Keeping The Game Simple

Since the Stone Age, sages have warned husbands time and again: Do not teach thy wife how to drive a car or play golf.

Divorce lawyers get rich off those who ignore such sound advice.

With that in mind - and other things as well - I have refused to train my wife in the ways of golf.

The years rolled by peacefully - until Susan recently uttered those distressing words with finality, “I want to learn how to golf.”

I climbed the proverbial mountain to seek guidance and, lo and behold, came a vision.

Let Patti Marquis be Susan’s guru. Let peace reign in the marriage.

And so it was.

Miracle of miracles, Susan struck balls straight down the range during that first lesson. Some were even airborne. A few, though, zipped between Patti’s feet.

But Susan learned Patti’s secret in that one hour. And it’s all simple. Here’s how it went:

The lesson begins with etiquette tips and basics: Don’t carry your bag through the clubhouse. Only 14 clubs are allowed in the bag. The longer the club, the longer the ball will go. The higher the club’s number, the higher the ball will go.

Patti also explains all the parts of the club, including the toe, heel and sweet spot on the club’s face.

She doesn’t overload the brain when teaching both men and women. She works on three fundamentals: The grip, or how to hang on to the club.

Hang your left arm at your side, Patti tells Susan. Wrap your left hand around the grip. The fatty pad below the thumb sits on top of the grip.

Then bring the club around in front of you and place your right hand on the grip. The right palm covers the left thumb. The pinky of the right hand sits on the forefinger of the left - called an overlapping grip. This grip tends to keep your hands more relaxed.

Both thumbs should be placed slightly off the top of the grip.

Combined with the index finger, the thumbs should form V-shapes that point toward the right shoulder.

The posture, or how to set up your body to hit the ball.

Tilt your spine forward at an angle, bend your knees slightly and hang your arms down with the club extending to the ball.

Feet should be shoulder-length apart, and the ball position is right in the middle of your feet for all irons.

The swing, or how to use your left hand more than your right to generate clubhead speed and get the ball airborne.

At the top of the back-swing, the club should rest on top of the left thumb. The wrists rotate through the ball on the down-swing. The weight of the club should be on that thumb at the end of the follow-through.

“Remember that elephant game when your kids were little?” Patti asks Susan. Pretend your arms are an elephant’s trunk and you’re swinging those arms back and forth. That’s a golf swing, she says.

She demonstrates the difference between a swing and a shove (where the body is a bit stiff and there’s little if any wrist rotation on the down-swing and follow-through).

The left hand powers a swing (while the right hand leads a shove). With the left hand leading the swing, it will pull you into the follow-through position - where you face the target. Your knees should almost touch at the end of the swing.

“The ball’s just going to get in the way of a swing,” Patti says. “Everything’s relaxed.”

In just minutes, Susan is swinging to Patti’s satisfaction.

“Relax your shoulders as much as you can,” Patti urges. “Really good swing.”

Susan is ready to hit balls. But using a 7-iron, she misses the ball on her first attempt.

Let your weight shift to the right a bit when you swing back, Patti says.

Susan’s second shot takes off straight down the range with good loft. “Ahhh,” Susan cries out. She’s catching on.

The next attempt is also a whiff.

Your right foot should be up on its toes at the end of the swing, Patti says. The key to getting a ball airborne is the weight shift and a relaxed grip, she adds.

Susan then shanks a ball between Patti’s feet.

“Let the left hand take over,” Patti reminds her.

“The less I try, the better I do,” Susan says after another good shot.

Patti offers another swing-versus-shove tip. “I’ve been teaching golf for 23 years, and I’ve never told anyone to keep their head down and I never will,” she says. When you swing, your head naturally stays in position. When you shove the ball, your head moves out of position.

Many adults decelerate through the ball because they’re shoving the club and aiming at the ball, not swinging through the ball and following through. “You want the club speeding up at impact,” Patti says.

“If you don’t think about the ball and you think about the swing, I noticed you can’t help but come in contact with the ball,” Susan says after the lesson.

Once you get past the fear of missing the ball and concentrate on the swing, everything clicks, she says.

Patti agrees. If you’re in the right posture and you feel the club on top of your left thumb at the top of the swing, the club has to find the ball on the down-swing, she says.

“It worked every time,” Susan says as we leave. “It was so fun.”