TP&C: Ozzie Newsome-Overcoming Old Habits

By Wayne | Tour Players and Celebrities

I’ve been working with Ozzie on and off for years but haven’t seen him since 2015 until this month when I returned to Woodholme where he is a member. Most of Ozzie’s issues stem from the way he is built, 6’4” and 250 lbs. of muscle with emphasis on huge shoulders and almost no neck. Ozzie has long legs and fairly short arms, and thus feels like he needs to bend over quite a bit to get down to the ball at address. We are working on standing taller and closer to the ball with the hands higher (that keeps the chest more up), while trying to get his backswing not to get laid off at P3 and P4. I would like him to strengthen his grip and maintain the cup in the back of the left wrist throughout the backswing, and I want the clubhead not to lift so quickly in the takeaway. If he keeps the club outside his hands going back it invariably works sideways as it gets to the top, and from a laid off position he always steepens the shaft and pulls on the grip. Speaking of grips, we are trying to strengthen Ozzie’s so that when he bows his wrist at the top the face gets super shut and he hits it dead left, a nice incentive to keep that wrist cupped. He also need to focus on keeping his right-hand pressure points throughout the backswing and transition. If we can get the shaft more vertical at P3 and continue that to the top where he is more on plane I think his athletic ability will eventually allow him to flatten the shaft, which will give his lower body incentive to open quicker so that he can get his hands forward and achieve more extension through the impact area.