Your Game
LEARN
TO LET
IT LOOSE
same effect by straightening the left leg and
getting the feeling of extending the left side
coming into the ball.
Like Lexi
Blister your drives like one of the LPGA’s best by
focusing on timing and letting your lower half lead the
way on the downswing | Interview by JAMES A. FRANK
I’VE WORKED WITH LEXI SINCE SHE WAS
8 YEARS OLD. Many observers think she’s a
natural, and she definitely has an enormous
amount of innate talent. But let me tell you,
she works hard on her game. Always has.
THE NUMBERS SHOW THAT LEXI
FINISHED SECOND IN DRIVING DISTANCE
on the LPGA Tour in 2013, which didn’t
surprise me because she’s always been a long
hitter. When she was very young, she played
a lot of golf with her older brothers, which
fanned her competitive fire and taught her
to hit the ball hard. Back then, Lexi played
with a very strong grip, a closed clubface and
she hit a hook. At age 13, I changed her grip
and lengthened her swing. It was a tough
few weeks until she accepted the changes,
but I’ve always felt that the great swingers of
the club went to parallel or a bit longer. Lexi
does too.
THE KEY TO HER LONG-HITTING?
Since lengthening her swing, Lexi has
been making a great shoulder turn, long
and smooth. Just like Greg Norman, Jack
Nicklaus, and the young Tiger Woods, the
arms, hands and shoulders move as a single
unit on the backswing. That creates a wide
swing and provides continuity turning away
6
from the ball. As Jack Nicklaus has often
said, the first two feet of the backswing are
the most important, and few do it better
than Lexi.
She also makes a great change of direction
at the top, never coming to a complete
stop but moving the lower body toward
the ball while the arms are still turning
back. Ken Venturi and Jackie Burke, two
of my teachers, were huge admirers of
Ben Hogan’s swing. They talked about that
“two-way move,” where the body is always
in motion and the lower body begins the
downswing. This move also gets Lexi into a
“sitting position” as she starts coming down,
just like Tiger, which sets her up for an
explosion of power at impact.
HERE’S THE AVERAGE GOLFER’S
TAKE AWAY from Lexi’s motion: Start the
downswing with the hips or knees moving
toward the target. Never start down with
the hands, arms or shoulders.
LOOK AT LEXI’S HEELS AT IMPACT:
Both are off the ground. Many great players,
male and female, do the same,
including Davis Love III, Louis
Oosthuizen and Ryan Moore.
Even Bobby Jones did it.
It follows from getting
into that “sitting”
position in the
downswing,
then pushing
off the ground
like a basketball
player going up for a rebound. It’s hard to
teach, but everyday golfers can try for the
V IRGINIA G OLFER | J ANUARY/ F EBRUARY 2014
Master_VSGA_JanFeb_2014_v20.indd 6
Lexi Thompson
produces ballpounding power
by creating a
flowing motion and
sequencing her
swing properly.
STANLEY CHOU/GETTY IMAGES (2)
J
ust 18 years old, Lexi Thompson
already has five wins as a
professional, including three on
the LPGA Tour.
Her teacher, Jim McLean,
explained how to rip your drives by learning to
build momentum in your swing and generate
the most speed when it really matters.
Author James A. Frank is a writer from New
York, N.Y. He is the former editor of Golf and
Golf Connoisseur magazines and co-wrote
the short-game and putting “Bibles” with
Dave Pelz. This is his first contribution to
Virginia Golfer. Jim McLean is based at
Trump National Doral in Miami, Fla., and is
ranked third among Golf Digest’s ‘America’s
50 Best Teachers, 2013-14.’
w w w. v s g a . o r g
1/3/14 11:40 AM