Faults And Fixes

All amateur golfers, women and men alike, sometimes struggle with their ability to make solid golf club contact through the bag. Catching the ball high or low on the club face means immediate loss of power and accuracy, and it’s usually an issue with one or more of three things — keeping your torso and arms connected; rotating your hips too much in the backswing for loss of the all-important “coil,” or resistance of upper to lower body; and not maintaining a consistent swing plane. Let’s take a look at how to quickly and effectively fix all three of these common swing faults.

No. 1:  Hip Coil for Max Power

FAULT: Hips 55-65˚

In the photo above left, all resistance is gone from my swing. My hips have over-rotated and I have lost the hip crease, resulting in a lift up and out of my posture. I have also lost the pressure point in my back foot. It has moved to the outside.

FIX: Hips 45-50˚

On the right, my resistance is maxed out. My legs are solid with a slight hip turn. I am bearing into the ground, and using this resistance to create the coil. The pressure in my back foot is driving deeper into the turf, helping me to create that resistance.

Key Point: It’s important to note that a good fitness and flexibility regimen is critical to get and maintain the swing torque you’re looking for.

No. 2: The Plane Truth

Elbow in to stay on plane.

Here’s a subtle yet critical set-up adjustment to keep you connected and on plane:

FAULT: A Disconnected Elbow

In the left-side photo, my elbow is disconnected at set-up. It is pointing away from my body. This position will make it more difficult for my elbow to fold in during the takeaway.

FIX: A Connected Elbow

In the right-side photo, my elbow is connected at set-up. It is pointing in toward my body. This position will allow my elbow to fold as I rotate into my backswing.

No. 3:  Keep the Connection

Lack of flexibility can easily lead to one of the most common swing maladies, especially for women: High, armsy AND disconnected!

If you are consistently hitting thin shots, let’s examine your takeaway into your back-swing. Disconnection is a biggie.

Here’s subtle yet critical set-up adjustment to keep you connected and on plane

FAULT: Loose And Leaky

In the photos directly above, there’s lots of arm disconnection from my torso. I am getting great extension, but my arms and shoulders are no longer one unit. I am disconnected from the start. This makes it very easy to rise up and out of my posture. As a result, there is minimal coil, or power in this backswing. I will most likely hit a THIN shot.

FIX: Compacted Power

A connected swing allows all the right things to take place, such as creating good wrist hinge and staying in your posture.

Great connection with my arms and upper body. No daylight in this takeaway. This connection makes it easy to hinge.

I feel a low center of gravity. My feet are driving in to the ground, creating a super-coil.

No. 4:  A Rigid Extension

We all hear about full extension, or a wide arc for lots of distance. This is true! However, be careful not to overdo it and get off plane.

A subtle yet critical set-up adjustment to keep you connected and on plane

FAULT: Too Tight

With a rigid takeaway, tension creeps in and at that point, it becomes a real challenge to stay in your posture, and stay connected into your backswing.

I have risen out of my posture. I call this the “elevator move.” I’ll need to come down a few floors to make contact with the ball.

FIX: Soft Arms

A soft right elbow coupled with a straight left arm provides plenty of extension. With soft arms, my back elbow (right for me) will begin to fold, allowing me to coil fully into a compact backswing.

As I continue to turn, notice how I am staying in my posture.

In fact, I squat deeper into my coil, so I can unwind aggressively into the downswing.

No. 5: Off-Plane 3

The “left arm breakdown” can wreak havoc on your swing plane, and not to mention killing any chance for distance. The photos above show the fault and how to fix it.

FAULT: Bent Left Elbow

My hands are very close to my head because my lead arm has too much bend.

FIX: Extended Left Elbow

My hands are far from my head. This translates to a wider arc for more extension through the shot.

Christina Ricci is an LPGA Class A teaching pro, TPI Certified Golf Level 3 and a bestselling golf author. She has helped grow and promote the game of golf to women in her own unique way since 2008. Visit www.golfsurvivalguide.com to sign up for Christina’s weekly golf tips.

Boiled down to its essence, golf comes down to the ball meeting the club face for a split second. That’s it. And as we all know, if either of those two elements is out of place or coming in at the wrong angle at impact, bad things happen. I’m here to help you build club face awareness, which will lead to eliminating one of the game’s most dreaded shots. Then we’ll take that better ballstriking confidence and apply it to planning where to land each shot.

BE CLUB FACE AWARE

Do you know if you made a good swing and hit a bad shot due to the impact location on the club face or if the bad shot caused by poor club face alignment at im-pact? In this lesson I’ll show how hitting the ball on different parts of the driver affects how it behaves in flight — and how you can hit fades and draws on demand. It all starts with face awareness.

For better face awareness, try this drill: Spray the club face with Dr. Scholl’s Odor-X spray power or another similar spray that will leave a white residue. Try hitting three shots in this order, as shown from left to right in Photo 1:

• Off the toe of the club
• Off the heel of the club
• In the center of the face
  With good club face awareness you should be able to hit three shots, one in each of the three sections on the club face on command.

Notice that in Photo 2, taken from the Trackman in the teaching facility at Bighorn Golf Club, a shot struck on the toe of the club will curve more to the left than an equal shot struck in the center of the club face, and a shot struck on the heel of the club will curve more to the right than an equal shot struck in the center. This curvature is due to the rotation of the club head at impact on all shots that are not struck at the center of gravity of the club head. This “gear affect” is even more pronounced with hybrids and fairway woods and is the most pronounced with the driver due to the added curvature of the club face. Did you know that the curvature of the driver club face from heel to toe (and its resultant diameter), is almost the same diameter of a basketball hoop? This adds even more gear affect than you would have on an iron shot and makes it even more important to know where you hit it on the club face.

Notice the gear effect in Photo 3. The club was swung inside-to-out or to the right with a very closed club face. If the ball was struck in the center of the club face, we would see a big hook. When you look at the dark line depict-ing the actual ball flight, you see a slight fade. This left-to-right ball flight is due to the contact point being well toward the heel of the club.

In Photo 4, you can see the gear effect of when the ball is struck on the toe of the driver. In this picture, at impact the club face was aimed more to the right than the club path. If this shot was struck in the middle of the club face we would expect a push slice. However, the ball started to the right of the target and curved to the left, a draw. This curvature is due to the ball being struck on the toe and the resultant gear effect.

STIFLE THE SHANKS

Most golfers don’t know why the hit a shank. In my experience, it is almost always caused by one thing, the golfers’ hands moving out away from their body and toward the ball during the transition from their backswing to downswing. To train the correct motion, try this simple drill:

Line up to the ball normally. Make sure your weight is on the balls of your feet or about where your shoelaces end, as I’m doing in Photo 5.

Once set up, you should have approximately one fist width from your left leg to the butt end of your grip (Photo 6).

Starting at your normal address position (Photo 7), move the club head away from you so that the ball is now lined up off the hosel of the club, just as if you were going to purposely shank it (Photo 8).

Swing back and try to hit the ball off the toe of your club (Photo 9). This motion will reverse the hands moving away from you pattern that causes a shank. You can see that my hands are closer to my body then when they started. This further-away-to-closer motion will get rid of the shanks!

Here’s another useful drill: place a line of tees in the ground just outside the club head and hit balls without hitting the tees, as I’m demonstrating in Photo 10.

DECISION TIME

For each shot you play in golf, your objective should be to “hit/stroke the ball toward your selected target to the best of your ability at that moment in time.”

Picking specific targets will help you get focused on the positive aspect of what you want to happen rather than the negative outcomes that are possible. Your mind doesn’t register negatives, so it’s imperative to success that you focus on what you want to actually happen.

In Photo 11, the majority of the trouble is short (water) and left (bunkers). If you tell yourself “don’t hit it in the water,” your brain registers the word “water” and figures out a way to hit it in the water 9 times out of 10. If you don’t want to hit it in the water, then you do want to hit it somewhere else. This somewhere else may be the opposite side of the fairway or green or, or to the right or the back of a green instead of the front part. No matter where that target is, select a target that is small enough that you can focus your eyes on it each time. In Photo 12 you can see that that I’m lined up straight at the pin, but I’m making sure to take enough club to take the water out of play and maybe even be a bit long. This will help you have a positive thought and clear picture of where you want to hit it before you step up to each shot.

More from Dale Abraham: Stop the Slice Forever

Dale Abraham, PGA, is Director of Instruction at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, California and Telluride Country Club in Telluride, Colorado

I can’t emphasize enough how important a good golf posture is to the success of your golf swing. Grip, posture, stance and ball position are the cornerstone ingredients that determine how your swing will work, how it looks and where your shots will go. The effect of having poor posture can be damaging in so many ways. It can cause you to straighten up in your golf swing, referred to as loss of posture, it can also restrict body rotation, leading to an overly dominant arm swing, all of which can result in missing the ball, toe shots and hitting fat shots with club contact behind the ball. In addition, poor posture can have a major effect on the PATH OF YOUR SWING.

A CLOSER LOOK

There are three areas as it relates to posture: spine angle, arms and knee flex. For the purpose of this article, we will take a closer look at spine angle and arms. Only a slight knee flex is required and should easily be attainable.

GOOD GOLF POSTURE

Good Posture has the same spine angle you had while standing up straight, but hinged from the hips with a pelvic tilt. The pelvic spine tilt allows your arms to hang straight down naturally under your shoulders, Photo 1.

POOR GOLF POSTURE

Poor Posture has very little pelvic tilt from the hips. Instead, the hinging is occurring throughout the spine, creating a curve to the back. When this happens, the tendency is to reach forward with the arms, Photo 2.

POOR GOLF POSTURE = POOR PATH

Plane and Path

In order to see the effect that poor posture has on path, I have drawn a line from the golf ball through the top of my shoulders, Photo 3. NOTE: With good path, the shoulder plane line should never be broken with the club going outside this line at any time during the backswing, downswing or follow-through.

Backswing = Above the Plane

With the spine curved, hip and shoulder rotation is restricted. Now, the swing starts with arms in an abrupt upward fashion, Photo 4, causing the club to go above the plane in the backswing, Photo 5. At address, when the arms are reaching, they are tight. Tension in the arms will also promote the same, abrupt upward motion. The feeling is similar to picking up an axe to chop wood.

Over Top = Cut Across

Since the start of the backswing was predominantly generated with the arms due to restricted body rotation, the start of the downswing will be same, causing the club to stay over the top of the plane, Photo 6, with the club cutting across the plane line. Photo 7, This is similar to an out to in cut spin with a tennis shot.

THE RESULT:  Shots are hit off line with pulls, pull hooks and pulls slices, along with no velocity on the shot.

GOOD POSTURE = GOOD PATH

Plane and Path

In order to see the effect that good posture has on path, I have drawn the same shoulder plane line, Photo 8. This line will make it easy to see the effect good posture has on path in the golf swing.

Backswing = Under the Plane

Without the curve in the spine, hip and shoulder rotation is freed up. Now, the swing starts with arms and body rotation, with the club to going under the plane in the backswing, Photos 9 and 10. Also, when the arms are hanging at address they are free of tension. Tension-free arms will follow the path body rotation has created. The feeling is now rotary, like swinging around your body.

Down Under = Down The Line

Since the start of the backswing is rotary with tension free arms, the start of the downswing will begin with body rotation in an unwinding fashion with the drop of the arms, down and under the shoulder plane, Photo 11, with the feeling of swinging down the line in the follow-through, Photo 12.

THE RESULT:  Shots start off towardsyour target giving you the opportunity to hit more fairways and greens.

DRIVING NATURAL GOLF POSTURE with a little GRAVITY

In order to work on good posture, you’ll need a driver and a five-pound dumbbell weight, Photo 13. First, while standing straight up and in your golf stance, take the grip end of the driver and slip it between your belt and pants, Photo 14. If you do not have pants with a belt, simply put on a belt and slip the club between the belt and what you are wearing. An example are women’s shorts/skirts and gym pants if you are working on this at home.

Next, move the driver down until the club head touches your head, Photo 15. At this point, you should still be in a standing position and in your natural spine angle you would have as if you were holding a drink and talking to somebody in front of you, Photo 16. This “drinking position” is important for establishing your natural spine angle.

Now, pick up the 5 pound weight (Photo 17) hold the weight in both hands, in your drinking position (Photo 18). Finish by hinging from your hips, while letting your arms drop down with gravity from the five-pound weight (Photo 19). When you do this, move your feet to establish balance, while you keep the club contact point on your head.

GOLF POSTURE TRAINING

Photos 18 and 19 are your Posture Training photos. Once you have completed your posture, stay in this position for a couple seconds and then move back to the drinking position (Photo 18) and Repeat.

In order to get sufficient feel, repeat the process 5 to 10 times.

CLUB, WEIGHT and ROUTINE

Training with the driver and five-pound weight is important for acquiring the body feel of a good posture, but you’ll need to transfer this feel to the golf club with your routine, to achieve complete feel of good posture while you set up to the ball. In order to do this, you will need a pair of either 1-1/2 pound or 2-1/2 pound ankle weights.

First, put the ankle weights on both wrists. Then, take your club and begin in your standing, drinking position with the clubhead approximately eye level (Photo 20). Next, step and bow to the ball with focus on hinging from your hips (Photo 21), while allowing the ankle weights to assist with the natural dropping of the arms. Finish by completing your stance (Photo 22). Practice this without the club on your spine and then eventually without the ankle weights after you have achieved the feel of good posture.

Chris Johnston, PGA is the Senior Instructor at Twin Brook Golf Academy in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. He has also been a ‘master innovator’ of training tools for over 30 years with over 200 built throughout his teaching career.

Dale Shankland has been a PGA Golf Professional for over 30 years and was Instructional Editor for Golf magazine from 1972 to 1977. He also wrote Johnny Miller’s, Pure Golf, along with The Stroke Savers Handbook by his brother Craig Shankland, PGA

Contrary to dysfunctional (albeit entertaining) “Tin Cup” mentality, when things start going sour you don’t need to practice with nine different swing aids hanging from various parts of your body. In fact, most swing aids – especially ones that require clips, carabiners, belts, engines, or dangling apparati of any kind – will likely only confuse you and make matters worse. (However, if your goal is to provide some laughter and an entertaining sideshow to everyone on the range, by all means, get a few rolls of duct tape and get at ’er.) Most golf instructors would agree: the simplest swing drills that are typically the most effective. Introduce too many moving parts — too many nuts, bolts, screws and straps – and you’re bound to go bonkers.

Interestingly, one of the best swing aids is something every driving range has thousands of. Golf balls. Besides their most obvious use (if you’re unsure, grab a couple pops, watch Tin Cup, and call your friendly neighborhood golf pro in the morning), golf balls can be utilized to stop a variety of swing faults. Here are a few of my favorite drills (using golf balls) that can help.

Trail Foot Anchor

If you struggle with a lateral slide or sway (rolling over and getting weight on the outside of the trail foot at the top of the backswing – Photo 1), this drill can work wonders. I’ve used it to help students stabilize their trail side at the top of the swing and get into a better position behind the golf ball (Photo 2). Simply place three golf balls under the outside of the trail foot (right foot for right-handers – Photo 3) and start hitting half shots, working your way up to three-quarter and full shots as you get used to your new “anchor.” This drill will help stabilize your right side at the top of the swing and eliminate the dreaded slide by keeping the weight on the inside of the trail foot. It will also shorten your backswing (a good thing), and facilitate much more efficient use of the lower body.

Interestingly, golfers who slide laterally on the takeaway often develop a reverse pivot (sometimes called a “death move”). And this drill can also help you make a good turn to achieve the proper – and much more powerful! — upper body position behind the golf ball.

Standing on Golf Balls

Unnecessary motion — sliding, lifting, altering the spine angle, etc. — is the downfall of the average recreational player who experiences inconsistent contact. If you struggle with poor balance and way too many moving parts in your swing (especially altering the spine angle, as in Photo 4), try hitting half and three-quarter shots while standing on golf balls (Photo 5). I guarantee you will be forced to keep your body quieter as swing.

Hitting golf shots while standing on golf balls will also help you develop good knee flex, hip flex, and a consistent spine angle throughout your swing (Photos 6 and 7). You won’t be able to make full swings with a full weight transfer and finish. No worries. The point is to keep yourself in balance and to eliminate “extra” motion that will wreak havoc on your ball striking. If you can hit 10 solid shots in a row with this drill you pass with flying colors.

Three-Ball Drill

Achieving the proper path and plane is the ultimate goal for any student of the game. And this simple three-ball drill is as simple and easy as it gets. Simply place three golf balls in a row, approximately two inches apart, and swing at the middle ball (Photo 8). The goal is to only contact the middle ball (Photo 9). If your path is too much from the inside (a common fault of players who develop a hook) you’ll also strike the inside ball. If your path is too much from the outside, your tendency is to come too much from the outside (a common fault of slicers), and you’ll risk hitting the outside ball. This easy drill will help you develop a strong swing path — and a better swing plane — that will have you hitting it straighter and more solid in no time.

Bocce (With Clubs)

The ancient Italian lawn bowling game of bocce can be played equally well with golf balls and clubs. Not only does it make practicing social and fun, but it mimics the pressure-filled moments you encounter during every round. I’ve been playing this game with friends and students for years and it never gets old. (Perhaps that’s why it’s been around for hundreds of years!). And it can be played equally well on the practice putting green or with wedges in the short game area.

The premise of the game is simple. Simply putt out (or pitch out) “the jack” (the target ball that you take turns hitting towards) and alternately shoot for it. The traditional game is played with each team (two or four players) getting four balls each (each team should play different colored golf balls) that are played to the jack on each “round.” Only the closest team scores (Photo 10 – white is positioned to score one point and can add another if he/she putts it inside the nearest yellow ball. The bright yellow ball is the jack). The first team to 20 points (or whatever number you choose) wins the game. Regardless of the outcome, any weaknesses in your short game will be exposed!

Andrew Penner is a golf writer, photographer, and CPGA Teaching Professional at McKenzie Meadows GC in Calgary, Alberta.