Instruction blog: Finding the right clubhead path

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Henrik Stenson hits his tee shot to the par-3 17th on Sunday.

Henrik Stenson absolutely put on a clinic on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass to win this year's THE PLAYERS Championship. The old adage of "fairways and greens" held true on Sunday at the difficult Stadium Course, as Stenson littered the fairways 13 out of 14 times and took full advantage of his perfect fairway lies, hitting 14 of the small, dried-out greens.

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This level of ballstriking really is not a big surprise from Stenson, as he is one of those unique players that has good length off the tee coupled with great accuracy. Currently, Stenson is ranked 43rd in Driving Distance, averaging 291 yards and 24th in Driving Accuracy, hitting over 68 percent of the fairways. Add to this combination a hot putter, and it was evident that Stenson was not coming back to the field once he grabbed the lead on the final nine holes.

What Can We Learn
This weekend at THE PLAYERS, Stenson shared a little drill that he has done over the years that helps him feel the proper clubhead path. You may have noticed before most shots, Stenson turned the club around and made some swings with his left hand only. These three-quarter swings with his lead arm help Stenson feel the proper path for the clubhead.

One-arm-only drills, whether left handed or right handed are good for establishing feel. At the TOUR Academies, we call these feelings "pressure points," as they help players of all levels establish specific feelings for where the club is during the swing. Like Stenson, let's begin with the Lead-Arm-Only drill:

Lead Arm Only:

1. Feel the pressure point between the lead arm and chest: A key component in the swing is to keep the lead arm attached to the side of the chest. One of the most common errors is to move the lead arm independently where it comes off the chest creating a lot of space. When taking the trail hand off the club, you will feel how the shoulders are encouraged to turn to support the lead arm throughout the swing. This support in the shoulders helps maintain the pressure point so the lead arm and shoulders are working in unison, not independently.

2. Pressure point controlling the clubface: During the swing, the clubface is a function of the grip and how a player uses the lead hand. Once again, with the trail hand off the club you will better feel the clubface position as it swings through impact. A good pressure point that helps square the clubface are the bottom three fingers of the lead hand. With most golfers missing more shots to the right, learning to roll the bottom three fingers under towards the palm will create the feeling of how the clubface should rotate through the hitting area.

When doing the lead-arm-only drill, it is not important to hit balls. It is difficult to have success hitting down on the ball when swinging with the lead arm only because the downward pressure is mostly applied with the trail arm. Therefore, focus on the feelings of the two pressure points -- first, how the lead arm maintains pressure with the chest, and secondly, how the bottom three fingers of the left hand squares the clubface through impact.

Trail Arm Only:

Like Stenson with the left arm only, you will see other PGA TOUR players swing with the right arm only. This drill offers a variety of different pressure points that the lead arm drill does not -- here is one of them:

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Stewart Cink extends his right arm as part of his pre-shot routine.

1. Pressure point establishing clubhead lag: One of the fundamentals is to create clubhead lag during the downswing. Lag is defined as when the clubhead trails the grip end to impact and beyond. When taking the lead hand off the club, you will feel at the top of the swing how the trail elbow folds and the trail wrist hinges. This creates about a 45-degree angle in the clubshaft.

This angle positions the clubhead behind the hands resulting in clubhead lag. If done correctly, you will feel the pressure point established by the weight of the clubhead resting on the trigger finger. This pressure point must be maintained on the downswing through impact solidifying a descending and accelerating clubhead.

If done incorrectly, the clubshaft will get too close to vertical or lean the wrong way where the clubhead moves in front of the hands losing the pressure point against the trigger finger. This flaw is referred to as "casting" or "clubhead thruway" and ruins any chance of being a consistent ball striker. To help fix this dreaded casting motion, take the lead arm off so you can feel the sensitivity of clubhead lag in the trigger finger of the trail hand.

This week at THE PLAYERS, Stenson took us back to a simple one -arm drill that helps establish feel in the swing. Pressure points -- as we call them -- are some of the most effective keys we can pass along as instructors because of their direct influence on the swinging motion. Whether it's the leading or trailing arm, each serves its purpose whether it's to the club face alignment as a function of the lead hand or to the clubhead's lag as a result of the trail hand. One-arm only drills help establish that much-needed feel we can take from the practice tee to the golf course.

Just Because

Wow, what a week for the TOUR Academy at THE PLAYERS. I must admit I am completely exhausted after an action-packed week at our academy at TPC Sawgrass along with all the fun events we participate in every year. From our presence at Jacksonville Airport to the filming of 20,000 swings at the UBS 17th Hole Challenge, I must say I am very proud of our staff and all the people that helped us throughout the week.

The TOUR Academy, of course, was just a small piece of this year's THE PLAYERS as every year I become more impressed by everyone from Championship Management to the staff at TPC Sawgrass. THE PLAYERS is truly a well-oiled machine put on for the best field in golf every year.

However, the most impressive thing to me at THE PLAYERS and perhaps any tournament are all of the volunteers who participate. It is truly amazing how many people volunteer their time adding to the organization and execution of any tournament. You simply couldn't do it without them.

So we close the door to the THE PLAYERS, as the PGA TOUR rolls on into the state of Texas, bringing this week's blog to an end so I now finally go to sleep.

Good night everyone. Swede dreams.

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