ORLANDO, Fla. — You won't find a more diligent player on the range than Aaron Rai. And last year, you couldn't find a straighter one, either.
Rai led the tour in Driving Accuracy last season, and was seventh in SG: Approach. When he hits the ball, it's almost always on a string. Practicing on Tuesday ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Rai was busy doing the same thing: hitting shots on a string. So we asked Aaron what some golf swing priorities for him are—and what the rest of us can learn from him.
Here's what he said.
1. Balanced at setup
It's funny how so many of golf's most accurate players gravitate towards the same ideas. And one of those ideas is balance. Specifically, balance at setup. This was one of Calvin Peete's key principles, and Aaron Rai practices it by placing an alignment stick down on the floor of the driving range, and standing on it as he takes his setup, before resuming hitting golf balls. He does this every three-to-five shots.
"It's a balance check. I want to check to make sure the stick and my weight run right through about the middle of my foot," Rai explains. "I don't want the weight too much on my toes or heels. I want to make sure I'm very balanced at setup."
Which, he explains, sets up his next key...
2. Centered turn
It's perhaps the most common golf swing mistake: Golfers slide too far onto their trail foot on the backswing, and never make it back to their left side in time.
Aaron Rai tends to do this, too. Which is why being balanced at setup sets him up for a more centered turn on the backswing (which, coincidentally, was another of Calvin Peete's keys).
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"I want to stay very centered on the way back," he says. "This helps promote rotation and helps me with centeredness of strike. When I'm not centered, my centeredness of strike suffers."
3. Remember your tempo tendencies
Everyone wants good tempo, and knows it's important. The mistake lots of golfers make is gravitating towards a one-size-fits-all tempo thought for everything. Rai says that in reality, different shots need different tempo thoughts.
"Tempo depends on the shot," he says. "When I try to hit a long drive, my tendency is to get a little too fast. If I'm trying to flight a wedge shot, my tendency is to get too slow. I try to remind myself of my tempo tendencies before each shot."