I was reading the late George Knudson’s book, The Natural Golf Swing, and noticed this advice, which I hadn’t seen before. Knudson was a Canadian who played on the PGA Tour in the 1970s and had one of the best changes the Tour has ever seen. What you wrote might be just what you need to start hitting solid golf shots.

Knudson said early in his professional development, he would always hit his driver on the back of the club, breaking the wood on that side and making “these ugly little shots.”

“One day, I decided to try to catch the ball with the tip of the driver. I placed the ball on the tip and I thought that’s where it would make contact. It wasn’t the sweet spot, but placing the ball. been doing no good. So what happens? I hit this thing and it shot out of the club like a rocket compared to what I’d been doing.

“… suddenly, after placing the ball on the toe, the ball was coming out of the face solidly. I decided that the clubhead must be coming out, and I accepted that … I didn’t know that I was suddenly catching the ball in the center of the clubface due to the centrifugal force pulling the clubhead out and down. “

What Knudson wants to get to is that the centrifugal force of the swing pulls on the arms and they straighten a little, lengthen. When they bring the club to the ball for a longer time, the center of the clubface will be in line with the ball, if you start from the right place.

Remember that 5 iron you hit a few months ago that took off like it had been thrown and you asked yourself, “Where did that come from?” What you did was finally hit the ball in the center of the clubface, that’s it.

To do what Knudson suggests, you need to know where the tip of the stick is. Look at the grooves in the surface of an iron. They run to a point about an inch or so from the end of the stick, and then there’s a smooth, polished metal. Place the center of the ball on that boundary between the grooves and the polished metal.

With a driver, it is a bit more difficult to find the right spot, because the ball sitting on a tee introduces a parallax effect. The ball will look more towards the toe than it actually is. Aligning the end furthest from the clubface with the center of the ball, as you see it on the tee, is a good place to start. Because controller heads come in different shapes, you will have to experiment a bit to find the correct alignment with the controller you are using.

If you want to hit the ball longer and straighter, there are two rules. Rule 1: hit the ball in the center of the clubface. Rule 2: hit the ball in the center of the clubface. (Same rule, right?) Forget swing speed, wrist dick and all that. Hit the ball flush and you will get the distance and precision you wanted. What you just read is a good way to do it.