April ’07 Golf Digest Instruction Commentary

This month's articles:

(We don’t know if there is a reason, but this issue had a disproportionate number of problematic instructional articles.)

LESSON TEE –Phil Mickelson I really like Phil’s golf swing. I often find watching it reconnects me with what the club looks like when it is swung well (same for Annika). However, the photos here of course cannot convey the motion of his swing. Phil has several compensations in his swing that make it work. For instance you can see how he has slid lateral to his right before impact. This would deliver the clubface open, but notice at impact how he as rolled his hands to close the club face. That prevents the slice. Don’t try this at home! I would encourage you to disregard all of Rick Smith’s comments about Phil’s swing (yes, I know he is Phil’s coach). Take a look at comment #1. How can you make your right hip “too high”? Your hip is sitting on your leg. Unless your leg gets longer that hip can’t get higher. His other comments are just as useless.

FAST HIPS CREATE POWER—By know all of you know that I am a Woods fan. I like his understanding and approach to the swing—EXCEPT FOR THIS. Try this: 1) stand at address with the club wresting on the ground, 2) leaving the club rest on the ground, turn your hips as fast as possible, 3)the hips are independent of your arms. You can turn them as fast as you want and it adds nothing to the swing speed, except at the very end of their turn at which time they are twisting your torso to the left. Let’s look at what Tiger says: “I’ve had to slow my hips down”—is he worrying about hitting it too far? No, when his hips get fast he sprays it right or yanks it left. Then he says “starting your downswing with a “slight lateral move”. What does slight mean? How much? I love Tiger but take a pass on this instruction. Let the swing of the club turn your hips.

PRACTICE YOUR FINISH—Because of his extraordinary body awareness and body control, Tiger can manipulate the club during the swing to make it contact the ball in a variety of ways. For us there is a less demanding way to accomplish curving the ball flight. Simply adjust your grip. Rotate your hand position on the grip to the left for hooking and to the right for fading. When you setup align to the right if you are hooking and to the left if you are fading. See Manuel’s book page 178-9.

TOES IN FOR STABILITY—Turning your toes in will not make you a bit more stable, it will restrict your turn (which can be mistaken for stability). With your toes turned in you can still shift to the right, shift to the left, lean in or back. The key to stability is practicing staying balance till impact when the forward motion of the club pulls you to your front foot.

CHIPPING IT CLOSE--#1 Good. #2 Setting up as Annika suggests delofts the club and reduces spin. With regard to “bounce twice, check, and roll” it depends on which club your are chipping with (SW, PW, 9,8,7, etc). #3 Ok. I prefer square instead of open. It makes it easier to make sure you are not lined up to the left.

CAN YOU DO THIS?—I don’t know where Rick came up with this one, but let’s try it. Take your driver, make a back swing, and now turn your head to see if you can see your right arm bent, while you are looking at your right arm see how many ways you can change its position (3,4,10, a lot). Seeing your right arm proves nothing.

HIGH AND SOFT—Playing the ball forward and opening the clubface will certainly create additional loft. For the situation Butch has (a lot of elevation and short-sided) you need a lot of loft. However considering adding a 60 degree wedge to your bag if you have a regular need for this shot. Because of the added loft (either from Butch’s setup or using a 60) the swing you’ll need will be surprisingly big.

FIND CONSISTENCY WITH BALL POSITION—good idea! Better than Ernie’s “just slightly ahead of mid-point” or “”just back of middle” is to be precisely consistent. Set the club to the ball and center your self on the club—same for all of them.

NARROW YOUR FOCUS—another good idea! Never see the ball going up (as you would for Jim’s hula hoop. Visualizing the ball going up is a leading cause for scooping with the right hand. Have a narrow focus. If you want to visualize the ball always see it traveling low (yes, even wedges out of bunkers).

HONE THE SHORT WEDGE—I like the last line of this article, “Don’t just use your arms, with your legs stuck in cement.” Use your arms to swing and ALLOW your body to respond.

HOVER YOUR CLUBHEAD—Jim says, “With all the success he’s had throughout his career, I’m amazed more golfers don’t use this technique.” Jack was one of very few champions who hovered the club. Don’t do it because Jack did. Do it if it gives you some benefit. Don’t go after what’s right, go after what works.

HOW TO BE SNEAKY LONG—take a look and you’ll see how this is “sneaky wrong”.
By teeing the ball two inches to the right of your left foot (just under where Stuart is pointing in the photo) the club will be traveling upward and facing left by the time it gets to the ball UNLESS…..you have a big hip slide like Stuart does (see top photo on page 102). By sliding forward he has effectively repositioned his body so the ball is now back where it should have been at address. This weight shift calls for timing your swing and is very unreliable. Set up with your body centered on the golf club and no weight shift and timing is needed. Simpler is gooder. With regard to the flared foot, only do this if you have the anatomical ailments to which Stuart refers. NEVER EVER NEVER think about pulling the club down. Down is linear, the swing is circular. I don’t see anything in this article that will give you extra yardage.

TAKE YOUR RANGE GAME TO THE COURSE—
Pitch Shots—Ok.
Sand Shots—Speed has nothing to do with blading the shot or getting the club stuck in the sand. A full finish will eliminate getting the club stuck in the sand but will not fix blading nor other problems. For many sand shots, the speed of a large swing (full finish) can be more than a short bunker shot needs—you would hit the ball over the green.
Chip Shots—When the hands lead through impact the clubface is either delofted or aimed to the right. This is a useful drill but not for this purpose. Disregard.
Putting—Chuck says rocking your shoulders to swing on plane is better than pulling it off plane with your arms. On-plane is better than off-plane—who’d a thunk it? Using your arms does not necessitate that you swing off-plane. You can easily swing off-plane using your shoulders—give it a try. Next he says the ball should be under our front eye. Draw a perpendicular line from Chuck’s front eye. It’s over the heel of the putter.

Breaking 100/90/80/70

MY SECRETS TO CONSISTENCY—Lorena Ochoa

STAY IN YOUR ANGLES—This is the way Lorena thinks about keeping her balance. Good idea.

RESPOND TO THE TARGET—Perfect. Page 37 in Manuel’s book.

Breaking 90—
HOW TO FADE IT—So simple. Nothing more is needed. Right out of Manuel’s book.

HOW I DRAW IT—Exactly.

Breaking 80—
PLAY THE NUMBERS—Ok.

LIES, LIES, LIES—Good. Note her comments on balance.

Breaking 70—
LAG IT CLOSE—Ok.

MAKE THE SHORTIES—Oops! Lorena says that she takes it straight back and straight through on shorties. That means that she has two putting strokes—straight back and straight through for short putts but an normal swing path for longer ones. I wonder how she decides at what distance to change between them. Maybe 4 feet? But what if it is 4 feet uphill? I would not be surprised to see that she never takes it straight back and straight thru. On very short putts on fast greens the stroke is so short it can seem as though it is straight.