Tips From the Best Young Teachers In America

‘What should your pace be when you pitch? Swing like you’re underwater.’— Michael Dickson

Dickson teaches at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md.

• JOHN KOSTIS
Take A Little Off The Top

Many amateurs swing down into the turf too steeply when they hit pitch shots, which makes it hard to get good contact and adequate loft on the ball. The wedge is designed to work best when it approaches the ball from a shallow, descending angle, so the club glides along the grass. For consistency, focus on giving the turf a nice buzz cut as your wedge moves through impact. If you know your clipper-comb sizes, I’m talking 0 or 1—that thin. You’ll come through on a shallow angle if you keep your knees flexed and use the thigh muscles to rotate your body toward the target.

‘You don’t need to be a drill sergeant to appreciate what a high-and-tight cut can do for you.’ —John Kostis

Kostis teaches at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale.

JESSICA CARAFIELLO
Pure Irons: Left Is Right

You want your weight to shift away from the target in the backswing, but too much of a shift—a sway—can make it really hard to get back to the ball properly. How do you avoid letting your body weight drift outside your back leg? When you make a backswing, feel like there is still some pressure under your front foot while your back hip rotates behind you and closer to the target. You might feel like you didn’t shift, but the hip rotation provides all the loading you need to hit a solid shot—and you didn’t sway off the ball. Now you’re ready to swing down with the proper sequencing.

Carafiello teaches at Innis Arden Golf Club in Greenwich, Conn.

JASON BIRNBAUM
Be A Bunker Powerlifter

If you’re making poor contact in greenside bunkers—too fat or too much ball—you’re probably changing your posture during the swing. Many golfers straighten their bodies, hoping they’ll lift the ball out. Others drop down to make sure they strike the sand before the ball. Granted, the goal is to enter the sand behind the ball and let the clubface skim under it, but that’s really hard to do consistently unless you stay at the height you were when you started. I want you to get into what feels like a powerlifter’s squat stance, and stay that way when you swing. You should feel your hamstrings firing—that will signal you’ve maintained your address posture.

Birnbaum teaches at Manhattan Woods Golf Club in West Nyack, N.Y.

JASON BARRY
Avoid A Computer Crash To Hit Better Drives

To maximize distance with your driver, it’s important to catch the ball on the upswing. To help motivate you to do that, imagine your laptop lying on the ground about a foot in front of the ball. Take your setup with your spine tilting away from the target (an uphill feeling), and make practice swings so your lead shoulder and the handle of the club are moving upward as the club passes through the impact zone. If you didn’t swing like that, your club would crash into the laptop, and you’d be heading back to the nearest electronics store, credit card in hand. Tempting, I know, but don’t hit the laptop.

‘We’ve all been tempted to smash a computer, but if you miss this one, you’ll launch your drives.’ —Jason Barry

Barry teaches at Mercer Oaks Golf Course in West Windsor, N.J.

SCOTT CHISHOLM
Cure Your Slice On The Dot

Slicers sometimes need to get creative to square or close the face in relation to their swing path—especially off the tee. One way to help straighten your shots is to imagine there are two dots on the top of your driver. One is above the toe and the other is above the heel. If you tend to curve your shots to the right, make the dot near the toe get back to the ball before the heel dot does. In other words, the toe dot should win the race. You can visualize this with any club, but it’s easiest with a wood. This works the other way, too: If you hit a lot of hooks, let the heel dot win the race.

Chisholm teaches at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Pa.

BRANDON STOOKSBURY
Hammer Your Fairway Woods

To hit your best fairway woods and hybrids off the deck, imagine a tee angled into the ground a few inches in front of your ball. Make a swing trying to hammer that tee farther into the ground. This really helps if you tend to top or hit low shots with these clubs.

Stooksbury teaches at Idle Hour Country Club in Macon, Ga.

MARIO GUERRA
Turn The Screw To Store More Power

Golf’s big hitters really load up in the backswing. You can, too, if you use this visual: Imagine that your trail leg (right leg for right-handers) is a screwdriver, and twist it clockwise into the ground during your backswing. This will dramatically increase your hip turn, and give you the feeling of loading over your trail-side leg like the bombers do.

‘The feeling of screwing your back leg into the ground will let you know your backswing is fully loaded.’ —Mario Guerra

Guerra teaches at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.

PATRICK NUBER
Swing Like The Bionic Man

When the elbows drift away from each other during the swing, it makes it challenging to hit the ball in the sweet spot. To hit better shots, particularly when the ball is on the ground, set your arms straight at address, pretending you have steel rods going through your elbows. When you swing, feel like the rods prevent your arms from bending. Check that they stayed straight by stopping at chest high in the follow-through.

Nuber teaches at GolfTEC’s headquarters in Englewood, Colo.

T.J. YEATON
Use Your Shirt To Sequence Your Swing

The impulse to start the downswing by pulling the arms and club toward the ball will knock your swing out of sync. Obviously, your arms and club have to swing down to strike the ball, but you want that to happen in coordination with your body rotation toward the target. To get a feel for the correct sequencing, keep your lead arm (left for right-handers) above the logo of your shirt for as long as you can as you swing down. This will help you feel how the body should start the action back to the ball with the arms and club following.

Yeaton teaches at The Hawthorns Golf and Country Club in Fishers, Ind.

ERIKA LARKIN
Develop Lag Against The Wall

Many downswing flaws can be corrected with the simple imagery of swinging near a wall. What I mean is, imagine that after you reach the top of the swing, your clubhead makes contact with a wall behind your back. Start the downswing by dragging it along that wall for a couple of feet. This feeling helps get the club to swing down on a path from inside the target line while correctly lagging behind the rotation of the body. Often, golfers do the opposite and swing on a steep out-to-in path that causes them to slice. Stick to the wall, and you’ll hit straighter shots.

‘If the clubhead moves away from the wall as you start down, you’re probably going to hit a slice or a pull.’ —Erika Larkin

Larkin teaches at The Club at Creighton Farms in Aldie, Va.

JORGE PARADA
Putt Like A Painter

The putting motion is just like the stroke of a painter—both should be done by taking advantage of the nerve endings at the end of the thumb and index finger on the dominant hand. Those receptors transfer information strongly and quickly to the brain. When putting, try this: Set up to make a few practice strokes looking at the hole but focusing on the pressure of the thumb and index finger on your trail hand. Note how the stroke feels through those fingers. Now step into the putt and utilize those fingers to coordinate the stroke length, rhythm and face alignment. You’ll discover that feeling like those fingers are in charge of your stroke will give you great control of your putts.

Parada teaches at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, N.J.

CHRIS MAYSON
Treat Fairway Bunkers Like A Pane Of Glass

The key to a good shot out of a fairway bunker is keeping your balance, so you can hit the ball as cleanly as possible. To help make that happen, pretend like you’re standing on a pane of glass instead of sand. If you really were on glass, you wouldn’t want to swing very hard or with a lot of body movement, or you’d slip. That’s the feeling you want to transfer into your actual fairway-bunker swing. This image works well for contact, too. Knowing that you’d shatter the pane if you hit behind the ball or swing down too steeply, your goal is to pick the ball off the glass. You’ll find this image prompts you to really focus on ball-first contact.

‘Want your fairway-bunker shots to be a smashing success? Then pick it off the surface.’ —Chris Mayson

Mayson teaches at Maderas Golf Club in Poway, Calif.

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