When Tiger Woods hits his driver, or Bubba Watson, you can see the power and almost hurt yourself just by looking. Then there is Ernie Els, the favorite player of all recreational golfers. With what appears to be no effort at all, he hits the ball as far as anyone. How does he hit the ball so hard with such an easy swing? To begin with, appearances are deceiving.

Ernie hits harder than you think, but let’s first go back to his development as a young golfer. The story goes that when he was a child, he would hit plastic balls in his backyard. With an easy movement, they would travel about 70 feet. If he hits one as hard as he can, he will travel about 70 feet. This taught him that taking off his shoes was not the key to good golf.

What it does is obey the fundamentals of the golf swing, the first of which is setup. The grip, stance, aim, and the stance you get into before you take the stick off define the movement it can follow. A good setup tends to restrict your moves to the correct ones. In a poor setup, anything goes, and most of it is wrong.

The second fundamental to his swing, the one that makes him stand out so much, is his rhythm and tempo. He never rushes things, letting them unfold in the right sequence and at the right time. He really swings hard. If you have the opportunity to see it live, you will be in for a big surprise. But his rhythm and tempo allow his swing to flow gracefully and effortlessly from start to finish. They allow you to concentrate all your power at the moment of impact in a square and straight shot.

Imagine that you have hung up a rug and are hitting it with a tennis racket to remove the dust. You know that to get maximum spin from your stroke, the racket should hit the mat by moving directly toward the mat, not at an angle to it, and the entire racket head should hit the mat flush, not hitting the mat with the ball first. a racket edge.

Now think of the mat as a golf ball, and the racket as the head of your club, and there you have it: a square, straight shot. That’s how to hit the ball hard, and that’s what Ernie does. Always keep in mind that swinging hard and hitting hard are two different things.

There’s one more thing about him that, try as we might, most of us won’t be able to copy: talent. Ernie, like all professional golfers, has a talent for hitting the ball far. You are either a long hitter or you are not. Paying attention to the fundamentals allowed her to fully develop his talent. You can do the same thing and hit the ball as far as your talent allows, which will be enough.