I will tell you it really starts with three major things, and its grip, posture

alignment and I’m gonna go over those, but what’s really great with grip, postur
e alignment is that for the most part everybody at address should, and can, loo
k as good as a tour player - but yet a lot of players overlook the grip and pos
ture alignment because they think it’s not that important.
So, let’s look at some rope key characteristics of those three things and I’m go
nna start with grip. Now when we go back to grip I’m gonna do a couple of diagra
ms on my glove just to show you the importance of the grip and I’m just simply g
onna take a marker, and where this hand creases, I’m gonna go ahead and put a li
ne there. And then my index finger, as you can see, it creases in three places a
nd I’m gonna put an x here and then I’m literally just gonna put a few tips on t
he end of each finger. I’ll explain why, and then from here on the left thumb I’
m gonna mark that at one o’clock. Now, when we start with a grip here’s how simp
le this is. I always wanna make sure that the grip sets in the fingers and on an
angle. I see a lot of people grab a golf club and they get the grip part a litt
le too high in the hand, and they get what we call too weak of a grip, as in the
V kinda goes into the chin and when the grip gets too high in the hand you’re g
onna lose hinge and release.
So, let me show you what’s proper. I’m gonna start with the fingers, now one of
the more important steps is don’t wrap your fingers first because if you wrap y
our fingers first you don’t have enough of this hand to get over so I’m gonna go
in the fingers, take the left hand and sit it over on top. And, as you can see,
my left thumb is at one o’clock if golf pride is 12 o’clock. Now what’s really
important is that I have created a V that works over towards my right shoulde
r and when we go back to the grip it’s very important that we get the V’s headed
over to the right shoulder. Now, keeping it simple, if the V is at the chin tha
t’s a weak grip, that’s generally a slicer’s grip, so if you slice the ball tha
t’s probably where your grip is. If we can get the V over to the right here tha
t’s a neutral grip and then conversely if we can get the V over to the right sho
ulder that’s a strong grip and I highly recommend having a grip a little on the
strong side versus the weak side. Now, a couple of real simple check points on
ce I get this left hand on the club. I’m simply gonna set the club over by my si
de, I’m gonna lift my thumb off, I’m gonna lift my index finger and then I’m gon
na get rid of the last two fingers and if that club is under the pad
you can hold that all day long. It’s a great checkpoint to know if the club is i
n the fingers enough. Now once I go over with the left hand and you can see its
on the fingers, two key elements - I now have hinge and most important I now hav
e release. Now, as I take the club up, as you can see in my right hand I’ve got
two lines. I’ve put a line on the first joint of the index finger and then with
a marker this is just simply my lifeline. Now as I take the left hand, with, ge
t the left thumb at one o’clock V at right shoulder, I’m gonna go club up, put
this in the first joint of my index finger. I’m gonna wrap here and then with g
rip choices you can either be an overlap or an interlock. A pretty good rule of
thumb is the smaller the hand you wanna go interlock the larger the hand you wan
na go overlap, but yet two of our greatest golfers ever, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger
Woods, they both happen to be interlock. Now, when I take the right hand, this
left thumb is simply gonna fit right in my lifeline and then I’ve got my right
thumb over at what I would call eleven o’clock. So, now, it’s very simple, we’re
just gonna, lets go through this, we’re gonna go here, good, over, left thumb a
t one o’clock, great, let’s go club up, lets go first joint, perfect, here, then
go a little angle down, left thumb and right thumb over at eleven o’clock, grea
t, and then we should be - we should feel, movement as far as hinge. Now . lastl
y with grip lets talk about grip pressure. I see a lot of people holding the gri
p too firm. Now, all we’re gonna do is a little scale and if I held this as ligh
t as I could, that would be grip pressure one and if I held this as tight as I c
ould that would be grip pressure ten so I kinda like to say feel one, feel ten,
feel five, four, three two one. and then you can then close your eyes, one, ten,
five, four, three, open your eyes and the analogy is one is light, ten is tight
 and three and four are just right.
Now that’s the grip, now lets talk a little bit on posture, it’s so key. So, I t
hink there’s rules when you talk about posture, there’s six simple steps and I d
on’t think you can miss any of them. Number one I’m gonna take my feet and put t
ogether, number two im gonaa go shoulder width and number three im gonna lock th
e knees, I’ll explain why, and number four I’m gonna bend over as in kinda the
butt goes out a little bit. I’m gonna keep the knees locked and then from here I
’m gonna set the club down and then a very important element as I flex my knees
a little bit I wanna make sure the butt stays out. So, now, I’m gonna go a littl
e bit of knee flex and then the most important step is this. All good players at
address are behind the golf ball, and I’m gonna, kinda, call that a must if you
;re gonna be a good player. Now, what I see, if you took 100 amateurs 90 of ‘em
are over the top of the golf ball, so what’s really important to understand is
we remember we don’t grip a golf club like this, which would make me over it. Wh
en we grip the club the right hand is naturally lower which gives you the right
amount of tilt, and then from here I’m gonna ahead and address that. Now, the re
ason this is very important in posture is because wherever the head starts at a
ddress, its going to return at impact, and keep in mind if you’re gonna be a gre
at ball striker you have to make sure the upper body is gonna be behind the ball
at impact. All the good players when they swing the golf club, when they set u
p to the ball they stay level. Now, when you lock the knees and kinda go butt o
ut a little bit you keep the knees locked that sets that spine very straight and
when I flex my knees a little bit my butt stays out, Now, when my spine is stra
ight, its much easier to stay level in the backswing. And then, as I come into i
mpact I’m level and then from here I’m still in my good posture and then eventu
ally I’m gonna come out of it. The number one thing I see with posture is peopl
e go good, good, good and when they flex their knees they go, yeah that’s, that’
s so many people. Now, my back has a lot of roundness to it so I can go to here
and that’s all the further I can go and then I’m gonna have to change my postu
re. So, the great thing with posture is if you know if you can get set up prope
rly you have a huge chance to hit a good golf ball and really the last element i
s alignment very key.
Alignment, very key, this would be my target line so what I always try to do wit
h alignment is as I take a good set up I always wanna make sure that my body is
running what I call parallel left of the target. So this is the target line, we
call this the outside railroad track we as the golfer are on the inside railroad
track. Now back to a common mistake 90% of all people line up at the target wit
h their body, now very simple if I line up right and if I made a good golf swing
that ball would go to the right and then you have to start changing to hit it t
o the target so alignment is very simple parallel left.

When you look at the golf swing I break it down into what I call seven key steps
and the nice thing is that it can work on the good players also. It’s really im
portant to get a and b perfect, or one and two perfect, and then three has a ch
ance. So many people are working on the downswing but yet they have a bad back s
wing so that they are in a kinda state of compensation. Lets walk through some r
eal key positions
So, number one I’m gonna talk about the initial technique way and I really think
it’s the most important move in the golf swing because it sets the club to be a
ble to get good position coming into impact. I’m gonna go ahead and just take my
normal grip and when I talk about the golf swing I like V’s that work somewhere
over to the right shoulder, control to strong and now I’m gonna go to my addre
ss position and what’s very important at address is a couple of things. We want
to make sure we’re balanced on the feet, we’re not on the toes, we’re not on th
e heels and we want to make sure the upper body has a bit of what we call side t
ilt so that the head is behind the ball. Now, as I move this golf club back one
of the key positions, and one of the key sensations, is I need to feel like the
big muscles as in the shoulders and the back are taking the club on its first jo
urney.
So, number one when I take this golf club back I want to make sure I’m turning w
ith the left shoulder, I almost feel like this is a little bit connected. The nu
mber one most common error in the golf swing is people have a tendency of taking
the club back in the inside and with their hands. Now, once you take that club
back with the hands and inside you now have to make a pretty difficult move to h
it ball. So, lets go back to position number one. As I take the club back I’m al
most feeling like my hands and arms to a degree are gonna go for the ride becaus
e the shoulders are gonna put the club where I want as far as good position. Now
, when we talk about position number one the club face should somewhat still be
looking at the golf ball. Now, when I take the club at the top of position one I
think one of the key, key elements is making sure that club head is parallel wi
th my spine. In other words I see an awful lot of people that take this club hea
d back and they roll the hands open to try and get the toe up. Here’s a very si
mple check point , as I go to my address position and I look down I see two knuc
kles. Now when I go from address to position one I want to see the same count of
knuckles, I want to see two knuckles. Now, if I had a little bit of roll in my
hands, now I see all four knuckles so anytime you open the face you have to some
how shut the face. So, lets go back one more time. So, as I take the club back t
o position one my hands are not rotated at all, I have the same knuckle count an
d I’ve got great width in my golf swing at position one. Now, as I go to positio
n two something has to change to get the golf club up. What that is, is now the
wrists are gonna start to hinge. When you look at good golf swings all good golf
swings have hinge in the wrist. Now, most bad swings, because the average perso
n takes the club inside, they hinge very late if they hinge at all. So when you
start talking about the hinge that’s where the emphasis of grip pressure comes i
n. Once again one is light, ten is tight, three and four are just right. You hav
e to be relaxed for the hands to hinge in the first place. So now as I go to set
up and I go to position one, two things, club face is parallel to my spine and
if you notice this shaft is parallel to my target line. Also a great checkpoint
the club head is inline with my hands. In other words the club head isn’t behind
my hands. So we’re gonna go position one and then from here I’m gonna start add
ing hinge, or wrist cock, and we’re gonna look at two things. When my left arm i
s parallel to the ground this club should be vertical. That forms a nice L. Now,
I’ve, I’ve taken a little tool here to help you see that position. All I’ve do
ne is take a little plastic rod and stick it into the end of the grip. Now when
you grip this you have to kinda set it by your side but it gives you great posit
ions so when I go to number one I can see where that’s pointing and then when I
go to number two and I hinge proper that is pointing at the target line. When th
is grip is pointing at the target line that is called a perfect on plane swing.
So if I go from one to two you can see I’ve got left arm parallel, club vertica
l. Now, what you have to be really careful of in the initial motion of the golf
swing is if your hands get a little active, and the club is behind you, and if y
ou hinge later on you can see that this club is pointing out there. SO that’s a
very off plane golf swing and anytime you get this position in what we call posi
tion two in the golf swing you have to make a major correction coming down.
So, lets do that one more time, we’re gonna go to number one, we’re gonna hinge,
nice and light on the hands and you’ve got this grip end pointing at the target
line. Now the great thing with getting the club in the proper position on posit
ion two is as you can see the right elbow, and I go from one and I’ve got nice e
xtension, then as I hinge that right elbow starts to fold a little bit and it st
ays fairly close to my side.
Left shoulder position? And that’s a great question. As I go from one to two tha
t shoulder is working on getting behind the golf ball and as you can see when I
go back to adress and I go from one to two that shoulders dropped a little bit a
nd this shoulders come up a little bit and that’s kinda natural, yeah exactly, a
nd the whole key throughout all this is you’ve gotta keep two things. Now when I
go back to address as Eric just mentioned two things are key, I want to make su
re I keep my spine tilt and I want to remain flexed in my legs. Now this right l
eg, as I go from one my weight slightly shifts into the right side and then when
I go into position two it’s a little bit more into the right side but the most
important thing is I still have remained flexed in that knee. A lot of amateur p
layers, they go from here, they get that club going inside and they lock that kn
ee.
And then again as we kinda mentioned the swing really has seven key steps to it.
I’ll walk through one and two real quick and then lets spend a lot of time on t
hree and four which are very important. So as we go to the address position its
very simple, I like to get the V’s over to the right shoulder. As I set up I’ve
got these shafts here, I’ll explain what they are for in a second and then at th
e address position I want to make sure that the upper body is tilted behind the
ball because at impact, which we’ll get into, we have to make sire we will be be
hind the ball. Now lets just briefly cover position one and two. I want to make
sure the club goes back with the big muscles, the shoulders and the back. As I t
ake this club back to position one the shaft is going to be parallel to the targ
et line and that club face, very key, that club face is gonna match my spine.
Now, as I take the club back from position one to two I’m gonna add hinge and th
at takes place in the wrist and then when you go back and talk about the importa
nce of the grip you have to make sure the grip is light on pressure for the hing
e to happen. so as I go back to position one, two now lets go on into position t
hree which is really important as far as getting the club in a dynamic position
coming down. One, two, now I’m fully hinged as I go into position three it’s no
t a very big move. What we have to understand is that when the posture is good a
nd I’m at two, I’m fully hinged, my wrist cannot hinge anymore now all I am addi
ng is shoulder turn. As I go into one, two, three you can see I’ve made a very c
oil position and that swing has a lot of tension in it as far as kinda wound up.
Now, when I go to two to three I am turning the shoulders probably only about a
nother twenty or thirty degrees but what you have to really understand where a l
ot of tour players are going in todays golf swing is two things. I believe the t
our swings are getting a little shorter up top as far as length of the club but
what most people misunderstand is that when these guys go from two to three they
still have great width with their hands. In other words they’re not going from
here, here, which is a very common mistake for the amateur. We’re gonna go one,
two, three, big shoulder turn. Now what I’m trying to feel up top is a couple of
things. In the perfect world I want to feel that my shoulder have turned ninety
degrees, which would get my back face in the target, and my hips have turned fo
rty-five degrees. This is a real key element if you’re gonna hit the ball with p
ower. So as I take my backswing I go to position three the quieter I can keep my
lower body but yet get my shoulders to turn I’m creating what we call the X fac
tor. The perfect world is if I can get a ninety degree shoulder turn, a forty-fi
ve degree hip turn, that differential is forty-five degrees. We’re always trying
to get the differential as large as we can between the two. One, two, three. No
w if I’m going to feel extremely coiled up top I have naturally loaded into my r
ight leg what I call a braced right leg but I have not shifted or swayed. One of
the real common mistakes is as people go up top they let that right hip slide o
ut and they get into what we call a reverse position. It’s probably the worse po
sition you can be in in golf. What I always try and describe the top swing, or w
hat we call position three, it looks like is if I go one, two, three I have almo
st got a backward K. So, you can see the top of my body is over my right leg in
a very powerful position. to get the transition to start the proper sequence.
Now lets talk about the initial downswing. it’s the number one question I have a
sked to me all day long when I’m on the driving range teaching people to play be
tter golf “what starts the golf swing?” Well, ultimately what starts it is the l
ower body, the example I give people to start with is if I were just going to ta
ke a golf ball and literally toss this ball underhand it may be fifteen yards, t
en yards, I would probably without even thinking maybe go over here a little bit
. I’d go here, as I tossed this ball my hips do two things. They shift lateral f
irst and then they clear and then I would release the ball. So without thinking
I would go A,B,C, D and it’s that simple but here’s how we have to take that int
o the golf swing. As you can see I’ve got two shafts, this one sits on what I ca
ll my right leg angle, this one I have what I call a fist width away from my lef
t leg. When you look at all good swings on tour, the guys, the girls and the sen
iors, you will see the lower body as it comes into impact shifts what I would ca
ll a fist width and then from there the body becomes rotational. Now then lets w
alk through that in steps. Number one…number two….number three. Now, as the lowe
r body starts the first move, which is a lateral shift, it’s not a rotational sh
ift and unfortunately that’s where about ninety per cent of people start their d
ownswing, They go rotational and that club gets thrown over the top and that’s a
big slice move.
So, lets go back to the start of the downswing, position four. I’m gonna have a
slight shift in the hip, I kinda focus on the left hip since I’m going to go ove
r to the shaft over here. I’m going to have a slight shift in the hip, the most
important factor as the left hip shifts the right shoulder drops. If the shoulde
r drops the golf club can stay behind me. Now as I talk about the perfect world
as that club starts down when I’m right here as in parallel to the ground this i
s parallel to the target line, I now have fully shifted lateral. This next move
to me, Eric, is really the difference between a good player and a bad player. Go
od players, and this takes time, it doesn’t just happen overnight, but what good
players do at impact is as they come into the lateral motion and then as they g
et rotational as in the hip clearing, that to me is what squares the club face.
So if I start the downswing, and then I’ve gone lateral and now I have a little
rotational, that brings me back to impact and now from here, we’ll get into the
follow through in just a few minutes. But, once we can get that sequence, and bo
y that’s what it is, a huge sequence, one, two, three, start of the downswing, a
little bump in the hip, lateral four.
Lets talk about, what Eric and I continue to talk about, there are seven key ste
ps in the golf swing. Let me walk through one, two, three four and five quickly
and then we get to number five which is the most important one and we call that
he moment of truth and that’s all the gold ball knows. So as I get set up just k
eeping it simple with grip, I want to make sure I get the V’s over to the right
shoulder, I want to make sure the upper body has a little bit of tilt to it as i
n the heads behind the ball. As I take the club back, position one, the shaft is
gonna run parallel with my target and the club face is going to match my spine.
Now, as I go into number two I’m gonna add hinge, and always keep in mind hinge
can take place if the hands are relaxed. As I go into number three I’ve fully h
inged so in number three all that I have left is in shoulder turn. Ideally I wou
ld like to make a ninety degree shoulder turn, forty-five degree hip turn. Now o
ne of the most important segments in the golf swing is the start of the downswin
g. The start of the downswing clearly starts with the lower body and I’m gonna s
ay what the lower body does is it has a lateral shift which does two things, it
drops the right shoulder down and keeps the golf club behind you. Now as I come
into what I call pre-impact, as you can see, back to address, this is a fist wid
th away, a great tool, you can even use this like a doorway going into a room. O
ne, two, three, four, as I come into pre-impact I’m not going to go anymore late
ral. Now I need to start getting my hips to turn what I call rotational. Now whe
n we get into position four as we’re coming into five this is going to be the mo
st important thing you can know about the golf swing. The average person when th
ey come into impact, the club face is what we call, it has a little early releas
e and they’re always coming in with a club head in front and you can see my seve
n iron at impact is now an eight or nine iron. So the ball’s gonna go where a ni
ne iron goes, not where a seven iron goes. Here’s the secret at impact, as I com
e into position four, as you can see the logo of my glove is facing you, now, my
knuckles are facing you. Now what’s gonna happen is these knuckles of the left
hand are going to what I call, rotate down to the ground. that gets that shaft l
eaning forward at impact. One thing you see with all great players if they’re hi
tting a middle iron, a six or seven or eight iron, that shaft at impact is leani
ng roughly eight to ten degrees forward at impact, where the average amateur the
shaft is leaning eight to ten degrees back. So, you’re seven iron is a nine iro
n, their seven iron is about a five iron so you can see why these guys and gals
hit it so far. Now, lets talk about that transition one more time. As I start th
e downswing I have a lateral shift, the logo is facing you. As I come into impac
t the left knuckles work, I say they do two things, they work down and they work
under. that gets a flat, left-wristed impact and this angle in the right hand s
tays retained as I’m coming into impact. Notice my hip is starting to clear as I
’m going to go to position six I’m still gonna do a great job of keeping the clu
b in front of me. Start of the downswing, I’m gonna start rotating the hips, the
left knuckles are working down, the upper body is behind the ball, I have a lit
tle air under my right shoe meaning my lower body is transferring, my left leg i
s braced and the shoulders are a little more angled than they were at address.
Now, lets go into six. So, number one, two, three, four and five. Now, number si
x I’m going to continue moving into my left leg, now if everything is good up to
here naturally the hands are going to start to release, very key for distance a
nd power. Now, a great rule of thumb, as I come into impact the knuckles are dow
n. As I go into release you should be able to see my four fingers of my glove ha
nd underneath. The most common thing I see as I teach amateurs all day long is w
hen they go from here and they go over the top, as you can see that move here is
the cut across the gold ball then they have what we call hang on and you don’t
see the knuckles, and that literally is about 80 per cent of all golfers playing
golf. So, as we transition with a good position of four, as I come into impact,
upper body behind, shaft leaning forward, I can naturally turn the hands over,
the key weight shifts happening and then from here I’m just literally going to g
o into the finish.
Now what I like to see in the finish is a couple of things, the weight has tras
transferred to the outside of my left foot, you always see the left foot a littl
e angled, key, I want to be off my right shoe totally as in I should just be abl
e to take that shoe and tap, the left leg is braced, the shoulders and chest are
clearly facing the target and the hips are facing the target. Now, we see with
younger players because they are so athletic and they are more flexible if you s
ee Tiger hit a ball its nothing to see almost his back facing the camera when he
hit’s the ball. that to me is more of a flexible issue of whether you can or yo
u cant. but one thing I will do with a lot of students is just take them from wh
at I call address and then from here I say ok, go to the follow through, go here
, and go over so they can even understand what is a good finish because the grea
t thing Eric in the golf swing if you make a bad move here it’s gonna be impossi
ble to make a good finish. So often I’ll just go to address, go to a good finish
position so you can get an indication of where should I be if I hit the ball pr
oper.
Oh, can you show me your left hand action?
Ok, great, just coming in. So, I’ll do this a lot with my students. So as I’m co
ming to here what I’ll do is I ‘ll say hey, just get rid of the club and I’m gon
na say just take the left hand, logos facing the camera and then these knuckles
go down and even a little bowed. Real key. Yes, now the average player goes from
here to here and now the logo’s facing the sky again. That’s perfect, that’s ba
d, and that literally happens within a two foot window because you could literal
ly be perfect, perfect, perfect and you’re either gonna go good or you’re gonna
go good or you’re gonna go bad. So when I work on impact I like to just hit ball
s at twenty or thirty or forty yards, just to get the feel of that left wrist co
ming in and then from here it’s kinda taking it around.
I’ll tell you what’s good to do, if I go up top, and I always feel the nice thin
g with a golf swing is you don’t always have to have a golf club in your hand, y
ou can just go ahead and you know, lock your fingers, like you’re taking a grip
and I can just go from here and I do a lot of drills, kinda two things. I always
try and retain almost a ninety degree angle here and then the back of my right
hand is cupped so as long as the back of this right hand stays cupped even in im
pact it’s still cupped. That left wrists gonna be flat. Now, I often think about
, I haven’t done it, but I often think about at impact I could take a spatula an
d tie it or tape on my arm and that would be perfect impact. So, again, the bigg
est thing without a golf club is when that logo is at the right knee, it’s facin
g the mirror or the camera and when that logos at the left knee you can’t see it
cos it’s worked down. And the biggest thing, I keep going back to Eric, when we
are going to impact, these knuckles have to work down. the key, great position
here, keeps you here in an incredibly powerful position and then from here you j
ust continue the body turn. there’s the logo and there’s the fingers of the glov
e, and from here it’s just over the shoulder.