MIND / THE FRINGE M Smaller Headline Here with To Come Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed doeieei eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore By Author Name
CASE STUDY: JUSTIN ROSE If you think the pros don’t worry about making better contact, too, think again. When I first started working with 42-year-old Justin Rose, his concern wasn’t losing distance because of his age; it was an overall deterioration of his ball-striking, which put tremendous pressure on the rest of his game. We evaluated how Justin moves and what he wanted to do with his swing, and I worked with his entire team to get a consensus on priorities. That translated into Justin shifting less off the ball and changing his arm plane to better match his natural movement pattern. The result: He’s hitting quality iron shots a lot more often. He improved more than 50 places in the strokes gained/approach stat and is in the top 30 in approach shots from 150 to 175 yards. He’ll tell you that the quality of contact really matters.
CASE STUDY: MAX HOMA This pool-noodle drill is not just for high- handicaps. I used it with Max Homa, too. When he got on tour, he was statistically one of the poorer distance-wedge players out there – 161st in strokes gained on approaches from 50 to 125 yards. That was immediately something we set about changing. Among other stuff we did to shore things up, we used the noodle gate and a launch monitor to combine work on trajectory and distance control at the same time. It’s no exaggeration to say Max is one of the best off-speed iron players on tour now. He was 12th in that very same distance-wedge- approach category last year and improved his proximity by four feet. That translates into a few more birdies per tournament – and going from an average player to one of the 10 best in the World Golf Ranking.
Poor wedge play tends to begin with a misconception: Many amateurs think they should hit high, bloopy shots into greens. Better players know to hit distance wedges and pitches much lower with more spin, which really improves accuracy. How low is their typi- cal launch angle? If 90 degrees translates to hitting it straight up in the air, they’re hitting shots at 30 degrees or lower. To help you bring down your trajectory, practice with this noodle gate ( above ). Put two alignment rods in the ground and stick a pool noodle on top just a metre high and two metres DISTANCE WEDGES: LOWER THE BAR
IRONS: MOVE YOUR LOW POINT FORWARD
The urge to smash your iron shots is understandable, especially if you’ve been watching PGA Tour players hit it 150 with a pitching wedge. The quickest path to needing less club into the green isn’t swinging harder, it’s better contact. Many of you give away distance because you don’t have good low-point control in your iron swings. The club usually bottoms out too early, so you have to use longer, less-accurate irons from the same distances as better players. Learn to move your low point forward, ideally a few centimetres after the ball is struck, with this drill: Set an alignment stick 25 centimetres behind a ball ( above, left ) and try to hit shots where you avoid the stick. Ideally, your club will strike the ball first, with less loft than it had at address, and then take a thin divot. After each shot, check the divot hole and where you made contact with the ball on the clubface ( above, right ). You want to make sure the angle of attack wasn’t too steep. That also kills distance. The divot hole should be shallow, and I like to see the ball mark on the bottom third of the clubface (dead centre) with a straight turf mark a groove or two up from the bottom.
in front of you. Your goal is to hit the ball under the noodle. To do that, set up with the ball slightly back in your stance ( left ), and then take the club back without a lot of wrist set. When you swing down, feel like you lead with your torso rotating towards the target while your thumbs are pointing at the ground all the way into impact. It should feel like the sweet spot of the club is trailing your body rotation and your hands. This creates the correct shallow, sweeping swing and delofts the shot. If it’s not practical to build the noodle gate, just visualise one on the range when you hit these low, piercing wedge shots.
94 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
NOVEMBER 2023
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