Improve Your Rhythm Like Walker for Better Results

  
  Jimmy Walker got the new PGA Tour season off to a great start by claiming victory Sunday in the Frys.com Open at CordeValle Golf Club. His final round 66 (-5) would help him claim a two shot victory over Vijay Singh. Walker dominated the field in the always important statistic of strokes gained putting and finished in the top 10 in greens hit in regulation. The steadiness he displayed down the stretch can be contributed to his ability to make consistent and repeatable golf swings. Two things you need to have when it comes to developing a repeatable golf swing are rhythm and balance. Yet many players struggle mightily with these critical areas of the swing. Whether it’s putting, short game or full swing, you must swing the golf club with rhythm and balance.
 

Rhythm and balance are closely related because it’s difficult to have one and not the other.

Here are a few tips to help you get in rhythm and maintain balance in your golf game:
 

• Manage your tempo. If your tempo is too fast or slow, keeping rhythm and balance gets very tricky. I use a metronome to help my students get a feel for the proper tempo in a swing. Tempo will vary player to player, but as a guide try setting the metronome somewhere between 70 and 80 beats per minute. Begin with small swings like a putting or chipping stroke to match the feel of your swing to the beat.
 

• Hold your finish. This is one of the first things I’ll teach a beginning golfer when working on the full swing, but yet I see several experienced golfers forget the simple detail. If you can hold your finish at the end of the swing for at least three seconds, chances are you did something right to get there. And always remember that the smaller swings like putting and chipping require you to hold your finish as well!