backswing, and from there he can turn as hard as he wants,” Hansen says. “Nicolai’s arm extension through the ball (above, seventh image) is one of a kind. If you see a golfer in this posi- tion, something good has happened before it.” While there isn’t much length to Nicolai’s backswing, he can generate a massive amount of shoulder turn – a byproduct of his athleticism and tall, lean frame (6-foot-2, 88 kg). Provided he gets his arm structure correct, he can really turn on the speed. “If I get my right-arm position right,” Nicolai says, “I can hit the shot I want.”
a winner of four international tourna- ments, says a higher hand position at the top (above, fourth image) helps keep him from getting the club trapped behind his body. When his backswing gets flatter from a lower hand position, that often forces him to spin out or slide and hit a miss to the right. Hansen, who has worked with the brothers for a couple of years, says Nicolai is staying in the shot longer now because of the backswing adjust- ment, and that has eliminated the bad tendencies of spinning out or sliding. “There’s a slight push into the front part of his left foot at the top of the
124.3 mph (seventh) – his short-and-ex- plosive swing is still a work in progress. “I’ve always had a tendency to swing
HIT THE GAS Nicolai uses vertical force to create lots of driver swing speed.
very quick and across my chest with no arms, then slide into the ball and drop the club behind me,” Nicolai says. “If I can get my right arm up a little, I feel like I’m stronger. I can keep the club a bit higher and go straight down into the ball. That’s what I’ve been working on. I feel like we’re on to something.” Nicolai, who was member of Europe’s victorious 2023 Ryder Cup team and is
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 49
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2025
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator