How Rory hits drives ⬆️ and ⬇️

You wouldn't have necessarily picked Northern Ireland as the lab to create one of the greatest drivers of the golf ball of all time. But in retrospect it makes sense.

Rory McIlroy's game doesn't resemble the stereotypical wind-formed, UK-style game that we've rightly or wrongly come to assume from these players. He doesn't hit low, navigating, left-to-right runners, like Colin Montgomerie or Rory's closest friend on tour, Shane Lowry.

Rory launches high draws that sail to the moon—he's got one of the highest apexes on tour at more than 120 feet.



Rory's stock high-draw ball flight is probably the product of some unique circumstances: He grew up under the watchful eye of a very good coach in Michael Bannon, in the specific moment the golf industry realized how important distance was, and during an era where everyone was getting really good at measuring it via TrackMan and other ball-trackers. All that, plus a generational amount of talent, and you get a historic driver of the ball.

What's interesting and underrated about Rory's ability off the tee is how much he moves the ball around. The data below is from Rick Gehman's Run Rick Good website.



As you can see, there's a pretty even split between low and high drives (We wrote about why he does this right here).

As for how he does this? Well, it comes down to one move.

High Drive: Upper body back and turn

When Rory wants to launch one he turns to a few specific feelings, as he talked about with Tiger Woods in this fantastic, must-watch video from TaylorMade.

• He likes to feel the clubface is more closed through the ball, which he says helps him turn more aggressively with his body through the ball.
• He feels his left arm and the club form a straight line at impact, and through the ball. This, again, helps him turn while promoting a full release of the club with his hands.
• In addition to turning, though, Rory likes to feel his upper body tilting back away from the target. Hips forward, upper body back; that gives him the sidebend in his body he needs to launch it.





RELATED: How to hit high draws

Low Drive: Keep your right side high

Rory can also hit the ball low, though. It becomes a great 'tweener shot that goes longer than his 3-wood but shorter than his driver, and straighter overall. When he wants to turn down the temperature on his apex, he makes a few adjustments.

• Rory says he doesn't make huge adjustments to his tee height, but he does tee the ball a little lower.
• Crucially, Rory says he continues to feel his body turn aggressively through the ball. That doesn't change.
• What does change is the orientation of Rory's turn. Rather than keeping his upper body back and turning, Rory explains he likes to feel his upper body turn more on top of the golf ball. As if he's "covering" the ball with his body, and keeping his right side high.

He explains below:

RELATED: How to hit crispy iron shots



The result is an American-style game, with an elite British Isles flair. The best of both worlds, and something to watch for at the Open Championship this week.