by Josh Zander
As we all know, there are many golf swings in the Hall of Fame and none of them look alike. But what they all have in common is that they can control their ball flight. After all, all we want as golfers is predictability. A few years ago I asked the #1 player on the Stanford Golf Team how he was hitting it. His answer was that he was hitting it too straight and could not curve the ball. He thought the new equipment made the ball fly too straight. Imagine that! We should all have that problem. The real reason he hits it so straight is that he has a stable release that keeps the clubface square to the arc around impact. These players tend to be very accurate but do not curve the ball much. Players with stable releases can still curve the ball but it requires set-up adjustments. Many great players also use the roll release. Phil Mickelson just won the 2010 Masters using it. Bubba Watson is another example of a player who uses it and he certainly does not have a problem curving the ball. In this day of forgiving equipment and computerized video analysis, I think we have lost the art of shot-making. Old schoolers like Sam Snead used to find their desired ball flight by playing “spin the ball” on the range. If they were hooking it on the golf course, they would slice it for a while on the range until they neutralized their ball flight. Once they found their favorite flight, they were good to go.
What kind of release do you have? Once you know this, you can use use the correct fundamentals to make it successful. As I explain in the video, the fundamentals of each release are significantly different. Impact is the moment of truth and if you want predictability to your ball flight, you need to know how to use your release to achieve your desired ball flight.