The Secret To Speed

For more clubhead MPH and more yards, turn to your hips

If there’s an absolute truth in golf, it’s that the faster you can move

the clubhead, the greater the potential for extra distance. Granted,

you still need to make solid contact in the center of the face and with

the club moving on the proper plane, but all other things being equal,

more speed definitely means more yards. The big question is: Where does

speed come from? Your hands can move fairly quickly, and there’s no

faster part of your body than your fingers. But where the golf swing is

concerned, a fast clubhead almost always results from fast hips moving

correctly and in the proper direction.

Hip Work

The three components for proper hip movement–a critical component of a fundamentally solid downswing–are weight shift, a slight lateral slide and hip whip (the explosive rotation just before impact that generates power). Good players know how to mix these components in the proper proportion to achieve both maximum power and outstanding accuracy.

Drive With Control & Power

Serious advice and drills for big, big hits

Each of my students completes a pre-instruction questionnaire,

indicating wants, needs and goals. I’ve used this questionnaire for 20

years, and easily the most oft-noted goal is “more distance with more

control.” Many of these golfers own sound fundamentals, solid iron

swings and good short games, but nonetheless lack the skill to

consistently produce pure and powerful drives. In your own attempts to

improve, does it seem like the harder you try to gain distance, the

worse it gets? Trust me, you’re not alone. I’m confident that learning

from four typical driving faults and comparing those to the moves of

golfers who hit it forever with a seemingly effortless flow of motion

will help you do the same.

Three Needs For Speed

Like a high-performance engine that stalls when it leaks oil, water or fuel, a golf swing comes to an idling stop when the potential energy created in the backswing is emptied well before impact. Here are three tips to help keep power from leaking out of your game and also add horsepower to your motion.

Three Keys To Longer Drives

If your driving suffers from inconsistency and a lack of distance, you may be tied up with too many thoughts about swing mechanics. Free your mind at address and focus on a specific target in the fairway where you want the ball to land. Then let your natural instincts take over. Swing the clubhead to that target, making an athletic move through the ball.
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Lead With The Left

Golfers who possess the ability to hammer 300-yard drives like clockwork often talk about the importance of firing the right side through impact. That’s all well and good, but it’s also somewhat misleading. The right side doesn’t serve as an initiator in the downswing; it’s a reactor. The right side of the body doesn’t fire as such; it responds to a proper sequence of motion initiated by the left side.

Sweet Spot: Davis Love III

Davis Love III is that rare breed of golfer who enters every tournament with a great chance to win. One of the reasons for this is his prowess with the driver. Last year, Love averaged 299 yards off the tee and notched a Total Driving ranking (accuracy plus distance) of 26, which fueled four wins and paychecks totaling $6 million. With such length off the tee, hitting greens in regulation–the most important scoring indicator–becomes a less daunting task.

Separate At The Top

There are many different ways to generate extra power in the golf swing, and here’s one of the best: create maximum extension of the arms at the top.

Swing Extremes: Foot Action

Skilled golfers know that true power results from the upper body coiling over the resistance of the lower body, and that the key to this is establishing good footwork. Typical modern-day pros are flexible enough to get the upper body behind the ball without having to lift the left foot off the ground. Instead, they shift their weight to the inside of the right foot as the left foot rolls slightly inward, allowing the left knee to rotate behind the ball. From this position, they shift weight laterally on the downswing, pushing off the ground with the right foot.

Cement and Spaghetti

My standard response to a question I frequently field at clinics and exhibitions about the proper feeling at address is: It’s like cement and spaghetti. That strange combination of metaphors raises a few eyebrows until I explain what I mean.