Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — It’s officially Masters week and players are arriving at Augusta National with dreams of donning a green jacket Sunday night. First though, they’ve got plenty of work to do to make sure their game is in major-championship-worthy form.
One such player is Jordan Spieth. The 2015 Masters champ is seeking his second green jacket 10 years after earning his first. And on Monday at Augusta national, he was grinding away on his swing in preparation for the first major of the season.
Golf scribes aren’t allowed on the practice tee at Augusta National each spring, so it can be difficult to discern what players are working on from afar. Luckily, the Masters has a feed of the range that zeroes in on various players each day.
On Monday, their cameras captured Spieth grinding away. And with the integration of GOLFTEC’s OptiMotion technology into the broadcast, we got an inside look at a key move that Spieth uses to hit pure iron shots.
Spieth’s 1 key move
When it comes to pure ball striking, there’s one key move that separates pros from amateurs, and that’s re-centering. We’ve written about this topic many times on this site, but it’s always good to stress how important it is for hitting the ball like the pros do.
Re-centering is all about weight distribution and when you move it during your swing. Nick Clearwater, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher and GOLFTEC’s Senior Vice President of Player Development, wrote about this topic last month.
“The way you distribute and shift your weight throughout the swing plays a key role in generating clubhead speed and also controlling your low point,” Clearwater wrote. “To get the most out of your swing, you need to understand the proper pattern of motion that distributes your weight in the correct spots throughout your swing.”
When watching Spieth on the range at Augusta National, CBS’ cameras zeroed in on how the three-time major champ does that to perfection. As you can see in the video, he starts with his weight evenly distributed at address. Once his arms are parallel to the ground, his weight is close to 60-40 favoring his trail foot — and this is the most his weight ever shifts away from the target during the swing.
Watch as Spieth continues his backswing to the top and you’ll notice his weight begins to shift back ever so slightly to his lead side. This is re-centering in action, and it’s a key move that helps generate power and create solid contact.
“When we look at amateur golfers — particularly those who struggle to generate consistent contact — we notice they do not follow this same pattern,” Clearwater wrote. “Instead of shifting up to 20 percent of their weight toward the target by the top of the swing like the pros do, they typically shift only a fraction of that percentage.”
