THE "HANDS ON" APPROACH TO CRISP SHOTS

     Much has been written about how active or passive the hands should 
be in executing golf shots. Most of this prose has been written by tour 
level professional golfers, a select group of professional athletes who 
have little in common with the amateur golfer. 

    Use of the hands is no exception.

     Most professional golfers have, through years of extensive practice, 
developed great hand action and tend, therefore, to hook the ball left. 
Tour level golfers have trained their bodies to such a degree that their 
right side is nearly always on track and in position to deliver all this 
right side force efficiently to their swing. Most pros, however, prefer 
the higher, softer landing left to right fade over the draw. They are more 
than willing to sacrifice the additional distance produced by a draw for 
the control inherent in a faded shot. To help them fade the ball most touring 
pros grip the club more in their palm than fingers. This slows their wrist 
and hand action. Pros also concentrate on using all their available "left 
side" power since their right side power is always available. 
Just the opposite is true for the average amateur.

     No right handed person ever did anything physically forceful with 
their left side. Most amateur golfers do not use nearly enough hand 
action in any full shot. Rarely does the ball leap off the club face with 
authority or the "whirring" noise caused by sufficient backspin to produce 
good trajectory and stopping power. Three set up and swing elements will 
help correct this condition and produce longer, more satisfying shots.

     First, most people stand too far from the ball. Their arms do not hang 
vertically from their shoulders. Many golf teachers feel that the most 
prevalent and serious amateur fault is that of reaching out for the ball.
 
	Reaching (among other things) flattens the swing and reduces the 
natural hand/wrist roll through impact. When the arms hang properly 
vertically from the shoulders there is an angle (viewed from behind the 
ball) between the forearm and the club. Present on all full shots with all 
clubs, this angle increases the swing arc through the impact area, produces 
more club head speed and increases distance.

     Gripping the club, with your hands about 4 inches in front of your 
thighs,  and allowing this arm/club angle, is made easier with the club in 
your fingers - not across your palm. By gripping the club in your fingers 
you'll find that the club lies at a sharp angle across your hand at the base 
of your fingers and that you can relax your grip pressure. Now, when you 
address the ball with your arms hanging straight down from your shoulders, 
the proper arm to club angle is formed naturally and the club sticks out in 
front of you toward the ball. 

Looking good so far. 

     The last item is "wrist cock." So much has been misstated about what 
is and isn't the proper wrist cock that I am not surprised at the confusion 
I see. It's really very simple. When you turn away from the ball with your 
shoulders you first reach (and quickly pass through) a position where the 
club is perfectly horizontal and points directly behind you and away from 
the target. At this point, unless we do something to prevent it, the toe of 
the club points vertically, straight up. The proper wrist action will (with 
a flat back of the left wrist) result naturally from inertia if we merely 
lift the club to the top of our back swing with our shoulders. 

	Coming down, again with our shoulders, allows (not makes) the wrists 
uncock and roll over at the bottom of the swing. Although it may sound 
alarming, the heel of the club actually leads during the downswing. Don't 
worry, however, the clubface WILL close to square at impact and then closed 
as you complete the swing followthrough. It's this closing only as the club 
approaches the ball that gives "action" to the ball and produces those crisp, 
high shots with plenty of backspin.

That's all there is to it.

     If you set your shoulders properly tilted so that they point down the 
target line your right elbow will bend in toward your right hip. This puts 
your strong right side on track down and under your left shoulder and allows 
these good things to happen. 

     No matter what you have heard or read, when on the proper track, you 
can't it the ball hard enough with your right hand. 

	"Spank" it hard and watch it fly.