About that Driver Swing

My first analysis in June comparing my swing to pros found several differences I worked on, but none of them were easily adjusted without sabotaging my swing.  The most important find is the path issue demonstrated between me and McIlroy shown below.  Don’t get me wrong, perhaps if I was a full-time golfer, I could change my basic driver swing and fix my wrist angles or club angle at the top of my swing or height of my hands.  If I had all day with a professional golf coach and detailed trackman data, in a couple of months or so my swing might look like a pro. (ok, probably not….)

Path is Obviously an issue, also check out McIlroy’s right wrist angle and tight right elbow to side.

It’s just that I needed something more basic, something that didn’t make my swing consciously directed.  I tried in vain to change my wrist angle at the top, the height of my hands, or delaying the release of my wrist cock.  I’m just not interested in the time and effort to get my swing to look like the pros, even if I could.  All I need is to keep my drive’s in play, and eliminate this disgusting slice that has cropped up in the last few years.  For most of my golfing career, I had a gentle to severe hook.  I used to have a ridiculously strong right-hand grip, but I could generally keep the ball in play.

Lessons have gained me nothing over the years.  I’m not saying a great teaching pro is useless, I just never have had a good one.  Comparing my swing to several pros didn’t help either, I hit the books.  I opened up my Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons, David Leadbetter’s The Fundamentals of Hogan, and a little known book by Phil Rodgers, Play Lower Handicap Golf.  (It’s out of print and I got a low-cost used one off of Amazon)  I started looking for basic recommendations, and interestingly, for each recommendation, Leadbetter has a section “To Become an 80-BREAKR – or Better”

Set-up & grip changes

First, my stance was off a lot!  Phil Rodgers’ recommends the butt of the golf club be 4 – 6 inches from your body.  Mine was 8″ to 10″ or more.  Secondly, Rodgers recommends a slightly narrower stance than shoulder width.  Mine was 1.5 times my shoulder width.  My ball position was way too forward, just in the left foot in-seam (for a right-hand golfer) is the correct position.  Leadbetter points out that if you have a torn part of your left-hand glove high in the palm, you are not gripping the club with your fingers of your left hand as you should.  (I replace my gloves every couple of years for a hole just as he describes!)  I still can’t quite get that right, but I’ll keep trying.

Right Elbow Close

I made the setup changes, and the slice subsided a bit, but was still there.  I found several references to the old stand-by, keeping your right elbow tight against the body.  You’ve probably read about keeping a golf glove in your right arm pit during your swing for practicing the feeling.  I went from 13 out of 14 drives slicing right (hazards or deep rough) at The Crossings in Carlsbad, to 5 long-drive wins in the 80BREAKR skills game last Friday at Balboa Park, see below. (I forgot to log long drive on the 16th)  Front nine, no sliced drives, but then on the second nine they came back, probably lack of focus.

Something Else is Off, Perhaps Impact?

The only nagging concern is that even the drives in the fairway had a slight fade to them, and my setup was straight / slight draw.  I examined my setup and my impact position to look for problems, and confirm it’s clubhead path (out to in) and perhaps my hands moving away from my body.  Look at my setup position vs. impact position compared to a pro.  Nothing really obvious, and if it’s not obvious, I probably won’t be able to fix it anyway.   At first I thought I had an issue, but it looks fairly similar to Ernie Els below.

Ghost image is impact, more solid image is setup.

Ernie’s path is in to out, like McIlroy, but body and shaft plane do change similar to mine.

Right-hand lower MUST be faster

I read about an interesting drill yesterday that I’ll head to the range and try.  The idea is that my right hand is not moving faster than my left.  In other words, I’m not getting my right hand to roll over.  The idea from this article is that moving on the same arc, the lower hand must move faster to end up at the same point relative to the left hand in a smaller arc.  I believe if I can keep from coming over the top by keeping my right elbow tight and driving the butt of the club down to my right pocket, while also getting my right hand faster, I may finally have a cure I can count on.  Here’s the main point: I have a decades old swing, and no time nor inclination to attempt some sort of brand-new swing.  I believe I need to incorporate only those changes that are simple enough to implement that work for me.

Terrible Follow-Through

Phil Rodgers starts his instruction in his book with the follow-through, he says you’ll have a better idea how to get to the finish if you have a destination in mind.  In  this article by Mike Kiely he says “the phase of the swing following impact, namely the follow through, is equally important“.  Look below, my follow-through clearly needs some attention.  Take a look at this artist depiction of the Ben Hogan follow-through, or an image of any golfer on the internet to see I’m not swinging freely.

My Poor Follow-Through, Probably Steering the Ball

Mike Kiely recommends watching LPGA golfers’ “Free Swing”

Here’s what’s up next:

• keep my right elbow close to my body on my downswing, drive the butt of the club toward my right pocket
• do the hands-separated drill
• practice the high finish using Phil Rodgers book with a “Free Swing”

See you in a couple of weeks!