October 2006 Issue

This month's articles

-THE PELZ FILES. Dave provides some useful information.
Warm up routine. Ok. I prefer to use a brief warm-up session to awaken my attention to ensuring that I am swinging the club (any and every shot).
Shanking. Ok.
Divots. Whoops. When we practice swing there should be no divot. The divot is caused by the ball pushing itself off the club and in so doing pushing the club head down. If you are getting divots on practice swings you are probably using hand action to make the club head hit the ball instead of using arm action to swing the whole club.

NARROW YOUR STANCE. Fat shots have nothing to do with lateral movements (side to side). Thin shots can result from lateral movements. Regardless of whether your shots are fat, thin, or just right keep your balance so that the center of your swing (just above and behind your sternum) doesn’t move.

WHY CAN’T I ESCAPE THE SAND? 1) Place the club about 1 ball behind your ball. 2) As the club passes the bottom of your swing its momentum should pull you to your front foot. 3) Use your arms not your hands. 4) [and this is the biggest culprit] Don’t try to get the ball up out of the bunker. When you do your hands will attempt to scoop the ball and the result will be a bladed shot or too much sand. Visualize the ball as going low to the target. See Manuel’s book for more on this.

KNOCKIN’ IT CLOSE. This article has little to do with getting the ball close to the hole, instead it is about executing a shot with low trajectory. Why have a different setup and different swing just to achieve low trajectory? Use your regular setup and swing but select a lower lofted club. If you try what Zach is suggesting, you’ll find that when the hands lead, the club face is looking to the right at impact. This means that you have to align left to compensate. How much left??

HOW TO GET YOUR SWING IN SYNC. Just reading this article gave me the heebee geebees—way to complicated. When you focus on doing just one thing (swing the club across your right shoulder) you’ll find that movement turns your hips and shoulders the right amount and at the right time. From the top, put the club back (s l o w l y !) at address. You’ll find that this action causes the shoulders and hips to move at the right time and in the right amount. Manage the swing not the body. Allow the body to move in response to your swing.

MAKE THE PUTTS YOU SHOULD MAKE. Setup is important but let’s not go overboard. The swing also has something to do with making the putt. Donald’s instruction is ok, but forget step 2. Next do step 4 first (with your eyes over the ball you’ll do a better job of aiming the putter) then step 3 and then step 5.

HOW TO CARRY THE BALL 10 EXTRA YARDS. So let me see if I get this… You’ve got a 230 carry over a waste area and your going to elect to experiment with a different swing and setup?
All of this to get “draw spin”. On a slice the axis for the backspin (which you get on every shot) is tilted to the right. On a draw the backspin is tilted to the left. Draw spin is still backspin. So now we are going to make the ball curve and still hope to carry 10 more yards? With a curve, we’ll have to get 15 more yards out of that swing. If this were reasonable why wouldn’t Mike use this setup all the time. Why would he want a 240 yard drive instead of a 250? Get real.

ADD 10 YARDS WITHOUT TRYING. Club fitting “can” help. Forget getting oversized grips unless arthritis makes it painful for you to wrap your hand around the grip.

PUNCH YOUR WAY TO LOWER SCORES. If you are hitting into a headwind, the one thing you don’t want is more back spin. This shot increases backspin and will cause the very ballooning you want to avoid. Forget the special setup and swing. Jus select a lower lofted club.

STEP BACK ON STEEP SLOPES. We can’t be sure from the picture, but on moderate downhill slopes just align your spine so it is perpendicular to the grade of the hill. Now your shoulders are parallel with the hill. You’ll have more weight on your left foot at address. Maintain this weight distribution until the forward movement of the club pulls you forward.

KEEP YOUR SHOTS ONLINE IN ONE EASY STEP. There are 19 reasons for the ball to go to the right. Chuck’s prescription may work for some shots that go to the right.

MAKING THE SWITCH TO LEFT-HANDED IS NOT MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. Ok.

FINE-TUNE YOUR SET FOR MORE SHOTMAKING VERSATILITY. Ok.

MAKE PULLS GO AWAY. Read this article. Then re-read this article. Then say a special thanks to Manuel de la Torre for making it clear that the ball goes left because the club goes left—NOT BECAUSE THE HIPS GO LEFT. Fix the club the rest takes care of itself.

HOW TO GROOVE YOUR PITCHING MOTION. This is a good drill. If you do it imagine a line from where the golf ball would be to the target. When you toss make sure the ball stays on the line from you to the target.

WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM A SNAPSHOT. By my count Paul is 2 for 2.
Turning is ok—when it is caused by the swinging motion of the club.
Stay in the shot is ok.
Making a descending blow is not appropriate. Yes the club does descend in altitude but your thought should be of the club swinging forward not down.
Keep the face open—unnecessary (the sandwedge has over 50 degrees of loft) and trying to hold it open is often problematic.

THE INSTANT POWER MOVE. (Fasten Your Seatbelts). Let’s make short work of disposing of this long article. Look at the fold-out pages. Find step 3 “Make the Magic Move”. Then note the sequence of 3 photos, the last of which show’s A.J.’s left hand radically rotated under the club shaft. Leave that left hand fold-out open. Close the right hand fold-out. With the left-hand fold-out remaining open, turn to page 76. Now fold back page 76 so that you can compare this photo of A.J. with the 3 photo sequence in the fold-out.
Again, notice how radically rotated the left hand is in the photo sequence on the left. Now look at the page 76 photo (you might want to use a magnifying glass). You’ll see that what A.J. does in this photo is not what he is telling you to do in the fold-out. The ball is on its way but A.J.’s hands have not rolled over.

Now compare A.J.’s hands on page 76 to Tiger’s on the right hand fold-out. Yep, very similar. Also look at the photos on page 110—no radical roll but a ton of power! Tiger nor A.J. do this radical roll. In an excellent swing (like Tiger appears to be making in the fold-out), the club goes toe-up at 9 o’clock in the back swing and then toe-up at 3 o’clock in the forward swing. This occurs not because we are rolling our hands but because of the rotator (like in rotate) cuff joints by which our arms are connected to our shoulders.

If (and I mean if) this “magic move” creates any greater distance, it would certainly create radical inconsistency. When was the last time you had a bogey or a double because you could not hit the ball far enough? Almost never. The bogey or double is because you could not hit it straight enough.

Want some real magic? Take a scissors to this article and make it disappear.

HOW TO AGE-PROOF YOUR GAME.

Golf in your 20’s. Ok.

Golf in your 30’s. The weighting game is ageless. The idea of “shifting your weight” has been talked about for ages but is appropriate for no golfers of any age. Your swing is a circle. Every circle has a center. Below the center of your swing is where the club squares to the target line. When you shift your weight you sway and so does the center of your swing. Shifting your weight is the easiest and most reliable way of making your swing inconsistent and unreliable. Your arms can create plenty of speed—you don’t need to sway.

Golf in your 40’s. Ok.

Golf in your 50’s. Turn on the power. Carefully notice the photo of the golfer in this golf tip. Does he look 50? No. Neither does the flexibility of his left rotator cuff. Re-read the opening line of this little jewel. Note the words “decreasing flexibility”. That applies to your rotator cuff joint. This tip’s solution to lack of flexibility is be more flexible—huh? Do whatever it takes to allow yourself to swing the club in the direction of your right rotator cuff and as far back to parallel as your flexibility allows. P.S. You can do stretching to increase flexibility.

Golf in your 60’s. Turn your head for solid contact. Could you call this scrapping-the-bottom-of-the-barrell. Where do they come up with this stuff. If your 60 (or 40, or 70) forget this. Just for fun note that the fix for not moving your head because of pain that may be caused is to move your head correctly. Huh?

With regard to keeping the same putter, ask that golfer if he plays the same ball as he did years ago. No way. He want the advantage of technology. Well, new putters have techno advantages too.

TRAPPED UNDER A TREE? Use your putter. While this is a legit shot (hitting down with putter), only use it when a regular swing of the putter would not be adequate. In the photo it appears you could easily use a regular swing. Also don’t use this shot without at least a little practice.

USE TWO TEES TO GROOVE A SWING PATH. Ok. Balance is very important in this drill.

USE THE “STANDING 8-COUNT” DRILL FOR MORE POWER. This drill might be effective. It would be better titled, “Use the standing 8-count drill to discover the power of your FULL swing”. If you make a fairly full swing already, this drill will be of little use.

TURN HEAVY ROUGH INTO SAND. This is a very “lie specific” tip. If the lie is right (i.e. if the amount of grass behind the ball is thick enough) this could work. Things like this need to be learned. Don’t think that because you read about it you can effectively do it.

KNOW THY GRASS. Good tip for players of any age when they play Bermuda greens.