Tips from Welsh golf professional; Will Davies, on how to perform the best swing.

Grip

Common mistakes for the lead hand (left hand for right hand golfer) is to hold the club too much in the palm. This causes a weak grip and subsequently can make squaring the club more difficult and can reduce wrist hinge in the swing.

With the lead hand hold the club in the base of the fingers, across from top finger to bottom. The thumb should now be sitting over on to the right centre of the grip (for right-handed golfer). The aim is to see 2/2.5 knuckles on left hand.

This should create a V going towards the trail shoulder.  With the trail hand now slide this over lead hand making sure we can’t see the lead thumb on the grip.

It is important to keep the hold of the club in the fingers too for this hand. The trail thumb should sit over to the left centre of the club now. Common ways to now hold include, overlap, interlock or ten finger grip.

Set up/ Posture:

Take a slight bend from the waist allow the chest to bend closer to the ball. Then slightly soften the knees. Your Weight should be distributed in the balls of your feet and 50/50 on either leg.

Feet –Shoulder width apart with them aiming parallel to the ball to target line. Add some foot flare to aid in rotation. Aim to have your toes pointing at 10 and 2 on a clock face.

Ball position – Off the inside of the lead heel for driver and slightly forward of centre for a mid-iron (7iron)

Shoulders – Also running parallel to the target line with the trail shoulder naturally sitting slightly lower than the lead one.

 

Swing:

Takeaway – A 45-degree wrist hinge with a slight upper body turn. This should sit the club parallel to the ground with the face sitting approximately 90-degrees and the butt of the club pointing towards the target line with hands along feet line/under the chin.

Backswing – From the takeaway position, we are looking to turn in a circle with the weight moving into the trail heel.

The knees should now change flex (lead knee gains slight flex but more importantly trail knee loses flex and straightens but does not lock out) aiding in hip turn, hips should be around 45 degrees rotated. Look to have the lead arm across the shoulder plane.

Downswing – The initial phase on the way down is a recenter phase to get the pressure back into lead side.

We start from the ground up in the sequencing. With a small hip bump to target, which helps get the weight back into the lead side. Followed by allowing the upper body to start unwinding to target.

Release – A key component of the swing is the release as this is the phase of squaring up the club face, pre and post impact.

The feel for this is as you are taking the club through, your trail hand should be ‘shaking hands with the target’.

This will aid in squaring the clubface up as it is coming into the impact position and ensure you have enough width and extension through the ball after contact.