The other day I attended a LPGA event south of Portland and I paused to watch one of the participants warming up at the range. Actually I was about to leave when her swing and its results caught my eye and my ear. The solid sound her irons made was captivating. I stopped and watched her for quite some time, even filming her with my phone camera. Her name was Luna Sobrón Galmés, a 26 year old from Spain. Watching her swing, Ben Hogan came to mind, no lie. She was 4 over that day, which surprised me, given how pure her swing was. So when she finished her practice session, I asked her if it was a faulty short game that led to that score. "No," she replied in her broken English. "It was the approach shots." This proved a previous point of mine that a great range game did not guarantee a good game on the course.
But the secret I discovered from Luna had little to do with her score that day. It was her machine-like, and quite beautiful golf swing. When I got home, I studied my film of her swing intently. Her fundamentals were impeccable, producing a high baby draw, through the bag. Mesmerized as I watched it over and over, I eventually realized the secret of her swing had to do with more than great fundamentals. To reach the heights of attaining membership on the LPGA, just about all of the women had fine fundamentals.
It was her understanding of the golf swing as just that: a swing. She was swinging a golf club like an Olympic hammer thrower would swing a hammer (actually a metal ball attached by a steel wire to a grip)--in a sense, in control of something out of control. I'm struggling some to find the right words, but her swing was free and natural and flowing, while knowing where the clubhead was at all times, somehow finding the sweet spot each time she entered the impact zone. I surmised that no thought entered her mind during the duration of that swing. It was pure and the results verified that. Each iron shot hit the green she was aiming at in almost the same small area every time. At impact, both her arms were fully extended which is a good barometer of free-flowing-ness, I believe. But as with spiritual enlightenment, there was really no cognitive way of measuring her state of Oneness with that swing.
I couldn't wait to get to the range the next day to experiment with the insights I gleaned from the Spaniard's swing. So without attending much to fundamentals, I essentially let the club swing me as it seemed to be doing with Ms.Sobrón Galmés. Immediately I noticed something different in my swing and the results of my swing. Though the ball veered too far left at times, it felt natural and free like the swings of Seve and Trevino and Morikawa and Cantlay and tennis champ Emma Raducanu. With a slight adjustment, my irons, for the most part, started flying high, straight, and true; the woods solid and, for me, longer than usual. I felt like I'd found a crucial missing link in the evolution of my swing.
Of course, I'll return to the range and golf course soon and see if these results hold up, but I'm very hopeful. Very hopeful. Many thanks to Luna Sobrón Galmés, and wishing her much success on the LPGA tour. She did make the cut at the rain-shortened Cambia Portland Classic on a very difficult and challenging golf course.
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The Ryder Cup starts this week in Wisconsin and, with near normal fan admissions, should be a corker. Enjoy the show and the action among some of the best players in the world. Who will win? It'll be close, but I think the Europeans will take it. But whoever wins, it's another great chance to observe golfers at the highest level of proficiency.
That was a really informative and interesting post. I have to follow your example of letting the club for the most part do the work. By the way I have been
Unhappy with the number of times that I go to the right with my shots.
So I have been using a single plane swing for the past 3 weeks. No back swing just back and thru. I also strengthen by grip. I have really been happy with the results. I still use a regular backswing when I am the tee box . I pretty much stay in the fairway. I am not long anyway so I don’t see much lost of distance. Great post
Fantastic! Sadly, a driving range for me is a 70-mile drive. Unless I use the video simulation.