Pump your way to impact

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

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

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

Point the grip at the ball

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

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

Correct Position

InCorrect Position

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

 

Find the correct plane

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

A comfortable ball position

The trick to becoming a good wedge player is to make a swing that produces consistent results. Hitting a slight draw is an easy way to do just that.

To hit a draw, concentrate on swinging more from inside the target line to outside the target line. At impact, the body should not stop— make sure you keep rotating

In this photo, you can clearly see that my clubshaft is pointing to the right of the intended target. This means my ball will start to the right and draw toward the left.

No matter what shot you hit, a good one always finishes with the weight transferred to your left side and your right heel off the ground.

Becoming a good wedge player means you have to hit consistent shots. Many amateurs struggle with hitting consistent shots from within 125 yards. Sometimes the ball spins; sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it flies straight; other times not so much. Trajectory control becomes tricky too, with some shots flying high and others flying low. Whew, with that many variables, what’s one to do?



A great way to dial in some consistency with your wedge shots is to learn a shot that I personally love to hit. It’s a medium-height draw that, upon landing, trickles forward onto the green and rolls out about 10 feet. It’s not a high-spinning shot that trickles back toward the pin, nor does it stop dead on the green—although neither of those two types of shots are easy to predict. A draw however is easy to duplicate, and with some practice, you’ll quickly learn how the ball reacts on the green and soon start using this shot to your advantage.



How you hit this draw is simple. Address the ball as you normally would, with a comfortable ball position. Only now, close your clubface about 20 degrees. To get an idea of what that should look like to you, the photo to the left shows what I?mean. The two tees on top are pointing to the right of the target, and the two tees slanting down are where the face is pointing. The key to hitting this shot requires you to swing along the top two tees just to the right of the target, with a closed face.

 

A quick drill to learn how to swing

Swivel, THEN release. You’ve probably heard a lot about releasing the hands, and you may have heard how better players are able to release their hands faster than average players. Hmm, too bad that isn’t true! Touring professionals and low handicappers alike don’t release their hands as soon as you might think. The reality is, they know how to SWIVEL their hands through impact BEFORE they release their hands.



What’s a “swivel”? Simply put, it’s the rotation of the hands through impact. Look at the sequence on the opposite page. I’ve swiveled my hands before releasing them (releasing my hands means allowing my forearms to cross like you see on this page). By swivelling first, I can maintain a better extension of my arms, which usually indicates more power and control. If you try to release the club too soon, you’ll likely hit a lot more fat and thin shots, not to mention shots that veer left or right.



Practice in slow motion and swivel the hands to square the clubface at impact before you release, which should happen once the arms reach waist high on the followthrough. If you do this, you’ll not only learn how your swing should look, but also feel a sense of power and consistency you probably haven’t had before.

Stay on plane, before and after. Some players, like Jim Furyk and Fred Couples, can get away with having extremely upright backswing positions, only to reroute the clubshaft back on plane at the peak of the backswing and into the downswing. But, for most of us, we’re much better off trying to keep on plane during the backswing and forwardswing. To get on plane, check your position at two-thirds of the way into your backswing and see if the shaft points toward the ball. If it points away from the ball, you’re too flat. If it points between you and the ball, you’re too upright. Get the butt of the grip pointing toward the ball (it doesn’t have to be precise), and concentrate on keeping this plane consistent by avoiding any extra droop or bend in the arms and hands.

A quick drill to learn how to swivel. Are you still reeling over my advice on swivelling before you release? If so, try this simple drill. Position a stick or a club to your side, as I’ve done above, and practice some knee-high to knee-high swings, focusing on squaring the clubface with your body rotating as it should and also by swivelling your hands. As the body rotates and the hands swivel, you’ll see there’s less need to try to force the hands to release and flip over.

In fact, flipping the hands too soon is a common problem for better players who either stop rotating the body or who don’t swivel their hands. As you pitch the ball forward, let the club nick the shaft or stick you have in the ground. Check to see where your clubhead is facing (it should be square or slightly closed, and your body should be rotated as mine is). The shaft in the ground marks the point where I should release the hands. Also, watch how the best players in the world can extend and release with such vigor. Next time you tune in to an event on TV, watch Tiger (as if you aren’t doing that already), and pause your DVR after he hits. His arms extend as well as anyone’s, further proving he swivels before he releases.

The pershot routing

FAST FACT!

Emotionally charged events or information (whether good or bad) burn a more significant imprint on the brain than nonemotional events. So every time you react with frustration to a mis-hit shot, you make it harder to concentrate in the moment.



Most golfers think a preshot routine involves only taking a practice swing, aiming at your target and then swinging, but it has a bigger purpose: to prepare a golfer to hit his shot successfully. This demands both a mental and physical routine.



During the mental routine, take in your environment: the lie, hazards, wind, yardage and target; then analyze what the shot requires. Say you’re 142 yards out, your ball is in the fairway, and the pin is tucked over a bunker. There’s a 10 mph wind into you. At this stage, you need to make a decision, based on your skills, about which club and shot is required.



Next, rehearse the swing you plan to make. If it requires a ¾ 7-iron, take a ¾ practice swing so that it simulates your actual shot. I call this the “feel stage” of the preshot routine. Its purpose is to help you commit to your shot.



Once you’ve rehearsed your swing, it’s time for the real thing. Set up to the ball and shift your focus to the target. This is the time to quiet your mind and react to the target. Finally, make a swing with your target in mind.

After most players hit a shot, they usually take a moment to react to it (often verbally and not always with words that I can repeat here) and either walk away pleased or frustrated. Riding an emotional roller coaster like this can do damage to your confidence. A proper postshot routine, however, will minimize your emotional reactions and help to prepare you for your next shot.



After you hit a poor shot, first figure out if it happened because of a mental or physical error. Mental errors include being distracted, lacking confidence and never committing to the shot. Physical errors are swing flaws such as bad alignment, an open or shut clubface, poor weight transfer and incorrect swing path.



If your shot happened because of a mental error, remind yourself that you, and only you, are in control of when you make a swing. Don’t swing until you’re ready. If it were a physical error, understand the cause and effect of the shot pattern. If the ball went right, then simply say to yourself, “I left the clubface open.” Then rehearse the swing you wanted to make. The goal is to walk away from your shot and understand what happened.



The problem many golfers suffer from is that they get mad after a poor shot and don’t learn from it. This makes it more likely that the poor shot will be repeated. By making a practice swing after a poor shot, you’ll forget about the shot and shift your focus to the next one

Hold your finish

After your swing, hold your finish for at least three seconds without reacting to the result. Don’t talk to the ball, call yourself any names or use any negative body language. Just watch the ball and hold your finish. Reacting to a shot’s result wears on your emotions.



If you have a hot temper and complain about every shot, compose yourself. Start by doing this postshot routine. Hold your finish without a reaction. It’ll take some time, but you’ll play better and have more energy at the end of your round.

Many golfers let one bad shot ruin a hole because they try (and usually fail) to pull off a difficult shot to get out of trouble. The next time you find yourself with a difficult shot, ask yourself if the reward is worth the risk. Is it worth trying to save one shot, when you might add on a couple more? Consider your skill level and honestly assess what your chances are of pulling it off.



Consider the situation I’m in here. My ball is behind a tree, and there’s a small gap under its branches. I could go directly at the pin, but I might hit the branch, or I could hit a little to the left and avoid trouble altogether. The safer play to the left might leave me with a 20-foot putt, but I’ll be on the green with my putter in hand. If I risk it and go at the pin and hit the tree, I’ll have to hit another pitch shot, and the chances of getting up and down decreases.



I ended up playing it safe. The risk was not worth the reward. I’ll leave the green feeling confident and hope to bounce back on the next hole.