Learning 201

Tinkering too much with my swing resulted in a very hard lesson. I think I can move on now to a lesson about how to make the best of the swing I do have.

One of the fundamentals of the full golf swing is weight transfer (to the front side) at impact. Unfortunately, I tried to incorporate a big hip bump or shift to achieve this or at least to initiate this transfer. I know now that such a move can be very disruptive of the swing arc. It's just too hard to time correctly. The alternative is simpler, less dramatic, but I hope more effective.

My idea now is to simply aim for a feeling that more weight is shifting to my front foot at the point of transition from the backswing to downswing. This shift, which is actually achieved by a slight movement to the front side, should be quite subtle. The rotation of the hips, which occurs a fraction of a second later, is a far more obvious and dramatic move. The main point being that for the average player the weight shift has to be initiated fairly gently, or at least not too violently, to ensure that the swing plane is not disrupted.

This movement is consistent with the move we tend to make when throwing a ball or stone, as I mentioned previously. But it has to be a more subtle move because the margin for error in terms of centre club face contact is small. However, it's a move that is necessary as a trigger for the downswing sequence - and there must be a sequence from the ground up - one of a handful of things on which nearly every golf teacher agrees.

I should emphasise that this ground-up weight shift can be initiated in a variety of ways, for example, a push off the back foot, or a knee flick, or a straightening of the front leg, or some other lower body action. It should not, however, be initiated by the arms or shoulders, which must wait their turn (so to speak) in the sequencing of the golf swing.

I must confess I haven't got this down as yet. I just know I need to find a smooth and rhythmic way to swing a golf club if I am going to survive in this game. I'm never going to win a long drive competition, so I might as well hit as many fairways and greens as I can.

A final point re putting. Here again, smooth and rhythmic will win the race. Jason Day has one of the smoothest putting strokes I've ever seen. It's a great model for success. I've even finally realised that one's putting grip and all the other 'methods' of putting are far less important than the rhythm of the putting stroke - and this applies to all lengths of putt. I'm starting to putt a little better having realised this and plan to stick to my current modified Vardon double-overlap grip and my putter for quite a while.

Not sure if I have really progressed to the next class, but there are a few more ticks on my report card, and a few less of the 'must try harder' comments.