| Newsletter: Turnberry Links
Title: Turnberry Links/Practice
Strategy/Upright Swing Plane/How to Break 90
Scottish Courses
Turnberry Links- Site of the 2009 Open Championship
I have had the pleasure of playing
Royal Turnberry several times while living in Scotland, the site of
the 2009 Open and many exciting championships, none more so than the
duel between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson during the 1977 Open.
With Watson leading by one stroke on
the beautiful final hole with the majestic backdrop of the Turnberry
Hotel on the hill, Nicklaus pushed his drive to the right ending up in a
horrible grassy lie only feet away from the dreaded Scottish “whin
bushes”.
Striking a 7 iron to inside 2 feet
from the pin after a perfect drive, it was a foregone conclusion that
Watson had secured the championship.
 That
was until Nicklaus muscled an incredible shot from his position to the
front of the green then in true Nicklaus fashion, drained a 40 foot put
over a side hump in the green for a birdie.
After that sequence of shots
Watson’s emotions swung from going over his acceptance speech while
walking to the green after his amazing 2nd, to the incredible
pressure of having to sink his 2 footer for the championship and avoid a
playoff.
When you play the 18th
you will see where the members have placed a plaque on the spot where
Nicklaus’s drive landed to commemorate that shot. Standing next to the
plaque you only then realize how difficult it was to just get the ball
clear from the rough, never mind get it on the green.
You can relive that drama through
this link to watch the video of the final hole:
1977 Open Final Hole
The Golfing Experience
Turnberry is located on the West of
Scotland along the Ayrshire coast, offering splendid views of the Isle
of Arran, the Mull of Kintyre and the rock of Ailsa, after which one of
the two courses at Turnberry is named.
The other Kintyre course has all the
ocean holes taking you to the famous light house that is the distinctive
landmark of Turnberry.
The most memorable day I spent
playing Turnberry was the day of the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and
Princess Diana where the whole country was given the day off to
celebrate.
Never before have I had the
experience of having an entire Open links course to ourselves on a
glorious sunny day in Scotland, what an experience ….the whole nation was glued to their
TV’s watching the wedding and only the faithful few were living it up on the
links!
The golf experience at Turnberry can
be so different between rounds that you wonder if you are playing the
same course.
From glorious sunny days akin to the
1977 Open, to horizontal rain and wind that can only be experienced on
the West Coast of Scotland to build your golfing character.
Be prepared for some “character
building” when you come to tackle this links course!...
(If you do not mind the pitch for
staying at the Turnberry Resort, these two videos give you great views
of both courses)
Ailsa Course
Kintyre Course
Ayrshire History
Besides being a stone throws
distance from two other famous Ayrshire “Open” courses, Royal Troon and
Royal Prestwick the venue of the original Open, Turnberry is the
birthplace of one of one of Scotland’s most famous kings, Robert the
Bruce…
Best known for humiliating the
English army at the Battle of Bannock Burn in the 1300’s which lead to Scottish
independence for the first time, after the momentum of William Wallace
was crushed earlier at Falkirk.
Wallace himself was another son of
Ayrshire as was one of Scotland’s most famous of poet’s, Robert Burns
who wrote about the poverty of rural life in Ayrshire during the 18th
century and best known for his song “Auld Lang Sang” that brings in the
new year all around the world.
The Scots are making tribute to
their beloved son throughout all of Scotland for this year, since this
the 250th year of his death
A visit to this region gives you all
you need in a golfing experience as well as offering multiple choices to
enjoy rich Scottish heritage that should not be missed on any golfing
holiday to Scotland.
For details on accommodation and
other information visit:
Turnberry
Resort
Ayreshire Scotland
Golf Strategy
Practice Strategies that will
improve your skills
Next time you go down to the range
on a weekend, just sit and watch how many golfers conduct their practice
sessions.
Some are quite meticulous in their
approach and appear to have a specific aim in mind for their session,
but most are practicing without any structure at all. Here are some
observations that would lead you to this conclusion:
-
They do not have goals for
improving their accuracy or consistency - judging by the balls that
are flying everywhere across the range and the number of miss hits
they are experiencing.
-
Their primary motivation for the
practice session is to improve their swing distance - this is
evident by the effort they are expending in hitting the ball, the
level of in balance in their swings, and the noticeable fact that
they are swinging at the top ends of their capability envelope (see
last newsletter on
capability envelope)...even for their short irons.
-
This motivation for distance is
further highlighted by the fact that you will also see as many as
40% or more of the people hitting balls with a wood in their hands -
in fact for many, the vast majority of their practice session is
spent on their woods.
-
On the opposite end of the club
scale, you will notice that few, if any golfers are practicing with
a wedge. If they are, they again are hitting the wedge at the top
end of their swing capability - very little time is being spent on
short range wedge shots.
-
The other big factor that
highlights no plan for practice, is when you see golfers trying to
practice with a wide range of clubs with a small bucket of balls.
This may be a good warm up strategy before a round, but it does
little to develop the specific skills you need for each club.
Golf requires a great deal of effort
to perfect the skills you need to achieve reasonable scoring.
For many golfers they are lucky if
they have the time to go to the range once a week, or even once a month.
With this limited time, it is important to structure your practice
sessions to get the maximum benefit from each session.
Here are some guidelines to help:
-
Focus your practice on the least
number of clubs that will have the biggest impact on your scores.
-
For each of those clubs set
yourself accuracy and consistency goals for the practice session -
do not focus on how far you hit the ball.
-
Aim to hit every shot operating
at only 75% of your swing range - this improves your swing balance
and you will experience less mechanical break downs....again to
promote consistency and accuracy.
-
Focus the vast majority of the
practice session on the one club that you use most for
your approach shots into the greens - this is the most important
shot you need to perfect since it is the shot that will help you
avoid the short game (where you need a lot of practice time) and
give you better scoring opportunities.
-
Next focus the remainder of your
practice on one long club that gives you the widest
range of options off the tees and with long fairway shots - I
recommend a three wood for this task, but that may be a hybrid/5
wood if it works better for you.
-
Break your practice with each
club into groups of 5 balls. As you hit each ball, you are aiming at
a specific target that is well within the distance reach of the
club. As you hit each ball you are counting the number of clean hits
you had from the group of 5 and the number of shots that were within
your target goal. As you begin a fresh set of 5 balls you are always
trying to better the consistency and accuracy score of the previous
group.
Structuring your practice session in
this manner helps you develop consistency and accuracy skills on the few
clubs that have the greatest impact on your scores.
Even with only one bucket of balls
practice per month, you will at least give yourself a much higher chance
of improving the skill level with those two clubs than if you diluted
the effect of the session practicing with multiple clubs.
The biggest benefit you will receive
from this strategy will be improved consistency by consciously focusing
on operating well within your swing flexibility envelope. That approach
will have a positive effect on other clubs you use out on the course,
even if you spent no time working with them on the range.
Taking the focus away from distance
and moving it to consistency will result in a huge improvement to your
scoring....miss hits are the biggest consumer of strokes during a round
- not your inability to hit 240 yard drives....
Swing Consistency
Why using your feet to align
yourself to the target can could be causing a fade or slice…
If you have read any of my other
articles, lenses or viewed my videos on golf setup, I always advice
against using your feet to align yourself to the target during your
setup routine.
That’s because it’s your shoulders
and clubface alignment that determines the flight path of the ball and
those elements of your setup should be your primary focus of your
alignment routine, not your feet.
My other reason for this is that it
is very easy to experience visual distortion when setting your feet in
the stance that impacts the accuracy of the ball position in the stance.
The engineer in me drives me to look
at the mechanics behind your feet position by looking closely at how the
“angle” at which you place your leading foot can distort your judgment.
Let me show you why…
Using your toes to align your
feet
The problem that golfers experience
when they align their feet in the stance is that they position their
feet by “looking at their toes”…not by looking at their heels.
The reason for this is obvious…it is
easier to look down at your toes than to try and look behind you at your
heels.
Why is that a problem?
Well, since you point your leading
foot towards the target at an angle, you essentially end up positioning
your leading foot “closer” towards the ball creating a “closed” position
in the stance.
Take a look at the following photos
where I have laid out clubs to show this effect.
I show the shoe position of my
“invisible golfer” going through the positioning of his feet and the
effect the angle of the leading foot has on “closing” the alignment of
the feet.
Although this is very subtle, this is one of the most common
problems I see in the setup routines of many golfers…and this situation
can lead to a slice or fade that is difficult to detect in a golfers
setup.
To understand why, take a look at
this picture:
As you "close" your feet with this action, the impact of this move is to position the
"relative position" of ball more "forward" in the stance, as
shown in the picture when
you compare the ball position relative to the correct square club
position with the back of the heels.
The forward ball position encourages
the golfer to hold the clubface open longer and delay the
release of the club, simply to make contact with the ball. By do so they
can generate a fade or slice.
Unfortunately, I also see this
problem being created by many “golf alignment aides” that encourage you
to set your feet by positioning your toes against the alignment
device…not your heels.
In addition you often see golfers on
the practice range doing the same thing using a club on the ground.
The only way you can set your feet
correctly, is to align your feet with your “heels” in order to take out
the visual distortion effect of the angled leading foot.
How to Avoid this effect in your
setup.
The solution is simple. But first of
all, you should set visual reference lines during your setup to ensure
your club face and shoulders are correctly aligned with the target
before you set your feet.
Check out the
alignment
article I released earlier on this topic if your have not already
done so…
Once you have aligned your clubface
and shoulders to your visual reference lines, you will be in a position where your feet are positioned
together with the imaginary visual reference line splitting your feet to
the ball position.
Now position “both” feet in the
stance square to the target line without pointing the
leading foot towards the target at an angle.
This way you can still look at your
toes to align both feet without experiencing any visual distortion from
the leading foot angle.
Once you are satisfied with your
alignment, point your leading foot at the angle you normally use in your
stance....
The other solution is to simply to move
the ball back a fraction more in the stance and you will begin to
straighten out your shots, or even produce a slight draw effect. The
distance you need to move is only and inch or two as shown in the
picture.
What’s the Big Deal
Now you may look at this and say "big
deal", you are splitting hairs with this routine…the angle of the “closed
feet” effect is very small (3-5º ) and will not really affect your
accuracy.
That may be true for short iron
shots. But the spin generated on the ball because of incorrect ball
positioning in the stance can mean the difference of being on the green
or in a bunker on approach shots over 140 yards, or being on the fairway
or in the rough on your drives….on these shots it becomes important to
look more closely at your feet.
Swing Power
Does an upright swing add more
power to your swing?
The short answer is yes....and here
is why.
First let me explain it from a
physics point of view...
When you lift an object off the
ground you are creating "potential" energy. The level of energy the
object dissipates after you drop it depends on two things:
Now I am sure you understand the
height issue. But so what...
If you lift a golf club above your
head and just drop it, there does not appear to be a lot of energy
dissipated...especially since the weight of the club is only a pound or
so. So where is the energy coming from?
The mass of the swing not only
includes that of the club, it also includes the mass of both your arms.
When you add the weight of your arms
into the equation (check it out for yourself resting each arm on a scale
on a table), you begin to realize where the energy comes from.
The weight of my arms, plus that of
a club combined is 30lbs. Now dropping that weight from above your head
can cause a lot of damage!
The higher you raise the club and
your arms, the more "potential energy" you can create for the
swing...that comes from a more upright swing plane.
Right side muscles
The key difference in power between
a flat swing and an upright swing though is in the muscles you use.
The flatter your swing, the more the
swing is moving in a "horizontal plane" around the axis of your spine
which depends more on the muscles in your lower back and rear shoulders.
As you increase the angle of the
swing plane to a more upright plane, you now also experience rotation of
your shoulders in the "vertical plane" which brings the powerful muscles
of the right side more into the picture...the big hitters get tremendous
power from this region.
With the exception of one or two pro
golfers who are physically powerful who adopt a flatter swing, all the
big hitters adopt a more upright swing for these two reasons.
Check out this video of
Bubby Watson.
Notice how high he get his hands in
the back swing, but also note how much power he produces on the
downswing from his left side. (he is left handed)
Here is another of
John Daly and JB Holmes - again check the height of the hands and
the actions of their right sides- especially with Holmes's swing.
Beware!
As I have mentioned in a previous
newsletter, please do not go out trying to lift your hands as high as
you can above your head on your backswing to generate more distance.
If by doing so you experience
mechanical break down of your left arm, you will gain little or no
distance benefit, but you will cause yourself a lot of timing and
accuracy problems...
Golf Fitness
Strength and flexibility of your
lower back
If after a long lay off from golf
you feel your coordination and timing is all out of sync, say after a
tough winter, you might put that down to a lack of practice time. That
certainly can be a factor.
Not only has your timing been
affected but you may also have lost a little distance.
Besides going out to the range to
get your game back in shape, you can accelerate your come back with a
few simple stretches.
You will be surprised how much
flexibility you can loose in a short period of time if you are not
playing, or not stretching on a regular basis....especially if you are a
senior golfer.
The area that can impact your swing
the most is stiffness in your lower back.
Lower back stiffness
Restriction of your trunk turn due
to stiffness causes several areas of your swing to break down:
-
The first is usually a break of
the left elbow (right elbow for lefties)
-
That is usually followed by the
lifting of your leading foot
-
Then finally as your body stops
rotating, the momentum of your club head on the backswing continues
to pull you off balance as a "lateral sway" motion.
All of these movements may seem
trivial to you, but they seriously affect the complexity of your timing
on the downswing, and they obviously impact your swing balance.
The other serious consequence is a
loss of swing distance.
Lower back flexibility routines
The following exercises will help
improve the flexibility and strength of your lower back region. After
only a few days of these routines you will begin to notice a difference
to your swing:
Lie flat on your back. Pull your
left leg up to 90º and hold the knee
on the floor with your right hand as shown. Now gently rotate your trunk
and other arm away from you in the opposite direction. Hold the position
for at least 60 seconds.
Now repeat the exercise with the
other leg and again hold for 60 seconds.
Note: Be careful not to "push" the
stretch as that may lead to injury. Let the weight of your arm determine
how far you go. After you have gained improved flexibility, you may want
to hold a light dumb bell in your hand to aid the stretch.
This other exercise will help
improve the strength of your mid section and lower back turning action.
Start by pulling both knees up to 90
as shown. Then rotate your legs over to the left until they hit the
floor (still in the 90 position). Then slowly rotate them in the other
direction until they hit the floor on the opposite side.
As you improve your strength with
this routine you can increases the difficulty by extending your legs
more as shown.
Note: As always, please consult with
your doctor or physical therapist before doing these routines if you
have lower back problems.
Take a look at this video of
Adam Scott to see a great example of
backswing flexibility.
Notice how he maintains a firm left
elbow position and keeps his left foot planted on the ground during the
backswing. You will also notice that he has little or no lateral
movement of his trunk during the turn.
New Recorded Video Release
- "How to Break 90"
I have added a new 3 part video
presentation series called "How to Break 90" to the free bonus package
offered with the purchase of "Breaking the Distance Barrier".
If you have already purchased a copy
of the book, you will have received a special email with links to watch
the videos and also receive a revised copy of the e-book that you can
download after watching the series. If you missed that email,
contact me and I
will send you the links.
The three parts of the series
include:
-
Part 1 - Understanding the true
distance needs to meet your scoring goals.
-
Part 2 - How to construct a golf
strategy using a 5 step process that can be used for any scoring
goal, or any course.
-
Part 3 - How to construct a golf
practice strategy to efficiently improve the skills that will have
the maximum impact on lowering your scores if you have limited
practice time.
If you have not purchased "Breaking
the Distance Barrier", but would like to watch the video series and
receive the free 52 page e- book that comes with the videos, you may do
so through the following link:
"How to
Break 90"
Note: The videos are
broken down into a series for men and also one for women.
Until next time. Good luck.
"Keep your head down and swing sweetly".
All the best,
Les
"Breaking the Distance Barrier"
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