Sep 1, 2010
This past week at the Barclays as I was up close and personal with the players on the practice range, I came away with several impressions and observations that I believe can be helpful to all golfers who aspire to play better.
Alignment: many of the players used alignment rods along the ground as they warmed-up. Those who didn’t: Els & Cink (who I noticed in particular) struggled during the week with their accuracy. The best I saw was Camilo Villegas who used (3) rods: two straddling the ball line for the clubhead to track and one across his toe line for alignment.
Note: a rod placed along your toe line parallel to your target line and 1- 2 inches from your toes can be used as a track line for your hands to swing along – back, down and through. When you get your hands on track, accuracy follows.
Set-Up: To my eye, way too many of the players are shortchanging their consistency by not sufficiently using their set-up to establish balance.
Note: In the ideal set-up the butt is behind the heels as far as the eyes are ahead of the toes with the weight balanced over the arches, knees minimally flexed and the arms hanging vertically from the shoulders. I believe Ernie Els could really benefit by adapting to this position.
From Saturday to Sunday, when Luke Donald made a slight adjustment to this “balanced set-up” by moving approximately 1″ closer to the ball, at my suggestion, he rediscovered his “feel” and began striping it. He was hitting it so well on Sunday that, as he left the range I said, “now, go make some birdies.” He did – six in a row to start his round! Well done, Luke! And congrats on making Europe’s Ryder Cup team.
Focus 1: Most of the players were paying great attention to the first two feet of their takeaway.
Note: If you get disconnected, off track or change the club face alignment during your takeaway, you are in recovery mode from the get go. Also, your “connected” takeaway should feel like a locomotive pulling out of the station, not a Ferrari off the drag strip.
Focus 2: Most of the players paid particlar attention to their downswing move into impact. Their feeling of connection and target line with path and face (squaring of the hands) as they approached impact seemed to be the “feel” they were consistently trying to produce.
Note: We would all do well to work on the “sequence” of our transition from backswing to downswing. What we notice among the tour players is how smooth and quite this transition tends to be. There is no rush or hurry here. Rather, we see the upper body/arms/club wait patiently at the top while the feet/legs/hips do the work of post/spin/fire in order to deliver an accelerating clubhead at impact.
Auto Pilot: As I observed the swings of the tour players, for the most part they seem to be on “auto pilot” from impact to finish. Few seem to focus their attention on their motion from ball to target. Yet, it is this segment of the swing – delivery – that actually produces the ball flight.
Failure to feel/observe this “delivery” segment of swing motion can be a two edged sword: On the positive side, when swinging well, your mind doesn’t get in the way of your body’s ability to perform. But, when struggling with errant ball flights, observing and feeling the delivery segment of your swing is the absolute fastest way to get back to “good.”
Connections: I observed many of the players, including Tiger, swinging with a golf glove under either their right armpit or their left in an effort to “stay connected.” This restriction of armswing serves to make sure they turn fully away and through so their arms are not left on their own to produce the swing arc.
Note: As we moved from the Ben Hogan era (towel under each arm) to the Nicklaus era (the elbows could extend away from the chest to produce a wider-moe powerful arc so long as the elbows stayed together and pointed to the ground), we discovered the more important connection to be that of both elbows to the left pivot, not the arms to the chest. So though Tiger’s swing connections are indeed improving, I am of the belief that he could improve even faster if he were working on “the better connections” of both mind and body to target.
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