Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
Tiger Woods’ path to stardom started earlier than most. From the moment he appeared on the Mike Douglas Show at the age of 2, it was clear he was built different.
Not only did Tiger have the physical tools for superstardom, he also had the drive. This drive was also born at a young age, thanks in large part to the guidance of his father, Earl. Intense as this guidance may have been, it was effective.
By the time Tiger turned pro in 1996, he’d won three straight U.S. Junior titles and three straight U.S. Amateur titles, becoming the first — and only — golfer to accomplish the feats. It all started when Earl placed a club in his son’s hands at a young age and taught him everything he knew about the game.
Eventually, Tiger outgrew the teachings of his father and he had to turn to another coach. And in the early days of his professional career, that was the legendary Butch Harmon.
Harmon helped polish Tiger in a way he’d never been previously, and one of the drills he had Tiger practice over and over again was the “pause drill.” And although Tiger admitted he hated the drill, it helped turn him into one of the greatest golfers that has ever lived.
Tiger’s least favorite ball-striking drill
Tiger had incredibly fast hips during the early days of his pro career. This was a great asset for generating power, but it could also cause some issues with sequencing. Fast hips are great, but if you let them outrace your arms, the sequencing is thrown off and it introduces a two-way miss.
To make sure the sequencing wasn’t thrown off, Harmon would have Tiger do a “pause drill” on the range. The drill is simple. At the top of the backswing, Tiger would pause his swing instead of firing his hips right away. Then he’d feel like his arms were coming down first before letting his hips start turning.
“This is a drill he made me do for hours and hours,” Tiger later said. “I try to feel like my arms come down first and exit through the ball first and my hips don’t even move … It doesn’t even come close to that, I’m more like that at impact, but for me it feels like the arms are winning the race.”
By instilling this feeling, Tiger was able to perfect his sequencing and become a more consistent ball striker. And he did it all through practicing a drill that he loathed.
Practicing a new swing move is not always enjoyable, but sometimes it’s necessary to take your game to the next level. Tiger proved just as much.
