Whatever It Takes

There is no such thing as a perfect swing. There is perfect and imperfect impact, but not swings. The difference explains the fact that there are hundreds of swings in the hall of fame. There are grips galore, fast swings, slow swings, upright swings, flat ones, and on and on. There are those who use a strong grip, those with weaker ones, erect postures, lower postures, open stances, closed stances and so on. You get the point. There is no one way, no ideal way to play golf. The only thing that is required to play good golf is to get the ball to behave by applying the golf club in such a way that will facilitate that behavior. That’s it!

We hear so much about the “fundamentals” of golf. The first thing you need to ask is simply this: What fundamentals? What grip. What posture? What aim? What ball position? These are relevant questions for every single golfer simply because there is no ONE GRIP, POSTURE, BALL POSITION etc. They are all preferences - the many ways great players choose to get to solid impact. Let’s take a closer look.

As an example, let’s take one player who has developed a flat golf swing, and another who has an upright swing. They cannot have the same fundamentals, simple as that. It’s likely their grips, ball position and likely distance from the golf ball would have to be different. An upright swing very often produces an opening club face, a steep attack angle and a narrow arc. Therefore, slices, fat shots and toe hits are often the result of that swing arc. A flat swing arc, on the other hand, very often produces a closing club face, a shallow attack angle and often hits nearer the heel of the club. We get hooks, topped shots and shanks from a flatter arc. So you ask, why not correct the swing plane? Two reasons:  First, it is quite difficult to do so and secondly, we don’t have to. It’s obvious that there are flat swings with great games - in fact on the PGA Tour! And just as obvious with upright swings. One of the greatest players ever, Jack Nicklaus, had a very upright swing. Yet one of his toughest opponents, Lee Trevino, had a very flat motion. The point is this: you may very well not have to change your swing.

This is not to say that some aspects of the swing may need some work - they very well may. But one thing is certain: if you’re squaring the club face at impact, or you’re not reaching the bottom of the arc at the proper place, you WILL need a different address position. The point I’m making is this: very often, this is enough. You may have too weak of a grip for the swing you are currently making! Remember that grip may be perfectly fine for another player! The same goes for a grip that is too strong - fine for some, not all! The following is a classic case study:

A gentleman came to me just this past week; his grip was very weak. This caused him to hit BIG slices, which in turn, created an outside-in swing path and a very steep attack angle. The first thing we did was correct the grip. This immediately stopped the slice, which in turn, slowed the outside-in swing, which in turn, stopped the steep attack angle…etc. This is not an isolated example; I have seen it for almost 40-years of teaching!

So, remember, before you decide to make a full swing change and try to correct years of a poor motion, you may want to take a good look at how you are set up at the golf ball. Your grip, posture, alignment and ball position will need adjustment. That change just might be enough. And it will save you hours of trying to learn a completely new swing! I call this learning to “balance your equation.” Find the setup to match YOUR MOTION. It may be just enough!