Self Help Guide for Better Golf

I have joked around for years that if I ever get around to writing a golf instruction book it would only have 3 chapters, of about 1000 pages each. It has been that way since I started teaching and nothing has happened to change my mind.

Chapter 1 would be titled, Controlling the Club Face. It would describe the concepts of attaching ourselves to the golf club and how we grip the club influences how we align our bodies to the ball. How a strong grip where the hands are rotated in clockwise manner to the club might work with a body alignment that points right of the target for a right handed player. Or how a weaker grip works when the body is aimed left of the target, or vice versa. It would examine the concept of how the face interacts with a golf ball and how in order to control direction we have to control where the face is pointed at impact. The most important point of this chapter would be that the hands must work in conjunction with the body and not as a separate entity.

Chapter 2 would be simply called, Balance. This chapter would talk about the posture we use to swing a golf club. Where to bend, what to keep straight, and how these points influence the path shape and direction the club moves as it is swung. More important it would discuss how in order to make a swing change you must make the proper posture adjustments to do so consistently. The final part of the chapter would investigate how far the club travels in the back swing, and how the length of your swing must be limited to how far you can take it back before there is a change in posture or loss of balance.

Chapter 3, Speed, would analyze how the speed in your golf swing is created so that your body remains in balance through the swing. It would ask the question, how much speed can your swing create until your hands cannot control the club? Every golfer, tour pro to beginner, struggles at some level with how much effort they can make to create more speed in their golf swings and how that effort impacts controlling the clubface. Many of you can swing the club pretty fast, but you can’t get the face square to the target at impact.

So that is it. For every problem you ever encounter on the golf course, the answer can be found in one of those three categories. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about chipping, putting, iron shots or driving the golf ball. As you evaluate your own game, think in terms of these categories and ask yourself these three questions. Do I do something with the club face during my backswing that I have to fix in the forward swing? How far can I take the club back until I lose my balance and how fast can I swing before I lose control of the club? The knowledge gained will help you play better golf.