9 swing thoughts from top pros

Golf Digest

It’s impossible to not think about anything during your golf swing.

If you try to, your mind is just going to wander into areas you don’t want it to...

Don’t hit it there.

Don’t do that.

Don’t hit another slice.

It’s why it’s better to be proactive. To pick something that you want to focus on during your golf swing.

And for pros, that’s a certain golf swing feel.

If they focus on feeling the move they want to make, they don’t have time to worry about anything else.

What are those feels? Well, that’s what I've been asking players throughout the season, including at this week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic.

Check it out...

9 top players reveal their favorite feel

I asked top tour players for their favorite golf swing feel—here's what they said

By Luke Kerr-Dineen

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Luke Kerr-Dineen

The truth about golf swing tempo. Dr. Robert Grober’s years-old lecture about golf swing tempo is being re-discovered by golfers online. His findings were fascinating at the time. In a nutshell: Our golf swings have a natural rhythm where they perform more consistently. The problem amateurs fall into is diverging from this natural rhythm because they intentionally try to slow down their backswing, then speed up their downswing. It takes more effort. Smooth doesn’t mean a slow swing. Smooth means a more even golf swing.

Michael Thorbjornsen is one of the best up-and-coming players on tour, and he loves to hit draws. He recently started working with Golf Digest Top 50 coach Sean Foley, and the results were immediate: He won last week, and is in contention again this week. Foley says he and Thorbjornsen have been working on trying to feel taller on the backswing. A lot of golfers tend to lose height on their backswing, then have to counteract it on the downswing. Feeling taller on the backswing keeps the power draw under control.

For amateur golfers, it’s one of the most important clubs in the bag. Renowned golf statistician Dr. Mark Broadie found that 90s shooters lose, on average, 3.3 shots per round due to “disaster shots”. Chunks, tops, etc. Fellow statistician Lou Stagner found that 15 handicaps and above have a double bogey rate of 20 percent when they approach the green from 175 yards—hybrid range for many golfers. In short, hybrids are important. Hit those better, and your scores will show it.