Ground force reaction powers contestants in Women’s Amateur

Above, note how Lucy Darr is on her left side and hitting up, creating distance by using ground force reaction

By Ken MacLeod

Good morning from Southern Hills where it is a delightful 73 degrees. It will warm up fast but hopefully not like Tuesday, where for the first time in decades of covering big events there I was reluctant to even walk down the hill into the valleys for fear of not making it back up.

Instead I spent more time watching these amazing swings of the U.S. Women’s Amateur contestants from the elevated tee on No. 1 and asking some of my favorite teachers around just how these young women generate such tremendous clubhead speed and can bash it 265 yards even if they’re 5-foot-1 and 102 pounds. And some much farther.

“It’s ground force,” said Ryan Rody, director of instruction at Southern Hills.

“It’s all the way they use the ground,” said Maggie Roller, director of instruction at Cedar Ridge Country Club.

“Definitely ground force reaction and rotation,” said Cameron Chhim, assistant professional at Southern Hills, who was manning the range and then proceeded to demonstrate the horizontal and vertical rotation required in the backswing and downswing in order to hit up on the ball with significant force at impact.

I’m trapped inside a body that has probably dribbled a basketball around the circumference of the earth, maybe twice, in 50 years of noontime ball, and getting hacked most of the way around if you ask me, so watching Chhim contort his body was like observing an alien species. Fascinating, as Spock would say, but hardly useful.

Most of us have our feet on the ground at some point during our golf swings so what can we learn from the kids?

“The kids use the ground really well, they rotate and get to their left sides and hit up on it,” Roller said. “They maximize everything. For most average golfers, it’s hard to just say use the ground, our bodies don’t rotate that way. One thing you can do is on your set up, move the ball forward, tee it up higher and get the right shoulder tilted down and hit up on it. About 85 percent of my students hit down on it with the driver and lose a lot of distance that way.”

So there’s your tip for the day. The other tip is to make sure to come out and see these remarkable players, it’s free to attend and park and Southern Hills is in magnificent shape. It’s going to gradually cool off as we head toward the weekend and match play begins today. See you out there.