BACK TO BASICS
The new year is a good opportunity to check your fundamentals
Every time a professional hits balls on the range, they’ll be checking the basics – aim, alignment, foot width, ball position... it’s all part of the set-up routine. These might not be the exciting aspects of practice, but they are the most important. All too often, however, they get overlooked.
Whether you’re a beginner or a regular player, it’s easy to fall into bad habits and for errors to creep in, especially if you’ve not played for a couple of months. How often does your playing partner remark about where you were aiming, or how far forward you had the ball in your stance?
Over the following pages, Top 50 Coach Gary Alliss helps you to nail the fundamentals and become a more consistent driver of the golf ball.
1
As set-ups go, this is pretty much perfect (main picture). You can see the slope through the shoulders, the ball position is good, and the feet are just outside shoulder width apart. If I’m being critical, my right arm looks a little straight here. If it’s too straight, it won’t fold properly on the way back. In other words, it gets in the way of a good backswing.
With the driver held out in front of you parallel with the ground, tip over until the sole of the clubhead touches the ground and then ‘soften’ the knees, which helps set the posture perfectly. To get an idea of the amount of knee flex that you’re looking for, you should be able to position your driver on a fairly straight line from just behind the tips of your toes to your knee cap.
It’s often said that you should use your belly button as a guide, but I like to see the butt of the driver pointing just left of the belt buckle at address. This way, you get that proper extension down out of the lead arm.
Posture
Soften the right arm
The images on the right give you a sense of what can happen when the right arm gets really straight – the club ends up going well outside the line. Amateur golfers who get into this position will find it hard to strike the ball out of the centre of the club consistently and they’ll struggle with accuracy. That you can see over my right elbow and see my left forearm in the more orthodox set-up (top left) demonstrates that my right arm has been softened and will, therefore, ‘fold’ properly.
2 Aim
To get a good view, you really need to be at least three or four paces back from the ball. Too close and you’re looking down on the ball, not through it. From here, I’m far enough back to pick a spot, maybe three feet in front of the ball (as shown by the alignment stick), on line with where I want to launch it. I line up to that, take my set-up and drive the ball down that line.
3Ball position
This position couldn’t be more orthodox. I’m lined up with the ball directly opposite the inside edge of my lead heel. The leading edge of the driver should be at right angles to the red stick and parallel to the yellow stick. When the ball is too far forward, as shown on the right, it will encourage the body and shoulders to open. This can be useful if you’re looking to shape the ball from left to right, but for amateurs, it’s not a great way of playing. It often means they struggle to get to the ball – which frequently results in a top.
Hands at address
How far the hands should be away from the body is often overlooked. Typically, amateurs hold their driver too far away, which means they go searching for the ball – and it makes it hard to deliver a consistently centred strike. It can also encourage you to bend over a bit more, stick your arms out further or put more weight on your toes – all of which aren’t good. A useful check is to rest your little finger on your trousers, and with an outstretched thumb you should just touch the top of the grip.
Likewise, don’t forget to keep an eye on your tee height. For driver, as a general guide, you should be looking to have half a ball above the top of the club. If it’s too high, you’ll often hit the ball too high on the face; it’ll create a high launch and just fall out of the sky.
4Grip
This can be a fairly complex, and debatable, subject. Many top players are able to play with what you might call an unorthodox grip. However, if you’re struggling with your ball flight, it can be a good idea to get a PGA professional to have a look.
I refer to this as a good ‘medium’ grip (below). It would be a good place to start if I was teaching a beginner – it’s neither a strong or weak grip. When looking down, you’d be able to see two to two-and-a-half knuckles on the left hand.
With this neutral grip, you should be able to see two ‘V’ shapes formed by your thumbs. Note how an alignment stick runs through the ‘V’ on my left hand to the middle of my right shoulder. If I had another alignment stick, both would run from the middle of the ‘V’s to the same point on the right shoulder. With this grip, the hands will anatomically work together and set the wrists correctly for the swing plane. If I saw a player who hit the ball predominantly straight, I’d expect them to hold the club just like this.