Controlling Distance: Shorten Backswing

Video Transcript

One of the reasons that you might have controlling the distance of your shots if you hit the ball too far is because your backswing is too long. Take John Daly for instance, on his backswing he really make a huge swing. He really has a big turn, a big arm swing and a lot of wrist cock so his club goes down behind his back pointing towards the ground. This gives him a tremendous amount of time to accelerate that club through to impact so the club is moving very fast when he makes contact with the ball. However, when you have that much speed it makes it very difficult to control that distance. What you would like to do is cut your swing down to a more manageable length and that manageable length is to make everything go back in the right amount. What I would like to do is only turn my shoulders 90 degrees. Only move my arms 90 degrees. Only cock my wrist 90 degrees. A good way to do this is to practice doing exactly that in front of a mirror. Do this three-90s Drill, where you start back and turn your shoulders and do not let them go past 90 degrees. Then take your right arm and only make an “L” with your right arm, do not make a “V,” which would make your arm swing too long. Then finally just cock your wrist 90 degrees, do not over cock your wrists where you get a deep angle between your arm and your shaft. All of these things create so much swing that you can produce too much power. So practice the three-90s Drill and to get the right length of backswing so that you can learn to control the distance of your shots rather than just produce distance in your shots.

Chuck Cook
Chuck Cook Golf Academy
Spicewood, TX 78669
Tel: 512-329-4000

Chuck Cook is instructor to such PGA Tour greats as Payne Stewart, Tom Kite, and Corey Pavin. He is listed as one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers and Golf Digest's #9 instructor in the world.

• Instructor Overview
• Videos
• Biography
• Philosophy
• Client List