Rory on Missing It Left into the Wind (Video)

This Morning Drive video is a bit long, but Rory's tip starts just after the 3:30 mark.



Rory's problem, while caused by hitting into the wind, is one that a lot of golfers struggle with regardless of the weather. In case you don't understand what he's talking about, I'll try to put it in simpler terms.

Here's Rory's description of the problem:

“Sometimes when I hit a lot of shots into the wind, I get a bit too much on my left side on the way down, and my left knee starts to go forward, my arms get too deep in the downswing and then I start missing it left."

And his solution:

“On the range [Friday] night, I was really just trying to feel like my left knee gets out of the way so my arms can come down in front of me a little bit more, and I can start the ball a little bit more on line.”

What Rory means is that, during his downswing, he shifts his weight so far forward that he slides toward the target instead of turning his hips. When he slides toward the target, his lead knee moves too far toward the target and his belt buckle turns to face the target too late. Some players would refet to this as 'moving ahead of the ball'.

Or, to put it another way, his knee moves parallel to his aimline, causing his upper body to move past the ball and his hips to turn too late. As a result, his arms don't swing past his body at impact -- they don't 'come down in front of him' -- and he ends up flipping his wrists and pulling the shot.

To fix this problem, he started thinking about straightening his lead knee at impact. That caused him to stop sliding toward the target -- what some players call 'posting up' -- so he can turn his belt buckle to face the target. And when his hips turned, so did his upper body and his arms, and that let his arms 'came down in front of him'.

Rory simply stopped moving so far forward during his downswing and started pushing up as he hit the ball. That makes his upper body stay steadier over the ball so the clubface squares up more naturally.

If this is a problem you struggle with, you'll understand what he's talking about. If you don't understand, then you probably don't need to worry about it right now.