2017 August

It may have been Michael Breed (on the Golf Channel) that came up with this line and he was so right.  If you have a consistent drive, your approach shot is the most critical shot for every hole. You are faced with a 100 to 180 yard shot into the green on a par 5, 4 or 3.  If you can land that shot on the green and 2-putt every green, this game is easy.

The 2017 September issue of Golf Digest gave us some great tips to hit more greens in regulation.  Consistency, Distance and Direction are all critical issues.

Consistent Waist Bend for Consistent Contact:
If you keep the same bend at your waist throughout your swing, the distance from your neck to your ball will remain the same in your setup and at impact.  Rotate your shoulders around your spine during your swing without bobbing up and down during your back and down swing.  Lunging down at the ball during your downswing WILL create mishits.

High handicap golfers average a 25 degree angle across their shoulders (pointing down toward the ball) at the top of their backswing.  The shoulder slant for Pros is about 35 degrees because they don’t straighten up during their backswing.  They simply rotate around their spine by coiling and uncoiling.

Distance:
Know Your Club Distances: Every golfer has to learn the distance that they hit every club.  Wind and elevation changes will impact the distance for every hit and it is up to you to account for the impact.  Jack Nicklaus reminds us to use the average distance (not your best distance) that you expect for each club.  Swing at 85% and don’t expect the “hero shot” with every club.

Direction:
Every professional golfer has their own routine to control the direction of their irons.  Swinging a golf club in a circle makes it almost impossible to control the precise direction for every shot. Brooks Koepka is definitely a long ball hitter but his direction control with irons is critical for his success.  He uses these swing thoughts for his iron shots:

–Weak grip for his left hand (thumb V points up to his neck) and strong grip for his right hand
–Lineup with an open stance to create a fade. He finds it’s easier to control direction.
–Straight leading arm for a wide and high backswing to generate distance.
–A slightly bowed left wrist in his backswing helps him line up the direction of his impact.
–Hip bump toward the target to start his weight transfer during his transition.
–Good body rotation in the back swing and follow-through.
–Sidearm release of his trailing hand through impact for more power in his release. [I use some of these pointers, especially the straight arm, straight back swing with a slight loop at the top as I bump my hip and release from the inside as my trailing elbow grazes my side.  These  key swing movements have improved the consistency of my drives to 95% and length by 20 to 40 yards. ]

Your strength in each arm and leg will affect the way you swing your clubs.  Brooke Koepka is just an example from one professional to consider when you are trying to improve your direction control to hit more greens in regulation.  Sort out your direction control at the range or with a PGA Professional and practice with GOLFSTR+ for every swing in your game.  Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

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Does your swing stay exactly the same when you swing at the range, on the fairway or in the rough? Well your tempo should be the same. Unfortunately as our game gets in trouble, our mental state changes and we tend to take it out on the ball. In frustration, our golf swing may revert to a baseball swing. In our panic stricken mind, we are looking for every ounce of energy. Big mistake!

A. When your ball is nestled down in the rough do you rush your backswing which limits the length of your backswing? Big mistake!
B. When you see one of your playing partners pound a tremendously long shot, do you try to hit faster and harder. Big mistake!
C. When you have to get over water or trees or a distant sand trap, do you lose your tempo, avoid transferring your weight to your leading leg and top your ball? Big mistake!

SOLUTION: TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR MIND and maintain the same rhythm in your swing for every shot. A consistent swing routine is a good starting point but when the pressure is on and your mind is ticked off you need a way to SNAP OUT OF YOUR COMMITMENT TO KILL THAT BALL.

1/ When you recognize that you are getting out of control you need to mentally say words to calm yourself down and get back into a calm and relaxed rhythm. [The TRICK you must understand is that your mind can’t think bad thoughts when your mind says positive words. (You can’t do both at the same time.)]
2/ Say the word “STOP” to re-start your state of mind and stop whatever you are doing to allow time for a mental reset. Use the word “STOP” as a trigger to get back on track.
3/ Start your “CALMING PERFORMANCE”. Take a deep breath and exhale. Then say words to yourself that will lead you through your normal setup and swing. You should develop your own calming words. Practice saying them at the driving range and then repeat them when you recognize that you are out of control.

I start my calming process by using the words “Straight Arm” as I calmly use a shoulder rotation waggle with my straight leading arm (ensuring that my trailing elbow is out from my ribs).

To control my tempo I use the 3 words “SWEEP AND FINISH”: #1 SWEEP for full shoulder rotation, #2 AND for wrist lag and #3 FINISH for wrist release from the “slot” to a balanced finish.

NOTE: TAKE YOUR PENALTY: When your ball is deep in the rough, you should accept the fact that you need to pay for this penalty. Use a lofted iron that will dig down into the rough to hit it out with a lot less distance than it would normally achieve when hitting on “the short stuff”. Control your mind and decide to take the penalty shot to get your ball back in a perfect fairway position for your next shot. DON’T try for the miracle shot which may just put your ball back in the rough.

Practice your CALMING WORDS at the range and when your mind needs to be calm on the course. Practice with GOLFSTR+ for your straight arm swing AND 6 Swing Fixes. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

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Is your right arm taking over your swing? If you are right handed, you are most likely playing with right handed golf clubs. Unfortunately the extra strength in your right arm may be overpowering your swing. This may be the cause for your inconsistent swing problems.

The power for your swing comes from your straight left arm and wrist release at the point of impact. The key functions for your right arm are to create lag at the top of your swing and to keep your shoulders moving through your swing plane. If you allow your stronger right arm, wrist and hand to dominate your swing, you can lose control of your swing.

Swing Problems that your Stronger Right Arm Can Cause
• An early release or casting of the wrist at the top of your swing.
• An early turn of your shoulders preventing the swing from the inside slot.
• An early turn of your wrist release at the point of impact causes a duck hook.
• A death grip which kills the whipping action of your left wrist at the point of impact.
• Tight arm muscles which shorten your arms so that your impact is at the toe of your club.

Knowing that your stronger right arm may be the culprit that causes your inconsistent swing is the important starting point to improve the consistency of your swing.

SOLUTION: Use Your Practice Swing to Test for Swing Changes
At the practice range your muscles are loose and relaxed. Your mind and body may change when you start your round of golf. Use a full practice swing to compare the setup position of your club head with the impact point of your club head (as it whooshes through the impact point). This point may be changing as you stretch out or tighten your muscles during your round of golf.

First tee nerves; anger thinking about your last mishit; fear about hazards ahead and excitement caused by your last successful shot are all reasons why your body tightens or loosens throughout your round of golf. These changes are most likely the cause for your inconsistencies.

On Day #3 of the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Golf Club, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama both lost their driving accuracy. When the pressure is on, even the pros can lose control of their minds and bodies. They needed miraculous shots to stay in contention.
1/ Set up in a comfortable position with your hands hanging down directly below your shoulders.
2/ Take a full practice swing to see if your club head is traveling across your setup point.
3/ If your right arm is taking control of your swing, you may see that your club head swings inside or outside of your setup point. If this occurs, move up or back from your ball to compensate for the mishit distance in your practice swing. Then go ahead and make the perfect shot.

Your dominant trailing arm muscles are relaxing and tightening as you play your round of golf. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to learn to swing with a straight leading arm and avoid letting your trailing arm ruin the consistency of your swing. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

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I wish it was as easy as the title states!  I recently saw a blog by Rotary Swing that gave me a new perspective on the golf swing.  Hitting thousands of balls will never fix your swing if you don’t relax and incorporate the 4 key moves for a consistent, powerful swing. It’s as simple as Shoulder, Lag, Bump and Release. If you can’t learn these motions, it’s difficult to create a consistent, powerful golf swing.

The Haney Project was a TV series on the Golf Channel with many celebrities like Ray Romano, Charles Barkley and Rush Limbaugh. Hank Haney created some success with each individual by repetition and hitting 1000’s of golf balls. He worked on their swing path but never gave them the power and consistency that they were all hoping to find. The Rotary Swing Blog said that this series only highlighted the weakness of repetition when you are not focused on key body movements to create the right swing plane.

Create a Successful Swing
The simplified version of the golf swing is completed in 4 steps:
1/ takeaway with a shoulder rotation;
2/ pull your straight leading arm up with your bent trailing arm to create lag,
3/ weight transfer at the top with a hip bump during the transition and
4/ a whipping, wrist release at impact.

Upper body leads the takeaway and the lower body starts the down swing. Your hands are the last to release. For power and consistency you need to generate these 4 motions during your swing. Hideki Matsuyama has developed a “mechanical” swing that works.  The key to his swing is finding the right lag position and hip bump at the top.  This slow motion video shows it all.

To be a good golfer, you don’t have to look like you have the perfect swing. Last weekend when Hideki won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational against the 50 best golfers in the world, he proved that you can create a position at the top of your swing. He actually stops the motion of his swing at the top of his swing with a straight leading arm and wrist lag as he shifts his weight to his leading leg. He finds that  position and then pulls the trigger with amazing results.

Consider creating a great position at the top of your swing before you pull down and release. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to learn all 4 of your key motions for consistency in your swing. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

Our Swing Tip last week got an interesting cross-section of comments. First I need to clarify that a golf swing where you fall back with all of your weight on your trailing leg will result in mishits or topped balls. If you ever try to crush the ball and swing at a high speed using only your arms, you WILL fall backwards. Our tip last week was intended to help golfers who finish their swing falling back on their back foot to break out of that problem.

Larry Rinker’s Corrective Comments
I first must apologize to Larry Rinker as I misunderstood his comments. He was offering a DRILL to help golfers transfer their weight from the trailing leg to the leading leg during the swing. He clarified by telling me: “Setting up with 60-75% of your weight in your lead side, the way you would be positioned at impact, is a good DRILL to learn how to swing your arms, hands, and wrists correctly.” He was NOT recommending this as a proper setup position.

[I just found that HOLDING a 60% forward pressure from setup to impact is a great way to force your weight transfer to 100% on your leading foot at the end of your swing. Tommy Armour also setup with more pressure on the leading foot and the setup pressure on your leading foot should increases as you move to higher irons. If you find that you are able to transfer your weight during the swing, you may want to ignore this tip.]

Larry then went on to say: “The upper core player (not recreational player) will pivot around their lead leg on the back swing with the least amount of lateral motion. So in your case, if you are an upper core player, you are benefiting from not moving off of the ball on the back swing, which is what an upper core player does. This helps your contact at impact.”

NOTE: Each of the golfers who I see loading their weight on the front leg during the setup have strong upper cores. They avoid a reverse pivot in the downswing. To lock your head in one position throughout the backswing, try the Jack Nicklaus trick: Just turn your head back slightly so that you can focus on the ball with your left eye. It forces you to rotate my shoulders around your neck in a locked position the way most pros do (without swaying back or lifting up in your backswing)

Andy Schwebe’s Update
Andy is a low handicap golfer and has been setting up with his weight forward for years. He commented on last week’s swing tip with one further clarification: “Besides keeping 60% of your weight on your front foot, the other cheat that helps is to only put the rest of your weight on the inside edge of your back foot. Never let your weight go to the outside edge of that back foot.”

If your body is not allowing you to swing like Ben Hogan, why not try this pressure shift to get your body and ball moving in the right direction. Once you get the feel for swinging through the ball with your weight shifted forward it will start happening naturally and you will be swinging like Ben Hogan in no time. Remember to practice with GOLFSTR+ for every swing in your game. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

 

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