Tip Of The Month

By John Pallot
Director of Instruction

July 2006

The annual Firecracker Open at The Biltmore exploded without collateral damage. It was as usual a fun event much enjoyed by the participants. If you haven't heard by now, winners were Brent Blaum, Steve Blaum, Andy Pumariega, and Bob Wheeler with a gross score of 55(16 under par). The event was uniquely highlighted by a three hole green, a one foot diameter hole, and a bulls eye in the fairway which enabled a one stroke deduction if hit. Jason Epstein(head pro), Dale Campbell(course superintendent), and the entire Biltmore staff did their usual splendid job with course set-up and condition, raffle prizes, scoring, lunch buffet, and registration.

I played with John Schild, a UM teammate back in the days the Canes fielded a men's varsity team, and Chuck Mercer, a Coral Gables High Golf teammate, and his son Andrew. We finished at 62. It was fun playing with old friends and fun talking about old times. We spoke of many things like fishing, techniques for stone crab procurement,who had the biggest fish story, and my memorable last hole birdie pitch-in after Schild told me I needed it to tie PGA Tour veteran John Huston in the 1977 River Greens Junior in Avon Park, Florida. I lost in the resulting play-off but the pitch was, to this day, a memorable shot.
Prior to the "shot-gun's blast", whilst warming up before my round, I made some observations of some of the participants in the Firecracker. Obviously their were different physiques, grips, tempos, and address positions. However the two biggest differences I noticed between the swings of the haves and have nots were what happens when the club-face meets the ball and how it gets there. Let's look together at how the "haves" or better players do it, how they get club-face to impact.

1) An inside approach (on the downswing) promotes solid club-ball contact, a powerful effortless swing, a square to slightly closed club-face at impact, better balance and a dynamic blow when striking the ball. Here's a drill enabling you to feel the inside approach. Hit shots with your right foot pulled back 10 inches. This helps you feel the ideal delivery of the club before impact, and a solid strike at impact.After impact you'll feel your hands and arms extending and rotating over. Poor golfers have an outside approach, arriving at impact with an open club-face, and no arm extension and rotation post impact. This results in a glancing blow and a weak shot to the right.

2) Impact. Ben Hogan said, " a square club-face at impact is the best psychologist in the world". The hands are forward of the club-face(which de-lofts the face), weight on left leg, the club-face square, ball in middle of club-face, and head slightly to the right of ball.One of the best drills to feel impact is the Pre-Set Impact Drill. Look at the picture. I've pre-set impact(hands forward, club-face de-lofted and square, right heel up, left hip turned left, and head slightly back behind ball). At this point make a 3/4 backswing and hit your shot. We're not trying to hit a long shot. What we're trying for is the feeling of an effortless yet powerful blow. Hit twenty balls three times a week with this drill and you'll feel impact. Poor players hit the ball falling back with hands behind the ball at impact.

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