Understanding Golf Clubs Part 2
By Michael Hebron, PGA Master Professional, CI
Not long ago, we got a hold of a letter about what a talking golf club had to say. In
this was a long letter the golf club talks about his mistreatment by his owner. This
column concludes the letter which began in the previous issue. If you missed part
one it can be read on my Internet site.
In the last part of his letter the golf club said:
"What is more, my owner does not know the least thing either about what destroys
a groove, nor the need for constant acceleration in the downswing. He really ought
to go to a professional who understand dynamics. Then he would begin to
appreciate the true fundamental of golf-- instead of fooling around with various
tricks of positional anatomy. But he only thinks about the grip and the backswing,
and how I suffer!
My owner has acquired the art of habitually driving the ball into the rough instead
of down the center of the fairway. He tries to steer me in his follow-through, and to
make my head fly in a straight line instead of a curve. He thought somebody told
him the club face should be square to the line of flight at impact, but what they
really meant was at separation-- the moment the ball is at maximum rubber
compression. He didn't distinguish first impact with the paint on the ball from
milliseconds later when maximum rubber compression happens. My carefree owner
tries to keep the clubface square to the line of flight for several feet and sacrifices
a sound swing.
Actually, he has never had instruction on aiming his groove. All he thinks about is
clubface so he looses his groove (and his speed and direction) for the sake of
what he believe to be a sound clubface theory."
To interrupt the golf clubs letter, let me explain that follow-through is more
important than finish. It is the only time in the swing where both arms are straight.
Many golfers never reach follow-through because their arms collapse after impact.
"What my owner should do is learn how to groove the follow-through this way:
• At stance, waggle and adopt a balance and muscle set, so that when recocking
on the way to finish the handle end of the shaft chases the clubhead end around
the cocking center of the hands. My owner should do this all in the same plane, as
if the tail end of the club were one spoke on a wheel and the rest of the shaft
another spoke on the opposite side of the cocking axle. The club handle and the
clubhead chase each other in one plane.
• As regards to the clubface, he should not worry much about the squareness of
the clubface (mentioned in last weeks column), he should rely on it's squaring
itself."
"Furthermore", concludes the club, "my owner really ought to learn this: He's been
getting fair results from the ball for the specific faults he's had for a long time.
When he compensates for fault one he usually just introduces fault two! If you
rearrange one thing, you'll most likely have to rearrange all of it!"
Copyright Michael Hebron, 2008, all rights reserved