Rinker’s Golf Tips July 13 Hall of Fame Teacher Bob Toski. Bob, who was the leading money winner on the PGA Tour in 1954, said that his physical and mental instincts were very good for golf. His brothers Tom, Jack, and Bennie didn’t let him do anything in the beginning except putt and chip. Learn from the green to the tee and from the ground up into the air. The first thing to learn is hand eye coordination and how to putt the ball straight. Bob was a great athlete playing five sports in high school and he developed a great sense of feel for golf. Weight must move to support motion. Golf is played from a straight line to a circle back to a straight line. The lead lever is the master of the trailing lever, and the lead arm or left arm for a right handed golfer, is the master arm. The hand that is on top of the club is the master of the hand below. The hand that is in front, and is left of the hand that is behind, is the master hand. The lead arm, the straight left arm, must master and control the bent right arm which is subservient to the lead arm. The trailing arm acts at and around the lead arm. The lead arm must pace and control the back swing and down swing. The best thing to do is to learn to speed up the left arm going through impact and have the right arm and hand react and catch up to the lead arm.
When you swing the golf club three things happen; you make a golf swing, the body turns, and the body shifts, that’s all you do. So you have a swinging force, a turning force, and a shifting force. You must correlate and synchronize those movements and square the club face to the target. The way you hold the club and aim the club is critical to becoming a good golfer. Bob likes the word “neutral” to describe the grip and you want a neutral grip to be able to neutralize the force of the right hand from turning over and hooking the ball. The grip has transformed from a strong grip to a neutral grip. The hands influence your golf swing more than any other part of your body. “No one will convince me otherwise because they are in constant contact with the golf club and in control of the golf club constantly from start to finish. It’s the only communication you have with the golf club and the only part of our body that is touching the club,” Bob stated.
Aiming and swinging the club head on the line of play is a fundamental. Your eyes conceive, your mind receives, and your body reacts. Good players know how to use their eyes to aim and swing the club head on the intended line of play. The lateral force that starts the down swing creates vertical force from the inside. You must go from a lateral motion into a rotary motion and not from a rotary motion into a lateral motion.” Have to move to it, to turn through it.” The golf swing is a push pull motion. The lead arm must push the club back and then pull the club from the inside. Bob Toski can be reached via twitter @BobToski.