One of the most important concepts that is often discussed is the idea of swinging left.
As you work the club down you want your body and chest to work through the ball, around to the left, rather than trying to hold everything more square and release the arms and hands out. The idea is to control the club’s movement with the body.
The problem is that a lot of golfers actually get too much of a good thing. They may come in steeper than the right forearm – so the club works very aggressively to the left. As a result, it comes out very low and they end up chicken winging it.
That whole sequence is going to tend to start the ball out to the left.
Correct It With a Drill
If this is something you do, the solution is to develop the opposite sensation in your swing.
This drill actually encourages the club to work down the proper path and then work left, but you’ll feel like it’s doing the reverse.
Set up the drill by lining up some tees in the ground with a ball in line in the middle. You want to mark out the visual of an in to out swing.
Of course, we don’t want you to actually swing in to out. This is an exaggeration to correct a problem.
If you come down too steep and the club is working really hard left so you’re coming across the ball and chicken winging it, getting a kind of wiping motion on the way through, then you need to develop the feeling of swinging more in to out.
This is drill is only for golfers who are swinging too far to the left.
Here’s How
Simply set up to the ball on your target line. The tees should come from inside the target line by about a club width, and work just slightly outside the line. That’s the visual.
As you come down, visualize the club striking the inside quadrant of the ball, with the club head traveling over the inside, over the tees, and down the middle.
Again, it’s just a visual, but if you tend to come across really steep – your divots are going way left and you’re pulling everything – then you need to hit balls like this to drill the opposite motion.
Get into your normal setup, take a couple of practice downswings to make sure you feel like the club head is traveling over that path, then just swing through, visualizing the club head working over those tees.
The ball should come out on your target line. The divot should work just slightly inside that last tee, or just over it, and you’ll get a good, solid strike so you can start hitting the ball from the inside again.
Checkpoints for Practice
- Swinging left is vital to the swing, but some golfers take a good thing and overdo it
- If you swing down too steep, come through very low and chicken wing it, this Tee Drill can help correct the problem
- Set up three or four tees marking out a path from a club width inside the target line to slightly outside the line
- You won’t really swing in to out, but if you visualize the club head following that line it will help correct your real path