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THE
GOLF SWING A
Critique
As some of you know, I have spent the past year and a half studying the
golf swing in depth, trying to reach some conclusions which I hoped
would benefit all players no matter what their handicap.
Of course, I wanted to help myself as well!
I was prompted to undertake this study due in large part to
hitting erratic golf shots and not knowing what caused them.
My course of action, then, was to see a golf professional to get
a quick fix or to pour through my golf magazines and books in search of
a quick tip. Sometimes this
worked. I would resume
playing good golf for a period of time
and then my swing would start to go to hell again.
Back I would go in search of the quick fix.
In my youth, I didn't have
recourse to any golf instruction or any golf professionals.
I grew up playing on a public course called "Sugar
Creek" in a small town in Northwest Ohio.
I learned the game from watching my dad play and copying his
swing. I would also watch
the golf professionals on
TV and try to copy their moves. I
was a master at mimicking the swings of the top golfers of the day,
players like Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tom Weiskopf and Tom Watson.
It's also safe to say that at some point, I swung like each of
these players. I was better
at imitating golf swings than perhaps Peter Jacobsen!
I had no idea what I was doing, though.
I was the epitome of the "feel" player.
If I happened to hit a duck hook or a wicked slice, I couldn't
tell you what caused it. I
just kept blindly tinkering with my swing until I started to hit good
golf shots again.
Finally, in early 1999, I just got tired of playing golf this way
and decided I needed to do something drastic if I ever hoped to become
the kind of golfer I felt I had the potential to become.
I really wanted to understand the golf swing in-depth.
I wanted to be able to tell exactly what I did wrong when I hit a
bad shot. Last, but not least, I wanted to know and understand how most
golfers get started off on the wrong track when they take up the game
and how they can avoid these common pitfalls.
I'm happy to say that I finally have found the answers and I'm
eager to share them with you.
I felt
the best way to present this information would be in a question and
answer format. I don't
intend for this critique to be too long.
After all, if one really wanted to get technical about the golf
swing, he could fill up a whole book.
Indeed, there are enough books on the golf swing to fill a whole
library. But I have boiled down the golf swing to its most basic
elements. If you understand
these elements, you will be well on your way to being a good, if not
great, golfer. Question 1:
Ok, Dave, can you tell us what common elements you see in most amateur golfers?
Yes, basically there are 3
things which most amateur golfers have in common.
These are:
Note these 3 things don't
happen in a vacuum. One
usually leads to the other and it's usually that the beginning golfer
starts out with locked wrists and this leads to "coming over the
top" and/or poor alignment. Don't
get me wrong. A golfer can
start out with poor alignment right from the start.
However, I see locked wrists as the root cause of most golfers'
problems. Question 2:
Can you explain the above terms a little more clearly? Sure.
"Locked wrists" means that the golfer doesn't
completely pronate his wrists and forearms through the hitting area.
Ideally, when a golfer makes his backswing and the club and arms
are parallel to the ground, the toe of the club is pointing towards the
sky. [Actually, it's
slightly closed.] On the
follow-through, when the club and arms are again parallel to the ground,
the toe of the club is again pointing to the sky.
This indicates a full release of the club through the ball.
As for "coming over
the top" this means that the downswing plane of the club is outside
the plane of the club going back. The
club gets very steep coming into the hitting area. "Poor alignment"
is pretty much self-explanatory. Ideally,
a golfer wants to have his clubface aimed at his target and his feet,
hips and shoulders lined up PARALLEL LEFT.
Anything other than this [unless one is trying to deliberately
hook or slice the ball] is poor alignment. Question 3:
Can you give us a scenario of how a golfer starts out and becomes
a poor player? Let's get a new golfer,
John Doe, and start him out with perfect posture and perfect alignment
and a decent swing. Now
let's get him on the 1st tee with
his driver. He hits the
ball, the ball starts down the middle of the fairway, but then curves
right. (He's right-handed,
by the way!) Why does
the ball curve right? Because
he doesn't understand how to release his forearms, wrists and hands
through the shot! In short,
he has "locked wrists!" Now
he gets up to hit his second shot [assuming he can find his first!].
Again, he sets up correctly: perfect posture and perfect alignment.
Again, the ball starts at the target and curves right because
of locked wrists! After he continues to see
this shot pattern, what do you think Mr. Doe is going to start doing?
Well, he's not going
to unlock his wrists, probably. What
he'll do, assuming he stays in perfect posture and perfect alignment, is
to "come over the top" and start the ball left and watch it
curve back to the right and, hopefully, to the target, because this is
the only way he's going to get the ball to go to the target!
Essentially, he's been turned into a "pull slicer," the
most common type of amateur golfer you see on a golf course. The better amateur golfer,
now, is a slightly different story.
At some point, he learns how to release the club going through
the hitting area, probably by hitting bucket after bucket of balls out
on the driving range and getting so doggone tired he starts releasing
the club out of sheer fatigue. But
his "over the top" move has become ingrained and his shots
start going dead left instead of starting out left and curving right as
in a pull-slice. He's
learned to release the club through the hitting area now but he hasn't
gotten rid of his "over the top" move.
So now what does he do to get the ball to go at the target?
Well, now, he starts aiming his body right to compensate for
pulling the ball left. A
lot of golfers go see a golf professional who oftentimes doesn't
diagnose the problem correctly. The
golf professional will watch the player and tell him that he's
"coming over the top." He
then might suggest some drills to get the golfer to start swinging on a
better plane and hitting straighter shots.
But then our golfer heads back out on the course not having fixed
his alignment problem.
So he lines up right of the
target again, swings
correctly, but where does the ball go?
Right of the target!
Question 4:
So what you're saying is that locked wrists lead to slicing,
which leads to poor alignment which leads to "coming over the
top?" Basically, yes.
It doesn't quite have to follow that scenario, but that's usually
the way it happens. Golfers "come over the
top" for other reasons also. For
example, if our amateur golfer, Mr. Doe, brings the club too far inside
on the backswing, it has almost no where to go but outside on the
downswing. Another big
reason for "coming over the top" is trying to hit the ball too
hard. In other words, a
belief that swinging the arms faster will produce more clubhead speed.
Question 5:
Why doesn't swinging the arms faster produce more clubhead speed? Well, it would, if the body
[or torso] moved just as fast, but it usually doesn't.
When the amateur golfer tries to swing his arms faster, he'll
come over the top and hit either a pull, a pull-slice, or a pull-hook,
depending on the position of the clubhead at impact.
The top amateur or professional golfer, on the other hand, will
do just the opposite: his
torso will move too fast and the arms will get left behind.
It's what Tiger Woods refers to as "getting stuck."
Then the only way to hit a good shot is to flip the club through
the hitting area and hope you get the timing right. Usually you don't and the result is either a snap hook or a
big block. Let me give you this
example of why trying to swing the arms faster won't generate more
clubhead speed: the hammer throw. If
you happen to watch an athlete do the hammer throw, you'll notice his
arms and torso rotating at the same pace.
In other words, as he's spinning around, building up momentum,
the hammer will always be in front of his chest.
That action yields the most out of centrifugal force. It's the same with swinging
an ax. Try swinging an ax
once and keeping your torso perfectly still. You can't generate any
force. But if you turn your
torso and keep the ax lined up with your torso, you can generate lots of
force. This is also where having
loose wrists comes into the picture.
Try swinging the ax again and keep your wrists locked.
You can't generate any power, can you?
In order to generate maximum force with the ax, you have to
"release" the ax. It's
the same in the golf swing. If
you swing the golf club at 50 mph with locked wrists, you can only
generate 50 mph of clubhead speed.
But swing a golf club 10 mph with loose wrists and you can
generate 100 mph of clubhead speed.
That's why golf professionals can hit the ball so far with what
looks like an effortless swing. They
do not swing with locked wrists. Question 6:
Is there such a thing as a perfect swing? I watch the pros on TV and they all look like they have
vastly different swings. I like this analogy: there are many different cars on the road and they all have
different shapes and sizes. But
they all have an engine and 4 wheels.
If your swing doesn't have "an engine and 4 wheels"
you are not going to play good golf.
Period. Another thing you have to
keep in mind is that all these golf professionals you see on TV are
tremendous athletes with great hand-eye coordination who practice
countless hours and hit hundreds of balls practically every day.
Let's look at 2 golf professionals: Ray Floyd and Fred Couples. On his backswing, Floyd takes the club way inside. Halfway back, when the club is in the "L position," the butt end of the shaft points almost at the horizon instead of at the target line! Conversely, Couples takes the club way outside on the backswing and then loops it to the inside on the downswing. Obviously, these 2 very
different swings work well, but it's not something I would recommend for
the average golfer. Floyd
and Couples have to make compensating moves during the swing to ensure
good ball contact. These compensating moves take a lot of time and talent to
perfect. Question 7:
What are some of the things you work on while you're on the
range? First, I make sure that I'm
aligned correctly to the target. I'll
even lay down clubs to make sure I'm aligned correctly.
Remember, in order to be correctly aligned to the target, your
clubhead has to be pointing at the target and your feet, hips and
shoulders have to be aligned PARALLEL LEFT.
Second, I try to make sure
that I have good posture. For
me, since I'm rather tall, I don't want my back to be too rounded at
address. Lastly, and most importantly, I want to make sure I
take the club back on the correct plane.
When I swing the club back to a position where it's parallel to
the ground, I want to make sure that the butt end of the club is
pointing at the target. By the way, some golf
professionals routinely incorporate a backswing check move into their
preshot routines. Mike
Weir, the Canadian, routinely does this, as does Karrie Webb on the LPGA
Tour. Justin Leonard used
to do this also. Anyway, if I do all these
things correctly [and make sure I swing with loose
wrists!], my chances of hitting a good shot are pretty good. Question 8:
What are some of things you feel when you make a good golf swing? First, I feel relaxed. My arms, shoulders and wrists, in particular, are all
relaxed. I also grip the
club lightly. In the
transition area from the backswing to the downswing, there's no feeling
that I'm rushing things. The
transition feels smooth. The
club feels as though it's falling from the top of the backswing.
I definitely feel the weight of the clubhead when I'm swinging.
All in all, I like to feel "lazy, relaxed and a little
sloppy" when I make a golf swing.
Question 9:
What are your biggest swing problems? I constantly have to watch
my alignment. I have a
tendency to line up right of the target and then come over the top.
I also have a tendency to bring the club to the outside on the
backswing and I constantly have to check that.
I usually don’t have a problem with locked wrists unless I try
to steer the ball on a tight hole.
Then I don't release and hit a big block.
Question 10:
Is exercise helpful? If you look at players on the PGA Tour,
almost all of them have some sort of fitness routine.
Tiger Woods works harder than most of his fellow PGA players.
I
would try to put most of emphasis on stretching exercises.
One of the things that enable PGA Tour players to generate so
much clubhead speed is their tremendous flexibility.
Try this drill once: take
your address and grip the club with just your right hand in its normal
position. Now swing the
club all the way to the top until you've reached the "L"
position with your right arm and the club is parallel to the ground and
the clubhead is pointing at the target.
Keep the club there. Now
try to complete your grip with your left hand.
Find it hard to bring your left hand and arm all the way to the
top? Well, your average PGA
professional can do it with ease. Which
is a testimony to their tremendous flexibility.
Aerobic exercise, lifting
weights and stretching won't in and of itself make you a better player. You still have to put in time on the range and out on the
course. It's all just
another piece of the puzzle. Question 11:
What are your thoughts on lessons with a PGA professional?
After all these years, I've
come to the conclusion that it isn't all that helpful.
In order to derive any benefit from a PGA professional teacher's
expertise, I think you would have to work with him on a continuous basis
for many months. Look
at it this way: imagine how
a basketball team would play if the coach showed up for an hour once
every 3 months to coach his players.
Yet, PGA professional teachers want the average golfer to believe
that if they give him an hour of instruction every 3 months or so, his
game will improve. If you look at players from
Tiger Woods, to Greg Norman, from Jack Nicklaus to Phil Mickelson, and
so on, they've all spent hundreds and hundreds of hours with golf
instructors. Look at the 14-year-old Wonglukiet sisters working down in
Orlando with David Leadbetter. They're
working with him on a daily basis.
So you have to spend a lot
of time with a golf instructor if you want to derive any lasting
benefit. And you have to spend the time on the range if you're going to
see any improvement. In my opinion there are 3
kinds of instructors: average,
good and excellent. The
average instructor will just turn on a tape machine, record your swing,
point out what you're doing wrong and send you on your way.
Unfortunately, there's too many of this kind of golf instructor.
A good instructor will do all this, but offer specific drills for
you to perform so that you can feel the type of moves he wants you to
make in your swing. The excellent golf
instructor, though, will see you as an individual.
He will be able to instinctively grasp your potential as a player
and tailor his instruction to help you realize your fullest potential. Incidentally, I'd like to
point out that a golfer who makes an "over the top" move may
be swinging that way because of his built.
If you're a golfer who is thick-chested, with short arms and lack
of flexibility, you may have no other choice but to "come over the
top." Two good
examples are Craig Perry and Craig Stadler.
[Is there something about being a "Craig?"]
Both "come over the top" and are essentially pull
slicers. But they make it work because they aren't as extreme about it
as most amateur golfers are. [And
from what I've seen in slow motion replays, they still manage to swing
into the ball from an inside, power-rich swing path.]
Question 12:
Is it really necessary to be athletic to play good golf? Yes, I really believe this.
In my experience, the best golfers also happen to be really great
athletes. Often, they have
excelled at other sports besides golf.
One thing is for certain, they all have incredible hand-eye
coordination. All in all, if you take up
the game and your only exposure to athletics was being picked last in
gym class for volleyball, chances are you're not going to make a great
golfer or even a good golfer.
Question 13:
It doesn't sound like you're a great believer in "tips"
but if you had one tip to give what would it be? You're right.
I think giving tips is the "band aid" approach to golf
instruction. I like to keep
things relatively simple: good
posture, good alignment, good grip and good swing plane.
That's basically what I think of.
If you get those 4 things right, your golf swing, as Nick Faldo
likes to say, is "90 percent complete."
Nevertheless, if I had one
golf tip to give, it would be this:
try to feel when you're hitting the ball, that it's a tennis ball
and you're trying to hit it with topspin.
This will encourage you to release the clubhead through the ball,
which as I have said throughout this critique, is the absolute number 1
problem in golf which leads to just about every other swing malady.
Question 13:
Ok, let's get off the golf swing.
I'm looking to purchase a new set of clubs. What's the number 1 thing I should consider before everything
else? The shaft flex beyond a
doubt. The shaft is the
"engine" of the club. For
the record, most players play with a shaft flex which is too stiff and
they're unable to "load" the shaft properly for a long,
powerful hit. But shaft
flex is not entirely dependent on how fast you swing the club.
For example, Fred Couples plays a weaker shaft than Nick Price
who plays a stiffer shaft, even though Price generates less clubhead
speed! Couples swings
relatively slowly while Price swings fast. Couples, amazingly enough,
though, generates more clubhead speed than Price but needs a weaker
shaft because he swings the club so slowly.
Nr. 2 on my list of most
important things when purchasing a new set of clubs is lie angle or how
the club sits on the ground. If the lie angle is too upright, the player will tend to pull
his shots. If it is too flat, the ball will have a tendency to shoot
right. Nr. 3, would be grip size. A grip size which is too large will prevent a golfer from
releasing the club properly. If
the grip size is too small, the golfer may release too much, causing
hooked shots. That's about all I have
to say on the golf swing. At
this point, I'd like to critique some of the Gruesome swings I've seen. DEAN WOOD:
I was playing with somebody once [I won't say who] and we
were on the 5th hole of Applewood course.
Dean was up ahead hitting his 2nd shot.
When Dean swung, my playing partner said, "You can tell
that's Dean--arms and legs flying everywhere." I chuckled, but amazingly
enough, despite his ungainly appearance, Dean does a surprising number
of things correctly. Certainly,
someone who is able to drive the ball 280 yards at times has to be doing
something right. And
Dean does. He has a good weight transfer, he has surprising flexibility
for a man his age and his strength in his forearms, wrists and hands is
nothing short of amazing. What
I find fault with in Dean's swing is his grip which is unorthodox to say
the least. Oftentimes, his hands
don’t work together as a unit. I'd
like to see him play with a more orthodox grip, but at this stage of his
life,I'm not sure he could make the change.
Anyway, Dean, like many of
us, tries at times to generate more clubhead speed by swinging his arms
faster. This causes his
swing to get out of sync with his rotating body.
The result is an
"over the top move" and
because he releases the club well, a pull or a pull hook.
When Dean slows his arm swing down to match his rotating body, he
tends to play good golf. I
played with him once this fall and he was absolutely killing his driver.
And if you studied his swing closely that day, it didn't look as
though Dean were swinging hard at all. If his short game hadn't been so
bad, he would have shot in the 60's for sure.
JOHN ROMERO:
Everything I said in my "Ode to Captain John" was true.
Most of the time, he doesn't shift his weight to his right foot
on the backswing or, if he does, it's a hip sway.
In either case, his upper body leans towards the target at the
top of the backswing and he doesn't rotate his shoulders.
The result is a major power leak. I was playing with John in
late November, and he was making beautiful swings.
He was getting his left shoulder behind the ball and making a
good shoulder turn. The
result was powerful drives. In
fact, he was hitting the ball out there with me.
John knows now what he needs to work on.
CHUCK MADRID:
Chuck lines up with his shoulders open to the target.
He doesn't make much of a shoulder turn and so can't generate any
power. Chuck hits the ball
mostly with just his arms. FRED COMINGS:
pretty good swing. Fred
tends to get in trouble, though, when he makes an incomplete backswing
and shoulder turn and then lets his upper body slide towards the target
on the downswing. The
result is a weak shot that goes high and right.
I'd like to see Fred work on getting his left shoulder over his
right knee on the backswing and start his downswing by letting his arms
drop and increasing the distance between his right shoulder and right
arm instead of turning his upper body first. NICK GREENBURG:
simple swing and very effective.
Always tries to swing within himself. Never tries to kill
the ball. JR PATTERSON:
What I like about JR's swing is his tempo. I think his tempo is perhaps better than anyone else's in the
Gruesome. Grip is a little unorthodox in that there's a separation
between the left thumb and forefinger but it seems to work for him.
The only thing keeping JR from playing better is his temperament.
If he learned to control his emotions more out on the golf
course, he'd be capable of shooting in the 60's on a consistent basis.
That's how good I think his swing is.
SR PATTERSON:
Sr's hip operation seems to cause him oftentimes not to want
to make a weight shift on the backswing.
He gets into a pattern of reverse pivoting.
He has a good setup and swing.
When he shifts his weight to his right foot on the backswing and
gets into a loaded position, he's very capable of hitting good golf
shots. I remember when we
played at Worthington Manor in early November.
On one hole on the backside, the par 5 13th, he hit a drive that
was right out there with the rest of our foursome.
Not bad for a guy in his mid-70's.
ROD FRANK:
What can I say. If
you want to see what it's like to use your body to hit golf shots,
instead of just your arms, watch Rod hit a few shots on the range.
And Rod really gets loaded into a powerful position on his
backswing. All that stored
power is just waiting to be unleashed in the downswing.
TED TLANDA:
Ted is a good example of the pull slicer or puller.
However, he's learned to play with the shot and he has a terrific
short game which helps him to shoot low scores.
I once stood behind Ted on the 5th hole of Parks course when the
tees were down in front . Ted's
driver was aimed at the left corner of the bunker.
He made his "over the top" move and pulled the ball
dead center. I'd like to see Ted work on
his alignment out on the range, laying down clubs to make sure he's
aiming correctly and his body is aligned PARALLEL LEFT.
Then I'd have Ted work on loosening up his wrists so he starts
hooking the ball. If he
doesn't hook the ball, he'll need to loosen his wrists even more.
I'd like Ted to work on just "freewheeling" it when he
swings, to just "let it go." I think if he wants to work at
it, Ted can become a powerful drawer of the ball and can get an extra
30-40 yards on his drives easily. Couple
that with a great short game and he could be shooting in the 60's on a
regular basis. DICK JONES:
really good swing.
Tempo is a little quick but it works for him.
Two things I'd like to see Dick do to become a more consistent
ball striker: one, he needs
to develop a waggle or swing trigger.
I don't like to see him start the swing from a static position.
Two, he needs to work on his posture a little bit and not stand
so hump shouldered. That
doesn't mean I think he should try to keep his back as straight as
Tiger, but he needs to straighten up just a tad more.
I'd also like to see Dick
throttle it down just a little bit, too, particularly with the irons.
I've seen a few too many instances where Dick tries to nuke a
9-iron instead of going with an 8 and making a smoother more controlled
swing. CHRIS HILL, SCOTTY
ALDER, JIM STERGIOU and BRUNO: all
have relatively upright swings, a lot in the vein of Jack Nicklaus, Greg
Norman and Johnny Miller. This
is a power hitter's swing because of it's long arc.
The problem is that if one isn't careful, the shoulders tilt
instead of turn, which leads to a reverse pivot, among other things.
Alder and Bruno, in particular, have a tendency to bring the club
straight back, in a closed position, without the wrists supinating. If they rotated normally on the downswing, both would hook
the ball off the planet. Both
counteract this tendency with a weak grip.
Alder goes further by sliding the legs on the downswing instead
of rotating the hips left. I
don't want to give the wrong impression:
golf can be played this way.
In fact, Tom Lehman makes a similar swing.
His clubface is shut at the top, but he slides his legs on the
downswing to counteract a tendency to hook the ball from this closed
position. One will also notice that a
very upright swing makes it hard to hit the long irons, which demand a
more rounded swing. That's
one reason Alder complains he can't hit any iron in his bag longer than
a 6-iron. If any of the above golfers
were going to try to flatten their swing plane and make a more rounded
swing, I would suggest that they hit balls on a slope with the ball
above their feet. This
encourages swinging the club on a flatter plane.
PAT McCORKLE:
good set-up and good posture.
I'd like to see Pat rotate his left hip out of the way on the
downswing instead of sliding his legs towards the target as he does now.
ED AILOR:
has a great set-up and great swing, despite my ribbing him
about his "lifting a potato sack" on the backswing. Benefits from great flexibility, something which a lot of
golfers with his built are blessed with.
Has a tendency to get a little long and loose in his swing
though. Could benefit from
tightening his swing up a bit.
GARY WILHELM:
I really like his release through the ball. There isn't any hanging on in Gary's swing.
Suffers a little bit because his backswing is so short.
Might benefit from working on flexibility exercises to lengthen
it. DICK BUCZEK:
If "Boo Boo" could ever get his arm swing to match
his torso rotation on a consistent basis, he'd be a great player.
Dick either swings his arms too fast, in which case he
"comes over the top" and hits a pull hook or he holds on and
hits a block. At other
times, he rotates his torso too fast [as in the case of a professional
golfer] and his arms "get stuck" and then he hits either a
duck hook or a push fade or, worse, a block. DAVE RILEY:
suffers from the same problem as Dick.
His arms swing too fast and he "comes over the top" and
either hits pull hooks or he holds on and hits blocks. Also needs to work on syncing up his arms and torso.
There are drills, such as the "feet together" drill,
which would help Dave. I
have some other drills which also could possibly help him.
TOM BUSEY:
Tom swings freely enough, but his backswing is too long and
loose and he looses control of the club.
I'd like to see Tom swing back just enough to reach parallel or
maybe even shorter. He
needs to work on generating power by coiling his upper body instead of
depending on a long, loose backswing to generate clubhead speed.
This is especially true with his shorter clubs, such as his
wedge, where he makes a really long backswing, looses control of the
club and then decelerates into the ball.
I played with him one round this fall where his swing was so long
he couldn't hit a short iron to save his life.
JOHN McVEY:
really good set-up over the ball.
I'd like to see him initiate his swing with a good waggle instead
of his current takeaway which is much too deliberate.
Could benefit, too, from reducing his waistline and working on
some stretching routines to get a little more flexibility. BILL KNAPP:
I know, JR calls him "mechanical man," and he does
look a bit mechanical. Has
a terrific set-up though and really gets coiled into a powerful position
at the top of his backswing.
Might benefit by swinging with a little more "abandon."
Well, that's about all I
have on the golf swing. I
hope all of you have found this interesting and I hope you were all
helped by it. One
other thought: we could all
benefit tremendously by devoting more of our practice time to working on
our short games, particularly chipping and putting.
I know I don't work enough on this part of my game and the lack
of short game practice really hurt my scoring this year.
My putting, in particular, stunk.
I'll try to turn things around in this area next year. Good luck and may your golf
game improve greatly in 2001! DAVE "GOLFNUT"
AMES *************************************************************************************************
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