Golf Myths

There are probably four ( 4) things in a Golf Swing that you could call magic. They are magic because when done correctly and in a timely fashion the whole affair reacts as if by some yet unknown magical spell. As if there were some outside control over the swing.

The ball explodes off the clubhead, and you feel like you didn’t really do much. It’s effortless. And it is almost anti-climatic in that you are normally used to expending huge amounts of energy to hit a really bad shot. Right?

However, if the truth be known you would admit that you have never really felt that. And if you have, you have no idea in the world what you did to deserve that once in a lifetime feeling.

You may never be asked the question so you are in no danger of having to make up a story that will make you feel bad later.

But, I did just ask the question and you are lucky we are not in the same room so you don’t have to answer. Just answer to yourself. And the answer is ?

I know already.

The other day I was playing with some friends at our club.

The wind was blowing 30 MPH. A tough day to play. The kind of day where balance and and swing speed were very important.

I was faced with a head wind on a par four, a slight dog leg right. As I sized up the conditions in my mind I decided I would test the theory of “when it’s breezy, swing easy.”

At the same time I figured that I would hit a little cut shot and fade it around the corner. That would give me a wedge into the green. Good idea!

Here’ the problem, I had to hit it far enough or I would have been blocked out on the next shot.

I can hit the cut shot ok but it takes some distance off the shot and it tends to go a bit higher than my normal trajectory. And so the wind would really have an affect.

I set up slightly open and thought to swing along my foot-line would give me a good enough fade to do the trick. But that damn wind.

About half way down in the toward impact, I committed a carnal sin of golf. That’s right, I changed my mind.

I decided that to get around that corner I would have hit all of it. Blast it. Smack the snot out of it. Get down on it.

And so I did!

I hit the most gawd awful shot. I swung about as hard as a guy could swing, and man, did I ever hit a cut shot. More like a boomerang. Incredible!

Incredible bad is what I mean.

This is a shot that I almost never would hit. But the point of this is to tell you that when you do stuff wrong in the golf swing bad things happen with the golf ball.

And it doesn’t matter who you are or what your handicap is. The ball just does not care! And your golf swing gives you what you give it. No doubt about it.

So you see a good player who ignores the basics gets poor results. A poor player who ignores the basics get poor results.

They are the same!

Now, what is that magic first move in your downswing. Let’s find out!

First I want to make sure you understand that I am making a huge assumption here. And that is that you are already in a great position in your backswing. If you are not, you may as well turn off your computer now.

It will do no good to get the first part wrong and then be in constant correction and partial confusion the rest of the way down to the golf ball.

It’s easy enough to do, the backswing I mean. So that is the first part.

Oh yes and this. Once again let me remind you all that there are no good players with bad grips. By now you know what a good grip is, so now would be a good time to take a ” good grip”

Drum Roll! The First Magic Move In Your Downswing is not a turning of the hips.

Sorry for wrecking a long held theory. Turning the hips is a formula for a reverse weight shift. Do not do this.

The first magic move on your downswing consist of three elements.

Here they are:

1. First move is a bump of your hips laterally toward the target while keeping your head in it’s same relative setup position. It is very important to understand why these two things are so vital.

The bump laterally of the hips shifts the weight to the forward leg, this eliminates the reverse weight shift and the “no weight shift” keeping your head in its original position is probably not possible, but the idea is to not move your head toward the target. That means that you keep your head behind the ball. This is crucial to the mechanics of the body.

As you bump your hips laterally and keep your head behind the ball, this move will rock your shoulders so that you are now in a position where your right shoulder is lower than your left and you are in a power position to hit from the inside of the target line.

From here you cannot hit from over the top. Nice right?

Now for you skeptics. You will note that I have not said a word about turning you hips. You may have have read that you need to do that. Turn your hips.

Bury the thought.

Here is the test that proves that you will turn your hips whether you want to or not. And so you need not concern yourself with it.

Get in a set up position. You don’t need a club. Turn into your right side as if on your backswing.

Now bump your hips laterally, bump them as far a you can ( slowly) keeping your head in it’s relative position. Keep bumping.

As you continue to bump your hips you will soon see that you physically cannot bump any further and guess what happens.

Your hips turn. There you have it! And now you have made me say it. Turn your hips. But you don’t have to do anything it is automatic.

Try it!

2. The Second move is a drop of the right elbow to the right side while maintaining the angle that exists between your clubshaft and your right arm. As well as the angle between your right wrist and your right forearm.

That sounds like a lot to remember.

Here is some good news. You don’t have to remember it. You just have to know about it.

When you bump your hips laterally, and you were in a good backswing position, your arms will
automatically drop into the correct position at you right hip. The one thing that you can do to make sure of this is, another drum roll, nothing.

That’s right , do nothing.

And I do mean nothing. Your hands and arms should just go along for the ride. Do not try to have them do anything. Turn them to stone, or wood , or metal or whatever you want. But do not make them do anything.

This is a great example of getting out of your own way. Let your arms follow your shoulders as you bump your hips laterally and they will go to the correct place. Pretty cool stuff right?

3. Now just hit the ball. You will be in a perfect position to attack the golf ball from the inside with power and accuracy.

Now let’s test this a bit. Take a club, get into your backswing position. Slowly bump your hips laterally and allow your hands and arms to go where they want.

Did they drop down almost to your right hip? They should have. Do this a number of times until you get the feeling of the bump and drop. It is not going to be easy. But if you do this you will hit the ball as if by magic.

Who else does this. Well for one, Tiger Woods. You can see proof of that if you watch his swing and take note of his position as he bumps his hips laterally.

His arms drop and most notable, he gets into a squat position This is seen by looking at his knees. You will see both are bent, and are leaning toward the target. And they are well seperated. Sort of a bow legged look.

His head is still where it was at set up, but occasionally you will see him squat so much that his head drops down or he gets shorter. This is a small problem that we don’t have to worry about.

It’s because Tiger Woods develops tremendous torque in his golf swing. Something we probably could not achieve.

But what we can do is achieve the exact positions as Tiger Woods just by doing the simple things that are correct in our golf swings.

Is it magic? Sure it is. It’s as magical as you want to make it. You will hit the ball as if by magic. That’s close enough isn’t it?

So try this. Believe me it works. It’s another advanced lesson, but so what. You will have to know how to do it some day if you continue to play golf.

Why not know it now?

Caution. Do no listen to your buddies at the range. They have listened to someone else, who has listened to someone else, who has listened to someone else, and on and on and on.

This first move down is absolutely correct and every good player does it. So should you.

Go get ‘em! Let me know how you do.

By: Paul Macleod

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