COVER STORY: NEW SHORT-GAME SYSTEM THE NEW WAY TO HIT YOUR TOUR-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 system is sweeping the PGA Tour, and it’s easy for you to learn. The Top 100 Teacher who discovered it (above left) shows you the new way to control shots from 40 yards and in, with help from his star pupil Nick Watney. 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 golf.com / GOLF MAGAZINE 109 COVER STORY: NEW SHORT-GAME SYSTEM a client list most instructors would die for, THE SECRET’S IN Sieckmann toiled in obscurity. DOWNSWING THE SEQUENCE “Part of it stems from living in Omaha,” 575 Chipping Away HIPS Titleist’s 3-D motion-capture data says Sieckmann. “And I never thought I TORSO proves Sieckmann’s system is correct— should market myself or advertise. I was ARMS 20 years after he began teaching it. 431 CLUB After struggling for four years on mini-tours at home and abroad, James Sieckmann turned to teaching— happy teaching the members at Shadow and had an epiphany that’s changing the way pros and amateurs swing when they’re near the green. Ridge and seeing my guys out on Tour In a solid power swing, the hips reach Here’s how our new Top 100 Teacher went from a failed player to the Tour’s hottest short-game guru. when they needed help.” 288 maximum speed first, then pass the Sieckmann’s stock skyrocketed after energy to the torso, then the arms, 2009, when Greg Rose, co-founder of the and finally the hands and clubhead. This 144 uring the 1994 Players Champion- and while a standout at the University of Titleist Performance Institute, asked the “Kinetic Sequence” is undisputed in golf ship, James Sieckmann, then 29, Nebraska, and from PGA teachers—was best wedge player he knew—Pernice—to teaching and research. But in a finesse CLOCKWISE ROTATION CLOCKWISE caddied for his older brother, Tom, wrong. He was certain of it. “I’m not saying help Titleist staffer Ben CraneADDRESS with his swing, the sequence changes, and the a PGA Tour winner. After a valiant I was lied to,” says Sieckmann today, now pitching and bunker game. “I just told graph at left (plotting the rotational Dbut failed attempt to make a dent on the 48. “People just didn’t know. Neither did I.” [Crane] to go see my coach, James Sieck- speed of key body parts on a short-game -144 leaderboards on the Asian Tour, the younger He smiles. “But suddenly I felt like I did.” mann,” says Pernice. swing) proves it. Notice that the club Sieckmann had turned to teaching. He had And now he had a plan to change the way Sieckmann met Crane at the Madison (orange line) moves first and fastest and worked under the tutelage of Dave Pelz at golf is played around the greens. Club in La Quinta, Calif., in January 2010. -288 that the torso (green line] and arms the short-game giant’s schools in Austin Since the 1990s, Sieckmann has contin- They worked on address, plane and espe- (blue line) immediately outpace the hips and Boca Raton, and was about to become ued to spotlight the subtle technical dif- cially sequence. Crane was following the BACKSWING OF TOP IMPACT (red line) at the start of the downswing— the director of instruction at Shadow Ridge ferences between what golfers are taught chain of events common to full swings: The -431 the opposite of what you do in your C.C. in Omaha, Neb. He’d come to TPC Saw- versus what the best players do on short hips or legs initiate the downswing,0 and0.3 0.5 0.8 1.0 full swing.1.3 Also notice1.5 how the chest1.8 grass to haul his big brother’s bag—and do shots. His research and analysis has formed the arms and club follow. But the method keeps pace with the club, supporting some homework. the backbone of the short-game method Sieckmann created from watching the likes TIME FROM ADDRESS (SECS) its motion instead of slowing down into When not looping that week, Sieck- that’s now used by more than 40 players on of Ballesteros and Floyd reverses that se- impact as it does on power swings. The mann paced the practice area, observing the PGA and LPGA tours, and which he says quence on swings when you’re 40 yards TPI’s motion-capture sequence of a Tour-level lesson? Reverse your swing sequence and recording several players on video- is easily learnable for everyday players (see or less from the green. “Basically, the ➔ short swing validates Sieckmann’s theories. for better touch on short shots. tape. He captured Greg Norman hitting “6 New Ways to Hit Wedge Shots,” p. 112). bunker shots, Raymond Floyd chipping, “The methods I teach are iron-clad,” and short-game savants Corey Pavin and boasts Sieckmann. “They’re born from the Wayne Grady hitting lofted pitches. He also techniques used by some of the greatest recorded two of his brother’s close friends, short-game players in history—what they The 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 who would prove pivotal in his teaching of actually did, not just what they said they 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. the short game: Tom Pernice, the one-time did.” He adds, “It’s nearly impossible for S C SOLAR . UCLA star considered a master of the short the average player to copy the full-swing REG ROS SIECKM G E SYSYEM M AN O N game; and Seve Ballesteros, the greatest mobility or sheer power of a Tour player, T greenside shotmaker of his era, if not ever. but he can easily copy the way the best pros The serendipitous N CRANE When Sieckmann reviewed the footage dial it in from inside 40 yards.” genesis of the BE back home in Omaha—studying it over and Dave Pelz credits Sieckmann’s work ethic hottest short-game The West Omaha course, method on Tour designed by Tom Sieckmann, over, backward and forward—he noticed as one reason for his ascendance. “James allows James to start his something unusual. Ballesteros, Pernice, already had extensive knowledge of how own golf academy in 1994. Norman—all the top players—were break- to play the game when he worked for our ER M P NIC ing every short-game rule he’d learned. schools,” says Pelz. “But the fact that he TO E ALLES A friend of Tom’s E B TE PGA Tour player introduced Sieckmann, like most of us, was always worked so hard on his own skills gave him V R and the best short- E O to Sieckmann through Pernice told to make a miniature version of his a deep understanding of what it took to im- game player in history. S S and Rose. His success starts full swing and to keep his hands ahead of prove. And he had sincere empathy for the Videoed extensively by an avalanche of elite players James, Seve became SIECKM to the Sieckmann camp. ES A the clubhead, but there was Seve swinging struggles that golfers of all skill levels en- the main model for M N Sieckmann’s short- A N the club past his body with the touch of a dure, an attribute of all top-notch teachers.” J game system. ARLIE W Tom Sieckmann’s closest CH I surgeon. He was told to keep the clubface Tour pal (they finshed 1-2 square on short shots, but there was Pernice uccess, if not celebrity, came in the at the 1985 Q-School as S roomies) becomes James’s h s rotating the face open in his backswing on late 1990s and early 2000s. Per- o o first full-time pro student— r r VE PELZ t P both short and long pitch shots. He was nice made Sieckmann his full-time Short-game expert who DA - e and biggest proponent. Ga h told to keep his head still, but there was short-game coach in 1996 (“I credit coaches both Tom and m to t James. Gives James e Guru Floyd setting open with a flared left foot SJames with prolonging my career because my his first teaching job As a rookie in 1996, becomes and moving his head toward the target. scoring relies so much on short shots,” says and helps cultivate Sieckmann’s second Tour client, ANGUS (3) MURRAY Sieckmann’s critical starting a 17-year association Then a thunderbolt struck Sieckmann. Pernice) and helped his teacher land clients thinking about practice that helps him reach No. 1 in Sieckmann on Tour and at work and the short game. The short-game swing that’s taught as with (from top) Ben Crane, Charley such as Charlie Wi, Skip Kendall, Frank Lick- Total Putting several times. gospel—and that he learned in junior golf, Hoffman and Kevin Chappell.