Golf Talk

Ernie Els takeaway.

More great golf instruction today from Steve Bishop. This time we’re talking about the takeaway. Steve talks about the 3 main takeaway concepts that people talk about, the right forearm, the one piece and the left shoulder.

Right forearm
This is basically using your right forearm to trace the swing path from setup to the top of the takeaway. Basically, at the top of swing, you want your right arm to form a nice L at the top.

One piece
The idea here is to keep your arms together when you take the club back. So you want your arms to move together and not one arm bending, the other straight, or vice versa.

Left shoulder
The left shoulder refers to how your shoulder should be tucked underneath your chin and your left arm straight out. Now, it’s probably hard for many people to do that, so it’s fine for people to turn their head slightly to the right. If you watch Jack Nicklaus, he does this every time he swings, just before his takeaway.

Combined, the three takeaways describe the ideal way to check to make sure that your takeaway is on plane. Taking the club back on plane will help you bring the club back on plane when you swing through on impact. An example of what how your takeaway shouldn’t look like is Jim Furyk’s swing. Obviously Jim has practiced and used his swing for so long that he can bring the club back on plane in the downswing, but his takeaway is not good form at all.

I also like how Steve Bishop talks about the early wrist cock and rolling of the arms, or as he calls leverage. That is a bad thing. I see a lot of people swing this way. Yes, you can hit the ball far this way, but you will be wildly inconsistent, with mostly duck hooks. I like a nice smooth takeaway with the arms going back in one piece, left shoulder tucked underneath the chin, and the right elbow in that nice L at the top of the swing.

Steve Bishop, takeaway

John lets the big dog eat.

As the season and year winds down, time to take another look at some of the more interesting golf swings on the PGA Tour. Perhaps there is none more striking than that of one of the longest drivers on the PGA Tour, John Daly. After many decades of being one of the best ball strikers on the PGA Tour, John recently hooked up with swing guru Butch Harmon to see about tweaking his swing.

To me, John Daly’s swing is very much a self-made swing. But it works extremely well because of the amount of power he is able to generate from it. Perhaps the biggest thing you’ll notice about John’s swing is how far down he takes the club on his takeaway.

Analyzing it from top to bottom, he starts with a very weird grip. You’ll notice that his left wrist is setup in a very strong grip, with probably all four knuckles showing. His right hand is in a very weak grip, probably with one or two knuckles showing. On his takeaway, John brings the club way back and is way off the traditional more vertical swing plane, also his right leg has straightened out. He is pretty good position at the top of the backswing, but then takes the club about another 90 degrees further.

After coiling up big time, John is able to unleash a huge amount of power through his hips and shoulders. He does a good job of keeping his head steady while his arms come down and through the impact zone. His follow-through is pretty normal, weight on his left side.

Just an incredible swing. Tiger Woods said earlier in the year that he thought John Daly had the best pure talent that he’s seen on Tour and that if John spent just a little time practicing, he would smoke everyone out there. I don’t doubt that for a second.

Retief Goosen, Swingvision, golf tips

Retief Goosen shows us his driver swing.

With the golf news slowing to a trickle, I’ll put up a lot more swing and equipment stuff. Today we’re going to look at the swing of one of my favorite players, Retief Goosen. The Gooseman has done some swing changes but the essence of it is still the same. It’s a very smooth stroke with not a lot of extreme motion or action, in that way it’s very similar to another South African, Ernie Els.

Lets look at his setup. He’s kind of tilted forwards a little, almost like a stack and tilt swing, but not entirely. His weight is a little forward but not that forward. He has a pretty even grip, not very strong or weak.

His takeaway is on the line and smooth, not herky jerky, his head is down on the ball the whole way through and there’s very little movement in his lower body. He takes it a little farther than parallel but it’s still good. David Faherty comments that Retief sometimes has his right elbow too high, which would cause him to be way off the line.

On the downswing, his hands are very close to his body. His head is still in the same position, in fact he keeps his head down for a long time even on his follow through. His left wrist is in a very weak grip on impact, almost like he’s hitting an iron shot. Another odd thing is on the close up of his club impact, you’ll notice that he’s teed up his ball with a forwards slant.

I would imagine that with the way Retief swings it here, the ball is probably pretty low, like a line drive. He really swings his driver here like you would an iron shot. It’s very vertical with not much of a sweeping motion. Obviously it works for him.

Retief Goosen, Swingvision, golf tips

Lie angle is important.

Do you pull your short irons but hit your long irons straight? Want to know why? Most likely what is happening is that the toe of your club is pointing up. The lie angle which is the angle between the club and the ground should be flat on impact. Now that sounds obvious but it’s slightly more complicated than that.

When you start at address, the toe of your club should be pointing up. But on the takeaway and downswing, the flex of the shaft, and the movement of your arms and hands will most likely bring the club back to a position where the club is parallel to the ground and thus having the correct lie angle. Now, if you keep your hands a little too close to your body, you will probably have the toe pointed up on impact which will create an improper lie angle and thus result in a pull. If you extend your arms a little to straight, the opposite will happen, namely the toe will be pointed a little down and the toe of the club will hit the ground before the heel and you will push the ball instead.

The reason why this affects your short irons more is because of the loft angle. The higher the loft angle, the more severe the pull or push will be when the lie angle is incorrect. That’s not to say that lie angle is unimportant for your long irons, but it is more relevant with your wedges and short irons.

Finally, it’s important while playing on the course to see what kind of lie you are playing on. If the ball is on a hill, you will probably pull the ball because the toe will be pointed up when you impact. If the ball is on a downhill slope from where you stand, you will probably push the ball because the toe is pointed down when you impact.

This video below is from Ralph Maltby who tells you more about the lie angle concept and why it is important.

lie angle, loft angle

See how his head is behind the ball.

Staying behind the ball is a good tip for all you beginners out there struggling to hit your iron shots in the air. It prevents one of the most common swing problems, namely the reverse pivot which results in those low line drives.

So what does it exactly mean to be “behind the ball”? What it means is to keep the plane of your head behind the plane of where the ball is during your takeaway of the swing. Then on your downswing, you want to come down on the ball by dropping your right shoulder (left shoulder if you are a lefty). By doing so, you create a strong rotation using your shoulders and the power of your upper body will allow you to smash the club into the ground. By smashing the club into the ground and creating a solid divot, you will use the loft of the iron club to hit the ball in air with the correct trajectory.

You can always tell a good golfer by the way he or she hits their iron shots. In fact, you can just listen and hear a good iron shot. The sound of a good iron shot is one which you hear a thump of the club hitting the ground followed immediately by a thwack of the club hitting the ball. If you just hear a thump, that is what we call hitting the ball fat, or chunking it. Basically the ball will go in the air but about one quarter the distance it should. If you just hear the thwack, that is what we call hitting the all thin. Basically, the ball will do a worm on the ground and go about one half the distance.

In terms of the trajectory, you want a nice inverted parabolic curve. You’ll see some people and they’ll hit their iron shots and the ball does a line drive, or pops straight up in the air. These are both undesirable because on the line drive, where the ball lands is unpredictable. On the pop up, you lose a lot of distance.

Though, if I had a choice between hitting it fat or hitting it thin, I would go with thin because at least the ball has the distance even though you don’t know where it will end up.

Here is a good clip from the familiar Steve Bishop on staying behind the ball.

staying behind the ball

This is a good drill to make sure that you are not holding your club face open at impact. You want to make sure that you release your hands through impact so that you get power through the shot and that your club face is on the right angle on impact. I see a lot of people hit balls at the range and the ball starts out straight but does a banana cut. This is a classic over the top move that is causing the ball to banana cut among other faults.

The basics of the drill is to practice hitting a ball about one foot in front of where your ball would normally be placed at address. This does a couple of things, first if you hit the ball in this position, the expected outcome would be a duck hook or snap hook to the left. But what many slicers end up doing is toping the ball or miss it altogether.

Another great thing about this drill is that helps with the weight shift. Again, if you have a reverse pivot or if your shoulders and arms are way too ahead of your body, you won’t hit the ball properly with this release drill. The weight shift is critical to ensuring your hips are out in front and that your body is in front of your arms and hands. A lot of people don’t fully extend their arms when they swing through as a result. This release drill will help you get the feeling of rolling your arms through impact and hitting through the shot as opposed to chopping at the ball.

release drill, golf tips

One of the players making a move today at the Las Vegas Open, or now called the Frys.com Open, is Kevin Na who is currently at 4-under through 7 holes and 3-shots behind the leader overall at 10-under for 2 and a half rounds. Na is one of those young up and comers and he’s done pretty well so far this year including being in contention at the Colonial earlier in the year. He has one of those incredibly athletic swings that is worth looking at.

The clip here is from the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in May of this year. Kevin is hitting driver off the tee in this swing vision slow motion clip. His setup is very “classical” as Nick Faldo says in the clip, medium grip. As he takes the club back, it’s in the perfect classical swing plane with perfect wrist cock. As he takes it all the way up, couple of things to note. His head is absolutely still. Most people do a little head movement to the right (or left if you are a lefty) to tuck your shoulder underneath. Kevin is able to flex his shoulder underneath without moving his head whatsoever. Also, you’ll note that his arms aren’t as high as you’ll see other players take it, so it’s very much a flatter swing, thus allowing him to tuck his shoulder underneath his head easier.

On his downswing, he maintains his swing plane beautifully and gets his hips out in front. He keeps his arms in front of his body without letting them release until the impact. His follow-through is balanced and he takes the club all the way through.

Kevin Na, swing vision, golf tips

With all the big names shutting it down for the rest of the fall and winter, the Valero Texas Open features a wide open field and the leader heading into Sunday is none other than Jesper Parnevik. Jesper hasn’t won since 2001 at the Honda Classic and has battled injuries the past several years but looks like he could be making a comeback late this year. I know earlier in the year, he had a good showing at the Buick Open but couldn’t close that one out. In fact, Justin Leonard who is among the leaders today at the Valero Texas Open, won the Buick Open, so it’s yet to be seen whether Jesper can hold off Leonard this time around.

Today we’ll take a look at Jesper’s swing. It’s a pretty compact swing, very fast but fairly consistent. He has a strong grip at setup and his takeaway is pretty smooth. At the top swing if you pause the video, you’ll notice that his club face is almost parallel to the ground, a very strong grip indeed. On the down swing you notice that he clears his hips very aggressively and maintains his swing plane all the way through forming a ‘C’ with the arc of his back, very much like a Bobby Jones type of a swing. He holds his follow through very well and keeps his body arched. We talked yesterday about stretching, this is especially the kind of swing that you need to stretch for, imagine maintaining that arch 100 times while hitting balls.

Good luck to Jesper heading into the final round tomorrow…

Jesper from behind,

Jesper face-on,

Jesper Parnevik, swing vision, golf tips

With the weather turning around here I’ve been going to the range more regularly working on my game. One thing you realize when you hit a lot of balls and swing many many times is that you start to feel the aching in your body. That is why it is so important to stretch both before and after you’ve had a really good session at the range. I find that when I’m out on the course, I don’t feel as much strain as I’m not hitting balls over and over but hitting and walking, but nevertheless, I still think it is a good idea to do a good stretch both before and after a round.

There are a lot of good videos and books you can buy that can help you with stretching and proper posture. I like Katherine Roberts as she does a lot of stuff specific to golf. In the video clip below, she talks a lot about proper posture as well as some stretches you can do to minimize the strain on your body. The golf swing is a very violent action and when you repeat it over and over, it will stress the muscles in your back, legs, arms and wrists. I’d say of all those areas, it is your back that gets the most strain as it is the coil of the backswing and uncoil of your swing through that will generate much strain.

So you want to follow some of the stretches that Katherine Roberts shows you in this video. Now, you are probably not as flexible as she is and you won’t look as good as she does doing it, but I guarantee you that you will feel a whole lot better after a full stretch after a session of hitting balls at the range. In terms of posture, this is in relation to the balance post I wrote earlier in the week. Your posture as you setup to the ball should be one that you can maintain for five straight minutes without feeling any pain or discomfort. Katherine Roberts shows you how to get there with a good posture.

Katherine Roberts, stretching, golf tips

Today, we’re going to look at one of the keys to a solid golf swing, proper balance. I go to the driving range quite a bit and I see people that swing and both pre-swing and post-swing, many people are way off balance.

First off, there is the pre-shot balance. Some people say you should be slightly on your toes, some say slightly on your heels, some say on the balls. What I like to say, is that before you swing the club, you should be in a natural position, knees slightly bent, hands hanging freely, and you should be able to hold that position for 5 minutes. Try it, setup as you would to hit a ball in your normal pre-shot setup. Hold it for minutes without moving. If after 5 minutes you have some soreness or pain in your back, thighs, or calf, you are compensating too much.

During the shot, your momentum of the backswing should shift your weight to your back foot in such a way that you could stand on your back foot completely without falling down. As you swing through the ball your weight should shift through to your front foot such that if you lift your back foot toe off the ground you can support your weight on the front foot.

As with the setup, I like to say that you should be able to stay in your follow-through position for 5 minutes without experiencing any significant pain or soreness. Now, unlike your setup, your follow-through is a stretched position in that your body is coiled up, so obviously staying in that position for 5 minutes will give some soreness and discomfort, but the key is to not have significant or excessive pain. The follow-through should again feel natural.

The following video is a good explanation of balance and achieving balance in your golf swing. For a look at a PGA tour pro that has excellent balance, take a look at Ernie Els and his balance from setup through his follow-through.

balance in golf shot, golf tips

Nick O’Hern was one of the players on the losing International Team this past week at the President’s Cup in Royal Montreal in Montreal (QC). When you think of aussie golfers, Nick O’Hern isn’t usually a name that comes to mind, you usually think Adam Scott or Aaron Baddeley. But Nick O’Hern has had as solid a season as any, making 14 of 22 cuts, 7 top 25 finishes and 3 top tens so far this season. No wonder he tops off at 36 in the official world golf ranking.

This is an analysis of his driver swing from the Traveler’s Championship back in June that Hunter Mahan won. Nick O’Hern’s swing is not an orthodox one. It looks like he uses a very weak grip (hands on top of the club). It looks like he is swinging his driver like he swings an iron. His hands are very close to his body, he uses a lot of hands, and instead of the usual sweeping motion you want to have in your driver, Nick O’Hern comes down on the ball and almost takes a divot. When he swings through though, you’ll notice that he does square the clubface just as he hits the ball. You would think that with a swing like Nick O’Hern’s you would have a tendency to slice it.

Nick O’Hern, swing vision, golf tips

OK, so maybe you can’t swing like Tiger Woods. Well, here is a new way at looking at the golf swing. I first read about it in the August edition of Golf Digest magazine. The no backswing swing (NBS) was pioneered by some old dude called Dr. Jim Suttie and Dr. T.J. Tomasi. After all, this was created by two doctors so this must be good right??

Yes, and no. The swing is fundamentally sound. In many ways, swinging the club is like swinging a baseball. The motions are similar. What I like about the NBS is that it reduces mishits. To me, it’s a beginner’s swing. If you’re just starting golf and you’re having a hard time hitting the damn ball, this might be a swing to try.

Think of it like playing T-ball. You wind up, stay in your stance, then hit the ball.

What I don’t like about it is that the traditional golf swing promotes tempo and rhythm. If you watch someone like Ernie Els swing the golf club, you notice a certain rhythm and tempo in the way he swings. In many ways, Vijay swings it the same with good rhythm and tempo. The NBS is a herky-jerky movement, you’ll hit the ball for sure but I think you have trouble with the feel of distance and how far to take the club back. I know when I swing, I use the pendulum motion to gage how far I need to take it back and how hard I need to swing through to get the desired distance and feel.

Plus, if you start with the NBS, I think you’ll have a hard time switching back to a conventional swing when you want to start feeling your swing again.

The no backswing swing, golf tips

Your first round leader of the TOUR Championship in Atlanta is Tim Clark, shot a record 62 on Thursday. Lets take a closer look at his swing. This was taken several months ago at the Colonial and he’s hitting a driver.

A very easy to replicate straightforward swing. On his takeaway, you’ll notice that he has very little wrist cock, it’s almost all arms and shoulders. At the top of his backswing, you’ll notice that the clubface is almost parallel to the ground, a very strong grip indeed. He shifts his weight completely to his back foot with his front foot heel completely off the ground. On the follow-through, he gets tremendous shift in his lower body and just releases his arms, again, almost no hands. It’s almost like he’s swinging a discus. No doubt that he loses some distance, but he’s consistent because his swing his easy to replicate over and over.

Tim Clark, swing vision, golf tips

If you’re having problems getting consistent putting, most likely the problem you are having is wrist break. You need to keep the angle between your arms and hands constant throughout otherwise you won’t hit the ball in the same spot on the putter, which results in inconsistent putting.

This video features a nice grip you can try to reduce wrist break. It will feel funny at first, but it will work, I’m sure of it. My own putting grip is similar, I use the reverse overlap grip.

Reduce wrist break, golf tips

For you beginners out there, this is a good primer on what to look for when you go to the pro shop next time. If it’s still too complicated after you see the video, just remember these simple things,

- Flex, the more the better if you swing slow. Stick with R if all else fails.
- Loft, the more the better. Stick with 14 degree if all else fails.
- Grips, the fatter the better. Most are standard so go with standard if all else fails.

How to pick a driver club, golf tips