Laura Davies on Long Drives (Video)

Since Laura Davies is leading the US Senior Women's Open by five shots going into the final round, this video seemed appropriate. It's from the GCA show featuring Laura with Martin Hall.



Now, you can get all the details of how Laura hits the long ball off the tee just by watching the video -- and I'll be honest, Laura uses some keys that I wouldn't teach because I think they lead to inconsistency -- but they work for her, so you can certainly learn from them. They aren't what I want to focus on in this post.

Instead, I'm calling your attention to how Laura isn't sure about calling her grip a 'strong' grip. She says she thinks that's what it's called, but that "she doesn't follow all that sort of thing." However, that doesn't mean she doesn't know what she's doing. She knows exactly how to set her hands on the club -- that IS the entire point of what she's saying.

Bubba is the same way. He says he doesn't know what he's doing, but he means he doesn't know the terminology to explain what he's doing. If he really didn't know what he was doing, he wouldn't be able to maintain his swing at the level he does, for as long as he has, without a teacher.

What is important for a player to know? It isn't terminology, and it isn't being able to teach others. What matters is that you know what YOU need to do in order to get the results you want. It doesn't matter if other people agree with you or not, as long as you know that it works for you.

That's the biggest thing I believe you can learn from Laura: Do what works for you. And if that puts you in position to win big -- like Laura might do today at the inaugural US Senior Women's Open -- then you get the last laugh. And I'm all for that!

Jeff Flagg on Launching One 400 Yards (Video)

Almost three years ago I did a post about how 2014 long driving champ Jeff Flagg hits the long ball. Check that post out, by all means, but here's a video where Jeff demonstrates how to do it.



Jeff's three keys are:

1. Let your arms dictate club speed. He demonstrates this by throwing a rock sidearm.
2. Open up your trail shoulder and remove all tension from your lead arm. You do this by letting your trailing elbow 'fly' -- that is, move away from your side during your backswing. This increases your swing arc, btw.
3. Use the Flamingo Drill. Put all your weight on your lead foot, stand on the toe of your trail foot, and use your upper body to do most of the swing work -- just like throwing a rock sidearm. Please note that, although he's not trying to, he can't help but straighten his lead knee to "use the ground." This happens without conscious effort -- that's what Jeff wants you to understand.

I know this advice -- to focus on using your arms, not your legs -- goes against what you have heard. But Jeff's point here -- and yes, I know I keep repeating it but it's soooo important -- is that under any other normal throwing motion you focus on using your arms, and that causes you to use your legs automatically. If you TRY to use your legs, you'll exaggerate your lower body movement and actually INTERFERE with the proper motion!

Come on, give Jeff's advice a try. What have you got to lose... besides that short little dinky drive you hate?

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!

Joe Miller on Range of Motion (video)

Golfing World did a few videos with long drive champ Joe Miller. This one focuses on range of motion -- yes, that insanely long swing Joe uses -- and he demonstrates the basic principles by helping host Anna Whitely pick up some distance.



Here is what I want you to get from this video. These couple of points are dirt simple but so easy to misunderstand.

First, Joe says there are two main ways to create swing speed:

• One is force. You try to swing the club down as fast as you can. Joe says most people think this is the most obvious way.
• Two is length of swing. If your hands -- yes, Joe focuses on hands rather than clubhead -- travel a longer distance, the club has more time to pick up speed. This is the one Joe says he uses.

This is basically the difference between the modern and classic swings.

• Modern swings try to swing as fast as possible. Many people tense up their back muscles and jerk the club from the top when they try. And then they wonder why they have back problems!
• Classic swings don't necessarily try to swing harder, but by swinging longer the club picks up speed more smoothly.

And second, swinging longer automatically makes you swing faster. You don't have to try any harder than normal to pick up speed if you just swing longer.

Joe and Anna are using a device that measures speed. And simply by swinging longer -- watch the video and see, Anna isn't trying to swing out of her shoes -- she picked up 6mph. That's 15-20 extra yards.

I'm not saying you have to twist yourself into a pretzel and swing like Joe Miller. But I keep telling you that swinging relaxed will increase your swing speed... and trust me, you can't swing like anything like Joe Miller if you tense up and try to swing hard. Let gravity do most of the work. The key is to stay as relaxed as possible until your arms are near parallel to the ground in your downswing. (I'm giving you a safety measurement here. At this point, your body will be less likely to pull any muscles. Always better to be safe than sorry. Trust me on this.)

Watch this video a few times then try to practice making a longer, more relaxed swing. I'm thinking you just might pick up some yardage without lifting cars in the gym everyday... and with fewer back problems as well. REMEMBER: Always err on the side of safety!

Belen Mozo on Hitting Longer Drives

Golf Digest's article on how Belen Mozo carries the ball so far is very interesting. I just want to mention a few points from the article that I think many players will miss, simply because they're looking for something "new" instead of just something that works.



Belen talks about using a wide stance at address, but if you look at the photo in that section of the article (or even the photo above) you'll see that her "wider than shoulder width" stance isn't as wide as many of you might assume. As she says, if you get too tense, you'll cut down on your ability to turn.

When she talks about making a big arc on her backswing, she's talking about keeping "her hands in front of her." If you pay attention to what you read, you'll see that she's simply keeping her upper arms lightly against the sides of her chest on the way back and as she swings down. That's basic Hogan technique and, while I think some players overdo it and get too tense, that's what most good players do on the backswing until their hands are just below their shoulders. That's how you get a big shoulder coil, and that's what she wants you to do here.

Finally, this is the most unusual thing she says:

When I swing down, my left leg is locked and pushing hard into the ground for leverage to create more power. Also, my upper body is almost completely behind the ball's position through impact. I've shifted my weight into the left leg (that's why it's straight), but I'm putting as much body weight into the hit as I can. I'm not really swinging my fastest until the ball is struck. My swing speed is building until then.

Her left (lead) leg is locked during her downswing. Do you understand that? Essentially, as soon as her lead heel is planted flat on the ground when she starts her downswing, she straightens her lead knee so she's pushing down with that foot.  If you do that, you CAN'T slide your hips very far forward on the downswing! The fact that she says her upper body is still behind the ball at impact emphasizes this fact. This keeps you steady over the ball and should help your accuracy as well as your distance.

Belen carries the ball 240 yards off the tee vs 219 for the average guy on the weekend. If you're looking for some extra distance, this might be worth a try. It's definitely not a difficult technique to learn.

Jason Sedan on Blasting It Like Sadlowski (Video)

I saw this on Morning Drive yesterday and knew right then that I wanted to post this today. Their Coach of the Week, Jason Sedan, has the computer motion studies of Jamie Sadlowski's swing and it shows that restricting your lower body is NOT the way to create clubhead speed. Instead, you have to let your hips turn freely.


Look, I'm not even going to try and explain what he's talking about here. But I do want you to go back to this video I posted of Arnold Palmer's swing during his heyday. Pay particular attention to his hip turn. Look familiar?

What Is the Correct Height to Tee Your Ball?

I think this is incredibly helpful. It's a Golf Digest article from Sean Foley on how high you should tee your ball. It's called Do You Know How High to Tee Your Driver?

This photo shows how the effective loft changes on a 10° driver when you tee the ball higher or lower than the sweet spot.



That's a pretty dramatic change. The 10° figure is when you hit your 10° driver right in the sweet spot. The other two numbers show the loft when you hit the ball only a 1/2 inch higher or lower than the sweet spot! Isn't that amazing?

Foley goes into considerable detail about deciding how high or low you want to tee the ball. But what I found so helpful is this little statement from the end of the article:

“The highest it [the ball] should ever be is with half of the ball above the top of the driver. The lowest is with the top of the ball slightly higher than the top of the club.”

That is perhaps the simplest explanation of how to tee your ball that I've ever seen. And it's a great visual to use when teeing it up: Never tee the ball so the top of it is lower than the top of the driver, and never tee it higher than half a ball above the top of the driver.

That should eliminate a lot of those mis-hits!

Jeremy Easterly on Hitting It LONG (Video)

Jeremy Easterly, the runner-up at last year's Long Drive Championship, was on Morning Drive Friday morning to talk about how he drives the ball so far. This is the video (with Charlie Rymer) from the show, and he talks about a number of things that can affect your driving... but I'm going to focus on one thing in particular.



Please, PLEASE note that Jeremy draws a distinction between swinging hard and swinging fast. When Charlie asks him about the difference, Jeremy says "That's the million dollar question." Then he talks about controlling emotions because when your emotions get too high, you'll tend to tighten up.

This isn't rocket science, folks. It really is about avoiding tight muscles. Ask any martial artist or any track and field star, they'll tell you that tense muscles move much more slowly than relaxed muscles.

Now, I'm not talking about being some kind of limp noodle when you swing. It's just that you want to stay as relaxed as possible while making your swing. You want to avoid clamping your jaw tightly; you want to keep your back muscles as relaxed as you can; and if your forearms feel like you're locking your wrists, you're just losing clubhead speed.

Many players don't believe how far some of the old hickory players hit the ball, but it's not too hard to understand. My studies of the classic swing show that, because hickory shafts were so soft, those players didn't have to use strength to load the shaft; their focus was on how to keep those soft shafts from loading too much. Because of that, they could stay relaxed and were able to focus on simply swinging their clubs FAST. (Yes, they used slight technique differences to make that easier to do, but those differences weren't as dramatic as you might think.)

If you avoid tensing your muscles any more than you have to during your swing, you'll find that your tempo and sequencing are much better as well. Tensing your muscles more than you have to simply interferes with all the good things you want to do when you hit the ball.

Here's how you can start practicing it: Simply go out in your backyard and begin making those slower, relaxed "practice swings" you usually make before you hit a shot. Gradually try to speed up them up without letting your jaw, back and forearms get tight. While there are other drills you can try, this is something everybody can do and it's just as effective.

Learning to swing fast without getting overly tense, like any other skill, is just a matter of practice. Try the practice swing routine for a few minutes each day, and I can almost guarantee you'll be able to tell the difference within a month. Because moving around without being overly tight is something we humans do all the time. You'll be surprised how fast you'll be able to swing if you just practice a little.

It's simply a matter of learning that a golf swing is just like any other movement. All you have to do is get used to thinking of it that way.

Brooke's Ultra-Flat Driver Swing

Since Brooke Henderson got her first major this past weekend, I thought it might be interesting to take a quick look at that unusual driver swing of hers. This isn't something everybody should try, but understanding why it works might help you improve your own drives.

This video shows her at normal speed, then slowed down. It's less than two minutes long, so you can watch it several times if you need to.



First off, they said Brooke's driver is 47 inches long in this broadcast, 48 inches long this past weekend. It doesn't matter that much; what does matter is WHY Brooke uses a long shaft. She grips down on the shaft two or three inches (she does that with all her clubs) but this allows her to still get the kind of distance off the tee that she would if she held a normal driver at full length while also getting a bit more control.

I'll add an extra thought: The extra shaft at the butt end of the club can help counterweight the club at bit. That would make the clubhead feel a bit lighter, and might help her get a little more clubhead speed.

Kay Cockerill notes that she has a one-piece takeaway. I know I talk this into the ground, but a one-piece takeaway can do more than almost anything else to give you a good swing. If you start your swing well, it's much easier to finish it well. My primary post on how to make a one-piece takeaway is right here, if you need it.

Brooke overswings. So does John Daly. So do a number of good players. Overswinging isn't a problem as long as you can control the club at the top of your backswing. That means you need a stable body position throughout your swing. That's important.

On the way down, Brooke seriously re-routes the club. She really flattens her swing plane on her way down. Kay talks about this in the video. Stop it at the 1:20 mark and you'll see just how much her hands have dropped, way below her trailing shoulder.

Look at how close her trailing elbow is to her side! That's how she manages to pull this off. Brooke is almost making a baseball bat swing, and she's letting her trailing side brace her arm so she can keep the club in position as she turns through the ball. This is mostly a body swing, and her arms don't really swing away from her body much until the ball is long gone.

This swing is so flat that it can be troublesome unless you're hitting the ball off a tee. For comparison, here's a wedge swing from the same tournament. Notice that this swing is more arm-oriented and much more upright. Otherwise she'd hit a lot of fat shots.



Brooke's driver swing is really unique. However, gripping down a bit on the shaft (for better control) and making a one-piece takeaway (to get the club started back on plane) are two things you can definitely copy from the newest Women's PGA champion.

Patrick Reed on Bombing It

Golf Digest did a short post about how Patrick Reed hits it so long. The post simply tells you to tee the ball higher -- but not too high, so you don't change how your swing bottoms out -- and aim a bit right (for a right-hander). Doesn't sound particularly impressive, does it?



But the really cool thing is the 16+ minute video interview with Patrick they posted on their Facebook page. (There are a lot of comments on it as well.)

Here's the video. Enjoy.

Jessica Korda on Hitting It Long

Here's a link to a Golf Digest article by Jessica Korda on how to get more distance by using your flexibility and rhythm. She has a number of thoughts and drills on how to do it, but I'm focusing on one in particular. Check out the photo:



What is Jessica doing? She's finding the balance point for her driver at the top of her backswing. She wants the club to feel very light so she can stay relaxed, so she swings the club up to the top with only three fingers.

This is clearly a relative thing. The club is going to feel heavier when you hold it with only three fingers than when you hold it with both hands. But what you're looking for is where the club is easiest to control.

Take note of Jessica's club position in the photo -- although you've been told to get the shaft to parallel, it isn't parallel in this photo. And the article also has a photo of Jess at the top of her backswing. While the shaft is lower than in the above picture, it still isn't quite parallel. You want to find a position where you can control the club with the least tension.

As I've said repeatedly on this blog, relaxed muscles move faster. That's what you're after with this drill -- the most relaxed position at the top that you can find.

She has other tips in the article as well, but this drill really caught my eye. It will help you become more aware of the feel of the clubhead at the top, and that's always a good thing!

Finding Your Fastest Swing Speed

Here's an interesting tip I found in a Golf Digest slideshow. Jeff Flagg, the 2014 Long Drive champ, did this set of tips on how to hit the ball farther. Here's his unusual tip on how to find the fastest speed you can swing at and still hit the ball solidly.



Here's what he says:

Don't kid yourself by thinking you're going to pick up a lot of yards swinging at the same speed you do now. You need to swing your arms as fast as you can, but with one caveat: If you lose your balance or control, back it down a notch.

A great way to test your maximum arm speed is to make swings with your back foot up on its toes. Drop that foot about six inches farther away from the ball than normal, and stand it up. Now swing as fast as you can without sacrificing your balance. If you sway or stumble, you're going too hard. Speed is king in the long-drive world, but if you can't hit it in the center of the clubface, it's meaningless.

I like this because it's also an easy quick check any time you're on the golf course as well. If your timing gets off, you can make a practice swing and adjust your speed until you can keep your balance.

Might be an easy way to pick up a few yards and still put the ball in the fairway.

Jeff Flagg on Hitting It Long

Since I've spent considerable time this week focusing on the World Long Drive Championship and how to hit the ball farther, I thought I'd add one more post on the subject. This time, I'm linking you to an article at Golf Digest by 2014 Long Drive Champion Jeff Flagg and I'm focusing on a few thoughts in the article that may go against things you've been told.



Here are five quotes from the article that may surprise you.

• THE LENGTH OF YOUR BACKSWING DOESN'T MATTER. What matters is that it ends when you feel coiled but not stressed. At the top of my swing, I can have a normal conversation with you. I'm not straining. If you start straining, you'll lose the energy you were trying to store for the hit.

So Long Drive Tip #1 -- Stay relaxed, even if you don't get a 90° shoulder turn and your hands aren't way up over your head.

• WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT WHEN I SWING? My only real thought is, Right hand and arm drive the swing. That's it. I'm literally trying to make a sidearm throwing motion—like a 3-6-3 double play in baseball. If more golfers swung with the same motion, as if they were skipping stones, they'd pound the ball.

Long Drive Tip #2 -- Think more about swinging your arms faster, and particularly your trailing arm, than about driving your lower body.

• I RELATE THE GOLF SWING TO SPRINTING. For me, the feel is that my arms are out-racing my body. You know what track coaches say: "Fast arms equal fast feet." It's similar in golf. The faster my arms can go, the faster the club is moving.

Long Drive Tip #3 -- Think more about swinging your arms faster than about driving your lower body.

• IN TRUTH, MY HIPS LEAD THE DOWNSWING. But I don't think about that. They just do. Do you think pitchers, quarterbacks or javelin throwers think about clearing their hips before they throw? Their arms dictate all of that motion subconsciously.

Long Drive Tip #4 -- THINK MORE ABOUT SWINGING YOUR ARMS FASTER THAN ABOUT DRIVING YOUR LOWER BODY.

• IF YOU NEED ONE THING TO FOCUS ON, make it swinging your arms as fast as you can.

Long Drive Tip #5 -- THINK MORE ABOUT SWINGING YOUR ARMS FASTER THAN... Hey, are you seeing a pattern here yet???

These are just a few quotes from the article that I think are seriously overlooked in modern teaching. There's a lot more good stuff there, though, so be sure to stop by the Golf Digest site and read the whole thing.

Stepping into a Longer Drive

This is the week of the World Long Drive Championship -- they start tonight -- and GC had long drive champs Joe Miller and Jaime Sadlowski on Morning Drive, The Golf Fix and Playing Lessons Monday. Obviously, they were there to talk about how you hit longer drives.

Charlie Rymer hosted Playing Lessons and he asked the two for a simple tip that weekend players could put into practice without a lot of difficulty, and their answers were the same. First of all, you want to hit the ball in the middle of the club face. And second, you don't want to swing harder, which also makes it harder to hit the ball solid..

If you want to hit the ball farther, they said, you want to swing LONGER. And they likened it to how Jack Nicklaus became one of the longest hitters of his day. Here's a video of Jack's swing, from various angles, at various speeds. Watch it, then I'll explain what Joe and Jamie said you can learn from Jack's swing.



Both long drivers pointed to how Jack let his lead heel come off the ground during his backswing. Here's how the sequence works:

• You want the swing to be longer, so your shoulders have to turn more on the backswing.
• For your shoulders to turn more, your hips have to turn more.
• For your hips to turn more, your lead heel needs to come off the ground.

Note that Jack's lead knee moves back behind the ball. You may not need to lift your heel that much -- that might make it hard for you to come back down accurately -- but your lead knee should bend some when your heel comes up. This isn't a stiff movement; just relax.

Now, to start your downswing, all you have to do is place your heel back down on the ground. Please, please, PLEASE understand that you don't have to STOMP the ground with your heel! You don't want to jerk the club down from the top; that will throw you off-plane. If you just "step" back into your address position, you'll automatically shift your weight forward and start that club moving smoothly down from the top. And you'll have plenty of time to build up speed before you hit the ball.

That's the tip that two long drive champs gave. It's probably a pretty good one.

And don't forget that you can watch the semifinals of the World Long Drive Championship tonight at 8pm ET.

ATTENTION: Freebie Lessons Alert!

Okay, this is one of the more unusual freebie lesson plans I've seen done by any magazine, so I HAVE to share it with you.

Golf Magazine has put up a 30-day, 50-lesson plan they say can help you improve all areas of your game. They brought together 5 of their Top100 teachers -- Scott Munroe, Mike Adams, Kellie Stenzel, Mark Hackett and Jon Tattersall -- and they have put together this huge guide that covers everything from driving to iron play to putting to flexibility.

And they've made it available online FOR FREE. This link will put you on the first page of the lesson guide.



Part of what I try to do on this blog is help you understand enough of the mechanics of various golf swings that you can recognize the difference between what will and what won't help you. It's why I always recommend that you have a filter, a single teacher or player whose techniques work for you -- and you KNOW they work for you -- so you have a framework to help sort things out.

Here is a sterling opportunity for you to put that information to work.

Sure, you may not need all of these drills. And many of them may not work for you. But this is an excellent chance for you to check out some other teachers' ideas and drills, all without spending a penny.

As Bubba would say, you're welcome. ;-)

The Quick Fix for 23 More Yards

Golf Digest has a new article on how most players can pick up, on average, 23 yards off the tee. That's worth a look, don't you think?



Basically the article is recommending a driver fitting, much the same way you get fit for your irons. The best thing to do is simply read the article -- it's not overly complicated -- and follow the instructions. However, I want to pick out a couple of practical suggestions.

After testing about 150 players with a variety of swing speeds (from 60mph to 130mph) and handicaps, they said:

What we found is that the average golfer launches the ball too low, generates too much backspin and doesn't make solid contact with the center of the face. Specifically, we're not hitting it as far as we should given our respective swing speeds.

They suggest using your average driving distance to help determine if you have a problem:

What's a good estimate for your driving-distance potential? If you're not hitting it 2.5 to 2.7 times your clubhead speed, you need a better-fitting driver, a lesson, or both. This means if your swing speed is 75 miles per hour, you have the potential to hit your drive at least 185 yards. If your swing speed is 100 mph, your distance potential could be as high as 270 yards.

I'm sure you've heard instructors like Michael Breed and Martin Hall say you should make some changes that let you "swing up" with your driver swing. Without going into all the info in the article (read it!) Golf Digest says:

Simple things like shifting the ball forward in your stance, teeing it higher and swinging slightly up on the ball can dramatically change distance. A recent test by TrackMan, whose launch monitor is used on the PGA Tour, found that a swing speed of 90 miles per hour can gain about 30 yards by just swinging up on the ball.

Like I said, take a few minutes to read the article. It's well worth your time if you want to pick up some easy yardage without driving yourself nuts.

Where to Tee It for Different Shot Shapes

I found an article at golftipsmag.com about hitting longer and straighter drives by PGA instructor Mark Greenslit that advises teeing the ball a slight distance ahead of the club face. The idea is that it ensures you're swinging up on the ball when you hit it. You can read the article for a clearer understanding, but here's the photo from the article.

However, what I found most interesting -- and potentially more helpful to many of you -- was farther down in the article in the section called Great Heights.



Essentially, this is a three-step plan for teeing the ball properly to hit the shot shape you want:

• For a draw, tee the ball higher, move it away from you, and play it farther forward in your stance.
• For a fade, tee it lower, move it closer to you, and play it farther back in your stance.
• For a straight shot, follow Mark Greenslit's tip in the article and just tee the ball a few inches ahead of your normal setup position.

This is something you can try on the range before your next match. Just hit a few practice shots using the recommended setup for the shape of tee shot you'd like to hit. If nothing else, it should help you straighten out your tee shot enough to hit the fairway more often.

How Bobby Jones Hit Longer Drives

Bobby Jones distinguished himself, not only as perhaps the greatest amateur to ever play the game, but also as one of golf's most famous teachers. Who hasn't seen some of his How I Play Golf or How to Break 90 films, made in the early 1930s by Warner Brothers? (Many of you may not know that Jones gave up his amateur status when making the films. Otherwise he wouldn't have gotten paid!)

Jones wrote a tremendous amount of golf instruction for newspapers as well -- author Charles Price estimated that those articles were equal to five average-length novels -- and many of them have been collected and reprinted in book form.

I found this particular driving tip in a book by noted Jones biographer Sidney L. Matthew simply called Bobby Jones Golf Tips. (My copy includes the subtitle Secrets of the Master and was published by Kensington Books, in case you're interested.) This tip comes from pages 48-49, from an article called An Easy Solution to Extra Yards, and I'll just quote a couple of key paragraphs:

If one will take the trouble to observe, he will notice certain things which are characteristic of all true swingers of a golf club. First, that the posture of the body at address is fairly erect and that the location of the ball is near enough so that there is no need to stretch out for it; second, that the feet are not separated so widely that the movement of the hips is restricted and that they are not rooted into the ground. The whole picture will be one of apparent ease and comfort, entirely free from strain of any kind. And this is the beginning of a swing which will get distance and control.

… It is not a good idea to strive for the ultimate length off every tee, but it is a fine thing to be able to produce a few extra yards when they are needed. But this additional can never be had by stretching and slugging. On the contrary, it is obtained more easily by increasing the turn and use of the hips and shoulders.

When Jones wanted a little more distance off the tee -- and he was considered a fairly long driver in his time -- he focused on addressing the ball in a way that let him stay relaxed and flexible. He stood fairly tall with his feet a comfortable distance apart and the ball close enough that he didn't have to reach for it.

The idea was to make it as easy to turn back and through as possible. This allowed him to turn his hips and shoulders freely, thus making it easy to swing the club quickly without trying to "slug" the ball.

That's pretty clear, don't you think? It's a technique that's available to any golfer at any skill level, and you can practice it for free in your backyard (just stick a tee in the ground in place of a ball). I like that kind of tip!

The photo came from the Atlanta History Center website.

The Good and Bad of Phil's Driver Swing

This is interesting... both Golf Magazine and Golf Digest chose to do articles about Phil Mickelson's swing, focusing on his driver. What makes it really interesting is that each magazine focused on a different section of Phil's swing!

For example, golfdigest.com did a swing sequence slide show but the top part of Phil's swing -- the change of direction and beginning of the downswing -- is conspicuously missing.


They talk about his relaxed setup, wide takeaway, and extension through the ball at impact -- all aspects commonly associated with a classic swing. Phil creates his club head speed with the length of his swing and his relaxed, balanced action.

But over at golf.com Johnny Miller focuses on the problems Phil often faces at the top of his swing. Johnny speaks about two different problems:

1. His swing sometimes gets too long, with the club shaft pointed down toward the ground.
2. His hands and the shaft get too close to his shoulder as he changes directions, which creates a lot of wrist cock but makes it harder to square the club face.

Johnny also has a video in the post that talks about Phil's game, as well as how he would fix these problems.

Putting the two together, you end up with a long relaxed driver swing that stops a bit short of parallel at the top and keeps the hands away from the trailing shoulder during the change of direction and start of the downswing. And yes, it's much easier to keep your hands "as far away from your shoulders at the top as practical" if you make a long relaxed swing. It seems that Butch is always trying to get Phil to shorten his swing just a bit... and when he does, he always drives it much better.

These two articles give you a pretty thorough look at both the good and the bad of Phil's driving. If you take a little time to read them and study the photos (and in Johnny's case, watch the video), you just might find something you can use to help improve your own driving.

Chew on This Swing Thought from Keegan Bradley

This post focuses on one of the tips from a golfdigest.com article called 6 PGA Tour Swing Thoughts. It is, as you may have guessed, about the swing thoughts commonly used by 6 of the more successful pros on the LPGA and PGA Tours.

The thought I grabbed on to was from Keegan Bradley. It's an incredibly simple swing thought but it can help almost anybody. And what is that swing thought?



"I focus on my facial muscles. When you can get your mouth to relax, your whole body relaxes."

Sounds overly simple, I know. And if you look at the tags I put on this post, you may be a bit confused -- why are there so many? But I'm going to give you a quick explanation of why this tip is so useful.

When people tense up, they automatically grit their teeth. Whether they're trying to lift a heavy weight in the gym or some cowboy is digging a bullet out of them in a western movie, people tend to bite down hard when they tighten their muscles. And for some reason that I don't claim to understand, you can help your body relax if you consciously try to relax your jaw.

Why would you want to relax your muscles during your golf swing? If you tighten your muscles when you swing your club, you reduce your range of motion. That hurts your flexibility, which reduces your body turn, which makes it harder to get a good shoulder coil and makes your change of direction jerky, which reduces your swing speed. All of that causes you to lose distance and accuracy.

If you practice swinging without clenching your jaw -- and you all know how fast Keegan swings -- you can end up with a smoother, more powerful swing. This is also a good excuse to use a cookie as a swing aid; if you crunch the cookie, you clenched your jaw. (And of course, if you successfully swing without crunching the cookie you can eat it anyway -- a win-win situation!) I think that in itself makes this a great swing thought!