Tee-ing off with Rob Ilott from Golf Fusion

During six short months of coaching at Tauranga Golf Club I've noticed many trends in club golf – and most can be fixed with a little change of concept and practise.

This week I'll talk about a concept that compares making a swing versus making a hit – there's been some great examples on TV lately.

For all those shots you hit where the ball rolls along the ground, big divots, shanks, the high right and the low left, they're largely caused from one thing – a loss of posture.

By the time you get connection with the ball, you're nothing like you were at your set-up – this has a huge effect on the clubface.

You hear from PGA Tour commentators week in and week out that those winning are maintaining their angles in their golf swing.

Easier said than done, but I believe for players that cannot beat 2000 balls a week there's an easier way – make a golf swing and not a hit.

I suggest next time you're out on the practice fairway or out for a few holes, try to take note of what your finish position feels like and associate it with one player you like the look of on TV.

Practise holding the finish position to get that feeling. From here forget about other technical thoughts, hold the club face, release and follow through.

Now you know what your finish position feels like, set up to the ball as per normal, look at your target and imagine breaking that flag stick and think ‘get to the finish position'.

This should be your only swing thought. Most people will maintain posture much better and a lot of the terrible shots will start to go away.

If this doesn't help I suggest asking a PGA professional to check your set-up and posture.

This is one of the most important factors to a repetitive golf swing and step one of our initial checks here at Golf Fusion.

People who just worked this have seen improvement in ball flight and striking – and this is backed up by our TrackMan launch monitor.

Summer is just around the corner, so get on top of your game and happy golfing.