Graham Averill turned 50 this year and he’s going crazy. Instead of buying a motorcycle or getting a tattoo, he decided to try to get really, really good at golf. He started this project as a 13 handicap trying to get to scratch in a year. Now it’s a 7.6. Welcome to your mid-life crisis.
I’ve never been worried about how my swing looks. I know that many golfers obsess over the aesthetics of their swing, but as long as the ball goes more or less in the direction I want, I don’t see the harm in having a janky swing. As it turns out, I was wrong, especially when it came to the finish. Having a nice finish, something that looks like the LPGA logo, is not just about looking good. It is a key part of playing good golf.
“It’s not just about vanity,” Sam Hahn told me when we had the chance to play together at his home course in Oregon. “This finish is an indicator of what happened during the swing itself.”
If you can hang your finish, and it looks like that LPGA logo, then there is a solid chance that your swing was in sequence.
me? I have a terrible finish. I am often unbalanced and will stumble back a little or fall a little to my left. I also have a habit of pulling my arms and torso out of the way. All of these problems are telltale signs that something is off during my swing.
When I stumble backwards, it’s an indicator that I haven’t transferred my weight to my front foot. When I fall to the left, it is an indicator that I have come over the top, my arms are in front of my chest and hips. When I pulled my body out of the follow, it’s a sign that I was too tense, and probably swinging too hard.
Sam worked on me to maintain my finish which helped me clean up some of the swing issues leading up to that pose.
Here are a few tips I use to make sure I finish my swing in the correct position.
- I finish high with my chest pointing at my target.
- I end up with my knees almost together, my back knee pushing towards my front knee.
- I end up with only my toes on the ground, so you can see the sole of my foot from behind, and most of my weight on the outside of my front foot (photo Scottie Scheffler rolling over the outside of his lead foot on his follow through).
- The shaft of the club should be behind my head.
I don’t think about these tick marks as I swing, but I make a mental checklist of these positions later Swing as I try to keep the finish. It’s also helpful to film a few swings so you can see what the “feelings” in your head actually look like in real life. Spoiler alert: it never looks like what you think it looks like.
You can work on your finish by simply holding the position for five seconds after each swing. I have found this to be quite effective. But there are also a couple of drills you can incorporate to help drive the house into the right tracking locations.
The “Feet Together” drill is pretty simple. Stand with your feet together and take a full swing. If you are out of balance, you will find out immediately. This position forces you to slow down your swing and hit the sequence of motions, otherwise you will fall. Remember to keep that finish after the swing.
The other drill I like is just rolling a ball towards the target followed by an exaggerated finish. Take an iron without much loft, and from your regular setup, roll a ball toward your target. No backswing, just sort of scoop the ball in the direction you want it to go. But make sure you finish really high, with your weight transferred to your front foot and the club behind your head. Hold and repeat.
I’ve gotten pretty good at hitting most of the markers with a good finish, but I still have a habit of dropping the club and my torso out of the follow through, so it’s a work in progress. But I like how focusing on my finish has helped clean up some of the issues with my swing. When I play a round, and I tell myself to stick the finish and hold for three seconds after each shot, I have a clean and crisp contact with a relatively straight ball path.
Apparently, a little vanity can be a good thing.
Speaking of playing golf… I had a weird week with a lot of travel and family obligations, so I didn’t get a chance to play many times. I practiced a lot, hitting the range and walking a few holes four or five times, but I never had more than an hour or so to devote to my game. It happens. I played two rounds of nine holes at my home course, rolling to the back tees for the first time for both rounds. I shot four over one day, and one over the next. Moving to the back tees doesn’t add too much yardage, but it changes the landing zones and creates some tight windows on a couple of longer holes. It’s definitely harder and it’s taking me a while to get used to it. But the handicap has dropped a bit (from a 7.8 to a 7.6), and I’m taking every bit of progress I can.
Dig deeper into one golfer’s struggle to improve golf in middle age and read last week’s Scratch by 50 where Graham questions whether playing is possible. too much golf.
The place Scratch By 50: Sticking The Finish appeared first MyGolfSpy.