I recently received an email from Jerry R. who lives in the Florida Keys. He's been a student of the Peak Performance Golf Swing for about a year and he's already dropped his average score by a whopping 10-15 strokes. But three or four times a round he hits a Chunky Monkey, driving the club into the ground 3-4 inches behind the ball and it's driving him nuts. He's had his clubs built by a PPGS certified club fitter so he knows that they are the right length. He also says that he concentrates a lot on maintaining his spine angle and keeping outward pressure on his knees during the backswing so he doesn't think that's the problem either.
The problem happens mostly with his longer clubs, a driver and 3-hybrid and even occasionally with his 7-hybrid and that gives us several potential clues as to the cause of his problem. First off, Jerry, I don't think grounding your club has anything to do with your hitting behind the ball because we always want to setup with the club at the same level as the ball, no matter if the ball is on the ground or teed up high. The reason is that to do otherwise would require a mid-swing correction in order to strike the ball solidly. So let's rule that out as a possibility.
There are three potential reasons for your problem in my opinion. The first has to do with your vision. While both sides of your brain control different parts of both eyes, one portion will most likely be dominant. Scientists tell us that it's your dominant eye that is primarily relied on for precise positional information. As you saw in a daily a few days ago, while some players can effectively turn their head toward the target in advance of impact, most players (including me) are better off keeping their nose pointed straight at the ball up until impact. By keeping your head pointed that way, you keep both of your eyes focused on the ball. Since two thirds of us are right eye dominant, if you are a right-handed golfer and you setup like Jack Nicklaus does, with your head turned to the right, your weaker left eye will take over and start sending all sorts of erroneous messages to your brain as to the actual whereabouts of the ball. Nicklaus could setup this way because he is left eye dominant.
Here's an easy way to determine which of your eyes is the dominant one: Hold an arm out at full length, and with both eyes open, line your thumb up with a distant object. Alternately close one eye and observe which one remains aligned with the target. That's your dominant eye. If both eyes remain lined up with the target, then you are one of the rare individuals who do not have a dominant eye.
Another possible cause of a Chunky Monkey is that you are rotating too far in your turn. If your forward shoulder and arm turn past the toe line, it is impossible for you to keep your head still. Your shoulder is going to contact your chin and move your head back. Once again, if your dominant eye is your rear eye, this head movement will cause your weaker eye to take over sending positional instructions to the brain. This can cause an over-reaction to get back to the ball and send your whole body moving forward before impact.
Finally, there is a possibility that you may be getting too vertical in your lift. This can cause your head to come up and/or your club get close to parallel at the top of your backswing. This will cause equally disastrous results and could easily be the reason that you are hitting behind the ball with your longer clubs.
So three things to check out, Jerry. I'm fairly certain you'll find a cure for your problem in one of them and then the only Chunky Monkey you'll experience will come in an ice cream carton.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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