How To Hit it Straight

20 09 2011

Hitting the ball straight is one of the biggest challenges facing every golfer.  There are so many variables that go into hitting it straight that it is a wonder we ever hit the ball straight at all.  In fact most tour players prefer to curve the ball in order to get it to the target.  Jack Nicklaus liked to fade the ball while Tom Watson likes to draw the ball.  Very few tour players try to hit the ball perfectly straight once they are hitting clubs longer than an eight iron.  Today’s equipment makes hitting the ball straight more feasible, nevertheless, it is a challenge.  I believe every golfer should know what it takes to hit it straight. The closer you get, the less curve you will get on your ball and your direction control will improve.

So what does it take to hit the ball straight?  Correct aim, a square clubface, and a centered hit are all part of the equation.  The last variable is club path and that may be the least understood by the average player.  The reason is that the swing is an inclined circle, like slightly tilted a hula hoop.  This means that as you hit down on a ball you will be striking the ball earlier on the circle which means your path will moving to the right at impact.  Conversely, when you hit up on the ball, the later you are hitting on the circle and the more left your path is moving at impact.  In short, the attack angle directly affects the path.  My video on how to hit it straight illustrates the adjustments necessary to neutralize your club path with different attack angles.

The one thing to remember is that every ball struck from the ground requires a downward strike to hit it solidly and straight.  Hitting up on a ball that is on the ground will result in a miss-hit.  When you tee the ball up, it is to your advantage to hit up on the ball as it will minimize the spin rate and give you more distance.  Although you can get away with hitting down on your driver I do not recommend it as it will increase your spin rate and cost you distance.

Just like it is difficult to learn the golf swing from a book, I will leave the aforementioned formula for hitting it straight to your local PGA teaching professional.  But remember that just working on aim, face and center hits will help, but understanding the concept of path as it relates to attack angle will be the final piece in the puzzle.

Josh Zander


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Categories : ball flight, full swing, game improvement, golf, golf instruction, video

Trap your Wedges

3 05 2011

Trap it! No, that doesn’t mean put it in the trap. It means that great wedge players trap the ball between the clubface and the ground. The compression they create leads to wonderful distance control.

The biggest mistake I see amateurs make is to make full swings with their wedges and hit sky balls. Their distance control is too variable. The same swing with a 56 degree wedge  might produce anywhere from a 60 to 100 yard shot. This is not acceptable. After all, you are relying on your wedge to put you in range to make a putt and make a birdie or save par.

The reason for this inconsistent distance is because of the loft on the wedge. The increased loft leads to the ball rolling up the clubface at impact. This is much like what Phil Mickelson wants when he takes a full swing with a lob wedge and hits the ball 10 feet. Well, we don’t want this when we are trying to hit an 75 yard wedge shot. Tour players de-loft the clubface 20 degrees when they hit their wedges into greens from 75 to 125 yards. That means that they are turning their 56 degree club into a 36 degree club which makes the loft more like a 7 iron. The ball comes off with a penetrating flight and stops quickly due to backspin.

Make sure your technique is fundamentally sound with your wedges. First, make sure you keep your weight more on your front foot when you hit. As a right-handed golfer, I think about turning around my left leg. This guarantees that I will hit the golf ball before I hit the ground. This compression leads to very solid contact. Secondly, make a shallow 3/4 type swing into the ball. This shallower angle helps the ball rebound off the face as opposed to crawling up the face. Lastly, come into impact with a forward leaning shaft which de-lofts the clubface. This results in fantastic distance control. Never make full, all out, swings with your wedges. There is no need to. After all, if you need more distance, there is always a longer club you can use.


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Grip it and Rip it

23 03 2011

Before you can rip it, you have to grip it. There are so many ways to grip the golf club and you need to find the one that works best for you. My recommendation is to match your grip to your desired ball flight. If you like to draw the ball, you should favor a stronger grip. If you want to fade the ball, go with a weaker grip. The “old school” way of shaping shots was to make the same swing and just change your grip on the club. I heard Nick Faldo one time making fun of Colin Montgomery’s golf academy. I am paraphrasing but he basically said, what they teach you there is turn your hands one way to hook it, turn your hands the other way to fade it and somewhere in the middle is straight. Now that will be $1,000! Can it be that simple? That might me a slight oversimplification because there are so many other factors involved but the concept is very true.

For those of you who have read my blogs before, you know that as an instructor, I will only make an adjustment to a student’s technique if it improves the ball flight or the quality of the impact. If you are already hitting it solidly and straight, don’t change your grip! Just because it is not neutral does not mean it is wrong. Paul Azinger and Freddy Couples both have extremely strong grips and they hit it great. I hope they never change. The golf swing is a mixture of all kinds of angles and in Paul and Freddy’s case, the strong grip matches the other aspects of their swings creating a neutral impact and a correct ball flight.

I want to make this blog helpful so if you don’t have an instructor, follow these simple recommendations as to when to change your grip:

Make your grip stronger if:

1. You are slicing

2. You have thin contact

Make your grip weaker if:

1. You are hooking

2. You have deep divots

Your grip is your one connection to the club. Making a change can be a difficult experience. If you decide to make the change, bring a club into your house and do your repetitions away from the golf course.

Now go grip it and rip it!


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Categories : ball flight, full swing, game improvement, golf, golf instruction, video

Posture

17 12 2010

Maintaining your posture is known as an important fundamental to a good golf swing. I completely agree with that statement with one exception. It is only important to maintain your posture if you have a “one plane” swing. A one plane swing has your left arm on the same plane as your shoulders at the top of your backswing. This is more commonly known as a flat or more rounded golf swing. You can almost think of this as a baseball swing that needs to be bent over in order to hit the ground.

If you have a “two plane” swing or more upright golf swing, please do not maintain your posture! Your left arm is in a higher position at the top of your backswing which already gives you an angle to hit the ground. Bending over during the downswing will lead to deep divots. You should also stand more upright at address if you have a two plane swing.

When you watch a video, read an instruction book or receive a tip, make sure it will help you with your impact or ball flight or it is not for you. There are many fundamentals out there that apply to different types of golf swings. It is up to your PGA professional to clear up the confusion and guide you on the correct path. Next time you take a lesson, tell your instructor about your impact and ball flight. Armed with this information, your teacher can help you understand the fundamentals that apply to you.


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A Simple Lesson Learned from Stats

29 07 2010

The coach from a top women’s golf program was talking the other day about how the detailed statistics from MySmartGolf helped one of her players in a very simple but important way.  This particular player was not getting up and down from off the green as often as a player of her ability should.  That could have been seen using any stat program but only a unique feature of MySmartGolf pinpointed the problem.  The shot tracking showed very clearly that virtually all of the player’s chip shots finished short of the hole.  This was a simple problem with a simple solution which the player quickly addressed.  As a result, her up and down percentage increased accordingly.  Sometimes we just need someone or something to help point out the important information and MySmartGolf can do that.

Most golf statistics programs tell you only what percentage of the time you get up and down successfully.  MySmartGolf gives you much more information such as where your short game shots finish and why.  This is the information you need in order to improve your short game.


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Categories : chip shot, game improvement, golf, golf instruction, mental game, short game

Accuracy

3 07 2010

Most people think about accuracy as missing left and right.  The truth is that you need to look at accuracy in three dimensions.  Missing short and long is as common as missing left and right.  In the short game where misses left and right are less common than in the long game, distance control is what separates low handicap golfers from the rest.  I’d rather miss a short game shot 3 feet left but pin high than 4 feet short and online.  I’m better from three feet than four and I’m sure you are too!

We can’t ignore that distance control and direction control are in fact, inter-related.  Left misses for right handed players tend to go longer as the clubface is de-lofted when closed.  Conversely, right misses tend to go shorter as the clubface has more loft when it is open.  Golf course architects take this into account when they are designing golf holes.  For example, the short 12th hole at Augusta tends to be the hardest on the course relative to its par.  Why is this?  Well, the green is designed where it penalizes a shot that goes long left (into the azaleas) or short right (Ray’s Creek).  So if a right-handed player does not hit it with a square face, his misses are severely penalized.  Phil Mickelson and Mike Weir play the 12th hole at Augusta very well.  After all, a lefty’s miss on this hole ends up just fine.

The bottom line is that both distance control and direction control are important.  However, you should try to hit the ball solidly in order to get the ball pin high.  When you are sitting 175 yards from the hole, you are looking to get the ball in the hole in three shots.  If you get it down in two, it’s a bonus.  In order to get it down in three, solid contact is the most important thing and solid contact comes from getting your divot past the ball.  I work on this with my students all the time.  Contact your local professional and have him teach you how to get the bottom of your swing arc past the ball and you will compress the ball and make that great sound you hear when a tour player strikes the golf ball.

When people ask me about my teaching philosophy, my answer is short and simple.  There are so many different ways to play golf successfully.  The bottom line is that anything I say about your swing needs to positively affect the quality of your impact position.  Next time you are struggling and your playing partner offers you advice, ask him how this will improve your impact.  If the answer makes sense, go for it.  If not, see you PGA professional and ask him the same question before you adjust your swing.  I do not like the idea of taking a lesson and getting worse before you get better.  You should get better right away!


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