Below are four quick adjustments that can boost your game:
- Widen your stance
- Tuck your glove
- Take it back slow
- Reduce your wrist hinge
Need to hit it a little farther off the tee, maybe to clear a sand trap or a patch of scrub brush covering a fairway mound? Try widening your stance a bit. J. B. Homes does it. When you widen your stance you give yourself a more stable base to swing from. That enables you to take the club harder and faster without losing your balance.
A good drill to help you build a fluid golf swing is to tuck a golf glove under your right armpit and swing without letting the glove fall out. You can’t do this when playing. But you can do what Sean O’Hair does. He bunches up his shirt under his armpit and keeps it bunched as he swings. It’s a great way to feel connection between your arms and body.
Weekend golfers often rush their backswings. That’s because they’re in a rush to execute their downswings. Not only does this disrupt their tempo, it also prevents them from “loading up” before swinging down. To make a smooth swing, do what Zach Johnson does. He tries to make his backswing twice the duration of his downswing. It works for him.
You don’t always want your ball to check up when it hits. Sometimes, you want it to hit and roll. But you must take spin off the ball to do this. If you don’t know how, try this tip from Ryuji Imada: Reduce your wrist hinge when hitting a short shot. This change shallows your angle of attack and allows the ball to release when it hits.