Month: March 2018

Someone once said that the bunker shot was the easiest shot in golf because you did not even have to hit the ball. Think about that for a minute. The bunker shot is essentially a fat shot with a shallow divot. Most amateurs are frustratingly familiar with the fat shot, they just need to shallow out the divot and viola! You have a bunker shot.

The most powerful part of this idea is forgetting about the ball and just concentrating on the divot you make. This allows the ball to just get in the way of the stroke.

The ball is never the intended target in golf. Just like in the bunker the ball is not the target of the club, the ground is. Being able to control the length depth and direction of the clubs interaction with the ground is all that matters unless the ball is on a tee and then it is only the tee that matters.

Although most of us have a problem controlling these variables, it only takes a little work in the bunker to get this skill mastered.  Find a practice bunker and start practicing making shallow long divots. Don’t worry about where they start in your stance until you can make a consistent divot at least the length of a dollar bill. Then draw a line in the sand that is in the middle of your stance. Once you can consistently make a shallow divot after the line we can move out the bunker and back to the chipping green.

The chipping swing is just a smaller bunker swing. Instead of making sure that you are close enough to the ground to take a small about of sand/grass you are going to move your vertical center up so that you will only brush the grass. The next big thing you have to adjust is the ball position. With a bunker shot the ball is forward of the entry point in every other iron shot the ball is slightly behind or resting on the line of entry.

Just like with a bunker shot, the proximity of the entry point to the ball will have a great deal of influence on the trajectory and spin of the shot.  contact the ground toward the back of the ball and you will get a lower spinning higher flight. Contact the ground further forward and you will get a high spin low flight shot, assuming the same loft.

This concept works for the full swing too. Work your ground contact into a larger swing radius and the ball will magically move in the direction of your divot The direction of the divot is determined by the path of your swing. In the smaller swings of the short game this is not as big a deal, but when the swings get bigger and the clubs get longer it is of paramount importance.

Play around with this idea of forgetting about the ball and just contact the ground where and how you want to and the ball will go along for the ride.

 

 

Talk long enough with anyone who has studied the golf swing and you will hear about the weight shift. The basic idea is that weight loads up along the midline of the back foot and transfers forward to the front midline during the swing. Now there are many theories about the technique and timing of this shift, but almost all golf instructors agree that it is one of the more important parts of the swing. What is not discussed is the clubhead weight shift.

The clubhead weight shift is what happens when the clubhead moves around the hands on the axis of the trail wrist. to feel this shift, take a club in your trail hand and move the club as if you were going to hammer something.  As the clubhead moves back and forth the trail wrist is loading and unloading the weight of the clubhead.

Good or bad, all swings do this weight shift. Good swings rotate the trail side to push the fully unloaded position forward as much as 6 inches past the ball. Bad swings unload the club weight at about the point of our first drill, somewhere center or slightly trail to the ball. This is the classic no lag look for the handicap golfer. The better golfer has moved the trail wrist forward toward the target.

Now let’s expand our drill to understand the movement of the club weight. Start with the club in front of you in your trail hand and just practice the hinging and straitening of the wrist. Next, on a mat set up a club or alinement stick in the middle of your stance with a 7 iron start working on your load and unload wrist move. At this point do not try to move the weight of the club forward, just get the wrist move down.

Now that you can make the weight of the club move in front of your hands, start using the rotation of your trail side to move the weight of the club forward making sure not to cross the target line with the club until you have fully unloaded the wrists. This is important because the second most common swing fault is getting across the line and having a power pull that the only way you can save is to open the club up. Pull slice anyone?

Once you have mastered this little pitch shot move start adding more coil going back until you can make a full swing that moves the weight forward. By focusing on how and when you deliver the weight of the clubhead the swing mechanics will follow.

Now start using a ball with small swings at first and work your way up to a full swing stopping and going back to a smaller swing anytime the contact is not right.

If you find yourself digging too much or having trouble keeping the club head from crossing the target line too soon focus on not letting your head slide and dip forward. This should solve this issue.