Greg Norman’s 3 tips for driving the ball long and straight | Instruction

Golf instruction is always evolving, but the best advice stands the test of time. In Timeless Tips, we highlight some of the greatest advice that teachers and players have dispensed in the pages of GOLF Magazine. Today, feature and article from our October 1995 issue where Greg Norman shared three tips for driving the ball long and straight.

There are few skills in golf as valuable as the ability to drive the ball long and straight. When you can bomb the ball off the tee – and find the fairway – the game becomes a lot easier.

In its prime, there were few golfers in the world who could execute this game plan sufficiently Greg Norman. During his career, he regularly ranked near the top of the PGA Tour driving distance and precision.

For those in the recreational game, driving the ball like Norman will always be a pipe dream – but that doesn’t mean you can’t try to emulate him. Back in the October 1995 issue of GOLF magazineNorman wrote an instructional piece outlining his top three tips for driving long and straight off the tee, which you can check out below.

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Norman’s 3 driving tips

As a youngster I loved sports, playing everything from rugby to cricket. But it wasn’t until I was 15 that I borrowed my mom’s clubs and had my first round of golf at the Virginia Golf Club near our home in Queensland, Australia.

I hit a lot more bad shots than good that day and I don’t remember my score. But I remember that my few hard drives hooked me to the game. Immediately after the round, I picked up a copy of Jack Nicklaus. Golf My Way and began my education.

Three years later, with my handicap down to scratch, I won my first tournament, the Queensland Junior Championship. Three years later, at the age of 21, I won my first Australian pro event – the 1976 West Lakes Classic.

In 1983, after winning in many countries, he decided to join the PGA Tour and meet the challenge of America. After just eight years, I had eight titles and earned over $4,250,000. My banner year was 1990, when I won Doral and the Memorial, and captured the Arnold Palmer award for first money winner. I feel on top of the world.

A year later, my game hit rock bottom! I finished 53rd on the money list. More importantly, he was falling in some key statistical categories, especially driving accuracy and greens in regulation.

When I look back on that year, it didn’t take long to realize that I needed help. For 20 years I had to rely on good genes, Jack’s book, and some advice from the Australian teacher Charlie Erp, who, in the early years, had cleared some of the rough edges in my game. But it was time to move on, to build a swing less dependent on perfect timing and rigorous practice, and more likely to stay under pressure.

I needed a new teacher, someone I could trust. After a long search I chose Claude “Butch” Harmon.

Butch was honest. His first words after seeing me hit a bunch of balls at TPC The Woodlands in Houston, Texas, were, “Greg, your stance is too tight; your footwork is poor; the swing is too long and too steep; and your hips are stretching on the backswing, then sliding on the downswing.

At that moment, I knew what Nick Faldo and Nick Price must have felt years before when they made the commitment to improve their swings. I knew that if I wanted to play golf in the world, I would not only have to sacrifice some playing time for practice, but in many ways I would have to start from scratch.

I practiced diligently in 1992, and it paid off: I returned to 18th in Tour money and my stats improved. In 1993, I finished third in the money and won the British Open at Royal St. George’s. Last year, I was second on the money list and proved a lot to the golf world — and to myself — by winning the Players Championship with a 24-under-par 264 over the TPC at Sawgrass.

This year, quite simply, I played the best golf of my life.

I always work with Butch, going for a swing check whenever and wherever I can. Back to the same keys, the ones that now let me swing more powerfully and hit a controlled draw rather than my old fade (and sometimes block). The keys are a slightly strong grip; wide stance; and the fluid turn of the hip.

You don’t have to be a Tour player or even a low handicapper to find success with my keys. You don’t have to follow every instructional tip to the letter to develop a better understanding of your swing and where it can be improved. But you have to go back to the basics, as I did, study, and adapt to your needs.

I think these keys can help. I know they really helped me.

1. Semi-strong, ‘Intermesh’ grip

Your hands are the only part of your body touching the club, so they must be comfortable and work together when forming a grip.

When I first started playing golf, none of the grip options—overlap, interlock, or 10-finger—felt comfortable or secure. I felt as if my hands were fighting each other when I wanted them to function as a team. I experimented and invented a grip that married my hands comfortably to the club.

Call the “intermesh” because its key function is the position of the right pinkie – meshed snugly between the index and middle finger of the left hand. My hands are not very big, and this grip works best for me.

Also unusual on my grip is the club placement. Traditional teaching calls for holding the club in the palm and fingers of the left hand and in the fingers of the right hand. I do not follow these rules, nor do I assume a neutral stance.

Since this year’s Masters, I’ve held the club almost entirely in the fingers of my left hand: This allows me to rotate that hand a notch further to the right (away from the target), into a slightly stronger position. My left thumb pressed lightly on the right side of the handle.

Butch showed me how a semi-strong left hand puts the left forearm slightly to the right at address, encouraging him to rotate on the backswing and put the club on the correct inside path. By coming down, the stronger grip increases the release action of your arms, hands and club, closing the club face at impact and promoting a draw.

In the right hand, resting the club along the base of the fingers increases my sense of security and confidence. Attacking in the fingers can weaken the control of the club at the top or through the impact, when the club moves at 120 miles per hour.

I have two other control points for the grip: 1) My left thumb fits into the crease under the pad of my right hand. 2) Rather than squeezing tighter with my right hand, I maintain the same degree of pressure in both hands – about a 7 on a 1-to-10 scale.

Even if you are not comfortable with intermesh, try a stronger left hand. And in any way you take the club, make sure that your hands form a single unit and work together, which you ensure by placing the palms parallel.

Just as your hands are the only connection to the club, your feet are the only connection to the ground. So, you have to start with a solid foundation. On the tee, this means standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, measuring – and this is important – inside the heels.

I knew that Ben Hogan played from an extra-wide stance, but I was always so busy thinking about positions and swing angles that I never thought to look at my feet. Butch educated me on the value of a wide stance.

A wide stance leads to several improvements:

-A longer and wider swing arc.

– A shorter and more compact swing.

– A round, rather than sliding, of your hips.

At 6-foot-1, it felt natural to take a tight stance. And I played pretty well that way. What I didn’t know was that compensatory moves and brute force would allow me to escape. But not all the time.

Every now and then, and often when I counted more, the tight posture failed me. I would swing on such a narrow arc that my right wrist rose too high, causing the club to fall well below parallel. He would be at what Butch calls “the point of no return,” unable to save and save the swing. So I throw the club, slide into impact with my hips too high, reach impact with the clubface open, and block the shot to the right of the target.

No more. In every swing I check my posture. I see a lot of enthusiasts who could improve by putting their feet further apart. It is not easy to do at first. They suggest imagining a baseball shortstop in the ready position. Where are his feet? Spread-width-shoulders apart so his whole body is ready for action.

3. Shift and rotate the hips

I never thought that there was a problem with the action of my foot until I saw my swing on a videotape, sliding my right foot backwards through impact. As Butch explained, this was another reason he tends to go down and block shots to the right, especially under pressure.

A wider stance helped me control many parts of my game: I stopped going out of my knee flex, and it stopped swinging my hips back and through. As a result, my footwork improved, but not enough.

I needed to keep my left foot completely on the ground and my right foot from sliding. To do that, I had to stop thinking about driving my legs on the downswing and start rotating my hips. Butch said the results will be better balance, a consistently square impact position, and keeping the club face on the ball a fraction of a second longer for long, accurate shots.

Hip rotation was also the only way to stop ending up in a severe ReverseC position, which was taking a toll on my back and hips.

Butch worried that he was consciously thinking about the rotation, I started spinning the hips too violently, causing more problems. He consulted with my physical trainer, Pete Draovitch, who taught me a simple drill to incorporate proper hip action and increase my flexibility: Stand in the address position holding a medicine ball. From the setup, move away from a target, then move back, releasing the ball towards the target.

The drill is working. Even if you substitute a basketball for a medicine ball, you will quickly learn the proper rotation of the hip and the feeling of releasing the right arm over the left for impact, necessary to hit a draw.

More flexibility and good hip rotation allow me to transition aggressively and safely – no more foot slide or severe Reverse-C. I make more solid contact and pull the ball, giving me extra distance for added roll. You can see the differences in my downswing and stroke form by comparing my new swing sequence pictures to the old ones. Work on the rotation of the hip, rather than sliding, and see if a number of your lower body mistakes do not disappear.