Come Inside. It's Nice in Here.

I used to have a huge problem of hitting the ball great for stretches and then hitting it sideways for 2 weeks. It happened during my college playing days when my coach hardly knew what a golf swing was and it happened when I had no one to help me. It took probably 3 years before I started figuring out that what I felt I was doing right, was never happening in my swing. In my head it felt like I took the club on plane and put my hands in a good position at the top of my swing. In fact I was. I reminded myself to take the club outside (by telling myself outside, it puts me on the right plane rather than inside.) and put my hands "in the top corner of a doorway". Both were fine. My problem was coming down. What felt like me releasing the club never happened.

Here's some steps to get you to come inside the ball and hit it solid and consistently. My plan for fixing this all started one year when I was caddying at the Verizon Heritage at Harbour Towne. While on the range with my player, I was watching Brett Wetterich hit balls. Brett has his umbrella laying on the ground pointed right at his target. From there he dropped balls on the inside of the umbrella and hit balls making divots all the way down the length of the umbrella. He would then roll the umbrella over into the line of the divots he just made and did it again with different clubs. I realized what he was doing and it took it upon myself to try it. The umbrella forces you on the right plane and reminds you to release your hands coming from the inside. Something I wasn't doing or doing consistently. When you release your hands the club never makes contact with the umbrella and allows you to get on the right plane. If you start nailing it down, it's really a great way to work on cuts and draws. For draws you want to have you club going about 5 yards rights of your target on the follow through. Or hold the club in horizontally on the follow through for a cut. 2 X 4's and driveway markers work just as well. It's a great reminder, and grooves your swing for those big tournaments coming up.