I recently sat in on a lesson with local golf guru Sonny Reynolds at his famous Sonny's Par 3 and Driving Range in Winterport, and walked away learning two things. One, Sonny is the best golf teacher in the area, and maybe even in Maine, and two, just an hour with him can improve your game tremendously.
The lesson that I had great pleasure of sitting in on was with an advanced player and it was the third of a three-part series of lessons. The first two lessons included tightening parts of the golfer's game that included grip, posture, ball position, pitching and chipping, and establishing a consistent spine angle with every shot. The golfer had been hitting thin shots as of late, and by keeping a consistent spine angle and not coming up on the ball, he was able to shape his shots more accurately.
This lesson included work on middle and long irons, hybrids, fairway woods, drivers and a review of pitching and chipping. Take a walk with me if you would, on this lesson with Sonny Reynolds.
Starting Out
The golfer pulled out middle iron, set up, and started taking easy swings working on hip rotation, and the path and release of the club. The key that Sonny reiterated for the golfer over and over was compression. Making sure that everything is in sync — hips, alignment, club head position on the setup and at contact, backswing, club path and follow through — all led to great compression on the ball and beautiful shots.
And if something is going wrong in any aspect of the swing, alignment or setup, Sonny is able to catch it and fix it immediately. He offered tips after every couple of swings, and with every little tip, the golfer's ball strikes became better.
The golfer had a question about the direction of his shots, so Sonny reviewed the club head position with him and took advantage of a trajectory tool he had — a short metal rod that is placed on the club face, showing the expected trajectory of the ball off the club.
After looking at the side, and back views of the golfer's swing and helping him realign his stance and club head, Sonny finished the warm-up stage with this little tidbit.
"85 percent of the direction of the ball is the alignment, and 15 percent is the path of the club."
Hybrids
Since almost every avid golfer has some sort of hybrid club in their bag these days and they are relatively new to the golf world, a kind word of advice is always appreciated when approaching a shot with one. And as Sonny points out in this lesson, the smallest adjustment can make a world of a difference.
As the golfer begins to take some swings with his hybrid, Sonny noticed a few things right off the bat. First, the weight must be more evenly distributed than a middle or long iron shot, and the stance widens about two inches. Second, to hit a draw, the ball should be back in the stance a little so the sweeping club path will come around the ball instead of push it right for right-handers. Sonny demonstrates two perfect shots with both ball placements after explaining this. Lastly, a simple shoulder check for alignment can make a world of a difference in dictating where the ball goes. This is done by getting into your spine angle and holding the club horizontal to your toes, easily showing the direction the golfer is faced.
Drivers
Hitting solid drives can be a mystery for some golfers, usually with nasty slices and unforgiving hooks being the culprit for poor starts on holes. But like every other problem you can think of in golf, Sonny has the answer. The golfer in this lesson already drives the ball better than average, but with this lesson at Sonny's he is driving the ball nearly perfect.
Sonny tells him to clip the tee a few times, and the golfer hit the middle of the rubber tee, making a slap sound. He then tells him to put 55 percent of his weight on his back foot and to keep his spine angle, and the golfer just barely clipped the tee, making a nick sound. "That's what you want to hear," Sonny says, and then they head inside for some video analysis.
Walking inside Sonny's office, pictures of golfers, his family, and thank yous from his many loyal customers scale the walls. It is the computer that's the purpose for this trip inside, though. Sonny shows the golfer a split screen view of recent Crowne Plaza Invitational winner David Toms; one half of the screen was an iron stance and one was a driver stance. Toms' stances showed exactly what Sonny explained about weight distribution (55 percent forward for irons, 55 percent back for drivers), dropping the back foot back a few inches and moving the ball back in the stance a little for the driver in order to draw it.
Video analysis is an aspect on Sonny's lessons that leave his customers very satisfied.
"When I came in for my first lesson of this series, Sonny had video of me from a few lessons two or three years ago," the golfer said. "The guy doesn't mess around."
Chipping and Pitching
Many golfers can acknowledge that their short-game is usually what keeps them from scoring well. That being said, Sonny provides some of the best advice I've heard to cancel out the short-game blues.
From the mats Sonny and the golfer head over to the putting/chipping green for some close-range chipping. Sonny mentions for a right-hander, 70 percent of the golfer's weight should be on the left heel. He notices the golfer is a little far away from the ball, and says that by standing on top of the ball more it will ensure that the shot will be linear. The golfer then practices the shot with one hand to get a better feel of it, and remains still without shifting and swaying his weight, which can result in thin shots. This all results in some pretty good chip shots.
From there, the two moved over to a grass station and did some pitching. The key point that Sonny makes here is that the swing path should be more circular. This shot goes more with the motion of the hips and core rather than an arm swing. The palm should be down on the back swing and up on the follow through, and the set of the hands and the arms should stay on the swing. Sonny mentions a good way of doing this is to "relax the hands so you can feel lag in the shaft."
Then it's simple: set, turn, and hit.
Finish
It is no secret why Sonny Reynolds has been one of the best golf teachers in Maine for over 23 years, and by sitting in on this lesson I believe it reaffirmed this to me and the golfer. He is able to diagnose almost any problem in golf, and fix it, teaching more to a golfer in an hour than what they've learned in the entire time they've played the game. He doesn't only teach you, but he makes you believe you can improve your game, which is equally as important. All of this is why a lesson with Sonny Reynolds gets five stars.
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