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Watching the best tour players hit shots is a stripe show—repeated pure contact. You might think that comes from micromanaging what the clubhead is doing down through the ball, but ball-striking truth comes much more from some important body movements.
Golf Digest Best-in-State Teacher Steve Sieracki picked four flushers who seemingly do it different ways—Matt Wolff, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler and Patrick Cantlay—and identified things you can take from them immediately, along with video examples. to improve both your accuracy and distance.
Matt Wolff: Use your legs to get real turn
"It's easy to get distracted by some of the different things Wolff does, but he does a lot of things everybody should copy," says Sieracki, who is based at the Legacy Club at Woodcrest in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. "Watch how he changes his knee flex during the swing. It lets him take his hands around his body during the swing. His left knee bends and his right leg straightens, which is how you get real hip turn going back. A lot of players just move their arms back in a kind of simulated turn."
Collin Morikawa: Move the lead shoulder down
"Morikawa is the essence of stability. You don't see him moving off the ball when he takes the club back," says Sieracki. "One way you can feel some of this stability is to set up without a club facing a wall. Get in your posture so that your top of your head is resting against the wall, and make backswings where your head stays in place. This will promote your lead shoulder moving down—not out toward the wall."
Patrick Cantlay: Tilt and extend for a bigger backswing
"Cantlay's swing is so clean and simple, which makes it easy to see one of the key elements," says Sieracki. "When he gets to the top, the center of his shoulder turn is in front of the center of his hip turn. That means he has tilted and extended his spine. That tilt-extension combination is what gives him more turn—and more power." To work on it, turn a club upside down and poke it into the center of your sternum. Swing back and try to get the butt of the club pointing at the sky as you move into your backswing. "Players who struggle will tend to have the club pointing at the horizon or at the ground," says Sieracki.
Scottie Scheffler: Add some stretch to your follow-through
"Most players want to hit it higher and farther. Scheffler's move through impact shows how to actually make that happen," says Sieracki. "Look at how his hips slide forward and his arms and upper torso are stretching and extending. He's pushing his arms and extending—not flipping his hands and rising up early in an effort to lift the ball." You can feel this crucial difference by having a friend stand across from you holding a club just over your lead shoulder when you're at address. Make some practice swings where your head doesn't hit that guide shaft.
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