The Tripod

Little has been spoken about the position of the head in the golf swing. As a result, golfers place it where it feels most comfortable. From teaching varying levels of golfers, I notice that most of them tend to address it too far to their trailing side.

For the right-handed golfers, they position the head too far to the right and for the lefties; it is too far to the left. When the head is not centered as it ought to be, the center of the swing shifts. The center of the swing is the left shoulder for the right-handed golfer and again, vice versa for the left handed golfer.

Now, conduct a simple test in front of the mirror. Stand upright with the head centered; tilt your head slightly to the right over the right kneecap. Observe how your left shoulder moves in tandem with the amount of head movement.

This faulty setup is one of the reasons why golfers hit their shots fat all the time. To circumvent this problem, most golfers then start to bend the lead wrist or flip to prevent the club head from impacting the ground before the ball.

This is called club head throwaway and is the number one malfunction in golf. This causes all sorts of maladies from lack of distance to wild shots. It also causes lack of compression and the “duffer’s low-flying nothing ball” in the words of Mr. Homer Kelley.

There has also been a plethora of instruction (X-Factor, Y-Factor, Connected Swing) that tells you to move your head over to the right side and then back to the center. As explained above, this is geometrically imprecise and no one – not even Tiger Woods – can move back and forth the same distance ALL the time. The pros that play with this style make it work for them most of the time because of their hand-eye-coordination.

Trust me, you DO NOT HAVE that coordination. If you did, you would be on Tour. I will make this statement here. Most of the Tour Pros you see are using non-optimum mechanics. Again, they make it work because they are able to compensate (and you can’t).

Look at the picture of Sam Snead and learn. Set your head in the center of your body, this will form what is called a ‘tripod’. The head is one point, the left foot another and the right the last one. Maintain this tripod from address, backstroke, impact and at least to follow through. Get this and watch how consistent you become!