Most golfers are obsessive about hitting their shots a long way. This is particularly true of their wood shots. But the average golfer will win more games and more competitions if he hits the ball straight and keeps it on the short grass. It might not appear so macho to play the game this way, but it is a lot more macho than having to declare that you are a loser.

In my opinion the best golfing instruction book I have enjoyed reading is Ben Hogan’s The Modern Fundamentals of Golf. In this very practical book Mr Hogan describes the golf swing as essentially being about making a turn with the top half of your body followed by a turn with the bottom half of your body. On the back swing you turn your shoulders and then your hips and on the down swing you turn your hips and then your shoulders.

As an NLP practitioner I’ve learned the art of visualising my golf swing. You also could do the same, all that it needs is a little bit of practice.

What I think about as I commence my swing is: hands, arms, shoulders, hips, pause, hips, shoulders, arms, hips. All you need to be certain of then is that you keep your eye fixed on the back of the ball and your head still. But if you are simply turning your shoulders and your hips, it is a easy matter to keep your head still.

As I start the downswing I make sure that my right elbow is tucked in to my right side. This guarantees that the club-head does not move out of its plane and approach the ball on an out to in plane.

My final recommendation is that you spend a little time on the practice range. Don’t hit a lot of balls. It’s much better to go regularly to practice and just hit a small bucket of balls each time than to go to the range infrequently and hit one or two hundred balls. I hit twenty to forty balls once every week.