Tips Special - Shaping shots with the driver with Paul McGinley

2011 NEW PRODUCTS

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SHAPING SHOTS WITH THE DRIVER

Here my feet, knees, hips and shoulders are all aligned very slightly to the right of the target, while the clubface is aimed at where I want the ball to go.

The Ryder Cup vice-captain’s top tips on getting the shots you want off the tee.

WORDS BY PETER MASTERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY WARREN LITTLE

Like many good players and good amateurs, the one shot we’re afraid of is the one going left. I play with eight degrees of loft on my driver, but what I normally do is get a 9.5º loft driver and then bend it to eight. You don’t need to do this with the adjustable R9, but I also use a Super Burner and I bend that one.

That brings the loft forward and makes the face sit more open. It’s a fact that de-lofting the club makes the face open slightly when you’d be forgiven for thinking it might close the face. I like to see the face marginally open because that’s an extra safety valve stopping me hitting it left. When you turn the toe in on the club slightly, do so before regripping. Monty plays this way a lot – closing or opening the face and then gripping it.

No rolling You can encourage a draw by rolling the hands slightly, but I’d warn against that. No manipulation should be your rule. The game is hard enough without introducing complications like that.

86 MARCH 2011 // www.golf-world.co.uk

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FADE

I’ll aim left but align the clubface to where I want the ball to finish.

Perfect posture I’m always using the coloured canes on the practice ground to help me get the lines right.

You should do the same. Take care lining up at address because if your posture and set-up is wrong, you’re never going to achieve what is really quite a simple shot.

Along the line I imagine the railway lines in my head and swing along the line of my body and not to where the club is pointing. It’s important here not to try and manipulate your swing as you’re in motion. You don’t shape the ball by trying to drop the club either on the inside or the outside.

I chop and change between the Super Burner and the R9. I like them both, but they give me slightly different shots. I like the ability to adjust the loft on the R9 because, if I’m playing at

altitude like Johannesburg or Crans, I might change it to 9°, to get more carry in the thin air. If I’m playing in the wind at St Andrews, I may move it down to 7.5°.

The Super Burner gives

me a more penetrating flight, so that’s the one I’m using most right now. I have a tendency to hit the ball with too much spin and the Super Burner minimises that for me.

www.golf-world.co.uk // MARCH 2011

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2011 NEW PRODUCTS

LOW

It’s simple, just move the ball back in the stance, like I have here. And remember, when you want to hit the ball low, you are not looking to hit it any harder than normal. If anything, you’ll hit a slightly softer shot so that you reduce the amount of spin you put on the ball.

Rare shot To hit the ball lower with the driver you need to tee slightly further back.

However, hitting the ball low with the driver isn’t a shot pros use that much anymore. Thanks to technology, the ball flies further when it is launched nice and high, that’s whether it’s into the wind or not. In the old days, we all tried drilling low runners under the wind, but the ball bores through the wind these days, so that low punch is almost redundant.

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HIT LOW SHOTS WITH YOUR IRONS Altering the height I hit the ball with irons is slightly more complicated because, to hit the ball low, I’ll take more club and then grip down, almost onto the steel. You then swing the club just the same, but, because it’s shorter, you don’t get the same clubhead speed and therefore you don’t spin the ball as much which keeps it down. I wouldn’t say you hit it soft to keep it low, although that helps.

The three key things are more club, back in stance and grip down.

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M Y EQUIPMENT

HIGH Change the loft on the club or tee the ball slightly further forward.

New address It’s probably only about three weeks in the year when I change the loft on the club, the rest of the time I’ll be adjusting the trajectory through my ball position at address. Maybe two inches forward.

WHY THE SUPERFAST? “I used the new Superfast driver for the first time at Gleneagles last year in the Johnnie Walker Championships. The improved performance starts with a new 460cc clubhead shape that’s sleeker and more aerodynamic. It also boasts high MOI for tremendous forgiveness, and incorporates the largest clubface of any TaylorMade driver. I was paired with Steve Webster and Søren Hansen, both long hitters, but I wasn’t far behind. I hit it 282 up the hill on the last – a big drive for me uphill. I couldn’t get home on that green in two. I hit two shots as good as I could to be five yards short of the green.”

IN THE BAG Driver: SuperFast - Loft 8.5 - Shaft Diamana White 63x Fairway Wood: Burner SuperFast Loft 13 - Shaft REAX 75X/Motore 4.0X Utility Club: TP 09 17/19/22 Utility Shaft: Rombax HD07X Iron: R9 TP Shaft Rifle Flighted 7.0 Wedges: xFT 52 + 54 + 60 Putter: Daytona Ball: Penta TP

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