Lesson of the Week: Stacy Kress- Trying to Lessen Right Hip Spinning

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Stacy, the daughter of my good friend Richard Kress, has been a student of mine for over 20 years. Richard is one of the world’s most avid golfers (he’s taken at least one lesson from every teacher you can possibly name) and kept bringing Stacy for lessons even when it seemed that she had no affinity for the game. She was unfazed by her failures and kept at it, and eventually she won the women’s club championship at Woodholme when she was 17, upsetting a 5-time Maryland State Women’s Amateur champion in the process. She went on to play D1 golf for Penn University, and was chosen Freshman of the Year. She now resides in West Palm Beach and is a member at Bear Lakes, where she won the club championship last year as well as the Tri-County Women’s Amateur. Stacy has always had an idiosyncratic right shoulder and scapular movement in transition, and she has always tended to lift as she gets to the top of her swing. When she lifts, she is extending her right hip flexor, which in turn leads to spinning the right side of her pelvis and leaving her arms and hands trailing behind. To improve the synchronization of her upper and lower I try an old trick used by Butch Harmon to keep the right heel down longer and encourage the foot to roll inward instead of shooting straight up. You will see here that by restricting the upward motion of the heel and foot her pelvic rotation slows down and her arms move further down without the hips spinning open.