Age: 12
Handicap: 18
Golf Club: Costessey Park
Fave golfer: Tiger Woods
Strengths: Driving.
Weaknesses: Short game and putting.
“I’ve been playing, according to my mum and dad, since the age of two when I was terrorising the family china with a plastic club in the lounge.
“I’ve moved on a bit since then and started properly playing and hitting balls at the age of five. I really enjoy playing golf and would love to be a pro player one
day.

I play at least once a week and during the holidays I am out most days, especially during the summer.
“I am a member of the Under-14 Norfolk County team having already played in the U12s.

“I have made improvements in my game having been a 28-handicapper only a year ago and I have also won Most Promising Player of the Year award at Costessey Park on the back of my Norfolk Nippers win.”

The draw shot

Matthew Bacon is demonstrating a draw shot – the much sought-after shot of the high-handicapper.

With a draw shot the ball moves from right to left which will add distance to the shot, and is particularly useful when trying to achieve maximum distance off the tee.
The danger, however, is exaggerating the changes in the set-up that are necessary to draw the ball.

There’s no need to aim way right, close the clubface, strengthen your grip, swing back inside the line and roll your hands through impact, just to draw the ball.
If you make exaggerated changes in your set-up, you’ll end up hooking and slicing the ball.

Which, of course, defeats your original objective of enhancing your control.
To hit the draw shot aim the club to where you want the ball to finish.
For an iron shot position the ball in the centre of the stance, left heel for the driver.
Aim the feet and shoulders slightly right of target, this will promote a closed stance, which will encourage an in-to-out swing path.

By this we mean flatter around the body.

This is shown clearly in Fig. 1. Note Matthew’s feet and shoulder alignment aim to the right but the face of the club points to the target.
The swing should be made along the line of the feet and shoulders while the closed face of the club will encourage the draw flight – starting right and bending back.
The draw will add more distance and top spin which will give more roll on the ball when it lands.

Figure 1

This is shown clearly in Fig. 1. Note Matthew’s feet and shoulder alignment aim to the right but the face of the club points to the target.

The swing should be made along the line of the feet and shoulders while the closed face of the club will encourage the draw flight – starting right and bending back.
The draw will add more distance and top spin which will give more roll on the ball when it lands.

Working on Matthew's fade shot

This week’s Academy student is Matthew Bacon who was last year’s Norfolk Nippers champion and he has made good progress this season with handicap greatly reduced.

Matthew demonstrates the soft fade – a shot that bends slightly left to right, for a right hander, in other words a controlled slice. I define a fade, or a draw for that matter, as a shot that only curves up to 30-feet in the air. So the changes you need to make are subtle, to say the least.

The shot is not Matthew’s natural shot but it is one that he has developed and has added control, especially when hitting the fairway down the final stretch is required.

To hit this shot the ball is positioned forward in the stance just inside the left heel. The shoulders and feet are aimed left of the target which will encourage an out-to-in swing path.
Matthew is aiming left to cut the ball into the botton right corner of the driving range (see Fig.1).

Figure 1	Figure 2

Set up with your body aimed only a touch left of the target and aim the clubface where you want the ball to start – ie to the left – and the ball two ball widths forward in your stance (the clubface is, in effect, closed). He is looking to get the backswing upright as shown (see Fig. 2).

At the top of the backswing position the club is pointing left of the target and the clubface is slightly open pointing towards the ground.

Now swing back along the line of your slightly open stance, but through impact feel that you are trying to open the clubface.

Feel that your right arm is working under your left (knuckles of the left hand to the sky).
Finish high with your left elbow in a ‘chicken wing’ position.

The open clubface combined with the out-to-in swingpath will allow the ball to start left and cut back into the fairway as this shot pattern will produce left to right spin on the ball.
It will also land softly, which will mean you lose a few yards in distance.

This is a useful shot for any golfer to have in their armoury and you will find that many Tour players prefer to hit this kind of shot rather than a draw.

Working on Matthew's swing

Figure 1

Under the Potter microscope this week is 12-year-old Matthew Bacon.

Matthew is the current Norfolk Nippers champion and inaugural winner of the Justin Rose endorsed trophy.

He is a very tall lad for his age and already creates a lot of power.

His score of approximately three over par gross for 60 par three holes shows to what level he has already got.

His golf swing is powerful and quite sound, however, the one area for improvement is we have looked at is his back swing.

Matthew tends to pick the club up steeply going outside the line at the top of the backswing as illustrated in Fig 1 .

As you can see the club is pointing left of the target and his right arm is off his chest. At the top of the backswing, the club shaft should be pointing at the target with the face of the club at 45 degrees.

To cure Matthew’s backswing, we have tried to get him to the waist high position on the backswing as illustrated in Fig. 2 with the left arm and club fully extended, club shaft parallel to his feet and pointing to the target with face pointing skywards.
From here we are looking for him to turn his upper body around his lower body rather than his usual movement of picking the club up with his arms.

Figure 3 illustrates the higher position of his left shoulder, the turning of the upper body around the lower body and resistance of his right hip at the top of the backswing. The club is now pointing at the target which is a much stronger position and will enable Matthew to gain more power with improved consistency and accuracy.

Because Matthew is a tall boy for his age distance is, therefore, less of a problem. I expect to see his handicap tumble this year and I predict that he will be close to a single figure handicap by the end of the season.