Golf Digest Feb '06 Instruction Commentary

This month's articles:

LESSON TEE – DAVID TOMS. David has one of my favorite swings. While it demonstrates the principles Manuel teaches, David’s setup necessitates a compensating action. You’ll notice that the ball is forward in his stance. The only way he can return the club to the ball for a straight drive is to radically tilt himself (note the 6th frame). In doing so, you will note that the configuration of his arms, forearms, hands and club are the same as at address where the club is two inches behind the ball.

By the way, note the commentary above that frame. It says “BOARD STRAIGHT”. First this is not true. Run a line up the shaft of the club and you will easily note that the commentary reinforces the oft repeated notion that the shaft and left arm form a straight line at impact. They don’t and can’t if the shot is to go straight.

In David’s backswing, he takes the club off-plane (note the 2nd frame in the bottom row). At nine o’clock in his back swing the butt of the club is pointing left of target instead of correctly pointing parallel to the target line. On the forward swing David invokes his second compensation by rerouting the club so the club’s swing is in the direction of the target instead of to the left.

I encourage you to take a look at David’s swing in motion. The rhythm is unmistakably that of an object swinging. http://www.golfdigest.com/swingsequences

LEADBETTER’S LESSON – LEVERAGE YOUR POWER. I hope none of you would be surprised to know the hair raised on the back of my neck when I saw the “L” word in the title. Leverage is exactly what we never want to do with the club.

David is accurate in describing the wrists as hinges. Turn your attention to a nearby door and you will find that the hinges are motionless. Being hinges not motors, the hinges cannot cause the club to move. 90% of the people who try to do what David is describing will use their hands to create the “L” shape he prescribes. As you learned at Heartland, the use of the hands is an easy way to ruin a shot.

Don’t try to control the wrist. This complicates that which (fortunately) happens by itself, at the right time when we focus on swinging the club. As hinges they should be perfectly free to allow the arms to swing the club.

If you want to invest some attention in your wrist, focus on developing the ability to allow them to work as freely as possible.

TIGER TIPS--SWING THROUGH. The setup that Tiger prescribes, adds loft to the shot. For greens with the speed that is on Tour, 56 degrees (standard for sand wedges) will not give the higher trajectory to keep the ball from rolling too much. For those of us not on tour, the 56 is fine the way it comes from the factory. Don’t bother opening the face or your stance.

With regard to swing through...how else could the club move if it is swinging? The forward swing is a characteristic of every swinging club.

TOM WATSON—FIGHT BACK. Three very good points here:
1. Strive to hit it perfect and perfect how to handle it when its not.
2. Practice your short game
3. Rhythm is one of the most sense-able characteristics of swinging. When things aren’t going well try to improve your rhythm, your find you’ve improve your shots.

Perfect shots are rare. Learn to be realistic.

FLICK’S MASTER TIPS. This is a great example of misdirected attention. Golf books are littered with incidental movements of knees, cocking of heads, flexing of muscles.

Setup correctly and swing the club.

HANK HANEY—KEEP ON TURNING. As the swing arc gets longer (i.e. swing for longer shots), the club forms a circle around us. As it does, our body responds to that circle. The bigger the swing, the more the body responds by turning.

Don’t complicate things by trying to manage the turn. Let the body respond.

REAL WRIST COCK AND RELEASE. In the forth picture, the club is at the 4 o’clock position. You can imagine that the shaft of the club is pointing at the left shoulder. Now move your eyes up to the sequence of Hank in the gray shirt. Notice that the third image is also the 5 o’clock position. But the club is pointing at Hank’s navel. Contradiction?

If you pose with the club in the “impact” position, you’ll notice that the club face is substantially delofted. You don’t want any part of this instruction.

MCLEAN’S SWING FIXES – LET YOUR LEFT ARM BEND. Jim is no spring chicken. Unless you devote some time and effort to maintaining your range of motion, your arm (elbow to shoulder) cannot swing as fully as in your teen years. If you attempt to keep your forearm and arm straight, the reduced range of motion means a shorter swing, and therefore a loss of distance.

You can reduce the negative effect of such reduced range of motion by allowing the elbow to flex—now your club can still reach parallel.

CHIPPING TO A SECOND TIER. Notice that in the “Breaking 90” section it says, “uncertainty of the first few feet”. Whether it’s a second tier situation or not, if you are only a few feet off the green (and the collar is in good shape) always go for the putter.

HOW TO GO LONG. Butch uses two long paragraphs to say that long putts work better when you swing the putter.

RIP THE DRIVER, BUT SWING YOUR IRONS EASY. Why swing easy? The reason is that it is more likely that you can sense and create a swinging motion if your movement is below your red-line (maximum speed possible).

Most pros refer to swinging at 80%. I am not sure I know what 80% is but I do know that there is a point at which I seem to loose my ability to sense whether the club is truly swinging. Experiment. Find your 80% and get use to a speed that allows you to sense the swing.

WINTER WORKOUT. Good—except for #6. Ralph is a little behind times. Tiger has come to realize that those blazing hips were costing him strokes. Club speed is a result of arm speed.

SHORT-SIDING, FALSE FRONTS AND COLLECTION AREAS—NICK PRICE.
Good

THE TRUTH ABOUT WEIGHT SHIFT – JIM SUTTIE. Six pages and some new hi-tech confirm what Manuel has been teaching for 60 years. Get balanced at address and maintain your balance until the post-impact momentum of the club pulls you to shift your weight forward.

GOLF’S WISE MAN. John reads ball flight. He looks at the flight of the ball and let’s that direct his instruction. Like Manuel, for John there are two elements: the setup and the direction of the swing. However, unlike Manuel, Jacobs’ approach is to only read ball flight whereas Manuel reads swing and ball flight.

Any given ball flight can be the result of several causes. Only by watching the swing in addition to ball flight can you know precisely which is which.

P.S. At 80, John is Manuel’s junior by four years. And as of this writing, Manuel teaches from dawn to dusk.

BREAKING 100|90|80|70. Ok.