What Makes A Good Golf Swing

Some published statistics suggest that the average golf handicap is essentially the same as it was forty years ago. This is in spite of all the new technology in equipment and in the world of golf instruction. How is this possible? One reason is that most golfers, including those who teach the game, do not have an understanding of what makes a good golf swing. One comment you will often here from an amateur golf when they watch a tour pro or any very good player is that they make every shot look effortless. That is exactly what a good golf swing looks like…effortless. Indeed, some of the more unusual golf swings on tour, such as Jim Furyk’s or Kenny Perry’s, even Lee Trevino’s, look effortless. All of these players have been great ball strikers with unusual looking swings. With that in mind, the appearance, or shape of a golf swing, has nothing to do with what makes a good golf swing. Unfortunately, that is what most instructors think, and as a result, that is what most amateur golfers think as well. A good golf swing is one in which there is a clear rhythmic sequence of events taking place. This sequence of events occurs with athleticism and balance. This athletic, balanced and rhythmic swing is what allows a good golfer to repeat the movement over and over again, even as the stakes are high. How can the average golfer, or worse, learn how to develop a good golf swing? First they must learn the proper sequencing in the golf swing that allows the speed of the club head to increase through impact, and allows the club to be square to the intended target line at impact. This sequence has nothing to do with the position of the golf club during the takeaway, or the swing plane, or the grip or set up. This sequence is actually found in other athletic movements, and this is why some professional athletes who specialize in these other athletic movements, excel at golf. Consider the other sports, or positions in various sports, where those athletes have a higher likelihood of success at golf. Quarterbacks, pitchers and hockey players are more likely to be good golfers than other athletes. I am talking about scratch golfers, not those that can break 80 now and then. Examples of these athletes are former pitcher Rick Rhoden, former quarterback John Brodie who played on the Champions Tour, Phil Simms, Tony Romo, John Smoltz, and hockey players Dan Quinn, Mario Lemieux and Grant Fuhr. Have you ever watched a baseball game, or a football game and heard the comment that the pitcher or quarterback “is in a good rhythm?” And we almost always hear that when a golfer is leading a tournament. Good pitchers make pitching look effortless, just like good quarterbacks in a good rhythm make hitting a receiver down field look easy. The funny thing is, just like in golf, these pitchers and quarterbacks look different from one another in how they get the job done. Think about the movements in pitching and throwing a football. There is a larger or small wind up which results in the back foot acting as a brace, which in turn creates leverage, and then an unwinding of the body that starts with the lower body. This is pretty much the exact opposite of what most golfers do. Most golfers do not create any leverage in the back swing because they do virtually all of the work with the arms, and then they do all of the work in the down swing with the upper body as well. As a result, even large, reasonably athletic and fit people have trouble hitting a driver as far as the average tour pro hits a three-iron. If you want to begin to build a good golf swing, think of these two athletic movements that most of us have done at one time or another… skipping stones across a pond and throwing a Frisbee. These movements are very similar to that of the golf swing. If you can get your mindset away from trying to control the golf club, and instead focus on developing the proper athletic movements involved in the golf swing, along with good rhythm and balance, then you will be well on your way to building a good, sound, repeatable, effortless golf swing. www.yourgolfswingfix.com

Learning Golf - The process

I have played very little golf over the last ten years, even after I started teaching a few years ago. That is now changing. I've come to the realization that I can practice all I want and really not get better if I only play once a month. I joined a semi-private club 30 minutes away this year, a brand new facility, due to its value, and to force myself to play. Well, life kinda got in the way in May and June, when I only played once. My game suffered mightily. Last week I played three times, and showed signs of improvement each day. During that stretch, I have given a few lessons, but have hit very few balls due to a bad left thumb. Today, I played again, and got back to fundamentals. I recognized that I was getting lazy with my posture. My low back tends to be a little rounded so I got back to trying to keep the spine straighter with better posture. The only other thought to my swing was to fire the hips hard in the down swing. The result was the best ball striking round I have had in years. Now it is just a matter of better distance control with the irons, which has been made a little complicated by longer distance than what I am used to. This is the process that every golfer goes through. There must be a balance between playing and practicing. For me, I have practiced a ton over the last few years as I have worked on improving my swing. The process began with my lesson with Hank Haney in February 2009, and then continued with my ongoing research. During this time I discovered a process in which I employ in my teaching, and the results for those students who employ it are quite dramatic. I continue to look forward to making more improvements. As I am 46, my goal is to one day play in the Senior U.S. Open. I never reached my potential at my physical peak, but I am smarter now and continue to hit the ball longer than most of my contemporaries. So, there is the goal! Set goals for yourself, develop your process, and you will get to where you want to be! Scott Cole www.yourgolfswingfix.com

British Open comments

This was an interesting British Open. For some reason, Royal Lytham and St. Anne's Golf Club produces a top notch winner every year it holds the Open Championship. This year was no exception and the leaderboard was stacked with big names every day of the tournament. In the end, Ernie Els, who has been snakebit as much as any golfer, came out on top when he played clutch golf down the stretch and Adam Scott could not hold onto the lead. Ultimately, the best ball striker of the week won the golf tournament. Els lead in Greens in Regulation by a wide margin, and if he had putted well, would have won by a wide margin. Fortunately for him, he putted well enough, especially on the 72nd hole. Questions remain with Tiger Woods game. Again, he displayed a lack of confidence in the driver on a day when the course demanded he hit driver due to the wind. The most telling shot of the day for me in Tiger's round was when he pulled out a 2 iron on a tee shot on a 462 yard par 4 that was playing dead into the wind. He left himself 240 yards to the green for his second shot. This was at a point when you figured he had no chance at winning, so why not pull the driver? Stunning. Given that the PGA championship will be played at Kiawah Island next month on a course that can stretch to 7,900 yards, and where the wind will likely be a factor, it is hard to imagine Tiger winning there while hitting 2 irons and 3 woods on every tee. Compare Tiger's effort to what Els did on 18 when he had to make a birdie. With a quartering wind in his face and from left to right, Els hit a fade over the left fairway bunker that required a carry of 285 yards. This left him a little wedge shot into the green that set up his winning putt. Until Tiger can do this consistently, he is going to come up short in most majors and will struggle at Augusta, where he has not won since 2005. Merion may very well be his best shot next year, since it is not long. Of course, with his ability, Tiger will likely at some point confound us pretend experts! In any event, it is always fun to watch the Open Championship as it is such a different brand of golf. Compared to the True South Classic which wrapped up today with Scott Stallings as the winner at 24 under, well, there is no comparison. Typical PGA Tour golf can be bit boring to watch as many weeks simply turn into a putting contest. Scott Cole www.yourgolfswingfix.com

The President's Cup - What Did We Learn?

I took away a number of things from The President's Cup this week. The first is that Tiger Woods is very close to winning form, and I suspect he might just win his Chevron Challenge event coming up in December. It is clear that his iron game and short game are quite good now, and his putting is close. He was able to avoid his weakness, the driver, in each of his last two events, as both golf courses in Australia did not demand length off the tee. I am also not yet sure how well he can hit the high fade with his irons, and I do not yet quite see the distance control he once had with the irons.

Another thing I took away from the President's Cup is that some of the young guns still have a ways to go to be considered major challengers next year. Dustin Johnson remains an enigma to me. I know nothing of his work ethic, but with his length, he should contend more often. Ryo Ishikawa and Jason Day are nowhere close to living up to their hype. Day had a couple decent finishes in majors last year, but does not appear to know how to close the deal. Ishikawa seems to be just another player from Japan who doesn't compete very well when he leaves his homeland.

The veterans for the U.S. team played very well. Jim Furyk went 5-0, and Toms, Stricker and Mickelson also had good moments. This just suggests to me that the young international players from outside of Europe are just not up to snuff. Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Retief Goosen were the most solid performers for the international side, and they are grizzled veterans.

The bottom line is that most of the big challengers for Tiger seem to be from Europe. Sergio Garcia appears rejuvenated, and I believe that players such as McIlroy, Donald, Westwood and McDowell will look forward to the challenge of facing Tiger when he is in better form next year. Most of the young Americans still have a lot of learning to do when it comes to winning. I think many of the top prospects for the U.S. are actually in college now, and it will be a few years until they hit the tour. As a result, I look for Tiger to have a couple good years, starting at Augusta in April.

Scott Cole
Your Golf Swing Fix

Thoughts on the Mental Game of Golf

In their quest to take their game to the next level, many golfers feel the need to explore The Mental Game of golf. Because golfers see that some PGA tour stars employ a sport psychologist, they think this kind of work will do wonders for their game as well.

Here's the rub. Can anyone name a tour player that suddenly became a great player because they hired a psychologist to help them with their game. Sure, some have certainly changed their attitudes as a result of their work, but it is difficult to name any that were turned into a star golfer.

The fact of the matter is that if you can’t break 100, you probably have a lousy golf swing. No amount of work on what is going on inside your brain is going to help you lower your scores if you can’t get the ball airborne, or have trouble keeping it on the golf course.

Golf is a process. You have to learn good fundamentals before you can start hitting the ball well. You have to learn how to hit the ball well on the range, before you play well on the golf course with your friends. You have to play well with your friends before you can play well in a tournament. You have to play well in a tournament before you can learn how to win a tournament.

Tiger Woods is a perfect case study in all this. He is re-learning how to play golf again. He is getting more comfortable with his new swing, and while it may not be a better version than what he has had before, as long as he thinks so, that is all that matters. As he is getting more comfortable with it, you can see he is getting more comfortable on the golf course, and particularly around the greens. Pretty soon, he will be able to knock down the door and win a tournament again, and then he will build on that process and win a major again. Will he get back to his highest level? That remains to be seen.

In all of this, what you have not heard is that he has hired a mental game guru to help him with his mental game. Tiger is mentally strong already, and therein lies the difference between the great players, and those that are not so great. Their mental toughness is more innate, not trained. Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, and Tiger Woods never needed to hire a sport psychologist to help them win golf tournaments.

Yes, there are things you can do to help with your mental game. However, there is no magic mental process that is going to turn you into Tiger Woods. There is, however, a learning process to becoming a better golfer overall, as described above. So get to work on that process and you will become a better golfer.

Scott Cole - Your Golf Swing Fix

Will Tiger Woods Win Again?

Yes, Tiger Woods will win again! However, expect him to face some adversity when breaking through. Tiger has probably not experienced this length of winless golf in his entire life. In fact, he probably started winning golf tournaments at a very young age, and had won SOMETHING every year.

He is now gone two years without winning. Because of that, it will be more difficult to get used to being at the front again. Yesterday's third round in the Australian Open is a case in point. It is a very different feeling stepping up on the tee on moving day in a 72 hole tournament with the lead. Most who get in that position tend to relinquish it.

Golf is a process. Tiger has been reworking his swing. Initially, he could hardly take the new swing from the driving range to the golf course. Then he found it difficult to take it from a round with his buddies to tournament play. Now he must learn to take it from Thursday and Friday to Saturday, and then to Sunday. Then he must learn how to do all of that in a major.

Tiger's greatness over the years suggested that this process would be much easier for him than anyone else. We now know he is human. Jack Nicklaus went through these periods as well. He has mentioned that he had lost confidence some time between his 1978 victory at St. Andrews and his win at the 1980 U.S. Open. The difference is that Jack did not try to overhaul his swing. He just needed to make a tweak to the old one. However, it becomes much more difficult to make any kind of changes as we get older, for the simple reason that life becomes more complicated as we get older. There are more demands on our time, and less time to focus on golf. And, of course, the body does not allow us to make changes very easily as we get older.

We must remember that Tiger has young children, and they will place significant demands on his time. It will be impossible for him to be as sharp as he was for long periods of time. We will see flashes of brilliance, and a few more big wins, but nothing like the domination we once saw, when golf was his only focus. Life just doesn't work that way, and there are too many young and hungry players willing to get in his way.

Nevertheless, Tiger will win again, it's just a matter of time.

Scott Cole

How to Fix Your Slice

The slice is the most common ball flight error in the game of golf. For a right handed player, the slice is defined as a ball that starts to the left of the target, and then ultimately curves to the right of the target. For a left handed golfer, the ball starts to the right and curves to the left. It has been estimated by such teaching professionals as Hank Haney that at least 80% of all golfers slice the ball. Hank would definitely know, as he has given over 40,000 lessons in his career.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad advice in the world of golf when it comes to providing good information how to cure the golf slice. Some pros will simply tell you to set up to the ball with the club face closed (aimed to the left for a right handed player) to your target line, and it will ultimately be square to the target at impact. Other pros will tell you to swing out to right field, and still others will tell you to rotate your hands through the hitting zone.

Fortunately, there is a better way. First of all, it is necessary for the golfer to gain an understanding of the swing plane and how it affects ball flight. Golfers who tend to slice the ball as I have defined typically attack the ball from outside, or above the swing plane. In other words, for a right handed player, the swing path is coming in from the right and heading to the left. Since the right handed player is standing beside the ball, a good swing will result in the club attacking the ball from the inside, rather than the outside.

A swing plane that is coming in from outside and above the correct swing plane, or plane angle achieved as you address the ball (the angle of the club shaft) also has a tendency to result in the club face being open to the swing path at impact. This causes a rightward spin on the ball, which causes it to curve to the right.

There are basically two types of swings that will cause the club to attack the ball from outside the swing plane. The first is a swing with a loop, where the right handed player pulls the club too far inside on the take away, and then loops the club at the top of the swing that it attacks the ball from the outside in the down swing. The other type is simply one in which the player’s alignment and set up result in a steep outside takeaway that and failure to loop the club back to the inside in the down swing. In other words, the club returns to the ball from the same direction as the take away.

In both cases, the cure is quite easy. In the first instance, the golfer must simply learn to reverse the loop they have in their swing. Instead of pulling the club too far inside in the takeaway, and looping it back to the outside in the down swing, they should do the opposite, and perform a take away more to the outside in the back swing, and then loop the club back to the inside in the down swing. Jim Furyk’s swing is a perfect example of this move. Ultimately, the golfer wants to find the happy place in the middle and execute a swing that is more on plane in the back swing, which makes it easier to keep on plane in the down swing.

In the second instance, the golfer needs to feel what it is like to swing the club on a flatter swing plane. One way to do this is to perform a number of swings at chest level, then drop the club about a foot, perform more swings, and keep dropping the club about a foot at a time until it is set up at ground level. A flatter swing plane allows the golfer to square the clubface more easily at impact.

In both cases, it is a good idea to practice these drills with a ball on a tee. When you are able to hit a draw off of the tee consistently, you will be ready to hit the ball of the ground with confidence. Ultimately, getting rid of the slice requires a golf swing that is more on plane, and one in which the lower body starts the down swing. Most golfers slice the ball because of a poor swing plane and poor sequencing of the body.

Scott Cole www.yourgolfswingfix.com