Golf Beginners: Apply 4 Easy Steps for a Power
Golf Swing.

and impress your friends

Golf is an enjoyable yet challenging game to master. It may appear insurmountable if one lacks knowledge, and the application of four fundamental steps.

Regrettably, many beginners persist committing errors repeatedly, with no noticeable progress. Are you among those golfers who find themselves trapped in this cycle? Perhaps you hold on to the hope of improvement, only to find that nothing truly changes. I can empathize with the immense frustration this must cause.

However, there is a way to break free from this stagnation and unlock your true potential on the golf course. By understanding and implementing these four simple steps, you can transform your swing and experience the joy of continuous improvement.

If you have ignored these basic 4 fundamentals, or don’t know what they are, you most probably experiencing:

The only way to stop repeating these faults is to learn, understand, and apply 4 fundamentals.

In this article, I’ll walk you through each fundamental and how they knit together so you can unlock your golfing potential.

The section on the grip is the most important fundamental if you want to play better golf. Get it right and you are halfway to better performance.

Master these 4 fundamentals:

They are famously referred to as G A S P. Named by a famous golf coach in the 70’s.

Two additional fundamentals are also critical for direction, power, and consistency. This is covered in this resource.

I have played golf for 57 years and teaching as a professional for 33 years. I have never met any student who knows, understands, and applies all the fundamentals correctly. Ninety percent of their faults are due to improper application of at least two of the fundamentals. So you are not alone!

From my playing and teaching experience, your first step is placing your hands correctly on the club.
Why?

Because,
1. The correct hand placements help to swing the club with authority, control, and speed. With the main objective to deliver the club face squarely to the ball every time.
2. The way you place your hands allows the wrists to hinge naturally back and forth during the swing, and impart speed to the clubhead without applying effort.

Sam Snead, a famous golfer, quoted the following:
'If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death.'

This is so true for many beginners and high handicappers.
If you don't hold the club the way I explain here you have less chance of becoming a proficient golfer let alone a good one.

The fundamentals below are in a specific order from when you pick the club until you are ready to swing. It's also how you prepare before you play each shot.

• Placing your left hand correctly on the club (if you are a right-handed player)
• The right-hand placement
• How to address the ball
• How wide should your stance be
• Why is the posture important
• Balance is everything
• Aiming your shot
• Ball position between the feet

Applying the correct fundamentals is a continuous process you will do for the rest of your golfing days. It never ends.
Besides, Professional golfers are continually checking and practicing their fundamentals.
Shouldn’t you do the same?

Once you understand and apply them correctly to your swing, you will also experience how easy it is to get sloppy with them. This is why they need continuous attention and nurturing!

Club lies across the base of the fingers. Wrist on top of the club

Grip - How to place your left hand correctly on the club

Mistake: The logic of most beginners and high handicappers is to hold the club too much in the palm of the left hand with the wrist in a weak position on the handle. See the photo below. Although it’s a comfortable position, it’s wrong!
You are likely to let go of the club at the top of the swing holding the handle too much on the palm.

Visual check:
If you wear a glove on the left hand (see photo below). Do you see wear on the glove opposite the base of the left thumb? Sometimes the glove is torn in that spot. (See photo below.)
This is evidence of the club moving in your hand while you are swinging.
Golfers are unaware of this fault when I point it out to them. Without holding the club securely with the left-hand fingers, you lose control of the club during the swing. This leads to mishits and other faults.

Solution

When your left-hand holds the handle in the fingers shown, you have full control of the club with more pressure on the last three fingers. See photo.

The club is now firmly held in the fingers and can't move in the hand when you swing. The palm faces the inside of your right thigh. With the left thumb pointing at the neck of the club. This is a neutral to strong left-hand position on the club.

This hold also gives the club more freedom to swing, because it allows the wrists to hinge on their own through the weight of the club head. This is an important sensation to develop because we don't use our hands actively in an efficient swing. They simply hold the club. Essential for achieving more speed, power, and control of the clubhead.
You will have the following:

1. Full control of the club
2. Achieve more clubhead speed at impact
3. More distance with less effort

Another misunderstood movement while swinging the club is the rotation of the arms and wrists. This is outside the scope of this article and is explained in my e-book.

Right hand fits snugly onto the back of the left thumb

The right-hand placement

Mistake: Many golfers hold the handle with the right palm facing the sky or, too much underneath the handle. This is evident when you look down on your grip and the left thumb is exposed. The position of the righthand leads to either opening the clubface or closing it at impact.

Any independent hand action taking place in the back swing changes and manipulates the club face angle during the swing. This leads to inconsistency and loss of distance. Holding too tight with this hand, especially with the first finger and thumb.

Solution: The right thumb and its base fit over the left thumb. Snugly onto the left hand. The only pressure keeping it there is from the middle two fingers of the right hand. The right palm should now face parallel to your intended target or parallel to the clubface.

Recap of both hands:
I suggest using an overlap grip with the right small finger over the first finger of the left hand. It’s the easiest way to place the hands correctly.

Many golfers use the interlock grip. I don’t promote this, and have found from my experience golfers struggle to place the right hand correctly because they lock the fingers in first, making it difficult to place the right hand in the position I’ve described.

Your right hand is the hitting hand. If you intend to unleash the club into the ball, I strongly suggest using an overlap grip. The hand positions I’ve described keep the hands passive during the swing allowing you to swing the club with greater freedom with no active use of the hands.

Pressure is in the last 3 fingers of the left hand and the middle two fingers of the right hand

You want to have the right arm and shoulder as relaxed as possible once both hands are placed. Your left is your lead arm and you don’t want the right dominating the movement.

Let’s do a visual check.
With your new grip hold your arms and club parallel to the ground. See if both forearms are parallel to one another. You should be able to balance a tray over both forearms.
Now you are ready to swing the club without letting go of either hand, swing with more authority and power, and more importantly, let the weight of the clubhead hinge your wrists for you when you take your backswing.

Food for thought
Understand both hands work as one. The hands do nothing active in the swing.
Their sole purpose is to hold and swing the club with vigor and freedom. In other words,

The hands are dead to the swing and alive to the weight of the clubhead.

This is the most profound statement you will ever learn. Let it sink in. It’s the key to swinging the club on a consistent path with no interference from any active use of the hands. You will be astonished by the results you get. And your swing will become effortless.
If your swing feels like effort you have too much tension upper body specifically the shoulders and arms. Relax them and swing the club.

Addressing the ball (Upper Body)

Mistake: The spine angle when you address the ball, is too perpendicular to the ground, often leaning slightly to the target side.

If the ball position is too much to the left side of your sternum, it’s easy to turn the shoulders left to accommodate this and you will tilt your spine angle the wrong way. If the ball position is too far to the left side of your sternum, it’s easy to turn the shoulders left to accommodate this and you will tilt your spine angle the wrong way.

This leads to lifting the arms to take the backswing and a poor shoulder turn or no turn at all.

Solution: Tilt the spine angle slightly to the right side because the right hand is lower on the grip than the left. Doing this naturally lowers the right side. See photo.
You need to have the shoulders and hips parallel to one another and face the ball squarely. See the T in the photo.

This position promotes two essential movements:
1. The left shoulder can twist behind the ball easier
2. You can return the clubhead square to impact with the T intact and tilted more to the left. (See photo)

Stance (foot width)

The width of your feet determines what club you using.

Standing too wide with the feet restricts the follow-through and weight transfer from the right foot to the left side on the follow-through. Sometimes golfers fall backward from too wide a stance.

Foot width varies slightly with different length clubs.

The longer the club you use the wider you spread the feet. The shorter the club the closer the feet are together. For example- the heels of both feet are inside your shoulder width.

On average the width of your feet is as wide as your shoulders and not too much outside the shoulders. Tip: consider balance as the factor and how you can move in your balance.

Posture -Gives you Balance

Slouching over the ball creates poor balance, restricted body motion, and inconsistent swings and shots.

Good posture gives you balance and helps the body twist back and forth while swinging the club. Creating space for the arms to swing through the ball.

Solution: The posture is a deliberate upper body position felt through solid balance in the feet. Balance, to my knowledge, is critical for solid ball striking, and can only be accomplished through a good posture at address.
If you look at any touring professional’s swing, you’ll notice they all swing and finish in perfect balance, and it looks so easy!

Get the 3 feelings at the address essential for repeating the same movement

The correct posture gives you three distinct advantages:

1. More efficient rotational movement and momentum of the body to generate club head speed through impact, improving your rhythm and timing.
2. Better balance
3. Less chance of injury.

Now get the ultimate swing feeling

There are two more fundamentals essential for solid ball striking and distance. They are covered in depth in this e-book:
The Golf Swing Feeling - "Feel The Golf Swing Instantly With One Swing Exercise"
Now that you have learned how to hold the club correctly the next step is to build a feeling for a more efficient swing. This is what the e-book will help you accomplish. Get your copy today.

Golf Beginners: Apply 4 Easy Steps for a Power
Golf Swing.

and impress your friends

Grip - How to place your left hand correctly on the club

Wrong place- you can see the handle

Correct left hand position - hand is on top of the handle

Glove wear- evidence of palm grip instead of in the fingers