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Only for advanced golfers

When you are playing into a strong wind, it is necessary to alter both your address and your swing in order to keep flight of the ball low. The first adjustment you make is to line up the ball a shade nearer your right foot than your left, keeping the same width of stance as usual. On your backswing you use the customary amount of body turn, but you swing your hands and arms back and away from the body in order to effect a flatter swing.

On the downswing make certain your shoulders are parallel with the line of flight of the ball. Avoid turning them until after the ball has been hit. As you come into the ball, your hands should be further ahead than normally, because you are leaning into the wind with your body. This means that as you hit through the ball, your club head will rise less sharply than usual on the follow-through. The ball, in turn, will rise less sharply. Follow through on the flat plane too, as if you were playing an elongated pitch-and-run.

from HARRY PEZZULLO, Mission Hills Country Club, Northbrook, Ill.

TWO PHOTOS

THREE ILLUSTRATIONS

Playing into the wind

The backswing is flatter than usual
The hands are further ahead than usual just before impact
And the follow-through is also flatter than usual

NEXT WEEK: ED FURGOL ON THE RIGHT ELBOW