Go to a driving range and chances are that you will find a few people who are barely making contact with the ball, yet swinging one club, the driver.
Many people just want to go to the range and blast away with the driver, trying to hit it as far as they can.
Meanwhile, I can stand next to many of these people and hit a 4 iron further than they hit their driver. Yet, most of them will never take the time to truly learn how to swing a golf club.
Don’t be one of those people.
If you are a hacker, and you want to get better at golf, you should set right out to master the 9 to 3 swing.
What is the 9 to 3 golf swing?
I describe the 9 to 3 golf swing in more detail here.
Now, here is the process you should undertake to master this swing.
Session 1 – 9 to 3 swing, sand wedge only, 50% speed, 40 to 50 balls, one or two slow motion practice swings between each ball.
Session 2 – Sand wedge only, increase to 75% speed after 20 or 25 balls only IF you are making solid contact.
Session 3 – Sand wedge only, starting at 50% speed, ten balls. Increase to 75% speed if making solid contact. If making solid contact on every ball at 75% speed, then for last 10 balls, increase to 100% speed.
REMEMBER – Even at 100% speed, you are still only making a 9 to 3 swing!
As you can see, I literally recommend that you don’t even bother to hit any club other than a sand wedge in your first three practice sessions.
Similar to the Kinematic Sequence, you’ve got to really master this swing if you want to become a consistent ball striker.
The next step is then to move on to a longer swing… 10 to 2, then 11 to 1, and then if you have the flexibility, go to 12 to 12.
Keep this in mind though…there is no need go beyond 10 o’clock in the back swing.
One of the longest hitters on tour, Jon Rahm, goes back to about the 10 o’clock position (2 o’clock for lefties). Of course, he generates enough swing speed that they finish in the 12 o’clock position.
Many new golfers seem to think that they need to have a Jon Daly type swing to generate a lot of power. However, they are physically not capable of doing it properly, and ultimately, major swing flaws develop as a result (I’ll get to those down the road).
Therefore, don’t get obsessed with having a big long back swing…it’s not needed to become a scratch golfer!
Playing Golf as a beginner
If you are reading this post and you’ve been following along through other posts about my recommended process for learning golf, you may be wondering if you should even go play a round of golf.
In a perfect world, I would tell you no, you are not allowed yet! LOL But, I know I can’t stop you, so go play!
The reason I say that I wouldn’t recommend it yet is that it is so easy to develop bad habits on the golf course that will become more difficult to be rid of over time.
In the martial arts, we learn an art by starting with basics, progress through forms and kata, and develop ourselves physically before we are allowed to participate in full contact sparring.
But, the reason why you are learning golf is because you want to go play with friends, family or co-workers and have fun!
So, by all means, go play. Just remember to at least focus on the fundamentals when you are playing.
By the way, if you want to learn exactly how to become a scratch golfer, check out my Ebooks here.
Now, get to work!
