SWING PLANE
IMPROVE YOUR AWARENESS OF THE CLUB’S ORBIT
Now’s the time to really get a better understanding of the geometry of the swing. Knowing where the club is in relation to your body pivot is going to make it so much more efficient and easy to repeat. Getting into a great position halfway into the backswing, with the club on plane, is easy to hone if you put a ball between two alignment rods or similar on the ground and use that station for reference. The idea is to take the club back so the butt end of the shaft is pointing down towards the rod closest to your body. You’ll need a mirror or someone videoing this position to verify it, but it’s important to really remember how it feels to get the club in this great position going back. If you can get the first few feet of your swing on auto-pilot, you’ll arrive at the course in a real groove.
DYNAMIC SPEED
FREE UP YOUR SWING TO CREATE AND STORE MORE POWER
A fault you might suffer from is being “ball bound.” In short, your swing becomes restricted and jerky as a result of simply trying to make solid contact with the ball. What I’ve found is, when I ask a ball-bound golfer to make a full practice swing, it looks nothing like what he or she does when it’s time to hit a shot. If you can free up your swing without regard to where the ball is going, it’s going to do wonders for the dynamic speed you can create. A great way to train for a fully loaded backswing is to address a ball (one that you’re not going to hit), but set your driver head out in front of it on the target side like I’m doing (top photo, left). This is the starting point of your training swing. From there, use that extra distance to make a full-but-free backswing, really feeling wound at the top. The momentum of starting with the clubhead in front of the ball will give you the feel you need to avoid your restricted, ball-bound takeaway.
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 91
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2026
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