GOLF INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE
ESSENTIAL LESSONS FROM THE BEST IN THE GAME
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JONATHAN YARWOOD PETE COWEN // ANDREW HALL RORY McILROY // IAN POULTER www.golfinternationalmag.com
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GOLF INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE
CONTENTS
ESSENTIAL READING FROM THE BEST IN THE GAME
10, Buckingham Place, London SW1E 6HX Tel: +44 (0)20 7828 3003 Editor: Richard Simmons
Editor in Chief: Robert Green
richard@golfinternationalmag.com robert@golfinternationalmag.com
Equipment Editor: Dominic Pedler dominic@golfinternationalmag.com
Design: Tony Seagrave
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Professional Teaching Panel: Robert Baker, Tim Barter, Peter Cowen, Jim Christine, Andrew Hall, Simon Holmes, Paul Hurrion, Stuart Morgan, Denis Pugh, Stuart Smith, David Whelan & Jonathan Yarwood
DIY: A CRASH COURSE IN THE BASICS With easy-to-follow advice that you can work on this weekend, Jonathan Yarwood helps you to unravel the mystery behind the fundamentals of the grip and posture before demonstrating easy exercises that will help you blend arms and body for a repeating swing
Regular Contributors: Clive Agran, Peter Alliss, Colin Callander, Jeremy Chapman, Tom Cox, Anthony ffrench-Constant, Richard Gillis, John Hopkins, Tony Johnstone, Kevin McGimpsey, David Purdie, Ronan Rafferty, Paul Trow, Jake Ulrich
Photographers: David Cannon, Peter Dazeley, Andrew Redington, Getty Images, Charles Briscoe-Knight, Matthew Harris, Eric Hepworth Regular Illustrators: Peter Clark, Harold Riley, Dave F. Smith Tony Husband (www.tonyhusband.co.uk)
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SO YOU WANT TO BE MORE CONSISTENT? A consistent ball flight – it’s what we’re all striving for. And whether your tendency is to hook or slice, top Gi teaching pro Andrew Hall can help you to understand why and prescribe the fixes that will get you back on to the straight and narrow
Check out our website today for the latest details on our 2010 golf schools programme...
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IN ASSOCIATION WITH LEVEL 4 ATTITUDE ATTITUDE PRE-SHOT ROUTINE PRACTICE DRILLS AND PETE COWEN "SIGNATURE EXERCISES" LEVEL 3 POWER HAND/EYE CO-ORDINATION ANGLE OF ATTACK • SPEED & PRESSURE
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LEVEL 2 DYNAMIC MOVEMENT BALANCE • BODY ACTION • ARM SWING HAND ACTION • PATH & PLANE
LEVEL 1 SOLID FOUNDATIONS
NATURAL BORN WINNER Rory McIlroy’s immense talent was first brought to worldwide attention at Carnoustie in 2007, where, as a 16year-old, he finished the leading amateur and appeared totally at ease in the company of the world’s elite. Now 20, and with a debut victory under his belt, the boy from Northern Ireland is a true superstar. Here, Rory shares his swing thoughts while Jeremy Bennett highlights the lessons you can learn from the new world No.10
AIM • STANCE • POSTURE ARM HANG AND GRIP • BODY POSITION
THE PYRAMID OF LEARNING
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PART ONE Gi is delighted to count top tour coach Pete Cowen as one of its regular contributors. Here, the man who looks after European No.1 Lee Westwood reveals his principles behind his unique ‘Pyramid of Learning’ concept, starting with the grip, alignment & posture
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HOW TO PRACTICE LIKE A TOUR PRO It’s no secret: the quickest way to shooting consistently lower scores is to invest time and effort in the short game. Gi travelled to Lake Nona, Orlando, where Ian Poulter revealed the thoughts and the practice habits that keep him sharp www.ianpoulter.com
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ADVANCED SAND PLAY LESSON: “THE RIPPLE EFFECT” Published for the first time in any golf magazine in Gi’s October ’07 issue, leading tour coach Pete Cowen reveals his theory for pro-standard bunker play – the ‘Ripple Effect’. So sit back, enjoy, and prepare to transform your sand-save stats...
ITS ALL ABOUT PUTTING Direct from his academy headquarters at The Concession Golf Club, in Sarasota, Florida, Jonathan Yarwood demonstrates a series of drills and exercises that will enable you to hone a tour-standard technique jygolfacademy.com
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PART TWO Having dealt with the fundamentals in part 1, Pete Cowen moves on to phase 2 in his ‘Pyramid of Learning’, in which he highlights the dynamics of a good body action and explains the importance of identifying the ‘balance points’ in the body www.petecowen.com
Don’t miss your next lesson... Pete Cowen’s complete ‘Pyramid of Learning’ series – parts 1-4 – can be enjoyed in full online at www.golfinternationalmag.com
View the Best Instruction on the Planet... online now! www.golfinternationalmag.com This exclusive supplement can be viewed online in a page-turning digital format (you can also download it to your desktop or PC) at the Gi website, where you will also find further extensive instruction from the magazine’s unrivalled panel of experts along with regular news headlines, interviews and top golf stories Gi // THE BEST INSTRUCTION ON THE PLANET 5
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ESSENTIAL LESSONS FOR A SOLID SWING
DIY By Jonathan Yarwood
While we can perhaps excuse tour players for wanting to explore their technique in some detail, it is my contention that the majority of amateur golfers generally do themselves more harm than good when it comes to the pursuit of detailed information which, ultimately, they simply do not need. Good golf is natural golf – and if you follow a few basic rules you will discover that this game need not be as complicated as you think. What’s more, you will play better golf the more simply you think about what you are doing. Now I’ve stuck my neck on the line, let me give you a crash course in the essential skills you need to go out and make a solid swing.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGES SHOT ON LOCATION AT DONNINGTON GROVE
1
3
Club runs low in the left hand, from the base of the little finger to the first joint in the forefinger
With your left arm and the club held out to the side, towards the target, bring your right hand in from ‘beneath’ the grip. This will assist you in fitting the right hand correctly
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Pinch the left thumb ‘short’ as you close the hand
FITTING HAND: L THE LEFT FINGERSOW IN THE HELP TO WILL THE ‘HIN FREE UP GE’
Good golf begins with a good grip, and in order to maximise your potential for speed, you need a grip that is capable of conducting and multiplying the centrifugal forces created by the body in the process of making a free-flowing swing. The grip is the conduit – the essential go-between that allows the transfer of energy down through the shaft and into the clubhead. When it comes to fitting the left hand, the danger is that you run the grip too high through the palm of the hand, which can lead to a massive loss of mobility in the left wrist. So, as you lay the club into the left hand, make sure that the grip sits low in the fingers, from the base of the little finger through to the first joint on the forefinger (1). Your left thumb should sit just to the right of the centre line as you look down, the V between thumb and forefinger pointing up between your chin and right shoulder (2).
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
ND FITS A H T H RIG TO ‘SNUG’ E THE ET COMPL UNIT Picture 3 reveals a useful trick when it comes to fitting the right hand: with my left hand on the grip, I have raised the club out to my left (toward the target), which then means that my right hand is forced to swing across and ‘under’ to assume its position on the grip. Again, it’s important that the grip fits low in the fingers of the right hand (4), while the thumb and forefinger engage to provide the ‘trigger’ unit (which rewards you with a terrific sense of feel in the swing). With an even grip pressure, the two hands are ready to work together as a unit, enabling you to get speed in the shaft and – ultimately – into the ball.
4
Grip fits in the channel that is created when the fingers on the right hand curl under. The fleshy pad at the base of the right thumb will fit snug on top of the left thumb
5
Rather than focus on the V between the right thumb and forefinger, I simply check to see that the line of the thumb runs between the chin and right shoulder
THE SET HOW TO -UP: GOOD A CREATE READY, ‘ANGLES IN A POSTUR THLETIC’ E
Press down on the shaft as you sit into a good posture. Flex the knees, push your rear out and bend from the hips
With good body angles, your arms hang freely from the shoulders. Weight is balanced on the balls of the feet
One of the reasons good players make generating speed and power look so easy is that they understand the importance of being ‘grounded’. With a stable platform, and with their posture balanced on the balls of their feet, they use the ground to help them wind and unwind their body. One way to get a sense of this type of athleticism as you assume your posture is to stand a club on end and use it as a support as you flex your knees and bend gently from the hips to create the body angles that you need in order to make a good swing. Placing a club (or a piece of 4” x 2”) on the ground will guarantee good alignment of the feet, knees, hips and shoulders.
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To prepare for this exercise, extend the club up through your hands until the butt-end of the grip rests in your belly-button
Keep the club in place as you repeat this first move – so the club, hands, arms and body work together
As you see, this coordinated first move away from the ball will see the clubhead work naturally inside the ball-totarget line
THE ‘L-TO YOUR Q -L’ DRILL: ROUTE TUICKEST A CO-ORO HONING SWING DINATED
If you are serious about the way you practice, go out and get yourself a piece of 4” x 2” and use it as a source of reference when you work on your game. It is invaluable in keeping you aware of your target line 10 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
To maximise the benefits of this exercise, stand with your feet no further apart than you see here. Use a 7-iron and tee the ball up
As you blend your arm-swing with your body turn, hinge your wrists so that you get the club here, pointing up as the left arm reaches the parallel at halfway back
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
R ET YOU S O T HOW SWING ION IN MOT ‘Snatching’ the club away from the ball, or jerking it back with the hands, are among the most common faults in golf. They immediately destroy any hope of a smooth chain-reaction from start to finish. What you need to understand is that the seeds to a good swing are sown in the first move – and the key is that you set the club in motion with the shoulders, arms and hands working together in harmony. Extending the butt-end of the club up into your belly-button, as I am demonstrating here, creates a good drill to simply rehearse and get a feeling for this ‘connection’.
SIMPLIF SWING PYING USE THISLANE: POINT TO CHECKTRACK KEEP ON A lot of golfers get confused about swing plane, so let’s simplify the issue. When you check your swing on a video, or on your telephone, you want to see the shaft plane fall somewhere within the area we have shaded here – a cone of safety. We are all different height and build, but as long as your clubshaft points within this shaded area at this key halfway back checkpoint, you have the club swinging on a good plane.
A good grip enables you to hinge your wrists to swing the club up in plane. From this position, all you have to do is complete your shoulder turn to arrive at a solid backswing position
The ‘L-to-L’ drill will very quickly help you harmonise the hingeing of your wrists with the turning of the body – and thus develop the heart of a good swing. If you can find time to hit balls doing this for 20 minutes just once a week you will experience a big improvement in the shape of your swing, the quality of your striking and the flight of the ball
Smooth and unhurried, unwind to ‘collect’ the ball off the peg. There is no need to hit ‘at’ the ball; simply let it get in the way as you swing the weight of the clubhead
This crossover of the forearms and wrists is a key feature of a good swing. The right arm straightens as the club is released and the wrists hinge the club up on its way to the finish
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Feel that athletic posture as you rest gently against your golf bag, and then try to maintain that contact as you turn your hips and rotate your shoulders
Start the club just ahead of the ball, then build on the momentum as you let it fall and swing into the backswing
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Right knee and thigh absorb the weight shift as you complete your body pivot. Note that the spine angle is maintained
Encourage this full ‘setting’ of the wrists to get the club swinging up as you turn away from the target
Full body pivot completes the backswing
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Unwinding the coil from the ground up reverses your momentum, and your rear end will naturally want to move away from the bag as your body opens up to the target
‘Collect’ the ball as you unwind and free-wheel to a full and balanced finish
Aim to finish with your chest facing left of the target – that’s a good, dynamic body action
PUTTING OK, so let’s summarise the IT lesson so far. You now TOGETH ALL ER: HOW have the basics of a good T B L E N D working grip, one that BODY-PIV O OT AND ARM enables the wrists to S W I N hinge and ‘set’ correctly G in the swing, you understand that a good first move trifugal forces generated by the sees the arms, hands and the club rotation of your body down through work away from the ball ‘together’ the clubshaft into the ball. and – with the help of the ‘L-to-L’ Alternating between the L-to-L drill – you have a sense of the way drill, the pivot drill (above) and this a good wrist hinge sort of provides full-swing exercise (left) will help the ‘oil’ that gels the whole motion you to combine the elements that together with a swinging rhythm. go together to produce a good golf Now let’s complete the body swing. Ideally, I would suggest action. The drill you see above – spending five minutes hitting balls the basic pivot drill – will simply working on the L-to-L drill, then a help you to appreciate the role of couple of minutes rehearsing the the bigger muscles in the body body pivot (in slow motion to really when it comes to turning first away ingrain the feelings of turning and from and then towards the target. unwinding properly) and then five Think of this body action as the minutes on this full-swing routine. framework that governs a solid, Focus on the rhythm and timing of repeating swing. The arms, hands your swing so that you plant the and the club go along for the ride, clubhead squarely on the ball. while your grip transfers the cenGi // THE BEST INSTRUCTION ON THE PLANET 13
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HOW TO FE A BETTE EL RR AND INC HYTHM REASE YOUR S PEED
Take a mid iron in your right hand (or left if you are a left-handed player) and make this ‘pencil’ grip between the thumb and forefinger. This will give you a terrific sense of feel for the weight of the clubhead, while the ‘looseness’ of the grip will see to it that you are unable to ‘over-control’ the movement of the club – which results in you developing a real sense of building up clubhead speed with a natural swinging action
In a good posture, the right hand takes the ‘pencil’ grip, while the left is placed on the sternum – your swing ‘centre’
Feel your body ‘centre’, arm and club move away together. The clubhead stays low to the ground for the first few feet of its journey
LET IT ‘FLOW’: REHEARSE THIS EXERCISE BOTH ON THE RANGE AND OUT ON THE COURSE
...and the result of that ‘lag’ can be seen here – a significant rate of acceleration into the downswing
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Passive through the transition, the upper body is now unwinding hard, creating the centrifugal force that speeds the arm and clubhead
Wrist has delayed in releasing for as long as possible but now the force is irresistible and the final ‘whip’ is applied for impact
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Body continues to rotate, while the right arm swings freely – the clubhead gathers speed and momentum as it swings up
As you reach the top of the swing, you want to feel that you are at the same time in the process of preparing to start back down. Like cracking a whip, this recoil effect creates clubhead ‘lag’ as the wrist loads...
TO IMPROVE YOUR FEEL FOR THE CLUBHEAD – AND YOUR POTENTIAL FOR SPEED
All of the energy that has been created in the swing is released down the line towards the target
Body rotates all the way to a full finish, the right shoulder pointing at the target (your chest to the left of it), while the clubshaft is up and over the left shoulder
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YOU WANT TO BE MORE
By Andrew Hall PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW REDINGTON/GETTY IMAGES
If you want to play with a more consistent shape of shot, then you need to learn to relate both your swingpath and your clubface position to this white line – the ball-to-target line – at the point of impact. Whether you get yourself a can of white spray paint, as I have, or simply place a club on the ground when you go out to practice, relating your technique to that line – your target line – is key. Consistency at every level is perhaps the greatest challenge for a golfer. An accomplished player would hit a mid-iron and expect to flight the majority of his shots into this ‘cone of consistency’ that we have highlighted on this image (right). I’m using a 6iron and that would be a good target for me. A top tour player would shrink the cone further still – the level of accuracy required at the highest level in the game is frightening. But what about the typical amateur player? Well, as a coach I am very used to hearing my pupils tell me that they hit it 20 yards left of the target one minute and 30 yards right the next. In other words, that cone of dispersion can be 50 yards wide! If you can relate to that scenario then our objectives are pretty clear: we need to reduce the dispersion pattern to a point where we can begin to feel a level of consistency in the ball-flight. The first step is to properly identify your own tendencies. Typically, the player who is prone to a big slice with the longer clubs will also pull the odd mid- to short irons; the player who hooks the ball, meanwhile, will occasionally fight the ‘block’ shot way out to the right. The good news is that both of these faults can be easily remedied – as long as you fix them in the right order. Over the following pages I’m going to show you how.
CONS STENT? 16 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
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IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Whether you favour a gentle left-to-right or a right-to-left ball flight, ideally, you want the ball to start and finish inside this cone
For the average player, I would suggest that the cone is approximately 20 yards wide at the 150-yard marker (i.e. the width of a typical green), and 30 yards wide at the 200-yard post, which is about the width of a fairway
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FIXING THE FACE: The position of the hands/grip pressure OK, let’s start with the most common and frustrating fault in golf: the slice. If you habitually slice and/or pull the ball then you’ll be familiar with a shot that either starts left of the cone and stays there (a ‘pull’, typically with the shorter clubs) or the one that starts left of the cone and finishes to the right of it – a slice. Both of these faults stem from a swing that approaches the ball from outsideto-in – i.e. across the target line (right). When the hands release the club, the clubface matches the path at impact and the ball is pulled left; when the hands fail to respond the clubface is open in relation to the path of the swing through impact and the ball flies with a weak, left to-right spin. The clue to fixing these related problems is to first understand that you will not impart spin on the ball
OVER AND OUT... The slicer typically swings severely across the target line with this outside-to-in action, the right shoulder moving forward at the start if the downswing. A weak grip often compounds the problem, and so the first thing to do is check the position of your hands on the club. Moving the hands to the right ‘softens’ the right arm in to the side, which automatically improves your swing-path. It also enhances your upper body position at address, as you see in the inset
if the clubface and the path agree. The best way to go about correcting this fault is to first turn the two faults into one – in other words, if you slice the ball, the first step in the correction process is to give you a consistent pull – a shot that flies straight left without sidespin. To do that, we first need to look at the grip. Typically, slicers of the
Run the club low in the fingers of the left hand, and see at least three knuckles when you close it
ball tend to display a ‘weak’ grip – i.e. their hands are too far to the left on the club. So we need to turn the hands into a stronger position.Try and get the grip low towards the middle of your fingers, and see more of the back of the left hand, at least three knuckles. The V’s should point more to the right shoulder than the chin.
The V’s should point up between the chin and your right shoulder
Free up your wrist action Once you have strengthened your grip, I want you to take a club and simply rehearse this ‘release’ motion with a half-swing. Develop the sense of accelerating the clubhead with the hands and forearms as you turn back and through. Hear the ‘swish’
The immediate benefit of making that adjustment to your grip is that the hands and arms can now react to the weight of the swinging clubhead – and with the stronger grip the clubface is going to close over a lot more easily as you swing it through impact. The feeling here, on the half-swing exercise above, is ‘heavy arms, heavy club’. In other words, while your grip pressure feels nice and light
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Regarding grip pressure, if 10 is the tightest you can grip it, I want you to take it down to a 3 or 4 on the scale. Not only will that enhance your feel (the club should feel heavy in your hands) it will enliven your wrists and forearms to make a better natural swinging motion. The result? More speed and a better release as the club squares up to match the path of your swing through impact
your arms and the club itself should feel quite heavy. Look at the way that my right forearm is rotating through the ball, the clubface closing over – for anyone who slices the ball, this is a terrific first step in the process of turning two faults into one. In other words, as you learn to release the club correctly every time, the face will match the path of your swing and you will turn your slice into a pull with every club
in the bag: a straight, dead-solid pull. You will enjoy a solid contact (because the face and the path now agree), and your shots will fly farther. As you feel comfortable with this action, the logical next step is to look at ways of fixing the swingpath – to gradually turn your out-to-in path to the desired inside-to-square-to-inside path that I talked about earlier. A couple of drills will help you (right).
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FIX THE SWINGPATH: Train for the inside approach
Without a ball, get the feeling of swinging the club back gradually inside that white line, just missing the cane
The arms and hands then fall naturally down to swing the club inside the cane on the way back
Releasing the right forearm over the left will give you the desired symmetry on the way through
Angle the cane a clublength back from the ball position
As you prepare to work on fixing your swingpath, first think about your set-up position. Pay particular attention to the alignment of your upper body. Check that your shoulders are square to the line on the ground, or even slightly closed (i.e. aiming a little to the right of the ball-to-target line – after all, that’s the direction that you, as a slicer of the ball, must learn to swing the club in. A slightly closed shoulder position
Feeling is of the arms and the club falling/ dropping behind you, the upper body very quiet, the right shoulder ‘back’ and ‘under’
will encourage the inside attack). The drill you see above will help you to get a feel for a swing that works on the desired neutral path. All you need is a cane, which you stick in the ground a club-length back from the ball, angled slightly steeper than the clubshaft at the set up. With the cane in place, take your set up and make a few rehearsal swings, aiming to clip a tee-peg out of the ground. Naturally you
And here’s the result: ball starts in the right segment of the cone and will draw back to the centre line as the forearms release
will be conscious of the cane situated to your right, and clearly your objective is to avoid it as you make your swing. From the top of the backswing, you want to feel that your arms and right shoulder drop, working down and under, which will allow you to deliver the club along the desired inside path. After a few dry runs, put a ball on a tee-peg and step up a gear – as you see below.
Related exercises? In tandem with this drill, I would recommend that you also try to spend some time practising with the ball positioned slightly above the level of your feet, which will help you feel a more rounded action. This promotes the feeling of drawing the ball, and it’s exactly what top coach Butch Harmon prescribed for Greg Norman back in the 1980s – and it turned Greg into one of the straightest hitters and all-time great drivers of the ball in the history of the game
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GROOVING THE NATURAL SWINGPATH – work that line for a repeating action
At set up, body lines relate nicely to the ball-totarget line
To re-cap: if you are a slicer of the ball we’ve established that you first have to strengthen your grip to help square the clubface in relation to the path along which you tend to swing the golf club (i.e. out-to-in) so that you can hit a consistent pull – AND THAT’S OK. The fact that you are hitting the ball straight left indicates that you are releasing the club through the ball and the clubface is square to the path along which it is travelling. For me, that’s the first and most important part of the correction. Moving on to the path itself, the cane drill on the previous page is one that will, over time, encourage you to swing the club on a more neutral inside-to-square-
The right shoulder stays back and works ‘under’ as you start down; arms and hands fall into a good hitting position
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First move is key: the arms, hands and the club work on the natural inside path
Keeping that grip pressure nice and light, the wrists are free to hinge the club up
to-inside line. This is the end game – a swingpath that relates to the target line, inside-to-square to-inside, with a clubface that is square to the path as it meets the ball. The result? Minimal spin, more solid ball-striking, a narrowing of the dispersion pattern and improving consistency. When you look at this sequence you can see that the club is never across the line – all the action takes place on the inside of the play line. Both back and through. From the set up, the club moves gradually inside and upwards all the way to the top and it’s interesting to look at and compare the position of the hands at the top of the backswing and again at the finish: nicely over the right shoulder at the top of the
Rotation of the body squares up the clubface for impact
Hands are above the tip of right shoulder at the top, club on line
backswing and over the left shoulder at the finish. A mirror image – that’s your goal. The drill on the right follows on from the cane exercise. Strategically placing two headcovers on the ground you create a staggered corridor that demands you swing the club through the impact area along the desired path if you are to avoid making contact with either. The rear headcover is just outside the play line, blocking an out-to-in attack; the forward cover is just inside the line, encouraging you to swing the club to the right of the target line through impact and to the finish. These swingpath drills will help you to start the ball in the right half of the cone with a pleasing right-to-left draw spin.
Committed release of the hands and the club – again on the desired inside path
Hands arive above the left shoulder at the finish, while the body turns to face left of target
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
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The rear headcover blocks the outside-to-in approach, while the forward headcover encourages a release that is down the target line, if not slightly to the right of it. In other words, this simple drill eliminates the swing tendencies that plague 100% of all golfers who slice the ball. And here’s the result: the ball starts in the right segment of the cone and will draw back to the centre line as the forearms release naturally
Gi // THE BEST INSTRUCTION ON THE PLANET 21
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ON THE PLANET For the better player it is generally the other way around – the hook is led by the swingpath. The more correct and dynamic the swing becomes, then the more the club will tend to naturally arrive more from the inside. The player then develops an over-active hand action in an effort to manipulate and close the clubface to bring the ball back to the target. Fixing the path, in this case, will train the hands to ultimately respond to the correct swingpath – replacing hand manipulation with the correct hand action.
No! The path of the swing is too much from inside-to-out
NEUTRALISE YOUR GRIP Now let’s turn our attention to the golfer with a tendency to hook the ball. Firstly it’s important to understand that you will only hook the ball if you deliver the clubface closed at impact. And, in my experience, the majority of hookers also display a ‘strong’ grip, where the hands are positioned too far to the right on the handle, causing the closed clubface during the swing. A typical compensation is to swing the club too much from the inside of the play line, with the hands, arms and body ‘fighting’ to hold the clubface open through impact to stop the ball going left. This will cause the ball to start well outside the right edge of your cone (and stay there if the clubface is held square to that path), or, if the hands and arms release naturally, the strong grip will close the clubface over the ball, imparting severe right to left spin. [Hence the saying ‘if you have a strong grip, the last thing you want is a good swing!’] Again you must sort the fault in the correct order – fix the face first, then the swing-path. So take a look at your grip. You don’t want to see the right hand creeping underneath the shaft. The palm of the hand must face in the direction of play. You also need to see only two knuckles when you look down at your left hand, the ‘V’ pointing more towards your chin. Weakening the grip will rid you of the closed face and your hook will disappear, leaving you with just the one bad shot, a consistent push to the right – now is the time to fix the path. 22 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
This drill offers a terrific way to neutralise a swing that is too much from the inside. All you need is a shoe box, which you place just to the right of your right foot, midway between your feet and ball-to-target line. With the inside path back to the ball now effectively blocked, your focus has to be on making a swing that delivers the club outside the box. A feeling of the heel leading the toe through impact further helps you to replace your hook with a fade
Again, check that your set up angles relate to the white line – i.e. the ball-totarget line
Get your left hand in a good neutral position before you apply it to the club
With two knuckles visible, the V points up to your chin
Palm of right hand faces in the direction of the target
This is the opposite of the headcover drill we looked at on the previous page: the rear shoe box is placed inside the line (to block a swing that is too much from the inside) while the forward box is placed outside the target line, where it will encourage the habitual hooker to swing through inside and to the left of the target. In other words, it encourages the out-to-in swingpath you need to neutralise right-to-left spin
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
TO R W U K O O H XY O FI O H
Arms, hands and the club work together to get swing started on the right path
Full shoulder turn and threequarter armswing is a good combination
Hands passive, with a feeling of the heel leading the toe-end of the club through the ball = fade
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX! The two drills that you see here both work for the simple reason they deny you access to the swingpath that is currently your habit. Starting with the single shoe box drill (above), placing the box between my feet and the ball-totarget line blocks out the path of the clubhead from the inside. So, from a good set-up position, your swing must (1) avoid the box on the way back (and you can see here that I have made a one-piece move away from the ball to get the club working on a neutral path) and (2) it must avoid the box on its way back down to impact. If you have been struggling with a hook for some time you will find this difficult at first, and a collision with the box is highly likely. But gradually you will learn to re-calibrate your swing, routing the club on what feels like a pronounced outside path to get back to the ball. The reality, of course, is that you are simply swinging the club on a more neutral swingpath. From the top of the backswing, a feeling of initiating the downswing with the upper body will help you to make this change. You
want to feel your right shoulder and chest moving out and down (as opposed to back and ‘under’, which you can see in the fault above). The result is that the arms and club will swing down more ‘in front’ of the body, missing the box and improving the path of the delivery through the ball. With practice, you will begin to enjoy the freedom and the confidence to start the ball in the left side of the cone and shaping shots with a fade. Having weakened your grip, you also want to feel that the hands are ‘quiet’ through impact. It will also help to think of the heel leading the toe through the ball – another good thought for left-toright spin. To take the exercise a step further, add another shoe box to the right of the target line beyond impact. This will ensure that the club swings back to the inside again on its way to the finish (and not out to the right). You will experience a real feeling of the arms, club and chest going left through impact, which is the way good players describe the feeling of the release – the butt-end of the grip
With practice, you should be able to start the ball on the left edge of the cone and have it fade gently to the right
Gi // THE BEST INSTRUCTION ON THE PLANET 23
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PGA Master Professional, Pete Cowen has a queue of top players vying for his services. Why? Well, simple really. Players who work with Pete seem to develop the winning habit – look no further than the golf Lee Westwood produced in Dubai to win the Order of Merit for the second time and you begin to appreciate the calibre of his services as Europe’s most successful coach. In this exclusive series of articles, which have only ever appeared in Golf International, Pete shares his philosophy on the swing and the methods he uses to help his players develop. Parts 1 & 2 are printed here, while the concluding parts 3 & 4 you will find in the full digital version of this supplement which is now online at the magazine’s website. Later on in this supplement Pete also reveals his highly specialist technique for bunker play – the “Ripple Effect” – but for now, prepare to enjoy an advanced lesson on what it takes to build a sound swing technique from one of the very best coaches in the business. Richard Simmons / Editor
Turning on the style: A long-time student of Pete Cowen, Europe’s No.1 relies on a swing built on solid foundations – and now you can share in those vital lessons
26 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
G NIN EAR OF L
THE PYR AMI D
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
LEVEL 4 ATTITUDE ATTITUDE PRE-SHOT ROUTINE PRACTICE DRILLS AND PETE COWEN "SIGNATURE EXERCISES"
LEVEL 3 POWER HAND/EYE CO-ORDINATION ANGLE OF ATTACK • SPEED & PRESSURE
LEVEL 2 DYNAMIC MOVEMENT BALANCE • BODY ACTION • ARM SWING HAND ACTION • PATH & PLANE
LEVEL 1 SOLID FOUNDATIONS AIM • STANCE • POSTURE ARM HANG AND GRIP • BODY POSITION My philosophy when it comes to teaching golf is very simple, I call it the “Pyramid of Learning”. And when I start to teach new pupils I always use the analogy of building a house. Before you can start to build walls you need to build solid foundations. Before you can add the roof you need to build solid walls. The same principles apply to the golf swing, and my Pyramid of Learning demonstrates how the basis of any good swing depends entirely on solid foundations. Level 1 of the Pyramid concentrates on the basics of the swing: i.e. aim, stance, posture, arm hang, grip and body position relative to the ball. Only when you have mastered all of these basic fundamentals will your game progress to the next level. The Pyramid of Learning will provide a progressive journey through the entire golf
By Pete Cowen PGA MASTER PROFESSIONAL
swing, and includes useful tips, practice drills and exercises for both on and off the golf course. Contrary to the popular saying, practice does not make perfect. PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. Learn and develop the basic principles of the swing and your game will go from strength to strength. Hopefully my Pyramid of Learning will give you a simple and easy guide to successful building a golf swing. It is a technique that has helped many of Europe’s most successful tour players and I am confident it will bring you similar success.
BUILD IT, DON’T FIND IT! By building your golf swing in accordance with the Pyramid of Learning you will learn how to ‘develop’ your golf swing and not ‘find’ it. By achieving constants in your golf swing you will become more consistent in terms of your ability to make and repeat a swing that enables you to hit your target.
By understanding how to put the building blocks in place your practice sessions will become increasingly more productive which – and as a result you will more quickly realise your golfing potential and increase your enjoyment of the game Gi // THE BEST INSTRUCTION ON THE PLANET 27
BEST INSTRUCTION
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AIM Establishing good aim is the start of building good foundations. If you do not learn how to develop good aim then the rest of your swing is compromised. Placing a club on the ground parallel to your ball-to-target line provides a vital source of reference that enables you to guarantee good alignment
As with all aspects of the set-up it is possible to achieve perfect aim and alignment. Attention to detail is vital. Quality is always better than quantity. 10 minutes quality practice will al ways be more productive than endless hours of poor practice. To enable you to practice properly, I suggest you should always practice within a ‘work station’ fea turing clubs on the ground that correspond with your target. The simplest way to construct your work station
is to lay clubs on the ground to correspond with your target line and to provide a perpendicular in dication of the ball position (see example below).
HOW TO BUILD YOUR WORK-STATION
Placing a second club perpendicular to the first helps you to identify the right ball position for the club you are using – and guarantees that you maintain that position as you practise
WORK-STATION
(As below) Place Club A on the ground 6 inches outside the strike area, parallel to the intended line of flight/target line. Place Club B parallel to Club A between the strike area and your intended stance. Place Club C at 90 degrees to Club B, pointing at the strike area. To achieve a square clubface, the club is placed directly behind the ball with the leading edge at 90 degrees to clubs A & B. Your feet, knees, hips, forearms and shoulders should be aligned parallel to Club B. Working within this work station will ensure that your practice drill is 100% productive and will soon give you the overall sensation of square alignment, and therefore perfect aim.
A C B
Spot Alignment Tip Stand behind the ball and pick out a distinctive spot about two feet in front of the ball between the ball and the target. This could be an old divot, a shaded patch of grass or a worm cast – anything that gives you an easier target to focus on. Referring to this line, place the clubface squarely behind the ball and align your feet, hips, forearms and shoulders parallel to this line. 28 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
‘OPEN’
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Use that measurement to determine the ideal width of stance for a Use a club to measure off the exact width of your shoulders
‘SQUARE’
Here is a common alignment fault: the clubface is not at 90 degrees to the target line. The bottom or ‘leading edge’ of the clubface is ‘open’ (i.e. pointing to the right of target line). The likely result? Shots that fly away to the right.
STANCE
‘CLOSED’
This is what you are looking to achieve for a regular straight shot: the leading edge of the clubface is set at 90 degrees (i.e. it’s ‘square’) to the target line.
When the clubface is at less than 90 degrees to the target line it is described as being ‘closed’ (also known as ‘shut’ or ‘hooded’). As a result of this fault, the shot will generally go to the left.
The width of your stance will vary slightly according to the club you are using. As a general guideline (and this will give you a good starting position), I recommend that the stance for a 5 iron should correspond to the width of your shoulders (i.e. the distance between the insides of your heels should equate to the width of the shoulders – as I am demonstrating here). To establish this on the practice tee, take a club, hold it up to your shoulders, measure off the width and then translate that measurement to the ground, so that the insides of your heels are that same distance apart. [Like I say, this is a standard width for a 5-iron; for longer clubs, your stance should be slightly wider and for shorter clubs slightly narrower.] Check your stance regularly when you practise. A wider stance will give you good stability but poor mobility. A narrower stance will give you more mobility but less stability. A common misconception with the stance is to aim your feet, hips and shoulders directly at the target, whereas in fact they should aim ‘parallel left’ to allow for the swing plane. The work station referred to opposite will help you to practise and get used to the sensation of assuming good posture, stance and alignment in relation to the target.
The insides of your heels are now shoulderwidth apart – that’s ideal for the 5-iron
Gi // THE BEST INSTRUCTION ON THE PLANET 29
BEST INSTRUCTION
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A
B
C
Stand in good posture and locate your hip bones
Bend from the hip bones – not from the waist
Flex your knees to achieve perfect balance
POSTURE
‘ARM HANG’ & GRIP
If you can get your posture right then the game will definitely become easier. The reason for this is that your posture controls the ‘balance points’ in your swing, and good balance is vital in helping you develop your game to its full potential.
Once you are in the correct posture, simply let your hands hang freely in front of your body. When you allow your hands to hang naturally and freely, natural forces will enable the arms to swing at their optimum speed and efficiency. Most golfers are taught to take a neutral grip with both thumbs pointing down the middle of the shaft. This is a potential recipe for disaster as a neutral grip
To achieve perfect posture start by placing your thumbs on your hip joints (you can do this with or without holding a club). This ball and socket joint is where you bend, not from the waist as you see many amateurs do.
A
Lean forward putting your weight on the front of your feet and stretch your legs. This will give you the sensation that your heels are coming off the ground.
B
Finally, flex you knees, feeling the pressure on your thighs. This movement will bring the balance to the balls of your feet and calves. This gives you a solid dynamic sensation with balance all around your feet.
C
A common fault is the tendency to sit back on your heels when your knees are flexed. Ensure the sensation of balance is maintained underneath the sternum and onto the balls of your feet.
30 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
FINDING YOUR NATURAL GRIP Having adopted the correct arm-hang position relax the muscles as much as possible. You will find that your arms hang with the palms of both hands naturally facing towards the middle of your body. They will be equally opposing. This means that your arms and hands will be mirror images of each other. This is your unique arm-hang position and will not be the same for everybody.
1
Now squeeze your thumbs against your forefingers. This will highlight the muscle between the thumb and forefinger which keeps the thumb in place during the swing, maintaining constant pressure on the grip
2
With your hands equally opposing, let the thumb of your left hand fit in the groove beneath your right thumb and forefinger.
3
4
Simulate this motion onto the grip of your club. This will give you your natural grip. Regardless of the starting position at address, the hands will always try to find their natural position when in motion. Consequently, achieving a natural grip is paramount to delivering the clubhead squarely to the ball on a repetitive basis.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Having assumed a good posture, let the arms hang freely in front of your body
1
3
2
Let the thumb of your left hand fit snug into the groove at the base of the right thumb
As you draw hands towards each other, squeeze the thumb and forefinger together
Simulate this on a golf club and you have your perfect, natural grip
4 Gi // THE BEST INSTRUCTION ON THE PLANET 31
BEST INSTRUCTION
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The most efficient position of the head and spine is behind the ball at impact...
...which is why it makes perfect sense to establish that relationship at the set up
BODY POSITION – ESTABLISH EFFICIENT IMPACT DYNAMICS AT THE SET-UP Most sports are moving ball sports which rely on instinct and reaction to play them. In a game of tennis or football you automatically place your body in the correct position relative to the ball when hitting or kicking in a certain direction. Imagine playing tennis on an uneven surface. It would be almost impossible to perform well as you would not be able to anticipate where the ball would be when you strike, and therefore unable to assume the correct body position relative to the ball. This would result in you having to make quick changes in your technique to compensate for poor ball/body position. And those compensations invariably spell inconsistency, as it is simply not possible to get the compensations right – especially when under pressure. All of these rules apply equally in golf. Although the ball is static, poor body position in relation to the ball will result in variable compensations in your technique. The most efficient position for the head
32 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
and spine at impact is behind the ball, and thus if you assume this position at address there will be no need to compensate during the swing. This body position will provide two constants which are vital for a sound repetitive motion. So that’s the foundations of the golf swing. You may think you know it all already and your basics are fine, but in my experience they are probably not. Most of the best players in the world check these fundamen-
tals consistently every time they practice and play. Most of the top players continue to see a golf coach regularly and more often than not it is simple tweaks to the basic foundations of their swings that can have a significant impact on their results. It’s simple to achieve and if you can build a consistent foundation then you have every chance when swinging of making your body and arm movements consistent enough to produce quality strikes on the ball.
BEFORE THE NEXT ISSUE SPEND SOME TIME TRYING TO GET THESE FIVE BASICS RIGHT Aim Hit balls at the range using the practice station outlined in this article. Stance Vary it slightly according to the club you are using. Posture Get it right to control the balance points in your swing. Arm Hang/Grip Find your natural position and grip, and practise making it. Body Position Ensure that your head and spine are behind the ball at address. If you really want to improve your game get these basics right. Ask someone to check your positions or use a mirror to check (just remember to rotate your head when looking at a mirror behind you rather than lifting it which may alter your spine angle).
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
SWING SECRETS FROM THE TOUR I very much hope that you find the first lessons in part 1 interesting and that they provide you with a practical starting point when you get to work on your game. It is impossible to over-emphasise the importance of a good grounding in these fundamental lessons. Believe me, when your swing goes awry, nine times out of 10 the problem can be traced directly to some aspect of the grip and/or the set-up position. That’s why the best players in the world spend so much time out on the range fine-tuning these basics, checking their posture and alignment and basically getting their ‘static’ and ‘dynamic balance’ right – which brings me neatly to Level 2 of my Pyramid of Learning.
LEVEL 2 – THE ‘DYNAMIC BODY ACTION’ In Level 1 we built the foundations of the Pyramid; now, in this section, it’s all about building the structure of a sound swing – the walls. Without a solid foundation and properly constructed walls, the Pyramid will crumble. Build your golf swing on trial and error – rather than on proven, solid foundations and principles – and you will find that your game will often crumble, too. We’ve all been there: you hit the ball great one day, but the next you have lost the feel and coordination; you hit it great on the range, but for some reason your game deserts you the moment you set foot on the course. More often than not the reason for this sort of inconsistency is simply that your technique is not up to the pressures that a round of golf can place on it. To remedy that, you need to build your swing on solid foundations and principles, and focus on rehearsing certain methods and exercises that enable you to develop a subconscious feeling for the right series of movements that make up a sound golf swing. This will give you a system of producing consistent golf, one that will enable you to correct your own game when things do go a little off key – which they will, but hopefully rather less often than before! So, to that end, in this level we are going to cover some of the key areas involving body, arm, hand and club movement in the swing:
BALANCE • BODY ACTION • ARM SWING HAND ACTION • PATH & PLANE By the end of this section you will have the technique and some of the exercises and drills you need to start building a consistent swing. Set yourself a simple task of spending up to 15 minutes a day getting the fundamentals in Level 1 right and trying some of the exercises in Level 2. That’s all it takes; 15 minutes a day without even hitting a golf ball and you will be playing more consistent golf within a month. The complete series – Parts 1-4 – can be found within the digital page-turning version of this supplement at Gi’s website (www.golfinternationalmag.com) If you feel brave enough, contact me at my Academy and let me know how you get on. Send your email to: info@petecowen.com Due to coaching commitments, I cannot promise that I’ll be able to respond to all emails – but I’ll try!
LEVEL 4 ATTITUDE ATTITUDE PRE-SHOT ROUTINE PRACTICE DRILLS AND PETE COWEN "SIGNATURE EXERCISES"
LEVEL 3 POWER HAND/EYE CO-ORDINATION ANGLE OF ATTACK • SPEED & PRESSURE
LEVEL 2 DYNAMIC MOVEMENT BALANCE • BODY ACTION • ARM SWING HAND ACTION • PATH & PLANE LEVEL 1 SOLID FOUNDATIONS AIM • STANCE • POSTURE ARM HANG AND GRIP • BODY POSITION
Gi // THE BEST INSTRUCTION ON THE PLANET 33
BEST INSTRUCTION
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BALANCE POINTS Balance is the key to a good golf swing. Without balance you will never be able to fully maximise the centrifugal forces that are generated by the rotation of the body, and thus fail to maximise your potential for speed and power. Which is why it’s vital that you ensure the ‘balance points’ that I have identified here all work in harmony throughout your swing. That way you will enjoy the consistency, stability and efficiency of a sound golf swing. One of the key points to keep in mind as you prepare to work on your body position and the ‘dynamic body action’ is that, in the golf swing, every action has a reaction. For example, if your hips go forward at the start of your downswing, your head will automatically go back so as to keep you balanced. Any such action will have a direct effect on the golf club because the club would always follow your balance points. [The problem for the majority of golfers is that the swing becomes a series of compensations, all of which, effectively, drain the swing of efficiency.] On the previous page I mentioned that if you can spend just 15 minutes a day rehearsing just a few good exercises you can get better without hitting a ball. How? Well, think about the time and amount of work you actually put in to making a swing during the course of a round of golf. A golf swing takes around 1.5 seconds from start to finish. A pro may hit 40odd full shots in 18 holes. So that adds up to about one minute’s work – and of those 40 swings he might hit, say, five or 6 good shots. That’s 10 seconds good work out of the minute (or 50 seconds spent making bad swings!). Now, let’s say you go to the range and hit 200 balls. That’s 5 minutes of work in terms of making a golf swing. So it takes you all day to do five or six minutes work – not a great rate of return. In other words, you are not improving your swing by hitting balls. But if you did 15 minutes of conscious exercises (such as the feet-together drill opposite, the spiral staircase overleaf), it’s the equivalent of doing a full day’s work and hitting most of the shots well. These conscious exercises will allow you to play subconsciously on the course.
EXAMPLES OF POOR BALANCE…. For every action in the golf swing there is a reaction. These poor positions are the result of a certain reaction as balance points struggle to be maintained: (right) if the hips ‘spin out’ at the start of the downswing, the head will automatically go back in an effort to maintain balance, while the arms and the club are thrown off course; (far right) manipulation will involve hand action, which can never be consistent.
34 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
For the sake of visualisation, the top of the spine equates to your sternum, the base of the spine becomes your mid-riff area, and then of course you have your two feet. These are what I term the key ‘balance points’ in the body as they relate to making a good golf swing. The secret is to keep these balance points working in harmony as the body rotates and the arms swing the golf club
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
EXERCISE FOR A ‘BALANCED’ ARM & BODY ACTION Hitting balls with your feet together is a simple and effective drill that helps you to harmonise the swinging of the arms with the rotation of your body. The key is to focus on these balance points and keep them all working together for the good of the swing. Another benefit of this drill is that it encourages you to keep your knee and chin levels constant throughout, which is important.
Give it a try next time you are at the range. Just try hitting a few sets of 10 balls with a 7iron (I’d always suggest playing the ball off a tee-peg to get you going) and then go back to hitting balls normally (i.e. with a regular stance) to see the difference as you improve your balance and the harmony between arms and body. Try and maintain this balanced feel in your full swing to build consistency and control.
REMEMBER: You swing in balance. You do not swing to stay in balance. It is very important to make this distinction, and your PGA professional can explain this to you. I see too many golfers doing this exercise incorrectly; they swing their arms but keep their body still. They are swinging to stay in balance, and not enjoying a swinging motion that is the result of the body and arms working together.
As you start your swing, encourage this early wrist action to get the club elevated and swinging up on plane
With your feet nicely together, you want to feel that your balance points are in harmony
Balance points remain in harmony as you rotate your body and swing the arms
Focus on the back of the ball as you unwind and prepare to clip it off the tee-peg
Again, balance points are aligned, arms and body working together in harmony
Gi // THE BEST INSTRUCTION ON THE PLANET 35
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“THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE” – A PETE COWEN ‘SIGNATURE’ EXERCISE
BODY ACTION
Adopt a good posture, find your natural arm ‘hang’, then pre-set your wrists
A lot of golf instruction and wellmeaning tips you have no doubt heard from fellow players surround the subject of weight transfer during the backswing and downswing. You have probably heard how important it is to transfer weight to your right foot during the backswing and the left on the downswing; you may have even suffered the dreaded ‘reverse-pivot’ at some point in time. What you may not have heard is that the weight does not just transfer laterally from left to right foot during the backswing. Your weight actually travels up and around the body from the ground up on the backswing; and down and around on the downswing, starting again from the ground up. Think of it like a ‘spiral staircase’ (as per the effect on the images above), a three-dimensional movement (and not simply a lateral movement) and you will encourage a better body action which will help you swing in balance, position the club correctly on plane and create a consistent action for a
36 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
As you say the words below to yourself, feel your arm and body move in unison
powerful delivery. The “Spiral Staircase” is an exercise many of my players do every day, and you will often see players such as big hitting world-ranked No.6 player Henrik Stenson doing this on the range. Take your normal address position with perfect posture (right hip and shoulder slightly lower than left). Then find your natural arm hang and grip position (as described last issue) and pre-set your wrists as pictured. You simply do this by allowing a gentle rotation of your forearms and hands approximately 45 degrees to the right (as seen in the first picture in this sequence). This should feel natural – do not force this movement. From this pre-set position it is easy to find your natural swing plane. Now start your backswing by slowly saying the following to yourself and at the same time feeling the corresponding movements in your body. Your arms and hands will move in unison following the spiral as you turn away from target.
Get yourself fully coiled at the top of the backswing
PLEASE TRY THIS SLOWLY AND GRADUALLY AT FIRST, AS FOR MANY PLAYERS (OF ALL STANDARDS – EVEN PROFESSIONALS!) THESE MOVES AND SENSATIONS MAY BE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FROM NORMAL LEFT FOOT TO RIGHT ANKLE LEFT ANKLE TO RIGHT SHIN LEFT SHIN TO RIGHT KNEE LEFT KNEE TO RIGHT THIGH LEFT THIGH TO RIGHT HIP LEFT HIP TO RIGHT ABS LEFT ABS TO RIGHT CHEST LEFT CHEST TO RIGHT SHOULDER LEFT SHOULDER …..by now you should be at the top of your backswing in a great position, coiled up like a spring waiting to be released. (i.e. your weight has fully rotated into your right side, the shaft is pointing ‘parallel left’ of target, your clubface and left arm are nicely parallel to your swing plane, and your balance points are in line.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
The body starts to open up as the coil moves up and around your body
From the top, reverse the process from the ground up
FROM THE TOP OF THE BACKSWING YOU INITIATE THE DOWNSWING BY SIMPLY REVERSING THE PROCESS FROM THE GROUND UP: RIGHT ANKLE TO LEFT FOOT RIGHT SHIN TO LEFT ANKLE RIGHT KNEE TO LEFT SHIN RIGHT THIGH TO LEFT KNEE NOW FROM HERE YOUR BODY STARTS TO OPEN UP AS THE COIL MOVES UP AND AROUND YOUR BODY RIGHT HIP TO LEFT ABS RIGHT ABS TO LEFT CHEST RIGHT CHEST TO LEFT SHOULDER RIGHT SHOULDER… ...By now you should be in a great follow-through position – i.e. your weight has almost totally transferred over your left foot; your hips point towards target, your shoulders point left of target, sole of right shoe faces away from target and you are in perfect balance.
Weight now almost totally on left foot, hips point towards the target
YOU CAN ALSO START THIS EXERCISE BY HOLDING A CLUB ACROSS YOUR SHOULDERS WITH BOTH HANDS INSTEAD OF THE PRE-SET POSITION DESCRIBED ABOVE. I COVER THIS ACTION EXTENSIVELY ON MY DVD AS I BELIEVE IT IS ONE OF THE BEST EXERCISES YOU CAN DO TO IMPROVE YOUR GOLF WITHOUT HITTING A BALL AND IN MY EXPERIENCE IT WILL BENEFIT THE MAJORITY OF CLUB GOLFERS OUT THERE. EVERYBODY CAN DO THIS, BUT ONLY TO THEIR OWN PERSONAL PHYSICAL ABILITY. I’M NOT ASKING YOU TO BE A YOGA EXPERT, DO IT UNDER YOUR OWN STEAM.
Gi // THE BEST INSTRUCTION ON THE PLANET 37
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Arms & body in balance, a ‘neutral’ plane. No compensation necessary through the hitting area
A
Arms & body out of balance, club too flat. Hands and arms have to compensate
B
45º
Arms swinging in towards the body, too steep
C
THE ARM-SWING AND UNDERSTANDING ‘PLANE’ Efficiency is the key to getting the most out of your golf swing. And to do this we must use natural forces such as centrifugal force and gravity to our best advantage. We must therefore swing our arms in balance. In the first image above all natural forces are working together. The arms are swinging freely underneath the body with centrifugal force and gravity sending the clubhead towards the ball on the correct path. This is a position the one-arm only drill (right) can help you to achieve. If you swing the club in balance, it’s immediately more efficient.
A
Problems! In the second of the images above, the arms are swinging out and away from the body, similar to a baseball swing. Therefore, natural forces are forcing the club away from the impact area. From this position you have to work very hard to get the clubhead on the correct path which will result in compensations during the swing. Poor balance, hip drive and body falling back.
B
Another common sight: in this position, the arms are swinging into the body and, once again, it will require a lot of effort and compensation between here and the moment
C
of impact to get the clubhead approaching the ball on the correct path. From here, I would expect to see ‘hip-spin’ through the ball, pulling the shoulders out of plane and getting too steep on the ball. The arms and the club are out of balance because the body is out of balance.
THE 45 DEGREE PRACTICE DRILL How can you begin to correct either of the two faults illustrated above? Well, the simple drill you see here (right) is one way to realise the correct arm swing – I call it my 45degree drill, and you can do it with both the left and right hand. To start, get yourself into perfect posture and find your natural ‘armhang’. Then, repeating the good body action, allow your right arm to swing and fold into this 45-degree position. This will give you the sensation of the body action and arm swing working in harmony. Repeat the exercise with the left arm allowing the wrist to cock up to find this same 45 degree position. [Note: The 45 degree angle is an approximation – the exact angle will vary from club to club, player to player.]
The relevance of this drill can be seen clearly in the good image (A) above – the swing is in a good, neutral position.
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The right arm folds as the arm swings the club up to approx 45degree angle. Here the swing is in a good neutral plane
Rehearse this in front of a fulllength mirror to check your angle as you make your swing with one arm only. It’s a good idea to put some tape on the mirror as a guide
45º
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The correct ‘hingeing’ of the wrist is a side-toside motion, like the opening and closing of a door
UNDERSTAND THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN ‘HINGEING’ AND ‘COCKING’ OF THE WRISTS For the past 25 years or so golfers have debated whether the hands are used in the golf swing or not. The truth is that there is hand ‘action’ in a correct on-plane golf swing and hand ‘manipulation’ in an incorrect off-plane (and out of balance) golf swing. When thinking about hand action, and applying it to your golf swing, you must first understand the distinction between two phrases you have probably heard of – ‘hingeing’ and ‘cocking’. Some coaches regard these as one and the same. But there’s a definite difference, as you can see here.
HINGEING THE WRIST (ILLUSTRATED ABOVE) When you assume the correct ‘arm-hang’, the hinge of the wrists is from side to side, similar to the opening and closing of a door.
COCKING (ILLUSTRATED BELOW) Again assuming the correct arm-hang, the cocking of the wrists is an up and down motion, similar to cocking a gun. A sound swing demands the correct blend and balance of hingeing and cocking. Too much hingeing of the hands will take the golf club away on a horizontal plane (i.e. too flat), where it will be off balance. This will generally lead to a ball flight which is low and to the left. Too much cocking of the wrists, in contrast, will generally see the club follow too vertical a plane, resulting in a ball flight which is predominantly high and to the right. When they are playing well, you’ll often hear good players say that they do not feel as
though they are using their hands in the swing at all; when they are struggling they often complain that their swing feels much too “handsy”. The truth is that they are using a correct natural- feeling hand action when they are swinging well and on-plane; when they are swinging off-plane they are relying on years of practice, experience, talent and hand-eye coordination to get the club on the ball. That last point explains the huge difference between tour players and amateurs; even when he is swinging badly, a tour player they can use incredible hand-eye coordination to get the ball around in a decent score, something that is beyond most amateurs (in Level 3 we I discuss how you can improve your natural hand-eye coordination – see the complete series on the Gi website).
Like the ‘cocking’ of a gun, cocking the wrist is an up and down movement
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UNDERSTANDING PATH & PLANE The most destructive golf shots which you will hit will invariably be the result of the club arriving at impact in the wrong position. To hit consistently good shots, we need to ensure that the club is on the correct plane relative to the direction in which it is travelling (i.e. the ‘path’ of the swing), as per the sequence of good images below (see the Lee Westwood sqing sequence in the main issue for a great example). The correct swing-path, therefore, is one which returns the club to the ball at an angle of approximately 45°. This swing plane will allow for a margin of error of around 5-10% either way within which good shots will still result. To further clarify this in your mind, look at these two contrasting faults (above). In picture A, the club is arriving at the ball in a horizontal position, the clubface likely to be either square or open. This will result in the shot being hit right of target. In picture B, meanwhile, the club is arriving at the ball in a vertical position with the clubface square or closed. This will result in the shot being hit left of target.
ACHIEVING THE CORRECT PATH & PLANE Assuming the perfect set-up, you want to feel that you initiate the backswing with the club, hands and arms moving away from the ball together. As you do this you will begin to feel your body action starting to work with your right foot creating pressure into the ground. As this happens the weight of the club and centrifugal force will encourage the hingeing and cocking of the hands. Your body action, arm swing and hand
B
A
Out of sync: these common faults illustrate the extremes of being either too flat, with the clubshaft nearly horizontal (left), or too steep on the ball, the clubshaft almost vertical approaching impact. Either way, you’re in trouble.
action are now working in perfect harmony. With all these elements working in harmony it will be simple for you to achieve the correct swing plane and path. Notice the 45 degree lines: the clubshaft is at approximately 45 degrees halfway back; the left arm is at approximately 45 degrees at the top of the swing, and that symmetry continues into the downswing. It’s a mirror image. Approaching impact we can identify with 45 degrees and if we were to continue the exit line through the ball, the shaft would come out at 45 degrees on the way to the finish. Let me stress, the 45 number is an approximation, and there is a margin for error 5-10% either way. But if you get it even nearly right, you will hit more solid golf shots. In the two contrasting faults above, the incorrect path is a direct result of poor balance which has forced the club into an extreme position. Remember, the club will always follow your balance points. Slowly work your way through the exercises
to try and find the right positions. By combining your solid foundations from Level 1 with solid walls, you will build a great golf swing. By building constants into your swing, you will ingrain more consistency into your game. Your game will stand up to pressure better and you will play better golf more often. Once you have worked on Levels 1 and 2, in the next issue we look at “Power” – everyone’s favourite subject, as everyone wants to hit it further. I want everyone to hit it STRAIGHTER and further! So practise the positions from Levels 1 and 2; and in the next issue we next time we will work on three factors to give your swing more power: • Hand-eye Co-ordination • Angle of Attack • Speed & Pressure. Oh, and please remember my simple philosophy: Practice does not make perfect. Only PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.
With your arms and body working in unison, and in perfect balance, you will find that you are able to make a neutral swing that runs approximately to this 45 degree plane. There is a margin for error of a few degrees either way
45º
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NATURAL BORN
WINNER In the two full seasons Rory McIlroy has been a tournament professional he has elevated himself to an astonishing 10th place in the official world rankings. He is possibly the most exciting young golfer on the planet, and in 2009 enjoyed a terrific rivalry with ISM stable-mate Lee Westwood as the two players sparred for the European Order of Merit – at least right up until Lee produced one of the performances of the season to clinch the title in Dubai. Over the following pages Rory shares his thoughts on a swing clearly destined for greatness, while Jeremy Bennett highlights the particular aspects that can help you I first saw Rory play in the Faldo Series Finals when he was 12 or 13 years old. He was smaller than average in stature for his age, not particularly long off the tee and played with a steady little draw. However there were several features that set Rory apart and marked him as something special. For a start, his short game was red hot – not just every now and then but most days he would conjure up shots of pure genius around the greens. It was obvious how much he just loved playing golf; it was totally a game to him – as it still is now he is playing for a living. He also had an unflappable temperament, an attacking style that was fearless but also possessed a natural instinct to see and play the correct shot. Rory was part of ‘Team Faldo’ for four years, a truly elite squad of youngsters that included Oliver Fisher, Zane Scotland, Melissa Reid and Carly Booth. In our training sessions he would invariably be the one to get it higher than the others from a down slope in the bunker, or produce more backspin; he would also be the one to chip in or somehow hole a long putt when the odds said he shouldn’t. Still pictures cannot possibly portray the natural fluidity, freedom and rhythm that Rory has in spades, and I have no doubt that his ever-improving swing will take him to the very top of the game. It will be fascinating to see how he measures up against Tiger, Phil & Co on the PGA Tour next season. So sit back and enjoy the natural, fluid swing of perhaps the game’s most exciting young talents. Pay particular attention to his wonderfully sequenced hand, arm and body action – a framework that allows that wonderful hand action to work freely through the ball. So let’s take a closer look and also find out what Rory himself thinks about technique-wise. – Jeremy Bennett EX EUROPEAN TOUR PRO JEREMY BENNETT IS CURRENTLY NATIONAL COACH TO WALES AS WELL AS COACHING AT HIS HOME CLUB,WINDLESHAM, SURREY. 42 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
RORY MCILROY WHAT’S IN THE BAG? Driver: Fairway:
Irons: Wedges: Putter: Ball:
Titleist 909D2 (8.5 degrees), Shaft: ROMBAX 7VO5
Titleist 906F2 (13 degrees), Titleist 906F2 (18 degrees), Shaft: Both fitted with PRO 95 X shaft Titleist ZM 3-PW, Shaft: PROJECT X 6.5 Rifle
Titleist Vokey Tour Chrome PW 47 degrees (bent from 48) TC Spin Milled 52, 56 & 60 Scotty Cameron Fastback Centre-Shafted Select
Titleist Pro V1x (’09 model)
“I’m not one of the biggest guys on tour but I’m one of the longest out there. So I guess I must be hitting it a bit harder than most! My average this year is over 300 yards. I have a new driver in the bag – a Titleist 909 D2 – and that has given me about ten extra yards.”
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Rory’s debut pro victory at Dubai in January set him up for a sensational second season on tour – the boy from Holywood is now ranked No.10 in the official world rankings
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At address my main focus is on my alignment, getting my feet, knees, hips and shoulders parallel to the target line. I struggle with that sometimes. My tendency is to aim left and get a little open. My only other thought is maintaining an athletic, ‘ready’ posture.
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On the downswing my tendency is to slide my hips towards the target. That gets the club too far behind me – what many players call ‘stuck’ – and forces me to either flip my hands through impact or block the shot to the right. So, from the top, my downswing thought – when I have one! – is nearly always ‘turn’. As you see here, my body unwinds and my arms and hands freewheel the clubhead through the ball.
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Halfway back is where my biggest problem shows up. I can tend to get the club moving to the inside too quickly. Down the line I like to see the clubhead covering my hands as it passes through the point where the shaft is horizontal with the ground and parallel with the target line – as it’s on track to be here. That’s a good checkpoint for me.
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Like virtually all long hitters the upper body is ‘open’ at impact with above average left hip clearance even for a tour pro. That explains the huge leverage and huge power he plants on the ball. His weight is channelled into the outside of the left heel with just a nice amount of right heel ‘raise’. JB
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Rory maintains his posture and spine angle right to the top of his beautifully on-plane, neutral and more compact backswing (in the past the right leg used to straighten; here it remains nicely flexed). Note how square the clubface is to his left arm and wrist at the top – a testament to his textbook grip. JB
The first appearance of the shaft just below the left shoulder is a tell-tale sign of an excellent delivery into the ball. In the past Rory’s swingpath was a little more from in-toout, and as a result the shaft would often appear above the tip of the left shoulder. This is the ‘exit’ all young players should aim to copy. JB
To the top my only thoughts are cocking my wrists and turning my shoulders. I do have a tendency to over-swing so I use my left shoulder as a guide. When it is under my chin I know I have made a long enough backswing.
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Rory himself says that balance is his No 1 key thought on the downswing to the finish, and here is the result: he is perfectly poised, with the majority of his weight on his left side, supported on the tip of his right toe. The hips have cleared to finish pointing well left of target – a young man’s swing! JB
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Sit back and enjoy a terrific opening sequence of moves as Rory initiates his swing with the upper body, arms and the club all working ‘together’ and in a wonderful flowing tempo. The hands are essentially ‘quiet’ until the club reaches the horizontal, whereupon the wrists hinge up naturally as the upper body coils against the lower body. JB
Rory looks as if he is set up for a little draw with the ball position slightly further back than normal and hands ahead of the ball. For a high fade the ball would be moved up to just inside the left heel and the hands set level with the back of the ball. JB
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From the top my aim is simply to let the club go through impact. I’m not swinging at 100%, but the closer I get to that the better. I’m not one of the biggest guys on tour but I’m one of the longest. So I guess I must be hitting a bit harder than most! My average this year is over 300 yards.
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Just by looking at the stretch lines on his shirt you know Rory is wound up like a spring, ready to recoil into the ball. His right hip rotates nicely while the right side remains firm against that braced right knee, weight supported on the inside of the right leg – a great position to copy. JB
Although Rory employs a light grip pressure to ensure an uninhibited hand release his hands remain perfectly in position through impact. Note also how he allows his head to rotate with the flow of his swing – he makes no attempt to look at the ball for too long, a common mistake that can restrict your body rotation through the ball. JB
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Into the follow-through and it’s all about balance for me. I want to be able to hold my finish for several seconds. If I can do that I know I haven’t swung too hard. On the whole I don’t like to complicate things too much. I’ve always played my best golf not thinking about very much to be honest!
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Tour pro By Ian Poulter PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID CANNON/GETTYIMAGES.COM LOCATION: LAKE NONA GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB, FLORIDA
There is no secret to what it takes to hone a good short game: practice. But it has to be effective practice. To make a real difference in this department, you need a purpose, and you need to be able to measure improvement and success. When I go out to work here on the tour player’s range at Lake Nona, I literally take with me a whole bag of tricks. I’ve got the lot. From a humble chalk line that I use on the practice putting green to alignment aids and the trusty Bushnell laser rangefinder. I’ve even got a Trackman system if I want to get into some serious analysis. The key to cementing good fundamentals is that you don’t leave to chance details of the set-up, ball position, alignment, or our yardages. We have the tools to make sure we get these right – and so should you. The real beauty of the following drills is that they are simple. So let's get started on the putting green (oh, and you’re gonna love the latest gadget that’s become the ‘musthave’ toy among all of us on tour!).
Ping the string, and there’s your chalk line – your instant putting studio
Lasting impression: you can pick up a builder’s chalk line from any DIY store – I guarantee it’ll be the best investment you’ll make when it comes to improving your putting
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Back to basics: Having that chalk line as a source of reference, you can make sure that your feet, knees, hips and shoulders are parallel to the line. As you then make your stroke, the chalk further helps you to monitor the path of the putter-head as you work it back and through – ideally, it moves fractionally inside-to-square-toinside on a perfectly neutral path
Work the line, and improve your ‘visual’ to the hole To use the chalk line, I look for a straight putt of six feet or so, peg one end of the builder’s chalk line with a tee and then pull out the string all the way to the hole. Once it’s tight, you simply give it a ‘ping’, and there’s a distinct blue line on the green – straight to the hole. These builder’s chalk lines are great for this, because as soon as you begin hitting putts from this distance you will be made 100% aware of the line into the hole, and you can use that to (1) monitor the path of your stroke, and (2) to study the roll of the ball on its way to the hole. As is pretty much the norm on tour, I always mark my ball with a line and I’m careful to aim that line along the chalk line as I put the ball down. That helps you to see the putter-face is square to the line of the putt. The beauty of this drill is that as long as you have that chalk line
you know you’re repeating good habits. For repetition of stroke, I’ll stand there and pull in one ball after another and try to fill the cup; periodically, I’ll make a point of going through my whole routine, standing back to study the line from behind the ball and then going through my preputt routine before hitting it. That’s the way to condition your habits for the golf course. The thing is, it’s always nice to know that your eye line and general alignment is good, so that when you are out there over a six footer you trust your technique. You feel comfortable. Some people like to ‘spot putt’, picking out two or three spots on the line to the hole and rolling the ball over them. I have always liked to see a line. Practising in this way, with the chalk, imprints that blue line in your mind’s eye. When you get out on the course it’s like you still see it – and react to it.
Spend enough time doing this and you burn that chalk line into your mind’s eye – I make myself ‘see it’ when I’m out on the course
My preferred putting grip is the standard reverse-overlap style, with both thumbs running down the shaft, forefinger on the left hand resting over the fingers on the right. This gives me a nice snug, secure hold, which encourages the two hands to work as one unit through the stroke
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I look for my eye-line to be just inside the ball-to-target line – on that inner red marking. This is perfect. The line I’ve marked on the ball helps me to get the face of the putter dead square every time
Use the mirror in conjunction with the chalk line – that will give you all the feedback you need to work on holing more of these key scoring putts
With the chalk line extending into the hole on a straight six-footer, aim the mirror precisely to create the ultimate putting studio. Both the mirror and the chalk line will help you to get your feet, hips & shoulders square at the set-up, all of which bodes well for making and repeating a good stroke
It’s difficult to walk onto the practice green and immediately start lagging 40-foot putts up to the hole. The best way to work on your longrange putting is to build up the distance. Start as close as six feet out and gradually move farther away as you get used to the pace of the greens and become skilled at judging the speed. When I work on my putting, I look for the ball to finish past the hole if I miss. I usually hit about 10 putts from each range. If I leave one short I start the routine all over
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RETURN TO SENDER! You are going to love this little gadget – it’s the perfect gift for the golfer who has everything. My son, Luke, goes crazy for it. The ‘RoboCup’ has just been launched over here and look what it does.... I have just holed this putt, and the ball is on its way back to my feet! It’s one of those simple brain waves that is going to make someone a lot of money. And make practice a lot more fun
However much time you can set aside to practice, at least 40% should be spent on putting
It’s in...no, it’s out of the hole!
Alignment – the eyes have it... Eye-line mirror gives invaluable feedback
Whenever I feel my putting stroke is a little off, I always go back to the basics of alignment, and the Eye-Line Mirror is a vital piece of gear that enables you to check your eye-line is where you want it at the set-up. Again, this is hugely important, as you can easily creep out of position and distort your perspective of a putt. Get your eye-line twisted and the likelihood is that your head and shoulders fall out of position, too, and obviously that affects the whole mechanic of your putting stroke. I often use the Eye-Line mirror in conjunction with the chalk, as that really does give you all the feedback you need to go to work on your technique. I want my eye line to be just inside the ball-to-target line. [If I get my eyes directly over the ball I feel like my upper body is too far forward and I feel a little unstable.] Here, on this close up view (main image, left), you can see that my eyes are just inside the ball-to-target line, corresponding with the red line on the mirror. That’s perfect. The important thing is that my eyes are parallel to the line in which I intend to strike the ball – as indeed yours should be. The String (right): Again, very simple, but very effective. The string I have pegged out here is from short-game guru Dave Pelz’s range, though you could easily make up your own. Some prefer it to the chalk line on straight putts, but I actually find it is best for working on breaking putts, as it teaches you to see and to trust the break. Here I have set it up on a right-to-left putt that moves all of three cups. The key is to use the string to highlight the line on which you need to start the ball towards the ‘apex’ of the putt – i.e. the point you identify as where it will take the break and move towards the hole. Once you have that, you can fine-tune the pace. On fast greens you really do have to convince yourself of the amount of break that needs to be factored in, and the string helps you in that respect. It also helps you to keep the path of your stroke running true back and through. So it’s a good exercise to build your visual skills. Putting, of course, is all about line and pace. I always try to hit a breaking putt like this at a speed that will see the ball finish 18 inches past the hole should I miss.
Get on a roll: Place a club two feet beyond the hole to finetune your sense of distance control. You either want to hole the putt or have the ball finish within this safety zone for a simple tap-in
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A smart course strategy demands that you know precisely how far you hit your scoring clubs, i.e. your wedges. Use a laser range finder to establish your landing distances – and ‘dial-in’ those numbers out on the course
I use the T-Square to make sure my set-up and ball position are consistent when I work on my wedge game – this is all about accuracy and repetition. If you don’t have a TSquare use a club on the ground to confirm your alignment and set another at right-angles to monitor your ball position. Here I’m using a 58-degree and a full swing will give me 90 yards. I never try and hit these shots hard; my lower body provides me stability throughout while my arms and upper body combine to make a compact swing. Distance control is about just that – control
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This would be a 10 o’clock swing – the max with any of my wedges
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Basic Wedge Play
Vary target distance to ‘see it, hit it, feel it’ Versatility – that’s what distinguishes a great wedge player. Watch Phil Mickelson, one of the best in the business. Whatever the yardage, from 100 yards and in he knows to the inch the club and the swing that he is going to make to land the ball on a dime by the flagstick. But it’s not rocket science. Phil knows how far he hits his wedges (all five of them!) because he lasers distance on the range and dials the numbers in. And that’s exactly what I do – and it’s what you have to do if you are serious about knocking shots off your score. This area of the game is so vital to the construction of your round. And the lesson here is actually more to do with smart course strategy than it is the details of how to hit a wedge shot. If I know I cannot reach a par five in two (and even if the yardage is do-able it’s often just not worth the risk), I will calculate the lay up to my favourite wedge pitching distance – i.e. 90 yards. Depending on the wind, this could be a 54- or a 58-degree wedge, and I would expect to knock it to within 10 feet. This has to be the strategy you adopt. The smart play. On a short par four I will often look to leave myself the same distance for the approach shot (i.e. I don’t just blast with the driver regardless. Sometimes it might be a 3-wood. Sometimes an iron). And if I get into trouble off the tee, and there’s a significant risk involved in trying to get near the green, then I’ll lay up to this favourite distance and hope to save par with an up-and-down. The more you practice, the more this is the reality. This area at Lake Nona is perfect as I can work between six different pins and use a range finder to get accurate yardages. I know exactly what the distance is. So I can look at the shot and say, ‘Yeah, that’s a full sand iron shot’, or ‘that’s a full lob shot’. For the in-betweens I’ll work on adjusting how far down the shaft I grip it, the length of my backswing and the way I place the clubface behind the ball. To take some distance off a shot, you simply open the face a little (right); as I do so, I also decrease swing speed, which gives you a (progressively) higher, softer, and floatier shot with a hint of left-to-right spin.
This is my 58-degree sand iron, set squarely behind the ball
Same club, slightly open for a higher, shorter, softer shot
This is the max, wide open for a lob (only off a very good lie!)
Ball position and clubface alignment are two key variables that you should experiment with to develop the versatility of your short game. Move the ball back a little for lower, more penetrating trajectory; forward with the gradual opening of the face will give you a higher and softer ball flight
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PGA MASTER PROFESSIONAL I hope you enjoyed the opening two parts of my 4-part series ‘The Pyramid of Learning™’. If you read and practice the drills outlined in the Pyramid of Learning™ you may find that the quality and consistency of your ball striking has improved to such an extent that you won’t need to read the following article! However, no matter how good your driving and iron play is, from time to time you will find yourself in a greenside bunker and if you are serious about improving the standard of your game, then aiming to get out is not enough – you should be striving to build control from the sand so that you progress to a level where you expect to get up-and-down more often than not. There is a big difference between being able to simply get out of a bunker and making that exit wth real control. Given a reasonable lie, most experienced players would expect to find the green from a greenside trap. However, few have the technique and the skills to actually control the speed and flight of the ball and its reaction on landing; these are the key elements to building control from sand. Over the next few pages I am going to share for the first time in any golf magazine my thoughts on an advanced technique for bunker play – I call it the ‘Ripple Effect™’ – which describes the way in which I teach players to work the clubhead through the sand in a manner that enables them to control the behaviour of the ball on landing. Until now, I have only shared this technique with the European Tour players I work with. The quality of their bunker shots is clear to see and by practising the same technique you, too, can master what is one of the most rewarding escape shots in golf. Not only will this lesson help you to knock shots off your score, having confidence from the sand will enhance your short game generally and give you a lot more confidence out on the course. Where once you might have steered clear of an approach shot over a bunker to a tight pin position, once you have mastered the Ripple Effect™ you will have the choice to go for it when the reward makes the risk worthwhile.
ple t ffec
Rip E
By Pete Cowen
What’s wrong with your current bunker play? Forgive me for generalising, but it seems to me that most instruction on sand play is geared towards helping mid- to high-handicappers get the ball up and out of the bunker. It has not been geared towards enabling all standards of players to develop the skills necessary to properly control the ball, play a variety of different shots and make regular sand saves. Most of this instruction suggests that you stand open to the ball (i.e. aim your feet and body to the left of target) and have your clubface open (i.e. aiming right of target). It then suggests you swing along the line of your toes to propel the ball towards the target. And while there’s no doubting this technique will get you out of most bunkers, it doesn’t enable you to ‘work’ the sand correctly, which is crucial to playing good bunker shots. In this situation, the clubhead slides under the ball imparting left to right sidespin, which makes the ball spin
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from left to right when it lands on the green. I want you to work the sand in such a way as to make the ball spin backwards on its horizontal axis, which will ensure that when it hits the green it will react more like a putt and roll to the hole along the target line, or stop and spin depending upon the nature of shot you have played. I am now going to take you through the steps to executing a good bunker shot. As your technique improves, I would first expect to see the ball flying in the correct direction towards the target more often and spinning on the correct axis. Then, as you learn to vary your swing speed (through the relative speed of your arms, body turn and tempo) you will learn to build in more control and greater variation. By the end of this lesson (and with the right amount of practice!) I guarantee you will have a fresh confidence in your ability to get
Drawing lines in the sand and a distinct box around the ball (to correspond with the shallow divot you are aiming to take) will give you a clear sense of purpose
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“Delivering the clubface on the correct path and at the desired angle enables you to spin the ball on its horizontal axis, and thus control its flight and behaviour upon landing. The key is to square the toe up with the heel through impact so that the sand stays on the clubface longer and in the correct direction in relation to the target”
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YOUR SET UP: Setting your ‘Station’ • Draw a line from the ball to the target in the sand (marked in green) • Place the black and white practice ball on the line with the line on the ball parallel to the target line • The ball position should be forward for almost all shots except some plugged and difficult lies. For consistency draw a line at 90 degrees to the target line. This ‘ball position line’ should run to the inside of your left foot • Stand square to the target, don’t stand too narrow or wide, your natural stance will be fine (marked in yellow) • Draw a line behind your heels – this ‘heelline’ should be parallel to the target line • Turn your left foot to about 45 degrees. You do not need to stand any more open than this • Now you can ‘Set-in’ – correctly positioning your body before you swing. Your weight should favour your left side and you should feel that your knees are over your laces and that your feet have ‘grounded’ themselves nicely into the sand. You can see from the photos here that I am ‘Set-in’ comfortably and I have a stable platform for my swing • Now draw another line across your toes. This ‘toe-line’ should run at an angle away from target • Draw another line 90 degrees from the ball to the ‘toe-line’. This is the ‘shaft position’ line (marked in blue). The shaft position is key in bunker play. You must not have the hands forward of the ball or too much shaft lean as it will make it difficult to get the desired elevation on the ball. • Hand position – should be relaxed and comfortable; with a tendency to keep the hands low, which assists good wrist action • Draw a ‘swing line’ through the ball parallel to your ‘toe line’ which runs left of target (red). You will swing along this line parallel to your toes; it is slightly across the ball but nowhere near as much as has been published elsewhere • Now draw a box around the ball joining up the ‘swing line’ two inches either side of the ball. This shows the ‘sand divot’ you need to take to play the ball • For a basic bunker shot you can open the clubface slightly, ensuring you add your loft before you complete your grip. You can alter this to execute different types of shot, laying the clubface completely open if necessary
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Creating a consistent ‘work station’ is vital – follow the step-by-step guide (left) and do as I do Swing line (in red) is slightly left of target, but nowhere near as much as is generally suggested
Box around the ball indicates the ‘sand divot’ you are aiming to remove
Building control: make a consistent ‘work station’ a habit You can use the The Ripple Effect™ technique as a means of getting the ball out of the bunker, but to really develop your skills and build the desired levels of control you have to practice regularly and practice in a consistent fashion which will result in consistent results on the course. Throughout the following pages of instruction, you will notice that I have used some black and white practice balls – and there’s a good reason. A two-tone ball makes it easy to identify with the way the ball spins and reacts to a shot. If you carefully place the line towards the target at address you will be able to see the effect of your swing on the ball in the air. A line on the ball spinning ‘vertically’ (i.e. on its horizontal axis) indicates that the shot has been played correctly, and that you have imparted the correct spin and initial direction through impact. A line that spins off the vertical indicates that you have played the ball in such a way as to impart side spin, which is not what we are looking for here. So, ahead of your next practice session, try to get your hands on a similar two-tone ball, or use a permanent marker pen and create a few of
your own. Not only will these help you in the bunker, you will find that identifying with the initial spin characteristics help to improve your chipping, pitching and putting. When practising, the most important fundamental to get right is the set-up position, which is why I strongly advise you to create a ‘work station’, as set out in the bullet-point list (left) and demonstrated above. Whilst you cannot draw lines in the sand on the course, doing so will guarantee that you get it right in practice, and this consistency in your set-up position will have the desired knock-on effect and promote consistency in your shot making on the course. The Ripple Effect™ Most amateurs are “Open, Open” – i.e. they stand open to the ball at the set-up and they open the clubface in relation to the target. By then working along the line of the feet they swing from out-to-in, cutting across the ball, pulling the heel ahead of the toe and putting pressure on the side of the ball, imparting leftto-right spin. If they are lucky they’ll get out of the bunker...but not with the desired level of
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control, as the sand does not stay on the clubface long enough to work the ball up and out of the bunker. To play good bunker shots you need to work the ball out of the bunker on a cushion of sand, and this requires the sand to stay on the clubface that little bit longer (see detail right). And you can achieve this very easily by focusing on squaring the toe to the heel through the sand at impact. For me, this is a key message. Please note that for almost all shots you are using the ‘bounce’ of the sand iron to work the sand (rather than the leading edge), but the key is to square the toe to the heel through impact with a turn of the body and a swing of the arms which forces the sand to push the ball up and along the target line in a manner that imparts substantially less side spin on the ball. As you set up and open the clubface you will notice that the toe is behind the heel at address (1). As you move the club to the top of the backswing you will notice that the toe stays behind the heel (2 & 3). To achieve the Ripple Effect™, as you then move down the swing line, you simply try and make the toe catch-up to the heel through impact (4). Imagine a ‘box’ 2 inches behind and in front of the ball – by the time the club has exited this box the toe should have caught up with the heel. This movement carries the sand into the ball applying pressure under the ball pushing it forward giving you height and distance. You must square the toe to the heel using your shoulders, upper body and arm swing. [Remember, arm swing is much more important than hands in bunker play; hands create far too much inconsisDraw a line in the sand and take several practice swings trying to hit the line. You should take nice square shallow divots of even length and depth
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tency.] Adopting the Ripple Effect™ will enable you to to escape from bunkers more often with less effort. In the strip of pictures here (below) you can see the difference between a correct action (i.e. squaring the toe) which sees the ball ride out on a cushion of sand, and the incorrect slicing action through impact (severely across the target line) which
MOMENT OF TRUTH: Creating the correct spin
Following the set-up and swing thoughts opposite, you will find that you are able to square the leading edge through impact and spin the ball on its horizontal axis for pure backspin – as opposed to slicing severely across the ball (illustrated below) and creating excessive sidespin
Pulling the clubface severely across the ball-to-target line...
...creates left-toright spin, making the shot difficult to control
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‘BUTTERFLY GRIP’: Try this specialist bunker grip for the ultimate in loft control As bunker shots are specialist shots, I recommend that you use a specialist bunker grip (as you see detailed here above and right) on all of your greenside bunker shots. This grip helps to promote an early wrist cock in the backswing, and subsequently encourages a better angle of attack into the sand, one that helps you to use the ‘bounce’ on the sand iron more correctly and effectively. The grip I am demonstrating is known as the ‘Butterfly Grip’, as your hands look like a butterfly when you open them up above the grip.
To make this grip, open the clubface to set the desired loft, then, as you prepare to place your hands on the club, simply rotate them toward each other by approximately 15-20 degrees. As a result of doing this, you should now be looking down on a strong left- and a weak right-hand grip. [In other words, the hands are now opposing one another, which creates far more stability and allows the wrists (not the hands) to work correctly in the right plane in the swing.] As per the sequence of images below, I
regard the the correct positioning of the right elbow as being critical when it comes to forming this specialist grip and encouraging the hands, wrists and forearms to work correctly. Even though the right hand is rotated inwards you need to avoid any such rotation of the right forearm and shoulder. This defeats the benefits of the Butterfly Grip. The right shoulder should be comfortably ‘back’, the right elbow low and poised to fold away naturally as you settle down and get ready to make your swing.
PAY ATTENTION TO THE POSITION OF RIGHT ARM...
With the right shoulder back, right forearm should be rotated so that the crease in the elbow is flat
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Low hand position assists you in ‘setting’ the right wrist correctly
One of the keys to getting properly set-up to play a good bunker shot is the position of the right arm. To appreciate this, set-up to a ball with just your right hand on the grip, as I am doing here (left). You should be able to lay your left index finger flat against the crease in the elbow – i.e. the right arm is not rotated in towards the target. This is a fault that hinders many golfers; rotating the right elbow in towards the body makes it impossible to rotate the right arm correctly in the backswing. By contrast, when you get this right arm position correct, you will find the right arm is predisposed to rotating and folding correctly as you work the club away from the ball
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The ‘Butterfly Grip’: Turning the hands in like this before completing your grip leads to a ‘strong’ left and a ‘weak’ right hand on the club – a specialist grip that assists good greenside bunker technique
A TIP FROM THE TOUR: Wrist ‘set’ and elbow ‘fold’ the keys to controlling loft Once you have the basic set-up routine down, it’s a matter of going out and practising to discover the subtle variations that you are able to employ to ‘work’ the sand and vary the trajectory of shot. And one way to do this is to focus on the amount of wrist ‘set’ and elbow ‘fold’ that you employ. The ‘Butterfly Grip’ will help
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Standard wrist action and elbow fold is ideal for the execution of a regular shot with a Ushaped swing
you in terms of delivering the dynamic loft on the clubface through the sand at impact. To further influence that, focus on the way you ‘set’ your left wrist and ‘fold’ the right elbow as you take the club away from the ball. The more set and fold you employ, the more you will open the clubface and the more V-shaped the
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swing will become – with the result that you will produce higher shots with more backspin. Pics 1 & 2 below illustrate what I would term a ‘regular’ wrist set and arm fold, as you would use to play a regular shot. Pics 3 & 4 illustrate the more aggressive wrist set and arm fold that increase the dynamic loft on the club.
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More pronounced setting of the wrists and more aggressive right elbow fold is used to maximise the loft for higher spinning shots and a more V-shape swing
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To re-cap: the keys for playing a basic greenside bunker shot The following cues will enable you to make a basic swing and get you out of a bunker every time with a real sense of being able to control the ball flight, spin and its behaviour on landing
you try to square the toe up to the heel with a turn of
• Set your ‘station’ and take your address position, pay-
• You should learn and master this shot before you
ing particular attention to the shaft position. It’s vital that
move onto more advanced shots
the body and a swing of the arms. This movement is crucial to creating the Ripple Effect™, which will force your ball up and onto the green on a cushion of sand
you don’t lean the shaft forward towards the target first at address, and (more importantly) at impact • Keep the clubface slightly open, keep your hands nice and low and make sure you are nice and steady with your feet • All this requires is a moderate wrist and elbow movement on the backswing as your wrists cock and your right elbow folds naturally, creating a nice ‘on plane’ swing. From there simply square the toe up to the heel on the downswing with not too much speed (above) • The key variables to consider are the loft on the clubface, and ensuring the club enters and exits the sand as
number of different bunkers. Play them as they lie. Once you have played them go and hole out. Keep a score. Challenge a friend.
Shot Making Regular and well thought out practice is the key to shot making. Here are the key variables that you should experiment with to vary the flight and distance of your greenside bunker shots... • Vary the loft – use different clubs and experiment with the loft you pre-set at address • Vary the length of your backswing • Experiment with wrist ‘set’ and right arm ‘fold’ • Vary the speed of your arms Make practice realistic: Throw 20 balls into a
Club Selection Don’t always reach for your lob wedge or sand wedge when you are in the sand. Sometimes a pitching wedge or 9-iron may be a better club to play. Which club to take depends on your lie (good, semi-buried, buried), the type and condition of the sand (wet, hard, dry, etc), the proximity of your ball to the lip of the bunker and the height of the lip, the distance to the flag and the nature of the greens (hard, receptive, etc). Through practice and experience you will develop a repertoire of shots that will help you and remember with the right technique you can get a ball out of the bunker with almost anything!
Sand on Clubface – a throwaway drill! This is a great practice drill to help you swing ‘on plane’ and to get the feeling of correctly using the wrists and forearms to first set and then maintain the open clubface throughout the swing (sequence below) • Set your practice station, take your address position and open the clubface (1) • As you move the club away, focus on picking up some sand on the open clubface (2). • As long as you are swinging in the correct path and plane, you should be able to keep that sand on the clubface all the way to the top of the swing (3 & 4), enabling you to effectively throw it over your right shoulder (5). Repeating this exercise will teach you to keep the correct amount of loft on the clubface and will help you work the club back through impact creating the Ripple Effect™ • If you twist or roll your wrists too early in the backswing you will not be able to keep the sand on the club (inset)
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© PETER COWEN GOLF ACADEMY 2007
‘Crank’ it open for extreme loft Within your ‘work station’, you can and should experiment with certain variables, such as the amount of loft you set on the clubface. Here I have ‘maxed’ it out for a real soft pop-up type shot. The key, however, remains to take that shallow divot of sand, as per the box that you see drawn around the ball. The amount of wrist set and elbow fold (as I mentioned earlier) will further determine results.
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The correct wrist and arm action will enable you to balance the sand on the clubface. Overdo it and you lose it
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It’s all about
PUTTING A good set-up places your body, arms and putter in position to initiate a smooth & easy pendulum motion
By Jonathan Yarwood PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID CANNON/GETTYIMAGES LOCATION: JY ACADEMY, THE CONCESSION, SARASOTA
The shortest club in the bag also happens to be one of the most important – it’s no secret that the pro’s practise this part of the game more than anything else. Whatever your handicap, the quickest route to lower scores is to go out and improve the quality of your putting stroke. These lessons will help 62 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010
Notice that the long ‘V’ formed by the arms remains intact throughout, hands passive, while the putterhead remains low to the ground
‘Splaying’ the elbows is a common fault and one that leads to inconsistency, as the arms will tend to operate independently of the upper body during the stroke. To remedy the problem, work on achieving the symmetry of the longer ‘V’ in your set-up position (above and opposite), the upper part of your arms resting on your upper torso, the shaft of the putter falling nicely in line with your forearms. Have the length & lie of your putter adjusted to accommodate this set-up.
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THE CASE FOR THE ‘LONG-V’ Arms hang for pendulum motion Tour players today tend to work on what I would term a ‘long V’, the arms hanging comfortably to place the hands directly below the sternum. The upper part of each arm is nicely ‘connected’ to the upper body, and this shape – and indeed that connection – is then maintained throughout the stroke. The result is a repeating pendulum motion – the most popular type of stroke that we see on tour in modern professional golf. Let me stress up front that the shoulders rotate slightly in a good putting stroke; they do not rock. They turn slightly back and through, as you will see over the following pages. Note here how my chest has turned slightly in the finish. This allows the putter to follow the natural arc again, the long V encouraging a taller posture, which in itself encourages a more rotary motion of the shoulders. Throughout this article I am going to share some of the thoughts and practice routines that I work on with my students, some of which focus on the structure of this type of stroke, others on the drills that make practice a little more fun and – ultimately – more rewarding. Placing two tees in the green as I have done here (left) is a simple first step that reminds you to maintain the length of your stroke, both back and through. That is one of the keys to repeating a fluid rhythm – essential for a consistent contact with the ball.
To encourage the ‘connection’ in your stroke, place a ball up under your left armpit and keep it there as you set up and practice. Closing your eyes as you do this (main image) will further enhance the feeling of the arms and body working together to produce pendulum motion
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Pressure of the upper arms on the chest keeps the towel in place
Unit of arms and upper body intact to the finish
HOW TO FEEL THE ‘CONNECTION’ Trap a towel to keep arms and body ‘together’ Next time you head to the course, make sure you take a decent-sized towel with you. One that is long enough that you can trap the ends under each arm – just as I have done here. Because in doing that you set up
Oops...
what is probably the best drill with which to groove a pendulum putting stroke. Let me emphasise again, the secret to being a good putter lies in the ability to control and repeat a consistent motion, and you will do that most effectively when the arms and the upper torso work together as a guiding unit. Trapping the ends of a towel under each arm immediately gives you a feeling of the upper arms being ‘connected’ to the upper chest – and that’s exactly the sensation you want to have throughout the stroke. Any tendency for the arms to work independently of the torso (i.e. to ‘splay’ about in the fashion I mentioned earlier) will result in the towel falling free. So that’s a simple drill that you can rehearse anytime.
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A lot of tour players carry the Chest Bar, a simple device designed by my old boss, David Leadbetter. It works along the same principles as the towel drill, but provides a little more stability. Useful on the putting green and also a great chipping trainer. Body in control; hands passive
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Find a straight three-footer, and create a ‘gate’, placing two tees just a little wider apart than the width of your putter-head
Tiger is the master of this exercise and his skill at holing five- or six-footers (he doesn’t bother with three-footers!) with just his right hand on the putter is legendary. To get yourself set up and ready to rehearse this drill, I suggest you start from around three feet or so, and place the tee pegs apart so that there is at least a quarter of an inch
The challenge lies in gliding the putter through the gate, meeting the ball square-on and rolling it home centre-cup
DEVELOP THE STABILITY OF YOUR RIGHT HAND/ARM This is a serious holing-out drill – can you match Tiger’s feat? clearance on either side of the putter-head. Then, making sure that your feet, hips and shoulders are square to the line of the putt, take the putter with your right hand and steady the right arm with the left hand. You
Use the alignment mark on the ball to help you square the putterface at the set up – aiming that mark down the line of the putt should be a part of your routine
should feel a comfortable connection between the upper part of the right arm and your upper torso, while your right forearm and the shaft of the putter are in ‘sync’. Set yourself a challenge of holing 10 putts in a
Stabilising your right arm with the left will help you to appreciate the stability that you want to develop in the right arm through the stroke – and that’s one of the keys to a solid action
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As a practice routine, place tees in the green to create a swirl, gradually working further from the hole, and then go from ball to ball and hit the putt without reading it. Go with your instincts. This will improve your feel for judging line and pace
The true contours of this green are not fully revealed in this image, but from a mid-point between the two holes I can work on fine-tuning speed control, going uphill and then downhill. This is a great last-minute drill before you head out to the first tee, as it gets you tuned-in to the speed of the greens, improving your feel for pace on the day
USEFUL GUIDANCE ON HOLING OUT Utilising a triangular arrangement of tees makes for a good holing-out drill. The back tee defines the length of your backswing, while the ‘gate’ formed by the two forward tees (aimed squarely down the line of the putt) gives you a positive visual as you release the putter-head through impact. From this range the last thing you want is to make an overlylong backswing and then decelerate into the ball. That results in a weakly-struck putt that will not hold its line. The ideal scenario is that you make a relatively short backswing and then accelerate the putter squarely into the back of the ball. And don’t limit your holing-out practice to just straight putts, either. Here I have found a gentle left-to-right putt, and the tee are aimed exactly down the line I want to start the ball. Trusting the stroke enables me to release the putter freely and strike the ball with confidence. Hold your finish until the ball drops.
The back tee limits the length of stroke; the key is to accelerate the putter through the gate
JONATHAN YARWOOD IS BASED AT THE CONCESSION, IN SARASOTA, FLORIDA. HE OPERATES A UK ACADEMY AT DONNINGTON GROVE, BERKSHIRE (WWW.DONNINGTON-GROVE.COM) AND WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE UK DURING JULY & AUGUST. VISIT ALSO WWW.GOLFJY.COM 66 GOLFINTERNATIONALMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010