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John Jacobs

Thursday, 29 January 2009
Neil Tappin
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How to stop slicing: Caused by the clubface being open to the swing path at impact. The greater the difference between the forces, the greater the slice.

Rotate your hands at address clockwise to for a ‘stronger grip’, get the impression of swinging your arms to the right of target during your swing and feel your right hand rotate over the left during strike.

How to stop hooking: Caused by the clubface being closed to the swing path at impact. The greater the difference between the forces, the greater the hook.

Rotate your hands anti-clockwise at address, open your stance slightly, swing more upright through the backswing and feel the arms travel to the left of target through impact.

Lack of power: Often caused by poor weight shift. Imagine your in the middle of a seesaw and your trying to tip the board to the right on the backswing and then to the left on the forward swing (right-handed player). This will give you the feel of good weight transfer and more power.

How to stop yiping: Change things completely! You won’t yip if you change to left handed (Right handed player) or watch yourself in a mirror while chipping/putting. So try different holds, styles and equipment to make things very different.

How to stop fat/thin strikes: Caused very often from the same action – casting on the downswing. As you start you decent into the ball, maintain your wrist hinge for as long as you can into strike. This will change your arc, and move the base of it more towards the base of the ball.

Best tip to avoid the shanks: Visualisation has worked great for me as a coach. Focus on a point inside the ball, even placing a peg there in practice. Now try and hit the peg away and the ball will fly correctly – try it and see!!

Best tip to avoid three-putting: Pace will often be the main problem, so practice long putts to improve feel and speed. Once your proficient on long distance putts shorter putts become easier to judge and the ball will finish closer more often, leaving you less likely to three-putt.

Best course management advice: My advice is play your own game not the ‘TV’ one. Often good scoring comes from damage limitation, and being realistic, so take more club, aim for the ‘fat’ parts of the course and know your yardages!

New equipment advice: Get fitted. You wouldn’t spend several hundred pounds on a pair of shoes without trying them on, so don’t make the same mistake with equipment (they’ll hurt your feet and hurt your game). This is very important to our younger players also, as they are often tempted to purchase clubs that their tour hero’s play rather than what’s suitable to them. Another tip is don’t be afraid to buy loft on a driver, you’ll hit more fairways and probably hit it longer!!

Which Tour professional and why? Luke Donald is one of my favorite players to study. He has such great rhythm and balance. Yes, it’s technically very solid thoughout and he has great flexability, but unlike Tiger, he has a tempo that most of us can emulate without spending 3 hours in the gym every day!! I also still have great admiration for our best ever british player, Nick Faldo who had one of the best tempo swings ever seen.