We can watch golfers like Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy and Louis Oosthuizen and admire their golf swings.
But what about players like Jim Furyk, Tommy Gainey and Bubba Watson? What can we learn by watching their swings?
History is full of players with unique swing motions who were successful. Players like Lee Trevino, Miller Barber and Ray Floyd didn’t have model swings, but they all had great careers.
I believe you can learn as much or more from watching these players and understanding why they are successful.
Golf is all about the skill of controlling your ball. Great players control the direction, trajectory and distance on their full shots as well as the short-game shots.
Having an understanding of what makes the ball do what it does is essential to improving your ball control.
There are five factors that influence the ball on every shot. The five factors are (all at impact) clubface angle, path, angle of attack, centered-ness of contact and clubhead speed.
If you tend to over-curve your golf ball either hooking or slicing, focus on your clubface angle and your path.
The golf ball will take off basically at right angles to the clubface at impact.
If your clubface is open or facing to the right at impact, your ball will take off to the right. If your clubface is closed or facing to the left at impact your ball with initially fly to the left of your target.
What the ball does from there, how it curves, is influenced by the path of your club through impact.
If your golf ball is curving to the right, your path is traveling more to the left than where your clubface is pointing. Curving to the left? Your club is moving more to the right than the direction your clubface is pointed.
If you slice the golf ball, focus on your clubface first and fix any reason that your clubface might be open and then work on path. If you hook the ball, work on correcting your exaggerated in-to-out path first.
It is a combination of influences from all five factors that tell your ball where to go but focus on your clubface angle and path first.
