Our Story
BY FRASER MANN, INVENTOR
The following story is an account of how I worked out through trial and error over 40 years the vital importance of understanding,
If you use my invention “Golfs Essential Mover” the visual view of the attached gadget will show you the correct position of the club head in the backswing and the weight at the end of the attached shaft will give you the “feel” of how the hands release through the impact area. If used for 5 minutes everyday wherever you are it will ensure that the next time you step onto the golf course your chances of hitting straight and true down the middle are greatly increased.
In 2002 I was cleaning out my desk in the Pro shop at Musselburgh Golf Club (where I was the was pro from 1991-2010) I came across old paper clippings that had mentioned my name in interviews with both Lee Vannet and Lee Harper. What caught my attention was the common theme of “hitting balls with your feet together “.
That spring I did hit balls every day with my feet together and at the age of 42 became the oldest first time winner of both the Northern Open (Europro) and the Scottish PGA Championships , two of the oldest professional events in the world. Became only the fourth player in the history of the events to win them both in the same year. Have to admit it myself I wasn’t expecting it but the quality of my play over both events was amazing, -12 for the Northern Open at Newmachar, windy and wet!, -8 on the Ryder Cup course at Gleneagles in the wind!
Since then I have always hit balls with my feet together as part of my practice build up to big events.
I have since 2002 at the age of 42 gone on to play some of my best golf , at the age of 55 I won the British PGA Seniors , finished runner up the following year and then won it again at the age of 57 to become only the second player in the history of the event to win it twice (Tommy Horton is the only other player to have won it more than once!)
“FEET TOGETHER, NEUTRAL GRIP, and TOE UP!”
I have always kept my golf secrets close, I did suffer early in my career where I gave away advice freely to my professional colleagues only to see them beat me in the next tournaments, you learn quickly to keep your mouth shut! I never told anyone what I was doing but feet together was great to isolate your hands in the swing and is a great to help you turn your body correctly. After reading one of the Hogan books I picked out that his game went to a different level when he “weakened” his grip and started to open the club face in the backswing. He often referred to his” Classic Toe Up Position” of the club at waist height in the backswing.
“It had to do with the face of the club. I came home for two weeks and practiced day long. The first time I tried it, it worked. But a lot of things work first time , and I couldn’t wait to try it the next day. It worked again and again and again. Then I wanted to put it under pressure, because golf and tournament golf are as different as tennis and ice hockey. I went to George S May’s double tournament in Chicago— and I won both tournaments. That proved it to me.”
What exactly had Hogan proved to himself?
Another pregnant pause.
“I rolled the face of the club open away from the ball. That cupped my left wrist. Coming down, the face was moving so fast I couldn’t turn it over and hook. I was rotating the club like a baseball bat, and the faster I could rotate it , the more distance I got. Training myself, I would roll the face open as fast and as far as I could. With this technique, I could hit the ball straight and further”
This is exactly what I worked on from 2002, it was only in 2018 that I read this quote in the Ben Hogan book!
My two years playing full time on the EUan Seniors I listened around the table to many golfing stories about the “Greats “ , one in particular that I was amazed at was the story of Seve, if he went into a slump he would take a week off and head home to Spain and spend a week hitting thousands of balls on the beach with his feet together.
He would then return the following week and win the tournament! Faldo and Bobby Jones often preached about hitting balls with feet together as great for reducing lateral movement in the swing, simply making it harder for the player to hit fat and thin shots.
This story reinforced my belief that hitting balls with your feet together is one of the best exercises that any golfer can do to improve many elements of his golf swing and game.
In the summer of 1979 I joined Douglas Smart at Banchory Golf Club to start my career as a PGA professional ( when I left Banchory 5 years later Paul Lawrie replaced me as an assistant Pro.)
I can remember my first week working for Douglas , he gave me a PGA training manual, told me to read the teaching chapter and the following week he booked me 20 lessons teaching members and juniors! Thrown in at the deep end!
To be honest it was the best thing that could have happened as right away I found that I was able to help everyone I taught. The PGA manual at that time was very basic, Grip, Posture, Alignment and Rotation! I can always remember Douglas’s advice “ Only work on one thing at a time” , any teaching professional will be able to tell you about a poor lesson that they have given where they have said too much!
What hit me right away about the teaching manual was that I had a very strong grip, especially in my left hand . Over the six months of probation I hit many thousands of balls with my new neutral grip. Due to the fact that during the six months that I couldn’t play any competitive golf I had no pressure to go back to my comfortable old grip.
Fast forward to April 1980 where I played in my first PGA event The Scottish PGA Assistant Championships at Dunbar. What I can remember is that I went in with no thoughts of winning and can remember dropping 4 shots in the last 4 holes of the fourth round to win by 4 shots. Simply looking back my grip change stopped me hooking under pressure and allowed my swing to develop into a solid repeating movement. I went on to qualify in 1981 at the EUan Tour School to play on the full tour.
My grip change in 1979, my Toe Up swing thought in my backswing in 2002 and my practice routine of hitting balls with my feet together the same year lead me to playing unbelievable golf during that summer.
Anytime I want to peak for a tournament all I do is spend a week hitting balls, check my grip on every shot, make sure I have the club in the correct position in the backswing and hit at least 100 balls every day with my feet together and the results speak for them selves!
Golf's Essential Move
THE BIRTH OF THE GEM
For many years I had fished with friends in March on the river Dee on Royal Deeside. During my 2007 trip I was fishing through a nice pool when I started to catch my fly on the river bank behind me, a fly fishers nightmare which can happen to the best of casters!
After the help of Brian our Ghillie in retrieving my tangled fly and a simple tip I continued down the pool casting with renewed confidence.
The simple advice he gave me was to point the index finger on my right hand that was holding onto the rod towards the water line on the far bank. This simple action prevented me from taking the rod too far back and landing the fly on the bank behind me. I can’t remember if I caught anything but my casting was much better!
For the rest of my trip I couldn’t stop thinking about how simple the “tip” was and how I could implement it into my own golf coaching.
On my return to my shop at Musselburgh Golf Club I first came up with the idea to attach a “sight” to a club so that I could demonstrate the correct position of the club face at waist height in the backswing and in the through swing at waist height, the pupil is able to glance at the sight without having to move his head, if they were to look at the club head the tendency was to move the head too much.
My first idea was to use very light materials that would have very little affect on the swinging of the club, the pupil would swing it 10-15 times then quickly remove it then hit balls with their new “feel”, the idea was to quickly get the idea of where their hands should be in the backswing and through swing.
I then experimented with attaching a golf ball to the end of the sight , this initially was for cosmetic reasons to give it a recognised golf theme.
I then drilled holes in the ball and filled it with lead and this acted to counter balance that helped to make the club stay in the “square “ position in any position in the full swing, backswing and downswing.
What I noticed almost immediately was when the weight was attached, if I held the club very lightly the club went into the classic “Toe Up Position “ in both the backswing and through swing.
At this point I tested it on a number of players who were habitual slicers ( members at MGC ) . After using it for a couple of minutes the players felt the club wanting to release earlier. 10 practice swings, remove the weight and the results were immediate, the pupil could understand through “Visualisation and Feel” how to release the club head. Without fail the first couple of shots went long left instead of short right , slice gone!
I also tried the gadget at home with my family. Nichola my wife has always been a slicer and it’s terrible for me to admit that I have never been able to spend enough time helping with her swing! The fact that we have always been working hard in other parts of our lives is a reasonable but not great excuse! The first time I was able to show it to her on the practice ground she felt the club “release” at impact and within a couple of swings started hitting “solid” draws! The same thing happened with my son Ross who has always been an occasional golfer( once a year!), although he has always had a big slice as soon as he tried the gadget he was able to “feel” the club head at impact turning over and simply hit the ball longer and straighter. The third member of the family was Eilidh who apart from trying to play when she was a toddler. As a complete beginner she was able to understand how the club moves in the swing and after 15 minutes was swinging the club very well!
These early trials were very exciting and I was very careful not to show it to anyone. The only two members I trialled It with were long time members known to me and they both said they wanted one when I got them on the market!
At this time I was very busy as club professional at Musselburgh golf club and didn’t have much time to spare in chasing the dream of getting my invention up and running. I was also sceptical that such a simple idea could be taken forward and sold.
Fast forward to 2008 where I attended a Pete Cowan seminar at Gleneagles Hotel. Pete went through a 16 point presentation ( I still have my original notes which I wrote on his letter heading) that he worked with his top players at the time, Henrik Stinson and Lee Westwood.
I nearly fell off my seat when he described the “Toe Up” position in the back swing and the follow through ( waist height) as the “ Essential “ move in the swing. He used Henrik and Lee as prime examples of two players that he was working with on these positions.
I also remember that he used a volunteer Michael McDougal ( PGA secretary at the time) and showed him how to hit a draw with his hands. He shook hands with Michael and gave him the feel of turning his hands in an anti clockwise direction. Again this is what my gadget does!!! not just with you right hand but BOTH HANDS!
Another point I picked up at the seminar is that 75% of the speed in the golf swing comes from correct use of the wrists in the swing. According to Pete, 75% wrists, 11% elbow and 14% rest of body! If your wrists don’t work well then you have little chance of connecting up with the rest of your body.
The GEM teaches you how to release the golf club in the swing, this is a very difficult thing to teach as a coach. The GEM is going to help so many golfers improve their game. It has been wonderful to see the transformation some of our playing friends have already made using the GEM!
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How does it work?
Move the club like a pro. Learn how The GEM works by watching this short video introduction. You can also watch tutorials by clicking here.
Move the club like a pro
During an interview conducted by Nick Setiz (Golf Digest), nine time major winner, Ben Hogan, was asked about a decision to weaken his grip in an effort to correct a hook.
But what had Hogan discovered?
Hogan. ” I rolled the face of the club open away from the ball. That cupped my left wrist. Coming down, the face was moving so fast I couldn’t turn it over and hook. I was rotating the club like a baseball bat, and the faster I could rotate it, the more distance I got. Training myself, I would roll the face open as fast and as far as I could. With this technique, I could hit the ball straight and farther ”
Seitz. ” From then on, Hogan quite likely was without peer as a shot maker. The only part of his clubs that showed wear was the sweet spot”
With the GEM attached to your club you will feel the club face “roll open”……just as Hogan described it.
