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Breaking 100/90/80

One Plane vs. Two Plane

: By Jim Hardy, PGA Teacher of The Year
with Matthew Rudy
Photos By Stephen Szurlej
Photo Illustrations By Jim Luft May 2008; To determine if you're a one-plane or two-plane swinger, try the drills above. First, stand farther from the ball, bend over and hold your driver like a hockey stick. Swing in a flatter, more "around" path. Then try the second drill: Stand upright, swing back and thrust your hips at the ball before your arms swing through. If you hit better shots from the hockey position, you're probably a one-planer. If the upright shots are better, you're probably a two-planer. Match the following drills to your swing type.→

Breaking 100: Think of the basic one-plane and two-plane swings as models. There are lots of different variations within the models, but if you copy the basic elements of the one-plane or two-plane swing, you're going to be a pretty darn good player. Find the model that suits you, then work on the things that make your kind of swing better.

One-Planers: You don't want to turn your shoulders on a steeper angle. If you do that, you'll just tilt forward on the backswing and tilt back on the forward swing in a reverse pivot.

Two-Planers: A two-planer comes down on the ball from a steep angle. That can make hitting short irons a challenge. The drill below with a rubber tee on a range mat helps two-planers feel a longer, flatter bottom of the swing.

Breaking 80

All great players have a go-to shot -- something they can hit under even the most pressure-packed situations. For the one-plane swinger, that's probably going to be a shot that curves from right to left.

The danger for a two-planer is that the act of shallowing out a steep angle through impact opens the clubface. If you don't play the ball far enough forward in your stance, that gentle fade can become a weak push slice.

Personal Instruction: PGA professionals across the country will give you a 10-minute tuneup; For more than a decade, Golf Digest and the PGA of America have been teaming up to present PGA Free Lesson Month. To get a free 10-minute lesson from a PGA professional during the month of May:
1. Check the list of participating PGA professionals in your region.

2. Remove the card adjacent to the listing of participating teachers (available in the May issue of Golf Digest), fill it out and take it to your lesson. See free-lesson card for official rules.