Opinion & Analysis
20 signs you’re a victim of style-based golf instruction
How can one explain how major championship winners like David Duval, Sandy Lyle, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Baker-Finch and Mike Weir (to name a few) all completely lost their games and were driven off the PGA Tour? The list of talented players, like these major winners, who tried to improve their games by changing their style of swing and only got worse is an unnecessary and long list.
Though I never won a major championship, I contended twice when I was 22, losing a seven-stroke lead in the third round of the British Open at Royal Troon and getting to within a stroke of the lead on the back nine on Sunday at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. After those losses, like so many before and after me, I blamed my style of swing. I thought my swing wasn’t good enough. I went to work to change it. I took lessons from style-based teachers, who were concerned with various body and club positions during the swing. I never contended for a major championship again and ultimately left the PGA Tour like David and Ian for a broadcasting career.
When I think back on that pivotal decision I made when I was 23 to change my style of swing, it makes me wonder now, what if? What if I had stayed with my old swing? What if I had worked with a coach who could have revealed to me how I was improving through measurable results? What if I had worked with a coach who would have let me keep my style of swing, isolated the variables of impact and focused on helping me improve those? What if I could have measured those improvements? I now know my career and countless others would have been saved and been even more successful.
Having recently retired from the PGA Champions Tour, where I played more than 200 pro-am events in my five-year career, it was evident to me that the leading cause of 4 million golfers quitting golf every year in the United States is not the cost or the time, but rather the FRUSTRATION. Like me and the before-mentioned major championship winners, so many of these 4 million golfers believed that by simply changing their style of swing they would play radically better golf. The style-changing lessons they invested in proved to be unsuccessful and their games never got better. Feeling like there’s nowhere to turn, so many of them simply put their clubs for sale on eBay and quit the game.
What exactly is “style-based” teaching? It’s a connect-the-dots approach to building your swing to achieve a certain look. One needs to have a certain grip, an exact posture at address, the club in specific positions at several check points on the backswing, a certain top of the backswing position, etc., etc., etc.
The only time “style-based” teaching can help your game is if and when it improves certain key aspects of your impact… but sadly it rarely does. Golfers can improve so much faster and more efficiently when they are able to isolate all the key variables of impact, measure them and work backward to modify elements of the swing solely for the purpose of improving their impact. Additionally, the mental or emotional state of all golfers is upgraded dramatically as a result of being inspired by the realization that their swing style is just fine. They begin to see tangible improvements both in their ball flight as well as in the key measurements occurring at impact.
Technology has now reached such heights in golf that we can zero-in on several critical measurements, offering very helpful insights regarding key performance indicators. Good teachers today know how to use this technology, how to measure impact and how to work backward from there to improve a golfer’s game by improving their impact variables.
Take a look at this picture of Dustin Johnson, Jim Furyk and Shane Lowery at the top of their backswings. Everything is different, from the right knee bends, hip rotations, spine angles, left-arm positions, right-elbow positions, left-wrist positions, club-face rotations, swing planes (both angled and shaft plane), and even where their heads are pointing.
The golf instruction faction hasn’t yet made the transition, meaning style-based teaching is still king of the teaching world. But ask yourself — how can one explain the fact golfers like Jim Furyk, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson and many of the great champions of yesterday such as Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Fuzzy Zoeller, Hubert Green, Jim Thorpe, Miller Barber and many more had styles of swings that differed greatly from one another and were quite unorthodox, yet all worked so well? The bottom line is that each of them created great impact conditions that were virtually all the same.
Here are the top 20 ways to know if you are currently a victim of style-based teaching:
- Your golf instructor asked you which PGA Tour player you think has the best swing. You may have even taken a golf lesson where the instructor placed your swing on a screen side-by-side your favorite player’s swing and revealed to you the style differences.
- Your golf instructor explains the many key check points of the swing and the proper position of the hands, body and club at each checkpoint. Some instructors even give these checkpoints numbers.
- Your golf instructor explains that proper posture at address is key to a bio-mechanically sound swing. A strong movement exists today of “style-based” instructors using the new buzzword “biomechanics” to suggest the perfect swing style.
- Your golf instructor explains one correct backswing plane. Many instructors lead their students to create the perfect backswing plane, but it’s interesting how many differing opinions exist about what is the perfect backswing plane. Some suggest the shaft points above the plane at the three-quarter backswing position, while others suggest that the shaft should point at or even inside the plane. How much the vertical plane should shift in the backswing is another point of discussion among style-based teachers.
- Your golf instructor suggests the best top of the backswing position of the arms, wrists, club shaft and/or face angle. Many instructors prioritize how the club should look at the top of the backswing, that is, the club face is square and the shaft is parallel to the ground and parallel to the target.
- Your golf instructor suggests the proper degrees that the hips should turn on the backswing. Or they talk about “The X Factor,” which advises golfers to limit their hip turn on their backswing.
- Your golf instructor suggests the Vardon Grip. Meanwhile, PGA Tour winners and major champions have use various grips: interlock, 10-finger and even reverse overlap.
- Your golf instructor suggests you “keep your head down.”
- Your golf instructor suggests you “keep your eye on the ball.”
- Your golf instructor suggests you “keep your left arm straight.”
- Your golf instructor suggests you “finish high.”
- Your golf instructor suggests your swing is “too fast.”
- Your golf instructor discusses your “face angle rotation” on your backswing.
- Your golf instructor wants you to swing the “Stack and Tilt” swing.
- Your golf instructor wants you to swing the “A Swing.”
- Your golf instructor wants you to swing the “Square-to-Square” swing.
- Your golf instructor wants you to swing the “Natural Golf” swing.
- Your golf instructor wants you to swing the “Gravity Golf” swing.
- Your golf instructor wants you to swing the “One-Plane or Two-Plane” swing.
- Your golf instructor never discusses how swing changes are going to affect your impact.
My adversaries suggest I am writing these articles for self-promotion. Those who know me know I write these articles because I want to help the game I love and that has given me so much. Style-based teaching is nebulous, arbitrary, subjective, opinion-based, un-factual, unfounded and unproven. Impact-Based teaching is fundamentally the opposite. It is precise, fact-based, measurable, objective and results driven. That is why I retired from the PGA Champions Tour and chose to pursue my passion of helping golfers and instructors understand that golf is not an enigma nor a mystery that style-based methods leave one to believe, but rather a game of impact that can be measured and improved.
Here’s to better impact!
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The PGA TOUR heads to New Orleans to play the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In a welcome change from the usual stroke play, the Zurich Classic is a team event. On Thursday and Saturday, the teams play best ball, and on Friday and Sunday the teams play alternate shot.
TPC Louisiana is a par 72 that measures 7,425 yards. The course features some short par 4s and plenty of water and bunkers, which makes for a lot of exciting risk/reward scenarios for competitors. Pete Dye designed the course in 2004 specifically for the Zurich Classic, although the event didn’t make its debut until 2007 because of Hurricane Katrina.
Coming off of the Masters and a signature event in consecutive weeks, the field this week is a step down, and understandably so. Many of the world’s top players will be using this time to rest after a busy stretch.
However, there are some interesting teams this season with some stars making surprise appearances in the team event. Some notable teams include Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala as well as a few Canadian teams, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners.
Past Winners at TPC Louisiana
- 2023: Riley/Hardy (-30)
- 2022: Cantlay/Schauffele (-29)
- 2021: Leishman/Smith (-20)
- 2019: Palmer/Rahm (-26)
- 2018: Horschel/Piercy (-22)
- 2017: Blixt/Smith (-27)
2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Picks
Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy +2500 (DraftKings)
Tom Hoge is coming off of a solid T18 finish at the RBC Heritage and finished T13 at last year’s Zurich Classic alongside Harris English.
This season, Hoge is having one of his best years on Tour in terms of Strokes Gained: Approach. In his last 24 rounds, the only player to top him on the category is Scottie Scheffler. Hoge has been solid on Pete Dye designs, ranking 28th in the field over his past 36 rounds.
McNealy is also having a solid season. He’s finished T6 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and T9 at the PLAYERS Championship. He recently started working with world renowned swing coach, Butch Harmon, and its seemingly paid dividends in 2024.
Keith Mitchell/Joel Dahmen +4000 (DraftKings)
Keith Mitchell is having a fantastic season, finishing in the top-20 of five of his past seven starts on Tour. Most recently, Mitchell finished T14 at the Valero Texas Open and gained a whopping 6.0 strokes off the tee. He finished 6th at last year’s Zurich Classic.
Joel Dahmen is having a resurgent year and has been dialed in with his irons. He also has a T11 finish at the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass which is another Pete Dye track. With Mitchell’s length and Dahmen’s ability to put it close with his short irons, the Mitchell/Dahmen combination will be dangerous this week.
Taylor Moore/Matt NeSmith +6500 (DraftKings)
Taylor Moore has quickly developed into one of the more consistent players on Tour. He’s finished in the top-20 in three of his past four starts, including a very impressive showing at The Masters, finishing T20. He’s also finished T4 at this event in consecutive seasons alongside Matt NeSmith.
NeSmith isn’t having a great 2024, but has seemed to elevate his game in this format. He finished T26 at Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, which gives the 30-year-old something to build off of. NeSmith is also a great putter on Bermudagrass, which could help elevate Moore’s ball striking prowess.
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After having four of the top twelve players on the leaderboard at The Masters, LIV Golf is set for their fifth event of the season: LIV Adelaide.
For both LIV fans and golf fans in Australia, LIV Adelaide is one of the most anticipated events of the year. With 35,000 people expected to attend each day of the tournament, the Grange Golf Club will be crawling with fans who are passionate about the sport of golf. The 12th hole, better known as “the watering hole”, is sure to have the rowdiest of the fans cheering after a long day of drinking some Leishman Lager.
The Grange Golf Club is a par-72 that measures 6,946 yards. The course features minimal resistance, as golfers went extremely low last season. In 2023, Talor Gooch shot consecutive rounds of 62 on Thursday and Friday, giving himself a gigantic cushion heading into championship Sunday. Things got tight for a while, but in the end, the Oklahoma State product was able to hold off The Crushers’ Anirban Lahiri for a three-shot victory.
The Four Aces won the team competition with the Range Goats finishing second.
*All Images Courtesy of LIV Golf*
Past Winners at LIV Adelaide
- 2023: Talor Gooch (-19)
Stat Leaders Through LIV Miami
Green in Regulation
- Richard Bland
- Jon Rahm
- Paul Casey
Fairways Hit
- Abraham Ancer
- Graeme McDowell
- Henrik Stenson
Driving Distance
- Bryson DeChambeau
- Joaquin Niemann
- Dean Burmester
Putting
- Cameron Smith
- Louis Oosthuizen
- Matt Jones
2024 LIV Adelaide Picks
Cameron Smith +1400 (DraftKings)
When I pulled up the odds for LIV Adelaide, I was more than a little surprised to see multiple golfers listed ahead of Cameron Smith on the betting board. A few starts ago, Cam finished runner-up at LIV Hong Kong, which is a golf course that absolutely suits his eye. Augusta National in another course that Smith could roll out of bed and finish in the top-ten at, and he did so two weeks ago at The Masters, finishing T6.
At Augusta, he gained strokes on the field on approach, off the tee (slightly), and of course, around the green and putting. Smith able to get in the mix at a major championship despite coming into the week feeling under the weather tells me that his game is once again rounding into form.
The Grange Golf Club is another course that undoubtedly suits the Australian. Smith is obviously incredibly comfortable playing in front of the Aussie faithful and has won three Australian PGA Championship’s. The course is very short and will allow Smith to play conservative off the tee, mitigating his most glaring weakness. With birdies available all over the golf course, there’s a chance the event turns into a putting contest, and there’s no one on the planet I’d rather have in one of those than Cam Smith.
Louis Oosthuizen +2200 (DraftKings)
Louis Oosthuizen has simply been one of the best players on LIV in the 2024 seas0n. The South African has finished in the top-10 on the LIV leaderboard in three of his five starts, with his best coming in Jeddah, where he finished T2. Perhaps more impressively, Oosthuizen finished T7 at LIV Miami, which took place at Doral’s “Blue Monster”, an absolutely massive golf course. Given that Louis is on the shorter side in terms of distance off the tee, his ability to play well in Miami shows how dialed he is with the irons this season.
In addition to the LIV finishes, Oosthuizen won back-to-back starts on the DP World Tour in December at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Mauritus Open. He also finished runner-up at the end of February in the International Series Oman. The 41-year-old has been one of the most consistent performers of 2024, regardless of tour.
For the season, Louis ranks 4th on LIV in birdies made, T9 in fairways hit and first in putting. He ranks 32nd in driving distance, but that won’t be an issue at this short course. Last season, he finished T11 at the event, but was in decent position going into the final round but fell back after shooting 70 while the rest of the field went low. This season, Oosthuizen comes into the event in peak form, and the course should be a perfect fit for his smooth swing and hot putter this week.
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Of all the clubs in our bags, wedges are almost always the simplest in construction and, therefore, the easiest to analyze what might make one work differently from another if you know what to look for.
Wedges are a lot less mysterious than drivers, of course, as the major brands are working with a lot of “pixie dust” inside these modern marvels. That’s carrying over more to irons now, with so many new models featuring internal multi-material technologies, and almost all of them having a “badge” or insert in the back to allow more complex graphics while hiding the actual distribution of mass.
But when it comes to wedges, most on the market today are still single pieces of molded steel, either cast or forged into that shape. So, if you look closely at where the mass is distributed, it’s pretty clear how that wedge is going to perform.
To start, because of their wider soles, the majority of the mass of almost any wedge is along the bottom third of the clubhead. So, the best wedge shots are always those hit between the 2nd and 5th grooves so that more mass is directly behind that impact. Elite tour professionals practice incessantly to learn to do that consistently, wearing out a spot about the size of a penny right there. If impact moves higher than that, the face is dramatically thinner, so smash factor is compromised significantly, which reduces the overall distance the ball will fly.
Every one of us, tour players included, knows that maddening shot that we feel a bit high on the face and it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s not your fault.
If your wedges show a wear pattern the size of a silver dollar, and centered above the 3rd or 4th groove, you are not getting anywhere near the same performance from shot to shot. Robot testing proves impact even two to three grooves higher in the face can cause distance loss of up to 35 to 55 feet with modern ‘tour design’ wedges.
In addition, as impact moves above the center of mass, the golf club principle of gear effect causes the ball to fly higher with less spin. Think of modern drivers for a minute. The “holy grail” of driving is high launch and low spin, and the driver engineers are pulling out all stops to get the mass as low in the clubhead as possible to optimize this combination.
Where is all the mass in your wedges? Low. So, disregarding the higher lofts, wedges “want” to launch the ball high with low spin – exactly the opposite of what good wedge play requires penetrating ball flight with high spin.
While almost all major brand wedges have begun putting a tiny bit more thickness in the top portion of the clubhead, conventional and modern ‘tour design’ wedges perform pretty much like they always have. Elite players learn to hit those crisp, spinny penetrating wedge shots by spending lots of practice time learning to consistently make contact low in the face.
So, what about grooves and face texture?
Grooves on any club can only do so much, and no one has any material advantage here. The USGA tightly defines what we manufacturers can do with grooves and face texture, and modern manufacturing techniques allow all of us to push those limits ever closer. And we all do. End of story.
Then there’s the topic of bounce and grinds, the most complex and confusing part of the wedge formula. Many top brands offer a complex array of sole configurations, all of them admittedly specialized to a particular kind of lie or turf conditions, and/or a particular divot pattern.
But if you don’t play the same turf all the time, and make the same size divot on every swing, how would you ever figure this out?
The only way is to take any wedge you are considering and play it a few rounds, hitting all the shots you face and observing the results. There’s simply no other way.
So, hopefully this will inspire a lively conversation in our comments section, and I’ll chime in to answer any questions you might have.
And next week, I’ll dive into the rest of the wedge formula. Yes, shafts, grips and specifications are essential, too.
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19th Hole2 weeks agoDave Portnoy places monstrous outright bet for the 2024 Masters
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19th Hole2 weeks agoTiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you
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19th Hole1 day ago‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
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19th Hole3 weeks agoReport: Tiger Woods has ‘eliminated sex’ in preparation for the 2024 Masters
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19th Hole1 week agoTwo star names reportedly blanked Jon Rahm all week at the Masters
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19th Hole1 week agoReport: LIV Golf identifies latest star name they hope to sign to breakaway tour
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19th Hole1 week agoNeal Shipley presser ends in awkward fashion after reporter claims Tiger handed him note on 8th fairway
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Jim
May 15, 2018 at 8:39 pm
Clampett is a disciple of Homer Kelley’s yellow TGM book…. the nuttiest book on the golf swing ever. He doesn’t want to publicly admit it but his instruction reeks with TGM.
Sean Lee
Apr 30, 2018 at 10:07 pm
Do not try to make you look special by telling non sense like this. PGA guys have more things in common when compared among themselves than to club golfers. World of golf instruction already has too much bs in it and it’s not even funny.
Jack
Apr 28, 2018 at 7:33 pm
Bobby, I loved your book, and this article is spot on! I believe that most average golfers really have no idea how the club moves through the ball in a really good golf swing. Most golfers are trying to hit the back of the ball square on, instead of the inside of the ball while release ing the clubhead. That is why almost every club level golfer is steep, over the top, and hits a slice.
Dan
Apr 27, 2018 at 10:40 am
I think this article is biased towards a better player. When you are talking about a player that already hits it pretty well and finds the center of the face most of the time I agree with most of what is said here. But when you are teaching older people, beginners, or some not as talented, posture and body positions play a huge role in finding the center of the club face or good impact position. I do not believe that there is any one template or style for all players but if their posture is bad and they can not maintain their posture while swinging, they need a style or template to follow. The key is choosing the correct one for the player.
Sherwin
Apr 26, 2018 at 9:29 am
My game improved 100% when I met my current instructor whom help me focus solely on what I want the ball to do. Which, in turn, forces the club into different positions to produce the desired results. Who cares how your swing looks, it is the results that matter.
Bobby is right!
ochowie
Apr 23, 2018 at 3:32 pm
If players can consistently achieve the optimal impact point regardless of the remainder of their swing they probably don’t need lessons from you.
Kess
Apr 16, 2018 at 1:59 pm
I like the point of the article but not necessarily the article itself. I have never taken a lesson but I was struggling to break 90 and read Impact Zone and that changed my game to where I’m breaking 80 and rarely see the 90’s. My main take aways were knowing my lead wrist position at impact and bottoming my swing in front of the ball. I also read Hogan’s book and it was OK but didn’t help much. Read Nicklaus’s book and had to put it down because my swing was getting wrecked. Knock Clampett all you want but the truth is mileage may vary with any instruction so it’s just about finding what works for you.
Orin
Apr 16, 2018 at 2:28 pm
Thank you Bobby Clampett PR department for that enlightening bit of propaganda. By chance, is there any discount offered to Golf WRX members?
Bobby Clampett
Apr 16, 2018 at 4:55 pm
Yes, there is a discount for Golf WRX members as long as their name isn’t Orin.
Warwick Weedon
Apr 19, 2018 at 5:24 am
Well said!!
Sherwin
Apr 26, 2018 at 9:26 am
Brilliant response!
Dale Owens
Apr 16, 2018 at 1:46 pm
Hal Sutton calls it chasing perfect. It has ruined many a talented golfer.
Orin
Apr 16, 2018 at 2:32 pm
But if you are ranked 125th on the tour your game and your swing need first aid… or it’s back to the mini-tours.
Adkskibum
Apr 16, 2018 at 5:44 pm
Yeah, well then maybe you just aren’t good enough. You’re good, but maybe it isn’t your swing. It’s your head, your heart, your guts, your nerve. There are lots of golfers with “pretty” swings who are also rans. Can you get the ball in the hole in crunch time? That’s the measure
RS
Apr 28, 2018 at 1:56 pm
If you’ve made it to 125th on tour then you have a fine swing. At that point it’s a split between subtle putting work and the mental game. The rest HAS to be good to get anywhere near 125th on tour.
Jack Nash
Apr 16, 2018 at 1:23 pm
I don’t worry about Clampett’s impact zone. I just worry about, “do I have enough cigars, and beers in the cooler”, then go out and have fun. Thinking too much out there causes brain cramps. If you can’t have a bit of fun out there try another game.
joro
Apr 16, 2018 at 1:05 pm
A great Golf Instructor, AKA Butch Harmon, take what you have and makes it work. These “Gurus” are great because they had the opportunity to work with great players who made the Instructors “great”. not the other way around. How many times have players won a Major and then gone to a “Guru” not to be heard of again. As Si Ri Pak said after going to Leadbetter, “it took him a couple of Months to set me back 2 years”, she was smart enough to get out. As Haney once said about what he did with Tiger, “I would watch him hit a ball and say nice shot all day” These guys and many others like them teach what they know, not what the student needs, and that applies to a lot of PGA Teachers also.
If you want a good lesson go to someone who teaches what you need, not just changing your swing to clone someone else.
Orin
Apr 16, 2018 at 2:30 pm
But I love Tiger and I want his swing, his clothes, his clubs, his balls, his teeth, etc..
joro
Apr 18, 2018 at 10:06 am
That’s great but he would probably dump you in time for a Blond Waffle House waitress. : )
GetRichOrTyTryon
Apr 16, 2018 at 12:45 pm
Age, athleticism, body type and coordination also being major contributing factors. Golf Tech can get you so left brain(or is it right) that it’s difficult to pull the trigger out on the course. If I can save anyone time and strokes don’t play golf swing on the course, play golf.
Orin
Apr 16, 2018 at 2:34 pm
Play play play play …. how about ‘perform’…. 😮
Bob Jones
Apr 16, 2018 at 11:58 am
I have figured out how to make a golf swing work which takes into account my size, body shape, flexibility, and habitus. There are “flawed” movements in my swing that I do because that’s just what happens when I swing a golf club. I tried to take them out, and that made things worse, so I learned how to make them work FOR me. The result is that I hit the ball very straight and get reasonable distance for a guy in his late 60s. I don’t analyze any more. I just play.
Boyo
Apr 16, 2018 at 12:58 pm
You are Bob Jones. What would anyone expect?
Dennis
Apr 15, 2018 at 2:39 pm
Great article! I see the collage players at the range all looking like clones of each other. There is evidence that today’s golf instruction is one cause of so many golf injuries.
Steve Wozeniak
Apr 15, 2018 at 11:25 am
HILARIOUS coming from the MOST “style” based instructor in the game……my god……
99 percent of people that come away from this guys “schools” are more confused then when they came in…….
Hey nice try though Bob……
ogo
Apr 15, 2018 at 7:24 pm
Haven’t you figured it out yet?!! All the duffers just want to brag to their golfing buddies that they were at somebody’s golf school and the “feeel a lot better now about their golf swing” (if only they could think about everything they “learned”). 😀
Andrew Wood
Apr 16, 2018 at 7:36 am
I have taken lessons from a dozen of the top 50 instructors and the Impact zone golf school I took last month made more sense than any of them. In am striking the ball far better than I did a decade ago when I was off scratch and have the clearest undestanding ever of how to improve and get back there. When the student is ready then Master will appear!
farmer
Apr 25, 2018 at 1:26 pm
A TGM guy from the jump, who criticizes “numbered positions” in the swing? Considering good posture and a proper grip to be a bad thing? You have to have some fundamentals to achieve good impact. Good impact position is a result of good mechanics, however they may be defined.
ogo
Apr 15, 2018 at 10:22 am
WOW!!!!! This article has topped the WRX website for 2 days!!! I bet the desperate gearheads are flocking to Clampett’s Impact-Based® Academy to find out how to make their WITB fancy clubs work on the golf course. 😛
Tom Duckworth
Apr 15, 2018 at 10:11 am
He makes some good points but overall I don’t agree. Getting to a good position at impact is important and some people can have any kind of back swing and they make the corrections on the way down and have great impact. Having clean mechanics can make that easier. I do think some swing styles have hurt people the X Factor swing can be very hard on your back.
Simple is better and safety and ease on the body should always be considered.
I also very strongly disagree with SteveK I’m 62 and getting better week by week I still take lessons and still work on my game and I’m a pretty good golfer. I didn’t pick up a club until I was 25. I was also told at the time by a crusty old instructor that tall people can never be good at golf. That was right after he asked me if I could make the ball curve left and right and I did both on my first try.
If you think you can’t get any better after a certain age you may as well hang up your clubs.
ogo
Apr 15, 2018 at 10:30 am
Congratulations, Tom… your inspiring story just confirms that commitment to golf will overcome inherent physical problems such as being too tall and too slim. Do you have an athletic background before taking up golf at age 25? Obviously you don’t carry a pot belly like most older rec golfers.
Carlos Danger
Apr 14, 2018 at 7:54 pm
I must disagree. Golftec has fixed so many flaws I had in my swing (over the top, casting, balance) and my instructor encourages my own move, not a copy if a tour player. Sure, we look at things they all do, but not to copy exactly…
Also, the 20 point list is garbage. Overall, just a poorly written article.
Devyn Ensign
Apr 14, 2018 at 11:54 pm
Absolutely agreed. That 20 point list is hilarious… clearly trying to discredit others methods. Just a terrible article
Kyle johnson
Apr 21, 2018 at 1:33 am
Devyn ensign, your comment should not be taken seriously considering you can’t even spell Devin correctly.
Caroline
Apr 15, 2018 at 12:05 am
So funny, Golftec gave you just what Mr. Clampett is talking about, everything they were fixing in your swing was what YOU needed to get proper impact…you had years of doing the wrong things built up trying to get to impact…..amazing now you know how? (Maybe) think about it had you started by working on impact you may have saved a lot of money because you would have known which faults you had were not getting you to impact correctly….
OG
Apr 15, 2018 at 1:18 am
You should have had an MRI in addition to the Golftec experience… just to cover all bases … 😀
OG
Apr 15, 2018 at 1:19 am
Golftec plus an MRI would have likely cured your many flaws … 😎
Jonathan
Apr 17, 2018 at 9:22 am
My experience with Golftec was totally different. Conceptually, it seemed to make sense. However, in practice the Golftec method is only as good as the instructors. Over several years i worked with at least 5 Golftec instructors, including two site managers. Only one of those was an actual PGA pro (he didn’t stay long with Golftec). These guys were all slaves to the numbers. When they got away from the numbers, their comments were often contradictory from lesson to lesson, between each other and to the sacred numbers.
Look, I am not defending or supporting everything that is in the Clampett article. Find an actual teaching pro that will take the time to work with your swing characteristics, your body type, your athletic ability and them work with you to develop a repeating swing that fits you, not some ideal.
Rich
Apr 14, 2018 at 5:07 pm
It’s just a way to hook a weak mind into a robotic method intending to make a “perfect”mechanical like swing which there is no such swing..Swing the stick,hit the ball ! What ever works, doesn’t have to be a picture “pretty”thing.
Learn what control is and how to use it. Strong of mind,sound body, confidence, DO IT!!!
OG
Apr 15, 2018 at 1:05 am
The Clampett Robotic Method is founded by that great book “The Golfing Machine” by that equally great swing guru “Homer (Duh) Kelley”. If you haven’t attempted to read this yellow book, don’t, because it’s total rubbish.
Dave Tutelman
Apr 16, 2018 at 7:12 am
I have read Clampett’s book. I have read Kelley’s book. They have nothing whatsoever to do with each other.
ViagrGolfer
May 3, 2018 at 12:37 pm
But Clampett was pimping TGM as the best thing since slicing balls.
larry
Apr 14, 2018 at 4:02 pm
terrible article. proper impact happens due to a good swing you can’t try and force a good impact position.
Caroline
Apr 15, 2018 at 12:07 am
Good thing you never told Moe Norman that….
OG
Apr 15, 2018 at 1:13 am
Moe (r.i.p.) was an obsessive-compulsive ball beater.
Todd Dugan
Apr 14, 2018 at 2:29 pm
We can have our cake and eat it too. Teachers should continue to enjoy the freedom to teach whatever they want. The measure of success is simple; Is the student striking the ball better, yes or no? Measuring impact conditions is the best way to tell. When you measure impact, you measure performance. Is the impact location closer to center? Are the path and face closer to what is required for the desired ball flight? Don’t tell a student they’re going to get worse before they get better. Teach a student to strike the ball better…NOW!
Orin
Apr 16, 2018 at 2:39 pm
Yup… because if you told your student the truth, like lose about 50+lbs. off your belly, you would starve as a teacher. So just give the duffers astrological hope and send them home to try to figure out what they learned in their HEAD…!!!!
EismanGolfAcademy
Apr 14, 2018 at 10:26 am
Well I got a full schedule of “victims” today on the lesson tee, can’t wait to go out there and just say nothing to them but measure impact. So let’s not discuss your face in the takeaway or wrist conditions and hopefully that -12.6 path cleans up on its on. Let’s not discuss how the body moves and tilts and see if that vert plane angle of 66 degrees with a driver just miraculously fixes itself. Mr. Clampett with all due respect closing the door on open discussion of the swing and calling people victims is what’s wrong with golf instruction. Telling some brilliant minds of the game that their “style” is wrong… is saying that they are uneducated in their profession. Maybe it’s not right for some and maybe some instructors don’t communicate it well, but keeping things simple in a complex movement is robbing students of knowledge on how to improve. Best of luck for those believers. Will always appreciate your opinion but a better understanding and “proof” of why these styles are wrong would have been a better article.
OG
Apr 15, 2018 at 1:16 am
The game of golf and instruction is a shrinking market… unless somebody wants to know why their WITB set of PXGs just don’t perform as advertised … 😮
Andrew Cooper
Apr 14, 2018 at 9:48 am
Knowing where you want to be at impact is important, but there also has to be some understanding of how to get there. In many ways what shows up at impact, good or bad, is the result of what’s gone before. Impact is just one split second moment within the whole motion, and the club will be travelling at +100mph. You can’t consciously place your club and body in a correct impact position. Also, fixating over impact can lead to hitting at the ball, rather than through and past the ball-a big difference between pros and ams.
DJ Morris
Apr 14, 2018 at 5:43 am
Forget all these positions and what makes a golfer successful, it all comes down to 3 things that the best players in the world all have in common: 1) They take one side of the course out of play. 2) Their swings repeat 3) They have an undeniable belief in themselves.
I roomed with Jim Furyk on the AJGA Tour and have known him since I was 15 and he was made fun of when he first came on tour, but the one thing Jim never stopped doing was believing in himself. Now he has the 4th most earnings ever in professional golf, so who is laughing now:
Jim Furyk
Earnings: $67,977,577
Major championships: 2003 U.S. Open
PGA Tour wins: 17
Lowest score on the PGA Tour: 58
BTW, he is a great guy and is as humble today as he was 35 years ago. I actually roomed with him the year he broke through with his game and won on the AJGA Tour.
SteveK
Apr 14, 2018 at 12:34 pm
… and 4) Their neuro-muscular system is hard-wired, from childhood, resulting in a generally repeating swing. If you start golf in your pre-teens, your brain is engrammed with golfswing circuitry. If you attempt to learn as a mature adult it’s unlikely you will succeed.
SteveK
Apr 14, 2018 at 12:46 pm
4) Their neuro-muscular system is hard-wired from childhood resulting in a repeating swing. Starting golf in your pre-teens, your brain is engrammed with golfswing circuitry. If you attempt to learn as a mature adult success is unlikely.
steve s
Apr 16, 2018 at 12:09 pm
“Their neuro-muscular system is hard-wired from childhood resulting in a repeating swing. Starting golf in your pre-teens, your brain is engrammed with golfswing circuitry. If you attempt to learn as a mature adult success is unlikely.”
Nonsense. If you have any athletic ability at all you can learn to play the game. One of my playing partners is an ex-college tennis player. He started golf at 44. He now plays to a 12 handicap and occasionally breaks 80. He loves the game and practices often. A little athletic ability and desire is all you need.
Way
Apr 14, 2018 at 3:06 am
It’s true that getting the impact correct is an important factor in hitting the ball well; but the fact is, there are ways to get to that delivery mechanism to work, as people are all different with different anatomies and such – and the styles of movement might actually be even more important to get the body to get to the impact using each unique delivery mechanism for the strike, and therefore you cannot just dismiss any of this list at all in any way, shape or form, because it might be that, just one of those is enough to make it work for that one particular person.
So Mr Clampett, with all due respect, don’t be so dismissive. You have to have an open mind.
OG
Apr 15, 2018 at 1:23 am
The “delivery mechanism” starts at the feet and then progresses upwards to the shoulders which fling the arms, hands and club towards the ball. Of course starting at the clubhead is a lot simpler for feeble minded golfers in distress.
Ray McNamee
Apr 14, 2018 at 2:56 am
The entire 20 points trashed Leadbetter and a few others. I took lessons 25 years ago from the #1 teacher in golf and was told to let the “ball get in the way” of the swing. It took a year to learn and it was over in 3-4 years. I lost 25 yards off the tee and at least a full club in the irons. My experience is that the best ideas are from Joe Dante and Ben Hogan. The hands must set/hinge in a consistent manner in order to be square at impact, the weight must shift to the right on the backswing with a full shoulder turn and begin to move forward before the backswing is complete. The club should return to the address plane as close as possible at impact and the right side should continue through to a finish. Sounds like any athletic movement. Take it back with the left, shift and crush it with the right. It’s only worked for about 500 years… so far. And it doesn’t matter what it looks like.
Way
Apr 14, 2018 at 3:07 am
Nope.
SteveK
Apr 14, 2018 at 12:42 am
All forces and torques generated in the golfswing are ultimately felt between your feet and the ground via the shoe soles. Your swing mechanics style is dependent on your body physique. If you are weak and inconsistent at your feet your golfswing right into impact will suffer immeasurably…. believe it.
Rod Clarke
Apr 13, 2018 at 10:35 pm
Last year at Arnold Palmer Inivitational, there was a ceremonial drive by all the players in deference to the King. Players all lined up and drove a ball on the driving range. The tv coverage showed the players, were of all sizes, had different swing speeds and swings but had one thing in common and that was their setup at ball impact. It was amazing to see the consistency at impact. Get a video of your swing at impact and match it against those of scratch golfers and you’ll have something worthwhile to work on.
Way
Apr 14, 2018 at 3:25 am
You’re being deluded by what’s called “geometrical-optical illusions” that they all appear to be the same of some form and our psychology wanting to make them all collectively the same, because you are stopping the image at only the moment of impact and disregarding the rest of the motion of swing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometrical-optical_illusions#Examples_of_geometrical-optical_Illusions
Besides, if you take away the rest of the other aspects of the swing, then all you do see if the shaft with a clubhead at impact hitting a ball. That’s all golf is, a stick with a metal slab or block of some shape hitting a round ball and moving it forward. But the fact that the swings, the delivery mechanisms, are all different, are as profound as how every human’s personality is as different as his anatomy. That’s more important than realizing that the impacts are all the same, because the person has to figure out a way to get to that impact with force and speed
Dave Tutelman
Apr 16, 2018 at 7:18 am
Exactly, Way! And the drills in Clampett’s book are about impact, not about where you are at P4 or P6 or whether you “crossed the line” at transition. There are lots of ways to get there, and he recognizes that.
Matt
Apr 13, 2018 at 8:20 pm
Says the guy selling golf instruction and books. The idea that impact can be isolated and worked on while ignoring the prior contributing motions is nonsense.
Way
Apr 14, 2018 at 3:26 am
Bingo
SteveK
Apr 14, 2018 at 12:42 pm
Bobby and all the PGA-certified teachers would go out of business if they told all the decrepit rec golfers seeking an instant cure for their many golfswing problems that their bodies are uncoordinated and intensive gym work is necessary.
ogo
Apr 13, 2018 at 6:09 pm
Read: The LAWs of the Golf Swing: Body-Type Your Swing and Master Your Game by Jim Suttie, Mike Adams, and T.J. Tomasi
ogo
Apr 13, 2018 at 6:00 pm
Bobby forgot to mention that his downfall began after reading Homer Kelley’s TGM (The Golfing Machine) and believing it! 😮
David Aceto
Apr 13, 2018 at 5:43 pm
i have tried every swing type ledbetter ballard chuck hogan eddie merrins and i still struggle except when i do the feet together drill i really compress the ball and actually hit it the same yardages go figure
ogo
Apr 13, 2018 at 6:06 pm
Have you tried: “The LAWs of the Golf Swing: Body-Type Your Swing and Master Your Game
Book by Jim Suttie, Mike Adams, and T.J. Tomasi” ?
Google it.
george
Apr 13, 2018 at 4:44 pm
“golfers are paying very dearly to learn useless check lists but they are not learning how to play the game of golf. Proof of the true fundamentals of motion will forever eliminate the check lists..
…… There is a place and a need for check lists but not in golf! Hope this helps some.” Gerry Hogan Copyright © all rights reserved October 2009
http://forums.iseekgolf.com/topic/31955-ask-gerry-hogan/page-3
george
Apr 13, 2018 at 4:47 pm
so no check lists, whether about positions or impact
are of any value, without the understanding of the true fundamentals of motion.
Henkedejk
Apr 13, 2018 at 4:23 pm
Interesting article. I practice without a coach and thus I tend to focus on impact and ballflight rather than angles, look and such.
Can you suggest where ro read more on impact focused training, perhaps also find good drills.
Thanks,
timbo929
Apr 13, 2018 at 11:17 pm
the practice manual- Adam young
Luke Demaree
Apr 13, 2018 at 3:03 pm
I couldn’t agree with this article more. used to do the adam scott/rory mcilroy finish and it looked fantastic! Too bad my shot would slice so far right i scrambled every hole. it wasn’t until i was told about impact that i started playing good golf shots. my swing (and my scores) will never be compared to a PGA pro but the shots i hit are significantly better now that they were when i cared about swing style.
Jim Donegan
Apr 13, 2018 at 3:01 pm
I see points in the article that are relatable from lessons I received at Golftec. I always felt they tried too hard to teach me a singular correct way to swing, not using my natural swing at all. Wish I could afford attending his golf school!
Sean Foster-Nolan
Apr 13, 2018 at 2:46 pm
I like the article. I always thought the swing was about impact…it doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you do, as opposed obsessing over all that other “stuff”. I also think it was Arnold Palmer who said you don’t hit the ball with your back swing.
Rob Pfeil
Apr 13, 2018 at 1:43 pm
I remember being taught that my club face at the top of the swing needed to be inline with the target and not shut (as I have always done). It single handedly ruined my golf game and led me to getting burnout when I was in high school.
I have yet to see a swing on the PGA Tour that has the face square to the target. It has absolutely no bearing on what you do the rest of the swing. In fact, to get to that position, you have to completely change how your wrists are from the beginning of your swing and then get back to that point at impact. It’s wasted energy. Since then, I’ve tried to go to a few different teachers and each time they start off with one of the things in this list of 20 and I immediately check out and never go back.
The source of this problem (in regards to the elite pro’s/amateur’s) is that everyone thinks they don’t hit it good enough. But watch a pro play 18 holes and tell me how many shots they hit perfect with the expectations you give yourself in a round? I see pro’s hit a wedge to 20 feet and move on like it’s nothing. I see guys at my course do the same and they are slamming clubs and pissed they didn’t hit it to 2 feet.
The problem isn’t how people hit the ball, it’s what you do inside 100 yards, putting, and mental game.
Bill
Jan 28, 2020 at 5:52 pm
Dear Rob – this is probably the greatest comment I have ever read on any golf board. period. and I have probably read thousands and thousands. thank you for this.
TigerMom
Apr 13, 2018 at 12:10 pm
The 20 point list is a little unfair. It depends on what the player is currently doing that is leading to a problematic swing. If you are correcting that issue, fine. It’s another thing to try to remold the swing into some preconceived package — this I disagree with.
Michael
Apr 13, 2018 at 12:07 pm
I wish I’d been taught this 30 years ago. I’ve been wasting time working on finding the right body mechanics and tempo (when I found it I called it ‘mojo’ because it was unexplainable and fleeting) instead of focusing on impacting the middle of the clubface and the ground correctly. I’m hitting so much better now, finally, after spending some time with impact tape and watching divot patterns.