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Tournaments

2019 U.S. Open: Tiger Woods’ newest drill is so simple you didn’t even notice it

Luke Kerr-DineenBy Luke Kerr-Dineen
June 15, 2019

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — I spent Friday morning at the 2019 U.S. Open on the range watching Tiger Woods. It was quite enjoyable, thanks for asking.

Tiger seemed to be keeping things pretty simple, not really focusing on his swing all that much, but he took a moment to do one deceptively simple drill.

Here it is, can you spot it?

Look closely and you’ll notice a line of golf balls just outside his right foot.

They weren’t placed there by accident; I watched him drop them all there at once, intentionally, and not hit any of them. Tiger hit about five shots this way, before returning the balls back to the pile together.

So, what does the drill do?

Woods works a lot on loading properly on his backswing. Turning, basically, and making sure his weight shifts to his right side. It’s a big key for him because it takes pressure off his back, as he told GOLFTV earlier this month.

The balls are there to make sure he doesn’t over-load during his backswing and shift too much weight onto his back foot. The golf balls create something like an optical illusion. He’s trying to turn back, not slide back, so his weight never moves outside the golf balls.

Give it a try yourself, especially if you’re working on your backswing turn.