| I'm Luke Kerr-Dineen, Senior Editor for Game Improvement at Golf Digest and resident golf swing nerd. Golf IQ is my new weekly newsletter where I’ll share insight from some of the smartest people in the game to help us all play better golf.
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After a couple weeks on the road at the PGA Show, some dad duty this weekend and lots of golf-watching on television, I sat down with too many ideas for the newsletter.
So rather than focusing on one thing, I wanted to experiment with a grab bag of various things. Let’s get into it...
1. A little distance goes a long way
I’ve been wanting to do an explainer video on distance in golf for a while —and was excited to finally drop it this week.
One thing I wanted to make clear in the video is that distance is really helpful for every golfer. I think a lot of amateurs don’t appreciate that. But a recent study by Arccos found that your scoring average will drop by one stroke for every 10 yards you add to your game, regardless of accuracy.
To be clear, that doesn’t always mean trying to swing out of your shoes. That could mean improving your technique so you land in better positions and hit the ball more solidly. Or getting fit for a new driver. Or, as we talked about last week, getting a little more stretch in your swing.
You should always be trying to get a few more yards. Even a little bit of extra distance can go a long way for your game.
You can check out that video here.
2. A better bunker technique
One interesting thing more and more tour players are doing these days is dropping their trail foot (right foot for right-handers) way back. You could see LIV Mayakoba winner Joaquin Neimann doing it last week.
The traditional bunker advice is to open your stance really wide (aka, drop your lead foot back), open the face and swing across it. It’s a kind of holdover technique from the hickory days to make the unforgiving club designs work slightly better in the sand.
But wedge design is better these days, which means you don’t need to manipulate your body as much. So, pros have adopted the simpler technique of dropping their trail foot back. That helps keep their weight forward, and reduces sidespin, while the design of the wedge itself will glide through the sand without digging.
As Collin Morikawa explains:
“Doing so puts more weight forward, forces me to turn around my lead leg, and steepens my swing just enough to put the low point in the perfect spot without having to do anything else. I don’t have to think: I just pull my right foot back and swing.”
3. One drill every golfer should do
Wyndham Clark won at Pebble Beach last week. Something he talked about in his recent cover story was the simple drill of laying down an alignment stick pointing at the golf ball, perpendicular to the target line, as he hits balls (you can use a club to do this, too).
It’s so simple, but it’s the kind of thing basically any golfer can (and should), do, because it will probably make them a little better.
Here’s why:
• Lining up your clubhead with the stick on the ground makes sure your clubface is square at setup.
• It’s a good ball position check: It should be in the middle of your stance for short and mid irons, creeping up until it’s off your left foot with your driver.
• Many golfers feel like they move behind the stick (to their right) on the backswing—but don’t overdo this and start sliding.
• Wyndham will let his lower body get ahead of the stick (to his left) to make sure he’s shifting his weight.
A few reader questions...
Dylan K.: What is the right weekly cadence of practice to improve?
For me, it’s about an hour a week. But the more I talk to coaches, the more they say it’s not about quantity as it is about quality. You don’t need as much time as you think, but you do need to be diligent with that time. If you’re making swing changes, that means slow motion rehearsals, going through your pre shot routine, doing the right drills, and really ironing out the details in your golf swing. Simply banging balls with your 7-iron isn’t going to do it. Practicing this way may sound tedious, and you’ll probably end up hitting fewer golf balls this way. But each one will be a little more helpful.
Rob R.: What does "pull your body back off it" mean?
The feeling coach Mark Blackburn talks about that I cited in my newsletter last week is pushing into your lead toes, and then jumping back off them. As TPI’s Dr. Greg Rose explains here, it’s called horizontal plane torque. Think twisting.
Jeff F.: Most golfers practice swing looks perfect...however, when you see them swing at the ball the shot is terrible. Why?
Things just change when you’re reacting to the task of hitting a golf ball. It’s partly why I’ve given up practice swings. I just found that for me, they’re largely useless.
Sure, an overexaggerated rehearsal can help you understand a feel. Speed training, or swinging to stay loose in the offseason without a ball has some benefits because hitting a ball isn’t the goal there. If I’m working on stuff, I’m a big fan of hitting balls at 50 percent speed, or 75 percent speed, and working on transferring the move that way.
John L: One of my biggest issues with my golf swing is the takeaway...I cannot keep my hands inactive and end up coming inside which begins my struggles. Can you provide any insight with the takeaway as it relates to the stretch of the right arm to get me in a better starting position?
Lots of pros, like Rose Zhang, will talk about the feeling of using their big muscles in their torso and to push their arms and club away. I’m a golf journalist, not a coach, but you said your wrists may be getting a little too active, too early. This might be a good feel for you.
Valerie S.: How do you stop regripping your club in the backswing?
A lot of golfers—especially women, seniors, and junior golfers—struggle managing the weight of the club. Simply put, the club is too heavy, which means it falls out of their hands as they bring it to the top.
Golf Digest Top 50 Teacher Shaun Webb, who I wrote about in last week’s newsletter, pointed out to me something useful on this: He explained that the heaviest point of the club—its center of mass—is right is right about here (see below). The more you keep that point “propped up above your hands,” he said, the lighter the club will feel.
If you have questions you’d like me to answer you can email me at luke.kerr-dineen@wbd.com.
You can also follow me on X (Twitter) or Instagram and ask me there.
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