Breaking 90

By Steve Brady with Matthew Rudy

Photos by Dom Furore

Photo Illustrations by Jim Luft

February 2009

A towel helps you use the ground

A good lateral hip shift is critical to getting the club moving on the correct inside path on the downswing. To start the hips shifting, you have to push with your feet and use the ground for leverage. Roll up a towel and stand on it with the outside of your back foot. When you swing, the towel keeps your right leg in place on the backswing, so it doesn't sway to the right. On the downswing, the towel works as a soft reminder to push off smoothly and slowly with your back foot first, before your arms swing (above). If your arms go first, you'll tend to hang back and come over the top (inset).

The clubface dictates your mechanics

An open clubface makes the ball go high and to the right. Obvious, right? Sure, but there's more to it than that. If you set up with the face open even a little bit, you're going to subconsciously compensate for that high-right ball flight in some negative ways--first a little, then a lot. You'll start coming over the top to try to get the club square at impact.

This is one more good reason you need to practice swing elements and ball-flight elements separately. Do both at the same time, and you'll get sidetracked by changes that don't help your score. Work on swing mechanics now, then ball flight come springtime.