STAR INSTRUCTION MAKE THIS A GREAT PUTTING YEAR
Make this a great putting year By Nick Faldo
W
e would all love to hole more putts, but the truth is most amateurs and a number of pros can be very inconsistent on the greens. How well do you roll the ball, how good is your feel and touch? Let’s take a look at those basic requirements and see how we can improve them.
REMEMBER THIS!
THE ANCHOR
Get your ball position right
PHOTOGRAPHY TOM HOWARD
You will have seen this before, but it is worth checking once in a while. Hold the ball over your left eye and let it drop to the ground. Where it hits the turf is a good indicator of ball position. As long as some part of the ball touches that spot, you are all right.
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The first point I’d like to draw your attention to here is the knees. If you watch on television and the guy moves his knees, he’ll miss the putt. The other point is your bottom, or your coccyx. Keep that absolutely still, think of your pockets or something. If the triangle from knees to spine stays solid, especially on the short ones, you’ll be halfway there.
NICK FALDO
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1 2 3 Think two triangles As always posture is important, but something I have always found useful is to think of the two triangles that are formed when you address the ball and the different parts they play in the stroke: the anchor and the engine.
2 THE ENGINE The other triangle is formed by the shoulders, arms and hands. If you keep that constant (with fractional flexibility in the wrists as I’ll explain over the page), then you’ll make more putts. It’s as simple as that. Allow the shape as a whole to rock to the right and left, but concentrate on keeping the angles within the triangle pretty much the same.
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You can see how the two triangles work in unison through the stroke with the solid base creating the foundation for the arms and shoulders to move.
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STAR INSTRUCTION MAKE THIS A GREAT PUTTING YEAR
1 2
ADDRESS Address the ball with the club on the ground, then go back low using your chest and shoulders, not your arms and hands. Think right shoulder up. Then you have to find the equator of the ball by raising the leading edge. This doesn’t mean lifting up though. Look how soft everything is with the hands. Everything has to move. You can’t just do this with the hands or you’ll flick at it. You have to move arms, chest and hands to make the ball do that.
3 Can you belly the wedge? A good putting stroke has to have a certain fluidity; you need a little bit of play in your wrists. Good players all have that ‘lag’ in the stroke that allows them to hit the ball positively. This drill teaches you this lag. As you go back, you don’t come through exactly the same. It’s the same as in the main swing, just less pronounced. It’s the subtle difference of the hands leading the clubhead into the ball.
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If your putter has four degrees of loft, hit the ball with 3.5 of them.
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1 FALDO FORMULA 2
We often talk about taking the putter back low and then hitting the ball slightly on the up to encourage a good roll. That is certainly something I worked on, especially on European greens that tended to be slightly more bumpy. The other great reason to think like this concerns the left wrist. In a poor stroke, you can get hesitant and the left wrist breaks down, the body stops and the left wrist flicks at the ball, generally pulling the putt. Concentrating on an upward strike guards against this.
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3 You need a tiny bit of flex in the wrists.
The leading edge will then catch the centre of the ball.
NICK FALDO
CLOSE-UP REMEMBER THIS!
Imagine a six-footer is 10 times as long
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If you get this stroke wrong, you will mis-hit the ball and it won’t have a consistent roll. The transition is not wooden. Try picturing a six-foot putt as though it is 60 feet. By that I mean that on a very long putt, the wrists will naturally have some play in them because of the pace you are swinging and the weight of the putter head. Scale that image down to the shorter ones.
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TARGET Put a tee down so that you can line up the face with the target. Don’t get hole orientated at this stage. It is tempting to putt towards a hole, but for this drill there is no point. Besides I want your attention to be on the stroke and the strike rather than whether the ball drops into the hole. That is not relevant at this stage.
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4 And the ball will be sent smoothly across the green.
3 I like this drill because it teaches you to make a positive ascending stroke through impact. It forces an element of give in the wrists and makes you focus on good rhythm.
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STAR INSTRUCTION MAKE THIS A GREAT PUTTING YEAR
1 2 3
NICK FALDO
Wake up the hands Sometimes you can get too dominant with one of your hands and when that happens, it is very easy to push or pull your putts. Faced with a problem like that, you need to wake up the other hand so that it plays its part in the stroke.
ONE HAND ONLY The answer is simple, hit some practice putts one-handed. I discovered a few years ago that I had become very right hand dominant. I tried some putts with my left hand and I was all over the place. It made me realise how important it is to have everything working together.
Remember the left hand too. Ideally, you want the hands to be working equally.
DID YOU KNOW If I used one
arm, try the right ha I’d probably nd. Mike Hulbe rt went for over a year putting with just one hand on the PGA To ur. I knew him qu ite well and I thought the id ea made a lot of sense.
FALDO
FORMULA
The clubface on a putter should have around four degrees of loft. Most of the decent models will have that, but it’s always worth checking. Can you see four degrees? Well, not really, it’s pretty fractional. I can remember the days when we might have as much as seven degrees, but these days, with heads that are balanced with weight that is back and low, they might only have two or three degrees of loft. Loft is important to get the ball up and running, you don’t want to be squeezing it into the turf because it could easily jump off-line.
KEEP CONTROL One thing I’d say here, it is better to place your left hand on your right biceps so that you stay connected in the stroke. You want to keep powering the stroke with the shoulders and you don’t want the right arm to be flailing around out of control.
Shot on location at Monte Rei Golf & Country Club in the Eastern Algarve.
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INSTRUCTION SPECIAL
BY PLAYING EDITOR NICK FALDO
PHOTOGRAPHY TOM HOWARD
MASTER THE LONG BUNKER SHOT Whether you’re hitting a 6-iron from a fairway trap or a wedge from 80 yards, the long shot from sand is one of the most tricky to get right. Here are my rules for meeting the challenge.
Shot on location at Monte Rei Golf & Country Club in the Eastern Algarve.
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THIN TO WIN FROM THE FAIRWAY I’m faced here with a shot of around 160 yards and I need to fly the ball all the way to the pin. From sand you will generally expect to hit a fade, so my line is just to the left of the flag.
FALDO FORMULA If you’re not sure if you can clear the lip of the bunker then you have a decision to make and I would encourage you to err on the side of caution. It’s what I used to do because I always had quite a low initial launch angle. You can move the ball a little forward in the stance, but never try to help the ball up. If you need more loft on the club to be safe, then you are not going to make it to the green. Don’t go thrashing it harder, play sensibly and pick an ideal spot to lay up. Golf is a thinking man’s game; playing the percentages is a wise choice.
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INSTRUCTION SPECIAL
A trick I use from fairway bunkers is to address the ball slightly out of the toe. You’re going to ask me why and the answer is quite simple; it’s “thin to win, fat and pack,” as in pack your bags and go home! If you address the ball out of the toe you are far less likely to catch the sand first and hit the ball heavy. If you strike the sand first, the ball is going nowhere and you have no chance of making the green. Conversely, if you strike the ball a little thin, you’ll have a reasonable chance of getting away with it. You can get away with a controlled thin all day.
Keep your legs quiet. This is always good advice out of bunkers because you need to be very precise. On these longer fairway sand shots, I want you to keep your feet very calm. You can’t be aggressive with your leg work, they just have to be suckers holding the ground. That passive style will spread up to the knees when we turn the heat up over the page.
There are two ways to play the ball off the toe, the first is to stand halfan-inch further away, but the second is to choke down on the club as I’m doing here. It’s up to you.
You can be aggressive with the chest though. Really swing the arms and use that upper body to generate the necessary power.
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THE 80-YARD ESCAPE SHOT Let’s move onto the more difficult stuff. The 80yard bunker shot is the toughest sand shot there is because you have to strike it perfectly to get a half decent result. The key is to have supportive knees, as opposed to supportive feet. Try to think of everything below your knees staying firm. For this shot, I’ve gone for my 54º wedge; you might need your pitching wedge or even a 9-iron because, again, you can’t afford to come up short.
STILL TO COME IN
I’LL TELL YOU: How to groove a perfect putting stroke Sure-fire ways to cure golf’s most common mistakes The best way to spend 30 minutes before a game How to master strategy like a major champion The swing keys I used to win three Opens What the recoil shot is and how it works
Join me here every month, only in Golf World
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INSTRUCTION SPECIAL
To play this shot, take a slightly open stance and then pre-set your impact position as I have here. Hold the knees there. By bracing yourself like this you are ensuring you only make a threequarter swing. Clip the ball.
Stability is key. Imagine everything is held tight, as if in an elastic band. There is just enough leeway to turn. Point your thumbs at the sky because that keeps you steep. Then focus on strike and through.
…As a slight alternative, I have also found that pushing the knees apart and holding them there in the backswing gives another very solid base. It’s whatever you prefer.
Point the club back at the sky to finish.
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STAR INSTRUCTION MY 30-MINUTE WARM-UP ROUTINE
My 30-minute warm-up routine By Nick Faldo
NICK FALDO
1 2 3 4 STRETCH
Wake up your balance Look at the picture here, and you could be forgiven for thinking: “Nick has finally lost it!” But give me a chance to explain: this is actually a very effective way of alerting your balance and senses before heading out to the course.
I’m often asked what is the best way to prepare for a round of golf. Most pros will spend a good hour or so warming up, but I accept that might be too long for many club amateurs who have other commitments to consider. So here is a compromise. Over the next few pages, I’ve come up with some suggestions that could be distilled into a sharp half-hour routine. See if you can pick up on some of these ideas, so that you tee up ready, prepared and raring to go.
Take a wedge, stand on one leg and whirl it about in a series of figure-ofeights in front of you. If you’re holding the club in your right hand, stand on your left leg, and vice versa. Apart from waking up your balance and warming up your arms and wrists, it also does wonders for your neurological pathways and co-ordination. I have a few friends in the medical profession who all tell me this is a very useful routine to prepare your body for action, which could be just what you need if it’s an early tee time. If you suffer from tendonitis, and that has included me on several occasions in my career, then this can be a really useful stretching and warm-up exercise.
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STAR INSTRUCTION MY 30-MINUTE WARM-UP ROUTINE
1 2 3 4 OFF TO THE RANGE
It’s 4x4 shot drill Many golfers turn up for their club medal with minutes to spare and then rush to the 1st tee, but you don’t need me to tell you how that is not a good way to prepare. The practice ground should be visited before every serious game. Laying a club on the ground is one of my absolute rules, because it’s the only chance you get to check your alignment. Use the club to help line up with a target, so that every time you stand over the ball you are focused on a target. Do not just bash balls into an open field. After loosening up (see opposite) I like to hit about four balls with every club, working up from my 9-iron. If you are pushed for time, you could use just the odd-numbered irons in your bag, but use all the woods.
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WISE STRIKING Depending on your ability, you may want to use this exercise to loosen up and get a feel for each club. I take things a step further than that. With my four shots I’d hit a slight fade and draw, then a more pronounced fade and draw. The slight fade might move five to 10ft and the bigger fade would move about 30ft – roughly half the width of a green.
NICK FALDO
Loosen your muscles
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I like to start with a full 9-iron and hit a few looseners. My initial thought here is to concentrate on my shoulder turn. I want to complete a full 90-degree move on the backswing and then turn 90 degrees back through. Think of lovely big turns, but there is no need to hit the ball hard. Just swing as long and as smoothly as you can. All you are trying to do here is to stretch out your muscles.
FALDO
FORMULA
There is one simple rule that I have kept at the back of my mind throughout my years of practising and preparing for tournaments: every shot I hit, I do something with it. Every shot is preconceived, otherwise I could easily hit 1,000 balls and get nothing from it apart from aching limbs and a few blisters. It could be a little fade or a touch of draw, or you might hit a really good one and then try to copy it. The bottom line is that you should never just hit a ball without first picturing in your mind what it is you want to do with it.
Use other balls as a target Before you leave the range, put your wedges through their paces with a few chips and pitches. I like to chip a ball forward about 10 yards or so and then try to land the next one on it. Keep going like this for five or six shots and you can really start to get a bit of feel going in your hands and arms.
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STAR INSTRUCTION MY 30-MINUTE WARM-UP ROUTINE
1 2 3 4 SHARPEN YOUR SHORT GAME
Beat the bunker It’s now time to focus on the skills you’ll need for scoring: chipping, bunker play and a few putts. It’s amazing how you can go for several rounds and never find yourself playing from sand, then suddenly, just when you are protecting a score, you hit a string of them. That’s why flipping a few out of sand before you play is important. You don’t want to step into a bunker feeling like you’ve forgotten what it feels like to play a splash shot. I use a simple drill: lay a headcover on the grass and try to lob three or four balls on to it. Repeat the exercise a few times, varying the distance. I often did this from the fairway bunker of the 2nd hole at Wentworth’s East Course, for those of you who can picture that.
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NICK FALDO
Practice the oneyard chip You are more likely to miss a green early on, so the chip from just off the putting green is a shot you are quite likely to face. There’s nothing worse than missing the green by a yard, off a decent shot, and then you get all fiddly. Isao Aoki was the best at this – I learnt from him. He’d look at the hole, then pick a spot on the green and concentrate on landing his ball on that point. I like to hit a couple of chip/putts before I play. I take an 8-iron, place the ball slightly back in the stance and use my putting grip. Just pop the ball over the fringe so that it runs out to the hole.
IN THE ROUGH If your ball’s in a bad lie, a great tip is to lift the heel of the club off the ground, and play the ball a little more out of the toe. You may need to stand a smidgeon closer to get the shaft angle a bit steeper. Lean into it a bit, keep the elbows close to your body, focus your chest on the ball, then it’s right shoulder up and right shoulder through…
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STAR INSTRUCTION MY 30-MINUTE WARM-UP ROUTINE
1 2 3 4 GET TO GRIPS WITH GREENS
Push for perfection Finally, there should just be enough time for a few putts. Generally, the putting green should be near the 1st tee, so this is the place to get comfortable with your putter, collect your thoughts and perhaps try a few calming breathing exercises. I’ve known some people to shy away from short putts before they go out because, if they miss them, they’d worry about taking negatives out on to the course. Here’s my ideal drill: place your ball a putter’s length from the hole, address it and then simply push your ball into the hole. It sounds simple, but it does good things. It checks that your alignment is good and, more importantly, you are still pointing the clubface at the hole when you go through.
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SHORT SHIFT Another nice thing about this drill is that, to make it work, you have to push with your shoulders, rather than flick with your hands.
NICK FALDO
Get a feel for the pace A good putting green should be set up in the same way as the greens on the course, although you need to be aware that, unfortunately, that is not always the case.
PACE SETTER I like to throw four or five balls down in a line going away from the hole, roughly a yard or two apart, and then try to putt each one just beyond the hole. Holing out is not important, you just want to get a feel for the pace of the green.
Make a few mental notes here. If I have an 11-yard putt and I judge the pace well, by taking my hands back over my right knee, then that will help me out on the course. Keep your timing and rhythm the same and you will immediately have a rough guide that could be essential over those first few holes. Remember as well that the difference between uphill and downhill on the course is big. If it’s 11 yards, but downhill, then you will need to make some adjustments. Shot on location at Monte Rei Golf & Country Club, Algarve, Portugal.
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The Open 2008
How I won three opens It took a change of strategy, a string of swing keys and a bit of help from Basil Brush for Nick Faldo to bag his three Open titles. Here he shares the secrets behind his elusive hat-trick. WORDS BY NICK FALDO WITH PETE MASTERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM HOWARD
Muirfield 1987
Thumbs up for victory Leaderboard Nick Faldo –5 68-69-71-71 279 Paul Azinger –4 68-68-71-73 280 Rodger Davis –4 64-73-74-69 280
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The first Open win was a relief; it really was. I’d finally realised what had been my goal since I was 15. But it didn’t come easily, having just spent the previous few years beating literally thousands of balls in a bid to upgrade my swing to what I felt was Major championship level. So let me outline here the three key thoughts that I used to get me through that memorable week at Muirfield.
The Open 2008 Leaderboard Nick Faldo –18 67-65-67-71 270 Payne Stewart –13 68-68-68-71 275 Mark McNulty –13 74-68-68-65 275
St Andrews 1990
My three wedge strategy I’d never put three wedges in my bag before, but the way St Andrews was set up that week, hard and fast, it was playing incredibly short and I needed the extra options. But the Open in 1990 wasn’t all about short game control. There were a number of other things going on that had a major input into the week. I was suffering badly from tendonitis in my arms and wrists and hitting the ball off the rock hard turf was painful. I didn’t hit shots off the deck in practice, but played everything from a tee peg instead.
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Why the Wedges? Playing with an arsenal of wedges was relatively new in the early ’90s. I carried both a 60º model and a 58º, which sounds very close, but it made the difference between a full shot and a three-quarter one. There were a couple of holes where it made life easier that week. And because the course was so dry and the greens were rock hard. Yardage difference was not much, but it does usually work more in wedges, so there was perhaps a 10-yard difference. It meant I didn’t have any nervy touch shots.
1990: feeling chipper Faldo chips in at St Andrews’ 18th for a firstround total of 67.
The knuckle ball I had a driver with no loft on it. I hit a knuckle ball, which is super low, the thing never got more than 20 feet off the ground. It was perfect,
though, for St Andrews. It had a metal head with a graphite shaft, which was unusual for me. I drove it so well that week. Top driver Faldo’s no-loft driver proved perfect for the hard-pan Old Course.
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The Open 2008 Leaderboard
Muirfield 1992
Stroke and scuff
(The Basil Brush technique) The media knew that I was working on something that week and they were desperate to find out what it was. This is where the term Basil Brush came from. I used it as a code to describe the drill that David Leadbetter and I had been using. Basil Brush alluded to a sweeping of the ground on the putting stroke, but that didn’t tell the whole story...
Nick Faldo –12 66-64-69-73 272 John Cook –11 66-67-70-70 273 José Maria Olazábal –10 70-67-69-68 274
the putting driLL I had a problem with my putting stroke going into the Open in 1992. It was getting too wooden and mechanical and the positive feel was going out of the stroke. The cure was simple. On the putting green, before going out on the course, I would intentionally scuff the ground as the putter head came through. It gave you aggressiveness without hitting it hard and it gave the stroke a lovely lag. If you try to hit the ground on a putt, you get this lovely lag. You need to have a fractional play in the wrists; if you get too stiff and inflexible, you are going to have problems. On links greens you’ve got to be going at it. Obviously you never hit the ground when you are playing the ball, but in practice you brush the ground, just so that you can feel some resistance there. You feel like you skid the putt for the first yard. It makes you very ball and forward focused; you don’t think about the backswing, it’s all strike and through. I always felt that I putted my best when I had forward thoughts. How do I go through the ball, rather than how do I get to the ball.
Brush it Practice putting by brushing the ground on the way through – it worked for me.
Shot on location at Monte Rei Golf & Country Club in the Eastern Algarve.
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Skill Zone
Avoid common mistakes No matter how perfect we think we are, all of us get into bad habits. After working with all sorts of players, I feel I have a pretty good idea of where things can go wrong. Check these faults to see if any apply to your game.
WORDS BY NICK FALDO WITH PETE MASTERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM HOWARD
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It’s all in the hands When was the last time you checked your grip? Now, I don’t wish to bore you so we’ll keep this simple. Here are just a couple of thoughts.
RIGHT HAND DRILL
Shot on location at Monte Rei Golf & Country Club in the Eastern Algarve.
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Most people are right-handed, so I’d tell them to hold the club up like this and then grab it as you would a hammer. All you do then is just jiggle it a little to create a trigger with your index finger.
Driving | Irons | Short game | Bunkers | Putting
LEFT HAND DRILL Here’s a nice drill I used to use with David Leadbetter. 1. Place the club by your right foot and aim the clubface at the ball. Then place your left hand on the grip. 2. You’ll find that this gives you a good ‘neutral’ grip. 3. This cupped position of the wrist is what you’re looking for.
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Are you aligned properly? This should be easy, but it is still hugely important. Make regular checks that your knees, hips and shoulders are all parallel with each other and with the line to the target.
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BAD GRIPS
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Here are two poor grips I see all the time. 1. Pushing your hands forward is what I call ‘the cricketers’ grip’. 2. This is a mix of a weak left hand position with a strong right. GOLF WORLD | JULY 2008 117
Skill Zone 1 ✓
Flex the knees slightly then lift your heels off the ground (and keep them there). This will create a feeling of tension in the thighs.
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People talk about sticking the bottom out like Adam Scott. Well, Adam just keeps his spine straight, so don’t exaggerate it too much.
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Remember to bend from the hips not the waist and try not to arch your spine. This will cramp the space for the hands.
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ATHLETIC POSTURE
Test your balance on your tip-toes If you’ve been following my instruction academy in Golf World, then you’ll know the importance I place on posture. I keep going on about it because I keep seeing people getting it horribly wrong. Many of your other faults could be cured right here, right now. So, here are some pointers.
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Then place the club on the ground because this will determine how far you should be from the ball. 118 JULY 2008 | GOLF WORLD
Tilt your hips very slightly by dropping your right buttock. This will in turn lower the right shoulder and put you in a good position.
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Don’t bring the ball in until you have completed the first four steps. I like a ball position two inches inside my left heel.
Hang your arms down with your heels still raised, just as I’m doing here.
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Now place your heels back on the ground. This drill stops you being lazy and it builds a good, athletic, ready-to-go posture.
Driving | Irons | Short game | Bunkers | Putting
Train your right knee
TRY THIS DRILL
All right, so I’m exaggerating this slightly, but it’s amazing how many players allow the right knee to break down on the backswing. You must try to build a solid base.
1 Place a club on the ground behind your heels and then draw your left foot back as I’ve done here. Try to keep the rest of your body square to the target.
2 Simply swing back, keeping your right leg as solid as you can, loading your weight onto the right side.
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WEIGHT PROBLEM We’ve all seen this before, the dreaded reverse pivot, where the weight is never where you need it to be. I have a backswing drill that will help eradicate this for good.
3 For those who straighten the right knee, they will, for the first time, be able to feel what the correct position feels like. I like to use this exercise in the gym, using the knee to cover my view of my shoelaces. GOLF WORLD | JULY 2008 119
Skill Zone
Driving | Irons | Short game | Bunkers | Putting
Let the knees kiss
A lot of amateurs fail to complete the swing with their bottom half. Everything stops at impact, which can lead to shots being pushed to the right. Here’s how to rectify that.
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Are you on a good plane going back? ✓
So many players whip the club on the inside in the takeaway, en route to looping it over and into a horrible slice. KNEES TOGETHER
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You need the hip and the right foot to complete their turn so that the knees touch once you have completed the swing. See how the hips have completed the turn, dragging the right leg into a much better position at the finish.
You want to be here. Hands in the centre of the chest.
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RMUL A ● O FO FA LD L FA
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…or here.
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