Justin Rose finds a swing feel trick with a ... swim paddle?

NASSAU, Bahamas — About six months ago while visiting his swing coach Mark Blackburn in Birmingham, Ala., Justin Rose was rummaging through myriad training aids and came across a swim hand paddle. Intrigued, he wondered how it might help his game. Now he uses it almost every time in his warm-up routine before competition.

Rose, 43, was seen wearing the paddle on his right hand during his pre-round range sessions at the Hero World Challenge. The paddle keeps his right hand flat against the shaft, meaning he can only grip the club with his left hand. The Englishman, ranked 43rd in the world, said the use of the paddle helps him with the feel of his swing in several regards.

For one, the paddle doesn’t allow him to pull down on the club with his right hand, which results in coming in too steeply. If that happens, then he also fights a flying right elbow as his right shoulder collapses. Also, with his right hand running alongside the shaft, he gets more feel of the clubface through impact.

“A lot of it is just getting the right arm working the way I want,” said Rose, the former U.S. Open champion who won his 11th PGA Tour title earlier this year at Pebble Beach. “For me, I have a tendency to pull down and my hand turns. Then I can get a little internal with my shoulder and I’m stuck inside. If I use the paddle, the left arm has to swing the club.”

It took some time for Rose to get used to making full swings with paddle on his hand. But now he swears by its usefulness.

“You know how players are,” Rose said. “We’ll use anything if it works.”