January ’07 Golf Digest Instruction Commentary

This month's articles:

LESSON TEE –RYAN MOORE. To pre-set or not to pre-set, that is the question. No it’s not. You can pre-set the hands on a backswing an still hit it left, right, high, low, short, or long. For whatever reasons presetting allowed Ryan to circumvent a problem he had as a junior golfer (and a very good one). Only one thing makes Ryan’s swing enviable—he can repeat it. Otherwise this swing has too many irregularities. In Photo 1 on the top row, notice how far forward the ball is position. This requires him to slide forward during the forward swing—otherwise he would hit it high left. In Photo 2 on the bottom row notice how extreme the club is out of position. The shaft should be parallel to the target line. In Photo 5 he is swinging below the swing plane. If he does not invoke a compensating action he will hook the ball left. In the top row on Photo 5, look at the treetop that is positioned just below the zipper of his trousers. Now look at Photo 1—no treetop. As we thought he has had to slide forward. This adds an unnecessary amount of timing and control that makes the swing more difficult. Finally, look at Photo 6 on the top row and you will see how Ryan keeps the ball from hooking. He locks his arms from rotating and hits a push with the clubface looking slightly right and open. This produces that leak to the right that Ryan plays. It works for him (for now), but don’t try this at home.
STAND TALL ON LONG PUTTS—How tall? This is one of those silly articles. Why does standing tall promote a flowing stroke? If you look at the “NO” photo, this is not the opposite of standing tall. This is a photo of someone who is bent over too much or has too long of a putter—regardless of the length of putt. So how long of a putt calls for you to stand taller, 15ft, 18ft, 27ft? David then reaches a new height of insightfulness when he reports, “The worst thing you can do for a long putt is to hunch over the ball and make a short, jabby stroke.” So this “hunch/jab would be ok for short putts?

FEEL THE DISTANCE—I can’t speak for Tiger but I can for myself and players that have attended Heartland. If someone were to put you in a dark room and ask you to throw a ball to a bucket fifteen feet away, you would find it very confounding. However, if we turn on the lights and you could see the bucket, you would describe the task as being easier. Humans are typically not able to calculate necessary swing speed based on feel but they are remarkable when it’s based on sight. The only other point regarding this article is that Tiger writes that he wants to “imagine” the club is traveling it’s fastest just after contact. While players should employ whatever imagery helps them, for the record, the club is traveling much slower after impact.

PIVOT ON CHIPS AND PITCHES—Ok, but don’t focus on the back of the ball. I doubt if Tiger is saying what he really means. First, this can promote “hitting” instead of “swinging”. And second, it takes the target out of your mind. On a shot like the one in the photo, you want to be very target-aware during the swing. If Tiger had the ball in his hand and was rolling it to the flag, you could bet your bottom dollar his attention would be on the target.

THRE STEPS TO VISUALIZE GREAT SHOTS—I read this article three times but could not find out how it relates to visualizing. (P.S. Toski’s setup routine was ok.)

BEAT THE ROUGH WITH A HYBRID—Ok, but skip the last to steps.

PRESSURE CHIPPING—Ok.

MATCH THIS POSITION—First, Rick’s clubface is shut. At that 9 o’clock position he is referring to, the shaft of the club should be parallel to the target line and the grooves of the club should be vertical. Second, “you” don’t rotate the club. Your rotator cuff joints (they connect your arm to your shoulder) rotate the club. All you have to do is not get in the way of the rotation.

SET YOUR HANDS AHEAD—Regardless of which club in the bag, moving the hands forward of center at setup does just two things: de-loft the club or de-loft the club and make it face to the right. If during that junior event Tom was leaving his putts to the right, this could have compensated for his swing error. Turn the page and forget this “Tale of Tom.”

HOW TIGER DOES IT—Sounds just like how we do it—not.

LET THE PUTTER SWING INSIDE—sounds like de la Torre.

HOW TO PLAY CONSISTENT GOLF—
DRIVING—Ok, except for the comment on the flat left wrist. Lay a straight edge along the top of Annika’s left forearm from her elbow to her knuckles. Is the left wrist flat? NO. Let’s let this notion die. The left wrist is not flat relative to the forearm!
“U NOT A V”? The path of the club head makes a circle not a “U” or a “V”.
SIMPLEST ROUTE—ok

FAIRWAY PLAY—Shorten the backswing? Do you want the shot to be shorter? Shifting (sliding) to the left moves the bottom of your swing forward and causes you to hit the ball thin. If you are worried about hitting it fat (as Annika says she is) then this is a good strategy. A better strategy would be to just set up at address with the ball a little forward and then there is no need to try to time a sliding motion.

FIND THE BIG AREAS TO REDUCE THE RISK—Ok.

DECIDE AND COMMIT—Absolutely.

WEDGES
Make a compact swing and always accelerate—a swinging motion by definition is accelerate through impact. You don’t have to make this happen—just let it happen.
Annika may say she has three swing lengths but this can’t be true. Let’s say her sand wedge at ½ is 40 yards and at ¾ is 60 yards. Does that mean that when she is chipping to a 50 yard target that she will accept being either 10 yards short or ten yards long? I DON”T think so. She may practice ½, ¾, and full swings but her visualization of the target will give her an infinite variety of swing lengths.

SET YOUR TEMP—good.

MANAGE YOUR ENERGY-Ok.

FIX THESE GOLF CLICHÉS—
GRIP--Tom has tried a fresh approach to grip. It’s fresh but it failed. Aligning the knuckles with one another does not prevent the golfer from having the hands rotated too far to the left or to the right. It just means that the hands are symmetrical. There is no magic in the knuckles or v’s, its how you use them. What we want to accomplish is putting our hands on the grip so that when we swing the hands respond to the centripetal pulling force of the club head by squaring the club head at impact. Put you hands on the club with the v’s pointing to your shirt buttons.

SETUP—jump up 3 times and I bet you don’t always land exactly the same way. Tom is close on this. Here is the way to find your balance. Don’t jump, instead get in a ready position to jump straight up (just a couple of inches). Don’t jump. Check you weight—you’ll probably find that you have equal weight on both feet and that your weight in each foot is positioned just behind the balls of your feet.

BALL POSITION—Poor Tom. First of all the center of your swing is the mid point between your shoulders. But let’s let that slide for a minute. Tom says for the driver the ball “should be slightly ahead of your shoulder socket.” Now look carefully at the photo of Tom with the driver. The ball is behind his left shoulder instead of in front of it. Notice how the butt of the driver is at his shoulder and the head is pointing at the ball—but the club is not hanging straight. Sorry, Tom.

“And slightly behind your shoulder if you want to make a divot with an iron. For the swing to make a divot, the path of the swing would need to be lowered. How does moving the ball back lower the path of the swing? It doesn’t.

BACKSWING
STEADY HEAD-yep!
WEIGHT SHIFT-yep!

BREAKING 100|90|80

SHAKE THE RUST OFF—Be careful of keeping your arms straight. Allow the to hang fully extended at address and allow the centripetal force of the swing to pull them straight in the backswing and forwardswing. Allow your elbows to hinge if that is the only way you can make a full swing. There is NO problem in letting them hinge at the top.

HACK IT OUT—Ok.

LOOK AT THE BALL LONGER—Problem. The rotator cuffs begin rotating the club (any club, all clubs) the moment the backswing begins.

PERFECT YOUR POSTURE—Almost. Your forearms are not in alignment with the putter shaft any more than they are with any other club. Nothing prevents flicking at the ball if you want to flick at.

ESCAPE FAIRWAY BUNKERS EVERY TIME—Ok.

THE DOWNSIDE OF PUTTING—Let’s use common sense here. Look at the photo the putter is contacting the ball above the equator and applying a downward force. This maximizes bouncing not minimizing. This is contrary to the design of every putter made.

PLAY TOWARD THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS—Ok.

DON’T GET CUTE WITH IT—Ok.

ONE WEDGE MANY LOFTS—Ask a mechanic why he has many screwdrivers and not just one. Some players (like Ernie) use one club for all chipping. The logic is that you are better off learning how to use one club than several. It’s logical but it’s just not true. If we were playing Tom for money, do you think Tom would like it if we took away his 6 and 7 iron and told him it would be advantageous to just figure out how to you the 5 iron for those shots?

LAG IT AROUND THE GATE—Some players are “curve” putters (Like Tom). De la Torre’s approach to breaking putts is easier to perfect.

DISTANCE CONTROL ON TEE SHOTS—Tom may be privy to something. I’ve never heard of a tour player trying to hit a driver less than their normal distance. When the want it shorter, all of them are generally eager to get the 3 wood in their hands.

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF TRAINING AIDS—I have a basement full of them—and that’s where they stay. I haven’t found one that makes learning faster or more certain.