March 2006 Issue

This month's articles

YOUR WAY TO A BOLDER PUTTING STROKE. The benefit of Mitchell’s drill is that it turns your attention from “what you don’t want” (not having a difficult 2nd putt) to “what you do want” (to make more putts than the person you are competing with during the drill). If you use this drill, don’t restrict its application to just putting. Use it to become more aware of when your thoughts are more on “what you don’t want” vs. “what you do want.” And by the way, this lesson applies to daily life off the course as well as on the course.

THE STRING’S THE THING. A putt is the name we give to a stroke made with a putter. The stroke we make with a putter is a swing. A swing by definition is an arc (a portion of the circumference of a circle). The string used by this device presents us with a straight line. How can a straight line help you improve a stroke that is circular? The article says ,”It instantly shows you the target line and squares the face.” How does the string square the face? Further should the face be square to the string? When you make a putt (like a drive) the clubface is square to the target line only at one point (and that point is where you want to position the ball at address). Take a very close look at the photo and you will see that the putter face is NOT square to the string. Lastly the string only represents the target line if the green is level along the line of the string. The chance of having a hole in a putting green that is level in four directions (the four strings in the picture) is slim.

WHY CAN’T I MAKE PUTTS? While deceleration is real it is only one reason that we miss putts. While hitting the ball left of target may be the result of pulling, there are other reasons as well. Rick Grayson gives some good advice but this article implies that these are cure-alls—they aren’t. If you are having problems with distance control begin by evaluating how clearly you are holding a mental picture of the ball rolling “to” the cup (i.e. stopping at the edge). Deceleration results when we are attempting to consciously manage the size of the stroke instead of letting the size be dictated byour mental image and managed unconsciously.

SLING POWER. I was unable to find any mention of “sling” in this article. Craig did mention a “bow and arrow” effect but attempted to connect this somehow with shoulder turn and hips (do you really turn your shoulders when you use a bow?). Finally, he makes a novel correlation between the clubface (a flat surface) and the left forearm (cylindrical surface). That’s a puzzle. Like so many pros, Lee’s swing is Lee’s swing—not yours. This is not a swing to emulate in any way. The real lesson to learn from it is the value of learning that there are many ways to move a golf club and win if we will learn to repeat them consistently.
• DON’T BEND THE SPOKE. Please don’t attempt to keep your left arm straight. Lee doesn’t. If you look at frame 4 in the top row, you’ll see the amount of flexibility Lee has in his left shoulder joint as the club approaches parallel. This is why his left arm appears straight. If you don’t have that degree of flexibility, then allow the elbow to bend so the club can reach parallel for the maximum arc length. If your arm is relaxed, centrifugal force will straighten the elbow as your swing approaches the ball.
• HOVER THE CLUB. Hovering has nothing to do with the deeper-faced (taller) drivers. Regardless of the size of the face, we always tee the ball so that the equator of the ball is even with the top edge of the driver’s clubface.

HOW TO CREATE PURE IMPACT. Why Bill would say that impact is the critical point “especially on iron shots” is a mystery. Its critical in all shots. How doing a drill in a hotel room somehow validates its significance is also puzzling. Nevertheless, we are once again subjected to the poisonous suggestion to “keep your hands slightly ahead of the ball as your weight transfers forward onto your left foot.” Look at the photo on the left. You can see that the clubface is out-of-square. It is looking to the right. Is this any way for “pure impact”? Now look at Bill’s finish on the right photo. Is the toe of the club pointed up?

WHERE WOULD YOU RATHER BE? The gist of this article is that it is better to be short if there is trouble long and better to be long if the trouble is short. Good plan.
• BUT SUPPOSE THINGS DON’T GO ACCORDING TO PLAN… Keith now tells us that to make the short shot to the green we need to change our setup and swing (weight left, ball right, club quickly up). But he doesn’t tell us why. Maybe there is no reason why. Maybe the wedge works fine if we use the setup and swing we normally use.
• AND IF YOU’RE IN A BUNKER… No one can be proficient at distance control by consciously controlling the size of their swing. Needing “nearly” a full swing from greenside bunkers is such a vague piece of information. Don’t put a high expectation on your bunker play unless you make it part of your practice and build some experience with distance control. Otherwise, be satisfied with just getting it on the dance floor and work on the putt.

NOW WHAT? Eden gives some simple and effective instruction in this article. The points he makes may be especially valuable on tight shots, but you would be well served to employ it for all shots.

HOW TO TAKE YOUR ‘A’ GAME FROM THE RANGE TO THE TEE. This is a classic question and Shawn gives a clear, simple, and effective instruction on how to better solve the problem.
• FOCUS ON A TARGET. Good.
• MAKE ‘AIR SWINGS’. Good.
• PUSH YOUR CHIN UP. I don’t know where this came from but has little to do with transitioning from range to tee.

TAME YOUR FIRST-TEE JITTERS. Good.

THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES. Adam doesn’t explain why he wants to “get more extension”. Regarding his tempo, we all have different tempos. Listen to the rate at which various people speak or watch the rate at which they walk. Your tempo is your tempo. You can’t improve it. However, tempo is not rhythm. A swing can have any tempo but it must be rhythmic. It must accelerate and decelerate at a constant rate. A short backswing will always appear to be quick—there’s not much distance to travel. I think Adam may be the victim of his golf buddies wanting his swing to look like “their idea” of what a swing should look like. Golf is about controlling the ball—not about achieving some perfect tempo. The drill that is suggested by Ted is logical, but probably not beneficial.

GOING UP. While Nancy’s solution is simpler, its not correct. The amount of the flagstick that can be seen on a given hole can change based on whether the hole is in the front or the back of the green. She is exactly correct regarding the difficulty in evaluating the amount of elevation. Try clubbing up or down using increments of 30 feet of elevation per club.

TELLING LIES. Ok. You should not make a decision based on one swing. The driving range might not like it if your mark a dozen balls. Another way of doing this is to put a piece of tape on the sole of the club and hit balls off a piece of Lexan (unbreakable plastic). Most driving ranges will have this device—they may even let you use it. If the lie angle is correct for you, when the ball flight is on line with your target, you should find the tape has a scuff mark roughly midway between the toe and heel.

WHAT IS THE MOST COMMON REASON PLAYERS HAVE POOR ALIGNMENT ON THEIR FULL SWINGS? Good—except for Mike’s instruction. Mike knows that it is not uncommon for players to align themselves 20 yards right on a full swing. However, the solution is not to align your feet 20 yards left. Imagine a line from the ball to the target (that’s the target line). When you address the ball your feet will be aligned parallel to and 20 inches (varies with club length) left of the target line—not 20 yards!

HOW TO PITCH FROM LIGHT ROUGH. Step one is fine. Step two is a problem because in golf you can’t consciously know how big the swing is going to be any more than in tossing you can consciously know ahead of time how far back you are going to swing your arm in order to toss the ball to your target. Further, the hinging of the wrists has nothing to do with hitting the shot fat. Step three is ok but wanting to “slide the club under the ball” is unnecessary. The physics of impact will cause every ball to climb up every clubface. The loft of the sand wedge will take care of the trajectory without you having to do any “sliding”.

HOW TO TAME A DUCK HOOK. Martin writes, “The back of your left hand mirrors the position of the clubface at impact.” Look at the back of Martin’s left hand at impact. It is looking dead right. Yep, you won’t hook that one, but the ball will be so far right you may wished you had


HOW TO AVOID MIS-HIT CHIPS. While the bi-line for this article is about “tracking to the hole”, Don wants us to focus on a descending strike for controlling trajectory (which has nothing to do with tracking). Further he explains that you’ll get “predictable results” with a descending strike (if only it were that simple). From there we get the standard “ball back, shaft leaning, etc.” Note the picture on the right and his instruction about the buttons. The white arrow is vertical the buttons are not. In the end, Martin has outlined his approach to chipping, but has not explained how this avoids mis-hitting chips (eg. too far, too short, fat, thin, left, right, etc.)?

HOW TO PUTT TO A LOWER TIER. Ok.

LOSE YOUR OVERSHIFT. Tightness is seldom the answer for anything to do with a good swing. Darrell’s suggestion for tight abdominal muscles is logical, but not a solution. With very tight abs you can still sway marvelously. Instead, relax and sense the weight in your feet at address. Get the weight even. Now, while swinging keep your attention on the weight in your feet and your intention on not having it shift until the motion of the club passing the ball pulls you toward your front foot. Voila! No overshifting.

BOUNCE YOUR WAY OUT OF BUNKERS. Close. Positioning the ball forward (which is a good thing in bunkers) is ok. If, with the ball forward, you then place the clubface behind the ball the shaft is leaning but that does not open the clubface. It does add trajectory. From this set up why you need to “lead with your hands” is a mystery and a catastrophe. Look at Brad in the address photo. Isn’t that exactly how he would like the shaft to arrive during the swing. If the hands lead, the shaft will instead be leaning forward and the clubface will be delofted and the bounce of the club eliminated. “Thud” and “thump” (very subjective).

RESCUE YOUR ROUND. Good. Dave does a good job of demonstrating: 1) how to analyze a disaster shot and 2) how resolving the matter is about setup changes and not swing changes. When you are in a disaster scenario, “take your medicine”. Let it cost you one shot—not two. Find the most likely path to relief. Note: Golf is for enjoyment. Avoid taking risks that are dangerous and can affect your golf for a life time.

POSITION YOUR RIGHT FOOT FOR MORE POWER. If your range-of-motion does not allow the club to reach parallel at the end of your backswing, moving the back foot so that the toe is further from the target line can enable you to reach that position because it repositions the hip and reduces the range-of-motion required. However, you want to make sure that as you begin experimenting with repositioning that back foot that the foot is kept square to the target line and not flared open as described in this article. Flaring the foot will tend to alter your swing path and impart a hook spin on the ball.

FINESSE IT WHEN YOU COME UP SHORT. Good. Remember your distance control will be better with a low running shot than a lofted one. Use a chip shot instead of a pitch any time you can.

DON’T LIFT UP WHEN YOU GO BACK. Ok.

PUTT WITH YOUR FOREARMS. Ok. Just remember that “locking” is not the answer to active wrists. Use your arms to create the swing and the wrists will happily remain passive. When the arms stop short of the end of the swing, the wrists will take over to achieve the finish. Use the arms from beginning to end.

KEEP THE CLUB ON PATH FOR A FEW EXTRA YARDS. If there were a blue line to the target for every shot, we might be able to make use of the instruction to point the butt of the club at the target line. There isn’t and its difficult to correctly visualize it. And just as there is not a blue line, the swing also has not flat spot. The path of the club is circular and circles have no flat spots. Keeping the club on path is a good idea. This instruction can lead to problems. Note the orange arrow. The path of the club should never cross the target line.