Welcome to Greg Norman's golf instructional video entitled,
Complete golfer. Part one focuses on the fundamentals of the long game. When I was 16 years old I didn't
know golf club from a hockey park. That's because back in those days I was a typical Aussie kid. I
loved the rugged outdoor sports. In 18 months I went from the 27 handicapper to scratch. In two
years I turned professional golfer. That's because I had the desire.
I'm not saying I can get you the desire to play the game,
but I can show you the basics and fundamentals of it and that'll lead to two things. The improvement
of your game and also the enjoyment. And let me tell you that's one thing I do most in golf is
enjoy it. Hi. What this video is all about is the basics and fundamentals of the game and to me I
would never have achieved what I have in the game without knowing them. To me the game of golf is
fairly simple. If you stick to your basics, stick to your fundamentals and feel the game yourself,
and that is a key word yourself, you're gonna learn a lot. So let's go to the practice team
right now. I'm gonna show you my basics, show you my fundamentals and I'm gonna let you put
them in practice on the practice team. So come on let's go. The grip, the most important
part to get the natural feel and ready to play the game. Without the correct grip you're not gonna
have the liaison between your body and the golf club. Now there are many different ways of doing
it and most of it is basically up to you. You got to keep it the most natural and simple way. Let
me show you a few tips that I learnt myself going through the hard ways of feeling the game out.
Now let's just take our golf club out of our hand for example. Stand there, arms hanging down to
side. You notice that the back of your left hand is pointing to your target. The palm of your right
hand is also pointing to the target. So what we're trying to do now is just bend over and let our
arms hang. Without a golf club in your hand, just put your two hands together and basically you'll
see that the back of your left hand and the palm of your right hand are working together facing
towards the target which is straight down the line. Now there are two reasons why we do this.
The main reason is when you grip the most natural way, your club face is going to return square to
the target. If you have a strong grip which we'll get into later on which is this grip where you see
three or four knuckles where the back of your palm is to the sky and the palm of your right hand is
also to the sky, you're going to create a motion with the club face that will hook at impact and
that will create a right to left shot which we really don't want. And the other way if you have
a weak grip which is a palm to the ground of both hands of the right hand and the left hand, you're
going to find you're going to have an open club face. The reason why that happens is always your
natural reaction of your body, your wrist joints, your shoulder joints, your forearms, your elbows
are always going to return to your most natural position which is this way. As we pointed out when
you let your arms hang, your palms going to hang perpendicular to your shot and that's where they're
going to return at impact and that's the most crucial part. If you can retain the most natural
and relaxed feeling of the club face coming into the ball, you're going to retain a nice smooth
motion and consistent motion through your grip. Okay now you've got that in mind, let me go on to
something else. When you stand there, again let your arms hang, we're going to put the club through
the base of our fingers. Now what I call the base is where your fingers join your palm. You can
practice this at home by just putting your forefinger of your right hand into your left hand and you
notice I'm putting my first finger right across the base of my fingers where they join the palms.
Now when I close that up you can see again I'm maintaining what I said originally, keep the palms
as close to perpendicular to your shot. Okay go to your right hand, the same deal, put your first
finger your left hand in your palm right across where your fingers join your palm, close it up
and you notice the palm again points to the target. When we put our golf club in our grip in our hand
you'll notice that we put it this way, same principle, same way as you were practicing with
your forefinger of both fingers and just close it up. Now when you get to the grip we can also
experiment another way. When you close the palm of your first finger, push your thumb down, you
notice there's a nice little ridge that's formed in your palm. What we're going to do is we're just
going to put our left thumb into there. Again Mother Nature's made the perfect hands for us to play the
game of golf so why not use it. Push your palm again, push your thumb of your right hand down,
it will create that groove and then put your thumb into that groove. So when you put it on the golf
club all that does is again puts it there nice and comfortable and now when we're going to do that
we're going to have our hands working as close together. If you get your hands working together
or working as a unit or one unit you're going to have simplicity and that's what we need in the
golf game. We don't need our hands fighting each other. We don't need our left hand over here and
our right hand over here which creates all sorts of problems with their alignment now way our arms
hang at address. If we have one hand fighting the other you're going to get different type of motion
and impact. So what we're trying to do is get our hands to work as one unit as I mentioned before
and this is how we're going to do it. Get the hands close okay. Now the pressure points let's talk about
that. The first three top three fingers of your top hand which are these ones here when you get to the
top of the swing they're the they're the fingers that are going to hold on. Now if you notice if I
let go of my little finger right it's going to go the club is going to drop. So when that club drops
I lose all the pressure in my forearm which loses all the pressure down the back of my shoulder and
down my left side. If I keep that pressure in those three fingers the club doesn't want to go down
this way because I've got strength here in my forearm. A good way of practicing that or feeling
it is just stand there hold the golf club parallel to the ground and just hold it with your three
fingers with your palm pointing to your target again if you go straight down here just lift it
up move around here and you'll see these are the pressure points. Now underneath my left forearm or my
top arm I'm going to feel where the pressure is right there. That is the crucial part. Now go to
the right hand what we've got to do now the same principle take your normal grip take your left
hand off the club. Now with your palm there you'll notice that the middle two fingers are going to be
our pressure points. Do the same routine lift the club up parallel to the ground you notice the palm
of your right hand is still basically pointing to the direction where we want the ball to go and you'll
notice this time instead of the pressure being under your forearm of your right hand the pressure
feels like it's on top. Now this is very important because you notice all of a sudden you've got
different muscle tensions at for each arm depending on your grip. Now if your grip doesn't work
together obviously these different muscles are going to fight against each other that's why we
want trying to get these things consistent and as natural as possible. Okay golf is a game of
opposites why don't we think the more pressure I get under the softer I'm going to grip the golf
club caress the golf club just feel as though you just got all the just milking the golf club
you know just get your fingers on there and there's no pressure in there you just milk it milk it you
see all the great players in the world they just don't stand there dead stock still with no motion
in their fingers because if you do that the more pressure more long you stand there the tighter and
tighter more tension you get. All the players they milk a little bit they waggle their club their
grips always moving just a little bit and all they're doing there is releasing the tension. Now
the tension in your grip without the pressure just normal day practice just have enough pressure in
there where if someone came along gave it a good quick jerk with the golf club and we'll show you
right here if someone came along just jerked it out it'll come out okay now the reason why we do
that is it as you take the golf club back you're going to find the pressure is going to naturally
build up and the further you go back the more pressure is going to be generated in your fingers
because obviously there's body motion whether you go to throw a golf ball or throw any ball and
prepare to catch anything you're going to be developing resistance muscles are getting ready
to do that same with the golf swing when you as I say when you take it back the more pressure is
going to get in there and the further you go back the more pressure is going to get in the top as I
said the top three fingers right here and that's where you've got to control your golf club control
it at the top with these three fingers as I said let go of them the club's gonna do this the backs
gonna go like this and we're gonna get that shot no good we don't want that that's why our pressure
at the start of the golf swing if we start with the right pressure at the right time we can develop
all the way back here get to the top of that swing they feel fine now we're going to go to the grip
itself there's three or four different types of grips you can use you can use the Varden grip you
can use the overlap grip you can use a ten finger grip and I myself sort of didn't like any of those
and this is what you can do experiment for yourself find out what feels most comfortable for you if
you've got short fat fingers like a Nicholas does and a lot of players out there they do the
interlocking grip if you've got long fingers slender fingers women for example fingernails you
don't want to stick them into each other right you do the overlap grip which is this or if you
don't like any of those you go to the ten finger grip which is taking all the fingers I'm putting
it on the golf club just like gripping a baseball I guess except gripping a baseball bat the left
hand the thumb goes over the side it doesn't stay on top a ten finger grip a lot of good players
have used that it's just like that all the ten fingers on the golf club if you feel comfortable
doing that go ahead and do it but remember the basics remember the natural progression of your
hands at the dress position through your backswing I myself came up with something that I because I
didn't like either one of them I don't have short fat fingers I don't have long skinny fingers so
what I did was one day I just experimented I put my hands together like this hanging down and all
I do is put my hands together like that put my little finger of my right hand between the first
finger of my left first and second finger of my left so it just sits in there like that all right
so all I do then is when I close it up these two fingers don't sit on the grip at all they're not
there and not another reason why I did that was if I do have my fingers like this my two hands come
very close together and the closer you get them together the easier it is to work as a one now if
you notice my thumb on my left hand is not all the way down the shaft it's as far up the shaft as I
can get it now here's a little practice routine you can do to feel that and this is one of the
reasons why I went to my grip is the more I move my thumb up the shaft the more pressure you can
feel these fingers generating between the grip and your hand and the more pressure you feel in
your forearm now I'm not going to pull it up so much where I'm choking myself and I have to release
it I'm just pulling it up now do the opposite push your thumb down the shaft and you see what
happens your forearm wants to lift up and the more it lifts up the more it wants to separate your
palm from your grip so move your thumb up the shaft to get that nice consistent firm feeling in
your left hand and then all I did was lifted my little my first finger up on my left hand put my
little finger in there and I could get my right hand as close as I could to my left and that is
the reason why I went to my I don't know what you want to call it in a mesh I don't know I did it
myself never saw anybody else to do it I did it by feel it felt comfortable to me and that's what
you've got to do with your golf grip so whichever way you feel get your grip right go out and enjoy
your game
now that we've got the grip all squared away let's talk about alignment which is the next step in the
game of golf now what is proper alignment proper alignment is trying to get your body square to the
target the best you can you see a lot of people stand with the closed stance Bobby Locke comes
straight to my mind very successful golfer other people stand with a very open stance Lee Trevino
comes straight to my mind alignment basically is trying to keep your body parallel to where you
want the ball to go relate yourself to a railway line just think you're standing over here addressing
the ball and as you look down the target if you look down railway lines at the top they seem like
they come to an imaginary point somewhere down there that's what you got to try and put in your
mind with your alignment when you look down at your target towards the flag visualize two parallel
lines one where the ball is situated one way your stance is situated if you get yourself correctly
aligned to parallel lines you're going to focus on an imaginary point which is the flag and you're
going to get your body in sync now that is correct alignment is getting square or as square as
possible as you can now another way you got to think about it it feels very unnatural for me from
this position turn my head and talk to you the most natural way for me to do it is stand up and
face you directly why not incorporate this into your golf game when you get prepared to hit your
shot why not just turn around put your clubface towards the target remember clubface first because
that's the thing we want to hit the ball we want a square clubface so we got to get that square and
align to the target straight away so we put our clubface down get it aligned to the flag and then
stand with a very open body right so you want to stand there looking at your target not looking
this way trying to get yourself square from this position because your eyes tell you how your body's
going to get square so let your eyes align your body to the target just keep staring at the target
okay the routine that I always go through clubface down get it nice and square to the target and when
I look down I'm just taking a quick scan across my body to make sure my feet is fairly square to the
shot I want to play my hips square to the shot I want to play and once my hips are there my
shoulders are going to be in the same position get that nice square feeling straight as a target put
that in your mind and from there we can go ahead and hit it
our next step in understanding the basics and the fundamentals of the game is the ball position I've
read in many magazines right through right from when I was starting to play the game that if you
play a five iron you play in this position if you play a six iron you move it back in your stance
seven iron back a little bit more eight iron so you end up with a pitching wedge and you've moved
the ball back maybe two inches in your stance to get to the middle you know I don't really agree with
that the idea of the game is to keep it simple to keep the basics simple keep it natural understand
the game feel it repetition repetition understand which your five iron goes a certain distance your
seven iron goes a certain distance that's why we have lofts on the golf club utilize the loft if
you move the ball back in your stance with a five iron and then move it back a little more with a
seven iron for example let's say here's our five iron position right here if we move it back if we
go to an eight iron move it back an inch or whatever they tell you to do you're doing a number of
things you're changing the loft on the golf club you're changing your center of gravity you're
changing your arc of your swing the more you have a back in this stance the steeper and the more
descending the blow the club face on the ball and there's a sharp you come down on it obviously the
less loft you're gonna take your club face remember how we got our alignment club face there and
then put your left foot just move it a little bit and you'll find that as you look down your ball
is going to be in the same relative area maybe from your left heel to an inch and a half into
your stance okay now there's one little point we can do to check off our ball position and
maintain the same place time and time again just as I'm before I take my club head away from the
ball I take one little quick look now what I do is I look when I look down basically out of my
right eye this part of my left hand that where the thumb meets the hand itself covers my instep on
my left foot now if I maintain this every time with a five iron or a seven iron or a driver I
know my ball position is in the same place every time and not only that I know I'm going to have
a nice continuation from my left shoulder down to the club head in a square line so
with ball position maintain it in the same position all the time for every full shot
balance and posture this is what I call my comfort zone of the basic fundamentals you know
everybody out there has got different ways of there's physical structures where they're tall
where they're short where they're fat whether they're thin weak or strong but if we can get
our balance our posture over the ball it's going to make things so much easier that's why I call
it the comfort zone you people out there watching and trying to learn this is going to be a big
help for you because it's a very very very important part of the basic fundamental side of the game
now first of all we don't really need a golf club we're going to do this just by feel by just by
getting up to the ball visualizing it and feeling it ourselves first of all when you stand there and
talk to somebody you don't stand there with your feet close together you don't stand there with your
legs spread wide apart you stand there where you feel comfortable so therefore we just look at it
standing here naturally my stance is maybe a little too narrow for the golf swing but I'm
comfortable I could really go up there and hit the golf ball right now from this position right
but now what we've got to do is look at our stance and utilize this and break it down to see whether
we can rotate our body to the full extent to get our extension and then come down and keep our
balance right so now our stance goes into another word called balance we have to get our stance
comfortable but also the same time get it to where a point is where the balance of the swing is going
to be even and fluid right throughout the whole swing so therefore I'll just widen my stance a
little bit now I didn't go and widen it by three or four inches I only spread my feet apart by maybe
an inch so from here I've got a nice perfect weight distribution I've got 50% on my right foot and I
got 50% on my left foot so what I do now is I'm feeling we're just talking about the stance now
nothing else but I got the feeling of all my weight is running down the inside part of my legs and the
weight should be coming out through the instep of your left foot and through the instep of your right
foot now what this does is it anchors your swing through the whole sequence right now we got that
feeling now you do not keep 50 50 like 50% of your weight on the front of your feet or 50% of weight
on your back your feet you must have a little bit of your weight on your heels a little more weight
on your heels maybe it could be 65% of your weight on your heels maybe even 70% depending on how tall
you are now the reason why we do this is one of the biggest faults in the game and especially you
people sitting out there maybe not the pros but people sitting in the lounge room or any play once
every six months or once every three weeks you're trying to improve you lean too much into the ball
when you lean into the ball you're gonna lose your balance coming down right again the word
balance we don't want to lean into the ball so if you put your weight back on your heels maybe 65%
what you're doing is you can get your rump down to the ground how many times we've gone to a
friend's place had a few beers or whatever we do have a few cocktails and we sit down and talk at
the bar and you squat on the edge of a bar still you don't sit all the way back but you just lean
back that is a feeling you got to have now the reason another reason why I do this when I come
down from my downswing I want to keep my rock to the ground I want to keep my center of gravity
close to the ground the closer I can keep it to the ground the more of a nice sweeping motion I can
get through there now what we do is with that posture there we think about our lower part of the
body we've got that nice and comfortable now we want to get the top part of the body just think
of it this way just stand up with there with your straight back and pretend somebody's gonna
pitch a ball at you right you want to get down there and you want to brace yourself a little bit
you're just gonna arch a little bit you're gonna wait for the impact when that impact comes you're
not gonna be way down here and you're not gonna be leaning back you're just gonna be ready for it so
okay from that position there just let your arms hang all right you're leaning enough forward enough
where you're not too far forward you're gonna fall on your face and you're not too far back where
you're gonna fall on your back you're just leaning there ready to catch something or ready to stop
something coming at you and your arms gonna hang right down there nice and comfortable all right
from there we just pick up the golf club and just let it drop into our left hand or you can let it
drop in the right you notice I'm not going pushing my hands forward to take the golf club or bringing
my hands back to take the golf club all I'm doing is taking the golf club to my hand let it fall
there take my grip with my right hand and from this position I'm relaxed very relaxed I've got
no tension in my grip I've got no tension in my forearms I'm that there's no tension in my arms
I have none of my shoulder none in the my back of my neck and none down my back or down my spine you
notice another important factor from the posture and balance is that my body is slightly behind the
ball my center of gravity is about here in relation to the ball not right on top of it if my center of
gravity was right on top of that have to be right here I'd have to move the ball back on my stance
there so that's that's an important part because when you come into your downswing you got to get
in behind the ball you'd you your arcaeus swings coming in behind there little inside out motion
and that's where your center of gravity pays a big part so if you posture and your balance is not
right your downswing is going to be very difficult to get that center of gravity so you'll probably
feel as though your right shoulder may be a little bit lower than your left it should be just falling
in there right show a little lower your left right relaxed position and from there we can go ahead
and hit it
one of most crucial parts of the golf swing and probably if not the most crucial part is
your first 18 inches in your takeaway if you don't generate the right clubhead motion away
from the golf ball we're going to be in big trouble and the reason why we're going to be
a big trouble is if we take the club head away on the outside of the line we're going to get in the
wrong position at the top that's changing our playing during our downswing if we get it too
far inside the line a we're going to get into a bad position inside here we've got nowhere to go
except over the top so to me the first 18 inches is very important and to show you a little bit I
have my little playing partner here to demonstrate come on son here you go all right let me take a
nice soft gentle grip and we take him around the waist I'm not squeezing him too tight right smile
yeah and we take him back and you notice when I take him back I'm taking back one piece I'm not
picking him up like this and I'm pulling him around on the inside little Gregory goes straight
back nice and relaxed and the whole body moves away there you go son thank you go to mommy oh
you want to stay with daddy that's okay so what we saw then was nice relaxed motion in the takeaway
the body went away from the ball all in one piece you notice from there to here one piece so that's
where we're going to get the first 18 inches and you also notice when you take the club head straight
back I have no wrist break if I take my wrist cock too early you notice my club head is coming
up right and that's obviously going to do one thing and the most crucial thing you're going to
lose club head speed because you're going to lose your arc the quicker you pick it up with wrist
break the less club head speed you're going to get and obviously the shorter you hit it vice versa
if I take the book club head back with my right hand what happens is the club head comes way too
far and on the side of the line and you notice what happens to my left wrist my left wrist starts to
fold under and what happens when it falls under is we get a closed club face in the first 18 inches
vice versa if we take it away with our left hand our left hand will have a tendency of pushing the
club away from the ball up and out and that's going to create a loop if you watch my left hand
go up here the club heads going outside the line and when you get up here you've only got one way
to go and that's inside when you come back inside the line you're coming into this position and you
leave it hit a straight block or big pull hook so take our grip without a golf club and you can
practice in front of the mirror by pushing your left elbow away from the target if you push your
left elbow away you see what happens I'm not thinking about my hands or my wrists or my shoulders
or my legs or anything push your left elbow away you see what happens to your shoulders your
shoulders start to move and you it's almost impossible to miss that first 18 inches you
can't pick the club up you can't take it on the outside of the line you won't pull it on the inside
of the line because your elbow is going straight back you're eliminating a lot of variables you're
eliminating your wrist you're eliminating your your leg motion that can sometimes start too early
for a lot of players think of your left elbow the left elbow away from the target first 18 inches
and then everything else goes together you get to a point where your shoulders turn your hips
must turn with your shoulders simple little thing left elbow away from the target during
your takeaway for the first 18 inches bang straight down the line
backswing is really the extension of the takeaway remember we talked about the first
18 inches which is a very crucial part of the game well the backswing is a continuation of
that if you start off with the correct address position with the ball position in the right
place and you push your left elbow away from the target for that first 18 inches just let it keep
going let it keep going just keep pushing that elbow back back back and all of a sudden your
body's going to rotate you're going to rotate around the base of your spine it is the only
point really in the whole golf swing of your body that doesn't move that point should stay in the
same place as I come down to the downswing go through it's staying in the same place it really
doesn't move like the rest of your body it stays basically in the same position so when we take our
backswing we're trying to think about that we're trying to swing around the base of our spine so
you take it away with your left elbow you go back back back turn your body around and all of a sudden
you get to a point where everything wants to rotate and that rotation is going to be turning
around the base of your spine you get to the top of your swing I haven't done anything I haven't
cocked my wrist I haven't set them too early haven't set them too late because in your backswing you
can't set them too late let me show you down the line here as you take the club away you keep going
back back back something's going to give and sooner or later your wrists are going to release
and they're going to cock automatically this business about doing an early cock doesn't really
work well because what happens if you start getting back here set your wrist early you have
eliminated your extension of your golf swing and your extension in your backswing is what generates
your power so forget early cock risk right just take the club head away shoulders turning around
your body and they're going to automatically cock when you get to the top now a good little
point you want to think about and again it's something I do quite a lot on the golf course is
if I want to hit the ball that little bit extra further generate that little more club head speed
what I do and I call it the RPB shot which is right pocket back all you do is just let your
arms hang and as you stand there just push your right hip away okay right hip back see you notice
how my hips are turning automatically I'm getting full rotation around the base of my spine and the
lower part of my back is already turning even my top part is very difficult to push them back without
getting some sort of shoulder movement so just get your right pocket back RPB stand there no club in
your hand push that back now one thing you mustn't do is when you do that is straighten your right knee
if your right knee stiffens up you're going to be in big trouble keep the flex in your knees all the
way through your backswing if that knee flex stays the same you're going to be in business.
Your downswing starts by the leadership of your legs and that is very crucial because if you get
your leg drive going in the right direction we're going to create power and we're going to create
direction and that is the key to driving golf a lot of people say you pop for dough and drive for
show unless you get the ball in play you're not going to be able to pop because you're either
going to lose it in the water or the trees or whatever so we've got to get the downswing right
to get the ball going in the correct direction so when you get to the top of your swing your first
motion is drive with the right knee I'm going to be having 95% of the weight on my right side now
this is very important because on your downswing you've got to get that 95% of the weight from your
right side to your left side this is where we're going to generate most of our power obviously the
weight transference and pulling that weight across and getting it onto your left side is going to
pull the club down very quickly the quicker you get the club coming down obviously the more clubhead
speed you generate the further the ball is going to go so just think on your way back on your backswing
get that weight onto your right side we talked about that with the RPB so on your downswing now
as I said the leadership of your right knee spring that down now you're getting that weight turned
onto your left side so just before impact now I've got 95% of the weight on my left side so the
quicker you get that weight from one side to the other the further you're going to hit it so all
you do is just get there think of your target when we talked about our alignment think of your target
you got that in your mind when you're on the tee for example hitting a driver pick out an object
in the distance like a tree or a house or a cloud if the wind's not blowing too fast and just pick
that out put that in your mind get into your position get your nice smooth rhythm 50-50 balance
at a dress position and just think a nice fluid motion and we get the ball in play and now we
can have a shot at making a birdie. Well congratulations to you you got your tee shot perfect in the middle
of the fairway what do you do now approach a very key part of the game we've got to get the ball
in play and we're going to get it in play by hitting the green every time you're walking down
the fairway the last 30 or 40 yards before you get to the shot take in the elements take in the way
the green situated take in where the flag situated have a look at the terrain understand the terrain
where not to miss the shot if the flag is all the troubles at the back of the green and there's a
little bit of leeway in front also play to your bailout position don't try and do anything that's
unnatural to you play within yourself so right here now we've got a nice smooth for my shot it's
a nice smooth eight iron shot and that's the way I'm going to do it I'm gonna take a nice full swing
and control keep control of your goal swing I'm not gonna try and force it they're gonna keep the
ball in play that's exactly what I want you to do feel your way now that I've hit the eight iron
I'd like to hit a two iron let me just get the two iron I want to show you one significance
difference not only is the loft difference and the lie different but look at the length we've
got nearly four inches difference to play with now that four inches is gonna make a big different
play in our swing our control of our swing wants to be the same the full swing wants to be the same
and that's where this is going to get a little bit more awkward for you because of the longer the
club the more distance between you and the club head or you and the ball the more distance there
is the greater club head speed now this is where the distance comes into effect an eight iron has
obviously got a lot more loft than the two iron so therefore if you can control your swing maintain
the same rhythm the same tempo throughout your whole swing your two iron shot should be the same
as your eight iron shot your golf swing is going to be the same again a little bit of a change ball
position is going to be exactly the same but the width of your stance is going to be a little bit
wider and the why why we have to widen our stance a little bit is to compensate for that extra length
the longer the club the more you have to balance yourself the shorter the club the more we can
control it we don't have to overpower it as much so with the two iron ball position the same as the
eight iron but just move your right foot maybe an inch further away and you'll find your balance is
going to be so much easier and remember don't try with the longer irons to get them airborne the
loft of the golf club is going to do that for you just go ahead and swing it don't be scared of it
the less loft on the club is just as easy to get it airborne as there's an eight iron so just take
your normal address position look down your line nice full firm swing one other final piece of
advice when you're walking to your ball and you're summarizing the situation always trust your first
impressions or your first instinct on what club to hit your eyes will tell you the distance so
trust it now I'm going to go ahead and make that birdie
okay now we come to the interesting part about the game of golf the art of maneuvering the golf
ball remember if you hook the ball into the trees you can hook it out if you slice it in the trees
you can slice it out as well so no matter where you are on the golf course you can get yourself
out of trouble just by learning the art of maneuvering the golf ball now to maneuver the
golf ball you have to be able to spin it now to spin it what we're going to do here is demonstrate
with the basketball two different colors to show you the spin on the left to right shot or right
to left shot so let's talk about the spin you see this vertical line right here that's on an imaginary
plane from your seat in your lounge room through your television set straight down to the flag
right so there's that imaginary line running down there right through there now we just imagine
there's a tree right in front of us 30 40 feet away and we have to hook the ball around the tree
what do we got to do we got to impart a right to left spin on it right to left this motion right
so we're gonna have to get the ball turning now remember the game of golf is a game of opposites
to get the ball to go left we got to hit it right to get that spin vice versa to get the ball go
right we've got to hit it left so imagine here's the palm of my hand golf club whatever golf club
it is the imaginary line again straight through the vertical line on this basketball that my palm
of my hand is a golf club coming through the inside of the line keep that imaginary line in
your mind now the palm of my hands coming through the inside the line is going to strike the basketball
or the golf ball this position here and it's going to spin it this way right to left spin it's going
to hit it the ball is going to go out to the right and hook back with the spin okay now that's the
simplest way you can relate hand-eye coordination to the golf club on the ball to hook it obviously
now it's the opposite for a slice vertical line imaginary plane through the ball but this time
instead of coming on the inside of the line we want to come from the outside across the ball so
our plane about golf club is coming down this way across the plane of your imaginary plane strike
the ball here and it's going to impart a left or right spin this way I think that's a very simple
thing for you to think of if you hit it in the trees because now you're going to be able to relate
the spin of the ball to the direction so good luck with your slices and hooks now what I'm
going to do now is let's forget about this basketball I'm going to go show you the real thing
one thing we've got to talk about now is if you're going to hit a left or right shot or right to left
shot there's going to be a lot of variations in yardages now we're going to get into the technical
side of it and I'm going to try and keep this as simple as possible for you you know a lot of people
tell you well if you're going to hook the ball you got to change your grip you know now change
your grip means to get it stronger remember the grip sequence get your left hand pointing to the
sky you're going to hook it because the club face is going to close well I don't necessarily agree
with this remember again I use the word repetition that's what we want to keep repetition the same
golf swing for every shot but let the club face do the work that's what I like to do I will so
what I do is I maintain my same grip no for whatever shot I want you see the tree here I
want to hook it around this tree the flag is almost well just right of the tree trunk there
so what I'm going to do now watch closely and try and understand this because it's so simple
it's ridiculous put your club face where you want the ball to finish so the club face is going to
be on the target the flag so see my club face down there it's lined up to the flag now without
changing or doing anything to my grip or my stance I'm going to take my normal grip but this time I'm
going to aim my body at the right hand chimney up there pick out a point to aim at with your body
because you want to get yourself around the object you're trying to get away from so this time I'm
going to think of the chimney so my club face is going to remain where I want the ball to finish
I want my body to take the club face around the object that I'm trying to get around so all I do
now is look at the chimney so now if you notice my club face has stayed the same my body is aiming
at the chimney now can you understand what's going to happen I haven't changed a thing with my grip
my stance or my swing the club face is going to impart all the right to left spin on it on the
ball that I want obviously the more you want to hook it the more you tow it in unless I want to
hook it the straighter you keep your club face very simple we don't want to confuse the game of
golf the game of golf is very confusing as it is because there's so many different parts that we've
got to understand so if we can keep this out of maneuvering the golf ball down to a simple form
you're going to get yourself out of trouble a lot easier so I'm going to go through the routine
again remember think of the object you want to go around how much hook do you want to put on the
ball okay we need to put about 45 50 feet of hook on this shot put the golf club where you want the
ball to finish your club faces aiming at that point these are be the flag I want my body to aim
around the trouble which is a treat so I aim at the chimney from there I take my normal grip normal
stance and without changing anything I'm going to go ahead and hit it and you'll see what happens
the ball will hook around the object very simple procedure now let me touch on something just a
little bit before we leave the hook shot is if you're going to hook the ball remember you're
going to make the ball go further because your club face is getting loft taken off it the more
you tow it in the less loft you have on the golf club so let's say this shot here was about 145
yards well you know that's normally an 8 iron office regular shot so what I've done is I'll
take a 9 iron or even a pitching wedge because it's going to tow in it's going to make the ball go
further keep that in your mind that's the only thing you want to think about or the equation you're
trying to work out the relationship between the closed clubface and the distance to the ball the
other point don't try and land the ball near the flag let it land short because it's going to have
a topspin roll and it's going to roll a little bit further so trying to the outer move maneuvering
the ball from right to left is basically easy don't change anything in your golf game just change
your club face okay we've had our hook shot we had to get the ball around the tree from right to
left now we've got to talk about getting the ball left to right around the tree same principle
think of the basketball the spinning motion of the basketball going from left to right that's the
idea what we've got to get on the golf ball we've got to spin the golf ball left to right to get it
to go around our object now from your living room right there imagine right over the golf ball that
imaginary plane once again to impart that left to right spin on it I have to bring the golf club
across that plane coming this way to put the left to right spin so that's what we're going to do now
coming across the line is going to seem like we're really cutting it but an actual fact we're not
remember our body is aiming there so all we're going to do is open the club face up remember
the hook shot we closed it the slice shot we're going to open it up so here we go slice shot take
one less club maybe even two less clubs go back to the hook shot remember for a hundred and forty
five yard shot I went down to a nine iron sometimes even a pitching wedge well for the same length
shot this time I've gone to a five iron the reason here's my normal address position right here the
more I open the club the more loft I put on it obviously the more loft I put on it the less
distance it's going to go point number two with this left the right shot you're going to generate
more backspin because the club head is coming more across the ball and a more abruptly down on top
of it creating a little bit more backspin therefore we're not going to get the run we got with the
hook shot we're going to get that ball to land and spin to the right it's not going to go forward
it's going to basically stay the same distance to where it lands so remember go to a lot more
long a longer club the more you open it up the more loft you put on it the more loft you put on
it the less distance okay now all we do is the same principle remember we never changed our grip
or our swing or anything for the hook shot same deal with the slice we set the target where we
want the ball to finish on the flag down there don't take my eyes off it I'm not moving the
clubface keeping it there I'm going to go down the shaft a little bit right now because I feel
a fraction uncomfortable being a full-length five iron for a hundred and forty five yard shot so I'm
going to go down my shaft because that's only my personal comfort it might not work for you so you
whatever you feel comfortable with do it get that cup face online with where you want the ball to
finish now this is going to take us around this big pine tree and onto the green execute your
same swing same motion nice fluid full swing and don't think about anything else but rhythm and
we got ourselves out of trouble once again another factor about the art of maneuvering the golf ball
is the low shot let's say we're in a situation where we can't go around the tree we can't go
left we can't go right we can't go over but we do have a little bit of an opening underneath
anytime you're in the trees and all the other variables have been eliminated like the hook
shot the low shot the high shot just take a look in the trees now remember trees are 60 70 percent
air so just look for gaps look for a little hole somewhere down low underneath the tree and punch
the poke punch the ball below the tree keep it low very very simple procedure to go through that
again we're going to talk about the art of keeping the ball low now to keep the ball low we just make
a few minor changes to our ball position we're not going to go and get all technical about this now
we just want to keep the ball low first of all we want to have a look how low the tree is how far
we've got to hit the ball and whether there's trouble in front of the green if there's trouble
in front of the green obviously we can't really run the ball onto the green we have to sort of
play away from it just chip it out onto the edge of the fairway or in the middle of the fairway
now remember how I always said ball position same place for a full shot well we've got a
DBA from that right now to keep the ball a little bit low we're going to move it back in our stance
just a little bit you notice I moved my left foot I didn't move my ball body up here like this I
took my normal stance and just move my left foot a little closer to the target okay depending on
the length of the shot depends on how long the backswing you take this shot here just requires
a nice sort of three-quarter swing firm take the club back three quarters up to about here stop and
then come down now when you're coming down because of the ball positions a little further back in your
stance that means your center of gravity is forward with your center of gravity forward your body weight
is going to be a little bit like 60% on your left foot because we don't have our center of gravity
behind the ball or we'll elevate it too quickly so what we do is move our center of gravity ahead
of the ball again ball back in my stance a little bit wait a little bit on my left side now forget
about the trouble all you got to do is think about the target if you start thinking about the limbs
hanging down that's going to be your last thought in your mind the last thought in your mind is
what's going to happen to the ball you're probably going to hit the limb or the tree left or the tree
right think of the flag the last thought in your mind the ball is going to go towards the flag take
our ball position we're looking at the flag club face address straight on our posture is good our
balance is good we've got a little bit of weight on our left side now all we're going to do is take
that three-quarter swing it's very simple don't think of the trouble think of the end result and
that's the flag and you'll get it out every time all right we've done our low shot now all of a
sudden we've got to play the high shot tricky situation no option except to go over trees too
low can't punch it you can't go around it because there's other trees as well so we have to go over
very simple procedure remember in the low shot we're talking about the center of gravity in your
weight distribution well it's just the opposite for the high shot we're gonna instead of a punch
shot which was this way leaning forward the high shot we have to get the center of gravity behind
the ball once we're behind the ball the club face can do its own work then it's going to follow its
natural arc and that start coming up as it meets the ball the club face is coming up you're going
to get a lot of elevation right so the way we got to go about this very simple very basic ball
position just a little further forward in your stance remember normal stance we had it off our
left heel this time we're going to move it off our instep you're only going to move it maybe a
three-quarters of an inch to an inch don't move it anymore because then you're going to start hitting
the ball in the middle on the way up and that means it's going to go low and that's what we
don't want get the ball just three-quarters of an inch up on your stance that'll bring your center
of gravity back to about here it's going to move it back maybe two or three inches the higher you
want to hit it the more you get your center of gravity back for example if I want to hit an extremely
high shot with an iron I'm going to get my weight back here on my right heel going to get my rump
down lower to my right side that'll create my swing to be even a more exaggerated upswing motion
the lower you get your right rump and the weight on the rear heel of your of your right foot the
higher you're going to hit the shot so just remember ball a little further forward in your stance get
your nice even balance your center of gravity is going to move back while your center of gravity is
back just think of height the higher you want to hit it the more you do this just bring your weight
down on your right heel and on your right rump then you just go ahead and execute a nice smooth
full swing no abbreviated backswing like the the low shot we're hitting no abbreviated follow-through
it's got to be a full swing because you want the club head to pick the ball up and take it over the
tree one final thing look at the top of the tree you see that brown dead branch on top of the tree
that's going to be my last visual point before I look down to the ball so we look up see that
spot that's my target it's a little bit further left of the flag which is good because it's going
to compensate because our center of gravity is a little back behind the ball we're going to have a
tendency to pull the ball just a fraction which is okay so my brown spot is my last visual spot
that I look at concentrate on the ball forget about everything else and go ahead and hit
what notice one thing no divot because we weren't hitting down on the ball we were sweeping the
ball off the surface the club face was on the way up at impact if you take a divot you're not going
to hit it high enough well here's a situation that is very common to all of us touring pro golf
professional anybody the rough we're going to hit it offline every now and then and sometimes we're
going to find ourselves in very very deep rough how do we get out of it a couple of different ways
we can do it let's just think for a minute what's going to happen to the golf ball and I want to
explain to you remember we're talking about them when we maneuvered the ball what happened with the
spin on the ball from right to left and left to right let me show you what's going to happen when
you've obviously played and everybody says oh I've hit a flyer or a spitter sometimes they call it
let me show you what happens to a flyer let's get down here into the grass and here we got an enlarged
golf ball just to to demonstrate a little bit better we've zero in here the ball is sitting in
front of this piece of grass what it causes a flyer is when the club face comes into the ball at
impact see all that grass you have between the club face and ball what happens then is it's going to
eliminate the grooves on the golf club these grooves are going to fill up with grass and what
happens then is you're not going to get any traction between the ball and the club face
consequently no backspin no backspin there's no resistance through the air no backspin no
elevation so what happens is the ball gets a fly it's like a knuckleball in baseball for example
it just comes out there and just sort of goes at one sort of angle and that's it another thing the
flyer effect will do is make the ball go a lot further again when I mentioned backspin backspin
is resistance resistance through the air is what makes the ball drop with the flyer the ball doesn't
want to drop it just wants to keep going and going and going so let me just demonstrate and talk about
the technique of getting it out what we do is we've analyzed the situation we know we've got a
suspect flyer so we're going to play for it I've got about maybe 200 yards here now 200 yards from
me I can hit a seven-eyed out of here and I'm still going to get the distance what we're going
to do is we're going to play the ball back in our stance a little bit because we want to hit down on
the ball we want the club face to come down on this angle the reason why is we're trying to
eliminate that grass between the club face and ball as much as we can so the downward motion the
club face is going to do that it's going to act like a knife cutting through butter it's going to
come straight through there down into the ball and you're going to sort of let's push the grass
away from the ball if you come in with a sweeping motion you're pulling the grass into the ball we
don't want that we want that downward motion so we play our ball back in our stance a little bit
another thing you want to think of doing is open your stance a little bit remember I said we want
this downward motion the club face by opening our stance we're going to sort of create a chopping
motion just like a bunker shot we're going to get that club head coming down behind the ball and you
can get out of the way a lot quicker another reason is we want the club face to be a little
bit open at a dress position now I don't want to confuse you here but this is a very important point
because what happens is the hosel of the golf club or the neck right right here the grass is going
to grab that at impact and what is going to happen is my fingers of the grass is going to close the
club face a little bit and when it closes that okay well here he is now is closed a little bit
the direction of the club face now is the left of the target that's exactly where the ball is going
to go so by opening our stance a little bit we're going to open the club face at the same time and
we're going to counteract this closing motion created by mother nature the grass we want to
get rid of that so we're going to play for it open our stance a little bit this is the only time
we're going to change our grip pressure we have to hold on a little bit firmer because if we hold on
too soft that grass is going to grab the neck even more and just twist the club face it's unbelievable
how much that really does do to the club it'll just turn it over so fast and sometimes you won't
even get the ball airborne so we're going to hang on a little bit firmer not with the right hand
with the left hand because our left hand is going to be the one holding onto the club as it enters
the sand enters the grass and now we've got to hold on here because if we don't the club face
is going to get to here turn over just moving your hand like that and then we're no chance so
go through the routine again analyze how much grass you got there you know you've got a suspect
plier allow for it yardage is going to be different your seven your five iron now you can play a seven
iron then they also realize when the ball hits the ground no backspin is going to roll a little
further land the ball a little bit shorter of your target play your ball back in your stance a little
bit widen your stance a little bit same swing the only difference is your descending blow is going
to be a little more abrupt abrupt coming down on it that is going to try that's going to create
the knife through butter effect and get eliminate as much grass as you can to sort of control the
flyer grip pressure a little tighter in your left hand make sure your club face is a little bit open
and just go ahead and hit the shot that's it for part one of greg norman the complete golfer we've
taken a look at some of the fundamentals of the long game in part two greg explores the short game
golf shots played from 75 yards in including bunker shots chipping and putting
it