Chuck Evans, Executive Director of Instruction for Medicus Golf, perennial top instructor in both Golf Digest and Golf Magazine’s rankings, and co-creator of 5 Simple Keys was kind enough to speak with me for the first installment of a new series here on GolfWRX: Blind Draw Scramble.

Here’s how it works. In a forum thread posted last week, we asked the readership for questions for Mr. Evans. Those questions, along with several of my own went into a virtual hat and I pulled four questions from the forums and four of my own.

Check out the questions and Evans’ replies below.

Any good drills to get shaft lean w Driver while delivering an ascending strike to the ball?-for a golfer whom hits the ball HIGH, wants to lower spin rate of 3k and change negative (hitting down w D) loft angle. – -o0DanKNesS0o-

If you want to hit an ascending blow, you do not want to lean the shaft forward. You actually do not want forward shaft lean on the driver. You want the driver (what we would call) in-line, which means that your target side arm and your club shaft are forming one line, and you’re swinging upward, like you’re hitting off of an uphill lie. So you will get a higher ball flight but reduced spin.

Ask him if in a TGM Swing, the right arm should be straightened as fast as possible from the top of the back swing, using the right triceps. – MizunoJoe

In Golfing Machine nomenclature, you would do that if you were hitting. If you are a swinger, the right is losing its flex, but it is not straight at impact. It’s slightly bent at impact and then straightening through impact.

I would like to hear why 5SK advocates hitting up on the driver. It seems like it is entirely possible to be very efficient hitting down on your driver. It also seems like there can be dispersion issues by hitting up on the driver. – JacobMac

It’s not only 5 Simple Keys. Trackman shows that the Tour average is 1.3 degrees down, but the longest hitters on tour are swinging upward anywhere from 3-to-6 degrees. So by swinging upward—and you have the ball closest to the outside edge of your lead shoulder, which on an arc will be starting to ascend—you improve your launch angle and you reduce the spin.

That said, a player that is hitting down 2 degrees, and they’re hitting every fairway and they’re happy with it and swinging up causes them to miss fairways, then from the player’s point of view, you’ve got to hit down. But the science proves that hitting up is the most beneficial as far as launch and spin numbers.

I would ask him what he thought about 12 handicaps giving golf instruction advice on golf forums? – HStead

So the average golfer is out playing golf with his playing companions. Typically they play with golfers of the same level. So when your playing partner is giving you all this advice, and you’re playing for a little money, You’ve got to look at two things:

1. What’s the odds of them giving any advice that will help take their money?
2. What advice can they possibly give you if they play at the same levels you do?

The world is filled with people who want to give information on golf instruction. And with everything that’s out on the internet today, you can be a self-proclaimed expert, sitting behind the computer and reading all this stuff. And you may have an extensive knowledge of it, but you don’t have any practical application of it.

In all fairness to the 12-handicappers: There are 12-handicappers out that are supposedly professional teachers.

The big difference though, is teachers have “boots on the ground.” They’ve been out there for a long time. The average 12-handicapper, they play golf, and they don’t make a living out of teaching.

Ask him what exactly is different about 5SK from Stack and Tilt, and more importantly, why they essentially repackaged the same information. Ive heard that it had to do with recent understandings from the use of radar that Stack and Tilt produced a negative angle of attack and that was robbing driver distance. The most common perception of 5SK is that it is just Stack and Tilt relabeled with an advocation of hitting up with driver. – PutterKilledTheDream

5 Simple Keys is in no way the same thing as Stack & Tilt. There’s a actually a big [post] about it…on The Sandtrap. 5 Simple Keys is not a methodology at all. You can teach Jim McLean’s 8-Step Swing, Moe Norman’s Natural Golf, One-Plane, Two-plane…it doesn’t matter. The best players in all of those systems actually have those 5 Simple Keys.

We say, and we have measured, through the help of AMM and some other sources, that when you go back, that pressure is loading into that right side. And it’ll show anywhere from 60-to-70 percent into the right side at the top of the backswing while you’re maintaining what we’d refer to as a “centric pivot.” In other words, you’re head is not moving around. And then on the downswing, the pressure is ever-increasing into the left. We use multiple plane angles….it depends on the player.

So, some players might have their hands below their right shoulder at the top, and some players might have their hands above their right shoulder at the top. We use multiple different face paths and multiple exit locations where the club is post-impact.

While Stack & Tilt adheres to the 5 Simple Keys, it’s one swing. 5 Simple Keys encompasses every swing.

You’ve been in the industry for a long time. Can you talk about how golf instruction has changed since your started teaching?

We actually did a webinar last week called Old School vs. New School Teaching. In old school we used our eyes. We spent countless hours on the lesson tee and observing other teachers and the best players that were there at that time. Today with all the technology, a lot of teachers stand behind their computers and read numbers.

I think the advent of technology is great. But I think we lost sight of the fact that we still have to make our players better. And just because their numbers are better, doesn’t mean that they’re better. So, I think we need to go back to spending more time with the student on the golf course, instead of standing behind our computers and measuring. I mean, measurement is great. If you’re familiar with Six Sigma, the mantra…is “If you can’t measure it, you can’t fix it.” So I’m not against measurement. I think once you have a measurement, you have a baseline and you can start working from there based on the player’s goals.

I think instruction has gotten a little too technology-centered. Technology is great, but it’s overused in a lot of cases. If somebody can’t go to the lesson tee without Trackman or their FlightScope, there’s an issue.

Who is/was the greatest ballstriker of all time?

I think there are four: Hogan, Trevino, George Knudson and Moe Norman

What’s the ceiling on improvement for the average golfer (say a 20-25 handicap)? What are that golfer’s realistic prospects of playing scratch golf?

I think everyone has the potential to achieve anything they want to. The problem is having the work ethic to get it done. If you’re trying to go from 25 to scratch, first of all, that’s not going to happen overnight. And you can’t go to the range and hit balls for 30 minutes and think that you’re going to get better. It has to be much more of a combination of on-course…you need to learn how to score. The 25 handicap, if he had just a decent short game—let’s say they do half of what the PGA Tour average is from 100 yards and in—they’ll lower their handicap five-to-seven shots.

But I have found very few people who will take the time, and have the dedication, and work that hard to get it done. And their expectations based on their current ability don’t match most of the time.

It’s easy to get someone to break 100. It’s easy to get someone to break 90. It’s harder for them to break 80. And it is the toughest to get them to break par. So you take a 25 handicap: It’s real easy to get them down to where they can break 90.

You need to spend at least 70 percent of your time on the golf course, hitting different shots. Even if you can’t play the shots, attempt to hit it…and learn how to score…that’s what the guys on the PGA Tour are really good at. They all basically hit it the same from tee to green. It’s whoever scores best that wins the tournament.