Becoming an Insider to the Game of Golf
Chances are good that you’ve often felt like an outsider to the game of golf, as if you’re trying to play and comprehend the game from the outside-in—as in aiming your habitually slicing drives at or into a line of trees, or out over the rough, or sometimes even out-of-bounds, in hopes of curving or steering your spinning ball back into the fairway—or in regularly trying to swing or steer your slicing drives away from the direction in which you commonly hit them (away from the right if you play right-handed), by aligning your feet, hips, and shoulders well outside the optimal target-line. If you do these things, you are indeed playing the game from the outside-in—and in an exaggerated manner—because in trying to compensate for the effects of your habitual outside-in swing, you are actually exacerbating them.

By setting yourself up well outside the optimal target-line, you cause the club to be taken back further outside the correct swing-plane than it would otherwise be, and you increase (rather than decrease) the chances that the club will cut across the ball, and slice it. Your instinct is to swing your arms away from the slicing direction in which you normally hit the ball; but the logic of golf is counter-instinctual if, like most golfers, you are already swinging the club from the outside-in.

Your stance should be such that you align your feet and body as the logic and physics of good golf demand, by adjusting your stance as if you are going to hit the ball “straight down the middle,” as Bing Crosby once sang—or even by aligning yourself slightly to the right of your target line, as if you mean to draw the ball from right to left—and then by swinging from the inside-out, by taking the club back inside your target-line as you start your backswing, and by following the same inside-out plane on your downswing.

This type of practice, golfers of all skill sets can benefit from. These simple adjustments will automatically improve your results and it doesn’t hurt to have a trained and watchful eye to ensure you are properly aligned.

By: Bob Burns, PGA Master Professional, 2007 WI Section PGA Teacher of the Year, Top 50 Instructor and inventor of the No Bananas driver. www.bobburnsgolf.com

The Basics of Forming a Correct Grip (for a right-handed golfer)
While holding the club off the ground, waist-high, in front of you, with your left hand, and checking to see that the clubface is square to your target-line, set the grip-handle under the heel-pad of that left hand. As you close your left hand, your left thumb should be right of center on the grip-handle (in a 1:00 position). You should see two or three knuckles on the back of your hand, which should be aimed between your target and the sky. The club should feel secure in your fingers, and you should feel the left-hand pressure of your grip in the last three fingers.
Now bring your right hand to the handshake-position. Your right palm should be parallel to the leading edge of the clubface. As you close your right-hand, your right thumb should be left of center on the grip-handle (in an 11:00 position). Your left thumb should fit comfortably in the valley between the base of your right thumb and the heel-pad on your right hand. You should feel the right-hand pressure of your grip in the middle and ring fingers of your right hand.
Try to maintain a firm but light grip-pressure throughout your swing—“as if you’re holding a baby bird,” as Sam Snead once said.

Weak Grip/Strong Grip
A grip that is too weak is one in which the grip-handle of the club is placed too much in the palm of the glove-hand, rather than in the fingers. Such a weak grip causes a slice—that big banana ball—especially with a driver and the longer irons. Your grip is too weak if you see but one knuckle (or none at all) on the back of your glove-hand (the left hand for right-handed players) when you’re addressing the ball, or when the V formed by your thumb and index finger on that hand points to your chin, rather than toward your rear shoulder. By contrast, your grip is too strong if you see four knuckles on your glove-hand, and when the palm of your non-glove hand faces upward. Such a strong grip often causes a bad hook, or a shot that flies low and left. You have too strong a grip if either of the V’s on your hands points outside your rear shoulder.

By: Bob Burns, PGA Master Professional, 2007 WI Section PGA Teacher of the Year, Top 50 Instructor and inventor of the No Bananas driver. www.bobburnsgolf.com

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