Shallow your swing

I love this question. The drill I would recommend is also a drill I use with students when they are coming down to the ball with the shaft too steep. So this is a multi purpose drill. When you are playing shots in windy conditions, especially if you are heading into the wind, the clear mistake golfers make is they inherently start swinging too fast and as a result they get steep and now ball contact is erratic. You hear professionals talk all the time before the Open Championship how important ball contact is. Here is a great drill I learned from listening to Nick Faldo and his preparation for the British Open.

Faldo said that even for elite players the tendency is to put the ball back in the stance and hit down on it and really punch it. He said the problem with that is for better players they get too steep and end up spinning the ball too much and the ball ends up ballooning into the air. That is the exact opposite of what you want. Well we know that the average recreational golfer usually is already too steep, so this drill can help golfers of all levels and help them train so they can improve their swing in general.

Faldo said that about 3 weeks before The Open he would start working on this drill. Take a 5 wood which usually has a very shallow face. Then tee it up really high, almost as high as you would do if you were teeing up a driver. Then make 3/4 swings and just try to brush the ball off the tee with the intent to hit low bullets. If you get a nice wide arc and focus on a smooth transition you will find your approach angle into impact will be very shallow. If you really get used to this the tee shouldn’t even move very much. If you are steep you will go right under the ball and pop it up into the air. Once you get the hang of this then you can take something like a 9 or 7 irons and hit little shots off the turf and do the same thing. You will see that you will barely brush the turf, the ball will fly lower but you will make wonderful contact. The picture you want in your mind that I tell my students is that you envision the descending clubhead like a fighter jet landing on a aircraft carrier, the club is descending but it is approaching on a very shallow glide path. I use this drill even for my advanced students when they start getting narrow in the downswing and the divots are too deep. So this is good for learning to play in the wind and a wonderful way to work on your basic swing.