Wayne headed to the 2013 PGA PNC. Wish him luck in the comments section of the June 18th post.


Lesson of the Week: Tim Oyler

By on Jun 19, 2013 in Videos: Lesson of the Week - Comments { 0 }

  It’s pretty flattering when a guy whose business is promoting golf instruction DVD’s and websites comes all the way from Oklahoma to take a lesson. Of course, there are far less tornados in Maryland than in OK, so that could be part of the reason. Anyway, Tim is a very good player who, like many you see here on the website, has an impact problem caused by a recalcitrant right arm. The lesson here highlights just how difficult it is to change this particular habit, as you can watch Tim’s right forearm tip to more horizontal no matter what thought or drill we tried to do. One of Tim’s issues is his inability to swing at less than full [...]

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Heading to the 2013 CPC (With video)

By on Jun 18, 2013 in blog - Comments { 3 }

  The PGA of America decided to change the name of our national championship to the PGA PNC (PGA Professional National Championship), but when I won the thing it was called the CPC (Club Professional Championship). I don’t know about you, but I think that CPC is much more memorable than PGA PNC, so I’m going to keep calling it that. Anyway, we play again this year at the Crosswater Club in Bend, Oregon, which happens to be where I won, so there will be some great memories as I make my way around the course again. I have not played nearly as well over the last 4 years as I did for a nice long stretch before that (1994-2008), [...]

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Online Students: Jonathan Airhart

By on Jun 17, 2013 in Videos: Online Students - Comments { 0 }

  Jonathan is an Air Force pilot (I think that is correct, as he is a member of the F-22 Squadron) who has been in Russia for 4 years and now is getting back into golf. He used to film his swing quite a bit in high school (using Freddie Couples as a model) and has a pretty good awareness of what his flaws are. I noticed that Jon’s right hand grip was a bit weak (V pointing to the right of the chin) and that it appeared that his right palm separated from the left at the top of the swing. He mentioned that he had a history of loosening the grip and thought it was because he had [...]

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Chamblee on McIlroy: “Insufficient”, or Less Than Stellar Lower Body Movement

By on Jun 14, 2013 in Videos: As Seen On TV and Extras - Comments { 4 }

  I happened to be flipping through channels when I caught this short piece, and when I heard Brandel ripping Rory and comparing him to Byron Nelson I knew I had another video in the can. Chamblee is mind-boggling: he takes the best players in the world, waits for them to have a bad round or a bad tournament, picks their worst shot, and does an analysis showing how poor their technique is and states that this is why they missed the cut, or lost the tournament, or hit the odd bad shot. Of course, he knows beforehand that the shot is bad and that they played poorly, but just wait a week or two when the player plays well [...]

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My Week at Merion

By on Jun 12, 2013 in blog - Comments { 2 }

Two questions bring back my memories of this week in June 32 years ago: the first is “have you ever played in the U.S. Open, and the second is “have you ever played Merion?” The answer to both is “yes”, and I am always happy to inform the asker that I played in the U.S. Open at Merion back in 1981. As it turned out it would be the only Open I would qualify for (I was local qualifying medalist 5 times and missed playing in 2 more Opens in qualifying playoffs at the course at which I now work), but at least I got one in there and can always say that yes, I played in the Open.   [...]

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Online Students: Tim Mascorella

By on Jun 12, 2013 in Videos: Online Students - Comments { 1 }

  Tim sent a nice email response to his lesson, so I thought I would share it with you as it does a great job of summarizing what I went over in the lesson. I really enjoyed the last comment about being an engineer and liking the way I use a standard method of analysis that he considered to be clear and detailed. That’s exactly what I am shooting for!   Hi Wayne, Thanks for the lesson. I am a little embarrassed about the ball position part as I should know that. I was impressed with the observation about the back tension/position. I have been too tense with back issues for a little while now and it has in part [...]

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Lesson of the Week: Joseph Barr Part 2

By on Jun 10, 2013 in Videos: Lesson of the Week - Comments { 0 }

  Joseph has just completed 4 years on the golf team at the University of Kentucky, and is now contemplating playing in some professional events. I have been working with him for about 2 years, although I haven’t seen him more than 3 or 4 times. Even so, he has made great strides with his swing, which was quite idiosyncratic to begin with, and still is to an extent, especially with the driver. Joseph has a unique way of finding a shaft plane approach, but when I saw the amount of head drop and spine tilt in the impact area I thought it was my obligation to fix it, or at least moderate it, as I had suffered major back [...]

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Swing Analysis: Scott, McIlroy, and Stricker Hit the 100 Yd. Wedge

By on Jun 7, 2013 in Videos: Swing Analysis - Comments { 1 }

  I thought this was a fairly rare occurrence, with 3 of the best players in the world playing together and hitting almost the same shot on the same hole, while the cameraman actually does a nice job of positioning himself for a down the line shot of each one. Stricker is a recognized maestro with the wedges, and here we see an example of his relatively wrist-less technique. Scott has beautiful lines and a slightly fuller action, while McIlroy seems to take a bigger cut at it and yet brings the ball in lower than the other two. All 3 shots end up within 3 or 4 feet of the hole, and the disparity in the techniques just goes [...]

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Online Students: Kerry Ondrovik Part 2

By on Jun 5, 2013 in Videos: Online Students - Comments { 0 }

  Here we see a very nice swing with good ground compression, excellent transition movement, and a vastly improved impact area. I see a couple of areas to focus on in order to continue the progress made over the past year, starting with the address position. I like the shaft to point at the belt buckle at address, and in Kerry’s setup we see a lower hand position. His backswing is triggered by a sliding movement to the right which happens before the club moves, and that, combined with the low hands, causes the club to start back under the shaft plane and then get behind his hands at shaft parallel. He manages to get the shaft back on plane [...]

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Online Students: Joakim Strom Part 4

By on Jun 3, 2013 in Videos: Online Students - Comments { 2 }

  Joakim has taken a number of online lessons and his swing has shown great progress. We still need to work on a few things so that his impact with the iron shots can be more forward leaned and sustained past impact. To start with I suggest that he soften his arms at address (let the elbows bend a bit) and then turn his upper trunk earlier in the backswing so that by the time the left arm is parallel to the ground he would look and feel almost fully coiled with his shoulders turned almost 90 degrees. Then, in transition, he needs to combine a few things in order to achieve his desired impact, starting with the combination of [...]

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