2011 NEW PRODUCTS

SHAPING SHOTS WITH THE DRIVER

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

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 re-gripping. Monty plays this way a lot – closing or opening the face and then gripping it.

WORDS BY PETER MASTERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY WARREN LITTLE

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.

DRAW

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

BY PAUL McGINLEYEUROPEAN TOUR WINNER

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.

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

the ball to finish.

FADE

www.golf-world.co.uk // MARCH 2011 87

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.

Perfect postureI’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.

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It’s simple, just move the ball back in the stance, like I have here. Andremember, when you want tohit the ball low, you are notlooking to hit it any harderthan normal. If anything,you’ll hit a slightly softer shotso that you reduce the amountof spin you put on the ball.

LOW

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.

HIT LOW SHOTS WITH YOUR IRONS

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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MY EQUIPMENT

Driver: SuperFast - Loft 8.5 - Shaft Diamana White 63xFairway Wood: Burner SuperFast - Loft 13 - Shaft REAX 75X/Motore 4.0XUtility Club: TP 09 17/19/22Utility Shaft: Rombax HD07XIron: R9 TP Shaft Rifle Flighted 7.0Wedges: xFT 52 + 54 + 60Putter: DaytonaBall: Penta TP

IN THE BAG

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.”

Change the lofton the club or teethe ball slightlyfurther forward.

HIGH

www.golf-world.co.uk // MARCH 2011 89

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.