The Rotary Swing Book

by Chuck Quinton

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For most amateur golfers, hitting a controlled draw is their ultimate goal. This is usually because they tend to slice and miss everything to the right, so a nice controlled draw seems desirable. While it is an easy to shot to learn how to hit using the one plane swing, it shouldn't be any golfer's life long goal to learn how to play a draw. If you hit a fade and can control it consistently, don't think you need to learn how to hit a draw to become a better golfer, it's simply not true. A draw is the most difficult shot to control overall because you are playing with the timing of the release of the club, and playing with timing is like playing with fire, you're bound to get burned some time. It's true, you can keep the clubface shut throughout the swing and close your stance and learn to hit a draw that way, but you will struggle a great deal just to hit the ball straight consistently and will have a very difficult time fading the ball. The best way to play golf is to go with whatever your natural ball flight is and try an make it as neutral as possible. If you tend to hit a draw already, try to keep it under 5 yards of right to left movement in general. The more it is moving right to left (for righties) the more you are releasing the club or keeping it shut and closing your stance and the more difficult it will be to hit the ball straight or fade it. If you can keep your swing fairly neutral, working the ball in either direction becomes a very simple matter and very few modifications are necessary in order to work the ball.

Observe the picture below. In the picture on the left I am hitting a 3 yard fade and the picture on the right I'm hitting a 3 yard draw. Note that my swing has remained exactly the same, nothing changed other than the angle of my clubface. I've clearly held on to the release in the picture on the left and this has not only imparted a cut spin on the ball but launched it on a higher trajectory as well when compared to the shot where I hit a draw.

As I come into the finish, you can clearly see the angle in the clubface is significantly different. The one on the left is much more open as I have worked to keep the clubface open through the shot and the one on the right is more square or slightly closed. You can also see again the difference in trajectory here, the ball on the right is still significantly lower than that the one on the right. When comparing these two swings (as I've done in this swing comparison ), you can see that very few changes are necessary for me to work the ball in either direction and that gives me the most flexibility in my overall shotmaking ability.