By 1 p.m. local time on Friday, the thermometer in Cromwell, Conn., where the Travelers Championship is being played this week, had reached 95 degrees. But with the humidity at 55 percent, the “feels like” effect on phone apps read an even 100 degrees. Summer has truly arrived in the Northeast.

It calls for maximum hydration for anybody venturing outdoors, and for those on hand at TPC River Highlands, simply standing could produce a heavy sweat. For the players and caddies who are walking close to five miles in their job, they’re gulping water like it’s, well … water.

MORE: Xander Schauffele says contending each week feel ‘like a drug’ for golfers

Word got out this week that Akshay Bhatia even has a bet with his caddie, John Limanti, on who is going to consume more water this week. Now, as we know, the 22-year-old Bhatia stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 130 pounds, so it would seem that he has a lot of room in that body to store liquids (a completely unscientific observation, of course).

And, thus far, the boss is “winning.”

“I’m probably drinking seven, eight bottles of water a day, and then mix that with electrolytes hydration stuff, so it’s a fun battle, it’s good to keep us on our toes about that,” Bhatia said.

It certainly begs the question: Are they vying for “most bathroom breaks” too?

Bhatia doesn’t appear in danger of seeing his golf game go faint. He backed up an opening six-under 64 with a 65 on Friday and, with play suspended by lightning in the afternoon, he was tied for second, two shots behind sole leader Tom Kim.

It’s another impressive performance for a guy who is playing for a seventh consecutive week. Prior to the Travelers, Bhatia already had logged 18 starts in 2024 and notched his second PGA Tour win in April at the Valero Texas Open.

He is, however, seeking a first top-10 start since that victory. Indeed, though Bhatia has nine top-25 results, he doesn’t have another top-10. So there’s obviously room for improvement.

“I just want to keep building on good golf and kind of learning as I go. I feel like I’ve been working really hard on my technique especially this week, and I feel like my coach and I have found a feel that works, so we’re just kind of trying to build on that and focus on that as much as I can.”

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

The post Akshay Bhatia is ‘winning’ this unusual bet with his caddie at Travelers appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

Considering the level of his competition over his last five starts, the results are truly impressive. Since mid-May, Xander Schauffele has finished second in the signature Wells Fargo Championship, won the PGA Championship, placed eighth in the signature Memorial, and last week tied for eighth in the U.S. Open. For the season, the San Diegan has 11 top-10s in 15 starts, and only Scottie Scheffler (duh) has been consistently better (12 top-10s, five wins). The winner at Pinehurst No. 2, Bryson DeChambeau, is the only player to have gone cumulatively lower in scoring among the three majors played.

It has truly been a season like no other for Schauffele, who’s won a whopping $12.2 million in the process.

MORE: How Xander Schauffele’s life lessons led to him winning the PGA

And it’s also been one heck of a grind of late. Ater shooting a second-straight five-under-par 65 on Friday at TPC River Highlands to be tied for fourth, three shots behind leader Tom Kim, heading into the weekend of the signature Travelers Championship, Schauffele admitted as much.

“I think I was in a little bit of denial,” Schauffele, 30, said. “This is probably the most in contention I’ve ever been in my life through a pretty hot stretch of golf. I think I’m probably more worn down than … I wanted to admit to my team. I think I got tired once everyone told me that I looked tired. I felt like I was fine.

“It’s a lot of golf and, yeah, I think not playing this afternoon for myself is going to be helpful to sort of rest up and get ready for the weekend.”

The PGA Tour moved up the tee times on Friday because of storms in the Cromwell, Conn., area, and the entire field was done earlier than usual. That meant some recovery time for everyone who has competed for three straight weeks for some of the largest prizes of the season in both money and points.

Understand, Schauffele, whose PGA Championship triumph at Valhalla gave him eight career victories, is not even close to complaining about the work. This is essentially what the tour delivered to the game’s top players so they could have stretches of playing against the top level of competition.

In Schauffele’s case, one week has built on the next.

“For us golfers it’s like a drug to be in contention. It’s an awesome feeling,” he said. “It’s why we practice, it’s why we play the game, at least speaking for myself. Having a lot of opportunities to be in that final group on Sunday, even though I haven’t gotten it done very often—only once actually, in the last two years—is all I could ask for.”

Coached for years only by just father, Stefan, Schauffele has worked more recently with Chris Como, and the golfer has called it a “slow trickle” of information to help him both mentally and physically. As a result, his game is arguably at its best ever.

How is this for a well-rounded attack? Schauffele is second on the tour in strokes gained/total, ninth off the tee, fifth in approach to the green and 17th in putting. It there is anything to improve on considerably, it’s sharpening his iron play; he ranks a surprising 124th in tour proximity to the hole at 39 feet, seven inches.

Asked where this high level of confidence and execution are coming from, Schauffele said, “It’s everything. Golf, it’s not just one thing. You got to be in a good head space. I got a really good team around me, fortunately. You got to do all things pretty well. I think picking up some slack in certain areas of my game that was lacking has helped me compete week-in, week-out, and also given me a little bit more confidence.”

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

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Synchronicity is one of the most important aspects of a good golf swing. It’s going to be really difficult to hit quality shots if your upper body is leading the way in the downswing or if your arms are working independently of your body, like I’m showing in the photo above. Those are common amateur mistakes. There are a number of reasons your swing might be out of sync. Sometimes you might get short and armsy out of fear of missing the ball. Sometimes it’s simply not understanding that the body’s pivot, not the swinging of the arms, needs to govern the swing. You’ll know you’re out of sync if your swing has an “unfinished” look on either side of the ball or if your body remains fairly still while your arms dominate. Have someone video your swing and see if it looks like your body, arms and club are working together. I bet you’ll recognize if things don’t look in harmony. I like to say that the dog wags the tail, meaning the body pivot (the dog) leads the swing while the arms (the tail) follow. I’ve got a simple drill that will help you get a feel for this. I call it the push-palm drill, and if you work on it, it will sync up your action and have you hitting solid shots.

First, get in your address posture without a club and place your right hand under and against your left so the backs of each hand are pressed against each other (below).

Then, mimic a backswing while keeping pressure against the backs of your hands. Your left arm should feel linked to your chest as your upper body coils against your right leg. Meanwhile, your right arm should remain above your left as you reach the top (below). Hold this position for a few beats and feel how your left side is pushing while your right side is pulling. By exaggerating the push-pull action, you are linking your arm swing with your body pivot. This is the feeling of synchronicity you need to make a good backswing that creates and stores energy. As a bonus, this drill also is great for flexibility, helping improve your upper-body rotation away from the ball—which is a real distance booster.

Finally, you can use the push-palm drill to hone a better downswing. Feel like you’re pulling your arms down into the impact zone with your lower body. Remember, the dog wags the tail. Your body’s pivot toward the target initiates the downswing (below). When it properly rotates, you can then let your arms and club swing through the hitting area. That’s what I mean by good synchronicity. The body, arms and club work in unison going back, and then the lower body (followed by the upper body) leads the downswing. It should feel like the body is clearing so the arms and club can whip through. Now you’re synched up and ready to go hit some balls.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

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Golf Games Explained is exactly what it sounds like. You want to mix it up and try something new for once? Well, someone has to do the thankless work of playing different golf formats and telling you if it’s worth it. You can thank me later.

It is and always will be the most standard match-play games in golf. And yet, when somebody says, “let’s play a Nassau,” on the first tee, there is inevitably someone who either say A) What’s that? or B) How do you play that again?

In reality, it’s quite simple, even with all the added variations which will get to a little toward the end of this article. For now, here’s how to play a “Nassau.” Now, you can be the guy who introduces it, quickly explains the rules and, ultimately, be the one who has to keep track of all the action and side action. Believe it or not, it’s fun to be that guy, or gal, sometimes.

RELATED: Rules of Golf Review: Why can’t I move my ball when it’s behind an electrical box?

Number of players required: Two OR four players is best for a Nassau, since it’s a match-play game. It can be 1v1 or 2v2. Theoretically, you could do 1v2 if you only have three players, but with handicaps involved, that could make things a bit uneven. Plus, there are more creative games to play when that unreliable friend of yours doesn’t show up to the foursome, like Skins or Wolf.

Best for: Traditionalists. Gamblers. Folks who like to double down on a bet. High- and low-handicappers. People who like to keep it simple.

How to play: Unlike a full, 18-hole match, a Nassau is three separate matches, or three separate bets, if you will. The front nine is its own match, the back nine is its own match, and the “overall,” all 18 holes, is its own match, too. On the first tee, you decide on a dollar amount for all three of those bets. Some folks like to keep it simple and say each match is worth $5, meaning the most you could lose is $15. Others who like to go bigger might make it $10-10-10. You can also make the overall worth a little more if you like—$5 on the front, $5 on the back, $10 for the overall. It’s all up to the group.

So, let’s say you’re 2 down after seven holes. If you fail to win the eighth hole, or you halve it, you lose the front nine. You are now down $5. You continue keeping the overall match score from there, though. So say you lost, you are 3 down overall, you halve the ninth. On 10 you start a new match for the back nine, but you are 3 down on the “overall.”

This makes the back nine mean more and keeps everybody in the game. Let’s say you go on to win the back, 3 up, you’d cancel out the front nine bet and you’d wind up halving the match on 18. In that case, it’s a complete wash and neither team wins. But if you only won the back 2 up, you’d cancel out the front but you’ve lost the overall. In the $5-5-10 scenario we outlined above, you’d owe the winning team $10. If you lost all three ways, front, back and overall, you pay the winning team $20 each if it’s 2v2, and you hang your head in shame.

One other standard element of a Nassau is the press bet, which can be implemented any time you go 2 down. This opens up another bet for the same amount as the original bet. So if you go 2 down through two holes, you can press and open up a new match on the front nine, which you will keep track of on the side starting on the third tee. It is essentially a double or nothing bet. You can also press the overall if you’d like at that point, again opening up an entirely new bet.

Obviously, handicaps are implemented for a Nassau game, allowing players of all abilities to compete.

Variations: For highly-skilled players, you could play a Nassau in the stroke-play format, which would also allow for only three players to compete. Front nine total score, back-nine total score, overall total score.

Technically, the “press” was also a variation, but it’s become so common that it goes without saying that the team who goes 2 down at any point is going to press. You can also add in all sorts of side bets, otherwise known as “junk.” Birdies, greens in regulation (and a par) on par 3s, sandies (up-and-down out of a bunker for par) are the most common forms of junk. Creative folks will also mix in junk like hitting your ball off a tree and still making par (“barkies”). These can all be worth $1 or a higher amount of your choosing. Simply keep track of them throughout the round, tally them all up at the end, and you can add or subtract them from the winning team’s total, depending on which side won the most junk.

Have a fun golf game you play and would like explained to the masses? Hit me up on Twitter/X @Cpowers14 and we’d be happy to share.

MORE GOLF GAMES EXPLAINED

How to play ‘Wolf’: A simple guide to one of golf’s most fun strategic betting games

How to play ‘Vegas’: A basic guide to a golf betting game where every shot counts

How to play ‘Skins’: A basic guide to one of golf’s best money games

What is ‘Swat’? How to play one of golf’s most fun betting games

How to play ‘Snake’: A basic guide to golf’s most toxic putting game

How to play ‘Wad’: The golf gambling game that rewards making putts

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

The post How to play a ‘Nassau’: A basic guide to one of golf’s common match play games appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

This article first appeared in Low Net, a weekly newsletter written for the average golfer, by an average golfer. To get Low Net each week, sign up for Golf Digest+.

Have a topic you want me to explore? Send me an email and I’ll do my best to dive in.

A few years ago, Golf Digest’s net stroke-play tournament featured a unique twist. Rather than have everyone play from the same set of tees, players could choose the tees they wanted, and their allotment of strokes would be adjusted accordingly. The further back you went, the more strokes you got. Move up, and you got fewer.

The broad selection of tee boxes proved a sort of Rorschach test on golfers’ mindsets. Some staffers played the standard tees, while a few boldly went all the way back to 7,100 yards and grabbed a fistful of additional strokes. I went in the opposite direction. In moving up, I was electing for fewer strokes, but figured it’d be fun, and scoring would be easier.

Turns out we were only partially right. I finished near the bottom of the pack.

That day, and in ensuing experiments playing shorter yardage, the consistent takeaway has been that moving up tees is a welcome change of pace. But it doesn’t always make the game easier. If anything, it challenges you to be better in ways you probably overlook.

“It’s probably the best thing you can do when learning how to score,” recent U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau said last year.

First, the obvious: Shorter yardage means less club into greens, which means a better chance of hitting greens in regulation, and more birdie looks as a result. Why would this be complicated? Because nothing in golf is that easy.

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A longer explanation can be best summarized through an experience I’ve chronicled before, when I played an 18-hole round with the PGA Tour pro Joel Dahmen in which I hit Joel’s drives and he hit mine. That day featured all the benefits you’d expect when a tour pro was teeing off from the members’ tees, like when Dahmen left me with a half-wedge into the first green, which I stuck to a foot for an opening birdie.

Netflix

But that round also underscored what DeChambeau and others are referring to when they say shorter yardage is so important for learning how to score. Every time I play forward tees, my perspective on a golf hole shifts. Unlike with a longer club in which I factor in the broad range of potential outcomes, a shorter club narrows my target to the point that I occasionally make devastating mistakes. On the second hole in my round with Dahmen, I took on a tucked pin with my pitching wedge, airmailed the green into a back bunker and made a mess from there.

“I think everyone should be hitting only to the middle of the green unless inside of 50 yards,” said Jeff Ritter, a Golf Digest Best Teacher in Oregon. “Playing more forward, I would think would make it more difficult for players to adhere to this strategy model.”

In short, the “easier” a hole plays, the less attention paid to your limitations, leading to outsized risk. Although magnified in shorter-yardage experiments, this is an everyday problem for most of us. This season three Golf Digest colleagues and I are chronicling the progress of our games and our Handicap Index for an ongoing project, yet my season so far is disjointed. My game feels better than ever, so why have my scores stayed basically the same?

The answer lies in the same tendencies displayed in my round with Dahmen or at that company tournament. Whether because of improved ball-striking or because of forward tees, higher expectations over a shot increase the likelihood of you trying something dumb. It’s why it helps to manufacture those situations to better understand when you can afford to be aggressive and when you can’t.

The irony of playing up on occasion is it’s not likely to immediately lower your handicap index since course ratings from forward tees are generally lower. But if it’s teaching you how to score, the progress will be apparent before long.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

The post How playing forward tees makes you better appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

Unless you had a big bet on Bryson DeChambeau or you’re just a sick person, no one enjoyed seeing Rory McIlroy’s heartbreaking finish at the 2024 U.S. Open. It capped a decade of close calls in major championships with his most crushing loss yet as McIlroy missed painfully short putts on two of the final three holes to lose by a stroke to DeChambeau.

It was a brutal watch. And Rory showed just how much it hurt by immediately peeling out of the Pinehurst parking lot and boarding his plane home. The followind day he issued a statement saying he was withdrawing from this week’s Travelers Championship and that he’s “taking a few weeks away from the game to process everything and build myself back up.”

THE GRIND: Bryson DeChambeau’s ‘drunk’ drive & Rory McIlroy’s Irish goodbye

There are plenty of people from Brandel Chamblee to Golf Digest’s Sam Weinman who feel McIlroy can learn from this type of loss and be better for it down the road. However, right now, it’s still a bummer for McIlroy and his fans. But now we can already say that something really good has come from his really bad finish.

That’s where Ben Rector comes in. One of our favorite signer-songwriters around these parts, Rector wrote an awesome Masters-inspired theme song featuring Snoop Dogg a couple years back (You’d recognize it as the theme of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball) and he combined with Charles Kelley to perform the prettiest song you’ve ever heard about missing a cut at Pebble Beach. And now, Rector has written a touching song for Rory after his U.S. Open loss. Have a listen:

Well played, Ben. And written.

“These people, they don’t know the weight of dreams. How hard and lonely it can be to carry that flame honestly, to keep from going dim.” Beautiful. And insightful. Thanks for sharing, Ben. Can you put that out as a single I can download?

Anyway, Rory, you take all the time you need. And when you return, your fans—including Ben—will be ready to watch you try (and try and try) again.

RELATED: Scottie Scheffler refused to sign this for a fan—and we don’t blame him

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

The post Ben Rector writes beautiful song for Rory McIlroy after U.S. Open heartbreak appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

A while back, after doing an exhaustive study of how elite players strike a ball on the turf, former pro golfer Bobby Clampett, now an instructor, found that the swing bottom of the best players is up to four inches in front of the ball!

You read that right. Four inches. Their irons descend into the ball, strike it, then slice into the turf and keep heading downward for another couple of inches before ascending again. That’s why you see those carpet strips of grass flying when someone like Tiger pures an iron shot.

You might wonder what they’re doing to create such a powerful impact condition? In short, it occurs because their hands and lower are in front of the ball as the clubhead strikes it. Hard to picture? Here’s a look at defending U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark a millisecond before impact (below). Note his belt buckle and hands. See where they are in relation to the ball?

MORE: Cut your workout time in half with these great exercises

You might think Clark can hit a 7-iron 200 yards because he’s been playing and practicing golf his whole life, and you wouldn’t be wrong. But there’s another reason why he’s able to deloft his irons and compress the ball off the turf, and it doesn’t have to do with outlier golf skill.

It’s a gym thing.

Darin Hovis, a Golf Digest Certified Fitness Trainer, says that “lagging” action, where the clubhead trails the hands and body rotation through the impact zone, can be trained in the gym. It takes a combination of strength, stability and mobility, plus the coordination of moving in multiple planes in a timed action, but it’s easier than you think if you follow his four-part workout.

Hovis, one of Golf Digest’s 50 Best Fitness Trainers in America, trains golfers at Par 4 Fitness in Naples, Fla. and is a +0.1 handicap golfer (so he pure irons as a hobby). He says the key to turning a 7-iron into a 5-iron, by making ball-first contact and taking a divot after, lies in understanding how to use the ground as a leverage post.

“You want to train to learn how to deliver the hands forward of the ball enough to create this dynamic compression,” he says. “A lot of the time amateur golfers throw the clubhead at the ball and it’s actually ahead of the hands at impact. It’s not lagging the way it does when pros strike the ball.”

Watch his four-part training program on how to train for clubhead lag. And click this link if you’re interested in knowing more about Golf Digest’s Fitness Trainer Certification program.

MORE: How I lost 23 pounds in a year—downing burgers, pizza and playing a little golf

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

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Long before YouTube Golf became a big deal, the Bryan Bros were pioneers in the space. Heck, that article I just linked to is 10 years old. I’m amazed the link even still works.

Anyway, while both Wesley Bryan and George Bryan are still very much pursuing their tour pro careers—Wesley finished runner-up in the D.R. on the PGA Tour in April and George made his first PGA Tour cut last November—the band is back together making content. And one recent trick shot in particular caught our eye.

RELATED: Scottie Scheffler refused to sign this for a fan—and we don’t blame him

Have a look as Wes drains a putt from 144 yards. That’s right, 144 yards. Or 432 feet. The dude takes a huge whack at the ball with his putter from a spot in the fairway that most people would hit 8-iron and it just rolls. And rolls. And rolls. Until it finds the bottom of the cup. Check it out:

Amazing stuff. “The wand is starting to warm up,” Wes writes in the comments. Look out, PGA Tour.

The only bad thing? As Wes notes in the comments later, this will not be recognized as an official Guinness World Record because there wasn’t an official there. A quick Google search shows that record is 401 feet by Jay Stocki.

But the Bryan Bros don’t need some certificate. They’ve got video proof that this putt was real—and it was spectacular.

RELATED: Watch a giant gator enjoy a big lunch on the golf course

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

The post Watch Wesley Bryan make the longest putt in golf history appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

The week-in, week-out experience for most tour players is a dart-throwing contest. They see the target, calculate the number they want to hit, and try to land it as close to that number as possible. With the soft fairways and greens on tour, drivers may not roll out more than 10 yards; irons, maybe only a yard or two.

But starting on the firm-and-fast turf at the U.S. Open, and extending through the Open Championship, run-out numbers start becoming hugely important. As Sean Zak, a writer at Golf Magazine and author of the new book Searching In St. Andrews, explained on the most recent episode of the Golf IQ podcast.

Zak caddied for PGA Tour player Joel Dahmen at the Genesis Scottish Open during his first visit to Scotland, and found that in the extremely dry conditions that hit Scotland in 2022, the ball could roll upwards of 80 yards with a driver.

It’s something Bryson DeChambeau spoke about last week during the U.S. Open:

“We track on practice days how far the golf ball is rolling. We’ll see on the Foresight how far it lands and then how far it actually goes. So we’ll take those two numbers and say that it’s a 33-yard run-out right now in these conditions, because if it’s downwind it can go to 45 yards. If it’s into the wind, it can go to five yards. It’s a bit based on the conditions at hand and what slopes you land on and where it is in the fairways. You’ve got to just try to make sure you’re hitting it into the correct areas in spots with those types of conditions. That’s really what it is.”

So to help you navigate whatever dry conditions you may face, here are some land-and-roll basics.

Run out number basics The ball will roll more if… …the ground is firm and dry

Because obviously.

…the weather is warm

Because the ball flies, and lands, with more speed.

…you’re playing golf at higher altitude

Because the ball flies through the thinner air for longer, which means it arrives back to earth on a flatter landing angle and with more speed.

…the ball approaches the ground at a lower, shallower landing angle

Because it’s like bowling, in that the best way to roll the ball isn’t to drop it directly down at your feet.

…you’re hitting your ball to an elevated target

Because if you’re hitting to an elevated green, the ball comes into that elevated ground at a shallower angle.

Once again, you can listen to the full Golf IQ episode with Sean below (and subscribe here!)

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

The post It’s a number pros are about to start caring a lot more about—these are the basics appeared first on Australian Golf Digest.

They were called Konica Minolta Swing Vision. You probably remember them, too. And they were my favorite part of golf broadcasts growing up.

These sub-90 second segments narrated by Peter Kostis gave a drive-by analysis on a relevant player’s golf swing. What they do well; what in their move is unique. It helped me understand what I was watching a little better, and fueled my budding golf swing nerdom.

Then, as everything in life does, things change. The technology coaches used grew more advanced, and so did our understanding of the golf swing. It was time for something new, but it remained unclear what, exactly, that something should be.

At the time, 3D golf swing systems—which can specifically measure even the smallest body movements as you swing a golf club—were extremely expensive and cumbersome. Often, players would need to wear a specific suit, or markers on their body. Not something you could ask a contender to do during the final round of a tournament.

But in recent years a more nimble version of the technology began sprouting. It began showing up on phones, it meant that for the first time, advanced golf swing data could be folded into broadcasts easier than ever before.

So starting in 2024, as part of a broader push incorporating more technology into its golf broadcasts, CBS partnered with GolfTec, and began measuring swings using the company’s OptiMotion technology.

“We’re not looking to add technology for technology’s sake. We want to make sure the technology is additive to the viewer’s experience,” says Ross Molloy, senior vice president for talent, production planning, and technology development for CBS Sports. “Does it help them understand the action? Does it contextualize what they’re seeing? Can they learn something to help their own game? That’s what made this a great fit.”

Chris Condon

The process starts with a conversation between Golf Digest Top 50 coach Nick Clearwater and CBS analyst Trevor Immelman about which player, and what move in their golf swing they want to discuss. Clearwater runs the system in a CBS production truck then delivers the results to Immelman, who analyzes them on air during broadcasts.

“When I was playing, all we had were video cameras, and when you asked great players about their swing, they’ll start talking about their feels, which don’t necessarily match up with the data,” Immelman explains. “That’s fine, because great players feel what they need to feel, but with this technology you can see the data, and learn from it.”

It’s music to the golf nerd’s ears, and along the way, Immelman, Clearwater, and the CBS team have succeeded in mainstreaming some good, data-driven golf swing ideas we can learn from.

Yes, more turn is more powerful

There was once a school of thought that making a big backswing turn was important, sure, but perhaps a little overrated. Some thinking even insisted that shorter backswings could actually help you hit the ball longer, because it would prevent wasted energy.

But as Immelman and OptiMotion highlights often during these broadcasts: Pros make a huge shoulder turn, with both their hips and their shoulders.

“The flexibility and strength of these athletes is very impressive,” Immelman says.

“That’s probably the thing that I appreciate the most, seeing how big a shoulder turn those guys make,” adds Molloy, an avid 6-handicap.

In this clip, you can see Immelman highlighting how Jason Day’s hip turn has increased over the years as a way of preventing injury.

Breaking down Jason Day's swing with Optimotion technology: 2015 vs. Now pic.twitter.com/aRSoDMfLBO

— Golf on CBS (@GolfonCBS) February 17, 2024

“How cool would it have been to run this on someone like Ben Hogan’s golf swing?” said Immelman before the Memorial. Later that tournament, he decided to make good on that idea with golf’s all-time major winner, Jack Nicklaus, to highlight how big a turn he made on the backswing.

“He makes a massive hip and shoulder turn,” Immelman says. “More than 100 degrees of shoulder turn. And look at how his left knee works back away from the target on the backswing.”

"One of the greatest drivers of the ball in the history of the game."@TrevorImmelman analyzes Jack Nicklaus’ swing using optimotion technology. pic.twitter.com/tb8l80Py2d

— Golf on CBS (@GolfonCBS) June 8, 2024

No, you shouldn’t have all your weight on your back leg

Another common idea of the past was that golfers needed to have nearly all their weight on their trail leg at the top of the backswing. As technology like this began taking a deeper look at the golf swing, they found that wasn’t true: If you had that much weight on your trail leg at the top of the backswing, you wouldn’t be able to get back to the golf ball in time.

Instead, as you can see in OptiMotion’s clip of Scottie Scheffler below at the Masters, his weight is closer to 50-50 at the top of the backswing.

Through a move called “re-centering,” players begin moving to their left side before the club has started down.

“His hips begin to sway towards the target in transition,” Immelman explains in the clip of Ludvig Aberg below.

A closer look at Ludvig Åberg's golf swing using optimotion technology pic.twitter.com/Xo9CROaL09

— Golf on CBS (@GolfonCBS) April 20, 2024

By impact, players’ hips have moved aggressively towards the target—more than six inches, in Scheffler’s case.

Scottie is an absolute flusher of the golf ball.@TrevorImmelman analyzes the World No. 1's swing using optimotion technology. pic.twitter.com/exK9ptWDpZ

— Golf on CBS (@GolfonCBS) June 9, 2024

“You’ve got to give them a little head start if you want to get them that far ahead of the ball by impact,” Clearwater says.

Yes, your head does move

It’s quite rare that you’ll see a head stay perfectly still during their downswing. Look closely, and you’ll see it tilt and turn, either to the left or right of the target.

As Golf Digest Top 50 coach Michael Breed explains in the video below, Rory McIlroy is able to swing out to the right and hit a draw because he tilts his head in a way that his eyes are pointing out to the right—he creates a “draw eyeline.” A fade eyeline is the opposite: When your head is tilting so your eyes are pointing out to the left.

One of the reasons why Rory McIlroy is able to hit up on the ball so well: Head tilt.@MichaelBreed explains using optimotion technology. pic.twitter.com/3qL3BhF7u0

— Golf on CBS (@GolfonCBS) May 18, 2024

“Typically, the club will follow the eyes,” Breed says.

Scheffler does an interesting variation of this: He creates a draw eyeline with a fade body shape, Breed says, and the result is the Scheffler’ shuffle that we’ve all come to know so well.

Clearly, it works.

“He has such an exceptional sense of clubface awareness,” Immelman says. “He knows exactly where that thing is pointing.”

There’ll be more revelations to come, but a few months in, and golfers are starting to get their feed populated with some refreshingly good ideas. Maybe, they’ll even start seeing the results in their own games, too.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

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