Hit It Miles Down the Middle

Compensations can turn into bad habits

Age: 38 / Height: 6-feet-3 / Current driver: Callaway FT-i (7.5 degrees) / Ball: Callaway HX Tour / Driver carry distance: 290 yards / 2007 scoring avg. (rank): 69.01 (2nd)

By Ernie Els
Edited By Peter Morrice
Photos By Dom Furore November 2007

Everybody talks about the difficulty of physical rehab from a knee injury like the one that happened to me in 2005, but getting my body right again was the easy part. It was erasing all the compensations and rust in my swing that was more of a struggle. It's only been since December or so that I've felt really comfortable over the ball. For a long time, my knee has been strong enough, but I still had too much extra hand and arm action left over from when I was trying not to use as much lower body. I've got the right mix back, my confidence is up, and I've been able to be more aggressive, especially off the tee.
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