Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Glenn Hall’s keys for making a good swing
BOCA RATON — Glenn Hall is the director of instruction at St. Andrews Country Club, he has studied the game for 50 years and worked with top amateurs and pros, and he says there are three keys to making a good golf swing.
First, you have to relax for your muscles to work efficiently. Hall explained that humans have an antagonistic muscle system. If your hands and arms are tight when you swing, their opposing muscles will fight each other.
Second, the former University of Miami golfer said the essence of a golf swing is the constant flow of your lead arm, wrist, hand and club to and through the ball to a finish. “Anything that disturbs that flow is going to ruin your golf swing,” Hall said.
Third, Hall said golfers must have their lead arm and hand in control of their swing. That’s the left arm for right-handed golfers and the right arm for lefties. By leading, you avoid hitting at the ball.
If a righty hits at the ball with the right hand, the left arm stops and the clubhead bottoms out behind the ball, resulting in a fat shot, a topped shot or even a miss.
“And your best friend will tell you that you looked up,” said Hall, who can be reached for lessons at 561-487-1110. “You didn’t look up. You stopped the flow of your lead arm and hand.”
You can be relaxed and ready to have your lead arm in control, but Hall said that if you are unknowingly aimed incorrectly, your brain will do things to get the ball to the target that often result in a poor shot.
“If you’re aiming 20 yards to the right of your target and you don’t realize it, your brain is like a heat-seeking missile,” Hall said. “It says, ‘We’re going to that target.’ So you’re either going to swing out and hook it back or pull over the top to pull it to the target. Now we end up pull-hooking it way to the left or block it out 30 yards to the right of the target.
“Your brain is trying to solve the problem you gave it: Hitting it to the target. So that’s how golf gets tough.”
One way to overcome those bad shots is to dramatically change your aim. If you want to stop coming over the top, aim 30 yards left of your target.
“Now what do you have to do?” Hall said. “You have to swing out to that target to go there because if you come over, you’re going 60 yards left of your target.
“The cure in golf is always the opposite of the problem.”
Sometimes the cure can be as simple as swiveling your head so you look at the ball with your lead eye. That’s the left eye for righthanders.
Hall said that little adjustment makes your lead arm and hand feel more dominant.
“When you look at the ball out of your left eye, you see a path that goes back inside and up,” he said. “If my right eye is looking at the ball, my right arm and hand are usually out in front of my left, so I’m going to take the club back with my right arm and hand out and up.
“If I don’t re-route it somehow, or I never get back where I should be, the club’s going to come back from the outside, the clubface will be open and the ball is going to start left and slice back.”
With putting, Hall said that distance is much more important than direction.
“Most three-putt greens are caused by not hitting the ball the right distance,” he said.
Even if they misread the line of the putt, Hall said most golfers are usually within one or two feet of either side of the hole.
“That’s four feet overall, two feet on either side,” Hall said. “So if you hit it the right distance, the worst you’ll ever be is two feet away.”