Golf Information

"When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps."
Confucius

The country western tune, "Looking for love in all the wrong places ..." drifts out of the loudspeaker and out across the driving range as the golfers hit balls. Just like the ones they hit before, most of them cut across the patches of grass and dirt from left to right in big sweeping curves, robbing the golfers of both distance and accuracy. How many cumulative yards would it be by now if they could get them all back? How many more will be wasted before they stop swinging out-to-in?

Golfers with this swing problem are found at every range and on every golf course. A conservative estimate would be that nine out of ten golfers swing from out to in. So if the problem is so prevalent, why hasn't someone come up with a cure?

That's where the song comes in. We look for the cure in the wrong places. You can't cure something if you don't understand what's causing it in the first place, and just knowing that the club is coming from outside the ball-target line is not enough to cure the problem. It has long been the standard diagnosis that an out-to-in swing had its roots in a swing that came over the top.

Hardly anyone thought it could be wrong if they gave that answer in response to the question, "All my shots are starting left and curving back to the right. What am I doing?" Good friends, lots of instructors would answer with good intentions, "You are swinging over the top, or casting." This is starting the swing with your hands. Some had no idea if that was really your problem, and some did, but it was a well-intended answer and meant to get you to swing inside. Was "swinging over the top" the cause or the symptom of another problem? If you start your swing with your hands you will uncock your wrists too soon, and the club head will end up on a path that is outside the ball target line. If you don't rotate, you will swing on an out-to-in swing path.

Most of the fixes were well intended as well, but since the real problem of the out-to-in path had not been identified, the results were less than satisfactory. Many golfers became frustrated and gave up saying, "It's just the way I swing, and I've learned to live with it. I've tried to fix it, no one can help so I've quit trying and that's that." You don't have to give up; you just have to understand the golf swing and understand why you swing from out to in.

There is not just one issue that results in an out-to-in swing path. There are several potential problems that could be the cause of your slice, or you could have a combination of more than one. You will need to identify what you are doing and choose the proper fundamental or fundamentals to work on to correct your platform or swing. If nine out of ten golfers hit the ball with a slice, then there is something basic that nine out of ten golfers don't understand about swinging a golf club, and that is improper weight management.