|
TomTuckerGolf.com |
|
Golf Tips Newsletter - Issue 245 - May 15th, 2013
|
Prepare to play your best golf by doing something now! To comment or respond to this newsletter, please click here ttucker@rochester.rr.com In This Issue - Tom's Featured Tip: Lofted Chipping Re-Visited - Tom's Bonus Tip: Hinging - Unhinging - Lesson Comments: What Students Have To Say - Sponsors: Batavia Country Club Chestnut Hill Country Club Plum Creek Driving Range and PGA AboutGolf.com Golf Simulator GCC Golf Management Program Provoto Putting Systems PLUM CREEK DRIVING RANGE IN BATAVIA, NY, IS OPEN ALL YEAR Outdoors in season; Indoors - simulator available for play or practice. Call 585-993-0930 or email Mark at plumcreek4@rochester.rr.com to reserve your simulator time! Great money saving monthly specials, check them out here: http://www.plumcreekdrivingrange.com Buy Gift Certificates for Lessons Sample Gift Certificate Golf lessons - Outdoor and Indoor - are available at Plum Creek, please call me at 716 474 3005, email me at ttucker@rochester.rr.com, or visit my website at http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/lessonrates.html for details. Indoor or Outdoor Driver Fitting Get the most bang for your buck when you buy a new driver by getting professionally fitted first. Click for details: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/indoor.html Subscribe - http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/signup.html If you like this newsletter, please do me a favor and forward it to your friends so that they may subscribe, thanks! The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this newsletter. Tom's Featured Tip: Lofted Chipping Re-Visited For the sake of simplicity, all advice on swings and drills is provided from a right handed perspective; lefties .... well, you know what to do! I wrote the last two newsletters before I went on vacation, so in this issue I would like to address some interesting comments that I received in response to Issue 243 from William C. His comments: "When chipping or pitching you never let the club head pass your hands. You don't even want that "passing feeling". The chances of blading it are too great. The idea is to let the bounce of the club work for you. This is true under all conditions weather its deep rough, sand or a tight lie. Let the club do it's job. 1) Put the ball slightly forward in your stance 2) open the club face slightly 3) regrip 4) adjust your stance so that your club face is on target 5) use enough back swing to reach the target." William took umbrage to my advice regarding lofted chips: "To execute a lofted chip, simply set up with the ball a little more forward in your stance, set up with less forward shaft lean, and when you execute the chip allow the clubhead to feel like it's passing your hands at impact." First of all, I always appreciate feedback - and here's why I feel that William may be missing an opportunity to develop another shot for his scoring arsenal by being a bit too rigid in his thinking. My first choice for all chipping situations is a compression chip unless circumstances warrant otherwise. The wrist position for this type of chip is described in the Hinging - Unhinging section below. However, there are shots in golf - although very few - where you would actually allow the clubhead to pass your hands at impact. In my lofted chipping tip, I didn't advocate actually letting the clubhead pass the hands at impact, rather to have the feeling that it's getting to that point. The feeling is generated by your setup with a shaft that's very vertical, as opposed to having shaft lean as you normally would for a chip. The more forward the ball position, the more vertical your shaft would be at setup. The leading edge of the club does make contact with the ground for the lofted chip that I advocate, which is a very different technique from intentionally using bounce with a chip shot. There could actually be a situation in deep rough with a good lie, when you need to hit a very high, soft shot to a short sided pin. In this situation, where you would be able to have your ball placement slightly forward of the bottom of your swing arc, you should absolutely feel your clubhead catch up to and perhaps even actually pass your hands at impact to obtain maximum loft on the shot. It breaks one of my tenets of never "flipping" the club at impact, but it's an unusual circumstance and sometimes we have to adapt. Is this an easy shot? No, it takes tons of practice - but it's good to have it in your bag for when you absoultely need it in a win or lose situation. Bounce (angle) is an indication of how much the sole, or bottom-most part, of the club head lifts the leading edge. The purpose of introducing bounce into club head design is to control how easily wedges, with their steep angles of attack, penetrate the ground under the ball. It also keeps your sand wedge from digging too deep on explosion shots from a bunker. Regarding bounce, it's use should be purposeful and specific. I would not advocate using bounce for most chips because it's a low percentage shot; it's very easy to blade the shot and produce a horrible result. For the lofted chip that I advocate, I'm talking about using a pitching wedge or perhaps a gap wedge, neither of which normally has much bounce, unless you custom order it. If, however, you open the clubface of any club, any bounce that's on the club is magnified. If your choice of club for chipping is a sand wedge - which is normally manufactured with much more bounce than a pitching wedge or gap wedge, bounce is a huge consideration. You need to be critically aware of your ball placement when you decide to open your stance and your clubface. Too much forward placement may unwittingly bring too much bounce into play. It's a good idea to practice a stroke utilizing the bounce of the club in case you are ever on a green and you can't putt because a piece of the fringe is in your line to the hole. This actually happened to Henrik Stenson at the Players Championship this weekend, where he used a bounce chip on the green instead of putting (note: no divot). Some players who have a bounce chip shot in their arsenal also like this method from tight lies in the fairway. Personally, I've never been much of a fan of this shot because there's such a small margin of error. I have the shot when I need it, but I almost always can come up with a safer option. There's no divot with this shot, because you are simply skipping the bounce off the surface, the leading edge of the club doesn't ever touch the ground. I used to practice this shot many, many years ago by hitting shots off a wooden deck on a balcony at a course where I played a lot, over a close railing, onto the putting green. To be candid, it wasn't actually practice, there was usually a bet or two involved. I'm way too mature to do this any more, and a better way to practice a bounce stroke is as follows:
The message here is to own your setup for your stock shots, but to realize that exceptions exist, and to practice those other shots once in awhile to get a feel for execution. Love your practice, enjoy your golf, Tom Tom's Bonus Tip: Hinging - Unhinging For the sake of simplicity, all advice on swings and drills is provided from a right handed perspective; lefties .... well, you know what to do! On shots that require full compression, most amateurs unhinge their wrists too early in the downswing. You need to train your wrists to transport your impact angles through the ball to enable dynamic loft at impact that produces strong shots that can bore through the wind. This can be accomplished through hinging exercises and concentration, a great drill to practice this position is the Inverted Praying Hands Drill Some players find it easier to think about holding the angle of the right wrist through impact (Homer Kelly's "Flying Wedge"), for others it's holding the flat left wrist through impact. Another image that seems to resonate well with my students is visualizing the shaft leaning forward (forward shaft lean towards the target) through impact. Find a thought, feeling, or image that works for you and practice this position. Love your practice, enjoy your golf, Tom Golf Lessons I conduct lessons at The Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility there's a link for Plum Creek info here: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/ Lessons are available for all ages and skill levels, please contact me - Tom Tucker - at (716) 474 3005 or email me at ttucker@rochester.rr.com for more information. Outdoor Lessons Details and Rates: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/lessonrates.html Indoor Lessons Details and Rates: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/indoor.html Driver Fitting Rates: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/indoor.html Testimonials: http://www.tomtuckergolf.com/testimonials.html Sponsors Plum Creek Driving Range and Simulator Outdoor range and play indoor golf on any of our 40 Simulator Courses. Call 585-993-0930 or email Mark at plumcreek4@rochester.rr.com to reserve time for simulator play or practice! Provoto Putting Systems readers get a 30% discount on putting greens. Click on their catalog link, and select the green you want to purchase. After you decide on features, add it to your cart. You'll find the field for "Discount Coupon" near the bottom of the page. Enter PGApro in that field and your product cost will be discounted 30%. GCC Golf Management Program click for information on GCC's degree program for anyone interested in a career in the golf industry or teaching golf. Batavia Country Club Best greens in WNY, great rates. Back by popular demand: Friday Night Dining at BCC in their beautiful, newly remodeled downstairs restaurant and bar. Golf and dinner packages also available. Live entertainment from 8:30 - 11 pm Check it all out at: www.bataviacc.com Chestnut Hill CC Great rates, 20 minutes East of Buffalo, NY . All the best, Tom Tucker Teaching Pro, Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility WGTF ' "Top 100 Golf Teacher" USGTF Class "A" Teaching Professional Cell: (716) 474-3005 Email: ttucker@rochester.rr.com http://www.TomTuckerGolf.com http://www.usgtf.com/top_100_wgtf.html "There are no substitutes in the quest for perfection!" ~ Ben Hogan |
|