A Lesson with Jeff Sullivan
Alex Elias
Nearly three years ago, Kevin Streelman told me, “In this crazy game, our feels change daily. A good swing thought can work really well one day and feel completely foreign the next.”
Though the gap between Streelman’s game and mine is vast, I’ve certainly felt the same—no more so than last July. What began in Montana and Wyoming slowly worsened in Minneapolis and eventually became unplayable in Chicago: a closed clubface producing a low, left miss—not even really a miss, but a virtually unplayable shot. Upon returning to New York City, I knew it was time to take a lesson, which led me to Cherry Valley Club (Garden City, NY) to work with Head Golf Professional Jeff Sullivan.
It didn’t take long for Sullivan to see that the problem wasn’t at impact—it was in the backswing, raising the question: how had I not noticed that myself?
His answer: “When players work through a miss, they tend to focus on fixing the shot rather than fixing the swing. In your case, you were zeroed in on impact: ‘If the clubface is closed, then try to hold it square in the downswing.’ In reality, the solution is to build a backswing that set the clubface in a more neutral position to begin with.”
Crediting much of his teaching philosophy to Jeff Gschwind, Head Golf Professional at Deepdale Golf Club (Manhasset, NY), Scott Hamilton, Director of Instruction at Cartersville Country Club (Cartersville, GA), and Kirk Satterfield, Head Golf Professional at Westhampton Country Club (Westhampton, NY), Sullivan had me exaggerate the backswing repeatedly, aiming for the feel of a complete turn while uncomfortably opening the clubface—the clubface (or, if easier to see, the logo on the glove) facing the sky.
Though the overarching emphasis of the lesson was the backswing—and ultimately how the backswing affects the downswing—the deeper lesson was that change can’t be half-done.
“Change requires patience. You have to commit to over-exaggerating, knowing it won’t be exciting and will probably even be uncomfortable and frustrating, but it eliminates the need for constant manipulations in the swing,” said Sullivan.
