Thursday, January 17, 2013

How Bruce Lietzke Learned to Fade the Ball

The following is an excerpt from a 1995 Sports Illustrated article:

[Lietzke] missed qualifying for the Tour on his first attempt by a stroke, but it was for the best. Lietzke took his classic, upright swing to the mini-tours in Florida, where to be competitive in constant heavy wind, he had to learn to lower his ball flight from a towering draw.

Lietzke is the first to admit he knows next to nothing about the mechanics of the golf swing, and it showed in his diagnosis then. Rather than simply moving the ball back in his stance, he left it off his left heel and tried to lower the trajectory of his shots by "covering" the ball with his right shoulder. That move created a slight outside-in action that produced a consistent fade.