Keep The Golf Club In Front Of You

Keep The Club Front And Center

Keep the golf club in front of you: a statement of extreme importance in every golf swing. Having the club front and center means that everything is happening between the lines of the right and left shoulders from address to finish. Here the arms are swinging on the line of the shoulders, the elbows are pointing down throughout the motion, the clubshaft is staying between the left and right forearms and the upper body is staying on top of the lower body.

The arms swing very nicely on the line of the shoulders as they are attached to the shoulders. Doing this allows the club to swing on plane and since the arms are swinging the legs automatically coordinate. Having the elbows point down throughout the motion keeps the clubface square and on plane, opening to a neutral position as the right arm folds in the backswing and closing to a neutral position, as the left arm folds in the through swing allowing for use of the lower body. Having the clubshaft stay between the forearms means that the golfer does not need to catch the arms up to the body or the body up to the arms to impact. And keeping the upper body on top of the lower body results in a solid contact.

Here we see Paloma Santiago our newest member at Royce Brook, an outstanding golfer by her own right, at address. The arms are in front of the body, the elbows are down and the clubshaft is between the forearms.

By showing impact position, one can see that the arms are in front of the body, the elbows are down and the club is still between the forearms. Even with shaft lean, a result of the body turn, the clubshaft is still between the forearms. Front and center.

From address the left arm swings across the chest until it runs into connection at the line formed by the right shoulder. At this point continued arm swing will fold the right arm and set the right wrist which elevates and opens the club to some congruent plane where it reaches the top of the backswing. At this point the clubshaft is at a right angle to the line of the shoulders in position to straighten back down to the ball. It is now front and center. This condition was first described by Mike Adams, a top 50 Golf Digest and Golf Magazine instructor, and probably represents one of the most important observations in the golf swing for now the golfer has both maintained and established impact at the top of the swing. From here all that is required of one is to straighten down or release the club back to the ball.

The next picture shows Paloma at the top of her swing. Looking closely one can see that the arms are in front of the body, the elbows are down the clubshaft is between the forearms, the left arm has swung across the chest into connection, the clubshaft is at a right angle to the line of the shoulders, the grip matches the speed of the hips and there is now a differential between the upper and lower body.

THIS IS IMPACT but the swing is now loaded with coil and all one needs to do from here is release the club by straightening the right arm back to the ball as shown by the next picture. When a golfer keeps the club front and center like this it now does not matter if the hips are fast medium or slow. It doesn’t matter if the golfer is more upper body oriented using the legs and hips more as a support. It doesn’t matter how the golfer creates ground forces by linear rotary, linear vertical, rotary or vertical and it doesn’t matter if the golfer is one plane or two plane. It doesn’t matter if they are one post, center post or two post. Here every golfer has control over the clubface and swing.