Driving

Butch Harmon: My Best Tip To Hit A Power Draw

By Butch Harmon Photos by J.D. Cuban
August 21, 2012
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I know, you'd love to hit a draw off the tee. You'd probably pick up some distance, and let's be honest, a draw just looks better. You look like a player. Half of what you need to do comes in the setup. First, aim the clubface where you want the ball to finish, say, the middle of the fairway. Then, set your body closed, with your feet, hips and shoulders aimed at the right side of the fairway.

From there, swing the club back along your stance line, or slightly inside your normal path. Coming down, feel as if you retrace that path and the club moves in to out through impact. Finally--and this is where most people go wrong--make a smoother swing through impact. This allows the arms to release or roll over, which closes the face and produces the draw.

If you try to rip it, the body tends to rotate open quicker, and that makes it tougher to close the face. That's actually a fade swing. So get your setup right, then make a nice, smooth pass through the ball.


BUTCH'S BASICS

The best advice for wedge shots is to hit down and through the ball. So many golfers try to help these shots get in the air. They shift to the back foot on the downswing, hit up on the ball and usually skull it.

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To strike your wedges solid, get into a good setup: ball just in front of center, weight 50/50, hands ahead of the ball. Don't make a big backswing, but turn enough to get behind the ball. Then hit down and through it. With a solid strike, you'll get the loft you want.

Butch Harmon is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional and runs the Butch Harmon School of Golf, at Rio Secco, in Henderson, Nev.