Dick Braman sent in a question regarding the act of pre-loading heavy right when setting up to the ball. He has been having good success off of the tee, but when he plays from the fairway, he often hits chunky shots.
"I have been playing with your swing for over a year. I use the neutral grip, and I have mostly eliminated slicing the ball off the tee. I hit most of the fairways most of the times---a really great improvement over other swings I've used. My question, however relates to the preloading of the right leg. I use this on the tee with good weight shifting results, but it does not work for me on the fairway. I frequently chunk the hit. Question: do you preload on fairway shots? If so, how do I correct the problem. I don't have the chunk problem if I don't preload, but also don't get the good weight shift."
For Dick and anyone else who may be having a similar problem hitting their irons from the fairway, take this into consideration. When using the Peak Performance Golf Swing, we swing up with all the clubs. We don't want to consciously hit down on the ball because the downswing is actually the free part of the swing. So why waste more energy trying to drive down into the ball? I think Dick was seeing success off of the tee because he was able to tee the ball up. This forces him to swing up, as opposed to hitting down on balls in the fairway. Remember, we want to take shallow divots and nip the ball off the ground. A lot of players don't like to hit off of mats, but it doesn't bother me at all because I'm using the PPGS.
Pre-loading heavy right should always be part of your setup position. The only time this changes is when you're on a hill. In that case, you would set up with the hill so you don't bottom out behind the ball, or top it. Take a look at the video and you'll see that regardless of the club in my hand, I'm always swinging up.
Keep it vertical,
The Surge!
Don Trahan
PGA Master Professional
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Comments
Crowned greens. Those are so
Crowned greens. Those are so much fun. Long ago I used to play at a course in Livermore, CA, that had all crowned greens. And as Livermore is in a particularly hot, dry valley between the coastal range and the central range, the greens were always like concrete. That's actually where I got very good at the bump shot, punching the ball into the side of the hill to make it pop up in the air and land softer. Comes in handy here in Vegas a lot, too.
I don't feel bad about your
I don't feel bad about your meger 260 yards with your 3 wood Steve. On the senior tour the average drive is 267 and Kenny Perry leads with a 298 average. At 54(55 soon)ÃÂ I will be thrilled to average 260 with my driver this year (with the ocassional 285) and 220 with the 3 wood if I hit it well.
If you hit it 260 I doubt you'll get much sympathy here:) If it's problem for youÃÂ it's a good challenge to have. Obviously you're used to hitting it much further.
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