July ’07 Golf Digest Instruction Commentary

This month's articles:

LESSON TEE –
LUKE DONALD—in the swing sequence, notice how Luke has positioned the club in the front of his stance (his belt buckle is behind the ball). Because he has, he now has to slide his body forward. Notice in frame 5 the belt buckle is not even with the ball. This repositioning of the body requires timing and therefore is a source of imprecision. If you hit balls (lots of them) every day you can achieve this timing. But the swing will never be as good as if you did not have to time the hip slide and instead just set up with the club in your center.
EXTEND AND RELEASE—there is no release in the golf swing!! When we see photographs we can get the impression that at one point in the swing the club suddenly does something called release. It doesn’t! The unhinging of the wrists from the top of the swing is a gradual and continual process with the wrists getting full unhinged about two feet before impact and staying that way till about waist high in the forward swing. The extension is not something you “make happen”. It is something you “let happen”. The pull of the club just before impact and through 3 o’clock causes what looks like extension.
FACE THE TARGET—this is a very important and almost universal response of the body to a swing.

SHORT SAND SHOTS—Ok.

IMPROVE YOUR TURN—Rick is suggesting that YOU are responsible for the turning of the torso. This means you have something extra to do during the swing. Manuel suggests that instead of taking responsibility for turning that instead you make this matter much simpler. Instead of considering turning as a “make happen” item, consider it a “let happen” item. The turn of the torso proves to work much better if the turn is merely the torso’s response to your swinging the club.

HOW TO HIT IT HIGHER—There are two things that can make a given club send the ball higher: open the club face or play the ball for forward in your stance.

TURN YOUR CHEST—Not. Look at the position of Tiger’s left arm in the first photo (it is pointing at 8 o’clock). Now look at his left arm in photo three (it is pointing at 6 o’clock). Yes his chest moved but the arms moved much more than the chest turned. Use the arms to swing the club. Let the body respond.

SPEED UP ON SHORT PUTTS—Here is David’s version of putting something in the “make happen” column that belongs left in the “let happen” column. Instead of trying to produce some contrived short backswing, long forwardswing stroke, merely swing the putter. A swinging putter ALWAYS accelerates as it approaches the ball. If accelerating on short putts is the problem David suggests it is, then swinging is the solution.

WIND = BREAK—This is a great insight into the high-level strategy of a tour player. Unless you are in low single digits, your practice time will be better spend elsewhere.

SWING TO A FINISH—There is not a lot the Butch has to say about the swing that I would fully agree with. However, this article is the exception. There are few things that are more helpful and can fix multiple problems like swinging to this finish—club hanging over your left shoulder with the right foot fully turned and up on the toe. The only exception I take to Butch’s comments is his instruction to “shift to your front side as you move down.” First, I would suggest that you don’t need to shift your weight, merely let your body respond to the pull of the club as it passes impact. Second, it is helpful to think of the swing as going around you instead of going “down.”

OPEN THE FACE SLIGHTLY—Jack’s point is interesting. I am going to check with Manuel on this one. If you want to get his perspective, drop me an email.

LOFT YOUR PITCHES—Everything here is ok except for comments about ball placement. If we place the ball slightly back of middle the club begins being delofted.

FIND THE SWEET SPOT—Finding the sweet spot is a great idea. Thinking the hips play a role in that is misguided. Whether the club comes from the inside or outside, you can hit the sweet spot of the club.

JOHNSON’S STROKE IS ODD, SOLID. Zach uses a See-More putter. It gives the player a visual aid in making sure that the player executes a swing rather than dragging the putter (having the hands ahead). Hank may think this is odd. I think it is technically perfect.

TIGER TIPS
ADDING TOUCH—I don’t know what Tiger means by “Adding Touch” but the text of this article seems unrelated to its title
GETTING TO THE TOP—The type of grip you use (interlocking, overlapping, or ten-fingered) may feel right for you but does nothing to assure that the club is in the best position at the top of your swing. The wrist is a hinge. Hinges are neither flat nor un-flat. The angle formed by the back of your left hand and your forearm should be the same as it was at address. Shoulder turn and eye position—ok.

UNTANGLE YOUR SWING—this is such a potpourri of instruction, I am not sure what to make of it. In the section marked “Drills”, I did like the “step 3” drill.

BREAKING 100/90/80

MASTERING IMPACT—right away this title brought up red flags for me. Confusingly, the very first sentence says that focus on making contact with the ball instead of making a good swing is a major problem. So the title for this instruction really should be Mastering Swinging.
100—PRESENT THE BALL—ok
SLIDE THE COIN—ok

90—The focus of this instruction is making shots where you have a tight lie. Mike wants you to swing so the club enters the dirt after the ball. This means the direction is downward. This is not helpful. It causes the player to deloft the club and hit fat shots. Instead, when you have a tight lie, assume that your objective is to make the ball go forward low along the ground. When you do this the loft of the club will provide the trajectory.

80—The sound of their shots is different? This means that standing on a driving range with his eye’s closed he could pick out the 70’s shooters? I don’t think so. Johnson says that when he uses the visualization of the ball going under the park bench he can hit the ball solidly. Does this mean that anytime he hits the ball with a higher trajectory (like a sand wedge) that he cannot achieve a solid feeling? Delofting the club as Johnson is doing in the park-bench drill makes the contact feel more solid because the face has less loft and you have to hit it harder to get it to go the same distance but with less loft. Regarding the swing path, Mike is suggesting that you learn to swing the club back along one plane and the forward along a different one—for what reason. There is no reason--unnecessary complication