Now Mike Malaska wants retired MLB pitcher Garrett Richards to swing a longer club, a 7-iron. Mike adjusts Garrett's grip and says he should see three knuckles on his left hand. Mike can see four knuckles. Mike puts his thumb on the side of the shaft, and his right hand comes in to complete his grip. Mike uses a Sharpie to draw on Garrett’s glove to show him how everything lines up.

Garrett’s first shot is mishit off the hosel, but his next shot is much better. Mike starts laughing because he is amazed by Garrett's hand speed. This is because of baseball.

Mike still isn’t completely happy with Garrett’s grip because his left hand isn’t as strong as he wants it to be. He also wants to work on small shots so Garrett can get a feel for how to control the clubface and hit different shots with his new grip.

To illustrate this, Mike takes the club to hit different shots. When he makes his backswing, he challenges Garrett to call different shots for Mike to hit. He calls a high, low, fade, and a draw. Mike tells him to call any shot to make, even combo them. This exercise is to teach Garrett that it is important to control the clubface. Mike believes it will be easy for Garrett to do so because of his experience as a pitcher and his ability to control baseball with his fingers. Mike wants him to make that comparison from baseball to golf.

Mike takes the clubhead in his right hand and shows him how he uses the pressure of his hand to control the clubface: low, high, curve it left or to the right. Then he shows him how it moves in his left hand and then with both hands.

Mike explained to Garrett that he had time in the backswing to make small adjustments with his hands to hit different shots. Mike compared this to making slight corrections when throwing a baseball, which Garrett could easily do. Mike put the clubface in Garrett’s hand and showed him all the different shots he could make.

From now on, when Garrett grips the golf club handle, he is essentially holding the clubface.

Garrett sets up to the ball, and Mike is going to get him to practice curving it. Mike emphasizes that the Tour Players are savants with their hands and can make the clubface do anything. Once Garrett can do this, his game will get really good.

Mike gets Garrett to hit different shots and to make different adjustments to how he hits the ball. If he hits it straight, then program that feeling, and if he curves it, then do the same thing. As you practice correctly, it’s all about programming your hands and the clubface to hit shots. 

Garrett wants to know how it works with left-handed pitchers. Mike says he can still work with them as their right hand is still pretty good. They can feel it in either hand as long as their grip is on correctly. 

Mike tells Garrett that most hockey players show up to golf where they slap-shot it from the left and play golf from the right or the reverse.

With the strong grip, Garrett hits them straight, but now Mike still wants him to hit a curve. Mike encourages him to use his right index finger and try to throw a slider to curve the ball. Garrett hooks the ball. Now Mike wants him to use his finger to throw a curve ball with his middle finger. He hits a fade. Mike emphasizes that you have to curve the ball a lot before you start curving it a little. Now Mike wants Garrett to pressure the club like he is throwing a fastball, and he hits it straight.

This makes a lot of sense to Garrett, who notes that when he doesn’t do it right, he can feel it. He knows what the ball is going to do when he hits it based on the pressure he applies to his fingers.

Now Mike wants Garret to hit some low shots. Garrett launched the ball at about 17 degrees, perfect for a 7-iron. The ball was compressed well and had the right angle of approach. That’s what he wants to feel at impact with a 7-iron. Mike says that Garrett currently hits the ball too high, but this shot was perfect.

Garrett says that when he hits the ball high, it feels like he is dropping his backside (in baseball terminology). Mike explains that golfers talk about ‘covering it’ and not getting stuck behind the ball and flipping it.

Mike gets Garrett to hit some shots but wants him to flight the ball down with less speed. Garret makes a couple of shots. Mike wants to work with Garrett on wedge shots and make sure his grip is on correctly. If it isn’t, then he is dead with his swing. Mike goes back to the baseball swing and says that the left hand is a chopping action, and the right hand is a throwing action. There is no twisting motion at all. The swing on the follow-through is just like hitting baseball.