Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
Watching PGA Tour pros belt their drivers is a sight to behold. It doesn’t seem possible for the ball to travel as far as it does, and until you watch it soar away, it’s hard to even imagine.
But even the longest pros (think Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Champ) don’t represent the longest drivers on the planet. That honor is reserved for those who compete in the World Long Drive Championship.
Currently, the top-ranked driver on the World Long Drive circuit is Colton Casto, who routinely belts drives over 400 yards. Recently, the world No. 1 long driver shared a simple tip for creating effortless speed, which you can check out in the video below.
Create an ‘X-factor’
Swinging the club with speed is not simply a product of being strong. (Otherwise, the longest players in the world would also be bulkiest.) No, to really hit the ball far, you’ve got to take advantage of physics and create speed efficiently.
One of the ways long-drive pros do this is by tightly coiling their bodies in the backswing; this motion stores tons of potential energy that is unleashed during the downswing leading to incredible power and distance.
There are ways you can increase this potential energy, though. And one of them is by keeping that coil tight as long as possible.
“You want your legs and your lower body to start going to the target and keep your back facing the target as long as you can,” Casto says in the WLD video above. “[This] creates an ‘X-factor stretch,’ which is like a tight rubber band, so you can just have effortless power when you come through the ball.”
By keeping your back to the target and letting your lower body turn, you increase that coil you created in the backswing. When you release the coil, you’ll have tons more power than if you just let both components turn in tandem.
Create the proper sequencing take some getting used to, but once you start to get in a groove, you’ll be amazed at how much extra power you can create through this “X-factor.”
