May 1, 2000

It May Be Time For A Change

by Joe Buttitta,

Class-A PGA Professional Westlake Golf Course

Why is it that hardly anybody ever gets better at golf?  That is a rhetorical question because it is a statement of fact as well as a question.  Think of it....HARDLY ANY GOLFER EVER GETS BETTER!

Who says so?  The National Golf Foundation, that’s who.  The NGF tracks trends in golf and according to its research the average score for 18 holes  has gone ‘up’ one stroke in the last 20 years.  The average score for most people who play this game is 98 strokes per 18 holes.  How can that be? 

Today we have superior equipment, including the golf ball.  Golf courses are better maintained.  There are enough how-to videos and books available to fill the Library of Congress.  And don’t forget the swing gurus, those tireless teaching professionals who make their livings trying to get every Manny, Moe and Jack, along with every Ethel and Agnes, to hit their balls in the fairway.  Their own fairway!!

With all this help at the golfer’s fingertips, how come so few improve?   The problem could be the swing itself. Blasphemy, you say!  The golf swing as we know it has been around for almost 100 years,  ever since Englishman Harry Vardon taught the populace how to use the over-lapping finger grip.  This conventional finger-grip (which could be the culprit here) led to generations of slicers, and golfers are still hitting it sideways today. Vardon himself, even though he won six British Opens, was a left-to-right player.  Sometimes Harry even screamed “Fore Right” as his fades turned into banana balls.  Here’s why:  In the conventional golf swing, the hands and arms must rotate the clubface in order to square the club at impact, while the legs, hips and shoulders are rotating away from the target line.  This requires world-class precision, timing and coordination which, in case you haven’t yet noticed, very few people possess.

The other startling fact uncovered by the NGF is that merely one percent of all golfers play at par or better.  Doing the math the old-fashioned way, that leaves 99 percent of golfers at times wondering where their shots are headed.

Alas, there is a solution.  At least a viable option these days.  It’s called Natural Golf, a palm-grip, single-axis approach that is making serious headway into the psyches of golfers everywhere.  The swing itself has finally evolved!

If I told you there was a simpler, less-complex way to hit a golf ball with no loss in distance and a whopping improvement in direction, would you try it?  Unless you died 10 years ago or sold your clubs out of frustration, I think you would.  Thousands are, giving rise to a booming Chicago-based company called Natural Golf

(website: www.naturalgolf.com or toll free 1-888-NATGOLF).

In our next installment: The Basics of Natural Golf.  There are only four of them!  I told you it was more simple.

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The Four Basics of Natural Golf

The credo of Natural Golf is "simplicity with fewer  moving parts". What a concept! And thousands of golfers around the country are finding out what this new swing system is all about.

Change scares a lot of people. Golfers, for example, are especially prone to feelings of high anxiety with the slightest of grip changes. But to play Natural Golf (NG) a grip change is definitely required. How the club is held is one of four basic fundamentals that all Natural Golfers must learn.

1. The NATURAL PALM GRIP–For the last 100 years or so, golfers have held the club in their fingers creating a double-axis setup between the club shaft and the arms. This double-axis requires quite a lot of clubhead rotation to square the face by impact. World-class timing is needed to accomplish this fete on a consistent basis. And in case you haven’t yet noticed, very few are blessed with that sort of timing. The National Golf Foundation tells us that one percent of all golfers shoot par or better, leaving the vast, vast majority of us scrambling.

By re-positioning the club diagonally across the palm of the dominant hand (right hand for righthanders) a single-axis is created thereby eliminating much of the needed clubhead rotation. In fact, Natural Golfers hold the club the same way carpenters hold their hammers, or tennis players hold their rackets...in the palm, not the fingers.

2. The SINGLE-AXIS–The second NG basic fundamental is the single-axis which is automatically created by putting the grip end of the club diagonally across the palm of the dominant hand. Single-axis means there is no angle between the shaft and the dominant forearm thereby reducing the need for the rotation conventional golfers absolutely need to hit a square shot. It gives golfers a straight-line setup to the ball which is easier to learn and much more repeatable.

3. The WIDE STANCE–Natural Golfers place their feet further apart than most conventional players. The wider stance gives more stability and limits hip rotation. The longer the club, the wider the stance will be. With a driver, for example, the insides of the feet are as wide as the shoulders. The wider the better. The limited hip rotation leads directly to the fourth fundamental.

4. FACE THE BALL AT IMPACT–With a palm grip, single axis setup and wider stance, the only fundamental left to learn is to ‘face the ball at impact’. This is a significant departure from conventional golf. To accomplish this Natural Golfers make sure to keep their right heel (for righthanders) on the ground at impact. This limits hip rotation and insures that the clubhead will stay on line longer after the hit. It also results in markedly straighter shots. Is there a weight shift? You betcha’! Natural Golfers actually slide their bodies through impact rather than rotate their hips. When you face the ball at impact your body transfers energy to the ball in the direction you want the ball to fly. At the start of the downswing, the weight shift begins by actually sliding the left knee toward the left big toe with minimal hip rotation. The head simply stays in place. Keeping the right heel planted accomplishes this, although it takes work at first to change the habit of clearing the left hip as conventional golfers do. Immediately after impact Natural Golfers release their right heels and finish the swing in a balanced fashiion.

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For more information on Natural Golf visit their website at: You can also e-mail them at: or call toll-free to 1-888-NATGOLF. Natural Golf offers a Lifetime of Better Golf Package, featuring two how-to tapes hosted by former PGA Champion Bob Rosburg, an audio tape featuring Chuck Hogan, and a four-color instructional book produced by Golf Digest Publications. You can reach Joe Buttitta at his e-mail address: igolfSopaw@AOL.com