Seniors Can, And Do, Become Better Golfers!
by Brett Wilkinson
At GolfTEC’s Seattle-area facilities, about 50% of our clientele are senior golfers over the age of 55. In training so many seniors, we have watched countless men and women swing the golf club and we know what part of the golf swing the mass majority of our senior golfers are good at-and where they are limited. From my perspective, here are a few areas of concern for most senior golfers:
* Better lower body stability! Initially, most of the seniors we work with struggle with maintaining good lower body stability in their back swings. Some get up on their toes and others get too deep in their heels. Focus on staying more grounded, with your foot and leg work, throughout your swing. The old adage “swing within yourself” is vital to maintaining and sustaining better balance.
* Gain more flexibility! It is key to promote as good a shoulder turn in your back swing as possible. When the body is tight, it is really difficult to maximize the mobility out your shoulder turn. The more flexible the upper body is the better shoulder turn you can make, and thus, the more power you can generate.
* If you have a difficult time getting more flexibility in your upper body, hinge your wrists sooner! Often, our senior clients cannot make a quality shoulder turn. We encourage them to hinge their wrists earlier in their take away. Then we ask them to make as good of a shoulder turn as they can. This promotes a healthier swing arc and allows them to gain more club head speed and pop out of their shots.
* Transfer your weight! One of the big power zappers in the seniors we deal with is a poor weight transfer in both the back swing and down swing. Getting out of position at the top, with a poor shoulder turn and/or unstable lower body, inhibits most senior’s ability to transfer power to the front leg in their down swing. So, as a result, they tend to spin their hips and hit most of their shots with their hands and arms.
* Have some hybrids in your golf bag! Many of our seniors still have a 3 or 4 iron–or both-in their set. These clubs rarely see action because they cannot get them up in the air and they cannot get decent yardage. Thanks to great design, hybrids help get the ball airborne, reduce miss hits, and increase yardage. Additionally, they are great clubs from both good and poor lies, so they give more options on the golf course.
* Have the proper shafts in your clubs! We see too many senior men come into our stores with stiff shafts in their clubs. Perhaps a few years ago they could generate the club head speed to justify these shafts. But as age creeps in, most seniors have a difficult time sustaining their swing speed, thus the stiffer shafts are doing more harm than good. Golfers then have a difficult making good contact and getting good distance because the shaft is too strong to promote desired results. Try swinging some different clubs with an “A” flex senior shaft; you will quickly see the advantage in updating your shafts. “A” flex senior shafts have a maximum flex to compensate for your shorter shoulder turn and slower swing speed. You will surely gain some distance and accuracy. Have enough degrees of loft on your driver! We club fit for seniors quite frequently, and most show up with anywhere from 8-10 degrees of loft on their drivers. We recognize seniors’ lower launch angle and ball flight, varied shot dispersion, and limited distance. We have them try drivers with 12-14 degrees of loft and almost immediately all of these things improve. Address these areas of concern that may be holding you back from better results. And remember, as long as your health is good, golf is the game forever!
Brett Wilkinson, PGA, is the Store Manager/Director of Instruction at GolfTEC Bellevue. He can be reached at 425-454-7956 or email bwilkinson@golftec.com.
