Yes, sometimes swearing is encouraged on practice range
Lisa Thomaidis has sharpened up her short game thanks to a better understanding of chipping around the green.
However, Thomaidis has been prone to a little bit of a slice, or fade, if you will, with her longer clubs. There have been shanks, too. “Swearing is encouraged,” Moon Lake Golf and Country Club teaching pro Brad Birnie tells his 2014 Birnie Project pupil. “After shots like that, it’s encouraged.”
Thomaidis, who is head coach for Canada’s national women’s basketball team and University of Saskatchewan Huskies, laughs but somehow resists cussing.
“That’s why you don’t go on the golf course cold turkey, without a warm-up on the range — to prevent shots like that.”
As Thomaidis continues her routine on the driving range, Birnie examines the depth of her swing and contact. He gets Thomaidis to turn her wrists at impact. That makes a big difference.
“That’s a draw,” says Birnie. “There’s a phrase I use — down and over.”
Translation: Hitting down on the ball and turning the wrists over.
“That’s better ball flight and longer,” says Birnie. “You have a real good chance of going high and far.”
Thomaidis pulls out the big driver.
No divots for this club, Birnie tells her. “Yes!” exclaims Thomaidis. Birnie has Thomaidis do a couple of practice swings to emphasize rotation. With that rotation comes power.
“If it (wrist) stays straight, that’s a huge power leak,” Birnie explains, using the baseball/softball swing as an analogy.
“Everything,” he adds, “is rotation.”
Novice golfers may think they need to keep the club face square during the follow-through, but that is not true.
“So much of golf is understanding and setup — you’ve got a decent setup,” Birnie says to Thomaidis as she tweaks her swing with some wrist rotation.
“I don’t see too many fades or slices. Well done.”
Thomaidis bombs one out, long, straight and far.
“Awesome,” she tells Birnie. “You fixed my driver.”
Later, Birnie compares the driving ability to top Saskatchewan amateur female golfer, Anna Young, who plays NCAA Division I golf in the United States.
Birnie automatically places Thomaidis among the top 60 female golfers in the province, even though she is merely a part-time golfer right now.
The potential is there to become one of the province’s best, adds Birnie, “should she ever decide to pursue it.”
The range session proved rewarding as Birnie wanted to check out Thomaidis’ depth of divot, among other things.
Birnie wants Thomaidis to shake the habit of just brushing the grass and staying above the ground.
“We also found that she was hitting quite a bit on the heel and she didn’t understand that was the case, so we explained some of the shank shots,” he said.
“We got her hitting a little more in the centre, generally — and more importantly, an exercise to get her hitting more in the centre — and more of an understanding of rotating the club face through.
“She didn’t think she should rotate. If we change her understanding, it allows her to release the club properly and, all of a sudden, wow, 50 or 60 more yards. It was dramatic.”
Birnie’s No. 1 suggestion to all golfers who want to improve their game. “Practice more.” And the best time to practice? “After you golf.” “But what do most golfers do? Have a beer.”
“What should they do to get better?”
”Have a beer?” the reporter wonders out loud.