The SnapThe SnapAim: To dispel the notion that a perfect snap is required for a perfect round ! Having said that here a few pointers to achieve a good rhythmn which in turn equals a good snap.
"The game's all about snap, right"..."WRONG!", well, not completely wrong, but it is not the be all and end all of Links, certainly not at the PRO level.I say this from personal experience as there are times when my snap is all over the place and I still manage to score pretty well, and I also know many,many players with wonderfully consistent snap (the 6 o'clock bastards I call them) who couldnt beat me in a month of Sundays. The more you play and practice the better your snap will be, until you get to that lovely point where you dont actually think about it because you know if you do miss 6 o'clock, it wont be by much, not enough to cause any problems, if you can hit the snap most of the time either at 6, or what I call smudge-6 ( where the snap line is a bit thicker and just either side of 6), then you have no worries on that basis, if you arent doing that then you might need to play a bit more often to get the required rhythym. Assuming you have no PC problems ( more of that later ), then the only thing you can sometimes do to better your snap is to take practice swings.I would advise this on the first tee at all times, just to let your meter / HD settle and to identify any possible jerkiness which may need addressing, but generally speaking I am not a fan of practice swings for online games ( see etiquette ) but offline on your own, thats fair enough...There are two ways to take a practice swing(s), both with a plus side and a minus side. Clicking shot options at the bottom of the screen you can click on "address" to step off the ball, and repeat to step back onto the ball when youve taken enough practice swings. The downside to this in my experience is that you might get the snap ok 3 or 4 times in a row, but during the clicking of shot options/address to step back to the ball I invariably find I lost the timing and the snap is gone.....the plus side of this method is that if the wind is blowing you do get the chance to check that it hasnt changed dramatically, which may need an adjustment to the aim / club. My preferred technique is to use the ALT + A combination..by using my left thumb (ALT) and left finger (A) I can step off the ball and take swings, and when I am happy I will press ALT + A just after I hit the 6 oclock snap for my final practice and then I will repeat the swing without breaking the timing and rythymn I've just spent 3 or 4 swings getting.! Obviously the downside to this is you might not see the wind changing, as the wind gauge disappears when you take a practice swing....I'll leave it to your judgement, but generally Id say at Pro level, if you play enough you wont need to practice swing very much, if ever....You will of course have your own "routine" for the snap, my own personal one is to point the cursor at the dead centre of the ball, this allows me to glance slightly upwards to 12 oclock for that part of the swing and then glance down in a straight line to 6 oclock for that point. For some reason I breathe in and then hold my breath once I first click the mouse and dont breathe out until I've ( hopefully ) hit the 6 o'clock mark.You should realise by now that the worst thing you can do is to go past 12 o'clock on the snap meter. If you do and you miss the snap the result will be horrible, so keep within the 12 o'clock mark and any mis-snaps wont be too horrific in terms of where your ball ends up. You should read the section on half shots to see how an underhit club is actually not that sensitive to your snap which can be a real help on the shots where you really need to hit a fairway or green. So, a final warning : DONT go past 12 o'clock, use a bigger club and hit 12, or lay up short, a big swing past 12 will mess up your rhythmn and will cause you no end of grief.
Championship Note:
At the Championship level, snap is extremely important and even a slight mis-snap will cause a great deviation of the balls trajectory, particularly for the longer clubs. At this level you need to concentrate even more, and its probably a good idea to have some practice swings, if not every shot then certainly on the shots with longer clubs, or shots with hazards like water nearby. Like it or lump it you are almost certain to have a few twitchy snaps which will cause you problems at champ level, and there are other ways ( see later ) to minimise the risk of certain shots, but all in all, I think a few practice swings are a good idea for most shots ( including putts ) at champ level.
Other Contributions:
You'll see in the credits list that JayEss, Robert Lindquist and Crankshaft all told me to advise you to stick to full 12 and 6 o'clock shots as much as possible to keep the timing, and who am I to argue with them ?LOL