Training aids are a dime a dozen in golf, but there’s one new piece of equipment that’s been popping up on driving ranges all over the pro golf world. Enter the ProSENDR, a training aid developed by David Woods and GOLF Top 100 Teacher Sean Foley, that has pros raving.
You’ve likely seen the ProSENDR in action this season if you’re on social media. One day, a teacher is using it to help their pupil dial in their swing. The next, cameras pick up a pro using it themselves on the range at a Tour event. Since the ProSENDR launched last fall, it’s been all over the pro golf ecosystem.
“The first event we had it out at was the Shriners [Children’s Open],” Woods told GOLF.com. “We know all those guys out there, so we just let them try it. And as soon as they put it on, they were like, ‘Hey, once you have more, please get one to me.’ Every day we’ve got another pro asking me for one. So it kinda snowballed.”
The latest pro seen using the ProSENDR? None other than Rory McIlroy.
McIlroy has been candid in recent months about the changes he’s been trying to make in his swing of late. His shaft has been getting across the line at the top of the backswing, which is not a great position for consistent strikes. He’s been trying to keep his hands from rolling open on the takeaway to counteract this, but as any golfer knows, implementing swing changes mid-season can be tough.
“Rory reached out to me in the middle of last week,” Woods said. “He’s just been saying he loves the position it gets him in at the top, which fits in with what he’s working on.”
Apparently, McIlroy likes the feedback the ProSENDR provides. In the video above, you can hear him commenting on the way the training aid allows him to get his hands higher and keeps the clubhead behind him.
“I’ve been trying with the elbows and this and that,” McIlroy said. “This makes it happen.”
The ProSENDR is not just a training aid for those at the highest levels of the game, though. With the instant feedback the ProSENDR provides, golfers of every level can feel the proper wrist and hand structure of the swing in real time.
“Obviously, it’s tidying up some of the pros,” Woods said. “But for amateurs, your hands are everything in the golf swing. It controls the clubface. The ProSENDR doesn’t force you into a position, it gives you a destination.”
When wearing the ProSENDR, you have a guide that helps you feel if you’re getting your hands and wrists too far open or closed throughout the swing. And once you feel the correct positions, it’s much easier to implement in the swing once you get out to the course.
“It gives you a destination to get your hands in a position that’s neutral and allows you to deliver the clubhead back to impact way more square,” Woods said. “By laying the trail wrist into the cradle at the top of the backswing, and maintaining that sensory touch into the downswing, it allows the clubhead to trail the hand path and lets the club slightly travel in to out.”
The best training aids are the ones that make things simple, and there are few more simple than the ProSENDR.
