Korea Times Golf Columnist
by Kim Jeong-kyoo
Too tight a grip pressure makes it impossible to swing the club properly. To feel how light you need to grip, take your normal grip and hold the club in front of you so the shaft is vertical. Then, relax your hands as much as you can before the club slips through your fingers and falls to the ground.
Your grip pressure needs to be slightly firmer than the pressure you feel when the club starts to slip.
A good image that helps you grip with the correct pressure is to imagine yourself holding a small bird or an egg in your hands. You need to maintain it throughout the swing lest the bird should be smothered or the egg should be broken.
Similarly, imagine that the handle of the club is a watered sponge and hold it lightly lest the water should be squeezed.
Gripping the club with a light pressure and maintaining it during the entire swing help you swing the club at a leisurely pace and increase clubhead speed through the ball without a conscious effort.
An efficient swing results from the correct grip, athletic posture and a good takeaway. A correct takeaway creates a chain reaction, providing you with the best chance for swinging the club on the correct plane and path through the ball.
For a correct takeaway, be sure that the butt end of the club is pointing at the midsection of your body till the end of the takeaway where your hands are in front of your right thigh. Get your arms socketed in and tightly pressed against the upper parts of your chest at address helps you facilitate swinging the club in this fashion.
Most swing errors start from faulty address positions and during the takeaway. Not only to synchronize your arm swing and body turn, but also to put the club in good positions, it's essential to set up properly and take the club away from the ball correctly. With a faulty takeaway it's impossible to make a free-flowing swing that leads to solid shotmaking.
Also crucial to solid shotmaking is square alignment. It is not easy to align your body parallel to the balltarget line on a consistent basis. You need to learn to line up correctly. For a square alignment, hold the club in your right hand so it is pointed toward the ground outside your right foot. With your target at 12 o'clock, approach the ball from seven o'clock. Then, feel as if you were going to throw the club sidearm toward the target. Your instinct will enable you to align your body parallel to the ball-target line.
Not less important than square alignment is weight distribution. To hit the ball on the center of the clubface it's imperative to place your bodyweight on the balls of the feet. You need to avoid putting more weight either on the toes or heels at address. That results in heel- or toe-side contact of the clubface to the ball.
Another key to hitting the ball firmly is to maintain the square relationship between your shoulders and the clubface.
Providing that the clubface stays square to your shoulders during the backswing, all you have to do to hit the ball flush is turn your shoulders on the downswing. Doing this correctly will return the club to the ball in the same square position as you had at address without an extra effort.
For a good golf swing, your right elbow needs to fold correctly so that it moves under the club in a supporting position. Otherwise, your elbows and club won't remain in front of your chest as they were at address.
To make sure that your right elbow folds correctly in an up-and-down fashion, focus on completing your backswing, maintaining the distance between your elbows created at address.
Similarly, be sure at the top of the backswing that your right elbow stays inside the seam of your shirt. That gets your club to work on plane, promoting timing and synchronized movements between your arms and body during the downswing.
Allowing your right elbow to move behind the seam of your shirt on the backswing makes it hard to swing down correctly. This is particularly true with golfers who set up with an upright posture and swing on a steeper plane.