sign in sign up
<<
Home , Ben Crane, Bo Van Pelt, Corey Pavin, Kevin Stadler, Tom Purtzer

COVER STORY: NEW SHORT-GAME SYSTEM

THE NEW WAY TO

HIT YOURTOUR TESTED AND PROVEN WEDGES BY 40+ PROS! First, the bad news: The technique you’re using on chips and pitches is wrong. You were probably taught the “body-moves- the-club” method that seems sensible but often results in skulls, chunks and poor touch. The good news? A new, scientifically-proven short-game method is sweeping the PGA Tour and is easy for you to learn, too. The Top 100 Teacher who discovered it shows you the new way to control shots from 60 yards and in, with help from his star pupil . Turn the page to join this short-game revolution, and get up-and-down all day long!

By David DeNunzio Photography by Angus Murray

➔

July 2013 .com / GOLF MAGAZINE xxx COVER STORY: NEW SHORT-GAME SYSTEM

Chipping Away After four years struggling on mini-tours at home and abroad, James Sieckmann turned to teaching— and had an epiphany that’s now changing the way pros and amateurs swing when near the green. Here’s how our new Top 100 Teacher went from a failed player to the Tour’s hottest short-game guru.

uring the 1994 Players Champion- Nebraska; from PGA teachers—was wrong. ship, James Sieckmann, then 29, He was certain of it. “I’m not saying I was caddied for his older brother, Tom, lied to,” says Sieckmann today, now 48. a PGA Tour winner. After a valiant “People just didn’t know. Neither did I.” He Dbut failed attempt to make a dent on the smiles. “But now I feel like I did.” leaderboards on the , the younger And now he had a plan to change the way Sieckmann had turned to teaching. He had golf is played around the greens. worked under the tutelage of Dave Pelz at Since the 1990s, Sieckmann has contin- the short-game giant’s schools in Austin ued to spotlight the subtle technical dif- and Boca Raton, and was about to become ferences between what golfers are taught the director of instruction at Shadow Ridge versus what the best players do on short C.C. in Omaha, Nebraska. He’d come to TPC shots. His research and analysis has formed Sawgrass to haul his big brother’s bag—and the backbone of the short-game method do some homework. that’s now used by more than 40 players on When not looping that week, Sieckmann the PGA and LPGA tours, and which he says spent hours pacing the practice area, ob- is easily learnable for everyday players. (see serving and recording several players on “The New Way to Hit Your Wedges,” p. TK.) videotape. He captured chip- “The methods I teach are iron-clad,” ping, Ray Floyd pitching, and short-game boasts Sieckmann. “They’re born from the savants and Wayne Grady hit- techniques used by some of the greatest ting bunker shots. He also recorded two short-game players in history.” He adds, of his brother’s close friends who would “The average player can’t copy the full- prove pivotal in his teaching of the short swing flexibility or sheer power of a Tour game: Tom Pernice, the onetime UCLA star player, but he can copy the way the best considered a master of the short game; and pros dial it in from inside 60 yards.” , the greatest greenside sho- Dave Pelz credits his former protégé’s tmaker of his era, if not ever. work ethic as one reason for his success. When Sieckmann reviewed the footage “James already had extensive knowledge back home in Omaha—studying it over of how to play the game when he worked and over, backwards and forwards—he for our schools,” says Pelz. “But the fact noticed something unusual. Ballesteros, that he worked so hard on his own skills Pernice, Norman—all the top players—were gave him a deep understanding of what it breaking nearly every short-game rule he’d took to improve. And he had sincere em- learned. Sieckmann, like most of us, was pathy for the struggles golfers of all skill told to keep his hips in front of his chest, levels endure, an attribute of all top-notch but there was Seve with his chest in front teachers.” of his hips. He was told to keep his head still and turn his lower body, but there was uccess, if not celebrity, came in the Tom Pernice moving his head forward on late 1990s and early 2000s. Per- both the backswing and downswing while nice made Sieckmann his full-time keeping his legs quiet. He was told to keep short-game coach in 1996 (“I credit the clubface square and his hands ahead SJames with prolonging my career because of the clubhead, but there was Ray Floyd my scoring relies so much on short shots”) releasing the clubhead, toe over heel. and helped his teacher land clients such as Then a thunderbolt struck Sieckmann. Charlie Wi, Skip Kendall, Frank Lickliter, ANGUS (3) MURRAY The short-game swing that’s taught as Sieckmann on Tour and at work with (from and Duffy Waldorf throughout Gospel—and that he learned in junior top to bottom) , Charley Hoffman the rest of the 1990s and early 2000s. De- golf; while a standout at the University of and Kevin Chappell. spite a Tour client list most instructors

xxx GOLF MAGAZINE / golf.com July 2013 would die for, Sieckman toiled in relative SECRET’S IN obscurity. DOWNSWING 575 THE SEQUENCE “Part of it stems from living in Omaha,” Titleist’s 3-D motion capture data proves suggests Sieckmann. “And I never thought Sieckmann’s system is correct—20 years I should market myself or advertise. I was 431 after he began teaching it. happy teaching the members at Shadow Ridge and helping my guys on Tour when In a solid power swing, the hips they needed it.” 288 reach max speed first, then pass Sieckmann’s stock skyrocketed after the energy on to the torso, then the 2009, when Greg Rose, co-founder of the arms and finally to the hands and 144 Titleist Performance Institute, asked the clubhead. This “Kinetic Sequence” best wedge player he knew—Pernice—to is undisputed in golf teaching and CLOCKWISE ROTATION CLOCKWISE help Titleist staffer Ben CraneADDRESS with his research. In a finesse swing, the pitching and bunker game. “I just told sequence changes, and the graph at [Crane] to go see my coach, James Sieck- left (plotting the rotational speed of -144 mann,” says Pernice. different body parts on a short-game Sieckmann met Crane at Madison Club swing) proves it. Notice how the green in Palm Desert, Calif., in January 2010. -288 line (torso) and blue line (arms) jump They worked primarily on sequence. Crane ahead of the red line (hips) at the

was following the chain of events com- BACKSWING OF TOP IMPACT start of the downswing—the opposite mon to full swings: The hips and torso -431 of what you do in your full swing. Also move, and the arms and 0club follow. But0.3 the 0.5 0.8 1.0 notice1.3 how the chest1.5 keeps pace1.8 method Sieckmann created from watching with the movement of the clubhead, the likes of Ballesteros and Floyd reverses TIME FROM ADDRESS (SECS) supporting its motion instead of that sequence on swings when you’re 60 slowing down into impact like it does yards or less from the green. “Basically, The motion-capture sequence of a Tour-level on power swings. The lesson: Reverse the clubhead moves faster than the ➔ short swing validates Sieckmann’s theories. your sequence for tighter short shots.

17-year Tour veteran exposes TPI co-founder whose 3-D data THE younger brother James to the best verifies Sieckmann’s finesse W RID DO GE short game players in the world and sequence 15 years after James SIECKMANN A C H . facilitates several coaching jobs. identifies it using videotape. SOLAR S C REG ROS SIECKM G E M AN SYSYEM O N T The serendipitous genesis of the RA EN C NE hottest short-game The West Omaha course, B designed by Tom Sieckmann, method on Tour allows James to operate his own golf academy starting in 1994.

ER M P NIC TO E

Friend to Tom and ALLES PGA Tour player introduced to E B TE the best short-game V R Sieckmann through Pernice E O player in history. S S and Rose. His success starts an Videoed extensively by S SIECKM avalanche of Titleist staffers to E A the Sieckmann camp. James, Seve becames M N the main model for A N J Sieckmann’s short- Tom Sieckman’s closest Tour game system. pal (they finshing 1-2 at the ARLIE W CH I 1985 Q-School) becomes

S James’s first full-time h s pro student—and biggest o r r a t t proponent. G S AVE PELZ a e Short-game expert D m th who coaches both e Guru to Tom and James. Gives James his first As a rookie in 1996, becomes teaching job and helps Sieckmann’s second Tour client, cultivate critical starting a 17-year association thinking about practice that helps him reach No. 1 in and the short game. Total Putting several times. CLOCKWISE, FORM BOTTOM SPORTS ANGUS LEFT: MURRAY, ILLUSTRATED/GETTY IMAGES, DRICKEY, NATIONAL/GETTY AUGUSTA PATRICK IMAGES, NATIONAL/GETTY AUGUSTA ANGUS MURRAY, IMAGES, ROBERT ANGUS COURTESY BECK/SI MURRAY, T.P.I., ➔

July 2013 golf.com / GOLF MAGAZINE 103 COVER STORY: NEW SHORT-GAME SYSTEM

6 New Ways to Hit Wedge Shots

From chips to bunker shots to 60-yard pitches, here are James Sieckmann’s new rules for knocking down the flag with your short shots

OLD WAY Your Body Moves Your Club NEW WAY Your Club Moves 1 Your Body

Your short-game downswing should not an assertive strike ANGUS (2) MURRAY propelled by your body. In fact, is the latest in a long line of it’s little more than letting the Tour stars to join the Sieckmann camp and Says Sieckmann’s student club fall back to the ball in a unlock the new secrets to the short game. Nick Watney, who went from circle—letting gravity do the hard work—then letting your chest arms and hands,” says Sieckmann. “And 146th to 12th in Scrambling rotate to support the motion of that revelation can be an eye-opener.” in just one season, “The the clubhead. Also, don’t force Crane’s eyes were opened. One month the rotation of your hips before after his session with Sieckmann, Crane most important thing I’ve the club starts down, like on full won the at Torrey swings, or the club will drop under Pines en route to setting a career high in learned is that the short- the ideal plane with the face open season winnings with $2.8 million. A week game swing is the direct (what causes those weak shots later, Sieckmann met with , a to the right. In other words, swing famously deft chipper and . Even opposite of the long game.” with finesse, not power. the eight-time Tour winner was wowed by Sieckmann’s philosophy. “He knows more about the short game than anyone short swings, but didn’t fully understand I’ve ever met,” said Faxon. the data until I met James,” admits Rose. Soon, Sieckmann’s stable of students Says Sieckmann’s star pupil, five-time OLD WAY Square Stance grew to include Charley Hoffman, Nick Tour winner Nick Watney, “The most im- at Address Watney, , Lexi Thompson, I.K. portant thing I’ve learned from him is that NEW WAY Open Stance Kim, Bo Van Pelt, Cameron Tringale, Jeff the short-game swing is the direct opposite 2 at Address Overton and some 30 more touring profes- of the long game.” Indeed, Watney went sionals. “The floodgates opened for him from 146th in Scrambling in 2010 to 12th Set your back foot square to after what he did with Ben,” says Title- in 2011. “In full swings you want width your target line and flare your ist’s Rose. and power, but with a wedge you want less front foot with your heels almost width and more finesse, so the sequence touching. Opening up like this ose adds that three-dimensional has to change.” with your chest pointing more computer mapping by the Titleist For his part, Sieckmann now sees his toward the target moves the low Performance Institute suggests years toiling away in —hitting count- point of your swing in front of the that Sieckmann’s short-swing phi- less bags of numberless balls, all seemingly ball, freeing up the clubhead to Rlosophy—“it’s a finesse swing, not a power ending in failure—as a stroke of luck. “Be- produce crisper contact. sequence”—is dead on (see graph, previous cause I did everything wrong,” he says, “I

page). “We had data on hundreds of elite know what’s right.” ANGUS MURRAY

xx GOLF MAGAZINE / golf.com July 2013 OLD WAY Keep Your OLD WAY “Cut Across Head Still the Ball” NEW WAY Let Energy Flow NEW WAY Trace an On- 3 Toward the Target 4 Plane Swing Path

Good wedge players don’t keep The most efficient way to deliver their head rock-steady. Video the club to the ball on a short shot evidence proves that they move is to swing both the clubshaft their head toward the target a few and clubhead on the plane line inches during the backswing in established by the lie angle at what is essentially a reverse weight address. You can easily check if shift; then they either keep their you’re doing this by taking swings head still or move it even farther next to a mirror and charting forward in the downswing. This the clubhead’s path in your gets energy flowing toward the reflection. A neutral short swing target—a must for solid contact. doesn’t require manipulation.

OLD WAY Swing Square-to-Square NEW WAY Rotate the 5 Clubface

As you swing the club back on plane, let the clubface rotate open. An open clubface lets you release the club properly without fear of hitting the ball left. A released club produces a higher shot and allows you to use both the loft and bounce of the club to ensure better contact with the ball and ground.

OLD WAY “Hold” Your Follow-Through NEW WAY Release the 6 Clubhead

Despite what’s commonly taught, you shouldn’t “hold” onto your release by keeping your hands ahead of the clubhead past impact. Doing so requires tension, and tension destroys your rhythm and feel. In addition, it reduces the effective loft and bounce of the club, sharpening the leading edge so that it’s more likely to stick into the turf. ANGUS MURRAY ➔

July 2013 golf.com / GOLF MAGAZINE XX COVER STORY: NEW SHORT-GAME SYSTEM

How to Groove a Finesse Swing HIt chips with one arm to to feel the correct sequence of moves in your short swing

If you can hit solid chips using only your right arm, then you have the feel for the finesse sequence found in all short swings.

CLUBHEAD FOLLOWED SUPPORTED GOES FIRST BY RIGHT BY CHEST ARM AND HIPS ANGUS MURRAY

he new way to part. In other words, in which you allow the hit wedge shots you must swing in clubhead to pass your T comes down to the proper clubhead- hands and pause at changing the sequence leading-the-body the finish. You’ll know in your downswing so motion, or else you’ll hit you did it correctly if that the club moves fat or thin shots. Here’s the grip points at your faster than your arms how it’s done: belly button and the in the transition, As you start your face is slightly open. then learning how to downswing, focus on For the full effect, support the movement moving the clubhead place your left hand of the club with your first. It should reach on the handle while arms and chest. To do top speed before holding your finish. In this, try hitting shots anything else, followed order to fit your left with only your right arm by your arms, chest, hand on the handle (or your left, if you’re and finally your hips. you’ll notice that your a southpaw). “I know (Yes, this sequence left elbow must fold it sounds simplistic,” is the exact opposite and your left wrist says Sieckmann, of what you use in must cup a bit (you “but it’s a powerful your full swing.) It’s should see wrinkles in drill.” Why? Hitting critical that you turn the back of your left solid shots this way your chest through wrist). These are key

automatically creates impact to support moves to successfully ANGUS MURRAY the correct sequence the release of the release the clubhead Add your left hand to the handle in your swing, without club. Make a relaxed and optimize loft and at the end of the drill for a more any thinking on your right-arm-only swing bounce of the club. realistic feel of the proper finish.

xx GOLF MAGAZINE / golf.com July 2013 FINESSE ON TOUR Short and Sweet James Sieckmann’s Full-Time Professional Steal Nick Watney’s “finesse wedge” secrets in this frame-by-frame lesson Students

Nick Watney n a power swing, you switch in the way you movement by moving Sieckmann, “is finesse, 12th in Scrambling (2011) Bo Van Pelt want to generate mentally approach the club first. You can with your arms and + 57 spots in Proximity to as much speed both swings as well. think of it as a gentle the club swinging past Pin from 50–75 yards from I 2012 as possible—loft According to casting motion, but your lower body while and bounce are Sieckmann, the lone Sieckmann prefers your chest smoothly Ben Crane unimportant. “In a role of your lower body to let “gravity be your rotates toward the 6th in Scrambling (2013) finesse wedge swing,” on short shots is to friend.” You can see target at the same Charley Hoffman +117 spots in Sand Saves says Sieckmann, “you aid in balance. You how Watney’s hips pace.” If you hit your from 2012 want to control speed don’t use it to create don’t turn until after 5-iron this way, the Tom Pernice and maximize loft power. Notice how Nick the club gets back in ball would go nowhere. 1st in Putting, 11th in Sand and bounce.” There’s Watney, a Sieckmann front of his body. “Essentially,” he says, Saves (2013 Champions not only a change student since 2010, “The feeling you’re “great wedge players Tour) Charlie Wi in mechanics, but a initiates his downward after,” instructs are weak on purpose.” 3rd in Scrambling (2013) +81 spots in Scrambling since 2011 Kevin Chappell 6th in Sand Saves (2013) I.K. Kim 17th in Sand Saves, 4th in Putting (2012 LPGA) Cameron Tringale 16th in Sand Saves (2013)

Other Pro Students (past and present) Justin Rose Brad Faxon Alex Rocha David Toms James Driscoll Juli Inkster Tim Herron Camilo Villegas Nicholas Thompson Lexi Thompson Skip Kendall Duffy Waldorf Charlie Beljan Matt Harmon Jason Knutzon Richard Lee Steve Lowery John Rollins Danielle Kang ANGUS MURRAY Candie Kung Frank Lickliter Grant Waite “My biggest mistake is getting too much of my long-game swing in Joe Durant Bob Tway my short-game swing. Only when I learned to swing narrow and steep Kevin Stadler Scott McCarron with the right sequence did I learn that my short game could become Olin Browne D.J. Trahan a reliable scoring weapon.”—Nick Watney Sang-Moon Bay

July 2013 golf.com / GOLF MAGAZINE XX