Sometimes you have to play when the weather is bad. Unfortunately, the USGA makes Studying the pros is a great way to improve. PGA pros must bring their “A” games to the course every day to compete on the tour. To do that they spend hours and hours honing their mechanics and analyzing their swings, as well as taking golf lessons from swing gurus. It makes sense to study what they do. Gleaning golf tips from the pros can help you improve your swing and cut strokes from your golf handicap.
Driving is one area where studying the pros can really help. Bad driving adds unnecessary strokes to your scores by leaving you difficult approach shots, as many weekend golfers know. Eliminating bad drives from your repertoire cuts strokes from your scores and your golf handicap. Let’s take a look the kinds of things you can earn from studying three top PGA pros.
Delivery Is Key
Maintaining level shoulders while rotating your the left is one of the keys to Shigeki Maryuama’s outstanding ballstriking capabilities. A smaller player, he drives the ball as well as much bigger players like Ernie Els, who stands well over six feet. Maryuama keeps his left foot planted on the ground while his right knee kicks in slightly. This let’s him leverage the right side of his body against a firm left side—a great way to generate power. He also keeps his shoulders level while his lower body rotates out of the way—producing quality ballstriking whether hitting a wood or an iron.
Know Your Swing
Jesper Parnevik is a different story. Unlike Maryuama, he’s lean, lanky, and flexible. In fact, he’s so much so that his hips often clear his upper body too quickly. Since Jesper also uses a strong grip, he tends to produce a hook when the clubhead is fully released. Having watched his swing on video, he knows he must prevent the clubhead from rotating through impact, if he wants to hit it long and straight. In other words, he knows his swing and the adjustments he needs to make when his swing brakes down.
Learn from Jesper Parnevik. Take some video of your swing. Get to know it well. Get to know the feel of a good swing. Doing so will help you generate accuracy and power. It will also help you determine the adjustments you must make to correct swing flaws when your swing beaks down.
Drive The Club With Your Body
Anthony Kim is a third story. He hits them long and straight off the tee by driving the club with his body, not the muscles of his arms. Kin has really mastered this. In addition, his swing is simple and fundamentally sound. It features an almost perfect sequence of movements, which helps him hit them longer and straighter—and he, like Maryuama, is not a big, strapping guy.
In essence, Kim builds torque by stretching his body against itself and unwinding it at just the right time, producing a sort of “cracking of the whip.” In doing so, he exhibits many of the same swing attributes as Ben Hogan. Hogan, who also was rather small, drove the ball great distances. Like Kim, he created great clubhead speed and power by combining strength, flexibility, and great mechanics.
These golf tips are typical of the types of golf tips you can learn by studying the pros. If you’re going to improve, you must perfect your swing. Studying the pros on TV is one way to learn how to do that. Sometimes, it’s just as productive as taking a golf lesson. You never now when you’ll learn something that will help you lower your golf handicap a few strokes.
“Yes the golf swing is all about creating clubhead speed and power by combining strength, flexibility, and great mechanics and also using the big muscles for a powerful golf swing”