July 2006 Issue

This month's articles

-MAKE YOUR PITCHES BITE. This is so “yesterday” with regard to golf instruction. So we have a green that slopes away from us and the first thing we want to do is to de-loft the club by playing it in the back of our stance? Second, put a ball on the carpet at home and try to “pinch it”. You’ll quickly discover that this cannot be done. Sorry Michael.

-WHY AM I CHUNKING IT? These four reasons are all possibilities. Probability says that a shot gets chunked when we use the right hand to create speed and leverage the club.

-MAKE EVERY SHORT PUTT. Using the hands to leverage the club ruins any shot. Robert’s “fix” is ok if: 1: we don’t then use the right hand in a leverage manner, 2: it teaches us how to not use the hands and allows us to return to having both hands on the putter.

-HOW TO NAIL YOUR FAIRWAY WOODS. Step 1. With this position of the ball the club begins facing left on its way to the 3 o’clock position of toe up. We don’t want the ball going right. Instead set the wood behind the ball and center yourself on the club. Note: this also will position you “behind the ball.” Step 2. Ok. Step 3. Ok.

-ONE MINUTE TO STRAIGHTER SHOTS. The “wrist watch” is a common idea, a logical idea, but a wrong idea. It’s not the watch that determines the ball flight but the club. And its not just the angle of the club face at impact but also the out-to-in or in-to-out path of the swing. “One minute” is so appealing—and so misleading.

-NOW WHAT? I like what Darrell has to say with the exception of using the hands on the back swing. This can lead to using the hands on the forward swing with can easily lead to chunking or blading. With regard to the length of the follow-thru, there is no magic length. It is a function of the size of the swing necessary to carry the green.

-KILL FIRST-TEE JITTERS FOREVER. Try it, it could work for you. My preference is to fully occupy my mind with what I want the club to do. When I am successful at this, I have no attention left over to give to the kind of thoughts that create jitters.

-SECOND HELPING. Dave suggests that frequently we hit the second one better than the first. My question for Dave is how often do we drop a second ball when the first shot is 8 inches from the hole? You have to ask yourself if the premise for the article isn’t weakened by the fact that the second ball is will frequently (not always) be better than a missed shot. Regarding the tour players, did their score improve because of the “second shot effect” or because the first shot revealed to them the correct yardage or the way the ball would bounce and roll. My suggestion is to turn Dave’s process on its head. Instead of making a practice swing and visualizing where that ball would have gone, create a visual image of the ball going where you want it to go and watch that “movie” while you are swinging. Your brain will create a swing to fit the picture.

-THE NEW WAY TO BLAST IF CLOSE FROM THE SAND. Scott is correct about the sand wedges not needing to be set open at address. The rest of this is re-cooked old school instruction. Too complicated and incorrect. Play the greenside bunker just like a pitch shot from the grass. The only change is to play the ball one-ball forward and lower your center at address.

-RULING THE BREAKS. Good.

-ELBOW ROOM. Ok.

-TAPE MEASURING. Keep it simpler. Is the club swinging in the direction of the target? Am I aligned with the target? Is the club swinging (or being levered)? Be sure to set the camera so it is either looking down the target line or even with the ball and perpendicular to the target line.

-DIRTY WORK. No. No. No. Get out the magnifying glass and look at the club Tiger is holding. It’s a 56 degree wedge. When the ball bounces off the club face, it pushes against the club. When its trajectory is very up, it pushes the club very down—i.e. a divot. Our swing should never be into the ground. It should brush the grass. Lofted clubs at full swings make divots.

-HAND YOURSELF EXTRA YARDS. Todd is correct in correlating increased arc diameter with increased distance. His drill is ok to test your potential range of motion. However, the increased diameter should be the result of the arms being free enough to be pull outward by centrifugal force rather than you stretching them.

-WHAT YOU CAN LEARN IN A SNAPSHOT. Chuck’s observations are accurate but misleading. All of the observations are not the cause of a good shot but instead are the result of the player swinging the club correctly.

-HOW TO CRUSH IT! Yes it’s a driver. Yes, it’s a ball. Yes, it’s different when you are on a quest of bodybuilding and 400 yard drives. If this is your goal, this article can be valuable. But don’t treat this article like a smorgasbord. You can’t mix and match these ideas with a normal golf swing. How many tour players do you see with the backswing shown on page139?

-USE THE TEE DRILL TO ESCAPE SAND. Ok.
-STARE DOWN YOUR CHIPS. Ok.

-RAISE OUR LEFT SHOULDER TO BEAT A SLICE. Slices result from club movement not from body movement.

-STOP SWAYING TO PLUG YOUR POWER LEAK. Flaring the left foot give more range of motion on the forward swing but less on the back swing. Leave the feet square. Just practice on keeping your balance until the forward swing pulls you forward.
-get in sync with your driver. This is a reasonable drill if your struggle results from trying to make the ball go further than you reasonably can.