Find ideal movement in your backswing to stay on line

Turn for the better: Find the ideal movements for an on line backswing 

Every backswing is a combination of the arms swinging up and the body turning round. The perfect blend of the two sees the club move back on an effective plane around the body, the hands finishing somewhere over the trail shoulder.

But if one of those motions outbalances the other – typically it’s armswing dominating body turn – you can run into problems with the club’s path and start hitting some wayward shots. Here’s a drill to help you find that ideal blend.

Fault: Offline shots caused by swinging across the ball
Fix: Wake up your core rotation

This tip comes from TG Top 50 Coach Matthew Blake, from Dyrham Park CC, Herts. Head pro in Herts since 2006 and authorised Ping clubfitter.

➤ Link club to body

Take your regular driver stance, but feed the handle up through your hands so the butt of the club pushesintoyourstomach.Take care not to alter the shaft angle as you do this.

➤ Keep in touch

Now swing the club back until the shaft is around horizontal. Ensure your core contributes to this rotation bykeepingthebuttincontactwith your shirt. Ideally the shaft will be parallel to your ball-target line.

➤ Carry on to the top

Of course the butt of the club will come away from your stomach. But as a final check, the shaft should again be around parallel to your ball-target line with the butt pointing away from the target.