Divot Tool

Your perception is your reality I suppose. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean it’s true. Nonetheless, we have a fine product that is being used by Tour pros willingly because it helps with impact feels. Feel isn’t always real, but under the gun, feel is all you have.

Great ball strikers load, lag and understand their release point. Ball ball strikers throw it out, flip it cast it etc before impact. So you're either a flipper/caster or you're compressing it with leverage. You're free to choose which one is more effective for you. I think the best ball strikers that ever lived would agree with me. Lastly, It's not about their index finger or PP3. It's about 96% of golfers (per Cordle research) casting the club, reaching a straight line condition before impact and the vast majority of golfers retaining lag and reaching full extension after impact. But if you're going to conflate effective ball striking with solely the index finger, that's your prerogative.

I'm not debating the fact that the lag isn't thrown away. . it must be inevitably released. All great ball hitters had lag pressure and understood HOW and WHEN to release it. All I'm saying the difference between the best ball strikers that ever lived and every the average weekend chop as Cordle illustrates is that they reach a straight line condition after impact and the average chop dumps it before impact. It can not be any more clear. Are we really pushing at PP3, or is that pressure a result of the shaft loading? The technology that we are blessed with today was created from the need to quantify and thus comprehend why the BEST do what they do. Force Plates, Bodi-Trak, Trackman, Gears et al don't make you a great ball stiker, they are merely tools. Actually, no we're not in agreement here. Great ball strikers don't reach a straight line condition until well after impact. Here's a photo of Vijay Singh that actually captures his impact conditions. Looks familiar. Here's a photo of Couples at impact. No cupping here at impact. Just a strong left hand grip. If one were to look at the photo you posted above where the club is already parallel with the ground well past impact, one might come to the conclusion that he flipped it as the cupping suggests. If the left wrist didn't cup post impact, he'd be hooking it off the planet. Nonetheless, it's not cupped at impact because he's hasn't dumped his lag like the weekend chopper. you should ask Bertie Cordle that and all the great ball strikers. We're not trying to quantify it, merely acknowledging that it exists and there is a correlation between lag tension and it's importance with respect to impact. We're not saying you have to have "x" amount of lag pressure to be Elite. . .that's a bit silly. You are feel differently despite a history of great ball strikers effectively illustrating Bertie Cordle's thesis. To each their own.

Nice photo of impact, mind you it's clearly shot from an angle that diminishes the reality his optimal impact. But feel free to be subjective about impact. Freddie had produced plenty of lag pressure and knew when to release it. Guy is almost 60 years old and averages close to 300 yards. . .he sure ain't flipping it.

If they weren't producing lag pressure, are you implying that the best ball strikers to ever play the game 'flipped' at the ball? We'll just leave this here because it's not even debatable. Freddie Couples may have employed a strong grip but he surely did NOT have a cupped lead wrist at impact. . . he surely wasn't flipping the club at the ball. That's absolutely false. As a result of you reaching full extension before impact. And yet you have countless Tour pros using it voluntarily at tournaments to replicate feels, develop proprioception and kinesthetic awareness while hitting balls. Big difference between shaft lean and lag pressure btw.

I would define Lag Pressure as the increasing pressure you feel in the right index finger (PP3) imparted by the shaft as a result of the handle leading the clubhead as it approaches impact. On that note. . . Do you think that great ball strikers of the game could explain the exact physics of the golf swing in order to strike it well? They understood the swing in terms of feels, pressures and visual concepts. They didn't have Trackman, Bodi-trak, Swing Catalyst etc. to quantify things for them. Cordle's research has 96% of all golfers reaching full extension before ball contact. You think it's merely a coincidence that the majority amateur golfers-who don't exactly flush it-dump all lag pressure before contact? Do you think it's a coincidence that the vast majority of professional players-who stripe it-produce and retain lag pressure into impact? I don't think it's a coincidence. . .and neither does Bertie Cordle. That very premise is the foundation of the DST compressor. That's called 'observation' and its often employed in scientific Method.

The best ball strikers who ever lived utilized lag pressure and knew when to release it. They understood that impact required a flat left wrist. Impact is still the moment of truth. Trevino, Hogan, Knudson, Norman, Nicklaus, Player, Woods, Mickelson, Rahm, DJ, Rory, Day, Speith, JT, Brooks, Stenson et al . . . they all did it/do it. OP rendered the DST compressor as a 'visual training aid only.' I disagree as the club is designed to visually mimic impact from the perspective of the golfer. Compare 99% of amateur golfers at impact to those mentioned above and you'll see why Bertie makes his case.

Care to elaborate? I think Bertie Cordle would disagree with you. @ 00:50 both swings clearly illustrate that you’ve lost all lag tension at impact . . .flip or no flip. DST is designed to work with hands ahead of ball at impact via lag pressure .

Quote: “ Unfortunately, the simple physics of swinging a golf club are that the heavy part - the mass at the end of the stick - wants to line up and form a straight line pointing at the center of the arc on which it's being swung” That happens because you’ve thrown away all the lag pressure. The club is designed to strike the ball with the hands ahead as a result of lag tension. Per your videos, at impact your hands indicate that you haven’t retained that pressure.

With regards to this one-plane vs 2-plane discussion, the question that will invariably come up is which one is more effective or reliable? History tells us that the major championships which are the recognized as golf's most challenging tests have been won with widely different swings. Take for example two legends of the game: Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan. Arguably the best that ever lived, Jack Nicklaus employed a very upright swing to win a record of 18 majors. Does that fact not prove to be very convincing when searching for a model of consistency? hmmm. interesting. But wait, what about Ben Hogan, as so many hold as the best ball striker that ever lived, even Nicklaus said so himself. The oldest footage of him captures his tempo, power and reveals that his swing is rotational, flatter than that of Nicklaus. So many have searched in vain, for Hogan's 'Secret' emulating the man, but few truly understanding him. Hardy would define the former swing 2-plane and the latter one-plane. The question that has boggled my mind for as long as I have been introduced to Hardy's ideas begs, if it is truly necessary to define our swings as one or two plane given the physiological and physical differences amongst all golfers? Is the golf swing truly black and white, void of any shades of gray? Can and should the golf swing be defined as two schools thought, where the angle of the shoulders being the reference that delineates how one should swing? Please consider that there are 14 clubs in the bag all of which differ in weight and length. Are shorter clubs not meant to be swung on a more upright plane when compared to a wood? Will it suffice to simply say some swings are more rotational, whereas some are more upright? How the club is swung is dependent on the setup, your connection to the ground, governed by laws of the universe and relative to your body and yet we remain fixated on this shoulder plane angle? your thoughts are much appreciated.

For those who are planning to play in any USGA sanctioned tournament, let this be a lesson learned. http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-equipment/blogs/hotlist365/2011/05/why-bad-things-keep-happening.html I feel bad for the kid, but in this instance it really hurts when you don't do your homework, especially considering this was Local Qualifying. II believe that the majority of people on this forum (equipment junkies) would have known immediately that the Vokey wedge in question was non-conforming. Tough Luck.

I just caught the tail end of todays broadcast from the Players on The Golf Channel after coming home from work. Unfortunately I had to endure Brandel Chamblee's diatribe about the current state of Tigers game, how he went from having arguably the best short game to having no short game, while TGC shows footage of him chunking his wedges prior to his WD. Hey Brandel, we get it, Tiger's hurt at the moment, we get it. His current game sucks compared to his body of work. . . we get it. I wanted to turn the channel as he opened his mouth, but I refrained as I needed some entertainment. Chamblee first insinuated that Woods' lifestyle: running and lifting weights were detrimental to his game, to which he has no empirical data supporting such a claim. What was most appalling was that he went on to allege that Tiger blamed his damaged knee on Butch Harmon. I was like WHoA! . . .You did not just say that. I'd love to see a reference to such an allegation, because this is a serious basis for a defamation lawsuit. When Woods was asked in an interview during Masters week of this year, Would he want to swing like he did in 2000?, he responded "First of all, I can’t swing that way. It took a pretty good pounding on me knee doing it that way. As you know I tore cartilage and my ACL over the years, so I don’t want to swing that way. It’s too much pain." I don't recall Tiger ever accusing Butch Harmon for being responsible for his knee woes. Now that is excessive. Lastly, Brandel gave his post round analysis about Nick Watney's swing, in which he adored the position of the club at the top of Watney's swing, claiming that the given the position Nick could choose to hit either a draw, a fade or straight shot on cue. Now that is just horse piss. It goes to illustrate that he has very little understanding of the ball flight laws and thus no credibility as a golf analyst. Thinking back, it's essentially the same analysis that he gave regarding Hunter Mahan's swing earlier this spring which became the catalyst of the war of words between he and Sean Foley. Chamblee comes of as a pompous and arrogant analyst, who shows no sensitivity to players whatsoever. Since when were golf analysts given licenses to run their mouths? . .this guy needs a muzzle.

Nicely said. I agree, watching Tiger operate on the course during the years he was so dominant was something special. Kinda like watching Jordan and Kobe command the court. In retrospect, when you look at his body of work from 2005-2009 with what many will say was a fundamentally flawed swing, it makes it all the more impressive. The numbers just don't lie despite what all the naysayers claim. For anyone to even try to refute this is simply ignorant. Today, nobody on the professional tours comes even close. During those years, it was expected for Tiger to win a tournament. Now I'm wondering when his temperament will get the best of him and when his swing will betray him. But he's got time. What isn't so impressive is his attitude at the current time. He's a professional and he should act like it. Nonetheless, I think some of us here have to accept the fact that as a human being he isn't perfect. So in that respect, I think Tiger very much deserves the grinding he receives on these forums and from the media. Having said that, he will win again. I'm betting not this year, although I hope he proves wrong. The question of whether he will dominate depends on many variables, all of which are not related to how he swing a club. Then again, in life I suppose everything you do ultimately affects how you play the game. I will say that watching the Accenture today and hearing these guys flush it was sick. These guys are damn good.

Give the kid a break, he's 25 and just came off a thumb injury. I bet you had an incredible work ethic at that age too huh I suppose he was over-hyped when he spanked Sergio at Valhalla in singles play 5 & 4. Or when he set the birdie record at the Masters earlier this year and finished 3rd. The numbers speak for themselves.

Wow. I just recently came across these videos on Youtube. Very engaging. Enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving from Canada. Peace & Love.