The Silver Scot on Using Your Hands

Tommy Armour is a legend of the game and a great teacher, one whom the great teacher Harvey Penick named as an influence on his own teaching. Armour's book How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time was THE golf manual before Hogan's Five Lessons became popular.

I've been posting quite a bit about using your hands lately, so I thought I'd add some of Armour's thoughts from his book. These are some various thoughts from his tenth chapter, called (appropriately enough) The Art of Hitting with the Hands. Where Armour mentions the right hand, you lefties can substitute the left hand. He's just talking about using your TRAILING hand.

Whether you or anybody else calls the pay-off a hit or a swing, I don't care. That's only a matter of terminology. The action is that of whipping the clubhead through the ball with the hands. Not slapping it, waving it, flinging it, stiff-arming it, but whipping it with a tigerish lash.

The great hitters in golf are those who move their hands faster than those whose distance and precision are inferior. That also is the case in sports other than golf. A fighter accomplishes knockouts by having his fists move with devastating speed. Ruth's home-run record was set during seasons when the liveliness of the ball varied, but because The Babe's hands moved faster than those of any other batter, he was supreme as a long hitter. When Jimmy Thomson was consistently the longest driver in golf, motion pictures showed his hands moving at amazing speed.

To let you in on one of the great secrets of good golf, which really isn't a secret at all, one golfer gets more distance because he uses his hands for power, while the other fellow is trying to get distance by using his body.

The long hitter gets his body in position so his hands can work most effectively.

What misleads people into thinking that swinging and hitting are different is principally a matter of the player's temperament. Macdonald Smith and Byron Nelson have been generally identified as swingers because of the graceful appearance of their actions. Hagen and Sarazen were labelled hitters because their common characteristic was to wield their clubs with what appeared to be violent and impetuous slashing.

But, all four of them - and every other great player - had the clubhead coming in with all the speed they could command while retaining steady balance of their bodies.

Hitting the ball a long way isn't a matter of size or weight of the player. It depends on effective use of the hands, rather than on trying to throw the weight of the body into the shot or even, within reasonable limits, lengthening the backswing in the belief that a longer backswing will enable one to accelerate clubhead speed more and get the clubhead moving at maximum speed at contact with the ball.

The more you can get your hands ahead of the clubface in the downswing, the more power you can apply with the right hand.

The late uncocking of the wrists, or the delayed hit, as you may hear the effect called, instinctively causes a decided acceleration of right hand action at the most effective period.

If you'll pause to consider, you will realize that if your hands are behind the ball at impact, you can only scoop the ball up. But if your hands are in front, you've got to smash the ball with lightning speed.

That's a cross-section of what he says, but it gets his main points across. Here are two specific things to note:

• Even lengthening your backswing has limited effect if you don't use your hands. That means flexibility isn't as important as you may have been led to believe.
• If you get your hands ahead of the ball at impact but don't use your hands to get the clubhead to hit the ball at the same time, you won't hit the ball very far.

He says more in the chapter, obviously - I can't print the whole chapter for copyright reasons - but this should be enough to let you know how important using your hands is to getting distance.

How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time is an underused instruction book these days. If more people read it and applied it, we'd be a world of better golfers.

Denis Pugh on More Consistent Ballstriking (Video)

Francesco Molinari just won the Open, so of course I have a video from his coach Denis Pugh. In this video Pugh is trying to help a player hit the ball more consistently.



Pugh wants -- as I do -- for you to learn how to turn without sliding. When you slide too much toward the target, you do all kinds of crazy things like change your spine angle, change your body position relative to your ball position, and throw your balance off. If you want more consistency, you need to stop that!

As you can see from the video, what Pugh tries to get this student to do is open his legs as he turns through the ball. (That's why he sticks the club shaft between his legs and holds it against the inside of his trailing thigh.) However, you can't hit balls with someone holding a club between your legs, but you can learn this move by using a drill.

Fortunately I have one for you. It's been on my blog for over seven years, and here's a link to it. It's called the Basketball Drill, and it's very simple. You hold a basketball between your knees, and you try to drop the ball during your downswing by moving your lead knee forward -- that gives you the hip opening move that you try to create when you slide -- while your trailing knee doesn't move so much. It minimizes lateral movement toward the target while still letting you unwind your hips as quickly as you can.

I think you'll find this drill actually lets you create more hip speed than the slide does because you don't waste energy pushing your body forward. But -- and this is important -- it DOES allow you to create a weight shift, which moves you toward the target a little but not enough to change your body's position relative to the ball. As a result, you get more consistent contact.

A simple but very effective drill. It may not turn you into Francesco Molinari (that's a matter of practice) but it will teach you the basics of a solid move into the ball.

Alex Nicolson on Making a Target-Oriented Swing (Video)

While Bryson DeChambeau's shoulder is the big news from Thursday, we don't have any real details on the severity of his injury yet. So I decided to post another teaching video instead. This is an older Golf Monthly video featuring teaching pro Alex Nicolson, who demonstrates a couple of drills to help you smooth out your swing by being more target-oriented.



The second drill is simply a club-throwing drill. I'll leave that one to your imagination, if you need help throwing clubs! Instead, we'll focus on the first drill, which is quite interesting.

In order to make your actual swing more closely match your practice swing, Nicolson recommends hitting shots with your eyes closed!

Yeah, that was my reaction as well. But if you can find a place on the range where you aren't afraid you'll hit someone, there's a lot of value to this suggested drill.

If you focus on a mental picture of your target, you'll be forced to think more about hitting to the target and less about actual ball contact. (Sort of like putting with your eyes closed.) And if you can't see when you're about to strike the ball, you're less likely to tense up and ruin the rhythm and sequence of your swing.

I would advise teeing the ball up so you don't worry about hitting the ground so much, and also starting with a half-swing or even less, to build your confidence that you can actually hit the ball with your eyes closed.

While it is a bit odd-sounding, this drill might actually help smooth out your swing. Anything that helps you gain confidence in your ability to hit the ball solidly should do that, because tension can usually be traced to the fear that you won't. If you struggle with a belief in your swing, it's worth a try.

Andrew Reynolds on How to Stop Topping the Ball (Video)

This is a simple tip to improve the consistency of your impact from coach Andrew Reynolds for Golf Monthly. It's short but important.



I know this tip may sound childish at first, but it's about the logic of your golf swing... and most people never stop to reason out why the ball behaves the way it does. Let's look at it -- from a logical standpoint -- for a moment.

So many golfers believe they can stop topping the ball if they just keep their head down. As a result, they try all sorts of things to keep their heads from moving during the swing, including squatting more at address (which Reynolds mentions here) and ducking their heads on the downswing.

But topping is most often caused by raising not just your head, but your entire upper body. And that happens because you straighten your legs during your downswing. THAT is what most players refer to as "using the ground." But -- and I have written about this before, most recently a week ago -- pushing up with BOTH legs is incorrect technique. Only your lead legs pushes up when you use the ground.

In this video Reynolds offers a simple way to minimize this problem: Just stand taller at address. The logic here is simple -- if your knees are already mostly straight, and if your spine is more erect when you begin your swing, only your lead knee will bend more during your backswing. And on your downswing, straightening your lead knee will cause your body to rotate more freely while your trailing knee will be forced to bend in reaction to that turn.

And that will make the clubhead strike downward as it approaches the ball. No more topping!

Don't be quick to write this short video off as being too simplistic. It's actually a very easy way to use natural body motions to create a more consistent strike. And when you can make the correct motion happen automatically, your game will improve naturally.

Andrew Rice on Clubface Control (Video)

This is one of the short Revolution Golf videos that GC is putting up at their website, and this one was posted Thursday. It focuses on keeping control of your clubface at impact, which can help you if you're working with the swing thoughts from the Bubba post earlier this week.



Rice says that you want to make sure you keep your spine angle at impact. That doesn't mean that you have to "keep your head down"; rather, it means that you don't want to "stand up" when you swing down. How is this different from "using the ground"? When "using the ground" only your lead knee straightens at impact, while when you "stand up" BOTH KNEES straighten at impact. Simple, right?

If you "stay down" as Rice suggests, you'll be forced to turn your shoulders and hips into your followthrough, which will help you square the clubface at impact.

Now, you may not realize it, but what Rice is teaching here isn't something new to you. In fact, if you've been following this blog for a while, you will probably recognize his drill as yet another version of the multipurpose L-to-L drill which I frequently recommend. Here's a link to my most recent post on a specialized version of the L-to-L drill, and that post has a link to another post with more basic versions of the drill.

Rice's version will teach you how to use the L-to-L drill with another swing thought. And the more things you can learn from a single drill, the simpler your practice becomes and the more likely you are to develop a simple, easily repeated swing.

David Leadbetter on Wristless Chipping (Video)

Yesterday I posted Mitchell Spearman's lesson on wristless chipping; today I post David Leadbetter's. Why? Because he has a slightly different take on the method and, with the US Open coming up, you're liable to see plenty of variations on the technique.



Some points to note:

• Leadbetter is using an open stance, while Spearman used a square stance.
• Spearman has the shaft almost vertical; Leadbetter wants a bit of forward lean.
• Most of the rest of the techniques, like focusing on chest turn rather than arm swing, are the same.

One important thing to note in Leadbetter's video -- and it's one of the reasons I decided to post it as well -- is his emphasis on keeping the upper part of your trailing arm against your chest throughout the stroke. This is a good way to build more consistency into the stroke, to insure that you keep the same angle of attack at impact.

Let me repeat this: I think it's useful to know the slight differences taught by different instructors. Sometimes a technique that makes sense to you but feels a bit awkward can be totally transformed by a minor change in stance or weight shift or upper arm position.

And between Leadbetter and Spearman's videos, I think you get a pretty good idea of the adjustments you can try, to give you the best chance to get good results with this technique.

Mitchell Spearman on Jason Day's Chipping Motion (Video)

This coaching clip from GC's Golfing World show is only a couple of months old, so it's up-to-date on how Jason Day's short game works. Here, coach Mitchell Spearman teaches host Anna Whiteley the technique.



Personally, Jason's technique feels a bit stiff to me when I try it. (I'm more comfortable with a little bit of wrist cock.) But it's not that much different from what I teach, and I admit that for some players it's a bit easier to control your distance this way. The trade-off is that you may have a little trouble using the technique on longer shots, because this method limits the wrist cocking that creates easy distance.

Spearman points out three key setup points to remember when using Jason's method:

• Instead of telling you to set up with your weight slightly on your lead foot, he suggests getting the buttons on the placket of your shirt just ahead of the ball. That's because you want the shaft mostly vertical and, if you set your weight noticeably on your lead side, you'll tend to lean the shaft. Your weight is only slightly on your lead foot.
• You don't want your hands ahead of the ball because, again, you don't want the shaft to lean forward. You want the shaft fairly vertical so you can create a more shallow, sweeping motion as you hit the ball. I usually recommend setting up with your hands over the ball and, if you have the ball in the center of your stance, that should still give you a mostly vertical shaft setup.
• The stroke is mostly about using your shoulders, so your lead arm and the shaft stay in a fairly straight line throughout the stroke. Note that I said "fairly straight." Don't get rigid about it; you're just limiting your wrist cock during the stroke.

There are other tips in the video, of course, but these are the primary setup keys for getting good results with the technique. The section of the video where Anna actually tries the technique -- it starts about halfway through -- should really help you get a good visual of how it works.

Jason will certainly be using this technique a lot next week at Shinnecock, so understanding how his short game works will help you learn more from what you see. He has one of the best short games on tour, after all!

Martin Hall on Daniel Berger's Warm-Up Drill (Video)

The School of Golf Extra Credit clip this week is a warm-up drill that Martin says Daniel Berger does before every round... but I'm calling it to your attention for a different reason than Martin does. Here's the drill:



Let's be blunt, folks: This is a difficult drill. You'll have to grip tightly with your lead hand, and swinging with any speed while keeping your trail palm consistently against your lead thumb -- without any of your trailing fingers touching the grip, by the way -- will take some concentration. So why do I want you to try it?

Martin says, almost as an afterthought, that this drill will increase your rotation. That is part of what I want you to get from this drill. But in order to make solid contact with the ball, you'll be almost forced to keep your upper lead arm and elbow against your side as you turn through contact. This move will help you square the clubface more easily.

In addition, the effort of keeping your trailing palm against your lead thumb -- combined with that upper-arm-against-your-side move -- will teach you how it feels when your trailing hand is squaring the clubface.

So this drill is a "two-fer," folks! It will teach you how to use your upper body and both hands to square the clubface. And the effort involved will reinforce your ability to recognize what "square" feels like, so you'll find that it takes less effort to create that feel when you swing normally. That's what I call a useful drill!

Martin Hall Remembers Manuel de la Torre (Video)

One of my favorite golf teachers is the late Manuel de la Torre, who taught many pros like LPGA legend Carol Mann (who died just a week or so ago). However, he devoted most of his life to teaching amateurs and is best known for the simplicity of his teaching methods.

Martin Hall did this short video focusing on just one of de la Torre's many teachings about the golf swing, and this one may help many of you hit better shots with very little practice.



"Leave it alone." It's deceptively simple advice that few players consciously work on these days.

When you tighten your grip on the club during your swing, you change the position of the clubface and sometimes even your swing plane... and you do it without ever consciously trying to. If you don't understand why, just sit down in an armchair, rest your elbow and forearm on the chair's arm and make a loose fist. Then rhythmically tighten and loosen that fist -- your forearm will bounce up and down on the chair arm like you're having convulsions!

While tightening and loosening your grip during your swing won't have quite as dramatic a result, it will cause unintended changes in clubface angles. To battle this, you MUST CONSCIOUSLY try to keep a nice, even grip and forearm tension throughout your swing. I can tell you from personal experience that it helps to try and relax all of your upper body muscles -- shoulders, neck, back and even jaw muscles -- as you swing.

As Martin says, you won't be able to keep that tension perfectly the same all the way through your swing. But your goal is to minimize the changes. It will not only improve your ball contact (and as a result, your distance and accuracy), but it will improve your rhythm, the smoothness of your change of direction at the top of your swing, and even help minimize the stress on your back.

And once you get good at it, you'll find that you can make a faster swing without losing control of the club. Sounds crazy, I know, but it's true. Proper rhythm does that for you.

So give it a try. You might be surprised at the results.

Mike Malaska's Split Grip L-to-L Drill (Video)

With the Stanley Cup playoffs underway here in America, I thought it might be neat to give you a hockey-style drill. And since one of my favorite drills is the L-to-L drill (here's just one of the posts I've done on it, with two versions of the drill from Mike Malaska) and I also found a hockey-style L-to-L drill from Mike Malaska himself...



One thing I want you to note here is that Malaska says you can actually hit balls with this drill! That's unusual for hockey-style drills because of the split grip. While you wouldn't want to do this on the course, it's a great way to really feel how the wrists should work in order to uncock late in the downswing. After all, that's how you create clubhead speed.

Pay close attention to Malaska's hands when using the split grip. You'll note that his hands get very close to his thighs during impact, which will help you create the correct wrist motion with a split grip. Even with a split grip, you want to keep your wrists and forearms as relaxed as practical; that also helps you create clubhead speed.

Also notice that you have to get a good shoulder turn into your finish in order to keep your wrists from rolling over at impact. This is important if you want to create a lot of clubhead speed with a regular grip as well.

I love the fact that Malaska gives you so many views of how this drill looks from the viewpoint of the finish. You can use a mirror to help you get the correct plane -- that is, no forearm roll at the finish -- if you're having trouble.

I realize that, for many of you, this drill will have limited use. But if you're really having trouble getting the correct feel in the L-to-L drill, this may be the ticket for you.

Sean Foley on Changing Your Angle of Attack (Video)

GC is posting some bits of their Revolution Golf teaching for free, probably as samples of what you'll get if you pay for the service. In them I found this short video from Sean Foley that might help improve your driving.



I know Sean sometimes gets very technical in his explanations, but this isn't difficult to understand.

Your angle of attack is simply whether you're hitting down or up on the ball at impact. And what Sean is saying is that you unconsciously change your angle of attack just by teeing the ball higher or lower. Furthermore, you'll do it regardless of whether you change your ball position or not, because your eyes react to the height of the ball.

• If you tee the ball low, you'll automatically try to hit down on the ball, even if you move the ball forward.
• If you tee the ball high, you'll automatically try to hit up on the ball, even if you move the ball backward.

Obviously, you'd like to move the ball a bit forward when you tee it high, and you'd like to move the ball a bit backward when you tee it low. That way, your ball position and angle of attack are working together to get the results you want.

But what you need to take away from this video is that you can change your angle of attack by as much as ten degrees just by changing how high or low you tee the ball -- and that will happen without any effort on your part to change the angle of attack.

This is a case of simple knowledge being more important than technique. Knowing that what you see will change what you do can eliminate a whole lot of frustration caused by working against your natural tendencies.

Keith Lyford's Three Critical Golf Shots

You'll want to take a look at this article by PGA teaching pro Keith Lyford over at golftipsmag.com. It has all kinds of info about the differences between different types of shots -- info that you may not have heard before

I want to focus on some of his new info about pitching.



This is new info that Lyford says wasn't available even a year or so back. First of all, thanks to force plate technology, we know not only that the pros set up with about 60% of their weight on their lead leg, but they keep it there during the backswing.

Now I bet a number of you had guessed that, even if you didn't know the exact percentage. Keeping your weight forward for pretty much the entire pitching motion is something many instructors have taught for a long time, even without high tech confirmation.

But here's something that's really new to most instructors, and it's something rarely even considered until the figures from the new tech came in. Are you ready for this? Here's the quote from the article:

The pitch shot’s kinematic sequence is different from the full swing. On a full swing, the lower body starts the down-swing. But for pitches, the upper body starts the downswing sequence. That’s why you see Tour Pros hitting pitch shots with a more flat-footed swing—without a lot of weight shift, compared to their full swing.

Let that sink in: Full swings are more leg-oriented but pitches are more arm-oriented. If you're having trouble hitting your pitch shots consistently, there's a really good chance you're using your legs too much. According to the new force plate info, during your pitch shots you shouldn't be using your legs much at all! 

Don't misunderstand. You don't want to lock your legs rigidly in place when you pitch. You're going to use your legs a bit; you're standing on them, after all, so that can't be helped. But you want to keep your legs fairly quiet. Don't try to drive your legs when you hit your pitch shots.

That one little bit of new info may save some of you a lot of shots going forward.

David Ogrin's "Chain Club" Drill (Video)

GCA coach David Ogrin gave a tip on Morning Drive Thursday that used an interesting piece of equipment made from a shaft, a golf ball and a length of chain. Here, take a look:



It's an interesting way to teach clubhead speed -- specifically, how to use your hands and arms to create it. It's yet another approach that uses clubs in different ways to teach you when to uncock your wrists. Hear that swish at the end of Ogrin's swing?

Yeah, you've heard that before. You understand how this drill works now, don't you?

Of course you do.

The problem comes when you try to get hold of a club shaft with a golf ball and a chain instead of a club head. Fret not, my friends. There are other ways to get the same benefits.

Let me refer you to two of my past posts with no less than three -- yes, THREE! -- videos featuring Mike Malaska. Ironically, I posted them within a week of each other.

• The first is called Jim Flick on the TWO Pendulums in Your Swing and it has two videos with different versions of the L-to-L drill, which I think is one of the greatest drills for creating swing speed ever created. There's a "standard" version to teach how your hands create clubhead speed, and an "advanced" version that uses the drill to teach shot shaping.
• The other post is Mike Malaska on Controlling the Clubface, and it works well with the L-to-L drill. It teaches you how to use your hands to control the clubface, which is part of what that "advanced" L-to-L drill from the other post teaches you.

Using these three drills together will not only teach you how to create clubhead speed, but they'll teach you skills that "chain club" can't. And they're free, so it's hard to beat the price!

Martin Hall on Getting More Distance (Video)

Hall did this video last week to help older players get more distance, but not understanding how to use your hands and arms keeps a lot of players from hitting it out there. This video is a very simple explanation of how it works.



Okay, there are two parts to this, and if you're too fixated on swinging around your body you'll never get the hang of it.

• First, you cock your trailing elbow up and down.
• Second, you cock your lead wrist up and down.

That's it, folks. It really doesn't get any more complicated than that. It does assume that you will get a decent shoulder turn on your backswing and in your finish, but a "decent" amount of turn doesn't have to be huge. These moves create a more upright swing plane, and that means you can get by with a little less shoulder turn than you can with a flatter swing plane.

And yes, I have more videos to help you. I've posted them in past posts, so here are the links.

The first post teaches you how that upward cocking motion creates your "top of backswing" position. It's called Using Your Hands in the Takeaway and it features K.J. Choi's instructor Steven Bann. As I said, it will help you understand how that upward cocking action creates the so-called "textbook" position at the top.

And the other post is called Jim Flick on the TWO Pendulums in Your Swing, which I also referenced in the Nick Faldo post from yesterday. That "L-to-L" drill is a great way to learn that lead wrist upcock motion that Martin Hall is talking about.

Yes, I know I recommend a lot of drills over and over, but that's because they are proven drills that teach a number of skills and they work for almost everybody. Work with them and you'll find out for yourself.

And in this case, you'll pick up some extra distance, even if you aren't particularly old. Yet.

Martin Hall on Long Drive Setup (Video)

The Masters is on and you don't have time for instructional videos -- or practice. You're in luck! Martin Hall and Blair O'Neal posted this Night School video just yesterday, and you don't need a club or a trip to the range to improve your driving.



The drill is simple. Park your buttt against a wall and, before you start your "backswing," bump your hips a little toward your target. Note that:

• you do this at setup before you make your backswing, not during your downswing, and
• the move is small. Martin says just two inches. You want just enough to get you swinging upward at impact.

If you're observant, you may have noticed Pernilla Lindberg doing something very similar at setup in the video I posted earlier this week.

Why does this work? Because if you set your weight just a bit forward at setup, you'll tend to return to that position at impact. But you don't want to hit down with a driver, and that's why you leave your weight distributed roughly 50-50 between your feet and just bump your hips forward a bit. You'll automatically tilt your spine just slightly away from the target to keep your balance, but it will be enough to create all the good things you want at impact.

So remember: Just a slight hip bump toward the target at setup, which causes a very slight spine tilt away from the target. That will automatically create the weight shift you want on the downswing, along with the upward strike at your teed-up golf ball. Voila! Longer drives.

And you still get to watch the Masters. Just do the drill during commercials!

Xander Schauffele on Hitting It Long

Xander Schauffele did an article for Golf Digest on some of his tips for getting big distance when you're a smaller person. You can follow the link to learn some of his tips and feels, but I want to point out one specific thing he says which is different from what you may have heard most instructors say.



Xander uses a neutral grip, which goes against the advice most instructors give -- that is, that a strong grip makes for a more powerful strike. But Xander's definition of a neutral grip is very interesting. Here's what he says:

One thing that will help you unleash that power at the right moment is your grip. Mine is neutral. For a stock shot, I see only one knuckle on my glove hand when I look down. This grip allows me to hit draws or fades when I want to. It also lets me release the clubhead into the ball like I’m hammering that nail. If your grip is too strong, you can’t fully release the clubhead, typically resulting in a loss of speed. And a grip that’s too weak makes it tough to square the clubface at impact, so you lose control.

You get that? He can only see ONE knuckle, not two or three. Take a good look at that photo above from the article. Xander also notes that he wants to club shaft almost vertical at address for a drive, not leaning forward. That's important because it works with the one-knuckle grip to get the hands in the proper position at impact. Make sure you read what he says about the one-knuckle grip, shaft lean and ball position at address so you don't turn your grip too weak.

He says these things will help you to get better hand action so you hit the ball farther. He certainly ought to know!

There are several interesting ideas in Xander's article, but this one about the grip really stood out to me. It's pretty clear that Xander is trying to move freely, not "hold" anything in an attempt to create some special position. That mindset change in and of itself might help you get more distance than you do now.

Patrick Nuber on How Tiger Putts (Video)

On the outside chance you missed it -- and I know most of you would be curious about it -- Wednesday's Morning Drive aired a short segment with GOLFTEC instructor Patrick Nuber that dissected Tiger's putting stroke. For those of you who have ever wondered how Tiger does it...



You'll want to watch the video to see the details, but in a few words:

• Tiger Woods has a putting stroke that travels back and through on a very slight arc.
• It swings back very close to the ground then moves upward just as it hits the ball.
• The ball impacts the putter face just slightly above center and toward the toe.

And the video has some great animated visuals to show those details. It's nearly six minutes long and well worth the time. Nuber also demonstrates a simple drill that uses poker chips or nickels to teach you that little upward move at the ball, should you want to practice that.

One other thing: Note that Nuber says it doesn't really matter where you hit it on the putter face; the key is that you hit it in the same place each time. That's how you develop feel. Got that? Consistency of strike equals FEEL. Remember that!

Nuber points out that everybody putts a little differently. Still, it's instructive to learn from a great putter, and Tiger has been one for a very long time.

Martin Hall's Sponge Drill (Video)

This is a super-short Home School video from Martin on how to use a sponge -- no club -- to keep your hands, arms and shoulders in sync during your swing.



The drill is self-explanatory, but here's why it works: The flat side of the sponge should stay parallel to your chest throughout the drill. You're using a half-swing, about shoulder height. If the sponge starts to tilt so one edge or the other is angled, then your arms and chest aren't swinging together.

This drill will show you whether you're "getting stuck" (your trailing elbow collapses before you hit the ball) or "scooping" (your lead elbow collapses as you hit the ball). It's a nice visual way to get feedback, even without a club.

Martin Hall's Wrist Cock Drill (Video)

Here's another of Hall's Home School videos that I think is just cool. This short video teaches you how to use a nearly empty soda bottle to improve your release at impact.



Simple enough, right? Just leave a little soda in the bottle, hold it upside down in your golf grip, then make your downswing move and try to keep the soda in the neck of the bottle until you get down near impact. It will help you develop a feel for what a "late release" feels like.

And when you're done, you can reward yourself with a handy drink! How much better does a drill get?

Dustin Johnson on Practicing Wedges (Video)

This video is four years old. That's when DJ went an entire calendar year without a PGA Tour title (2014) and started working on his wedge game in earnest. It's interesting to hear what he was focusing on during his practice sessions.



Incredibly simple, don't you think? Although we know he started working with a Trackman in order to learn how far he hit his wedges, the actual mechanics he worked on were just getting his takeaway on line and making sure he didn't stop his upper body from moving after he hit the ball.

I hope all of you are beginning to notice how many pros are starting to emphasize what we often call the "belly button to target" move. If they do it, they don't flip their wrists at impact. For the pros, that means they don't hit duck hooks or double crosses.

For most of you reading this, it will help you hit the ball more solidly and consistently. That will improve both your distance and your accuracy. That's reason enough to take this tip seriously.