#golfsportofperfection#golf#sport Louis Oosthuizen, Ernie Els and Adam Scott are just some names that you should go and watch at an event if you want a lesson on tempo and rhythm. However, surely the king of cool and the silky swing of Fred Couples takes first prize. It looks as if the former Masters champion plays without a care in the world on the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions.
When viewed from behind Couples, looking down the target line, you can see that his feet, hips and shoulders are aimed well to the left. This would normally indicate the player intends to play a fade (left-to-right shot) – not Couples. His shots often start right of the target and draw (turn right-to-left), a pretty amazing feat given where his body's pointed.
Why it's a problem for amateurs: For the average player – or even a very good one – such a leftward alignment leads to several potential problems. The most prevalent is a slice, caused when the clubface is open in relation to the swing path. In fact, many players will subconsciously compensate for the misalignment by leaving the clubface open in order to guide the ball back on line. There's also the danger of hitting the ball exactly where you're aimed.
How Couples gets away with it: Couples starts the downswing with a pronounced movement of the left hip. This begins a sequence which drops the club “inside” the line, so the clubhead traces a path that forms an X when crossing his body alignment. In other words, the clubhead doesn't follow the line of his feet, hips and shoulders.
The cure: If you have a tendency to line up left and slice or pull the ball, your best bet is to correct your alignment flaw before making any swing changes. On the range, simply place one club pointing directly at your target, and another parallel to it. Place the ball just outside the first club, and align your feet alongside the second club. When you address the ball it may feel as though you're aligned too far right. Try to ignore that sensation as you hit balls; your eyes will slowly adjust to sense the correct, on-target line. Source RollYourRock
Hey everybody, Fred Couples here. I'm going to give you a little help with what is my
favorite club, whether I'm hitting it well or not so well, the driver. First of all,
you can see it's an old school, so I don't want to get too much into new stuff because
my body can't take pounding 200 drivers to figure out what driver's best for me. This
one's done very well. So a couple things right off the bat, I think, is people, they get
a little bit freaked out on drivers. And there are guys who drive it well, so that fits their
bag perfectly. But I think one important thing is to get a driver with a little bit
of loft. You want to get the ball in the air. And if you're a high ball hitter, that may
not work. But most people hit the ball somewhere in the center of the face. The tour players
pretty much hit it right on the button. So we can figure out in a matter of minutes the
ball flight. So for instance, if I hit a driver, a brand new shaft or something, I hit it way
up in the air, I don't like that at all. If I hit it too low, I don't like that. For you
guys, it's very difficult to go into some of the stores and buy a driver and get fitted
and do all that. For us, it's pretty simple. It's a matter of three or four balls. But
once you get by the driver you like, I think a couple keys, at least for me, is ball position.
And if you notice, in the old days, I used to stand very open. And as I've gotten older,
I've almost squared up. And I still play the ball semi-up forward in my stance, which helps
me hit it on the upswing. And if you see a lot of the longer hitters on the PGA Tour,
nowadays they're almost off their feet. Bubba Watson, Thomas, Dustin Johnson, they're so
powerful. For me, I'm not quite there yet, but I'm still trying to hit where my body's
coming up to get the ball going and get a lot more extension. So let me just hit one,
take away, I try and go back low. And then I just, once I'm going down through the hitting
area, I actually, it may not look like it, but I'm trying to hit it as hard as I physically
can. Not on every drive, but most of them. Always try and get the club going back at
a pace that's such as your seven iron, because you don't want to jerk it back real fast.
So the first thing I try and do is get the club going away from the ball as slow as I
can. And then I threw the ball, I'm trying to hit it as hard as I can. And if none of
that works, go find your local pro. As you know, mine's been Paul Marchand for over 30
years, so Paul works with me all the time. Thank you, and we'll see you next time.
