By Wayne | Videos: Playing For Money
Chas came to me through his friend and my long-time student Jason Gandy. Chas played well enough to earn his Web.Com card for 2016, but only made 8 of 21 cuts with 1 top 20. Jason encouraged Chas to send me a few swings to look at and that is what you will see here. Chas obviously has a powerful and fluid swing with excellent rhythm and tempo.
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Wayne, “It feels pretty good overall. The start of this year my play has been good and I managed to get to +4 which is cool, but largely thanks to good driving. My iron play is sporadic; with some misses that are too large and I definitely still need to improve the knock downs we worked on last year. – In this video lesson, you will see that Matthew (who incidentally has an excellent swing) is spot on about his concerns with his lower body movement and how that contributes to his right arm issues in the downswing.
Continue readingBy Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week
I met Andy about 6 years ago, when he was an intern at Woodmont CC where I worked at the time, and he was struggling to pass his Player Ability Test (PAT). We managed to get through that and have continued to work on his swing periodically since then. Andy’s chronic issue has always been the fact that his lower body pushed out from under him and by the time he gets to impact he is standing almost straight up.
Continue readingBy Wayne | Videos: Pro Tip of the Week
Once winter is over we will all be playing the ball as it lies on the fairways. This time of year the grass tends to be a bit thin, and when the ball sits a bit down in a “tight” lie, striking a fairway wood solidly may seem like an impossible thing to do. I think that a lot of problems players have with making solid contact with a 3 wood (the hardest club to hit off the ground) or even a 5 or 7 wood is that there is a perception that you are supposed to “sweep” the ball off the ground with these clubs.
Continue readingBy Wayne | Videos: Swing Analysis
It’s no surprise that Rahm has found his way into the winner’s circle at age 22 when you consider he was the #1 amateur in the world for more than a year. At 6’2 and 220 lbs. Rahm is a powerful athlete who takes advantage of his size and strength to feature a short, efficient swing.
Continue readingBy Wayne | Videos: Playing For Money
Josh is another young, strong, talented player who has been trying to qualify for any kind of tour since he got out of college a few years back. I taught Josh as a junior (he won 3 straight Maryland State Junior Championships and 2 State High School Championships) but lost track of him when he went off to the U. of Arkansas. He spent some time with other instructors and came back to see me about a year ago. And now for the good news: Josh just qualified for the Latin American Tour!
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Derek is about to start another season on the Latin American Tour, and his swing is really rounding into shape. By opening the clubface more aggressively in the backswing and all the way to the top Derek gets the club right on plane instead of crossing the line, which makes a big difference in his downswing and approach to impact. The rotation of the club with the left hand and wrist serve to externally rotate the right shoulder from left arm parallel to the top, which puts both the shaft and his upper right arm in better shape to initiate the sidearm throwing motion that will allow his hands to advance more forward at impact. As you will see this simplifies an already clean, simple looking motion that is powerful at the same time. I fully expect Derek to play well and continue to advance in his attempt to make the PGA Tour.
Continue readingBy Wayne | Videos: Playing For Money
“I am currently about to go play a practice round for final stage of Asia Tour school. I look forward to talking with you more and learning how I can improve. “
As you will see in the video Nick has an excellent swing that I believe could be improved by opening the clubface in the backswing, which would improve his right arm action and give him more wrist cock that he could retain in the downswing to produce more forward lean at impact with his irons and more clubhead speed with his driver. I did not want to give Nick new swing thoughts right before his qualifier, so I waited until afterwards (he shot 10 under, which finished 61st and earned him conditional status).
Continue readingBy Wayne | Tour Players and Celebrities
I’ve known Brad for quite some time and have worked with him on and off for years, although we have never lasted more than a month or two at any one time. Brad is a studious swing guy, and has seen just about every teacher you could name. I asked him one time how many, and he said “I counted 65, and those were guys (and women) that I paid”. With his new job as lead announcer for Fox Brad has tried to keep up with all the new “teachers du jour” and it is fun to get his take on what is going on in the business as I don’t pay much attention to it.
Continue readingBy Wayne | Videos: Pro Tip of the Week
Some courses have beautiful bunkers all over the course, but once you get in them you won’t be thinking about how lovely they look from a distance. They are deep and difficult to get out of, much less hit nice, high, spinning shots like you see the pros hit on television. Here are a few tips to help you improve your technique:
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