Spring 2003 - Golf Instructional Article - "Three Things You Need to Know"

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Score Golf Spring 2003
Three Things You Need to Know

The one thing that separates humans from most other animals is our ability to use tools. We are very good with our hands and are great learners when it comes to operating tools. Golf clubs are perfectly designed for the purpose of hitting a golf ball towards a target. If we are good with tools and the golf club is a well-designed tool for our needs, why do most of us struggle to hit a golf ball with any kind of consistency? Most golfers misunderstand how the tool (the club) should be used and therefore have trouble learning how to use it effectively. Here are three concepts every golfer needs to understand to build a consistent golf swing.

#1 - Controlling the Clubface

To gain control over the clubface you must first establish a good relationship between you and the club and secondly, understand the concept of how the club needs to be swung. Most of us can get our hands to face things with relative ease. This skill can be transferred to a golf club if we place our hands on the club correctly and understand how the clubface relates to our hands. A proper hold on the club (picture 1) will be one where the handle is placed in your fingers with your palms facing each other and in the same direction as the clubface. With your hands in this position the clubface is basically “sitting” in the palm of your hand (picture 2). This relationship will allow you to control the clubface by learning to control where your hands are facing through impact.

The second important facet of controlling the clubface is to understand the correct motion of the clubface as it swings through the ball. It needs to swing from an open orientation as it approaches impact (picture 3), through a square position at impact to a closed position after impact (picture 4). The closing of the clubface is controlled by the rotation of your hands and forearms. To hit the ball straight you must learn how to time this rotation to square the clubface at impact. This may sound difficult but it is a skill you can learn because you are already good at controlling the motion of your hands and the clubface and hands work together.

Many golfers struggle with a slice because they try to keep the clubface square to the target after impact (picture 5). This results in an open clubface at impact causing sidespin on the ball and the resulting curvature on their shot.

#2 - Getting Solid Contact

Consistently striking the golf ball with the middle of the clubface is only possible if you understand this second concept. Many golfers struggle with solid contact because they think they need to scoop or lift the ball into the air with their swings. Many golfers describe this effort as trying to “get under the ball”. This concept causes them to either drop their rear shoulder and hang back on their rear foot (picture 6) or scoop at the ball with their wrists through impact. These efforts will result in poor, inconsistent contact. To achieve solid contact on shots played off the ground you must understand that the club needs to swing down through the ball and make contact with the ground after impact. In other words, the bottom of your swing arc must be located after the ball, resulting in a divot or small scuff mark being made after the ball has been struck (picture 7).

Good contact is promoted by correctly placing the ball in your stance. The bottom of your swing arc will happen roughly opposite the instep of your front foot. Your more lofted clubs work best when the ball is positioned in the middle of your stance, well before the bottom of the swing. As the clubs get longer and have less loft they are built to work better closer to the bottom of your swing. For these reasons you should place the ball near the middle of your stance for your wedges and move the ball progressively forward as you approach your woods. When hitting woods off a tee you need to locate the bottom of your swing at or just before the ball to create a level approach of the club head to the back of the ball.

Proper location of the bottom of your swing will result in solid contact and the loft of the club will then propel the ball into the air at the trajectory the club is designed to create. Remember, getting your shot up is not your job. Solid contact is your job and up is taken care of by the golf club’s loft.

3. The Path to Straighter Shots

The proper path of our swing is the third concept, which must be understood. Many golfers mistakenly think the cause of a slice is an outside-to-in swing path. In actual fact, an outside-to-in path is a golfer’s reaction to the anticipated slice on their shot. To fix your slice you must first learn to control the clubface and return it to a square position at impact. Without curvature on your shots you are ready to learn to swing the club down the target line through impact. The proper path is one where the club head approaches the ball from inside the target line (picture 8) and swings out through the ball towards the target (picture 9). This path will likely feel like it is “inside-to-out” if you are used to slicing the ball but the correct path is “inside to square and back inside”. To most effectively learn this path you should position your feet, knees, hips and shoulders parallel to the target line as the club along my toes in pictures 8 & 9 is meant to show.

The quality of your set-up and swing will play a large roll in how effectively you can learn these skills but I firmly believe if you understand these three concepts the time needed to learn a good golf swing will be greatly reduced. Not understanding these concepts will make the golf swing very challenging to learn and repeat.