There's nothing relaxing about needing to thread a drive between two hazards with a tournament on the line. The kind of shots you'll see this week at the Players Championship. It makes for some fun viewing for us at home—but stressful to the players actually playing it.
It's why the range becomes a sanctuary for tour players. It's one of the few spots where they can go and do what they do best—hitting golf balls—in relative peace.
But if the range itself is players' comfort zone, one player amps it up a notch. If you're on the ground at TPC Sawgrass, you'll see him doing it there, too.
That player is Brendan Todd and the drill he does during every range session is quite interesting:
- He sets a golf ball outside each of his toes
- Then he sets two more golf balls about three feet beyond them
- The four golf balls together, form a box around the ball he's about to hit
- In the middle of the second two balls is a yellow golf ball
There are two different reasons Todd does this, according to his coach Ward Jarvis. One mental, and one technical...
The technical
The two golf balls outside each of Todd's toes are there to monitor his stance width—make sure he's not standing too wide, or too narrow.
The yellow golf ball, though, is the key to all of this. Jarvis says it's a visual of your center, as you get setup and swing.
"The yellow ball represents your center mass," Jarvis explains. "It gives you a visual reference for where your center of mass is. Every player will be a little different. Some like to stack their weight more ahead of the yellow ball. Others want to feel a little behind it...the yellow ball helps them figure out where they are."
Generally speaking, most golfers will want to feel like their center is pretty close to the yellow golf ball at setup, which will allow them to get balanced on both feet. Then they'll want to feel their center ahead of the yellow ball at impact.
With the yellow golf ball there, you're not just feeling it. You're feeling it, and seeing it.
The mental
As for the mental side: The drill itself forms a kind of routine, and consistency. It's like getting your cup of coffee in the morning. Things may be different from day-to-day—in your life and in your game—but doing the same drill as part of your daily warmup routine is a kind of creature comfort.
"Our practice station, that's our comfort zone," Jarvis says. "Playing golf is hard to simulate. We're always looking for ways to bring the course into our practice, but we also have to look for ways to bring practice onto the course. To create a sense of comfort and confidence on the range, which we can then bring into the course."