From Brent Kelley,
Your Guide to Golf.
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With recreational golfers, opposites detract.

What do we mean by that? All golfers want to emulate the best golfers, the touring professionals. But many times, in their swings, in their approach to the game, in their practice habits, recreational players wind up doing the opposite of the touring pros.

Case in point: the slice. The slice is the most common problem for amateurs, the one thing most recreational players share with each other and wish they didn't.

And the slice, in many cases, is the result of a swing that is the opposite of a touring pro's swing. Most touring pros swing on a slightly inside-to-out swing plane. None of them swing outside-to-in, unless they are playing a cut or fade.

But many recreational players, and most of them who slice, swing outside-to-in. That results in the clubface cutting across the ball and imparting slice spin.

We can break it down farther and the opposites are even more noticeable. A slicer starts the club back slightly inside. Then, at the transition from backswing to downswing, our slicer raises his hands; his back shoulder raises before dropping forward - resulting in the downswing going from outside to inside. This is what's meant by "over the top."

But the pros are exactly the opposite. They start the club slightly outside. Then, as they transition from backswing to downswing, they lower their back shoulder, drop it down. Their hands lower and clubshaft flattens out, in order to get the club on a slightly inside-to-outside path.

Look at practice habits. When a recreational player hits the driving range, what is the club most commonly used for practice? The driver. Recreational players love to grip-it-and-rip-it, and chasing more yards so you can outdrive your buddies on the weekend is important.

What do touring pros spend their time practicing? Wedges - scoring shots. Many pros spend upwards of 70-percent of their practice time on shots from 100 yards and in, including time spent working out of bunkers, on greenside chips and putting.

And about practice putts: You've seen those recreational players who pick the most difficult putt on the practice green. The one that's 40 feet in length, over two ridges and with three breaks. If you haven't see that recreational player, then you are that recreational player.

Amateurs spend far too much of their time on practice greens worrying about break. When the pros practice putting, they concentrate on speed, not break. And they rarely practice anything other than straight putts. In fact, many do not even putt at the cup. They putt to and from imaginary (or real, if they marked the green) lines, trying to control their distance.

Why practice 40-foot, triple-breaking putts when, first, you have no reasonable expectation of making them, and, second, you probably won't see any such putts on the course? When you spend your time on such putts on the practice green, you're practicing missing putts, not making them.

Pay attention to what the pros say in interviews and what's written about them in feature articles - especially when they talk about practice habits. The pros have a lot to teach us. Even if we're not interested in trying to follow a dozen different pros who do the same thing a dozen different ways, we can learn by paying attention to their practice habits and approaches to the game.

Remember, opposites detract.