Have a look at the following chart.

The key idea here is to launch high with a low spin.  Spin is created by Spin Loft.   Spin loft is the difference between your Dynamic Loft(DL) and Angle of Attack (AoA).  The more you have a negative AoA (hitting down), the higher your DL goes, the higher your DL goes, the higher your spin goes.

LPGA players are averaging at 3 degree up.

If you are hitting up, you may just be optimised to use that 8 degree driver  Check with your clubfitter.

The key to maximising distance:

The optimal combination of ball speed, launch angle, and spin rate needed to maximize driving distance for a particular golfer are primarily dictated by the golfer’s club speed and attack angle.

The reason has to do with a tradeoff between ball speed, launch angle, and spin rate. Distance is maximized with a high ball speed, high launch angle, and low spin rate – however, increasing launch angle by increasing the dynamic loft has the side-effect of increasing spin rate and decreasing ball speed. So, a tradeoff must be made, and the optimal tradeoff depends on how an individual delivers the club to the ball. Maximizing ball speed also implies making center impact – or at least close to center impact– as well squaring up club path and face angle.

As an example, someone with a club speed of 90 mph and an attack angle of -5 degrees would maximize carry distance with a ball speed of 129 mph, launch angle of 11.1 degrees, and spin rate of 3690 rpm. Meanwhile, someone else with the same club speed of 90 mph, but an attack angle of +5 degrees would maximize carry distance with a ball speed of 132 mph, launch angle of 16.4 degrees, and spin rate of 2630 rpm. Note in this example, the golfer who hit up on the ball would end up with more carry: 196 versus 175 meters. Attack angle is really a swing issue. Changing a driver or that shaft without understanding these is not the magical move to gain that extra 20 meters of carry. If it happens, it is by chance. Equipment and swing got to go hand in hand.

Visit your club fitter and they should be able to tell if you are hitting down or hitting up, what happens when your launch angle is decreased or increased by 1 degree, and what head/shaft will get to optimise your drives even if you are not prepared for a swing change.

About Trackman

TrackMan technology has been impacting the golf industry for more than 6 years. From R&D, to club fitting, to instruction and practice, TrackMan has improved the way the golf industry develops equipment, evaluates technique, and measures performance – all benefitting how golfers play the game. During this time, TrackMan with its own research and technology has sought to not only measure the golf swing and the resulting ball flight, but to shed light on some of the mysteries of golf as well: more precisely, why the ball goes where it goes. Backed by cuttingedge analytics, TrackMan has been able to discover, confirm, and/ or quantify several fundamental principles about golf.

Rickie Fowler – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 294.1 yards

Rory McIlroy – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 302.3 yards

Keegan Bradley – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 298.8 yards

Lee Westwood – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 289.8 yard

Steve Stricker – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 276.3 yards

Martin Laird – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 296.2 yards

Geoff Ogilvy – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 288 yards

Ryo Ishikawa – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 287.4 yards

Matteo Manasserro – 2012 EPGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 271.1 yards

Luke Donald – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 273.6 yards

Tiger Woods 2012 – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 296.2 yards

Jamie Sadlowski – 2010 and 2011 ReMax Long Drive Champion – enough said

Bubba Watson – 2012 PGA Tour Driving Distance Average: 315.1 yards

The lesson here is very simple, as a general rule of thumb; the higher the hands are when the left leg “disappears”, the longer the hitter. The only outlier in this sample is Rickie Fowler who clears his hips when his hands are waist high.

The outlier in the sample of players who clear late is Lee Westwood. Again these are outliers and thus not generalizable.

So why has traditional golf instruction been devoid of this vital piece of information, the puzzle that will begin to unlock power driving?

1. No awareness this even exists.
2. No idea what triggers the early hip clearance.
3. An early hip clearance without ANOTHER vital movement will actually cause an OTT move – perhaps another reason why this is not commonly taught.
4. Sliding the hips as opposed to rotation makes it easier to hit the ball. I said easier, but not necessarily better.

So how do we do this right? That will be the subject of our next article.

Justin Tang has been teaching golf for over 6 years. In 2005 he became certified in Arizona by Chuck Evans (GSED) becoming the 1st authorized Medicus Instructor in Asia.

With the plethora of (mis)information out there, sometimes I wonder how golfers are even able to begin their swing! Here is a list of things commonly taught.

1. Take the club straight back.
2. Take the club inside.
3. Don’t use the hands, use the big muscles.
4. Use the hands, the big muscles will follow.
5. Fan the face open.
6. Keep it square to the arc.

What really riles me is that these things are often taught with an air of pomp as though one were preaching the untenable truths of the universe. Worst still, the backswing is often taught as a fundamental.

A fundamental is defined as a basic principle, rule or law that forms the basis of a system. Logically, speaking, a backswing cannot be a fundamental since many good players have a “look” to the backswing, yet are able to play well. The reason for this is simple – you do not hit the ball on the backswing.

In the following pictures, we will showcase some of the different backswings employed on the PGA Tour and guide you to your own signature backswing.

Bubba Watson

Rory McIlroy

Jim Furyk

Todd Hamilton

Jason Day

Michelle Wie

In all of the swings above, two things are fairly evident:

1)    The shaft does not ever “go underneath” the right forearm (or left forearm in Bubba Watson’s case).

2)    The shaft seeks to bisect or be as close as possible to the right shoulder on the way to the completion of the backswing.

How about steepness of the swing and club face angle you say?

Why don’t you try these two swing keys first and see if the other “symptoms”  of a good takeaway appear, I say!

I can only point to two good players who swing the opposite of our models above, Matt Kuchar and Raymond Floyd. I would be interested to know if there are more good players who swing in this fashion.

While this is one way to arrive at the top of the backswing, most players lack the talent to apply compensatory moves to prevent an over-the-top move such a “rounded” swing produces.

As the saying goes, “what comes around, goes around.”

Matt Kuchar

Raymond Floyd

By remembering the two keys outlined above, hopefully you are able to create a backswing that puts you in position to pound it down the fairway like Tiger.

Frame 1:  Club shaft (RED) bisecting the angle of the right forearm (YELLOW).

Frame 2: Club shaft stays above the right forearm.

Frame 3: Club shaft still above the right forearm and bisecting the right shoulder. Shaft is also on plane since an extension of the grip end of the club shaft points to the line of flight.

Frame 4: Club shaft on plane since it is now parallel to the intended line of flight. Club is all set at the top and awaiting the machinations of the swing engine (the pivot) to propel it towards the ball.

About Justin Tang

First thing first. Always ask yourself what level of club fitting are you going through. Here is a checklist for you.

Just the club

Occasionally we will have golfer that just want to buy a club or a component (e.g. shaft). Although there are many processes involved in building a club, there are people out there that want to have the bare basic.  Therefore, the expected price range is as follows (Keep in mind these price ranges do not include custom fitting or any optimization.  Just the bare installation and to build a club to a “standard” specification.  However, do note that as a matter of fact, there is no standard in this industry):

Let’s then look at the installation part that is essentially what makes a custom fitted club different from the over-the-counter clubs.

Basic Installation:

Basic installation ranges from just cutting the shaft to the desired length and then fixing it into the club head.  But if we were to do this, there is not much difference between clubs build in this manner vis-à-vis over-the-counter club.

Thus, we typically does the following even for basic installation whichincludes spine-ing the shaft, building the club to some consistent swing weight that the golfer can handle, and installing the grip.

Set matching:

Set matching in this case would refer to building the set of clubs to a matching MOI or a consistent frequency.

Whether it is matching MOI or frequency of shaft in a set, it takes approximately 6-8 hours to match a set.  E.g. For our practice where we match MOI to 1% and for any reason the final MOI is off, the club builder will then need to rebuild again.  This will means at least another 20-30 mins to remove the head from the shaft and re-evaluate the weight in the head etc.  Assuming it cost the builder $30 an hour to build, having a set of clubs that is matched would add at least $240 to the overall cost of the set.

Custom Clubfitting (Excellent)

As you can see from the custom club fitting checklist, the technologies and time spent with a golfer will be very extensive.  Based on our typical engagement, we can expect to spend about 4-5 hours working with the golfer (exclude installation).  For a start, fitting technologies don’t come cheap.  A Trackman for indoor use will typically cost about $20,000 and the SAM PuttLab cost about $10,000.  The use of such equipment simply goes to show the accuracy requirement and commitment of the club fitter.  A certified professional club fitter will typically charge $50 per hour for his time.  Together with resources like fitting system (those inter-changeable heads and shafts, consumables like lead tapes and butt weights), launch monitor, balls and the real estate (e.g. the indoor or outdoor facility) for the fitting, we can typically expect to pay about $130-$150 per hour of usage.  Assuming we are going to spend just 4 hours, this would workout to be an additional $600.

So, how much will a set of custom fitted 5-PW* cost? For a cast set we are looking at anything upward from $1400  and a Japanese forged set would set one back anywhere between $2000 to  $2500 (on an “excellent” level of club fitting & building service).

Thus custom fitting does comes at a premium but amortize that over the years of having enjoyable golf with a set that is built to a weight and length you can comfortably handle, this investment seems all too worthwhile.

* – comprises of club head, shaft, grip and professional fitting services.  If its just changing a particular component such as shaft, then the price will be lower.

For more information on how custom fitting is beneficial, do refer to our other postings ………

Next time take this into consideration to lay up for your second shot…

 Most golfers eschew good, hard and correct practice and instead indulge themselves in the age old quest for the Holy Grail – the secret of golf.

People thought that Ben Hogan – revered as the greatest ball striker of all time – had a secret that explained his phenomenal striking ability. Much has been debated about this. Some claim that it was his cupped left wrist at the top that allowed Mr. Hogan to “release” his hands as hard as he wanted without hooking the ball.

Still others claim that it was his unusual hip action on his backswing that resembled a reverse pivot that allowed him to make a strong move into the ball on his downswing.

Mr. Hogan was not the only one whom the masses thought were hiding a secret. Scores have also been written about Tiger Woods’ whiplash hip action as the key to smashing 300 yard drives. Sergio Garcia’s “buggy whip” swing action was the key to increasing distance. Homer Kelley said the secret was “clubhead lag”. They may all be true.

If you are the prototypical average golfer who watches The Golf Channel and reads Golf Digest occasionally, then you can testify to seeing at least one article which claims to have finally unlocked the secret code to better golf.

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” – Alvin Toffler, Futurist

The real secret to golf in my opinion is the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.

There can be no progress in one’s golf swing without the ability to do these three things.

These three things are truly the key to learning the secrets of golf, now that’s some food for thought.

1) First, align your eyes directly over the ball in a comfortable, relaxed stance.

2) Second, determine where you are going to anchor the butt of the shaft on your belly. Most people use their belly button as an anchor point. Once you are in a comfortable, relaxed stance with your eyes directly over the ball, measure the distance from your anchor point to the ball. This measurement will determine the length of the shaft for your belly putter.

3) To get the lie angle, use a protractor to measure the angle of the shaft coming out of the putter head.

Hope this helps in help you find the right belly putter!

If one was to single out the most important portion of the golf swing, it would have to be impact. Impact is defined as section of the golf swing where the club meets the ball. Looking at the myriad of swings on the professional tours, only one section of ALL their swings look similar, the moment of truth – IMPACT.

 This moment of truth can explain why people with seemingly good swings can make awfully bad shots (the lithe hot chick at the range); and why professionals with swings that resemble a butcher in action can win majors (Jim Furyk, Hubert Green et al).

Until one has an idea of what impact should feel like, it is pointless to work on the other aspects of the golf swing. Yes, how you grip, how you stand, half swings and full swings have no place in your curriculum unless and until you master the gateway to correct golf.

Too many people try to walk before they can even crawl so to speak in golf. Having given more lessons than I care to remember, less than a handful of students was actually thrilled at not being able to hit full swings under my tutelage.

Most players have been given a wrong concept of how to learn and play by their well meaning friends. Notwithstanding, this problem is further compounded by some coaches who encourage them to practice with their 7 irons until they build in some semblance of muscle memory.

Practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent your motion whether correct or wrong! If you cannot even strike the ball correctly in a chip shot, you will have no chance with a full swing.

So what are optimum impact alignments?

1. Clubhead bottoming out in front of the ball
2. A flat left wrist and a bent right wrist
3. Hands ahead of the ball
4. Grip end of the club leaning towards the target
5. Hands opposite the left thigh
6. Head centered between the stance

We will be launching a series of articles written by teaching pros on their thoughts about the swing.  The inaugurating article is written by Paul Tudor,  an Australian PGA Member teaching at Raffles Country Club.  I’m sure Paul needs no further introduction.

The Overswing

The overswing is a common fault of many amateur golfers. It leads to golfers experiencing all the undesirable outcomes such as slicing, pulling, topping and duffing.

Two of the main causes of golfers overswinging are:

Incorrect Body Shape and Over Rotation.

Read the pdf article:  Over Swing – Paul Tudor