I got a call for a lesson form one of my long time regulars, DB, who was desperate and ready to quit the game. He just came back from the golf trip of a lifetime with his son and two close friends and played horribly. He told me he drove the ball awesome with only one bad drive and putted quite well. But despite the good book ends (driver and putter), he was awful because of everything in between. You see, DB picked up the S- – - KS or as I call them 'Hosel Rockets,' with all his irons. So, he was hoping I could cure him so he could return to playing golf again.
In my teaching career, I can honestly say that I have not had too many horror lessons of having to deal with curing sideway hosel rockets. I can promise you, many teaching pros sweat bullets having to confront this malady. It can be life threatening. I certainly was not looking forward to it, but knew I would find the cure to get DB back hitting it in the center of his irons.
My experience with the dreaded S- – - – shot has been that most often it is caused by too much leg drive in the transition to impact. When the legs drive down too much, the extra bend actually causes the body to slide or collapse downward and closer to the ball, so when the arms straighten approaching impact, the hosel hits the ball instead of the clubface. The cure is to quiet the legs and reduce the downward leg drive to remaining more level with the knee drive to impact.
DB didn't have too much downward knee drive to impact. In fact, his knees were quite straight and rigid and the left side and knee rotated away from the ball in the transition. You see, DB was standing TOO vertical at address. His knees were barely flexed and his spine and upper torso were too upright. The real clue to exposing it all was that his feet were way too under his hips and his weight was back on his heels. In his waggle I could see him lifting the balls of his feet, tapping them numerous times. Lifting the toes and ball of the foot is a sure sign of the weight being back on the heels and the player is likely standing too close to the ball. Conversely, being able to lift the heels is proof positive that the weight is leaning in too much and the player is likely reaching for the ball. In other words, his posture was pitiful. He was literally sitting on the bar stool. He was not even sniffing at being athletically ready: weight over arches, torso bent over at 30 degrees in the address position, hands and arms hanging straight down from his shoulders.
DB got into walking into the ball and sitting back on his heels, which caused his upper torso to be pulled upward, away from the ball, and thus he had to creep in closer to reach the ball. Now, standing too close meant he had to pull his body upward and spin out to make room for his arms to deliver the club to impact. This pulling up caused his arms and hands to rotate under, opening the clubface and pushing the hosel into the ball, causing the laterals out to the right. The cure to correcting his posture and the under release was simple, the good old ACCORDION EFFECT.
I've described the Accordion Effect as the way a baseball player in the field and tennis player about to receive a serve assume their ready position. The ybend over and simultaneously bend both their shoulders and knees at the same time and the same degree. When one bends the shoulders and knees together, the reaction is that the hips are squeezed out proportionately to counter balance the forward bend of the shoulders and knees, thus placing the body setup position in perfect athletically ready balance. The Accordion Effect works perfectly every time and is actually the best way for getting perfect balance on uphill and down hill lies where it is hard to believe how much the knees will bend when reaching downward to a ball below the feet. I promise you it will feel like the knees are way too bent and your upper torso too erect. But try it doing the Accordion Effect to set your posture and you will see how balanced the swing is from this posture position for hitting a ball below the feet.
The key is the Accordion Effect is the only way to find athletically ready setup posture consistently time after time, on flat lies and especially in those awkward uphill and downhill lies.
Accordion music might not be too popular these days, but every time you walk into your ball, you should be humming the Accordion Effect.
The Surge!