Reflections From Watching The World's Best Golfers

Happy Monday,

This week we cover reflections from watching the world’s best golfers. We also have our usual skills game, tip of the week and short video.

Enjoy.

Reflections From Watching The World's Best Golfers

Last Monday & Tuesday I was lucky enough to be in Troon watching The Open practice days. If you’ve never been to a golf event, the practice days are by far the best days to get close to the players and watch them prepare and play. Here are my takeaways:

Ball striking

It goes without saying that all players in the field are incredibly good, but 20 or so players stand out. Most players don’t strike the ball differently from your local pro or mini-tour players around your area, they are just more consistent.

Then you have the likes of Scottie and Rory, these two among others sound incredible when they hit their driver and longer clubs.

The different sound isn’t magic, but the combination of high club head speed and really centred striking and compression with every shot.

I walked 3 holes with Scottie and three holes with Rory. Rory was struggling with a high right miss on Tuesday, which then came out on Thursday (writing this Friday morning), it looks like he’s got to find a fix for this errant shot to get back to his best – even the world’s best can’t instantly fix swing issues.

Short Game

Troon is stunning to walk around and one of the standout features is how challenging the shots are around the greens. With countless run-offs and small, deep bunkers (4 - 8 feet deep) the course challenges every part of your short game.

In practice rounds, the players spent a lot of time hitting extra shots around the green. They are able to hit many different shots, but there is nothing special about their technique, other than precision and consistency in strike.

Tom Kim was practising hitting semi-flop shots over a bunker onto an elevated green from an uneven lie. The strike, launch and trajectory for all three attempts were nearly identical.

Once you have the basics of chipping technique in place this level of control just comes from hours and hours of practice.

Planning & Challenge

By the time you are reading this, I have no doubt we’ll all be aware of how tough Troon is as a test of golf. The fairways are littered with bunkers, the greens are beautiful shapes, filled with slopes and mounds. Run-off and deep bunkers are strategically placed around all greens to catch golfers out.

I was lucky enough to catch up with a friend who is caddying at The Open. On Tuesday morning he was dashing around the course by himself to look at a few run-out distances and make notes of green slopes and how the ball would react.

The level of precision required to shoot under par in The Open is very high, particularly when you factor in the wind…

Playing well for 18 holes around a course like Royal Troon in the wind must feel like sitting a 5-hour exam, where one slip can result in 3-4 hours of hard work being undone.

Control, Consistency & Ball Flight Control

This reflection ends by considering what separates elite golfers from the very good pros and amateurs. There are all sorts of swing shapes, builds and ways to practice, but all elite golfers have exceptional control of their ball flight.

They don’t all hit draws, they grip and swing the club in many different ways but they all:

1. Strike the ball out the centre 95-99% of shots (consistency).

2. Generate high levels of club head speed (distance).

3. Control their swing path & club face through impact (start direction & curvature).

Whatever stage of golf you are at, these are three factors that are critical. If you can’t hit the centre of the club face, don’t worry about the other two.

Once you can hit the centre of the club face, you are either working on points 2 or 3, depending on your current weakness. Any change you are making in your golf swing should be with the goal of improving one or more of these three outcomes.

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Happy golfing – The Golf Insider Team

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