While studying golf, the fundamentals are the building bricks of a fine game. If you do not master basic principles, you will not be able to develop these to improve your sport. Many players battle years later with a particular problem simply because they didn’t get the fundamentals right at the start. Even if you’re not new to playing golf, it’s never too late to revisit the fundamentals and ensure you are comfortable with these golf ideas.
1- Get a grip-
The tighter you hold the club, the more the ball will tend to go right. The looser you grip it, the much more likely it’s to go left. In general, you may need a balanced grip that is not too tight or too loose.
2- How to hold the club-
Support the club correctly with the handle in your palms and your thumbs facing down. Both hands should both be touching one another. The club should rest in your hands with the butt in your palm. Continue reading »
Matthew Gregory “Matt” Kuchar (born June 21, 1978) is an American professional golfer who has played on both the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour.
Kuchar was born in Winter Park, Florida. He graduated from Georgia Tech, where he was a two-time first-team All-American on the golf team. In 1997, he won the U.S. Amateur. He received the Fred Haskins award in 1998 as the nation’s top collegiate golfer. He was the low amateur at both The Masters and U.S. Open in 1998. He turned pro in 2000. One of Kuchar’s teammates at Georgia Tech was future PGA Tour professional Bryce Molder.
Kuchar’s first win on the PGA Tour came at the 2002 Honda Classic; however, by 2006 he was on the Nationwide Tour after failing to earn enough money to qualify for the PGA Tour. He won the Nationwide Tour’s 2006 Henrico County Open and finished 10th on the money list to earn his 2007 PGA Tour card. He retained his card in 2007 by finishing 115th on the money list and again in 2008 by finishing 70th.
Seven years after his first PGA Tour win, Kuchar won for a second time during the 2009 Fall Series at the Turning Stone Resort Championship in a playoff over Vaughn Taylor that concluded on Monday because of the playoff being postponed due to darkness on the previous Sunday.
On August 15, 2010, Kuchar made the U.S. 2010 Ryder Cup team by earning enough points to take the 8th, and last position, awarded on points. At the time Kuchar led the PGA Tour in top-10 finishes for the year, but had not won a tournament in 2010. The winless streak ended at The Barclays on August 29, 2010, which was played at the Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey; Kuchar defeated Martin Laird on the first hole of a sudden death playoff.
Full name: Matthew Gregory Kuchar Born: June 21, 1978 / Winter Park, Florida Height: 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) Weight: 195 lb (88 kg; 13.9 st) Nationality: United States
Kuchar has featured in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings.
Lee John Westwood (born 24 April 1973) is an English professional golfer.
As of 31 October 2010, he is ranked World No. 1. He is one of the few golfers who has won tournaments on every major continent, including victories on the European Tour and the PGA Tour.
He was named player of the year for the 1998, 2000, and 2009 seasons. He has won the 2000 European Tour Order of Merit, and the renamed 2009 Race to Dubai. He has represented Europe for the last six consecutive Ryder Cups. He spent over 180 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings between 1998 and 2001 and returned to the top 10 at the end of the 2008 season and again after the 2009 PGA Championship.
Full name: Lee John Westwood Born: 24 April 1973 / Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK Height: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Weight: 196 lb (89 kg; 14.0 st) Nationality: England Residence: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK
Lee Westwood Video
Lee Westwood Is World #1 in Golf — England Product Replaces Tiger Woods at Top Of Rankings Video
Background: Lightning learner Lee took up the game at the age of 13 after his grandparents bought him a half set of clubs, and less than two years later, he was crowned junior champion of home county Nottinghamshire.
Lee won his first amateur event in 1990, turned pro in 1993 after winning the British Youth Championship and it’s been uphill from there. During his successful career, Lee has won 18 events on the European Tour and has also won tournaments in America, Africa, Asia and Australia. His Official World Golf Ranking peaked at 4th, and in 2000 he won 7 tournaments worldwide and was ranked first on the European Order of Merit, ending Colin Montgomerie’s long run of European Tour dominance.
A regular on the Ryder Cup team, Lee has played in the last six successive competitions. 2006 saw Lee further embellish his magnificent Ryder Cup record when, for the second successive time, he remained unbeaten in all five matches.
Lee has enjoyed a spectacular return to form in 2007, winning the Valle Romano Open de Andalucia and The Quinn Direct British Masters, and is now the joint second most prolific English winner with 18 European Tour titles to his name. Lee ended the year finishing fourth at the Tiger Woods hosted Target World Challenge, featuring the world’s best golfers, and cemented his place in Nick Faldo’s 2008 Ryder Cup team.
Born and bred in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Lee was presented with Honorary degree of Doctor of Science on November 24, 2007 from Nottingham Trent University. He is also a keen fan of local football team Nottingham Forest.
Lee’s manager, ISM Chief Executive Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler, believes Lee has re-established himself among the current golfing greats and is now ready to win a major. Won the inaugural European Tour Race to Dubai, the Portugal Masters, the Dubai World Championship in 2009 and won his second PGA Tour event in 2010 at the St Jude Classic.
Martin Kaymer (born 28 December 1984) is a German professional golfer.
Kaymer was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. He turned professional in 2005 and is a member of the European Tour. He is currently ranked Number 3 in the Official World Golf Rankings. He won the 2010 PGA Championship, making him only the second German to win a major championship, after Bernhard Langer.
2010: PGA Championship win – In January 2010, Kaymer won the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship by one shot over Ian Poulter.
After missing the cut at the Masters, Kaymer performed very well in the 2010 majors. He finished in a tie for eighth at the U.S. Open and then tied for seventh at The Open Championship after starting the final round in third.
On 15 August 2010, Kaymer won the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits for his first major championship.Finishing regulation play in a two-way tie at 11 under par, he defeated Bubba Watson in a three-hole playoff.
Kaymer was a member of the winning European Ryder Cup team. He won both four-balls (partnered with Westwood and Poulter), halved his foursome and lost his singles match. A week later he won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews with Danny Willett coming in three strokes behind. He was the first player since Tiger Woods in 2006 to win three successive tournaments in a year and the first European to achieve this since Nick Faldo in 1989. The win took him to a career high of third in the Official World Golf Rankings.
Corey Allen Pavin (born November 16, 1959) is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour. He spent over 150 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings between 1986 and 1997.
Pavin was born in Oxnard, California. He attended UCLA and turned professional in 1982. He quickly established himself in the sport, with three international victories in 1983, and his first PGA Tour victory at the 1984 Houston Coca-Cola Open. He won at least one event on either the PGA Tour or the international tour nearly every year for the next decade, and topped the PGA’s money list in 1991, when he was the last man to achieve this without winning at least one million dollars in prize money. Pavin’s success culminated in his only major victory, the 1995 U.S. Open. Rather than marking a move to a new level of achievement, however, this was soon followed by a long slide down the world rankings from a high ranking of 5th. After Pavin won the Colonial in 1996, he did not win another PGA tournament for ten years. His 89th place finish on the 2004 money list was the first time he had made the top one hundred since 1998. Pavin finally won his fifteenth career title in 2006 at the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, ending a streak of 242 consecutive tournaments without a win.
Pavin played on three Ryder Cup teams: 1991, 1993, and 1995.
In 2002 he was named to the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame.
On July 27, 2006, during the first round of what would become his fifteenth tour title, Pavin broke the record for the fewest number of strokes needed to complete nine holes at a PGA Tour event, with an 8-under par score of 26. The previous record of 27 strokes was held by Mike Souchak, Andy North, Billy Mayfair and Robert Gamez, with Mayfair and Gamez’ scores being 9-under par. His 36-hole total of 125 also tied the record for fewest shots taken in the first 36 holes of a PGA Tour event held by Tom Lehman, Mark Calcavecchia, and Tiger Woods.
In December 2008, Pavin was named captain for the 2010 Ryder Cup U.S. team by the PGA of America. In October 2010, the U.S. Ryder Cup team lost 13½ to 14½, against the European side.
Pavin began playing on the Champions Tour in 2010. In June 2010, he lost in a sudden death playoff to Bubba Watson at the Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour.
Colin Stuart Montgomerie, OBE (born 23 June 1963) is a Scottish professional golfer often referred to by one of his nicknames ‘Monty’. He has had one of the finest careers in European Tour history, having won a record eight Order of Merit titles including a streak of seven consecutively from 1993 to 1999, and 31 European tour victories, placing him fourth on the all time list. He is renowned also for both his extraordinary Ryder Cup performances as well as the dubious distinction of being one of the most accomplished players never to have won a major championship after finishing runner-up on five occasions. His career high world ranking is second.
Career outline: Montgomerie turned professional in 1988, and was named the Rookie of the Year on the European Tour that season. He quickly developed into one of Europe’s top pros, winning his first event at the 1989 Portuguese Open by 8 shots and making his Ryder Cup debut in 1991. He finished first on the European Tour Order of Merit every year from 1993 to 1999 (a record for most consecutive Orders of Merit) and has thirty one victories on the tour, including the 1998, 1999, and 2000 European PGA Championships. He first reached the top-10 in the Official World Golf Rankings in 1994 and spent almost 400 weeks in the top-10. His highest ranking was number two. In his prime Montgomerie was considered one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the world and became a very precise iron player, often able to judge the distance he hit the ball exactly from long range.
Full name: Colin Stuart Montgomerie OBE Nickname: Monty Born: 23 June 1963 / Glasgow, Scotland Height: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Nationality: Scotland Residence: Dunning, Perthshire Spouse: Eimear Wilson (1990–2006, divorced)- Gaynor Knowles (2008–) Children: Olivia, Venetia, Cameron
His form fell away gradually in the new millennium, partly due to marriage problems, and his ranking slumped to 82nd in the world, but he came back strongly in 2005, winning a record eighth European Tour Order of Merit and returning to the top ten in the World Rankings.Late in 2005 he became the first man to win 20 million Euros on the European Tour – topping the European Tour’s all time highest earners list. He remained the leader in career earnings on the European Tour until 2010, when he was surpassed by Ernie Els.
At the end of 2004, Montgomerie was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year’s Honours. He represents the Turnberry resort in Scotland, where there is a Colin Montgomerie Golf Academy.
Ryder Cup and other team golf: Despite his disappointments in the majors Montgomerie is heralded as one of the greatest Ryder Cup players of all time. To date he has been a member of the European team on 8 occasions and has never lost in a singles match. He holds a win-lose-draw record of 20-9-7, thus giving him a total points scored tally of 23.5, only 1.5 points behind the all time record held by Nick Faldo. He has played pivotal roles in several of the matches. He halved the last hole with Scott Hoch to obtain the half point that won Europe the cup in 1997 and sank the winning putt in what is considered to be his finest hour in the 2004 staging of the event.
Montgomerie was not part of Nick Faldo’s 2008 Ryder Cup team with the wildcards going to Paul Casey and Ian Poulter.
Montgomerie captained the Great Britain & Ireland team in the first four stagings of the Seve Trophy, losing in 2000 but winning in 2002, 2003, and 2005.
On 28 January 2009, it was announced that Montgomerie would be the captain the European team at the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor. On 4 October 2010, Montgomerie led the European team to victory, 14½ to 13½. On the same day he also announced that he would be stepping down as captain of the European Team.
Michelle Sung Wie (Korean: Wie Seong-mi Hangul: born October 11, 1989) is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. In 2006, she was named in a Time magazine article: “one of 100 people who shape our world.” At age 10, she became the youngest player to qualify for USGA amateur championship. Wie would also become the
youngest winner of the US Women’s Amateur public links and the youngest to qualify for a LPGA tour event. Wie turned professional shortly before her 16th birthday accompanied by an enormous amount of hype and endorsements.
Professional career / Pre-LPGA membership (2005-2006):Having turned professional Wie was not a member of any professional tour. LPGA Tour membership age requirements require a golfer to be 18 although some players such as Morgan Pressel and Aree Song have successfully petitioned for an exemption to join at age 17. Wie chose not to request an exemption and was thus only allowed to participate in a limited number of LPGA Tour events when given a sponsor’s exemption from 2005 to 2008. She also chose not to participate in the Tour’s Qualifying Tournaments (or “Q-School”) until December 2008 when she finished 7th to gain LPGA membership for the 2009 season.
Full name: Michelle Sung Wie Born: October 11, 1989 / Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. Height: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Nationality: United States Residence: Champions Gate, Florida, U.S.
Michelle Wie – hits 596 yard par 5 in 2 shots Video
While studying golf, the fundamentals are the building bricks of a fine game. If you do not master basic principles, you will not be able to develop these to improve your sport. Many players battle years later with a particular problem simply because they didn’t get the fundamentals right at the start. Even if you’re not new to playing golf, it’s never too late to revisit the fundamentals and ensure you are comfortable with these golf ideas.
