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Instruction
How to steal yards from the pros (without swinging harder)
Most golfers think the harder you swing, the farther you hit the ball. Well, yes and no. All else being equal, that caveman mentality checks out: Move club faster; club hits ball; ball goes farther. But adding violence to your swing creates a slew of other variables, most of which you don’t want to think about.
Still, we watch the pros crushing drives on TV and think, Good golfers must be long hitters (more caveman thinking). The truth is, tour players do a lot of things really well, only one of which is produce speed. Things like hitting the ball dead center on the clubface, swinging into impact from the inside, sequencing body movements to create leverage. All of those are simpler ways to increase distance than going harder.
In our newest instruction video series, Power Secrets of the Pros, we’ll show you what really makes the tour guys drive it super long. We won’t say you can turn your 220-yard drive into 300—we’re not going there. What we can say is that if you fix certain weak spots in your swing, you’ll get longer without any extra effort. That’s what tour players do.
Our instructor for this five-part series, Golf Digest Best Young Teacher Boyd Summerhays, is a former tour pro who now coaches some of the best players in the world, including Tony Finau, who last we checked was top 10 in driving distance. Boyd takes you through some of the power moves he teaches his guys and what you should copy from other tour bombers, like Rory and Adam Scott and J.B. Holmes.
Power Secrets also looks at the swing faults that are likely costing you yards off the tee. From simple things like stance and posture to the more sophisticated stuff—timing issues, swing path, the transition move. Plus, there are things average golfers actually try to do to create power that end up reducing power. Now that’s just not fair. Find out what those things are, and if you’re guilty. (Hint: You are.)
Check out Power Secrets of the Pros. For less than what you spend at the halfway house, you can access all the videos in the program and get started on hitting it longer. We’ll worry about direction later.