It's not all about the long ball on tour. Copy Daniel Berger's 'bullet' shot to find more fairways
It’s not all about distance off the tee on the PGA Tour. Sure, players take advantage of ball and club technology to hit high-launch, low-spin bombs, but the best players also have a go-to “bullet” shot that flies lower and straighter. The bullet shot comes in handy either when the fairways are firm, it’s windy or there’s plenty of trouble lining the hole. Few hit this fairway finder better than Daniel Berger, whom I’ve coached for a few years.
Berger grew up in South Florida where the wind is constantly howling, so he grooved a lower flight shot off the tee to cut through the gusts. More recently, Berger has made some swing upgrades and done terrific work in the gym to get stronger with Ben Shear (one of Golf Digest’s Best Fitness Trainers in America), both of which have made his bullet even more repeatable.
If you struggle in the wind or are looking to find a repeatable, straighter shot off the tee, copy Berger’s moves to add his fairway finder to your game.
First, Berger tees the ball down significantly. Only a sliver of the ball is above the crown of his driver. He also stands closer to the ball and narrows his stance a little more than he would for a normal driver swing. Both adjustments help him “cover” the golf ball with his torso—a massive key to hitting it low.
With a normal driver swing, you want your chest to be slightly behind the ball at impact. This is called side bend, and it helps you hit the ball high and far. But to hit a low bullet, you want to stack your torso on top of your pelvis at impact. Berger does this beautifully. If you look at Berger’s swing from face on (above), at impact you’ll see his shirt buttons are perfectly stacked right over his belt buckle. This type of swing is more rotational—the hips don’t slide as much toward the target in the downswing than they would on a normal driver swing.
The biggest misconception people have about hitting a low shot is that they need to hit down on the ball. That’s a bad idea and causes the ball to spin too much, which results in a high, weak ball flight. Instead, Berger hits his bullet shot with a 0-degree angle of attack. In other words, the clubhead is traveling perfectly level to the ground at impact. Imagine landing a plane. Berger’s clubhead makes a smooth, level landing through the impact area, while most golfers chop down at the ball.
Teachers know the key to hitting the ball low is to minimize a metric called Spin Loft. To put it simply, you minimize Spin Loft (and hit it low) by keeping a neutral angle of attack while having a good amount of shaft lean. That’s exactly what Berger’s two key moves do.
Keeping your chest over the ball at impact helps you create shaft lean, and the sweeping motion (as opposed to chopping down) ensures the ball flies low the entire way.
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Blackburn’s new book, The Coaching Code, is now out. In it, he explains the concepts he has used in coaching dozens of tour players, including Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa. Blackburn is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional.