Instruction

Heat Up Your Game Inside And Out!

Although there are many different swings, there are only two kinds of golfers: those who live in climes that allow year-round golf and those who don’t. For those who must suffer through months of frost-covered greens, watching wedges and irons collect dust, we feel your pain. However, there’s no reason why you can’t use the between-season time to prep your game for when the gates of your home course reopen to the rites of spring. On the following pages, PGA professional Barry Goldstein gives his recipe for keeping your swing warm until the first thaw, with a series of innovative and effective indoor drills. A native New Yorker who has suffered through his fair share of blizzards and storms, Barry knows a thing or two about helping his students make the most of their time away from the game. Paired with our indoor instruction, former LPGA Tour player Debbie Steinbach, who teaches year-round in the desert Shangri-la of Palm Springs, Calif., offers up her own schedule of must-have full-swing and short-game drills. For those of you lucky to enjoy a winter playing season, Debbie’s tips will keep your game razor-sharp. Lastly, Senior Instruction Editor Brady Riggs breaks down the hows and whats of videotaping and analyzing your swing. Putting yourself on video is an excellent way of finding swing errors that may not necessarily show up in your ballflight. If you’re stuck indoors, a video lesson is a great way to keep your motion intact and, with a little work, make it even better.

Practicing your swing indoors can be more helpful than you think.

In fact, I believe you can improve more without a ball than with one. When you’re not actually hitting a golf ball, you’re less occupied by results. Rather, you become more in tune with what your body does, and if your body is moving correctly, the ball will take care of itself. So have a little faith and put the following drills to use over the next few months. Most of the exercises can be augmented by a heavy club, like the Matzie ASSIST or the Momentus, which are also good for building strength.

This winter, pick up a molded training grip at your local golf shop, and simply grip and regrip the handle, paying attention to how the correct grip feels and the orientation of your hands, fingers and palms. You can do this while watching TV, or, better yet, attach the grip to an old club and make practice swings. It’s an easy thing to do that will make a huge, positive difference in your swing.

Flaw Beater
Though it seems simple, this drill can keep three major swing flaws at bay.

During the off-season, I recommend that my students swing a heavy club three times a week. It’s a great way to keep your body loose and flexible, and to ingrain two important full-swing needs: dropping the club into the slot and finishing with a full release.

Warm up with 20 swings using your normal motion. Don’t stop at your finish and restart from address. Instead, keep the club moving back and through. You should feel how the momentum of the clubhead, not your body or hands, pulls the club into and through the hitting zone into your finish.

Now, grip the club with only your left arm. Place your right hand over your left bicep to ensure a complete, left-arm-only motion. As you move from the top into the downswing, concentrate on executing a lateral, forward shift of weight while allowing your left arm and hand to drop toward the ground. This will help ingrain the all-important Magic Move. As you move through the hitting zone into the followthrough, let that left arm extend. If your left arm isn’t extended postimpact, then it’s chicken-winged, and that spells tons of shotmaking misery.

Use the same setup for the right-arm-only swings. With your right-arm swings, focus on lengthening your right arm through impact and, as it swings past impact, try to shake hands with the target–that is, keep moving your right hand down the target line. At the finish, check that the butt of the club points at the target.

Hands On
All good golf swings feature a full release of the hands.

Grab a videocassette with your left hand, palm down, and make mock hip-high to hip-high swings. Focus on how your left hand rotates from palm down in the downswing to palm up in the forwardswing. Turning your left palm to the sky past impact will help you rotate your forearms properly and improve your extension.

A good way to feel your release and make it occur more naturally is to swing with a split-hand grip (again, a weighted club will only work to augment the key sensations). Set up in your standard address position and make your everyday swing. As you move through impact, you’ll find that with the split-hand grip, you must rotate your right arm and hand over their left-side counterparts in order to keep the club on-plane. You should also notice how the split-hand grip forces your weight forward on the downswing. After several split-hand swings, move back to a normal grip, but this time, swing with your feet together. Feet-together swings effectively take your lower body out of the equation and place more emphasis on the arms and, more importantly, the hands.

_ÊTrajectory Control
Exaggerate a specific feeling in order to make that feeling stick.

Golf is a game of feels. Therefore, it helps to sometimes exaggerate a specific feeling to make a change in your swing and, more importantly, make that change stick.

If your downswing plane is too steep and you’re hitting fades and slices, find a spot at your driving range that features a noticeable uphill lie. Practice hitting balls with the ball above your feet. This will force you to swing on a much flatter plane. A flatter swing plane will reduce your tendency to slice and help you to produce a right-to-left ballflight.

_ÊIf your swing plane is too flat, and you’re hitting draws or hooks, do just the opposite. Find a sloping lie with the ball below your feet and make your swings from there. When the ball lies below your feet, your swing will need to move on a more upright plane. Making your downswing plane more vertical will lessen the occurrences of deadly hooks.

Adjusting your swing plane isn’t an easy task, so take advantage of the lies at your driving range to exaggerate the feeling of the swing changes you wish to make. Once you can feel the change, it’ll be easier to swing from a level lie and maintain the adjustment.

Make An Impact
Among other benefits, swinging into an impact bag can help change–that is, improve–the timing of your release.

If you’re fading or slicing the ball, then you’re probably not releasing your hands quickly enough. Practice swinging into the bag so the clubhead strikes the impact bag with the toe portion of the club first. From this toed-in position, you’ll train your muscles to square up the clubface sooner. After 10 to 12 swings, hit a few practice balls and you’ll likely see a favorable change in trajectory.

If you’re hitting a lot of hooks, make impact with the heel portion of the clubhead. This will slow down your release action at impact and help you regain the feeling of what square is.

Pump Drill
An exercise that effectively helps to ingrain the proper downswing positions and build some power into your motion is called the Pump Drill. Assume your normal setup position and take the club up to the top of the swing. From there, slowly move the club to three-quarters down and then to a position that’s parallel to the ground. At that point, pump the club back up to the top. Move the club slowly to help you achieve the proper positions. Pump the club three times, then swing through to the finish. As you feel more confident that you’re in the right spots, you can speed up the pumps until you’re moving at your normal tempo. Make sure to keep your right hip back, away from the ball, and your right knee flexed. This is a great drill that helps you slot the club perfectly and deliver it on the correct, power-rich path.

Tear It Up
This power-enhancing drill teaches golfers that it’s okay to take a big divot. Taking a divot means you’re aggressive though the ball at impact and beyond. Therefore, when you practice, take power divots! Not only take a divot, but also throw in a good grunt, similar to what a tennis player emits when returning a backhand for the winning point.

Kids do this all the time when they hit balls on the range. They swing with wonderful and reckless abandon. More importantly, they swing. Rarely are they concerned with positions and angles. And, for the most part, kids don’t have a problem with acceleration. As a strong, healthy adult, why should you?

Line up 10 golf balls and hit each one with 100 percent effort. Make a grunt with each impact, and get used to taking a good, healthy power divot. If the ground is too firm and you’re afraid you’ll injure your wrists and hands, move over to the rough.

If you want to enhance your power, start by making a concerted effort to do so!

Use a mirror to check your finish fundamentals:
A good, balanced finish should have the right shoulder positioned so that it’s even or slightly ahead of the left foot.

A straight back not only promotes good balance, it’s also much easier on your body than a reverse C.

At the finish, the knees should be even, indicating that you’ve turned fully, with your belt buckle facing the target.

The right foot should be pulled up into the finish position by the rotation of the body in the release.

Speed Through

Many amateur golfers sacrifice power and distance because they become infatuated with swinging at the ball–not through it. They’re so intently focused on making solid contact that they become fixated with the point of impact.

Watch closely the next time you visit a driving range and you’ll see what I mean. The majority of amateurs lose speed at the bottom of the swing because they regard contact with the ball as an end to itself. They resort to making what I call a false finish–after losing the momentum of their swing at impact, they try to play catch up with body rotation and by having their knees touch.

Impact is an intermediate step to a golf swing; the completion point of the swing is a balanced followthrough with the body rotated toward the target. Anyone serious about trying to increase distance must train himself or herself to swing through the ball, not at it. As the popular saying goes, Let the ball get in the way.

That’s more than a golf adage, though. It’s sound advice. A solid swing should be one continuous motion, with the speed created on the backswing and enhanced by centrifugal force on the downswing finally reaching its peak immediately after impact, not at or before.

An important concept to understand when talking about increasing the speed of your swing is that distance is affected by an efficient transfer of energy, not solely from the creation of energy itself. This transfer of energy is similar to the motion of a whip. As you start the whip in motion, energy is created. This energy moves out from the handle (from which it was formed) out toward the tip, which soon moves much faster than did the handle when you started the whip in motion. The transfer of energy is so efficient and powerful that ultimately the tip breaks the sound barrier (which produces the crack.) The same thing happens in a fundamentally sound golf swing. Your hips begin the downswing and transfer energy to the shoulders, then to the hands and ultimately to the clubhead.

It makes sense, then, that the hips, shoulders, hands and clubhead reach their respective top speeds at different points in the downswing. Computer studies have proven that hip speed peaks out at about halfway through the downswing. Shoulder spin rate peaks out just as the clubhead reaches the impact zone. The hands achieve their maximum speed just prior to contact and the clubhead shortly thereafter. In other words, keep accelerating as the ball rockets off the clubface.

Senior Instruction Editor and two-time National Long Drive champion Art Sellinger is a member of the Pinnacle Distance Team. Art’s Power Guarantee training system are available by calling (817) 329-8262 or visiting www.artoflongdriving.com.

Tension-Free Driving

Driving the golf ball consistently can lower your scores and increase your enjoyment faster than any other area of the game. Likewise, nothing is more frustrating than having your driver go sour in the middle of a round. When it comes to driving, one of the most common problems for amateurs and pros alike is too much tension. Overly tense muscles not only rob you of distance, but also make accurate driving, and long driving for that matter, extremely difficult. Plus, tension saps your body of energy, making it that much more difficult to play your best. To help get your driver back on track when you need it most, try this quick tip for greater relaxation and better swings._Ê_Ê

Grip the club as hard as possible and take a few practice swings–consider this pressure a 10. Now, grip the club and swing hard with only the thumbs and forefingers of both hands–consider this pressure a one. Then, take your normal grip and concentrate on keeping the pressure at four or less. Once you’ve determined what the correct pressure feels like, make your only goal during the swing to concentrate on maintaining that exact grip pressure from setup to finish.

By concentrating solely on maintaining the correct grip pressure throughout your driver swing, you’ll not only alleviate overall body tension, but you should find you’re more able to swing freely without being encumbered by too many swing thoughts. In addition, you’ll be more aware of what’s going on with your body and your swing due to the lack of tightness in your hands and arms.

Four-Finger Drill
Make swings with the last three fingers on both hands off the grip. Swinging the driver with just your thumb and forefinger not only will alleviate tension, but also will help ingrain a feeling of effortlessness all the way through impact. Because you don’t have enough strength with a four-finger grip to manipulate the club, it forces you to swing simply by turning back and through using only your body turn and the force of gravity. After making a number of swings in this manner, you should find that this feeling carries over into your regular swing, improving both your tempo and timing.

PGA professional Todd Yoshitake is Director of Golf at Riviera C.C. in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Unlock The Magic

In golf, there are the haves and the have-nots. The haves are blessed with an uncanny ability to achieve the perfect plane through the impact zone, regardless of what occurred before it. Indeed, the ability to get it all right on the way down is a puzzle very few golfers have been able to solve.

The legendary teacher Harvey Penick believed the ability to recover was rooted in the Magic Move, in which the player’s weight should shift to the left side while bringing the right elbow back down to the body. This remarkable sequence of moves invariably presents itself in the swings of the game’s best ballstrikers.

Do you own this move? If so, you’re probably a pretty good player. If you don’t, follow along in this article and you’ll find the key to unlock the magic hidden in your swing.

Keys At The Top
The key to unlocking the magic is to transition from a wide backswing to a narrow downswing (slotting the club) and ultimately achieving a wide, powerful release. It all starts with a takeaway that establishes the critical wide elements at the top, most important of which is maintaining the width between the hands and right shoulder established at address.

Magic Move
The secret to Harvey Penick’s Magic Move is to transition from a wide top position to a narrow downswing. This slots the club and puts it on the perfect delivery plane. If you’re narrow at the top (left), that is, hands and arms too close to the right shoulder, you can’t get narrow on the downswing. You can only cast the club outward.

Narrow-Minded
A wide backswing not only allows you to achieve the Magic Move and unleash stored energy, it also guards against weak impact positions. If you fail to achieve width on the backswing, you’ll be forced to start your downswing with an outward motion. This will restrict your impact position and, more often than not, cause your clubhead to race ahead of the hands through the hitting zone.

Get-Wide Drills

Think Wide
In order to help you find the magic, think of your golf swing as a one-and-two motion. Your backswing is the one, your transition is the and and impact is the two. The and (your transition) is the magic, which is what’s missing from most amateurs’ swings. An easy way to build this and into your motion is to create a wide backswing.

A wide backswing enables you to transition into your downswing and strike the ball like magic. Practice the Brush The Ball Drill to help develop a wider backswing. As you brush your clubhead toward the second ball, refrain from lifting or picking the club off the ground. Your shoulders and your arms should work in sync to move the club in a low, brushing motion. A key element to brushing the clubhead is to keep the wrists or elbows from hinging during the first moments of the takeaway.

Brush The Ball
Place a second ball six inches behind your clubhead on the target line. Then, simply brush this second ball away to start your backswing. To do so, you’ll need to turn more with your shoulders and resist the temptation to pick up the club. One key is to keep your wrists from hinging (right) or your elbows from folding.

Maintaining Width
As you swing to the top, retaining width is an absolute must. As you complete your takeaway, brushing your clubhead away from the golf ball, stretch to the top of the backswing. In other words, use your shoulders to complete your turning motion so that the muscles on the left side of your torso (for a right-handed golfer) are taught and loaded. Now you’re wide.

Of course, the downswing is an up-and-down motion as much as it is an around motion. Therefore, as you turn your shoulders, your hands and arms should lift the club skyward. Be careful here. If you focus on simply lifting your club upward, you’ll lose width. The key is to maintain the width between your body and hands that you established at address throughout the backswing.

The Drop The Glove Drill is a fantastic exercise that helps you not only create width on your backswing, but ingrains the sensations that should help you retain that width all the way to the top of the swing. If you stretch to the top properly, the glove, placed under your right arm at address, will drop.

Drop The Glove
It’s crucial that you follow a wide takeaway with a wide backswing through to the top. A good exercise to ingrain the sensations of a wide backswing is the Drop The Glove drill. Place a glove under your right arm at setup. The key is to allow the glove to drop by maintaining width in your swing.

If your backswing is too narrow, the glove will stick.

Wide To Narrow To Wide
How does a wide backswing relate to creating the Magic Move? Good question. The answer: A wide backswing creates a narrow downswing! If your arms and hands are extended in a wide position at the top, they can move into a narrow position to start the downswing. Penick’s Magic Move is exactly that–moving from wide to narrow. Your hands and arms can’t drop into the slot position if they’re extended at the top. In fact, they can only do the opposite, that is, extend outward. This swing flaw is a huge no-no. It causes casting, an early release and all types of impact misery.

If you’re wide at the top, you can get narrow on the downswing. That’s magic. More importantly, when you go from wide to narrow in the transition, you can achieve a wide, powerful, full release of the club. Narrow backswings lead to wide downswings, which lead to narrow, weak and restricted impact positions.

Towel Drill
Another good drill to ingrain backswing width is to position a towel as shown (this represents your left arm). As you turn your shoulders to complete the backswing, use your right arm to keep the towel taut. The feel created is what you’re looking for: The right hand and arm work to extend your left arm.

Unlock The Magic
For the best results, think wide to narrow to wide. Create width in your backswing by brushing the club away from the ball without breaking your elbows or wrists. In my own practice and play, I envision a paintbrush at the end of my shaft, and try to lay a coat of paint on the grass behind the ball. I can’t stress how important it is to create width from the moment you set the club in motion. (The Towel Drill, right, is another good exercise to ingrain the key feels of a wide backswing.)

Your ultimate goal is to use this width to get narrow on the downswing and find the slot. If you can execute this Magic Move, you’ll not only hit shots with power and accuracy, but you’ll eliminate a good majority of your most damaging swing flaws. Poor impact, a lack of power, an early release (the clubhead racing ahead of the hands through impact), casting, topping the ball and many others are errors that result from transitioning from a narrow backswing to a wide downswing. Work on the key: widening your backswing. Only then will you be able to unlock the magic in your swing.

Sweep The Grass Drill
To create needed width in the backswing, it’s important to do so right from the beginning. Envision a paintbrush at the end of your shaft. In taking the club away, try to paint the grass behind the ball. It’s a great visual that really works.

The Model
Instruction model and PGA professional Tim Brown teaches at English Turn Golf & Country Club in New Orleans, La., home of the PGA Tour’s Compaq Classic.

PGA professional and Senior Instruction Editor Chuck Winstead is the Director of Instruction at the University Club in Baton Rouge, La., and English Turn Golf & Country Club in New Orleans.

Slice: Rights, Boomers And Flares

Golf Fact #1: There are millions of golfers who have never hit a hook, but there isn’t a single player alive who hasn’t at one time or another sliced the ball. Why? Think of it this way: In terms of golf survival, the mother of all musts is getting the ball into the air–it’s the first and by far the most important problem you must solve. And to get the ball airborne, many golfers feel the need to chop down on the ball with an open clubface and with a very steep approach. While this technique works well as in Houston, we have liftoff, the joy in the control room is short-lived because while steepness is your friend during liftoff, it’s your enemy during the rest of the flight, imparting too much sidespin on the golf ball.

So here’s the great paradox in golf: Imbedded in the cure of its most primordial problem (getting the ball airborne) is the virus that causes the slice (an open clubface). Accomplish the one and you’re automatically infected by the other. Now, the second great paradox: You’re aware of all this, but nonetheless can’t stop slicing. The reason why the slice is such a pesky foe is that there are three unique kinds of slices (plus their offspring), and the generic cures offered in most instruction articles don’t work because they’re written for The Slice, not the slice you have at a particular moment.

Since 90 percent of new golfers aim to the right, 90 percent of new golfers are forced to overspin the shoulders to pull the ball back to the target. Aim far enough to the right and the shoulders spin so violently that the clubface becomes trapped behind the body, causing it to remain open at impact. Thus, the ball shoots to the right of the target, then cuts even farther right–the Mini Right-To-Right. If the shoulders spin faster, the Mini turns into an Adult Right-To-Right with even worse consequences.

With the ball flying so far right, you adjust by opening your stance and aiming to the left of the target. Now, the ball starts way left and slices back toward the target–the Baby Boomer. Aiming more to the left to accommodate your Baby Boomer works until, in an effort to hit it too hard with the right side, you actually square the clubface to the path with an aggressive over-the-top move of the shoulders. The result is a pull way left of target. (In the family of slices, the pull is the first cousin to the slice.) To correct the pull, you introduce a chicken-winged left arm to open the face at impact. This results in an even bigger slice that finishes to the right of the target (the Adult Boomer). To fix this, you aim (open up) even more left and employ more chicken wing. This causes the mother of all Boomerangs, the Sonic Boomer, a ball that starts way left and exits right, melting your scores as it nestles somewhere near Topeka.

Sick of this score-wrecker, you listen to the advice of your playing buddies that you’re aiming way left, so you aim in the general direction of the target, but still employ your old friend the chicken wing. Aided by the open face at impact, the ball starts in the general direction of the target and then spins to the right–welcome to the Flare. Hit enough Flares and you’ll subconsciously open your stance to start it more left, causing a reintroduction of the Baby Boomer. And so the cycle goes.

I’ve seen thousands of golfers endure this endless loop of faux fixes and slice progressions. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. We’re about to embark on a Slice Eradication Program (S.E.P.) that I’m sure will help you get your ball flying more toward your targets. The S.E.P. involves: 1) recognizing that there’s more than one way to slice a golf ball; 2) identifying what slice you’re currently producing (see above); 3) learning the key anti-slice matchups; and finally, 4) grooving a no-slice swing.

Learn Anti-Slice Matchups
Before we attack ways to correct the type of slice with which you’re currently infected, it’s important to become aware of six Anti-Slice Matchups. These matchups are key to removing damaging sidespin from your ballflight regardless of the type of slice you typically produce. They’re the hallmarks of a consistently straight shot pattern.

1. Target And Clubface
Aim your clubface correctly so it’s pointing where you want the ball to start. Select an intermediate target, then use the vertical aiming lines that are a part of every club to get your clubface pointed in the right direction.
2. Body And Target Line
Arrange your body correctly, paying particular attention to your shoulders. In the swing, the arms follow the shoulders; if your shoulders are too open or closed at address, you’ll cut across the ball at impact.
3. Spine Angle And Shoulder Tilt
Since the shoulders work perpendicularly to the spine, how your spine is angled at address holds the key to what kind of slicer you are. If your spine is too upright, your shoulders will swing on too level a plane, trapping the club behind you so you have to come over the top and produce the Boomerang or, if you exaggerate enough, the Right-To-Right. If your posture is too bent over, the club will swing on too steep a plane, often causing the Flare.
4. Ball Position and Shoulder Position
A ball that’s played too far forward causes the shoulders to open; too far back creates closed shoulders. Use the ball position that will allow you to align your shoulders parallel left to your target line–it will vary according to your body build.
5. Grip And Clubface Position
The positioning of the hands on the grip must allow for either a flat or slightly bowed left wrist–stay away from the slice-causing cupped wrist. A neutral grip typically creates a flat left wrist (square face), a strong grip augments a bowed left wrist (shut face) and a weak grip too often creates a cupped left wrist (open face).
6. Foot Flare And Release
The front foot should be adjusted by experimenting with less flare. The amount of flare of the front foot controls the release of the clubface–the less flare, the sooner the front leg straightens, causing an earlier release by squaring the face more aggressively.

Groove A No-Slice Swing
The following anti-slice fixes apply only to the specific slice type for which they’re meant to cure. This illustrates the importance of recognizing the type of slice your swing typically produces–whether it’s the Flare, Right-To-Right or Boomerang. Once you define your slice, the journey is half over as the following fixes are quick and take just a few practice hours to ingrain.

Fixing The Right-To-Right
Curing the slice demands a counterintuitive approach. Basically, the cure isn’t what you think it should be. You have to do the opposite of what you think because the slice is a fooler–feel and real are different._Ê

To fix the Right-To-Right, your task is to start the ball left of target and let it fade back to target. Once that’s done, experiment deflaring your front foot until the ball begins to draw away from the target. Then, adjust your aim/alignment until the ball flies directly at the target as follows:

1. Aim slightly left of the target and align your body parallel left to the clubface line.
2. Move the ball forward in your stance one ball width.
3. Incline your spine more than you’re used to by bending more from your hip joints (not your shoulders).
4. Increase the flare of your back foot to promote more backswing turn.
5. Hinge your wrists correctly (see the In-Line Hinging Drill).
6. From the top of the swing, bring the club down before it moves around (see the Down-Then-Around Drill).

In-Line Hinging Drill
Stand with your left arm and shaft extended in front of you in a straight line. Now, hook the shaft with the fingers of your right hand and pull directly toward your head, just as you’d cock the hammer of a pistol. This is hinging or in-line set. Any cupping opens the face. Again, you want a square or slightly bowed left wrist at the top of your swing.

Down-Then-Around Drill
Get to the top of your swing and stop. The first move is to drop the arms down to waist high without turning your upper body. Do this, then stop. Slowly bring the clubface to the ball with your body turn. This will give you the feel of first the club comes down, then it comes around. Get into your address position again and stop halfway back in your takeaway. Pump your arms to the top, then back down to halfway. Do this twice. On the third pump, hit the ball. Once the ball starts drawing away from the target, adjust the ball position and aim/alignment until the ball flies directly at the target.

Fixing The Boomerang
Your task is to start the ball well right of target then, by making the following changes, spin the ball back toward the target.

1. Aim your clubface to the right of the target–a lot for the Sonic Boomer, a little for the Baby Boomer.
2. Align your hips and feet parallel left of the clubface and with your shoulders slightly closed.
3. Move the ball back in your stance two ball widths. This will generate closed shoulders.
4. Increase your spine incline by bending more from the hips than usual with your rear end out and up, as if you were sitting on a tall bar stool.
5. Keep your hands on your toe line during the takeaway. To help you accomplish this and guard against an inside takeaway, pick a spot about 24 inches away behind your ball on the target line. Tap this spot with your clubhead hard enough to leave a mark. Now, take you clubhead over the mark during your takeaway. This guards against bringing back the club too far to the inside.
6. On the downswing, approach the ball from inside the target line (see the Inside Path Drill).

Inside Path Drill
Set up an arc of balls. The concept here is that you swing over the first ball and hit the second ball, then let the clubhead pass over the last ball on the arc. (It won’t actually pass over the last ball, but it should feel as if it does.) Swinging along this line grooves an inside approach to the ball.

7. With these adjustments, your ball will fly to the right. Your task is to spin the ball back to the target by imparting right-to-left sidespin. Adjust the amount of spin by the amount you release your forearms (see Forearm Release Drill). After you can successfully spin the ball from right to left, cut back on the level of forearm rotation and adjust your aim and alignment until the clubface points at the target and the body is aligned parallel left.

Forearm Release Drill
Make at least three practice swings, letting your forearms cross over so you finish with the butt end of the shaft pointing at the target line. Hit some half-shots and check your finish, making sure the butt end of the shaft points along the target line.

Fixing The Flare
Of all the different slice fixes, the Flare is the easiest to correct. You simply need to add more forearm rotation and link the turn with the movement of your body.

1. Aim your clubface slightly left of the target along with your hips and feet.
2. Deflare your front foot to encourage an earlier release of the clubhead.
3. Move the ball back in your stance about a ball width to guard against open shoulders.
4. Release your forearms through impact (see the Forearm Release Drill).
5. Be sure to rotate your body in sync with the rotation of your forearms. If you stop your body, you’ll pull the ball to the left.
6. Once the ball starts left of target and stays there on a regular basis, adjust your aim until the ball flies directly at the target.

These steps may sound complicated, but in reality, they’re a natural progression of moves to combat the series of mistakes repeated, lost and repeated again during the Vicious Slice Cycle. If you’re serious about ridding your game of the banana ball once and for all, follow the above-mentioned steps. There are other quick cures out there, but rarely do they fix the true root of the slice problem. The Slice Eradication Program, however, will produce tangible, lasting improvement.

PGA professional Dr. T.J. Tomasi is regarded as one of the top 100 teachers in America, and is one of the most widely published authorities on the golf swing. He currently instructs at Pistol Creek Golf Club located just outside Hartford, Conn.

Rethink Your Game

Many of you scour the pages of this magazine looking for the magic answer to this question. If that’s your motivation, then this article is for you. On the following pages, I’ll show you how to drop strokes from your game by simply changing your approach on the tee box and on the putting green. After all, if you can get down the fairway regularly and hole the putts you’re supposed to make–and some of the ones you shouldn’t–you’ll be well on your way to playing your best rounds ever.

Drive For Show And For Dough
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase drive for show and putt for dough. While this adage may be appropriate for the players on the professional tours, most amateurs would be better off by making the drive their money shot. How much fun is it anyway if you’re putting for 5 or 6 because your tee ball found water or landed out of bounds? The first step toward better scores is improving your long game. Here’s how.

Choose The Safer Club
Simply getting the ball in play off the tee far outweighs hitting the ball a long way, but into trouble. More often than not, you can lower your scores by choosing to play a club off the tee that may not give you the most distance, but puts you into play. A good alternative to the driver is the 3-wood, which features more loft than the driver (up to six degrees). This extra loft imparts more backspin on your ball, which works to lessen the amount of sidespin you’d create with the same swing with the driver. The end result is a shot that curves less and is in play more often.

Alter Your Aim
Selecting the appropriate place on the teeing ground and aiming away from trouble will also help in saving penalty shots (not to mention golf balls!). The simple rule of thumb is that if there’s trouble on the right, tee the ball on the right side of the tee box and aim up the left side of the fairway. Do the opposite if there’s trouble left. While this strategy may appear to be an escape route, you’ll nonetheless see pros do it all the time when the heat of a match starts to rise.

Swing On The Correct Path
The appropriate path on which you should swing any golf club is dictated by the lie angle of that club. Because the lie angles of woods are much flatter than those built into irons and wedges, they require a flatter approach into the back of the ball to produce successful results. This can be achieved by swinging the clubhead into the ball from inside the target line. If you come into the ball on a plane that’s much steeper than the lie angle of your wood, or from outside the target line, you’ll endure more than your fair share of wayward shots.

Set Up Correctly
The ability to swing the clubhead into the ball correctly is greatly influenced by the way you set up at address. To ensure a proper setup, tilt your spine slightly away from the target and position your left shoulder higher than your right. Furthermore, set your right elbow inside your left elbow. More importantly, re-create these positions at the point of impact. If you can achieve the positions described, you’ll create a setup that allows you to swing smoothly and on-plane.

Putt To Win
Once you can drive for dough (and without penalty strokes attached), the next area to attack is your putting. There are two key areas that can really save shots on the greens: lag putting and putts inside six feet.

_ÊLag Putting
The key to good lag putting is controlling the distance your ball travels. Of all the fundamentals that are valuable to solid lag putting, perhaps the one that enables you to control your distance the most is a good beat or rhythm to your stroke. I recommend that you practice your stroke in time with the beat of a metronome (which can be purchased at any music store) or count out loud to develop a constant beat to your stroke. Some golfers like a slower beat; others prefer a faster rhythm. Whatever your natural rhythm may be, find the beat with which you feel the most comfortable and you’ll have greater success.

In addition to putting with a metronome, practice controlling the distance your ball rolls by performing the Five In A Row drill.

Practice putts from 20 feet on a flat surface with an eye toward rolling each putt to within the length of your puttershaft from the hole. The key here is not to focus on holing every putt, but to get inside that gimme area. Perform the drill until you can get five balls in a row inside the puttershaft, then move to longer lengths in five-foot increments.

If you develop a good consistent beat to your stroke–and practice, practice, practice–you’ll become more in control of the distances your putts travel and, ultimately, save a ton of shots on the greens.

Putts Inside Six Feet
Missed putts from short distances build as much doubt in a player’s mind as any other shot in golf. To overcome that feeling of doubt, you need to offset it by creating confidence in your ability to get the ball into the hole.

How do you create this confidence? The best way is to practice in an environment built for success and take the fear out of the short ones by simply holing a lot of short putts. When practicing these short putts, use the Chalk Line Drill.

Putterface aim and control is the key to solid putting. The Chalk Line will help you with both. Set up the drill by simply running a chalk line on a flat section of a practice green from the cup to your ball. Position your golf ball on the line and make your stroke. As you do, focus on moving your putterhead directly along the chalk line. If the putterhead moves off the line on either the backstroke or forwardstroke, you’ve allowed a chance for the ball to stray off-line and potentially miss the cup. Also, you want to make sure your putterface remains perpendicular to the chalk line. On short putts, a straight path and squared face are paramount to success.

Once you get accustomed to seeing the ball go in the hole, you’ll be more inclined to trust your aim and stroke on the course.

Final Touch
Once you get your tee game and putting under control, you can take your scores even lower by chipping the ball closer–much closer–to the hole when you miss the green. If PGA Tour players rely on getting up and down when their iron games are a little off, so should amateurs. In order to get up and down more consistently, chip it dead–to the point where putting is taken out of the equation.

Chipping Points
The only way to develop a chipping game that will send the ball close to the hole is to control the distance the ball travels. And you’ll never know how far the ball will travel without consistent contact. You need to employ a method that will allow you to contact the ball first. Any other type of impact will make distance control difficult.

Choke up slightly on the club.

Extend your arms at address.

Bend from your hips until the club lightly touches the top of the grass.

Play the ball slightly back in your stance.

Swing your clubhead down and through the golf ball.

Keep the back of your left hand pointing toward the ground through impact.

Work on these three areas and I guarantee that, in no time, you’ll be enjoying your best rounds ever.

PGA professional Chuck Winstead is the director of golf at the University Club in Baton Rouge and at English Turn Golf and Country Club.

Connect The Rights

In the boxing world, the fighter who can connect his rights has a good shot of knocking out his opponent. In golf, the same holds true, but instead of crosses and uppercuts, you need to connect your right hip and shoulder, a move that augments your balance, puts greater power into your swing and otherwise facilitates a pure, on-plane motion.

On the backswing, it’s imperative that you turn your shoulders, but against a stable lower body. In the vernacular of golf instruction, teachers like to use the phrase turn your shoulders twice as much as your hips. This is a solid philosophy that generates tons of coil, i.e., potential energy that can be unleashed into the back of the golf ball.

On the downswing, things become a bit more complicated, but think of it this way: At the top, the shoulders are rotated farther than the hips. At mid-downswing, that gap still exists, but at the finish, both the shoulders and hips are in alignment. What that should tell you is that through the impact zone, you must continue to rotate your shoulders. I like to envision my right shoulder sliding right underneath my chin as I make contact. Don’t think for a second that you’ll pull the ball–your continuous hip rotation will guard against that.

Through impact, keep your right shoulder turning along with the rotation of your right hip. If you do, you’ll not only hit more successful golf shots, but consequently, you’ll establish greater balance and tempo. And all good swings begin with exactly that.

Instruction legend and GT Senior Instruction Editor Marshall Smith has more than 50 years of professional teaching experience. He instructs at Peoria Ridge GC and Shangri-La Resort in northeastern Oklahoma.

Stop Coming Over The Top

Editor’s Note: Story updated May 10, 2017 — It’s a phrase heard on driving ranges, tee boxes and fairways nationwide. I’m coming over the top. It’s a lament as common as I’m lifting my head or I’m swinging too fast. And as hard as golfers try to correct this fault, most endure little success. The slice sticks around and continues to wreak havoc on the scorecard, head and heart. As a golfer you deserve better!

Golfers who come over the top do so because they have no other option. In other words, coming over the top is a necessary compensation for an earlier problem. In fact, if a player was to actually come down on the inside or on-plane, he or she would be worse off. The key to fixing the problem of coming over the top is to first understand why it happens. Once a player understands what created the need to execute an over-the-top move, he or she can fix the problem at its root, resulting in a downswing that’s from the inside or on-plane.

4 most common backswing errors that result in coming over the top in the downswing are:
1. Taking the club away too flat or under the swing plane
2. Stranding the majority of weight on the left (forward) leg at the top of the backswing
3. Creating a narrow swing arc
4. Leaving the clubface open at the top

Flat Takeaway

Taking away the club too flat is the most common of the backswing flaws. This flaw can cause a vicious cycle. The more a player is aware that he or she is over the top, the more he or she is likely to take the club away to the inside.

Learning to take the club back correctly on-plane begins with learning the proper setup posture. When most players set up, the first thing they do is look down at the ball by bending at the neck and shoulders, in effect, not bending at the hips. When a player fails to tilt from the hips, his or her natural takeaway plane will be to the inside or too flat—more like a baseball swing than a golf swing.

The proper posture begins by tilting from the hips while keeping the shoulders back and the chin up. This posture is the one that best allows you to take the club back properly, with the clubhead lining up with the hands at the waist-high position and the shaft hinging skyward in line with the left forearm. These moves set the club on-plane and in front of the body and in perfect position to come back down on-plane or even slightly to the inside.

A second flaw that causes an inside takeaway is rotating the arms faster than the upper body. When this happens, the player’s arms get trapped behind the body, and the only way to get them back in front and strike the ball squarely is to come over the top.

Your forearm rotation should match your shoulder rotation. When these two rotations are linked, the arms will remain in front of the body, effectively leaving room to bring the club down on-plane.

Reverse Pivot

The next most common error that leads to an over-the-top move is having too much weight on the left (forward) leg at the top of the backswing (left). A player’s natural reaction to this misallocation of weight is to fall backward in the downswing. Weight always goes where it hasn’t been—in other words, if the majority of your weight is on your forward leg at the top of the backswing, you’ll naturally transfer it into your back leg on the way back down. Bad news, because if you transition into your back leg at the beginning of the downswing, the club will be centrifugally thrown out and over the top. If you transition into your forward leg at the beginning of the downswing, however, the club will be centrifugally pulled from the inside.

What causes a reverse pivot? The most typical flaw is lower-body sway. When the lower body slides away from the target on the backswing, the upper body falls toward the target. The cure to ending the reverse weight shift is to learn to resist with the lower body and coil with the upper body. The lower body should be the foundation for the upper body during the backswing. Tiger Woods commonly talks about the importance of maintaining pressure on the inside of his right leg by slightly forward-pressing his right knee toward the target as he takes back the club. By doing so, he keeps his hips from sliding, yet allows his right leg to accept the rearward transition of weight.

Narrow Arc

The third most common reason for coming over the top is narrowing the swing arc. A good way to think of swing arc is the distance between the butt of your golf club to the right side of your head at the top of the backswing. If and when the swing arc narrows, the room needed to drop down the club on-plane in the downswing disappears. The typical reaction to this lack of swinging room is to throw the club out and over the top.

The most influential component of swing arc is the position of the right arm throughout the backswing. A player with a narrow swing arc tends to fold the right arm too early or keep it unnaturally pinned to the right side all the way to the top. Both flaws pull the club in too close to the body. The player with this flaw will feel the need to free the club by throwing it way over the top and away from the body.

As you take the club to the top, focus on pressing your right palm against the your left thumb (for right-handed golfers). This maintenance of pressure effectively pushes the butt of the club farther away from the head while also straightening the left arm and leveraging the golf club. If you can maintain that pressure to the completion of the backswing, you’ll create all the room you’ll need to naturally pull the club down on-plane.

Open Face

The fourth most common reason why a player comes over the top is an open clubface. When the clubface is left open at the top of the backswing, the natural reaction is to swing to the left (over the top) to get the clubface square at impact.

An open clubface at the top can typically be traced back to a weak grip at address. Weak, as it’s used here, refers to the actual strength of your grip, not the positioning of your hands on the handle. If you grip the club with your palms, you have a weak grip, and the club will tend to fan open in the takeaway.

In a stronger grip, the club runs more through the fingers. The left thumb pad sits more on top of the grip, while the lifeline of the right palm sits on top of the left thumb. This grip will allow you to set the shaft on-plane in the takeaway, set your wrists properly and keep the clubface from fanning open.

If any of the errors described here exist, attack them by using the advice provided. This approach will produce cures that result in long-lasting, positive results.

The Todd Sones Impact Golf Center is located at White Deer Run Golf Club in Vernon Hills, Ill., (847) 549-9678, www.toddsones.com.

Toss For Distance

Here’s a drill that transforms golfers into more consistent ballstrikers and longer hitters. The most remarkable aspect of this drill is that it doesn’t involve swinging a golf club at all, but I feel strongly it best teaches the athletic movements involved with swinging a club.

Pick up a golf ball, assume an imaginary address position and then toss the ball underhanded at a specific target no more than 10 yards away. Simulate a golf swing by making a weight transfer to the right as you wind up to toss, turning your back to the target and releasing the ball as you’d release the clubface at impact.

A golfer who slices will invariably make an underhanded toss to the left of the target. I’ve seen amateurs do it time after time; they fling their right arms across the body, mimicking the outside-to-in path of their golf swings. They also allow the right foot to spin out as they make the toss, instead of transferring their weight to their left foot.

Any golfer who can make the proper motion with the underhand toss–right arm folded in an L position at the top, right palm open at release, knees touching at the finish in good balance, the ball starting slightly right of the target–can incorporate the same athletic motion into his swing.

Art Sellinger represents the Four Seasons Resort and Club in Las Colinas, Texas.

Are You A Candidate For Cross-Handed Putting?

Mirror Work
Every golfer is built differently, but in constructing a putting posture that will yield the most successful results, you have to take into account subtle, less obvious differences in build. The most important of these anatomical fingerprints is shoulder lines. When standing naturally, every golfer has shoulders that are either open (left shoulder behind right), closed (right shoulder behind left) or square. Most golfers have open shoulders, and the putting setup that best accommodates this anatomical structure is one that features a cross-handed (left-hand-low) putting grip.

The Test
There are a few ways to determine your anatomical structure. The best is to stand in any doorway with your toes set across the carpet seam. Look left, then right. If your left shoulder is farther behind the door jamb than your right, you have open shoulders. A second test is to get into your putting stance, allow your hands to hang naturally, then pull your arms together until your hands meet. If your right hand is outside your left, again you have open shoulders. To accommodate open shoulders in your setup, use a cross-handed putting grip. With the left hand below the right on the handle, your shoulders will automatically square themselves to the target line, resulting in a straighter putting stroke.

Of all the different facets of putting, the setup is the most important. Regardless of the purity of your stroke, your sense of touch or your ability to read greens, you won’t find the bottom of the cup too often if you’re not set up correctly.

Setting up correctly involves not only adopting a fundamentally sound posture, but addressing a putt based on your own anatomical structure as well. Every golfer is built differently and, if these differences aren’t taken into account when you address a putt, you may find the majority of your putts rolling to the right or left of the cup.

One of the main anatomical differences among golfers is shoulder rotation. Believe it or not, every person stands with shoulders that are open, closed or square. The majority of golfers stand with open shoulders, which means that the majority of golfers may benefit from a cross-handed putting grip. Read on to discover why.

Open Lines
If you do everything with your right hand and you swing and putt right-handed, your shoulders are very likely open to your stance line. If you putt and swing right-handed, but you do most other things left-handed, your shoulders are likely closed to your target line. If you do extensive upper-body stretching, your shoulder lines are likely square or closed to your stance line. When you use one hand to do most everything, from eating to opening doors, activity creates a continuous stretching of your dominant side. The lesser use of the non-dominant side of your body creates muscular asymmetry and resulting tension on that side that pulls your shoulders open. Your hips are subject to the same process. I played baseball in my youth and threw about 50,000 pitches in my career. When I stand with the toes of both feet on a line, my shoulders are 1 3__ã4 inches open and my hips are 2 inches open.

Your individual body lines are your anatomical structure and have a great effect on the type of putting setup you should adopt. To determine your anatomical structure, try the following.

Stand in a doorway and place the toes of both feet on a threshold divider or carpet seam. Stand tall and look straight ahead. Slowly turn your head to the right and then to the left without moving your shoulders. Which shoulder is further behind the door jamb, your left or right? If your left shoulder is farther back, then you have naturally open shoulder lines.

Here’s another test: Stand tall and relaxed as you look in a full-length mirror. Notice which of your hands turns in more than the other. If you’re right-handed and your shoulders are open, your left hand will turn in more than your right. The more open your shoulders, the more your left hand will turn in. Notice how much my left hand turns in compared to my right (see opening photo).

No matter how slightly open or closed, your natural shoulder lines have a pronounced effect on your setup and stroke. You must make adjustments for open or closed shoulders. There are two primary adjustments you can make: where in your stance you play the ball or how you position your hands on the grip. For most players, adjusting the grip will produce more comfortable, more positive results.

Setup Scenarios

Assume your current putting setup in front of a mirror. Then, lean your putter on your thigh and let your arms and hands hang relaxed. Notice the orientation of your hands. Do they hang on different lines? Slowly move your hands toward each other without changing the line on which they hang. If they meet, your hands hang neutrally and your shoulders are square to the target line. Most players have their arms and hands out of neutral at address. This out of neutral position imparts sidespin on the ball when you stroke a putt.

Now, move your ball back in your stance an inch at a time. Notice that the further back in your stance you move the ball, the squarer to the target line your shoulders become. Move the ball in your stance until you find the one that sets your shoulders square to the target line. Some golfers can square their shoulders with a forward-of-center ball position. Notice that my ball position has to be back of center in order to square my shoulders.

When you find the ball position that squares your shoulders, again, rest your putter on your thigh and let your arms and hands hang under your shoulders. Notice that your arms and hands hang in neutral and your fingertips meet when you move your hands toward each other. This square shoulders/neutral arms and hands setup will impart the best roll on the golf ball._Ê

Are You A Candidate?
One thing I’ve learned is that golfers feel more comfortable when the ball is positioned forward in the stance. If, in the drill above, you had to move the ball back in your stance in order to achieve square shoulders, you likely felt awkward in your setup and probably felt as if you would push every putt to the right. That’s a perfectly natural feeling.

Your putting setup should be a comfortable setup. That’s why I recommend that, instead of moving your ball position back to set your shoulders square to the target line, you adopt a cross-handed putting grip. Need convincing? Try the following.

Assume your current setup. Note how open your shoulders are to your target line. Now, lower your right hand two inches below your left on the putter grip. Notice how doing so opens your shoulders even more, and how it drops your right shoulder and moves your weight to your back foot.

Go back to your current setup. This time, move your right hand up the shaft so that your hands are on the putter in the same position. Notice how your shoulders begin to square themselves to the target line.

Now, assume a left-hand-low (cross-handed) grip on your putter. Your shoulders should be square to the target line and level. Furthermore, more of your weight should transfer to your front foot.

If your shoulders are closed to the target line in this position, move your ball forward in quarter-turn intervals until your shoulders are square to the target line.

If your shoulders are still a little open to the target line, move your ball position back in quarter-turn intervals until your shoulders are square. Notice how subtle changes in your ball position create large changes in your shoulder lines.

Path Perfection
From your new, cross-handed setup position, make a practice stroke. If the putter path is square to the target line, you’ve found the perfect, cross-handed setup.

If the putter path finishes inside or outside of the target line with your left-hand-low grip, fine-tune your setup by opening or closing your stance, depending on where you started. If you started with your stance square to the target line, open your stance a half-inch at a time. The majority of readers will need to move to a maximum of one inch open to find balance. This is due to the fact that in addition to your shoulders being open, your hips are open as well.

Pull your left foot straight back without flaring your toes to the target to open your stance, and be careful not to open your shoulders each time you open your stance a half-inch. As you open your stance more and more, it may appear that your ball position is moving back in your stance. This is an optical illusion. Continue to adjust your stance until the putter path moves down the target line.

Practice your setup in front of a mirror a few minutes each day so that it’s well-rehearsed and automatic when you get to the course. As you well know, thinking your way into your setup will cause missed putts regardless of how good it may be.

Cross-Handed Practice
Most students adjust quickly to cross-handed putting for short putts, but they struggle with speed control on long putts. Here’s a drill that will give you good speed control on putts of all lengths.

Set up three feet from a hole. While keeping your head as still as possible, make a practice stroke and feel the path down the target line. Find a blade of grass in the back of the hole on your line. Stare at that blade of grass and take a deep breath. As you begin to slowly exhale, bring an image of that blade of grass back to the ball. Hold that image as you stroke your putt. Notice how good your speed is after 10 or 15 putts.

As you perform this drill, make an effort to use consistent grip pressure throughout the stroke. Changes in grip pressure will alter speed, path and face position. In your practice and play, hold the same pressure.

Parting Shots
I’ve measured more than 1,000 amateurs, club professionals and Tour players through my golf schools. Only nine of theses players have both hips and shoulder lines that are totally square. These nine players reported an active stretching program, such as yoga or Pilates. Regardless, there’s no right or wrong hip or shoulder line. Just be aware of what your lines are and how they can affect your setup and stroke.
_Ê
PGA teaching professional and psychologist Dr. David F. Wright instructs at Pelican Hill Golf Club and Ocean Trails Golf Club in Southern California. His Mind Under Par golf schools (www.mindunderpar.com)•__ are recognized as one of the top 25 learning programs in America.