5 Ways To Better Ball Striking

Like in any relationship, there are clear signs to indicate when things are going well between your club and the ball. A certain rhythm and energy seem to infuse all your actions. Every decision you make produces positive results. Tension is non-existent.

At the same time, there are obvious indications when this connection isn't clicking. But take heart — no matter how dysfunctional the relationship may seem at the moment, there are steps you can take to improve it. Let's look at five typical symptoms of poor club/ball relations, the most common causes and some techniques for reconciliation.

1. Persistent Slicing
You feel like you're setting up properly. Your takeaway seems right. You're using a consistent preshot routine and choosing a specific target. But when you swing your driver, the ball ends up swerving off the fairway like it has no interest in being there.

The problem isn't likely in your setup or your mechanics. A more probable answer is that you're changing your grip pressure partway through the swing, altering the position of your clubface.
Like the first time a young baseball pitcher is told to use the power in his legs to throw the ball, hearing that you need to use the power of your lower body to hit a golf ball probably sounds counterintuitive. You aren't swinging the club with your legs after all, but with your arms and hands. However, your arms and hands together only weigh about 10 or 12 pounds. In a proper golf swing, your torso, hips and legs create the energy. Your hands and arms only deliver it to the club, which in turn transfers it to the ball.

Most golfers accept this explanation intellectually but forget it between the top of the backswing and the point of impact. It is here that emotion often takes over. The impulsive part of your brain, so conditioned to using your hands for power in everyday life, feels the club coming toward the ball and commands the hands to squeeze. This change in the flow of energy is like a wrench thrown into a network of gears. By breaking the energy in one place, the act of squeezing affects all the other parts of the action as well. The ultimate result is twofold. First, the swing is slowed. Second, the natural pronating motion of the hands and wrists is momentarily stopped, causing the clubface to open.

A simple drill can help you correct this flaw. Driver in hand, assume your usual stance. Take 25 practice swings but with each, let your trailing hand (right hand for a right-handed player) release from the club at the imagined point of impact. Continue to follow through all the way to finish with your leading hand. It's often the trailing hand that causes slices by wanting to help out at exactly the wrong time, tightening your grip at impact. When you release the trailing hand and continue the swing, you'll feel the rotation that you've initiated continue naturally.

Now take 25 balls and perform the same exercise. With each swing, rotate as you normally would, but again let your trailing hand release at impact. This accomplishes two things. First, it teaches you to stay loose throughout the swing instead of allowing the extra squeeze at impact. Second, it demonstrates that the power in your swing is generated by your trunk, with your arms and hands only the conduit for delivery.

2. Missing The Target
Habitual slicing isn't an issue for you, nor is hooking. You're one of the chosen few on the planet who manage to hit the ball straight most of the time. The problem is you still don't score as well as you'd like because your ball, though it flies straight, tends not to find the intended target once it leaves your club.

Odds are the problem concerns your setup — more specifically, the manner in which you align yourself to the target. Like the majority of golfers, you probably align your body to the target and then the club to your body. There is an inherent error in this method. Aligning your body to the target — a perpendicular alignment — is harder than aligning your club — a mirror alignment. If your body alignment is off just a few inches, then your clubface will also be a few inches to the left or right of your target. This difference in angle on a 150-yard shot can result in your ball ending up as much as 20 or 30 yards left or right.

To correct this, try the following. Instead of aligning your body to the target and then the club to your body, do the reverse. As a first step, place your clubface on the ground behind the ball so that it is facing the target head-on. Next, align your toes parallel to the clubface. Finally, remember to align your shoulders so that they're on a parallel plane to your toes.

Many golfers perform the first two steps but forget to align their shoulders. Having your toes aligned to the target is useless if your shoulders aren't properly positioned as well. If the shoulders and toes are aligned on two different planes, they will work at cross-purposes. If they are aligned on the same plane, they will serve the same goal.

3. Hitting It Thin
Slicing isn't your problem, and neither is missing the target due to flawed alignment. But your playing partners constantly outhit you by 20 yards, and you can't figure out why.

It's a good bet this problem can be attributed to your head — not what's going on inside it, but the fact that it's moving. Most people tell you to keep your eye on the ball throughout the swing. This isn't quite accurate. We all know Annika Sorenstam takes her eye off the ball a fraction of a second before she hits it, and a recent television commercial showing Tiger Woods mashing a shot with a blindfold on makes clear that, if your mechanics are right, the eyes play only a secondary role.

The fixed point in these mechanics should be your head. Think of it as an axle, with your torso and arms the wheel turning around it creating the centrifugal force needed for an effective shot. If your head moves during the swing, it throws off the rotation of the wheel, altering the shot and squandering precious distance.

Try this drill. Stand with your feet an inch apart in order to focus the balance more on your upper body than your lower body. When you get into address, concentrate on the ball as the visual cue for keeping your head — the axle — in place. Then take plenty of swings, focusing on keeping your head still. Remember, “still” doesn't mean your head shouldn't move with the rotation of the wheel. It means it shouldn't move independently of it. Perform this exercise over and over. Soon you'll understand that your head, and not your eyes, matters most.

4. Erratic Chipping
How many times have you messed up a seemingly easy chip from 20 feet off the green only to berate yourself for lifting your head or letting your arms slacken?

This infuriating error plagues many recreational golfers, and the primary reason is fear. We see so short a distance to the hole and can't imagine that any version of our full swing, no matter how small, is the right one to get the ball there. But your swings around the green — whether for a bump-and-run, pitch-and-run, flop shot or any other type of chip — must always be a microcosm of your regular swing. It is the length of the swing, not the nature of the swing, that must change depending on the situation.

Next time you watch the pros on TV, pay particular attention to their swings around the green. Observe how these swings are controlled by the players' arms and shoulders — not their hands — and how they never scoop, flip or lift the ball. Maybe your scoops, flips or lifts have resulted in the occasional positive result. Don't let yourself be fooled by such accidents.

Try this drill to entrench the right chipping mentality. Set up half a dozen balls around the green, all within 5 to 40 yards. Set up at each ball, picture yourself swinging with a solid, unvarying rotation of the torso and shoulders and then pull the trigger. For every “handsy” swing you inadvertently take, force yourself to swing five more times from the same spot. If, within those five swings, you take another handsy swing, punish yourself by taking another 10. Don't worry about whether your chips find the hole. The point of this exercise is to develop muscle memory for the correct form, so that the next time you're faced with one of these chips during an actual round, your instincts will encourage a sure, confident version of your regular swing.

5. Misreading Putts
It's among golf's most agonizing experiences. You hit a nice drive, manage a solid approach, get on the green in the number of strokes the scorecard thinks you should, then blow it with your putter, constantly missing the cup left or right.

The problem likely isn't in your initial read of the putt. Chances are your putterface is positioned properly when you first stand over the ball. But recall how the trailing hand often inappropriately gets involved in shots off the tee. The same applies here. Your dominant hand (the bottom hand in the case of putting) isn't accustomed to just being along for the ride, but when it comes to putting, that's exactly what you want that hand to be doing — stabilizing the club rather than manipulating it.

When you begin your stroke, your top hand should feed your bottom hand toward the hole, and the club must maintain the same alignment throughout for the putt to be successful. What often occurs instead is the bottom hand instinctively twists the club, sending the ball left or right.

Here's a simple but effective drill to counteract this tendency. Place half a dozen balls a foot from the hole. With only your top hand, putt each ball. Then do the same from 2 feet, then 3 feet. Continue this exercise up to a distance of 10 feet. What you are doing is burning in the feeling of the top hand steering the club without the bottom hand getting unnecessarily involved.

The rapport between a club and a golf ball is fickle at best. But like all relationships, you must work at it, staying committed to identifying problems and taking the right steps to fix them. With that kind of dedication, eventually your bond will be the envy of all other golfers around you.

— I.J. Schecter's best-selling collection, Slices: Observations from the Wrong Side of the Fairway, is currently available in bookstores or online. Rick Durham is the head golf professional at West Palm Beach Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Fla.