Golf Digest May '06 Instruction Commentary

This month's articles

-GET MORE POWER WITH LESS EFFORT. Tiger talks about the movement of the club after impact. The extension of the arms is not important in itself. Instead this extension is “indicative”. It indicates that you are using your arms to swing the club. Focus on using ONLY your arms to swing the club from the end of your backswing to over your front shoulder and you will see and feel the extension and power to which Tiger is referring.

PAY ATTENTION TO LATE BREAK. Good.

FIND YOUR OWN FEEL. “Feel” is often referred to in golf. Most of the time the word is used without much real meaning. Notice that Ernie talks about feel, but describes motions. Try it your self. Ask yourself to consider the “feel” of a full finish and its likely you won’t be able to remember the feel, but you can remember the look. Feel is often mistaken for visualization.
P.S. Note the paragraph at the bottom of the page about hybrids. Lofted woods are even better.

HOW TO PUTT LIKE THE BEST. Manuel has worked with Loren and says that he is one of the very few people he has ever known who has mastered “straight back, straight thru”. That straight line stroke is unnecessarily difficult as Tom points out.

HITTING OFF NO. 1. All three suggestions are pretty good regardless of handicap.

I DID IT. SO CAN YOU. I suggest you get comfy, grab a hi-liter and re-read this several times. While I will never be his equal on the course, I can tell you that I know the road to improvement and Tiger tells it the way it is.

YOUR GET-BETTER PLAN. Fasten your seatbelt—this could be bumpy. Chuck defines the session lengths (30, 60, 90) but does not suggest how many sessions might typically be needed to achieve proficiency and permanency.
Long game—if this 30 minutes is about “building muscles” get yourself set for many weeks if not months before your muscle mass has increased to the point that they move the club faster. On the 60-minute plan we journey into fantasy. Like the motor in your car, the acceleration of your muscles is a function of the weight-to-horsepower ratio. Choosing a target ten yards further and expecting to get there is about as realistic as your car being able to accelerate faster today than yesterday. In the 90-minute plan Chuck says that you “learn” to create clubhead speed whereas in the 30-minute plan he says that you must build muscles for clubhead speed. You can’t have it both ways. (It’s build muscle—not learning).
Accuracy—30 minutes to disaster. First, the wrist is a hinge—it can’t be flat. Chuck means that the back of his left hand is no longer at an angle to his forearm like it is at address (many golfers refer to this as a flat wrist). Try this. At the address position, without swinging the club just loose the angle between the left wrist and the forearm. You’ll see the club face is looking drastically to the right. Doing what Chuck suggests puts the club in what is called a “layed off” position and accounts for a lot of shots missed to the right. Forget carrying this to the 60 and 90-minute version. This drill has little or nothing to do with improving your accuracy.
Consistency—Chuck has players switching between three clubs in the 30-minute drill but doesn’t explain how this creates or improves consistency. In the 60-minute drill he adds the two strings. From the right distance, each wedge should create the same trajectory. If the trajectory changes, your swing is not delivering the club to the ball consistently. The 90-minute drill focuses on executing a consistent pre-shot routine.
Short Game. Avoid all three of these routines. The chipping drill advocates a swing that is much more difficult than necessary. Putting is also much more difficult (review Watson’s article above). Avoid the sand drill altogether.

THE ONE TIP THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR GAME.
DRIVING—Ok.
HYBRIDS—Just once I wish David would demonstrate “pinching the ball”. That would cure him of this ridiculous suggestion. Look at the photo. This is less than one second after impact. Does it look like he “pinched the ball”? No way. The rest of his comments are garden variety stuff.
IRONS—Jim’s article begins with the words “Center the ball”. Three sentences later he says “Position every iron in the middle”. Which is it Jim, the club or the ball in the center? Next let’s get real. All clubs swing in a circle around the player. At the end of the back swing the club is six feet off the ground. Ad impact the club is at ground level. So can’t we agree that all clubs for all shots descend? If he wants us to hit down on the ball now there’s an even bigger problem. The divot is not caused by the player hitting the club into the ground. Instead it is caused by the downward pressure of the ball as it leaves the club face.
UNEVEN LIES—Ok.
PITCHING—Ok.
BUNKERS—Ok, but there is no need to open the club face unless the bunker is very deep.
PUTTING—So the next time you play your supposed to remember how far apart your feet were for a 20 footer? And what about when you have a 17 footer? Mike was not thinking clearly when he came up with this one.
BREAKING 100. Ok.
BREAKING 90. Why swing off-plane and then try to re-route to on-plane? You can use the golf bag aid but swing inside the bag on the way back and the way forward. The putting lesson is as silly as the one Mike McGetrick suggested and for the same reason.
BREAKING 80. Ok. The fade and draw technique is more difficult than necessary.
BREAKING 70. Ok.