The Goofy Game of Golf Searching for the Answer

Happy New Year as we head into 2013. No golf in the Burgh, as we have had a couple of snow events over the last two weeks, and there is still about 5 inches of snow on the ground. Believe it or not, there seems to be a warming trend developing at the end of the week, so who knows, maybe golf in January. Over the next few weeks  I will be discussing the swing thing I have doing for the last 14 months, that has really revitalized my game. Before we get to that,  I would like to discuss a few other thoughts and principles of the golf swing and technique. I still think that the most important thing in golf is  the address position, and I have discussed this in the blogs of last winter. But there is one aspect of the golf swing that I  think is the most misunderstood part of the game, and that is the cocking of the wrists. Now, I am not going to review any of the writings on the subject but let’s just say that there is a lot of confusion on the subject. I think one of the reasons for this, is because the wrist is such a complex joint. It can make a full circular rotation very easily. So lets look at some past and present pros and what they seem to do with their wrists. I like to divide pro golfers into three groups when it comes to wrist cock. The first group is what I call the stiff wrist players. They include among others Paul Azinger, John Cook, and Zack Johnson. The second group is the moderate wrist cock group, which is the more classic swingers. Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Nick Faldo would be included in this group. Then you would have the final group, which would be the big wrist cock group, which would include Bobby Jones, John Daly and Phil Mickelson. The other thing that the wrists do is affect the position of the club face at the top of the swing. The club may be open, closed or shut faced, and square. The other terms you hear at the top of the swing is , square, cupped or bowed. Again this is talking about what the wrists are doing at the top of the swing. There have been many great players that have had all those positions at the top. What does all this mean. I think what your wrists do  is of no consequence in the golf swing. You are just going to have a natural tendency to make your wrists do what they are going to do and your instinctive sense will make it work and bring the clubhead squarely into the ball. So as far as the wrists are concerned let freedom ring. Next week we begin.