No range time? No problem. The uber-talented Swede has a great way to practise your swing at home
Growing up, rising Swedish golf star Ludvig Aberg had a powerful but not-so-reliable swing because of a fault known as “early extension”. His hips would move towards the ball in the downswing and that forced him to alter his club’s path back to the ball. He’d try to save the shot with fast hand action to square the clubface, but when his timing was off, he’d hook it way off line.
“That’s still my tendency today. I get a little bit on the inside, and then I’ll just flip my hands,” he says.
To work on this issue, which is also a common one for amateur players, Aberg turned to an at-home drill: “During the wintertime when we were back home, I would be inside and I had a chair next to my butt, and I would always try to feel the pressure on the chair [as I swung],” he says.
On the backswing, Aberg would feel his right glute (butt) muscles press into the chair. As he started down, he would feel the left-side glutes stay back and push against the chair.
Doing this over and over reinforces the feeling that your hips should stay back as you swing, clearing room for you to slot your club’s path into the ball from inside the target line, he says. Do that, and there’s no need to hope you can square the clubface with your hands.
Photo: David Cannon/getty images
