Neglected:
While the correct body turn back and through the golf ball is essential for power and accuracy, all this good will be undone without the correct use of the hands.
In my teaching experience, golfers tend to put way more emphasis on the former, thus largely neglecting their hands and leading to shots that are often mis-timed, sliced or even topped.
You would want to feel a pure strike, where you don’t feel any vibration through your hands and arms and your club goes through the ball like a knife slicing through butter.
Try this simple drill that has stood the test of time:
- Place your feet together with no absolutely no space between them. I would recommend hitting 20 balls like this whenever you practise – as it will train your hands to swing the clubhead through with rhythm and speed.
- Complete your swing, back and through as shown. Should you attempt to use excess body force with tense arms and wrists, the likely outcome will be a loss of balance.
- The correct swing will have correct weight transfer with balance, as your hands and wrists freely swing the clubhead back and through.
- Executed correctly, this drill will surprise you as the swing will feel effortless, yet you will achieve both distance and accuracy.
Warning!!!!!
Should you try this with locked wrists, it just won’t work and neither will any attempt to manipulate the clubhead or to ‘lunge’ the body for power. You have to give up control, without loosening your grip too much and just allow the clubhead to swing freely through the ball. Notice too how I have allowed my body to almost be pulled through by the weight of the clubhead, into a full follow-through position.
Tip by Craig Lewthwaite
Craig Lewthwaite is a AAA PGA professional and is the head teaching professional for the Garden Route Golf Academy, based at the Vodacom Golf Village in George, as well as at the Mossel Bay Golf Club. Craig is one of the official assessors for the PGA apprenticeship programme and does the tuition at the Louis Oosthuizen Junior Academy at Mossel Bay GC.
Contact Craig on 082 688 7457 or craigl@pgasa.com
