| Newsletter: Tain Golf
Club Links
Title: Tain Golf Club Links/Swing Capability
Envelope/Swing Balance/"rolling hands"
Scottish Courses
Tain Golf Links - Tom Morris's "Northern Jewel"
During the time I spent at university in Glasgow I
used to travel often to the North of Scotland to a little town called
Tain to visit family.
Tain is located on the far North East coast of
Scotland about 3 hours drive from Glasgow and has one of the finest
“unknown” links courses in all of Scotland.
 Nestled below the Royal
Burgh of Tain that
overlooks the course and the Dornoch Firth, the surrounding scenery of
the course is truly magnificent.
Designed by Old Tom Morris of Saint Andrews in 1890
and regarded as his "Northern Jewel",
Tain
Golf Club is a beauty of a links course that includes one of
Tom's finest par three designs in the country. (Photo
Gallery)
Ever heard of Tain? Probably not. However, some of
you may have closer connections with Tain than you think.
If any of you enjoy a good “Scotch”, no doubt you
will have sampled a smooth single malt whiskey called
Glenmorangie. The
distillery for this great whisky is located on the outskirts of Tain.
If you have not sampled this Scottish icon, you
have yet to enjoy one of the best malt whiskeys in the world.
Tain is located in the true highlands of Scotland,
surrounded by wild and beautiful countryside that has seen modest
development and changed very little over many years that are rich in
Scottish history.
Coming to the Highlands from lowland Scotland is
like coming to another country. The accents of the area are very
different and the people are relaxed and very friendly.
Overseas visitors are always made very welcome. In
fact, many of the courses in the area, have a high proportion of
overseas members, partly because during the summer months the area sees
a lot of tourists, many of whom are golfers.
The high overseas memberships are also partly due
to the “golf weeks” run by many of the highland courses during the
summer. These are wonderful events that consist of “open” tournaments
for players of all levels run over the week that bring visiting golfers
back every year from all over the world.
The golf course at Tain looks across the scenic
Dornoch Firth that can create strong windy conditions that are typical
of East coast courses.
The back nine holes are in my opinion the best with
the scene of the ancient town overlooking the course from high up the
hill and the firth to your right.
As you step onto the tee of Tom Morris's
spectacular par three 17th and marvel at the scenery of the
hole, you suddenly realize see you could be taking driver on a windy day
and still have trouble clearing the “burn” to the green. (a par on that
hole under these conditions is like scoring an eagle!)
After an enjoyable round, you can teat yourself to
some friendly highland hospitality in the cozy club house with a “wee
dram” of
Glenmorangie to warm your insides.
Remember to only drink it with water or you will
raise a few eyebrows around the members bar!...
Visit the website to find out more about
Tain
Golf Club and the
Tain community website to find out more about the town and accommodation around the area.
New!
Golf Mechanic Blog and Squidoo
Articles
I want to announce that I have just
created a new golf blog and I am now posting articles on squidoo.
Take a look at the blog and feel free to get
involved in the conversation around the posts I will be publishing. I
also have links to new video presentations that I have created...
The articles I will be creating on squidoo
give me more latitude to make reference to other people's material that
are relevant to the article subject - especially their videos.
http://golfmechanic.wordpress.com/
http://www.squidoo.com/golfstanceandalignment
Strategy
Operating at the high end of your capability envelope
The mechanical engineer in me makes me look at the
golf swing as an "organic system in motion" when I study the reliability
of the swing.
I regard your golf swing as a “swing machine”. Like
any machine, if you push your golf swing to operate at the top end of
its capability curve you can expect it to break down.
Take your car for instance. Many cars are capable
of speeds that reach over 100 miles an hours. If you choose to
constantly drive at those speeds, besides the speeding tickets you are
quickly going stack up, you are also going to experience frequent
mechanical problems because you are generating a lot of stress on all
the moving parts of the car.
However, if you choose to drive at speeds no higher
than 65 miles an hour, your car will continue to operate for years with
very little maintenance at all.
Your swing is no different. You may be capable of
iron distances and driving distances that are way up there – but there
is a cost for operating at the high end of your swing capability
envelope.
The cost shows up in these three areas:
- A breakdown of the left
elbow on the backswing (right elbow for lefties).
- Loss of swing balance.
- Loss of swing timing due to
an overstressed left side and loss of balance on the backswing that
causes an early hand release.
All three of these areas affect distance and
accuracy reliability. Let’s see how.
Assume you are capable of hitting a pitching wedge
130 yards operating at the high end of your capability limit, and that
is the club you would use when faced with that distance on the course.
When you operate at the upper limit of your swing,
your distance reliability is going to have a wide spread, as will your
accuracy spread.
The variation in your distance is likely to show up
as “undershooting your distance” more than overshooting your target
because you are already stretching your swing to the limit.
If you observe 10 shots on the range with your
wedge, you might find that your distances may be in a region between 120
– 132 yards. A 12 yards distance spread. This means that your accuracy
spread for a 130 yard target is going to be between + 2 and -10 yards
from the target.
Your accuracy spread left or right of the target
may be within a 10 yards either side of the 130 yard target because of
poor balance and an unstable left side.
When you observe your ball spread around the
target, most of the balls are going to be short and wide of the target.
Now figure on operating at 80-85% of your swing
capability by setting your wedge target range around 110 yards.
By doing so, you will:
- Avoid left elbow breakdown.
- Improve swing balance.
- Simplify swing timing –
better control of your hand release.
Now when you observe your distance and accuracy
spreads over 10 shots on the range, your swing performance is going to
be within a tighter spread and much more predictable.
You may find you are able to shoot within 5-7 yards
consistently all around the target.
The problem for many golfers is that they do not
practice this way on the range. They do not monitor their
distance/accuracy spreads over a series of shots. The shots that stick
in their minds are the ones that they hit far.
Unfortunately, those shots tend to influence their
distance decisions on the course.
So back off on your distance expectations for every
club so that you are operating within that 80-85% of your distance
capability envelope. You will experience much improved swing reliability
and operate within a much tighter distance/accuracy spread.
If you stop and think of this approach, you are not
giving up any distance advantage from club to club until you get down to
your 3 iron. That’s because by backing off on the distance you will end
up selecting the next club down to achieve your objective.
That being the case, when you are looking to add
distance at this range, add a hybrid club between your 5 or 3 wood if
you need to make up the distance gap.
What you gain from this approach is valuable
distance and accuracy control over your game…and that is what will lead
to lower scores.
Consistency
Improving swing balance
Swing balance affects consistency more than any
other aspect of your game.
Optimum swing balance is achieved when your swing
is “rotating” and there is very little "lateral movement" of your body
along the target line, or in and out towards the ball.
Lateral movement can occur in both your lower body
and your upper trunk area. I spoke about the lower body in the last
newsletter.
Here are a few more things to consider to promote
rotation and remove lateral movement in your trunk:
- Do not stand too close to
the ball. This will cause you to fall backwards on the downswing as
you try to make room to clear the club through the impact zone.
- Do not stand too far away
from the ball which forces you to lean forward towards the ball in
your stance. This causes you to stand upright on the backswing and
lunge back down to strike the ball at impact creating a lot of
unnecessary movement during your swing.
- Focus your eye on the
number of the ball at all times to help keep your head from any
lateral movement. If you loose focus of the number, your head is
moving during the swing.
- Start the backswing with a
rotation of the left shoulder. This is the most important element of
the swing for promoting swing balance.
An exercise you can do in your living to promote
swing balance is to adjust your swing so that you avoid any lateral head
movement by practicing your swing in front of a mirror. 
Place a piece of vertical tape on a full sized
mirror and focus on keeping the reflection of your head on the tape at
all times as you swing.
If you experience head movement, focus more on
rotating your swing by starting the swing with the left shoulder
movement rather than a hand or arm movement.
Reduce the muscle stress of the left side on the
backswing by restricting the length of the backswing and focus more on a
full hand cock at the top of the swing.
Consider obtaining a small swing mirror as shown
that you can take to the range to give you feedback on your head
movement.
Golf Practice
Mirror
If you want to see a fantastic example on "perfect" head
control during a full swing, check out this
video!
Swing Power
Does rolling your hands add more
power to the swing?
I was asked by a reader the other day if rolling
the hands through impact generates more power in the swing.
To understand this motion, let’s separate it from
the rest of the swing. Stand with a club in your hands directly in front
of you. Now simply turn/rotate the club over between the “open face”
position to the “closed face” position without actually swinging the
club, to simulate the action of the club face before and after impact.
Now try to progress a ball positioned at the club
face only by rotating the hands and without swing the club. You will
find you cannot move the ball very far simply with this motion alone.
The answer then is that turning the hands over does
not generate much additional power to the swing.
However, the rolling motion of the hands can
affect the “spin” on the ball and also produce a lower
ball flight trajectory if the club face at impact with the ball is more
in a closed “draw” position.
The impact of both actions will cause the ball to
“roll” further resulting in additional distance on dry fairways. In wet
conditions, you may not notice much change.
If someone observes that your hand release is “too
slow”, the problem may not be associated with your hands action at all.
In many cases, it is most likely associated with your hip action coming
into impact.
If you do not clear your hips through impact it
restricts your ability to “turn over” your hands.
Clearing your hips starts by initiating the
downswing by a hip turn and avoiding simple "forward slide" of the hips
towards the target.
So, improve your hip action through impact and you
will also improve your hand action…
Golf Fitness
Balance exercise
Take a small club. Stand with both feet together.
Now take most of the weight off your right leg.
Slowly swing the club back and forward rotating
around the left leg.
You will find that in order to retain your balance
you will need to flex your left knee and rotate the left shoulder more.
This is because these actions help you rotate more freely as you swing.
Keeping your balance on your left leg as you swing
through impact helps you avoid any excessive forward lateral sliding
action of your hips through impact that will position your body too far
ahead of the ball.
A firm left leg at impact also promotes tremendous
centrifugal force on the club head to increase swing speed just before
ball contact.
Now change to the right leg and repeat the
exercise, again with a focus on flexing the right knee.
Try to gain a sense of “feel’ of your weight on
your right foot. Avoid any "rolling over" of the ankle on the backswing by
keeping your right foot flat so that the weight sensation is on the
instep of your foot.
This action helps you promote a solid right leg
position on the backswing that will reduce any backward lateral swaying
motion which is the primary cause of swing imbalance.
A solid right side on the backswing also generates
tremendous lower body torque that will add extra yards to your swing.
The other thing you will observe with this balance
exercise is that you can maintain better balance by again restricting
the length of your backswing.
Start by observing how your head is moving in the
mirror at home with this exercise. Then when you go to the range try
hitting golf balls with this motion as part of your warm up routine.
In very little time you will begin to feel more in
control with your swing balance as you open up to your full stance
position...
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Good luck. Know that I
am just a click away if you need help.
"Keep your head down and swing sweetly".
All the best,
Les
"Breaking the Distance Barrier"
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