Swinging Hit
Greetings Golfers,
On Monday I played my usual 1pm game with those characters I’ve mentioned in past blogs. Well, I finally had a putt for birdie. About 8 feet, but downhill/sidehill and it had me a little spooked. My stroke was pathetic … and the ball wobbled weakly and stopped a foot short of the hole. One of the guys said that it was bad contact … yeah … thanks for telling me.
Later that night, I was reading a post that Brad Faxon made on a golf website about his putting. He was mad that he’d been referred to as a “natural putter”. He even posted copies of his hand-written notes about his practice sessions. But, what really hit me was when he talked about learning from Ben Crenshaw. Crenshaw told Faxon that he let himself move right on his backswing (remember this is putting!) to make sure that his backswing was twice as long as his follow through. Woah. What was that? Conventional wisdom was that they should match … or even the follow through should be LONGER. But, Crenshaw wanted to give the ball a HIT.
Think about it … if you want to punch someone … do you make a little backswing and emphasize the follow through? Of course not. You wind-up and make sure that when you hit … you hit HARD … at impact.
Crenshaw was known for a long, fluid putting stroke with a definite hit at the ball. This is what Faxon worked on as made his way to number one in putting.
Now, I’m pretty good at chipping. And I definitely give it a hit. Not a scoop … not a flip … a hit. I try to make fluid stroke … but I hit it.
Let’s take this further. Your golf swing should hit the ball. I know some people just lift up the club and crash down on the ball. That’s not what I want. I want you to have soft, relaxed hands and make a full rhythmical swing … and give the ball a hit!
All golf swings should be a swinging HIT. Well, not all. Not bunker shots or flop shots … because on those shots you don’t want solid contact. But, on most shots you want solid contact. That means a “swinging hit”.
Even on slippery downhill putts.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com