More Stack & Tilt: Editors' Blog: Golf Digest

More Stack & Tilt

Wednesday, May 30, 2007 Comments

We love it when a tour player comes up to us and says, "Hey, you're working with so-and-so. I saw him on the range doing this," and he mimics a backswing with the spine tilting way left. We love it because that's exactly what a backswing should look like.
-- Andy Plummer and Mike Bennett

Another Stack & Tilt believer checks in:

I read about the new stack and tilt swing in my latest issue. I tried it 2 or 3 times at the driving range - hitting 30 or 40 balls each time. I played 2 rounds of golf using it. Today, I just came back from my second round. I am stunned at how much better and more consistent I am hitting my irons. The only issue I still have is this: It has not improved my tee off with my driver at all. I have never been able to hit a driver well and still cannot.

For my irons, I am now hitting almost every shot flush. I am amazed and very excited. If I could only hit my driver the same way, I would drop my score by over 20 shots - from around 100 to 80. I am not kidding. If you can help me hit flush shots consistently with my driver, what an endorsement a 20 shot drop in my game would be. My friends are stunned at my iron shot sudden improvement, by the way. I had been able to hit many decent iron shots during a round, but nothing close to what I achieved today using the stack and tilt swing. -- Brian Gilbert, Quebec.

Brian, you missed the advice from Andy Plummer on the driver: "Players who feel too steep coming down with the driver should try one of three things: First, make sure the ball position is far enough forward.The ball should be opposite the front heel with the driver. Second, keep the hand path more to the inside, both on the backswing and more importantly on the downswing. When the hands move out and away from the body on the downswing, the swing gets too steep and over the top. This is a common fault with the driver. Third, the player might need to stand up faster on the downswing. That upward thrust of the lower body helps to shallow out the swing."

Good luck with that driver...

—Bob Carney

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Archived Comments (4) Click to expand

I've been studying and tinkering with the golf swing-as everybody else does that's a golfer- for 35 yrs. The stack and tilt is the most consistent and best way to strike a golf ball. You must be careful though not to mix components of your old swing with this new(actually old-Tommy Armour taught this years ago)swing. The biggest problem is setting up without tilt to the right as we have been taught for so many years. And, not creating tilt on the way back, ie. moving off the ball in any way. The steady head is the key and is easy to do if your left shoulder goes down instead of around. This swing takes less practice, reduces the old transfer-there isn't any to the right and hence, none back to the right. This is the weakest of the power sources anyway, and it definitely improves ball striking. If you have trouble hitting your driver it's most likely because you are tilting at address to the right or creating tilt on the backswing. Thanks to Homer Kelley, Ben Doyle, Big Mac O'Grady , Plummer and Bennett for finally convincing us that this is the "way.

Posted by George Finley June 1, 2007 12:41 PM

Great swing. I had no trouble hitting my driver, much less my irons. I had not even tried the swing at the driving range. I had just hit a few wedges in my yard.

Posted by Michael Reed June 5, 2007 8:03 AM

Hi, Bob,

I tried the stack tilt swing and i felt great hitting with my irons. however, I found out the distance is a bit shorter than my normal swing, but the ball flight quality really gets nicer. I wonder how could i keep same distance as before with stack tilt swing.

BTW, i also had same problem as Brian with my long irons and driver. If I could fix this, I could break 85...no kidding!!

Posted by Johnny Wang June 8, 2007 8:46 AM

I can't thank you enough for the Stack and Tilt article. I was tinkering a bit with my swing before the article came out - particularly the part where you push down hard with your left foot on the down swing, as if you are crushing a soda can.

I normally shoot in the high 90s. However, JUST ONE ROUND after fully adopting S and T, I shot an 87 (slope 127), and even holed out a 160 yard shot for an eagle! Was it totally due to S and T? Perhaps not - some luck must have been involved. However, was it largely due to S and T? Absolutely.

Count me as one of the converted.

Posted by Matthew Kerfoot June 17, 2007 5:03 PM