I like to think that golf is easier than most of us think it is. One thing that I find through years of teaching is most of my students over analyze things that are not that important and forget about the easy little things that make a huge difference. While most of us are busy thinking about more turn or keeping our left arm straight, we forget the simple things like; grip, ball placement, alignment and posture.
Correct ball placement, a good grip, alignment and posture will serve you so much better as a starting point for good golf. Great instructors will always tell you how important it is to get posture and set-up techniques down so that you can begin to see what may be wrong with your swing. Better golf through sound fundamentals is a great way to improve. If you begin your practice session with some set-up aids such as: laying some clubs down to be sure to get the alignment procedures and ball placement correct and then check your posture in a mirror, you have a far greater chance of getting the results you are looking for.
Let’s first examine the grip. To me the most important thing to focus on is placing the club in your hand properly. I use a baseball bat to get my students to realize that the club is held much more in the fingers then most people think. Rest your club over your shoulder like it was a baseball bat and feel how the club sinks down into the fingers of the hand. The grip feels fine up on your shoulder, but most of us will place it back into our palm when we put it down in the hitting zone and that is where we make the first mistake. Keep the club in the fingers more and under the meaty pad of the hand while it is in the playing zone, it will make your hands feel much lower than what you are use to, but that is where it belongs.
When the club is gripped properly, it enables you to use the hands effectively. The most common error I see is the club runs through the hands more vertically than it should and doesn’t allow a proper takeaway or release through the shot. Be sure to get the club under the meaty pad and in the fingers more and the club will naturally sink a little lower at address position and give you full use of the hand action. Most of us know that the V’s the thumb and forefinger make is suppose to point at our trailing shoulder, but this is not the main focus, for me it is having the club in the right plane with our grip.
As the illustration shows, the club runs through the hand more in the fingers and when you close on the grip the meaty pad rests on top of the club. Once you have the club running through the hand properly, it will be much easier to get your V’s to point to the trailing shoulder.
A proper grip is essential for you to have a chance at swinging the club effectively. A PGA Instructor like myself can get you tuned in easily within seconds, getting use to the grip takes time and patience, but the positive results you’ll experience are well worth the time and effort. I like to say that, “the result is well worth the adventure.”
Next month we will talk about set up, posture and ball position. Until next month good golfing and have a wonderful April. The Masters lays in wait.
Good Golfing
Chuck
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Get the Correct Sand Wedge
Monthly Instruction Tip
If you are struggling out of the sand, the first thing you want to check is the bounce angle on your sand wedge. The bounce angle of your wedge can make a huge difference in your short game. If you are for instance playing a club with too much bounce angle, it can cause you to hit “thin” shots, too little and you hit “heavy” shots.
The bounce angle is often times marked on the wedge or is a part of the name of the wedge; as in for instance, the Titleist Vokey 5614, a fifty-six degree wedge with fourteen degrees of bounce. The bounce angle is a measurement of the angle from the leading edge of the wedge back to the trailing edge, or you might say, the amount the leading edge sticks up off the ground when in the playing condition.
As a general rule of thumb if you play on a course with a harder turf and firmer sand in the traps you should be using wedges with less bounce. The lower amount of bounce will help the clubs leading edge dig down easier into the turf and through the rest of the shot. The type of player that would be best served by a sand wedge with less bounce is one who takes very little divot and has a shallow angle of attack.
On the contrary if you play on a course with softer turf conditions and fluffy sand then you should be using wedges with a little more bounce as this will help prevent the club digging to deeply into the ground thus causing those heavy shots as discussed above. The player best served with a higher bounce angle is one that has a steep angle of attack and usually takes a bigger divot.
Bounce angle is very important in playing those greenside shots also. If you play a course with deep or heavy rough around the greens, it might be best to have a sand wedge that fits the firm, tight conditions and a lob wedge that fits the deep, heavy rough conditions.
The modern day wedges come with many different lofts and bounce angles. Not only can you pick wedges to match the conditions you play in, but you have maximum availability to pick the wedges that get the distances you are looking for as well.
Many of the sand wedges on the market today offer grindings that permit you to get multiple bounce angles from the same club. An example of a wedge that allows you to get multiple bounce angles from the same club would be the Cleveland Golf “DSG” wedges, DSG standing for Dynamic Sole Grind. The trailing edge of the club is beveled off which permits you to roll the club face open and not get a tremendous amount of bounce involved, a wedge without that trailing edge ground off, would have the leading edge quite far off the ground and make it readily available for the dreaded “thin” shot.
The best advice I can give for selecting a wedge; is to see your local PGA Professional for assistance. Watching how a person approaches a shot and seeing the swing motion will give the Professional all the ammo he needs to help you select the correct bounce angle and club for you.
Best in Golf
Chuck Mayhew
If you are struggling out of the sand, the first thing you want to check is the bounce angle on your sand wedge. The bounce angle of your wedge can make a huge difference in your short game. If you are for instance playing a club with too much bounce angle, it can cause you to hit “thin” shots, too little and you hit “heavy” shots.
The bounce angle is often times marked on the wedge or is a part of the name of the wedge; as in for instance, the Titleist Vokey 5614, a fifty-six degree wedge with fourteen degrees of bounce. The bounce angle is a measurement of the angle from the leading edge of the wedge back to the trailing edge, or you might say, the amount the leading edge sticks up off the ground when in the playing condition.
As a general rule of thumb if you play on a course with a harder turf and firmer sand in the traps you should be using wedges with less bounce. The lower amount of bounce will help the clubs leading edge dig down easier into the turf and through the rest of the shot. The type of player that would be best served by a sand wedge with less bounce is one who takes very little divot and has a shallow angle of attack.
On the contrary if you play on a course with softer turf conditions and fluffy sand then you should be using wedges with a little more bounce as this will help prevent the club digging to deeply into the ground thus causing those heavy shots as discussed above. The player best served with a higher bounce angle is one that has a steep angle of attack and usually takes a bigger divot.
Bounce angle is very important in playing those greenside shots also. If you play a course with deep or heavy rough around the greens, it might be best to have a sand wedge that fits the firm, tight conditions and a lob wedge that fits the deep, heavy rough conditions.
The modern day wedges come with many different lofts and bounce angles. Not only can you pick wedges to match the conditions you play in, but you have maximum availability to pick the wedges that get the distances you are looking for as well.
Many of the sand wedges on the market today offer grindings that permit you to get multiple bounce angles from the same club. An example of a wedge that allows you to get multiple bounce angles from the same club would be the Cleveland Golf “DSG” wedges, DSG standing for Dynamic Sole Grind. The trailing edge of the club is beveled off which permits you to roll the club face open and not get a tremendous amount of bounce involved, a wedge without that trailing edge ground off, would have the leading edge quite far off the ground and make it readily available for the dreaded “thin” shot.
The best advice I can give for selecting a wedge; is to see your local PGA Professional for assistance. Watching how a person approaches a shot and seeing the swing motion will give the Professional all the ammo he needs to help you select the correct bounce angle and club for you.
Best in Golf
Chuck Mayhew
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