Question 89

Clay

Dear Clay,

Typically two things take place, or cause hitting a ball to the right. It can also be a combination. If your shots to the right are a straight push, then it is your swing path that is the culprit. Hopefully, you are aware that this form of ball flight is the result of the swing path and club face being in the same alignment at the moment of impact and separation. If your upper body, specifically your breastplate, moves in front of the golf ball down the target line, you are unable to move your rear arm straight in enough, and the path will be to the right. The easiest way to look for this is by focusing on keeping your nose over the right knee at impact. With your head back you will be forced to extend the right arm to get to the ball. I repeatedly mention this in every video from the IMA Way, short game, master the golf stroke. It is extremely important.

The other difficulty is the commonly held misconception propagated by natural golf, which is that you should keep your arms extended and straight, all the way through the hitting area and hold your release until the force overtakes you and your wrists fire.

This action, in and of itself, causes push shots. This is because the left arm is artificially separated from the body and you are swinging the golf club severely inside to out. If you look at the photographs of Moe straight on, you will see that at the 6/100 of a second when the club face is parallel down the line, he has the rear forearm bent at the elbow pointing into the side, while the forward left arm is straight, with a flat forearm wrist relationship. Although the release position is similar it is not a mirror image of the backswing position. In the release position you will see that Moe's right arm is now straight, his left elbow bent into his side, still in front of his body . The left wrist has extended, and the shoulders are still relatively square. This is imperative to have the feeling that the arms swing pass you in order for the golf swing to balance you. As Moe says, this moment is a straight, on plane, motion of the hand. (See Ask Scott Archives, Grips, #26 for more detail. Try this exercise. While sitting at a table, extend your right arm straight out in front of you and make a fist with your right hand. Slightly bend your wrist forward so the thumb is on top and pointing forward. Now, while keeping your right arm straight, drop arm down until the first knuckle on your little finger is touching the table. You are now ready to duplicate Moe's motion. Swing the arm back to the right, while keeping the little finger knuckle touching the table. Move your arm back in front of you, while continuing to keep that knuckle touching the table. When your arm is back in front of you release your hand through, while still keeping that knuckle on the table. This is how Moe's hand behaves through impact. CAUTION: if at any time your point of contact between the knuckle and the table changes, to either more knuckles or any other part of the hand touching the table, you have rotated and are not doing the release motion correctly.)

This is not a rotational movement of the forearms as Jack describes in his Moe analysis. By doing this as described above, the golf club moves down the line and forces an underneath and a up motion, not a rolling over, turning motion. So, keep the left humerus on top and closer to your chest while letting the club swing past you.

This will keep your path more on line to the target. My last word is this, I personally want the golf ball moving toward the target, because swinging the club virtually on plane every time is much more difficult than having your club face pointed at the target at impact and separation. My shots may fall right to left, or left to right, because the path is so very difficult to be perfect every time.

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