Golfstruck

25 Jan 2011

Be careful what you wish for!  More distance is a good thing - so long as it comes with accuracy!

Let me preface my answer with a question?  When you start your club away from the ball, what muscles are you using?

If your answer is anything above the waist, e.g. hands, arms, torso, shoulders, you are already impeding your distance and sacrificing accuracy.

There was a great book written in 1946 by Percy Boomer: On Learning Golf.  This was the book that all our 1st generation American Pros carried with them on tour, dog-earred and with their notes written in the margins. In the first printing, the book started with a photo of a golfer in backswing position with a dotted line drawn across his waist.  Below the line was written the word: ACTIVE. Above the dotted line was written the word: PASSIVE. What would that depiction mean to you?

It means that your backswing must be initiated by your lower body turning away from your target; in particular your trailing hip should turn away so that your arms and torso work together (connected) in response to your hip turn.

To hit it farther with accuracy you must accomplish (2) things:  a) put your lower body in charge of your swing; and  b) deliver an accelerating blow - from  impact to a place I call ARRIVAL.

Arrival is that place/distance/position beyond the ball where your arms THRUST TO STRAIGHT and ROTATE to deliver your WHOOSH. Arrival is that moment when you achieve/deliver your maximum clubhead speed.

To learn to build/deliver your maximum clubhead speed beyond the ball, practice your golf swing with your arms crossed on your chest. Turn fully away with your hips and teach yourself the feel of gaining speed by SPINNING your lead hip through faster and FIRING your trailing side through to your target.  This simple drill will put your lower body in charge of your swing motion so you learn to generate power from the ground up. It further promotes the feel of arms staying connected to and controlled by your hip turn – connected as though spokes to the center of a wheel.

Refer to the Golfstruck Video Tip: Speed Delivery

By using a ‘whoosh stick’ to listen for speed delivery – beyond the ball, you will find that you are also discovering the game value of relaxing your hands and forearms.  When you grip too tight, you impede the development of clubhead speed and tend to deliver a lesser amount on the way down (before impact) rather than on the way through (from ball to target).

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Most all new golfers start out slicing the ball.  Some never really find the solution and simply learn to allow for it in their alignment. For those who want to improve their shotmaking skills and improve their scores, I have provided both a quick fix and a more lasting solution.

The quick fix for the slice is the “triple whammy,” which I learned from Dr. Gary Wiren when he was Director of Education for the PGA of America.

The Triple Whammy: 1st: take a strong grip (roll trailing hand under the shaft so your palm faces the sky); 2nd: close your stance, hips and shoulder alignment (right handed players aim to the RIGHT edge of fairway or green); 3rd: rotate the toe of the clubhead past its heel at impact.

Note: For those who normally play for their slice, on holes where the trouble is on the slice side of the fairway, the triple whammy is your answer to playing away from the trouble.  With just a little practice, you’ll be able to rely on hooking your tee shot in these situations.

The more accurate and predictably consistent solution:

1) Learn the feel of connected elbows! At address, turn your elbows downward and inward, as though holding a short fireplace log across your forearms. Throughout your swing keep your elbows a) pointing down at the ground; b) level and connected to each other (practice with a bungee cord wrapped around your elbows to get the feel of keeping them together; and c) feel your elbows connected to your lead groin throughout your swing.

Then with your elbows level, together, pointing downward and connected to your lead groin, learn to deliver your clubhead speed beyond the ball, i.e. from ball to target. Listen for the “whoosh” of your clubhead along the ground, beyond the ball, toward your target.

The Secret of the Elbows: The elbows together, level, turned downward and inward and feeling connected to your lead pivot throughout your swing serves to deliver swingpath and clubface on-line with the face square, i.e. toward your target with natural release - refer to: Ben Hogan’s, Five Lessons The Modern Fundamentals of Golf.

2) Refer to Golfstruck Video Tip: Set-UP – Stand the Proper Distance from the Ball

3) Refer to Golfstruck Video Tip: Align Properly

4) Refer to Golfstruck Video Tip: Ball Position

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This question was submitted by a right handed player. So for those of you who play southpaw, please reverse left and right in the response.

To correct a pulled shot we must simply set-up to feel we can attack from the inside corner of the ball.  Here are (4) things you can do to promote and deliver this “from inside to down the line” feel of motion:

Solutions:

1) Slightly Pre-turn your hips in your set-up so that your left hip points directly at your target.  This helps to align your shoulders and forearms parallel to your target line.  It also helps you to feel the direction your right side will fire across your feet - from right heel to left instep – directly toward your target;

2) Refer to the Golstruck Video Tip: Set-Up – Understanding the Proper Distance from the Ball;

3) In your takeaway your hands and clubhead should swing directly away from your target along their respective railroad tracks – hands along your toe line and clubhead into the “catchers mitt.” This avoids the problem of your arms immediately getting behind your body turn by taking the clubhead too far inside.  Once your arms get behind your chest you have to start them down first to get them back in front of you.  This causes you to come over the top and pull across your target line.

4) Be sure to start your backswing by turning your right pivot away from your target (while resisting/digging in with right thigh and instep) so that you can feel your elbows in front of your chest and your handle staying connected to your left pivot .  This is the essence of the “one-piece” takeaway that promotes better rhythm, tempo and timing. By keeping your elbows in front of your chest during your backswing and then returning your handle to your left pivot during your downswing, you are free to attack the ball from the inside corner, which is the key to elimating pulled shots.

Golfstruck – Better Golf – Right Now!

Thanks to Bill Horne for asking how he might best allocate his limited practice time to improve his golf scores.

None of us has anywhere near enough time to practice.  It was Ben Hogan who said, “There aren’t enough hours of daylight in a lifetime to learn all we need to know about this game.”  So what do we do with the limited time we have?

My 1st suggestion is to practice in the “Red Zone,” to borrow a football analogy.  In football the scoring zone, or red zone is from 20 yard in.  In golf, the scoring zone is from 100 yards in.  If you will devote approximately 70% of your practice time to learning how to score from 100 yards in, not only will your scoring game get better, but your ball striking with your full swing will improve as well.

So what and how should we practice?

Putting:  practice making putts!  Start from no more than 2 feet and learn to swing away from and through to a specifically intended finish position (set your putter head down on the grass at your finish position). Learn to swing at pendulum speed, from a fixed fulcrum (front edge of your neck), on-line, with the face square.  Once you have “grooved” your stroke, add a ball and watch your aligned ball roll into the cup over a specific blade of grass (you can alternate the target blade of grass from center, to left-center, to right-center).  Or even better, in place of a cup, practice using two sets of tees spaced cup width apart, with 21 inches between them.  The first pair represent the front edge of the cup and the 2nd pair represent the ideal distance beyond the hole you should roll your putt to maximize your % of makes. 

Wow!  There’s a lot going on in a good putting stroke!  And we need to learn to be able to repeat, precisely, each and ALL of the above variables in every stroke, without having to think about any of them.  When your stroke is accurate enough at two feet to hit a blade of grass, 4 -6 footers become fun and it is also accurate enough to make putts at 10 -15 feet. So move back to 4-6 footers.  With success at this distance try your hand at 10-15 footers.

Bunkers: Learn to deliver the deepest point of your sand splash 1″ beyond the ball and then to splash a dollar bill of sand from beyond the ball out onto the green.  Here’s How:

Position Handle, Lead Post & Weight 1” Past Ball

       Lean Into Target for Steeply Upward Backswing

To swing downward – beyond the ball – to your target

       Focus on splashing an 8 inch oval of sand from

       underneath & beyond the ball – out onto the green

Your Rhythm & Tempo are Important

       Swing in semi-slow motion with chest/club/hands/arms

       and shoulders swinging away and thru as a unit

Chipping: practice with your 8 iron, gap wedge (52 degree) and sand wedge hitting landing spots.  Properly struck the 8 iron should roll approximately 2/3 of the total distance, the gap wedge 1/2 way and the sand wedge 1/3 of the total distance.  Now you have a way to get to front, middle and back pins, easily and confidently. From good lies you are trying to make these.  From tougher lies to get to within 6′, consistently – so you can save par.

Wedges: practice hitting landing spots at 30, 40, 50, 60 ,70 and 80 yards.  Learn the feel of motion required to hit shots each of these different distances with your pitching, gap and sand wedges. Now you have a shot for firm and soft terrain as well as for different pin positions. Your goal here is within 6′ of the cup, consistently – to save par.

90 & 100 Yards: practice these two distances with your three differnt wedges so you have options for wind, uphill and downhill shots as well as for 2-tiered greens and shots from various types of lies in the rough. Practice trying to leave your ball below the hole and within 15′ of the pin – to have a shot at saving par.

The Remaining 30% of Your Practice Time: Now that you have grooved a quality swing to consistently make solid contact and to get your ball from here to there, you are ready to simply increase your turn in both directions and gradually increase the speed of your hip spin toward your target to produce quality ball flights with your longer clubs.  As you move to ever longer clubs, be sure to focus on delivering your “WHOOSH” or clubhead speed a little farther beyond the ball for each club (approximately +1″ per club)

For those who try this approach to using your practice time more effectively, I’d like to get your feedback over the course of the summer regarding the improvement in your golf scores.

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