Miss Hits

Hello everyone, it’s nice to see our Facebook Page growing and I hope you are getting some benefit from the golf tips. This week we will talk about MISS HITS.

Weight Distribution: If you are hitting a lot of wood shots on the heel or have the dreaded shanks with your irons, check your weight distribution both at address, and during the swing.

At Address: You will get some conflicting advice from different teaching pros. Some will tell you to put your weight back on your heels and keep it there, others will tell you on the balls of your feet. I am in the middle of these two ideas. When you are at address your weight should be back just enough so you can RAISE YOUR TOES INSIDE YOUR SHOES. If you are too far forward (can’t raise your toes) it can cause you to fall forward through impact, which can cause the shanks. If your weight is to far back at address it can cause you to come “over-the-top”, (an outside-to-in swing plane).

In Swing: Now that you have your weight set its important that your weight never comes any further forward, it can come back a little more in the forward swing but never any further forward. At the finish of the swing all your weight should be on the outside and towards the heel of your left foot (right handed player), your belt buckle is pointing at your target, and if I were standing behind you I could count how many spikes you have on your right shoe.

Coming off the Ball: Or I also call this “coming out of your posture”.  About 95% of the armatures I see suffer from this. The symptoms are usually hitting FAT or THIN shots but any miss hit can come from this. The cause is an early release of the club in the downswing (the club head gets ahead of the hands). To successfully strike the golf ball you rise up out of your posture as you are approaching impact. In order to consistently strike the ball well it requires excellent hand-eye coordination. This is why you may hit a lot of fat or thin shots and only sometimes good shots. To fix this swing fault takes a lot of work and I recommended you see your teaching professional (me) for specific instruction and drills. If you want to try something on your own; practice with your head “fixed” into position and your eyes glued to the original ball position for as long as possible (do not look up to see where the ball went). Use ¼ to ½ swing when practicing this.

Skying: Skied or also known as ballooned shots are the result of hitting down into the ball too steeply. There are a few swing faults that can cause this, the most common being a too early wrist cock in the back swing. The cure to this swing fault is to start the backswing with the SHOULDERS and not with the arms and hands. As you start the backswing with the shoulders keep the club head low to the ground then start cocking the wrist, also known as “a one-piece take away”.

Topped Shots and a lot of other faults are often caused by the “reverse weight shift”, also called the “reverse pivot”, or “hanging back on your right side”.  Work on getting your weight almost entirely over to your left side before the club meets the ball at impact. A swing thought that seems to help a lot of my students is “club back, weight back, club forward, weight forward”. One more thing you could try; as the club is coming down into impact the weight is moving to the left side, take a step with the right foot towards your target, this drill moves the weight fully to the left side. This is a tough swing fault to eliminate and a lesson from a professional is generally the best solution.

We covered some of the most common swing faults and there causes and some possible solutions. If you’re having difficulties with your game or swing call and schedule a lesson; I or any of the teaching professionals at the Meadows are here to help in any way we can.

Later,

Al Pehrson, PGA Professional