Take
a slightly wider stance which will
help you get lower to the ground.
This will also give you an excellent
base.
Pretend like you have a basketball
between the knees. This will help
keep knee flex constant. When your
knees flex more or straighten your
body will be going down or up. Changing
the flex in the knees will not give
you a consistent depth in your divot.
Open the face so you give the club
more bounce. How much will depend
on how far you are from the hole and/or
if the lie is on a slope.
Open your stance to your intended
target line. The more you open the
face to hit the ball higher, the more
your stance should be open.
Remember my saying “Turn the
shoulders, turn the core.” Takeaway
will be mostly in the shoulders and
in your wrist cock. This will be where
you get a lot of your power. The more
you turn your shoulders the more energy
you will have stored up. Wrist cock
will be greater the shorter the distance
needed. If you don’t want to
hit it far, than cock your wrists
and don’t turn your shoulders
much.
Now the important transition, try
to initiate the forward swing by turning
the core through. The core is the
middle of the body. When a lot of
the pros say keep the lower body quiet
they are turning this part of the
body through. They just aren’t
getting on the back toe on the follow
through as much as the full swing.
They are staying much more grounded,
which prevents them from pulling up
out of the shot and hitting the ball
thin.
The wrist action through the ball
is up to the individual. The one way
that is not very good is to try to
release the club where you get the
toe of the club to turn over the heel.
This makes the club dig and doesn’t
give the ball any bite on the green.
The most popular way is to leave the
face open through contact. You try
to make the clubface point at the
sky through impact. The way I like
to do it is a traditional La Jolla
way because it was/is done by Paul
Runyan, Phil Rodgers, Chuck Courtney
and Harry Rudolph. It has a hand and
wrist action where you actually feel
the right hand come under the left
when you are making contact with the
sand. This method actually increases
the loft and makes the ball fly higher
onto the green. When done right it
feels like the only part of the club
that comes in contact with the sand
is the bounce on the bottom of the
club. The more you use the hands the
higher it goes. If the face had a
mirror on it, you would see your reflection
on the follow through.
On the longer shots I make a larger
swing with less of this wrist action.
Length of follow through will have
an effect on the length of the shot.
You can vary the speed you turn your
body to also help control the distances
you want to hit the ball. The farther
the shot the faster the swing. |
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|
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| This
is an excellent example
of the face staying open
after contact. Notice
the middle of the body
turned. |
|
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| More
examples of face open. |
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| This
is the look of the clubface
with the La Jolla hand
action. |
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