Saw this over at MyGolfSpy.com, it’s a crude drawing for a patent application that Nike Golf filed for:
The idea is that the adjustability of the clubs would allow for the golfer to make any club either a cavity back design or a muscleback design. So if you want an entire set of cavity backs or musclebacks, that is possible. Or if you want a split set, more forgiving long irons and more blade like shorter irons you can do that.
I don’t particularly hate the idea, although I wonder how well the muscleback version would perform.
Here's my 3rd Annual Statistical Ballstriking rankings, ranking PGA Tour golfers ballstriking based on:
Total Driving
Greens In Regulation
Approach Proximity to the Hole
This year's winner is perennial top 10 ballstriker Joe Durant.
Some notable players from the blog:
Boo Weekley (5th) - student of Mark Blackburn's Jay Williamson (9th) - student of Lynn Blake's Heath Slocum (16th) - student of Mark Blackburn's Dean Wilson (26th) - S&T student David Toms (29th) - part time student of Brian Manzella Matt Kuchar (37th) - 1 plane swing student Hunter Mahan (49th) - Sean Foley student Steven Elkington (52nd) - Sevam1 student Justin Rose (57th) - Sean Foley student Kevin Streelman (58th) - Trackman user Alex Cejka (62nd) - S&T student Jason Bohn (77th) - Last year's #1 ballstriker Sean O'Hair (80th) - Sean Foley student Brian Gay (105th) - Lynn Blake student Trevor Immelman (108th) - Sean Foley student Scott McCarron (127th) - 1 Plane Swing student Charlie Wi (131st) - S&T student Bill Lunde (151st) - S&T student
Here's the complete list. To find a golfer, just use the 'Find' function by using Ctrl + 'F' and then type in the name of the golfer you are searching.
Tiger did not qualify this season.
1. Joe Durant 2. Davis Love III 3. Charles Warren 4. Boo Weekley 5. Rickie Fowler 6. Kenny Perry 7. John Senden 8. Jay Williamson 9. Graham DeLaet 10. Brendon de Jonge 11. Chad Campbell 12. Paul Stankowski 13. Troy Matteson 14. Billy Mayfair 15. Heath Slocum 16. Kris Blanks 17. Adam Scott 18. D.J. Trahan 19. Bill Haas 20. John Merrick 21. Steve Stricker 22. Ben Crane 23. Nick Watney 24. Aron Price 25. Dean Wilson 26. Pat Perez 27. Vijay Singh 28. David Toms 29. Vaughn Taylor 30. Cliff Kresge 31. K.J. Choi 32. Bo Van Pelt 33. Will MacKenzie 34. Omar Uresti 35. Tom Pernice, Jr. 36. Matt Kuchar 37. Kevin Sutherland 38. Garth Mulroy 39. Rocco Mediate 40. Cameron Percy 41. Brett Wetterich 42. Paul Casey 43. Richard S. Johnson 44. Briny Baird 45. Spencer Levin 46. Robert Garrigus 47. Josh Teater 48. Hunter Mahan 49. John Mallinger 50. Jonathan Byrd 51. Steve Elkington 52. Tim Clark 53. Ryan Moore 54. Michael Letzig 55. Garrett Willis 56. Justin Rose 57. Kevin Streelman 58. Stewart Cink 59. Mathew Goggin 60. Jim Furyk 61. Alex Cejka 62. J.J. Henry 63. Roger Tambellini 64. Jeff Gove 65. Woody Austin 66. Jason Dufner 67. Greg Owen 68. Chris DiMarco 69. Charley Hoffman 70. Jerry Kelly 71. Zach Johnson 72. Tom Gillis 73. Mark Wilson 74. Cameron Tringale 75. John Rollins 76. Jason Bohn 77. Martin Laird 78. Sergio Garcia 79. Sean O'Hair 80. Henrik Bjornstad 81. Lucas Glover 82. Chris Stroud 83. Robert Allenby 84. Chris Riley 85. Marc Leishman 86. Blake Adams 87. Chris Couch 88. Paul Goydos 89. Ben Curtis 90. Mathias Gronberg 91. Alex Prugh 92. Kevin Stadler 93. Rory McIlroy 94. Retief Goosen 95. Bubba Watson 96. Y.E. Yang 97. Jeff Maggert 98. Brent Delahoussaye 99. Stephen Ames 100. Michael Bradley 101. Bob Estes 102. Geoff Ogilvy 103. Jeff Quinney 104. Brian Gay 105. Brett Quigley 106. Michael Connell 107. Trevor Immelman 108. Dustin Johnson 109. Cameron Beckman 110. Fredrik Jacobson 111. Ricky Barnes 112. Nicholas Thompson 113. Phil Mickelson 114. James Nitties 115. Justin Leonard 116. Jeff Overton 117. Jarrod Lyle 118. Johnson Wagner 119. Kevin Na 120. Camilo Villegas 121. Jason Day 122. Lee Janzen 123. D.A. Points 124. Steve Marino 125. Scott Verplank 126. Scott McCarron 127. Tim Petrovic 128. Ryan Palmer 129. Webb Simpson 130. Charlie Wi 131. Charles Howell III 132. Scott Piercy 133. John Daly 134. Justin Bolli 135. Matt Every 136. Luke Donald 137. David Duval 138. Andrew McLardy 139. Brian Davis 140. J.P. Hayes 141. Ernie Els 142. Carl Pettersson 143. Brandt Snedeker 144. Craig Bowden 145. Roland Thatcher 146. Chris Tidland 147. Brenden Pappas 148. Brian Stuard 149. Steve Wheatcroft 150. Bill Lunde 151. Rory Sabbatini 152. Angel Cabrera 153. James Driscoll 154. Padraig Harrington 155. J.B. Holmes 156. Jeev Milkha Singh 157. Mark Calcavecchia 158. Skip Kendall 159. Aaron Baddeley 160. Andres Romero 161. Tim Herron 162. Greg Chalmers 163. Rod Pampling 164. Jimmy Walker 165. George McNeill 166. Michael Sim 167. Steve Flesch 168. Bryce Molder 169. Troy Merritt 170. Shaun Micheel 171. Joe Ogilvie 172. Matt Jones 173. Steve Lowery 174. Chris Wilson 175. Matt Bettencourt 176. Martin Flores 177. Stuart Appleby 178. Ted Purdy 179. David Lutterus 180. Ian Poulter 181. Mike Weir 182. Derek Lamely 183. Ryuji Imada 184. Daniel Chopra 185. Rich Barcelo 186. Vance Veazey 187. Greg Kraft 188. Chad Collins 189. Kevin Johnson 190. Nathan Green 191. Brad Faxon 192. Jerod Turner
Over the weekend I was discussing Homer Kelley’s ‘The Golfing Machine’ with a golf instructor and inevitably we discussed extensively about feel. The golf swing in particular is largely about feel. I think it’s mistaken that The Golfing Machine is just about science and mechanical terminology. The book is very much about feel, how to understand and develop feel and how to use feel to your advantage. In fact, I believe that it’s quite simple that in order to develop your ‘golf stroke’ (as Homer Kelley would put it), one must develop and understand feel. And I think Mr. Kelley would agree with me, the feel and mechanics *must* go together. Having one will likely not work without the other.
LEARNING MECHANICS FROM FEEL
One of the things that Homer Kelley warned against was golfers ‘learning mechanics from feel.’ What does that mean?
We see this type of teaching, where the instructor teaches the student the mechanics of the golf swing by giving them a feel to work on.
For instance, if a golfer gets laid off at the top of the swing, David Leadbetter’s ‘prescription’ for that flaw is to have the golfer feel like they are sticking their thumbs in their right ear at the top of the swing.
Thus, the feel (sticking the thumbs in the ear) is supposed to get the golfer into the proper mechanics.
The problem is that the feel that may work for one golfer may not work for another golfer. And that is the flaw of ‘learning mechanics from feel.’ One golfer may ‘stick their thumbs in their ear’ and stop getting laid off. But another golfer that feel may not work at all.
Like I stated, we see this all of the time, particularly in popular golf magazines. In fact, Andy Plummer and Mike Bennett’s ‘The Stack and Tilt’ swing has a lot of talk about ‘recommended feels’ throughout the book.
LEARNING FEEL FROM MECHANICS
Homer Kelley did advise golfers to ‘learn feel from mechanics.’ Meaning, get the golfer into utilizing the mechanics of the swing that they want to have and then let the golfer figure out what that feels like to them.
For instance, one of the things I’m working on is shortening my backswing down so I can stay more on plane at the top of the swing. Part of the issue I have is that I over-fold the right arm which causes a myriad of issues.
One of the things that works for me is that I feel like as my arm folds a bit in the takeaway, I then simply rotate the body and do not continue to fold the right arm. This feel that I’ve created for me works quite well.
However, for somebody else that may not work at all. And instead, they may be better off feeling like they are only taking the club ½ way back.
THE FEEL IS NOT REAL…MOST OF THE TIME
One concept that many golfers do not understand is that most of the time, the feel is not real. Let’s go back to my ‘shortening the swing’ example. For me, I feel like after the takeaway, I stop folding my arm. But the reality is that I actually do continue to fold my arm a little more. But this feel I am using prevents me from over-folding the right arm. And for the golfer that uses the feel of ‘take it ½ way back’, the reality is that they will take it more than ½ way back.
AUTOMATING THE SWING FOR A LONGER PERIOD OF TIME
If the golfer can truly learn feel from mechanics, they will wind up automating their golf swing for a longer period of time. Meaning that they can now go to the course and say ‘here’s the feel that gives me good mechanics.’ In the case of shortening the backswing, I can just say ‘turn the body, don’t fold the arm’ and then I can rattle off good shot after good shot. And I can usually do it for an extended period of time.
The problem with most golfers who are supposedly ‘feel players’ is that they usually just wake up one day and make slight adjustments in what they feel in order to cure a problem.
For example, if a golfer starts hitting a hook, they may feel like they are trying to slice the ball in order to straighten it out. That may change the mechanics slightly to a degree and get you thru a round or two, but more often than not they are right back to changing their feel again to avoid their problem shot. The mechanics have not changed for the better, but they are more or less changing what they feel so they can adjust their *timing*. This is an issue because one cannot rely on timing when it comes to the golf swing.
Timing is prevalent in any swing, but relying on it is impossible to do. Some have better timing than others, but nobody can rely on timing alone. Those who have a more timing dependent swing will need to work a lot harder on the range to keep that timing in tact. Thus, they are not relying on timing, they are relying on extra hard work that they do in order to keep their timing in tact.
THE PROBLEM WITH RECOMMENDING FEELS
I get a lot of instructors who do not see the problem with recommending a feel to a golfer. For instance, a golfer with a long backswing that gets off plane may get stuck on trying to shorten up the backswing. After awhile the teacher may recommend a feel that other students have told the instructor worked for them. In this case, let’s say that feel is to feel like at the top of the swing the shaft is perpendicular to the ground instead of parallel to the ground.
But what typically happens with recommending feels is that the true understanding of ‘learning feel from mechanics’ gets lost. And instead of the student understanding the order of:
1. Get into the proper mechanics first 2. Figure out what that feels like 3. Use that feel to consistently execute those mechanics.
The golfer will instead start asking more for recommended feels and essentially just learn ‘mechanics from feel.’
In my opinion, I think recommending a feel should be a last ditch effort. Now if the teacher asks the student what the student feels but the student cannot quite articulate upon it, the teacher can always help the student articulate that feel so they can use it. But if the teacher is just say ‘well, some of my students feel like they are doing this’, then we start to get back to the realm of learning mechanics from feel, which is what we want to avoid.
If you want to ‘own your swing’, then you better understand feel from mechanics.
HOW TO LEARN THE MECHANICS, SO YOU CAN LEARN FEEL FROM MECHANICS
One of the things I highly recommend in order to make strides in your golf swing is to own a decent camera and learn how to operate it.
My camera of choice is the Casio EX-FH 20
This camera is a digital camera and camcorder all wrapped in one. It can film the swing in high speed like this:
It can also record the swing in real time speed as well in a swing picture sequence mode like this:
I got my Casio, brand new with everything included, for $240. I had an 8mm camcorder that did a good job, but only filmed at regular speed, that I purchased for $175.
For the regular camcorders, you need something with a high shutter speed. At least 1/2000th. My regular camcorder went up to 1/10,000th shutter speed and thus I was able to see it more clearly. But I feel the Casio line of cameras are well worth the extra money.
Ben Hogan loved to use mirrors and wasn’t a fan of cameras. But the problem with mirrors is that what you do in a mirror is often very different from what you do in reality. Plus, cameras were not that prevalent and didn’t have quite the technology that we have today, so that may have been a good reason for Hogan eschewing them in favor of mirrors.
SETTING UP THE CAMERA
I would recommend setting the camera up about 15 feet away from the ball. Then I would zoom in to the point where you can see your entire body and the club.
From the DTL view, I would setup the camera so it is in line with the toe stance line, NOT the target line. The issue with setting up on the target line is that it will make your swing look more on plane or under plane than it actually is.
From the caddy view I would recommend the same thing, 15 feet away and then zoom in until your entire body and club are in the shot.
THE MECHANICS
There’s a few good ways to work on this. For starters, you can simply take full swings, record them, and see what the mechanics are and figure out where you want to be. However, that is not nearly as effective as other methods.
One great method is Ben Hogan’s ‘swing in slow motion’ method.
This will make it so the golfer can more accurately execute the mechanics and because they are moving slowly, they can better grasp what it feels like.
Another good method is to do the ‘9 to 3’ drill (‘acquired motion’ in TGM).
One of the things I stress with the 9 to 3 drill (aka acquired motion) is that if you cannot execute the mechanics properly with that ½ swing, then how are you going to execute them properly with a full swing?
Those who are patient enough to do these types of drills and to work on the mechanics FIRST and then work on the feel SECOND, will reap the rewards.
SIMPLIFYING THE FEEL
Lastly, I think simplifying the feel is important. I think if one starts to think of too many feels or they are too complex with what they want to feel, then that 'paralysis thru analysis' starts to rear its ugly head.
I would probably recommend no more than 2 feels that you are working on in a golf swing. Anything more than 2 starts to lead to mental breakdowns too often.
Another idea is to visualize the feels. Somebody who gets the shaft too laid off in the backswing may want to visualize somebody like Ricky Fowler who gets the shaft very upright and just say 'Ricky Fowler the backswing.'
Or sometimes I'll come up with my own description of the feel. For instance, when I try not to over-fold the right arm in the backswing...I try to not fold the arm anymore after I hit the takeway.
In order to simplify the description of the feel, I tell myself 'use a one piece backswing.' This description is how the backswing sort of feels much like a one piece takeaway, except it's the entire backswing that is feeling like it is going back in 'one piece.'
I suggest if there is any new mechanics that you are working on that you constantly use your camera on the range to make sure those mechanics are in tact. After awhile you should be able to figure out the mechanics and then if you choose to do so, get another lesson and figure out with your instructor what you want to work on next.
Here's a funny video somebody posted up on the forum.
It's easy to see why golfers get frustrated, they are usually confused by different golf instruction.
I break down the golf swing into 3 parts
physics
geometry
biomechanics
The physics of the club hitting the ball determine what the ball will do. The geometry if the alignments and relationship between the ball, clubhead, clubface, clubshaft and the golfer (and the parts of the golfers body) that determine 'how good' the physics are. And the biomechanics are the movement of the golfers body that determine 'how good' the geometry is which determines 'how good' the physics are.
IMO, you really cannot argue the physics or the geometry. Those are 'laws' and there is no real room for debate on these laws.
However, the biomechanics are a different story because golfers are different and how one golfer's body moves and how they react to that movement will differ from many other golfers.
So the biomechanics of the golf swing are up for debate, but the physics and geometry are more or less set in stone.
I think if one were to approach the question 'how do you start the downswing', they would be best off looking at all good ballstrikers and seeing all of the possible scenarios of how those golfers move on the downswing. Then label it as 'here's the most common way these great ballstrikers started the downswing, here's some unique start downs, etc.'
What much of this video shows is what Homer Kelley warned against...learning mechanics from feel. As Homer Kelley put it so beautifully, one should learn feel from mechanics.
But instead, most of these instructors are not even getting into the real mechanics of the startdown move and instead are telling the viewers of what they should feel. The problem is that the instructor's feels that work for them may be completely different from what I feel or what Lee Westwood feels or what the once 20 handicapper and now scratch golfer feels.
So my suggestion is to get into the mechanics first. Explore the possibilities that all good ballstrikers use (remember, good ballstrikers are what matter, nobody cares what some ham-n-egger 8 handicapper does). Then suggest ways of practicing those mechanics and then suggest some feels that students have felt when they started to get the mechanics down. But, always stress that it's a suggestion and that the viewer needs to get the mechanics down and try to figure out what those mechanics feel like to them.
The most misunderstood part of The Golfing Machine is that it's a system built on feel and learning how to feel and that being an extremely importance concept to developing one's golf swing. Most get into the technical jargon and the mechanics, but neglect feel and how to feel. Both HAVE to tie in together to develop a good golf swing.
I'm pleased to post that 2 great videos have come out to help golfers with their game. Even better, one is with regards to the golf swing and the other is with regards to putting.
First up, Brian Manzella's taping of his Anti-Summit is available for $100
Here's a link to a video of a clip of the Anti-Summit
http://vimeo.com/17401949
I'm sure there will be some that question the price of the video. However, given the expenses involved and that those attending paid $250 (which didn't include travel expenses), the only reasonable way to make this available for video was to charge $100 to cover expenses incurred by Brian and to not slight attendees.
I look forward to this video as a way to expanding my knowledge and understanding of the golf swing.
The next video is 'The Reality of Putting' by Geoff Mangum and Steve Elkington for $35.
I plan on purchasing them in the next week or so and giving a brief review.
4 sets (some complete, some incomplete) '54-56 Saber irons 3 Sets of '57 Saber irons 1 set of '58 Saber irons 2 sets of '58 Saber irons with Starburst log 2 sets of '59 Saber irons 2 sets of '74-'79 Saber irons 1 set of '97 Saber irons (from Japan)
2 sets of '60 Power Thrust irons 2 sets of '61 Power Thrust irons 1 set of ’62 Power Thrust irons
1 set of the ’99-’01 Apex Plus
1 set of ’98-’02 Apex Muscleback
1 set of ’95-’97 Legend irons
1 set of GCD irons
1 set of Hogan 306 I irons (no pic available)
2 sets of Apex ’73-’78 Irons
2 sets of Apex Redline (’88-89)
1 set of Apex Grind ’90-’92
1 set of ’79 Apex II
3 sets of Apex PC ’83-‘87
2 sets of Bounce Sole 1+ ‘69
1 set of Bounce Sole Plus 1 ‘68
1 set of Decade irons ’83 (no pic available)
1 set of Director ’75-‘79
1 set of Director ’80-‘85
1 set of Edge Forged GS ‘92
2 sets of ’63 IPT irons
1 set of ’83-’84 Leader irons
1 set of Magnum ’86-’88 irons
2 sets of Medallion ’82 irons 1 set of Medallion ’78-’81 irons
Back at this year’s PGA Championship, Ernie Els was shown on the range with this swing training aid, called the Right Angle Training Aid.
I think most of us understand why Els was using this training aid. He’s trying to get his arm to bend at the elbow at a 90* angle at the top of the golf swing. This folding and un-folding of the right arm in the golf swing is referred to as the #1 Power Accumulator in Homer Kelley’s ‘The Golfing Machine.’
It’s not called ‘#1 Power Accumulator’ because of its importance, but just the way that Mr. Kelley happened to number that motion. The folding of the right arm is the loading action (loads up the power) and the subsequent straightening and thrusting of the arm is the unloading action (unloads the power).
If we do not fold the arm enough, we are not make enough use of the #1 Power Accumulator. But what happens if we over-fold the right arm?
A bunch of things that we don’t want can happen when we over-fold the right arm. But let’s start off with the some simple concepts that most golfers strive for.
1. We want to ‘stay on plane’ to hit powerful and accurate shots on a consistent basis.
2. We should want to have our shoulders turn on a 90* angle with a relation to the spine.
And in reality, #2 helps make it easier for golfers to ‘stay on plane.’
In fact, for the Stack and Tilt detractors out there, #2 is what the S&T is much about. Other components of the S&T that they prefer to teach their students, like the inside hand path in the backswing, turning the left shoulder downward in the backswing, etc., those are done in part to keep the shoulders turning at approximately 90* to the spine. What’s important to understand about these particular components is that most amateurs do not have their hand path going inside and do not turn the left shoulder downward, thus they usually have their shoulders turning too flat, rather than turning at 90* to the spine.
I will get back to the right arm and the shoulders turning at a right angle to the spine in a bit. But one of the main issues with over-folding the right arm is that the golfer will wind up with too long of a backswing for what they can probably handle.
I’ve stated this before, shortening a backswing doesn’t guarantee more accuracy. As shown by this swing by Sam Snead, one of the greatest ballstrikers of all time.
Conversely, shortening your backswing doesn’t mean you will automatically hit it shorter. Take a look of the swing of David McDaniel, who is hitting a 9-iron here, 160 yards.
Getting back to the ‘staying on plane’ point, one of the main problems that golfers with a long backswing can struggle with is that they will ‘get off plane’ in the backswing. Thus, they will need to figure out how to get back on plane in the downswing, which is known as a ‘compensation.’
It’s not that one cannot make compensations and be an excellent ballstriker. Hogan had his fair share of compensations himself. The issue that most golfers have with compensations is that they do not have the timing nor the time to put in the practice in order to groove the adjustment they need to make. In other words, because of their compensations, they’ll have to rely more on timing and hand-eye coordination in order to strike the ball consistently well.
But many golfers will stay on plane at the top of the swing even if they over fold the right arm. However, on the downswing is where they often run into trouble and troubles in the downswing are more important.
THE RIGHT ARM THRUST/STRAIGHTENING
As we come into impact, the right arm should be steadily straightening and thrusting. At impact, we should have the right forearm ‘on plane’ (or pretty close to it) and the right arm should be straighter than it was at the top of the swing, but the right arm will still be bent at the elbow. Sam Snead shows it beautifully here.
Note that the ‘right forearm on plane’ at impact means that the right forearm and the shaft are in line with each other.
However, in order to get to a similar impact position like Snead’s picture, the right arm needs to thrust/straighten out on the downswing. If it doesn’t do that enough, then we never get the Snead type look. Here’s a pic of forum poster gmbtempe right before impact.
This position, often call the ‘P-6’ postion, where the shaft is parallel to the ground in the downswing before impact, is a great way to tell how much the right arm is straightening in the downswing.
First, take a look at the right forearm. At this position, the right forearm should be in line or close to in line with the ball (depends on camera angle as well). Here, the right forearm is well ‘above plane.’ That is something that can be only accomplished if the arm is too bent.
Also note from the Face On view that his hands are behind his right leg. Put that in comparison with Boo Weekley at the p-6 position.
As you can see, Boo’s hands are much more forward at this point in the swing.
The reason being is that Boo’s right arm has straightened out more.
Also note that gmbtempe’s shoulders are very closed at p-6. That’s because his hands are further back (which is due to the lack of right arm straightening/thrusting).
You can try this yourself. Take a club and go to the p-6 position yourself. Move your hands so they are about where the middle of your stance is. Now move those hands backwards. Now look at your shoulders, they will be closed. Move the hands forward and the shoulders become more square and eventually open.
Golfers often want open shoulders at impact, but instead of trying to actively pivot the shoulders, they need to realize that the right arm has to thrust in order to help those shoulders get open.
So, what does that have to do with over-folding the right arm in the backswing?
If you over-fold the right arm on the backswing, the rate at which you thrust/straighten your right arm will not be fast enough to straighten out the arm enough coming into impact.
This can lead to another compensation.
If the right arm is not straightening enough in the downswing, eventually a golfer will subconsciously figure out how to get the clubhead to the ball. Because the bent right arm shortens the length of the distance between the right shoulder and the club head, the golfer will likely make the compensation of turning their shoulders much steeper than 90* to the spine in order to get the clubhead to the ball. As shown here:
Now, if you straightened out the right arm enough and had your shoulders turning much steeper than 90* to the spine, you’d hit well behind the ball. But since the right arm has been over-folded at the top of the swing, you make a series of compensations in order to hit the ball.
I wouldn’t endorse the Right Angle training aid because I think it provides resistance which could wind up increasing the golfer’s tendency to over-fold the right arm. I would suggest being very conscious of the right arm fold while on the range and then the unfolding in the downswing.
