"What's wrong with my hands," he asked.
"For one thing," I answered, "you have a death grip on the club with your left hand. This grip, plus the fact that you raise the club on the backswing with your left hand and left arm, causes you to roll the clubface away from the ball on the backswing, and from this roll away action the club falls into an open position at the top of the swing. From here you pull sharply across the ball so that you produce high pop up shots, or you push the ball away off to the right, or you slice your shots badly.
"Now, from this same open face position of the club at the top of the swing, you might suddenly start doing the very reverse. Instead of bringing the clubhead into the ball with this dragging, cross-cut, lagging action of the club, you suddenly start lashing out with the right hand at the top of the swing. The club, with this 'too early hit' action of the right hand, is thrown outside the point of impact. Often this 'too early hit' with the right hand causes the clubface to turn over, to toe in as the ball is met and a series of topped shots, smothered hook shots or shots that go off to the left result." (This is a common fault with beginners and is the reason why they get so many white paint marks on the top part of their wood clubs.)
So, I explained to D.M. that while his footwork and body action were good, this faulty hand action caused his shots to stray to the right or fall off to the left; in other words, they went any place but down the middle.
"You certainly hit the nail on the head," said D.M. "That is exactly my problem. I have no trouble hitting them but I don't know where they are going. What do we do about it?" continue the three requirements of good golf...