Fulton: Watney's swing starts with a solid takeaway

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Make it win No. 2 for Nick Watney as the young American was on fire over the weekend at AT&T National played at Aronimink Golf Club. How about a smooth little 27 on the back nine on Saturday? I mean come on -- 27? What's next 26, 25 coming home on the back nine?

Can you imagine? "Hey, how did you play today?"

"Not bad -- struggled a bit on the front with a 32 but had a 26 on the back nine... should've been a 24".

There's been some crazy low scores in today's game at the professional level. Just when you think they can't go lower -- they do.

Earlier this year when Watney won the World Golf Championships -- Cadillac Championship at TPC Blue Monster, I talked about how well Watney turns his torso through impact. This component of the golf swing is critical when looking to become more consistent because it allows the hands to remain passive through impact, promoting a more repeatable position.

One of the things that really sets the stage for this more repeatable impact is how Watney keeps the club face square during his initial backswing. At the TOUR Academies, we refer to this initial movement as Position #1 and measure it when the club shaft reaches parallel to the ground/target line. At this point in the swing a square club face is when the toe of the club points slightly down once the club shaft reaches parallel.

When you look at the best players in the world, it seems most of them fall somewhere in between the toe of the club face pointing straight up to the sky and excessively down where it it's parallel to the spine angle. Watney is a good example of this, as he uses his "strong grip" and movements of his left hand during the backswing perfectly to keep the toe of the club face slightly down and square to the arc at Position #1.

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One of the most common errors during this initial takeaway is to over rotate the club face to an open position. An open club face at Position #1 is when the toe of the club points straight up to the sky to even behind the body. What's difficult about this move is a player can be led to compensate during the rest of the swing for a movement that occurred right away during the first six feet of the backswing.

With that said, what can be difficult to understand here is you will see a lot of professionals with this open club face at Position #1 but demonstrate the necessary components that go along with it on the downswing to a solid and repeatable impact position. However, most amateurs that take the club face back in this same open manner usually don't have the experience and/or time to achieve the same downswing and impact positions. As a result, you will usually see one or all of the following to compensate for this open club face.

1. Aim Left -- Makes sense if it goes right... aim more left. However, the more you aim left -- the more it has to go right.

2. Downswing From Out-to-In -- No question one of the biggest problems in the golf swing is on the downswing, a player swings too much from out-to-in to overcome an open club face. This can be achieved by rotating the plane so much to the left on the downswing that the club face ends up pointing left of the target line but maintains its open relationship to the path creating a pull/slice ball flight.

3. Early Release -- Again, a very common compensation on the downswing is to allow the right hand to flip in attempt to square the club face at impact. The important thing here is in order to achieve a more repeatable impact position, a player must be able to square the club face without disrupting the integrity of the right hand. If you can do this, then you too will feel your hands more passive through impact with the rotation of the torso supporting it.

All three of these compensations can potentially be eliminated if you can learn to keep the club face square during the backswing, as over time this club face will promote better alignment with the body at address, a more inside downswing and improved club head lag into impact.

Just Because

Wow - the heat is on here in the South! I almost forgot how much I missed the humidity in the summer time but this last week here in Florida certainly didn't disappoint. I always laugh when people tell me, "Oh, you will eventually get use to it." Growing up in the Pacific Northwest where 25 percent humidity is considered "balmy & sticky" -- I am not sure when 95 degrees with 90 percent humidity will ever feel just like another day.

Fortunately, this year TOUR Academy on the Road has really done well as our instructors continue to travel much of the Northern United States this summer, including a stop at Philadelphia Country Club last week, which is right next to Aronimink Country Club. This week they're in beautiful Lake Tahoe. These stops were setup as part of our relationship with the TOUR Club (pgatourclub.com), which offers great membership models for individuals, families, corporate outings, etc.

This week on the PGA TOUR it's the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run -- another facility that has hosted TOUR Academy on the Road over the years. This TPC is another fun golf course that will yield lots of birdies and you guessed it -- humidity.

Travis Fulton is PGA TOUR Academy's Director of Instruction and one of Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers for 2010-11. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR. To learn more about the TOUR Academy, click here.