TEEING IT DOWN HELPS On a really tight hole, I’ll even hit my driver off the deck. I did it several times in my win at Myrtle Beach in May. I don’t recommend you do the same, but the lesson is that the lower the ball is to the ground, the better your chance of compressing it and keeping its flight down. If you launch it high, you’re at the mercy of wind and spin. To put it in the short grass, tee your ball so it’s below the topline of the clubface ( above ).
1 RULE N0.
Do whatever it takes to find the fairway
my baby draw, we worked on getting my arms to move more around my body on the backswing. This helps shallow my downswing path, so the club approaches the ball from inside the target line – that’s fundamental to a draw. One thing we check is that my left arm doesn’t separate and move towards the ball halfway down. If it hugs my chest ( left ), I’m on plane and can release my right side as hard as I want, and the ball will never snap-hook left. That’s a big plus when the fairway seems about as wide as a two-lane road.
Every time my tee shot finds the rough,
I’m losing a percentage of a stroke to the field because I typically have to hit a longer club into the green than the guys who can “bomb-and-gouge” it. To make sure I don’t miss often, I stick with the tee shot that I hit best – a baby draw. It can be a good fairway finder for you, too, and I’ll show you how to do it. But the message here is that you should rely on whatever shot shape you can consistently produce. In 2024, I reunited with my longtime swing coach Todd Anderson. To hone
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 53
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2026
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