Area Sports

I want to write this article for those of you who are not as athletic or as strong or as coordinated as some of the top golfers out there, like Tiger Woods.

Much has been written about the need for a 90-degree shoulder turn on the backswing. Turn your shoulders twice as far as your hips. Create torque in your back muscles. Well, I know what most of you would say if you tried all that: "OUCH!"

Try this simple test of your flexibility. Grab the golf club in your right hand and swing it to the top of your backswing so the club is parallel to the ground. Now it will be easy to do this with the right hand only.

Now reach around with your left hand and try to grab the club. Ninety nine percent of us can't do it. So why try? All that will happen if you try that when attempting to hit a shot is your swing will become disjointed.

Simply bring your left arm up and back as far as is comfortable for you to do so and then pull your right arm and club down to meet your left. Voila! There is your own complete backswing.

Grab the club head with your left hand only and swing the shaft back and forth, making it whoosh past the spot where the ball would be. Accelerate through! Allow your body to move with your arms as fluidly as you can. Swing all the way to the finish and finish in balance. Eventually try to hold the grip in your left hand and swing the club back and forth and accelerate past the ball and through to the finish.



Rules Teaser:

In both match and stroke play a player accidentally touches his ball, there is a one stroke penalty. True or false?



Answer to last column's teaser:

If a player is standing close enough to the flag stick so he can touch it, is he deemed to be holding the flagstick? Yes.



John Lucas is the professional at Sky Ridge Golf Course and can be reached at john98382@olypen.com.