Golf Myths

The other day I was watching a Golf Channel commercial where Tiger Woods was conducting a clinic. As part of the promo they played a quote from him where he said, “There is no one way to swing a golf club”. Boy did that start me thinking.

You know how differently one pro golfer may swing compared to another (Jim Furyk vs Tiger). Yet they both score well and are highly ranked in the World Golf Standings. How can that be?

There is a golfer at our course who I thought of immediately when Tiger made that comment. We took notice of him some time back as he was normally on the course about the same time we played. He has the most quirky swing I have ever seen. So quirky that our group would often make humorous comments about it.

This fellow would take the club back to waist high, then pause, turn back, then pause again, then up to the top and another even longer pause and finally he would swing down and thru where he would hold the finish position for the longest time. He did all of this while appearing as stiff and mechanical as is possible for a human being. He reminds me of a human version of “Iron Byron”, the robot used by the USGA & manufacturers to testgolf equipment.

As luck would have it, this one Saturday, Dooley Duffer and I were paired with him and his friend. We didn’t realize it was the guy with the quirky swing until the first tee. As he began to take some practice swings to warm up there it was that herky jerky, stiff as a board, mechanical looking, robotic “Iron Byron” swing.

Dooley and I did all we could to hold back the chuckles. Mumbling to each other about how we were expecting a long round with this guy chasing his errant shots all over the place. We couldnt have been more wrong!

This guy kept the ball in the fairway and hit most of the greens. He scored well on nearly every hole. Even shooting 2 under par on the back side! All with that quirky “Iron Byron” swing. He really shut us up.

How? He was able to repeat the swing over and over. As Dooley said later, “The ball did not care about all of that herky jerky stuff in his backswing, just the angle of the clubface at impact.” And that guy certainly had a repeating golf swing in spite of or maybe because of all that herky jerky motion.

Here is what Jack Moorehouse, author of “How to Break 80…”, has to say on the subject of repeating golf swings.

The more we can repeat the same swing, the more often we will achieve a predictable result -the secret to lower golf handicaps. To build a repeatable swing, we must:

Stay connected Set the club on the correct plane.

Staying connected is a common factor found among all good repeating golf swings. The shoulders, arms, hands, and club should all move away from the ball in unison. Hinging or cocking the wrists sets the club on the correct plane, which keeps the clubface square to the path of the golf swing.

Two other important essentials in building a repeatable swing are:

Swinging to the top of the slot and Retaining power in the swing.

If the club’s shaft is horizontal to the ground, it should be parallel to the target line. The angle of the club should match the angle of the forearm while maintaining the original spine angle and head position. Settle the weight smoothly on the front side and start unwinding the upper body. The right elbow should be dropped down to the side.

Now I am not suggesting here that you work on developing a swing like “Iron Byron’s”. I think most of us would find it even more difficult to repeat his swing than a more conventional swing. That is because for most of us the conventional swing is the more repeatable golf swing.

Dooley went to the range one day and tried the “Iron Byron” swing just for kicks so to speak. He kept hitting the ball with a high fade/slice. All the more admiration for the guy who made it work so well. At least for that round that very unconventional swing was a repeatable swing. And that repeating swing made all the difference between his scorecard and ours.

If you need sound golf swing instruction to help you develop a repeating golf swing and lower your handicap then I would like to point you in the direction of How to Break 80. It is far better than struggling on your own or trying to groove an unconventional repeatable swing like “Iron Byron’s”!

The best thing is that all of this help is less than most lessons with a pro, a single training aide or instructional DVD. He is offering a 90-day money back guarantee, so if you don’t like the book simply return it. But, once you get into his drills, I highly doubt that you’ll need that guarantee.

A repeatable golf swing found here How to Break 80.



By: Wayne Hudler

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