The Loop
How He Hit That: Jason Day's super-high iron shots
The beauty of Jason Day's swing has never been in dispute.
The athletic Australian has one of the Tour's most envy-inducing actions -- but it also gets the job done. He hits long, straight shots like the one that produced four rounds in the 60s at the RBC Canadian Open, and a one-shot win over Bubba Watson.
The height and precision Day gets with his irons is a product of ideal weight transfer back and forth, and avoiding a common mistake many amateur players make in the quest to "get behind the ball."
"A lot of players feel like they need to really load up and move off the ball when they make that weight transfer back during the backswing, but Jason Day keeps his spine very straight and his chest centered between his shoes," says Golf Digest Best Young Teacher Shaun Webb, who is based at the David Toms 265 Academy in Shreveport, La. "He's definitely shifting the pressure to his right side, but he's staying centered. It's what lets him create so much speed in the downswing, and hit the ball so high and straight."
Unlike some swing moves, this one doesn't require extreme flexibility or strength to copy. "Feel like your spine stays where it was at address -- straight up and down -- and you stretch the right side of your body away in the backswing," says Webb, who also teaches Toms. "If you've been moving off the ball a lot, this will actually feel like you're tilting toward the target. You'll see the benefit of the change right away. When you move off the ball, it tends to make the swing go out to the right, and you either slice or overcompensate with the hands and hook it. Do it like Day does and you can swing way faster, with way more control."