Green Valley Golf Tips: Spin and direction: Not just for pros

You watch the pro do it easily, effortlessly, which is especially frustrating when he predicts where he’s going to hit it.

Generating the spin you want and creating the direction you want the ball to take seems like the most complicated part of a difficult game, but San Ignacio pro Mel Chaufty opens his student’s eyes through the first steps of learning by literally grabbing the club shaft as he swings, getting him to “feel the rotation.”

“Your hands are an extension of the club,” he explains, as he sets three balls on tees and asks the student to hit the first to the right, the second down the middle, and the third to the left.

After the first ball sails right, he freeze-frames the player’s hands to show him why — the right palm (right-handed golfer) is turned upward and to the right.

After the second ball, perfectly straight, he has the student inspect the same hand. This time, his palm is facing the target.

After the third ball, nicely drawn left, the student’s palm on the right hand is turned down and to the left.

“Your hands control what you do,” he continues, as he emphasizes the rotation of the palm of the hand from up to straight to down.

Taking out a tennis racquet, he asks the student to explain where the tennis ball will go and what kind of spin it will have if the palm of his hand is up and the racquet path goes from high to low (a slice with sidespin to the right), then follows up with low to high with the palm facing parallel to the racquet handle (topspin), similar to a “draw” in golf.

“The golf swing is really a rotational issue,” he says, as he places the club on the rope used for the practice range hitting area. “Do you see that there really is very little straight line in the golf swing?

“Most people think it’s straight like a pendulum swinging,” he demonstrates, bringing the club back along the rope, down and ahead, “but it’s really an arc.”

He brings the club slightly “inward” on the back swing, between his body and the rope, then along the rope for only a short distance (that little bit of straight line), finishing with the club moving “outward” to the right of the rope, then finally back across the rope once again.

The movement of the hands creates this rotation, allowing the student to see the resulting spin and direction, according to where the palm of the right hand (for a righty) is when he meets the ball.

Many players, Chaufty says, try to correct negative spin (usually a slice) by taking the club either outward, right above the rope, or vertically upward on the back swing, once again creating the “pendulum effect,” so he has the student swing the club like he’s trying to hit a baseball.

This shows his students that the golf club, just like the baseball bat, goes back with rotation of the hands and returns with rotation of the hands.

You don’t correct by trying to find another swing path!

The hitter that pulls the ball has hands that rotated too early, and the player who’s late in the rotation hits it to right field.

Baseball fans can easily see that the left-field foul ball (from a righty) creates spin to the left and the right-field foul ball displays the dreaded slice that so many golfers are trying to conquer.

“The most common problem is five to 11,” Chaufty explains, using a clock face to demonstrate the “outside-in” swing that afflicts most struggling players. “So, I teach from 7 to 1.”

He grabs a hula hoop, angles it toward the student’s feet and puts the club face on the bottom of the hoop, illustrating the arc and angle of the swing that disputes the belief that it should be a straight up-and-down pendulum path.

To explain further how a player can control direction, he simply stands directly in front of the student, asking him to point the club toward him.

Then moving to the right and left, he has the student examine the position of his hands each time, pointing out that the right hand under creates direction to the right and the right hand over creates direction to the left.

So no more thinking only pros can control spin and direction, because it’s in the hands, baby!

Mike Touzeau is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.

Know your pro

Mel Chaufty is a Class-A PGA golf professional with 35 years of teaching experience. The former Oregon Senior Player of the Year provides clarity and simplicity in his lessons, utilizing whatever’s handy to create a visual image for the student to take onto the course or practice range.

Chaufty instructs at San Ignacio Golf Club and can be reached for lessons at 248-6720.