Golf guru Ken Venturi once told a group of us PGA professionals
at a teaching seminar that the difference between a good player and
one who struggles is six inches.
Golf guru Ken Venturi once told a group of us PGA professionals at a teaching seminar that the difference between a good player and one who struggles is six inches. We immediately thought that he was talking about the distance between your ears, as we had heard from other sports coaches in the past. But what “six inches” means in golf is totally different.
On the downswing, most players open their hips and pull the left hip around thus resulting in a spin on the downswing. This spin causes you to lose power and open your shoulders, which will result in a pull or slice. The proper move on the downswing is to slide your hips a few inches – the six that Venturi talked about – toward your target.
To get the feel of this, imagine someone has attached a rope to your belt loop and is pulling your left hip towards the target. Do this by keeping your upper body still and allowing just the hips and knees to slide laterally. Once you have slid to a point where you can’t go any further, you can turn your hips to a nice finish.
Remember, the order of the swing from backswing to impact to finish is turn-slide-turn. This lateral slide helps the club travel down the target line longer and the result is a straighter, more consistent shot.
Don DeLorenzo is a PGA-certified instructor at Gilroy Golf Course. To schedule a lesson with Don, call Gilroy GC at (408) 848-0490..
