Swing really does start from the ground up.

I had read this tip a long time ago and come across it all the time but it was one of those tips I never really paid much attention to. I just thought it naturally happened.

I focussed on my footwork while practicing the other day and I cannot believe what a difference it made in my ball striking. Why didnt I learn this a long time ago .

My first move on my downswing is to transfer my weight to my left heel.(right hander) When I do that it just fires my hips around first creating the lag and clearing the hips and put me on an inside swing path.
I watched the pros play all weekend (on tv) and watched them do this on every swing.
Watch Sean the beast Fister on the momentus infomercial. His left heal actually comes off the ground on his backswing and his first move on his downswing is planting his left heel.

This will be old news for a lot of golfers but I believe its overlooked by way too many golfers.

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"You've just one problem. You stand too close to the ball after you've hit it." -Sam Snead

"Golf tips are like aspirin. One may do you good, but if you swallow the whole bottle you will be lucky to survive." -Harvey Penick

"I hit two of my best balls today......I stepped on a rake ".

It seems that whether to lift or not to lift the left heel in the backswing is one of those endlessly debated questions. The bottom line seems to be that some do it (successfully) and some don't. But transferring the weight to the forward foot is non-negotiable. What varies is how golfers experience this shift. Some will feel it, as you do, as something that happens in the feet. Others feel it as something happening in the hips. I guess it's a matter of where your attention is directed.

Personally, I pay a lot of attention to my feet in my setup. I check the distance between them, the amount of turn-out away from perpendicular to the target line, and of course their position relative to the ball. But once I begin to swing, I lose all awareness of them.

Something I used to do, when I was topping the ball frequently, was to not lift my head until I saw my right heel begin to lift, by which time the ball was long gone. This was my trick for keeping my head down. I don't do it anymore because I don't tend to pick up my head so much. If I top the ball now, it's for a different reason.

It'll be an interesting experiment to focus my attention on my feet when I swing, just to see what I notice.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller