Effortless Power in the Downswing

Filed in archive Golf Instruction on March 24, 2009

Courtesy: BBC

I don't know why I have become so fascinated with the weight shift during the golf Swing.

Perhaps it's because a proper weight shift was always a source of problems for me in my early years. Okay, it's plagued me for many years.

I think I have it licked now but I also realize those could be famous last words.

At any rate, due to my predilection for weight shifting, an instructional item on the PGA Tour's website caught my eye.

Travis Fulton, Director of Education at the PGA Tour Golf Academy, writes about Retief Goosen's victory at the Transitions Championship on Sunday.

How does he develop his great power and look so smooth doing it, Fulton asks.

The answer he says (and this is where I perked up) is in how Goosen shifts his weight.

His comments instantly reminded me of an old Golf Digest tip many, many years ago in which the downswing trigger was likened to a "bump and turn" - you "bump" the weight from your back leg to your front leg and then turn the hips through the shot.

It could be that easy. I mean, not everything has to be rocket science - not even the golf swing.

This little sequence could be why - as Fulton points out - we witness so many tour pros smoking tee shots 300 yards in the air while looking like they've only hit a wedge into a green.

I love things that are simple.