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Finding And Fixing Swing Faults

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Published: 04Aug2009
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When Tiger Woods tees it up at the British Open this weekend, he'll be playing in one of the world's top golf tournaments. Like all players, he'll be looking to win. That's because the British Open, like the U.S Open, the Masters, and the PGA Championship, is among professional golf's most prestigious-and richest-golf tournaments. Tiger and the other PGA golfers in the tournament will be playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money.

As with most professional golf tournaments, the British Open starts on Thursday and finishes on Sunday. Barring bad weather or a major mishap, the tournament goes for at least 72 holes-four rounds of 18 holes. While this might seem like a lot, it's not. In fact, one bad round-one bad hole-in this tournament can cost a player big time. To curb bad rounds, golfers must learn to eliminate minor swing faults when playing. You can't stop and take a golf lesson during a tournament round.

If you want to eliminate bad rounds-and cut your golf handicap-do like the pros. Learn to recognize and fix minor on-course swing faults. Below are four of the most glaring swing faults weekend golfers commit:

Follow The Target Line. Taking a club back too far inside the target line increases your chances of hitting a bad shot. Sometimes, it causes you to block the ball. Other times, it causes you to rotate your upper body too much too soon. Whatever happens, taking the club back too far inside courts disaster and drains power from your swing. To fix this fault, simply take the club back along the target line for as long as possible, just as I say in my golf tips. Obviously, you can't take the club straight back all the way through. But the longer you can follow the target line while going back, the better.

Set The Wrist Earlier. The wrist cock is among the swing's most important components. It's also among the most overlooked. Cocking your wrist properly increases accuracy. Unfortunately, some weekend golfers fail to cock their wrists properly, short-circuiting power. A proper wrist cock helps the body rotate more effectively and increases speed through the ball.

Proper wrist cock also helps you avoid dipping your front shoulder. You always want your front shoulder higher than your back shoulder at impact. If you're losing power during a round, check your wrist cock. Remember, once the hands reach waist high, the wrists should be fully cocked. From there, you're able to make a more efficient shoulder rotation.

Turn Your Body First. If you release your hands too early, you'll drain power from your swing. Releasing early is often a prelude to "casting"-a major swing fault. Releasing early is also a sign of hitting the ball instead of swinging through it. An early release is caused by an overactive right hand (left for lefties). In the critical microseconds before impact, you must continue turning your body well into the finish. The force of the rotation, along with gravity, causes your hands to unfold at the lowest point in your swing arc. It's here-where the arms and hands extend fully-that you achieve maximum clubhead speed and pinpoint accuracy.

Manage Your Weight Properly. Among the biggest faults weekend golfers make is not managing their weight properly during the backswing. We call this making a "reverse pivot." If your weight never leaves your front foot, you're probably committing this fault. It results in fat shots and pop ups. It adds strokes to your golf handicap, if uncorrected. As your body turns away, your weight should shift naturally to your back foot. Any other weight shift is probably a weight slide, inhibiting the body from turning properly. Since turning is the key to power, make sure you're turning your upper body when starting your backswing, not sliding back.

The British Open is a major professional golf tournament. Players will have 72 holes to put up the best score. One bad round could sink a golfer, and cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money. To contend, PGA players must be able to quickly recognize and fix minor swing faults when playing. If you want to improver your game-and cut strokes from your golf handicap-learn to do the same thing.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

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