November ‘06 Golf Digest Instruction Commentary

This month's articles:

LESSON TEE—For the most part, Natalie’s swing is improving. If you look at the fourth frame in the second row, Butch has noted that the club is not in an optimal position. To understand why, just imagine where the club would be if Natalie was going to try to literally throw it at the target. But its not a big problem, she re-routes it on the downswing and gets it moving in the correct direction. The other thing Butch mention’s is the sixth frame in the top row. Natalie’s weight is shifting backward (toward her back foot). This may be because she is playing the ball forward and this is her compensation to try to square the club. When you play the ball forward it obligates the golfer to slide or shift their weight forward for the club to get square to the target line.

LINE DRIVES—It’s important to note that his “flat-line tee-shot” is not a matter of ball position but instead is a swing change. Our recommendation is to find ways to produce different shots through changes in your setup not in your swing. This way you can take your time to make the change during the setup and then let your swing happen normally.

QUIET HANDS HIT IT LOW—While Tiger is again describing a swing change, he does mention two important factors in a good swing: “take my hands out of the shot” (that leaves the club’s movement to the arms), and avoid the notion of “hitting down”.

GAME FACE—The ball responds to the club. The club responds to the body. The body responds to the mind. The mind responds to your thoughts. Control your thoughts to control the ball. Controlling your thoughts requires concentration.

ESCAPE THE SAND—Want to make bunker shots really complicated? Here’s a dandy way to tie your swing into a pretzel. And after you practice this for a few hours, go hit some drives and get ready for chaos. Keep it simple. Sand shots only require a chane in setup not swing.

MONEY CLUB—Getting your putter fit is important.

RIGHT HAND TO THE TARGET—This is a good example of a professional attempting to describe their technique. While Annika says she is uncomfortable with the idea of a “70-80 percent” shot, she is comfortable with swinging back to 9 o’clock and choosing a wedge that will give her the right distance with that backswing. Let’s see if this makes sense. Annika carries four wedges. From the 9 o’clock position that means she has four distances she has available for “less than full swing shots.” I think Annika would be very unhappy if she only had four partial shot distances. The point is she has no idea how far back the club swings and it swings back different distances for the demands of different shots. What’s more, if she wants to she can use any of the four wedges for a 30, 40, or 50 yard shot. And one more thing—avoid swing changes. Your wedges will work fine without having to change your swing.

POSITION STERNUM OVER BALL—Look at the lead sentence in the last paragraph. David explains that for him, “the most important thing with a pitch or a chip is that the club hits down on the ball.” Then he explains why, “If it’s back, the club goes down and then up, and you’ll have to scoop the ball to get it airborne…”. With your sternum behind the ball, the ball is effectively forward in your stance. Anytime the ball is forward the club face will have extra loft by the time it reaches the ball and the trajectory will be higher.
What David doesn’t mention is that in his shots the crispness comes at the expense of lower trajectory—ok for chipping but ruinous for pitching.

PERFECT THE PUNCH-OUT--Ok.

PICK YOUR TARGET. Close. At the bowling alley, those little diamonds on the floor are installed to be precisely aligned with the respective pins. Very, very, seldom are a golfer’s intermediate target aligned with their actual target. Pick out your actual target and practice getting aligned to it. (After you have aligned, lay a club along the line of your toes and see how you are doing.)

SHOULD YOU BE TEEING IT LOWER?-- Ok.

SKILL SET.--Power is underrated? When was the last time you had a bogey because you could not hit the ball far enough vs. straight enough. Direction is underrated.

THE SHOTS TO WIN—
Off the Tee set you limits. Ok.
In the frairway play to your strengths. Ok.
Around the green pick the right club. Ok.
On the surface lag it a little long. What’s the difference between a little long and a little short? Yes, if its short it has no chance of going in. However, you want to have one strategy that you will use for every putt. Our recommendation is to visualize the putt stopping on the edge of the cup—for every putt.
To the practice tee imagine your problem hole. Ok.

FIX YOUR PATH TO PURE YOUR IRONS—Way cool! This article is very different from most in that you will find all of Mike’s attention is focused on the club…until the last page. Then Mike falls back into the old mindset of trying to tell us how to move our body. If he would have stopped prior to the last page, I don’t think a golfer in the world would have needed any of the last page info to make the club conform to Mike’s description. Forget the last page.

BREAKING 100
STEER LEFT TO CURE A SLICE. Since when is a hook a cure for a slice? Besides, a slice is always preferable to a hook. A slice will have a higher trajectory and not roll far after it lands. A hook will roll further (further left) because its trajectory is lower.

GRIP THE CLUB LIKE A STEERING WHEEL. If you hold the steering wheel like Rob is in the photo then this should be ok.

THE TRUCK PULLS THE TRAILER—Disregard.

MAKE A LOT OF SHORT ONES—Can’t hurt.

KEEP THE ARMS MOVING—I like this title, but disregard the words that follow. That photo is wild!!

BREAKING 90
WAIT FOR THE LIGHT TO TURN GREEN--???

THE ROAD TO HOLING PUTTS—Ok.

HELP FOR HOOKERS—This is backward. Disregard

DON’T LET THE CLUB SEE ITS SHADOW—You can use a golf club a lot of different ways. Rob’s swing works for him but I’d take a pass on using it as a model. Disregard.

BREAKING 80
MAKE YOUR DRIVER 75 INCHES—Use a straightedge and draw a line from midpoint in the shaft through the butt of the shaft. Is that in line with his left arm? No. Disregard.

STAY STILL ON PUTTS. Ok.

GETTING UP AND DOWN. Don’t try to make a knife do the job of a fork. You have a bag full of clubs to chip with. Learn to decide which tool would be the best for the job. They all are swung the same way (the arc gets bigger as you use more lofted clubs).

REINVENTING THE WHEEL. Ok.

STEP ON THE GAS FOR POWER. Every club has a purpose. The purpose of a nine is to hit a high shorter shot that sits down nicely on the green. If you deloft it your nine does not do what its designed to do. If its important to boast that you hit your nine iron 140 yards then delofting makes sense.

PITCHING TO A TIGHT PIN

BREAKING 100—“You have to get used to the idea that hitting down makes the ball go up”. What Steve should say is you have to get used to abandoning science and logic. Disregard.

BREAKING 90—Ok.

BREAKING 80—Taking a weaker grip does not maintain the club’s loft, it will cause the club to rotate and add loft. The smoothness of your swing has nothing to do with the softness of how it lands.