Scott Mayer is a PGA-certified teaching professional who works at Nonesuch River Golf Course in Scarborough. He has written two instructional booklets, A Golfing Philosophy to Play A-Round With and Golf is a Concept and produced an instructional video, The Fundamentals of the Mind. In the spring of the 2004 he was named the State of Maine Teacher of the Year by his peers. Throughout the summer he will be providing me – a 16-handicapper with a propensity for banana slices – with a weekly golf tip. I’ll hit the range or practice green to put the tip to practice, then I’ll write about my experience with it – what worked, what didn’t, etc.

Mayer’s tip for this week:

Have you ever noticed how nicely people make their practice swings and how differently they swing when there is a ball in the way? This drill will help you mimic your practice swing when swinging through the ball.

You’ll want to first do this drill with a five or six iron. Start by placing 10 to 15 tees in the ground in a straight line going away from where you’ll take your stance. Leave the first couple of tees as is – without balls on them. Then place a ball on the third tee, the fifth tee, the seventh tee, etc., leaving the other tees as is.

Begin the drill by making some smooth practice swings away from the tees. Be sure to stop in between to get your swing set up each time. Once you feel that your rhythm and balance are down you are ready to proceed.

Step up to the first tee and apply your smooth practice swing so that you clip the tee out of the ground and sweep the grass – the goal is to pull the tee out of the ground without taking a deep divot. Continue down the line of tees, stopping to set up again between swings, and repeat the same smooth swing regardless of whether there is a ball on the tee or not. Try to keep the same tempo through to the last tee.

Just because there is a ball on the tee doesn’t mean you should alter your swing.

CJ’s take:

Okay, I admit, I was a little skeptical of this one. I just didn’t see how practice swings involving a tee were going to help my tempo all that much. And to be honest, when I’m out on the course, I sometimes don’t even take practice swings because my thinking is that I’ll waste a good swing if I do (as if there’s actually a reserve tank of good swings floating around in my brain somewhere). I know, it’s stupid, but I guess that’s why Mayer was the State of Maine Pro of the Year last year and I wasn’t.

On my first run through the line of tees – I set up 13 of them, leaving the first two as is with balls on every other tee starting with the third – I found myself concentrating too much on trying to clip the tee out of the ground. I wasn’t really mimicking what I did before stepping to the tee. And, as a result, my swing started to feel like an even jerkier version of Al Czervik’s (see: Caddyshack). Using my five iron, I only hit one out of six balls purely to about 185 yards, while the other five were either shanked off the toe of the club or the hozzle.

Things got better on my second run through. This time I took more practice swings before stepping up to the first tee, so I wasn’t thinking so much about perfectly clipping it out of the ground. The key is to find a balanced, relaxed rhythm – and don’t stop to take notes, like I did on my first run through. As I worked my way down the line I could feel my tempo becoming more Ty Webb than Czervik. And even when I did mishit the ball my swing still felt good and the ball still traveled.

The last time I performed the drill, I hit five of the six balls right on the screws to 185 yards. I was loose, and my swing felt authentic. By that point I had come to some conclusions, which helped. This drill is perfect for people who sometimes have trouble staying down on the ball – one of my problems, due to an overactive lower body, which hopefully Mayer will help me correct at some point. Also, I figured out that the tees shouldn’t be as far into the ground as they normally would be when I’m hitting a five iron. Keep that in mind when you’re setting things up.

Consensus:

I think what Mayer is trying to do with this drill is get you to find your authentic swing instead of having you think about too many things at once. The drill seems like a perfect pre-round exercise, but don’t come screeching into the parking lot five minutes before your tee time like I normally do and still expect to have time to warm-up. You’ll need to run through this one at least three times to get your rhythm down, so allow yourself at least 15 minutes on the range. If you do, you’ll already have three skins under your belt by the time your buddies are getting loose.