If you played some simulator golf this winter or hit off mats this spring, I have a feeling your wrists, elbows or neck hurts. And here is why. Every couple days I can be seen with my little dump cart going up and down the range tee filling craters, oh I mean divots. The depth of these gashes is frightening. How in the world is someone hitting the ground this hard and this deep? None the less… the ground gives way and you survive; the range tee does not. Winter arrives and you take this swing to a rubber mat with concrete underneath. I’m sorry, you don’t suddenly have a swing metamorphosis, and you leave that evening or wake up the next morning feeling totally beat up. Let me super direct, there is no way you should be hitting the ground that steeply. I can hear you right now…but the pros do. You’d be wrong. I have watched 10,000 tour pro conversation videos…not one has ever said to another, “how do you hit down so steeply? How can I make the club go subterraneous, like you do? I want to get a bigger deeper pelt of grass, explain how you crash so vertically into the ground”. These guys are trying to pick the ball. Yes, they take a divot, but they are not trying to take a divot, it’s an accident.
The carnage in this picture is no accident, its intent, and its going to ruin your body. If you’ve ever watched me practice, you will see I tee up every ball. The tee is low, and I try to hit the ball off the tee without ever displacing the tee. It’s tough, but it teaches me the correct swing bottom and my joints feel like I’m 15, whether I swing indoors or outdoors. Figure out a shallower way to sweep the ball. The simulator owner will thank you. Our range tee will thank you. The fairway will thank you. Your joints will thank you.
