You’ll Like It

You'll Like It

Greetings Golfers,

Let’s talk golf swing.

The point of the swing is to control the ball. Sounds obvious … but too many people believe that making a good swing automatically hits the ball to your target.

That’d be like thinking if you make a good throwing motion that the ball would automatically go to your target. No. You can throw overhand, underhand, side-arm, softly, hard, standing on one foot, not facing your target, etc … and still hit your target if you’re in control of throwing a ball with your hand.

Same with the golf swing. You can swing flat, upright, long, short, fast, slow, off your knees, etc … if you can control the golf club with your hands.

And the most important part of controlling the golf club is making contact. You can make a beautiful swing and whiff. Contact is the game.

We all know people with ugly swings who can play pretty well. They are good at making contact.

I think the secret to making good contact is to have your hands in front of the ball at contact. Too many people try to flip the club at the ball to get it airborne. The loft on the club takes care of that. Flipping the club at the ball results in bad contact.

You can have a great set-up and make a good swing, but if you flip your hands, you won’t be a good player. You won’t be in control of the ball.

So … if good contact is having your hands in front of the ball … you should learn this skill with chipping. Hit millions of chip shots with your hands in front at impact.

Here’s another secret. When you set up for the chip shot … close the club-face. Why, you ask? Because when you hit the ball with your hands in front of the ball … the club-face will be open. Just try it, and you’ll see.

Obviously, you have to play around with this to get the right amount. This is called "trapping." I’m a big believer in trapping the golf ball. You’ll get much more solid contact … and you won’t lose it left or right … it keeps your shorts really straight.

I trapped the ball most of my life. But when I got old and lost a lot of distance … I stopped trapping and tried to have a big release to get more distance. So I would open my club-face at setup and open it even more on the backswing … and then try to whip-it shut on the downswing.

It’s a fun to try … but I don’t recommend it as your normal golf swing. The timing of it is not easy … and it screws-up contact. If you like hitting wild shots … with poor contact … it might be for you.

When I got smart and moved-up to the senior tees … I went back to trapping and can play golf again.

Remember that Alka-Seltzer ad “Try it - you’ll like it”? Or the Men’s Warehouse ad “I guarantee it”? Or the Life cereal ad with Mikey “He likes it, he likes it”?

Well, you will too.

Cheers!

Tom Abts

GM/Head PGA Professional

tabts@deerrungolf.com