Golf tip: Keeping your head still will help your swing
As Kemper Lakes prepares to host the 2018 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, I wondered what attributes a player must have this week to bring home the trophy.
So I looked locally to see if there was any common link to Illinois PGA Professionals that have won our Illinois PGA Match Play Championship hosted annually at Kemper Lakes Golf Club.
Garrett Chaussard, Kyle Bauer, Curtis Malm, Travis Johns, Jim Sobb, Doug Bauman, Matt Slowinski - and I could name more great players - share the same quality: outstanding ball strikers.
In my opinion, a great ball striker will win this week. And after receiving more than three inches of rain during advance week, that puts an even bigger premium on a clean strike since the turf will not be the usual firm surface tour pros have become accustomed to playing.
How do you become a better ball striker? The first thing you want to do is go see your local PGA professional and take a series of lessons. The Illinois PGA has hundreds of qualified instructors that would love to help your game improve.
If that is not an option, why not copy some of the best players in the world?
Justin Rose is known as one of the best ball strikers on the PGA Tour.
During his back swing, his head stays very still.
Keeping your head still during the takeaway and back swing does wonders to the golf swing as it restricts some of the flaws we all have, me included!
One major flaw in amateur golf is the "sway." When a player sways off the ball it moves the bottom of the swing. As a result, some adjustments are in order to return to the address position you started at.
That is where timing comes in to play, and we don't want to rely on timing in golf.
Moving your head off the ball also shifts weight into spots we don't want such as outside the back foot. With Justin Rose, you will see that his head remains still throughout as he rotates around his spine.
My tip for you this week is to keep your head still. Next time you visit the driving range, think about keeping your head still during the back swing and focus on rotating around your spine.
Striking the ball clean will lower your scores, and help you win that weekend $2 Nassau.
• Jim Billiter is the Head PGA Professional at Kemper Lakes Golf Club in Kildeer, host site of the 2018 KPMG Women's PGA Championship Thursday-Saturday. He is the 2017 Illinois PGA Player of the Year.
• With assistance from the Illinois PGA, the Daily Herald provides golf tips each Wednesday from a PGA Professional.