Making contact
Tips to help you increase your driving yardage
Pro at work: Golf pro, Rob Anderson, demonstrates what a balanced swing looks like.—Photo by Kris Lindblad
Tiger’s prodigious tee shots have created the perception for some that the key to shooting better golf scores lies in one’s ability to overpower the course. This is not the case, however. Don’t get me wrong—a little added length certainly wouldn’t hurt anyone’s game. It would simply be careless of me as an instructor to focus solely on hitting the ball further. h3. Short game fundamentals The way Tiger launches the ball into orbit makes it easy to forget that he has a short game that is as sharp as a razor. Before you try to work on increasing your yardage be sure to direct some of your resources toward the development of your short game fundamentals. Lecture over; now let’s get back to the fun stuff: hitting it further! For the sake of the information in this column let us assume that your equipment specs match your swing needs. There is a list of potential equipment issues that could be limiting your distance gains and experience tells me that this is often a part of the problem. h3. Keep it simple I am also not going to delve into specific mechanical swing flaws because there are simpler things we should tackle first. Let’s start by taking a simple look at the physics behind hitting it further. The faster you swing the club the more club head speed you generate, and this increased club head speed translates to longer shots—sort of. Making solid contact in the middle of the club is an important part of the equation; the closer you hit the ball to the centre of the clubface the further the ball will fly. Inversely, the further from the middle of the clubface you contact the ball, the shorter it will fly. In most cases the sad reality is that players swing faster only to see their ball contact get worse. The math is simple—a 10 per cent increase in swing speed combined with a 20 per cent decrease in power due to poor contact, equals a net loss of 10 per cent in yardage. Bottom line, swinging harder only pays off if your contact remains solid. h3. A solid recommendation What would I recommend you do to improve the quality of your contact? The answer is simple: place an emphasis on balance in your swing. Balance creates stability, allowing you to deliver the solid part of the club to the ball more often. This will have an instant impact on your distance and allow you to maximize the power you currently generate. A general rule of thumb is that you should start and finish your swing in a balanced position. Spend some time on the range working on holding your finish for a full three seconds after each shot. It may seem like an easy task, but you will be surprised how many players are not able to do it. With some focused time and effort on the range, you should see both your balance and ball contact improve, and distance gains will naturally follow.