Virginia Golfer September / October 2015

Instruction Hooking Left? If your golf shots are going straight left or are hooking to the left too much, your club face is too closed or left at impact. You need to learn what it feels like to make contact with a club face that is more open or pointed more to the right. leftward ball flight by continually trying to swing more to right (this is the opposite of what they should be doing with their club path). What they should do is fix their club face so that it is pointing more to the right at impact. Slicing Right? You can do this in three ways: 1. Point your club face more to right before taking your grip. 2. Try to make the club face point more right through the impact zone. 3. Rotate your hands more to the left when you take your grip (this is referred to as a weaker or more open club face grip). If your golf shots are going straight right or are slicing to the right too much, your club face is too open or pointed to the right at impact. You need to learn what it feels like to make contact with a club face that is more closed or pointed more to the left. You can do this in three ways: 1. Point your club face more to left before taking your grip. 2. Try to make the club face point more left through the impact zone. 3. Rotate your hands more to the right when you take your grip (this is referred to as a stronger or more closed club face grip). You should hit shots, experiment with different club faces and purposely try to make the ball go in different directions. Many times a golfer’s club path will improve on its own after improvements have been made to the club face. Left to their own devices, many hookers will try to fix their Left to their own devices, many slicers will continually try to fix their rightward ball flight by continually trying to swing more to left (this is the opposite of what they should be doing with their club path). What they should do is fix their club face so that it is pointing more to the left at impact. 36 V IRGINIA G OLFER | S EPTEMBER/O CTOBER 2015 The goal is to hit the ball first and then the ground. You want the divot to start at the ball and go directly toward your target. These drills on improving your ball striking have been focused entirely on what the club is doing at impact. I have intentionally left out the golfer and what they do with their hands, arms, and body during the swing. So much of the time, golfers are inwardly focused on what their hands, arms, and body are doing to produce the swing that they neglect to focus on what the club is doing. I believe this inward focus hurts golfers’ ability to produce consistent contact. The brain has an amazing ability to tell the body how to move efficiently and correctly to produce an athletic motion. If we feed the brain with correct focus of intention, many times it can automatically signal the body to produce the correct swing to make the correct impact. Try these ball-striking drills and find out for yourself. Randy Johns is the PGA Director of Instruction at River Bend Golf and Country Club in Great Falls, Va. vsga.org RANDY JOHNS (2) If you are on your own, I would recommend correcting your club face first. It is easier to fix than the club path and you can do some simple drills that will give you immediate feedback.

Virginia Golfer September / October 2015 | Page 36