As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.

The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.

Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply.  Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:

Mis-aligned hands

By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.

The position of the grip in the upper/left hand

I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean.  Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.

To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.

Too much lower (right) hand on the club

It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.

Gripping too tightly

Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.

So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.

More from the Wedge Guy

• The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
• The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
• The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback

For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.

Setup

You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.

While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.

Get a Better Shoulder Turn

Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.

In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.

Stay Better Connected in the Backswing

When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.

Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.

Conclusion

I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.

The address position is the easiest part to change in the golf swing. If an adjustment can be made that will influence the rest of the swing, it should be made here. The set-up is a static position, so you have full control over it. If concepts are understood with feedback given (a mirror or video) it can easily be corrected and monitored. Once the club is in motion, a change becomes much more difficult.

Most faults in the swing originate in the set-up. All to often players go directly to the part they want to change in the middle of their swing, not understating their is an origin to what they do. When the origin isn’t fixed, trying to directly change the part in the middle is difficult and will often leave the player frustrated. Even worse, the part they are looking to fix may actually be a “match-up” move by the brain and body. These match-up moves actually counter -balance a previous move to try and make the swing work.

An example of not fixing the origin and understanding the importance of the set-up is when players are trying to shallow the club on the downswing (a common theme on social media). They see the steep shaft from down-the-line and directly try and fix this with different shallowing motions. More times then not, the origin to this is actually in the set-up and/or direction the body turns back in the backswing. If the body is out of position to start and turns back “tilty”, a more difficult match-up is required to shallow the shaft.

Another simple simple set-up position that is often over-looked is the angle of the feet. For efficiency, the lead foot should be slightly flared and the trail foot flared out as well (the trail more flared then the lead). When the trail foot is straight or even worse pointed inwards, a player will often shift their lower in the backswing rather then coil around in the groin and glutes. Trying to get a better lower half coil is almost impossible with poor foot work.

The golf swing is hard to change, so work on the things that are simple and what you have control over. You may not be able to swing it like a world class player, but with proper training you can at least the address the ball like one. When making a swing change, look to fix the origin first to facilitate the change.

*Part two of this article will be focusing on what you can control on the golf course, a key to better performance

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As I grew up in the game, my father and I spent hours talking about golf and swing technique, from the grip to positions at impact to conceptual aspects of the game and swing. I’ve continued to study and have conversations with knowledgeable golf professionals and players throughout my life. But back to my father, one thing he made very clear to me early on is that there is a big difference between understanding, learning, and practice.

Understanding and learning are two very different aspects of getting better at this game. The understanding part is where you actually grasp the basic concepts of a functionally correct golf swing. This includes the fundamentals of a proper grip, to the geometry of sound setup up, and alignment to the actual role and movements of the various parts of your body from start to finish.

Only after understanding can you begin the learning process of incorporating those fundamentals and mechanical movements into your own golf swing. I was taught and continue to believe the best way to do that is to start by posing in the various positions of a sound golf swing, then graduating to slow motion movement to connect those poses – address to takeaway to mid-backswing to top of backswing to first move down, half-way down…through impact and into the follow-through.

Finally, the practice part of the equation is the continual process of ingraining those motions so that you can execute the golf swing with consistency.

The only sure way to make progress in your golf is through technique improvement, whether it is a full swing with the driver or the small swings you make around the greens. There are no accomplished players who simply practice the same wrong things over and over. Whether it is something as simple as a grip alteration or modification to your set up position, or as complex as a new move in the swing, any of these changes require first that you understand…then clearly learn the new stuff. Only after it is learned can you begin to practice it so that it becomes ingrained.

If you are trying to learn and perfect an improved path of your hands through impact, for example, the first step is to understand what it is you are trying to achieve. Only then can you learn it. Stop-action posing in the positions enables your muscles and mind to absorb your new objectives. Then, slow-motion swings allow your muscles to feel how to connect these new positions and begin to produce this new coordinated motion through them. As your body begins to get familiar with this new muscle activity, you can gradually speed up the moves with your attention focused on making sure that you are performing just as you learned.

As you get comfortable with the new muscle activity, you can begin making practice swings at half speed, then 3/4 speed, and finally full speed, always evaluating how well you are achieving your objectives of the new moves. This is the first stage of the practice process.

Only after you feel like you can repeat this new swing motion should you begin to put it into practice with a golf ball in the way. And even then, you should make your swings at half or ¾ speed so that you can concentrate on making the new swing – not hitting the ball.

The practice element of the process begins after the learning process is nearly complete. Practice allows you to ingrain this new learning so that it becomes a habit. To ensure your practice is most effective, make several practice swings for each ball you try to hit.

I hope all this makes sense. By separating understanding from the learning process, and that from the practice that makes it a habit — and getting them in the proper sequence — you can begin to make real improvements in your game.

As long as I can remember, I’ve loved the range, and always embrace the challenge of learning new ways to make a golf ball do what I would like it to do. So, today I’m sharing my “top 5” tips for making practice fun and productive.

1. Have a mission/goal/objective. Whether it is a practice range session or practice time on the course, make sure you have a clearly defined objective…how else will you know how you’re doing? It might be to work on iron trajectory, or finding out why you’ve developed a push with your driver. Could be to learn how to hit a little softer lob shot or a knockdown pitch. But practice with a purpose …always.
2. Don’t just “do”…observe.  There are two elements of learning something new.  The first is to figure out what it is you need to change. Then you work toward that solution. If your practice session is to address that push with the driver, hit a few shots to start out, and rather than try to fix it, make those first few your “lab rats”. Focus on what your swing is doing. Do you feel anything different? Check your alignment carefully, and your ball position. After each shot, step away and process what you think you felt during the swing.
3. Make it real. To just rake ball after ball in front of you and pound away is marginally valuable at best. To make practice productive, step away from your hitting station after each shot, rake another ball to the hitting area, then approach the shot as if it was a real one on the course. Pick a target line from behind the ball, meticulously step into your set-up position, take your grip, process your one swing thought and hit it. Then evaluate how you did, based on the shot result and how it felt.
4. Challenge yourself. One of my favorite on-course practice games is to spend a few minutes around each green after I’ve played the hole, tossing three balls into various positions in an area off the green. I don’t let myself go to the next tee until I put all three within three feet of the hole. If I don’t, I toss them to another area and do it again. You can do the same thing on the range. Define a challenge and a limited number of shots to achieve it.
5. Don’t get in a groove. I was privileged enough to watch Harvey Penick give Tom Kite a golf lesson one day, and was struck by the fact that he would not let Tom hit more than five to six shots in a row with the same club. Tom would hit a few 5-irons, and Mr. Penick would say, “hit the 8”, then “hit the driver.” He changed it up so that Tom would not just find a groove. That paved the way for real learning, Mr. Penick told me.

My “bonus” tip addresses the difference between practicing on the course and keeping a real score. Don’t do both. A practice session is just that. On-course practice is hugely beneficial, and it’s best done by yourself, and at a casual pace. Playing three or four holes in an hour or so, taking time to hit real shots into and around the greens, will do more for your scoring skills than the same amount of range time.

So there you have my five practice tips. I’m sure I could come up with more, but then we always have more time, right?

More from the Wedge Guy

• The Wedge Guy: Anyone can be a better wedge player by doing these simple things
• Wedge Guy: There’s no logic to iron fitting
• The Wedge Guy: Mind the gap

For this purpose, let’s define “prime scoring range” as the distance when you have something less than a full-swing wedge shot ahead of you. Depending on your strength profile, that could be as far as 70 to 80 yards or as close as 30 to 40 yards. But regardless of whether you are trying to break par or 100, your ability to get the ball on the green and close enough to the hole for a one-putt at least some of the time will likely be one of the biggest factors in determining your score for the day.

All too often, I observe golfers hit two or even three wedge shots from prime scoring range before they are on the green — and all too often I see short-range pitch shots leave the golfer with little to no chance of making the putt.

This makes no sense, as attaining a level of reasonable proficiency from short range is not a matter of strength profile at all. But it does take a commitment to learning how to make a repeating and reliable half-swing and doing that repeatedly and consistently absolutely requires you to learn the basic fundamentals of how the body has to move the club back and through the impact zone.

So, let’s get down to the basics to see if I can shed some light on these ultra-important scoring shots.

• Your grip has to be correct. For the club to move back and through correctly, your grip on the club simply must be fundamentally sound. The club is held primarily in the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. Period. The lower hand has to be “passive” to the upper hand, or the mini-swing will become a quick jab at the ball. For any shot, but particularly these short ones, that sound grip is essential for the club to move through impact properly and repeatedly.
• Your posture has to be correct. This means your body is open to the target, feet closer together than even a three-quarter swing, and the ball positioned slightly back of center.
• Your weight should be distributed about 70 percent on your lead foot and stay there through the mini-swing.
• Your hands should be “low” in that your lead arm is hanging naturally from your shoulder, not extended out toward the ball and not too close to the body to allow a smooth turn away and through. Gripping down on the club is helpful, as it gets you “closer to your work.
• This shot is hit with a good rotation of the body, not a “flip” or “jab” with the hands. Controlling these shots with your body core rotation and leading the swing with your body core and lead side will almost ensure proper contact. To hit crisp pitch shots, the hands have to lead the clubhead through impact.
• A great drill for this is to grip your wedge with an alignment rod next to the grip and extending up past your torso. With this in place, you simply have to rotate your body core through the shot, as the rod will hit your lead side and prevent you from flipping the clubhead at the ball. It doesn’t take but a few practice swings with this drill to give you an “ah ha” moment about how wedge shots are played.
• And finally, understand that YOU CANNOT HIT UP ON A GOLF BALL. The ball is sitting on the ground so the clubhead has to be moving down and through impact. I think one of the best ways to think of this is to remember this club is “a wedge.” So, your simple objective is to wedge the club between the ball and the ground. The loft of the wedge WILL make the ball go up, and the bounce of the sole of the wedge will prevent the club from digging.

So, why is mastering the simple pitch shot so important? Because my bet is that if you count up the strokes in your last round of golf, you’ll likely see that you left several shots out there by…

• Either hitting another wedge shot or chip after having one of these mid-range pitch shots, or
• You did not get the mid-range shot close enough to even have a chance at a makeable putt.

If you will spend even an hour on the range or course with that alignment rod and follow these tips, your scoring average will improve a ton, and getting better with these pitch shots will improve your overall ball striking as well.

More from the Wedge Guy

• Wedge Guy: There’s no logic to iron fitting
• The Wedge Guy: Understanding iron designs, Part 1
• The Wedge Guy: Understanding iron designs, Part 2

Two major problems exist, and when combined, set the perfect “stymie,” preventing game improvement. Sadly, it’s hurting the game and is responsible for why four million golfers quit every year and why 10 million want-to-be golfers lie waiting, wondering how to learn. The Five Golf Powers, which form the World Golf Federation, have done little to address this problem.

Problem #1

Style-based instruction is the predominant form of golf instruction and continues to confuse golfers. This epidemic has stifled game improvement and established a landscape of frustrated golfers. The search for the perfect style of swing and the desire to create certain “good looking” or “preferred styled” positions has led to countless books, videos, and teachers who taught their “ideal” style of swing. “Stack and Tilt,” “Single Plane Swing.” “Natural Golf Swing,” “The A-Swing,” “The X-Factor Swing,” “The Morad Project,” “The One or Two Plane Swing,” “The Gravity Golf Swing,” and the list of style-based teaching methods go on and on… Meanwhile, the best golfers in the world don’t subscribe to any of these swings.

Television adds to the confusion. An analyst may express his or her opinion about the best grip, setup, backswing, plane, downswing, follow-through, etc. One teacher says to do one thing, and the other contradicts it. Confusion abounds everywhere.

One day while on air at the Golf Channel, I had just finished discussing how to hit a bunker shot by keeping the same swing, just changing the set-up; when another instructor, with little playing credentials, followed me and shared with the viewers an entirely different swing that included throwing away clubhead lag and flipping at the bottom of the swing to hit a bunker shot. The poor viewer who watched that day and who couldn’t interpolate which way was better. How many viewers were confused? My goal is to eliminate the confusion, not be part of it. So, I refused to join the Golf Channel on TV in that capacity anymore.

Today’s average golfer gets much of their information online, surfing the internet and watching YouTube videos while being bombarded with countless emails produced by golf instructors who deliver “swing tips” to promote their business. Contradictory views confuse undereducated golfers searching for clues to playing better golf. Desperate, they head to the driving range, ready to apply whatever they just read, but it rarely helps and never lasts.

Problem #2

Since I left the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions in 2014, I’ve gotten a rare insider’s look at the green grass golf business. I’ve witnessed a second problem that contributes to golfers not improving. A war has developed between golf club staff and professional golf instructors, who dedicate their careers to just teaching golf. Head and assistant professionals, who are underpaid, make much-needed additional income through golf instruction. The additional supplemental income is vital to their survival. They are not trained to teach golf per se, most learn to instruct through shadowing another club professional, or they read books, watch some videos, and learn much as the average golfer does. I was shocked to hear that the PGA does not train golf professionals to become teachers or directors of instruction, though they have just begun offering golf instruction as a track in the PGM College programs. Initially, when this track system began three years ago, the PGA estimated that only 20 percent would choose golf instruction. They were shocked to discover that 50 percent chose the track for golf instruction in their first year. It makes sense to me; golf instruction pays better, has more flexible hours, and, if you’re good at it, brings a smile to people’s faces.

Club staff professionals find it hard to compete with a competent golf instructor who has dedicated their livelihood to instruction. It’s a separate profession that requires a separate set of skills and specific training. It’s not easy to be a good golf instructor. Many full-time professional golf instructors have difficulty finding a job because staff professionals feel they will lose their business. Staff professionals often make their feelings known to management and owners and declare the club “their territory” for golf instruction. They often give the ultimatum and threaten to leave if management hires a professional golf instructor. With so few young people filling the needed gap of golf professionals, the staff usually gets their way. What is left at the club then are under-trained staff professionals teaching golf for the money and ill-equipped to give quality lessons.

No wonder recent statistics show that 70 percent of golfers who take lessons don’t improve. Additionally, 38 percent of private golf club members in the United States want a game improvement program, but their club doesn’t provide a satisfactory solution. One of America’s largest golf management companies; just discovered that clubs with a high-end golf instruction program reduce member attrition rates by 75 percent a year. The Proponent Group, the leading organization for professional golf instructors, reveals that the value of good golf instruction is much larger than most club owners and managers think. In fact, for every dollar an instruction program earns, the club benefits $1.75. Additionally, the lesson takers spend 78 percent more money at the club than non-lesson takers.

Management, to appease the staff’s request to earn an extra $20,000, costs the average club over $1 million per year, though they don’t yet realize the cost. The sadder picture is that most clubs generate less than $50,000 in golf instruction when a $1 million yearly program is available. The market is large; the eager golfers are plentiful, and golfers are starving for good instruction. History suggests that ownership and management don’t value good golf instruction. That’s why it’s unheard of to track instructors’ key performance indicators. But once ownership discovers this, they will emphasize member services and develop good golf instruction programs.

The answer to both problems

Style-based instruction is opinion-based, a failed attempt to find a perfect swing that doesn’t exist. Everyone is different, built differently, coordinated differently, skilled differently, with different natural propensities and learned behavior. Attempting to put them all in a box has proven disastrous.

Arnold Palmer once said, “Swing your own swing; I sure did!” Arnold had it right; style is individual, just like one’s signature, though I admire Arnold’s signature the most. But that’s my opinion. I have his signature on a picture of us hanging in my studio after our last round of golf together. The common denominator of all the best players in the world is impact. It’s the only thing that matters in the swing. Find your way to get there and make it consistent. That’s the name of the game. That’s why I developed “Impact-Based Teaching,” Learning to work from impact, backward, rather than swing-style, forward, is the key to quicker learning, improved instruction, happier golfers, and more golfers getting and staying in the game. Impact-based instruction is the vaccine to the “style-based” teaching methodologies epidemic.

The answer to the second problem is training staff professionals in Impact-Based Teaching and teaching them how to build their business. Track KPIs, improve their closing of new student assessments, and increase their retention, referral, and closing rates. Staff professionals can be successful in instruction once they are trained. It’s not their fault! The fields are ripe, and the harvest is plentiful for good golf instruction.

Good golf instruction is needed and can make a tremendous difference in the game, bringing more golfers, filling up club memberships, driving revenue, supporting junior golf, and more. It’s time we band together for the good of golf. Improve golf instruction and make it available.

I’ve made a life out of watching so many recreational golfers struggle to achieve a measure of proficiency and consistency in their basic ball-striking skills. Statistics indicate the vast majority of golfers have never broken 90, and far too many are stuck with average scores even higher.

Today’s post is mainly for those golfers who fall into that category, but I think the rest of you might find this interesting as well.

For the past two years, I’ve spent some time with new high-handicap friends who are in various stages of golf skill, from relative beginner to decades-long struggle. I am always amazed at how golfers can play this game for years and never achieve a reasonable measure of ball-striking consistency.

I firmly believe from those observations that most mid- to high-handicap players fail to achieve the consistency they desire because they are trying to “hit” the ball by manipulating the club with their master hand, instead of swinging the club with their body core and arms.

And I just had an epiphany of sorts. So, hear me out and think about it this way…

My years of observation convinces me that the reason golf is so darned difficult just might be this: regardless of whether it’s a drive or a short chip, the most basic error is believing you control the strike of the ball with the hands. I was taught early in life that the most basic fundamental of all is that the golf swing is a rotational move of the body core, with the hands and club following that rotation through the impact zone.

And this just dawned on me, maybe the challenge for golfers to completely grasp and adopt this basic fundamental lies in the notion that we play golf either “right-handed” or “left-handed”. If you are generally right-handed in your everyday skills, and you play golf in the manner we have always called “right-handed”, then you stand on the left side of the ball (facing the target). You have your weaker side leading the swing, and you are probably trying to “guide” the club to the ball with your master hand. After all, you are playing “right-handed” aren’t you?

The opposite is true of those who approach the game from the right side of the ball, which we call “left-handed.”
I contend that the skill of striking a golf ball consistently isn’t any kind of “X-handed” game. So, what if you change your thinking that if you stand on the left side of the ball (again, facing the target), then you are playing the game “left-sided.” And if you stand on the right side of the ball, then you are playing “right-sided.”

Thinking about it that way, if you are left-sided, then it stands to reason that your left side leads the body core, arms, hands, and club through impact – in that order. You’re not a “right-handed” player, you are a left-sided player. And as a left-sided player, you must set up in your address position with the left side of your body in a strong position to push the club back on the takeaway and pull the club through on the downswing through impact.

Here’s why this is so important.

The golf swing is essentially a chain with multiple reasonably rigid links. The body core links to the shoulders, which link to the lead arm, which is connected to the club with the hands, and the club is the last link in the chain. So, if you were moving a length of chain that was too heavy to pick up, would you pull it or try to push it? Obviously, you cannot push a chain, but when you try to control the swing with your right hand, you are literally trying to push this chain from the middle.

I believe that there is no reason for any golfer to be “stuck” with abilities that keep their scores in the 90s to 100s, but I also feel certain that it would take extraordinary eye-hand coordination for any hand-dominant player to achieve a measure of consistency in scoring in low single digits.

Many years ago, I would do seminars for golf club fitters, and developed a convincing “show and tell” to prove just how difficult it is to control a golf club with your hands. I would have a volunteer from the audience come up and sign their name on my flip chart with a Sharpie. Isn’t signing your name one of the most familiar eye-hand activities you do?

Then I would hand that volunteer a wedge with a Sharpie taped to the hosel and have them attempt to sign their name again. The result was usually a nearly illegible hen scratch of a scribble.

So, if you can’t sign your name from the end of a wedge, what chance do you have of making a consistently solid strike of the golf ball?

Right-sided or left-sided, no matter which you are, I hope you get the same epiphany from today’s post as the one that inspired me to write it.

More from the Wedge Guy

• The Wedge Guy: Engage your core for better wedge play
• The Wedge Guy: What is a “wedge” anyway?
• The Wedge Guy: The case against set-match wedges

Positive thinking doesn’t always work. Ever tried to just think positive expecting everything to go as planned only to be let down when it doesn’t? Afterwards, you are left even more frustrated. Although a positive outlook is better than a negative mindset, only preparing for positive outcomes is unrealistic.

Rarely things go perfectly as planned. Golf can be chaotic at times. Research shows mentally rehearsing for both a poor outcome and a good outcome will be more beneficial. This will put your mind at ease and help you develop the tools to rebound from a not so great start. The night before, plan a reaction to how you will grind from a poor start to the round. If a negative thought pops into your mind, let it pass.

2. Actually practice being present

Everyone has heard to be “present” during stressful situations.” However, this needs to be practiced, and the concept needs to be understood. Being present entails being mindful of something in the current moment. Not just a void mind. This can be as simple as focusing on your breathing or focusing on feeling the club swing when you are on the tee box waiting your turn.

A common one I found beneficial is to simply focus on the hole ahead of you. Ask yourself the question, “What does a good shot look like here from this tee box? You can think about how the course architect designed the hole. Figure out how the hole should be properly played from the architect’s view. Even a moment of gratitude for having your health to play golf that day will work wonders.

The beauty of this is it can actually be practiced away from the golf course. Next time you are outside, see how long you can go for a walk staying present in the moment. Practice noticing the buildings around you, then when your mind drifts, gradually bring it back.

3. Understand the concept of attention

This is the holy grail. Where you place your attention during the actual golf swing can play a major factor in the outcome of the shot. “Attention” is simply what you are mindful of during the actual motion. This is massively different then a “swing thought”. There are multiple places where a player can place their attention and it is best discovered through trial and error.

A few examples of where attention can be placed is on the start line of the shot, feeling the pressure move in your feet or simply being aware of your body throughout the motion. Usually, the best places to place your attention is somewhere you can keep it throughout the swing. This helps the player stay committed to the shot. If you have an awareness you know can maintain during the entirety of the motion, you will swing more freely with confidence.

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(Kelvin now offers online lessons and consultations through his website)

Almost every mid- to high-handicap player (and some low-handicap ones) I encounter has a short game technique that is overly dependent on hand action, and their body rotation on these short shots is often practically non-existent. These golfers typically flip the clubhead at the ball with the hands in an attempt to make contact and help the ball into the air. This reliance on our hands is aggravated by one or two shots that are hit poorly, thereby making us more “impact conscious”. And the vicious cycle begins – bad shot, more hands-y, another bad shot, tighter grip, another bad shot, quicker tempo — and holes just thrown away.

There is a super-simple drill that any golfer can use to better engage your body core and feel it working.

Pick up a wedge and take your normal grip. Now hold it directly in front of you, with your upper arms relaxed at your side, and your hands about a foot in front of your chest. The club should be vertical, so that you are looking right at the back of your right thumbnail (for right handers). Now, keep your eyes focused on your right thumbnail, and rotate your upper body to move your hands and the club back and forth, starting about a foot in either direction. You want to feel like nothing is moving but your body core. As you continue to rotate back and through, lengthen the range of motion until you are making a full shoulder turn. But always make sure that your hands are right in front of your sternum throughout the range of motion.

Now, extend your arms straight out in front of you, so that the club is pointing away from you at about 45 degrees. Repeat the drill, moving your arms and club back and through only by rotating your body core. Focus your eyes on the right thumb so that you are very aware if you start swinging the arms without rotating the body. That’s what a pitching swing should feel like – one-piece rotation of the body, with the arms and hands “quiet”.

The last piece of the puzzle is to gradually lower the club as you rotate back and through – do this by bending at the hips, flexing the knees, and lowering the hands. Lower the club a little bit on each rotation, so that you continue to feel like the body core is driving the entire action. Once you get so that the club is brushing the turf or carpet as you go back and through, you will be feeling what a solid, functional and repeatable wedge swing should feel like.

I realize this is abbreviated but try it and I think you will see just how inactive your body might have been on your pitch shots.

A great drill to use when practicing hitting these chip and pitch shots is to grip the club with an alignment stick next to the grip, so that the stick extends far enough above the grip to make contact with your lead side. Now, just make those little pitch and chip shot swings. The alignment stick can drift away from your side a bit on the backswing, but that stick will force you to rotate your body core through the impact zone, or it will hit you in the side.

If you work on this body-core engagement, your short game will make dramatic strides to the positive.

Below is an image of a boxer throwing a right handed hook. Note the direction the body moves to produce maximum force towards the target.

As the boxer pulls back his arm, there is not an excess wind-up or big turn to create power. His body is now geared to go forward and around into the opponent. His body would stay mostly level throughout the motion.

Now lets apply this simple concept to the golf swing. At address, the player would have his upper body and mass positioned behind the ball. In the picture below, note the green line indicting his mass back behind the blue baseline over the ball.

From here, the player can coil around his center, much like a boxer positioned ready to punch.

Now the body can go forward and around towards the target, pulled by the arms. Note the body finishing ahead of the blue baseline.

A body that has a lot of left side bend or “tilt” in the backswing, will naturally counterbalance in the downswing. This will often result with the upper body falling back in the downswing. (Pictured below)

The pattern above would equivalent to attempting to punch forward with your arm while your body is moving backwards. Next time you are looking to make a swing change, first check the movement of your body, and see if it is as simple as boxer throwing a powerful punch.

Twitter: KKelley_golf

www.kelleygolf.com

As players, with the spine angle out of posture, we overcompensate in many ways. The first thing that many players do poorly, as a result of poor posture, is grip tighter and stiffen the arms. These are the two biggest culprits that will inhibit consistency and any innate ability to set up well and brush the grass. Gripping tighter also leads to poor use of the body’s bigger muscles ie. the core. The spine angle in good posture will activate the core regions and enhance the body’s ability to coil, thus allowing the transfer of weight from the trail to the lead side.

In the quest to better ball striking, our first priority is understanding the importance of grip strength and grip pressure. Our second priority is posture and always initiating the proper spine angle by bowing forward from the hip (pelvic tilt) and letting the arms hang. After positioning the spine angle, check the body’s alignment )ie. shoulders, hips, knees, and feet) by positioning them parallel to the target line. This process composes the beloved and all-important set up. 

How to set up to the golf ball: The basics

Our ability to set up and control grip pressure is the source of our ability to play well and consistently over time. 

The first essential step is setting the grip in the lead hand

The main pressure points to focus on in gripping with the lead hand are, first and foremost, in the initial placement of the club’s grip in the fingers and allowing the top of the grip to rest on the palms pad. The first pressure point is in the lead pointer finger behind the shaft and the second pressure point is when we let the club rest on the palm’s pad. The lead thumb is the third pressure point. Proper grip strength is determined by trial and error swings. 

As we grip the club in the trail hand, it is important to grip lightly and in the fingers with the right thumb pad placed on top the left side of the grip. For reference, there are markings on all golf gloves to help each player understand where their grip should be placed. 

The essential second step is bowing from the hips to create the spine angle

As we bow, the focus is to aim the leading edge perpendicular to the target line. Looking at the first groove of the club (if it is an iron) can help the eyes focus on this step. A lot of mistakes happen when our eyes start looking around while we do this instead of focusing on an intermediate target and using our eyes to line up the leading edge to that point. Being thoughtful in this process is key and just try to make sure the club isn’t wiggling around.

In the bow, with our shoulders just over the toes, we can see if the club is resting in good relationship to the body. Understanding the distance our body should be to the club is huge. This alone can make or break our ability to strike the ball well. Keeping one hand width from our body to the club is a general rule of thumb throughout the entire bag. The space in which we stand to the club shouldn’t change. What changes is the length of the club in our hands. 

These components culminate the very first steps we take to hit a shot. This is the essence of set up, which generates our best chances to develop consistent shot patterns to the target. As a result of properly managing these components, we can begin to maintain accuracy and easily repeat our movement patterns to get the ball close to the target. We can also begin to self-correct our misses if we are accountable with these steps. 

Foot width and ball position

Lastly, in the set up we step our feet to the ball’s position and generally maintain a stance that is approximately shoulder width. After gripping and bowing the next thing a player needs to do is step to the ball position. This will impact the club’s ability to generate loft, also depending on the chosen club. Generally, a driver ball position is forward in the stance. The mid-iron ball position is mid stance and most full-swing wedges are played just back of center with a more narrow stance. Taking the time to better understand the components of set up and ball position will generate 100 percent of our success to better ball striking. 

A final word

Take some videos of yourself and look at the body from head to toe. Is your setup in a ‘Z’ or ‘S’ formation? Where is your weight in your shoes? Heels, mid-shoe, or toes? Does your setup look like an ‘H’or ‘C’? Is your weight too far in the heels or toes? In my experience, it is easier to maintain posture in the golf swing and overall athleticism by keeping the stance’s pressure points more forward in the mid-shoe to the toes. This enhances the pelvic tilt and the arms’ ability to hang. Therefore, posture throughout the swing improves and we are less likely to grip so tight. 

Any questions? Book a lesson with LPGA instructor Donna Fiscelli through her booking site.

First of all, I think bunkers are among the toughest of places to find your ball. We see the tour players hit these spectacular bunker shots every week, but realize that they are playing courses where the bunkers are maintained to PGA standards, so they are pretty much the same every hole and every week. This helps the players to produce the “product” the tour is trying to deliver – excitement. Of course, those guys also practice bunker play every day.
All of us, on the other hand, play courses where the bunkers are different from one another. This one is a little firmer, that one a little softer. So, let me see if I can shed a little light on the “whys and wherefores” of bunker play. I’ve always challenged the old adage, “bunker shots are easy; you don’t even have to hit the ball.” I challenge that because bunker shots are the ONLY ones where you don’t actually try to hit the ball, so that makes them lie outside your norm.

Let’s start with a look at the sand wedge; they all have a sole with a downward/backward angle built into it – we call that bounce. It’s sole (no pun intended) function is to provide a measure of “rejection” force or lift when the club makes contact with the sand. The more bounce that is built into the sole of the wedge, the more this rejection force will affect the shot. And when we open the face of the wedge, we increase the effective bounce so that this force is increased as well.

The most basic thing you have to assess when you step into a bunker is the firmness of the sand. It stands to reason that the firmer the texture, the more it will reject the digging effect of the wedge. That “rejection quotient” also determines the most desirable swing path for the shot at hand. Firmer sand will reject the club more, so you can hit the shot with a slightly more descending clubhead path. Conversely, softer or fluffier sand will provide less rejection force, so you need to hit the shot with a shallower clubhead path so that you don’t dig a trench.

So, with these basic principles at work, it makes sense to remember these “Five Indisputable Rules of Bunker Play”:

• Firmer sand will provide more rejection force – open the club less and play the ball back a little to steepen the bottom of the clubhead path.
• Softer sand will provide less rejection force – open the club more and play the ball slighter further forward in your stance to create a flatter clubhead path through the impact zone.
• The ball will come out on a path roughly halfway between the alignment of your body and the direction the face is pointing – the more you open the face, the further left your body should be aligned.
• On downslope or upslope lies, try to set your body at right angles to the lie, so that your swing path can be as close to parallel with the ground as possible, so this geometry can still work.  Remember that downhill slopes reduce the loft of the club and uphill slopes increase the loft.
• Most recreational golfers are going to hit better shots from the rough than the bunkers, so play away from them when possible (unless bunker play is your strength).

So, there you go – the five undisputable rules of bunker play.

As always, I invite all of you to send in your questions to be considered for a future article. It can be about anything related to golf equipment or playing the game – just send it in. I need your input to keep writing about things you want to know.

When we face any short putt, several things happen to get in the way of our success. First, because we feel like we “have” to make this, we naturally tense up, which mostly manifests in a firmer hold on the putter, maybe even the proverbial “death grip” (appropriately named). That firmer hold is generally concentrated in the thumbs and forefingers, which then tightens up the forearms, shoulders and everything else. So the first tip is:

• Lighten up. When you take your grip on the putter, focus on how tight you are holding it, and relax. Feel like you are holding the putter in the fingers, with your thumbs only resting lightly as possible on the top of the putter. To see the difference, try this: while you are sitting there, clench your thumb and forefinger together and move your hand around by flexing your wrist – feel the tension in your forearm? Now, relax your thumb and forefinger completely and squeeze only your last three fingers in your hand and move it around again. See how much more you are able to move? Actually, that little tip applies to all your shots, but particularly the short putts. A light grip, with the only pressure in the last three fingers, sets up a smooth stroke and good touch.

The second thing that happens when we have a short putt is we often allow negative thoughts to creep in… “Don’t miss this”…“What if I miss it?”…“I have to make this”…all those put undue pressure on us and make it that much harder to make a good stroke.

So, the second tip is:

• Chill out. Just allow yourself a break here. You have hit a great shot to get it this close, so allow yourself to believe that you are going to make this. Relax, shake out the nerves, and think only positive thoughts while you are waiting your turn to putt. And you know what? If you do miss it, it’s not the end of the world. It’s just one shot. So chill out and have fun…and make more short putts.

Finally, we often tend to get so focused on “just make a good stroke” that we get all wrapped up in mechanical thoughts. Forget those. Focus your vision intently and completely on the target. Most short putts are pretty darn straight, or maybe just on or outside the high side. My favorite thought on these putts comes from a favorite movie, The Patriot.

• Aim small, miss small. Early in the movie, Gibson’s character took his two very young sons and several rifles and went to rescue his older son. He coached them to “Remember what I told you?” and the son replied “Yes sir. Aim small, miss small.” That’s great advice on short putts. Instead of focusing your eyes on the hole, pick a specific spec of dirt or grass in the back edge, or inside one lip or the other – on whatever line you want the putt to start. Don’t just look at the hole…focus intently on that very specific spot. That intensifies your visual acuity and allows your natural eye-hand coordination to work at its very best.

So, there you have the three keys to making more short putts:

1. Lighten up
2. Chill out
3. Aim small, miss small

I hope this helps all of you make more of them.

More from the Wedge Guy

• The Wedge Guy: Are you making the game too hard?
• The Wedge Guy: What’s in a name?
• The Wedge Guy: Method or feel?

Here is a major reason why that is and you will not hear this from any other teaching academy except ours (for years) for the moment. And it works for every single golfer!

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for its not the same river and he is not the same man.” – Heraclitus

Let’s apply that famous quote to the golf swing. The first part, “not the same river” can apply to the physical swing itself. Chances are your swing has changed since first learning or practicing the swing drill. You can be more comfortable with the motion, or you could have made swing changes over time, making the drill feel vastly different now.

The second part of that quote, “not the same man” applies to you, yourself. More than likely, your physiology is different today and now at this very moment. Each new day you have changed. Players have gone back to a drill from years ago to find they have discovered a completely different feel and understanding of that particular drill.

For example, here is a baseline drill I have students revert back to on a regular basis. The foot-back drill both cleans up the set-up angles and gets the lead and trail side of the body moving efficiently.

This is a great drill to get the feeling of set-up angles and how the lead and trail side of the body can move in the backswing. However, further down the road, this drill can be used to get the feeling of covering the ball at impact, a multi-purpose drill depending on where you place your attention or how you feel.

As Nick Price once said, “Every player has two to three habits that cause problems, we have to be on the lookout for them.” Developing baseline drills you can revert back to helps these tendencies stay in remission and can help keep the structure to your swing.

http://www.kelleygolf.com