Corey Jones
The most common thing that Golf Professionals hear from their students is that they want their ball striking to be more ‘consistent’. In order to be more consistent, we must look at the best ball strikers in the world, PGA / LPGA Tour players for the answer.
If you watch golf on television, you will see that most players look similar at address, have varied backswing and forward swing styles yet have almost identical impact positions.
3 ESSENTIALS FOR PROPER IMPACT
POSITION ARE:
- A flat lead wrist at impact.
- A forward leaning clubshaft at impact (the handle of the club must be ahead of the clubhead when striking the ball).
- Having your swing bottom ahead of the ball (this means that the lowest part of your swing occurs on the target side or post contact)
Having these essentials at impact will mean that your clubhead is travelling forward and down when you contact the ball which is a must. Based on testing done by Bobby Clampett for his book ‘The Impact Zone’, the lowest point of a PGA Tour players swing is 4 inches ahead of the ball while with most amateurs the bottom of the arc occurs before the ball. Hitting the ground before the ball makes hitting solid golf shots almost impossible and leads to inconsistent ball striking.
Here is a great drill to work on a proper impact position
- Place 2 tees in the ground about 2 feet apart. Address the space between the 2 tees with a 9 iron. (figure A)
- Move into your impact position, remain at impact for 5 seconds and return to your address position. (figure B)
- Make a ¾ swing and try to have your divot begin between the 2 tees and continuing towards the target. (figure C)
The more times you can make a divot starting between the tees and continuing down and forward, the more consistent your shots will be.
- Tip by Corey Jones
