This is the second of two articles on exit faults. Previously, we discussed the basics of exit strategy, including the master keys. Below, we elaborate on exit strategy and swing faults.
Exit strategy is among the Tour's hottest topics. Unlike golf lessons and golf tips, which usually focus on pre-impact mechanical errors, exit strategy discusses post-impact results. These results reveal your swing faults. Exit strategy works because it tells you what went wrong with your swing and how to eliminate the problem. The goal of course is generating consistency and chopping strokes off your golf handicap.
To understand exit strategy, start with two master keys: (1) Your lead wrist must remain flat through the swing; and (2) your club must hit a wall that runs behind you and extends all the way to the target. Exit strategy also includes three basic finishes: control, speed, and blended (a blend of speed and control). Each finish reveals something about your swing. In this article, we look at some of the more common swing finishes and how to correct them using exit strategy.
Master Keys Revealed
The first master key holds that your lead wrist remains flat through impact. Since the clubface mirrors the wrist, the clubface also remains flat. A flat wrist provides the extension you need for solid contact and power. The second master key asks you to imagine a wall running behind you and extending all the way to the target. The wall runs parallel to the target line. To stay on plane, the club must hit the wall as it moves to the inside and upward after impact. Where the club hits the wall reveals your exit strategy.
Maintaining the image of striking the wall promotes solid contact. It also gives players an idea of how the body, arms, and club move after contact to produce different types of shots. That's the key to the strategy's value as a learning tool. Examining your exit strategy tells you what you did during the swing and provides an aid for correcting the fault or faults. Let's look at some of the more common swing faults often addressed in golf tips and golf lessons.
Slice
Most slicers have a weak grip, causing the clubface to be open at impact. They swing the club on an outside to inside swing path. In doing so, they often try to flip the clubface square to steer the ball on line. To correct this fault, strengthen your grip and practice the speed exit.
Players using the speed exit release the club fully, maximizing distance instead of accuracy. The body breaks more quickly, allowing the arms to zip past it. The forearms rotate and the wrists recock. The clubface hits the wall before the grip. Releasing the club and re-cocking the wrists boosts speed. But the extra clubface rotation reduces accuracy. With a neutral grip, a player executing this strategy hits a draw.
Fat Shot
Players who hit the ball fat usually uncock their wrists too early in the downswing, moving the swing's low point behind the ball. To correct this fault, switch to a stronger grip and practice making punch shots using the control exit.
The most accurate players control ball flight without manipulating the clubface with their hands. With this exit strategy, the player makes a big turn through impact, pulling the lead arm and the grip end of the club to the wall, followed by the club head. This "hold on" action reduces face rotation. The body turn squares the clubface for control. With a neutral grip, this strategy creates a fade. But with a strong grip, you can hit the ball straight.
Hook
Hookers tend to swing too much from the inside out through impact. They rotate the clubface closed to get the ball to the target. To correct this fault, start with practicing the control exit and then move to the blended exit.
The blended exit strategy is a mix of the control and speed strategies. With this strategy, both the clubface and the grip hit the wall simultaneously. Players use this strategy when hitting a straight shot. With the control strategy, your body, arms, and club work in unison right through impact, releasing the club straight down the target line and producing a nice combination of distance and direction.
Thin Shot
Players who hit the ball thin swing too much inside out through impact. This makes the approach angle too shallow and produces contact too low on the clubface. Use the control exit to correct this fault.
Using exit strategy to correct faults, which focuses on post-impact results, forces you to think differently than with traditional golf lessons and golf tips, which focus on pre-impact actions. It takes some getting used to the idea, like anything new. So stick with it for a while. For those having problems correcting the swing faults described above, this new way of addressing your swing may be just what the doctor ordered. It eliminates your swing faults, increases consistency, and knocks strokes off your golf handicap.
Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.
