Faults And Fixes

7 Faults Most Amateurs Make

Editor’s Note: This story was updated May 10, 2017

While every golf swing is unique in its own way, there are certain fundamentals that all good players share, across all parts of the game, and if you want to join them, you need to work on the common problems that hold you back — I call them 7 Faults Most Amateurs Make. For the following series of tips I’ll concentrate on these bedrock tenets and have you playing your best.

1. Poor Balance? Stick Your Finish

Here’s something to look for the next time you watch a professional golf tournament: Notice how, on great shots, the pros hold their finish and how, on bad shots, they don’t. Why’s this worth noting? Because, all too often, amateurs swing as if, once they hit the ball, nothing afterward matters. Just the opposite is true.

Whether you’re on the range or on the course, I want you to swing fully into your finish. If you find yourself falling backward, then you’ve pulled the golf club through with your shoulders and hips rather than starting your swing with your lead leg and then swinging your arms. If you fall forward on your toes or start to walk after you’ve finished your swing, then your downswing started with your shoulders and you came over the top.

I tell my students to feel their swing from start to finish, and by finish, I mean to hold their finish. This keeps them focused through the ball versus checking out before the hit.

My Favorite Tips And Drills

Just because the golf season is near a close, there’s still plenty of work to do if you want to keep your swing fresh and up to par for the next golf season. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to grind out in the cold all winter (Arizona and Palm Springs are great places to be in January, by the way), but with a handful of quick tips and drills that I show here, staying in top form this off-season ought to be a lot easier and more fun. And for those of you blessed with the time and resources to play golf all year long, let these next few pages serve as a blueprint for playing your best golf now, and into the next playing season.

CLAP YOUR HANDS
One of my favorite drills for perfecting the impact position is to do what I call the clap your hands drill. What this drill does is help you get a sense of what it means to stack your left side at impact and make solid contact into the golf ball.

To get started, address the ball as you normally would, only don’t use a club this time. From here, go ahead and simulate a big backswing, but when you do it, keep your left arm in the same position from start to finish, which ought to be pointing at the golf ball.

Finish the simulated backswing, then on the forwardswing, let your right arm come down and through and actually clap your left hand. When this happens, your body should be situated just as mine is in the photo, with your left arm stacked over your left leg, the hips open and the shoulders square to the target.

If you practice this drill often enough, you’ll not only ingrain the proper impact sensation, but also prevent your shoulders from spinning out of position and taking your eyes off the strike with the ball.

PUSH IT AWAY
Hitting solid golf shots requires you to make sure you do two things correctly: Swing with a full extension of the arms and make a fluid, steady rotation of the body through impact. If you can master those two key fundamentals, all the other fundamentals such as grip, posture and path will become a lot easier to master. Among my favorite drills to do just that is the push drill.

Simple as can be, the push drill can do wonders for your ballstriking. To accomplish this, set up over a golf ball in your impact position, with the hips open and the shoulders square to the target. Then, fling the ball toward the target with a smooth release of your right side, and make sure your arms are extending through to a full finish.

As you do this, try to actually lift the ball with a mid- to high-lofted iron and fling the ball up and away toward the target. Don’t feel as though your direction and how far the ball goes matters; rather, practice making a fuller extension of the arms at impact, while at the same time, rotating your hips open through the swing.

Once you do this drill a few times, you’ll ingrain a better impact position and start hitting better shots. Just remember, this isn’t a drill to get you to hold the clubface square through the shot. It’s about the arms extending while they and your body are rotating. In the photo to the left, I’ve hit a solid golf shot with a perfectly square face, but what the photo doesn’t show is that I’m also in the process of closing that clubface through impact as my body rotates through the shot.

ONE-HANDED BUNKER DRILL
Hitting crisp bunker shots is actually a lot easier than you may think. In fact, I often see my students overcomplicate their bunker shots, thus making them more difficult, and in many cases, they struggle with simply removing the ball from the sand.

In most short-game shots, you usually want to remain fairly quiet with the right hand, but not so in the sand. Learning to spank the sand with this right-hand-only drill will give you the proper feeling of aggressively releasing the right wrist through the shot, which gives the shot more height and spin. This also gives you the proper sensation of taking a shallow cut of sand, with the bounce of the club or trailing edge. Most people try to play sand shots as they would play normal short-game shots, with the hands forward through the shot. This makes the club dig into the sand and produces only low shots with no spin.

So go ahead and hit a few bunker shots with just your right hand. I’ll bet you’ll see better results in no time.

TOO FAR INSIDE!

TOO FAR OVER THE TOP

MASTER THE LOOP
Despite what you may have been told, the golf swing is not a straight-back-and-straight-down-the-line motion. Because you swing in a circle, you have to swing the club on one side of the target line on both the backswing and in the followthrough. Ideally, the goal is to swing slightly inside the target line on the backswing, and again inside the line on the forwardswing. But that’s not always the easiest thing to do. Instead, you can actually loop your swing to better help you square the clubface at impact. Only thing is, most amateurs loop their swing in the opposite way from how they should. They tend to take the club back too far to the inside, which then leads to an over-the-top downswing and all sorts of ugly shots.

OVER THE BALL!

SLOT FROM INSIDE

BY LOOPING IT RIGHT
To practice taking the club back correctly, try what I’m doing here. Situate one ball a couple feet back and just inside the target line (which is the orange stick you see). As you take the club back, swing the club over, not inside, that back ball. As you do this, you’ll not only develop a wider swing arc, but also be more prone to start your downswing with a rotation and weight shift of the body, as opposed to driving your upper body first and coming over the top and hitting pull hooks, big slices and so on. Try this drill any time you feel as though you’re coming over the top.

TRIPLE-HIT DRIL
Most people buy into the myth that consistency in golf is gained by being still. That’s why you hear so many people preaching keep your head down, eye on the ball, don’t look up until the ball is long gone. But consistent golf is more about learning the proper motion, with good rhythm–something that everyone does with their practice swing, but rarely on their ball swing.

As you’d guess, however, having a smooth, effortless swing actually takes quite a bit of effort. The body has to swing in a fluid sequence with con-stant motion. To practice developing a smoother rhythm and tempo (not to mention more power), try the triple-hit drill. It’s simple: Set down three balls in a row. Then, place a middle iron in front (not behind) the first ball. From this position, swing up to the finish. From there, take the club all the way back and up to a half or three-quarter swing, and then swing down into the golf ball.

After you hit the first ball, you should be in the same position in which you started. Then, in a continuous motion, step closer to the next ball and repeat until you’ve hit all three golf balls.

With this drill, the goal isn’t to hit all three balls perfectly, or to do it as fast you can. Rather, what you want to do is groove a more rhythmic swing and a more balanced tempo.

GRIP HIGH FOR LOOSE CHIPS
When hitting chip shots around the green, the worst thing you can do is have a grip that’s too tense and rigid. Instead, try this: Grip the club with the butt end of the grip in the palm of your upper (left) hand. Make a normal grip with your lower hand, and let the club swing in a natural, pendulum-like motion. By gripping in the palm, you’ll get a better sense of activating the wrists in the shot, which despite what you may have learned, isn’t a bad thing when it comes to chipping. The key is to use your wrists properly, and to not forget to rotate the body through the shot. In the lower photos of the above sequence, you can see that although my wrists remained supple, my left arm and the shaft are in perfect alignment with one another through impact and into the finish.

GRIP IN PALM

LOOSE

I couldn’t have done this without some body rotation and smooth acceleration through the hit.

SLIDE THE COIN
Most mis-hit putts are missed because the putter is lifted up too soon, and the putterhead strikes the ball on the top half of the ball. To stop this once and for all, take a coin (nickels work best) and practice sliding it across the green, carpet or even on a hard floor. By doing this, you’re forcing yourself to keep the putterhead level with the golf ball, but at the same time, you’re just missing the ground as you make your stroke. Give it a try, and I’ll bet you miss the coin on your first and maybe your second try. But in no time, you’ll be draining more short and long putts.

HOLD THE COIN
Want another coin tip? This time, place a coin (I’m using a dime this time because it’s the smallest) on the flange of your putter. Then, go ahead and rehearse a series of putting strokes without dropping the coin. Because it’s there, you’re going to be much more inclined to swing in a smoother, more controlled and more level fashion.

Once you get really good at practice strokes using this technique, try hitting a few actual putts, as well. In addition, this will help you smoothen the transition your putter makes from backswing to forwardswing and keep those jabby, yippy strokes at bay.

SEE THE COIN
The last great drill using a coin is to practice a few putts with the ball positioned directly on top of a coin (again, a dime is good here, but so is a small ball marker). Why, you ask? The goal here is to keep the head and eyes fixated over one spot. By doing that, you’re more likely to swing the putter in the intended direction. If your head moves, it’s likely your path will too. So stick with this drill, and hit a few five-foot putts with the ball on top of your coin, and make sure you see the coin after you make contact with the ball. Keep that head steady and see the coin, and I know you’ll soon see better results and make more putts!

Zachary Allen, PGA, teaches at DeBell Golf Club in Burbank, Calif. Visit zachallengolf.com for more info.

Photo location courtesy of Valencia Country Club in Valencia, California.

Power Sports

KICK It

GOLF, BY ITS very nature, is like a variety of sports. As in other sports where you’re required to kick, throw, hurl or hit an object, in golf, we use a rotational motion that’s leveraged against the ground, which produces a powerful circular, free-flowing swing.

Let’s look at a placekicker, for example. As the kicker steps into the kick, he’s pushing into the ground with his left leg, which allows for his right leg to swing with powerful circular force through the football. In golf, we do the same thing, only our whole left side is planted into the ground as the club whips through the hitting zone.

Furthermore, a good kicker knows that the secret to more accurate and powerful kicks is to kick out to the right goalpost and draw the ball back in. It’s the same in golf! Better and longer shots are the result of a slight inside-out swing path. Swinging inside-out opens up the body and results in a wider, more powerful free-flowing swing.

HURL It

LIKE OTHER SPORTS, golf builds up power through body coil. As with a discus throw, where the body, from the knees to the shoulder, first coils away and around, the golf swing also coils.

As the body coils away from the target, the lower body stops coiling at some point. It’s at this point where true power is formed. The more you can turn your upper body after your lower body has maxed out, the greater your torque and the faster your body will enable your arms and hands to whirl the club around and through the hitting zone.

When that happens, the key is to uncoil by first rotating the lower body toward the target and by making an arc as wide as possible with the arms and clubhead out toward the right of the target–just like the kicker swung his leg out to the right, hooking the ball through the goalposts. The wider the arc, the more centrifugal force and the more power you’ll leverage into the ball!

Check out the similarities in both swings. Pay particular attention to the body position at the top and near my release/impact position. They’re practically identical. My hips have cleared first, allowing my upper body to follow, letting my arms swing through the release/hit zone. If I didn’t rotate enough on the backswing, or if I stopped rotating through the ball on the forwardswing, I’d lose not only power, I’d lose accuracy and consistency.

HIT It

How the wrists function through the hit is critical if you want more power. If the wrists don’t hinge/unhinge, you can’t get that extra whip and you’ll have to rely too much on brute strength to hit the ball any sort of distance.

If I were to hit this golf ball with a bat from a high tee, I’d make sure at impact that my hands weren’t hinged and the bat was fully released through the shot. In golf, too, I want my arms extended toward the ball and my head slightly behind it as I focus on swinging through the ball, not at it. Just like a soccer kick, in golf the left side opens up and faces the target, allowing the arms to swing in a circular motion through the ball. Like baseball, I want the back of my glove facing the target at impact, my arms extended and my head slightly behind the ball.

COIL

UNCOIL

MAKE A FULL RELEASE

FINISH ONE LEFT SIDE

Once you have the right grip and hinging motion, you need to apply it to your golf swing. In the sequence above, I could unhinge my hands properly, mainly because I kept rotating through the shot! How and when you hinge/unhinge your wrists depends on how well you rotate toward and through the target. The key is for the hands and club to swing out and around your body in a circle so you finish on your left side.

Hammer Down

How should the hands hinge? Consider using a mini-sledgehammer or mallet and you’ll see what I mean. The most natural and strongest way for the wrists to hinge is straight up and down (as in the photos below). Any hinging to the side will place excess strain on my hands, restricting my hinge and, in some cases, may even cause injury. Instead, if I hinge correctly, the wrists can bend freely, and I can hit the ball with more power. Experiment with whatever grip position helps you hinge the club in this direction with the most ease. Once you find the right grip, you’ll have a better chance of hitting longer shots.

CIRCLE It

The golf swing is meant to be a circle! All of the aforementioned motions, from leveraging against the ground to rotating the body and hinging the wrists, correlate to a circular swing of the golf club. As you can see by the ribbon below, all the parts of the swing come together so the clubhead can travel on a simple circle. There’s no up and down or backward and forward. Just a circle!

The next time you practice, remember the key goal isn’t to hit the ball using brute force. Instead, concentrate on the overall goal, which is to get the club swinging in a circle. You’ll find that having this circular swing thought will keep you from swaying back and forth and coming over the top or even making a reverse pivot. Stay in your circle, and you’ll see better results!

Swing The Circle

If you really want to get serious about what it means to swing the circle, don’t miss Wally Armstrong’s brand-new Swing the Circle DVD, available at swingthecircle.com. In it, Wally explains the circle from the inside out, as well as how to turn any swing into a circular one for longer, straighter and more consistent golf shots. In addition, the Swing the Circle DVD comes with Wally’s own Circle Build Ball training aid, designed to help golfers better feel the sensation of swinging in a circle with a smooth, rhythmic tempo. For more, visit swingthecircle.com.

A lifetime PGA Tour member, Wally Armstrong has competed in more than 300 PGA Tour events, including numerous major championships, and is recognized as one of the game’s most creative teachers.

Power Tips & Drills

1. Four-Step Drill. At the top of your swing, if your body doesn’t rotate properly so that your weight and balance are too much on your left side, (so that your body resembles a C), you’ll not only lose a lot of power, but also slice or pull your shots. Rather than making this so-called reverse pivot, I tell my students to make sure that their left shoulder is over the inside of their right knee at the top of their swings.

If you struggle with shifting your weight, try the four-step drill I learned from Jim Flick. Do it slowly, making each step separate.

First, set up as usual. Then hinge the club up with your wrists and set it on your right shoulder, while keeping your arms relaxed and staying in your posture. Then–and this is the key step–keep the club on your shoulder and turn back so your left shoulder is over and inside your right knee. After that, simply lift the club off your shoulder and you’ll be in a perfect position at the top of your swing. Now let your arms and the club swing down and let your body react to the swinging of the club. The club will fall to the inside of the target line, the clubface will square up, and you’ll draw the ball.

4
LEFT SHOULDER INSIDE RIGHT KNEE

PERFECT

2. The Right Setup. When a player swings across the ball from outside the target line to inside it, he slices (or pulls) the ball and loses major power. This swing-path breakdown happens for a number of reasons. I’m going to address one of its causes as I see in many golfers’ setups.

RIGHT ARM TOO HIGH

Consider the top photo. Notice that my right forearm is parallel and slightly lower than my left forearm. (In fact you only see one of my forearms.) When your right forearm gets too high at address and you see both forearms, you’ll either start your swing by taking the club outside the target line or twisting it too far inside. (See bottom photo.)

To get your right forearm in the proper parallel position, it has to be relaxed. Also consider strengthening your grip by rotating your right hand to the right so your right elbow points toward your right hip. When that happens, you’ll know that your arms are in a good setup position. From there, you can start off your swing on the correct path.

NO HIP TURN

RIGHT POCKET BACK

3. Right Pocket Back. When I watch golf on TV, I frequently hear the commentators remark about how much the players coil in their backswings. Look how far his shoulders turn, with very little hip turn! they say. While it’s fun to watch the game’s best players torque up, most golfers just don’t have the flexibility to swing like the pros do. Weekend Warriors don’t have the time to flex and stretch, and when they try to swing with a pro’s typical coil, virtually nothing turns because they’re so tight.

Unless you have the flexibility, time and talent, don’t try to swing and coil like a pro. Rather, get loaded in your backswing. Think, as you swing the club back, of what Greg Norman used to say: R.P.B., or right pocket back. Thinking of moving your right pocket back will allow your right hip to turn back and stay level. Norman was one of the game’s longest drivers. If that swing thought worked for him, I bet it’ll work for you. Remember, if you allow your hips to turn freely, your shoulders will turn with them.

FROM THE INSIDE

ALONG THE TARGET LINE

4. From The Inside. One of the driver swing’s most difficult parts is the transition and downswing. Since the driver is the lightest club and we’re trying to hit it the farthest, folks tend to try and power the ball with their body instead of using speed. But when you try to power the ball you tend to overuse your body, especially your shoulders. In the above photos, I’ve placed an alignment stick just outside the tee, pointing it directly down the target line. Now here’s where many of my students get things wrong. The goal isn’t to swing along the target line. Instead, you actually want to make contact with the ball via swinging from inside the target line. Because we swing in a circle that’s on a tilt, swinging directly along the target line will require far too much manipulation of the hands and body, resulting in all sorts of bad positioning (above, right photo). So what to do? Swing every club from inside the target line. You’ll see it’s much easier than swinging down the target line.

5. Gate Drill. As I mentioned earlier, swinging from outside the target line to inside it produces a glancing slice blow and a major power loss. If you slice it a lot and don’t get enough power, try my gate drill.

Take either four golf balls or four tees and arrange them like you see in the photo. Put two balls on the far side of the ball you’re addressing (so one is even with your ball and one is about two inches behind it) and two on its near side (so one is even with the ball and the other is two inches in front of it).

With an obstacle on the near side, the club must travel from the inside of the target line and outside it through the shot. Many times, people try to cheat doing this drill by pulling the club in closer at impact to avoid the outside golf balls. If you try to cheat, you’ll hit the inside balls. Having all four golf balls gets you to swing on the proper path. After you’re able to successfully complete the gate drill with some practice swings, hit some shots. The great thing about this drill is that it gives you instant feedback. Hit the gate and you know you’re off track.

Another way to check your progress is to make a slow swing and stop at impact. If your clubface is square at impact, the toe and heel of the club should be even with the two balls in the middle.

TENSION

6. Hinge Your Wrists. Wrist hinge is one of the golf swing’s biggest power sources. If you’re able to keep the correct grip pressure and hinge the club in the backswing, then you’re using one of the key levers in your golf swing.

Think about hitting a nail with a hammer–do you just move your arm or does your wrist hinge, too? (Which adds a snap and some speed?) I tell my students to get their wrists hinging pretty early in their swings, so when their arms are parallel to the ground in their backswing, their club points to the sky and forms a 90_¡ angle with their left arm (see photo). Don’t tighten up like you see me doing in the small photo. Keep your wrist sockets relaxed so the club can hinge freely. Again, feeling it happen early in your swing is fine. As your arms swing back to start your swing, feel as if your left wrist is pushing and your right wrist pulling to help get the club to hinge properly.

7. Avoid The Changeup. When driving, your goal is to sync your body, arms and club so they produce the most speed. To do this, your head should be slightly behind the ball at impact. When golfers try to hit it hard, however, they often force their swings and get out of position. Their body moves too far forward and they lose power.

To stay in sync, consider this baseball analogy: Pitchers throw changeups so the batter swings out in front of the pitch. This sacrifices the batter’s leverage and power. If you apply that lesson to golf, you realize that you don’t want to get out in front of it. You want to stay back and let the clubhead swing past you and into the followthrough.

HEELS UP!

If you feel like your swing is off-balance or that your body is getting too far out in front of the ball at impact, try lifting your left heel off the ground at address. Then swing, and keep the heel up throughout the swing, not letting it touch the ground. If you get too far forward in the downswing during this drill, your heel will touch the ground. This helps keep your weight from transitioning too far forward in the downswing. Swing easy at first, then, staying in balance, feel that the club swings past your body and that its speed takes you to your followthrough.

8. Power Release. To generate power, you have to practice releasing the club. The first way to do that is to sit in a chair that has no armrests so your back is flush with the chair back. Then, holding the club at eye level, make some swings, feel your arms rotate over and release correctly through the swing. Many times when we swing a driver, we try to overuse our body and forget that it’s the clubhead that actually hits the ball. Sitting in the chair forces you to swing your arms and allows them to rotate through impact. This release will square up the face at impact.

After you’ve tried this drill, stand up and make a baseball swing, feeling the same concept as above. When you’re standing vertical and swinging parallel to the ground, it’s much easier to let your arms roll over and release. As you make these swings, make sure to keep your arms relaxed. Try to feel the weight of the clubhead as you swing. (I’ve never seen anyone make the baseball swing and have the chicken wing on their followthrough.)

Then, lower the club and make some knee-high swings, keeping the club as parallel to the ground as you can, while allowing the club to release and your forearms to roll over. Now set the club down for a regular swing and continue to feel the club release and your forearms to roll over as you swing through the shot. Again, always try to feel the weight of the clubhead when you swing, so your forearms roll over through impact.

9. Power Setup. When I’m going for a few extra yards, there are a couple key setup fundamentals I incorporate to help reach that extra distance.

My stance is slightly wider than my shoulders. (I want to make sure I don’t overdo it and have poor balance.) I have just as much balance with a driver as I do with a 7-iron. Since my right hand is lower on the club than my left, my body must fit in the same way. That’s why my spine has a slight tilt back. My right shoulder is lower than my left shoulder, and my right hip is slightly lower than my left hip. This setup allows me to get into a great loaded position in my backswing. And the last and most important aspect of my setup is that my arms are relaxed so they can swing and generate speed with the clubhead. Remember this–tight muscles are slow muscles–so we want to be relaxed to generate maximum clubhead speed.

BONUS TIP: The driver is the biggest and longest club in our bag. You’d think that it would also be the heaviest, but it’s actually the lightest. If your grip pressure gets a little tight, it’s difficult to feel and swing the clubhead. (Remember, you want to have some speed in your swing.)

To get a feel for the clubhead and relaxed arms, turn your driver upside down, hold it just below the clubhead and make some swings while keeping your arms relaxed, so you can hear the club make a swooshing sound in the impact area. (Try holding it too tight and see if it makes a swoosh. Betcha it doesn’t.) Now hold the club normally. It should be much easier to feel the clubhead and should feel heavier than normal. That’s okay. It makes it very easy to feel the clubhead through the swing.

Now, try to make the swoosh sound again, and if you can, it means your arms are relaxed and you have the speed to hit some long drives.

10. Preturn! If you’re struggling to make a full turn, give yourself a little preturn that kick-starts your swing.

WEAK
NO COIL

Take a look at what I’m doing here. Ideally, I want to turn my shoulders 90_¡ and my hips 45_¡, so I can get loaded in the backswing and in the right position to swing the club to the inside of my target line. To swing from the inside, my body has to react to my arms in the backswing. It needs to turn and unwind. When it does this, there’s room for the club to drop to the inside. If it doesn’t, and I start the downswing with my arms and upper body, the club gets too upright, and I’ll cut across the ball and either slice or pull it.

Getting loaded at the top of the swing isn’t easy for a lot of golfers–it takes a lot of flexibility–but there’s a way to pull it off. Simply drop your right foot back about three or four inches at address. This allows your hips to turn a little more because they’ve already started a slight preturn at address. By making this preturn, you’ll have to do less to get your body turned and loaded. You’re not closing your stance, just moving the right foot to make it easier on your body to make a full turn.

Nick Kumpis, PGA, teaches golf in Southern California.

Fix Your Game

When you’re on the course and your game starts to fall apart, what should you do? Well, the most important thing is not to panic and think about all the things that you might be doing wrong. Instead, focus on what you should be doing to hit some great shots and regain your confidence.

The quickest way to improve is to go back to the game’s fundamentals so you can more easily repeat your swing. When things go bad, the problem can usually be found in the setup. This leads to one of the game’s four main forces (balance, pivot, path or clubface) getting out of whack.

The key with on-course fixes is to keep them simple. If you start thinking about too many things, you won’t be able to clarify in your mind a simple motion that can get you back on track. Also if you hit one bad shot, don’t suddenly try to fix everything. Remember, even Tour pros miss several shots each round. Start to put my quick fixes into play only if you’ve missed three or four shots in a row.

1 Fault: You Don’t Hit It Far
Most players try to turn as fast as they can at the start of the downswing. As a result, their upper bodies outrun their lower bodies. This destroys lag–one of the golf swing’s major power sources. Also this produces an outside-in downswing path with an open clubface. And, boy, that’s a double-whammy power loss!

Fix: Keep Your Buttons Back
To generate distance, you need to create lag in your downswing. The key here is to get your lower body firing, first by bracing your left leg, then by rotating your hips, all while keeping the buttons on the top of your shirt lagging behind your lower body. In fact, that’s exactly the image you should have on course: Keep the buttons on your golf shirt lagging behind your belt buckle until after impact.

Producing this lag allows you to establish a power base that starts in your lower body and works up the body and out the clubshaft. With your shirt buttons lagging behind your lower body, you’ve improved the chances of pivoting and given your hands a chance to slot the club on the correct downswing path. Now you have lag and power from both your lower body and hands.

2 Fault: You Slice It
Eighty percent of your ballfight’s direction is derived from your clubface’s alignment, and 20 percent from your club’s path. First, let’s focus on getting your clubface squared up at impact instead of being 4_¡ to 8_¡ open (and causing a weak slice). Note: A driver that’s 6_¡ open at impact results in a shot that’s 30-60 yards shorter. So let’s square up that clubface!

Fix: Rotate Your Hands
Educated hands control the clubface. Your left hand and wrist control the face, while your right hand, wrist and forearm control the club’s path.

First, draw three circles on your left-hand glove around the following knuckles: pinky, ring finger and index finger. In the impact zone, your left-pinky and ring-finger knuckles (the two red circles) should look down at the grass, while your left-index-finger knuckle (the green circle) should aim at the target. Your right hand and wrist is bent and its right index knuckle is facing the target. Once your hands are lined up, the clubface will match them and it’ll square up in the impact zone.

3 Fault: Poor Iron Contact
When your tempo gets quick, you move your upper body first in your downswing instead of your lower body. This affects both your club’s path and the bottom point of your swing arc, which needs to be in front of the ball. (Remember with your irons, we want to hit the ball first and take a divot or scuff mark second.)

When the bottom of your arc varies too much, the results are erratic shots that lack compression and control.

Fix: Ball First, Divot Second
Make a few slow practice swings to get your tempo and sequence working together. When you start your downswing, feel your weight moving into your left foot first. This helps your club bottom-out in front of the ball. Finish in balance.

Now, step up to the ball and imagine a tee in front of the ball. Picture yourself swinging with a descending path so your swing hits down through the ball and into the tee. This will help you get to your left side as you start your downswing. It also helps promote your hands being ahead of the clubhead at impact.

Once you start scuffing up the turf in front of the ball and finishing in balance, you’ll hit more solid iron shots.

TIGHT

4 Fault: You’re Shanking It
You’ve moved the clubhead (and hence your swing arc) closer to the ball. This brings the club’s hosel into play, and you end up shanking it.

Shanks are vicious circles. Once you shank one ball, you start tensing up in your setup. This tightens your lower body, and you swing the club back more with your upper body as your lower body gets off balance. Then you start moving more forward on the balls of your feet, your swing radius moves out, and the hosel remains in play, creating shank after shank. That’s no fun.

FREE

BALANCED

Fix: Free Your Right Hip
Simply set up in balance so that your weight is in your arches (balanced between the heel and balls of your feet). Now check your distance to the ball and make sure you’re not standing too close to it.

Set up balanced with no tension in your hands or hips, and make sure your right hip turns back freely in the backswing and swing to a balanced finish. Turning the right hip back freely creates space for your arms and the club to swing on the correct downswing path while keeping you in balance. The key is to not think about shanking it, or you’ll create more tension and destroy your motion and balance.

5 Fault: You Can’t Hit A Draw
You’ve been hitting high cuts all day–the face has been open at impact, creating loft and a weak cut–but now you need to hit a low draw.

Fix: Close The Clubface, Then Grip It
Aim a little right of your target and play the ball about an inch farther back in your stance to help promote a more inside-out swing path. Then turn your club’s toe toward where you want your ball to finish and regrip the club. With the face closed and the ball back, you can impart a lot of right-to-left spin while hitting a lower, drawing ballflight. Make sure your hands release the club instead of pulling and blocking through the impact zone.

BALANCED

6 Fault: You’re Topping It
Topping happens for a lot of reasons. Usually the bottom of your arc changes because you’re losing your balance, and your spine straightens to help you regain it.

TOO FORWARD

Fix: Start In Balance, Stay In Balance
In your setup, check your balance by lifting your heels first and then the balls of your feet without moving your knees to ensure you’re in balance. Then make a smooth practice swing and focus on cutting the grass/scuffing up the turf and finishing in balance. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to repeat this with the ball simply getting in the way. Note in the photos below how my impact positions are affected by my setup positions.

7 Fault: You Can’t Escape The Rough
When your ball is in the rough, you still make a sweeping swing. That gets the clubhead stuck in the taller grass. As a result, the club decelerates and twists, sending your shots short and to the left.

Fix: Hit Down With A Hybrid
To create a more descending strike instead of a sweeping stroke, set up with your weight favoring your left side. The ball should be slightly back in your stance, and your shoulders more level. Now make a 3/4 swing and make sure you stay on your left side and create a slightly steeper angle into the ball so that you have less grass to work through.

Remember to make a shorter backswing and feel that you’re into your left side as you hit down into the ball. The deeper the grass, the more lofted club you’ll need.

8 Fault: You Leave It In The Bunker
The more you try to help the ball out of the bunker, the more difficult those greenside shots become. Golfers tend to open up both their stances and clubfaces too much at setup. This creates too much loft. Then they flip the clubhead as they try to help the ball get up and out of the bunker. This results in the ball staying in the beach instead.

Fix: Square The Clubface
Take your normal stance, aiming at the target and slightly open the clubface so its scoring lines point at your front ankle. Set up to a spot in the sand roughly two inches behind the ball and simply make your standard pitch-shot swing. Focus on hitting the sand first. Don’t try to help the ball out; instead focus on hitting the sand with your hands ahead of the clubhead and throw the sand forward. The ball will go up and out on the green with the sand.

Hint: If you have a 10-yard bunker shot, make a 30-yard pitch-shot swing. The sand cushions the shot so it only travels about a third as far as your normal pitch-shot swing.

9 Fault: You Miss Short Putts
Correctly aiming your putter’s face is the most important component to making short putts, yet believe it or not, from six feet out, 80 percent of amateurs can’t do it. If you suffer from poor aim, you aren’t going to make most of those short ones.

Fix: Rehearse Behind The Ball
Pick a specific target line, then line up the name on your golf ball at your intermediate target (a depression, discoloration, etc.). Now set up two feet directly behind the ball and make your practice strokes while seeing the line. When you set up to the ball, never lose sight of the target line you want to start the ball on. Just make sure your putter matches the ball line/target line, and trust your stroke. Hold your finish, then look up to see the ball going into the cup.

If you were aiming wrong before, you had to manipulate your stroke. Once you improve your aim, your stroke will eventually change to match the target.

10 Fault: You Can’t Get Long Putts Close
When faced with a long putt, most players focus too much on their mechanics or try to get the ball rolling on the perfect line. But research shows us that most three-putts come from poor distance control in the lag putt.

After you’ve established your target line, focus more on speed instead of line.

Fix: Look At The Target
Once you’ve determined how much break your putt has and you’ve identified a target, it’s time to focus on your distance control. The best way to do this is to look at long putts from a side view to get a better feel for distance. When taking in the slopes of the green, your brain will remember exactly how far you should hit your putt.

Next, stand two feet behind the ball and make a couple practice strokes while looking at the target. With your eyes on the target, feel the putter swing back so the two become one. Now step up to the ball and repeat this same feeling.

On downhill or faster greens, look at a target short of the hole; on uphill or slow greens, you may need to focus on a target past the hole. The key is to get your eyes and putterhead working together in your practice swings.

PGA professional and Senior Instruction Editor Glenn Deck is regarded as one of the country’s top-100 teachers. He’s director of instruction at The Pelican Hill Golf Academy at The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast, California. pelicanhill.com.

Why You Can’t…

One of the great things about the game of golf is that, on occasion, all of us, even the highest handicapper, will hit a shot like a pro. It might be a well-struck drive, hitting a par-5 in two or holing out a bunker shot. Whatever the case, once in a while, the stars align, and for a brief moment, we pull off a Tour-quality shot.

Having been around Tour pros for many years, I can tell you that one thing is certain, however: There are things they consistently do on the golf course that you and I can’t. That’s why they’re the game’s greatest.

And yet, of course, you’re an expert in your respective field. Whether you’re a doctor, a chef or a real estate agent, in your work, you’re a Tour pro. There are things you know that most of us don’t.

Like you, Tour pros are good at their jobs, and there are shots they hit that we can’t always pull off when we play. That’s reality. But let’s look at what they do well and try to learn from them so we can improve our games.

…hit it 300 yards on a rope consistently

To crush it, you must use all your power sources (correct wrist action, a controlled arm swing and a full body pivot) effectively.

Start your downswing by uncoiling your lower body first so your club swings around your body on plane. This will help you hit it in the center of the clubface and help you square the club at impact.

…control your distance with all clubs

Tour pros know not only how far they hit each of their clubs, but also the distance gaps between them. The key, though, is how they fill the gaps between each club: by adjusting the length and speed of their swings. This ability to dial in shots helps Tour players make tons of birdies.

To shrink your distance gaps, work on making half and three-quarter swings. You’ll find that the distances the ball travels and the trajectory you have with different-length swings will help you control your distances much better.

…spin the ball on command

When you see the pros hit the ball past the flag and then zip it back to the pin, it doesn’t happen because they got lucky.

Tour pros are great at making perfect contact with a descending blow into the ball, plus they use the right equipment. To spin your shots like a pro, use a soft-covered ball, keep your grooves sharp and make solid contact. Hitting into perfect turf on great greens doesn’t hurt either.

…curve the ball on command

If you want to move the ball from right to left, I suggest you strengthen your grip slightly at setup (see photograph at right). Turn both hands to the right a few degrees. The Vs created by your thumbs and forefingers should now be pointing toward your right shoulder. This stronger grip will encourage you to rotate your hands and wrists over through impact (see photograph at left), which will place a draw or hook spin on the ball and make it curve from right to left (for a right-handed player). If you’re a lefty, do the opposite.

To hit the ball from left to right, weaken your grip slightly. Turn both hands a few degrees to the left so that the Vs are pointing more toward your chin (see photo at left). This helps your hands and wrists hold off the club and keep the face open at impact (see photo at right). As a result, the ball will move from left to right. Make sure both hands match! For a slice, they both should rotate to your left; for a draw, they both should rotate to the right. This will help your hands and wrists work together.

…get out of trouble like Houdini

In the photo at left, you can see I’m stymied. Should I start the ball way left and slice it? Should I hit it over the tree? Can I fit it through the gap between the branches?


*SLICE*

Here’s how to hit all three:
To slice it, take a less lofted club (this will help you curve it), weaken your grip slightly and aim safely to the left to get the ball started away from the trouble. Try to actually swing down from outside to inside the target line and make sure to hold the clubface open at impact. Here, the ball started left of the tree, and I curved it 30 yards.

To hit the high shot, play the ball a bit forward in your stance and keep your head well back of the ball at impact. Make sure you hit the turf and don’t flip your wrists at impact. In both photos, notice how low my right shoulder is. I’m definitely behind the ball, and that produces a high ballflight.


*HIGH LAUNCH*		*PUNCH THROUGH*

To punch the ball (here, through the gap between the rocks and the large branch), lean your weight slightly forward and commit to making a swing down into the turf to promote a low ballflight. Here I hit an 8-iron, played the ball slightly back in my stance and made sure the hands stayed in front of the clubhead as I struck the turf.

…lag it close from anywhere

Learning to lag putts close is a great way to save shots during your round. There’s a stat on Tour called 3 Putt Avoidance, and trust me, nobody wants to be near the bottom of it.

If you’re going to be a good distance putter, I believe you need to do two things very well. First, you need to be a good green reader. As you approach the green and survey your putt, look for high and low points in the green complex. Imagine where water would flow if it were dumped on the green. Remember, all greens are built for drainage, so look for those spots, and they’ll tell you where your ball is going.

The second (and most crucial element), however, is distance control. It doesn’t matter how well you read your putt if you leave it 15 feet short. In the photo at left, I’m faced with an uphill putt over a small tier. It also appears as if the ball is going to move a little from left to right. To make sure I get the ball to the hole on this uphill putt, I visualize a pin 10 feet past the hole so I can make sure I hit my putt with enough pace.

…make it all day from 3 to 6 feet

The key to making tons of short putts is to develop a consistent putting stroke. In my opinion, the simplest type of stroke should give you the best chance to make those so-called 3-6 foot knee knockers.

Here you can see I’m working with a training aid made by Momentus called the Inside Down the Line Putting Track to help me groove a stroke. You can use either this type of aid or any other tracks that help you get the feeling of what a good putting stroke should feel like.

One thing to remember while practicing either with or without a training aid: Tour pros work incredibly hard on these putts, and while it’s not as much fun as hitting drivers on the practice range, the time you put in on the green will pay big dividends on the course.

…chip it off the tightest lies

For many players, tight lies are the kiss of death. When the grass is really closely mown, you need to trust that your technique will give you perfect contact (remember you always want to hit the ball first, then the turf), or all sorts of things can happen: fat contact, skulled shots across the green or, worse yet, the chip yips. When we watch Tour pros play these shots, they don’t seem like that big a deal, but they are.

Don’t tell your greenskeeper (or mine), but a great way to gain confidence when playing off tight grass is to hit a couple chips off the practice green. To begin, first lay a club down a couple feet in front of your ball. The goal is to hit the ball over the club. If you aren’t confident with this shot, you’ll probably try to lift the ball, your wrists will flip, and the ball will skid into the club (see below right).


*YES*	NO

If your technique is good (see below left), however, you can make a confident stroke, pick the ball right off the green and control its trajectory, distance and spin. To do this, make a small swing with your weight leaned slightly forward before and throughout the swing. Wrist action is the enemy in this shot, so keep the left wrist flat at impact, and good contact will occur.

…Perform at the highest level in front of spectators

Part of a Tour pro’s job is to play in front of large crowds while television cameras and thousands (at times millions) are trained on his or her every move.

Although professionals do get nervous during tournaments, the consistency they have in their games (and the confidence that breeds) allows them to focus on the shot at hand and continue to pull off great shots. They’re no different than elite athletes in any other sport.

Great athletes are so mentally tough and focused that they can (most of the time) put all the outside elements aside and focus on their jobs.

Keep in mind, if you feel nervous while playing, that’s a good thing. It means you’re playing well, and the more often you play well, the easier it’ll get to play under pressure. Embrace your nervousness and let it help you play your best.

…average under 70 for a year on the world’s most difficult courses

Tour pros’ games are rarely satisfied with the state of their games. That’s one of the reasons why they work so hard at improving. The time they put into their games pays off too: They hit long, straight drives and controlled approach shots and have accurate short games. It’s easy to see why the world’s best players average under 70.

While you may not play as well as Tour players, take a close look at your game to identify areas that need the most work. Then set some goals as to how best to improve your game. With quality practice, you’re sure to get better.

Steve Dahlby, PGA, is the director of instruction at The Golf Club Scottsdale and Forest Highlands Golf Club. He has taught numerous Tour players.

Swing Myths and Simple Fixes

I’ve seen so many different approaches to golf instruction that some things have come full circle. For every instructor who says keep your head down, another says let it turn. For every pro who has told his or her students to keep their left arm straight, I’ve heard others (including me) argue that it’s better to allow your arm to naturally bend at the top of your swing. Contradictions are everywhere, especially when it comes to golf instruction.

The question is, who should you listen to? Who’s right, and who isn’t? Well, I’m here to explain some of what I consider to be the most common swing myths, many of which have been wrongfully taught for decades by both golf instructors and amateurs alike.

I’m willing to bet you’ve already heard of a few of these, which is why I’m presenting not only the myth but also the fix. Read on and get ready to eliminate swing myths from your golf game and get your game back on track.

Myth #1: Keep your head down

Who hasn’t heard of this one? Keeping your head down at any point during the golf swing is the last thing you want to do. By keeping your head down (see photo to the left), you stifle your upper body’s ability to rotate. A hindered rotation means my hands will get flippy; my weight will either shift too little, too late or not at all; and furthermore, any chance of solid impact will lessen significantly.

In addition to hurting my ability to hit solid shots, keeping your head down can actually hurt you, physically. It puts a tremendous amount of stress on your neck.

Let your head move

Here’s the right way to do it. See how more of my face is visible under my hat? My head is up, and my neck is in line with the rest of my spine. This enables me to rotate without my head getting in the way. Also, by keeping my head up (and my eyes on the ball, of course), I retain my spine angle better than I do with my head tucked down. Look at the difference in body rotation, arm extension and weight shift. All three factors are directly attributed to keeping my head out of the way.

Myth #2: Keep your left arm straight

A straight, rigid left arm not only can cause you to have a reverse pivot, but also can have the opposite affect on your right arm at impact. In the small photo below, notice what happens if you have too much strain in your left arm at the top–you’ll lose your ability to shift your weight properly, and in doing so, the right arm will straighten too soon on the downswing. So, if the left arm is too rigid, the right arm will do the same through the impact zone.

Let it bend

Hey, if you can keep your left arm straight without strain, go for it. It will add power. But if you can’t, it’s perfectly acceptable to allow for some bend in the elbow. By allowing the elbow to flex, the body will rotate more, and the release through the downswing will be much more fluid. In the photo below, I’ve lessened the tension and strain in my arms, which then allowed my body to rotate much more than it did with a rigid left arm.

Myth #3: Keep your left heel down

Lift your heel

Not everyone is as flexible as Tiger Woods. Scratch that. Nobody is as flexible as he is! If you aren’t flexible enough and you attempt to keep your left heel grounded as you swing, you’re likely priming yourself for a reverse pivot (as shown above). Instead, by allowing your left heel to raise (naturally, don’t force it), the body can shift its weight back and forward much more effectively. Nicklaus, Snead, Palmer, et al. They all lifted their left heel. Why shouldn’t you?

Myth #4: Tuck your right elbow

If you tuck your right elbow too much, here’s what will happen. First, your swing will likely be too flat at the top of your swing. If you stay tucked, your arms won’t be able to swing freely down and through, meaning your body will have to compensate and either cause you to overrotate or come over the top of the ball (as I’m showing here). And in case you didn’t know, coming over the top (from outside the target line to inside the target line) is never a good idea, as it produces all sorts of duffs, hooks and slices.

Let it fly!

Davis Love III has made quite the career by allowing his right elbow to fly. In other words, by allowing the right elbow to drift from the body, DL3 can make a huge upper-body turn and keep the clubshaft perfectly on plane. From the top of the swing, he then drops his arms down as he rotates his body through the golf ball.

In this sequence, I’m doing the same thing. By letting my elbow drift up and away from my side as I initiate my downswing, it becomes a lot easier to keep my club perfectly on plane. And check out my impact position in both swings. My body is much more rotated here and in a much more athletic position.

Myth #5: Listen for it to drop

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard other instructors tell their students that the key to successful putting is to keep your head down through the stroke. But before I digress, how many of you can shoot a basket while looking at the ball? Or shoot a target with a gun while staring at the gun?

Watch it go in!

In sports, where precise positioning is required, more often than not, the best way to accomplish your goal is to have the mind and eyes fixated on the target. Baseball players need to the see the baseball, primarily because it’s moving at great speeds. They also don’t have to fear hitting it too far, meaning they can swing at full throttle every time and not worry about a lengthy comebacker for par. Putting, like shooting a basketball, requires a deft touch that’s best executed with help from the eyes.

Now, back to my point. By keeping your head down, you stifle the body’s ability to rock the shoulders through the stroke, invariably causing the hands and arms to collapse before, during or even after impact.

A better way to ensure a smooth pendulum stroke is to allow the head to rotate with the putterhead through impact. This will foster a more natural forwardstroke and also help train the eyes to become more accustomed to seeing how far each putt rolls out. The eyes also can help correct any tendencies in your aiming as well, since you can see the effects of the roll.

Practice a few putts and allow your head to rotate (don’t lift your head; rather rotate it from side to side) and get a feel for how far the ball rolls and in what direction with strokes of various lengths. In no time, you’ll see and feel what it’s like to become a better putter.

Bobby Hinds, PGA, teaches at Woodley Lakes GC in Van Nuys, California. For more information, call (323) 363-7761.

Quick Tips

Power from within. We admit, this issue isn’t the first Golf Tips magazine-produced issue to feature the long-hitting Jamie Sadlowski. Needless to say, we just can’t get enough of this 21-year-old’s prodigious power. His wiry, athletic build and precision eye-hand coordination has proven to be a winner, having just captured back-to-back RE/MAX World Long Drive Championships (’08-’09).

Impressive, isn’t it? Sadlowski is able to harness an incredible amount of power, thanks to not only his strength, but also his ability to add a tremendous amount of width and wrist angle (lag) to his backswing. In the photo above, which shows the onset of his downswing, Sadlowski’s incredible wrist angle preserves a significant amount of power in his swing. When you can hold this angle, energy is stored that later can be released directly into the golf ball.

Also, Sadlowski’s wide stance not only helps create a wider swing, but also serves as a means to create a ton of torque between the upper and lower body in the backswing. The more angle between the upper body and lower body, otherwise known as the X-Factor, the more torque the body has, which then leads to a faster release.

No wonder he’s so long. He has tremendous lag in the hands and an insane amount of body torque.

This is what Sadlowski tries to avoid. Any collapse at the top of the swing will cause the swing arc to shrink, resulting in a big loss of power. It also makes holding the right spine angle more difficult.

By extending his left arm, Sadlowski ensures a long, wide backswing. Now, it may not look wide because of the ample wrist cock, but don’t be fooled. Sadlowski has taken a huge backswing–as wide as he can, actually.

Practice using two tees placed behind the ball to encourage more width (as Sadlowski does). It will help you take a longer and lower backswing. But, don’t forget the followthrough. As Sadlowski demonstrates, a full extension after contact is equally important.

Jamie Sadlowski is the reigning two-time World Long Drive Champion. To learn more, visit his website at jamiesadlowski.net.

Straighten Your Tee Shots

GRIP CONTROLS FACE
SLICE
A weak grip leads to an open face. Unless you’re trying to hit one on purpose, this grip is a surefire way to help you slice the ball. A weak grip leaves less room for the hands to rotate, which for a chronic hooker of the ball can help lessen the chance of an extreme right-to-left ballflight. Other factors to be ready for include a shorter but higher trajectory, since the hands will release sooner. And the more open the face, the more loft you’ll add at impact.

HOOK
A strong grip will help lessen a slice and help you hook the ball. A stronger grip, where the V of both hands point to the right of your shoulder, means the hands have more torque and stored energy. This engages the rotation of the hands forcefully, helping to square the clubface at impact and prevent slice-inducing spin. If you slice, try a stronger grip like this one and expect a lower, deeper ballflight. Aim accordingly to allow for a right-to-left flight and roll.

STRAIGHT
Versatile and useful, a neutral grip is the way to straighter tee shots. The key here is to rest the hands in an athletic but calm position on the golf club. By emulating the position above, you’ll not only hit straighter shots, but you can also make variations in your stance and ball position should you want to hit any sort of draw or fade. Experiment with the right grip for your game and, if all else fails, hone in on a neutral grip for better results.

FIND THE CORRECT PLANE

Plane Pains. Hitting solid shots works best when you’re on plane. Here I’m too upright, as evident by my left arm covering part of my face. Check out below for the rest.

A flat position at the top, where my arms are below my shoulders, will require my body to lift up and try to force the ball into the air on the downswing. (See below.)

With the proper plane at the top, with a flexed lower body and my left arm bisecting my shoulder, I’m poised to make an on-plane downswing without rerouting the club.

If you’re upright at the top of your backswing, you’ll likely end up staying there and hitting the ball standing straight up. As for straight shots? Not gonna happen.

Even though I was flat at top, my impact position was upright. I was forced to try to lift up and reroute my swing to make impact, causing all sorts of crooked shots.

By staying on plane, I can turn more freely and return the club to where it was at address. My body has rotated, but notice my head. It’s right where I started.

POINT THE GRIP AT THE BALL
Stay connected to the tee. One of the best ways to become a straight hitter is to learn how the club should swing through the ball and not at the ball in a smooth, centered motion. To do that, the body ought to rotate all the way through the shot, and the arms should extend into the finish. Without thinking too much about your body, try this simple tip. Take a few slow swings and clip a tee in the process. As your hands reach about chest high (as you see in the photo), see if the butt of the club is pointing directly at (or close to) the tee. If your arms collapse, or if you sway and slide during your swing, you won’t be able to point at the tee in the way I am. Practice this tip daily until you can point the grip at the tee without thinking about it, and you’ll likely see fast improvements in your ballstriking. Remember, the better your ballstriking, the straighter your shots.

Correct Position

X marks the spot. When your arms reach waist high, not only should the grip point at the tee, but the arms should cross and form an X, as I’m doing here. It’s proof of a solid extension through impact as well as full upper body turn. Speaking of which, if you don’t turn fully on the downswing, you can’t extend the arms properly. Notice how my arms are in front of my chest, even though it’s well after I’ve made contact with the ball. This is how you want to look at this point in the swing.

InCorrect Position

Not for drivers. There are some shots in golf where this follow through works–bump-and-runs, maybe even some bunker hits. But with the driver, if I don’t release my hands, I’ll lose a ton of consistency, not to mention power. See how I’m leaning away from the ball? That’s not a good sign either, both for my back and for producing solid tee shots. Allow your hands to release through the swing and keep your weight forward to improve your tee hits.

SETUP VS. IMPACT
QUICK TIP!
Get fit! Driver fitting is crucial, especially when it comes to shaft length and flex. Stiffer, shorter shafts tend to help golfers hit it straighter, as does more clubhead loft.

Setup vs. impact. You’ll learn a lot about the differences between setup vs. impact in this magazine, but here’s a drill you can incorporate to improve your fundamentals for both. Start with a solid impact position, and be sure your feet are shoulder-width apart, your arms are comfortable, your shoulders are slightly tilted to the left and your head is behind the golf ball. This is a steady, athletic position with which to start a swing, especially with a driver.

Pump your way to impact. From the setup, start by pumping your body into the impact position as I’ve done here. This means move your hands forward, turn your body toward the target and shift your weight to your left side. Once you get here, pump back to the setup. Repeat this drill again and again, paying attention to what stays the same at setup and impact, as well as what changes. A few pumps into it, you’ll gain a better feel for your whole swing.

IMPACT DRILL
QUICK TIP!
When practicing, sprinkle powder on the clubface to see where the ball is making contact. Also, experiment with different tee heights to help you find the hot zone of the club.

If you want to hit straight shots, you need to hit solid shots. With today’s 460cc drivers, the clubface has become enormous. As for the sweet spot, even though there’s more forgiveness around it, the sweet spot remains just that: a tiny spot in the center of the clubface. Better players know that hitting the sweet spot sometimes adds spin, which, depending on your attack angle, can make hitting straight shots even more difficult. To solve the problem, they hit in the area located above the sweet spot, known by some as the hot zone. The hot zone knocks rpms off the hit and sends the ball away on a higher trajectory for more penetrating and straighter shots. Give it a try and see if you can hit the hot zone. It doesn’t feel as solid, and you’ll lose some ballspeed, but the effect of higher less-spinning drives is worth the effort.

Through the gates. In case you haven’t noticed the red tees, try a few practice hits with tees situated like these. You’ll improve your ballstriking and be able to see if you’re hitting the toe (above) or heel (above right) at impact. If you find out that you’re a toe-hitter, your angle of attack is probably too flat, and/or you’re too far away from the ball. This tends to produce weak shots that drift or push to the right. If you find yourself catching the clubface more toward the heel, you could be too upright or standing too close to the ball.

WIDE STANCE = WIDE SWINGS
Add width to your swing for straighter shots. Usually, width is associated with adding power to your shots, but in reality, adding width can help you hit the ball straighter, as well. How so? First, the wider your stance is, the shorter your overall swing will be. The shorter the swing, the less likely something can go haywire and the straighter your shots will fly. Second, by adding width, you’re not only engaging your stronger muscles, but also activating the bigger muscles, which are much easier to control than the small muscles (such as the muscles in the forearms or hands). The more you effectively use your core and your legs, the less you have to manipulate the club with your smaller muscles, and hence, the straighter your shots will fly.

To practice, start as I have, with a wide stance. Initiate your backswing long and slow, and try to keep your hands as far from your body as possible, especially in the early phase of the swing. When you reach the top of your swing, which will come sooner than you think because of your wider stance, stay as wide as you can. As you enter into the downswing, remember to swing long and wide, and retain this type of width well into the finish.

You should feel as though the big muscles in your legs and core are your guides, and the arms and hands are mere extensions of the bigger muscles. Yes, you’ll build power, but our goal here is to get more accurate. Don’t feel as though you need to control the clubface. Instead, stay wide, stay smooth, and you’ll soon see straighter shots.

SET, HINGE, SWING
Set the club. Using this drill is a great way to become a more consistent ballstriker and hit straighter shots. (Use an old club and tape it up. You’ll see why below.) Start in the setup position as you normally would before you hit a ball.

Hinge the club up. Once you’ve set the club, hinge the club, using only your wrists, so it’s hovering about a foot above the ball. By doing this, you’re moving from a static position to a dynamic one. If you’ve done it right, you haven’t lifted your body. Only your hands should hinge.

Swing! From the hinged position, go ahead and swing! This drill is designed to teach you proper downswing fundamentals, as well as the importance of a good plane angle, focus and control. By using a taped-up club (to prevent unsightly marks, just in case), you’ll also lessen the tendency many golfers have to swing with too much force from the top of the swing.

Head back for more control. When it comes to hitting straighter shots, if your head isn’t in it, your shots won’t be either. But is it true that the head should move? Should I stay in the same spot through the swing? The reality is, yes, the head will move. But what direction and how much it should move are key. In the above sequence, notice how close the shaft that Karen is holding is to my head. As I initiate my backswing, my head drifts to my right, all the way up to the top of my backswing. Now, although it has drifted to the right, my head is still centered over my body, meaning my head drift was a product of my coil and weight shift to my right side. Now, as I drive into the downswing, notice my head. It barely moves! As I uncoil, my body rotates around my core, and my head stays back to ensure the needed ascending blow required to hit both straighter and longer drives. So to answer the question, the head can in fact move, and if it does, it ought to drift to the right. But on the downswing, my head stays behind the ball through impact and behind my forward leg so I make a full extension through the ball.

Try for yourself with a mirror, and use a piece of tape on the mirror to indicate your head position at address. As you watch your head move, let it drift back, and focus on keeping your head behind the ball through impact.

FINISH
Finish in perfect balance. Whether you finish with the club in a horizontal position or more of an angled position, the most important aspect of your finish is balance. Here, we’re demonstrating two different finishes. Derek’s finish represents a longer, more rounded finish, which befits his long swing perfectly. His head and belt buckle face the target, his weight is on his forward side, and his upper body is rotated past his lower side. As for Karen, she too is in an ideal position, especially for players with shorter, more upright swings. As in Derek’s, her weight is mostly on her forward leg, but because she has less turn in her swing, her finish has less rotation in it as well. The less rotation, the higher the hands.

Check your finish position and see if it matches your swing style and if you feel like you’re in a steady and balanced position. Once you develop a good finish pose, practice holding it a few extra seconds after you hit the ball. Also, don’t hesitate to think of a balanced finish before you hit your tee shot. That mental picture will help you relax and swing more smoothly.

Finish strong and in balance and you’ll see more fairways throughout the round.

DrillDown

1. ONE-HANDED DRIVER
For effortless power, your upper and lower bodies must resist one another and create whip or torque. To achieve this, keep your right knee flexed and turn against it.

1. Place your right hand on the club and your left hand on the outside of your back knee. Swing your right arm back and stop at the top. Feel the resistance of the left hand on the flexed back knee.

1. Release that tension and fire the right knee toward the target with the hand and club sweeping the tee through the finish.

2. Start by making
slow-motion backswings to feel how your weight stays in the middle of your feet, then slowly move to impact position and hold it. Feel the weight moving to the middle of your forward foot.

2. Once you’ve stayed balanced at a slow speed, increase the speed until you stay balanced throughout the swing. Don’t fall off!

2. SWING YOUR IRONS ON A 2X4
To make consistent contact with your irons, you have to make a balanced swing. Too often, players move too much weight toward their toes. This results in poor contact and loss of power. Swinging on a 2×4 will help you improve your balance.

3. Place two tees where you believe the putt will enter the cup, then stroke the putt along the imagined path. Repeat this until you trust your read. With trust, your stroke will be smooth and confident.

3. PUTT THROUGH A GATE
Too many golfers practice only mechanics when they do putting drills and forget that they need to practice with playing in mind.

Since you’ll rarely have a straight putt, try this gate drill to find the line in your putts. It will help you read not only greens and the break of your putt, but also that all-important spot where the ball enters the hole.

Rick Sessinghaus, PGA, is the director of instruction at Chevy Chase CC in Glendale, Calif., and the author of Golf: The Ultimate Mind Game. Known as Golf’s Mental Coach, Rick has coached players on all Tours.

To learn more, visit www.ricksessinghaus.com.

Rick’s Equip Tips
Improve Your Game With Equipment!

Wilson Smooth Driver
I play the new Wilson Staff Smooth driver. It was built with an 8_¡ head and a fairly stiff Matrix shaft to control my high fade. The Smooth is a beautiful, traditional-looking club that has helped me to gain distance; I also love the way it sounds and feels.

Wilson Pi7 Irons
I play the Wilson Pi7 irons. They have a great traditional look and are very forgiving on off-center hits. These are the same irons Padraig Harrington plays.

Wilson STAFF ZIP
I play the new Wilson Staff Zip golf ball. This is the softest, multilayer performance ball on the market at 56 compression. I get great distance off the tee, and it has unmatched feel on and around the greens.

For more information, visit www.wilsonstaff.com.