GolfPlus Aug 2018 Digital Edition (August 2018) | Page 40

SET-UP In 2015 Dustin changed his shape from
a draw to a fade – including his pitching. He sets
up to promote a slight leftward path through the
ball.
BACKSWING We can see here how Dustin’s left
wrist has started to bow and the clubface is shut
to the path. His release of the club ensures this
does not cause problems.
target distances for each
a c h wedge
a rdages in
and swing – so nine yardages
b a ll-
all – and he used the ball-
o w good he
tracking tech to see how
ch one.
could get at hitting each
f eedback.
He loved that instant feedback.
Dustin likes to warm u up p for
h alf –
about an hour-and-a-half
about twice as long as s most
16 that
guys on Tour. Until 2016
e d around
would have been based
long game; these days s he’ll spend
upwards of an hour of that time
orking on
just hitting wedges, w
working
his numbers. When he e won the US
016, he hit
Open at Oakmont in 2016,
e s before
wedges for 75 minutes
teeing off .
Absolutely, and that’s
thaa one of its strengths.
At any level of golf the
t last thing we want is
for the player to be e reliant on their coach;
we want them too fi gure stuff out on their
own. The fact itt doesn’t have a lot to do
with me is the u ultimate goal. My role is
m
to give DJ inform
information,
areas he can get
better, and then c come up with ideas and
p
ways to make the process
something he
would be willing to do and look forward to
muu a feel player,
doing. He is very much
s get a lot of credit for,
something he does
doesn’t
so a launch monito
monitor was ideal, something
he could just put on the ground and get
feee
instantaneous feedback
from.
Was there a any technical
work involved?
invol
Not really, tho
though
o I strongly believe the
m late in 2015, when
changes we made
he took the d decision to play with a
fade and not t a draw, have really
w
helped his wedge
game. With the
fade the at
attack gets a little more
downward, the path more neutral
or even a little left, and Dustin feels like he is
a little more on top of the ball through
impact, ‘covering it’ with his chest. These
are all things you’d like to do when you are
That sounds like
k e
something DJ c could
ould do
by himself; what
a t is your
role in this?
48
GolfPlus
AT THE TOP Dustin uses three stock swing lengths
– half, three-quarter and full. Here, he is using his
full-length swing.
AUGUST
2018
hitting a wedge anyway, so from that
perspective the shape change helped him
make progress with his pitching.
DJ famously has a very
bowed left wrist, which puts
the clubface into what we
would regard as a shut
position. How does that not
cause issues with pitching
and distance control?
Because he continues to rotate. If you
rotate out of the way it minimises and
nullifi es a lot of things that historically
having a shut face like that would cause. I
actually think his wrist action is a great way
to play; he is basically setting up an angle in
the wrists which allows him simply to
rotate, and that promotes consistency both
of attack angle and face loft.
But also, note that DJ releases the club
through impact. He is not dragging the
handle through, holding on to that lead-arm/
clubshaft angle; he hits what we call release
fades, and that allows him to deliver the club
on the path and with the loft he needs.
Does he have a tendency you
have to guard against?