Instant Golf Tips

Sometimes you get lucky. Back in May I read that 16 year old phenomenon Michelle Wie would playing in the U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying Round in NJ on June 5th. By coincidence, my schedule accommodated and I was able to get over to study her golf swing mechanics for a few hours. She came up a little short in her bid to qualify, but she still managed to beat half the field, including several past PGA tournament winners. A tremendous achievement.

The qualifier was held at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, N.J. and was free to the public. Without Michelle’s or a similar presence, these types of events are subdued with thin “crowds” and no fanfare. It’s also not uncommon to see high school “kids” chasing the dream with homemade swings, and their best friend carrying the bag.

As I entered the grounds, there were a few groups in sight on the North Course. Canoe Brook has a North and South Course and the players were to complete 18 holes on each track that day. A quick set of directions from a marshal and I was off to the South course in search of the “adolescent” prodigy.

After a good 3/4 mile walk, I came down around a bend and off in the distance to my left I spotted a massive crowd through the trees. If Canoe Brook was actually a canoe, the sheer mass of people on the far edge of the course would have flipped it!

Here came 100’s (it would swell to 1000’s later in the day) of onlookers down the sides of the 6th fairway, and out in the dead center I saw flash of a pony tail and I knew I was in the right spot. Wie’s approach shot landed 10 feet from my position around the 6th green. Looking every bit as poised and focused as on TV, she made a routine par and moved on to the next hole.

Whenever I get to a tournament, there is always the initial “wow” factor seeing the best players in the world, and then it is down to business. Tournaments are like taking golf lessons from the best players in the world, and on this day the lessons were free.

If you have been to a tournament in person, you know that the proximity to the players is unparalleled in any other sport. I hope it always stays this way for the sake of the fans, particularly those golfers looking to improve their games.

This day afforded me the opportunity to study Michelle’s incredible golf swing up close as she launched pure, cannon-like tee and fairway shots. Her swing is a thing of beauty… and as perfect as it gets. You can’t fully appreciate it until you have heard the sound of the impact off her driver. It’s truly a 3 dimensional percussion that chases all the way up the fairway.

I think every pro golfer’s swing can best be described with different adjectives. Here’s a few:

John Daly - “free wheeling”, Tiger - “awesome”, Ernie Els - “balanced”, Vijay Singh- “languid”.

Michelle Wie’s golf swing is “precise”. She makes a precision move through the ball with no wasted effort or “slack”. Her body turns back and through, and the golf club responds to that motion. In a flash the club head tears through the impact zone and the golf ball is sent screaming down the fairway.

With every swing I saw her make that day, I was reminded:

A precision golf swing repeats… and repeating swings create lower scores.

That should be the goal for any golfer, whether they are picking up a club for the first time at 45, or trying to shave off those last few strokes to break 70.

When I developed and wrote The Key To A Repeating Golf Swing, my goal was to unscramble the complex golf motion and create a simple, precise way to create perfect impact. This is the impact of a Repeating Golf Swing.

In more detail, I achieved a simple method of getting the golf club from point A (address) to point B (impact) on the way to point C (finish position).

Once you feel it, you won’t want to swing the club any other way.