(golf club swooshes)
- Hello, Adam Bazalgette here,
Three-Time PGA Teacher of the Year Award Winner.
Today's subject, how to hit the ball
before the turf with your irons.
(golf club swooshes) (dramatic music)
So I'm fortunate to be here at the beautiful club
at Mediterra, Naples, Florida.
How to hit the ball before the turf with your irons,
we've got beautiful turf here,
it's a subject that baffles a lot of people.
I'll show you a big concept that if it can shift it
in your head, it'll change that for you.
And then three drills, three things you can work on
to help you get it into your game.
If you like the video, please subscribe
to the YouTube channel.
https://scratchgolfacademy.com/ is my own website
full courses in every aspect of the game there.
(golf club swooshes)
Well, if you're gonna hit the turf in front of the ball,
then the bottom of your swing arc has to be
in front of the ball, and a lot of people don't realize
the gofer's relationship top the down-swing arc.
Let me show you a great player.
Here's Fred Couples, he's doing something
that 100% of great players do, they do it
to differing degrees for sure, but 100% of them do.
So watch roughly where the club is there in the down-swing.
Here's Fred, right there.
Now as we go through, watch where the club is
in the follow-through there.
And what you'll notice, it's way wider on this side
than this side.
So, if you can picture Fred there,
and a big circle around him,
he's much more towards the back of the circle
when he swings his down-swing.
That's what consistently puts the bottom of the swing
in front of the ball.
He's not in the middle of that circle.
Okay, so here's the first of our three drills
that I wanna introduce you to.
I'm gonna show you some film of me doing it
in the hitting bay.
It's a great start-off drill, 'cos there's not much thinking
and it'll give you the right feel.
So here it is, it's the rock-skipping drill.
I've got a golf ball there, and I'm gonna haul forward
and I'm gonna throw this, must be more towards the ground,
not up in the air.
That's important 'cos that's where the club
would reach full release point.
What I like about this drill is a couple of things.
It certainly fosters the wide-to-narrow feeling
we wanna get there in the golf swing.
And secondly, if you're fairly good at it,
I'm reasonable at skipping a rock, you can latch onto it
and say, "Wait a second, I already
"kinda know how to do this", and transfer
that feel to your golf club.
If you're not good at it,
it's easy enough to practice to where you're at least
reasonably good at it.
I promise you, if you can fire this nice and hard out here
you're doing it fairly well.
And again, it gives you that lovely wide-to-narrow feel
that you want when you do the golf swing.
Okay, so remember, as we start to convert
this to a golf club, when you start down,
the shaft should load, that is to say my wrists
should be mobile enough there's a little bounce in the club.
Most people thrust the club so much there's no way
they can really get this thing to happen.
So, what' I'm gonna do to get the feel for it,
I'm gonna line a couple of balls up,
my imaginary third ball is there,
that's my benchmark spot.
And I'm gonna make some little practice swings,
feeling that, and feeling that I can bump the ground
way over here.
Now I'm gonna get some weight-shift to do that etc.
I may even move my head a little, that's fine.
Way over there, not just at the line.
And then play around with it a little bit.
What does it feel like to hit it here,
about right, way over to the left.
to get the feel for that.
And one other thing to remember,
when you start hitting shots like this,
if you're not making some of your mistakes
on front of the ball,
in other words if you're not hitting
the ground too far forward,
maybe hitting half-way up the ball, you're not learning.
I tell ya, 99% of golfers make 100% of their bottom-out
mistakes behind the ball.
You can't let that be you.
Just get in there, get your feel,
I'm gonna go too far forward.
I actually hit the ground here and it caused me to top that.
It's okay.
This ravenous desire people have, I see it every day,
to hit the ball solidly, really just makes it impossible
for them to make the kind of progress they should make.
Now before we move to drill number three,
let me show you one little pitfall on this drill
from this angle.
You've just gotta watch out that you don't come over
the top a little bit, because it makes it a lot easier
to hit the ground over there.
So just don't cheat that, take a towel,
a big head-cover or something.
I'm gonna put that just right in line with the inside
of that ball, so that as I work this drill,
I'm not coming over and hitting that towel.
Just watch out for that.
Okay, so now for our third drill.
And to get the feel for this, let me just show you
close-up the design of the club-head,
then you'll have a sense of what you're trying to do
in this drill.
So looking at this flat surface, if I ground the club
with the shaft vertical, the leading, the front edge
of the club is off the ground.
They design it this way because the anticipation is
that at impact, the shaft will be leaning forward,
and that will put the club flat on its bottom.
Okay, so here's hoe we're gonna work on this.
I'm just gonna tilt the loft off the club-face.
If you imagine a pointer coming off the club,
if I tilted it forward a bit more,
that's the feeling you're looking for at impact.
Now I've said this in videos before,
people often come to golf lessons and say,
"Look, I'm a feel player, don't give me
"too much technical stuff".
And as soon as you ask them to try to feel something,
they balk at it, and they want just a word-formula,
they don't wanna try it out.
Don't be like that.
You can do this.
Put the club down in front of you,
you can do it at home.
And as you move, tilt the loft forward.
Don't be too concerned
if the ball goes a little left initially.
And by the way, when you tilt the loft forward,
not only is it gonna help you squeeze the turf
with the front edge, but it's gonna help
your bottom-out point as well.
And simply hit some little shots.
This is an eight iron.
I hit that really, really low.
And I'm just gonna flow, and hit that ball
as low as I can.
Again, don't worry if it goes a little bit left.
Then try it on a little bit bigger scale.
You are on your way, I'm telling you,
to hitting the turf in front of the ball.
So how to hit the ball before the turf with your irons,
I hope those thoughts were helpful for you.
You gotta work at these things a little bit,
but I know you'll make progress if you stick with it.
Please subscribe to the YouTube channel if you liked it.
And of course https://scratchgolfacademy.com/,
as I mentioned earlier is my home website,
full courses there, including one-on-one coaching with me.
(dramatic music)