This cheat code will help you make a perfect takeaway every time

Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.

The takeaway is one of the most important elements of the swing. It’s the first movement you make, and thus dictates how the rest of your move will play out. If something is off in the takeaway, you’ll be making compensations for the rest of the swing. That’s why it’s so important that you nail your takeaway.

Despite the takeaway’s importance, many recreational players don’t emphasize it enough. They’re too busy focusing on the results of their shots rather than the reasons for them. Often, the root cause comes back to a faulty takeaway.

If you want some reinforcement of the importance of the takeaway, watch Justin Thomas or Xander Schauffele go through their pre-shot routines. You’ll see that both of them rehearse the takeaway as they prepare to hit every shot.

If the pros are putting a premium on the takeaway, then you should be, too. Here’s how, courtesy of instructor Brian Mogg.

How to nail your takeaway

One of the most common faults in the takeaway for amateur golfers is the tendency to suck the clubhead way inside during the backswing. This causes the club to get stuck behind you at the top, and the only way to correct it is to come over the top and get steep during the downswing. This robs you of tons of power and often results in an ugly slice.

The fix for this is simple — and all you need to focus on is keeping the clubhead outside your hands when the shaft gets parallel to the ground during the backswing.

To drill this feeling into your swing, take an alignment stick and grasp it on your grip near the butt of the club. The alignment stick should extend up toward your body and you want the end of the stick touching your lead hip. Next, get into your swing posture and begin to make a swing to the top.

When you make your takeaway, you’ll want to hinge your wrists so that the alignment stick drags down your lead side so that it’s touching your lead knee.

“What you’ll see is, if you do this correctly while adding turn, the clubhead gets above my hands and on the outside,” Mogg says. “And from there, we turn and lift our arms up to the top.”

Once you start drilling the feeling of the correct takeaway, remove the alignment stick and keep the same feeling in your arms and hands. If you do this, you’ll find that you can groove the perfect takeaway every time.