The legend of how Seve Ballesteros came to be is well known, but never gets old.

Growing up in Spain without much money, Seve learned to play golf on the beach with only a 3-iron. It was a process you’d never recommend to any junior golfer learning the game, but it was one that transformed Seve into one of the most creative short game artists in the game’s history.

And it was a tactic he turned to later in his career, after he had ascended to become one of the best players in the game. Especially ahead of the Masters, when Seve knew Augusta National would demand the best of his game.

Seve’s sand practice, explained

Seve Ballesteros. Golf Digest

It was in the 1993 Masters edition of Golf Digest that the two-time Augusta champion revealed his methods and in it Seve says he would devote large portions of his training sessions to practising from fairway bunkers.

Why? Not because he was preparing for when he drove his ball into the fairway bunker. But rather, because practising improved his swing, he wrote. His tempo got more smooth, he lost excess motion in his swing, and he would perfect making the kind of ball-first contact that generated the amount of backspin he needed to approach Augusta’s tricky greens the way he wanted to.

“Striking the ball cleanly from the sand teaches you great touch and clubhead control, especially with the short irons,” Seve said. “It puts pressure on you … you have to hit the ball first, then the sand.”

Practising full shots out of fairway bunkers is a fairly common tactic coaches use, because effectively, it’s a more difficult form of practice. You can’t get away with not hitting the ball first; hit the sand first, and the shot will end in a severe chunk.

Because the sand provides a less stable surface, too, it creates less room for error. It forces you to swing with balance, stability and rhythm. All qualities, Seve says in the piece, that allowed him to make solid contact more often from the fairway. A clever, simple, homespun piece of genius, that created the Masters legend we’ll remember forever.

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I was diving into the Golf Digest archive ahead of the Masters this year, and in the April 1993 edition of the magazine, came across this fantastic golf swing sequence of a young Couples, preparing to make his return the The Masters following his victory the previous year.

He rose to World No. 1 with that win, and the smooth, rhythmical swing that he became known for became a household fixture among avid golfers of the world.

Which is why, ahead of his Masters defence, legendary teacher Harvey Penick gave a frame-by-frame breakdown of Couples’ swing.

1. Vs pointing to right shoulder

Fred Couples. Golf Digest

The first thing Harvey Penick noticed was Couples’ strong grip, “with both Vs pointed at his right shoulder,” he writes.
While a stronger grip could help prevent slices from ballooning out to the right, in Couples’ case, he matches a strong grip with lots of body rotation.
“Anyone with a strong grip has to make a fast turn and get their left hip out of the way,” he explains, adding that Couples flaring his left foot out towards the target helps him increase his rotation. “He couldn’t make that fast a hip turn without his left toe being turned out.”

2. Big, free turn

Fred Couples. Golf Digest

The big rotation wasn’t confined to Couples’ downswing, though. It started on the downswing, with a shoulder turn of more than “100 degrees of rotation,” Penick writes. A big backswing turn that remains balanced is something the rest of us can and should learn a lot from young Couples.
“My teaching is that the left heel should rise in the backswing if it wants to, but Fred’s doesn’t want to. Fred is so flexible that he stays in balance and shifts his weight without his left heel needing to rise,” Penick writes. “It would help the average golfer to take a free swing as Fred does. That doesn’t mean a loosey-goosey swing, but one that is free.”

3. Right over left

Fred Couples. Golf Digest

The “magic move” in Couples’ swing is in his release, Penick writes.
“His right arm rolls over his left which has maintained and guided the swing arc and does not break down,” he says. “His right arm is pouring in the power. This crossover of the right arm delivers enormous clubhead speed and prodigious distance.”
It’s rolling his right arm over his left, while extending both of his arms, which creates a “powerful whipping motion” that transfers maximum energy from the golf ball, into the clubhead. He may not have realised it at the time, but there’s been some good science in recent years underlining the importance of a full release of the arms and wrists.
It’s the combination of lots of body lotion, with a full release of his club, that helped Couples be so efficient with his power. He made it look effortless because he was so good at transferring the speed he created with his body into the clubhead. It made for some nice viewing for the rest of us.

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By Mike O’Malley
Funny stories. They’re as much a part of golf as birdies and bogeys. Through the years, Golf Digest has been lucky enough to share time with some of the legendary storytellers and characters in the game. Senior Writer Guy Yocom deserves special recognition for his My Shot series of interviews, prominent here with excerpts from other amazing features and columns through the decades.

Something you’ll notice: One of the most appealing qualities of good jokesters is the ability to laugh at themselves as well as with others. And the best part? Our team of writers and photographers keep adding to the comedic moments, month by month. Here’s one such example below, but we have excerpted dozens of our favourite stories in the digital edition of June issue of our magazine, which is available now for free. Click here for more.

Casey Martin: Tiger’s weakness as a dancer, May 2001

He’s got nothing. He’s got no game. And I love him. He’s the greatest at his sport— maybe ever. I mean, there might not be another athlete who is as dominant at their sport as Tiger is. However, you’ve got Michael Jordan crossing over, playing other sports. Tiger will never cross over to be a basketball player, or anything else. I remember Notah [Begay] and I were in Sigma Chi fraternity as seniors [at Stanford], and Tiger had pledged Sigma Chi as a freshman. At some of the parties, I’d come and kind of sit up on the stairs overlooking this big mosh pit where everyone would dance. I’ll never forget one time a bunch of us were having a grand time watching Tiger dance. You know a guy that’s so dominant, you’ve got to bring him down a little. You’ve got to look for his weakness and really expose it. I think we found it: dancing. It’s a bad deal.

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