Fitting the Player, Not the Stroke: What Edel and Sweeney Taught Me
For most of golf instruction's history, putting has been treated as a technique problem. Something wrong with your stroke that a few lessons could iron out. I used to teach it that way too — until two people changed how I think about the game's most repeated shot. The Equipment Half of the Equation David Edel's putter fitting work starts from a different question entirely: not what's wrong with your stroke, but does your putter actually match how you naturally move? Weight, balance, and feel, matched to the player instead... Read more...
The Five Lies Paul Runyan Taught Me
Before you pick a club or think about technique around the green, I want you to answer one question: how good is your lie, really? Paul Runyan — one of the great short-game minds in golf history — broke lie quality into five categories, and I use his exact framework with every student: Perfect Good Bad Terrible "I wish it was someone else's lie." That last one always gets a laugh in a lesson. It also happens to be the most useful category, because it forces you to be honest... Read more...
Force vs. Time: The Putting Secret That Changes Everything
Ask most golfers how they control putting distance, and they'll tell you: a longer backstroke for a longer putt. That's one legitimate way to do it. It's just not the one I teach most players — and once you understand why, your speed control gets a lot more reliable. Two Ways to Control Distance There are two mechanisms for controlling how far a putt travels. One is Time — controlling the length of your stroke, letting a bigger swing produce more distance. The other is Force — keeping the stroke... Read more...
Stop Changing Your Swing, Start Changing Your Club
Here's the single biggest mistake I see amateurs make around the green: they choose too much loft — usually the sand wedge — and then try to manipulate their swing to make that one club do everything. Made worse when they play the ball off the back of their stance, which delofts the club and kills the bounce right when you need it most. My system does the opposite. Keep the swing the same. Change the club. Try Putting First Before you even reach for a wedge, ask if you... Read more...
12 Greens a Round: Why Your Short Game Is Where You Actually Score
Here's a number that changes how most players think about practice: even the best players in the world average only 12 greens in regulation per round. That leaves six up-and-down opportunities, every single round, for even a tour pro. Now here's a more interesting number. Top 25 PGA Tour players average 4.25 feet from the hole after a chip or pitch. Players ranked 26th through 50th average 6.5 feet. That gap doesn't sound like much — until you realize it translates into a 22% advantage in make percentage on the... Read more...
The Most Neglected Fundamental in Golf: Your Pivot
Ask ten golfers what they're working on, and nine will say something about their arms or their club. Almost nobody says their pivot. And that's exactly the problem — the pivot is one of the most neglected fundamentals in the entire golf swing. Get the body rotating incorrectly — wrong timing, wrong direction — and it corrupts your sequencing, your low point, your contact, your power, all at once. Rear Post, Center Post, Front Post I use the terminology from Mike Adams and E.A. Tischler's BioSwing Dynamics: rear post, center... Read more...
The Line Nobody Told You About: Baseline vs. Swing Plane
I was thirty years old when I learned Homer Kelley's Rule 11(L)(2), taught to me by Lynn Blake, a participant in Kelley's own master class. It changed my teaching more than almost anything else I've learned. I wish I'd found it twenty years earlier. The rule: the clubface must trace a straight baseline, or be parallel to it. What the Laser Shows You I demonstrate this with a laser mounted on the club. Even though the clubhead appears to swing on an arc — because the swing plane is inclined... Read more...
Your Arms Are Lying to You: The Flying Wedges Explained
Take your address position right now — or picture it. Straight left arm, slightly bent right elbow, club resting on the ground. Most players think of that as a starting point they leave behind the moment the swing begins. It's not a starting point. It's the position your swing has to return to at impact to strike the ball consistently. Everything in between is just the club leaving home and finding its way back. Ben Hogan's Flying Wedges The image comes from Ben Hogan's 1957 book Power Golf — a... Read more...
The One Grip Rule I Will Never Compromise On
The One Grip Rule I Will Never Compromise On
Most instructors avoid touching a player's grip. It's uncomfortable to correct, and there's a real fear the student won't come back. I do it anyway. In 25 years of teaching,... Read more...
Why "One Swing Fits All" Is Costing You Strokes
If you've spent any time on golf social media, you've seen it: a beautiful, textbook swing, broken down frame by frame, presented as the way to swing a golf club. Copy this position. Match this angle. Get your arm here at the top. Here's the problem. That swing was built for one specific body, moving one specific way. It was never built for yours. The 24 Components, 144 Variations In 1969, Homer Kelley published The Golfing Machine — a book that broke the golf swing down into 24 mechanical components,... Read more...