By:
Jessica Marksbury
January 16, 2023
Discover ways to take a Jon Rahm-esque divot with this beneficial drill.
Getty Photos
In the event you’ve ever watched skilled golf on TV, you most likely observed one thing: women and men taking part in on the highest stage are likely to take a divot after they hit their irons.
Taking a divot — after affect, not earlier than! — is usually the mark of a well-struck shot. It means you’re hitting the ball with a robust, descending blow, and in addition imparts spin on the ball.
However studying how one can take a divot by yourself may be tough. That’s why I turned to Prime 100 Trainer Brian Manzella, who shared his greatest recommendation.
Wish to hit a wedge that spins on the inexperienced? Do that, says Prime 100 Trainer
By:
Jessica Marksbury
,
Brian Manzella
“What I love to do it take a tee — a damaged tee works greatest — and put it about three or 4 inches forward of the ball,” Manzella mentioned. “See when you can hit each the ball and the tee. It’s potential to do it with out taking a divot, however the odds are, the main focus of not simply hitting the ball straight and up within the air, however hitting the ball after which hitting a bit of stem of a tee on the bottom, encourages you to hit down on the ball.”
The key to this drill, Manzella says, is that you simply received’t have the ability to attain the tee when you don’t have your hips, torso and arms far sufficient ahead at affect.
“The sequence needs to be hips first, chest second, arms final,” Manzella mentioned.
When you could be a good golfer with out ever taking a divot, Manzella mentioned that the worth of studying to take a divot is you can then be assured in hitting a strong shot no matter the place your ball lies, whether or not it’s a hard-pan lie or excellent lie within the fairway.
“In the event you can hit ball first, you may hit a fairway bunker shot, you may hit something,” he mentioned. “And actually, on the finish of the day, you may put golfers into three classes: golfers who can’t hit a right-to-left shot (in the event that they’re right-handed) — the slicers — the individuals who can however can’t take a divot, after which the individuals that may and may also take a divot doing it, which is the smallest proportion of individuals.”
Give Manzella’s tee drill a attempt to begin taking divots immediately, and for extra suggestions from Manzella, click on right here.
Golf.com Photographer
As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She will out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily chargeable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular initiatives, akin to GOLF’s inaugural Type Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her original interview collection, “A Spherical With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video type on GOLF.com.