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“Wayne: I played in college at Eastern Illinois University graduating in 2001. I played the mini tours in Scottsdale, AZ after graduating for 3 years having little success. I have been a career amateur for the past 6 years. I have qualified for 4 USGA Mid AM’s, Runner up in 2012 Illinois State Am, Runner up 2014 IL Mid Am. I enjoy the amateur circuit and play several Mid Am events around the country including the Champions Cup in Houston, Carlton Woods Invite in Houston, etc.
I have studied your website and watched many videos. A struggle I fight is across the line in the backswing. I prefer to play a fade but hit some draws but not many. Under pressure a fade is my go to shot. I have been working on stacking up the left side as in the past I would get stuck on my right side spinning out of shots.”
You can tell from Derek’s email that he is a fine player, and as we look at his swing you can also see that he has room to get better. The sequence and flow of the swing is quite nice, but his takeaway needs cleaning up and his tendency to cross the line at the top eventually leads to a more complex release action than he would like. As you have seen in a large number of lesson videos crossing the line can lead to the club either flattening late in the downswing and getting stuck behind the body or moving well out away from the body as the right arm looks to get in front of the chest while remaining quite bent. The priority in the cross the line situation is to uncross the shaft and get it back into a decent approach plane, and usually the right arm cannot unbend enough to keep the hands from approaching impact from a much higher position than they occupied at address. Many good players have done this, but the wrist action required to bend the shaft down to the ball while squaring the face is too complicated for most to negotiate consistently. Thus, while the ball striking can be great on good days, it can also be poor on bad days and erratic in general. My suggestions here will be to eliminate the excess movement in the start of the backswing and then to use the rotation of the hands to point the club more to the left at the top of the swing so it can flatten early and then the right arm can straighten more in the downswing and allow the hands to pass through impact closer to the original shaft plane.
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