most important fundamentals

Question
What do you think are the 5 most important fundamentals of the golf swing in order 1 through 5 and why?  Thanks, Jason

Answer
Jason,

I will be giving you my top 3. Interestingly enough none of these three  happen during the golf swing.

1) The grip - a correct grip is a MUST because you want the correct grip to allow the club face to return to the square position at impact. I see so few golfers that have anywhere near a proper grip. Without a good grip everything else is by chance. If a player learns a proper grip first and foremost, he/she then has an opportunity to be a good player.

Ben Hogan's "Five lessons" is a wonderful resource to learn the proper grip. It is the first chapter and covers some 24 pages with great illustrations. I would recommend to all golfers.

2) Posture - Slightly bent knees, straight but angled spine, arms freely hanging down from the shoulders. This is so important to do correctly and consistently, otherwise every swing will be different with different results.

3) Stance - Feet comfortably apart from one another with stability. Stance varies according to the club selected. The longer the club, the wider the stance, conversely the shorter the club the narrower the stance. The only thing that changes in stance/ball position is that the back foot changes according to the length of the club. Both ben Hogan and jack Nicklaus agree on this.

Jason I hope this helps convince you and other readers how important the pre-swing routine is.

Please follow up if you have other inquiries.

Thank you,

Michael Hoffman