Golf Backswing Turn, Align Slightly Right for Better Turn (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Backswing Turn, Align Slightly Right for Better Turn (Video) - by Pete Styles

We all know there’s more than one way to swing a golf club. When you walk down the line of the PGA professionals on the practice ground, you can often see different elements of their setups, different elements of their swings and some people wonder which best they should copy. When you look at someone like Graeme McDowell, he’s quite a big fan so they're aiming slightly down the right-hand side of fairway, what we would class as a closed stance so the feet are pointing a little bit down the right-hand side. For him it works nicely because he likes to shape the ball from right to left but for a lot of golfers aiming at a closed stance position actually can help them also, encourage them to make a bigger shoulder rotation. We talk about how we’d like to turn the shoulders to 90 degrees but if you're struggling with a 90-degree shoulder rotation, simply by aiming your feet down the right-hand side would encourage that bigger turn to happen anyway. You would then deliver the golf club from the inside line and if you have the clubface in a closed to swing path position, that ball could shape back in from right now to left. So if you're struggling to make a full backswing turn and you want to see the ball moving from right to left, you can consider aiming slightly right of center so you would be able to lay your shaft down, stand back, have a look at it, make sure it's pointing down the right-hand side of the fairway and then allow yourself an already sort of closed stance, closed shoulder position to complete your full back swing. Release your hands and arms through the golf ball quite nicely. The clubface must be swinging through in a closed to swing path position and that should bring the ball from right to left as a draw flight. So if you watch Graeme McDowell, you'll see that slightly closed stance releasing the club from in to out, producing a slight draw. Do you fancy trying that? Just be careful you don’t overdo it. Let’s not aim too far down the right-hand side. Keep laying your club down to make sure you're always checking on your alignment.

 2012-09-17

We all know there’s more than one way to swing a golf club. When you walk down the line of the PGA professionals on the practice ground, you can often see different elements of their setups, different elements of their swings and some people wonder which best they should copy. When you look at someone like Graeme McDowell, he’s quite a big fan so they're aiming slightly down the right-hand side of fairway, what we would class as a closed stance so the feet are pointing a little bit down the right-hand side. For him it works nicely because he likes to shape the ball from right to left but for a lot of golfers aiming at a closed stance position actually can help them also, encourage them to make a bigger shoulder rotation. We talk about how we’d like to turn the shoulders to 90 degrees but if you're struggling with a 90-degree shoulder rotation, simply by aiming your feet down the right-hand side would encourage that bigger turn to happen anyway. You would then deliver the golf club from the inside line and if you have the clubface in a closed to swing path position, that ball could shape back in from right now to left. So if you're struggling to make a full backswing turn and you want to see the ball moving from right to left, you can consider aiming slightly right of center so you would be able to lay your shaft down, stand back, have a look at it, make sure it's pointing down the right-hand side of the fairway and then allow yourself an already sort of closed stance, closed shoulder position to complete your full back swing. Release your hands and arms through the golf ball quite nicely. The clubface must be swinging through in a closed to swing path position and that should bring the ball from right to left as a draw flight. So if you watch Graeme McDowell, you'll see that slightly closed stance releasing the club from in to out, producing a slight draw. Do you fancy trying that? Just be careful you don’t overdo it. Let’s not aim too far down the right-hand side. Keep laying your club down to make sure you're always checking on your alignment.