It is Christmas time with New Years right around the corner and most of us would love the gift of better golf. This may sound far fetched but for most of us working on the basics will actually make us better. It is always a good idea to purchase a few lessons, get measured by BodiTrak or swing sense or give yourself a golf vacation. These are great but playing better golf is the best gift we can give ourselves and that starts with the basics.
Over the years of working with many players the obvious conclusion is good players tend to have good fundamentals and bad players typically have bad fundamentals. You can buy a new driver, a 60-degree wedge or a new putter but if your fundaments are poor you will probably not improve much. If you have ever gone to a tour event Pro-am and watched the amateurs tee off you will see a major difference in the tour players set up verse the amateurs set up. Many a tour player has shared with me, “man that guy has no chance” and that is before the guy or gal swung the club.
Setting up properly does not require great athletic ability. All of us can at set up just like a tour player. So let’s get a few of the basics right for your golf gift to yourself.
A few basics on set up are grip, posture and alignment.
The grip can be a long subject to cover so quickly have your left or top thumb just of to the right of center of the shaft. Holt the club in the top hand from the base of the pinky finger to the second pad of the index finger. Keep the but of the club under the fat part of the palm of the hand. Your bottom hand should be on about a 45 degree angle. Use the life-line of the right hand to cover the top thumb. Grip pressure is not that which would hold a baby bird. When the club is in motion you will need about 8-12 pounds of pressure to control the club. Hold the club firmly enough at the beginning of the swing so you do not have to increase pressure at the top of your swing to control the club.
Posture is critical and hard for me to get correct. Flex the knee just a little and bend not from the waist but from the hips, about 6″ below your belt line. Keep your vertebrae as straight as possible and look out of the bottom of your eyes to see the ball. Your arms should hang just outside your toes at address. Don’t start on your toes and for most people you should feel like your weight is just a little towards your heels. You will see in a previous article about footwork that your toes stop rotation and your heels encourage rotation in the swing.
Alignment is critical to getting a shot started and finished on target. Get an old shaft or aiming sticks and use them next time you go to the range. Make sure you aim them parallel left of your target when hitting shots. Don’t aim the sticks at the target, this will set you up closed, more with shorter shots than longer shots. Most poor players aim very poorly or aim to compensate for their ball flight.
Stay athletic during the swing, don’t make a huge back swing. Make swings keeping flex in your back knee. Make swings keeping your back angle the same in the back swing. Keep you left arm as straight as possible. Bend your right arm 90 degrees in the backswing. Notice that both players above kept their wieght on the inside of the right foot, not center of the foot and then did not make a dramatic move with the left knee.
Work on making swings with the proper sequence in the downswing. The first move from the top of the swing is not with the hands or arms. The motion is as follows;
- The left of front hip moves towards the target, about 6″ causing the spin to add tilt. Weight is mostly to left foot.
- The hips start to turn as the arms start to move down. About 90 percent of weight on left foot.
- The right shoulder starts to rotate towards the target while the right arm starts to lose the 90 degree angle and the wrist start to unhinge.
- The belt buck should be facing in front of the ball, shoulders open to the target line and the right arm almost fully extended at impact. The left elbow is still against the body folding.
- Rotate to finish with hips and shoulder pointing at or past target with right arm staying extended as long as possible.
These are just a few items but if you are good at these you will most likely improve next year.
Jim Hartnett, PGA
www.myhome4golf.com
