New Year Resolutions

My recent preoccupation with the 'magic triangle' and the creation of lag in my downswing has led me to neglect the role of the lower body.

Instructors who insist that the arms and hands are control the golf swing are not necessarily wrong, but my recent experience of loss of power and, to some extent, accuracy, tells me that it is unwise to neglect the movement and involvement of the legs and hips in the golf swing.

What this refers to is the way in which the downswing must be accompanied by a move down and forward with the hips and knees (whether slightly before or slightly after the dropping of the arms is a moot point).

In my view, it is all very well to keep the body stable and balanced, but without the shift of weight supported (or initiated) by the lower body, the movement of the arms will tend to lack power, despite the argument that 97% of clubhead speed is generated by the hands and arms. The point is that the top and bottom halves of the body need each other working in synch.

Anyway, this has been my recent experience, and I intend to try to introduce (or reintroduce) the slight squat and turn of the hips at about the time of the start of the downswing. In fact, I will try to time it to just before the hands and arms drop, but only just before.

In the meantime, I will also be concentrating on rhythm. That is, I will be trying to swing each club with the same controlled rhythm that you can see in the swings of the great swingers of golf clubs, for example: Snead, Els, Geiberger, Mize, Ogilvy, O'Meara, Senden, Webb, et al.

Some of the other great swingers of the golf club - the Woods and McInroys of the game - swing the club too hard to try to emulate, but they do have swings that highlight the importance of point one above - the role of the lower body.

A new golfing year has begun. So, here's to synchronicity and rhythm.

Ball striking and scoring

There is a correlation between ball striking (broadly defined as how well we hit the ball) and scoring (much more easily defined by the scorecard). However, that correlation is nowhere near as strong as we might imagine.

Some tremendously athletic and powerful ball strikers are never going to win consistently because the odd great round is far outnumbered by the rounds characterised by missed short game opportunities, be they poor chips or missed putts, or some other indiscretion near the green.

Professional golfers who play four rounds cannot afford to have one or two 'ordinary' rounds and expect to feature in a tournament. Similarly, once-a-week amateurs cannot afford to have two or three disastrous holes in a round and expect to have a good score.

The search for consistency is an often fruitless one for the player who pays too much attention to the ball striking part of the game. This is the player who goes to the range and pounds hundreds of balls, with very little thought, and very little improvement.

From bitter experience, trying to maintain a lower-middle handicap is frequently sabotaged by the above-mentioned missed or wasted opportunities. The good player gets up and down from just off the edge of the green more times than not, and doesn't miss more than the very occasional putt from inside a metre.

The average player takes three to get down from near the green maybe three-quarters of the time. And the average player probably misses several very make-able putts per round. This converts an 80 into an 88 or a 90 into 100.

It is very frustrating. So what is the answer?

Given that I am still intent on developing my 'magic triangle' golf swing, it will not be easy to shift focus to the short, scoring game.

In fact, the shift will probably have to occur in stages, something like:

Continue to use the 'magic triangle', while swinging as easily as possible, and swing out and beyond the target (the latter crucial in limiting the current prevalence of pull shots).


Work at clarifying what shot to play and club to use in various short game situations (still suffering lots of uncertainties).

Try to putt with freedom, ignoring the results

Some of this involves thinking; some of it involves not thinking. Making the right choice and then following through with it is the biggest challenge.

What a joy it would be to be able to hit the ball nicely and have a sharp short game. Is it too late; is it a bridge too far? Time will tell.

Over hitting

I'm over hitting at the ball. In other words, I'm sick of making the same mistake of hitting at the ball, basically because of trying to hit too hard. I need to spend a couple of rounds swinging at 3/4 tempo to get back to a good solid swing.

There is a strong tendency once you hit a few good shots, especially ones that go a decent distance, to try to put in a little extra effort to maintain or even outstrip that distance. The trouble is that putting in that little extra effort usually leads to a loss of balance, rhythm, swing plane, centre contact, etc. - any one of which can severely compromise a shot.

Thinking 75% is a good swing thought, as is don't rush from the top - another consequence of trying to hit too hard. Taking time in the transition is so important in getting the club on plane in the downswing, apart from reducing the tendency to overhit.

My other main failing lately is not transferring my weight to my front foot. With driver it's less of a problem, but with irons it often leads to skinny shots and tops - very annoying. With the irons it's probably a good idea to keep more than half your weight on the front foot throughout the swing - stack and tilt and Mark Evershed style.

With the irons, however, another persistent failing is not turning enough on the backswing and consequently pulling the ball straight left. The aforementioned swing thoughts will help with this, but a conscious effort to turn back and hit out through the ball will also be important.

Nothing to say about the short game at present - course undergoing work. A slight improvement in chipping and pitching has however been apparent.

Finally, the magic triangle has been taking quite a lot of my focus lately. It is still a sound - absolutely central - concept for all golfers. Lag and late release courtesy of the magic triangle are the keys to good golf - not quite enough to guarantee good golf all the time (see above) - but without that triangle there is no chance of playing 'real' golf like the real golfers do.

PS. Connection is something I forgot to mention; it is closely related to the magic triangle and maybe to ensuring that the core rotation is sufficient, without too much conscious effort. I'll have to think about that.