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Controlling is the face is one of the most important parts of the game. Learn what causes the face to open.

ALEX GAUGERT

You improve as long as you work on your swing, so practice. Anywhere you can.

BILLY FITZGERALD

Counterbalancing helps reduce the natural movement in the clubhead that inevitably happens while swinging golf clubs. This movement can't be stopped but can be controlled with counterbalancing. You can do this when getting fitted for your putter. 

A club fitter will have you try a putter, and then they can add different weighted sticks inside the top of the club shaft. The purpose is to find an ideal putter weight for you and counterbalance that weight with the weighted sticks in the shaft. 

With the right counterbalance, you will find that your speed control gets significantly better. Counterbalancing offers more stability. The more weight you have in the top of your shaft, the more it will bring you to the center balance of the club. This changes the feel of the club. The extra weight offers more control over the clubs. 

It also allows the momentum of the clubhead to do different things a lot easier. There are, in fact, many players that counterbalance all of their clubs. Jack Nicklaus used lead tape to wrap on the inside of the shaft. Adding more weight to the top of the shaft allows you to pivot the club better when you swing the club. This counterbalance makes that easier to do. 

Mike suggests that the value of counterbalancing comes down to how it feels. It can create a sensation that makes you hit the ball better. Many players counterbalance their putters; some also do their irons and drivers. Mike puts lead tape on the end of his drivers but not on his irons. 

COUNTERBALANCING YOUR CLUBS

The LPGA players are amazing athletes. Practice using the skills they use to improve your game.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE LPGA PLAYERS

Make sure that when you practice that the first thing you do is set up your practice station. You can be as detailed with this as you want. But make sure you have a stick on the ground or a reference for set up and target line. Then add more control tools. Make sure you take control of what you have control of. Your set up aim grip and ball position. If those are consistent you have a good chance of building a repeatable swing.

HOW TO PRACTICE - CHALLENGE

The movements in baseball are very similar to those in golf. Learn how to apply your knowledge of throwing to your golf swing.

LEARNING TRANSITION THROUGH BASEBALL

Maintaining balance is key to controlling the golf swing.

CHIPPING FITNESS

SEE THE SHOT

Playing mad doesn't mean you'll play well.

DON'T GET MAD, GET QUIET

As a first goal, focus on hitting the ball out.

DOWNHILL GREENSIDE BUNKER

Performance Combines to put your skills to the test.

MLM: PERFORMANCE COMBINES

There are two types of swings in golf. The first swing requires timing the club through impact. The second swing is more reliable.  Use your instinct to decide what to use.

THE TWO TYPES OF SWINGS

A waggle is not a random jumble of movements. A waggle consists of elements that you are actively bringing into your swing. If it is random, it's not helping.

NOT A RANDOM WAGGLE

Get the Tension Out of Your Swing is this week’s Mulligan Monday.

Hold your golf club like a baseball bat and set it on your shoulder. Turn your shoulders back, start your legs forward, swing the club, and let your arms go.

Start moving with your body and feel the club whip with your arms. Your hands and wrists are relaxed, and the club unhinges and rehinges by itself.

When you hold the club this way, it’s easy to feel that motion. Try to copy that in your swing.

GET THE TENSION OUT OF YOUR SWING

The left arm rotates from the shoulder, not from the forearm.

LEFT ARM ROTATION

Mike uses exercise bands to do reverse chest openers.

He places the bands behind his back. Depending on your strength, you can use one or two bands.

First, Mike stretches the band; then lets it pull his arms back, feeling the stretch. Then he bends from his waist and turns his arms back and forth. When the band pulls the arms back, it contracts your scapula. Also, when you turn, you can feel your scapula load on your left and right sides as you rotate your arms.

This is an excellent exercise.

REVERSE CHEST OPENERS

Directing momentum of the club correctly.

DIRECTING THE MOMENTUM OF THE CLUB

The basic first stretch to evaluate your flexibility and body alignment.

FLEXIBILITY

RAPSODO PARTNER VIDEO

Step 1: Create Width. Step 2: Push away - transfering force away from the direction of the swing - not up. Step 3: Re-hinge the club; this requires relaxation, which increases speed.

ADDING DISTANCE REVIEW

Posture and balance are important in all motions. In putting you take your set up by. First take your grip get your trail arm in line with the shaft. Then weight is in the center of your feet. Your toes are quiet. Then push your hips back and place the putter on the ground. The putter shaft is aiming just above your belly button or to the middle of your back.

POSTURE

This week's Mulligan Monday is about maintaining tempo with your clubs.

Mike talks about making swings at different lengths with the same tempo. His tempo is one-two. It doesn't matter if Mike is making a short or longer swing; the tempo is still the same. This applies to any club in your bag, including the driver.

The tempo stays the same; however, the swing gets longer, so the club goes faster.

Practice maintaining or finding a tempo and be consistent with all your clubs.

MAINTAINING TEMPO

How the clubface directs the ball with the leading edge.

CONTROL THE LEADING EDGE

When it comes to playing this game well you have to develop face control. Your hands control the face and the face controls the ball. Every day you should set up a series of balls. Put a club face in your hands and feel how your hands control the angle of the face. Then take your grip and hit hooks, Fades, Low shots and high shots. All with the same grip and set up. Do it in slow motion. Then gradually build speed. Do not try to do this at high speeds. That is not the drill. Get control first speed second. 

FACE CONTROL DRILL

The M-System Bunkers series is all about throwing sand. The concept is hitting and throwing sand. You are not trying to hit the ball.

Next, Mike explains the idea that the ball goes where the sand goes. The clubface works with the sand differently. Where the clubface is aimed isn’t where the ball will go.

Mike covers hand action, which is more of a level swing than an up-down action because you are trying to hit down and throw the sand.

Lastly, Mike talks about setup and how you need to be stable and control your swing circle. Distance, control of swing, uneven lies, how you set up, and how to use the club are other topics Mike covers in The M-System Bunker Series.

BUNKERS

Golf is a game of emotion and adjustment. You have to be able to read yourself in order to adapt to the game.

READING YOURSELF

Your left thumb can create a lot of tension in your wrist, arm, and shoulder.

Mike explains how the left thumb has caused many problems in golf. He emphasizes the use of the left thumb is more for support. If you use your thumb to push down on the handle, it can cause tension.

In baseball, your thumb isn't extended in the grip. The same is for tennis. The thumb isn't on the back of the racket. Because Mike came from a baseball background, he used that same grip when he began playing golf.

When you take your thumb off and make a swing, your arms are relaxed, and it is easy to rehinge the club on the follow-through. As you put your thumb on the shaft, make sure there is no pressure. Don't push down on the shaft with your thumb; this creates tension. On the backswing, your thumb acts as a stabilizer to the shaft. When you swing down to impact, your thumb is loose, and on the follow-through, your thumb stops the club from collapsing at the end.

Mike suggests getting your thumb off your grip. Make practice swings to feel how loose your hands, wrists, and shoulders should be. If your thumb comes into play and pushes on the shaft, it will lock your elbow, wrist, and shoulder, making it hard for your hands to work on the follow-through.

Again, swing without your thumb on the shaft and switch back to using it without the tension.

PROBLEMS THE LEFT THUMB CREATES

The trail arm works the same in most all shots. It lines up with the shaft of the club you are hitting at impact. Start with your putter. Set up with just your trail arm. Your wrist is parallel to the club face. Then hit puts just using your trail arm. Your forearm should line up with the shaft. It pushes the shaft through the ball. The key is that your forearm does not twist. You can then do the same thing with your lead arm. The task is to make a stroke where the arm does not rotate. Then put both hands on the putter and hit some putts. This is the same relationship of your trail arm with even your driver.

IMPACT DRILL - PUTTING

As an instructor, you want to know what you are teaching works. Make opposite side swings to challenge the complexity of what you're offering students. It'll also help keep your body balanced.

OPPOSITE SIDE SWINGS FOR INSTRUCTORS

Knowing what club and swing you will need will put you in a good place. Practice reading the lie.

READING THE LIE

Sammy Slice helps us with our Quick Fix Friday.

If you are making a fairway shot and you want to hit the ball farther and not slice, then work with your clubface and grip.

First, close your clubface, and second, strengthen your left hand. Once you do that, the ball will go straight and not slice.

Make sure you aim more to the right, but your old swing path will bring you back onto the alignment stick, and the ball goes right up to the green.

Make this quick fix, and you will play better.

SAMMY SLICE DON’T SLICE ON THE FAIRWAYS

Most lies in bunkers are uneven or 'tilted.'

BUNKERS AND UNEVEN LIES

Start reading the green from the fairway.

100 YARDS OUT

Harry Hooker works on chipping for this Mulligan Monday.

Harry sets up a target line. Typically his swing goes out to the right, so Harry needs to figure out how to swing around to the left.

At first, you might hit it to the left because the club goes left.

The solution is to open the clubface, and the ball should go straight when the club goes left.

HARRY HOOKER CHIPPING OPEN THE CLUBFACE

Tossing the club in either hand keeps your wrists relaxed. The trick is to maintain this in the swing.

CLUB TOSS 101

You set up to the ball just outside the first ball. As you make your back swing you step your trail foot back. Then you step your lead foot back then hit the ball. You keep repeating this for as many balls as you have lined up. This is important because your instinct needs to be to move away from the ball. This is one of the best drills to teach you that offsetting force. 

WALK AWAY DRILL

MERRIL HOGE

Mike looks at how to hit a massive lob for this Quick Fix Friday. He takes his lob wedge and explains that it’s all about the grip in your left hand. There are two things you need to do.

First, take your thumb and little finger off, then put your right hand on and swing like a baseball bat. Mike demonstrates a baseball swing with his wedge.

Mike sets up with these two adjustments, thumb and finger off the club. This helps the club pass his hands when he swings.

Mike swings, the club passes his hands, and the bounce works with a massive high lob shot onto the green.

HITTING THE MASSIVE LOB

What happens to the driver after impact? If you intend on increasing speed, your arms will allow the club to re-hinge. If you prevent this, you increase tension, which slows down your swing.

RE-HINGE

The secret to chipping is actually your putting stroke.

CHIPPING

If you watch a hammer thrower. Or if you create the action with a basket and some balls. As the hammer and or weight swings around you. You are constantly offsetting the motion of the basket with an opposite force. This is what accelerates the basket and or maintains the circle and the balance. If you move into the force created by the basket you are immediately off balance. Plus the basket slows down. Tension then tries to make compensations to regain control. The same skills or tasks in throwing the hammer are what happens in a golf swing. I have never had someone swing a weight around them and move into or the same direction the weight moves. It is not instinct. So try this simple motion and feel how your body moves where is force going in your feet. Then duplicate it in a swing.

HAMMER THROW

Line of compression is the feeling your right hand has on the back of the shaft at the impact position.

LINE OF COMPRESSION

When it comes to combining motions there is an order in which it needs to be done. First, is set up and balance. Then, the main task is impact. Learn what that is. Then, gradually develop your swing based on the task of impact. Start with small swings and gradually build the motion until you are to full swing.

M4: COMBINING SKILLS

Once you have a proper grip then it becomes how your hands control the face. To learn this you need to hit different shots. How your hands manipulate the face is what makes the ball curve. You need to curve the ball to the left, to the right, and be able to hit it straight. Practicing these curves until you can make them happen on command is a basic skill and task. It is very important that you have this control before you move too much speed. You are only as good as your ability to control the curve on the ball or the face.

FACE CONTROL

How to bring atheltic movement to your golf swing.

ATHLETIC MOVEMENT IN THE GOLF SWING

A Malaska Golf member wants to know how to shape up his game.

Mike suggests you begin by working on your grip; however, he wants to focus on the swing first.

To begin, drop your right foot back and start making swings, doing the "L to L" drill. Make the "L" on your backswing and the "Reverse L" on the follow-through.

Most people struggle because when they swing, their body takes off, and they can't get back square to impact. The lever system is a great drill to make this work and doesn't put your chest out in front of the club.

Mike sets up, his right foot back, and makes the "L to L" swing as he hits the ball. This drill should be easy to do. It doesn't help to go any further if you struggle with this. This skill is crucial to help you to master the full swing.

Practice the "L to "L" Drill on the range before you go out to play.

SHAPE UP YOUR GAME

In the final video of the Player Lesson series, Mike Malaska helps Jimmy Pearcy master the art of shot control. This session focuses on teaching Jimmy how to shape his shots by understanding the relationship between the clubface and his hands. Building on the relaxed mechanics, leverage, and grip fundamentals from previous lessons, Mike introduces the techniques that allow golfers to control ball flight with precision and creativity.Mike begins by explaining the concept of shot shaping. He demonstrates how the clubface position—whether slightly open, closed, or neutral—affects the ball’s trajectory. By making subtle adjustments, a golfer can hit higher or lower shots, fade or draw the ball, or produce a straight shot. Mike likens this control to manipulating a tennis or pickleball racket, where small changes in angle and motion create spin and direction.To make the concept tangible, Mike sets up a series of drills. He starts by having Jimmy hold the clubface in his hands, showing him how to tilt it to simulate low, high, left, and right shots. Mike emphasizes that these adjustments don’t require big, forceful movements but rather small, controlled changes in how the hands and wrists guide the club through impact.The lesson progresses to hitting actual shots. Mike asks Jimmy to take his proper grip and address the ball, then manipulate the clubface to hit a hook, a fade, and a straight shot. Each shot requires Jimmy to focus on a different aspect of the clubface and its interaction with the ball. For a hook, Jimmy must slightly close the face; for a fade, he opens it; and for a straight shot, the face must remain square.At first, Jimmy struggles to coordinate the adjustments with his swing. Mike patiently guides him, reminding him to stay relaxed and let the momentum of the club do the work. He reiterates the importance of trusting the lever system in his hands and wrists, which naturally aligns the face without unnecessary tension. As Jimmy practices, his shots start to curve in the intended directions, and he begins to feel more control over the ball.Mike stresses that the ability to shape shots is a critical skill for any golfer. It allows players to navigate different course conditions, such as hitting low shots under the wind or curving the ball around obstacles. By developing this skill, Jimmy gains not only versatility but also confidence in his ability to handle various challenges on the course.To reinforce the lesson, Mike compares shaping golf shots to playing other sports. He explains that in tennis or pickleball, players learn to add spin or change trajectory by making slight adjustments to the racket. Golf, he notes, is no different: it’s about using the hands to control the clubface rather than relying solely on body movements or brute force.As the session continues, Mike challenges Jimmy to practice these techniques consistently. He encourages him to spend time experimenting with different shapes and trajectories, focusing on feel rather than distance. The goal, Mike explains, is not to hit the ball as hard as possible but to understand how to control the clubface and let the momentum of the swing dictate the shot.By the end of the lesson, Jimmy experiences a breakthrough. For the first time, he feels in control of where the ball is going and how it’s getting there. He realizes that shot shaping isn’t about making drastic changes to his swing but about subtle adjustments to the clubface and trusting the natural motion of his hands.Reflecting on the entire series, Jimmy expresses gratitude for the lessons Mike has provided. He appreciates how the focus on fundamentals, from grip and leverage to speed and control, has transformed his understanding of the game. With a relaxed, efficient swing and newfound control over his ball flight, Jimmy feels equipped to take his golf game to the next level.This final lesson concludes the series, leaving Jimmy with the tools and confidence to approach every shot with precision, creativity, and a clear understanding of his swing. By mastering shot control, he is now prepared to tackle any challenge on the course and enjoy the game at a higher level.

DIAL IN YOUR SHOT CONTROL

CHRIS LEBIEDZ

Creating an indoor practice hitting area for the off-season.

INDOOR PRACTICE

The right hand and clubface work in harmony with your left hip to get the club on the ball.