The Key To A Repeating Golf Swing

Enhanced Edition

 

Copyright © 2022 Robert J. Cotter, Jr. - Instant Golf®

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Key To A Repeating Golf Swing

By Robert J. Cotter, Jr.

PREFACE – MY STORY .........................................................................	1
INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................	7
GOLF INSTRUCTION .............................................................................. More Information...Less Improvement!	9
THE GOAL ……………………………..………………………….................. What Are We Trying To Accomplish Anyway?	11
SPECIAL CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................. The Common Denominator Of The Greats	15
DISCOVERY ON A TOURNAMENT RANGE ……………..……................ Revelation at a PGA Tour Event	17
SPECIAL CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................. Ryder Cup Player Comment Lends A Clue	19
SPECIAL CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................. The Key To A Repeating Golf Swing	25
SWING SEQUENCES ……………………..………………………………..... See And Feel The Real Thing	29
THE SWING ………………..……………………………………….……..…... The Role Of The Body And The Arms	31
THE POWER SET-UP POSITION ……………………………………….…….... Setting Up Correctly Is "Free", But Priceless	33
THE BACK SWING ………………………...………………………...……….. The Power Of The “L”	45
THE DOWN SWING ……………………………………….…………....…….. Combine The Key With Gravity	53
WATCH THE KEY IN ACTION! .................................................................	57
BAD SHOTS ……………………………..……………………………………... The Proof is in the Grass	61
SIMPLE PRACTICE DRILLS ……………..………………………………....... Sam’s Secret for Striking Balance	65
THE CLUBFACE …………………………...……………………..………….... How It Meets The Ball	75
FINAL THOUGHTS ………………………..…………………………………... Putting It All Together - Some Additional Comments	79
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES TO IMPROVE YOUR GAME …..…………....	83

     December 2018 - As I write this update, the golf world is buzzing with the emergence of dominant young players who are proving themselves in big events and setting the stage for rivalries for years to come.

At 26 years of age, Rory Mcilroy has already garnered 11 PGA Tour wins including 4 major titles. Yet just as Rory was settling into the #1 spot in the world, a young phenom from Texas emerged by the name of Jordan Spieth. Barely 22, Jordan came within a whisker of following up his 2015 Masters and U.S. Open triumphs with a win at The Open Championship at St. Andrews, a trifecta feat that hadn't been accomplished since 1953. Not to be outdone, Aussie Jason Day broke through with his first major title at the 2015 PGA and roared to a 5 win season. What's more, Rickie Fowler grabbed the 2015 Players Championship Trophy in a thrilling playoff, breaking through in golf's "5th major" against arguably the toughest field in golf.

Not to be outshined, the 40+ year old PGA Tour veterans are still racking up wins with regularity. Padraiq Harrington, Jim Furyk, and Davis Love III (52!) added titles in 2015, while fellow future hall of famer Zach Johnson (39+) added the Open Championship trophy to his collection which joins his Masters Green Jacket at home.

This demonstrates that there is more than one way to get the job done at the highest levels of the game. Golfers like Jason and Rory capitalize on their ability to hit the ball a long way, while Jordan, Jim, and Zach play precision golf, surgically dissecting the golf course with precision shots from tee to green. And they all make key putts when it matters most.

Despite their physical differences, varying driver speeds, and swing idiosyncrasies, all the players above have one thing in common; a Repeating Golf Swing.

A repeating golf swing across all clubs, driver to wedge, consistently delivers the golf ball to mowed grass (vs. the rough, woods, or water)! This is the major factor that allows golfers like 45 year old Jim Furyk to compete against and beat other world class players 1/2 his age. Golf is an incredible game in that respect. Your scores can be inversely proportional to your age!

You too can develop a true Repeating Golf Swing; a swing that will propel your game to new heights and transform you from merely being a golfer to becoming a player. A player has a consistent swing and game that he or she can rely on, especially under pressure in a tournament, work league match, or weekend scramble with the family.

Let's Become A Player...

PREFACE – MY STORY

If you are brand new to the game of golf or have reached a plateau in your scoring, then you are in the right place.

If you have played for some time and are looking to end years of frustration and inconsistency, or are determined to break below a scoring level be it 100, 90, 80 or 70, then I am eager to show you how to do just that.

Before we get started, let me tell you a little about my background in this great game of golf as my experience and expertise is multifaceted.

I am a professional Golf Ball Design Engineer by trade and have worked for the industry leaders in that arena (you know the names). Chances are you may have played with balls that incorporated my designs, and my contributions have been recognized by the United States Patent Office.

I also write extensively on golf topics including instruction, equipment, and top players. My work has been published in leading golf publications in the US and Europe, and I communicate more knowledge through this other great vehicle called the Internet.

Those credentials aside, my real passion is playing the game and teaching it to others. In fact, the word obsession may more closely describe my interest in instruction.

This is, of course, why you are reading this book. You are seeking to take your game to a new level. Great, we are of the same mindset!

So let me tell you a bit about my introduction to playing this game as it will show you what is possible in your own pursuit of a great swing and lower scores.

You may be happy to know that I wasn’t born with a golf club in my hands. I was never on the Mike Douglas show hitting balls with Bob Hope at 2 years of age (like Tiger). I didn’t play junior, high school, or college golf.

In fact I had little interest in the game of golf the first 23 years of my life.

I often wondered how anyone could enjoy a “sport” that was so slow moving and boring. As far as I was concerned, golf was a game for nerds!

Yet my Father played and often had the TV broadcasts on every weekend in the spring and summer.

“How can you watch this stuff?” I would ask. He would reply, “Ah, it’s a great game, beautiful scenery, great people … it’s an acquired taste!”

This all changed one hot summer evening when he dragged me to the local driving range as he was preparing for a league match the next day.

After hitting 20 balls or so he handed me an old persimmon driver and said, “Here, you give it a try”.

After 5 swings and a string of expletives, I’d missed one, banged a few off the side of the stall, and managed a slice so violent it crawled up the right side range netting and headed out toward the street.

Not a great start to my golf career. But before the night was through, I had managed to get a few out there into the dark sky. And that sound off the driver was, well, quite cool.

So the next day I flipped through a few Golf Digests that were lying around the house, studied a few pictures, and headed back out to the range the same night.

What a train wreck! Only 1 in 5 balls were getting airborne and going in the general direction as planned. And this was mainly because my tempo was good. If I timed one correctly, then contact was decent, and we had a “lift off” of sorts.

And those few solid shots kept me coming back. Sound familiar?

Now on another night I heard the local pro giving a lesson behind me in the stall at the end of the range.

I couldn’t hear any of the instruction, but I always knew when he took that club out of his student’s hands and struck the ball. His impact sounded like a gun shot! I had never heard anything like that sound. The crack and fizz of the ball climbing and then falling gently to the left was a sight to see.

I wanted to do that, and I was determined to figure out how.

So I started hitting 500 balls and playing 1-2 times a week after work and/or on the weekends.

Now in this game, if you spend that much time at it you may reach a level of repeatability with your swing that allows you to break 100.

For me, I found my leveling point was the low 90’s, about a 17 handicap. It was frustrating to hit that sticking point as I would routinely play with older gents that were, shall we say, a bit round in the trunk.

These guys would smoke their way around the course (literally) and rack up par after par. “You’ll get there, young guy” they would say after totaling up their 77’s and 74’s.

This reality check would become one of my first data points in my pursuit of a consistent, repeating golf swing.

Namely, it doesn’t take a certain body type or athletic ability to play great golf.

Great golfers walk by you all the time on the street. You wouldn’t know them by any special physical attributes. They come in all ages, shapes, & sizes.

At about 8 months into the game I was starting to break 90. Admittedly, those were the days the putter was working better than usual.

While my ball striking was slowing improving, I was still having frequent blow up holes that kept me stuck at a mid teen handicap level.

I had not built a true repeating swing, a swing that would enable me to consistently break 80 on virtually any course in the country.

Also at this point I was in college pursuing a degree in engineering, though it wasn’t clear what I was going to do with that certificate after graduation.

With my golf addiction in full bloom, I would find myself skipping out to the course a few times a week after classes to squeeze in 18 before dark.

On one of these occasions, something unexpected happened.

It was a gloomy autumn day. The clouds were rolling in and rain was on the way. But I was determined to get my round in before the storm hit.

The first nine wound up in typical fashion, my usual 44. But the back nine was a different story.

I knew I had to have an efficient inward 9 holes to score well and beat the rain. There was no room for side trips into the woods, or losing strokes to water hazards.

I can still remember the eerie calm I had on that back nine. There was also a perceptible change in my body and swing. With those ominous clouds hanging overhead, I started to hit shot after shot dead square on the center of the clubface.

My swing felt effortless and the club tracked right back into the ball with precision. I can remember the snap and fizz of the same Balata ball I had started the round with, an old red numbered Titleist.

With the bad weather closing in, I was moving through that back nine from Point A to Point B and I was racking up par after par with a few birdies mixed in on the par 5’s. I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I new one thing:

My golf swing was on autopilot.

I knew before each swing that contact was going to be solid and I could see the entire ball flight in my mind. My swing was repeating like never before.

When it was over, I had shot 34 on the back for a total of 78.

In that one round my game and future had changed. I had gone from being someone who played golf, to being a player. I had, for at least one day, joined the <5% of golfers who break 80.

That day would fundamentally change my life as in the weeks that followed, it became clear that my engineering degree would be put to use in the Golf Industry.

Sure, I wanted to design balls and clubs. But I had an ulterior motive for that pursuit.

I knew that if I entered that circle I would be around the best golfers in the world. And that meant I could study their swings up close and personal, and hone in on the true essence of a Tour Caliber golf swing. It was a win/win situation!

You see, that 78 was born out of a lot of hard work (and there were sub 80 rounds after that one). But the truth is that I didn’t know exactly what had happened that day, and I couldn’t reproduce it at will. A big piece of the puzzle was still missing.

Just like when David Duval, Annika Sorenstam (and Jim Furyk in 2013) shot 59, they swung the club and hit the putts, but they were equally at a loss for exactly why it happened.

Was it something that I had discovered in my mechanics that grooved my swing for those 9 holes, or was it a mental shift that allowed me to perform to my potential? I wasn’t sure, but it was a great feeling, and I would quantify it in the near future.

It would be a few years later while in the golf industry working with top players that I would discover what I call “The Key To A Repeating Golf Swing”.

While testing golf ball designs with touring pros, I had a unique vantage point to view and “absorb” the best swings in the game as they sampled our new ball designs.

One day I noticed something that all these great swings had in common that I had overlooked for years. It was my “Aha” moment!

That quickly led to a theory, some testing, and bang, the proof in my own game. It was real, it worked, and it transformed my game, virtually overnight.

In essence, I had (re)discovered The Key that had worked so well back on that autumn day years before.

The puzzle was solved and my true Repeating Golf Swing was born.

Since that day on the test range, I have had the privilege of teaching The Key to over 10,000 golfers in 60+ countries, both in person and via the internet. The testimonials have been astounding and it gives me great pleasure to share my experience with eager, serious golfers.

In the pages that follow, you will learn what The Key is, why it works for golfers at all ability levels, and how to use it with every club in your bag (driver thru sand wedge).

This is the exact method I use every time I swing a golf club. It is the fundamental of a sound repeating golf swing and I can not play without it.

Even if I haven’t played for awhile, I can pull those clubs from the car trunk, head to the range or course, and use The Key to immediately dial in my repeating swing. You will be able to do the same if you diligently apply what I am about to show you in the next few minutes.

When playing under pressure, The Key will guide you through the round from start to finish. Just as it did for me when I first broke 80, you will experience a new governing force in your swing. You will be a master of your swing and truly own it. As one student put it, “now I can feel it – now I know it.”

I’d like the opportunity you help you transform your game this season. I’ve been where you are right now with your golf, stuck at a scoring level or brand new to the game.

Let’s shorten your path to success and put the frustration to rest. There’s great golf to be played wherever you are in the world.

Welcome Aboard!

The Power Golf Set-up Position

Setting Up Correctly Is "Free", But Priceless

I see it all the time at the range and on the course. And it used to be a big problem in my own game.

Golfers of all levels sabotage their swings and scores before they even start moving the club away from the ball. I am talking about the all critical address or set-up position.

What happened here? Well, it's a funny thing.

It is often taught that the golf swing is a circle, or has a 1/2 circular shape. "Swing the Clubhead on a circular path!" is one mantra I often hear in swing talk circuits.

In reality, the swing arc is not circular. It anything, it has more of an ellipse shape (an elongated circle, like an oval). Plus the backswing and downswing paths are not the same. Hence, the Golf Swing is not Symmetrical.

There are several reasons for this, but here is one of the biggest:

One hand sits below the other on the grip.

This fact instantly assures that the golf swing is not symmetrical. And this greatly influences everything about the swing.

Check this out: When a golfer has his or her lead hand (the left for a right hand golfer) on the club and then places the right hand on the grip, something interesting happens.

The trailing or right shoulder moves closer to the target line
and the lead shoulder moves away from the line.

Try it right now right where you are sitting (no golf club needed). Extend your lead arm and take your grip. Now add your other hand. Feel those shoulders move? It is even more pronounced when you have a club and are at address.

So when the unsuspecting golfer addresses the ball, those shoulders are pointing away from the Ball (Target) line and Toe Line:

Ideally, for medium and long length clubs, the fee/knees/hips/shoulders should be parallel to the ball (target) line. It they are not the golfer will be in a lot of trouble, particularly with the longest clubs.

You see even golfers with the slowest swing speeds can generate club head speeds of 75 mph. When that club head meets the ball... look out!

The arms will always have a tendency to follow those body lines, particularly the shoulders. After all the arms are are attached to the shoulders.

Open shoulders will cause the club to cut across the ball, imparting a slice spin. Or if the club face is manipulated, a vicious hook can result. This adverse side spin is most exaggerated with the longest club, the driver.

The following images are drawings derived directly from over head photographs of my swing (in this instance, the set-up position). In this frame I am using a 5 iron. This alignment grid applies for all clubs in the bag form 7 iron to driver.

I find the aerial view particularly useful to the golf student. I incorporate a lot of them throughout the rest of this book, in both right and left handed versions.

Note the grid lines on the images. I call these my "Channels of Success". Study these images long and hard:

From now on, when you take your grip and settle into your address position, make an effort to square up those shoulders to the target line by pulling your trail shoulder back a little to compensate for your lower hand on the club. That way you will be right on track and ready to pull the trigger.

You will also find that your back swing will start straight back nicely (precisely) before it comes up and to the inside (as opposed to moving outside the line first).

The perfect set-up above starts you off in the perfect position to then put the club into a powerful top of the back swing position.

From there, you put The Key to a Repeating Golf Swing in action on the downswing which is fully explained in the coming chapters.

The Key To A Repeating Golf Swing delivers the club face right back into the ball with power and consistency. Many of my students comment that the sound of impact when using The Key is 3 dimensional and echoes down the range or fairway.

All great players, past and present, male and female, are performing The Key whether they are consciously aware of it or not.

When The Key is performed correctly, the down swing will be on auto pilot. You will be held captive by your own great swing.

Impact sounds like a gunshot (especially off the driver) and the golf ball is compressed as efficiently as possible. You will use all of your available swing speed with no power leaks, just like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and company.

I go into detail shortly exactly what these elements are and how to achieve them, and then I show you how to quickly educate your body to reproduce them so the downswing swing becomes virtually automatic.

And the experience is the same for Men, Women, and Junior golfers, whether they are picking up a club for the first time after 40, or trying to shave off those last few strokes to break 70.

If you are not happy with your game and are looking for a new direction this 2020 season and beyond, I would like the opportunity to help you by showing you The Key To A Repeating Golf Swing and my complete swing technique.

You will benefit from my firsthand experience inside the ropes, working with some of the top players in the game. I am convinced you will benefit tremendously from my swing instruction, short game strategy, and expert golf ball recommendations (learn more below).

In all my years of playing golf, I have concluded that a golfer can not break 80 without a repeating golf swing. It does not have to be perfect, but it must be reproducible. When a repeating swing takes form, a whole new level of satisfaction results as the golfer is now able to play the game the way it was intended.

My trademark move, The Key, delivers the club head right back through the ball with precision power and control. It is the star of the show. I can't play without it.

In fact my discovery of The Key was the very catalyst for my whole career in the golf industry. It was also the sole factor that...

Took my scores from the 110's to the 70's after struggling for years
with inconsistent ball striking and a stagnant handicap.

I'll show you exactly what I've shown over 10,000 golfers from 61 countries, many of whom broke 80 in their very next round after putting The Key into use.

I have also added some great bonuses to my 2022 complete package including Lifetime expert, yet brand unbiased new Golf Ball Reviews.