Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
ERIN HILLS, Wis. — Everyone is searching for ways to hit the ball longer — and that includes the pros. With the advent of advanced analytics in the golf world, the bomb-and-gouge strategy has become increasingly popular.
On the LPGA Tour, the adaptation of that strategy has lagged behind other tours, but as data and analytics (such as KPMG Performance Insights) have become more prevalent, even the best female golfers in the world are trying to smoke driver as hard as they can.
Just 10 years ago, the longest driver on the LPGA Tour averaged 274.4 yards off the tee. This year, that same figure would rank 22nd, while the longest driver on Tour (Polly Mack) averages 290 yards per poke. With the need for distance growing ever more important, pros are increasingly looking for ways to add more power to their swings.
One such player is Gaby Lopez. Earlier this year, the 31-year-old visited the Titleist Performance Institute for help with becoming more efficient in her swing and creating more power. Since then, she’s having the best driving season of her career, with her average distance off the tee up 12 yards year over year.
On the range at the U.S. Women’s Open, that vastly improved driver swing was on full display — and featured a key swing move that everyone can incorporate for more power.
Gaby Lopez’s power move
One of the biggest keys for generating power is getting your weight forward earlier in the swing. It’s something that the folks over at TPI preach and something we’ve covered in this space before. And it just so happens to be the same thing that Lopez was missing before visiting TPI.
According to a blog from Titleist, “it was clear she was generating her forces too late.” With the late weight shift, Lopez was losing tons of potential power in her swing.
To correct this, she’s been drilling the feel of getting her weight to her lead side much earlier in the swing. On the range at Erin Hills, you could see her working on this move with a swing rehearsal that exaggerated the weight shift — a classic tactic used to ingrain new swing feels.
“By teaching Gaby to push against the ground earlier in the downswing, she developed more efficient mechanics, both in terms of power and consistency,” the Titleist blog says.
So far, it seems as though that feel is working — and it’s something that even recreational players can do to generate power in their own swings.
