by Jeff Skinner
The October issue of Golf Magazine hit my mailbox yesterday and yes I still subscribe to the archaic, old school, printed media. One of the advantages of getting the print version is that many of the articles in the magazine don’t appear on the Golf.com website for awhile and some not at all.
In this month’s The Golf Magazine Interview Cameron Morfit doesn’t have one interviewee but three. Hall of Fame golfer and analyst Johnny Miller, CBS analyst and teacher Peter Kostis and top 100 teacher Dave Phillips dish on a bunch of subjects.
They discuss who’s the best driver, should amateurs worry about launch angle, Tiger’s swing, Rory’s driver, the best putter ever and more.
Their responses to one interesting question posed by Morfit gives us hackers plenty of info on how we can better our game. It’s all so simple but so overlooked by all of us.
Question: What’s the most common mistake you see weekend players make?
Kostis: The typical golfer is always trying to hit the perfect shot. He’ll hit ten 7 irons and the longest one goes 155, so he’ll feel like every 7 iron should go 155. The Tour player is more respectful of mis-hits.
Miller: I’ve played with amateurs for a million years and they just don’t hit many flush shots. I asked Tom Watson one time “Do you always hit the ball that flush?’ He said he once went five years without mis-hitting one shot- no thin shots, no fat shots. I advocate the brush-brush drill. Everybody works on their body or their posture. Just brush the grass, taking your divot after the ball. Do that and you’ll drop five shots in a week.
Kostis: Johnny’s 100 percent right, but you can’t do that if you swing too hard, swinging out of your butt.
Miller: Take more club and just hit the ball flush. It’s very hard to do-it takes a lot of coordination.
Phillips: Agreed. Most people under-club dramatically and don’t know what to work on. They also want to hit the driver farther, which is fine-but they’re the worst putter or chipper in the world. Work on your weaknesses.
So here are their tips: take more club, hit the ball first, swing under control and practice the short game. Now where have I heard that before?
It sounds so simple. Maybe we should take their advice.
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