Breaking 80

By Bobby Clampett with Ron Kaspriske

Photos By Dom Furore

November 2007

I covered the 2005 Shell Houston Open at Redstone Golf Club for CBS Sports. Vijay Singh was in the final group the last two days (what else is new?), and I spent some time with him on the driving range.

I watched Vijay practice hitting drivers off the deck. At the time, he played a large (425 cubic-centimeter) driver, and as he positioned the club behind the ball, the center of the ball lined up with the second groove from the bottom on his clubface. The sweet spot on his club was the fourth groove, yet Vijay was still hitting high-flying shots about 280 yards.

He could do this only because he had good dynamics and a forward swing bottom. If his swing bottom was any farther back, he wouldn't have been able to hit this shot. Vijay uses this drill specifically because it hones a swing that bottoms out in front of the ball.

I recommend that you give this practice drill a try. It will take some time to get used to, but it's a great drill for a golfer trying to break 80.

Hit your drives on the downswing

I'm blown away that so many reputable golf teachers instruct their students to strike the driver on the upswing.

Regardless of whether a ball is on a tee or on the ground, the swing bottom must consistently be four inches in front of the ball. And swinging slightly down on the ball with the driver goes a long way toward ensuring that.

It also helps keep the left wrist flat at impact, because as soon as the club begins to swing up, there is a tendency for the left wrist to break down and hinge upward.

Try Homer's aiming-point concept

Homer Kelley's The Golfing Machine was the book that most influenced my game, and Ben Doyle taught me the book's aiming-point concept. It works like this: Draw an imaginary line from your hands at the top of the backswing to a point a foot or so in front of the ball along the target line. As the backswing transitions to the downswing, the goal is to have your hands pass over that mark in front of the ball before the clubhead does. Just a swing or two using this technique will move your divots forward and make your impact more solid.

Feel it on the 'trigger finger'

One of the most overlooked fundamentals of the golf swing is the point of pressure created by the club resting against and across the middle joint of the right-hand forefinger. This pressure point transforms that finger into the "trigger finger," meaning it plays a major role in the loading of the club on the backswing and the lagging of it on the downswing.

Where the grip falls across that finger is where we feel the lag of the club. To use this effectively, lay the handle diagonally across the middle joint of the trigger finger. During the swing, you want to feel the club's weight in that spot the entire time.