Instruction

Faults and Fixes: Open Club Face at the Top

Published

7 years ago

Mar 8, 2017

This is the second article in our “Faults and Fixes” series with PGA Master Professional Dennis Clark. In this series, Dennis explains specific swing flaws and the method in which they should be fixed to produce the best long-term results.

Fault: Open Club Face at the Top

One of the most common swing faults I encounter with golfers is one where they tend to get the club face open at the top of the swing or even sooner. And if you look at the video at the top of this article, you’ll see a club face that is considered “open” at the top.

Note: Even a “square” face is actually 90 degrees open to the target at the top of the backswing, but the club face you see here is very open to the path/arc of that swing.

Now it’s true that the cause is the grip this golfer employs, as well as the “cup” or “extension” in his the lead wrist, but those problems should be dealt with later. Why? You’re watching at a golfer who fights a very severe hook. Yes, even with his open club face at the top he can hook the ball off the planet.

But just for a second, let’s pretend we started by correcting the club face at the top of his swing. What would happen? I can tell you, because this golfer was aware of his fault so he asked me to fix it. And when I corrected the club face for him, his shots barely got off the ground and dove hard left. Why? Because this golfer has learned to play what’s called “open-to-shut” golf. What that means is he has become adept at flipping the club closed into impact.

On my FlightScope, this golfer’s path measured +4 degrees (in to out) and his Boditrak center of pressure trace showed 65 percent of his pressure on his trail leg at impact. Basically, he was hanging back and flipping the club closed at impact.

So the two big problems for this golfer are his path and his inability to get through the golf ball. He is used to hooking the ball, so he has ingrained his move reflexively. That’s why I did not want to immediately correct his club face position. To do the correction in that sequence would make the problem worse, not better. Yes, his swing might look better on video, but as we saw his ball flight got worse.

So what to do?

In this case we worked on setting up a little open to the target and we moved the golf ball slightly forward. I also wanted him to feel his body rotate through the ball more. This correction took some hook out of the ball flight and enabled him to “finish” the shot, or follow through. Over time his swing actually started to produce the ball flight it should with an open club face at the top: a weak push/block to the right. Then we squared the face and the correction was complete.

Again, it’s critical to pay attention to impact before changing anything in a golf swing. It’s just like the previous Faults and Fixes article where we met a golfer with a plane that was too steep. It couldn’t be corrected until the student understood that his reaction to the flaw was the problem, not the flaw itself. This week’s student had to learn that his reaction to his open face was causing the swing flaw, not the open face itself. Once that was understood, he was (and still is) on his way!

If you’re interested in having me take a look at a video of your swing as part of my online instruction service, you can contact me at [email protected].

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Instruction

Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?

Published

2 weeks ago

Apr 24, 2024

Shawn Clement

Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!

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Instruction

The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic

Published

1 month ago

Mar 29, 2024

Terry Koehler

My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.

As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.

The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.

Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:

Mis-aligned hands

By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.

The position of the grip in the upper/left hand

I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.

To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.

Too much lower (right) hand on the club

It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.

Gripping too tightly

Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.

So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

Published

2 months ago

Mar 4, 2024

Shawn Clement

Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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