Today's tip is on where you should place your club relative to the ball at address. It comes from a question sent in by Bill Frazer, who was commenting on a recent tip I gave for those who chronically hit the ground behind the ball.
"Hi Surge,
I just viewed your video on hitting the ground behind the ball. I have found that the best solution to this problem is to make sure to address the ball with the head of the club just above the ball. If you place the club on the ground, doesn't it tend to want to return to the spot from which the swing originated? I find this especially beneficial on short chip shots - but I believe it helps with all clubs. Thanks for your wonderful golf instruction."
Bill, this may be working for you, but then I think there could possibly be some other swing problem at play here. With regard to the question about where to place the club, I believe you answered your own question when you said "If you place the club on the ground, doesn't it tend to want to return to the spot from which the swing originated?" Yes! That should be precisely what happens IF nothing else moves. You see, one of the most important results of a proper setup is that we set the correct spine angle by positioning the club at the place we want it to return to at impact. If you are hitting off a tee, then your club should not be resting on the ground but should be placed directly behind the ball. If you are hitting the ball off the ground then, by all means, that's where you should start the clubhead moving back into the Catcher's Mitt.
If you don't do this, then you are going to need to make an in-swing spine angle adjustment to get the club's sweet spot on the ball. That's a really tricky thing to do and it's not something I would recommend anyone try to perfect because it can lead to a whole host of bad results. As I have always said, "Goilf is a game of angles, the fewer the better" and we should always start our swing with the correct angle.
As you'll hear in the video, I believe a good number of people who have trouble hitting the ball consistently are not looking at the ball correctly. Either their eye is not looking directly at the ball, or their head is forward of it, or they may be looking at the top of the ball rather than the point where it meets the ground. And, if they are wearing glasses with bifocals or even tri-focals, they are inviting problems because it only takes a very tiny eye movement to move from one focal plane to the other and if this happens during your swing, you stand a good chance if mis-hitting the ball. If necessary, carry two sets of glasses with you when you play--one with monovision lenses for when you are swinging or putting and the other set you can put on when you return to your cart and need to mark your score or check the yardage.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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Comments
I have never heard surge say
I have never heard surge say to hover the driver also where should your eyes be on a driver
To look at where the ball meets the ground always results in taking a divot which surge doesn't advocate so I'm pretty confused after this video
Thanks for the comments and I
Thanks for the comments and I've searched for any videos or Surge instruction regarding this. I haven't found any info apart from a clue about getting that right angle in the right arm in the backswing (the strongest angle). I'm therefore assuming that on the downswing (or FUS) that this right angle must be maintained down towards the level of the hip (after the bump) rather than my right arm folding from a 90 degree to a V shape (caused by pulling down club down too strongly with both hands and actually towards my body) and must obviously be breaking my left arm extension (which I never realised was happening- but must be happening). I think the cure will be to try and get that right angle on the backswing then retain that angle on the pull/downswing by keeping my left and right elbows relatively level until hip level but also sense the retention of an extended (not rigid) left arm extension. Phew!!!
I believe it is a commercial
I believe it is a commercial driving range mat that Surge picked up.
Steve - My irons are almost
Steve - My irons are almost like blades (combination of blade and cavity) and my 3 iron looks like you can cut butter with it (all my irons have small club head size too). So I don't have what you would call 'user friendly' irons but I love them anyhow because they are lighter than cavities. When on the range, I did use a hybrid and they were a lot easier to hit higher (my 3 iron when hit well has a fantastic lower trajectory so prefer that , don't know why). Only problem with my hybrids are that the shafts seem too flexible for my tempo and I have to physically slow down my swing which doesn't seem natural. If I swing at my normal quicker tempo , they slice right. I suspect I've always wanted to master long irons just out of stubborness and the PPGS style is the closest I've come to succeeding. I think I've got the notion that if I do master long irons, then hitting my other irons will be a triviality.
Almost sounds like you were
Almost sounds like you were playing ____ school.
They were a rival of Mike's school and they dressed out half of the varsity for the Jr. High games. Then when we went to the varsity games on Friday night those same players were in the program as juniors and seniors.
They didn't much care how much they cheated. Alabama even got in trouble because of them. Everybody knew they were paying players and one player allegedly got over $100,000 and the NCAA tried to say that they paid him that to go to Alabama, even though the business man that paid him told the Birmingham News that he paid him to go to ____ and not Alabama, and he ended up going to Tennessee anyway.
Edit: I took out the schools name, but they know who they are.
Jerry, thanks for your
Jerry, thanks for your comment. Glad to here your game is coming along.
PMG
Thank You Surge , i viewed
Thank You Surge , i viewed probably the most important part of the vertical swing, where one addresses the ball . The spine angle and gravity that is a major factor when releasing the club onto the ball . It is a fact , how one tees the ball , ( height of) and where the club head is placed . Swing through with fewer angles is definitely " spot on ! " Thanks Surge ! " Although the earth is rotational in it's orbit , vertical is my swing plane. "
Feeble brain? Don't think so
Feeble brain? Don't think so mate.Fertile perhaps hahaha!Nice one Kevin,ie, "Up and Up". My "Up and Back" is in the same vein. It reminds me that the head actually dips just around the top of the BUS. I then don't have to even think about the "bump" at all.As for slowing through impact, it is allowing me to whistle through impact up to the T finish!
I found myself not performing the up part of the backswing soon enough.This had me using my arms only a lot of the time.As soon as I employed the 'Flying Right Elbow', it all seemed so easy. Now for the proof of the pudding tomorrow or Friday,weather permitting ; - ) Keep on having those "Eureka" moments.They keep us going. Hit 'em long and straight.
Steve: Right ON! 100%
Steve:
Right ON! 100% agreement -- only use the loft necessary for the shot at hand.
As for those of us who are "distance challenged" - we are not very likely to generate a lot of spin. Even so, I have never liked to hit a wedge with more than about 60% of the "available horsepower" (make that "pony power" in my case) LOL I manage to consisently produace a high, soft landing shot with all of my wedges. althogh a full 60* wedge only goes about 35 yarsd forward while going aobut 20 yard in elevation -- they do stop short though -- unless I hit one thin in which case it will goes about 70 yards.
Amos
DH, You old rattlesnake,
DH, You old rattlesnake, welcome back. I missed your sorry butt!!
;0))
Espero que su ropa no es
Espero que su ropa no es lanzada en el patio cuando llegas a casa.
Best advice I can give is to
Best advice I can give is to keep it compact and 3/4's. Most think they are but likely are not and still getting into the SBG which can also contribute too far on the follow through too. Don't over swing and make sure you learn and practice what Surge teaches about a stable lower body and spine/posture while maintaining 'stillness' in the knees, particularly the forward knee. Ride that skinny horse and make sure you have sufficient flare of both feet for balance.
Just don't try to chew gum at
Just don't try to chew gum at the same time.
I also tend to prefer soft
I also tend to prefer soft focus, but I have a bad habit of going back to the old turn your head behind the ball advice from Nicklaus, so lately I've been getting myself more focused on the back of the ball with my right eye. This seems to be keeping my nose more at the ball and leading to better, more consistent impact.
I don't have much experience
I don't have much experience with different irons. I've only owned 2 sets and both were cavities. The few times I hit blades just messing around I figured by the look of them that I wouldn't hit them very well....But I was always wrong and surprised that I did.
I was thinking more that maybe the lie angle was off on your 3 iron.
I still carry my three iron and up until this year the 3,4, and 5 irons were the best clubs in my bag. I've missed plenty with the longer irons this year and I am blaming it on the ridiculously long and thick fairway grass I have been playing out of.
I have a very, very, very shallow angle of attack and I guess I probably should change that to suit the course I play. Hard to make a clean strike if the ball is suspended an inch off of the ground but down a quarter of an inch from the surrounding grass that is as thick as carpet with a shallow approach. Almost impossible to not catch a lot of grass before the ball.
With a "normal" swing I can put a tee in the ground 10 inches behind the ball and only sticking out of the ground a quarter of an inch and I will almost always clip that tee out of the ground on the way to the ball. Even farther than 10 inches with a driver. It's a good technique for very thin lies but not so good for long grass.
The videos are great.We had
The videos are great.
We had our tour championship this past weekend. I was pretty much out of it played a difficult and long course Sunday 6700 yards. I hit my driver the best that I hit it all year down the middle. I woke up Sunday with a sore left hip guess I slept on it wrong played well got to the 16 tee box and needed 3 pars to shoot 80 coming in my hip got stiff I just lost it I finished triple,double,triple for a 88 I was not a happy camper.
Since I don't video all of my
Since I don't video all of my shots it's hard to get a good pattern of when my shoulders are open or not but over time it seems that the one constant when I do it is when there is trouble on the right.
I don't look downrange once I address the ball but that doesn't stop me from knowing what's down there and I have hit quite a few balls this summer that were supposed to draw but went dead straight. Always before I would intentionally aim right at the trouble and have no doubt that I was going to draw the ball away from it. Now with that little bit of doubt I think I am opening up subconsciously to make sure I don't go right. More and more on those shots I just go against my normal logic and start the ball left and intentionally fade the ball toward the trouble.
(That's the way I intend to play that hole next time).
Actually I don't think I can reach the right side of that pond with a 3 wood anyway as long as I hit a fade. I got greedy on that one and tried to play a draw into a fairly narrow zone where if I missed just a little right there was a chance of going in the pond and if I missed left I might be blocked by the row of trees (bad business decision). Another option is to hit a 5 wood or 3 iron down the middle and stay short of all of the trouble. Problem with that is that is leaves over 200 yards off of a downhill slope for the 2nd shot. Trying to turn a "non-birdie" hole into a birdie hole probably gets me in trouble more than anything else.
But like Matt Damon said in Rounders, "You can't lose what you don't put in the middle.....But you can't win much either".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
It's why Tiger won't win another Major until he somehow gets over his fear of hitting a driver. There are way too many good young players in the field that aren't afraid and at least one of them is always going to be "hot". Laying up to 200 yards when others are 120 out is going to get a lot of top 10s but isn't going to win, unless EVERYBODY messes up, and that's not likely.
"My dear golf ball........
"My dear golf ball.....
....please hold still....
you are going for ride.
This won't take long.
Thank you for your cooperation."
That's how I properly address the ball.
Works at least some of the time....
Backspin is created by the
Backspin is created by the force with which you swing the club and the angle of attack. You always impart backspin when you strike the ball, the question is how much. No amount of "pinching" will generate spin if you can't swing the club fast enough. You could try a softer covered ball, which will allow you to impart more.
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