IT'S GOOD FOR YOUR GAME

Spine and shoulder angles

are victims of bad back

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that read, "Miss Me Yet? Tiger." I thought, yes, I do miss Tiger, but I don't think he'll ever be dominant again because his body has let him down.

As most people who follow golf are aware, Tiger Woods has had three back surgeries and a host of other problems. Some say it's painful for him to even sit down, so it's understandable that it's hard to keep the correct spine angle through impact ― a key to playing good golf.

It starts with the shoulder angle at address. The rule of thumb is that your front shoulder should be higher than your back shoulder by the same amount that your top hand is higher than your bottom hand on the club. Then, by simply rotating your spine during the backswing, your target shoulder moves lower and your trail shoulder higher.

During the downswing, it is just the reverse: As you come down, your shoulders retrace their steps on essentially the same arc they took on the backswing. Any change in the spine incline before impact changes the arc of the shoulders, thereby dislodging the clubhead from its path. This is the problem that turned Tiger into a forest dweller, and it won't be corrected until his back is healed.

If you watch Tiger's recently posted video of his swing with a 9-iron, note how he backs out of it coming into impact ― his head/spine move backward, away from the ball. The tendency to back away from the ball is the prelude to coming up and out of the shot, especially with the driver.

In this clip, Tiger's takeaway is too far inside, so he must clear space at impact by backing away from the ball. Add a bad back and it's fore-right, fore-left, for-get-it.

In this photo, a younger Tiger has retained his spine angle at impact so his shoulders are at an angle to the ground that’s similar to the angle they had at address. Keeping the spine/shoulder angle is the best way to swing because the arms naturally follow the shoulder line.

This is a photo taken after my back injury. Notice how upright my spine angle is compared to the young Tiger’s. This means that at impact, my shoulders are too horizontal, causing me to swing over the ball, producing pulls and pull-cuts.