Top Tour Coach: How To Experiment With Your Golf Swing (And Build Better Ball Striking Habits)

“No, that's wrong – this is right.” I often hear this, or words to this effect.

However, the idea that there might be a ‘wrong' or ‘right' way is, in my view, misleading.

Many golfers could do with viewing things differently – there's a ‘good' way for them, and a ‘bad' way.

Improving your ball striking is a very individual journey, as even the best golf swings in the world all look very different.

Take Chris Gotterup, for example. He adopts a very open stance, which you could call a ‘slicer's nightmare'. This is the point – a good golf swing needs to make sense relative to the style of shot, or the shot they're trying to hit, and match their swing DNA.

So, instead of sharing my ‘best drills' for iron play, I'm taking you through the key components of the golf swing.

Practicing without a plan is one of the seven things you should never do at the driving range, so go armed instead with this formula instead and experiment with these components.

What happens if you do ‘X' or ‘Y'? How does this affect ball flight? I guarantee that your understanding of the swing will improve dramatically, as will your ability to adopt common sense.

How To Experiment With Your Golf Swing

1. Grip

If you took the top 50 players in the world and looked at every golf grip, there would be a really wide range – fairly neutral, weak, strong, very strong.

If someone comes to me for a lesson, I will first look to see what shot they're producing and go from there, because when you alter the grip, you change a lot of what's going on elsewhere.

A strong grip for a right-hander looks like the one in the image above. I can see three or four knuckles on my left hand and none on the right. This grip encourages a more closed face at impact.

By contrast, the above below shows a weak grip, with only one knuckle on the left-hand glove visible.

The line between thumb and forefinger is pointing closer to my head than my right shoulder, which is likely to encourage a weaker face angle.

If someone is consistently tugging the ball left, this grip could help fix that. Sometimes a grip change is necessary, but strong and weak grips don't always have to be altered if the shot shape works.

2. Ball Position

When the ball is set back in your stance, it will come out much lower. It will start right and it's much easier to draw shots when you're steeper into the ball, as you will be when it's back in your stance.

When the ball is forward in the stance, it will launch higher and you'll find it easier to start the ball left and then fade it. Professionals are happy to move their ball position around from shot to shot, especially in links conditions, as it's a simple way to manipulate the ball flight.

3. Tilts

In the image above, you can see that I have more of a bend in my right-hand side and a bit more tilt to my body. This makes it easier to move the low point of your swing back and hit the ball higher.

With less tilt in my right-hand side, as in the image below, it is easier to move the low point of the swing forward to help you hit the ball lower.

4. Hip And Shoulder Alignment

If you're losing the ball to the right (a fade or slice for a right-hander), you might want to try closing your alignment a little.

It's much easier to start the ball right and draw the ball from here. In the image below, you can see my left arm is slightly higher than my right, and my left leg is just in front of my right leg.

As a result, both hip and shoulder alignment are closed relative to the target, helping the swing path travel to the right.

If you're struggling with your swing being too much on the inside, a slightly more open alignment could help.

Now, my left arm is just below my right, and you can just see my left leg is behind my right. This alignment change will allow your path to move to the left and encourage a fade.

5. Hand Depth

The image shows one swing where I'm lower with a much more rounded depth (left).

You can see my hands have gone around and behind me. If someone can get the hand path deep, especially a player who can rotate a lot on the way down, this should help them to achieve an inside path and encourage a draw.

For someone who doesn't rotate much on the way down and struggles with too much of an inside path, a more vertical hand path can help (right).

6. Rotation

Having more rotation, especially in the backswing, will achieve more of an inside path – as well as added clubhead speed and power, of course.

But let's say you struggle to rotate and you're getting limited power, perhaps due to poor flexibility – what can you do?

I'd say you should get fairly deep in the backswing (see point 5), especially if you cut across it, and should probably have your alignment slightly closed (see point 2).

If you can't do one component, you can add in others, which is really the point that I'm keen to stress.

7. Pressure At Address

The more pressure you have forward at address, the further forward your low point moves.

The angle of attack will be steeper, and the ball flight will be lower. It becomes easier to hit on the inside and push the ball right. This is similar to how Rory McIlroy sets up – more of a crunch, push draw.

In this image, my pressure is now more behind the ball and everything is more vertical. The low point is further back. With this set-up, I should find it easier to start the ball left and hit a nice fade on a higher flight.

This is more like a typical Scottie Scheffler position - he moves in a very lateral way. If he were to set up more like Rory, he might find he can't hit his reliable fade anymore.

8. Shifting pressure

Shifting pressure can achieve the same as pressure at address. Some people do it better than others.

Shifting pressure while being very forward at address can lead to low shots that start right; pressure on your back leg, then spinning, can lead to fats and slices.

9. Handle Height

The higher the handle, the easier it is to swing a little bit more around yourself and produce a draw, while starting it right. The lower the handle, the easier it is to start the ball left and fade it.

I'll mention depth here, too. The higher you are, the easier it is to clip the ball off the turf; the lower you are, the easier it is to go deeper into the turf. You see the former used a lot in the short game (the toe-down shot).

This is not something that gets talked about much, but it helps to understand how these variations affect the ball flight and what handle height suits you.

10. Shaft Lean

When the hands are forward, as in the photo on the right here, it becomes easier to swing the club on the inside and start the ball right. The low point of the swing is further forward, and the ball will come out lower.

The further back the shaft lean is, as in the photo on the left, the easier it is to hit the ball higher, start it further left, and get it fading.