Golf Digest March ‘06 Golf Commentary

This month's articles:

LESSON TEE – MORGAN PRESSEL. Morgan’s swing coach (Martin Hall) makes an observation that is so important. We must remember, “It isn’t what it looks like that counts; it’s what a golf swing does to a golf ball.” Morgan has learned a way to return the club to the ball (note the clubs position in frame 1 and then in frame 6). Being a human she won’t be perfect, but there is one thing about her swing that makes it more difficult to do correctly and she and Hall are well aware of it. She initiates a hip turn rather than allowing the hips to respond to her arms swinging. When her timing is off and the hips are early which Hall notes, will produce hooks or blocks (left or right shots).

The bad news is that one of the fixes that Hall wants to implement (adjusting her stance) has little to do with the hip and nothing to do with the club. The other fix (her head tilt) is nothing to be fixed. The head tilts because the rest of the body is being pulled forward by her hips. The good news is that Hall wants to proceed slowly.

So many times I have heard Manuel say when you have a good player, don’t coach them on how to “change” their swing. Coach them on how to “repeat” it.

TIGER TIPS – GETTING ALONG. Ok
-SWING FLATTER. This doesn’t mean you have to change your swing! As soon as you set up at address the swing plane is set. Since the shaft of a wedge is so short, the angle of the shaft to the ground is more vertical than the angle of your driver’s shaft at address. The best thing you can take from Tiger’s tip is that you should not expect or try to make the swing plane the same angle for every club.

LEADBETTER’S LESSONS. STEP INTO YOUR DRIVES. Body, body, body. This article is important because it is so typical of confusing golf instruction. The article asks, “How to feel the correct change of direction”. Would it be possible to do this drill and miss the ball, hit it high, left, or right? Yes! There is no “correct change”. There is a change that is right for your swing. Work on swinging the club correctly. When you do, the change in direction that happened is the only right change.

BUTCH’S BASICS – STOP CHUNKING CHIPS. Why do we need special ball placements, steeper swing planes, and hitting down to move the ball up on to the green? Why can’t we use the setup and swing we use for all the rest of the shots but just make a smaller swing? The answer is, “we should”. With Butch’s setup the shaft is leaning forward and you can see that the clubface is looking to the right. Finally, when you look at frame 1 and then frame 3, you’ll see that there is no divot. That club was swung “forward” not “down”.

WATSON’S SHORTCUTS – LAST THOUGHT BEFORE I SWING. While there are different thoughts that work for different people, the idea of getting the club to swing (move like a pendulum) is a very helpful intention.

HANK HANEY – PUTTING WITH TIGER. Ok.
- LET THE FACE OPEN ON PITCH SHOTS. Ok.

RICK’S PRACTICE TIPS. BALL BELOW: SWING UP. With the ball below the feet balance is a challenge. Rick’s suggestion to move closer will force the weight toward your heels and therefore put you off balance. His suggestion to make a more vertical swing is only relevant if we are standing closer to the ball at address. Keep this simple—take your normal address and lower yourself to the ball by bending your knees. His third suggestion is important (as always) maintain your posture through impact.

GOLF DIGEST SCHOOL – BLASTING OUT OF THE SAND.
BREAKING 100. OK, except don’t try to control the entry point during the swing. Control the entry point by controlling your set up. Setup 1-2 balls behind the ball and lower your center.
BREAKING 90. Wow, learning how to judge the angle of the club face and the distance it is going to produce has got to be as difficult a thing to master as I can imagine. As you open the face the ball will not only go higher but further to the right. Instead, set up square and regulate distance like you do for every other shot—make the swing bigger or smaller.
BREAKING 80. If the only complaint you have about your sand play is that the shots don’t have enough spin, then you can invest time on this instruction.

RULES – ADAM’ DROP. We typically confine our commentary to golf swing instruction articles, but felt compelled to call your attention to Adam’s insightful understanding of how to use the rules to your benefit. Notice that his ball is resting on a hill. When he takes his drop, he elects to drop it on that hill. The ball roles onto the path. He does it again the ball roles on the path again. Now he gets to “place” the ball and give himself a great lie. If you aren’t real clear about how to take relief from a cart path click on the link below:

http://www.heartlandgolfschools.com/articles/course_management/article39.html

HOW I REBUILT MY KNEE AND MY GOLF SWING. Ernie’s focus on balance was important for him to regain a sense of stability for his knee but it is equally valuable to all players. The photo of him on the discs shows balance in action. You’ll notice that he has his focus is on the golf club. He began by identifying what it was doing that was problematic and then moved on to identify how to move the club correctly.

PLAY BY PICTURES. Images are very powerful ways to tell our brain what we want our body to do. However, images can tell it a good thing to do or a not-so-good thing to do.
- The image of your forelegs being springs with you moving into a squat at the top of your swing seems to be a “not-so-good thing to do”. The image is of the player bobbing up and down during a swing—tall at address, short at the end of the backswing, and then tall again at the finish.
- The grip image is ok.
- Regarding the setup Nick is proposing that his recommended setup will prevent the upper body from turning too early. If he would take bets on this you could make some easy money.
- Sequence—if the wrists are free, the set and release happens as a result of the swing and does not need to be managed by the golfer.
- If the swing plane is the “most direct route from address to impact”, we are talking about a route of an inch or less. The club at address and impact are virtually the same place.
- Regarding the butt of the club and the target line, as the club nears the top of the swing the butt no longer points at that line.
- Release happens during a swing. It’s part of the swinging motion. Be careful not to consider it a position.
- Recoil is the result of tension. Tension is a swing killer. At the end of a good swing you’ll find that you are quite comfortable allowing the club to remaining hanging over your front shoulder.
- Get in the zone. Ok.

BREAKING 100|90|80. Jim is saying a mouth-full regarding the effect of words on our swing.
- Breaking 100. If the word ‘power’ (i.e. I want to put some power into this one) seems to not work for you, try the word ‘speed’. After all, (all other things being equal) it is the swing’s speed that controls distance. However, our suggestion is don’t think speed or power both tend to cause you to do something other than swing. Instead remember how many times you told your buddies, “I hit that one a ton, but it felt like I swung so easy.” Jim’s four factors for distance are correct.
• Learn to Draw. A hook can get more distance because it requires the club face to be closed at impact (e.g. a closed club face can turn a 3 wood into a driver’s loft).
• Drive with Caution. Ok
• Three Knuckles. Instead of the knuckles use the “V” formed by your thumb and forefinger on the left hand as a point of reference. Reposition the “V” from alignment with your sternum to alignment with your right collar bone.
- Breaking 90. Oops. We all know that the finish of a swing is merely a result of the size of the swing. We shouldn’t try to make it bigger or smaller. Regarding “compressing the ball against the turf”, who in their right mind would want the ball to start its journey by bouncing off the ground? Every club, on every shot (including the putter) compresses the ball. That’s just physics. The pitch is just a smaller swing. We don’t need to do anything else but swing.
• Feel the Weight. Ok.
• Parallel left. Good.
• A very important angle. True. During the swing, just maintaining the balance you have at address will take care of the angle in most cases.
- Breaking 80. It’s difficult to differentiate your emotions from your intellect. Some would say it’s impossible. Instead of getting ‘aggressive’ or ‘conservative’, we suggest the word ‘confident’. Ask yourself, “Of my possible options, with which am I most confident?”
• Learn from failure. Ok.
• A mental game. The ancestor of every muscle movement is a thought that instructs that muscle to move. Most such instruction is unconscious and triggered by an intention. The more defined the intention the more defined the instruction. For most players, a visual image (visualization) is the most defined instruction.
• Just a Slight Knee Flex. If your clubs are the correct size for you, soling the club with produce the correct knee flex.
- Breaking 70. Jim’s advice to stay focused on each shot instead of the score is good. ‘Accelerate’ is a cousin to the word ‘power’. The result is you attempting to focus on something other than visualizing the ball rolling to the hole. When you are playing catch you need think neither about ‘accelerating’ or ‘perfect pace’.
DEATH OF THE KNOCKDOWN. Like Twain wrote, “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” Today’s re-weighted clubs do create higher trajectories. For a knockdown, this just means you might use a six iron instead of a seven.

SIX DEGREES OF FREEDOM. All of Frank’s points about the long putter are valid. However, the goal is to produce a swing (with the putter as well as the driver) that do not have the identified shortcomings. A long putter can fix some of the shortcomings in your putting. Learning to swing better, fixes them in all your shots.