March ’07 Golf Digest Instruction Commentary



This month's articles:

LESSON TEE –Jim Flick. Jim is working with two young, highly successful players. While there are things about their swings that make it less reliable than it could be, I wouldn’t change it until it became a problem. Regarding Jim’s 5 principles for teaching juniors, sounds like de la Torre to me.

COMPRESS THE BALL—Tiger Woods. As you may know from my past blogs, I am generally in full agreement with most of what Tiger writes—not this time. I can hardly believe my eyes. Hold a golf club at address and turn your left hand knuckles toward the ground. The club quickly becomes delofted and aimed left. While at address, try to position the club so you can feel the ball being pinched between the clubface and the ground—it can’t be done. Sorry Tiger.

HOLD THE FACE OPEN—Ok.

MATCH YOUR SWING TO THE LIE—Ok.

WIDE TO THE TOP—Keeping your right arm straighter will not create “a perfect backswing.” When you “swing” the club backwards, the swinging motion will cause the club to pull away from you—don’t fight it. At the same time don’t try to straighten either arm. That will lead to stiffness and a host of problems.

BLOWUP HOLES—Ok.

STAY STACKED—Stay balanced till the club passes impact and it pulls you forward.

STOP TOPPING YOUR 3-WOOD—Butch puts a little bit of everything into this article. Here’s the key ideas: Topping results from the player concluding that they have to do something other than just swing in order for the ball to get airborne. They will lean toward their back foot or use their hands in a scooping action—both can result in topping. The answer? Practicing your 3-wood without doing either of those.

FIND YOUR SWING CHI—The golf swing is a circular motion much like is used for tossing. Take a moment to toss a ball and you will find that the motion doesn’t happen like David presents it. You will find that the first move forward in tossing is with your arms. It’s the same for the golf swing. Regarding “chi”, I have spent a few years practicing Tai Chi and there is little that David describes that has anything to do with chi.
Bottom Line: this is old instruction with a new word (chi). Turn the page on this article.

HOW TO AVOID THE BIG NUMBER—Ok.

PITCHING BASICS—Stan has become very popular amongst golf’s tour players. The only problem I have with his instruction is his suggestion that the swing is in response to the pivot. Notice the comments in the yellow box for the lower photo #10. Try this and I’m sure you will conclude this is not the way the swing works.

BREAKING 100|90|80|70

100—Tom suggests that the arms should respond to the body. I would suggest that it is just the opposite.
Go strong to go long--The answer to a grip that opens the clubface and produces slices is not a grip that produces hooks. If the grip is rotated too far to the left (slice producing), rotate it back to neutral.
Swing Connection—This is an example of how to cover everything with clarity in nothing (e.g. “moving your body together”, “and in balance”, “make a full release”, “hanging on”).

90—Tom suggests that setup can improve speed. He lost me there.
Before the swing: set up for more speed—“Shoulders open cause bad things”, but what does that have to do with speed? “Forearms are level”, but what does that have to do with speed?
During the swing: Turn, don’t lift—this can improve speed but has nothing to do with setup.

80—Tom suggests that flaring the foot can give you a “few” extra miles per hour. So let’s assume that you are swinging at 90 mph. A “few” can mean three. Three is less than a 3 per cent increase. So if you were hitting it 250, a 3% increase would mean 7 yards—that doesn’t take you from a 5 iron to a 7 iron. It does mean that you had better learn to hit it a little straighter because a 250 drive at the edge of the rough will be in the rough at 257.
Flare left foot for faster hips—first I’d debate whether faster hips do anything for yardage, but speed of body movement has to do with muscle. No increase in muscle, no increase in speed.
Bump for power—“Small” hip slide. How much is small? Because your right hand is below your left on the grip, your right shoulder is already lower at address. You can tilt your shoulders any way you want and swing the club off-plane (not in the slot).

70—“A big shift costs you speed”, but a small hip slide with help? Keep your balance till after impact.