Extra movement and power leaks hold Dan Crotty back from reaching his potential. A few small adjustments may lead to large improvements in his power and efficiency.
Dan Crotty is an 18 handicapper who took up the game at the age of about 45. Now approaching 60, Dan – a lefty – fights either pulling the ball to the right or hitting large slices that don’t go very far with the driver.
Having spent a lifetime doing a fair amount of manual labor, Dan’s flexibility isn’t always quite what it could be – stiff knees, hips, and a back impair the timing of his swing.
Dan says he works on his ball position as well as not collapsing his lead (right) arm at impact.
In this Swing Check: The importance of posture and balance in the swing, and dispelling the myth of keeping the head down and the left arm straight.
In this Swing Check we look at the swing of Xavier Augustyniak (known on the forum as The Rambler).
Xavier carried an 11.3 index at the time these video clips were taken. He describes his mis-hits as going far to the right and his contact being both off the heel and the toe. He says his swing thoughts are to keep his head and body down and his left arm straight.
As we examine his swing we’ll look at how other things are the causes of lifting out of the shot and why the bending of the target side arm shouldn’t be a concern. By the end of the article you should never have to think about keeping your head down or left arm straight again, and you should have an understanding of what leads to those occurrences (and how to correct for them).
In this edition we look at causes and corrections for block shots.
Eric Hunt, known on the forum as Whip_It_Out, resides in Texas and plays (as he descirbes it) a hilly, treeless, windy course known as Twin Creeks. At the time of the video captures seen in this article, Eric played to a 8.4 handicap on his home course. Eric’s misses tend to be off the toe of the club with the ball flying to the right of the intended target.
During this Swing Check we’ll look at his setup, backswing, and impact positions, and how each may encourage Eric’s blocked shots to the right of his target.
Swing Check: Small changes in setup can lead to big changes in the swing.
In this Swing Check we look at the golf swings of Troy Worden. As is the case with most golfers, many of the positions we’ll see throughout the swing are a result of the address position. Troy can make huge strides in swing consistency, power, and accuracy by working on the address position.
Below is Troy’s swing sequenced at key positions:
Troy Worden iron: face-on.
Troy Worden driver: down the line.
Read on for a more complete analysis of Troy’s action.
With a little work, this 20 handicapper could improve drastically.
Brian Howenstein is an athletic player who struggles with consistency due to some bad habits he’s developed at the start of his golf swing. He is a young player who just graduated from college. Brian has been playing golf on and off since his sophomore year in high school.
Brian’s misses tend to be to the right in the form of large fades or giant slices. He hits his driver around 275 yards, but admits that number varies considerably depending on how he is playing that day. His 5-iron is his 200-yard club, which tells me he must hit his irons better than his driver. Lately Brian has been working on his swing path, keeping his head still, and shifting his weight to his left side, all of which can be good aspects of the swing to work on. But as we dissect his swing, we will find out some of these are not his main problems.
Steve Brummer plays to his 12-handicap very frequently, but he’ll mix in every sort of bad shot imaginable in the process.
I play golf with Steve Brummer a few times per week, and I can safely say that the most consistent thing about his game is his inconsistency. Steve will play well for five holes, have a stretch where he doesn’t hit the ball well, and then finish out the round strong once again. While I joking refer to Steve as the “anti-Rotella” for his mental outlook (“even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then” he’ll say after a good shot), his mental game is probably responsible for three to four dropped shots per round.
But here in Swing Check, we can’t analyze a person’s mental game, so we’ll fall back on Steve’s swing. It’s a swing which Steve has built over the 40+ years he’s been playing golf, and it’s a swing that, with a few tweaks with an eye on consistency, could generate a very repeatable golf swing.
Let’s have a look…
Jeff Smith, then a 24-handicapper, puts himself in front of the looking glass (and video camera) for his Swing Check.
Staff member Jeff Smith was a 24-handicap golfer who has only really gotten serious about his golf game last year (2005). Jeff is a strong golfer who fits an over-the-top move that, combined with his tremendous clubhead speed, leads to even more tremendous slices.
Jeff mistakenly ordered regular flex shafts in his clubs, and with a driver swing speed of 100 MPH, suffice to say he’s playing the wrong shafts. The regular flex shafts alone probably account for 50% of his troubles off the tee and a smaller fraction of his troubles with the irons. But that’s not what this column is about, so let’s give Jeff a Swing Check!
A new column debuts, and you can be the star. Or, well, the subject at least…
Welcome to the most helpful column here at The Sand Trap: Swing Check. This column will look at video of someone’s swing, critique it (largely by comparing it to the swings of professionals), and share the results for all the world to see. It’s free analysis that you can use to improve your game, and the best part is this: you get to submit the videos!
To submit your video, please read on and fill out the required information.
