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Golf 101: How to hit a draw…the easy way
“How to gain 10 yards,” “How to drive it like Tiger Woods,” “How to fix my slice,” all big questions that every golfer has studied, tried, and probably at one point or another achieved for a minute or two…well maybe not the Tiger one but you get the point.
The question I get over and over again from golfers of all skill levels is: “How do I hit a draw?”
There is no better feeling as a new golfer than striking one solidly and seeing the ball start a hair right and fall ever so gracefully to the left. It’s almost a badge of honor in a weird way.
If you do a search on YouTube you will find this question asked literally 1000’s of times with 1000’s of explanations from 1000’s of different players, teachers, fitters, etc.
From the simple to the data approach it’s a rabbit hole of “How To”
HOWEVER, in my 25+ of playing this game and being a person that has always hit a draw, I know of one foolproof way to get it done and it was taught to me on day one.
To hit a draw you have to learn to swing UNDER something. You cannot hit the inside of the ball swinging OVER something.
- Can you aim right close the face and swing out? YES
- Can you aim left close the face and swing out? YES
- Can you aim straight and swing out? YES
- Can you do all of these things and swing in? NO
Yes, there is the better player “swing left” move but that’s not what we are tackling here. This is for new golfers and swinging out and swinging in is simple to digest.
For a new golfer, swinging under something automatically shallows the plane bringing the clubhead not only from an inside path but naturally requires the player to rotate correctly.
This idea works for weak grips, neutral grips, and strong grips. The reason being is when the path is sound, momentum, and feel will naturally tell your hands when to release or for the stronger grips how to hold it off a bit longer. YES, your natural feel HAS to come into play here, we are not robots. Use your hands, eyes, body, and brain to adjust like an athlete. Hitting solid golf shots is the technique and YOU.
This is how I learned to hit a draw and it stuck for 25 years……
- I was handed a long broomstick and told to swing it without hitting the ground. This was before I was even handed a golf club. The sensation of swinging the broomstick just over the ground taught me about the proper plane but also what real rotation was.
- With a club, I was told to swing under the stick. My local PGA pro took the same broomstick held it over the ball and had me hit shots. The only way to get to the ball was shallowing the club out and hitting the inside of the ball. Yes, I mishit it, yes I skanked a few but once the feeling kicked in the ball would start right and naturally start to fall to the left..with every club.
This is the easiest way I have ever come across. Not only has it worked for people like my old man who chop down on it like Paul Bunyan but also brand new players like my son who now only know how to swing it that way. The challenges are, as the players begin to develop the tendency is to overdo it and the club begins to get stuck behind them causing new problems BUT it’s easier to help a player that gets stuck than one that chops down on it.
If you are curious, next time you are at home sweeping the floor, grab the end of the broom handle put the stick out in front of you, and slowly start to make swings parallel to the ground. Little by little start to lower the plane getting it as close to the ground as possible without hitting it…feel that? That’s how you hit the inside of the ball. IE That’s How to hit a draw the way.
Can a teacher move you around and do a bunch of things to get the ball to curve right to left once or twice? Yes. But don’t you wanna be able to do it all the time as a natural part of your game? YES.
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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips
SuperStroke announced today its purchase of 100-year-old grip maker Lamkin Grips, citing the company’s “heritage of innovation and quality.”
“It is with pride and great gratitude that we announce Lamkin, a golf club grip brand with a 100-year history of breakthrough design and trusted products, is now a part of the SuperStroke brand,” says SuperStroke CEO Dean Dingman. “We have always had the utmost respect for how the Lamkin family has put the needs and benefits of the golfer first in their grip designs. If there is a grip company that is most aligned with SuperStroke’s commitment to uncompromised research, design, and development to put the most useful performance tools in the hands of golfers, Lamkin has been that brand. It is an honor to bring Lamkin’s wealth of product innovation into the SuperStroke family.”
Elver B. Lamkin founded the company in 1925 and produced golf’s first leather grips. The company had been family-owned and operated since that point, producing a wide array of styles, such as the iconic Crossline.
According to a press release, “The acquisition of Lamkin grows and diversifies SuperStroke’s proven and popular array of grip offerings with technology grounded in providing golfers optimal feel and performance through cutting-edge design and use of materials, surface texture and shape.”
CEO Bob Lamkin will stay on as a board member and will continue to be involved with the company.
“SuperStroke has become one of the most proven, well-operated, and pioneering brands in golf grips and we could not be more confident that the Lamkin legacy, brand, and technology is in the best of hands to continue to innovate and lead under the guidance of Dean Dingman and his remarkably capable team,” Lamkin said.
Related: Check out our 2014 conversation with Bob Lamkin, here: Bob Lamkin on the wrap grip reborn, 90 years of history
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Tour Rundown: Pendrith, Otaegui, Longbella, and Dunlap soar
Take it from a fellow who coaches high school golf in metro Toronto: there’s plenty of great golf played in the land of the maple leaf. All the greats have designed courses over the USA border: Colt, Whitman, Ross, Coore, Mackenzie, Doak, as well as the greatest of the land, Stanley Thompson. I’m partial to him, because he wore my middle name with grandeur. Enough about the architecture, because this week’s Tour Rundown begins with a newly-minted, Canadian champion on the PGA Tour. Something else that the great white north is known for, is weather. It impacted play on three of the world’s tours, forcing final-round cancellations on two of them.
It was an odd week in the golf world. The LPGA and the Korn Ferry were on a break, and only 13/15 of the rounds slated, were played. In the end, we have four champions to recognize, so let’s not delay any longer with minutiae about the game that we love. Let’s run it all down with this week’s Tour Rundown.
PGA Tour: TP takes TS at Byron’s place
The 1980s was a decade when a Canadian emergence was anticipated on the PGA Tour. It failed to materialize, but a path was carved for the next generation. Mike Weir captured the Masters in 2003, but no other countrymen joined him in his quest for PGA Tour conquest. 2024 may herald the long-awaited arrival of a Canadian squad of tour winners. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Nick Taylor break the fifty-plus year dearth of homebred champions at the Canadian Open, and players like Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Adam Svennson, and Mackenzie Hughes have etched their names into the PGA Tour’s annals of winners.
This week, Taylor Pendrith joined his mates with a one-shot win at TPC Craig Ranch, the home of the Byron Nelson Classic. Pendrith took a lead into the final round and, while the USA’s Jake Knapp faltered, held on for the slimmest of victories. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted six-under 65 on Sunday to move into third position, at 21-under par. Ben Kohles, a Texan, looked to break through for his first win in his home state. He took the lead from Pendrith at the 71st hole, on the strength of a second-consecutive birdie.
With victory in site, Kohles found a way to make bogey at the last, without submerging in the fronting water. His second shot was greenside, but he could not move his third to the putting surface. His fourth was five feet from par and a playoff, but his fifth failed to drop. Meanwhile, Pendrith was on the froghair in two, and calmly took two putts from 40 feet, for birdie. When Kohles missed for par, Pendrith had, at last, a PGA Tour title.
360° and in!
A nervy par save by @TaylorPendrith to remain one back as he seeks his first PGA TOUR victory @CJByronNelson. pic.twitter.com/LVFXUSidSg
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 5, 2024
DP World Tour: China Open in Otaegui’s hands after canceled day four
It wasn’t the fourth round that was canceled in Shenzhen, but the third. Rains came on Saturday to Hidden Grace Golf Club, ensuring that momentum would cease. Sunday would instead be akin to a motorsports restart, with no sense of who might claim victory. Sebastian Soderberg, the hottest golfer on the Asian Swing, held the lead, but he would slip to a 72 on Sunday, and tie for third with Paul Waring and Joel Girrbach. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi completed play in 67 strokes on day three, moving one shot past the triumvirate, to 17-under par.
It was Spain’s Adrian Otaegui who persevered the best and played the purest. Otaegui was clean on the day, with seven birdies for 65. Even when Migliozzi ceased the lead at the 10th, Otaegui remained calm. With everything on the line, Migliozzi made bogey at the par-five 17th, as his principal competitor finished in birdie. To the Italian’s credit, he bounced back with birdie at the last, to claim solo second. The victory was Otaegui’s fifth on the DP World Tour, and first since October of 2022.
.@adrianotaegui birdies the 16th to tie the lead at -17 ?#VolvoChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/p4tfE5DRJa
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 5, 2024
PGA Tour Americas: Quito’s rains gift title to Longbella
Across the world, superintendents and their staffs will do anything to prepare a course for play. Even after fierce, nightime rains, the Quito TG Club greeted the first four groups on Sunday. The rains worsened after 7 am, however, and the tour was forced to abort the final round of play. With scores reverting to Saturday’s numbers, Thomas Longbella’s one-shot advantage over Gunn Yang turned into a Tour Americas victory.
64 held the opening-day lead, and Longbella was not far off, with 66. Yang jumped to the top on day two, following a67 with 66. He posted 68 on day three, and anticipated a fierce, final-round duel for the title. As for Longbella, he fought off a ninth-hole bogey on Saturday with six birdies and a 17th-hole eagle. That rare bird proved to be the winning stroke, allowing Longbella to edge past Yang, and secure ultimate victory.
.@TBalla21 eagles 17, shoots 65 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the KIA Open. pic.twitter.com/TTOL2LxSdh
— PGA TOUR Americas (@PGATOURAmericas) May 4, 2024
PGA Tour Champions: Dunlap survives Saturday stumble for win
Scott Dunlap did not finish Saturday as well as he might have liked. After beginning play near Houston with 65, Dunlap made two bogeys in his final found holes on day two, to finish at nine-under par. Hot on his heels was Joe Durant, owner of a March 2024 win on PGA Tour Champions. Just behind Durant was Stuart Appleby, perhaps vibing from his Sunday 59 at Greenbrier on this day in 2010. Neither would have a chance to track Dunlap down.
The rains that have forced emergency responders into action, to save hundreds of lives in the metro Houston area, ended hopes for a third day of play at The Woodlands. Dunlap had won once previously on Tour Champions, in 2014 in Washington state. Ten years later, Dunlap was the fortunate recipient of a canceled final round, and his two days of play were enough to earn him TC victory number two.
Off the green? No worries for @ScottDu12500063
8-under solo leader @InsperityInvtnl pic.twitter.com/hoj5OujL5C
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) May 4, 2024
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Morning 9: Pendrith’s maiden Tour win | Morikawa back with former coach | Brooks victorious
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Brad
Nov 23, 2020 at 11:26 am
Question for the author (or anyone really): Is the obstacle over the ball placed on its equator (perpendicular to target line) or slightly towards the contact-side of the ball as it lies?
Painter33
Nov 23, 2020 at 9:12 am
This confirms the thought I’ve had since a lesson from Bob Toski years ago – hit this inner quadrant of the ball. If I look at the ball, I hit that quadrant that is like 3-6 on a clock and my natural flatter plane results in a draw. I step up, align slightly right, swing in-to-out and watch a little draw as the result.
Shallowface
Nov 21, 2020 at 9:37 am
Many years ago there was a swing trainer called the “Inside Approach” that did much the same thing your instructor did by having you swing under the broomstick. Don’t know if those are still available anywhere or not.
As a student of the game for nearly 50 years, I have often wondered why so few get it right while so many get it wrong in very similar ways. Years ago I ran across an old tip where the instructor placed a sprig of grass a couple of inches behind the ball and told the student to try to hit that instead of the ball. Not only did the student not hit anything fat, but started hitting these perfect slight draws with little to no divot.
Perhaps it’s a problem of perception. When we try to hit the ball itself, we tend to get steep on it and hit a chopping slice of some degree. If the thought is to come down behind the ball just a bit, it shallows out the downswing and allows for square solid contact.
Now, do good players have that thought? Probably not. They have just learned to do that largely by accident. Could be that the reason the few who do excel at the game do so is because they naturally have a slightly different perception of the task at hand than does the majority.