Instruction blog: Gay's swing methods deserve notice

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Brian Gay hits a tee shot to the iconic 18th hole at Harbour Town.

What Happened
With last week off and watching the Masters on TV with rest of us, perhaps Brian Gay was a little ticked off and extra motivated to get into Augusta next year. With fantastic play all week, Gay broke the Verizon Heritage tournament record by finishing 20 under to win for the second time on the PGA TOUR.

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The former Florida Gator just kept on doing what he always does, hitting a lot of fairways and greens with solid putting. Unlike a lot of his peers on TOUR, Gay has succeeded on TOUR without bombing it off the tee. Currently, Gay is in the top 40 in Driving Accuracy, Greens in Regulation and Putting Average. With these impressive stats, you think we would know a little bit more about the 37-year-old.

Unfortunately, Gay is used to being overlooked, beginning with his days at the University of Florida, where he still is the only two-time SEC Champion. Despite his two SEC titles, he was only nominated as a third-team All-American. Last year, when Gay broke through on the PGA TOUR with his victory in the Mayakoba Golf Classic, Tiger Woods stole the headlines with his victory in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship the same week.

Maybe now, with his dominating performance at the Verizon Heritage, Brian Gay will finally get the credit he deserves.

What Can We Learn
Brian Gay is a great example of simplifying your golf swing to be more efficient. With radar-like accuracy off the tee and into greens, Gay is a very consistent player that can take advantage of golf courses that are not extremely demanding in length like Harbor Town Golf Links. Harbor Town is one of very few courses you will find on the PGA TOUR that is less than 7,000 yards. With a premium on accuracy, the stage was set for a player like Brian Gay.

One of the reasons Gay is so accurate is his proper use of the swing plane. Gay is another great example of setting the golf club on plane at the top with a short arm swing. You may have noticed this week at Harbour Town that Gay's hands only travelled to just above his right shoulder. This position allows Gay to set the golf club in a three-quarter position where the club shaft still points towards the target line. This arrangement of the arm swing and club shaft is a major component on hitting consistent and repetitive golf shots.

Throughout his career, Gay has learned to be more aware of this position at the top of his swing and the great value that it has offer. Gay's swing coach Lynn Blake -- ironically, like Brian -- could be one of the more overlooked swing coaches in the game. Over the years, I have had the great opportunity to work with Lynn, and like his student, Lynn is one of the best at what he does.

One of the changes the two have made over the years is getting Brian's right forearm to be on-plane with the club shaft at address. When evaluating Gay's setup, you will notice Brian's right forearm is pointed down the shaft plane, creating what's called an "impact fix."

This term defines the condition the right forearm is in relative to the clubshaft from the target line view, as well as the clubshaft leaning forward and in-line with the left forearm from the face-on view. Understanding and achieving an "impact fix" will only make it easier to move the club shaft to the correct position at the top of the swing.

Here are some other advantages on getting the clubshaft on plane with a three-quarter arm swing:

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Brian Gay is 32nd in Greens in Regulation on the TOUR in '09.

1. No re-route: When the club shaft is on-plane at the top then it is much easier on the downswing to achieve an on-plane motion. Most amateurs get the club shaft off-plane at the top where the club points across the line leading to a constant re-routing effort on the downswing.

2. Arms synchronized with body: A three-quarter arm swing is certainly a common topic that is often discussed during lessons. Most amateurs over-do their arm swing during the backswing making it very difficult to match up the speed of the arm swing to the body on the downswing. Creating a sense of control and awareness to what your arms and hands are doing is a key component on gaining accuracy.

3. Clubface control: Players who gain control of their swing plane and arm swing at the top increase their chances of producing a square club face. A good check-point at the top of the swing is the angle of the club face should be relatively parallel to the left forearm. If you can achieve a three-quarter backswing and set the club shaft on --plane, then you have a great chance of producing a square club face at the top as well.

Brian Gay certainly takes full advantage of these three components as he is one of the game's straightest ball strikers. So why not more power?

One of the reasons Gay doesn't have more distance is because of how he uses his body during the swing. Beginning with the setup, you may have noticed that Gay is fairly narrow with his stance and doesn't propose a lot of spine tilt at address. In fact, you will see Gay with most of his clubs with his head pretty much over the ball, where most PGA TOUR players will have some tilt, with their heads behind the ball.

This setup really writes the script for how Gay will use his body during the swing. During the backswing, Gay doesn't produce a lot of shoulder turn -- his left shoulder fails to make it behind the golf ball. In addition, most of Gay's weight will stay on the lead foot during the backswing. With his weight forward and a limited shoulder turn, the "loading" phase is less than ideal when trying to produce power.

In order to produce more power, Gay would need to increase his shoulder turn and load more weight into his right heel. This backswing would increase the kinetic sequence of his downswing thus creating more speed to the club head. However, learning this particular move with the body can be a difficult one for a TOUR player at this stage of his career, because it may affect his major asset, which is accuracy.

There is certainly a perfectly blend of accuracy and power for everyone, and it seems Brian Gay has found his. Most amateurs want more speed and can achieve it, but they also need to learn some precision to their shot as well. When learning the game of golf, it's generally best to find some speed first -- especially when young. Get the body to move in the proper sequence so it can produce some speed and power. Taking a student that already has some power -- and applying the necessary geometry for accuracy -- is a teacher's dream.

Just Because
Well, this weekend I thought I would get away with some friends before we enter a very busy stretch at the TOUR Academies. So we decided to stroll on up to historic Savannah, Ga. -- next week's site of the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf tournament on the Champions Tour.

We didn't pack the clubs and decided it was weekend away from the game to see and do other things. On Saturday morning, we quickly realized that people are beginning to travel again as we participated in the always fun stop and go traffic on I-95.

For what seemed like an entire day, we all enjoyed the cat and mouse event of getting in the right hand lane and then suddenly watch everyone pass you on the left; move to the left hand lane and now the cars are moving faster on the right -- you get the picture.

We finally did make it and had a great time. The Westin Resort in Savannah is a great place with quick and easy access across the river on a boat to all the action. So many neat and historic places mixed in with some modern flavor that really does offer something for everyone. Strange enough, my favorite place ended up being the Italian restaurant we ate at on Saturday night. Although I must admit I was most of the time confused because I simply couldn't read the menu or communicate with the waiter -- the food was simply amazing.

We all had a great time and during our travel back among you guessed it - some more good old I-95 road construction - gas, brake, gas, brake........we all agreed Savannah, Georgia is a must see.

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