As the winter months approach, as the ground conditions soften, and as the carry reduces you are going to find that over these cold winter months that your irons might not be able to get you to the greens and you might have to resort to your good old friend the fairway wood.

I wanted to just give you a few tips on how to execute these shots correctly and deliver the club as the manufacturer designed it.

Now there is a myth that with a fairway wood you sweep it off the deck, now the impact is a lot more sweepy (let’s say for want of a better term) than an iron however track man data, launch monitor data and all of the assessments of tour professionals with show you that there is actually a slight downward blow with these clubs.

What you must do is get that 14, 15, 16, 17 degrees of loft to the underside of that golf ball and if you’re sweeping that golf club through impact you’re going to find it very difficult to deliver the loft to the back edge of the ball correctly.

So there has to be a little bit of a squeeze on the ball, a little bit of a downward blow and I’m just going to highlight a few things that allow that to happen.

So if we just take Els for example; look at where the back edge of the ball is aligned. I’ve drawn a line up vertically here and you can see this sits below the logo on his polo shirt. Just to his sternum side of his body of his armpit.

So it’s slightly back of where a driver would be but nonetheless you can see that it’s not quite as far forward as I’m sure you thought it was.

If you look at Tiger’s shaft here you can see the shaft is coming out of the ground vertically, there is no reward lean of the shaft and no forward lean.

So the shaft is set as the manufacturers designed it and if you were to just let the club sit on the ground naturally and open your hand out while you just support the club you’ll see that when you square the club face the shaft on a driver and a fairway wood wants to come out of the club very vertically. As you can even see with Ernie Els here, so let that happen don’t get any lean forward on the shaft as you’ll promote too much of a dig and don’t get any lean away from the target as you’ll promote too sharp a rise angle through impact.

So really you can see from simple terms that the ball is below the logo and the shaft is just leaning or coming out of the ground very vertically and you’ll see in both these instances the hands just directly on top of the back edge of the golf ball.

So very simple set up here. You can see in both cases as well there is the most subtle of spine angled away from the target.

Ball below the little logo on the polo shirt, hands on top of the back edge of the ball and then just a slight tilt away with the spine from the target.

That’s the set up taken care of, I just now want to show you impact. Now if I just take away all these lines and just get you to highlight or just concentrate on this little area just past the golf ball here just watch what happens when Els strikes the ball.

So he doesn’t just clip the ball off the turf, you can see there; the hands get back over the ball quite early. Now watch here; shaft re-aligns in a nice vertical line, watch the dust come out of the ground in the most subtle of divots.

So divots aren’t absolutely paramount but they do tell us a lot and we do want to promote people to take divots but not big gauges out of the turf.

You can see here imagining the golf ball is sat on a pound coin the club has struck the ball and taken the pound coin as well and then that in turn has also left the slight dust that you can see coming out of the ground.

Let’s have a little look at Woods doing and you’ll see here as the club gets up to the top of the backswing he just winds up on top of the golf ball. As he moves down he shifts into his left side, look how the left hip moves over the left foot. So he moving his body weight into his lead side very early, so that now allows him to get on top of the ball, his body weight set and now he can (you can see there a little bit of a downward blow), now he can squeeze the golf ball of the turf.

So it’s not a huge chunk of divot, it is as though the club is just brushing the grass and creating a disturbance there but in both cases (if I just put Els and Woods both side by side) you’ll notice there is a bunt into the left leg to start the downswing.

So there’s a shift of body weight over that lead leg that then allows the right contact point with the ground and if your hanging your weight back you’re going to find it very easy to hit the ground before the ball. If you’re shifting on top of the golf ball you’ll find it easier to get this strike that we’re discussing.

So from that there’s a lateral bunt over the left side as the club comes down, makes that nice smooth contact with the turf, not that big deep divot and the body continues to rotate to face the target.

You can see how early his chest and his tummy turn to face where that ball is going and even with Tiger here (riddled with injuries at this point) you can see belt buckle and chest turning through and his weight finishes nicely in that left leg.

Now watch this image as we bring this up, camera angle is not quite as square on as it was with Tiger in the other images but just watch the shift into the left side and the divot. Now he’s playing out the semi here but still nonetheless there is a little squeeze on the ground.

And that is exactly what I want you to think of through these winter months in order to get these additional carries that you need, those extra yards. Just try and feel that you take a little bit of care at set up, making sure you get the most subtle of spine angle away from the target, then as you move into impact you shift your weight into your front leg and you allow the club to take a divot.

I hope this makes sense, hope this helps you through these cold wet winter months and even into the summer next year when you’ve got that fairway wood and you need to get the carry remember there is the most subtle of divots imagine that ball sat on top of a pound coin and you’re taking the ball and the pound coin which will then in turn give a little bit of bruising of the ground.

That’s a great bit of technique for you to take away and think about on the golf course

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In this video we cover some pitching similarities at the top level. What we can see in both of these cases is some similarities in how the blade is set that looks already before you even watch their action, that they are playing a high softer shot.

So, that in itself is quite a difficult shot to teach the average golfer anyway, just due to their general swing tendencies, but what we can see is how similar their actions are at the top of the game, but with two distinctively different golf swings.

What you have here is Harrington on the right and Els on the left, two very different golf swings, but lots of things that look identical here.
First things first, what you can see with both of them is that they load up a little bit of weight in to their left side just ever so-slightly at address. Stance is pinched in a little bit, so in each case their feet are around about one-club heads length apart.

You can see that the weight is loaded just ever so slightly under the left foot. If they were standing on a set of scales under each foot, the left scale or the scale on the left hand-side of their stance would just be reading a little bit more of load underneath that foot than the right.
So, you can see already then that I’ve drawn a line here from the shirt buttons, the shirt buttons are over the back-edge of the golf ball as a minimum requirement. I quite like to see those shirt buttons in line with the front-edge of the ball, but nonetheless they are playing a higher shot, so you would like to see that back just a touch. But generally speaking, they’re playing off a tight lie and blade is already set to an open position.

Now, if you watch Els here on the left, the most distinct thing about his action is how early he turns his chest through to the target. If you look at the peak on his cap and the shirt buttons on his polo shirt, you can see that they are moving out in front of the golf ball early, so you can see here that the rotation is coming from the chest, the legs are very quiet and the chest and eyes are looking out in front of the golf ball very early.

Now I often think this is a great way to get people to keep turning through the shot, and what we tend to find is the old adage; ‘keep the head down’, is an absolute nightmare when it comes to chipping and pitching, because what happens is the spine and the sternum start to pinch or lean away. The low-point moves before the golf ball and the low-point is governed by where we align the sternum.

So you can see here that he has kept his sternum on top of the golf ball and now look at the clubs interaction with the turf. Look where the club bites the ground, it’s right underneath the golf ball, because he’s kept his sternum over it.

Now of course there are ways in which you can mess around with that. If you start moving the handle back and forward you will then mess around with where the club bottoms out. But generally speaking here, he has returned his hands back to where they were at address. So there’s his address position, kept his sternum on top of the ball, kept his weight very static and his hands have returned back to that position he pre-set at address.

If you watch Harrington chokes down on the club a little bit more than Els, but nonetheless, keeps his weight in the left-side, turns the chest through, keeps the peak of his cap a little bit more stable, but you can still see here he’s turned his chest through to that target very early. And for me, I see huge similarities here in that the legs are incredibly quiet, set-up his pre-setting impact, so no real differences there, all they’ve done is bring that blade back in, and then look at how as he hits this golf ball it’s as though he’s hitting it with the back-edge of the club on the ground, so he slams the back-edge of the wedge on to the turf and there’s no divot.

And that’s a very good way of getting somebody to understand how to use the bounce and not the leading-edge. So, in both of these cases, the back-edge of the club, the back-edge of the wedge, the bounce of the club is striking the turf not the leading-edge, and what that is going to do is the rounded sole will stop the club going underground and allow you to maintain the loft on the golf club.

So, a nice little exercise would be to stand with your feet close together, keep your sternum on top of the golf ball, feel that there is very little lateral movement and make a swing where you get the back-edge of the club to bottom out on the turf and just turn the chest through to the target early.

And that in itself will just help you to understand the importance of rotating and not trying to squeeze the club down in to the golf ball. You just rotate and collect the golf ball, and just allow the back-edge of the club to bottom out nicely.

So, in both of these cases, very similar techniques, sternum on top of the ball, a little bit of weight in the left side, nice early rotation of the chest and you can then see from that back-edge of the club hits the ground and there’s a nice little turn early-on in to the finish position.
Nice similarities there, something in which I’m sure in which if you looked at just one asset, one of those, focused on one of those little areas, I think that would help you just improve your pitching and chipping through these winter months. No-end.

I hope you enjoyed these technical pointers, if you need any more information or would like any clarification, or any help with your own game, send me an email at Gareth@GarethJohnstonGolf.com and I look forward to seeing you soon.

The post Pitch perfect with Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington appeared first on Gareth Johnston Golf.

A nice simple tip to help you apply a nice downward blow when you’re on the tee, when you’ve got a tough tee-shot in front of you and you need to focus on something, it’s important that we get some ball speed.

Ball speed comes generally from controlling loft on your club. And you want maximum speed, you want to reduce a little bit of loft on our club, to get the ball squeezing and popping off the face nice and fast.

Well the way to reduce loft is one way through angle of attack. And angle of attack comes from hitting the handle forward and getting the club to stay low to the ground post impact.

What I’ve done is a pop a tee peg on the ground, about a club heads width in front of the golf ball and that’s giving me something to focus on and stop me trying to pick the ball off the top of the tee peg and get me to squeeze down and keep the club nice and low. Giving me maximum ball speed and distance control.

So, for maximum compression and control of that impact area, just pop a little tee peg a club heads length in front of the golf ball.

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I just want to give you something very simple to think about in the downswing to help you keep the pressure between your left arm and your chest.

The reason for that is to help you control your swing path. Now, my clients and the golfers I work with and golfers I see on the golf course lose control of the path due to the fact that their arms disconnect from their chest and then from that, the club moves in all sorts of different lines through impact.

So, I want you to think of something very simple. I just want you to get the ruffles of your shirt, fold them underneath your armpit and get the feeling in your downswing that you keep the pressure underneath your left arm.

Now what you’re going to see is when the arm starts its downswing, it is aligned out to the right of the target. That then just helps keep the club on the right arc as it comes in to impact, rather than the arms being thrown out in front. You can see in the video that my left arm is aligning way left of the target, we then lose control of what’s going on down here.

To help keep that pressure underneath your left arm, just feel from the top of the backswing down that we’re keeping the ruffles of our shirt in that armpit, the arm will then be aligned out to the right of target, and you’ll keep control of that swing path through impact.

The post Control your swing path appeared first on Gareth Johnston Golf.

It’s quite a cloudy subject but modern inclusion of TrackMan has helped us simplify this impact condition. Now, if you’re a fader of the golf ball, you hit it left to right, people will say pop that ball off your front foot. That’s absolutely fine but by the time the driver has made contact with the golf ball, not only is it working up, it is working very leftward.

So trying to actually hit up on it is actually promoting a faders movement. Consequently if you flip that around the other way, if you want to draw the golf ball, that ball needs to come back in your stance so you can catch on the inside.

Now PGA Tour stats would say that on average, driving on tour they hit downwards by 1.5 degrees, so that tells you that a driver, when being used on tour is actually generally being drawn.

I’m going to show you where to position the ball in reference to your stance for whether you want to hit a draw or a fade.

Drawer, we want it underneath the left armpit. So take your stance, move your left foot out so the ball is a couple of inches inside your left heel. Then take your stance, it will then be easier to hit it on the left-side.

To hit a fade, take your stance, do your little set-up routine, have the ball more forward, you’ll find it much easier to hit it on the outside.

Do it exactly the same the opposite way. Take the left foot out, ball more forward, it’s easier to hit the fade.

So in simple terms, hitting upwards is a faders movement, hitting downwards is actually a drawers movement. Make sure you put the ball in your stance in relation to the shot you’re trying to hit.

The post Position the ball in your stance appeared first on Gareth Johnston Golf.

Anything where we have to ballistically hit a ball in a certain direction requires the right sequence if you’re going to do it efficiently and powerfully.

Now if we think of a baseball player, when he’s ready to hit the ball, he will step and hit into his left side and then unwind. If you think of a cricketer when he’s bowling, steps, there’s a movement laterally and then there’s rotation.

The same thing applies in the golf swing. What we want to effectively do is move ourselves up to the top of the backswing, and then before any pull-down of the arms, there is a lateral rotation. So there’s the lateral move and then we rotate.

I like to pop a little cane down to show my students that the weight first of all moves in to the left foot, the left hip bumps over the left ankle, and then we can rotate around that lovely posted left-side.

I’m going to show you in this video how to move into that left-side correctly, so you can get the kinematic sequence right and fire those balls much further than you have been. So, get yourself set-up; you go up to the top of your backswing and the feeling before you pull-down with the arms is a lateral move and then we rotate and unwind.

The post Sequence the body parts into impact appeared first on Gareth Johnston Golf.

In this video I’m going to talk to you about the pendulum action when you’re putting. In true sense, what we want to do is to keep the head moving and keep the butt of the club stable.

If the butt of the club starts moving around, we start to actually hinder the ability to create a pendulum, and if you think about how effective a belly putter is or a broom-handle putter is, where this end stays fixed, then the head can move freely, we’re trying to replicate that but with a normal conventional length putter.

So, a nice simple swing thought for that is to try and keep this butt of the club incredibly still and let the head do the work in your putting stroke. And if you take a look at the video you’ll see how that looks.

Take your normal stance, and try and feel as though the butt of the club stays incredibly static and your head is doing all the work.

In summary, to help you keep your effective pendulum, keep your butt of the club incredibly static, think about that broom-handle or belly putter and try and feel as though the head is the piece of the putter doing the movement, not the butt of the club.

The post Pendulum Putting appeared first on Gareth Johnston Golf.

Problems I see among my clients and many golfers on the golf course, is the feeling through the left elbow detaching, the handle moving ahead of the club, and then that effectively stops this moving as freely and as fast.

A little exercise to stop that and help freewheel that putter head is to hold the club in your right hand, assume your normal putting stance, hug your right arm in to your side with your left hand, and make a putting stroke just feeling that your keeping everything nice and tight, and allow the putter head just to freewheel and overtake the handle through impact.

This then keeps the speed, which then equates to distance control, and when you come to these lag putts you’ll find it much easier to get the ball nice and close to the hole. Take a look at the video to see how that’s done.

In summary, if you can try every now and again when you’re on the putting green to just try and hug your arm in on the side, it helps to keep this as one unit, lets this putter head freewheel and release, and you’ll get that ball nice and close to the hole on those long putts.

The post Freewheel and release the putter appeared first on Gareth Johnston Golf.

Now this is placed so that when you actually place the ball at the centre of the club head, there is just enough breathing space for the toe of the putter to go past it. What I’ve also done is something to deaden the blow if you catch it off the toe to give you a little bit of a penalising practice session.

The exercise being, when you come and set yourself up to create yourself a nice neutral path, we want to miss both the tee peg and double sided tape. If you take the club on the outside on your way through you’ll catch the tee peg. If you take the club on the inside towards your body on the way through, you’ll catch the deadening blow of the double sided tape.

The post Putting Practice appeared first on Gareth Johnston Golf.

Today I want to help you to compress your iron shots and impart a slightly downward blow on the golf ball.

Now, with help with our launch monitor data, on tour the average downward blow with a 7 iron is about 3.7 degrees. For that to occur, there needs to be an element of lean on the shaft. The handle needs to be ahead of the club head on impact. How we position our hand on the club helps us to get that lean.

If we just take a normal address position and we put our left thumb on the handle on top of the grip, what you’re going to see is the wrist around to the left too much. Now as the club then comes into impact, it’s quite difficult to get the lean on the shaft, as it’s unnatural.

Whereas if we’re to align our wrist correctly at address, it’s very easy to get that lean and that pressure on the golf ball at impact. So, what I want to happen is the left thumb to be around to the right of the shaft, and you can see in the video that my wrist moves a little bit more on top of the handle.

Then automatically you can see that if I just let my arm hang, there’s an element of lean on the shaft. Next you make your movement into the ball and the club is delivered with a bit of downward pressure.

If you take a look at the video above I’ll show you how that’s done. Pop the club behind the ball, move the left thumb around to the right side so that the wrist sits just ever so-slightly on top of the handle, there’s a touch of lean on the shaft and then just re-create that pressure back at impact.

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