Interesting Fact

[Topflite_D2]

I was reading some of my Golf Digest magazines today when I stumbled across an interesting fact. The fact is that most high-handicappers bottom our swing out an inch behind the ball, and tour players bottom out 4 inches in front of the ball. Can anyone tell me how they don't hit it thin?

[MIKE1218]

The ball is hit in the sweetspot, and the club hits its lowest point in the turf 4 inches past. That doesn't mean the divot starts there, that's just where the club is lowest.

[Topflite_D2]

Oh I understand now. That is exactly what I was looking at. haha.

[King Par]

When I learnt to do this somewhat more properly, I gained a ton of distance.

[ezra76]

I got a little flack last year when I said I was working on hitting my irons off the 3 groove, this is what I meant, compression. I've heard from a lot of guys that go to tournaments on WRX that a thinned shot by a pro is fairly common but they never hit one fat.

Swingacademy now has the side by side up btw. If you take a side vid of yourself and check it against a pro it's very obvious. I thought I had good impact with a good angle of shaft at impact but Boo Weekely's was like 3 times as much of an angle.

[Nemo]

I've seen this and heard it several times, I just don't get how to do it. I mean, I would think that the bottom of your swing would be more or less where your head is positioned relative to the ball. So I don't get how you can have your ball anywhere but way back in your stance to do it. I've done much better with my irons since I've moved the ball back to the center of my stance. But I still see the pros playing it forward and still hitting the ground well after impact, so clearly it's done all the time.

How do you do it?

[Eracer]

The fact is that most amateurs do not maintain enough wrist angle through the downswing. Casting ("releasing too early", "throwing the clubhead at the ball") causes the clubhead to hit the turf before the ball. The root cause of this is not swinging properly with the lower body ("swinging with the arms").

I've felt a good delayed release, and it is a great feeling. When I get on the course, too often my swing gets "rushed". My arms take over, I hit behind the ball, and predictably bad things happen. Then I try to compensate, which only makes things worse.

My uncle taught me that when this happens, focus your eyes on a spot one inch in front of the ball, shorten your backswing, and make an aggressive swing DOWN and THROUGH that spot.

[Slingblade61]

The fact is that most amateurs do not maintain enough wrist angle through the downswing

Guilty as charged!

I gotta work on that.

[mont86]

The fact is that most amateurs do not maintain enough wrist angle through the downswing. Casting ("releasing too early", "throwing the clubhead at the ball") causes the clubhead to hit the turf before the ball. The root cause of this is not swinging properly with the lower body ("swinging with the arms").

I've felt a good delayed release, and it is a great feeling. When I get on the course, too often my swing gets "rushed". My arms take over, I hit behind the ball, and predictably bad things happen. Then I try to compensate, which only makes things worse.

My uncle taught me that when this happens, focus your eyes on a spot one inch in front of the ball, shorten your backswing, and make an aggressive swing DOWN and THROUGH that spot.

Eraser I may have you give me golf lessons..You make alot of sense. You also said that to get control you have to give up control. Can you expand on that?

[Bignose]

I don't read the magazines, but Bobby Clampett's book The Impact Zone had the same statistic about touring pros' bottom of the swing being on average 4 inches in front of the ball. One of the things he liked to say in the book is "thin to win" in that even if you thin the ball, at least you've probably got it in the area it was supposed to go. If you fat it, your only hope is cement hard fairways and lots and lots of roll. Thining the ball is not nearly as gruesome of an error as fat shots.

Nemo, you might really like Clampett's book. You should be able to get it at your local library -- if they don't have it themselves, usually it is only a nomial fee to get a book via interlibrary loan. My local library only asks for $1 to get a book from any of the 19,000 other libraries in their network.

Clampett's book is good in that he doesn't emphasize any one technique. That is, he doesn't care if you are a one planer or two planer or 7 planer, or a Hogan fan or a Tom Watson fan, or a Moe Norman fan or self-taught -- to him, all it is is fashion. All he emphasizes is how to get the hands ahead of the ball at impact so that the result is a swing with a bottom 4 inches in front of the ball. You accomplish this by generating and keeping a lot of lag and training yourself to get those hands ahead of the ball at impact. Probably worth a look.

[eli_yates]

the impact zone is one of the best book ive ever read. golf related anyway.

[Nemo]

The fact is that most amateurs do not maintain enough wrist angle through the downswing. Casting ("releasing too early", "throwing the clubhead at the ball") causes the clubhead to hit the turf before the ball. The root cause of this is not swinging properly with the lower body ("swinging with the arms").

I've felt a good delayed release, and it is a great feeling. When I get on the course, too often my swing gets "rushed". My arms take over, I hit behind the ball, and predictably bad things happen. Then I try to compensate, which only makes things worse.

My uncle taught me that when this happens, focus your eyes on a spot one inch in front of the ball, shorten your backswing, and make an aggressive swing DOWN and THROUGH that spot.

Thanks, more to think about. It makes a lot of sense. My purest iron shots are definately when I try to play a "knockdown" or "punch" type of shot, which would have a late release. I actually started to play just about every iron shot that way last year with a stronger iron than what I'd say would be normal. Now if I could just figure out how to do the later release, but with a full release to maintain the distance.

Bignose, I'll give that Clampett book a look. Thanks!

[SiberianDVM]

I just got The Impact Zone off Amazon, and other than a few typos, it's a good read. There are some drills that Clampett mentions in the book, but I think it could do with a few more.

Not having a consistent "swing bottom forward" or Dynamic #2 as described in the book, is my biggest swing flaw, and it is darn hard to eliminate.

[Eracer]

Eraser I may have you give me golf lessons..You make alot of sense. You also said that to get control you have to give up control. Can you expand on that?

For me, the main thing is this:

If you have been playing for any length of time, your unconscious mind knows how to make the ball go to the target. It is the conscious mind (and its myriad swing thoughts, anxieties, and expectations) that get in the way. We believe we can think our way to a good swing, when really, all we need to do is connect to the motion we already know. Think about how many times we've hit a horrible drive, then teed up another and just let it rip, putting it way down the middle of the fairway. Why did that happen? Or how we sometimes know a putt will go in before we even hit it. And it does. And how many times have you seen another golfer hit a 30-foot putt that you knew was in the hole before it had gone ten feet? What is "In the Zone"? Why do we hit good shots at the range, but not on the course?

Most reasonably coordinated people can get a bowling ball to hit the pins, yet have never taken a bowling lesson in their lives. Why is that? Because they've seen other people do it, so they have a basic idea of the motion. Then they mimic that motion, and roll the ball at the target. Same thing with golf. Focus on the target, visualize the shot, relax, and let the swing happen.

Dr. Bob Rotella asks, "How many people, in the middle of a round, can honestly say they're enjoying themselves? And how many would play better golf if they could?"

I think that's a great question. Attitude, visualization, and trying to "not think", all go a long way towards the feeling of letting go that produces good golf shots.

It's one of the reasons I like playing golf alone. I don't have to deal with the distraction of my playing partners dealing with their own mental barriers. I have enough of my own that I'm trying to deal with. And it's one of the reasons I respect the pros so much. To be able to shut out the distractions they deal with, and play the shots they play - well, it's just amazing.

[EddieC]

Not sure if this will help you, but last year I had to dig a ball out of some deep rough and stumbled upon the flat or arched left wrist . Here's a vid that I found a few minutes ago that'll show you what impact should look like. This one "move" I guess you could call it, has really helped my iron play...rare that I hit a fatty any more where as before I guess I was a scooper of the ball and had no idea. I'm not a great player (10 cap) so maybe one of the better iron players here can confirm that this "wrist angle is correct or not: Golf Better Productions golf swing golf instruction and putting techniques