One of the prettiest shots in the beautiful sport of golf is a draw shot. With that said, achieving it is viewed as a difficulty and a challenge for players.
However, to counter that, hitting a draw shot is easier than most golfers believe. Instead, it is quite the opposite of the fixed mentality. Controlling your ball flight path is essential to lowering your scores and mastering the course.
First off, what is a draw shot? And what does it look like?
Hitting a draw means that the ball in flight will go from right to left. Definitely, this sounds highly similar to a hook shot, but a draw consists of more control and deliberation. In fact, many professional players spend countless hours in the hopes of mastering this shot as it can add a considerable amount of distance to their drives.
When the shot is performed correctly, hitting a draw allows the ball to fly lower and follow it up with an increase of roll on the fairway. As your perfect and master this shot, it is undoubted that you can expect to see marked improvement in your game and respective scores.
To learn this very useful golf shot, a golfer needs to ensure that a couple things are happening with your swing.
Grip and Rotation
To kick us off with adjusting our swing, let’s discuss our grip and rotation of hands.
The very first key to hitting a draw shot is to achieve a strong golf grip. In order to attain such grip, you should rotate your hands slightly to the right on the club shaft. With a rotation coming into play, it is important to note that you only turn your hands, and you should avoid turning the shaft or the club itself.
Stance and Turn
If you have adjusted your grip and hand rotation, the next is your setup and the necessary turning motion to incorporate.
Moving on, you should take your normal stance, but this time, close your address stance a little bit more. By slightly closing at address, you provide your body with the room it needs to fully turn smoothly and therefore, achieve the proper inside to outside swing path.
Your Hands
Reverting back to the adjustments with our hands, it’s time to get into further detail.
As the club head comes into contact with the golf ball, focus and allow your hands to do the work. Specifically, your right hand is expected to naturally roll back to a neutral position. When it rolls back to this position, it also allows the club face to close slightly. Tying back to the necessary grip adjustment, this is exactly where the strong grip comes in very handy.
Head Down
Before we tackle this next piece of advice, it is important to read and apply with an open mind. More specifically, a mind that is open to going back to the basics of golf.
When hitting a draw, the golfer should keep their head down, especially as they complete their follow through. If the proper form is being used, the ball will naturally initiate a path to the right. Once the ball reaches its apex, it should begin to come back towards the left and stopping its curve right around the center line.
However, it is crucial to not mistaken your shot for a hook, which is a flawed shot. And this is how to differentiate them.
If you notice the ball curving immediately to the left during its flight, you are definitely performing a shot that is closer to a hook than a draw. If this is the case, it is an indicator that you need to continue practicing and making the correct adjustments.
Divot
Almost coming to a close with our list, it’s time to base our changes on the swing’s aftermath.
With that, a good tip is to look down at the divot you leave after a shot. If you are a player who is shooting with an iron, your divot should be slightly to the left of the target or straight in-line with the target line. The only indicator of an error to hitting a draw is if your divot is aiming to the right of your target.
The Best Club
As we reach the end of the techniques behind a draw shot, this lands to the matter of making the right choice.
Undoubtedly, hitting a draw correctly requires a significant amount of practice. Although, when it comes to the best club to use for it, it’s a mid-iron. Specifically, the 6 is a good choice for most players.
If you are a golfer who is still having a hard time perfecting this type of shot, it’s good to revisit and examine your grips. Take note, larger and softer grips will make it more difficult for you to get the desired action and motion on the ball.
Conclusion
In the unfortunate event that you see a lot of hook shots at first, please remember to not get discouraged! This is 100% to be expected from every player.
From our first adjustment, the technique of rotating your hands to the right as you take your golf grip takes steady, sustained practice and application. However, the right way to go about it is to make small, minor adjustments, hit a few balls, observe and remember what happens, and then make further adjustments as needed — it is unique to every golfer.
Going back to our very last point, you should move up towards the driver as you begin your journey of perfecting the shot with your mid-irons. For the majority of players, the driver is often the most difficult club to master when it comes to hitting a draw shot. Although, learning the shot with the easier clubs first will definitely make it much, much easier to perfect the driver.
Most importantly, don’t give up.
Once you have the above mechanics down to habit, you will be able to control this shot and make your game much better.
Leave a Reply