Butch Harmon’s Playing Lessons, (03) Hole 3, Notes

Post date: Sep 10, 2017 6:32:32 AM

Butch Harmon’s Playing Lessons by Butch Harmon with John Andrisani

Hole:3 Medalist Golf Club, Par 5-485 Yards.

• 1. Drive.

     1. Good habit: get set then look back and forth between the ball and the target a few times. This type of intense focus on the target area raises the player’s level of confidence and sends a positive message to the brain. Once the brain knows where we want to hit it, the body finds a way to swing the club correctly. It’s important to play a video in the head before we swing. This also discourages us from looking at trees, fairway bunkers, etc. in the way. Commit to the shot: swing nicely to the finish: accelerate nicely through impact and flow into a nice finish.

     2. To carry the ball farther than normal off the tee, move the ball up in your stance, playing it off the let instep. Then widen the stance, moving the right foot back about an inch or two but keeping it parallel to the target line. Then take a normal swing. This position helps us to stay behind the ball a little longer, which is what gets the ball up into the air more, giving us the extra carry we want.

     3. Relax and make a rhythmic swing. To promote the correct swing plane, bend from the ball and socket joints of the hips, never the waist. Stooping over encourages an overly steep plane. Relax the arms so they feel more like spaghetti and less like steel. Relaxed arms help to generate speed and power in the backswing. The pause at the top of the backswing should occur unconsciously and naturally as the club changes direction to avoid disrupting tempo. Think of the swing as one continuous uninterrupted motion. Concentrate on swinging into a full finish. To cure the long pause problem:

        1. On the practice tee, as soon as we begin the downswing immediately rotate the stomach and belt buckle toward the target. This drill teaches the shifting and rotating actions to kick in automatically once we reach the top of our backswing. All of the sudden, the pause will be gone.

  2. Approach

• • 1. Red light and green light situations: Factor in how powerfully we have to hit in order to reach the green, the location and size of the green as well as all the other penalties we face for not reaching the green before deciding to try to reach and hold the green in two. If the shot requires us to be perfect, the smart play is to lay up. One secret to scoring is knowing when to lay up and when to go for the green.

    2. When looking for added overspin and distance on a lay-up shot, increase the rotation of the forearms and hands through impact, so that the toe of the club leads the and clubface closes slightly at impact. Overspin can add another 30 yards to a shot, an excellent shot his when looking for extra yards without having to hold a green. A 4- or 5-iron will send the ball flying far down the fairway.

    3. The secret to hitting out of pine needles is to pick the ball cleanly. Realize that pine needles are loosely knitted together, so the slightest touch can dislodge the ball. To avoid a two stroke penalty, start by holding the club head above the needles, just behind the ball. Play the ball just short of the midpoint of the stance, with the hands slightly in front of the clubhead and a tad more weight on the left foot. Swing the hands back to level with the hips, keeping the wrists quiet. This will prevent getting too handsy, going into the ball steep and hitting the ball fat.

    4. Swing on an inside square inside path. To encourage this path, put a ball down on the grass. Lay a cardboard club box or a piece of PVC pipe about an inch outside the ball and parallel to the target line. Address the ball and swing. The secondary target line encourage the release of the hands, arms and club in the hitting area which allows us to work the club back to the inside. We need rotation in the arms. We must release.

• 3. Greenside:

• • 1. From 40 yards out, on a tight fairway, hitting to an unguarded green play a pitch and run. Play the ball back slightly in an open stance, so the hands are positioned in front of the ball. Keeping the lower body perfectly still, swing the club back so the shaft is parallel to the ground. Allow the shoulders to rotate freely and the right wrist to hinge slightly. On the downswing rotate the hip counterclockwise and release the right wrist to hinge slightly which allow us to accelerate the club. Concentrate on keeping the club low through impact so that the ball is swept off the turf. The ball will fly low bounce onto the green and trickle to the hole.