Instruction
How to hit shots higher or lower without changing your swing
The author, Scott Hamilton has created a comprehensive video series on his keys to hitting the driver. He has made the first seven videos of the series free to GolfWRX readers. You can check them out here or check out his website, OnTOURgolf.com.
—
I like my guys to hit their stock shots at a mid trajectory. That way, their stock shot is suited to work in most conditions and situations. It isn’t affected by the wind as much as a high trajectory, and doesn’t roll out as much as a low one. When a player uses a middle trajectory shot as their “go-to,” they don’t need to make a big swing change when they want to adjust their trajectory up or down.
What allows them to change trajectories is their ability to control the club’s dynamic loft through impact. Dynamic loft is different than the loft built into your clubs at the factory. That loft, measured when your clubs are in a vice, is known as static loft. Dynamic loft is different because it’s the actual amount of loft that is on the club at the moment it strikes the ball. It’s the main influence on how high or low you launch your shots, and what you should focus on if you want to change how high or low you hit it.
Changing trajectory isn’t only useful when you need to get under or over a tree, either. It’s a great skill to have to play with good strategy.
Consider when a hole is cut on the back of a green with water behind the flag. Hitting it in the water is the worst possible outcome. If you have to make birdie right then, the right choice is probably to try to hit the perfect shot and stuff it in there tight. If there’s a lot more golf to be played, however, it often makes more sense to take the chance of hitting it in the water totally out of play.
If the conditions allow, use a lower trajectory, land the ball short of the flag and chase it back to the hole. This strategy takes the water out of play, but still leaves open the possibility of getting it close. When you combine this skill with the ability to play off-speed golf (see my previous story), you can use the longer club that would normally bring the water into play, hit it soft and play smart.
No matter the reason you’ve decided to adjust your trajectory, the way I suggest you do it is the same. In the video above, I show you the simple method I teach my guys to use when they need to change their stock trajectory.
- LIKE81
- LEGIT10
- WOW2
- LOL3
- IDHT2
- FLOP5
- OB4
- SHANK52
Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
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!
- LIKE0
- LEGIT0
- WOW0
- LOL0
- IDHT0
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK1
Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
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.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
- LIKE86
- LEGIT13
- WOW6
- LOL1
- IDHT0
- FLOP4
- OB1
- SHANK8
Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
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?
- LIKE0
- LEGIT2
- WOW2
- LOL0
- IDHT0
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK2
-
19th Hole2 weeks ago
Dave Portnoy places monstrous outright bet for the 2024 Masters
-
19th Hole4 days ago
Justin Thomas on the equipment choice of Scottie Scheffler that he thinks is ‘weird’
-
19th Hole2 weeks ago
Tiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you
-
19th Hole3 days ago
‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
-
19th Hole2 weeks ago
Two star names reportedly blanked Jon Rahm all week at the Masters
-
19th Hole1 week ago
Report: LIV Golf identifies latest star name they hope to sign to breakaway tour
-
19th Hole2 weeks ago
Neal Shipley presser ends in awkward fashion after reporter claims Tiger handed him note on 8th fairway
-
19th Hole1 week ago
Brandel Chamblee has ‘no doubt’ who started the McIlroy/LIV rumor and why
Cons
Apr 9, 2016 at 5:30 pm
Scott-
Do you offset your high shots by closing stance?
Other Paul
Apr 6, 2016 at 9:08 pm
I dont know what all the shank votes are about. Nothing wrong with this. I thought it was well done.
Mitch
Apr 12, 2016 at 2:21 pm
Exactly. Every article has a bunch of Shanks and I don’t understand it either.
Philip
Apr 6, 2016 at 12:04 pm
Scott, could you put the PEAK height of the different flights in the article for us to know what the ball did? Looking at the numbers (normal – DL 24 / LA 19.8) (high – DL 26.6 / LA 20.3) (low – DL 23.8 LA 17.2), there doesn’t appear to that big a difference in dynamic loft, so are the peak heights fairly close? Looking at the differences: Normal-High DL +2.6 and LA +0.5, whereas Normal-Low DL -0.2 and LA -2.6, I suspect clubhead speed may be playing a large roll (wider stance = more backswing) versus (open stance = restricted backswing)? What do you think?
Scott Hamilton
Apr 6, 2016 at 10:17 pm
Good catch and question Phil. with a 2° change in dynamic loft, I’d expect a little more difference between the launch angles of the first and second shots. I must have hit down on the second one a bit more or maybe the first ball was a little wet. Usually changing dynamic loft 2° with an iron will change the launch by about 1.5°.
Philip
Apr 6, 2016 at 10:48 pm
Thanks for the reply. Another question. Is there any advantage to doing it your way to lower the ball flight versus taking a club extra and choking up on it? Would your way maintain the spin better to hold the green, for instance?
Jeff
Apr 6, 2016 at 10:46 am
Video would be great if it actually played.
Zak Kozuchowski
Apr 6, 2016 at 11:06 am
Our apologies, Jeff. We are currently working on fixing the issue. Please check back soon, and the issue should be resolved.
Zak Kozuchowski
Apr 6, 2016 at 11:14 am
It is fixed now. My apologies.