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Is Your Takeaway Ruining Your Swing Before It Starts?
Is Your Takeaway Ruining Your Swing Before It Starts?
Authored by: Brady
Posted on: 5 May 2026

You've probably been told your whole golfing life that you need to keep moving before you swing. Waggle, forward press, rock the knee — whatever it takes, just don't stand still. Surge heard that too. He just never agreed with it.

His thing was this: if you're pressing forward to start a swing that needs to go backward, how do you make that feel exactly the same every time? With every club, every lie, every round? After a while, you start to realize — you can't. That little forward move changes just enough, just often enough, to mess with your timing without you ever knowing why.

What Surge taught instead was to come to a full stop before starting the swing. Feet planted, waggle done, one last look at the target — then still. From there, a simple three-count: squeeze the grip equal in both hands, press the knees out slightly, and go. The toe of the club moves first, the arms follow, and the club finds its way back up the plane. Nothing fancy, just quiet and controlled... Read More

Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 2 April 2010
The first 30 years I played golf, finishing square or facing your target was an absolute must. You wanted to hit a good golf shot you had to finish square to your target. In baseball we say... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 1 April 2010
Comments: 1
I had a lesson with JG and in the pre-lesson interview he told me that he was in his mid-40s, has been a 0 to 3 handicap for over 30 years, and had been working on a big turn rotational... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 31 March 2010
Last week at the Peak Performance Golf Schools, I had a student who had a serious case of '€œhead down, chin into the chest, looking over the top of his glasses.'€ So I had to ask him the... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 30 March 2010
News flash from the Arnold Palmer Invitational. DJ's grip change greatly improves his performance. There's a new scoring challenge out on the PGA Tour. I got a hint of it on the putting... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 29 March 2010
I met DJ for breakfast and got some really good news. He said his back was feeling really good. He told me that he called his mother (a Registered Nurse) Saturday night and she recommended... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 28 March 2010
If you watched the tournament on TV yesterday you know that DJ was tied for first place and playing in the last group with Ben Curtis. You also know he had some problems with back spasms as... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 27 March 2010
There was rain predicted, but we got lucky and dodged it. In its place we had to deal with wind gusting up to 20 mph, left to right from where we were hitting on our practice tee. This... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 26 March 2010
We really had a great day. Temperature was about 80 degrees, sunny, balmy breeze blowing all day. We started the day off‚ ‚  with working on the long game. The first thing we focused on was... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 25 March 2010
Comments: 1
We're down here at Port St. Lucie at the PGA Golf Learning Center. We had our first session, starting at 1 O'€™clock this afternoon, for our students. This is what I call the interview,... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 24 March 2010
Got‚  up at 6 a.m., met Jack and Kenny in the parking lot at 7 O'€™clock and drove to Bay Hill. By 7:30 a.m., I was sitting down in the player-family dining room with DJ having breakfast.... Read More