You've heard me say before that most clubs today are built too long, especially drivers. It can be hard for shorter golfers to swing these clubs, and even harder to maintain a vertical swing because of the unneeded length.
Kimon T. George has been having trouble swinging vertically with his driver and I'll bet it has to do with the length. But, it could also be linked to the way he grips the club.
How do short people make a vertical swing with the long clubs like the driver? When I try and go straight up and down with the driver, I hit the ground and have to go a little deeper at the top to avoid the ground.
Thanks,
Kimon
What he means is that he's getting more rotational. Instead of going straight up and keeping the club vertical, he's getting the club laid off, which he's doing purposely. He's doing this so he doesn't hit the ground. But, this is a compensation, not a fix.
If you come down flat and maintain those angles from that position, you're going to have an inside out swing. You'll be swinging inside out of your aiming line, which will cause you to block the ball to the right. This might also lead to the big, bad, "S" word which I won't utter here!
What's the right concept for getting to impact? Many will say that you must hit down on the ball or pound the ball into the ground. But, I believe that anything to do with hitting down is one of the worst thoughts in golf that we can have. This is why I coined the term forward upswing, or FUS. If you have the mindset of hitting down, it's going to trigger your upper body to move first. If your upper body moves first, you're likely going to move ahead of the ball and you're going to get out and over the top. Hitting down is absolutely the wrong way to think!
Last but not least, check your clubs and make sure they're the right length. In the video, you'll see that I compare my clubs to some of DJ's old clubs from college that I've still got here at the house. A good grip always has the heel of the hand flush with the line on the top of the grip. I see many golfers with their heel flush to the cap on top of the club. That's getting too close to the top of the cap. Every now and then I even see golfers with the heel of their hand above the cap. You must avoid doing this because if you get a little long and the weight of the club becomes too much for your hand to bear, you can tear your hands open this way.
We have to swing with the thought of nipping the ball off the ground. The head does not move other than a slight backwards movement during the swing. With DJ's club (one inch longer), you'll see that I adjust my setup in order to be square to the ball. I'm able to hit DJ's clubs because of the adjustments I make, but it's a lot easier if I've got clubs that are designed for my body, not his.
Longer clubs still have to be swung vertically, even if you're a shorter golfer! The key is that you have to maintain your levelness and you have to swing vertical to vertical from backswing to forward upswing. What's the number one thing you can do? Get to a club fitter to get your clubs checked.
Remember, the ball doesn't know what club is in your hand so use the same swing regardless!
CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF CERTIFIED CLUB FITTERS NEAR YOU!
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
If you can't view the YouTube video above try CLICKING HERE. You must allow popups from this site for the link to work.
Comments
Shorter Golfers Must Still Swing Vertically With Longb clubs.
Surge,
Don't you mean, Normal Sized Golfers? heh heh heh! Just finished a visit to a taller ex military golfer friend. Had not seen him in quite a while. After gabbing for an hour, we went out to his car. He had his clubs in the boot. He watched me swinging his 7iron using my PPGS swing. He has the most unusual swing. It is not as 'wild' as it was when we played in my first game of golf after no golf for 5years on our return from China. I demonstrated the very basic set up and made several very good swings. He then demo-ed his swing. His bottom half resembled someone using a hoola hoop during his backswing and forward swing. The upper body was not too much removed from the PPGS swing. He told me before the demo that he only uses a half swing punch shot on everything beyond an 8iron.
To me it looked close to the height of a PPGS BUS, but laid off slightly at the top. So as soon as I got home, I e-mailed him today's video and site information.
Like many of us, he struggles due to an injury sustained during his military service. So he will do well to join the Surge Nation. My good turn for the day ; - )
My very short swing session today was short only because it went perfectly from start to finish.
Well done DJ go get 'em boyo! DH
Time
DH, Right now it's 6:44pm Friday night in NZ. It's 9:44pm (Thursday night) here in Las Vegas. 21 hours ahead of me you are. Now I'm not telling you something you don't know but it is wild, eh?! Okay, so tonight I tuned in to watch the second round of the Abu Dhabi golf tournament. Right now it is a blasted re-run of yesterdays action. It will be live on our golf channel at 11:30pm (tonight Thursday night still) and that will be a reasonable 9:30 Friday nights TV for you. Don't feel too bad for me, if our Friends back east USA want to watch it live they can see it at 2:30am Friday morning. Crazy talk. Guess this is not so crazy because I do get up at 2am to watch the OPEN championship every year from the UK.
Now they will be running the Abu Dhabi golf tomorrow morning at 5am for me. May be a better option and much better for the likes of Terry, Steve, Surge and Doc Griffin where it will be either 7 or 8am.
The real fun starts when you think about being in two times zones simultaneously or one foot in the past and one in tomorrow at the time line.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dateline.html
Now you can tell I've spent much too much time thinking about this but have you ever thought about celebrating the new year twice? 24 hours apart? You could celebrate it there, sober up and go just a couple of hours east and celebrate it again with a fresh bottle of bubbly.
Here's hoping you enjoy watching Tiger and Rory live tonight. I may just have to wait until the early am in the 'marrow' as you fancy saying. Good night or should I say have a nice Friday night!!
Time
Hi Robert in Las Vegas,
One of our favourite TV series is called 'Vegas' with Dennis Quaid...etc!
The time factor is a pain at times. Loved it when it was in Hawaii due to the time being 23hours behind us. May watch it live tonight.
As for celebrating New Year twice. We already do, ie, Hogmanay and Chinese New Year hahaha! As for the celebrate with a bottle of bubbly, the last time I had a drink, was about 9years ago on the border between Dandong, China and North Korea. Quite a story hahaha! Never touched a drop since. Not a wowser and don't have an alcohol problem.Nor do I have anything against those who drink like fish. Don't miss it at all. In China in Metro I used to look at the Glenfiddich, Captain Morgan's Rum, and Jim Beam and just smile. Memories;-)
Two days ago I checked the times in the US against here and have them written down, to remind me of the likely timings for viewing live. Sometimes I watch other things and concentrate on moving day and the final round live.
Have a great round tomorrow and hit 'em long and straight in Las Vegas. I have only seen Vegas from 35,000ft as I flew over en-route to Scotland from NZ many years ago at night. Quite a sight even from that height. DH
Imbibing
Unfortunately, imbibing runs deep in my Irish/English bloodline. The good news for me is I can't drink because I so easily get bad headaches from drinking any more than a beer or two. And so I rarely drink and if so in moderation. The last 12 years I have become so involved in the healthy life style that I have even more reason to avoid alcohol. You are much more likely to see me with a green smoothie than a heineken. Now in my youth? Another story indeed as I was late night at many a pub and disco until the wee hours dancing and drinking the night away.
At least you have flown over LV while the closest to NZ and Australia I've been is Java. Get a kick out of many Americans who think of Java only as coffee and they have no idea it is an single Island of over 100,000,000 people and part of the 5th largest country they no little about. Not their fault, geography is not a strongly taught subject here. Was mandatory in the British high school system I attended in the Bahamas. Lived on Java for 1 year with my first wife, an Indonesian and the mother of my 3 exotic, beautiful children. Was a lifetime ago.
30 years later and getting ready to go to the gym and play golf with Cindy on what appears to be an ideal day here in the desert sun.
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/asia/indonesia/
http://grandbahama.bahamas.com/
http://lasvegasgc.com/sites/courses/layout9.asp?id=1131&page=68984
It is all in my blood line
Robert and DH
I am a Captain Morgan man. I am not much of a drinker. I think I have had one drink since moving to Oklahoma in July of 2010.
I am a cheap drunk. One drink, and I don't drive. Does not take much to get me wobbly.
It is all in my blood line. I am part Scottish and part Cherokee Indian. So, I love my booze, but I don't handle it very well.
Keeping it vertical, as long as I am not drinking, in Oklahoma,
Dick
It is in my bloodline
Hi Dick,
In mine too. My younger days were a bit like Robert Meade's. Lively covers it ; - ) One drink I never knowingly drank was Gin if any description. Even just one glass brought out the 'beast' within. Army mates conned me one day in a drinking game with 'vodka' and coke. I had never drunk vodka. They were stunned at the change from happy go lucky fun loving bloke, into a fire breathing monster. Scottish part Cherokee Indian, good stock. Mine is Scots Irish, a tossup between the two.
I intend to keep it vertical straight and long not drinking in NZ
DJ T60th at -4under through 16holes, GO! DJ
McIlroy and Woods have not done Nike any favours after their 2nd Rd performance. Rules is rules fellas.
DH
DJ playing well
DJ's -6 now and T38. -3 for his first 6 holes today. Even if he plays even par the rest of the way today I think he'll make the cut. I'm surprised that Don's team is not posting the link for his tournament as usual. Of course they did that on a week that he's playing well. Murphy's law maybe. In any case I hope he keeps up his obvious good work over the past couple months of preparation for this year.
Here it
http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html
and
http://www.pgatour.com/shottracker.html#/current/r000/2/player/23788/
Looks like shot tracker is not available at La Quinta
Who knows they may be forced to show him hit a shot or two if he continues playing well. Go Deej go!