January ‘08 Golf Magazine Instruction Commentary

This month's articles

READ THE BREAK IN REVERSE—Dave doesn’t mention it, but I can’t believe he overlooked the fact that a putt rolling from the cup to its point of origin requires a different stroke than rolling from origin to the cup. Because the initial speed of the putt is greater (on a level putt), it will not be affected by breaks in the first half of the putt as much as it will in the second half when the ball is rolling much slower.

PLANE SIMPLE—Don’t look too long at Zach’s swing. It’s not what you’d want to copy. The club head is outside on the first part of the backswing. The club is below the plane on the end of the back swing. The club face is open and the club is pointing left at the top of the swing. But, on the forward swing he fixes all those things. The reason Zach can play well is that he is consistent in his swing. His swing is not exemplary but it is something he has learned to repeat.

HOW TO PLAN A GREAT ESCAPE—I like Laird’s comments (except for those titled “Set Your Base”).

HIT CRISP, STRAIGHT IRONS—Fat, thin, short, and all-over-the-course is the result of tilting your hear to the right? Maybe for a few golfers. This is a new one.

MAX DISTANCE WITH YOUR 3-WOOD—
-Line up Straight—Using Don’s technique cannot work. Your eyes are not positioned over the club. Instead, when the golfer turns their head to see where the club is pointed the eyes will be looking from right to left which results in the club appearing to point more left than it really is.
-Keep your chin up—Why do you need “extra” room? Don’t raise your chin.
-Use Posture to keep your swing on plane—With perfect posture, it is easy to swing the club below or above the plane. Plane is not fixed with posture.

HOW TO CATCH DRIVES FLUSH—Don’t try to fix one problem by causing another. Neither of the yellow arrow depict the correct path of the club’s arc. To do so, the arrow would be drawn approaching from roughly one end of the second dowel rod and leaving over the other end of the same rod.

HOW TO KNOCK LAG PUTTS TIGHT—Many times our distance is off on putts because we loose the mental image of the hole. Brady’s fix is to look at the hole while you putt. Do you think he does this when he is playing for money? The solution is to hold the picture of the hole in your mind while you are putting. This informs the brain so it knows how big to make the stroke.

SET THE BALL FOR STRAIGHT DRIVES—“You’ll know you’re [set ] correctly if a line extending from the shaft of the driver bisects your left ear.” Go set up with your driver and ask yourself if the shaft is bisecting your left ear. If you can, you’re one up on me. Instead, set the club head behind the ball with the shaft square to the target line and then center yourself on the club.

CONTROL SPEED AND DIRECTION ON PUTTS—Use a band-aid for a cut not a putt. If your problem is hand-action during your putting stroke work on fixing that problem not on trying to avoid a band-aid stuck to your putter face. Make several very small strokes without the ball and no hand action. Then do the same with a ball. After you repeat no-ball/ball several times (about 30 putts), increase the size of the stroke paying attention to the hands holding the club with no wrist movement.

PITCH IT CLOSE EVERY TIME—Take a look at the small inset picture. You can clearly see how Dana has use her hands to “flip” the club. But now look at her arms in this picture. You can easily imagine how she could be holding the towels under her arms but still flip. Disregard this article.

HIT THE POWER SWEET SPOT—I agree with Bruce that hitting down on the driver will produce a lower trajectory. However, I disagree with him regarding hitting down increasing the back spin. Hitting down delofts the club face. When a club has less loft it produces less backspin (think about a sandwedge compared to a 9 iron). I also disagree that you have do setup different with the driver than with any other club. If the driver is fitted for you, then you should not have to compensate by tilting or moving your hands.

HIT YOUR IRONS LONG AND STRAIGHT—How alignment makes you hit the ball longer, I don’t understand. How alignment makes you hit the ball straighter, I don’t understand. Properly aligned you can still hook or slice and can still hit it fat or thin—any of which you can also hit shorter than anybody in your foursome. All the above notwithstanding, please don’t stop swinging at the flag. The ball always travels in the direction of your swing and will stay in that direction unless you have imparted side spin on the ball.

MY 4 DRIVING SECRETS—I’d hardly call these secrets.
-Slow down your backswing—only do this if your backswing is so fast that you feel jerky instead of smooth as you transition from backswing to forward swing.
-Get wide for more yards—If you want to widen your stance, don’t do it the way Sergio describes. Moving just the right foot changes the ball and club position. Move both feet equally.
-Don’t fear the fade—“If you can master the timing…” The club is on the ball for 3 ten thousandths of a second and you are suppose to turn the right hand then!! If you want to fade the ball change rotate your grip to the left at address. Don’t try timing it.
-My Take on Tee Height—Big secret here!!

ADD 20 YARDS—If we would combine all the articles about adding distance, could we hit a ball into next week?
-Power Factor 1 A flatter Approach—Flatter than what? If the club travels around the body with no up and down it will be on a horizontal plane 3 feet above the ground. How about if we just make it simple and say swing the club on plane?
-Power Factor 2 Wrist Hinge—“…--your wrist joints are among the fastest in you body.” In a head-on collision auto accident the neck joints are even faster. Joints aren’t fast or slow. Where does he get this stuff? Hinging the wrist does only one thing, it lengthens the arc of your swing. The un-hinging and re-hinging happens gradually but continuously throughout the forward swing. You don’t time it.
-Power Factor 3 Square Clubface—Charlie must have been having an off day when they interviewed him. Read the last paragraph. He completely disregards the elbow and turns his attention to the club (Better late than never!). If your grip is neutral and the club goes toe-up to toe-u then the clubface will have been square at impact.
-Power Factor 4 Ascending Strike—I called Taylormade on this one. They confirmed my assumption. The five degrees of “attack angle” is a function of the club shaft and is not a matter for you to attempt to achieve in your golf swing. If the club is optimally fit for you your swing speed cause the head to deflect the shaft a positive 5 degrees.

PUTT TO A SPOT—This is the old “intermediate target” lesson. The problem is that if you concentrate on rolling the ball over the intermediate target you loose awareness of where the hole is and now you’ve lost your distance control. Keep the actual target in mind, not the intermediate.

OPEN YOUR STANCE FOR CHIPS AND PITCHES—Again this is an oft cited instruction but should only be applied if setting up square is less effective for the player (typically it isn’t).

Power begins with your backswing—Ok.

SWING FREE AND EASY—Make your grip neutral. Swing with as little tension as possible and with you grip pressure remaining constant. Your stance should be square.

SWING EASIER FROM A DIVOT—When the ball is in a shallow divot, play the shot with your normal setup. Because a very small portion of the ball is below-grade your swing will have the club head contact the ball a little high producing what you would otherwise consider a “thin” shot. No problem it will still go about the same distance, will go straight but with a lower trajectory. If the divot is so deep that the club will contact the ball too high, then move the ball back in your stance so the path of the swing will miss the back edge of the divot and cleanly contact the ball. This too will produce lower trajectory with about the same distance.