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His student hasn't started a club back – he's never shot a club – even when Kevin Sprecher comes in. You try to remove it.
He has seen this too.
“This is a mistake that many players make,” said Sprecher.
The teacher of the GOLF Magazine Top 100 was talking about a video that was recently posted on his Instagram account – which you can watch in full here – and the title is edited, along with an almost imperceptible error. Sprecher said players often put their feet first, then reach for the ball.
It's a no-no, he said.
“It's a distance that's not allowed that way,” Sprecher said. “What is the point of reference, from your hands to your body.”
So what to fix?
He said it was easy.
“What I'd like you to do is put your hands over, put the club down, start very close because you know what's uncomfortable – you're too close,” Sprecher said in the video. “And just back up where you feel like you can play.”
In the video, Sprecher's student tried the advice, and Sprecher walked him through it.
The student holds his instrument. Sprecher told him to approach his ball with his right foot, then place his club behind the ball. Sprecher then told him to put his feet, back to where he was comfortable.
“It's easier to create space and you'll end up closer to the ball,” Sprecher said in the video, “than if you start too far and go in.”
Did the author test it to see how he puts the ball? You bet. The results?
Feet first. Setting the club behind the ball first, with the first step of the right foot, gives more control in the setup.
Notably, GOLF.com has written several stories about how a player can tell when he's standing the right distance from the ball — including one featuring Payne Stewart. You can read that story by clicking here, or by scrolling quickly below. Its title is: “Are you standing too far from the ball? Payne Stewart had one simple way to check.”
***
With your left hand (if you're ready), grip your golf club behind the ball.
Then let it go backwards, towards your left knee.
That's about it.
That, Payne Stewart once said, is the way to know you're standing too far from the ball. Or very close.
Or it's okay.
He was speaking in an old video he recently shared on the Golf Manual Instagram page, and it's worth watching before you continue with this story, as well as other videos with Stewart, as he is one of the most aggressive golfers of his generation and speaking. , so you could always walk away with something from the three-time big winner and colorful dresser. It's worth noting, too, that the Golf Manual video is great because it starts with Stewart saying he learned it from his dad, Bill.
Bill Stewart was an actor himself. A 1987 Sports Illustrated article by Rick Reilly described the man, and the father-son relationship (and you can—and should—read it here.) This part was especially interesting:
Golf, his father and he were three different people. From the way he dressed, the way he posed, the way he lived, the son was his father. The two had been on the golf course together since Payne was six months old. He started learning from his father at the age of four, trained him at the age of six, and beat him at the age of 16. Across Ma Bell's bosom, throughout Payne's Tour, the two carefully went round the day, divot by divot.
“Then on the 4th,” Payne said, “I hit a nice drive down the left side and blocked the right six-iron.”
“How many times do I have to tell you? Don't deal that bad hand.”
“I know. I know.”
With that introduction, here's a tip.
In the video, Stewart holds the club with just his left hand, then stands over the ball, with his club behind it. He threw the stick back, towards his left knee.
“A little tip my dad gave me when I was a kid was how to look at my ball,” Stewart began in the video. “Whether I was too far from it or too close, it was when I let go of the club with my left hand and it lands, if it hits above the left knee, I know I'm in the right place.”
And how does Stewart know when he's too far? Or is it too close? And that was easy for him to see.
“If I'm too far from the ball, the club will hit here below my knee,” he said in the video. “If I'm too close to the ball, the club will be hitting the top of my thigh.
“So the tip I give you is if you release the club with your left hand and it hits just above your left knee, then you know you're in the right position to hit the golf ball.”
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