part of your game are you going to go work on?’ Their responses are often quite revealing.”

When it comes to extricating your golf ball from a greenside bunker, Southern California PGA Teacher of the Year and Director of Instruction at Journey at Pechanga Randy Chang suggests it’s a lot easier than most amateurs think.

“The dreaded bunker shot. For most of you out there, this is the hardest shot in the game. For most professionals, this is the easiest,” Chang says. “Here’s why: It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to get the golf ball out of the bunker. It’s not hard at all.”

​Check out the video below to see how simple it really is…

It’s no secret that better performance on the greens leads to lower numbers on the scorecard. And when it comes to putting on speedy surfaces like the ones we’ll see this week at Augusta National, it’s good to have a few tricks up your sleeve that will help you get the ball in the hole quicker. 

“Tighter, firmer turf offers less resistance to the golf ball, allowing gravity to pull the ball further down a slope,” said former tour pro and Rolling Hills Country Club PGA Lead Golf Instructor David Hobby. “One of my favorite techniques for reading the green is picturing the sprinklers running and visualizing the direction the water would flow.”

Here are 3 other tips to help sink more putts on the speedy greens: